Reframing
Classrooms
for
Technology
Dr. Gary L. Ackerman
gary@hackscience.net
http://www.hackscience.net
April 2012
Providence, Rhode Island
Outline
The Old Frame
Why Reframe?-- Some lenses: (45 minutes)
What Does Framework Look Like? (60 minutes)
How Do Educators Reframe?-- "Strategies" (60 minutes)
Bridshot warning
Discussion... perhaps email to gary661.nelms12@blogger.com to add top the NELMS AC Blog
Theory
warning
The Old Frame
Is this and accurate description of the schools you attended?
How about now?
Into the future?
gary661.nelms12@blogger.com
Our Friend John Dewey...
"It would not be a sign of health if such an important social interest as education were not also an arena of struggles, practical and theoretical. . .
(It is good to argue about education)
It is the business of an intelligent theory of education to ascertain the causes for the conflicts that exist and then, instead of taking one side or the other, to indicate a plan of operations proceeding from a level deeper and more inclusive than is represented by the practices and ideas of the contending parties. . . .
(Arguments lead to questions and more questions)
It means the necessity of the introduction of a new order of conceptions leading to new modes of practice."
(Questions lead new ideas and practices)
Why Reframe-- Context & History
Cuban's (1986) observations of electronic media:
Obstacles:
1) Insufficient access
2) Weak curriculum
3) Teacher training
96% of classrooms have Internet access; 1-to-1; BYOD
ISTE Standards
Teacher training is common
“classrooms look largely the same as they did before the personal computer revolution, and the teaching and learning process are similar to what they were in the days before computers” (Christensen, Horn, & Johnson, 2008, p. 70)
Are these still issues in your school? What did Cuban miss? (Leadership? Affect?) gary661.nelms12@blogger.com
Why 1/6
Why Reframe-- Humans as Learners
Why are humans human?
-- Environment or Social Interaction
Technium
-- Humans and technology are inseparable
Why 2/6
Implications of brains adapted for social interaction and common technology... gary661.nelms12@blogger.com
Vygotsky told us, learning is cultural as well as cognitive activity.
What, where, when, why, who?-- social construction of knowledge
Discoveries about humans that challenge the old frame...
Why Reframe-- Views of Information
Information Theorists
> Quantity of bits matters
> Print = Screen
Media Theorists
> How bits move matters
> Characteristics of societies predicted from IT
Why 3/6
IT is neutral
IT is non-neutral
Informatics- Social, Information, Info Technology
Discoveries about info & tech that challenge the old frame...
Why Reframe-- Education as Technology
Characteristics of Technologies:
Why 4/6
Consider school as a technology...
Discoveries about technology that challenge the old frame...
Why Reframe-- Education is Wicked
Tame:
Definable
Understandable
Consensus
Wicked:
Undefinable
Not understandable
Little Consensus
Wicked Problems:
Why 5/6
The problem of taming wicked problems
Discoveries about planning that challenge the old frame...
Why Reframe-- Summary
We have done what we should have...
but still education is unchanged.
Assumptions:
• Educators know what to teach
• Schools are the best way for us to deposit the curriculum into brains
• Educators know how to instruct
• Simple to complex is best
• Tests measure learning
Traditional concepts of schooling
cannot be known with:
Why 6/6
If Ackerman is right, then we can no longer...
gary661.nelms12@blogger.com
What Framework-- Dimensions
“A framework in the most literal sense, aims to describe the fundamental structure underlying a concept, technology, or system….” (Mehlenbacher, 2010 p. 194).
Dimensions:
Reduce the irreducible-- manage the complexity
What 1/12
Shall we stretch?
What Framework-- Introduction
“A framework in the most literal sense, aims to describe the fundamental structure underlying a concept, technology, or system….” (Mehlenbacher, 2010 p. 194).
Dimensions:
Reduce the irreducible-- manage the complexity
Education is unfamiliar, therefore we need a new framework...
What Framework-- Dimensions
Learners
Student Tasks
Social Dynamics
Educator Tasks
Learning Environments and Artifacts
Adapted from Mehlenbacher (2010)
Realizations:
Problematic -------------------------------- Idealized
What 2/12
fundamental structure
(How did we do?)
What Framework-- Learners
How are kids different from your peers?
gary661.nelms12@blogger.com
What Framework-- Student Tasks
BCLC
Chris Dede
Authentic Learning
Look for Harrington, Oliver and Reeves
What 4/12
What Framework-- Student Tasks 2
The changing world for which we prepare students...
What Framework-- Student Tasks 3
Messy problems that students investigate for a long time with others; their learning is demonstrated in products for real audiences.
Look at a model: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHtj6PCpyLQ
Yeah, and...
Yeah, but...
gary661.nelms12@blogger.com
Reality...
What Framework-- Social Dynamics
Ackerman as a middle schooler... media landscape and interaction expectations...
Ackerman's high school-aged son.... media landscape and interaction expectations...
"The bottom line is that our students are multitasking and we cannot stop them without placing them in a boring, unmotivating environment. The trick is to develop educational models that allow for appropriate multitasking that improves learning” (Rosen, 2010 p. 95).
