Generative AI in education: Theories, applications and ethical frontiers - overview

 This book collates 21 chapters on how Gen AI is shifting education and the role of educators in understanding and utilising AI to support teaching and learning.

The book is edited by G. Durak, S. Cankaya and M. Sharples with chapter authors from Europe and Asia. It is not open access and the short pdf available provides a  preface, and list of chapters and authors.

A good selection of topics is collated through the book including:

- sustainable education - chapter 2

- classroom orchestration - chapter 4

- lesson planning - chapter 5

- deep fakes to voice cloning - chapter 7

- learning analytics - chapter 8

- smart learning environments - chapter 9

- VR and AR - chapter 10

- AI literacy - chapter 11

- Prompt design - chapter 12 & 13

- dialogic feedback - chapter 14

- creative learning - chapter 19

- ethical considerations - chapter 20

- teacher training and PD - chapter 21

Will recommend the book to the library and add chapter summaries after I have looked through them. 

Promoting authentic learning experiences: redesigning assessments to minimise student misconduct

Webinar organised by TurnitIn and hosted by ASCILITE. 

Summary of the webinar's objectives as:

 1. Authentic assessment design: Dive into the principles of authentic assessment design, which emphasises real-world relevance, meaningful tasks and opportunities for creativity and critical thinking. Explore methodologies such as project-based assessments, case studies and simulations that provide students with authentic learning experiences while reducing the incentive to cheat. 

2. Formative feedback and self-assessment: Discuss the importance of formative feedback and self-assessment in promoting academic integrity. Learn the role of continuous assessment methods, peer review and reflective exercises in fostering student engagement, metacognitive skills and ownership of learning outcomes. 

3. Assessment security measures: Explore security measures and deterrents to minimise temptations for cheating in assessments. Discuss strategies such as randomised question banks, timed assessments and proctoring technologies that mitigate opportunities for academic misconduct while preserving the integrity of the assessment process.

Notes taken:

Kwong Nui Sim representing ASCILITE welcomes participants and runs through zoom functions. Includes a Welcome to country and an overview of ACSCILTE and the annual conference this year in Melbourne in December.

Chukwudi Ogoh from Turnitin chairs the panel. Diagnostic poll starts to provide information from participants to the panel. Academic integrity still an important focus for participants. Many use portfolios or similar to reduce academic integrity.

Speaker introduced. Joon Nak Choi from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology begins with the view that there is too much focus on academic integrity with slow integration of AI into teaching and learning although students are racing ahead with using AI. Formerly, UK promoted values based education, Germans then introduce skills based education but presently knowledge based education is the main focus. However, Ai is challenging knowledge based education therefore it is important to return to value and skills based education. Therefore critical thinking, adaptability and judgement should be the fundamental objectives of learning through active learning to raise metacognitive awareness. Formative assessments are important. Essays can remain relevant and useful as they help assess critical thinking, logic and argument and application. Metacognition, adaptability, initiative and self direction can also outputs from essays. In the post-AI classroom, essays still possible by putting them through turnitin, or writing essays in class, and integration of AI into essay writing reflects workplace use.  AI assistants can be used to grade in class essays to provide timely feedback, allowing the essays to be used as a formative tool. Professor or teaching assistants can then use their time to personalise the feedback. Teach students how to use AI to brainstorm, first draft from AI with student going through to correct/triangulate, presentation on the topic required, and the final draft incorporates human feedback backed by reflection memos.

Dr. Dianne Stratton-Maher from University of Southern Queensland on embracing AI to reimagine assessment in nursing education. Teaches first year Bachelor of Nursing course on literacies and communication. Overall perspective is that AI is not a replacement for personal knowledge, but rather they are tools that can strengthen and enhance the learning journey. Undertook a qualitative descriptive design to integrate AI into the course. Case study used and students were introduced to ChatGPT to support the completion of the case study assignment. AI generated video to introduce AI and provide some AI literacy on how to use AI to support learning. A reflection was also required as to how using AI went and this was handed in as an appendix to their case study. The reflection included prompts used, responses received, evidence of evaluation of the responses etc. Shared examples of student work. 409 students submitted, 18 reported for AI but 10 were unsubstantial. Collected f2f and focus group data, using thematic analysis supported by CoPilot (with UniAQ data protection). Themes included confusion and adaption; functionality and skill development; effectiveness and reliability; academic integrity and ethical use, perceived benefits and future use; and feedback and support. Recommendations included the need to clarify guidelines and expectations; promote responsible use; providing training and support; encouraging critical evaluation; highlighting the benefits; integrate practical examples; monitor and adapt and education for staff.

