Reinventing Education, Anant Agarwal Keynote at Sloan-C #aln13

Sloan C Friday Keynote: Anant Agarwal from edX

https://www.edx.org
a $60 million investment from MIT and Harvard

Compared to large classrooms/lecture halls, students often prefer virtual contact with instructors
-Feels more personalized, learning in a way that is customized to their needs

On campus education hasn't changed in centuries- lecture, podiums, neat rows
-30% of students routinely sleep in class

Move to blended learning and small, interactive groups

edX History
They were hoping for 2000 students. 10,000 signed up in first few hours.
Eventually 155,000 students enrolled in the first course- Circuits and Electronics

26,349 tried first problem set
10,547 made it to midterm
9318 passed the midterm
8240 took the final exam
7157 Certified

Compares the concept of the retention rate in MOOCs to the acceptance rate of schools like MIT.

United Nations has # of countries in the world as 214, and they have students from more than 217 countries.

30% of students from US
13% from India

edX is a non-profit
offers open edX code

China platform XuetangX (schoolX)
France Universite Numerique
Arab region platform Erdaak by QRF

MOOCs contribute to improving campus learning e.g. San Jose State University where course retake rates droped from 41%to 9%

Anatomy of an edX Online Class-
*Active Learning
-students go to bed dreaming of green check marks
-gamification virtual labs
-Harvard course- Science of Cooking

*Peer Learning

*Credentialing
- XSeries Certificates, sequences of courses

How long should videos be?
How does student engagement relate to video lengths?
Philip Guo
863 videos, 5,265,833 watching sessions
Compared certificate earners to all other students
Certificate earner results:
Maximum engagement-- 6-9 minutes long
40 minute video- median watch time 2 minutes

Hours spent on Homework in relation to total points in a course-- more hours spent more total points in the course

Sloan C Online Learning Conference 2013 #aln13

Attending Daphne Koller's keynote session: The Online Revolution: Learning without Limits. Koller was a member of the team who launched the Stanford MOOC experiment. She founded Coursera, the leading forum for MOOCs and a catalyst in the MOOC explosion.

https://www.coursera.org

She demonstrates an interactive method- in video quizzes- that allows every student to grapple with the questions before the smarty pants at the front of the class doing it first.

She discusses the challenge of grading 100,000 students.

Auto-graded homeworks and exercises. Even complex exercises like online labs- have students perform experiments with resources in their own environment- video and put through tools like image tracking solutions. Third-party integration through LTI compatibility.
Advantage of scalability but also a pedagogical advantage- immediate feedback. Prompts gaming, leveling mentality to resubmit and try again-- self-induced mastery. "Students who engage in mastery-based learning do better on summative exams, not just formative exams."

Peer grading. Calibrated peer review mixed with ideas from crowd-sourcing. Grading rubric designed by instructor and trained to use it. Encourages collaborative learning through peer evaluation and discussion. Pedagogical benefits- critical thinking about quality of work, reflective process. Duneier at Princeton examined whether the peer evaluations are as credible as those done by more advanced learners (TAs) -- found that raters had similar levels of consensus. This relies on having a good rubric.

This brand of online courses creates more of a sense of community feedback. Discussion boards attract experts.
Students often get their answers faster and in more depth because the work of response is distributed.
Global community offers multiple perspectives and diverse contexts for the topics and problems posed. On campus professors ask students to attend the MOOCs in order to get this exposure.

Do we need face-to-face interaction? Yes. Participants have begun meeting in local areas in tandem with MOOCs. Example: Ohio minority women in 40s-50s, unemployed or working in low-paying jobs brought together for a computer lab and chose a MOOC to take. 6 of these women pased an MBA level exam in this course. The power of combining high quality online material with local support. This prompted the launch of Learning Hubs- access to high-speed internet and facilitated learning.

Credentials
Verified certificate program- sign up 2 weeks within the course for the Signature Track- identity confirmed with web camera pic, keystroke biometrics (NEAT!!) and photo id. It costs approx $50. And it can be posted in a places like a LinkedIn profile. This effort has already raised over $1 billion. Completion rate for students who sign up for Signature Track 60%. Completion rate for those who declare they intend to finish and sign up for Signature Track 84%. GA Tech professor compared completion rate for same class on campus (74%) to his signature track MOOC students 99%.

Data Collection
Every class is instrumented so easier to measure learning activities and student behavior at large scales. This allows teachers to understand how to deliver information and design learning activities better.
 The 2 Sigma problem- Bloom 1984- achievement distribution of learners in Lecture, Mastery Learning or Individual Tutoring. Best achievement for individual tutoring, but we cannot afford this for every single student.

Key components for an effective MOOC formula
High quality online content
Produced locally or adapted
Active learning, problem solving
Personal attention to students

Where next?
MOOCs offer a brand new curve for student learning x faculty productivity
Blue ocean strategy- not competing with incumbents, improving different set of attributes, creates markets that did not exist before. MOOC market currently is often lifelong learners, not traditional students.

Friedman "Big breakthroughs happen when what is suddenly possible meets what is desperately necessary."

Questions for Faculty on Online Course Content

Your Creations

How will you design? Storyboard?

How do you plan to organize?

What is your course integration plan?

Can you create modular pieces to be reused in different contexts?

What is your development schedule?

What is your expected development time?

What tools do you need for production?

What support do you need for production?

Will users need guides or protocols?

Have you designed for accessibility?

Have you optimized for mobile?

How will you ensure quality?

Outside Resources

Have you reviewed copyright and fair use?

Should you link through your university's library digital reserves system?

Have you checked links in multiple browsers?

Will access require setting permissions?

What will user Login process be?

Will users require guidelines or support?

Have you included in checklist for broken links in course maintenance protocol?

Will this resource be embedded content or a link?

Have you checked for accessibility?

Have you optimized for mobile?

How will you ensure quality?

