ETEC 533 Inquiry e-folio

How could you use what is developed in these studies to design learning experiences for younger learners that incorporates perception/motion activity and digital technologies?

Our group’s TELE design is a WISE based project that analyzes student data in relation to CO2 emissions and waste. Our project is based on social constructivist learning theory where the students create models of their data and critically evaluate each other’s work in order to make further adaptations to the learning path. Students will generate carbon footprints based on their own emissions that they will share with peers for critical evaluation. These data models will be furthered refined based on ideas to reduce the emissions. I believe that our project could be enhanced by incorporating perception/motion activities such as used in the SENSE project.

The SENSE project is based in environmental science where students become co-creators of their learning experience by designing and using pollution sensors that are used to collect their own data. Students become “field” scientists by collecting various data (e.g., carbon monoxide) to analyze through models. This analysis is shared with other students in a collaboratory method. The project has aspects of our own TELE design where students are manipulating data and socially working with peers to construct new meaning.

We haven’t fully developed the “waste” aspect of our design yet, and I could see how such a SENSE project would blend quite well with, and complement our technology enhanced learning environment (TELE). Whether it’s a CO detector or some other pollution sensor, students would be invited to contextualize their learning experience by actually participating in field work. Students could easily create digital models of various pollutant measures for peer critique and further refinement.

As described by Winn (2003), learning is a process of “external embodied” experiences and “internal cerebral” processes. They both should be attended to in a TELE similar to how all aspects of our being are both an integral product of nature and environment. Our students will adapt to their environmental learning experiences whether they are natural or virtual worlds that can be created and controlled.

The digital experiences we provide for our students are controlled and dictated by pedagogical design to assist students to expand their schemata regarding various phenomena. We are meeting this well in our TELE design, and by including a field based SENSE activity to the learning experience, we allow our students to adapt their learning to both the natural and digital world. It is argued that technology has allowed people to control our environment to the point where we do not need to genetically adapt to it anymore. It’s refreshing to see digital designs where students venture back into the environment for real, authentic, contextualized learning.

Question: Do you think that that technology enhanced learning experiences might be even more enhanced by incorporating more “natural” based field learning experiences? Explain.

Fraser, D., Smith, H., Tallyn, E., Kirk, D., Benford, S., Rowland, D., Paxton, M., Price, S., & Fitzpatrick, G. The SENSE project: A context-inclusive approach to studying environmental science within and across schools. Retrieved April 1, 2009, from www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/hilarys/papers/cscl05.pdf.

Winn, W. (2003). Learning in artificial environments: Embodiment, embeddedness, and dynamic adaptation. Technology, Instruction, Cognition and Learning, 1(1), 87-114. Full-text document retrieved on January 17, 2004, from http://www.hitl.washington.edu/people/tfurness/courses/inde543/READINGS-03/WINN/winnpaper2.pdf

Networked communities offer a means of delivering quality science and math education for students in rural locations. I teach in a remote area of British Columbia in a school that is cut off from many of the amenities that are offered in an urban centre. Our population is quite small and as such our students benefit from close interactive teaching where their needs are recognized through extensive differentiated instruction. However, the remoteness and small population of our school limits our ability to offer a breadth of curriculum options (especially for grades 8-10) that would occur in a city centre school.

During my investigation of networked communities I discovered that there are many options for my students that offer meaningful science based learning experiences that they would otherwise not be able to participate in. Virtual field trips and web-based science expeditions, San Francisco’s Exploratorium museum (online), and the Intra-Laboratory Network (ILN) all provide opportunities to increase the quality of science education in rural and remote communities.

While perhaps not a replacement for real field trips, virtual field trips and web-based science expeditions could bring my students to real investigations around the world where they can view real photographs, chat with explorers, and analyze real data. I have many opportunities to take my students on field based trips in our own back yard, but the reality of taking them to the ocean, or to an active volcano site is beyond our most valiant fundraising efforts.

Similar to web-based expeditions, San Francisco’s Exploratorium museum offers an online tour of many of the exhibits they showcase in the actual museum.  I perused a link to Climate Change: Global Warming, and was pleased to find an interactive site that thoroughly examines climate change, and how researchers conduct their investigations. A teacher could easily use this platform to design engaging learning experiences for students.

An emerging technology called the Integrated Laboratory Network allows students to access and use specialized laboratory equipment through the internet. I am fortunate to have tried this technology through Western Washington University (WWU) where I ran chemical samples through a gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC/MS) machine. Without ILN technology I may have never been able to use such a machine unless physically present where the equipment is located. As ILN technology becomes more accessible, students in rural locations could participate in scientific investigations that they would otherwise not be able to.

I believe one of the paramount aspects of good use of technology in the science and math classroom is accessibility. These examples of networked communities exemplify this quality and have outstanding potential for providing learning experiences for students regardless of their location.

Stephen

Information Visualization Technology

Technology has enabled educators to draw upon a plethora of digital tools designed for information visualization where conceptual ideas in science and math (or any subject) are represented visually for students. This seems to provide a visual authenticity to concepts that might otherwise be left up to student imagination to provide a visual context. Many students may not be able to visualize particular concepts and are left with little to formulate an understanding of the concepts they are studying.

The Jasper series addresses this idea as it takes mathematical problem solving and creates actual video footage of the “real-life” problem. Students receive visual context for the problem and are able to “see” what is being described in the problem. TELE’s like Jasper that capitalize on visual techniques to provide authenticity to learning are similar to information visualization technologies that are available for knowledge representation of concepts in science and math.

I presented David Whizzy’s periodic table applet to our class as an example of an information visualization technology that can significantly assist students’ understanding of atomic structure and electron configurations (orbitals). Students are able to view both the nucleus or shell view of a select number of elements where the subatomic particles are visually animated. Considering the difficulty students can have with understanding atomic structure and electron configuration, this tool provides a great visual conceptual model.

In addition to cognitive affordances provided by information visualization technology, many of these technologies foster social discourse of conceptual ideas. Students can provide reflective feedback for student created visualization models, or evaluate the applicability of an existing design.

I have used David Whizzy’s periodic table to invite social conversation of the concepts and found it to be a great launch into meaningful conversation (e.g., comparison of elemental groups). In conjunction with a discussion of atomic structure and electron configuration, the periodic table applet can be viewed and manipulated by a group with the use of a projector. Students can request different elements to be analyzed and can also manipulate the interactive software themselves.

As with many digital technologies, information visualization tools can motivate and engage a learner by providing a visual authenticity to concepts, and can provide a relevant platform for inviting social discourse.

David Whizzy’s Periodic Table: http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/applets/a2.html