Associate Professor Benito Cao from the University of Adelaide on 'don't ne sorry, just declare it'. No assessment re-design but focused on working with students on how ChatGPT is not reliable but can be useful in some aspects of academic work, Therefore, is ChatGPT used, its use is declared in an appendix. ChatGPT is not a search engine but a language model. Asked ChatCPT to generate a profile of himself and shared with students. Almost all the items were wrong! but the profile was written in a convincing manner. Summarised his university's guidelines including Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic to all students to encourage them to embrace and integrate AI but to use it with integrity. Assessment guidelines define how AI can be used - for example AI assisted ideas or AI assisted editing. Discussed the benefits, limitations and risks and risk management for Gen AI as provided but the South Australian Government. Industry guidelines also introduced, for example guidelines from Taylor and Francis allowing idea generation and exploration; language improvement; interactive online search; literature classification and coding assistance. AI must not be listed as author and its use formally acknowledged. Stressed to students the need to keep their voice and appendix recording use of prompts etc. required. 

Jane Mair provided an overview to Turnitin's approach to minimise cheating. A challenge presented by paper-based handwritten assessments. Short answers, multiple choice, sketches or labelling diagram, mathematics problems. Paper assessments persist as they align with authentic design, formative feedback can be provided that engages students and supports assessment integrity by limiting access to AI writing and other digital tools. Challenges for instructors, marking can be time-consuming, coordination and consistency for grading can be difficult, feedback inefficient, heavy reliance on multiple choice which may not assess relevant learning outcome and challenges in applying assessments for best practice. For students receive delayed feedback, some have difficulty understanding the feedback and there are increased errors and there may be need for clarification. 

Turnitin feedback now has the 'paper to digital' overview. Grading is faster using online grading, feedback is more timely, secure workflow and digital storage, and integration directly into LMS and Turnitin feedback studio. Supports long-form writing, multiple choice, short answer, math formulas etc. Demonstrated how it worked. Horizontal questions possible allowing each question to be marked across the cohort, rather than one student at a time. Similar answers can be graded at once! Feedback studio allows for an efficient workflow.

A higher education focus in all the presentations. Some good ideas if essays are still being used. Webinar is recorded and presentations will be available. 

Personalise learning in the trades - AI coach in workshop learning

The work of Asplund, Kilbrink and team from Karlstad University in Sweden has been contributing much needed micro analysis of how people learn a trade. This 2022 paper, teaching and learning how to handle tools and machines in vocational education workshop sessions, follows on from another 2022 paper on 'introducing the object of learning in interaction:vocational teaching and learning in a plumbing workshop session'. 

Both delve into the differences between VET and other tertiary studies, whereby the focus in VET is on tools/machines and learning often requires not only 'hands-on' repetitive deliberate practice, but also one on one (preferably) learning conversations between learner and teacher/mentor/workplace trainer.

As such, there is potential for the use of AI in personalised learning in situ. Whereas most of the work on personalised learning involves PC or mobile phones. Learners may undertake 'programmed learning' whereby the learner is taken through practice-based learning through text, multimodal or simulated learning or revise their learning through various personalised learning quizzes.

In VET learning undertaken in authentic workshops whereby learners are completing full-time 'pre-trade' programmes or apprentices are learning new skills during block courses. There will usually be a ratio of 16-20 learners to one tutor/trainer. Individualised sessions are often 'hit and miss' and many learners have to rely on their own learning instincts, to carry them through practice sessions.

The advent of AI provides for new opportunities. ChatGPT4o allows for context-aware f2f AI interaction and runs on mobile devices. When we tested it with ESOL learners, the AI picked up on the accent of the learners and greeted the learner in their native language. Therefore, with appropriate further training, the AI should be able to provide individualised coaching or 'study buddy' support to learners, who are not tethered to a PC. 

