Layering – Page 2 – Learning Aloud

AI tutoring now

You can make cognition as simple or complex as you want, but for me, learning boils down to thinking about experiences and being an effective educator boils down to encouraging and perhaps directing this thinking in students.

Research conducted by educational and cognitive psychologists provides some ideas about how this directing and encouraging might be accomplished. I always emphasize the “might” in my writing. Simply put, learning must be accomplished by the learner and another person or an external task can only work when a learner engages with that person or that task.

I find the research cognitive psychologists conduct incredibly useful in understanding what it takes to accomplish learning and based on this understanding how educators and learners might then proceed to be more successful. Just as every gardener does not have to study botany and chemistry to achieve a great harvest of tomatoes, not every researcher must immerse herself or himself in the details and depth of research to be a successful educational practitioner. Some practitioners may be fascinated with how understanding and retention are accomplished and others just may want to know what tasks to assign that are usually productive. As an academic retiree, I spend some time as a translator between these two types of individuals. I would also propose that the interaction of these two groups is important because ideas flow in both directions. For science-based approaches to change and improve both groups should be willing to share their perspectives and be thoughtful in interpreting the ideas presented to them.

A couple of years ago I became interested in a group of online services that were developed to improve the educational value of online content (web pages and videos). I developed my own way of describing what these services were developed to accomplish. It seemed that these services were designed to transform informational content into learning experiences and this was accomplished by layering different elements or tasks on the original content. Layering seemed the correct description because these services could not actually modify the content originally shared by content creators for ethical and legal reasons, but what the service could do was take the feed from the creator’s service and add elements on top. Elements were additions that could encourage important cognitive behaviors in a learner. I typically describe these elements as external tasks that encourage cognitive or mental behaviors. This description is similar to what others call generative activities (to be accurate generative activities are sometimes described as requiring the creation of a product, but the idea of an external task to influence cognitive behavior is the same). Questions are my favorite example of an external activity that can be added to encourage a variety of important thinking (internal) behaviors. For example, if you want a learner to link a new concept to everyday experiences the concept is useful in understanding, you might ask the learner to provide examples that show the application of the concept. Many learners may do this without the question, but the question increases the likelihood more learners will work to identify such connections with their existing experiences. Those who think about instruction in this way may describe what they are doing as designing instruction. What are the cognitive tasks that are important in learning a certain thing and what external activities might be added to the exposure to the input of demonstrations and other inputs to increase the probability these cognitive behaviors occur?

For example, what external tasks would increase the likelihood of:

Knowledge activation – what do I already know that is relevant
Elaboration – how does this input fit with what I know and what might it imply
Comprehension monitoring – do I understand, does this apply as I think it does
Retrieval practice – what makes this easier to retrieve when it is appropriate

Depending on the specific service, the elements that layering services provided included annotations, highlighting, questions, and discussion prompts. Annotations could include additional material such as examples, translations, or instructions. Questions could be open-ended or multiple-choice. A few of these elements could also be added by the learner (highlights and annotations) so elements provided to the designer could be used to encourage specific use of the elements available to students.

The application of this approach to AI-assisted study behavior

My interests seem to occur in waves. There was the layering wave and I, like so many others, have launched into an AI in education wave. AI has rapidly taken over most of the online discussions I follow. AI can be applied in many ways, but I think at this time one of the most productive is study behavior. One of my core interests has always been study behavior. I define study behavior broadly as everything that follows the initial exposure to new experiences. Note-taking in class occurs after the initial exposure. The questions a teacher asks or the discussions that are encouraged with peers during class occur after the initial exposure. Then, there are all of the activities, required and voluntary, students engage in on their own. For those of us outside of a formal educational setting, we may engage in such activities as taking notes or highlighting what we read to enhance the benefit of pure exposure to new material.

My new interest is in how AI tools can be applied as a tutor or skilled peer to improve the study experience. There is a good deal of overlap between the approach I have been taking with promoting layering services and now with AI tutoring. Tutoring is possibly the best way to assist a learner, but tutoring is expensive and access is not always available. If we consider what a tutor does for a learner and also take the approach I describe as identify productive external tasks that promote learning, we may find similar opportunities when treating some AI services as a tutor.

What I am proposing here is not that novel and efforts to create smart tutors have generated commercial and research interest for years and presently by organizations with connections to education (Google, Khan Academy). What I think I can add are some ideas about using an available AI tool (ChatPDF) right now to explore this capacity.

ChatPDF as the name implies allows an AI-assisted interaction with a PDF that you upload. Focusing AI on a specifically designated resource has both advantages and disadvantages. With studying, you are often studying something specific – a specific resource. The information you are encountering might be available from many other sources, but if you are a student, your responsibility can be defined in terms of specific sources. The advantage I have found with using a specific resource rather than “general knowledge” with present AI applications is that my interaction seems more accurate with a target source. I have less challenges with an AI chat service wandering off and offering content that is identifiably erroneous. This will likely change as improvements continue, but for now there are problems. The disadvantage of targeting a specific source is that aspects of studying involve going beyond the information provided to speculate about examples and applications not presented in the target material. When you constrain the interaction to a source, I have found AI struggles with this type of expectation. AI tools now available can do many impressive things, but you do need to have a sense of what is reasonable to expect and what problems might occur.