Review of College Unbound by Jeffrey J. Selingo

College Unbound: The Future of Higher Education and What It Means for Students by Jeffrey J. Selingo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For someone who follows the Chronicle of Higher Ed or popular coverage of higher ed in general, there is not much new or surprising here. But Selingo personalizes and contextualizes the facts and figures being thrown at us in the media with his own reporting of anecdotal realities for students, parents and universities. The book cover review quotes focus on the technology disruption elements of his book, but this focus seems only to serve his broader and deeper indictment of the current system in general.

My takeaways from Selingo's coverage:

-Most universities are out of touch and slow to respond to what is a major shift in educational needs and expectations of higher ed students & parents.

-Current degree and major models may hinder more purposeful and future looking learning. Other models, such as those presented on pg. 149 could be explored.

-A gap year could help students mature and be ready to start college.

-Flexibility in course delivery models and certification methods is an emerging need.

My criticisms of Selingo's coverage:

-Selingo shares several stories of exceptional faculty with excellent teaching practices, but when he discusses "faculty" at large he shows some disdain. He writes this book from a student and parent advocacy standpoint and sometimes puts too much responsibility on faculty shoulders and often colors them as dispensable.

-Similar to the prior point, Selingo makes some messy causal claims about institutional responsibility for student success that are a little heavy handed. His logic gets a bit convoluted in trying to answer the question of individual or institutional responsibility for students finishing their degrees. He acknowledges the confounding variables for why students might drop out, but then still wants to argue that because Princeton graduates students at such a high rate, every student should have an equal chance of graduating from any institution. In some logical contortions he tries to support this claim by talking about high achieving students who undermatch- or go to schools with lower graduation rates. But he doesn't follow this up to show if those students, who might also have gotten into a top tier school, finish the lower tier programs with lower rates- he just says they lowered their chances of graduating by merely entering the school. Give me data on some of these individual, undermatched students' graduation rates, and I might see his point better. But whenever he can't find the data, he implies some institutional conspiracies and proceeds to speculate.

-Where he does have data- earnings comparisons between schools, I start to cringe a little. Though he acknowledges that colleges should be for more than setting ones' future wages, he can't stop talking about it and letting that data influence his recommendations for the future of education.

What inspired me in Selingo's work:

- He focuses on ways to encourage universities to get to the "sweet spot" of their students' learning needs. This is my favorite quest. In interviewing some Indian students about a training program they attended once, I saw a student describing his favorite college professor. With reverence, his eyes lit up and he said,"Oh! did he know how to get to the crux of the matter." I replay this in my head often for its passion.


View all my reviews

O Go Biblios 75

Ally's chapter "Foundations of Educational Theory for Online Learning" in Athabasca University's free web book Theory and Practice of Online Learning provides a very useful summary of the three major theoretical frameworks of learning and shows how they can all be used to offer effective online learning. It is impressive to see how the author concisely reviews the theories, along with supporting paradigms for the theories, into cohesive guidelines for online learning.

I have these comments to add:

1) Ally says that "online learning knows no time zones, and location and distance are not an issue." I disagree. I believe this is a common misconception about online learning that creates unrealistic expectations for learners and facilitators. Even asynchronous learning is highly dependent on a certain flow of discussions, activities, group collaboration and feedback. These components can be affected by disparate time zones and locations. Is it more flexible than a face-to-face classroom? Yes. But time and space are still factors.

2) Ally offers three diagrams for basic information mapping. Here are some great resources for making concept maps (for instructors and learners):

• Wisemapping 
• Coggle 
• Smart Art in MS Word

3) Ally says that "information should be placed in the center of the screen for reading." I'm surprised by this comment, and there's no support cited for it. I have done extensive research on visual communications and reading from computer screens, and this is not a principle I have ever seen supported or espoused. Eye-tracking studies on web users show varied results for predicting where users' eyes will travel across a screen and for what types of information. Yes, centered text will attract attention in some contexts, but this advice needs more context than provided in his bulleted list. My research and experience would lead me to advise attention to font size before page placement. 

4) Ally addresses learning styles in this overview, a controversial topic because the data around this concept is complex. First, it's difficult to find evidence to support any of the current ed psych models of learning styles; second, it's difficult to predict what approaches would or would not enhance learning for those styles if they do exist. Yet, most K-12 and Higher Ed professional development and best practices include advice or requirements to address learning styles. 

I think this is because we all get the sense that something like this is at work in how we learn and that people do learn differently. After a lifetime of being a whiz at all standardized tests, verbal or quantitative, but a total doofus in a laboratory setting (what is it that you people are seeing through that microscope???), I was faced with my first real learning challenge when trying to learn my husband's family's language: Kannada. There's no Rosetta stone, and they don't use our alphabet. Since my only path to learning it seemed to be through my ears, I came to realize- I don't learn well that way. I learn through reading and understanding written symbols. Lucky for me our entire education system has been heavily weighted towards learners like me. If we were still in the days of Socrates' preferred oral tradition, I may have been labeled a slow learner early on. 

I am highly conscious of this as an instructional designer and look for ways to make sure that information is presented in a variety of ways. However, looking at the specific inventories and models presented by Ally in this article is not too helpful since these models have not been well-supported in research. 

5) Ally presents some additional information on motivating learners by including the two stalwarts of this body of research: intrinsic v extrinsic and Keller's ARCS model. I want to add a caveat to the C, for Confidence, in Keller's model. Yes, success helps build learners' confidence, but how many of you remember with absolute clarity every answer you got wrong in your learning endeavors? I know for me, getting it wrong or feeling conflicted about new information tends to increase my chances of storing information in my long term memory. I like to build in ways for learners to be surprised by something they hadn't considered or to even feel irritated or annoyed at points. Our competitive sides can often be motivated from a sense of failure as well as success.

6) I was surprised by Ally's comment that lectures are only instructor-centered in traditional classrooms and that this is no longer an issue in online classrooms because learners encounter content "first-hand." Yes, many online facilitators have moved away from lectures, but many still include them. In my experience of reviewing 200+ faculty-developed online courses at a state university over the last 5 years, I'd estimate at least 50% are still including recorded lectures. Plus, even those faculty who become more like "curators" of outside content instead of presenting their own lectures, are still choosing and framing information through their perspectives and expertise. This is a primary role of the faculty. It is also a responsibility of faculty to design ways for students to personalize the information in both traditional and online classrooms. I think Ally's comparison is false here.