There are also wearable AI options as exampled in this Guardian article which reports on the AI Pin. A quick search reveal several similar options, including an AI pendant which 'keeps you company' 

Using such a device, would provide just in time feedback and support, when a learner needs assistance. Otherwise, and very often, the teachable/learning moment passes and the opportunity is lost. Something to consider for a future project :) 

The power of peer learning - open access book

 Here is an open access book, published by Springer in 2023. The power of peer learning: Fostering students' learning processes and outcomes is edited by O.Noroozi and B. De Wever.

The book has 17 chapters, organised into four sections;  conceptual contributions, methodological contributions, technological contributions,  and empirical contributions to peer learning.

Most of the chapter feature work undertaking in higher education with several in secondary education. 

The first chapter, The four pillars of peer assessment for collaborative teamwork in HE, by B.Sridharan, J. McKay & D. Boud, sets the scene and provides an overarching framework to plan and structure the peer assessment process. 

Other chapters are useful with contemporary presentation of processes that are relevant in the age of digitised / online learning. A book to dip in and out of as the need arises. 

CRADLE conference 2020 - Session presentations

 

Today’s sessions for CRADLE conference 2020.

Most of the sessions have two presentations. I attend the following:

Then the first session themed ‘learning in a digital world 1’ is with Dr. Adam Brown and Emily Wade from Deakin. They present on ‘Serendipity, imperfection and vulnerability: Harnessing live video for ‘authentic’ teacher performance.

Adam began with providing the theoretical background and approaches.

Proposed the undertaking of ‘the meddlers in the middle’ as the role of the educator as opposed to ‘stage on the sage’ or ‘guide on the side’. Meddlers in the middle reposition the teacher and student as co-directors and co-editors of their social world.

Need to be ‘authentic’ and that authenticity is an effect, not an essence in the context of self-presentation as being performative.

Emily introduced collaborative autoethnography and how digital platforms like Periscope may be used to enable collaborative work. Explained how this was used for their own teaching context and shared reflections on the process.

Very much an academic look into their teaching and a critical reflection into how video impacts on, supports and extends their teaching practice.

 

Session 2: Learning in a digital world 2.

This session chaired by Simon Knight.

On ‘Development of educational tools that enable large-scale ethical empirical research on evaluative judgement' with Dr. Hassan Khosravi from the University of Queensland. Presented on work carried out with others – George Gyamfi, Dr. Barbara Hanna and Dr. Jason Lodge.

Presented on evaluative judgement (EJ), educational tools, conceptual models and examples.

EJ is the capability to make decisions about the quality of work of oneself and others. This skill helps students use feedback effectively, develop expertise in the view and attain autonomy.

 EF revolves around rubrics, self assessment exemplars, feedback, reflection and peer assessment – mostly theoretical.

Educational tools include peer grading and evaluation systems. Most build without the aim of supporting research and they do not allow data harvesting to be undertaken or the set up of controlled experiments. Draws on work of Associate Professor Paul Denny (University of Auckland) on PeerWise and with Professor Neil Heffernan on the ASSISTments ecosystems.

This presentation on the conceptual framework of RIPPLE. Conceptual model described to help promote both EJ and to undertake research on it. System developed for adaptive learning, learnersourcing and peer grading and feedback with EJ strategies of rubrics, self and peer assessment and exemplars. Connected to metrics, experiment design and ethical guidelines and a data repository.

Provides details of the RIPPLE platform.

Shared one study – Can students create high-quality resources? Walked through the process of students creating and evaluating each other’s questions.

The shared a case study and reflections. In general, students’ EJ improved through iterations. Students tended to provide higher ratings when compared to instructors. Found that the rubric criteria may not suit the ‘assessment’ and re-tested new rubric. 

Shared plans for new investigations and encouraged other researchers to make contact to use the tool.

Followed on with George Gyamfi, also from UQ on ‘The effect of rubrics on evaluative judgement: A randomised controlled trial'. As per above presentation, George’s work is completed with Dr. Barbara Hanna and Dr. Hassan Khosravi.

Defined EJ as per previous presentation. Shared work on rubrics (Reddy & Andrade, 2010 and several others) and how these may be used to enhance student learning. These studies tend to be mostly theoretical and does not bring in the perspectives of students.

