USING LEARNING BLOCKS TO PREPARE E-CONTENT FORTEACHING MATHEMATICS

CADGME’10, Hluboka nad Vltavou, June 30th, 2010

USING LEARNING BLOCKS TO PREPARE E-CONTENT FORTEACHING MATHEMATICS

Matija Lokar,Matija.Lokar@fmf.uni-lj.si

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Changes

Substantial changes in the world we live. The changes in our everyday life just in the last 100 years are impressive.

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"LET'S TRAVEL IN TIME"

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In the kitchen …

Sources: http://philadelphia.about.com/od/southjersey/ig/Red-Bank-Battlefield-Photos/red_bank_012.htm http://kitchensireland.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/kitchen-styles-custom-kitchens/

Sources: http://www.precisionpaintingplus.net/blog/2009/07/http://kandmconstructiononline.com/modernkitchen.html

Today

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In the operating room

Sources: http://www.intuitivesurgical.com/corporate/newsroom/mediakit/product_images.asp http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209663/GP-hangs-stethoscope-bringing-end-dynasty-doctors-dating-1792.html

At school …

Any differences?

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Source:http://iris.pfmb.uni-mb.si/old/didgradiva/nastopi/didrac2/00/1/solske_ucilnice.htm

Even if …

The teaching model is the same

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http://www.wearethepeoplemovie.com/

http://www.wearethepeoplemovie.com/

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Changes in the society

Industrial Age Information AgeMajor influence on educational systemsInformatization

Of the teaching processOf everyday life: Students (learners) - "Net (digital) natives"

Requirement for individualization

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Main challenges

Appropriate usage of technologyPersonalitization and customization

Different role of teachers

Usage of techology

Substantial research done on appropriate usageIf we want very short summaryTwo sentences from

Teaching Matters: A handbook for UTS academic staff, University of Technology, Sydney, Institute for Interactive Media and Learning,

“New technologies should be used in the most appropriate way to provide a quality learning experience for students. “

The most appropriate

“The most effective kind of learning experience is determined not by the technology available, but by considering what is most appropriate for the students, the subject and the learning objectives and then selecting the most appropriate technology to use, be it a book, an online discussion, a multimedia simulation, or a workplace experience.”

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Individualization

We live in a society, where everything is individualized and personalized:

computers built to our exact specificationswe personalize our cell phones with ringtones, wallpapers, and skins…

Kids enter the classroom and are taught the same way day in and day out. They sit in seats, in rows, filling out worksheet after worksheet and then, they take a test.

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Individualization

Not all students are able to learn successfully at the same pacewith the same approach, in the same environment, following the same path, in the same style and manner.

Research confirms that every individual assimilates information according to their own unique learning style, need, and interest.Learning styles vary.

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Individualization

The public education system nowadays continues to insist that a one-size-fits-all, full time classroom-based model can and will effectively serve all studentsEducation needs customization as wellJust part of this: customization of the resourcesChallenge for the teacher:

Concretize educational content and adapt it to the interests and capability of students

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"Ex cathedra" lectures are vanishing

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The 21st century teacher

Change in a teacher's functionsWe are not “walking encyclopedias” or “talking textbooks” anymore

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Teacher of the 21st century

Instead, teachers are:Planners, strategists, researchers, pedagogical diagnosticians, work organizers, counselors, tutors …

Task:Guiding a learner through pieces of information (teaching resources) towards knowledge

With the requirement toConcretize educational content and adapt it to the interests and abilities of a particular learner

Learners are a very heterogeneous group

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ARE THE ESSENTIAL RESOURCES AVAILABLE FOR THESE NEW REQUIREMENTS THE TEACHER IS FACING?

Organizing and using teaching resources

One of the fundamental steps in the learning processIn this step we take into the account the class we are teaching, the day, the pedagogical situation …So we

Choose a certain textbox and stick with it from the first page to the very last one

Of course not (or very rarely at special circumstances)

Making a selection of different materialsChoosing workbooks, choosing tasks, choosing pages on the Internet, choosing ...

Thus:

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Path through resources

"Pile" of resources Necessary to provide the learner with a path through resourcesPrescriptions are given:

Let's start with page 15 in textbook Y Follow the explanation and then turn to page 21 for exercisesTo see how this knowledge can be used in "real life" see handouts you were given Then continue with page 12 in textbook X …

Or else technology is used:

Prevailing technology …

Source: www.cksinfo.com

Source: simplepress.wordpress.com

Source: www.freefever.com/freeclipart/tape.html

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WHY AN IDEAL RESOURCE FOR ALL OCASIONS DOES NOT EXIST

Is making combinations of resources really necessary

Reasons

Authors of resources consider a hypothetical pedagogical situation with hypothetical studentsThe actual teaching process is always at least slightly different

And never the same

A good teacherUses resources in the most appropriate waySo s/he is “forced” to adapt the resources

What about “modern” e-materials

Could teachers … use … them more effectively?Unfortunately not! (most of the time)Lots of teaching e-materials are prepared in technically "closed form"

“Monolithic”Hard to change

Complete portals, web pages with embedded flash animations, usage of frames, applets without the source …

combine

Source: http://www3.towerhobbies.comSource: http://www.lego.com

Which model do you prefer?