All in all this was an impressive feat of compiling the dense learning theory basis for current online learning guidelines and best practices. 

  

Known knowns & Unknown unknowns

Last year I was invited to give a presentation at the Center for Instructional Innovation at Georgia State University. This presentation was for faculty who want to improve the quality of their online discussions. I pulled together some strategies I have used over the years- many prompted by faculty development workshops I have attended at the University of Phoenix Online.

The central point of this presentation is to take advantage of the archive created by an online asynchronous discussion to move classroom conversations past the first fits and starts. Have your ultimate goal in mind and learn from the discussions how to move your students towards those revelations.

Here is the presentation:

Known knowns & unknown unknowns from Roxanne Russell

How Thiagi helped me catch a thief

A few weeks ago I was excited about an upcoming dinner date with Thiagi (to know him is to love him, to not know him is a shame- Google him). I wanted to look back in my blog to a couple of entries I had made about him- one from an interview he granted the first time I met him and the second from a webinar I attended of his. Rather than tediously looking through each post and to narrow from the general search term "Thiagi", I decided to Google a phrase I remembered writing in one of my blog posts "good results can come from barely listening to Thiagi."

Turns out I had never Googled an exact quote from my blog before, and my search results were surprising. I found my blog post. But I also found another blog post EXACTLY like it. So I followed the link to a blog that had reproduced every single one of my blog posts for the last 7 years. The blog had a different title, different format and 4 additional posts that were not mine, but otherwise, a complete reproduction of my blog.

 My first step was to ask about the problem on a Blogger discussion board. A helpful community member posted links about how to handle copyright infringement on Blogger within minutes. I followed the steps I found on the link and asked that the other blog be disabled. After several e-mails back and forth, and a tedious process of providing every single url of my original content and the infringing content, MOST of the infringing content is no longer accessible. I appreciate this quick action.

But will I ever get to fill in the blanks? Who did this? When? Why? Can I sue for damages? What would those damages be?

Do you have any experience with this type of situation you can share with me?

Social Networking Tools to Support a Community of Practice in China

This post offers a summary of a project with L. Roxanne Russell, David E. Stone, Qi Wang & Xiaoxue Wang. A presentation of this material is available to subscribers at http://editlib.org/noaccess/34352.

Introduction

In 2006, a Chinese professional organization in the field of conservation education , Chinese Conservation Educators Association (CCEA)*, joined with a conservation-education organization , US Conservation Educators Association (USCEA)*, in the US to begin a nationwide professional development program in the People’s Republic of China.  Prior to the launch of this joint-initiative, no professional development program existed for this group of Chinese professionals. The goals of this program were to develop and support a network of professional educators who have the skills, knowledge and tools to promote their conservation missions through education. 

USCEA is currently focusing its efforts on training a core group of graduates who have demonstrated passion and commitment towards furthering the profession with the long-term goal that they will take ownership of future content and be prepared to lead the ongoing development of the profession in China. US and Chinese members of this joint-initiative invited the authors of this paper, instructional technology researchers and practitioners, to assist with their efforts to offer social networking tools in support of building and maintaining a community of practice among these professionals. From a design-based research perspective, findings from qualitative data collection in naturalistic settings are shared about habits, trends and barriers to the use of social networking in professional development in China discovered in this case.

Theoretical Framework

Wenger & Snyder (2000) define communities of practice as “groups of people informally bound together by shared expertise and passion for a joint enterprise.” Wenger (2002) presents the case of a transgovernmental community sponsored by the World Bank where this perspective evolved over time as those responsible for knowledge management acknowledged that “the areas where the knowledge-sharing system worked best were those in which there was a community of practitioners interacting on a regular basis, with a tradition of collaborating around problems and sharing knowledge” (p.2).  The community of practice framework is appropriate to how the participating organizations in this project envision their professional development program. Their goal is to build on existing groups that have that “shared expertise and passion” to learn and discuss topics essential to their conservation mission. Therefore, the approach to exploring the use of social networking tools for this project should correspond to a perspective of knowledge as “embedded in the community” as described by McLure-Wasko & Faraj (2000, p.160). Also, McDermott (1999) highlights the importance of using information technology to support communities that share knowledge, emphasizing how technology can help organize, maintain, and distribute knowledge to others in the community.  

Methodology

Reeves, Herrington & Oliver (2005) describe the following characteristics of design-based research: “focus on broad-based, complex problems; integration of design principles with technological affordances for solutions; rigorous and reflective inquiry to test and refine innovative learning environments as well as to reveal new design principles; long-term engagement with constant refinement of protocols and questions; intensive collaboration among researchers and practitioners; and commitment to theory construction & explanation while solving real-world problems.” Qualitative data was gathered in a naturalistic way, reflecting the informal data gathering habits of practitioners in a real-world setting. Design participants were instructional technologists with practical and research experience, members of the CCEA and members of the USCEA. Notes from a face-to-face brainstorming meeting and virtual collaboration communications were collected from all participants from the early stages of researching and brainstorming possible solutions. Data was examined for habits, trends and barriers to the design of social networking tools for the purposes of this project.

Project Needs

At the outset of this collaboration, we established the following initial requirements of the social networking solution based on communications with the CCEA and USCEA teams:

• freely or very cheaply available on the web in China
• already popular in use in China
• includes an archive
• a tool we have the capability to help provide the support for in setting up, piloting & handing over.

With these basic and general guidelines, we began research into Chinese social networking habits and trends by searching both English and Chinese websites.


Chinese Internet Habits

Popular information available through the web emphasized the popularity of traditional bulletin-board systems with Chinese internet users (Web2Asia, 2008). The most popular identified bulletin board site was:

• Discuz:  http://www.discuz.net/

Chinese members of the collaboration team corroborated this information and also suggested that internet habits in China tended to favor instant messaging, in particular the use of QQ, a product offered by China’s largest Internet portal, Tencent. 

• QQ: www.qq.com/ 

One team member compared this habit to another communication habit in China, avoiding the use of voicemail. This widely-held impression has been supported in popular, trade and scholarly sources (Buckman, 2005; Park, Yang, & Lehto, 2007; Yan, 2003). These habits seemed to signal a preference for immediacy in communications.

The USCEA and CCEA teams had already established QQ communications among the professional network in China and appointed a facilitator; however, no formal activities or protocols had been established for using this system as part of the professional development program or building a community of practice. The team also wanted more features of a social network, not just instant messaging. No bulletin board system had been established for the professional network.


Chinese Social Networking Trends

When this project began, the most popular social networks available in China were:

• Xiaonei: http://www.xiaonei.com/ 
• Qzone: http://qzone.qq.com/   

The China Internet Network Information Center’s (2009) Statistical Report on Internet Development in China only mentions “social networking services” sites one time, in relation to shifts in blog trends: “a considerable number of grass-roots blogs transferred from professional blog operators to more interactive SNS (Social Networking Services) sites, which benefited blog update and growth” (p. 30).

The USCEA and CCEA teams were interested in exploring a possibility like Xiaonei in order to build a social network for professional development. However, members of these teams predicted a few barriers to the use of social networking for this group of professionals.


Barriers to Social Networking for this Professional Network

Participants were first concerned about workload and budget issues. Since members of the professional educators network were already participating in this network as volunteers, there was some concern that the extra load of maintaining and participating in the new network would become a burden on a few individuals. However, USCEA and CCEA team members expressed confidence that leaders in the network with appropriate skills were available and likely to be willing to perform such tasks for the group. 

Members of the CCEA team also displayed some reluctance to the use of bulletin board systems or social networking tools because of concerns about keeping records of unsupervised conversations and activities of this professional network through archived forums. The CCEA team falls under direct oversight of a Chinese Ministry that would need to approve archived web forums for this professional network; as predicted by the CCEA team, in the end, approval for such forums was not granted. 

Because of the team’s foresight in anticipating this barrier, however, we were able to offer suggestions for using the already established QQ forum to accomplish their professional development goals. We discussed the option of implementing a scheduled curriculum for synchronous chat sessions through QQ on topics related to professional development. The teams decided this was an appropriate plan to work around the current barriers and began immediately to plan the curriculum. 

Conclusion

The early stage of this collaboration to explore technology solutions for supporting this community of practice offers some insight into the habits, trends and barriers of social networking for professionals in China. We discovered broad-based cultural preferences for immediacy in communications in China as well as differences in adoption trends towards social networking sites. Finally, we found systemic issues related to establishing a social network for professionals in China to be more restrictive than in the US. Future projects and research in this area need to explore such barriers more specifically to begin to find solutions for working within this system to offer technological solutions for building communities of practice in China.   

*For the purposes of anonymity, these groups names have been changed.

References

Buckman, R. (2005, December 1). Why the Chinese hate to use voice mail. Wall Street Journal.

China Internet Network Information Center. (2009). Statistical Report on Internet Development in China. Retrieved from: http://www.cnnic.cn/uploadfiles/pdf/2009/10/13/94556.pdf

McDermott, R. (1999) How information technology inspired, but cannot deliver knowledge management. California Management Review.

Park, J., Yang, S. & Lehto, X. (2007) Adoption of Mobile Technologies for Chinese Consumers. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 8, 196 - 206.

Reeves, T.C., Herrington, J., & Oliver, R. (2005). Design research: A socially responsible approach to instructional technology research in higher education. Journal of Computing and Higher Education, 16(2), 97-116.

Siwal. (2008, January 17). So where’s China in the world of Social networking Sites – Facebook, MySpace. TechRadar Blog. Message posted to: http://techradar1.wordpress.com/2008/01/17/so-wheres-china-in-the-world-of-facebook-myspace/

Wasko, M.M. & Faraj, S. (2000). “It is what one does”: why people participate and help others in electronic communities of practice. Journal of Strategic Information Systems 9 (2/3), 155–173.

Web2Asia. (2008) Online Social Networks in China [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from: http://www.slideshare.net/web2asia/web2asia-online-social-networks-in-china-presentation

Wenger, E. (2002) Ayuda Urbana: a constellation of communities of practice focused on urban issues and challenges in Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean region. Case study written for the BEEP Project of the European Union, www.beep-eu.org, Case 333.

Wenger, E. and Snyder, W. (2000) Communities of practice: the organizational frontier. Harvard Business Review. January-February, pp. 139-145.

Yan, X. (2003). Mobile data communications in China. Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery 46(12), 80-85.

Culture, Values & Ethical Standards

This post summarizes research and reflections on cultural dynamics in values and ethical standards related to education.

Several researchers have provided critical analysis of educational or pedagogical values across cultures (Bentley, Tinney & Chia, 2004; Ku, Pan, Tsai, Tao & Cornell, 2004; Loewer, 2003; Zhang, 2010). These analytical approaches often rely on literature review and reports of historical and current trends to frame characterizations of learning cultures defined by national, regional or tribal boundaries. Zhang (2010) defines learning culture as “historically-rooted attributes related to learning and education carried by an identifiable community. These cultural attributes are demonstrated as collective, intuitive understanding of what learning is about and how it should be practiced” (p. 232). In this body of literature, these learning culture characterizations are often offered to describe behaviors of learners and inform educational initiatives in these contexts or to advocate for resistance to the imposition of outside learning culture influences. In Young’s (2009) CBM model cultural beliefs and values are included as an element of the psychology of culture and defined as “the ideals, principles, or standards” that “evolved historically from the various social and economic contexts in a society” (p.235).  

Along with attention to culture in educational or pedagogical values, there is also a discussion in the instructional design field about the challenges of establishing ethical standards across cultures. There is consensus in this discussion that uniform rules for any online community should reflect a compromise and negotiated set of standards for that community (Bradshaw, Keller, & Chen, 2003; Dodig-Crnkovic & Horniak, 2006; Hergert, 2003; Marchessou, 2001). However, often this is not the case; rather rules are often established through power and to benefit those who are in power.  Bradshaw, Keller and Chen (2003) suggest that “the cultural and social-power position of the ethics code creators, within both local and global contexts, and the cultural distribution and representation of individuals charged with making decisions regarding ethical standards, are important factors in considering the applicability of a code of ethics to an international community” (p. 18). Bradshaw et al. frame their discussion of power relations with the term “cultural capital” which they define as “symbolic power based on a variety of factors related to social status and cultural ascendancy” (p. 15). Young’s (2009) CBM model includes attention to cultural capital as an element of the anthropology of culture but takes a more narrow view of this construct as part of the economics of a society or culture with a focus on production, distribution and consumption characteristics of a culture or target learner. 

Bentley, J.P.H., Tinney, M.V. & Chia, B.H. (2004) Intercultural Internet-Based Learning:

Know Your Audience and What It Values. Educational Technology Research & Development, 53(2), 117-127.

Bradshaw, A.C., Keller, C.O. & Chen C. (2003). Reflecting on ethics, ethical codes, and

relevance in an international instructional technology community. Tech Trends, 47(6) 12-18.

Dodig-Crnkovic, G. & Horniak, V. (2006). Togetherness and respect: Ethical concerns of privacy in global web societies. AI & Society, 20, 372-383.

Hergert, T. (2003) Consultant's dilemmas: Trust, ethics, and effective practice across cultures. TechTrends, 47(6), 26-33.

Ku, H., Pan, C.,Tsai, M., Tao, Y. & Cornell, R.A. (2004) The impact of instructional technology interventions on Asian pedagogy. Educational Technology Research & Development, 52(1), 88-92.

Loewer, A. (2003). Preserving, restoring, integrating: Educational practices of the Yanomamo, Ojibway, and Aborigines in contemporary society. Educational Technology Research & Development, 51(2), 83-87.

Marchessou, F. (2001). Some ethical concerns in ed-tech consultancies across borders. Educational Technology Research & Development, 48(4), 110-114.

Young, P.A. (2009). Instructional design frameworks and intercultural models. Hershey, PA: IGI Global/Information Science Publishing.

Zhang, J. (2010). Technology-supported learning innovation in cultural contexts. Educational Technology Research and Development, 58, 229-243.

Notes on Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I made the final decision to pursue a PhD in Instructional Technology, I read this book in the months before starting as a way of plunging into the study of education. I don't think I could have chosen any better- excellent!

My book notes:

Section 1: On the different species of philosophy

In this section Hume distinguishes philosophy for the sake of philosophy from applied philosophy. He wishes to argue for a more scientific approach to exploring "human understanding."

p. 2 If they can discover some hidden truths which may contribute to the instruction of posterity.
p. 5 defines metaphysics as the "absolute rejection of all profound reasonings
p. 6 of any art or profession: "a spirit of accuracy carries all of them nearer their perfection, renders them more subservient to the interests of society"
p. 8 the mind is endowed with several powers and faculties, that these powers are distinct from each other, that what is really distinct to the immediate perception may be distinguished by reflexion: and consequently, that there is a truth and falsehood, which lie not beyond the compass of human understanding. There are many obvious distinctions of this kind, such as those between the will and understanding, the imagination and passions, which fall within the comprehension of every human creature; and the finer and more philosophical distinctions are no less real and certain, though more difficult to be comprehended.

Section 2: Of the origin of ideas

In this section, Hume distinguishes thoughts and ideas from sensory impressions.

p. 13 the less forcible and lively are commonly denominated Thoughts or Ideas--- impression- all our more lively perceptions, when we hear, or see, or feel, or love, or hate, or desire, or will. And impressions are distinguished from ideas, which are less lively perceptions, of which we are conscious, when we reflect on any of those sensations or movements above mentioned.
p. 13-14 creative power of the mind amounts to no more than the faculty compounding, transposing, augmenting, or diminishing the materials afforded us by the sense and experience.
p. 16 When we entertain, therefore, any suspicion that a philosophical term is employed without any meaning or idea (as is but too frequent), we need but enquire, from what impression is that supposed idea derived? And if it be impossible to assign any, this will serve to confirm our suspicion."

Section 3 Of the association of ideas

In this brief section, Hume proposes three categories for defining association between ideas: resemblance, contiguity in time or place and cause or effect-- three principles of connexion

p. 18 But that this enumeration is complete and that there are no other principles of association except these, may be difficult to prove to the satisfaction of the reader, or even to a man's own satisfaction. All we can do, in such cases, is to run over several instances, and examine carefully the principle which binds the different thoughts to each other, never stopping till we render the principal as general as possible

Section 4 Sceptical doubts concerning the operations of the understanding

Part 1

Relations of ideas: geometry, algebra, arithmetic

Propositions of this type are discoverable by the mere operation of thoughts, without dependence on what is anywhere existent in the universe

Matters of Fact

p. 20 All reasonings concerning matter of fact seem to be founded on the relation of cause and effect- near or remote, direct or collateral

What is the nature of that evidence which assures us of any real existence and matter of fact, beyond the present testimony of our senses, or the records of our memory?

p. 20 causes and effects are discoverable, not by reason but by experience

p. 24 the utmost effect of human reason is to reduce the principles, productive of natural phenomena, to a greater simplicity, and to resolve the many particular effects into a few general causes, by means of reasonings from analogy, experience and observation

Part 2
What is the nature of all our reasonings concerning matter of fact?
-founded on the relation of cause and effect

What is the foundation of all our reasonings and conclusions concering that relation?
-experience

What is the foundation of all conclusions from experience?
-all influences from experience suppose that the future will resemble the past and that similar powers will be conjoined with similar sensible qualities

Section 5 Sceptical solution of these doubts

Part 1

p. 36 Reason is incapable of such variation. The conclusions which it draws from considering one circle are the same which it would form upon surveying all the circles in the universe.
All inferences from experience are effects of custom, not of reasoning.

Part 2

Belief

p. 39 nothing but a more vivid, lively, forcible, firm, steady conception of an object, than what the imagination alone is ever able to attain
p. 41 customary conjunction of the object with something present ot the memory or senses
p. 42 Sensible objects have always a greater influence on the fancy than any other; and this influence they readily convey to those ideas to they are related, and which they resemble.