Overviewed the research methodology and how RiPPLE was used for the study. Participants were undergraduate students (n= 354) learning database principles. The study involved having a control group which completed peer assessments without a rubric and the treatment group which completed peer assessments with a rubric.

Findings indicate rubrics can be a way of influencing how students attend to quality and can impact students’ judgement in assessing the quality of learning resources. However, construct of the rubric is the key! Even without rubrics, learners are able to make judgements but rubrics provided better clarity.

Session three: Assessment of learning 1 :

Session chaired by Zi Yan.

Dr. Sin Wang Chong from the Queen’s University Belfast presented on ‘Student feedback literacy as an ecological construct’. A conceptual look at feedback literacy covering feedback orientation to feedback literacy, feedback literacy in and beyond the classroom and a reconceptualization of the concept. Presentation based on paper published earlier this year.

Shared study on feedback orientation (London & Smither’s 2002) – utility, accountability, social awareness and feedback efficacy. Also Kremmel & Harding (2020) on language literacy – using a spider chart to provide each learners’ literacy. Then Sutton (2012) in conceptualisation of feedback literacy as epistemology (knowing), Ontological (being) and practical (acting). Carless and Boud (2018) appreciate, make judgments, manage affect and take action on feedback. Most recent Carless and Winstone (2020) looking into both teacher and learner feedback literacy.

Feedback literacy is not only a product (Hattie & Timperley, 2007) but also a process (Interpersonal and intrapersonal (Carless & Boud, 2018).

Chong reconceptualised using a ecological perspective (2020 paper) to include the context within which feedback is undertaken (interpersonal, textual, instructional, sociocultural) and the learner’s beliefs, goals, experiences and abilities. Therefore the engagement dimension (as proposed by Carless and Boud – understand feedback, manage affect, make judgment and take action) has added to it the context and individual dimensions(

Introduced the ecological systems theory (EST) as nested or networked EST with micro, meso, exo, macro and chrono systems. Used example from a paper in preparation – process of scholarly peer-review – to explain the framework. Proposed actor-network theory as a means to understand better the inter-connections/inter-relationships of ESTs.

Concluded with implications including how the framework may be applied towards better understanding the contextual and individual contributions to understanding feedback literacy.

The next session is with Dr. Akilu Tadesse from the University of Bergen on ‘Scaffolding feedback in complex dynamic system context: Effect of online interactive learning environments’. Presents on work undertaken with Professors Pai Davidsen and Erling Moxnes. 

 Presented on the 'problem', covered the notion of scaffolding feedback, application of this study and findimgs.

People, even experts, have difficulties in understanding and communicating their understanding of complex dynamic systems. Also difficult to measure improvements in this domain when CDS are difficult to understand.

The study looks into how to enhance students learning of CDS by developing educaitonal feedback to scaffold feedback that supports students learning.

Shared the notion of scaffolding feedback as a continual spiral of building knowledge. Gaps of knowledge are 'filled either by students' own efforts are through support from 'external agents'. 

Used this scaffolding feedback notion to integrate into a personalised and adaptive online learning environment. Learner is presented with a CDS and supported to progress through a sequence of learning activities to attain CDS. 

Shared a 'case study' to help explain the concept of how the platform works. Then presented the research questions - to find out if scaffolding feedback would reduce the gap between existing high and low performing students. Averaged results across 5 tasks. In general, the gap did close as tasks (increasing in complexity) were worked through. 

Overall, a good range of presentations showing the ways digital technologies may be useful in supporting assessments of learning. 

 

 

 

 

 

Using Miracast

The new learning spaces at CPIT have screens with Miracast, which is where we are able to project the image from a tablet on to a large flat screen. There are pros and cons, discussed here and there is always a need to assist tutors in 'thinking outside the box'. Many teachers plan to use Miracast to enhance their use of powerpoint - some tips here for powerpoint on surface tablets.

However, Miracast is also a powerful tool if used to share 'learning moments' in the form of examples of students' own work, videos of stduents' practice or role plays etc. Our work has shown students take ownership and are more likely to re-watch learning resources, if students' work is incorporated into the teaching resource. A power point up loaded on to Moodle, means much more if examples of students' work from a class session, form part of the resource.

