Week 5 - Innovation, 10/21

Innovation. This elusive quality is lionized in Western culture, but seldom is it effectively engendered in formative educational environments. Rather, innovation is typically described as a moment of grand insight, a reduction that belies the multitude of labors and failures that pave the way for enlightenment and advancement. A singular example is Newton's formalization of gravitational laws. What was once a veritable history of exploration has morphed into the pleasant mythology that the concepts literally fell from the sky (in the form of an apple) into (onto) his head! This fallacy is perpetuated in the structures of formal schooling, where science is presented as a system of facts rather than a series of evolving descriptive accounts that comprise the general and current understandings of natural phenomena. A truly innovative Science Curriculum, that would, in turn, foster a true understanding of the enthusing yet painstaking process of innovation, would allow students to actively explore phenomena within the context of an historical tradition, rather than memorize "facts". In this system, failure would necessarily be accepted, and would not necessarily negatively impact assessment. This would allow for legitimate scientific exploration in lieu of the contrived experiments currently presented that insincerely promulgate the concept of consistent positive results.

Of course, how is it that I have come to make this suggestion? By having participated in both formal-traditional and exploratory scientific environments. Simply put, these insights came as a result of action, not by sitting under a tree in hopes that inspiration would merely fall from the sky. This approach, aptly defined as "Learning by Doing", is at the core of Action Research as presented by Dr. Kim. Its nuances may be better understood in comparison with two similar theories:

• Grounded Theory: Provides a formulaic method of qualitative research that seeks to produce universal conceptual theories by way of analyzing incidences. Grounded Theory is based entirely in empirical data and follows a perpetual cycle of coding data into ever more generalizable theories, which are evaluated in terms of fit, relevance, workability, and modifiability. See Grounded Theory.
  
• Design Based Research: Describes a research method consisting of cyclical steps of Design (from a theory), Experiment, and Redesign. See Design Based Research.

Action Theory, in contrast, is practitioner-directed exploration inspired by a lack of knowledge. The process may be divided into the following iterative stages (per Dr. Kim):

Strategize	Apply	Evaluate	Reflect
generate new questions and hypotheses involve new constituencies and supporting resources strategize new actions and enhance system designs	apply new system changes or re-implement re-provide system tutorial add/remove peripheral stimuli	gather and analyze new qualitative and quantitative data interviews, observations, diaries or video recordings document and record new phenomena, patterns or differences	compare with early assumptions, hypotheses or findings Identify (new) problems and opportunities share findings

Action theory promotes the maxim that innovation must be contextualized according to the 6 Cultural Principles: Situation, Culture, Usability, Theory, Scalability, and Sustainability. Furthermore, successful projects require that, an incentive structure be in place for each person in the project! It is important to emphasize that Action Theory does not eschew existing theories or formal research methods. Rather, their importance and function are adjusted to allow more room for exploration. ABCD is still necessary as are prevalent theories in the field (e.g. motivational. self-regulatory/metacognitive, and multi-media Learning Theories), which are critical for providing guidance and rigor when exploring the target domain.

Fittingly, our course session on 10/21 offered a case study in innovation, as presented by guests from the online charter school division of Edison Learning. The presenters exuded passion for education, reaching marginalized students, and expanding technology. On the one hand, they are quite innovative, particularly in the way in which they have developed a large, modular system that can be rather flexibly adapted to meet the needs of unique educational communities. Their increasing audience and diminishing attrition rates indicate that they are ever more effectively reaching students in need of additional resources (bully victims, pregnant mothers, those suffering from developmental disorders, students from poor schools, etc.). On the other hand, their paradigm still appears mired in traditional formalisms, particularly in the core lessons, which offer little freedom to explore ideas, interact creatively, or deviate in any way from the prescribed information. There was a considerable irony in their defense of this approach (albeit, primarily, to satisfy traditional school requirements) while they excitedly jumped from topic to topic while doing so! It seems that their core lessons could be (optionally) expanded to provide fora for students to explore the relevance of the information to their lives and communities, in new and innovative ways. Furthermore, 21st Century Learning skills of collaboration and communication could be better enhanced. On a promising note, their interactive discussion lounge appears to be moving in a direction where it can meet these additional learning needs.

Week 4 - Media for Education, 10/14

This week was devoted to the presentation of custom digital artifacts designed to summarize innovative media or projects addressing a social problem. The range of causes was equal parts inspiring and overwhelming, clearly demonstrating the vast space of vulnerable, underprivileged, and marginalized members of the global community. Topics included cultural unity among distributed Mexican migrants, preserving Native Hawaiian culture, literacy in rural India, Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, protection of East African street children, preserving vanishing cultures, supporting rural African farmers, empowering rural American children, collegial pedagogy, combating ADD, bullying prevention, addressing childhood depression, empowerment of the elderly, and disease prevention. The range of media used to convey each message was similarly diverse, and provided a compelling venue for comparing the educational efficacy of various technologies. The following is my assessment of each of the five classes of media employed in these projects:

Dynamic Visual Display
Description: 6 of 16 presentations consisted of movies, which present information along multiple sensory modalities at a pre-defined pace. Effectively, the viewer is placed into the position of observer in relation to a story teller.
Positive Attributes: When carefully constructed, the results can be quite engaging and evocative. The combination of visualization (particularly motion pictures) with appropriate music and/or voice overlay is considerably effective. The display of textual information, when constrained in terms of quantity, can have a similarly positive impact. The presentation is also constant over time (although the interpretation is in constant flux).
Detractions:The simultaneous presentation along multiple sensory modalities may be a confounding factor (e.g. written text accompanied by musical lyrics). Additionally, the temptation to employ complicated visual effects may result in an impressive display, but it may also distract from the desired message. Finally, the question of passivity is critical. The viewer of a movie has little choice but to process the linear sequence of information as presented. Opportunities to explore tangential questions or even interact with the artifact in a constructive manner are limited.

Interactive Web Page
Description: 5 of 16 presentations consisted of web-based artifacts, which offer interactivity and flexibility, particularly in the ability to present multimedia content.
Positive Attributes: In contrast with movies, web pages allow the user to determine the course of exploration within the content of the site design, as well as in outside domains connected by hypertext. Furthermore, variable and indefinite time is allowed for subjects to explore site elements.
Detractions:Web pages demand that users possess a sufficient level of intrinsic motivation to explore the presented content. Additionally, although web pages may be embellished with audio, video, and visual artifacts, the associative (rather than linear) nature of the content may diminish the emotional impact on the participant-observer.

Power Point Presentation
Description: 3 of 16 artifacts came in the form of power point presentations, which may be characterized as a hybrid between movie and interactive web artifacts. These naturally integrate informative text, inspiring images, video, and sound, albeit in a linear presentation. Critically, the presentation is designed to be mediated by a presenter.
Positive Attributes: The advantages of this form of presentation are similar to those of a web page, in terms of the multimedia content. Furthermore, the presenter may actively engage the audience and interactively determine the pace of presentation.
Detractions: Power Point may suffer from the same detractions as movie presentations, while not offering the same emotional engagement. The experience may also be inhibited by a poor presenter or the labor of traversing the slides on one's own.

Audio Stream
Description: 1 of the 16 artifacts consisted of an audio stream, which can also be classified as a linear presentation of information, albeit streamlined to one sensory modality.
Positive Attributes: This media format can be extremely engaging, not leastwise because the observer is invited to actively imagine visual content to complement the audio information.
Detractions: Many observers struggle to retain information presented solely through the spoken word. Furthermore, creative audio effects, while potentially entertaining, may serve to distract from the message.

Static Visual Display
Description: 1 of 16 of the artifacts was a static visual poster. Like web-based media, this format allows the user to freely traverse the visual and textual space of the presentation material.
Positive Attributes: Static visual displays may provide many of the same benefits as an interactive web page, including freedom of traversal, and effective interaction of visual and textual information. Also, a comprehensive understanding may be expedited by the entirety of the information being made present within the visual field.
Detractions: The format and size are limited in terms of sensory modality and quantity of information.

Clearly, the preference of one medium over another is predicated on defining the desired amount of user control / interaction, linear versus associative information display, and quantity and quality of sensory modalities to evoke the desired effect. To wit, these considerations ultimately informed the final format of my artifact, an interactive web page expressing the social problem of vanishing cultures. The initial step in creating the artifact was to apply the ABCD instructional design strategy (see Week 3). I determined that the Audience could be any interested party, with special consideration for uninformed, albeit generally well-intended, members of dominant Western societies. The Conditions of the learning environment were, accordingly, a prevalent dominant culture, readily accessible internet access, and sufficient leisure time to explore a site. The Behavior I wished to elicit was increased awareness of the importance of diverse cultures, the unfortunate reality that many are vanishing, and the available avenues for countering the problem. Furthermore, I wished to encourage further user exploration into vanishing cultures and potential solutions. With respect to Degree, as a result of interacting with the artifact, I intended for 100% of participant observers to demonstrate a positive increase in awareness and understanding of the issues, while at least 25% would embark on further exploration, and as many as 5% would seek involvement in a related initiative.

