The Learning Self: Effective Use of Technology in Learning Environments

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The Learning SelfEffective Use of Technology in
Learning Environments

• Haruna Tada

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Overview

• Goals for the use of computers in learning
• (from Children and Computer Technology Analysis
  and Recommendations)
• Background of authors
• Reading summaries
• Examples of use of technology in the classroom
• examples of implementations
• group exercise design a classroom activity that
  uses some of highlighted technology

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Children and Computer TechnologyAnalysis and
Recommendations(Shields Behrman, 2000)

• children acquire the skills necessary to use the
  technology effectively and responsibly
• provide training for teachers and parents to
  understand what contents are out there and what
  is age-appropriate
• reduce disparities in computer access between
  rich and poor communities
• computers in classrooms should be used to add
  value to traditional curriculum and to teach
  things that were otherwise not possible
• children use computers to create, design, invent,
  and to collaborate

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Who is Seymour Papert?

• Born and raised in South Africa
• 1954 1958 Studied mathematics at Cambridge
  University
• 1958 1963 Worked with Jean Piaget at Univ. of
  Geneva
• 1963 MIT, founding faculty member of
  Artificial Intelligence Lab and MIT Media Lab
• Currently lives in Maine
• Learning Barn
• Maine Youth Center in Portland
• Research activities and contributions
• technologies for providing new ways to learn
• MaMaMedia.com
• LEGO Mindstorms

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Who is Mitchel Resnick?

• 1978 BA in Physics from Princeton
• 1988, 1992 MS and PhD in Comp. Sci. at MIT
• Currently the LEGO Papert Associate Professor of
  Learning Research at MIT Media Lab
• Research Activities and contributions
• new ways of learning using technology
• LEGO Programmable bricks
• StarLOGO
• Computer Clubhouse

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Mindstorms (Papert, 1980)

• Computer as a tool for putting children in
  control of their own learning
• Children build their own intellectual structures
  with materials drawn from the surrounding
  culture.

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Computer Criticism vs. Technocentric Thinking
(Papert, 1987)

• New technology affects multiple aspects of
  educational and social culture
• Technocentricism the tendency to place all
  emphasis on technology and not the people/method
  by which it is implemented
• What matters is not introducing a new technology,
  but how you introduce the technology

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The Childrens Machine (Papert, 1993)

• Comparison with Jean Piagets three
  developmental stages
• sensorimotor stage (pre-school)children respond
  to immediate situation
• stage of concrete operations (elementary
  school)period of concrete logic, but tied to
  specific situations
• formal stage (highschool and on)logic,
  deduction, induction, and theory-building by
  verification and refutation

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The Childrens Machine (Papert, 1993)

• Papert revisits concrete stage
• strengthen the concrete process growing
  relevant mental entities and giving them
  connections
• focus on concrete stage not just as a transition
  between sensorimotor to formal stage, but as a
  model for learning anytime in ones life
• Teach in a way to produce the most learning for
  the least teaching

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Instructionist vs. Constructivist Approaches

• Transmission, or Instructionist approach
• relies on books, lectures, and memorizing
• Using computers to assist transmission of
  knowledge
• drills and activities that replace
  paper-and-pencil type assignments
• Supporting evidence
• increase basic skills and improve standardized
  test scores

• Constructivist approach
• building students knowledge through experience,
  critical thinking and real-world connections
• Using computers to assist constructivist learning
• exchange of ideas with other students
• group project with students from different
  communities
• Supporting evidence
• increase the depth of understanding

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Pianos Not Stereos Creating Computational
Construction Kits (Resnick, 1996)

• Two types of connections for effective learning
• personal users interests, passions, and
  experiences
• epistemological new ways of thinking, new
  connections between ideas
• Allow children to guide their own learning
  (personal connections), and trigger new areas of
  learning (epistemological connections)

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Examples from Pianos Not Stereos

• LEGO Programmable bricks
• lets LEGO objects be programmed to react,
  behave, and collect data
• StarLOGO
• simulates decentralized systems
• how patterns (geometrical, behavioral, etc)
  emerge from interactions of many entities all
  behaving according to simple rules
• MOOSE Crossing
• multi-user virtual environment
• children create objects, worlds, and interact
  with one another

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Examples from the Classroom

• Four Examples
• Use of LEGO programmable brick in engineering
• MOOSE Crossing to study survival
• LOGO for studying insects
• StarLOGO to model immune system response
• Ask these questions
• Was this technology/tool appropriate for the
  lesson?
• Did the use of technology add value to the
  traditional curriculum?
• Did the technology help trigger any personal
  and/or epistemological connections in children?

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Example 1 LEGO Programmable Brick

• Capturing the Wind
• part of the Engineering/Technology curriculum
• developed by CEEO at Tufts
• for grades 5-8

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Example 2 MOOSE Crossing

• Use of MOOSE Crossing in a California public
  school
• grades 4-5
• From a lesson on survival...
• a class project to make a virtual sinking ship
  in MOOSE Crossing
• each student assigned a room to design/describe
  (based on the Titanic)
• connect rooms together according to the Titanic
  model

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Example 3 LOGO Programming Language

• Insect project at Blake School
• preK-12 private school
• second grade classroom
• study of milkweedbeetles lead to thedevelopment
  ofcomputer lessonusing LOGO

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Example 4 StarLOGO

• Cancer and Stem-Transplantation
• developed by Univ. of Maine
• for grades 5-12
• after learning in class about immune system and
  the types of cells involved in interactions, the
  students model the immune system using StarLOGO
• what types of cells and agents (white blood
  cells, etc) are at work?
• how do the different entities interact?
• how do the human body react to cancer cells?

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Group Exercise Design a Classroom Activity

• For the technology that is assigned to your
  group, design a lesson or project, and discuss
• Why is this technology/tool appropriate for the
  lesson?
• How will you integrate the technology into the
  classroom?
• How does the technology contribute to forming
  relevant personal and epistemological
  connections?
• What specific skills or concepts does the
  technology help develop?
• How does use of technology add value to the
  traditional curriculum?

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Some Useful Links

• LOGO
• http//library.thinkquest.org/18446/eindex.shtml
• http//el.www.media.mit.edu/groups/logo-foundation
  /index.html
• StarLogo
• http//education.mit.edu/starlogo/
• LEGO Mindstorms Programmable bricks
• http//www.lego.com/dacta/products/robotics.asp
• MOOSE Crossing
• www.cc.gatech.edu/elc/moose-crossing/