The opportunity to use students' work as 'learning conversation starters' is also a focus of our use of Miracast. Students' progressive work can be shared via Miracast on tutors' tablets if the work is transferred on to a shared class folder (say on OneDrive or Moodle or Dropbox) or transferred physically using a memory stick. We are using Surface RT tablets which have a usb, making physical transfer in a BYOD environment workable during tutorials. Five wired PCs around the room provide students without a device with digital hardware.

The rooms also have glass 'whiteboards' allowing for the use of 'office lens'. Office lens provides the facility to take images off surfaces with a bit of glare or crop pieces of work taken off note books etc. Office lens is linked to One Note, allowing for ease of transferability within the Windows OS.

I will undertake a series of class observations this semester to improve the deployment of Miracast though supporting tutors. In particular, to assist the building of a trusting learning culture within our classrooms to allow for co-construction of students' work as their learning progresses and to maximise opportunities for peer and tutor feedback.

Getting to grips with one note and notebook creator

Much has taken place since my initial exploration of the capabilities of onenote and earlier update. In particular, usability has improved and the advent of notebook creator makes onenote a good option for educators to share notes, collaborate with students and provide formative feedback to students as they progress through their work on onenote.

Various recent offerings provide good overviews of the hows, whys and whats of onenote. These include information from pcworld - a good introduction, onthehub, blogs.office - introducing the office lens to take photos of whiteboards etc. and a concise but comprehensive overview of capabilities from thomasmaurer.

For teachers, there is a guide here along with an office mix presentation - detailing how to go about using notebook creator and how to use audio recording, linked notes (e.g. to word document), how to share using outlook (email) or exporting as pdf, word doc etc., translate notes to selected language. Whole notebooks can also be exported or shared via Onedrive or Sharepoint.

A review from teacher's perspective is found here and student's point of view of how to use onenote for 'web research' is found in this video. Recommended 'next steps' to extend use of note book creator are found here.

In all, a good range of resources to guide us as we pilot onenote with notebook creator with engineering students.

Learning a trade:

The report from the learning a trade project is now uploaded to the Ako Aotearoa website. The project undertook a study of the literature available on skills learning and synthesised relevant principles to the ways apprentices perceived they learnt a trade.

Apprentices stated they learnt best through observation, being coached and through practice. So guidelines to improve deliberate and mindful practice were derived. Feedback on learning from workplace trainers / coaches etc. was found to not work well for some apprentices. So guidelines to emphasis the feedback loop and principles of cognitive apprenticeship were collated to assist apprentices' workplace learning opportunities.

Visible learning for teachers: book summary

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. London: Routledge.

A follow up to  Hattie’s 2009 book Visible learning: A synthesis of 800+ meta-analysis on achievement, with an emphasis on applying the research findings to enhancing student learning. A powerpoint summarises key points and main messages / arguments.

The 2012 book arrived in the library last week. Had time over the weekend to work through and glean the important messages of relevance to vocational education.

Chapter one provides a short 6 pages introducing the book and purpose - to make the findings from the meta-analysis, accessible and applicable for teachers.

The second chapter summarises the findings from the 2009 meta- analysis – influences on students’ learning, including the conclusion that the teacher plays a big role in helping students learn. The term ‘visible learning’ is defined as occurring when “ learning is the explicit and transparent goal, when it is appropriately challenged, and when the teacher and students both (in their various ways) seek to ascertain whether and to what degree the challenging goal is attained”. Visible learning occurs when there is deliberate practice to attain a learning outcome, appropriate feedback is provided or asked for and when both teachers and students are engaged and passionate about learning. (page 18)

Chapter 3 puts forward the case for the ‘passionate. Inspired teacher’ and identifies traits of expert teachers as being able to:

- Identify the most important ways to represent the subject that they teach

- Be proficient at creating an optimal classroom learning climate

- Monitor learning and provide feedback

- Have the belief that all students can reach the success criteria

- Influence the learning outcomes of students with respect to deep or surface outcomes.

The next part (part 2) from chapters 4 – 8 presents the recommendations for teachers on preparing, starting, structuring the flow for learning and feedback and ending the lesson.  This part is recommended NOT as a linear process but provides concrete connections with findings from the 2009 meta-analysis on the effective things teacher can do to enhance students’ learning.