A web-based application seemed most appropriate to achieve these design goals. For one, the internet is widely accessible in developed regions, and the assumption that many members of developed societies are well-intentioned suggests that they will possess sufficient intrinsic motivation to explore the site. The site also allows observers to traverse paths of interest at any pace, while allowing for immediate exploration beyond the site via embedded links. Furthermore, the web interface allows for the presentation of visual images that evoke emotion (e.g. the cultural images and the inverted world map), poignant text, and simple visual effects (e.g. the "disappearing" title). Finally, the format is incredibly extensible, allowing for continual updates, which is critical for the scope of this particular artifact. Ideally, the site would allow participants to add their "pins" to the map, thereby raising awareness about cultures and projects of special interest to them.

Week 3 - Instructional Design, 10/7

I want to begin with an implication of policy guided by the assertion that technology is most effectively applied to the margins of the distribution of achievers. The logical result would be a single-tailed distribution in which the lower tail would be pushed toward the center, while the upper tail would project toward even higher achievement.



This is a potentially reasonable compromise between “no children left behind” and “supporting our highest achievers”. The moral question of whether or not the majority at the center of the original distribution are being ignored still remains, although the policy need not prevent them from availing of technology. If the assertion holds, however, then they will likely see only a marginal benefit.

This week marked a continuation of the discussion of Instructional Design strategies. Two additional strategies were introduced that warrant a comparison with ABCD (see week 2). These are ADDIE, which is better suited for product development, and ASSURE, which is designed for teachers within learning environments. Although somewhat orthogonal, both of these approaches appear to encompass ABCD. In ADDIE, Analysis encompasses Audience, Behavior and Condition of ABCD, while Design encompasses Degree. In ASSURE, “Analyze Learners” encompasses Audience and Condition, while “State Objectives” encompasses Behavior and Degree. Futhermore, both of these strategies provide implementation and evaluation objectives that are only implied by ABCD. Still, ABCD places a greater emphasis on evaluating conditions and defining measurable objectives, which are critical to the process of Instructional Design. Two other comparable strategies that merit attention are Dick & Carey, which is similar to ASSURE with additional subdivisions, and Instructional Development Learning System, which is comparable to ADDIE.

Despite the richness of these Instructional Design Strategies, their effectiveness is limited when not informed by a fundamental educational theory or system, particularly when defining learning objectives and evaluation metrics. One widely cited system (although, as its creator noted, the original treatise is largely unread!) is Bloom's Taxonomy [of Educational Objectives]. Currently, there exist three generally accepted dimensions of learning: Cognitive, Psychomotor, and Affective. Nonetheless, Bloom argued that the Taxonomy is extensible, which begs the question of which additional domains should be considered. Dr. Kim suggested the Social Domain, while I will put forth the Creative Domain. The following fictional example demonstrates the application of this (extended) Taxonomy to Behavioral objectives where the goal is to develop a new technology that will assist in the learning of mathematical related rates problems:

Cognitive	Students will be able to solve related rates problems
Psychomotor	Students will be able to use tools to construct visual graphical relationships in related rates problems
Affective	Students will exhibit a positive attitude toward learning related rates
Social	Students will exhibit the ability to share ideas about related rates in small and large group settings
Creative	Students will create a visual or auditory artifact that is inspired by their concept of related rates.

Clearly this is a rushed and simplistic example, which could be extended to include the hierarchies of learning within each domain. However, it is certainly sufficient to illustrate the richness of determining Behavioral objectives when guided by the structure of a systematic learning theory.

Another topic of discussion this week is the growing trend of the Online Charter School. These centers of learning offer an alternative for marginalized communities that cannot provide a complete range of learning opportunities for their residents. To wit, Dr. Kim noted that 17% of students surveyed in an on-line-learning study would not or could not attend traditional universities (due to familial, occupational, and other obligations or limiting factors). Still, it is clear that there are limitations to the effectiveness of the current institutions. For instance, the dropout rate of the University of Phoenix is 40% (although attrition rates are lower for those who participated in online high school learning). In order to strengthen online/distance learning to meet the needs of these marginal populations, it is helpful to consider the aspects of traditional environments that are not present in existing online environments. Areas include differentiated instruction, effective assessment, psychomotor activities, affective and social development, as well as creative opportunities. Although it is unlikely that an online forum will ever provide the richness of an interactive human environment, in cases where such opportunities are not available, it is incumbent on distance learning designers to account for these arguably fundamental educational needs.