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Existing e-learning content

Very often looks very appealing but is often realized as a digitized book,

Just adding some multimedia features is not enough

the content is too strongly integrated into the presentation of the material – no changes are possibleis linearly structured - the process of learning is usually not linear...

The “life cycle” of a resource

Frans Van Assche, Riina Vuorikari, (2006). A Framework for Quality of Learning Resources. In U. Ehlers & J.M. Pawlowski (eds.), European Handbook for Quality and Standardization in E-Learning

"public" usage

"private" usage

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Design decisions

Task – produce a resource explaining Thales' theoremDifferent models

Agreement: web page GeoGebra as a tool

Which one to choose?Which one is the most suitable?

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Video Instructions / Construction steps

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Video Instructions / GeoGebra Applet

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Construction steps with list steps/ GGA

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Different tool

Cabri Geometre or C. a. R. instead of GeoGebra

Group of teachers polledNo "first place"Votes dispersed among all possibilitiesIs it realy wise for the author to make a choice which can not be changed?

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Teacher

is the one who must adapt the resource to concrete teaching situation and to a particular studentSo the teacher takes from the various resources and reorganizes and adapts author's ideas and models in his/her own way

THE TEACHER “COMES FIRST”

s/he should have control over the content s/he uses to teach the student

Put teachers “back into the game”

E-resources should be flexibleAllow the teacher to adapt them, combine in his/her own way ...Resource authors should prepare:

Basic “building blocks”Pre-constructed modelsInstructions / tools for making new combinations

Source: http://www.lego.com

More than Lego

Basic blocks should be adaptable, tooThus the teacher should be able to reword a question, change the explanation slightly, add a link to another material on the topic in the feedback … Change the order of questionsMake a Jack in the story into MikeInstead of cars we could count baloons ...

More than Lego II

the teacher should be able to use a particular building block in different shapes. For example: to use an exercise (a question) as

a text (e.g. as part of a test written with the help of a word processor), a question in a Moodle virtual classroom, in the shape of Java assisted interactive question on a web page …

So the teacher would be able to use the technical form that is best suited to the given moment

Re-using resources

Author creates the resources for an ideal situation, teacher teaches in “real world”Teacher should gain control over the resourceAuthor should merely be an initiator of the resource in various forms

Teacher is the one who upgrades the idea, adapts it to a certain pedagogical situation, his/her beliefs, … Teacher has the possibility to:

AdaptChange(Re)combine

And technology nowadays …

allows this!

Using standardsSmall, flexible units covering small pieces of subject taughtAvailable in different formats

Additional advantageReady for the future

New devices, new technology …

Content is mostly still appropriate, there are merely changes in (re)presentation

The NAUK research group

NAUK (advice / study) NApredne Učne Kocke – NAUK Advanced Learning Blocks

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NAUK projects

Aim: to create a computer-powered system for managing and serving e-learning content that will be extremely suitable for teachers.

Instead of the author-learner relation, we want to introduce the three-way author-teacher-learner relation.

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Everything starts with an idea

The teacher should be able to take teaching materials from different online sources, and change and combine them to make a lesson that suits his or her style of teaching and the current situation in the classroom.

Using the resulting content in different situations.Different ways of export, that conform to the most important up-to-date standards.

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http://gradiva.nauk.si

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Changes in basic block composition

Web based simple editor with GUI.

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Wiki-style syntax

Separating content from presentation

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Everything is about the content

The scenario of the e-learning

content is “one-to-one”

description of the presentation –

without the detailed design

instructions.

My title = My title| slide1 =

[[image: flower.jpg]]

[[button:+ | Next]]

= My second slide| slide2 =

[[button:slide1 | Previous]]

My second slide

Next

Previous

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Presentation

Representation depends on the output media – teacher needs no specific technical skills.

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The custom presentation

The author can easily describe

the custom content with a

lot of functionality

and interactivity.

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Mistakes

After a mistake is made, a hint is displayed. If too many mistakes are made, the correct answer is given.

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Teacher decides on the scheme

Adaptable – different

learning paths

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Different export formats

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E-LEARNING CONTENT SHOULD BE EASILY ADAPTABLE BY THE TEACHERS

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Contacts

Matija.Lokar@fmf.uni-lj.si

http://www.nauk.si http://gradiva.nauk.si http://am.fmf.uni-lj.si

Děkuji vám za pozornost!