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. Make off with the loot or save the village? Be tion, anthropology and philosophy. the self-sacri cing hero—or grab for all you can get? Enough’s premise: It is 2162. Three generations “Play has always been a way to allow people to ex- have passed since “the Stabilization”—a leveling off periment with other perspectives, to reenact scenarios of the world’s population accompanied by a massive and possibilities, to practice collaborating and com- reaction against materialism, environmental endan- peting,” writes TC alumna Karen Schrier in the pref- germent, corporate fascism and the concentration ace to Designing Games for Ethics: Models, Techniques, of wealth and power among elites. Bickering nations and Frameworks, which she co-edited with David have been supplanted by a harmonious global Gibson (Premier Reference Source, 2011). “Games ci -state, and the marketplace by a “commons” of may be particularly well-suited to the practice and shared ideas and resources. People have become development of ethical thinking [because] they enable disillusioned with the imperative to produce and players to re¶ ect on their decisions and outcomes, consume. They live according to and allow them to consider the an ethos of “enough”—a moder- implications of their choices, ate zone where “honest equals… without many of the risks of care for natural resources, the real-world consequences.” human mind, and the social Both in this volume and its infrastructure.” predecessor, Ethics and Game McClintock, who retired last Design: Teaching Values through spring a er 44 years on TC’s Play, Schrier, Assistant Profes- facul , argued ¢ o years ago sor of Communication at Marist in this magazine that digital College, and Gibson, Research Assistant Professor resources have become “in nitely reproducible in the College of Engineering and Mathematical without diminishing quali and at negligible cost,” Sciences, Universi of Vermont, ask: What do games resulting in a “digital commons” that favors commu- tell us about our ethics? How are cultural values and nal production, shared resources and a general shi beliefs represented in games? How do we use games “away from mine and thine.” Through the ctional in classrooms and informal educational settings to device of looking back at such a shi , Enough seeks support moral development? “not to marvel at a utopian world to come, but Schrier, who studied with TC technology professor to give ourselves some perspective on our own.” Charles Kinzer, points out that commercial developers Above all, the book articulates McClintock’s pas- are themselves increasingly integrating overt moral sionate belief that education should be a learner- choices into off -the-shelf games. Recounting a dream driven process of self-formation. The book ends in which she was a jewel thief, she writes: “Games with the assertion, from Plato’s Republic, that “The have the potential to engage the imagination in a soul of every man does possess the power of learn- way that you feel like you really are a jewel thief, or a ing the truth and the organ to see it with.” renegade, or a paragon, or any of the millions of pos- Enough is available in paperback and hardback sibilities in be¢ een. Being able to access the diversi through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other of ethical perspectives is perhaps even necessary for online booksellers. fully appreciating humani , life and beyond.”
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
1st_books.indd 4 4/2/12 4:50 PM @tc
News EPSA inaugurated; new master’s program with Singapore institute; Bailey leads national committee on two-year colleges; the histo of ed-tech, and more | Essays Budin on expectations; Varenne on democratized learning; McNulty on schools of the future; and more | Giving Supporting students through the TC fund HEATHER VAN UXEM LEWIS UXEM VAN HEATHER
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
atc_news.indd 5 4/3/12 11:32 AM NEWS@tc
From le: Jack Jennings, Wendy Puriefoy, EPSA Chair Jeffrey Henig and Christopher Cross discuss the impact of federal policy in the classroom. INAUGURATING A NEW POLICY DEPARTMENT , for schools with economically speaking in February at the formal inauguration of disadvantaged children; the Education for All Handicapped TC’s new department of Education Policy and Social Children Act (later the Individuals Analysis (EPSA), agreed that national education policy with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA) of 1975; No Child Le has had an enormous impact on U.S. classrooms. Behind, enacted in 2002; and the In a discussion moderated by Obama administration’s Race Jeffrey Henig, Professor of Political to the Top program. Science and Education and EPSA “The question of whether department chair, the speakers— national policy has inuenced Christopher T. Cross, a former U.S. education unquestionably has to be Undersecretary of Education and answered, ‘yes,’” Cross said. “The current Chairman of Cross & Jous, reali is that almost everything that an education-policy consulting rm; goes on is, in fact, guided by what Jack Jennings, founder and recently happened in federal policy at some retired Director of the Center on point, even though people in the Education Policy; and Wendy D. classroom may not recognize it.” Puriefoy, President of the Public Launched in the fall of 2011, Education Ne¡ork (PEN)—cited EPSA serves as a central academic (Re) Watch “The Future a list of major federally driven hub for TC’s education policy work +of Education Policy: The 2012 changes to American schools. These across all phases of educational Election and Beyond” bit.ly/H9shYU included Title I funding, instituted and human development, with
in 1965 to provide extra money both a national and a global focus. UNIVERSITY COLUMBIA COLLEGE, TEACHERS FOR COOK SUSAN PHOTO; ISTOCK LEFT: TOP FROM CLOCKWISE UNIVERSITY; COLUMBIA COLLEGE, TEACHERS FOR LEWIS UXEM VAN HEATHER BOLO. MUSÉE & RAMA COURTESY INC.; APPLE
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
atc_news.indd 6 4/2/12 6:46 PM NEWS@tc TC CREATES MASTER’S DEGREE PROGRAM WITH SINGAPORE Humanitarian Award to o INSTITUTE Teachers College facul members. Cate Crowley, Distinguished Senior Lecturer in the College’s National Institute of Education Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) (NIE) in Singapore have established program, and Miriam Baigorri, an a joint Master of Arts in Leadership instructor and clinical supervisor and Educational Change degree in the SLP program, were honored program, with a dual focus on for their “dedicated and devoted instructional and curriculum services to the disabled children leadership. According to a written and higher institutions in Ghana.” statement from the NIE, the new The award, presented by Ghana’s program, to be based in Singapore, Ambassador to the United will prepare “a new generation of Nations, Ken Kanda, also honors educational leaders for Singapore, TC President Susan Fuhrman and the Asia-Paci c region and the larger Provost Thomas James. international communi .” Each year since 2008, Crowley The program was launched in and Baigorri have brought 18 early February in coordination master’s degree students in with the signing of an agreement the SLP program to Ghana to in Washington, D.C., to enhance provide free services for children educational collaboration be een and adults with communication Singapore and the United States. disorders and to off er professional TC’s Provost and Dean, Thomas development for their Ghanaian James, and A. Lin Goodwin, Vice Dean and Professor of Education, took part in a ceremony in Singapore for launching the joint master’s program, which will begin taking applications this May for enrolling its 1:92 rst cohort of 30 students in January In 1980, there was 2013. The program seeks applicants one computer for from Singapore and the Asia-Paci c eve 92 students in region, as well as prospective U.S. schools. students from the United States and other Western countries who wish to pursue a higher degree “in an Asian context,” the NIE said. Degrees will be jointly awarded by TC and the 2012 NIE, which is part of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological Universi .
A HUMANITARIAN AWARD FROM GHANA FOR TC’S SPEECH PATHOLOGY WORK
1:4 , Today, there is one Council of Ghanaian Associations Cate Crowley (le ) and Miriam Baigorri SUSAN COOK FOR TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY COLUMBIA COLLEGE, TEACHERS FOR COOK SUSAN PHOTO; ISTOCK LEFT: TOP FROM CLOCKWISE UNIVERSITY; COLUMBIA COLLEGE, TEACHERS FOR LEWIS UXEM VAN HEATHER BOLO. MUSÉE & RAMA COURTESY INC.; APPLE for eve 4 students. (NCOGA) gave its 2012
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
atc_news.indd 7 4/3/12 11:32 AM NEWS@tc (Re) Watch the TC COOL TOYS Psychology Roundtable, FROM TC “Living in a Traumatic colleagues. While in Ghana, World,” anytime at the TC group collaborates We’re a hotbed of app and game develop- youtu.be/CtI0B9bccQ4 with teachers of students ment! Check out: with intellectual disabilities ADVANCE at the College in December and works with the ear, nose Game about gap for the inaugural event of and throat departments and between reality the TC Roundtable Series in cle¤ palate teams in the ¥ o and beliefs about Psychology, titled “Living in a teaching hospitals in Ghana. racial and gender Traumatic World.” Introduced disparities in The TC students also make America. Player by Provost Thomas James media appearances to acts as a head- and moderated by Marla increase understanding of hunter, identify- Brassard, a TC expert on the potential of Ghanaians ing clients an psychological and emotional with disabilities. organization is abuse in children, the panel biased against During her tenure, and strategizing included psychology facul President Fuhrman has Jessica Hammer to place them members George Bonanno, greatly expanded the anyway. : Jessica Ham- an expert on resilience to international initiatives mer, Mellon Interdisciplina and Graduate grief and trauma; Philip undertaken by Teachers Research Fellow. replayable.wordpress. Saigh, a pioneer in describing com/projects/advance College. Provost James has and treating post-traumatic provided continued support, ART BY SUBWAY NYC App for iPhone stress in children; Lisa Miller, including a Provost’s or iPod Touch. Describes artwork in NYC an authori on spirituali Investment Fund Grant that subway system and how to get to it. in psychotherapy; and partially funded the § rst trip : Matt Vincent, Associate Web Ghislaine Boulanger (Ph.D., Editor, mattvincentart.com to Ghana in February 2008. ’81), a prominent New York NCOGA also recognized GREENIFY National Science Foundation- Ci psychoanalyst who the signi§ cant bene§ ts funded project. Uses gaming and real-world conducted early studies of that TC’s Ghana program situations to teach adults about climate post-traumatic stress disorder off ers Ghanaians in New change. : Joey Lee, Assistant in Vietnam veterans, and who Professor of Communications, Computing York, citing the deeper and Technology. greenifygame.com has since taught at TC and understanding that SLP New York Universi . students in the program MAD-DASH iPhone app for preschool- TC was the birthplace of bring to the provision of ers and caregivers. Promotes literacy via education psychology, and quali services to people physical play. Players complete activities today roughly one-third of its captured by iPhone camera and antholo- from diverse backgrounds, gized, Mad Libs-style, in a sto book. full-time facul members are including Ghanaian- : Mad-Dash, with the Fred Rog- psychologists. Americans. ers Center. Ma Gillis, TC Applied Physiology doctoral student and Rogers Center Fellow, works on the project. etc.cmu.edu NATIONAL PSYCHOLOGISTS /projects/mad-dash COMMITTEE, DISCUSS LIFE MAT-MATICS Video game with dance LED BY IN A TRAUMATIC pad. Develops fl uency with whole-number BAILEY, URGES WORLD arithmetic. Player must tap in a nswers before CHANGES falling equations hit screen’s bottom. : Dan Hoff man, Seungoh ®/°° Paek, Selen Turkay, Zhou Zhou, doctoral , . Hurricane Katrina. students in Instructional Technology & Media. Thomas Bailey, George and The Gulf oil spill. The seungoh.com/development Abby O’Neill Professor of earthquake, tsunami and Economics and Education nuclear disaster in Japan. TC EDUCATOR, SECOND LIFE at Teachers College and The College’s island in Second Life’s It’s rough out there, and we virtual world. Attend classes in the sky and Director of TC’s Communi all feel it in some way. With presentations in an amphitheater. College Research Center, that in mind, a panel of : Selen Turkay. Bit.ly/HaJ3KK handed U.S. Secretary of
facul and alumni gathered Education Arne Duncan HAMMER JESSICA COURTESY ISTOCKPHOTO PHOTOS; FILE TC TOP: FROM CLOCKWISE
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
