Redesigning a

Communication Support

System for Teachers

05/12/2000

Yasuhisa Kato

yasukato@stanford.edu

Learning, Design, and Technology

Master Project

2

Table of Contents

Background CASTL

KML

Workspace Learning

Problems and Needs

Design Principles

Sneak Preview

Future Work

3

CASTL Program

The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Objectives

Foster learning for students

Enhance teaching

Share project work

One year program for higher education, and two-year for K-12

4

Scholarship of Teaching (SoT)

Three features

Being public (community property)

Open to critique and evaluation

Available for reuse

Investigation of student learning

5

CASTL (Community I)

Closed community

Across the country

Two face-to-face meetings a year

Including kick off face-to-face meeting

20 to 30 people

Selected by their project proposal, not

by their technological skill

6

CASTL (Community II)

Wide variety of subject area

Chemistry, Mathematics, English,

History

Business, Psychology, and Performing

arts

7

KML

The Knowledge Media Laboratory of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Functions Developing online web-based communication

tools, called the Workspace Facilitating teachers to use a variety of media to

present their investigation

Developing resources which promote the understanding and pursuit of the SoT.

Helping to build a larger network of teachers

8

Workspace

For program participants and Carnegie staff

Usage Post and share project documents

Comments

Resources

Component A set of web-based communication tools

Online multimedia database

Running from Jan. 1999

9

Workspace (Current system)

Demonstration

Scholar Workspace

Listserv archive

Program Documents, etc

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What do they learn?

Each participant has his/her own

project.

Different people have different goals.

Each individual seeks to develop

his/her her own scholarship of

teaching and learning.

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How do they learn?

Self learning on campus

Peer review

Face-to-face meeting

Direct E-mail or Telephone

Via the Workspace

12

Sample Project

Prof. Stephen Chew

Psychology, Samford University

Using Examples in Teaching: Progress

and General Reflection

Focus on the use of examples in teaching.

What are the properties of a good example?

What is the best way to use examples in

teaching?

What do students learn from examples?

13

Problems

Participants do not actively post their project work and responses

Less posting, less feedback

Why

Limitation of text only

No appropriate communication tool

Usability issues

Distrust of the new system/technology

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Mailing list traffic (98)

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12/98

01/99

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05/99

06/99

07/99

08/99

09/99

10/99

11/99

12/99

01/00

02/00

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05/00

Month

E-mail

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Needs

Establish a discourse Profound discussion

More feedback Critical peer reviews

Technical knowledge/skills Advantages of tools

Tools Chat

Auto notification

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Design Principles

Media Richness

Text only Multimedia

Increase Interactivity

Enhance Motivation

Simple User Interface

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Sneak Preview

Development is in progress

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Evaluation criteria

Usefulness/Satisfaction How helpful is the tool for the project work?

Interaction Frequency: Web access, Mailing list, etc.

Depth: analysis of mailing list, Posting

Usability What problems/difficulties?

Needs assessment What additional help/tool are needed?

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User Testing Plan

X X Needs

X X Usability

X X Interaction

X X Usefulness

Tracking Questionnaire Observation

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Schedule

Implementation and System Integration (- 5/31)

Initial setup and Data migration (6/1 – 6/11)

CASTL meeting (6/12 – 6/23)

Orientation and Computer Lab

Web survey (August or September)

User Tracking (6/1 – 12/31)

Evaluation & Redesign next version

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Acknowledgement

Professor Decker Walker

Program coordinator Deborah Kim

Carnegie Foundation Dr. Toru Iiyoshi

Carnegie Foundation Dr. Tom Hatch

LDTers

Thank you for your attention!

Yasuhisa Kato

Yasukato@stanford.edu

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URLs

The Carnegie Foundation for the

Advancement of Teaching:

http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/

CASTL Program:

http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/OurWo

rk/CASTL/castl.htm

Master project:

http://ldt.stanford.edu/~yasukato/mp/