I recognize that many resources a student encounters are not provided as pdfs (e.g., a textbook). I have no immediate workaround for this challenge so I offer this post as a recommendation for exploration. I predict this is what is coming and that there are opportunities available now in specific situations. For my own exploration, I have been using the content I wrote. I want to make certain I understand the content I am applying AI to investigate at a deep level so I can evaluate what the AI offers me as a learner. I have authored a couple of textbooks and I was able to take the word processing file of a chapter, save it as a pdf, and then upload it to ChatPDF (here is the chapter if you want to submit it yourself and mimic my prompts).

As I explored ChatPDF and thinking about arguing the service could act as a tutor, I decided that that comparison to a professional tutor might be a bit much. Perhaps, more accurately, the AI service could be described as acting like a capable peer. A talented peer would be helpful and accurate most of the time, but you might also expect that sometimes you would find things your peer did not quite get as well as you did and still find it helpful to continue to study with this individual.

What follows are some of my interactions with the chapter I uploaded using ChatPDF. I label the material in the following may – Comment, Prompt, and AI – so you can interpret the various examples I provide. Remember that if the AI presents a question and the learner responds, the question is the AI presenting and the answer is the learner returning a Prompt. Prompts are what the learner submits and AI is always what the service replies in the material that follows. The idea with these examples is to offer some insights into how this tool could be used by a learner to assist them in improving their understanding and retention of content. Unlike a human tutor, a learner must prompt the AI system to create the interaction. However, the system is quite versatile and it is worth the time to just explore and see what it will do. As you will see, the system allows a conversation to continue through several interactions so there may be multiple prompts and responses that continue on the same initial theme. This would be the way a student and tutor interact.

ChatPDF Examples

[Comment] Gagne’s 9 events, a very popular model of instructional design, suggests a learning experience begin with an event intended to capture learner attention. To me, using ChatPDF after reading assigned content is a study experience that would not typically include this element, but just to offer an example of how an AI service might generate such an event see the following.

[Prompt] Identifying something from this chapter that will likely surprise me.

[AI] Something surprising and interesting idea from this chapter is the concept of “personal theories,” which are individual beliefs or mental models that people develop based on their experiences and observations. These personal theories can sometimes be flawed or inaccurate, and may lead to inert knowledge if they are not challenged or corrected by more formal, accurate theories learned in an educational setting. This highlights the importance of not just teaching information, but also helping students to develop critical thinking skills and the ability to evaluate their own beliefs and assumptions.

[Comment] Activate existing knowledge. Events two and three in Gagne’s model are to identify goals and activate relevant existing knowledge. Again, I am focusing here on how a tutor might guide study, but again I will show a use of the AI tutor that accomplish such goals and with this example I will show how a learner could followup as one might with a human tutor.

[Prompt] What are the most important ideas I should learn from this chapter?

[AI] This chapter covers several key ideas related to the nature of learning and the thinking processes necessary to produce learning. Some of the most important ideas include understanding how students learn, what skills and knowledge they should acquire, and how to design effective learning tasks that promote meaningful learning. Additionally, we discuss the cognitive system at both a detailed and conceptual level, identifying core functions that contribute to student learning. Finally, we emphasize the importance of considering the limitations of the cognitive system when designing instruction.

[Prompt] What are questions I should be able to answer to show I have learned these important ideas?

[AI] To demonstrate your understanding of the important ideas covered in this chapter, you might be able to answer questions such as:

What are some key factors that influence how students learn?
How can you design learning tasks that promote meaningful learning?
What are some core functions of the cognitive system that contribute to student learning?
Why is it important to consider the limitations of the cognitive system when designing instruction?
How can you use your understanding of how students learn and what skills and knowledge they should acquire to inform your teaching practice?

[Prompt] Let me pick one of these questions to see if I understand.

[AI] Sure, feel free to pick any of the questions I provided earlier and I’ll do my best to help you answer it!

[Prompt] What are some limitations of the cognitive system that educators should consider when designing instruction?

Learners can easily become overloaded when learning something new. Their existing knowledge may also not provide necessary background knowledge and they need time to process new ideas. If more and more information is added before students have time to think, they will miss things when they become overloaded.

[AI] You did a good job summarizing the idea that learners can become overloaded when presented with too much information at once. It is important for educators to consider the limitations of the cognitive system when designing instruction, such as the limited capacity of working memory and the importance of providing sufficient time for learners to process new information. By taking these limitations into account, educators can design instruction that is more effective and helps learners avoid becoming overloaded.

[Comments] One of the easiest uses of AI is to use it to ask and respond to questions. You can test your understanding of a claim you make or ask the service to present you with questions. The wording of the prompts is important in getting the service to interact with you in the way you want. Read the way I ask the service to present me with a series of multiple-choice questions carefully.

[Prompt] Is the limit of short term memory what I can remember the next day

[AI] According to page 3 of this PDF, there is a limit to how long information will be maintained in working memory without continued attention. This means that the limit of short-term memory is not necessarily what you can remember the next day, but rather how much information you can hold in your mind at any one time without actively rehearsing or attending to it.

[Prompt] If I am a teacher, how can I provide a form of metacognition for a student when that student cannot provide it for himself?