Section 6 Of probability

p. 47 There are some causes, which are entirely uniform and constant in producing a particular effect; and no instance has ever yet been found of any failure or irregularity in their operation... but there are other causes which have been found more irregular and uncertain
p. 48 Though we give the preference to that which has been found most usual, and believe that this effect will exist, we must not overlook the other effects, we must not overlook the other effects, but must assign to each of them a particular weight and authority, in proposition as we have found it to be more or less frequent.

Section 7 Of the idea of necessary connexion

p. 50 There are no ideas, which occur in metaphysics, more obscure and uncertain than those of power, force, energy or necessary connexion, of which it is every moment necessary for us to treat in all our disquisitions.
p. 51 all our ideas are nothing but copies of our impressions, or, in other words, that it is impossible for us to think of anything, which we have not antecedntly felt, either by our external or internal senses
p. 52 external objects are they appear to the sense, give us no idea of power or necessary connexion
p. 62 one object connected with another -- they have acquired a connexion in our thought and give rise to this influence, by which they become proof of each other's existence

Section 8 Of liberty & necessity

Part 1

p. 66 the economy of the intellectual system or region of spirits
p. 67 Beyond the constant conjunction of similar objects, and the consequent influence from one to the other, we have no notion of any necessity or connexion
p. 74 It seems almost impossible, therefore, to engage either in science or action of any kind without acknowledging the doctrine of necessity, and this inference from motive to voluntary actions, from characters to conduct.
p. 76 particular objects are constantly conjoined together, and that the mind is carried, by a customary transition, from the appearnce of one to the belief of the other.
p. 78 By liberty... we can only mean a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will
p. 79 There is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than in philosophical disputes, to endeavor the refutation of any hypothesis, by a pretence of its dangerous consequences to religion or morality.

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Cultural considerations in collaboration and communication

This post reviews IDT literature on cultural dynamics related to collaboration and communication in learning teams and online settings. For example, Paulus et al. (2005) address the challenges of teams of international students working on project-based learning activities in a study exploring “whether or how one component of culture, power distance, could provide insight into group dynamics” (p.43). Paulus et al. (2005) take a case study approach and collect data through observation, interview and questionnaire data, and analyzed using an affinity diagram technique to organize. The participants are members of an elective course in graduate design at a large Midwestern university in the US, including both US and international students. Paulus et al. (2005) discuss the results in relation to Hofstede’s two levels of power distance: low and high. They described the activities of the groups and cross-referenced with low or high power distance indicators to show where groups fell in different group dynamic topics, e.g. roles, decision-making, etc.  They found that low power distance was revealed within group interactions of international students and high power distance was revealed in inter-group conflict between international students and US students. Ku and Lohr (2003) also rely on Hofstede’s dimensions to examine cultural influences in the online learning environment. Problems associated with the use of Hofstede’s dimensions will be discussed later in this literature review. Young’s (2009) CBM model addresses group dynamics with attention to cultural relations, providing questions for guided inquiry of how learners relate to each other.
Burniske (2003) takes a case study approach to examine an online community of educators in Ghana and Uganda, finding that communication issues related to culture were a challenge: “Participants confronted myriad challenges, including a cultural bias with respect to questions and criticism (two fundamental activities in the telecollaborative process), which predisposed them to consider such gestures ‘impolite’ among strangers” (p. 107). In a case study of intercultural online communications between US and Taiwanese college students, Shih & Cifeuntes (2003) found “six intercultural issues and phenomena during [e-mail] exchanges: a) the need for visual images, b) bewilderment of Taiwanese students, c) excessive expressions of gratitude of Taiwanese students, (d) disparate expectations, (e) direct versus indirect writings, and (f) misinterpretation” (p. 86). Young’s (2009) model provides extensive attention to cultural communications, defined as the exchange or transmission of information, and provides levels of inquiry on this topic that include: language, nonverbal and verbal; writing; temporal communications; visual communications; and semiotics, signs and symbols.


References

Burniske, R.W. (2003). East Africa Meets West Africa: Fostering an Online Community of Inquiry for Educators in Ghana and Uganda. Educational Technology Research & Development, 51(4), 106-113.

Hofstede, G. (1984). National cultures and corporate cultures. In L.A. Samovar & R.E. Porter (Eds.), Communication Between Cultures. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Ku, H. Y., & Lohr, L. L. (2003). A case study of Chinese students’ attitudes toward their
first online learning experience. Educational Technology Research and Development, 51(3), 95-102.

Paulus, T. M., Bichelmeyer, B., Malopinsky, M.P. & Rastogi, P. (2005). Power distance and group dynamics of an international project team: a case. Teaching in Higher Education, 10(1), 43-55.

Shih, Y.D. & Cifuentes, L. (2003) Taiwanese intercultural phenomena and
issues in a United States–Taiwan telecommunications partnership. Educational Technology, Research & Development, 51(3), 82-102.

Young, P.A. (2009). Instructional design frameworks and intercultural models. Hershey, PA: IGI Global/Information Science Publishing.

Review of Theatetus of Plato on Goodreads

Theatetus of Plato by Plato
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So if I write down everything my teacher says and publish it, I get to be the author?

Is knowledge perception? 1) Theaterus' claim
2) Protagorus' doctrine that man is the measure of all things 3) Heraclitus' theory of flux

---> supports Platonic doctrine that true reality is a non sensible realm of changeless being "The Forms"

Critique of three theses
1) each man is the measure of his own wisdom
2) everyone is equally wise
3) there is no such thing as wisdom
4) no one is wiser than anyone else

-------
3 stages
1) Development of ideas
2) Maturity of ideas
3) Metaphysical Truth

This work represents potential & intelligence

Recent scholarship questions whether The Theatetus is an intentionally deceptive dialogue ----> Socrates is less consistent & this may be intentional for reader to be engaged in the challenge

Plato does not allow for perceptions because they are sensory dependent

Theory of Recollection - you already had all the knowledge & it got scattered at birth.