atc_news.indd 8 4/2/12 6:46 PM ERNEST MORRELL in the Teaching Edge Series at IS NEW the annual convention of the VICE PRESIDENT International Reading Association OF NCTE (IRA) in late April. The IRA is a nonpro t ne ork of individuals , and institutions committed to English Education and Director of worldwide literacy. TC’s Institute for Urban Minori Thomas Bailey Education (IUME) in Harlem, was a report urging the federal sworn in in November 20 as Vice government to make major changes President of the National Council E-TOOLS FOR in how it tracks the success and of Teachers of English (NCTE), LIFE AT TC productivi of communi colleges. the premier organization of literacy The report was the work of a educators in the United States. New online tools from The Gottesman Libraries’ 15-member national Committee on Morrell, a prominent scholar Edlab help users navigate TC Measures of Student Success, led in literacy, urban education and geographically, intellectually by Bailey, which was created in the ethnic studies, was installed and socially. wake of the 2008 reauthorization at NCTE’s annual meeting in of the Higher Education Act. The Chicago to begin a four-year term THE TC ROUTEFINDER (maps.edlab.tc), the equiva- Act required that o-year colleges of leadership. A¤ er serving for a lent of Google Maps for 120th report their completion rates to year as Vice President, he will be and Broadway. Type in where the federal government, but college named Incoming President, then you want to go, and presto, offi cials argued that this statistic President, and nally Immediate you get directions. alone did not accurately re ect the PUNDIT (pundit .edlab.tc), achievements of the populations a course search and recom- they served. The committee mendation tool that employs led by Bailey was appointed to Amazon-like technology to develop recommendations for anticipate your interests. Course more comprehensive measures of readings, times, dates and numbers are all conveniently student success. provided. Your user profi le builds By current measures, only with each selection you make. 37 percent of communi college students complete their EDNODE (ednode.edlab.tc), postsecondary education within an intelligent social networking tool that creates your per- four years. The committee’s Ernest Morrell sonal profi le and mines it for report urges the U.S. Department keywords to suggest matches of Education to include, in its with other users. A page allows calculation of student success, those To view an interview with Morrell, alumni to identify themselves who transfer to a four-year college go to bit.ly/fsqebF as potential mentors. without a degree as well as those VIALOGUES (vialogues. who earn a communi college Past President of the organization, edlab.tc), a new tool to upload credential. It also recommends that each for a one-year term. Morrell videos from YouTube or your colleges report graduation rates for was elected through a balloting of own computer and conduct distinct student cohorts, including NCTE’s 35,000 members. threaded group discussions. TC faculty users can embed part-time students, students who As Vice President, Morrell obligato questions to guide require remediation and those will advocate for and shape students directly to specifi c receiving nancial aid. literacy education, particularly time-stamped video sections. in urban settings, and to help translate education research into Other EdLab tools included PocketKnowledge (pocket of U.S. public usable data for policymakers and knowledge.tc.columbia.edu), schools educators. He will play a key role TC’s social archiving system, had Internet in a leadership meeting in July of and Pressible (pressible. 3% access in early-career educators of color. org), a network of TC- 1994; by 2009 all public schools created blogs. were connected to the Net. In addition to his work with
COURTESY JESSICA HAMMER JESSICA COURTESY ISTOCKPHOTO PHOTOS; FILE TC TOP: FROM CLOCKWISE NCTE, Morrell will participate
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
atc_news.indd 9 4/3/12 1:50 PM ED-TECH_A Brief History WITH REPORTING BY STEVEN KROLL & WENDY BERMUDEZ Chalkboard introduced in the U.S. in Pencil mass- Abacus used Radio 1801 produced in 1900 in 3000 B.C. used for education Punch card purposes machines in 1925 gained sway .. around 1800 Overhead projector introduced in 1930
Liquid paper First Scantron invented in 1960 digital marketed in computer 1972 turned on Microprocessor chip Mainframe Language in 1941 developed by Intel computers fi rst Lab head- in 1971; E-Book used in public set used in created in 1971. schools in NYC 1950 Apple sells in 1959 its fi rst IBM sells its fi rst PCs Interactive computer in 1981, averaging in 1976 whiteboard becomes $2,800 per unit active in 1999
Handheld graphing calculator Online learning appears in 1985 started in 1998 by
Higher Colleges for ISTOCKPHOTO Technology
“Our IRA will pro ide TC with a gi for the future, and our multiple Charitable Gi Annuity and Pooled Income Fund Accounts with TC make our retirement comfortable.”
— Duane M. Christ, Ph.D., and Lily E. Christ, Ed.D., . Charitable Gi annuitants and Pooled Income Fund participants since 1989, and Grace Dodge Society members since 2001
For more information on gi annuities, bequests or other planned gi s, please contact: Louis Lo Ré Director of Planned Giving 212-678-3037 or [email protected]
atc_news.indd 10 4/2/12 6:46 PM ESSAYS@tc Howard Budin: HIGH TECH, LOW EXPECTATIONS
“factory” model of schooling in The new tools are once said that there which teachers and texts transmit are o main problems information that students memorize only as good as the in American schools: and recall on tests. Athe education received by poorer Ultimately, technology is educational models students, and the education only as good as the educational that employ them received by everyone else. models that employ it. At present, So it is with school technology. our schools are failing to equip The term “digital divide” pi- students with the knowledge, skills cally describes a gap in access to and dispositions they need to the best hardware, soware and function well in socie. Modern neork connections, in and out of digital technology provides a rich schools. Yet as the media scholar array of tools that is becoming Henry Jenkins has powerfully increasingly necessary for work, for described, there is also a gap in personal life and for democratic the skills needed to use technol- citizenship, but to use them well, ogy to participate fully in modern schools will need to rethink the Howard Budin is Director socie—skills in literacy, reason- skills they teach and the ways they of TC’s Center for Technology ing and decision-making, working teach them. tc and School Change. successfully with others online and in person, and expressing oneself using a varie of media. Students who lack these abilities are at a major disadvantage, one that is reinforced in many poorer schools that use computers mainly for drills and practice. Almost from the introduction of microcomputers into schools more than 30 years ago, I, like many other educators, have believed they are best suited for learning that is student- centered, active, inquiry-based and collaborative. This learning model has been supported by the International Socie for Technology in Education (ISTE) and other organizations, yet the vast majori of American schools, richer or poorer, have never adopted it. Instead, as historian Larry Cuban described it 27 years ago in his article “Computer Meets Classroom: Classroom Wins,” computer use
IRENEUSZ SKORUPA/ISTOCKPHOTO IRENEUSZ has re£ected and reinforced a
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
atc_essays.indd 11 4/2/12 4:36 PM ESSAYS@tc Hervé Varenne: TECHNOLOGY’S LESSONS FOR LEARNING persevered to weave new ties across far-ung kin. There’s a lesson here for schools of education. What if teaching and learning are not specialized activities? What if they are ubiquitous processes regularly activated when conditions require them? Dewey intuited this, but we must investigate a more radical set of opportunities. Could schools simulate the conditions under which newcomers realize that they must learn a skill and nd the people who will help them? Perhaps by speciing curricula, pedagogies and the experts one must go through to be certi ed as knowing something, schools have been unwittingly Did anybody dare , limiting educational activities and watching an apparent the rewards they produce. Perhaps predict that expert manipulating a we should try to imagine schools computer, have said, where teachers really are facilitators so many would H“I’ll never learn to do that!”—only to of learning, even in areas about learn so much with soon nd ourselves performing the which they know little. Like a truly very same thing? As an educator intelligent Google or Wikipedia, so little expert and researcher, I am amazed teachers could “just” lead students to at how easily the ignorant can resources while making sure they are guidance? become knowledgeable about applying themselves. Schools could new technologies. Did anybody cease to be involved in assessment— dare predict in, say, 1980 that or even degree granting—and so many would learn so much instead let students’ friends, with so little expert guidance? neighbors and potential employers Or that grandmothers would one decide what they are good at. day learn the art of “friending,” True, that vision threatens to writing on “walls,” and other new overturn much of what education skills with odd names? Perhaps schools currently do. But if, as the the grandmothers were amazed technological revolution suggests, to discover that “LOL” stands for better education would result, we “laughing out loud” rather than should embrace that vision rather “lots of love,” and perhaps their than resist it, or else we may nd Hervé Varenne is Professor of grandchildren did indeed laugh that others are indeed laughing out
Anthropology and Education. at them, but the grandmothers loud as they bypass us. tc CARROTEATER/DREAMSTIME.COM ISTOCKPHOTO/VETTA
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
atc_essays.indd 12 4/2/12 4:36 PM ESSAYS@tc Lalitha Vasudevan: TOWARD A MULTIMODAL STANCE IN PEDAGOGY
classroom, mastering a video game, Educators into class 15 minutes or listening to family stories. can no longer early, a bright grin on Just as the former student of his face. He sloughs mine, described above, turned a engage students off hisA leather jacket, pushes up handheld video game into a tool the sleeves of his oatmeal-colored for data transfer, today’s youth by print thermal Henley shirt, and pulls are routinely changing the digital or linguistic a PlayStation Portable (PSP) out and communicative landscapes of his pocket. He connects the through which they maneuver. So, means alone device to a laptop, clicks on the too, must educators be inventive, icon for iMovie, and plugs in his changing their practices of seeing headphones. His grin widens. The and knowing students in order to tracks he composed at home using better support their educational an audio editing program have experiences. They must actively transferred without incident. He’s engage the knowledge that ready to work on his lm. students bring into the classroom As a researcher and teacher, I have by providing ways for them to spent more than 15 years working demonstrate prociency through with adolescents inside and outside multiple modes and media of school, and I have consistently rather than by print or linguistic been impressed by their unyielding means alone. This doesn’t mean Lalitha Vasudevan is Associate Professor of Technology spirit of inquiry, exploration and transforming classrooms into and Education. discovery—whether they are in the video arcades. But it does mean treating the mobile phone as a site of educational exploration rather than a distraction, or perhaps adapting practices such as texting and the use of handheld devices to work with curricular goals. Such a multimodal stance in pedagogy can help to bridge the real digital divide in classrooms today: the lack of opportunities for youth to be seen as digitally uent. Educators must constantly look closely so that we might see differently. As the novelist Henry Miller observed: “The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably
CARROTEATER/DREAMSTIME.COM ISTOCKPHOTO/VETTA magnicent world in itself.” tc
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
atc_essays.indd 13 4/2/12 4:36 PM ESSAYS@tc Anne Welsh McNulty: THE SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE
A charter network charter neork—money that a major education is reallocated to higher teacher models a challenge. Millions salaries, a full-time academic of students need dean at each school and a three- marriage between T personalized instruction to identi year leadership development technology their learning issues and work program that provides a career successfully. Yet we lack the means ladder for teachers. Consequently, and traditional to provide a teaching workforce Rocketship is able to attract, equal to the task. mentor and retain talented teaching Fortunately, the past decade has teachers and academic leaders. brought a solution in the form of I am proud that in , the new online teaching and learning Aspen Institute awarded the John programs that generate real-time P. McNul¢ Prize to Rocketship information about what students Education and its cofounder John understand in their daily work. Danner. The award celebrates the In Rocketship Education, spirit of my late husband, a man who based in California’s Silicon Valley, regularly dared those around him opened the nation’s rst blended- to think in terms of higher orders learning charter school, employing of magnitude. Danner, who was technology of this kind. Today, honored for his audacious vision of Rocketship is a national neork giving underserved kids across the that each year opens additional nation access to a top-tier education, schools in San Jose and other was chosen by a jury that included cities. Rocketship students—most Rockefeller Foundation President of whom come from low-income Judith Rodin; former U.S. Secretary families—spend signicant time in of State Madeleine K. Albright; the school’s Learning Lab, where and Olara Otunnu, President of they access curricula through the Uganda People’s Congress and adaptive online technology that former United Nations Under- tracks their growth. The students Secretary General. also work intensively in small, When such distinguished experts tutor-led groups to master core concur on a solution to a complex reading and math skills. Rocketship problem, it’s clear that something teachers thus are freed to devote is working. Creating Rocketship classroom instruction time to Education took a lot of hard teaching critical, higher-order thinking. Recognizing that it can thinking skills. serve as a national model shouldn’t Rocketship schools rank in the require rocket science. tc top percent of all public schools in California serving low-income students. They even outperform Anne Welsh McNulty is co-founder wealthier school districts in and Managing Partner of JBK Partners, with businesses including Silicon Valley. The Rocketship investment management and model also saves , a private philanthropy foundation.