Social dynamics--constant, immediate, expanded, multi-sensory
A Tale of Three Shakespeare Experiences (next page)
What Framework--
Social Dynamics 2
Three views of Shakespeare:
1978 (movies) 2000 (none) 2011:
What 7/12
What Framework-- Social Dynamics 3
Within the classroom:
- roles (student assert and provide evidence)
- configurations (grouping and facilitators)
- permanence (discussions and assignments)
- transparency (online grade books)
Extending the classroom:
- access to teacher (when do you check your school email?)
- access to experts
- access to unmediated/ unauthorized/ contrary information
- expanding space (two stories of how I got in trouble!)
What in this is traumatic for teachers?
gary661.nelms12@blogger.com
What 8/12
What Framework-- Educator Tasks
What Framework-- Educator Tasks 2
What we teach--
(the problem of standards)
Human learning--
(exercise & cognition)
Learning science--
(our invalid assumptions)
Instructional technology--
(cycles vs. s-curves)
Culture--
(for what do we prepare kids?)
Collaboration--
(create that beyond our capabilities)
Rate of change...
Innovation...
Wisdom...
(Go back to...)
What Framework-- Learning Environments and Artifacts
Blended
Cognitive load
Purposeful design
Facilitating conditions
How does this become less consuming?
gary661.nelms12@blogger.com
What Framework-- Summary
What issues have your attention at school? Can we understand those issues within this framework?
What questions would you pose to researchers?
How to Reframe-- Word of Caution
There is no recipe... no toolbox... ya gotta reinvent the wheel...
General principles... local realizations...
Shall we stretch?
How to Reframe-- Word of Caution
There is no recipe... no toolbox... ya gotta reinvent the wheel...
General principles... local realizations...
How to Reframe-- Word of Caution #2
Consider "the gadget"
Image credit: Ekaroleski on Wikimedia Commons
ICT from margins of experience to fundamental aspects of:
Technology-Using Social Creatures
Remember education is wicked... see next slide
How to Reframe-- Wicked Problems
21st Century Education is
Ill-Defined
No Stopping Rule
Subjective Evaluation
No Ultimate Evaluation
Each Wicked Problem is Unique
Each Wicked Solution is Unique
Interconnected Problems
Multiple Valid Perceptions
No Right to be Wrong
How to Reframe--
Planning
How to Reframe-- Planning
Remember education is wicked...
this is how wicked planners proceed...
Naturalistic Decision Making--
How to Reframe-- Reflexivity
History of the idea... and as applied to ICT
How to Reframe-- Reflexivity 2
Participation, Remediation, Bricolage
see New Media Literacies on the next page...
How to Reframe-- Reflexivity 3
See New Media Literacies on the next page...
How to Reframe-- The End of Integration
Robyler defined integrating educational technology as “the process of determining which electronic tools and which methods of implementing them are appropriate responses to given classroom situations and problems” (9).
Teach by technology
Teach about technology
Teach with technology
Teach via technology
Technology is neutral
Non-neutral perspective assumes...
How to Reframe-- Discourse
Progressive Discourse:
Especially important for educator tasks related to student tasks
How to Reframe-- Research
Discourse depends on fact...
Evaluation/ Action research
(local effects)
On data-- quantitative &
qualitative
(ethnography!)
On ethics...
(take only what you need and in a manner that assures it can be used... IRB's)
How to Reframe-- Leverage Technology
How to Reframe-- Flipping Classrooms
practice/ application (at home)
instruction (at home)
How to Reframe--
Situational Awareness
Originally from computer designers... who blamed the user for dysfunctional systems...
Never-ending "paper-scissors-rocks..."
learning environments & artifacts
student and educator tasks
How to Reframe-- Tech Stewards
Short-circuit what I just said... if there is trusted and empowered...
How to Reframe-- Tech Stewards
Streams of activity:
Network administrator
Technician
Computer teacher
Technology coordinator
Integration specialist
Tech-savvy teacher
Technology has been blended into the culture of the activity so that it is natural for all.
How to Reframe-- Tech Acceptance
learning environments & artifacts
conceptual artifacts for technology stewards
Venkatesh, V.; Morris, M. G.; Davis, G. B.; Davis, F. D. (2003). "User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view." MIS Quarterly 27(3): 425–478.
How to Reframe-- s-curves (1/2)
How to Reframe-- s-curves (2/2)
References
Asaolu, Olumuyiwa. 2006. “On the Emergence of New Computer Technologies.” Educational Technology & Society 9(1): 335-343.
Christensen, C., Johnson, C. W., & Horn, M. B. 2008. Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. New York:McGraw-Hill.
Cuban, Larry. 1986. Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology since 1920. New York: Teachers College Press.
Hall, Stephen. 2010. Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Mehlenbacher, Brad. 2010. Instruction and Technology: Designs for Everyday Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Roblyer, Margaret. 2006. Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching, 4th ed. Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.
Rosen, Larry. 2010. Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Trilling, Bernie, and Charles Fadel. 2009. 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Wenger, Etienne, Nancy White, and John Smith. 2009. Digital Habitats; Stewarding Technology for Communities. Portland, OR: CPsquare.