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Review of Ecological Thinking on Good Reads

Ecological Thinking: The Politics of Epistemic Location by Lorraine Code
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In Ecological Thinking: The Politics of Epistemic Location, Code (2006) frames her philosophy of “ecological thinking” in reverent analysis of Rachel Carson’s methods in works like Silent Spring. She calls Carson a “practitioner of a practical ecology reliant on ‘empirical generalizations’,” yet also dependent on “narrow and precise local hypotheses.” She characterizes this method as “living the tension… working back and forth between an instituted, rhetorically monitored scientific orthodoxy and an attentive respect for particularity that is subversive of many of the fundamental assumptions of scientific orthodoxy.” She then builds an argument around such negotiations of empiricism. Code seeks to articulate an epistemology and accompanying methods/methodologies “capable of generating and adjudicating knowledge both about the factuality of the physical/material world and about a social order whose epistemic assumptions are complicit in sustaining its own positive and negative enactments” (p.97). Finally, she proposes an epistemology that assumes “statements of fact indeed acquire or fail to achieve factual status situationally according to the patterns of authority and expertise constitutive of the institution(s) of knowledge production in whose discursive spaces they circulate and within whose praxes they are constituted and embedded” (p. 99).


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ICTs in Emerging Economies

This post explores analysis and findings in research literature that points to a need for more flexibility and attention to culture in the process of instructional design and integration of instructional technology in emerging economies.

In reflecting on a previously conducted survey, Zhang and Shin (2002) compare the open and distance education models of China, India and Hong Kong. This study considers types of courses, delivery methods, student demographics, including gender and access, funding and staffing. They also show that India’s flagship open learning institution (IGNOU) is primarily staffed by part-time adjunct faculty and that ICT initiatives lag behind the other two countries. These researchers conclude that the China’s program is indigenous and Hong Kong and India’s are imported. 

In “Taking Ownership: Strengthening Indigenous Cultures and Languages Through the Use of ICTs” Lieberman (2003) considers the dynamics of using ICTs for the benefit of indigenous cultural causes. He develops this overview by starting from the broad perspective of the impact of globalization on indigenous cultures then narrowing his focus to the impact of ICTs. Though Lieberman acknowledges both actual and potentially negative consequences of ICTs on indigenous cultures, his aim in this article is to identify examples of positive initiatives and explore the potential for further use and benefits. He highlights indigenous culture ICT initiatives for community building, language revitalization, education, commerce and environmental protection and considers these initiatives with attention to policy, capacity building, usage and implementation. Throughout the article, Lieberman emphasizes the imperative of indigenous empowerment, self-determination and ideological sustainability in order to reach positive ends through ICTs.

Lieberman does not only focus on the use of ICTs in education, yet his examples of political and economic uses still lie in a form of education- the dissemination of information. By grounding his examples in the broader discussion of the impact of globalization and ICTs on indigenous cultures, Lieberman (2003) highlights some of the central questions about the socio-cultural implications of educational technology. Does widespread use of ICTs:  Encourage homogenization of cultures? Replace indigenous forms of learning or the wisdom of tradition and elders? Reinforce detrimental economic hegemonies? His answer to these questions seems to be, “Possibly”; however, he states, “it is preferable to take a pro-active and culturally sensitive approach to technology introduction.” The argument he makes in this article is that 1) the use of ICTs is already widespread and inevitable, and 2) policies towards productive and positive uses of ICTs may mediate the potential for negative consequences. 

In the context of higher-education, Ezer (2006) interviews faculty and students in India to get an impression of the attitudes towards ICTs and ICTs in education in India. Ezer explores what Indian faculty and students believe to be the purpose of ICT. In particular, he poses the question of whether ICT and ICT education should work towards the benefit of individuals or society. He lays the groundwork for his findings about attitudes towards ICT and ICT education by discussing the authority dependent roots of the educational system in India. He concludes that students and faculty show optimism about ICT and seem to have whole heartedly adopted the Western model of individualistic, rational and imperialistic success. He uses his conclusion to claim that this model does not follow Ghandian philosophy. Ezer’s research is particularly relevant to the case in this research because attitudes towards ICTs by faculty and students in India interact significantly with the purpose of the training program, the students’ experience in the training program and the potential market for the i3Dv product.   

In a chapter on African Education Perspectives on Culture and E-learning Convergence, Kinuthia (2007) highlights the complexities of encountering culture in e-learning environments while stressing its importance as a factor in design decisions. Resistant to prescriptive models, she proposes acknowledgement of the multiple perspectives involved for “jointly-negotiated advances” in e-learning. 

 Research on distance education in the global context also provides insight from nations with developed economies, revealing the same need for attention to culture (Marchessou, 1999). For example, in a chapter for the Handbook of Distance Education reviewing literature on “Learning in a Global Society,” Visser (2007) characterizes cognition as a complex “ecological phenomenon” (p.641). He explores implications of global diversity on learning networks and discusses implications for interinstitutional collaboration. Albrechtsen, Mariger and Parker (2001) review the history and current trends of distance education in Europe and Japan and emphasize the challenges of language and cultural differences in Europe, calling it a “Babel effect” (p.109).

References

Albrechtsen, K., Mariger, H. & Parker, C. (2001). Distance Education and the Impact of

Technology in Europe and Japan. Educational Technology Research & Development, 49(3), 107-114.

Ezer, J. (2006). Gandhi's third assassination: Information and communications technology education in India. Information Technology for Development, (12)3, 201-212.

Kinuthia, W. (2007). African Education Perspectives on Culture and E-learning Convergence. In A. Edmundson (Ed.) Globalized e-learning cultural challenges (pp. 60-72). Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing.

Lieberman, A.E. (2003). Taking ownership: Strengthening indigenous cultures and languages through the use of ICTs. Retrieved February 11, 2008 from Learnlink website:

Marchessou, F. (2001). Some ethical concerns in ed-tech consultancies across borders. Educational Technology Research & Development, 48(4), 110-114.

Visser, J. (2007). Learning in a global society. In M. G. Moore (Ed.), Handbook of Distance Education (Second Edition ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Culture and educational psychology constructs

This post summarizes educational psychology constructs that have been examined in the IDT literature with attention to cross-border or cross-cultural dynamics. 