per year for each school in the ISTOCKPHOTO/VETTA ISTOCKPHOTO/VETTA
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
atc_essays.indd 14 4/2/12 4:36 PM ESSAYS@tc Gary Natriello: UNITING OUR HOUSE BEHIND EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
- to transform the classroom via assessment and change. Intellectualism in American everything from slides and audio Yet obstacles loom. There are Life, the historian Richard recordings to TV and soware, substantial commercial pressures Hofstadter lamented a have understandably le many to develop technology in directions I historic divide be een scholarly people skeptical. But three qualities that limit educational benets. researchers and classroom teachers distinguish today’s technologies. Well-established routines and in which “academicians scornfully First, they are networked—that procedures in the education turned away from the problems is, continuously connected both sector also make accommodating of primary and secondary to end users (whether teachers the latest technologies difficult. education, which they…saw as the or students) and to creators or Most worrisome, however, is preoccupation of dullards,” and providers—and thus embedded that many practitioners and even “too many educationists were in increasingly robust lines of some researchers in education happy to see them withdraw, communication. Second, they distrust technology. They believe it leaving the educationists free to are adaptive, responding to threatens the primacy of the teacher realize their own credos.” differences in learners to create or creates an impersonal approach Bridging that divide has never more personalized learning to students, when in fact, used been more important than it is right experiences. And third, they are self- correctly, the new tools empower now, when a new technological improving, generating information teachers to understand and connect infrastructure, anchored by the that drives a continuous cycle of with students as never before. Internet and growing upon it, design, development, application, Whether in designing and promises to support the kind of testing new soware, preparing individually responsive learning entrepreneurs to lead educational Ga Natriello is the environments that were only a Ruth L. Gottesman Professor start-ups, or creating the research dream to earlier generations. in Education Research base for new technologies, we Past “technological revolutions” and Director of the Gottesman at Teachers College and other in education, heralded as sure Libraries at Teachers College. leading research institutions are positioned to ensure that the latest technology revolution delivers on its promise. Because we bring together education researchers and practitioners under one roof, we have a unique opportuni¤ to bridge the divide be een these o communities so that students— our ultimate clients—are the beneciaries. That union has always been a worthwhile goal, but with the opportuni¤ currently before us, it now becomes imperative. Otherwise, future historians will rightly accuse us of much worse
ISTOCKPHOTO/VETTA ISTOCKPHOTO/VETTA than “anti-intellectualism.” tc
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
atc_essays.indd 15 4/2/12 4:36 PM GIVING@tc Media Ingenui Supporting Students through the TC Fund - enced the lives we live now: ’berrys and iDevices; eets and likes; walls and feeds. The way we Teachers College has reinaugurated its E Annual Fund Scholars Program, through speak blurs subjects and verbs; the ideas engaged are which, with a gi of $5,000, donors can one-liners, or so it o en seems. But technology giveth, establish a one-year named scholarship too. In the work displayed here, by students in TC’s Art for an individual student. & Art Education program, today’s tools off er a new way to think, work and dialogue visually with their art and “There is o en a gap between the cost of attendance and the resources that a the work of other artists. student or family can allocate toward the These images were all produced using a scanner, a tool TC education,” says Thomas Rock, that employs a ligh and and optics inside a glass box to Executive Director of Enrollment Services. capture a picture of the objects it scans. In one sense, the “A gi of this amount would help to close journey to creation followed a traditional line, starting that gap and help decrease the fi nancial burden many students face when consid- with ideas and ending with images. The unique beau¡ ering enrolling at Teachers College.” created en route, however, suggests that this new me- dia landscape has deepened rather than attenuated our “Raising spendable funds to support experience of art. students for the here and now builds our capacity to reach our number one priority of increasing student fi nancial aid,” says TC Fund Director Susan Scherman. “Par- ticipation in this program will reinforce our ability to off er competitive fi nancial aid packages that will attract and retain the gi ed students whose achievements will advance TC’s legacy of excellence in scholarship, policy and practice.”
In addition to enjoying John Dewey Circle benefi ts at the Scholar’s Circle level, donors to the Annual Fund Schol- ars Program will have the opportunity to meet the students they support at the College’s annual scholarship celebration in order to learn about their work.
Donors can make multiple gi s in $5,000 increments, and choose to support one student for several years, multiple stu- dents in a single year, or both. A $5,000 gi can also be made in installments over the course of a year.
“The TC Fund is major source of general scholarship support, and this new named scholar- ship opportunity sends a strong reminder to donors that even a relatively small amount of money given through the Fund can create signifi cant benefi ts for students Lindsay Morse Batelli’s right away,” Scherman said. scanographic image of flowers, made with the scanner lid open, For more information, creates an atmospheric, call Susan Scherman painterly visual that is reminiscent at 212-678-8176. of the chiaroscuro paintings of John Dewey Caravaggio or Rubens. CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT: COURTESY NICOLE YATES; COURTESY LINDSAY MORSE BATELLI; COURTESY VICTORIA BERTOTTI VICTORIA COURTESY BATELLI; MORSE LINDSAY COURTESY YATES; NICOLE COURTESY RIGHT: FROM CLOCKWISE
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
atc_ART_SPOT.indd 16 4/3/12 12:13 PM ART@tc
Media Ingenui ← In this work, Victoria Bertotti says she “wanted to explore the static scan with the dynamic aspect of the scanning bar as it moves across the scan- ner bed.” For Bertotti, the surprise was in how these flowers created a differ- ent kind of fabric in their appearance—like that of a layered dress. “These were single scans that I created by dancing and ‘crunch- ing’ the plastic fake flowers across the scanner bed. As the scanner bar moved, so did I. I would move with the light, then stop and wait, and then perhaps move opposite the direction of the scanner bar—all on a whim!”
→ Weaver Nicole Yates’ work (right) always starts with thread. When it came time to examine scanography, “I naturally chose to use scraps of yarn as my subject,” says Yates, who calls weaving a “structured experience.” She adds: “My fascination with structure, geomet and sequence has al- lowed me to relate to and greatly admire Sol Lewitt’s wall drawings. This particular series of scans was inspired by his work with lines, in which he methodically plans and executes drawings that explore the concepts of time and con- struction.” Below, a snapshot of one of Yates’ frames just before the scanner passes by. CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT: COURTESY NICOLE YATES; COURTESY LINDSAY MORSE BATELLI; COURTESY VICTORIA BERTOTTI VICTORIA COURTESY BATELLI; MORSE LINDSAY COURTESY YATES; NICOLE COURTESY RIGHT: FROM CLOCKWISE
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
atc_ART_SPOT.indd 17 4/3/12 12:13 PM _Data-Mining In Education TC President Susan Fuhrman has convened an eff ort to bolster a formalized fi eld Gold Rush! of educational data-mining NEW TECHNOLOGY by JOE LEVINE THAT MINES STUDENTS’ MINDS
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_DATA.indd 18 4/2/12 8:07 PM _Data-Mining In Education TC President Susan Fuhrman has convened an eff ort to bolster a formalized fi eld Gold Rush! of educational data-mining NEW TECHNOLOGY by JOE LEVINE THAT MINES STUDENTS’ MINDS
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_DATA.indd 19 4/2/12 8:11 PM _Data-Mining In Education ’ . middle school on up, kids live on their laptops. Classroom work is conducted on smart boards that allow the user to turn a square into a rectangle with the tap of a nger. Thanks to the Internet, an eighth grader writing a research paper can access the most so- phisticated scientic ndings without ever leaving her room. With Itoddlers using tablets and textbook apps, we can expect that more and more con- tent will be delivered through technological tools. ¶ Now—with less fanfare, but with perhaps even greater potential benet— comes the next wave of the revolution.
