Category Archives: B. Knowledge Diffusion

Adventure in Authentic Environments

How is knowledge relevant to math or science constructed? How is it possibly generated in these networked communities?  

We learn best when it matters to us.  When the topic and context is relevant to our lives.  This idea is exemplified in the three articles I read this week.  In adventure learning, Velestsianos and Kleanthous (2009) argue that meaningful learning is reliant upon relevant and authentic tasks and adventure learning allows students to “…learn by immersing themselves in participatory experiences grounded in inquiry” (Veletsianos & Kleanthous, 2009, p. 86).  This connects to the ideas that have been prevalent throughout the course.  The idea that inquiry, grounded in constructivist and situated learning theories, is best developed and honed through inquiry learning.  Veletsianos and Kleanthous echo and cement these ideas even further by arguing that “While the AL approach may be grounded on constructivist notions of inquiry-based learning, teachers can repurpose the adventure learning approach according to their own needs and beliefs” (Veletsianos & Kleanthous, 2009, p. 93).  This is the bread and butter of adventure learning; the malleability to meet students needs while creating an authentic context to make the most of student learning and skill development. 

Carraher, Carraher, and Schliemann’s (1985) study of mathematics in the streets prove that a need for skills and knowledge, and an immediate need for the knowledge and skills in an excellent indicator and motivator of learning.  With little formal education, students in Brazil demonstrated active and masterful computation skills.  These skills and knowledge were acquired by the students on the job, in the streets because they needed them.  The context was authentic, the demand for the skills was high, and their learning was deep and meaningful. 

How can we replicate this environment in our classrooms?  By knowing our students.  By connecting the curriculum to the world around them and by allowing them to make their own connections.  By making the skills connect to contexts that matter to our kids.  By solving real world problems using the math and science content we are required to teach and learn. 

 

 

Carraher, T., Carraher, D., & Schliemann, A. (1985). Mathematics in the streets and in schools. British Journal Of Developmental Psychology, 3(1), 21-29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-835x.1985.tb00951.x 

Spicer, J., & Stratford, J. (2001). Student perceptions of a virtual field trip to replace a real field trip. Journal Of Computer Assisted Learning, 17(4), 345-354. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.0266-4909.2001.00191.x 

Veletsianos, G., & Kleanthous, I. (2009). A review of adventure learning. The International Review Of Research In Open And Distributed Learning, 10(6), 84. http://dx.doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v10i6.755   

Knowledge Diffusion

Speculate on how such networked communities could be embedded in the design of authentic learning experiences in a math or science classroom setting or at home. Elaborate with an illustrative example of an activity, taking care to consider the off-line activities as well.

As I read more and more about networked communities, the more I realized that such communities could be embedded in the design of authentic learning experiences in a math or science classroom setting that would benefit students. The readings that I chose to read for this week were informative and interesting and got me thinking about those schools that are inner-city; although my current school is inner-city, I have taught at schools that are much more needier and would benefit greatly from virtual field trips in order “provide students with educational experiences [that] emphasize scientific inquiry skills” that they may not have received otherwise (Gutwill & Allen, 2017). Interactive virtual expeditions (IVE) allows “learners of all ages to experience and interact with the process of scientific exploration from a distance at different times” (Niemitz et al, 2008). In the article ‘Interactive virtual expeditions as a learning tool: the school of rock expedition case study’ by Niemitz et al (2008), the authors conducted a “12-day shipboard professional development workshop for in-service educators that was used as a platform to virtually communicate the educator’s exploration of scientific ocean drilling with onshore audiences via an interactive website.” This gives the ability for authentic experiences through an interactive website for those who are not in the ocean drilling; they can still have that understanding and gain knowledge via virtual expeditions. This mode of learning “makes science relevant, gives learners real examples of career possibilities in science, incorporates current research into the curriculum, and provides a means to display authentic scientific inquiry” (Niemitz et al, 2008); these experiences allow for deeper learning that may not have been possible. These new situations have a created an opportunity for students to be able to learn in a way that is realistic and students can build their knowledge from there. When I think about the school that I taught in a few years ago (very inner-city), a majority of students could not afford fieldtrips and many teachers did not want to put an extra strain on parents by insisting on fieldtrips that parents had to pay for. These virtual fieldtrips to museums or Mt. Everest or another place gives students motivation and increase student participation and learning. I would definitely use networked communities such as virtual expeditions to motivate students and to broaden their idea of science and get them excited about the possibilities that interactive virtual expedition brings.