In looking at components of motivation in a group of international distance education students, Visser, Plomp, Amirault and Kuiper (2002) use the ARCS model (attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction) to find that attempts to personally customize motivational messages for students was time-consuming and no more effective than collective messages. 

Gunawardena et al. (1996) used Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory to characterize the learning styles of adult learners in Open University students in Sri Lanka. Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory identifies learning styles as accommodator, diverger, converger or assimilator on a Cartesian coordinate polarizing concrete experience and abstract conceptualization and active experimentation and reflective observation.  Gunawardena et al. (1996) found the dominant learning style to be Assimilators and  posit that “the dominant Assimilator style to a certain degree reflects the traditional ways in which students are taught in Sri Lanka, in a face-to-face lecture-style classroom where the acquisition of theory, facts, and abstract knowledge is of primary concern” (p.117). However, they do acknowledge that “one of the questions that remains to be answered in order to better understand learning styles is related to the appropriateness of the LSI for this cultural context” (p. 116).  

As Tirri and Campbell (2010) point out in a discussion of the current state of cross-cultural research in education, “the flow of ideas on the psychological measurements is a one-way flood of American constructs” (p.20). 

Young’s (2009) CBM approach to psychology of culture allows for inductive analysis of learners in a particular situation through qualitative inquiry and avoids the problematic implications of applying psychological constructs across cultures.

Gunawardena, C.N., Jayatilleke, G. & Lekamge, G.D. (1996). Learning style of the open university students of Sri Lanka. Educational Technology Research and Development, 44(1), 115-120.

Tirri, K. & Campbell, J.R. (2010). Current trends and dilemmas in cross-cultural research. In D.K. Sharpes (Ed.), Handbook on International Studies in Education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.

Visser, L., Plomp, T., Amirault, R.J., & Kuiper, W. (2002). Motivating students at a distance: The case of an international audience. Educational Technology Research and Development, 50(2), 94-110.

Young, P.A. (2009). Instructional design frameworks and intercultural models. Hershey, PA: IGI Global/Information Science Publishing.

Young's Culture Based Model

This post will provide a summary of Patricia Young's Culture Based Model for Instructional Design taken from her groundbreaking and useful guide, Instructional design frameworks and intercultural models (2009). 

So far, one of the most comprehensive design frameworks with attention to culture in the process of instructional design has been offered by Young in her body of work from 1999-2009. Young finds that methods of integrating culture in design are limited in scope: “design has not caught up with technology and that to create for diverse audiences the process must be deliberate… the integration of culture in the design of ICTs will require novel ways of engaging the design process” (2008, p.14).  Young (2009) seeks to establish culture as a design construct. First, she establishes that design is a deliberate, creative, social action that generates meaning and that “design constructs function to explain, predict and interpret design related data” (p.26). Then, she proposes that “culture is a design” that is also a creative, social act that generates meaning and order (p.26). She sees this as a semiotic relationship that should be acknowledged in design frameworks.

Young offers the Culture-Based Model (CBM) with the acronym ID_TABLET: inquiry, development, team, assessments, brainstorming, learners, elements, and training with 70 design factors tied to these features (see Figure 1). As part of the ID-TABLET framework, she lists twenty-five elements that “can be used to understand, define or evaluate the target audience” in three categories: anthropology of culture, psychology of culture and science of culture (p.64).

Figure 1 Young’s (2009) Culture Based Model

Inquiry

Genre

Framing

Omission

Backgrounding

Foregrounding

Visual Representations

Development

Consider technical, aesthetic, content, culture-based, and target audience design specifications.

Mass distribution formats.

Effective technology.

Diversify ICT format.

Understand target audience.

Explore environmental and individual/group cultures.

Quality design.

Authenticate product.

Control for interference.

Model the product or process.

Team

Cultural expert.

Enlist educators.

Culturally informed team.

Assessments

Multiple evaluation options.

Assess the assessment.

External review.

Culture-specific assessments.

Brainstorming

Financial support.

Pilot studies/field tests of product.

Assess community’s response.

Community representative on team.

Investigate target audience to authenticate product.

Reflect and assess learning goals.

Affordable design.

Meet needs of target audience.

Discuss and consider cultural context.

Present and consider outcomes.

Learners

Extend learning.

Differentiate opportunities to learn.

Empower and engage learners.

Teach proactive learning.

Identify educational objectives.

Culture-specific instructional strategies.

Enrich instructional content.

Adapt instruction to learner.

Plan for instruction.

Enculturate the learner.

Elements

Anthropology of culture

Cultural aesthetics

Cultural artifacts

Cultural capital

Cultural classification

Cultural communications

Cultural demographics

Cultural environment

Cultural history

Cultural knowledge

Cultural language

Cultural physiology

Cultural relations

Cultural resources

Psychology of culture

Cultural beliefs and values

Cultural experiences

Cultural ideas

Cultural identity

Cultural interests

Cultural misconceptions

Cultural ways

Science of culture

Cultural anomalies

Cultural cultures

Cultural futures

Cultural infinities

Cultural nature

Training

Product training.

Culture-based training.

Note. Quoted from Young (2009) pages 41-45.

Young (2009) emphasizes that her work maintains the traditional definition of instructional design, citing Reigeluth’s (1983) emphasis on systematic processes and measurability and explaining that these processes are “grounded in the generic system” of the ADDIE model (p. xv). She proposes to fill the gap where a “comprehensive framework to align culture with the ADDIE model has not been available” (p. xv).  In the Foreword to Young’s book, Instructional Design Frameworks and Intercultural Models, Richey (2009) calls Young’s model an “over-lay model, one which adds the cultural component to a somewhat traditional ID model” (p. ix). However, she also says that Young’s model is “compatible with a systemic (rather than a systematic) view of the world” (p.xi). Young’s work is new and cannot yet claim to have empirical support evaluating the effectiveness of what it prescribes to designers; however, Richey (2009) declares that Young’s model is supported by rock-solid research. Young’s method for developing the model is grounded in empirical observation and qualitative analysis of instructional design artifacts.