Over the past year, in her role as researchers and teachers around President of the National Academy the country; of Education, TC President Susan ASSISTments, a web-based ap- Fuhrman has convened research- plication developed at Worcester ers and developers from around Polytechnic Institute that gener- the world to bolster a new era of ates sets of practice math prob- research based on the mining and lems geared to a range of skills. analysis of data from adaptive edu- (See story about WISE and cation technologies (AETs). ASSISTments, page 22.) These powerful new tools can But the potentially bigger news is perform many valuable functions, that AETs also record a gold mine of including assessing student learning as yet mostly untapped data that could and engaging students in exciting redirect teaching strategies on a broad learning environments. Among the scale and improve the management of better-known AETs are: schools and school systems. AETs re- the Carnegie Learning Math cord every keystroke a student makes. Series, a core and supplemental Analysts can link students’ perfor- middle-school curriculum that mance in the games or simulations uses problem-centered activities offered by AETs to specic teacher in- and games that trade on sports, terventions. And AETs also aggregate art, money, the environment and data for whole classrooms and even other topics of interest to mo- entire school systems. tivate students to think about Prior to the meetings convened by mathematical ideas; Fuhrman, there had been few con- PhET Interactive Solutions, certed efforts to establish a common developed at the Universi framework for sharing and analyz- of Colorado at Boulder, which ing this information. Most of the provides simulations of physical data analytics work was being con- phenomena to aid in visual com- ducted by computer scientists, with prehension of physics concepts; little input from education research- the Web-based Inquiry Science ers. With a veritable Who’s Who of Environment (WISE), devel- experts culled from universities oped at the Universi of Califor- around the world and companies To learn more about nia, Berkeley, which provides ac- such as Cisco, Pearson PLC, and +the Carnegie Learning Math Series, cess to a library of more than 50 Wireless Generation, Fuhrman’s visit them online at mathseries. carnegielearning.com weeklong inquiry assignments gatherings in Washington, D.C., PREVIOUS PAGES: ISTOCKPHOTO PAGES: PREVIOUS
developed by partnerships of took on historical signicance. ISTOCKPHOTO
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_DATA.indd 20 4/2/12 4:45 PM _Data-Mining In Education “If we knew everything about students’ learning challenges, we wouldn’t need data. But there’s so Interactions getting more people talking to one much we don’t know, and the chal- another. That provides a grounding lenges that are directly visible to us between people that lets a eld advance in a way it are just the tip of the iceberg,” said can’t when people are simply doing Kenneth Koedinger, a cognitive and AETs their own things.” psychologist and computer scien- generate Hence the excitement at the o tist at Carnegie Mellon Universi meetings convened by Fuhrman and Director of the Pittsburgh Sci- valuable data in Washington, D.C.—a gathering ence of Learning Center. in May 2011 of 40-odd leading Just as the Human Genome Proj- about how researchers and a larger meeting ect has enabled scientists to begin individuals think, this past December that included a developing treatments that target wider array of representatives from the underlying genes and proteins decide gaming companies and soware that govern our biology, data-min- developers. Colorado Senator Mi- ing from AETs could help educa- and learn. chael Bennett, a noted technology tion researchers design curricula enthusiast who recently introduced and teaching strategies that are petition have begun to spring up in a plan to “turbocharge education more directly calibrated to an un- education. “Secondary analysis is R&D,” was also in attendance. derstanding of human cognition. critical for making education a more First and foremost on the agenda Interactions beeen people and scientic eld than it currently is,” of both meetings was the “Tower of adaptive technologies generate says Allan Collins, Professor Emeri- Babel” problem—the current lack valuable data about how individu- tus of Education and Social Policy of common standard formats for ar- als think, decide and learn. Hence, at Northwestern Universi. “In cer- chiving research data, which prevents the abili of companies such as tain elds, like children’s language, investigators from accessing one an- Amazon and Facebook to suggest developing archives available to lots other’s study data for making com- new books and other products that of researchers was a critical step in parisons, conducting meta-studies, you might be inclined to buy, or of your laptop to anticipate email ad- Data entré dresses that you frequently use. Indeed, the past decade has seen the emergence of an entirely new eld of computer science called “knowledge discovery in databas- es,” or KDD. The focus, whether in business, science or other areas, is on the “secondary analysis” of vast amounts of data computers record on user behavior that may not pre- viously have been directly targeted by a specic study. Perhaps the best recent example of commercial data- mining research was the Netix Prize competition in 2009, in which independent researchers vied to cre- ate a better algorithm for predicting viewer preferences. The competition was managed and judged by Charles Elkan, a Universi of California, San Diego, computer science profes- sor who runs an annual data-mining competition of his own for students and postdoctoral researchers. PREVIOUS PAGES: ISTOCKPHOTO PAGES: PREVIOUS
ISTOCKPHOTO Now, versions of the Netix com-
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_DATA.indd 21 4/2/12 8:11 PM _Data-Mining In Education or teasing out new correlations. With the advent of data repository centers, such as DataShop, at the Pittsburgh Science PUSHING THE of Learning Center (see story on page 28), common formats are beginning to emerge—but the bigger challenge is getting researchers to think about data- BUTTONS sharing up front, so that archiving is built into the process. The groups also discussed issues of Right study design, primarily the relative merits Teachers have long struggled to of a theory-driven experiment that seeks to test a speci c hypothesis versus a large understand the learning issues of each mining study that simply correlates per- formance with one factor or another. The individual student. Now technology is consensus? Both approaches are neces- helping them do the job. Who knew? sary, and neither alone is suffi cient. Other discussions focused on a range of topics: whether and how to draw on digital gaming, an industry that has By Joe Levine clearly learned how to engage users, but not always with educational results It’s 6:30 a.m., and over her morning coff ee, Christine O’Connor, in mind; how to know whether teachers a middle-school math teacher in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, is and students are implementing intel- reading a computer-generated email that’s telling her how each ligent tutoring technologies in the ways of the 26 students in her algebra class fared on last night’s home- originally envisioned; and how to iden- work assignment, which involved a series of one- and o-step ti “noisy data”—patterns that turn out problems. Here is what she knows with one click of the mouse: to be artifacts created by the technology, Two students didn’t even attempt the assignment, the rest of the rather than genuine representations of class spent be een 11 and 35 minutes on the work, and 87 per- signi cant human behavior. cent of the class got stuck on problems 10 and 11. There was also considerable debate That is a lot of data to digest at this early hour, but knowing over how to secure the privacy of stu- where every student stands gives O’Connor a jump on her day dents and grapple with the proprietary and the edge in class, where she will devote the rst 10 minutes to interests of commercial technology focusing on the o problems that gave almost everyone trouble. companies. For example an idea that “This has changed how I teach,” O’Connor says. “It saves me has been championed by a team led by at least a couple of hours a week.” Gary Natriello, TC’s Ruth L. Gottesman “This” is ASSISTments, a web-based application developed by Professor of Educational Research, is Neil Heff ernan, a computer scientist at Worcester Polytechnic In- to ensure that data includes identi ing stitute and former eighth-grade math teacher. Hosted at WPI but information about individual students run in middle-school and high-school students’ browsers with no only within a student’s school, while data installation needed, ASSISTments is neither an online curriculum fed into any central repository would be nor a substitute for direct teacher instruction. Rather, it is an in- stripped of identi ing information. tensive practice tool that reinforces and builds upon what teach- At the conclusion of a comprehensive ers already do. The system performs many valuable tasks: gener- background paper he wrote to anchor ating sets of practice math problems geared to a range of skills; discussion at the meetings, Natriello providing cues to students when they cannot answer problems presented a vision of the future in which correctly; sending teachers same-day reports on students’ prog-
intelligent tutoring systems come into ress, along with aggregated reports about how the entire class is ISTOCKPHOTO widespread use, giving rise to “a new generation of researchers who blend the skills of educational research and systems development,” and who bridge the worlds of learning theory and tech- nology. To that, the participants off ered a heartfelt amen. tc
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_DATA.indd 22 4/2/12 8:19 PM _Data-Mining In Education PUSHING THE Find out more about ASSISTments + at assistments.org BUTTONS doing; furnishing additional assign- a few years ago when a house- Right ments in which students either prac- guest—a cognitive scientist visiting tice speci c sub-skills or move to the from Australia—picked up his son’s next level of diffi cul ; and enabling fourth-grade math homework and teachers to communicate weekly or pointed out that it re ected a con- even daily with parents about how sistent subtraction error. their children are doing. There’s “He said, ‘Look, he’s confused even an open-response function, about borrowing across the zero in which prompts students to describe the tens place,’ which the literature the logic they employed in tackling has identi ed as one of the most speci c problems. “Predictions are common misconceptions about O’Connor, who works primarily the subtraction in kids that age,” Hef- with English language learners, is a ideas fernan recalls. “My wife and I were big fan of ASSISTments. “I can ex- students have a bit morti ed. And then, being plain to them about ‘there,’ ‘their,’ busy people, we compounded the and ‘they’re,’ assess their vocabu- already problem because we forgot to ag lary, test their abili to restate prob- it for the teacher.” lems or refer to diagrams,” she says. constructed, Intelligent tutoring systems have “It puts all their skills on display.” so constructivist emerged thanks to faster web con- ASSISTments is just one of an nections, better servers and im- emerging new class of teaching learning needs proved programming languages, tools known as intelligent tutoring to such as Javascript and Ajax, that systems or, more broadly, adaptive start with let users run complicated functions education technologies (AETs). these ideas.” within a web browser at no cost. Most intelligent tutors are instruc- Many of the new tools are the prod- tional tools. But where some are de- uct of open-content authoring, a signed to be “teacher proofed”—set —MARCIA LINN, Wiki-like environment in which de- up so students can work alone, with signers can link to other programs the computer in charge—ASSIST- , and libraries of problems and as- ments empowers teachers to con- .. , signments on the web. duct formative assessment, so that Many systems are open-source they can alter their instruction from and off ered for free, re ecting the day to day based on the real-time fervent egalitarian philosophy of insight the technology is providing the communi that has produced them about students’ perceptions them. Marcia Linn, a professor at and misperceptions. the Universi of California, Berke- That kind of insight pically ley, spent 20 years researching how eludes even the most knowledge- young people learn science and able observers, including Heff er- how scienti c visualizations can
ISTOCKPHOTO nan, who likes to recall the moment contribute to the process. She and
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_DATA.indd 23 4/2/12 8:19 PM _Data-Mining In Education a colleague, Jim Slotta, eventually because it forces students to make built the Web-based Inquiry Sci- their ideas “visible” to themselves ence Environment, or WISE. The and to their teachers. Or, as Linn program includes access to a li- told listeners at a conference on brary of more than 50 weeklong in- educational data-mining convened quiry assignments developed by re- last May by TC President Susan searchers and teachers around the Fuhrman, “Predictions are the ideas country, spanning a range of topics students have already constructed, such as chemical reactions, global so constructivist learning needs to climate change, photosynthesis, re- start with these ideas.” cycling and plate tectonics. Predicting is not sufficient for Heffernan resolved to build AS- learning, though. Students also SISTments six years ago aer be- need to add new, accurate ideas. Yet ing told he had terminal cancer, a phenomena such as global warm- diagnosis that, to date, happily has ing and albedo (the fraction of solar failed to materialize. He has tapped energy reected from Earth back at least one retired teacher to help into space) are oen too complex, create new problem sets and hints or occur over too long a period, for that he can incorporate into the students to make sense of or visual- system, and he hopes at some point ize. WISE offers a number of niy to visit retirement communities to features that get around these limi- recruit others to lend their skills tations. Students can experiment and expertise. with an interactive global warming Intelligent tutoring systems vary visualization to test their conjec- in content and focus, but they seem tures. They can use the WISE Data to share the decidedly Deweyan tool to draw several different kinds philosophy that learning best oc- of graphs using their data points curs when learners draw on their and then modi them based on new own experiences in order to make results. They can use WISE Draw sense of the world. to, say, sketch predictions of a tem- WISE, for example, employs a perature graph, map the location “knowledge integration approach,” where they think an invasive species which is premised on the idea that, might appear, or construct a model whether they realize it or not, young of hydrogen combustion at the mo- people enter a classroom with their lecular level. With a tool called the own repertoire of what Linn and Idea Manager, they can generate Slotta call “rich, confusing and in- ideas and then visually categorize triguing ideas” about how and why pieces of data and evidence accord- phenomena occur. Right or wrong, ing to the viewpoint or argument those ideas become the starting point they buttress. Students can use for inquiry because they have direct MySystem to create a concept map relevance to students’ lives. Students with arrows that show the order of oen use scientic research skills connection beeen different causal such as observation and experimen- factors. And through a threaded Dis- tation to develop incomplete ideas cussion Forum, they can talk to one such as “Objects in motion come to another. These discussions acceler- rest.” The goal of each WISE project, ate learning in o ways: One, those then, is to get students to articulate who “get it” can oen appreciate or their initial thinking, to test it to see more readily relate to a misconcep- where it falls short of reali, to rene tion that a peer holds; and o, they it—and then to repeat the cycle, again avoid the standard classroom format and again, in order to arrive at a pro- in which the so-called smart kids do gressively fuller understanding. all the talking. Find out more about WISE at The act of prediction is critically Another feature of WISE is a + wise.berkeley.edu
important in this iterative process “Show All Work” icon that enables ISTOCKPHOTO
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_DATA.indd 24 4/2/12 4:45 PM _Data-Mining In Education
As the field hammers out a common format for archiving data, it will be possible for researchers who have never entered the classroom or met any students to draw conclusions based on secondary analysis of information.
the student or teacher to access, at The project will follow students any time, a page showing all of the into college and the workforce (and student’s work, providing teachers also look at their academic records with an invaluable window onto his going back as far as seven years), or her thinking. Teachers can ac- correlating predictions with survey cess student work in real time, ag measures of vocational interest, self- ideas for class discussion, assign These features, Heffernan says, efficacy, math attitudes and choices grades and send comments. are “ideal for enabling researchers of college majors, as well as job “The detail you get is so differ- to conduct randomized, controlled placement. The hope is to ultimately ent from the knowledge you get experiments of large numbers of establish guidelines for identiing from just teaching from a textbook students.” And as the eld ham- and intervening early on with “at or looking at a year-end test, which mers out a common format for risk” students in these subjects, as doesn’t tell you where students’ archiving data, it will be possible well as to recognize gied students knowledge and understanding for researchers who have never en- and accelerate their progress. broke down,” Linn says. tered the classroom or met any stu- For Andrew Burnett, a middle- The bene ts of intelligent tutor- dents to draw conclusions based on school math teacher in Millbury, Mas- ing systems like ASSISTments and secondary analysis of information sachusetts, who uses ASSISTments, WISE to teachers and students are from these studies, or to construct it all gets back to an issue he has obvious. At the same time, research- meta-studies that pool information struggled with throughout his career. ers like Heffernan and Linn are from many experiments. “As a teacher, I think I’m good at a equally excited about these systems For example, with Ryan Baker, lot of things, but my weakness has al- as research tools that could improve another WPI facul member, Hef- ways been differentiating my instruc- instruction and school management fernan has received a National Sci- tion to help all my students in the on a system-wide or even nation- ence Foundation grant to analyze areas they need. Now, with ASSIST- wide basis. The systems record ev- whether young students’ level of en- ments, I can have students practice ery keystroke that a student makes. gagement with math, as measured math questions on the same topic but In many instances they can recog- by certain ASSISTments-generated with different numbers. Plus, I don’t nize and tag certain sequences of indicators, can be used to effectively need to grade the practice work and keystrokes as successful or unsuc- predict whether these same stu- pinpoint areas of weakness anymore, cessful attempts to implement de- dents will go on to pursue careers in because ASSISTments does that ned skills. And they can aggregate the so-called STEM elds —science, for me. It’s honestly made me a
ISTOCKPHOTO data for groups of almost any size. technology, engineering and math. better teacher.” tc
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_DATA.indd 25 4/2/12 4:45 PM _Data-Mining In Education How Old Are You
NOW?Asking the right questions to assess math knowledge in kids
: He wants broadens teachers’ views of what constitutes you to count to a really big number because math knowledge and skill.” “B that’s how many presents he’ll get today.” Put in simplest terms, The Birthday Par is So begins The Birthday Par , a math skills an interview that teachers can conduct one-on- assessment tool created by TC’s Herbert Gins- one with students, aided by computer prompts. burg, the Jacob H. Schiff Foundation Professor The tool includes a ip-book that off ers hints of Psychology and Education. The Birthday Par- on how to cajole tongue-tied children to speak; addresses o challenges unique to the pre- how to recognize the seeds of understanding school milieu: Very young children will submit in a seemingly vague or confusing answer; and to an assessment only if they enjoy it, and their how and when to challenge a correct answer answers pically require additional probing and that may mask fundamental misconceptions interpretation. or guesswork. “In very young children, learning is informal, For example, a child may not answer “trian- o en through play, so a quali assessment has gle” when asked to identi£ a three-sided shape to be adaptive,” says Sandra Pappas, a former but may, with prompting, be able to say that it student of Ginsburg’s who is Project Director is three-sided and that other shapes listed as for The Birthday Par . “O en there’s more to possible answers are not. Or she may be able to children’s knowledge than you’d think because count in sequence but may not yet have grasped they’re not just learning about number opera- the principle of cardinali —that is, that the last tions but also about shape, pattern, color and counting word (say, ¦ ve) represents the numeri- space. The Birthday Par taps those skills, and cal value of a whole set of objects (¦ ve apples). it’s also a form of professional development that The questions and hints off ered by The Birth- CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: ISTOCKPHOTO; TC FILE PHOTO FILE TC ISTOCKPHOTO; TOP: FROM CLOCKWISE
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_DATA.indd 26 4/2/12 4:45 PM _Data-Mining In Education How Old Are You NOW?
day Par are based on extensive research— much of it conducted by Ginsburg, who has spent thousands of hours observing young chil- dren in classrooms and at play. Teachers admin- istering the assessment can log on to a site to watch videos of children behaving in ways that demonstrate speci c forms of mathematical un- derstanding and misconception, as well as clips of Ginsburg himself discussing the cognitive ba- sis of his work. The Birthday Par also feeds as- sessment data to an online archive that is search- able by child, classroom or school. The Birthday Par is still being developed, and plans for distribution are not yet in place. But Ginsburg—who has authored a widely ad- mired curriculum called Big Math for Little Kids and collaborated with a so ware company on another assessment—is an eloquent spokesman for his work. As he put it in a television interview last year, “Our approach is that we need to build math instruction on the knowledge that the kids Herbert Ginsburg already have.” CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: ISTOCKPHOTO; TC FILE PHOTO FILE TC ISTOCKPHOTO; TOP: FROM CLOCKWISE
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_DATA.indd 27 4/2/12 4:46 PM _Data-Mining In Education Cheap Data ISTOCKPHOTO
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_DATA.indd 28 4/2/12 4:46 PM _Data-Mining In Education
A reposito for information generated by the new education technologies stands as a model for the fi eld
’ , and it is prob- ably the world’s largest repository of data generated by intelligent tutoring sys- tems. Based at the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center, which is funded by the INational Science Foundation, DataShop boast- ed, as of this past February, some 192,000 hours of student data from studies around the world. cornered the market on how to actually make use (Student actions are recorded roughly every 20 of all that information. In fact, in 2010 DataShop seconds, and the data in DataShop are longitu- hosted the annual competition of an organization dinal, spanning semester or yearlong courses.) called SIGKDD (the Association for Computing At the most detailed level, that data re ected 71 Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Knowl- million individual “transactions,” or computer edge Discovery and Data Mining), challenging keystrokes, made by students. No names are teams from around the world to analyze a year’s linked to any of the data, and researchers who worth of data from 9,000-plus algebra students hold accounts can decide whether to make their to predict the students’ future academic perfor- Cheap data accessible to others or keep it private. mance. The sample was so large —9 gigabytes— Yet DataShop’s most impressive accomplish- that only 130 of the 600 teams entering the con- ment may be that researchers who use it are test successfully submitted a possible solution. compelled to put their data into a standardized (Although the competition has since ended, its format—which means that, should they choose website is still open and people are still using it.) to share that information, other investigators “The issue is how to create algorithms that can will be able to use it for comparisons, meta-stud- turn millions of data points into information that ies or even secondary analysis. DataShop thus educators can use,” says John Stamper, a Carne- makes it possible for researchers to test their hy- gie Mellon facul¦ member who is DataShop’s potheses without the bother and expense of ever Technical Director. entering a classroom. At a presentation by Stamper at the rst of This does not mean that the proprietors of § o conferences on educational data-mining DataShop (or anyone else in the eld) have yet convened by TC President Susan Fuhrman in Washington, D.C., researchers were uniformly enthusiastic about being able to access data from other studies. Still, they saw plen¦ of room Data for improvement. “One problem with secondary data analysis is that it’s secondary,” said Kurt Van Lehn, Pro- fessor of Computer Science and Engineering at Arizona State Universi¦ . “The people doing the secondary analysis weren’t there. So if DataShop could be a video recording shop, too, that would be great. Otherwise you risk getting theories that ISTOCKPHOTO are not grounded in the reali¦ of what was going on when the data were recorded.”
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_DATA.indd 29 4/2/12 4:46 PM _Data-Mining In Education WHY WE STILL NEED HUMANS DEPT. States were collecting a mountain of school data that no one looked at. Priscilla Wohlstetter is using it to learn what makes charter schools tick PREVIOUS PAGE: ISTOCK. THIS PAGE: TC FILE PHOTO. FILE TC PAGE: THIS ISTOCK. PAGE: PREVIOUS
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_DATA.indd 30 4/2/12 4:46 PM _Data-Mining In Education
ver the past decade, the federal govern- Indeed, one of the top 10 charters used its rank- ment has required states to develop ing to build a case for a high bond rating. The O vast, sophisticated computer systems for school eventually received the bond and used the tracking school and student performance, part money to construct a new building. of the general push for greater accountability in WHY education. The result, attests Priscilla Wohlstet- The Dashboard now also includes an interactive ter (TC’s Visiting Tisch Professor in 2010-11 and website that users can employ for a number of now a Visiting Professor), has been either a gold- mine of data or a national case of “too much information,” and sometimes both. WE STILL Several years ago, Wohlstetter—the Diane and MacDonald Becket Professor in Educational Policy at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education, and Director of USC’s Center on Educational Governance—was approached by a group of California charter NEED school leaders with a problem. Under state law, they were required to submit reams of “compli- ance data” on their schools’ fi nances, demo- graphics and academic results, information that, in theo , could explain why some schools’ stu- dents might be performing poorly on standard- HUMANS ized tests. But as representatives of relatively new schools, where cultures of success were not yet fully entrenched, these school leaders knew Priscilla Wohlstetter that improvements in test scores take several years. Could Wohlstetter help them develop ad- ditional indicators of performance and growth? purposes. These include comparing individual DEPT. schools over time, checking the performance of As Wohlstetter and her team began si ing a specifi c school that one’s child attends, looking through the state compliance data, she realized for foundations that invest in charter schools, that no one had ever looked at most of it, let fi nding a job at a charter school, and provid- alone tried to transform it into useable informa- ing evidence for charter school authorizers who tion. She also realized that she now had a new are considering whether to renew or revoke a window onto a central question in her research: school’s charter. Meanwhile, Wohlstetter is work- What makes good charter schools good? ing on expanding the Dashboard to other states.
