learning theory evolves

If you look at dates on the articles on my website you'll work out that I did some fairly intense investigation into learning theory and computers in the 1990s (Papert 91, ISDP 94, Quadratics 96, Immersion 97, Behaviourism 98)

After all that I thought I had enough of learning theory and in the pre-blog era there wasn't an effective way to spread it to a wider audience.

For much of the 2000s I have been so busy learning new software packages and learning to teach in the senior school that I just didn't have time. When SACSA came along with its phoney claim to be constructivist - constructivism enters the mainstream, (hmmmph) - I was surprised at first, but soon went back to sleep, like everyone else did.

But everything changes. Learning theory has evolved and its time for me to do some fresh study of what is new.

Here's my very rough outline (page titles) for a learning theory wiki I plan to setup very soon.

• constructionism (Papert)
• behaviourism (Dennett enhances Skinner)
• cognitivism (? innate)
• connectivism (Siemens: learning resides in networks)
• philosophy (Dennett, dialectical materialist outlook)
• pedagogical patterns, learning patterns
  
• design (learning is self design)
• programming
• AI research (Brooks, Minsky)

Certainly, there is some new material for me to think about in there (eg. Siemens, Brooks). The task I am setting myself is not easy. There is some hard work involved here. I'm not actually certain that I can do it.

Tags:

• learning

student learning framework

This article (1996, from an old logo journal) has a grandiose title, Whatever happened to the revolution? But I think the framework(s) it suggest for looking at student learning is quite valuable.

Logo teachers see change. What do they see? They "see" students thinking. The following learning behaviors — there are eight — were culled from teacher observations and anecdotal reports.

Students talk to themselves and to others. The act of languaging one's thoughts is a form of verbal mediation, a way of mediating and clarifying understanding.

Students move. Heads, hands, shoulders move with the turtle. Syntonic learning appears to be firmly related to how children process their worlds.

Students draw upon mental images. Memory is grounded in words and images. Visual imagery facilitates the storage and retrieval of information and instruction.

Students regulate their work. Casual explorations with the turtle give way to conscious control. Self-correction and evaluation are related to the sense of empowerment and control that we see in mature learners.

Students look for and create patterns. Pattern recognition is a basic strategy of organization and comprehension at the meta-cognitive state of learning awareness.

Students use Logo procedures as building blocks. The process of breaking problems into meaningful pieces of deconstruction has long been associated with formal problem solving.

Students compose and create. Artists describe the process of composition as impressionistic and generative. Ideas seemingly emerge, one idea triggering or guiding the next one, the subconscious driving the conscious.

Students present. Young people enter the adult world of presenters with confidence and poise. The work they present is their own.

These behaviors tell us something. Collectively, they give us an extraordinary new way of looking at learning. It may not be a revolution, but a new culture is emerging.

We call it a Logo culture. We are too close to it to fully understand it. The impact on learners and learning environments involves complex relationships. We have yet to tease out the nuances and subtleties. This is what I see:

Stronger Learners… stronger in the sense of learners who use their intuition, who claim ownership of their learning, and are thus free to risk in order to learn more. I see students using learning modalities that are not tapped by the present curriculum.

Real Work…a work intensity that is satisfying and worthwhile; a work ethic that encourages co-learning. Gender roles and age differences are blurred.

Expanded Vision…in the shape of new visual forms that expand our vision and guide us toward a clearer understanding of our changing world. Throughout history, artists have operated at the edge of social and cultural change. The fluid rhythms and transformations of Logo images are visual expressions of a new aesthetic.

Tags:

• logo
• education

student feedback about game development

I've received a request from Gauri Lalwani, who is completing a MA in Games and Education:

I am basically researching on the motivational factor of games for learning. If possible, could you share with me, the feedback you received from the students on the use of games and the results after the use of games? Any supporting material will be of great help in my research. I appreciate your help...

Do you have any feedback from your students about the game based learning? I mean how did they react to the change in the learning process from the usual curriculum to the game based learning?

Gauri has indicated willingness to share final research. So, I'll put this up for others who may want to join in for what is a very worthwhile focus question.

My initial thoughts:

Feedback can be overt or implicit.

Overt:
At the start I detect a lot of interest in game making. This is much stronger amongst boys than girls.

We dont teach computing at year 8 (the first year of secondary in South Australia) in my school but at the moment I have about a dozen year 8 boys who are pestering me on a regular basis to offer them game making in some form - they are very keen to learn it

When it comes to making games and / or solving game based problems what I find is that some students are eventually put off because at some stage it becomes "hard"
a) to achieve the effects they want to achieve
b) to debug - some students express irritation and get fedup about the demands from the program to debug

However, other students continue to accept the challenges as they arise, immerse themselves in the process and get a lot out of it.

