The educational technology services group at Pennsylvania State will be exploring how we use wearable technologies like the Apple Watch to help students think about and reflect on how they learn. Collecting data while this happens is perhaps one of the best ideas proposed so far for using the Apple Watch in learning environments. The research will use the Apple Watch as a reflective tool to capture how the students are engaging with their classmates, the content and the learning environment in general. The researchers posit that because the watch is worn it doesn’t have to be interacted with in the same way as the iPhone so it will not get in between what is being taught and the learner.
It will be interesting to see what this “Fitbit” type of measurement will reveal. Measuring performance with wearable devices like the Fitbit or the more advanced Freelap is central to speed training in many different sports. Coaches and athletes in these discipline are always looking for that competitive edge and understand that what gets measured gets improved.
Looking at new technologies and ways to enhance learning is always beneficial, but not everyone holds this belief. The comments section on the post is filled with the typical detractions:
Just another gimmick and with zero influence on student outcomes.
Wouldn’t it be nice if teachers and administrators (and the Chronicle) focused their resources (and our time) on the bread-and-butter of teaching and learning, instead of jumping on every gadgety distraction that comes along?
What about the thousands and thousands who do not have disposable income to waste on the latest trendy consumer status symbol?
I lived through the Mobile Learning initiative at Abilene Christian University several years ago where we pioneered using the iPhone and then iPads in the learning environment and since I started teaching fully online back in 1996 I have already heard all these criticisms and many more, so I am not surprised by all the detractors. Online learning, blended learning, mobile learning and now wearable learning all have one thing in common: a group of dedicated educators who are willing to explore how technology can be used to enhance the learning environment. If we really want progress then we need to keep up this spirit of exploration.
This reminds me of the proverb:
Those that say it can’t be done should get out of the way of those doing it.
If you have been around school of any level for the past 20 – 30 years or more you may have noticed that there are all kinds of learning. The following list is just a very short snapshot of the past 25 years and is by no means complete or is it chronological:
Flexible Learning
Digital Learning
Blended Learning
21st Century Learning
Mobile Learning
E-Learning
Virtual Learning
Online Learning
Distance Learning
Active Learning
Student-centred Learning
Problem-based Learning
Project-based Learning
Natural Learning
Mastery Learning
Social Learning
Discovery/Inquiry Learning
Experiential Learning
Case-based Learning
Scenario-based Learning
Situated Learning
Authentic Learning
Even when learning theorists place the different types of learning into one of the follow four major paradigms:
Behaviorism,
Cognitivism,
Humanism,
Constructivism;
we are still left with a fundamental problem.
We focus on the type of learning and not the learning itself. There is an assumption with most educators that we have the learning part figured out and if we, for example, get the mobile, or digital, or flexible and so on… part right then everything will work just right. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.
It’s about the learning first–the type, approach or “ism” comes second.
Fortunately, the human being is one of the most amazing learning entities on this planet and as John Hattie points out in his book, Visible Learning, and various presentations, short of physical and psychological abuse, almost anything you do in the classroom will positively impact student achievement…the key is to figure out what promotes achievement.
I built my first blended learning course in 1994 and started teaching fully online in 1995 and in the past twenty years I have seen steady progress in the use and acceptance of online learning. Unfortunately, I have always been overly optimistic and have believed that well designed online learning could radically improve our educational systems. When the smartphone started to hit saturation levels in north america and mobile learning hit the peak of its hype cycle in 2010/11 I was further encouraged that the notion of “all the time and anywhere” learning had finally become widely accepted. The forward momentum of mobile learning was abruptly interrupted by the latest disruptor to higher education–MOOCS
MOOC Hype
The MOOC hype started in earnest in 2011 and was in full force with formation of Udacity, Coursera, edX and several other content/course delivery organizations in 2012. Many higher education administrators and proponents of the MOOC hype claimed that the disruptive aspect of MOOCs would not only change education but that it would bring an end to traditional education. Many of these claims are similar to the claims made in the mid 1990’s and early 2000’s when the online learning pioneers started to take advantage of the potential of the internet. The reality of immature learning management systems, poor or missing instructional design, abysmal completion rates (often in the single digits) and the high costs of MOOCs have significantly quenched the MOOC hype.
MOOCs are no longer considered a useful tool to learn about online pedagogy
MOOCs are not sustainable
Education costs, learning outcomes, and competency based education are much more important than MOOCs
The Babson survey also reveals that academic leaders believe that some aspects of online learning are positive:
Online education has become mission-critical, even at small colleges.
“Hybrid” courses are at least as good as face-to-face courses.
The survey reveals that most professors still don’t think online courses are legit so whether the adverse effects of the MOOC hype are a contributing factor or that faculty just have not learned how or received the professional development to build effective online learning environments, even in 2015 we still have a long way to go before online learning is fully accepted.
It doesn’t take much encouragement for me to share my passion for using YouTube to enhance the learning environment. In the YouTube in the Classroom workshop at the Learning and Teaching Centre at British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) on November 5, 2014 we explored using YouTube and other media to enhance the face2face, flipped, hybrid or blended and fully online settings.