[AI] As a teacher, you can provide metacognitive support to students who may not be able to provide it for themselves. One way to do this is by modeling metacognitive strategies and explicitly teaching students how to use them. For example, you might demonstrate how to monitor comprehension while reading by thinking aloud and sharing your thought process with the class. You could also provide prompts or questions that encourage students to reflect on their own learning, such as “What did you learn from this activity?” or “What strategies did you use to solve this problem?” Additionally, you could encourage peer-to-peer discussions where students can share their own insights and perspectives on the learning process. By providing these types of supports, you can help students develop their metacognitive skills and become more effective learners.

[Prompt] Ask me a short essay question based on the content of this chapter.

[AI] How can teachers help students to develop critical thinking skills and avoid the phenomenon of “inert knowledge”? Provide specific examples of instructional strategies that can be used in the classroom to promote active learning and meaningful application of new information.

[Prompt] Remind students they learned information relevant to a novel problem in class as part of challenging them with a new problem to solve.

[AI] This statement aligns with the concept of “transfer” discussed in the chapter on “Inert Knowledge.” Transfer refers to the ability to apply knowledge and skills learned in one context to new situations or problems. One way that teachers can promote transfer is by explicitly connecting new problems or tasks to previously learned information or skills. By reminding students of what they have already learned and how it relates to the current problem, teachers can help students make connections and apply their knowledge in a more meaningful way. This can also help to avoid the phenomenon of inert knowledge, where students may have acquired information but are unable to use it effectively in new situations.

[Comment] A limitation is revealed in the following interaction. The tutor asks a question requesting an example and the example given is not something the tutor understands to be a part of the chapter.

[Prompt] Ask me a short essay question based on this chapter

[AI]] How can the concept of “inert knowledge” impact student learning, and what strategies can teachers use to help students avoid this phenomenon? Provide specific examples to support your answer.

[Prompt] A parent knows that young children may commit some bad behaviors to get his parents attention, but typically parents respond to such misbehaviors anyway.

[AI] I’m sorry, but I’m not sure how this statement relates to the chapter on “Inert Knowledge” and learning strategies. Is there a specific question or topic you would like me to address?

[Prompt] Generate 10 multiple choice questions for this document. Number the questions and allow me to provide an answer for each number. Do not provide answers I can see.

[AI] Sure, here are 10 multiple choice questions based on the document:

What is metacognition?

a) The capacity to direct and control our own cognitive behavior

b) The ability to memorize information quickly

c) The process of learning through repetition

d) The use of external tasks to support weak cognition

What is the common challenge when working with a group of learners?

a) Meeting individual needs when working with a group

b) Encouraging students to work independently

c) Providing enough resources for all students

d) Ensuring that all students have the same level of knowledge

What is an example of metacognitive control?

a) Monitoring your own understanding of the material

b) Memorizing information without understanding it

c) Repeating information until it is learned

d) Using external tasks to support cognition

What is metacognitive knowledge?

a) Personal insights regarding the self and tasks and potential strategy options

b) Memorized information about a subject area

c) The ability to repeat information quickly and accurately

d) The use of external tasks to support cognition

How can teachers provide metacognitive support to students?

a) By modeling metacognitive strategies and explicitly teaching students how to use them

b) By providing lectures without any interaction from students

c) By assigning homework without any guidance or feedback

d) By providing multiple-choice tests only

What is an example of an external task that may support weak metacognition?

a) Study questions

b) Group discussions

c) Peer-to-peer feedback

d) Individual reflection

What does effective tool use require?

a) Recognizing task demands, personal strengths and weaknesses, and insight necessary to recognize and respond when a plan does not achieve expected results.

b) Memorizing information quickly without understanding it.

c ) Repeating information until it is learned.

d) Using external tasks to support cognition.

What is the capacity to direct and control our own cognitive behavior?

a) Metacognition

b) External tasks

c) Cognitive processing

d) Learning strategies

What is the importance of understanding how students learn?

a) It helps teachers design effective learning experiences for students

b) It helps teachers memorize information quickly

c) It helps teachers assign homework without any guidance or feedback

d) It helps teachers provide multiple-choice tests only

[Prompt] 1 a

[AI] Correct! Metacognition is the capacity to direct and control our own cognitive behavior.

[Prompt] 2 a

[AI] Correct! The common challenge when working with a group of learners is meeting individual needs when working with a group.

etc.

[Comment] Here is a sequence generated when I asked for help understanding, but was unclear about whether the AI bot “understands” a concept in the same way I use the concept. For example, I understand that inert has to do with what context triggers the use of knowledge. Hence, a student who understands the meaning of a word on a test or when asked in class would not necessarily access the same knowledge when in a different context (at home reading a book) that does not trigger “school content”. This seems how I used the term when writing the cognitive chapter. I ended up trying to negotiate an interpretation by interacting with AI as tutor which while not generating a simple clarification I might have wanted was fairly sophisticated. I found myself arguing with the AI service about the meaning of something I had written, but this interaction was interesting.

[Prompt] Help me understand inert learning. What does the term mean and provide an example.

[AI] Inert learning refers to the phenomenon where students may learn information but are unable to apply it in new or unfamiliar contexts. In other words, they may be able to repeat information but are not able to use it in a meaningful way. An example of inert learning might be a student who memorizes a list of vocabulary words for a test but is unable to use those words in conversation or writing outside of the test context. This can happen when students are taught information in isolation, without opportunities to practice applying it in different contexts or with different types of problems. To avoid inert learning, it is important for teachers to provide opportunities for students to practice using new information in different ways and contexts.

[Prompt] What do you mean by test context? What do you mean by a meaningful way?

[AI] By “test context,” I mean the specific situation in which the student is asked to demonstrate their knowledge, such as on a quiz or exam. In this context, the student may be able to recall information that they have memorized, but they may not be able to apply it in a more complex or unfamiliar situation.

By “meaningful way,” I mean using the information in a way that is relevant and useful to the student’s life or goals. For example, if a student is learning about fractions, being able to use that knowledge to solve real-world problems involving measurements or cooking would be a meaningful application of that knowledge.

[Prompt] Would the concept of inert knowledge predict a student might be able to provide a correct meaning for a word from the test if a teacher asked for a definition, but not when the student encountered the word while reading at home?

[AI] Yes, that is a possible example of inert knowledge. If a student is able to provide a correct definition of a word on a test or quiz, but is unable to recognize or use the word in context when reading at home, it suggests that the student has not fully internalized the meaning of the word and is not able to apply it in new or unfamiliar situations. This could be due to a lack of practice using the word in different contexts or because the student has only learned the definition in isolation without connecting it to other knowledge or experiences.

[Comment] The AI tutor is versatile and you can get it to interact with you in different ways. In the content that follows, I ask the service to generate question prompts and then an outline of ideas from the chapter as might be included in a PowerPoint presentation. I then interact with the tutor based on these prompts and parts of the PowerPoint outline.

[Prompt] Write three discussion prompts based on this chapter.

[AI] Sure, here are three discussion prompts based on the chapter:

1. What are some examples of boundaries that exist in your own experiences, and how have you crossed them?

2. How might crossing boundaries between different grade levels or schools impact your learning and personal growth?

3. In what ways can using primary sources enhance your understanding of a topic compared to using a textbook?

[Prompt] Write a response to each of these discussion prompts.

[AI] 1. Personally, I found the ideas presented in this chapter to be very relatable to my own experiences with learning. I think that the concept of crossing boundaries between different experiences is particularly relevant, as it highlights the importance of being open to new perspectives and ideas. In my own learning, have found that being willing to explore new topics and engage with different viewpoints has been key to my growth and development.

2. In terms of encouraging students to engage in meaningful learning, I think that it is important for teachers to create a supportive and inclusive classroom environment. This can involve providing opportunities for students to collaborate and share their ideas, as well as offering personalized feedback and guidance. Additionally, I think that it is important for teachers to be flexible and adaptable in their teaching methods, in order to meet the diverse needs and interests of their students.

3. One example of how the thinking processes discussed in this chapter have helped me in my own learning is through my experiences with critical thinking. By learning to question assumptions and evaluate evidence, I have been able to develop a more nuanced and informed perspective on a variety of topics. Additionally, I have found that being able to think critically has helped me to communicate my ideas more effectively, both in writing and in conversation.

[Prompt] What is wrong with reading a textbook from a tablet or computer

[AI] Research has shown that reading from a screen can result in overconfidence and poorer comprehension compared to reading from a paper source. While there are multiple hypotheses as to why this difference exists, some evidence points to metacognition. It is presently unclear why this happens, but external performance and more practice reading long form content from a screen may help compensate for the lack of insight into comprehension. However, it is important to note that this research is not suggesting that reading from a tablet or computer is inherently bad, but rather that it may require more effort and attention to ensure comprehension and avoid overconfidence.

[Prompt] I know that I should try to read from my phone while I am driving. Is this an example of working memory overload that may result in an accident?

[AI] Reading from a device while driving is not recommended as it can lead to distractions and accidents. Research has shown that reading from a screen can result in overconfidence and poorer comprehension compared to reading from a paper source. It is presently unclear why this happens, but external performance and more practice reading long form content from a screen may help compensate for the lack of insight into comprehension. Metacognition, or thinking about thinking, is important for effective tool use and the skilled learner can plan to avoid difficulties or compensate for problems. However, it is important to prioritize safety while driving and avoid any distractions, including reading from a device.

[Prompt] Create the text that would appear on PowerPoint slides used to explain the memory stores and processes and cognitive process that make up the model of cognition used in this chapter.

[AI] Slide 1: Introduction to the Cognitive Perspective

– Describes learning and thinking activities in terms of multiple memory stores

– Processes or mental actions used in thinking and learning

– Executive mechanisms used to evaluate and control processes

Slide 2: Memory Stores

– Three memory stores: sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory

– Sensory memory holds information briefly

– Working memory maintains information for a short period of time

-Long-term memory stores information for a longer period of time

Slide 3: Mental Tools

– Learners have mental tools to accomplish thinking and learning tasks

– Four mental tools: Attend, Link, Elaborate, and Retrieve

– Attend maintains ideas in working memory

– Link establishes connections between information units – Elaborate adds meaning to information

– Retrieve accesses information from long-term memory

Slide 4: Evaluation and Control

– Learners use executive mechanisms to evaluate and control processes

– Determine whether processes have accomplished intended goals

– Prioritize certain learning activities based on cognitive constructs

[Prompt] When the slide says the mental tool of attend keeps information in short term memory, I think this means that when we think about something we keep what we are thinking about in our consciousness longer. Is this correct?

[AI] Yes, that’s correct. The mental tool of attend is used to maintain certain ideas in consciousness, which is also known as working memory. This helps to keep the information in our consciousness for a longer period of time, allowing us to think about it more deeply and process it more effectively.

[Prompt] When the slide says sensory memory holds information briefly, just how much time is that? I think it a couple of seconds at most. Is that correct?

[AI] Yes, that’s correct. Sensory memory holds information for a very brief period of time, usually just a few seconds at most. After that, the information either fades away or is transferred to short-term memory.

Summary comment: I hope these examples offer insight into the flexibility of ChatPDF as tutor. Learning how the AI services work takes some experimentation and most services offer the opportunity to experiment without cost. One issue I must acknowledge is that much of what I write about assumes a motivated learner. Thinking is work and work requires interest, resolve, and incentives. None of us is probably motivated to learn some of what others expect us to know. Accepting this reality, I tend to like what Sal Kahn said in defending mastery approaches to learning. Approaches that improve the success of learning address at least an important aspect of the motivational component of education. We are more interested in learning when our efforts result in success than when these efforts are frustrating and often unsuccessful. [my interpretation]

Designing instructional content using layering services

What is layering?

The addition of elements to the content offered by another content creator without actually changing that content as accessed from its original location.

Why should educators and instructional designers be aware of layering services?

There seems an increasing interest in moving beyond commercial materials (e.g., Ditch the Textbook) to meet educational goals and in some situations control costs. It can also be argued that most of us once out of formal school settings continue learning from sources not typically prepared as educational resources. Layering services allow those focused on education to use the content available online and improve this material to make it more productive for learning.

What elements can be added by layering?

The elements that can be added vary with the service. The total list I am aware of from my review of multiple services includes highlights, annotations or notes, questions, and discussion prompts. I use notes broadly to include the addition of multiple elements such as text, video, images, and links. Services differ in whether all participants can add all of the elements that a service makes available or whether some elements are limited to the educator/designer.

What makes the idea of layering distinct from activities such as highlighting a pdf or some other document I have downloaded?

Layering offers a way to respect content creator copyrights (see following segment), deliver learning experiences via the Internet, and transform informative online content into learning resources. The principles that make layering helpful to learners can certainly be applied to content a teacher or learner can access without the Internet.

Why should I worry about changing a document I have downloaded and want to share the new creation with students?

It depends on the situation. When a content creator places a video or multimedia content online, that content creator is not necessarily giving you permission to make that content your own or make changes to it and share it with others. However, this is often what an educator would really prefer to do for practical reasons such as changing the content to make it more useful as a learning resource and to provide the resource in the changed form to students. Such actions ignore the copyright expectations of the content creator which may intend the content to be offered complete with ads or even to generate download data financially benefitting the content creator.

How does this situation change with layering?

With a layering service, the content a learner encounters is a combination of the content from the content creator and additions layered on this content. The service sends this combination to the learner and this does not change the original document and still downloads the original from the server each time the combination of original and layered content is requested by a user. Ads still appear and the content server still records the download to give the creator credit.

My personal interest in promoting layering services is intended to encourage the use of services that meet the expectations of content creators and allow educators, educational content designers, and learners to work with this content to provide more effective learning resources and more generative learning experiences.

The services I categorize as layering services vary along several dimensions. They differ in the elements that can be added and they differ in whether they are limited to adding layered elements to the composite served to learners or include other capabilities such as the management of assignments and the collection of learner performance data. Some services are free and some are provided to teachers and schools as subscription services.

A few years ago I generated some simple videos that offer examples of layering services suited to modifying online video and web content. These videos are available at no cost. I have also written an inexpensive Kindle book that provides an explanation of the value of the most common layered elements and takes users through adding these elements with several of the most popular layering services. I encourage you to at least take a look at the videos if what I have written here piques your interest. Layering services are also identified as a separate category on the blog and this content can be viewed by selecting the layering category option from drop-down category menu in the side column.

InsertLearning Update

InsertLearning is one of my most frequent recommendations for K12 classrooms. It is one of the examples I highlight in my Kindle Primer – Designing Instruction Using Layering Services. The InsertLearning environment allows a teacher to add elements to existing online web pages and then assign this combination to students. It is a great tool for teachers wanting to “ditch the textbook” or who want to emphasize OER. The elements include comments and highlights (which are not common additions among tools of this type), but also questions and discussion prompts. I call InsertLearning an environment because it also includes a management system allowing educators to assign resources prepared in this fashion and to view individual student responses to questions. The original service was a bargain at $8 a month, but I see the new price has been increased to $100 a year. For what this service can do, this is still a reasonable price.

What had confused me about the service was that when I attempted to review the service for updates all of the content my searches seemed to surface ended a few years ago. I finally contacted one of the founders and he explained that the service had been purchased by fan.school. This company has made educational services originating in Minnesota a target of acquisition and provides a more stable for continuation of several smaller companies. InsertLearning works as a source to learn about the program and fan.school provides an access point specific to this product.

As far as I can tell, my videos describing InsertLearning still offer an adequate overview of the service. My price quote is no longer accurate.

Annotating Newsela articles to develop deep reading skills

Many of my recent posts have focused on note-taking and annotation. These activities have long been a personal interest. New opportunities to use these strategies in a digital environment have rekindled my interest and I have been trying to find ways I can share recommendations that bring these skills into middle school and secondary school settings.

One important observation I have found in several of the sources I have read is that learners are seldom taught to take notes or annotate. There are now many researchers and educators writing about taking better notes for the implementation of a PKM (personal knowledge management) system or a second brain. The emphasis here is a little different than the emphasis that might apply in classrooms. With PKM, you are creating notes for your use that fit your personal goals. Perhaps you want to build up resources you can use in writing blog posts or perhaps you want to store specific methods for solving a coding challenge. With classroom applications of annotation, you are usually trying to process and store important ideas provided by someone else. Perhaps you are preparing for an examination or to complete some other assignment that will follow a reading task. Students may take notes from presentations, but often take few notes or add few annotations when reading. Whether experiences exist or not, the opportunities to learn to apply such learning strategies are few.

I have located several sources that propose how annotation and note-taking skills can be taught to younger learners. These primarily are focused on adding highlights and margin notes to content on paper and typically these approaches suggest that educators make copies of content from sources that students can mark up without concern for damaging resources not intended for annotation. I provide several of these sources at the conclusion of this post and encourage interested educators to take the time to read one or more of these sources. The sources provide step-by-step approaches to teach the skills of note taking and annotation.

My interest here is in proposing a digital source and opportunity for annotating and highlighting that is readily available and efficient to use. You don’t have the problem of marking up what are intended to be reusable commercial materials with digital content. Most teachers are probably familiar with Newsela. This service provides reading material for most content areas (e.g., science, current events) with the unique opportunity to assign a variation of a given article at different reading levels. This allows a teacher to individualize a reading task within a class and have all students read about the same topic. The content comes with comprehension questions and other learning activities.

The capability of the Newsela environment that I am promoting here allows the teacher and individual students to annotate (highlight, take notes). I have written about this capability some time ago and I remembered this capability when I was trying to think of something I could suggest for educators interested in teaching annotation skills in a digital environment. Newsela provides its own explanation of how to annotate text.

The annotation process in Newsela is very simple and I think that is what you want. When you drag content, you are provided an opportunity to select different colors for highlighting. When you highlight something, you are provided the opportunity to add a note to what has been selected.

Newsela also provides a way to share annotated content. Sharing is available for both educator to students and student to educator. The opportunity to assign an annotation task (e.g., highlight the main ideas in this article) and then submit the completed task for review works through sharing.

Highlighting and note-taking in Newsela are easy to figure out. I encourage educators to take a look and imagine how this capability might be applied. I provide several sources for instructional strategies below and I will try to summarize some of these ideas in a future post.

Sources:

Cohn, J. (2021). Skim, dive, surface: Teaching digital reading. West Virginia University Press.

Lloyd, Z. T., Kim, D., Cox, J. T., Doepker, G. M., & Downey, S. E. (2022). Using the annotating strategy to improve students’ academic achievement in social studies. Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching & Learning. (early version)

Zywica, J., & Gomez, K. (2008). Annotating to support learning in the content areas: Teaching and learning science. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(2), 155-165.

Designing Instruction Using Layering Services

I have been debating whether or not to update my Kindle book “Designing Instruction Using Layering Services”. Unlike my other book which was first published by a traditional textbook company for courses in educational technology, Designing Instruction was focused more narrowly and explores the combination of two more unique topics – teachers as designers and what I decided to call layering. These topics probably seem more niche to most educators and not the type of thing likely to be emphasized in at least undergrad courses in educational technology. I get that. However, I think the topics are becoming more mainstream and would be beneficial should I find a way to explain how they provide a way to think about and engage in other emerging class activities most educators recognize.

Teacher as designer. I use the phrase “teacher as designer” as a contrast to educators who focus on implementing commercial instructional materials. In my writing, I draw a distinction between information resources and instructional materials. We all take in information resources all of the time and we do learn from such experiences. We read and watch informative news and information sources; television, newspapers and magazines, and YouTube videos. The difference between exposure to such resources and exposure to instructional materials is the addition and more probably more relevant for my purposes the embedding of elements intended to encourage and assist the reader/viewer in the processes which increase the understanding, retention, and application of the information presented.

As educators, we might interact directly with students to develop interest in a new topic, discuss the material, and encourage learner reflection on their own related experiences. Similar goals can be addressed by educators and instructional designers by adding experiences to instructional resources created by others. Questions can be asked face to face, offered through a workbook or worksheet, or embedded before, during, and at the conclusion of digital content. The identification of essential material within a source document can be identified with highlighting and additional content can be added to supplement the work of another author as a “boxed” insert. Discussion topics can be recommended. My point is that a designer or potentially, a teacher functioning as a designer, shapes the activation of relevant existing knowledge and past experiences, motivates, directs processing, and adds opportunities for formative assessment as value-added elements to information resources. Commercial curriculum materials are created by designers who add such elements in the creation of textbooks and other learning materials. Educators both assign these resources and extend them with other activities and resources.

So, if teachers already add elements to commercial content, what does an exploration of teacher as designer add. I would suggest two advantages – a) a purposeful approach and b) probably a broader collection of what these additional elements might be.