Going to Egypt to visit the Great Pyramids would not be accessible to many students but having an experience visiting the pyramids via a virtual headset would give students an opportunity to explore both inside and outside of this Wonder and allow for an experience that otherwise may not have happened.

References

Gutwill, J. P., and S. Allen. 2012. Deepening students’ scientific inquiry skills during a science museum field trip. The Journal of the Learning Sciences 21(1): 130–181.

Niemitz, M., et al (2008). Interactive virtual expeditions as a learning tool: The school of rock expedition case study. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 12(4), 561-580.

Learning as a Megaphone

 

  • Speculate on how such networked communities could be embedded in the design of authentic learning experiences in a math or science classroom setting or at home. Elaborate with an illustrative example of an activity, taking care to consider the off-line activities as well.

 

No matter which theory of learning we address, one commonality is that the learning is always situated in a certain context. This week, Carraher, Carraher, and Schliemann (1985) ask us to consider this same idea, but in the context of a person’s perceived and taught procedures. They ask us to consider how a person’s natural problem solving can compare to the processes that we teach and learn in classrooms today. They say, “there are informal ways of doing mathematical calculations which have little to do with the procedures taught in school.” Of special note from their research was the fact that individuals who were capable of solving a problem in a natural situation failed to solve the same problem when taken out of context, possibly due to a difference in problem-solving techniques (Carraher et al. 1985). If the context that a problem is found in can be so vital to the learning that goes on, where does that leave us as educators when we try to introduce and teach topics that are “foreign” to the classroom and “authentic” in real life?

The conclusion that the researchers arrived at is that the mathematics that are taught in schools act as an amplifier of thought processes. With this idea in mind, we can move on to the ideas of various networked communities and see how they can benefit from the idea of having processes acting as amplification of natural thought processes.

 

The Exploratorium was one of the first places that I examined this week, trying to keep in mind what my students would theoretically be going into to the experience with and what kinds of skills/procedures they could be introduced to ahead of time to amplify their learning. The Exploratorium hails itself as a “21st Century Learning Learning Laboratory.” Before taking a group of students to experience the Exploratorium, first, a baseline of what they expect out of the experience would need to be established. Falk & Storksdieck (2010) conducted a survey of people who used their leisure time to visit museums and gauged what they gained from the experience. They concluded that it was beneficial to set intentions before going in, as “science centers and other informal science education settings are socio-cultural settings that the public perceives as affording a finite number of leisure-related outcomes.” To address the fact that museums afford a more informal type of learning, they suggest that visitors be “meaningfully segmented as a function of their identity-related needs.” Or, in other words, they should be given roles so that they can better absorb and enjoy the experience. Some key roles that students could be given would be those of facilitators, who lead the groups and help explain, and explorers, who are good at wonder and questioning. By assigning students to specific roles, learning outcomes are more apt to be met.

Furthermore, Hsi (2008) suggests augmenting visits with ICTs to better enhance the experience. Before attending the field trip, students could use the Exploratorium’s website to better understand what types of exhibits they would be seeing and to gain valuable background knowledge. Allowing students to engage with online, interactive field trips, RFID tagged data, social bookmarking, live webcams, online games, and the like, students will go into the experience with a wide variety of perspectives from various formats, all of which lend towards the assimilation of new knowledge. All of these can be compiled together in an offline format and through social learning and discussion to make a rich foundation on which to build the experiences.

With all the free and inexpensive resources that are available, it wouldn’t be unheard of for a school to simply indulge in all the online resources and skip the logistics of going to a physical museum. While I am not advocating for that, the affordances that are available online in the modern world go a long way to bring equality of opportunity through exposure to remote places that are not able to have all of the same experiences. Every new way of presenting and working with an idea gives a student a new way to perceive, learn, and amplify future ideas which then can also diffuse out to more and more people. As Hsi (2008) said, we have the “opportunity to work with schools to bridge the experiences of chidlren to provide a more coherent learning experience.”

Did you hear me in the back, or does this message need some amplification? 😉

 

-Jonathan-

 

Resources

Carraher, T. N., Carraher, D. W., & Schliemann, A. D. (1985). Mathematics in the streets and in schools. British journal of developmental psychology, 3(1), 21-29.

Falk, J. H., & Storksdieck, M. (2010). Science learning in a leisure setting. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 47(2), 194-212.

Hsi, S. (2008). Information technologies for informal learning in museums and out-of-school settings. In International handbook of information technology in primary and secondary education(pp. 891-899). Springer, Boston, MA.