“People say charters are preparing students for “The key is to work with stakeholders in each the 21st centu , but we’re here now—it is the state in developing diff erent indicators, because 21st centu —and these schools are still black each state values diff erent things,” she says. “In boxes to a large extent,” she says. “We know that California, the performance of English Language many of them employ project-based learning, Learners is ve important. In Louisiana it is not; have smaller classes and use a lot of technology, they are ve focused on special education and but we don’t really know how that plays out with college readiness.” respect to performance. So we began looking at all these data points—the fi nest grains of The Dashboard also takes pains to distinguish sand, really—to see how we could turn them into between value-laden indicators—clear-cut “more meaningful indicators of performance.” is better” factors, such as the number of highly qualifi ed teachers in a school—and neutral infor- The result was the 2006 launch of the School mation that’s of interest to stakeholders Performance Dashboard, a comprehensive annual but depends on other factors for a positive performance assessment of each of California’s or negative impact. more than 900 charter schools. Assessments are based on 12 indicators, ranging from standard For example, Wohlstetter says, “We’ll report on measures such as Average Yearly Progress to how many computers a school has, but we won’t metrics of the Center’s own devising, such as attach a value to it, because as many principals School Productivity and Academic Momen- have pointed out to us, you can have a whole tum. The Dashboard, which last year included a bunch of computers sitting in the back of a room fi rst-ever ranking of California’s top 10 charter gathering dust, and you can have a classroom with schools, has come to be regarded as the most no computers where the kids are ve productively comprehensive and substantive eff ort of its kind. engaged in learning.” PREVIOUS PAGE: ISTOCK. THIS PAGE: TC FILE PHOTO. FILE TC PAGE: THIS ISTOCK. PAGE: PREVIOUS
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_DATA.indd 31 4/2/12 4:46 PM ROBthat getO it TS WRONG To err is human—but machines can do it, too. Sandra Okita believes we can learn from their mistakes
by PATRICIA LAMIELL
photography by SAMANTHA ISOM
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_Okita.indd 32 4/2/12 11:49 AM ROBOTS WRONG To err is human—but machines can do it, too. Sandra Okita believes we can learn from their mistakes by PATRICIA LAMIELL photography by SAMANTHA ISOM
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_Okita.indd 33 4/2/12 11:50 AM ON A RECENT AFTERNOON IN TC’S HUMAN ROBOT INTERACTION AND LEARNING LABORATORY, an 18-inch, white plastic robot named Projo was staring, with lightbulb eyes, at some math problems on a computer screen. “Hi, Projo, how’s it going?” Sandra Okita, Assistant Profes- sor of Technology and Education, asked the robot casually. “We’re going to be math buddies today.” “What happens if I get something wrong?” Projo asked in a wispy, plaintive voice. “I don’t want to make mistakes.” As it turned out, Projo (short for Projective Agent) was able to solve the problems, and he drew a plastic hand across his forehead in relief when Okita praised him for a job well done. But in many ways, his potential fallibili was the point. Okita and her students write programs for robots and avatars— virtual characters animated by humans through computers —to help small groups of learners (mostly elementary- and middle-school students) practice sets of problems in English, math, biology and other subjects. On the one hand, the arti- cial critters can assume the efficient, machine-like role you might expect, monitoring kids as they progress through their lessons and tracking the problems they get wrong, prompting
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_Okita.indd 34 4/2/12 11:50 AM repetitions with the patience that perhaps only a tar (which he may have designed and named, or machine could summon. But on the other hand, downloaded from the Internet and customized), the robots and avatars that Okita designs can he reviews the day’s math problems and takes also make the same mistakes students make—a a quiz. All of this is good practice and will help highly valuable service that reects Okita’s belief strengthen existing skills. But now comes the that learning, at its best, is a social enterprise. ist: The avatar, too, can take the quiz, make ON A “The key phrase across all my projects is ‘peer the same mistakes that the student is making, learning,’” Okita says. “Peer learners either teach and provide the student with an opportuni to us something we didn’t know or mirror back to us make corrections. It is a variation on the old ad- something about ourselves. Sometimes the peer age that the best way to learn something is to RECENT is human, sometimes it is an agent or avatar or a teach it to someone else. computer graphics character that resides inside a “I really believe that an inuential educational computer. Sometimes it’s a physical robot.” technology isn’t the kind that’s infallible, but in- Why use technology to approximate human stead, the kind that is most human,” Okita says. AFTERNOON roles? For starters, as demonstrated by Okita and The concept of using robots and computers in o collaborators from Stan- educational settings began ford Universi—TC alumnus in the late 1970s, triggered Daniel Schwartz of Stanford’s in part by the endearing an- IN TC’S School of Education (see droids of Star Wars, R2-D2 story, page 59) and Jeremy and C-3PO, which spawned Bailenson of its Department an entire industry of robotic of Communications—children toys and educational games love working with nonhuman for children. At that time, HUMAN ROBOT peer learners. Kids identi robotic science was already with robots and virtual char- evolving as a higher-educa- acters that they create or tion discipline in which engi- customize, and they make neers and computer scientists INTERACTION imaginative leaps when work- pursued the development of ing with them. Peer learners increasingly intelligent, so- also generate data that teach- phisticated robots and ava- ers can analyze to see which tars, mostly for manufacturing AND LEARNING problems are the most diffi- and military use. In subse- cult for individual children or quent campaigns reminiscent an entire class. of the United States’ Sputnik- “Projo has an assessment era competition with the So- LABORATORY, side to him and also helps viet Union, private business- kids self-correct their math es began sponsoring contests calculations,” Okita says. to encourage children to learn Then, too, she adds, human to build and program robots. peers can’t always be avail- Still, robotics remained the able and may not be at the domain of the physical sci- ideal learning level—slightly, ences until the 1990s, when but not too far, ahead of the cognitive scientists started student—to be of maximum benet. And while Projo to explore how humans interact with robots. That takes a human peers or teachers can do their best to load off. line of inquiry heated up when avatars entered make information accessible, they may lack the the educational and recreational computer-game time or expertise to veri that the student has scene. At rst they were off-the-shelf, online g- actually learned it. ures that could be downloaded, “claimed” and One powerful technique for making such a sometimes named by a gamer who controlled determination is by behaving humanly—spe- them anonymously in cyberspace. But by the early cically, by replicating a student’s own mistakes. 2000s, gamers could create their own avatars as Imagine a sixth grader who learns a certain math alter egos and control them, still anonymously, in concept at school, Okita says, under the guid- online games and virtual communities. Psycholo- ance of a teacher. He logs in later at home and, gists and educators became interested in avatars with the help of a personalized computer ava- as representations of a person’s identi, fantasies
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_Okita.indd 35 4/2/12 11:50 AM and ego, and robotics and computer science be- gan to attract researchers like Okita, who holds a doctorate in educational psychology. Around 2005, Okita began to add her voice to the academic study of human-robot interaction. Previous computer research had focused on giv- ing robots superhuman memory and infallible computational skills, and on imbuing avatars with extraordinary physical prowess. Building on the premise that peer learning can be the best way to teach and absorb knowledge, Okita and a small number of education researchers began asking whether students would do better with a robot that behaved more like a human. Would the robot be more effective, they asked, if it maintained eye contact for a longer period? If it mimicked human gestures or voices more closely? If it actually made a mistake? When Okita joined TC’s Mathematics, Science and Technology Department in 2008, John Black, the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Telecommu- nications and Education and Chair of the Depart- ment of Human Development, was pursuing a very similar line of inquiry. Black’s research focuses on grounded, or embodied, cognition and the theory that learning is most successful when it is rein- forced or even precipitated by a physical experi- ence—or, as Black puts it, when the learner is able to “create both a mental and perceptual simulation of a concept or process” (see story, page 48). “Simulation” is the key word here, because it implies comparison and the reconciliation of difference, as with someone tting a shape to a preexisting space. For example, using technolo- gies based on the concept of grounded cogni- tion, a dancer or athlete might digitally capture Okita and Projo his or her own movement, then overlay it against a move perfectly executed by an on-screen ava- tar to compare the o. Or a learner could ex- “ I REALLY BELIEVE ecute physical gestures that direct an avatar to do something, such as stack and count a group THAT AN INFLUENTIAL of blocks on a screen, and then observe how well those directions play out. In both cases, the EDUCATIONAL avatar acts as a peer learner, and the gestures by ISN’T which the student moves the avatar serve as a TECHNOLOGY physical reminder of the process. THE KIND THAT’S Okita is studying which virtual peer learners, programmed to be humanly imperfect, are the INFALLIBLE, BUT most helpful in encouraging grounded cognition, and she also is teaching educators how to use INSTEAD, THE KIND THAT them. In Too last summer, she worked at the .” Honda Research Institute, designing and testing IS MOST HUMAN robots for educational settings. —SANDRA OKITA, , “Technology and robots present an array of interesting design choices when modeling inter-
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_Okita.indd 36 4/2/12 11:50 AM actions with human learners,” she says. “Isolat- virtual peer learners. The next step, Okita says, ing features through empirical studies can help is to see how well humanoid robots like Projo us examine the cause-and-effect relationship, perform as peer learners for students. which can help in designing interventions that Ultimately, the goal is to nd what Okita calls contribute to human learning and behavior.” “the sweet spot” in technological design in or- One important nding, made by other research- der to determine how nely one can calibrate ers and emphatically corroborated by Okita, is that the responses of avatars and robots to human it is not good for a robot or avatar to betoo human. commands, and how humanlike to make them in Researchers describe a phenomenon they call “the order to be most effective while avoiding the un- uncanny valley,” in which a robot mimics human canny valley. Currently Okita is looking for fund- behavior or appearance so perfectly that people ing to support this research. of all ages become uncomfortable and children Of her students, Okita says, “We’d like to de- become afraid. Hence the importance, particu- velop the next generation of robot programmers, larly with young children, of leaving room for the to learn how to design human-to-robot interac- imagination by designing robots and avatars with tions.” She believes that robotics can be used as cartoonlike or exaggeratedly robotic features. an effective and exciting vehicle to get elemen- In addition to their work with robots, Okita tary- and middle-school students interested in and her students in the Instructional Technolo- the pe of work she herself is doing. gy program (who are also studying with Charles As excited as she is by what technology can do Kinzer, Professor of Education) are designing in encouraging learning, Okita keeps its power instructional avatars for the Second Life virtual in perspective. She is rst an educator and re- world and testing them with children. The aim is searcher for whom learning is paramount, and to discover which avatar and robot features, and it is learning—not technology—that drives her what level of customization, are best for young work. “The curriculum should always be at the learners. The team initially tested the effective- center of whatever technology you use,” she ness of learning from the teaching of a human says. “Technology should support your curricu- peer. Then they tested how students fared with lum—not the other way around.” tc
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_Okita.indd 37 4/2/12 11:50 AM BETTING THEY’D RATHER
PLAYTHAN SMOKE A digital game developed by TC students could help end that three-pack-a-day habit
by PATRICIA LAMIELL
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_kinzer.indd 38 4/2/12 12:15 PM SMOKE A digital game developed by TC students could help end that three-pack-a-day habit by PATRICIA LAMIELL