Chapter 4

Firstly, a need to establish ‘what the student already knows’ and what the students is able to achieve (Piaget). Secondly, learning is a social and collaborative process between teacher/student and student/student interaction. The chapter summaries the various ways students approach learning – their self-efficacy, readiness and motivation to learn. Then connects to how teachers plan lessons to establish students’ readiness, chart progressing and raise student goal expectations.

Chapter 5

The chapter ‘starting a lesson’ discusses setting a climate for learning and tracks the various studies on the ‘flow’ of a lesson and how learning can be improved.

Chapter 6

This chapter follows on to concentrate on the learning aspect of the flow of the lesson. Summaries of various phases of learning (capabilities in thinking, phases of thinking, motivation, how we learn) and discussion on various methods useful towards meeting students’ learning needs. Includes differential instruction, various learning strategies, backward strategies, deliberate practice, concentration and persistence.

Chapter 7

The role of feedback in the flow of the lesson is discussed in this chapter. A summary of the three feedback questions (where am I going? How am I going there? Where to next) and the four feedback levels (task and product, process, self-regulation/ conditional and self).  Overview of studies of feedback including frequency, types , formative, prompts. Also the role of peers.

The last chapter presents the need for teachers to commit to establishing ‘mind frames’ with support from school leaders and the school system. These mind frames are important through professional development, teachers’ own reflection and on-going commitment, towards adopting, developing and sustaining the concepts presented through part 2.

Eight mind frames are presented. They are:

- A belief that teachers’ fundamental task is to evaluate the effect of their teaching on students’ learning and achievement.

- A belief that success or failure in student learning is about what they, as teachers do, or did not do.

- Encouragement for teachers to talk more about learning than teaching

- To see assessment as feedback on teachers’ impact.

- To engage in dialogue, not monologue.

- Enjoy the challenge and never give up on ‘doing their best’

- The teachers’ role is to develop positive relationships in classrooms / staff rooms

- For teachers to inform ALL about the language of learning.

Overall, the book is easy reading, introducing a wide range of teaching concepts and philosophies through a ‘talking to the teacher’ writing style. I have now placed an order to purchase the book as the book is a ‘must-read’ for anyone in teacher education. I can then highlight and bookmark the many pertinent sections of the book, of which there are many.

Almost all the recommendations are generalizable to the vocational education sector. However, the book is pitched at the school sector, hence the discussions in part two on ‘lessons’ are based around NZ classroom practices and the studies used to substantiate recommendations come from a wide range of mostly Western education school systems.  A synthesis between the workplace based learning literature and the recommendations from this book will be useful for vocational educators. As although there are many commonalities, vocational education has different learning objectives and an intended curriculum which impinges heavily on how teaching and learning is delivered. 

Using video to help students' reflective learning process

As a follow up from our net tablet project, I have just started on another Ako Aotearoa Southern Hub funded project with Hospitality tutors Debbie Taylor and Heather McEwan. Two sub-projects using tablets (ipad2s and Toshiba Thrives) will be worked through. The first one is for students to use the ipad2s to video each other as they role play front office customer interactions. The second is to explore the concept of virtual field trips to replace hotel visits (as all the high end hotels in Christchurch are not inaccessible due to the 2011 earthquakes).


The first project, using the ipads to video student role plays has just started. Debbie and I are piloting this with a group of 1st year Diploma in Hospitality students. Our first hurdle was a technical one. How to attach ipads to a datashow so that Debbie could use the student videos as examples to encourage better/improved customer service practices. At present, we are trying out several cabling variations.

A literature search found several articles, mainly in the teacher education sector, on using videos to help enhance reflective practice. One article I have tapped for ideas is by Williams, G. Farmer, L. and Manwaring, M. (2008) on ‘new technology meets an old teaching challenge: Using digital video recordings, annotation software, and deliberate practice techniques to improve student negotiation skills’. The study was conducted with law students and although our project will not be going down the annotation route, I will follow up on the software mentioned in the article – Medianotes.

