More Professors Give Out Hand-Held Devices to Monitor Students and Engage Them

Some excerpts:

Though the technology is relatively new, preliminary studies at Harvard and Ohio State, among other institutions, suggest that engaging students in class through a device as familiar to them as a cellphone — there are even applications that convert iPads and BlackBerrys into class-ready clickers — increases their understanding of material that may otherwise be conveyed in traditional lectures.

The clickers are also gaining wide use in middle and high schools, as well as at corporate gatherings. Whatever the setting, audience responses are received on a computer at the front of the room and instantly translated into colorful bar graphs displayed on a giant monitor.

Professor White acknowledged, though, that the clickers were hardly a silver bullet for engaging students, and that they were just one of many tools he employed, including video clips, guest speakers and calling on individual students to share their thoughts.

“Everyone learns differently,” he said. “Some learn watching stuff. Some learn by listening. Some learn by reading. I try to mix it all into every class.”

Many of Professor White’s students said the highlight of his class was often the display of results of a survey-via-clicker, when they could see whether their classmates shared their opinions. They also said that they appreciated the anonymity, and that while the professor might know how they responded, their peers would not.

From DSC:
Below are some notes and reflections after reading Visions 2020.2:  Student Views on Transforming Education and Training Through Advanced Technologies — by the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Education, and NetDay

Basic Themes

  • Digital Devices
  • Access to Computers and the Internet
  • Intelligent Tutor/Helper
  • Ways to Learn and Complete School Work Using Technology

Several recurring words jumped off the page at me, including:

  • Voice activation
  • A rugged, mobile, lightweight, all-convergent communications and entertainment device
  • Online classes
  • Interactive textbooks
  • Educational games
  • 3D virtual history enactments — take me there / time machine
  • Intelligent tutors
  • Wireless
  • 24x7x365 access
  • Easy to use
  • Digital platforms for collaborating and working with others on schoolwork/homework
  • Personalized, optimized learning for each student
  • Immersive environments
  • Augmented reality
  • Interactive
  • Multimedia
  • Virtual
  • Simulations
  • Digital diagnostics (i.e. analytics)
  • Wireless videoconferencing

Here are some quotes:

Math and reading were often cited specifically as subjects that might benefit from the use of learning technologies. (p. 5)

No concept drew greater interest from the student responders than some sort of an intelligent tutor/helper. Math was the most often mentioned subject for which tutoring help was needed. Many students desired such a tutor or helper for use in school and at home. (p. 17)

…tools, tutors, and other specialists to make it possible to continuously adjust the pace, nature and style of the learning process. (p.27)

So many automated processes have been built in for them: inquiry style, learning style, personalized activity selection, multimedia preferences, physical requirements, and favorite hardware devices. If the student is in research mode, natural dialogue inquiry and social filtering tools configure a working environment for asking questions and validating hypotheses. If students like rich multimedia and are working in astronomy, they automatically are connected to the Sky Server which accesses all the telescopic pictures of the stars, introduces an on-line expert talking about the individual constellations, and pulls up a chatting environment with other students who are looking at the same environment. (p.28)

— Randy Hinrichs | Research Manager for Learning Science and Technology | Microsoft Research Group

From DSC:
As I was thinking about the section on the intelligent tutor/helper…I thought, “You know…this isn’t just for educators. Pastors and youth group leaders out there should take note of what students were asking for here.”

  • Help, I need somebody
  • Help me with ____
  • Many students expressed interest in an “answer machine,” through which a student could pose a specific question and the machine would respond with an answer. <– I thought of online, Christian-based mentors here, available 24x7x365 to help folks along with their spiritual journeys


Great middle school simulation: Civics — from Kristen Swanson

“…Argument Wars, a simulation from iCivics, and I think it is perfect for middle school students. Students can argue their case, learn about their rights as students, and earn points for valid arguments. I think it would be a fantastic complement to any middle school social studies class! Enjoy!”

How games engage the brain — from NspireD2 by Chris Clark

In a TED video released today, Tom Chatfield presents seven ways in which games engage the brain. Chatfield is a game theorist and author of the new book, Fun, Inc., about the gaming industry and how it is altering our society.

Chatfield’s seven talking points are

  1. Experience bars measuring progress
  2. Multiple long and short-term aims
  3. Rewards for effort
  4. Rapid, frequent, clear feedback
  5. An element of uncertainty
  6. Windows of enhanced engagement
  7. Other people

Of course, that list doesn’t mean much unless you watch the video.

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Concept, graphics, idea from Daniel S. Christian:
But free for your taking and implementing!

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What:

  • Choir Practice: A mobile-based method of practicing one’s part

Features

  • The ability for the choir member to go directly to measure ____
  • The ability for the choir member to highlight measures ____ through ____ (like highlighting text in Microsoft Word), then click on the play button to loop through those measures
  • One could speed up a song up or slow it down (without affecting pitch)
  • The application would allow for all of the vocal parts to begin playing upon downloading a pre-packaged song or the application could always start playing with a certain part (i.e. 1st or 2nd soprano, alto, tenor, or bass)
  • The musical notes could be the same color or one could choose to display the notes in different colors
  • Bonus features might include a video of a director directing this song

Why:

  • This type of thing would be a great cross-disciplinary assignment for your institution’s curriculum — Music and Computer Science come to mind for this application
  • Your institution could sell this application on Apple’s App Store to develop a new revenue stream
  • Your choirs could produce the packaged songs / tracks
  • Plus, such an app would help choir members learn their parts — 24x7x365 — in the car, on the road, in the gym, etc.
  • Enhances one’s ability to listen to other parts as well
  • Aids your marketing departments as you point to this as a solid deliverable from your programs
  • Creates “study aids” for your own school’s choirs/students as well as for choirs at smaller churches and institutions (worldwide)
  • Helps those choir members who don’t have access to a piano or don’t know how to play a piano

Have fun whomever takes this idea and runs with it! The choirs of the world will appreciate you — and so will their audiences!   🙂

Along these lines…another win-win here includes:

That students in the future (I hope) will be able to choose from a multitude of potential roles when presented with multi-disciplinary projects/assignments/courses:
  • Vocalists, pianists, and other type of musicians
  • Composers
  • Programmers
  • Graphic artists
  • Videographers / video editors
  • Audio specialists
  • Writers
  • Project Managers
  • Actresses/Actors
  • etc.
As such, students could:
  • Learn to appreciate other disciplines
  • Participate in/contribute to projects that could be published on the web
  • Exercise their creativity
  • Practice being innovative

 

Daniel Christian

M. Wesch at BLC-2010

Educause Review: Sept/Oct 2010 -- Attention, Engagement, Next Generation

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010: Final list, presentation and more — from Jane Knight

Yesterday I finalised the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010 list.  Many thanks to the 545 people who shared their Top 10 Tools for Learning and contributed to the building of the list.   Although this list is available online, I also created this presentation which provides the information as a slideset – embedded below.

My Photo

Jane Hart, a Social Business Consultant, and founder
of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies.

Musical instruments of the future – Reactable — from David Kusek, VP at Berklee College of Music

There is a lot of innovation happening with electronic music instrument and new interfaces.  Reactable is one of the latest in music technology fusing DJ culture, touch screen topography and electro-pop showmanship. Coming to an iPad near you.  Reactable says their company “is about the promotion of creativity and the mediation of culture through the application of the latest technologies in human computer interaction, music technology, graphics and computer vision.”  Check it out.

Music Instruments of the Future

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Reactable

How to make any 3rd grader love math — from mobile learning blog by Michael Cyger

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