Kinshuk (
http://www.kinshuk.info
) was streamed in live from Austin, Texas. Lately he is also increasingly engagement
with industry on EdTech (yes, the bridge between university and industry is
tightening).
The learning environment is expanding outside of the classroom
environment, so how can we incorporate learning in all these environments. Some
opportunities (free)
- Series in springer collection in EdTech (look up
book guidelines for this series: I think it is http://www.springer.com/series/11777 ), any new advancements are welcomed.
- Journal which is completely open access called ‘smart
learning environments’ (Inge, look this up: http://www.springer.com/computer/journal/40561 ) , focus on improved learning
environments, and bringing these traditional environments and transforming them
into online learning environments.
- International association of smart learning
environments http://www.iaslo.net they look
for evidence-based research on the subject.
Current trends in learning
·
Inclusive education,
·
Focus on individual strengths and needs
·
Various learning scenarios – in clsass and
outdoor environments
·
Relevance of the learning scenarios with
learners living and working environments
·
Authentic learning with physical as well as
digital resources
Result: better learning experience due to authentic learning, and
ubiquitous access to learning. So learning is now more easily fitted to real
life of the learner. Learning needs to be relevant to the learner, but as a
teacher you need to become aware of how to capture the attention outside of the
classroom.
This means the teachers must become aware of the new teaching/learning
opportunities.
Vision
Learning is happening everywhere, at any time, and is highly
contextualised.
Seamless integration of learning into every aspect of life with implies
immersive, always on learning that happens so naturally and in such small chunks
that no conscious effort in needed by actively learning while engaged in
education.
We need to make learning as meaningful as possible. The goal of the
learning needs to be put across to all the learners, and the learning needs to
be made visible (e.g. Hattie)… but all of this is highly demanding for the teacher.
Every student is doing different things, so how can the teacher know that her
learners are learning? That is why we are looking for much more data, much more
information, and the assessments is also coming out of the classrooms and out
of the formal, classic design of assignments and assessments.
Smart learning analytics is used to discover what type of
learning data is coming in. Discover, analyze and make sense of student,
instruction and environmental data from multiple sources to identify learning
traces in order to facilitate instructional support in authentic learning
environments. This also opens a new type of teaching, namely coaching, give guidance,
personalise the feedback given the learner data or the learner information that
is viewed and analysed by the teacher. For example, a flower bed with a placard on what the flowers
are, but on the top right there is a QR code with additional information on the
flowers, but embedded in its full cycle, use and systematic botanical
information. So this means that the information is delivered in an adaptive way
(as complex as the learner wants to view it), and open to all. The learning
system provides you authentic information within a contextual reality, and with
the option to zoom in on additional information. (look at iSpot as additional
learning scenario).
Information can now come from different sources: mobiles, environment,
internet, people, …. It is like learning traces, a small learning impression
that can tell us that learning is actually happening. For instance, looking at
paintings in a museum, one painting captures the learners attention, and some
things are different to other paintings. The learner might learn something a
week later, and gets more information on it, and now a story can be shared by
the learner to people that are outside of the classroom. This actual fact
proofs that learning has happened.
But a system needs to be in place to proof or visualise the actual
learning that is happening.
Remark on data: the learners need to be made aware that their
data might be used, for privacy and policy issues.
How can we design instructional support that will make this type of
smart learning happen and make it measurable.
Discover
Past record and real-time observation of: learner’s capabilities,
preferences and competencies, learenr’s location, learner’s technological use,
technologies surrounding the learner, changes keep happening in the learner’s
situational context. So knowing the past, does not mean that what is happening
today is a meaningful difference to the previous actions, as the contexts of
today constantly change.
Miller was pioneering (5 elements of information memorisation).
And although the tech can provide the teachers with lots of additional
data, the actual learning experience needs to take into account the changing
environment and connected conditions of this environments.
Human-machine learning has an
effect on the actual learning process.
Is the learner trying to find new information, is that new information
screened critically…
We do have lots of mechanisms that we use to see what the learners are
going through and how the learning occurs.
Informal learning happens everywhere, across the potential learning
environments, and is there a record of the learning somewhere? Small learning
can happen anywhere, but how can we identify it and use it as evidence of learning.
Making sense: learning traces
A learning trace comprises of a network of observed study activities that
lead to a measurable cchunk of learning.
Learning traces are sensed ad supply data to learning analytics, where
data is typically big, un/semi structured, seemingly unrelated, not quite
truthful, and fits multiple models and theories.
What kind of learning, which models can be used to map learning traces
to try to understand that learning is actually happening. Learning traces are
also important to understand personalised learning, differentiated learning that
is happening across the population in all its variety.
Why learning traces are important
Different students can adopt different learning approaches for the same
learning activity
Ex,, why a pointed object penetrates better than a blunt object?
A visual-oriented learner may choose to use different approach than an
sensoratory learner.
Learner awareness
Personalisation of learning experience through dynamic learner modeling:
performance, meta-cognitive skills, cognitive skills, learning styles,
affective state, physiological symptoms (eg. The learner is doing something in
the lab, and suddenly heart rate will increase, why? What kind of concept is
the learners using, are there comparable situations of learning where this occurred?).
All of this are tools that can make teachers more informed, enabling more
informed decisions on learning.
Technological awareness
Personalization of learning experience through the identification of technological
functionality.
Identifying various device functionality
Dynamically optimize the content to suit the functionality
Display capability, audio and video capability…
Location awareness
Personalisation through location modelling
Location base optimal grouping (grouping ad hoc based on mobile
location)
Location based adaptation of learning content
Real-life physical objects
Public databases of POIs
QR codes
Wifi and Bluetooth access point identification
Active and passive RFIDs
Surrounding awareness
Learning based on all the surrounding data, context-aware knowledge
structures
Identifying specific context-aware knowledge structure among different
domains,
Identify learning objectives of real interest to the learner
Propose learning activities to the learner
Lead the learner around the learning environment
Skills and knowledge level
detection: competency level, confidence level (evidence-based confidence). For
instance using dashboard to get an idea of learning progress,… and what type of
skills are affected.
Teachers need to feel that it does not affect their workload, they
become more open to these new options.
Question from my end on making
learning visible: do you have examples of feedback from the learner that make
the actual learning visible. You mention
on how learners learn, but it seems you are more viewing it from a teacher
viewpoint, awareness in the learner.
Answer: analytics are coming from a variety of sources and at Austin, Texas, we
also work with Codex and MI-dash see the learner progress over time, SCRL which
uses self-evaluation, learning initiative design…