This depends on their willingness to become more self reliant learners (perseverance, try different approaches, think logically about the problem, look up the manual, ask help from others)

Implicit:
Implicit feedback includes things like working on game development outside of lesson, borrowing the CD with game resources from the resource centre, enrolling in a game maker course, asking questions about gamemaker outside of normal lessons. All of this activity does happen wrt Game Maker and does not happen as much wrt other things that I teach (eg. chess, web design)

Other feedback (the sort of games students choose to make)
Recently I asked my year 11s to design an educational game - defined by me as a game that will teach a real person something (in the final week the expectation was that they would invite a real person in to evaluate their game)

The sort of games they attempted to develop were:

• soccer (teaching offside and red / yellow card rules)
• car (teaching road rules)
• war (teaching facts about WW2, whilst making a fun shooter in the process!)
• maths (simulations of primary maths problems)
• spatial (find your way around a large area, with clues)
• school (Q&A about traditional schools subjects)
• finches (how to look after finches)
• alchemy (the objective of this game was to memorize the symbols for various alchemical symbols)

Some of these games were not finished

My conclusions:
Many students (boys more than girls) like the idea of game making and quite a few are prepared to become more self reliant in their learning in order to create a game of their choice. Some drop out of the process because their motivation / interest wavers when hard problems are encountered. So, its not for everyone but everyone ought to receive an invitation.

Tags:

• games
• education

myspace interview

Excellent interview with Danah Boyd and Henry Jenkins about MySpace and the proposed Deleting Online Predators Act.

Extract:

Q: What do 'social networking software programs' provide participants? What's their down side?

danah: By giving youth access to a public of their peers, MySpace provides a fertile ground for identity development and cultural integration. As youth transition from childhood, they seek out public environments to make sense of culture, social status and how they fit into the world. Interacting with strangers helps them understand who they are and communities of interest allow them to explore ideas and values. Although youth are able to socialize privately with one another in the homes of friends, most are not allowed to spend time hanging out in public, unaccompanied by parents or adults. They view MySpace as a place where they can be who they are, joke around with friends and make certain to stay in the loop about everything that is going on around them.

While integrating into cultural life is a critical process that takes place during these years, the actual process is not always smooth or pleasant. Bullying, sexual teasing, and other peer-to-peer harassment are rampant amongst teenagers, as these are frequently the tools through which youth learn to make meaning of popularity, social status, roles, and cultural norms. MySpace did not create teenage bullying but it has made it more visible to many adults, although it is not clear that the embarrassment online is any more damaging to the young victims than offline. Regardless of medium, the humiliation occurs when the entire school or social community knows of the attack; MySpace and other online mediums may help spread rumors faster, but they have always spread in the halls of schools pretty quickly. No one of any age enjoys being the target of public tormenting, but new media is not to blame for peer-to-peer harassment simply because it makes it more visible to outsiders. In fact, in many ways, this visibility provides a window through which teen mentors can help combat this issue....

Q. Is predation a real danger with MySpace? Are there other issues people should be aware of in weighing this legislation?

danah: The media coverage of predators on MySpace implies that 1) all youth are at risk of being stalked and molested because of MySpace; 2) prohibiting youth from participating on MySpace will stop predators from attacking kids. Both are misleading; neither is true.

Unfortunately, predators lurk wherever youth hang out. Since youth are on MySpace, there are bound to be predators on MySpace. Yet, predators do not use online information to abduct children; children face a much higher risk of abduction or molestation from people they already know – members of their own family or friends of the family. Statistically speaking, kids are more at risk at a church picnic or a boy scout outing than they are when they go on MySpace. Less than .01% of all youth abductions nationwide are stranger abductions and as far as we know, no stranger abduction has occurred because of social network services. The goal of a predator is to get a child to consent to sexual activities. Predators contact teens (online and offline) to start a conversation. Just as most teens know to say no to strange men who approach them on the street, most know to ignore strange men who approach them online. When teenagers receive solicitations from adults on MySpace, most report deleting them without question. Those who report responding often talk about looking for attention or seeking a risk. Of those who begin conversations, few report meeting these strangers.

The media often reference a Crimes Against Children report that states one in five children receive a sexual solicitation online. A careful reading of this report shows that 76% of the unwanted solicitations came from fellow children. This includes unwanted date requests and sexual taunts from fellow teens. Of the adult solicitations, 96% are from people 18-25; wanted and unwanted solicitations are both included. In other words, if an 18 year old asks out a 17 year old and both consent, this would still be seen as a sexual solicitation. Only 10% of the solicitations included a request for a physical encounter; most sexual solicitations are for cybersex. While the report shows that a large percentage of youth are faced with uncomfortable or offensive experiences online, there is no discussion of how many are faced with uncomfortable or offensive experiences at school, in the local shopping mall or through other mediated channels like telephone.

Although the media has covered the potential risk extensively, few actual cases have emerged. While youth are at minimal risk, predators are regularly being lured out by law enforcement patrolling the site. Most notably, a deputy in the Department of Homeland Security was arrested for seeking sex with a minor.

The fear of predators has regularly been touted as a reason to restrict youth from both physical and digital publics. Yet, as Barry Glassner notes in The Culture of Fear, predators help distract us from more statistically significant molesters. Youth are at far greater risk of abuse in their homes and in the homes of their friends than they ever are in digital or physical publics....

Q: The proposed bill is a political response to a social/technological development - could you offer a political framework for considering MySpace and laws to limit access to it?

