“Lets Educate, Learn and Flourish: how can we open doors, light fires and race with machines?” Becky Strachan November 2017 Professor of Digital Technology and Education, Associate Pro Vice Chancellor Strategic Planning & Engagement, Faculty of Engineering & Environment, Northumbria University “Technology can become the ‘wings’ that will allow the educational world to fly further and faster than ever before – if we allow it” Jenny Arledge
52
Embed
«Lets educate, learn and flourish: how can we open doors, light fires and race with machines?»
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
“Lets Educate, Learn and Flourish: how can we open doors, light fires and race with machines?”
Becky Strachan
November 2017
Professor of Digital Technology and Education,
Associate Pro Vice Chancellor Strategic Planning & Engagement,
Faculty of Engineering & Environment, Northumbria University
“Technology can become the ‘wings’ that will allow the educational world to fly further and faster than ever before – if we allow it”
Jenny Arledge
“Lets Educate, Learn and Flourish: how can we open doors, light fires and race with machines?”
Becky Strachan
November 2017
Professor of Digital Technology and Education,
Associate Pro Vice Chancellor Strategic Planning & Engagement,
Faculty of Engineering & Environment, Northumbria University
“Technology can become the ‘wings’ that will allow the educational world to fly further and faster than ever before – if we allow it”
Jenny Arledge
“Lets Educate, Learn and Flourish: how can we open doors, light fires and race with machines?”
Becky Strachan
November 2017
Professor of Digital Technology and Education,
Associate Pro Vice Chancellor Strategic Planning & Engagement,
Faculty of Engineering & Environment, Northumbria University
“Diversity : the art of thinking independently together.”
Malcolm Forbes
“Cherry, plum, peach or damson blossoms – all, just as they are, are entities possessing their own unique qualities”
Teachings of Buddha
“Lets Educate, Learn and Flourish: how can we open doors, light fires and race with machines?”
Becky Strachan
November 2017
Professor of Digital Technology and Education,
Associate Pro Vice Chancellor Strategic Planning & Engagement,
Faculty of Engineering & Environment, Northumbria University
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”
Ralph Emerson
How do we learn?
Opening Doors: Can technology help widen participation?
Racing with Machines: Can technology transform education?
Lighting fires: Can technology inspire and engage our learners?
Where next?
How do you learn well?
Think of something that you’re good at,
something that you know you do well.
How did you become good at it? Share
this with the person sitting next to you.
How do you learn well?
Motivation
Good Support
Taken from Phil Race’s ‘Ripples’ Model of Learning, seewww.phil-race.co.uk
My Philosophy on Learning & Education
“I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.”Albert Einstein
“Every student can learn. Just not on the same day or in the same way.”George Evans
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”Mahatma Gandhi
“I try never to let my schooling get in the way of my education.”Mark Twain
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”Yeats
“You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.”
Richard Branson
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”
Quote attributed to Confucius
“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.”
Sydney J. Harris
Active Learning
Make mistakes
Educate not train
Independent Learning
Open Doors
Think for Yourself
Lifelong learning
Inside and Outside the Classroom
Education … more than training
Belief that people can be ‘more’
Involves physical, intellectual, emotional, cultural, spiritual, vocational, aesthetic, moral, language, social, religious and recreational developments
Society and Culture
Narrow Focus: – Education from age 4 – 21 years
– Expected norms: university vs work
– Environment & Culture: formal learning
Leaky Pipeline– Gender imbalance in different disciplines
– Mismatch between demand and skills
– Becomes more stark at higher levels
Can Technology help ‘Open Doors’?
Fast changing discipline
Focus on interaction/active learning not
content
Maker/Tinkering Activities
Hackathons/code clubs
Career inspired …
How do we Open Doors with technology?
Start early
One Example: NUSTEM
Focus on ‘STEM capital’
Sustained engagement
Gender inclusive
Career inspired
Partnership working
Targeting ‘hard to reach’
Colleagues: Carol Davenport, Annie Padwick, Jonathan Sanderson, Joe Shimwell, Sarah Hilton, Opeyemi Dele-Ajayi, Kate Winter, Dan Wilkinson, Antonio Portas, Itoro Emembolu, Luke Haworth
Among young people (7 – 15 years), the following declines with age:
– Enjoyment of science– Engagement of science– Confidence in science
And females decline more sharply
As early as age 7 years, males & females differ in their self-identify (most like me)
Males know more jobs particularly STEM from an early age
Males talk about science with a wider
set of people in and out of school
Racing with Machines:
Technology Enabled Learning
“It is very important to put education in the driving seat of future technology development … I want to turn that around, and begin with the requirements of education, and challenge technology to meet them.”