Connections – I see the discussion of teacher as designer as related to two recent popular modifications of traditional practice. The first is the movement to “ditch the textbook”. Searching on this phrase will provide multiple recommendations for books on the topic and recommended strategies. An alternative or at least related movement is OER (open educational resources). This movement proposes the use of digital and print resources that are in the public domain. The issue of the cost of commercial materials is a partial motivator for both movements. OER could apply to educational materials that are just available at no cost, but also proposes that educators can fashion effective learning resources themselves and possibly share them with each other.

The second recent innovation is the concept of “flipping the classroom”. The core goal here is to free classroom time for interaction, guidance, and explanation and offer the exposure to content (think lecture) as an outside-of-class activity. I tend to think of this as the expectation that students should read the textbook before coming to class, but I admit this is a bit cynical. The idea is that teacher presentations need not be required to take up valuable class time. Most often implementation requires the preparation of video content made available to students and expected to be viewed before coming to class.

In addition to saving class time, video can be argued to offer other advantages – e.g., students can review if necessary, when content is viewed can be determined by the individual learner. Designing a resource for independent learning (a video in this case) allows and requires some different considerations. My personal interest is in adding elements to video that can individualize the learner experience (more on the specifics when I discuss layering). Such individualization is not possible in a group setting or if possible far less efficiently.

Layering – I use “layering” as a way to describe the specific elements that differentiate an information source and an educational resource. I am interested in both how these differentiating elements are intended to influence the cognitive activities of the learner and how these elements can be added in a digital environment (e.g., web pages, YouTube videos). My interest extends to one more important issue. How can designers (teachers) add these elements without violating the copyright and possibly revenue generating expectations of the content creators (e.g., think the inclusion of ads on a web page)? The copyright issues do not necessarily apply in all layering opportunities, but would be relevant when a teacher finds web content (video, or text/images) that would be useful as a learning resource.

The approaches I emphasize in my writing focus on online services that allow an educator to designate an information resource and then add elements to these resources for the purpose of improving the effectiveness of the original resources. The service then basically creates a layer that is combined with the original content and sent to the learner online in way that does not impact whether ads are displayed or hits are recorded if the content creator receives compensation based on how many times his/her content is viewed. Aside from the legal and ethical issues, the services simply offer the educator as designer ways to improve the educational value of the targeted resources.

I can make this concept more concrete and I understand that it is important to get to the level of just what this looks like. First, what are these elements I keep talking about. My favorite example is a question. Questions are versatile and offer ways to encourage many important cognitive activities – what do you already know about this topic, did you understand what you just read or saw, can you think of a personal example of the concept just described, on and on. Other examples available from the services I have investigated include – comments and annotations (simply a way for the designer to offer additional information, link to additional content, or suggest an application of an important concept), highlighting, and discussion prompts resulting in the recording of the thoughts of multiple readers/viewers. These systems may allow the collection of the student responses to these prompts for educator review and possible evaluation. Different services depending on cost (some are free) and the type of online material they are designed to support (text/images vs. video) offer different elements and capabilities.

My writing – My book explains these concepts and explores the more general process of design. The topics attempt to create a mindset for educators attempting to show that learning happens because of the cognitive activities of learners and while teachers cannot control these processes there are ways to influence and change the probability these necessary internal processes happen by providing learners specific external tasks. Topics may be as specific as what are the benefits of questions and what types of questions influence specific cognitive processes. How can learners generate questions themselves and use them for review?

Of course, I would like educators to spend the $3 necessary to acquire my Kindle book. However, if these ideas are intriguing and you are not interested in the book, I provide some videos demonstrating a variety of the online services I recommend. If you are interested in exploring, the videos should get you started with both paid and free layering services.

Scrible

I have a personal interest in promoting to teachers the educational potential of what I have decided to describe as layering services. Perhaps layering is not the best choice of descriptors, but I think it makes sense once I explain what I mean. By layering, I mean the opportunity certain online services provide students to highlight, annotate, and add questions to online content (web pages and videos) in a way that does not violate the copyright of the content creators. For educators, layering involves these same components plus some others (e.g., discussion prompts) allowing teachers to share documents with these embellishments with students. These capabilities are of value when assigning online content or when teachers create their own content to implement instructional strategies such as flipping the classroom. Typically, different services must be used to layer websites and videos.

Scrible is a tool for layering web pages. I have described this service some time ago, but the service offers some new features and it is worth a review. If you want to explore Scrible use this link which takes you to the version for educators and students. Scrible is free with extra storage and a few extra features for a price.

You will note the similarity between my recent posts on tools for taking Smart Notes. Certainly, Scrible shares many of these same capabilities (highlighting and annotation, collection of layered resources into a library, sharing layered resources with others) and perhaps Scrible might be described as a Smart Note or Second Brain tool designed for students. I see some differences in this perspective and more traditional thinking about how learners can most effectively study digital texts, but many tools can be used for either purpose. The difference is mostly the time frame in question (e.g., the next test vs. the next decade), but I see the more common educational emphasis on note-taking and note studying – what types of external activities can help a learner develop understanding and improve retention and application. I think a description of how Scrible works will allow educators to see benefits of the tool in meeting either goal.

Scrible Tutorial

Scrible is an extension for Chrome. You use the browser to get to a page you want to study and then activate Scribe from the toolbar of the browser. The toolbar icon activates the tool tools that now appear at the bottom of the browser window and also a toolbar along the right-hand side of the browser. Here you can see I have already used the highlight tool and the note tool to create a note that appears in the Comments column.