Henry: Right now, MySpace and the other social network tools are being read as threats to the civic order, as encouraging anti-social behaviors. But we can easily turn this around and see them as the training ground for future citizens and political leaders. Young people are assuming public roles at earlier and earlier ages. They are interacting with larger communities of their peers and beginning to develop their own styles of leadership. Across a range of issues, young people are using social network software to identify and rally like-minded individualism, forming the basis for new forms of digital activism. Current research shows that teens who participate in massively multiplayer games develop a much stronger ability to work in teams, a greater understanding of how and when to take appropriate risks, an ability to rapidly process complex bodies of information, and so forth...

Tags:

• myspace

the drama of using a computer

We need to view the way computers are used in schools as part of an ongoing sociological drama, to look below the surface to the real issues underneath.

Although far broader than a single issue, this point was well expressed by Seymour Papert WRT the issue of computers being chained up securely in computer labs:

The shift from a radically subversive instrument in the classroom to a blunted conservative instrument in the computer lab came neither from lack of knowledge nor from a lack of software. I explain it by an innate intelligence of School, which acted like any living organism in defending itself against a foreign body. It put into motion an immune reaction whose end result would be to digest and assimilate the intruder. Progressive teachers knew very well how to use the computer for their own ends as an instrument of change. Schools knew very well how to nip this subversion in the bud. No one in the story acted out of ignorance about computers, although they might have been naive in failing to understand the sociological drama in which they were actors.

There are many such example of the way in which computer use is crippled in Schools. For instance, it might be claimed that censorware or filtering software is being used to protect children from pornography and to keep them safe from online predators. On the surface that appears to have some validity but when you examine it closely as I have done here and here you find that it is not true. Schools don't care about keeping children safe from on line predators. One thing they do fear is being sued by parents but the real issue of censorware is about controlling how everyone thinks, children and adults. The show on the surface is just part of a deeper sociological drama between the forces of freedom and the forces of conservatism.

Tags:

• philosophy
• education
• papert
• censorship
• FOI

danger of "schools for the poor"

Article in The Australian, 6th July, 2006:

One bright child from a poor background might still thrive in any government school but when there are clusters of impoverished students, they tend to drag each other down.

Basic issues such as regular attendance have become huge endemic problems in Disadvantaged Schools. See my article Optimism and Reality in Disadvantaged Schools.

Ever since the Disadvantaged Schools Program (created by Whitlam, axed by Howard in 1996) was removed this had been the growing trend. Howard's intention is to further strengthen the social class distinction, which has always been there, through the Private / Public school division.

The Rann governments response? Put up the School leaving age without providing extra resources for schools.

What bullshit.

Tags:

• classwar

programming is the best game

I love this quote from TW Malone. I think I first heard it from Jake Habgood.

It discusses the flexibility or fluidness of the programming process - you can set your own unique goals and push yourself to a higher level when you are ready. Low entry, high ceiling. But it is not that easy or structured because the feedback is tantalising, elusive and expectations can be dashed. It also points out that programming is a very emotional process. The challenge draws you in and self esteem can be built or destroyed quite easily. Hard fun is sometimes fun but not always fun.

"In some senses, computer programming itself is one of the best computer games of all. In the "computer programming game", there are obvious goals and its easy to generate more. The "player" gets frequent performance feedback (that is, in fact, often tantalizingly misleading about the nearness of the goal). The game can be played at many different difficulty levels, and there are many levels of goals available, both in terms of the finished product (whether it works, how fast it works, how much space it requires, etc.) and in terms of the process of reaching it (how long it takes to program, etc.). Self-esteem is crucially involved in the game, and there is probably the occasional emotional or fantasy aspects involved in controlling so completely, yet often so ineffectively, the behaviour of this responsive entity. Finally the process of debugging a program is perhaps unmatched in its ability to raise expectations about how the program will work, only to have the
expectations surprisingly disappointed in ways that reveal the true underlying structure of the program."

Malone, T. W. (1980, September 19). What Makes Things Fun to Learn? Heuristics for Designing Instructional Computer Games. Paper presented at the Association for Computing Machinary Symposium on Small and Personal Computer Systems, Pal Alto, California.

Tags:

• programming

"web2.0", no thanks

No one has to use the term web2.0, there are perfectly acceptable alternatives, such as the Read/Write web or the two way web.

When I hear people use the expression, I think, "they haven't read the Paul Graham article"

The fact that Google is a "Web 2.0" company shows that, while meaningful, the term is also rather bogus. It's like the word "allopathic." It just means doing things right, and it's a bad sign when you have a special word for that.

People just use it because it sounds like they are modern, hip and up to date. I looked up my references to it in my old blog and was pleased to note that I was suspicious from the start. Although not entirely meaningless, use of the expression, IMO is evidence that the speaker is not familiar with the history of the web and / or too accepting of the latest fads.

The Read/Write web was the way the web was always meant to be used by its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee.

Now that the term has been trademarked as a business slogan by O'Reilly, well isn't that a good reason not to use it, when there are older well established alternatives.

Tags:

• web2.0

network neutrality threat is serious: TBL

Tim Berners-Lee:

"The Internet is increasingly becoming the dominant medium binding us. The neutral communications medium is essential to our society. It is the basis of a fair competitive market economy. It is the basis of democracy, by which a community should decide what to do. It is the basis of science, by which humankind should decide what is true.