Week 2 - Forging Pathways to Education, 9/30

December 10 of this year marks the sixty-first anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, yet still a majority of its provisions lack in universality. Education, the subject of concern to this forum, is addressed explicitly in article 26, section 1:

Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

Comparative analysis demonstrates that this right is discriminately distributed across the human domain, largely with respect to economic power. Furthermore, this gap continues to widen with the continual expansion of technical support for education in privileged domains. Although such advancements would not likely translate directly into underprivileged educational settings, they still provide insight into various considerations that are essential for developing solutions for the marginalized world. The following case studies, as presented in the most recent EDUC 391X discussion, exhibit this truth:

• weblogs & webinars: The world of professional conferences and journals often leads to mismatches. Talks may be poorly or randomly attended, and paper submissions may be inappropriate in terms of scope and/or philosophy. Blogs and Webinars are effective for creating fora where like-minded presenters and audiences may interact. The challenge of effective collaboration of time and space may apply to underprivileged regions, where extreme distances and poor travel options may conspire to inhibit the spread of ideas and information. In such cases, building a "blog-like" infrastructure, either over the web (where such technology is available) or through more limited means (i.e. a "mobinar" over cell phones), would expedite the dissemination of and interaction with information among interested audiences.
• GLORIAD: The need for increased network bandwidth continues to grow with the advancement of information-sharing fora. High-definition telemedical training, real-time high energy physics collaboration, and advanced atmospheric modeling are made possible by GLORIAD, a persistent, secure, high-speed network linking major hubs across the Northern Hemisphere. The success of such a network in the privileged professional space suggests that marginalized communities could likewise benefit from rapid, secure information exchange. Again, this principle may be applied to regions where network infrastructure is non-existent, examples of which include the rural Mexico "literacy hub" (where a single literate community member is compensated for reading the daily periodical to illiterate townspeople), and the rural Indian "text message hub" (where a single individual serves as a communications link to 1000 community members, through which announcements and marketing messages may be distributed).

The challenge of applying such principles to underserved regions underscores the need for contextualization. An innovative technology alone is insufficient! Appreciation for the technical limitations, cultural nuances, and regional needs are essential for developing a feasible, sustainable, and effective educational framework:

• Feasibility: Sadly, due to lack of network infrastructure, advanced internet applications are currently infeasible for much of the developing world. However, as Professor Kim suggests, mobile technology is a gateway to developing regions, many of which support ample cellular networks.
• Sustainability: Sustainability must be addressed along equally critical technical, economic, and cultural dimensions. A lack of support in any such dimension would likely spell doom for the project. For instance, adoption of a educational tool is highly dependent on the support of parents, who may be otherwise (and justifiably) motivated by exigent needs such as subsistence farming.
• Effectiveness: The likelihood of effectiveness is increased with an understanding and appreciation of the target culture. An effective educational tool should not seek to impose a novel cultural value system on the target audience, but should adapt technology to advance the target culture. Effectiveness is also increased by targeting the margins within the population, both high and low achievers (per Professor Kim). Finally, effectiveness is only achieved if the educational technology intrinsically motivates the learner to pursue personal and collective idealism rather than dispensing indiscriminate knowledge, which may not be relevant in the applied context.

Feasibility, sustainability, and effectiveness can be incorporated into technological design by way of ABCD, the mnemonically devised set of principles presented by Professor Kim. These are Audience (a determination of the subjects and their prior knowledge), Behavior (a description of actionable behaviors that the solution will engender), Condition (the conditions of the learning environment), and Degree (the expected quantity of behavioral change). One example of a project designed under these considerations is Pocket School, which promotes literacy via mobile technology in underserved regions, where children have little to no access to written language. For instance, understanding the audience and their learning conditions informed the decision to employ mobile units as the mechanism for learning, as well as the explorations into creative battery charging techniques, including manual, pedal, and solar power. Such projects demonstrate the universal desire for learning and advancement, and hints at the numerous underserved populations in need of educational support. The Nokia Research Lab estimates that approximately 250 million phones go unused each year, indicating that technical units are available to serve these needy populations. The gap must be filled by mobile applications that are culturally sensitive and individually and collectively empowering.

In closing, it is prudent to be reminded of a natural pitfall when serving marginalized populations, which is the encroachment on value systems and personal freedom. This is summarized eloquently by author John Holt, in his Escape From Childhood:

No human right, except the right to life itself, is more fundamental than [the right of a person to follow their own interests]. A person’s freedom of learning is part of his freedom of thought, even more basic than his freedom of speech. If we take from someone his right to decide what he will be curious about, we destroy his freedom of thought. We say, in effect, you must think not about what interests you and concerns you, but about what interests and concerns us.