For the moment, we will concentrate on the ‘deliberate practice’ aspect, in particular, to identify the main skills students will need to develop, provide appropriate and timely feedback and assist the reflective learning cycle. For the feedback cycle, we will be providing students (as with previous projects) the guidelines to be able to feed up, feedback and feed forward (from  Hattie and Timperley's - power of feedback).

Trip to Singapore - wrap up

Back home after almost a week in Singapore. Left Singapore’s balmy 30’C plus weather to return to wintry Christchurch. Cycled in to work this frosty morning and checked the temps. at 10am to be 1’C.


Managed to do the obligatory catch up with various aunties, cozzies and my mother-in-law. Good to catch up with news in Singapore on what all the various family members are up to. The Temasek Polytechnic International Conference on Teaching & Learning went well. All the keynotes provided good presentations and workshops. There was a wide range of presentations / papers and I have been catching up with the full papers this morning. Of note are: Gary Poole’s paper to support his presentation on ‘I care & I can’; two papers with a problem based learning focus, one on student experiences by Chan Chun Ming (Temasek Polytechnic) and the other by Lisa Lim and Madeliene Lew (Republic Polytechnic) on first year students perception of one day/one problem PBL strategy; and two on feedback – one by Daphne Pan and Kiruthika Ragupathi from National University of Singapore and the other by Min Yan, David Carless, Diane Salter and Joy Lam on Feedback.

The staff at the local Polytechnics and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) seem to all be very young (perhaps it’s just me feeling old), enthusiastic about teaching and keen to learn. Networked with a few of the Polytechnic & ITE academic / staff development staff and they seem to all be focused on student centred forms of learning including an emphasis on problem based learning, especially at the polytechnic level.

Singapore, as usual, has changed physically since I was last there almost two years ago. New buildings including three tall buildings on the waterfront with what looks like a ship on the top of it. The MRT and most public areas were even more crowded that before. Where do all the people come from?? And how many more will be packed into a very small island? So good to come back to NZ where I did the grocery shopping at the local supermarket on Saturday afternoon. Just the usual small number of people about, enough to know that the supermarket was not closed.

21st century mobile learners - here or still to come?

While away last week & travelling about, I mulled over the readings stored up from the last couple of months and blogged over the first half of this year. That wended their way across my screens (laptop & blackberry) as I travelled by planes, trains and buses across the red, red Australian landscape. They all propose a future for education that is in many senses already here but also not quite here yet.

To me, the students are ready & willing. A couple of weeks ago, my group of students working on evaluating social networking sites as eportfolios shared their work with other students in their class.

However, it’s harder to shift tutors towards making use of technology in their teaching. Although many are have made the leap. The Mobile Learning Institute’s film series “A 21st Century Education” profiles individuals who embrace and defend fresh approaches to learning and who confront the urgent social challenges that are part of a 21st century experience. Most of these are general with regards to the use of ICT but Elliot Soloway and Cathie Norris take a road trip through Texas and Louisiana to see firsthand how mobile devices are being used in schools.

Apart from the above, what of the role of mlearning in the 21st century? I caught up with blogtalk radio & listened to Liz Kolb’s interview of Suzette Kliewer who is a math teacher in the K-Nect project in North Carolina. Suzette talks about how she has been using Smartphones with her math students. The project reminded me of many of the findings in John Hattie & Helen Timperley’s article on ‘The power of feedback’. They propose a model of feedback which involves asking three key questions at task, process, self-regulating & self levels. Task refers to how well a task is being performed, the process refers to the main process required to perform the task, the self regulating comes from the student self-monitoring & self directing their actions and the self refers to the personal evaluations and affects of the learner. The three questions are where am I going (feed up), how am I going (feed back) & where to next (feed forward). The model is based on feedback being provided by teachers, peers etc. regarding aspects of performance so that the learner is able to confirm or adjust their learning trajectory.

Therefore, the use of appropriately constructed ‘learning opportunities’ with the use of relevant feedback via ‘just in time’ technology like mobile phones is one way to meet the needs of some current learners. ‘Programmed learning’ segments that are customised to the levels of learning & interests of students will be even more useful & move the concept of personal learning environments forward. Anytime, anywhere access using mobile internet devices is one way to keep the 21st century learner engaged & pro-active towards meeting their own learning goals.