Let us protect the neutrality of the net."
http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/blog/4

Please read and distribute to your own networks the two recent posts and / or download the video by Tim Berners-Lee on the threat to net neutrality

When Tim B-L and Vint Cerf are ringing the alarm bells it is past time to take notice.

Tags:

• internet

materialist world view: Minsky

As an atheist I ask myself: Does world view (materialist or idealist) matter? Is it worth making waves about?

When I think of the outstanding teachers I know who are motivated by religion or secular humanism to do the hard yards of helping disadvantaged students, then, from that perspective, I am inclined to go quiet, to turn the atheist cheek. Many people do good deeds and are motivated partly through religion. I don't doubt that.

But I don't want to be trapped in the present. When I think of history and the future and those working in the present to create the future, then materialist world view becomes very important.

The history seems very obvious. Our modern view of the world (astronomy, evolution, superiority of capitalism to feudalism etc.) arose in opposition to preordained sacred religious opinion.

There are no sacred concepts. There are no gods. As Christopher Hitchens said in concluding an amazing conversation with his brother, "They want a happy ending - that's their problem"

In the first few chapters of his book, Society of Mind, Marvin Minsky, outlines his materialist world view in simple, compelling language.

The point is this. How could Minsky even embark on the enterprise of Artificial Intelligence, of starting the process of building machines that can think, if he wasn't a materialist to begin with? Well, thankfully, we have reached that point in history. It seems reasonable to say that in order to explore the view whole heartedly then you need to embrace the view whole heartedly. The philosophy argument (that the materialist world view is better) has to be won as a starting condition for scientific progress to be made.

How can matter think? That is the task Minsky and other AI researchers have set themselves.

They have not succeeded yet. Why? Minsky's response there is that, "we need better theories about how thinking works" (1.2) That is a useful research path.

In Science, we take complex things and break them down into simpler things in order to explain how they work. This method works and accounts for a lot of human progress in understanding and changing our world and our view of the world - astronomy, evolution, medicine. Simplification produces enlightenment (1.3)

Galileo and Newton learnt a lot by studying simple things like pendulums, weights, mirrors and prisms. Minsky's and Papert's approach to AI has been to try to understand how a child learns to build blocks. They tried to build machines that could build blocks and through this process claim to have learnt a lot about how "societies of mind" develop. How a complex, intelligent mind could be made up of myriad simpler agents. (2.5)

We lose touch with simple things. We have amnesia about our infancy (1.4). If we didn't forget and if we didn't become bored with simple things then we wouldn't move on. One problem arising from this forgetfulness is that it is hard for us to reconstruct how we learn simple things. Common sense is very complex.

How do we know that we understand something? How could a machine know that it understood something? When that knowledge becomes more or less automatic.(1.6)

The purpose of fashionable terms like "holistic" and "gestalt" is to anesthetise a sense of ignorance, to create a sense of understanding where there is none (2.3)

Some people are offended by the suggestion that they are machines. Machines are lifeless, mechanical. This is partly because the word "machine" is becoming out of date. Modern machines are far more intelligent than simple machines and that trend is accelerating.(2.6)

We can already imagine a future (eg. Blade Runner) where a machine might be confused about its rights or whether it is human or a machine.

Tags:

• philosophy
• minsky
• atheism

zimbabwe human rights abuse

BEFORE: June 2002


AFTER: 6 April 2006

The images, analyzed by the AAAS staff, show two views of the settlement of Porta Farm, located just west of the Zimbabwean capital of Harare. The first, an archived image from June 2002, shows an intact settlement with more than 850 homes and other buildings; an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 people lived in Porta Farm at the time. The second photo, taken by satellite on 6 April this year, shows that the settlement has been leveled.

The pictures were released Wednesday 31 May as central evidence in a report compiled by the international secretariat of Amnesty International in London and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), based in Harare. The report, “Shattered Lives: The Case of Porta Farm,” views the destruction of the settlement and the forced relocation of its residents as emblematic of a broad campaign by the government of President Robert Mugabe to repress political opposition.

The photos of Porta Farm were collected under a new AAAS program that is exploring how satellite imagery and other cutting-edge geospatial technologies can be used to assess potential human rights violations and prevent new ones before they develop.
Full story

Tags:

• africa
• zimbabwe

recipe or exploration?

The curriculum is not God. A good curriculum might be one that enables a good teacher to teach in their preferred style.

I wrote this in the 'Supporting Upper Secondary IT Curricula' thread at the Game Maker and Education Group:

Here's my perception of what happens WRT teaching programming.

Scenario one: Recipe
Teacher follows a text book / recipe sort of approach. The students imitate that sort of approach. The stated goals of the curriculum are met in some sort of pencil and paper exam at the end of the year. Is their deep understanding, real problem solving? Probably not.

Scenario two: Exploration
Students undertake a real, meaningful programming project - creating something they are motivated about. Teacher acts as facilitator of this. Teachers role is to

• provide the opportunity for such a meaningful project
  
• teach learning how to learn skills, eg. how to read the manual
• provide just in time support for real problems as they arise that are initially too hard for the students

The real learning outcomes of the second approach may be better but the student grades may be worse.

