Rewiring the LEARNING LANDSCAPE TC IS BREAKING NEW GROUND in APPLYING TECHNOLOGY to EDUCATION
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SPRING_2012 “GAMIFYING” THE CLASSROOM tcTODAY WHAT WE CAN The Magazine of Teachers College, Columbia University LEARN FROM ROBOTS THAT GET IT WRONG INTELLIGENT TEACHING: THE ART BELONGS TO DATA Rewiring the LEARNING LANDSCAPE TC IS BREAKING NEW GROUND IN APPLYING TECHNOLOGY TO EDUCATION cvr_COVER1_FINAL.indd 1 4/3/12 11:19 AM TACTILE SOFTNESS In our technology-driven era, even nature can be reduced to discussions of data and data access. But for Michelle Lee, a student in Richard Jochum’s Art & Art Education course “Field Work in Education,” both art and teaching are about the experience of the moment. In the assignment shown here, a visual representation of Lee’s teaching philosophy, she created a sculpture and then used a typical desktop scanner—a technology that generates light from within to expose an image (as opposed to a camera, which relies on external light)—to capture its two-dimensional image. Blogging about her work and where it came from, Lee writes, “I hope the form speaks to a mixture of textures and tensions...to the organic practice of teaching. I think the materials I used... remind us of the delicate yet strong stitching of our own experience.” INCOME FOR TODAY— ADVANCING EDUCATION FOR TOMORROW EARN UP TO ON YOUR MONEY NOW. Teachers College offers different planned giving opportunities that give you a generous return, and tax savings, plus an easy way to support the students, faculty and programs of TC. Your minimum gift of $10,000 to Teachers College as a single-life charitable gift annuity will give you xed income each year for life*. You also get a charitable tax deduction upfront and part of your annual income is considered tax-free for a number of years. For more information and a personalized, con dential draft calculation, please contact Louis Lo Ré, Director of Planned Giving at 212-678-3037, toll free at 866-782-4438 or [email protected]. Ask about TC’s Deferred Charitable Gift Annuity starting at age 45! For more from TC’s Art & Art Education Program, check out page 16, *BASED ON YOUR AGE WHEN THE ANNUITY IS CREATED. **ADJUSTED UPWARD BECAUSE OF TAX-FREE PORTION. TWO LIFE RATES WILL VARY. or visit www.tc.edu/a&h/ArtEd | | , - | . cvr_COVER_FINAL.indd 2 4/3/12 11:21 AM spring ’ features data mining in education Gold Rush! TC President Susan Fuhrman has convened an effort to bolster the field of educational data mining Pushing the Right Buttons Teachers have waged an eternal struggle to understand the learning issues of each individual student. Now technology is helping them do the job. Who knew? How Old Are You Now? Asking the right questions to assess math knowledge in young kids Learning Because We Want To Chuck Kinzer uses Cheap Data A reposito technology to understand the for information generated by the role of motivation in education new education technologies stands as a model for the field Helping Non-native Speakers Write Academic Why We Still Need English Soware that Humans Dept. States were taps emotions and explicates collecting a mountain of school a mysterious process data that no one looked at. Priscilla Wohlstetter is using it to learn Game for Learning what makes charter schools tick By “gamifying” science and other subjects, Joey Lee is getting students to take an active approach Robots That Get It to their learning Wrong To err is human— but machines can do it, too. Learning by Doing 2.0 Sandra Okita believes we can John Black and his students learn from their mistakes are leaders in exploring technology that makes use of grounded ON THE COVER Betting They’d cognition Photo illustration by Rather Play Than Smoke C.J. Burton/Corbis A digital game developed Learning From by TC students could help end Scratch A user-friendly design ISTOCKPHOTO that three-pack-a-day habit and programming language has gone viral, with help ...there’s more! from some advocates at TC → toc_contents.indd 1 4/3/12 11:23 AM spring ’ friend of tc tcTODAY Thinking It Through 5 @tc Jack Hyland is the adviser we’d all TC Today, The magazine of Spring 2012 Teachers College is like to have Volume 36, Number 2 produced by the Office News Copyright 2012 of Development and EPSA inaugurated; by Teachers External Affairs College, at Teachers College, new masters with Columbia Columbia University. Singapore; Bailey alumni focus University leads national com- TC Today Suzanne M. Murphy mittee on two-year Learning by Teaching is published , twice per year colleges; and more Daniel Schwartz has created by Teachers soware that puts students in College, Columbia (Ed.M., Organization Essays the driver’s seat University. & Leadership, 1999; Budin on expecta- M.A., 1996) tions; Varenne on Articles may Empirically Speaking be reprinted learning; McNulty on As President and COO of Wireless with the James L. Gardner schools of the future; permission of Generation, Josh Reibel the Office , and more has learned to follow