Making Learning Real: Turning Sim City into "Sim Science"

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Making Learning Real Turning Sim City into "Sim
Science"!

• Diane Jass Ketelhut
• Temple University
• diane.jass.ketelhut_at_temple.edu

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POLL 1

• When was the following written?
• If we are in earnest about universal education,
  we must recognize that our education succeeds
  just to the extent that we make it focus upon the
  real activities of life
• a) within the year b) in the last 25 years
• c) 1940-1980 d) prior to 1940

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1895Charles DeGarmo
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Outline of Talk

• What is authentic learning?
• Why do it?
• How can we do it and how can technology mediate
  this?
• How can we assess learning in context?

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What is authentic learning?

• Real world connections
• Science-technology-society
• Scientific Inquiry
• Integration of technology
• But what is it???

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Some definitions

• The quality of having correspondence to the
  world of scientists (Barab Hay, 2001)
• Work that is coherent, meaningful, and
  purposeful to the practitioners of the culture
  (Griffin, 1995)
• The ordinary practices of the culture (Brown,
  Collins, and Duguid, 1989)

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But, the it is under debate

• Exactly like real life? Or real life lite?
• Is this a problem-centered curriculum?
• What level of complexity should be involved?
• Is it a set of skills collaboration, synthesis,
  adaptability?
• Can it be conducted in a classroom or must it be
  out in the world?
• Can it be simulated? Or must there be the real
  tools of the trade?

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And the culture is key

• Answers depend on context and purposes
• Scientists and students seemed to define actual
  work differently. Though some of the scientists
  worried about giving the students make work,
  for the students, feeling that the scientist
  mentor valued what they were doing was of
  greatest importance. (Bowman, 2008)

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as are purposes

• An authentic learning experience can take on
  diverse appearances depending on the learning
  goals.
• Authentic education then becomes like a stewNot
  single experiences but a synthesis of experiences

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Learning goals in science might be

• For students to
• Develop the habits of minds of scientists
• Engage with practices of scientists
• Pose their own questions
• Form hypotheses about rich phenomena
• Collect data in complex settings
• Experiment using tools
• Analyze and infer from data
• Collaborate with experts and peers
• For teachers to
• Facilitate student understanding of practices of
  scientists
• Support student engagement in science
• Develop student interest in scientific careers

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Why authentic learning?

• New theories of learning
• Situated theory
• Learning is best conducted in the situation in
  which it will be used
• Community of practice
• Teaching becomes tacit
• Learning is high
• Must involve members with varying levels of
  expertise
• Intentional
• Motivational
• I know she definitely relied on us to help her
  with a presentation. Being able to help her
  was awesome.

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Constraints

• Classroom and school setup
• Resources
• Safety
• Teacher knowledge
• Technology can mediate these constraints while
  adding a level of authenticity of their own

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Technology as a mediator

• Why can technology help?
• Affects thinking and learning effects
  witheffects fromeffects through (Salomon and
  Perkins, 2005)
• Facilitates apprenticeship and situated learning
• Issues
• Choices are constrained
• Behavior is guided by rules
• Can be too techie

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Role of Technology

• Facilitates apprenticeships
• Immerses participants in virtual authentic
  environments
• Integrates real and virtual environments

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Apprenticeships

• Traditionally, small groups of students working
  with scientists
• Technology can facilitate
• Mars Student Intern Programa scientist-student
  partnership
• Mars Student Imaging Programworking with real
  data but not necessarily with scientists

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Students

• What I'll remember most is going to that THEMIS
  website, because you have so many different types
  of things that are on Mars and the pictures were
  great. And the whole entire experience was great
  because you don't feel like it's just another
  grade that you are going through just to get an
  A, you actually could find something and
  something that could be important for everybody
  else

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POLL 2

• Think of a scientist in your head before looking
  at the poll choices
• What did you scientist look like?
• a) Crazy haired b) Female
• c) White d) Old

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Features of apprenticeships

• Contact with real scientists and/or real data
• Increased motivation and self-efficacy
• As contact time with scientists increases,
  student population size decreases
• animated pedagogical agents as scientists

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Bowman, 2008
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Virtual Environments

• 2D and 3D virtual environments
• Immersion in virtual contexts withdigital
  artifacts and avatar-based identities
• Can embed historical and social context
• e.g., studying German, you can create an
  authentic German town
• Examples
• River City, Dede et al6th-12th graders
• Wolf den, Annetta et alteachers
• Quest Atlantis, Barab et al9-12 year olds
• Whyville8-13 year olds

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River City

• Take on the role of an epidemiologist
• Gather data
• Use virtual tools
• Conduct controlled experimentation
• Complexity midway between typical classroom
  experiments and real world
• Have an authentic experience within the classroom
• In action

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Students

• I felt like a scientist for the first time
• 1/3 identify virtual tools as key
• Instead of taking notes and doing hands-on
  experiments we were on the computer conducting a
  real-life possible serario sic for an
  experiment.

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Features of Virtual Environments

• Not contact with a scientist but experience being
  a scientist
• Identity immersion enhances experience for
  students
• Raise self-efficacy and motivation
• Plays into millennial learning styles
• Avenue into the technological skills and
  interests of students
• A non-linear approach to learning
• Situated learning experiences without leaving the
  classroom!
• Simplifies real world, but is virtual real?
• Different voices are heard
• Open-ended nature puts onus of participation on
  student with uneven results

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Augmented Reality

• Combines physical world with virtual world
  contexts
• Layers virtual simulated information into the
  real world
• Examples
• Environmental Detectives Klopfer et al
• Outbreak Klopfer et al
• Mad City Squire et al
• Alien Contact! (Dede, Squire Klopfer)

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Environmental Detectives
Computer simulation on handheld computer
triggered by real world location

• A virtual oil spill on campus
• Provided with budget
• Need to determine source of pollution by
  virtually drilling sampling wells in physical
  location
• Interview virtual players
• Work in teams representing different interests
  (EPA, Industry, etc.)

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Students

• I liked several aspects, but honestly the best
  part was the physical activity. Because I was
  fully participating (not just cognitively), I
  felt very engaged, almost oblivious to the people
  around us. This physicality - much like
  participating in sports - involved me completely,
  and made the understanding more vivid and
  memorable.
• I wished that more aspects of the environment
  had been interactive and provided feedback

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Outbreak

• Next generation allowing dynamic interactions
• Participants can become infected
• Changes student involvementfrom objective to
  subjective concern

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Features of Augmented Reality

• No contact with a real scientist but experience
  in various roles
• Role play encourages collaboration in an
  authentic manner
• Identity immersion enhances experience for
  students
• Merger of virtual and physical world
• Increases immersion
• More senses and thus learning styles are involved
• But issue of complexity is key how much added
  information to include?

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Assessment

• To change our expectations about what students
  should know and be able to do will involve also
  changing both the standards by which student
  achievements are judged and the methods by which
  students accomplishments are assessed.
  (Sheingold and Frederiksen 1994)
• Technology opens up a brave new world for
  assessment to match these new strategies
• Databases record all student utterances and
  interactions that take place within the
  environment.
• Algorithms can be written to translate behaviors
  into indicators of learning

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New Technologies allow

• Apprenticeships with experts
• Simulated authentic environments in the classroom
• Virtual reality to be layered onto real
  environments
• Different voices to be heard
• Collaboration in creating knowledge
• Opportunities for new formats of assessment
• Situating assessment in authentic contexts

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Questions outstanding

• What aspects facilitate learning and engagement?
• Do these work better for some students than
  others?
• Is the time investment (from design as well as
  teaching perspective) worthwhile?
• Will these help make education universal as
  DeGarmo wanted or are they just another tool?

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Final words from two students

• 3rd grader quoted in the speak up survey 2006
  My school should make sure that the science
  teachers are good and the computers are always
  working.
• Middle schooler after working on River City

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References

• Barab, S. A., and Hay, K. E. (2001). Doing
  science at the elbows of experts Issues related
  to the science apprenticeship camp. Journal of
  Research in Science Teaching, 38(1), 70-102.
• Bowman, C. (2008) unpublished dissertation and
  qualifying paper, Harvard University.
• Brown, J. S., Thomas, D. (2006). You play World
  of Warcraft? Youre hired! Wired, 14(4), 120.
• Dieterle, E., Dede, C., Schrier, K. (2007).
  Neomillennial learning styles propagated by
  wireless handheld devices. In M. Lytras A.
  Naeve (Eds.), Ubiquitous and pervasive knowledge
  and learning management Semantics, social
  networking and new media to their full potential
  (pp. 3566). Hershey, PA Idea Group, Inc.
• Rosenbaum, Klopfer, and Perry JSET
• Salomon, G., Perkins, D. (2005). Do
  technologies make us smarter? Intellectual
  amplification with, of and through technology. In
  R. J. Sternberg D. Preiss (Eds.), Intelligence
  and technology The impact of tools on the nature
  and development of human abilities (pp. 7186).
  Mahwah, NJ Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Sheingold, K., Frederiksen, J. (1994). Using
  technology to support innovative assessment. In
  B. Means (Ed.), Technology and education reform
  The reality behind the promise (pp. 111132). San
  Francisco, CA Jossey-Bass.
• Squire, K Jan, M (2007) Mad City Mystery
  Developing Scientific Argumentation Skills with a
  Place-Based Augmented Reality Game on Handheld
  Computers. JSET