In reality we probably do a hybrid of the two approaches depending on the type of student in the "class of 200x"

IMO the important thing is the mindset that has some focus towards scenario two. Support the curriculum that is flexible enough to support that. That means allow students extended time for exploration.

Otherwise, what are we really on about?

Keith Richardson supported this in an email he sent me:

Bill, I agree extremely strongly with your second model.
If fact I use it for all of my teaching from Years 8-12.

Easy to do in the pre-VCE years (8-10) and more challenging in VCE, but do-able none the less.

All the way through, the challenge for the teacher is to come up with realistic meaningful grabbing contexts in which to inspire the kids to want to find out how something is done for themselves and then apply what they have discovered practically themselves.

I have found the kids a marvellous source of inspiration here. Usually I come up with a suggestion, they howl me down with derision, I respond with "OK guys, what would be a better scenario?" Usually the class comes up with several and we fly with them - each one being what turns that particular kid on.

At the VCE level, I have to somehow generate additional time for
learning by self-directed practical investigation and application. I do this by heavily using the textbook - the kids have to make their own summaries (that I let them take into the SAC's) and in class we discuss only the bits that have given them trouble, or that I know from previous experience are often misunderstood.

The benefits from this overall approach is that I am continually
invigorated by what the kids come up with, and they tend to be highly motivated for much of the time.

Tags:

• education
• curriculum

sacsa critique

Critique of South Australian Curriculum Standards and Accountability Framework (SACSA) from the perspective of how it treats Information Technology.

I have posted the following critique to the SA IT teachers list, to the EdNA Game Making in Education Forum (discussion with Nick Perkins in the Physics for Game Designers thread) and to the Game Learning wiki (short response from Tony Forster)

When you compare ICT with maths and science the problem is simply that we don't have a subject, we don't have subject content, before Stage one (Year 11)

Science for example has strands that contain content such as Earth and Space, Energy Systems, Life Systems and Matter

By contrast Design and Technology only has the generalised process strands of Critiquing, Designing, Making and the content in the examples is drawn from diverse areas - in 5.4 examples there is mentioned solar cars, animal enclosures, veterinarians overalls and a robotic arm.

We don't have content in the sense that science, maths and other subject have content.

I have heard it said that the authors of SACSA think that the 5 Essential Learnings (Futures, Identity, Interdependence, Thinking and Communication) should replace the traditional subject domains.

But of course to do that for subjects such as Science, Maths etc. would create too much resistance because the history and traditional of those subjects is greater than ICT.

ICT is the latecomer to the curriculum feast and one the main characteristics of curriculum committee meetings is turf war.

ICT is both overarching (the computer is the universal machine that can simulate any established media) and specific. Like other subjects ICT does have specific content. If ICT was as old as maths and science then we would have well established subject content in years 8-10, with names such as:

• programming
• computer systems / hardware
• software applications (desktop, web based)
• database
• multimedia
• internet / www / search

Subjects such as these are usually NOT covered well in an integrated curriculum because the teacher of the integrated curriculum does not have the necessary computing expertise. Once again this partly results from computing being the latecomer to the curriculum feast, creating a generation gap in expertise.

In this context, SACSA denies us a subject in 8-10 without being even handed and denying other more established curriculum areas a subject.

When a year 8 arrives in a secondary school one of the first messages they now receive is that learning ICT is not very important, compared with maths, science, english etc. because no specific lesson time is allocated to it. Imagine the outcry this would cause if it was done to English, yet it is arguable that ICT teachers are more familiar with English than English teachers are with computing.

To make things worse the Design and Technology standards and examples are replete with a touchy feely ethical PC feel good language which is far more concentrated than for other Curriculum areas. What sort of products should we be designing, making and critiquing and in what sort of ways should we be carrying out these activities. Here are some of the phrase which promote a particular ethical stance, in just a few pages from standard 5:

• pollution, obsolescence, social displacement ...
• design a car in terms of quality of life of all species
• animal and human rights
• ethically desirable opinion
• critical analysis and ethical issues about genetic engineering
• transport needs of a group of senior citizens
• ecologically defensible designs of a fruit drying product
• politically empowering interactive website to support biodiversity
• devices to be used by people with arthritis
• a piece of furniture made from recycled materials
• competition standard solar car
• animal enclosure
• veterinarians overalls
• fertilisers for an organic vegetable garden
• watering device that is socially and environmentally sustainable
• low voltage light system work station for a person with a disability
• promotes a case for non genetically modifiable foods
• wind powered machines

LOL, this reminds me of the caricature slogan for those who went to each every demo in the 60s, "land rights for gay whales".

Get the drift? This is promoting a particular political position about the use of technology which is present but not as prominent in the other curriculum areas I have looked at.

The "ethical" and political stance represented above are generated from outside of the real internal social dynamic that technology and ICT in particular has created in its own right. ICT has created hot political and social issues of significance such as censorware (filtering), open source v. proprietary software, digital rights management, copyright law, Artificial Intelligence, social implications of Moores Law to name a few. Not one of these is mentioned in the higly politicised language of the Design and Technology statements. It all points in one direction, towards stability and stasis.

What does SACSA give to ICT teachers?

