Author: grabe

There seems to be a kind of anti-lecture or anti-presentation meme arguing that we use face to face time (class time) differently. This argument has popped up in many places – my wife just sent me this example from ReadWriteWeb, but I have also read the proposed use for the Kahn Academy content explained in this way (watch the video and we will discuss in class). The Thayer method used at the US Military Academy works pretty much the same way.

Here is my analysis – this position seems to argue that there are two components necessary for organized learning – information exposure and information processing. Information exposure has often been accomplished via lecture, but the “new model” seems to suggest that this is a boring (maybe the motivation component need not be invoked) and unproductive use of class time. Information exposure could happen outside of class (read a book, watch a video, listen to a lecture with slides). If students came to class already having done the background work, class time could be spent in discussion, clarification of uncertainties, etc. In other words, class time could be used for collective “processing” of information.

Here is why this model challenges my existing mind set. My research interests mainly focus on what I call “study behavior”. Maybe studying is an out-dated concept, but it seems to me to be a traditional way to understand the information processing requirement I note above. There are some formal definitions of studying but one of the core arguments (a constructivist position really) is that learning is a personal experience – each of us creates a personal understanding of newly encountered ideas by applying cognitive and metacognitive processes to integrate new information with what we already know. External forces (written explanations, a teacher) can facilitate these processes, but we must complete the core tasks as individuals. This position does not say that one should not use class time to “study”, but perhaps that is a useful way to understand what is being proposed. I often explain a major difference between high school and college learning as the extent to which the teacher “studies” with the students. Students spend less time in class in college, but are expected to study more as individuals (or at least in ways that are self initiated).

I think this is question of efficiency. At the level of the individual student and recognizing that activities inside (see the RRW article) or outside of the classroom can be structured and facilitated with technology, what is the best way to spend class time? Since we have little data on the trade-offs here, I am just proposing an alternative position. Why is it that we assume grouping several hundred people together and asking that they do a similar thing to process information is efficient or effective?

Are proposals regarding the use of class time advocating for something that is new?

I am certain there have always been instructors at all levels who used class time for interaction. Check the “Paper Chase”  and Prof Kingsfield for an old model (you can stream from Netflix). A key issue in this movie and in most classrooms is also whether or not students come to class prepared to interact.

The Economist, on the one hundred birthday of IBM, offered an interesting article attempting to identify factors that determine longevity in the tech sector and speculating regarding which present companies offer these characteristics. Before you look, make your own predictions.

It is an interesting topic and one that we might examine from our own personal experiences. No one reading this post has a one hundred year view, but we all have certain watched as popular tech products and the companies that back them have come and gone. We can see the end on the horizon for certain products – e.g., the harddrive, the keyboard, but this is not the same as predicting that the companies offering these products will end with them.

What about predictions regarding education? Will textbooks go away? Some are even describing a “higher education bubble”. If that commonly offered example of someone from the distant past visiting an operation room and a classroom holds true, it might be predicted that the practice of education and the systems that provide it are resistant to change.

The Economist article ends by speculating whether the Economist will survive.

I had planned to be attending sessions at ISTE today. We  have made it to every conference since Minneapolis. The last few yars we have been driving combining a relaxing trip with the conference. We made it through the first part of the trip which landed us in Iowa to clear the furniture and possessions out my mother’s house. However, in the process of working on the house I evidently kinked my small intestine. This kind of messes you up. I ended up in the hospital and evidently I unkinked, but this situation may not be permanent so I am on my way back home to check with the docs and likely schedule a date with the surgeon.

So – we will see what we can learn from ISTE as remote participants. There are advantages to this approach. We will save several thousand dollars when you combine the cost of the hotel and the $400 registration fee, parking the car in Philadelphia, etc. I do think the cost of the conference is getting priced out of the range for those practicing teachers who would likely benefit the most from the opportunity. I think I will invest some of my savings in a chromebook.  There will be no frustration attempting to get into sessions scheduled in rooms about half the needed capacity. All in all I tend not to really learn that much and most of what I do acquire is provided as side comments or interpretations provided by my wife. We have our own back channel communication. ISTE is not that data or research oriented and you soon learn that pretty much everyone has an opinion with a few constant individuals being asked to share their thoughts each year. There is evidently a need to keep the professional development and workshop circuit fed and ISTE seems the place some jockey for these opportunities.

Still, I would rather go than not. The atmosphere takes you away from “home” realities. The conference is probably nearly a perfect base of telling the already committed what they want to hear, but we all need a little of that from time to time. Hopefully, next year …

ISTE conference

I get excited every time I encounter someone who remembers text-based adventure games especially if the individual is promoting an educational application. The most recent post I located was provided by Josh Caldwell.

Josh Caldwell, a middle school English teacher, argues for the creation of text-based games as a productive way to involve students as game authors and argues for the challenge of writing such games.

I became interested in text-based games in the mid-1980s. These were the days of the early Apples and to do research or create learning activities you pretty much had to become a programmer. So we did. My interest was in creating activities that would develop reading skills and adventure games when text only seemed a natural. So I was both playing adventure games and attempting to figure out how to create them at the same time. I had computers from Apple and this sometimes meant that students would find you just to learn with you. I met a couple of undergrads in a class I taught who became my research assistant. One, Mark Dossman, wrote an engine in Basic I used to create games. Amazing talent.

I had not thought about these guys in years. Both became physicians. The one whose name I cannot remember at this moment I have seen all too often because he is an emergency room doc in Grand Forks. Mark went to med school at Vanderbilt and according Google is not practicing in the Atlanta area.

We published a paper in 1988:
Grabe, M., & Dosmann, M. (1988). The potential of adventure games for
the development of reading and study skills: Journal of Computer-Based
Instruction Vol 15(2) Spr 1988, 72-77.

You no longer have to write an engine from scratch to construct these games before you can move to writing games. The Caldwell post suggests that educators consider an engine to author adventures games called inform. You can download the software to explore.

It is possible that this post makes little sense to you because you have no idea what a text-based adventure game is. Here is a prevlous post that should provide some background.

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