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_kinzer.indd 39 4/2/12 12:15 PM - cials from the 1960s, people would rather play than smoke. computer lab conference room in Thompson Hall, As focused as they are on game design, the creators—Garber, Me- playing a digital game with an iPhone. She could be zei, Pazit Levitan, Azadeh Jamalian and Dan Rabinowitz, as well as Ni- a student on break beeen classes, except that she sha Alex and Rosanna Lopez—are education researchers rst. They sprouts dozens of wires from an MRI cap, an electrocardiograph and a broadly dene education to include any input that modies human be- skin conduction device on a forenger. The wires transmit readings of her havior. Underlying their work on A Lit2Quit is the question “What brain activi, heart rate and skin response to be graphed on a laptop com- makes games uniquely useful for education?” In this sense, TC puter. ¶ The object of the game is to blow into a microphone attached to stands out in the computer design world. Game design is a huge eld, headphones in order to prevent a shiny spaceship icon on the screen from and educational game design is a burgeoning one, but both are still sinking. Short, shallow breaths move the icon up; long exhalations make dominated by computer program- mers and engineers. The guiding it hover. The subject does well at rst, but a¸er a good start at breathing principle at TC, says Hammer, is to create games with educational rhythmically, she struggles to stay on pace, sending jagged lines up and value that are grounded in proven cognitive science and pedagogy. Or down the multicolored graph on the laptop screen. TC doctoral student as Garber puts it, “Learning theory drives our design decisions.” Adrienne Garber calls time. ¶ Garber and fellow doctoral student Jessica Lit2Quit reects the approach of the project’s principal investiga- Mezei are testing Lit2Quit: A tor, Charles Kinzer, Professor of Game Intervention for Nicotine Education and Director of TC’s Smokers, which they created for the Communication, Computing and iPhone with several other students Technology in Education program in the Advanced Game Design as well as its Game Research Lab seminar taught in the Communica- in the Department of Mathemat- tion, Computing and Technology ics, Science and Technology. (See in Education program by instruc- story, page 42.) “There is some- tor Jessica Hammer. Specically, thing inherently motivating in the they want to see whether playing use of technology,” says Kinzer, COURTESY GAMES FOR RESEARCH/LITQUIT.WORDPRESS.COM FOR GAMES COURTESY Lit2Quit can simulate the o pri- who researches the social as well mary perceived effects of nicotine as cognitive principles of learning. smoking on the brain and body: He believes that research on gam- relaxation and stimulation. Relax- ing, which is popular across all age ation is evoked in Lit2Quit by slow, groups, might help educators learn measured breathing and game play what it is about digital games that along with calming music, colors makes people love to play them. and graphics; stimulation is pro- Kinzer hopes that once they learn vided by rapid breathing and game that, researchers can leverage the play as well as stirring music, colors games’ blockbuster populari to and graphics, which increase brain build successful instructional sys- activi, heart rate and electrical tems and behavior modication conduction on the skin. The hope is programs that work. that Lit2Quit will someday be com- Perhaps unique in the country, mercially packaged as a cigarette TC’s game design classes draw substitute and that, to borrow from graduate students from diverse disci-
the old Tareyton cigarette commer- plines and programs. Some have little ISTOCKPHOTO PAGES: PREVIOUS
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_kinzer.indd 40 4/2/12 12:15 PM or no grounding in gaming or even physiology of smoking and adapted technology but see the potential of breathing techniques used in yoga, these tools for teaching and learning. outlined the graphics, supervised And Lit2Quit’s design team is as the game’s programmers and found interdisciplinary as they come. Gar- a composer to write the music. ber is a former attorney who worked on educational game licenses before ¡ coming to TC. Levitan is an award- has successfully completed winning independent lm producer. its testing phase and has Jamalian has a background in sys- Breath of Fire shown that the game gener- tems engineering and developed ally mimics the perceived effects of (with Hammer) a smartphone game Tsmoking and the body’s physiological for preschoolers called BoogieBash, response to nicotine. The team hopes which received a certicate of inno- to secure additional funding to rene vation from the Cooney Center at its research and, ultimately, conduct Sesame Workshop. eld trials to document that the “At TC, we are culturally about game supports smokers who want to teaching people,” Hammer says. quit. Meanwhile, taking a leaf from “The program says it’s OK if you Kinzer’s theory of video games as a come in without design skills; you form of social interaction, they have can learn them.” ideas to put the project on social It was in this spirit that in the fall media sites like Facebook and Twit- of 2009 Hammer issued a challenge ter and leverage the social aspects to students in her Video Games in of gaming, including competition, Education class: Divide into teams Fast-Paced Play which appears to be an important and write a funding proposal for motivator for many gamers. Lit2Quit an educational video game tied players could support each other to health care. One team came up with online forums or contests. “Re- with Lit2Quit, and what began as a search on smoking cessation shows classroom exercise quickly became that people who want to quit smok- part cognitive research, part mar- ing need support,” Levitan says. keting research. With Kinzer’s help, The team may yet have a block- the team secured funding from the buster game on its hands; its funding Robert Wood Johnson Foundation proposal cites research showing that and got to work. Hammer’s and 70 percent of adult smokers want to Kinzer’s aim, beyond giving the stu- quit. But one result is already clear: dents experience in writing grant Lit2Quit’s developers are learning proposals, was to foster learning by a great deal about the educational COURTESY GAMES FOR RESEARCH/LITQUIT.WORDPRESS.COM FOR GAMES COURTESY doing, and the team members did value and social principles of learn- precisely that. They researched the ing through digital games. tc In-Game Challenges
LIT2QUIT REPORTED BY STEVEN KROLL
An interactive app for smartphones, phones, depending on their choice Lit2Quit encourages smokers to in mode, to control the avatar and reduce their habit, ultimately lead- speed of the game, avoid enemies ing them to quit, by playing a game and complete levels. Research that simulates the stimulating and shows that breathing therapy helps relaxing sensations experienced while to significantly cut back smoking. smoking. Players choose between two So rather than reaching for a modes of play—Relax and Rush—and cigarette, the thinking goes, pick up
PREVIOUS PAGES: ISTOCKPHOTO PAGES: PREVIOUS then breathe into their headset micro- your smartphone and play Lit2Quit. Surprise and Tension
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_kinzer.indd 41 4/2/12 3:06 PM Chuck Kinzer uses technology to understand the role of motivation in education
by JOE LEVINE
, psychologist E. L. Thorndike proposed the Law of Eff ect: If an association is followed by a satis ing state of aff airs, it will be strengthened, and if it is followed by an annoying state of aff airs, it will be weakened. Today, Chuck Kinzer, who directs TC’s program in Communication, Computing and Technology in Educa- tion (and the program’s Game Research Lab), is applying a similar lens toward nding ways that technology motivates people to learn. More broadly speaking, he seeks to ex- tract—from human interactions with technology—funda- mental principles of how learning occurs. “Technology is inherently motivating,” says Kinzer. “People want to use it. They like their smartphones and touch pads. We’re trying to gure out why these things mo- tivate people and use the underlying principles to build instructional systems. We believe that although learning is THIS PAGE: ISTOCKPHOTO; NEXT PAGE: TC FILE PHOTO FILE TC PAGE: NEXT ISTOCKPHOTO; PAGE: THIS
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_kinzer.indd 42 4/2/12 12:30 PM THIS PAGE: ISTOCKPHOTO; NEXT PAGE: TC FILE PHOTO fea_kinzer.indd 43 Charles Kinzer 4/2/12 12:15 PM content-specic, there are learning processes in a larger sense.” “Children learn best in a Like Thorndike, Kinzer denes learning broadly, to include any socio-cognitive context... We couldn’t experience-driven change in be- havior, with motivation, social fac- easily test that because kids would tors and cognitive processes as have to physically meet aer school the operative forces. For example, Lit2Quit, the smoking-cessation or on weekends... But then we get a game developed by an interdisci- plinary group of Kinzer’s students, chat function, and suddenly three is designed as a replacement thera- py that taps some of the motivators kids can get online and work together.” that make people smoke. The game can induce breathing states similar —CHARLES KINZER, PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION to both the adrenaline rush and the more relaxed, yoga-like experience one published study, middle-school ers who are inspired by the “gee that smokers seek. Like a cigarette students preferred a book-reading whiz” factor—the seemingly magical break, playing Lit2Quit takes three activi to a single-user Nintendo prospect of enabling people to talk to ve minutes, and it involves hand game or a similar comic book. to friends across the ocean using a movements so that players use all of In another project, Kinzer and a pocket-size square of plastic and the modalities involved in smoking colleague, project director Jo Anne metal, or to get driving directions when playing the game. Kleifgen, are using a multimodal from a disembodied voice—Kinzer “The ultimate goal would be to web-based program to enhance studies technology because of what have people think, ‘Why not reach academic writing and subject-mat- it reveals about behaviors and pro- for the game?’” Kinzer says. “So ter learning among Latino middle- cesses that people already engage in. right now, we’re doing physiologi- schoolers who are learning English “Until very recently, many theories cal studies of people who use Lit to (see story, page 45). about learning were difficult to test see if the same areas of the brain are “If you succeed at something dif- and implement, but now technology activated as in smoking, and to see cult, that’s satising because you allows us to test them in new and if we’re getting other, similar physi- feel better about yourself,” Kinzer very powerful ways,” he says. “Take ological responses such as elevated says. “We provide learning support the idea that children learn best in a heart rate and perspiration. We’re structures for children so that when socio-cognitive context. We couldn’t also recording emotional measures.” they write and can see their writing easily test that because kids would In another project, conducted get better, and see that they’re doing have to physically meet aer school through a multi-institutional col- meaningful research, that’s a satis- or on weekends in social activities. laboration called the Games for ing, motivational thing for them.” But then we get a chat function, a Learning Institute (G4LI), Kinzer Kinzer is quick to point out that technology that lets you collaborate and his students are trying to tease he is not a motivational psycholo- and do things at a distance, and sud- apart the components of educa- gist nor, in fact, a psychologist at denly three kids can get online and tional games that are central to all. He majored in English as an un- work together. Or remember learn- engaging young people’s interest dergraduate and earned his Ph.D. ing to write a letter? It was so inau- and attention. They have studied from U.C. Berkeley in language and thentic because you knew the only the role of narrative, the effect of literacy education—an orientation person who was going to read it was gender and appearance of avatars that has given him an appreciation your teacher. Or maybe the class (gures that represent the user), for the social and cognitive factors would write to a famous children’s the size of the screen as an element that play into motivation. author, but it would take weeks be- of game-playing, the relative appeal “My training is to look at people fore there was a reply, if ever. Now of single-user games versus those and to understand the interrela- technology gets you a response in that involve multiple players, and, tions that make them act as they a meaningful period of time, which using an eye tracking system, the do,” he says. “We don’t develop lan- is much more motivating and can effect of graphics on comprehen- guage in a vacuum, for example. So affect learning. So I’m interested in sion. The results of these inquiries, right away there are social factors not just testing a technology but un- while still preliminary, have oen within a cognitive process.” derstanding its effects on thinking,
been surprising. For example, in Ultimately, unlike many research- social interaction and learning.” tc MUSEUM BRITISH PHOTO; FILE TC TOP: FROM
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_kinzer.indd 44 4/2/12 12:15 PM HELPING NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS WRITE ACADEMIC ENGLISH So ware that taps emotions and explicates a mysterious process by SUZANNE GUILLETTE
uring a recent social studies ing relevant, disparate sources and class at a Bronx middle school, synthesizing the material in meaning- Dseventh graders were using a ful ways to create a structured, logical new so ware program developed by argument.” To aid in this process, faculty at Teachers College to conduct Kleifgen and Kinzer have built their research for an essay on civil rights. so ware around a framework, devel- Ma am (not her real name), a seventh oped earlier by Kinzer and colleagues, grader from the Dominican Republic, called STEPS plus G, which encourag- grew increasingly ang as she viewed es students to learn about and discuss images of the Star of David identifi ca- the scientifi c, technological, economic, tion badges that Jews were forced to political, social and geographic aspects wear in public under Nazi rule. of a given subject. Jo Anne Kleifgen “That would be like me having to wear The STEPS to Literacy program something because I’m Dominican!” includes a series of learning modules she exclaimed. devoted to these conceptual categories, each of which begins with an “anchor video” that provides It’s no secret that students learn more, and more a context for topics that students learn and write eff ectively, when they care about the material. about. Students can then use STEPS to Literacy But motivating them to write essays can be a to explore a variety of resources: photos, audio challenge of a diff erent order, even with a topic and video, and written materials, including tran- as emotionally resonant as the Holocaust, and scripts, many of which are available in both Eng- particularly when, like Ma am, they must do so lish and Spanish. The interface allows students in a language other than their native tongue. to keep all materials open onscreen while writing. Students also can work in their native language to Enter the Teachers College so ware, a grasp concepts, form ideas and create notes and multimodal web-based program called STEPS dra s before writing a formal dra in English. to Literacy: An Integrated Digital Writing Space for English Language Learners. Developed by During the fi rst year of its development, STEPS Jo Anne Kleifgen, Professor of Linguistics and to Literacy was piloted at Ma am’s Bronx middle Education, and Chuck Kinzer, Professor of Com- school. More recently, Kleifgen, Kinzer and their munication, Computing and Technology, STEPS team of TC students have conducted testing at to Literacy was funded by a three-year, $1.5 additional schools in Harlem. million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. While the initial focus of STEPS to Literacy has been on social “Our work is based on real studies, Kleifgen and Kinzer hope need,” says Kleifgen. “There to expand the program to sup- are lots of children whose port learning across disciplines, home language is diff erent beginning with science. from English who aren’t succeeding academically.” “Writing in any subject area For example, among all can be daunting because eighth graders who speak the process can seem English as a second lan- mysterious,” Kinzer says. guage, only 4 percent are “STEPS helps to explicate profi cient readers. the thinking involved, and it creates a way to tap Students learning English learners’ emotions and are o en particularly chal- experiences.” And that, lenged by what Kinzer calls Writing in a second as the expression goes, a major component of language can seems worth writing home academic writing: “fi nd- be like t ing to about. tc decipher hiero-
FROM TOP: TC FILE PHOTO; BRITISH MUSEUM BRITISH PHOTO; FILE TC TOP: FROM glyphics without the Rosetta stone.