• no content to promote our case in schools cf. other curriculum areas (not even handed)
• a political line which assumes we all ought to be members of the Green Party

For what it is worth something similar is happening in Victoria with their new curriculum framework called VELS. There have been a lot of complaints on the Vic lists about how VELS has been used to integrate computing into the curriculum and destroy exisiting stand alone computing subject there.

Tags:

• sacsa
• education

formatting images

I'm working with new arrivals from Africa, teaching them computer skills. Many of them have had very limited contact with computers.

It's very difficult teaching some of these students to format images or use the draw tools in MSWord or MSPublisher

The student has to have this knowledge:

• click on (select) the image before you can manipulate it
• be aware that when you move the mouse over the image then the icon changes
• 4 headed arrow means you can move the image
• 2 headed arrow means you can resize the image
• to move or resize requires clicking in correct place with left button and dragging mouse
• it requires manual dexterity to resize the image in the way that might be required
• some images (draw tools) have other icons, eg. green circles for rotation and yellow diamonds for shape alteration
• at other times to format the shape you need to click with right button

Much of this is very hard for students who have not grown up with computers. I have watched some student trying to rotate and resize a shape and they can be painfully slow at achieving success.

It's a combination of skills that is required to achieve success, eg. I need a two headed arrow, I need to click on this particular circle and I need to drag the mouse in order to make this rectangle wider - using the left mouse button for these features

I initially posted this to Paul Chandler's wiki about probing conceptual understandings of computer concepts on the 10th June.

Tags:

• newarrivals
• computerLiterate

the boy in the baseball cap

A boy in baseball cap in his bedroom playing his electric guitar: Pachelbel's Canon. He rarely lifts his head. The sun streams into the room making it hard to see his face.

Watch his fingers strum, listen to the awesome music. He is completely focused on the task. This is beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjA5faZF1A8

"Plyed by funtwo"
(6 million views!)

Tags:

• beautiful
• music
• video

teaching programming skills using game maker and blogging

I have designed a game making / multimedia course for Year 11 students. This article describes the theory and practice of a part of that course. The full course can be found at http://www.users.on.net/~billkerr/g/y11.htm

COURSE INGREDIENTS (briefly)

1. game making – for motivation, engagement initially but also for worthwhile objects to think with blogging – for opening up new channels of communication in the classroom
2. explicit instruction about programming, just in time approach
3. educational game design (instructional design) – designing and teaching for learning, going beyond a technical programming challenge to also include an instructional design challenge.

LEARNING THEORIES

In developing this course I have been influenced by the learning theories of Seymour Papert (constructionism, mathetics), the Instructional Software Design Project (Harel and Papert) and the more recent Connectivism of George Siemens. These theories have helped to guide the course I have designed and implemented.

Constructionism

Constructionism is Seymour Papert’s word which is made up from the Piaget’s word constructivism (children develop their own internal structures of mind) with the word construction. Papert’s idea was to accelerate learning by working with objects like the logo programming language and LEGO TClogo robotics

Papert and Harel argued for the importance of learners discovering good objects to think with, with these characeristics:

• appropriability – some things lend themselves better than others to being made one’s own
• evocativeness – some materials are more apt than others to precipitate personal thought
• integration – some materials are better carriers of multiple meanings and multiple concepts

Papert Mathetics
One of Papert’s learning principles is that a good conversation is an important part of learning. How do we set up good conversations in IT class?

Instructional Software Design Project
Idit Harel integrated the theories of Piaget, Papert, Vygotsky and Perkins (“Knowledge as Design”) to develop a project where children designed and built educational software, using logo, for other children to learn with.

She reported improvement in a wide variety of areas such as collaboration, design skills, self management skills, programming language fluency, expressive writing about mathematics and technology, cognitive resilience (learning not to give up), time management, faith in one’s own thinking, teaching skills and empathy with younger students.

Marc Prensky has put forward the slogan “Engage me or Enrage me” (motivation is central to learning).

Struggle – A theory of struggle in education has been advanced by Garth Boomer, that education is mainly about struggle and design. McGee has theorized the struggle which takes place between assimilation and accommodation and has theorized that play has an important role in this process

Connectivism

George Siemens has observed that the relevant life or half life of knowledge or content is shrinking and that informal learning experiences are becoming more important, that 80% of our learning arises informally

In this relatively new situation, the capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known, that nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning and that rather than have a knowledge silo it is often better to be well connected and have the ability to learn knowledge in Just In Time fashion

COURSE RATIONALE

Why choose Game Maker as the programming language?

Game Maker has a free version (but not open source), has a great drag and drop interface, low entry and high ceiling programming capabilities, extensive support materials and a large, active community (Game Maker forum). Since the software is free it was included on a CD with other free and open source software which was made available for students to take home.