The following are all the Youtube clips and related links used in the workshop:
Perhaps one of the best talks on learning & education – My favourite TED Talk
This just one of many TED talks that I recommend. If you go to TED.com and filter by “Most viewed” you will see Ken Robinson’s talks as well as Simon Sinek’s talk about Why and many more amazing talks.
My blog post The Power of Media in informal learning offers the insights that I have found in using media to help my two sons in their pursuit of becoming professional downhill racers.
Finally, to easily download video clips from youtube and embed them into your Powerpoint or Keynote programs (educational acceptable copyright permitting–check with your department or library) you can use the site clipconverter.cc
My professional learning plan is really not a plan but a commitment to a lifelong passion for learning. The following five steps are my best attempt of formalizing the process that I follow:
Analysis of diverse information sources for trends and opportunities
Intrinsic motivation – Starting with Why
Total immersion, real world experimentation, and application
Integration, sharing the results, and moving onto new opportunities
The following video captures the essence of my passion for learning that started at very early age .
Video Not Suited for School but Suited for Learning
“I spent most of my class time in a school library…total access to the schools educational technologies. In a very short time there wasn’t a book, filmstrip, record, recording watched or listen to. I was hooked. Those technologies became a gateway drug to a world of learning ; a world that I controlled.”
Historical Context
This passion for learning started well before I started elementary school and had it roots in the only readily available information database that most children in the late 50’s and early 60’s had access to in northern Alberta—the World Book encyclopedia. My parents purchased a complete set when I was just an infant and I learned how to read by first having my parents and siblings read to me from the encyclopedia and then by reading myself. By the time I had to go to school I could already read fluently and had worked my way through the encyclopedia up to the volume “T”. I was initially furious with having to go school because it interrupted my learning and I was required to work at the pace of my peers.
Because I was functioning at a very different level than the rest of my classmates I became a source of classroom distraction and spent most of my elementary and junior high years isolated either in the corner or back of the class and then eventually out in the hallway just outside the classroom door and then finally relegated to the school library or detention hall. On the positive, this isolation enabled me to breeze through my coursework and then spend the rest of my time exploring the world of information available through the school’s library and media resources. The other key positive aspect to these early years was that my horizons were significantly expanded by the the diversity of information that even this small town school library had to offer.
I am not able to identify a key moment when I realized that I could learn anything that I wanted but it is the way that I have been immersed in lifelong learning since a very early age. In my early years, this process of analysis, intrinsic motivation, immersion, experimentation and application and then integration and sharing enabled me to become proficient at outdoor survival, motorcycles, hockey (and many other sports), weight training, audio and photography and too many other interest to mention.
Analysis of information sources for trends and opportunities
I continued the process of information analysis in my early adulthood and by the time I started my academic career in the early 90’s I was able to apply this process more broadly and identified the emergence of the early internet, online learning the explosion of educational technologies. More recently I saw the emergence of smartphones and their potential for mobile learning and now am exploring the significance of the Internet of Things, Big Data and creating significant learning environments. The following list of posts point to examples of either reflection on the information analysis, trend spotting or the identification of some of my my favourite sources:
From my earliest memories I recall having an almost insatiable curiosity about everything in the world around me. This often got me into all sorts of trouble because this curiosity was also combined with a significant distrust of anything that I couldn’t personally validate or verify. Most teachers viewed this natural curiosity and desire to validate my knowledge as a lack of respect for authority. Fortunately, I was as strong enough or perhaps stubborn enough to deal with this daily conflict in school and by the time I got to high school followed the motto “I want to know what was – NOT what could have been”. As I have matured I have capitalized on strength of my intrinsic motivation for learning and learned to broaden the context of my desire to point that I am now able to effectively share my passion for learning with others. Simon Sinek’s argument in the famous TED Talk that people don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it has been the most recent media tool that I have used to help others to move toward the importance of starting with why.
The following post address the importance of intrinsic motivation and the importance of creating the right context for the learning environment by address the Why question:
Total immersion, real world experimentation and application
This is the place where I have moved from talking the talk to walking the walk. So many aspects of my personal and professional career are characterized by my total commitment to a real world application and experimentation. My doctoral work Development and Evaluation of Inquisitivism as a Foundational Approach for Web-Based Instruction involved the development of an approach for web-based instruction while I was teaching several courses online. My move to Abilene Christian University (ACU) represented and even more significant commitment to a real world application of mobile learning because it involved an entire University and then as the research work contintued two additional institutions. The ACU adoption cycle was fully realized once all students, faculty and staff were using a mobile device:
The following post provide examples of real world experimentation and application as well as several reflections on the lessons learned in these situations:
Integration, sharing the results, & moving onto new opportunity
Lessons learned are not valuable until they are shared with as many people as possible. I have shared my research and experiences with thousands people at hundreds of conferences, workshops, webinars, guest lectures and in the many classes that I have taught. In addition I have published many articles, chapters in books and have also been blogging about my experiences. The following links are to examples of work that I have shared over years and the many reflections and connections that I have made:
