Transcript Slide 1

The Learning Self:
Effective Use of Technology in Learning Environments
Haruna Tada
CD-143 Technologies of the Self

Day 4: “The Learning Self”
Tufts University

Fall 2002
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 Technology:
Analysis 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 Children’s Machine (Papert, 1993)
• Comparison with Jean Piaget’s
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 Children’s 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 one’s 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: user’s 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:
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–
–
–
•
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:
1. Was this technology/tool appropriate for the lesson?
2. Did the use of technology add value to the traditional
curriculum?
3. 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 milkweed
beetles lead to the
development of
computer lesson
using 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:
1. Why is this technology/tool appropriate for the lesson?
2. How will you integrate the technology into the
classroom?
3. How does the technology contribute to forming
relevant personal and epistemological connections?
4. What specific skills or concepts does the technology
help develop?
5. 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/logofoundation/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/
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