Game making challenges – the focus on challenges rather than demonstrations or tutorials

The initial part of the course consists of skill building in the use of Game Maker through solving a series of challenges that are accompanied by hints. By solving the challenges students learn some of the basic skills of game programming such as:

• what Events mean (Create, Step, Alarm, Collision, etc.)
• how to link Events to Actions
• the coordinate system (x, y space) and direction
• how to use the random() function to vary motion
• how to make characters shoot and targets explode
• how to turn actions of temporarily using Boolean T/F variables and Alarm clocks
• how to make one character follow another character
• how to control game flow using conditionals
• how to draw text on the screen
• how to push things around a room

All of the challenges are available at this URL: http://www.users.on.net/~billkerr/g/ch.htm

In general, I think challenges are more effective than either Demonstrations or Tutorials for teaching and learning. Why? Challenges involve both construction and struggle!

Challenges – student has to struggle for mastery, the teacher is a guide on the side providing hints or direct guidance occasionally.
Demonstrations – teacher shows how to do it, student is relatively passive at first, construction is optional.
Tutorials – Step by step instruction provided by teacher, student follows. This can be too passive, not enough exploration or struggle is required.

http://billkerr.blogspot.com/2005/07/tutorials-demos-challenges.html

I think you need the full range of tutorials, demonstrations (which are more show and tell) as well as the challenges / hints (explore, think, do, ask questions) but overall I'm trying to push my students towards the latter mode.

Why blogging?

As well as the curiosity and appeal of a new technology I was motivated by other reasons to incorporate blogging into the course.

Writing and documentation is an important part of programming (including comments within code) and improves the employability of a programmer. The method of writing every day is a good one because writing improves with regular practice.

The teacher ability to communicate with students is quite limited in a face to face setting with a class size of 20. Opening up another regular written communication channel vastly improves teacher-student communication. This can be used extensively for feedback and also enables students to share off topic thoughts with the teacher.

Once students have setup blogrolls of other students on their blogs then student-student communication increases as well. This can be used for both fun and learning.

Explicit instruction – why favour a just in time approach?

I'm always on the lookout to minimise the amount of time I spend out the front giving instructions to students. Although sometimes desirable and essential in my experience too much broadcast does not work very well. Many students just don't seem to listen.

Design: why ask students to design an educational game (rather than a free choice)?

The issue is to avoid design of a clone of game they already know. In that situation, the design component becomes a non creative activity.

One possible answer to this is to require students to design an educational game. This part of the course has yet to be implemented.

WHAT HAPPENED?
- written during week 9 (30th March 2006) of an 18 week course

The blogroll of all students in the class can be found here on the teachers blog:
http://gamedesign11.wordpress.com/

The initial setting up of blogs did take some time but in the longer term it was time well spent.

Some students adapted quickly to both game making and blogging, others took several weeks to become productive and a few did not engage sufficiently in one or the other parts of the course.

The teachers marking scheme gave 5 marks for each game maker challenge. Students had to complete the challenge (they could ask anyone for help), blog about how they solved the problem (3 marks), about who helped them (1 mark) and include a screen shot of their solution (1 mark). The teacher kept an up to date open marks book which students could look at to monitor their progress at any time. Assigning percentages and grades two weeks before assessment period was a powerful motivator for some students who were behind to catchup.

Students could also get marks for off topic blogging (limited to one mark per week), writing how to tips about game maker, game maker problems and setting up their blog expertly (theme, blogroll, leaving comments on other blogs).

Writing about how a problem was solved does help to reinforce the learning process.

Quite a few students did read the blogs of more advanced students, who had detailed descriptions, for tips about how to solve problems. Pikmik and JRB01 were two favourites for this. (plan to do a survey about this)

The teacher setup an RSS feed at bloglines which collected all student blogs in one place and informed him when their blog had been updated. This was very convenient and make it possible for the teacher to give more regular feedback than in previous years. It was also possible for the teacher to obtain a more rounded picture of student interests through their off topic posts. This built rapport and lifted morale.

Some students obviously enjoyed leaving comments on each others blogs, this was seen as a fun activity.

REFERENCE

Harel, Idit. Software Design for Learning: Children’s Construction of Meaning for
Fractions and Logo Programming. June, 1988.

Harel, Idit and Papert, Seymour. Software Design as a Learning Environment. MIT, January 1990

Kerr, Bill. Invitation to Immersion. April 1997
http://www.users.on.net/~billkerr/a/invite.htm

Kerr, Bill. Papert’s Ideas: Mainly from Mindstorms. October, 1991
http://www.users.on.net/~billkerr/a/papert.htm

Siemens, George. Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. December, 2004
http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Tags:

• gamemaker
• programming

blogger tags revisited

Thanks to ecmanaut (Johan), JavaScript wizard, and John at Freshblog for their ongoing help to make tags available through blogger.

I originally wrote about this in December 2005. In setting up tags on this new blog I found those original reflections helpful, especially the update at the bottom about having to delete and rewrite the tag URLs. Thanks to Paul for originally working that out.

The 2006 ecmanaut update here and Freshblog update here were also useful.

Maybe now I can get on with blogging.

Tags:

• ecmanaut
• blogger

the instruments of torture

WRT, students learning computer skills at School.

In summarising the discussion at slashdot (will publish later) about computer literacy it became clear that as well as the skills of literacy there is also an attitude and also an environment that promotes literacy.

Some users have the attitude of mastering the machine, of looking behind the screen, of exploring it more deeply. One tiny example, I've noticed how much more proficient those who learn and become fluent with keyboard shortcuts are over those who just rely on the mouse. (but of course there is far more to it than that)

Environment is so important IMO. Brian Harvey used to give his students the key to the computer lab. Read his great article about this. The trend increasingly on my patch is to lock everything down and to restrict options rather than expand them.