The tools on the right allow the right-hand sidebar to be used in different ways.

Storage of information about the source.

The addition of tags to the stored representation of the page.

The contributors who have worked on the annotation of the page.

The stored comments (annotations).

A link can be generated to share an annotation page with another user (Permalink). This link can be used to invite others users to contribute to the annotation or just to view what has been added.

See the link to the layered annotations on the original page and the addition of a second user when this link is used by another Scrible user.

The icon next to the share icon in the bottom toolbar (the building) is used to store annotated content and access the body of stored content.

Learners need to learn to read from both paper and the screen

Cohn (2021) argues that we read in different circumstances for different purposes and yet we tend to teach reading as if reading is a single skill. Learners would be better served if they were to be guided to explore the different types of reading they do and what tools and tactics would be best suited to these different circumstances.

This idea is important. We read for many different purposes. Do we think about which approach best serves a given purpose? As an adult thinking about my own reading behavior, I can see this complexity. I very seldom purchase a paper product for reading. There are still a wide variety of ways in which I read digital content. I read some online content and by that fact that are reading this post, so do you. How about books? I read digital books when I read to acquire information especially when I intend to store specific information for later use. I listen (audiobooks) when I read for pleasure. The read to learn versus read for pleasure is a common distinction many recognize, but college study skill experts suggest that students often struggle with acting upon this distinction in their efforts to learn from their textbooks.

If we are educators, do we consider factors as basic as the physical circumstances that impact how and when their students or themselves read. Do we want to read in a coffee shop, a library, or at our desk? When do we want absolute quiet and when is some music or coffee shop banter in the background welcomed? Perhaps the noise in a coffee shop distracts us from time to time and these interruptions provide the signal to reflect on what we are reading rather than continuing to plow ahead. We may ignore the physical realities of reading that some students must consider. Perhaps some must read on their phones on the bus or train because this is when they have the opportunity to work on class assignments. Perhaps their phone is the only device they have that can be applied in these circumstances.

How we understand what reading involves matters. Cohn (2021) offers a set of reading goals that may or may not be accepted by the reader. The final purpose she describes is creativity. Her definition is a little different than the way I tend to think of the concept, but she proposes creativity involves the understanding that reading should result in the building of new knowledge. She argues that when we read we may not see the benefit of creating something after we read as if reading should be enough. My take on this expectation brings to mind distinction between reading for understanding and retention and pleasure. Extra effort is obviously involved when the goal is creating something even when this is not a written product. Do others not think in this way?

Chon argues that most readers and writers understand that reading and writing are knowledge transmission acts, but proposes that they should be understood as knowledge construction. This difference encourages additional processing and the utilization of additional tools. This is where instruction in the use of such tools comes in. Do teachers teach the application of such tools? Which teachers and in which subject areas? Note-taking is one activity that recognizes the connection of ideas across sources and with existing knowledge. Note-taking is another of those practices that can involve either paper or digital technology. The skills involved in these activities offer a great deal of overlap, but digital tools offers some unique advantages in storage, organization, and search aid retrieval.

Chon proposes that educators make inaccurate assumptions about learning skills such as highlighting, annotation, and note preparation and use. She offers an example in which she began asking her students if they had experience using pdf tools to highlight and annotate assigned content. She had been assigning pdfs and had begun to wonder how students processed these resources. She reports that 30% responded that they were highlighting and annotating the assigned material and many were unaware such tactics were possible. Her point was that educators (she teaches at a university) should not assume that computer experienced students have skills appropriate to making use of digital tools with such assignments. It struck me that this question should be asked for more educators assigning digital content.

After reviewing several sources proposing how educators might help students develop annotation/note-taking skills (also sometimes labelled as deep reading), I have begun interpreting the instructional tactics as a variant of reciprocal teaching. As instructional strategy, reciprocal teaching begins with the teacher modeling a specific skill accompanied by “thinking aloud”. Individual components or subskils are then assigned to individual students and applied to a common reading assignment. Student experiences and any products produced are shared and discussed. Finally, students move on to the application of the combination of practiced skills and seek assistance when necessary.

With highlighting and note-taking, the skills are a bit different from those emphasized in the original focus on reading comprehension. However, the general process of teaching/learning is very similar. For example, with note-taking, the components might include the identification of essential information, the summarization of these key ideas, and efforts to cross-reference these ideas to existing knowledge and other inputs (ideas presented in class, other reading assignments). When learning these skills, some educators recommend the use of printed material before moving to digital content. Sharing individual student efforts perhaps as displayed on a classroom white board allows for discussion and analysis.

The sources I provide below provide multiple examples of how this generalized strategy can be implemented. I understand that many may not want to purchase this material. I was able to find an alternate source for “Beyond the Yellow Highlighter”. Searching for this title should also reveal discussion and examples of implementation shared by other educators.

Cohn, J. (2021). _Skim, dive, surface: Teaching digital reading_. West Virginia University Press.

McIntosh, J. (2019). Clip, Tag, Annotate: Active Reading Practices for Digital Texts. In _Digital Reading and Writing in Composition Studies_ (pp. 176-188). Routledge

Porter-O’Donnell, C. (2004). Beyond the yellow highlighter: Teaching annotation skills to improve reading comprehension. _English Journal_, 82-89.