Diane Laurillard (2008)
“Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master.”
Christina Lous Lange
Data, Information and Content
Amount is overwhelming
Estimate that the
information we create and
store doubles every two
years
By 2020, the digital
universe will reach 44
zettabytes, or 44 trillion
gigabytes.
How do we access and use it?
Same applies to education.
Not about content creation but how do we signpost
and use it with students.
Mobile devices are permitted!
Question: What is to 5 decimal places?
How would you have found out this
‘Before Google’ and mobile phones?
Development …
of Technology Enhanced Learning
Technology Enabled Learning
UK HEFCE Report (2009) on technology in learning and teaching highlighted three main benefits:
•efficiency (existing processes carried out in a more cost-effective, time-effective, sustainable or scalable manner)
•enhancement (improving existing processes and the outcomes)
• transformation (radical, positive change in existing processes or introducing new processes).
Efficiency:
• Online learning management systems e.g. Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas
Students learning English as their second language
need to practice their language skills to become
competent
Difficult to provide opportunities to interact with
native English speakers
Classroom delivery in Thailand is quite traditional
and second language learners are under achieving.
Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games
(MMORPGs) provide space to meet people across
the globe
“When people learn to play video games,
they are learning a new literacy”(Gee, 2005: 13)
Methodology
Action Research
Learners
Virtual Ethnography
Hiddenavatar
Knownavatar
Observation
Tasks:
Game based
Guidance & Support
Conclusions
Online role playing games can support active and situated learning.
Provide a stimulating and engaging environment
Students personalised their learning: exemplified by the different roles of ‘leader’, ‘economist’ and ‘socialiser’.
Avatar characterisation provides anonymity providing a safe environment, that helps increase their confidence in using the language.
Students gained cultural knowledge too
Tutor can support in and out of the virtual environment
Example 2: Motivation for the Study
But also supported by research including:
Mathematics is important but boring: Students’ beliefs and attitudes
towards mathematics, Kislenko et al, 2005
“They do not like mathematics, many of them
see it as hard and impossible, then they get
disinterested in the classroom”
Teacher, Nigeria 2015
Anecdotal
Challenge: Engaging Mathematics
‘Racing with Machines’
Can games help?
Children appear to enjoy and have greater concentration during computer based learning1
But do they need to foster deeper learning?
Our problem is about engagement, not educational performance
1:Wrzesien, M. and Raya, M.A., 2010. Learning in serious virtual worlds: Evaluation of learning effectiveness and appeal to students in the E-Junior project. Computers & Education, 55(1), pp.178-187.
1: DeSmet, A., Van Ryckeghem, D., Compernolle, S., Baranowski, T., Thompson, D., Crombez, G., Poels, K., Van Lippevelde, W., Bastiaensens, S., Van Cleemput, K. and Vandebosch, H., 2014. A meta-analysis of serious digital games for healthy lifestyle promotion. Preventive medicine, 69, pp.95-107.
“If we can present generally ‘complex’ scientific content through tangible and non-textually media like serious games, we may be able to engage reluctant learners in STEM subjects” 1
Research gap
Finding the optimal balance between entertainment and education ( Cowley et al. 2013)
What are the game features that support learning and promote engagement (Butler, 2014)
A critical step for effective education games is identifying the key game engagement factors.
Conceptual Engagement Framework
Initial Engagement Clarity of Goal
Thematic and Visual Appeal
Ongoing Engagement Rewards and Feedback
Social Interaction
Creativity
Challenge
Committed Engagement Immersion
Practical Implementation
Three schools in Nigeria
Carried out a ‘Technology Acceptance
Model’ (TAM) evaluation with teachers to
support them too
Designed a game ‘Speedy Rocket’ to
support estimation mathematics
Two weeks in the classroom trialling with
students and teachers
TEL in the Classroom
Games for Learning (but keep the
engagement factors!)
Recordings – video, audio, screen capture
Interactive Whiteboards & other media
Learning Management Systems and
online support – blogs, wikis, discussion
boards
Ebooks, e-library
Your turn: Peer Learning …
One minute: Count how many triangles.
Share your answer with someone else,
now share with another couple - decide on
a final answer.
What are students doing in practice?
A Study of International UG Students
19% (438,010) of all UK HE
students are international[Source: HESA return 2015-2016]
Often find our learning
and teaching methods
‘strange’ & ‘challenging’
Anecdotal evidence that many use digital resources e.g. facebook, youtube and other social media to support their studies