1. Censor-ware
2. MS Agreement is bad in a number of ways. The MS UI is dumbing down (eg. hide file extensions), also the agreement restricts the uptake of Open Source, which is far more compatible with an educational philosophy (sharing stuff)
3. Copyright Law (getting worse)
4. DRM (restrict ability to copy to prop up ageing business models)
5. Locally many schools are obsessed with security (they have their reasons)

I call these things the instruments of torture, analogous to the instruments of torture shown to Galileo to restrict his freedom of thought. Increasingly, I spend my days being annoyed / frustrated / angry about the instruments of torture.

Taken as a group: skills, attitudes, environment - how are we going in Schools at the moment?

Not very well, I would suggest.

Tags:

• computerLiterate
• freeCulture
• freeSpeech
• safetyNuts

the wiki advantage

My Year 11 class this term are using wikis for their documentation.

I have written a mid term report on my wiki about the advantages of using wikis for students to record their problem solving, progress, screen shots and making game downloads available.

To summarise the advantages:

• students are more likely to keep game documentation up to date (with some nagging required from teacher)
• student games can be posted to wiki for easy download (far more convenient than other methods)
• students are learning to work in teams, the wiki facilitates this, they each learn to document their contribution - patchy but it is working, some of the wikis are now starting to reflect real teamwork
• wiki features (Recent Changes and history of each page) makes it easy for teacher to keep track of week by week progress and to observe which students improve their work by editing
• as well as game making student are learning a useful modern Read / Write native web application

Tags:

• wiki
• education

technology as more than meddler

I left this comment at artichoke in response to his technology as meddler entry. I am a thorough going materialist. Human = Technology. Warm and fuzzy? Not yet.

Yes, the tool analogy is hopeless but that doesn't stop School from attempting to lobotomise the computer, dumb it down to the extent that it starts to look like a mere tool. That is the sociological drama going on in School. Curriculum is the vehicle through which Departments attempt to control teachers.

Papert actually conceptualised the computer as a rival to the curriculum, in his book, 'The Childrens Machine'.

Extract from an essay I wrote about this a long time ago:

"Non logical metaphors of the computer create a tension between the computer and the curriculum whereby the computer becomes the medium that carries the quality and the curriculum becomes the technical instrument. The computers becomes an evocative, flexible medium that invites immersion. Computer games are addictive and fun (as the neo-Luddites point out). It needs to be added, however, that some of the best computing software is an invitation to immerse yourself into a microworld where significant learning is likely to occur, provided you have a teacher who understands how the software is meant to be used. Counterposed to the neo-Luddite critique of mindless play is the constructionist idea of hard play."

"Meddler in the middle" slogan reminds me of "Technology as Trickster" in an essay by Jermey Price.

The fundamental question is, "What is technology". I discuss this here.

Extract:

"My point is that you have to ask the more fundamental, structural question, "What is technology?" first in order to answer the sociologists question, "Is technology progressive?" The latter question is the wrong question because it immediately encourages people to separate humans from technology whereas in reality we are just two different variants of an evolutionary process."

Tags:

• computerScience
• philosophy
• technology
• progress

new blog

Self reference, catch up entry.

My old blog died. Gory details here, for those interested in blog death. I don't know anyway to direct visitors from my old blog to this one, since any new entry I post to my old blog is hidden.

There was another important entry that is hidden. It is a summary of the instructional software design project. Full article is on my website, which has also moved. I've changed my ISP from TPG to internode, since internode offers 50MB free web space and is better value for money anyway.

I haven't blogged for a month but am resuming mainly because I find it helps me develop a sense of myself and where I am headed. Identity. We all crave recognition of course, lots of visits and comments. But I think identity, defining self, is more important. Writing down and reflecting does alter who you are.

Some would argue that it is through the process of discussing and interaction in the blogosphere that development occurs. Maybe but I'm not convinced. There is not enough time and too much superficial crap. This sounds arrogant but I find it a problem. How can anyone find time to think deeply if they are reading hundreds of blogs, trawling through the dross to find an occasional gold nugget?

I have been writing in a pen and paper journal. I've always done that. The advantage there is that I can be more frank and personal about what I write. That is OK but not machine searchable, it is hard to find past entries. It is easier to connect the dots (integrate ideas) through blogging.

But then wikis might be even better for integrating ideas. I have been writing in these wikis recently:

africagame, where we are creating computer games about africa.
http://africagame.wikispaces.com/

gamelearning, set up by Tony Forster, in preparation for a submission he made to the Victorian Parliament about curriculum reform - I was more interested in discussing the ideas than the actual submission
http://gamelearning.wikispaces.com/

Paul Chandler's wiki about probing into naive conceptualisations of the computer, with a view to improving computer instruction
http://pdchandler.wikispaces.com/

gamedesign11 where I have been keeping track of the computer games that my Year 11 class have been developing
http://gamedesign11.wikispaces.com/

So, my recommendation is blog for yourself, wiki for others. Cute.

Tags:

• reflection