the data of External Affairs. Giving Putting the World Please Supporting at Their Fingertips send alumni tc today staff students through class notes, Karen Gourgey champions the use letters to the Joe Levine the TC Fund of tactile maps and other tools editor, address changes and , that help people who are blind or other corre- visually impaired spondence to: Sheryl Hoffman TC Today , If at First You Office of External Affairs 56 Don’t Succeed... you may be 525 W. 120th alumni better for it, argues Manu Kapur St., Box 306 Erik Basil Spooner New York, NY news 10027 Sorting Out Who’s Who (212) 678-3412 Paul Acquaro Matthew Pittinsky and Parchment , News Inc. are revolutionizing the analysis [email protected] of academic credentials www.tc.edu (M.A., Instructional Alumni /today Technology, 2004) Association Putting Kids on the Case Patricia Lamiell To engage young people in learning, , Alumni Jack McGourty poses real-world Awards problems ranging from designing a Nomination robot to running a business Matthew Vincent Class Notes (De)Vice Squad Leader Hua-Chu Yen Nabeel Ahmad believes eveone has something to learn from mobile apps 72 Kalena Rosario last page editor’s note You’ll see throughout this Wendy Bermudez +issue, from cover to cover, that we’ve done a & Steven Kroll Alice Wilder little redecorating. Visit our website to read about our redesign, or drop us a line to share Learning Anytime, your thoughts: www.tc.edu/news/8444 Anywhere toc_contents.indd 2 4/3/12 11:23 AM PRESIDENT’S LETTER technologies that could give teachers insight into precisely what is going on in students’ minds as they grapple with a difficult math problem? What if technology could enable a teacher to help each student work at his or her own pace and receive individualized instruction and W attention? What if teachers could use technology to draw on the best work of other teachers and to keep parents up to date on whether and how well their children were completing assignments? What if technology could make all of our skilled teachers even better? Skepticism is understandable among readers who are old enough to recall the hype that accompanied the arrival of computers, television and even radio in classrooms. However, as you will discover in these pages, new adaptive education technologies and tools are being used with encouraging LOFI STUDIOS LOFI results at a small but growing number of schools around the country. At Teachers College, our work in this burgeoning eld of technology is This is a defining moment for a natural continuation of our legacy the future of education throughout the world. as pioneers in learner-centered, hands-on education. Theories of Technology is the new frontier, grounded cognition and learner decision-making advanced by and the time for exploration is now. current TC facul members such as John Black and Charles Kinzer build directly on the foundational ideas of John Dewey, E. L. Thorndike and others, who held that people learn by making sense, oen on the most tactile level, of their environment. Studies conducted by these researchers have shown that using adaptive education technologies can result in signicantly deeper understanding than simply reading information from a page. The intelligent technologies now coming into use also have another capabili that excites education researchers: By recording literally every keystroke that users make, the new tools generate a wealth of data about how people learn. That information ultimately will enable us to create better curricula and employ more effective teaching methods that are geared to the needs and strengths of each individual learner. Make no mistake: This is a dening moment for the future of education throughout the world. Technology is the new frontier, and the time for exploration is now. That is why we at TC are helping to lead high-powered discussions in academic circles and beyond on how best to capture, standardize and share the data mined from new technologies for the benet of all. We need to convince policymakers and the public at large of the great opportuni before us and of the critical need to make intelligent long-term investments in education technology. If we succeed, I believe that our efforts—and those of our colleagues around the world—will help to shape a new era in which teachers are empowered to help all students and learners of all ages reach their full potential. And that is no hype. (.., ’¢¢) WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING ltr_presltr.indd 3 4/3/12 11:23 AM First Editions Members of the TC Community in Print Looking Back On Life Virtual Virtue What games can teach us about making As It Could Be ethical decisions Robbie McClintock envisions an idyllic post-industrial world made possible by a digital commons games, and most people will talk about the violence in “Grand The Auto” or “Red Dead Redemption.” Robbie McClintock’s intriguing new book, Enough: But many games also require users to act for good or A Pedagogic Speculation, which is equal parts c- evil.