Ready set go

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Ready set go

• You have 20 minutes to get into your reading
  groups - discuss the book that was assigned
  reading and come up with 3 things that the author
  got right, 3 things that the author got wrong
• Be prepared to introduce your team, summarize the
  book and your 6 points to the whole group
• Be creative and have fun
• The group that comes up with the most creative
  way of doing this gets a prize!

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Oversold and Underused

• Shenglan, Chun, Khurso, Danah
• SUMMARY Big spending, not much results.
• RIGHT No more market-driven schooling, questions
  of effectiveness are important, buying technology
  w/o thinking of how to use it
• WRONG Sources of evidence are skewed (isolated
  to silicon valley), more coverage of kindergarden
  examples, evidence innapropriately only looks at
  product (not process), focus on quantity of use,
  not quality.

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Hi tech heretic

• Scott, Aman Yun
• Summary Opinion piece Computers are taking too
  much priority in our schools and our lives (for
  200 pages) For eg. We need to choose between
  literacy and computer literacy
• What did he get right (1) Edutainment software
  emphasises fun over learning. But learning
  requires commitment, discipline and hard work (2)
  Tech promises but does not necessarily deliver
  (3) computers cannot replace teachers
• What did he get wrong (1) Learning online does
  not lead to community and interaction (2)
  Computer literacy necessarily worse than
  traditional literacy (3) Too critical of
  Internet as a source of information (4) He calls
  the internet the McDonalds of information

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Failure to connect

• Michael, Amy, Eduardo
• Summary If the book costs 2 dollars, what is the
  value of the information in it? Key idea, how
  computers affect childrens minds. How computers
  can be harmful to kids. The questions are
  important but the answers she provides are
  inadequate.
• Things she got right (1) Age appropriateness of
  software, simulations etc. wrt developmental
  stages of children (2) Computers can be harmful,
  helath, educational, developental, social (3)
  digital divide and childrens future
• What she got wrong (1) Opinionated and lacked
  structured evidence (2) Did not offer positions
  / evidence that goes against her position (3)
  raises questions but does not offer satisfactory
  answers

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CEP 901B Proseminar in Technology Education

• Matt KoehlerPunya Mishra
• January 7, 2003

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What we will do today

• Introductions discussion of books and readings
  (Part I)
• Course web site mkoehler.educ.msu.edu
• Introduction to the course
• Questions and answers
• Discussion of the books and readings
• (Part II)

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In what follows we shall be questioning
concerning technology. Questioning builds a way.
We would be advised, therefore, above all to pay
heed to the way, and not to fix our attention on
isolated sentences and topics. The way is a way
of thinking. All ways of thinking, more or less
perceptibly, lead through language in a manner
that is extraordinary- Martin Heidegger in The
question concerning technology
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Tech n E
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Tech n E Techne

• Techne art, craft, skill
• root of the word technology
• Also the root of the word technique
• Learning through doing, skill, mastery
• Also related to texere - to weave
• Incidentally the root of the word text
• From the Sanskrit Takshati - He builds
• Techne is not just skill it is also creation
  it is poesis (Heidegger)

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Technology and education
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So many issues
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So what can technology do?based on Wallace 2002

• Representation
• Providing representations of ideas and processes
  that are difficult or impossible to represent
  without technology (Stella, Star logo, PDAs,
  dissections)
• Information
• Providing access to data and content (internet)
• Transformation
• Changing the nature of tasks in which students
  engage (inquiry vs drills)
• Collaboration
• Facilitating communication and collaboration with
  peers and experts (journey North etc.)

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What is technology?

• Means to an end?
• A social-cultural process?
• A bandwagon?
• Something more?
• Something less?

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Metaphors to die for

• Technology as a tool
• Technology as media
• Technology as a social actor

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The famous CPT triangle
Pedagogy
Technology
Content
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CPT examples

• Visual Thesarus (www.visualthesarus.com)
• The Periodic system of elements

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The periodic table
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Technology, content pedagogy have always
influenced each other
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The Periodic SYSTEM (as opposed to a specific
table)
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The technology of writing

• Why do it Writing will make the Egyptians wiser
  and give them better memories it is a specific
  both for the memory and for the wit.
• The answer There is bias everywhere
• in the people who develop technology The parent
  or inventor of an art is not always the best
  judge of the utility or in the utility of his own
  inventions to the users of them. And in this
  instance, you who are the father of letters, from
  a paternal love of your own children have been
  led to attribute to them a quality which they
  cannot have
• in the technologies themselves This discovery
  of yours will create forgetfulness in the
  learners' souls, they will not use their
  memories they will trust to the external written
  characters and not remember of themselves. What
  you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but
  to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not
  truth, but only the semblance of truth they will
  be hearers of many things and will have learned
  nothing they will appear to be omniscient and
  will generally know nothing they will be
  tiresome company, having the show of wisdom
  without the reality

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The alphabet and the image

• Claude Frollo, pointing his finger first to a
  book, then to the towers and images of his
  beloved cathedral said ceci tuera cela (This
  will kill that). The book will kill the
  cathedral, alphabet will kill images Victor Hugo
  in The Hunchback of Notre Dame

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McLuhan

• The medium is the message.
• Is it?
• We often overestimate the impact of technologies
  in the short run and underestimate their impact
  in the long run Toffler

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So how do we figure things out?

• This is where research scholarship comes in
• Two models of research
• Adding a brick to the edifice of human knowledge
• Building a rich web of connections
• Either way you need to understand
• That which has come before (Historical,
  sociological, political contexts)
• That which is yet to come (esp. in the case of
  technology)
• Methodologies for finding out what it is that you
  want to find out

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But the most important thing is

• THE QUESTION!!!
• What it is that you want to know?
• And how badly do you want to know it?
• And what do you want other people to know?
• The question must come from you!

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What Tech n E is about

• Becoming creators of knowledge
• Not just users / consumers
• To have your own ideas/stances/ viewpoints
• You must have an axe to grind
• And your own soapbox to stand on

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What 901B is about

• It is about giving you the tools to become
  scholars of technology and education
• It is about techne (Tech n E)
• To develop technique
• To develop art, craft skill
• To learn by doing and writing (weaving) texts

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What we expect

• Development of individual research project
  (ideally this would become your practicum)
• Bibliography of research in your area of interest
  (7 articles have to be read and critiqued - based
  on the format of the prelims though not as
  detailed)
• Development of web presence
• Everything you do for this class should be
  accessible to everyone else through your web site
• One week will be a practice prelim article that
  we will assign

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What the groups will do

• Each group has to take the lead for 4 selected
  weeks
• On their assigned weekthe group has to
• Design an online component that involves the
  issues raised by the readings that week
• Must be done by Friday evening of the assigned
  week.
• Design a face to face classroom activity to
  extend the discussion
• Bring closure to the discussion online
• Create a web page that summarizes the weeks
  activities (online and face to face) and submit
  it to us (as an archive of what we have been
  doing)

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Topics

• Research methods, Ethics, Online learning, CMC,
  Hypermedia, Linked Dynamic Representations,
  Simulations, Technology in schools (Teachers
  Subject areas), Literacy, Real vs. Virtual,
  Psychological responses to media, Diffusion of
  technology and innovation, Design, Philosophy of
  technology, Cognitive tools for learning, Games,
  Testing and evaluation, HCI, Digital Divide
• Will we cover all these topics?
• No way we just dont have the time. But we do
  welcome suggestions since we are still tinkering
  with the course structure

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Next week

• Readings, available online
• One group to lead the discussion online and
  develop activity for all of us class
• Come in with first thoughts on what you would
  like to do for your research project
• Now is a good time to meet with your advisor

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How to spend your money?

• We recommend that you buy the following books
• Publication manual of the American Psychological
  Association, 5th Edition
• Booth, W. B., Colomb, G. G., Williams, J. M.
  (1995). The Craft of Research
• Becker, H. S. (1998). Tricks of the trade How to
  think about your research while you are doing it

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Discussion Part II

• Go back to your small groups and now think about
  the 6 points you had raised before.
• How would you decide to research these issues
• As a group think of one research question that
  can emerge from these questions and be prepared
  to share them with the class

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Video lecture vs video of experiment

• Video lecture by professor v.s. video of
  experiment
• Visual system
• We spend much time in compromised visual
  environments (evening, fog etc.)
• Audio system
• Poor audio quality is not natural
• Real sound comes from a variety of directions
• Stereo
• So what does this mean?

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Do We Need High Definition TV?

• Two conditions-- viewed movie scenes on
• Best quality television
• Very poor quality television
• No differences on
• Attention (secondary reaction time task)
• Evaluation
• Memory

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Audio Experiment

• Viewed movie scenes with
• Best quality audio, or
• Very poor quality audio
• Best quality audio superior on
• Attention
• Memory
• Evaluation

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Video and Audio together The issue of sync

• Audio should be in sync with visuals
• What do we do when not in sync?
• Forgive and forget
• Judge harshly
• In an experiment, out of sync perceived less
  interesting, convincing, pleasant, intelligent
  etc.
• Diminished credibility of speaker
• Delays in reciprocity and "back channel"
  responses

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So

• In online courses
• Have high quality audio
• Have audio and video in sync
• Avoid new technologies that compromise audio
  quality or synchronization
• So for a lecture if sync is not possible, go for
  still images with good audio
• OR go with distributing video on CD ROM/tape
• For an experiment go with video, audio sync is
  not very important. Can be streaming video

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Day 1 stuff to do

• Groups
• Discussion of books and readings
• Assignment of weeks
• Individual work -- developing own research
  interests, has to be a study designed and ready
  to go -- your practicum must emerge from this so
  talk to your advisor
• Build bibliography for area of research and every
  week write on prelim paper
• Group work deal with assigned weeks - lead
  discussion, close discussion, lead activity in
  class, document activity through web page that
  has to be sent to us
• We will make you write!!!!
• Signup sheets for weeks and groups
• Calendar -- deadlines for topics, meetings, etc.