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_kinzer.indd 45 4/2/12 12:15 PM gameFOR LEARNING By “gamifying” science and other subjects, Joey Lee is getting students to take an active approach to their learning
By Suzanne Guillette
ccording to a 2008 Pew Center to help students form more positive Joey Lee report, 97 percent of teens across the count are self-concepts and identities as scien- avid game-players who invest substantial time in tists and to cultivate what Christopher their virtual lives. Emdin, TC Assistant Professor of Science Education, calls “science- “Kids are having intrinsic needs met in well- mindedness.” designed games,” says Joey Lee, TC Assistant Professor of Communication, Computing and “What if we could raise up win- aTechnology in Education. “They apply lots of time ners in real life by taking the same and energy in game worlds in order to pursue mechanics, elements and processes things like maste , autonomy, purpose, sta- that have proved vastly successful tus, social contact, acceptance, curiosity, self- in commercial games and applying expression and competition. When similar game them to traditional classrooms in principles are applied to real-world educational science and other subjects?” asks settings, there are rich opportunities for changing Lee, Director of the Real-World Im- the culture of the classroom and shaping identi- pact Games Lab, part of the Games ties that are better for learning. There are op- Research Lab at TC. portunities to structure and model processes and strategies for success; encourage peer teaching This past academic year, Lee, together and self-directed learning; off er tailored, custom- with Emdin and Jenny Ingber, Direc- ized feedback; provide recognition for academic tor of Science Programs at the Bank skills and achievements; and encourage leader- Street College of Education, launched ship, problem-solving and creativity.” a pilot program called the Science City Heroes Gamifi cation Project at two Prompted by that observation, Lee has begun New York City middle schools, one in designing what he calls a “gamifi cation” layer for the Bronx and one in Brooklyn. science classrooms: activities that lend a gamelike fl air to a space that, despite its seemingly obvious The project employed a series of allure, all too o en fails to engage kids’ imagina- color-coded Pokémon-like cards
tions and motivation to learn. His broader goal is to help both teachers and students PHOTO FILE TC
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_black.indd 46 4/2/12 4:51 PM and anxiety within the Asian-Amer- ican community. His dissertation addressed how stereotypes in general create barriers for people aiming to reach their full potential. FOR LEARNING “Games are a powerful way to get people to step out of their shoes and into the life of the other,” says Lee. “They allow people to have diff erent experiences that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to have.”
Currently Lee is exploring gamifi cation on other fronts. At TC he’s working on a project called Scholar’s Quest, an innovative attempt to gamify the graduate school experience in ways that will help students maximize feed- back from advisers, build community and share advice with their peers and improve interpersonal and technology skills. “O en, grad students don’t use their time in school eff ectively and wisely,” says Sam Ahn, a TC doctoral student in Communication, Comput- ing and Technology in Education who is working with Lee on the graduate Joey Lee school project. “By using gamifi cation, our plan is to make the transition emphasize and refl ect the processes that three male classmates from the from the undergraduate experience and traits that characterize science- Dominican Republic, all of whom to the graduate experience seamless, mindedness. For example, a young had limited English skills, took note. engaging and fun.” girl who created a chart depicting the Previously, the trio had spent their hierarchy in which humans, snakes, time in the classroom talking to one Lee is also bringing gamifi cation to mice and other animals function another instead of paying attention. climate-change education. As part of as producers and consumers was But once they saw that their class- a $1.2 million grant from the National recognized with a red “science victo mate received recognition for her ef- Science Foundation that brings card” for analytical thinking. Green forts, they wanted to participate too. together TC, Barnard College, the “success” cards were doled out to They soon created their own charts Columbia Climate Center, the Lamont- students who displayed positive aca- and won their own red cards. Doherty Earth Observato , the demic identities, while blue “action” American Museum of Natural Histo cards were peer-awarded, a way to “Kids who have diff erent ethnic and and others, he is designing a Real- promote teamwork and collabora- linguistic backgrounds can become World Action Game for adults that tion. Students could then use the keyed in to play because they want to takes advantage of social networking, cards they amassed to purchase and succeed in the game,” says Emdin. crowdsourcing and real-world mis- upgrade buildings, vehicles and parks sions to get adults to learn about and in a virtual Science City. For his doctoral dissertation, Lee take action on climate change. explored “identity-supportive games” “One of our main goals was to get that use game mechanics to chal- The focal point for Lee, in any area these students to see themselves as lenge racial and ethnic stereotypes he’s addressing, is learning. “I’ve scientists,” says Lee. “We want to and encourage the player to refl ect always been interested in how games promote learning as a lifestyle, not on his or her self-concept. He was can make a diff erence with real-world something that happens only in the interested particularly in Asian-Amer- problems and challenges,” he says. classroom.” ican culture and the myth of Asian- “Whether it’s shaping identities, Americans as the “model minority,” a changing perspectives or motivat- When the aforementioned student stereotype that has been associated ing action, the learning that can take TC FILE PHOTO FILE TC received her red card, Emdin recalls with high rates of depression, suicide place in games is powerful.” tc
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_black.indd 47 4/2/12 4:51 PM Learning By Doing
2emember0 physics in junior high school, and .those boring experiments with marbles that were supposed to teach you about concepts such as potential energy and kinetic energy? Well, physical science classes look a lot dif- ferent nowadays, even in the h grade. To learn about potential and kinetic energy, students can go on- line to watch animations of falling rhinoceroses and speeding roller coasters. With a mouse-click, they can change the roller Rcoaster’s speed and the steepness of the track incline. When PHOTO FILE TC SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_black.indd 48 4/2/12 4:51 PM Learning By Doing
John Black
they make those changes, the program to a large degree on the learner’s John Black provides a readout of corresponding abili to create both a mental and a and his students changes in energy expenditure. perceptual simulation of a concept John Black has shown in many or process. Studies have shown, for are leaders studies that students who engage example, that for children reading a with such simulations develop a story about farming, manipulating in exploring better conceptual understanding actual farm objects leads to better technology that than peers who learn by more tra- retention of the story. ditional methods. For Black, Cleve- As digital technology has become makes use of land E. Dodge Professor of Tele- more sophisticated, it has provid- communications and Education ed increasingly powerful forms of grounded cognition and Chair of TC’s Department of grounded cognition. The hierarchy Human Development, the explana- of eff ectiveness, from least to most, tion isn’t simply that such presen- is watch, do, feel, move. Watching a By Joe Levine tations are more fun or that kids simulation is great, but becoming a enjoy using cool technology. Rather, participant by actually feeling or per- Black believes that such programs forming the activi in question rein- enhance learning because they forces underlying concepts. In a study create powerful perceptual experi- last year, for example, Black and TC ences and promote what he calls Instructional Technology and Media grounded or embodied cognition. doctoral student Insook Han found According to the guiding para- that adding “force feedback,” or digm in TC’s Cognitive Studies in weighted resistance, to a simulation Education program (which Black further increased learning. Students directs), and particularly in the In- worked with a program that simu- telligent Technologies concentra- lated the movement of interacting
TC FILE PHOTO FILE TC tion, full understanding depends gears. To increase the output force
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_black.indd 49 4/2/12 4:52 PM of the gears, the students had to pull themselves as the robots, and to harder on a joystick, or lever. “When you bring move their own bodies in the ways The newest and most exciting area in technology without that they wanted the robots to per- of inquiry is technology that responds form, scored best on a test of con- to human movement. In 2002 the reference to quality ceptual understanding given aer movie Minority Report, starring Tom completion of the unit of study. Cruise, envisioned precisely such a research about how Then again, when it comes to gizmo: a three-dimensional computer learning really occurs, grounded cognition, it may be that interface that the user controls with imagination tops the hierarchy. hand gestures. Since then, gaming you’re dooming In a recent project, Black and TC technology that responds to move- student Saadia Khan showed that ment, like Nintendo’s Wii, Micro- yourself to failure.... when children interact with a simu- so’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlaySta- Hands-on activities lated historical event by controlling tion 3, has come online. Tools such as an avatar in the virtual world called the iPad Touch and Microso Kinect that are conceptually Second Life, they learn that history respond to smaller movements. much better than students who Why is movement important? A congruent with what merely read about it. growing eld, led by experts such as is being learned When Black sums up the impor- TC’s Barbara Tvers, Professor of tance of technology in education, he Psychology and Education, posits can improve that oen talks about the opportuni to that physical gesture corresponds connect with students whose poten- with and can enhance different learning.” tial isn’t being tapped—and the con- kinds of thought processes. For current danger that educators will be example, Tvers and others have —JOHN BLACK, led down the primrose path. Adapt a . shown that when people are solv- - video game successfully to the class- ing problems, they make character- room, and you’ve got a built-in draw istic gestures that reveal underlying for kids who don’t necessarily take mental imagery. And when people Learning Technologies, and Black to books and paper. Get seduced by watch others engage in a specic have shown that movement can ¤ashy technology in which the move- activi, the neurons activated in turn young learners into program- ments and interaction do not match their brains are the same ones that mers of on-screen or tangible ava- the conceptual structure of what you are employed in that activi. tars—which in turn can enhance want the students to learn, and not Technology that responds to ges- their understanding of concepts only will you fail to promote learning, ture can therefore promote learning. in subjects such as physics. In an- but you may even make things worse. In a study presented in November other study conducted last year “There’s a lot of so-called edu- 2010 at the Psychonomic Socie through the Institute, which Black cational technology out there, but Conference, Black and Tvers, along also directs, Black and three stu- while the technology is very ad- with TC Cognitive Studies doctoral dents—Carol Lu, Seokmin Kang vanced, it oen re¤ects very little student Ayelet Siegel, demonstrated and Douglas Huang—enabled el- knowledge of education,” he says. that when children solved arithmetic ementary school students in TC’s “And when you bring in technology problems that had simple, dened Harlem Ivy Aer-School Ne¡ork without reference to quali research answers, they used tapping, pointing to build and program LEGO ro- about how learning really occurs, and beating gestures that were best bots. The robots performed specic you’re dooming yourself to failure. supported by use of a traditional com- activities, such as striking balls of Using hands-on activities that are puter mouse. But when the children varying size and weight with differ- conceptually congruent with what performed a “continuous task,” such ent degrees of force, in response to is being learned can improve that as estimating where a specic number signals of touch, light and sound. learning, and adding simulations would fall on a number line running As a result of observing how far that help students also imagine from 0 to 100, they made smooth, and fast the balls traveled, all the el- and manipulate those experiences continuous hand gestures such as ementary school students demon- can improve learning even more. sweeping, arcing and dragging, which strated an improved understanding This approach improves memory were best approximated by running of the principles governing the re- for what is being learned, but even their ngers across a touch pad. lationship be¡een force and mass. more important, it improves the ¤ex- Cameron Fadjo, a Research As- But a subgroup of students who ible abili to use what was learned
sociate with TC’s Institute for were also asked to initially imagine to solve problems.” tc PHOTO FILE TC
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
fea_black.indd 50 4/3/12 11:51 AM LEARNING FROM SCRATCH A user-friendly design and programming language has gone viral, with help from some advocates at TC by SUZANNE GUILLETTE
News fl ash: Boredom: Yet An- Professor of Telecommunica- other [Ridiculous] Animation, a tions and Education, and Susan video narrative about a stuff ed Lowes, ILT’s Director of Research animal who plays with yo-yos and Evaluation, Fadjo and other and off ers w commenta on students explore how elementa Kant’s theories of moral action, and middle-school students learn was viewed by more than 50 abstract concepts and develop people during the fi rst 12 hours problem-solving skills. a er its author, Cheddargirl, posted it last summer. Scratchers can meet online to tap the growing Scratch “Nice animating—that danc- community for creative input. ing was really good :D.” wrote A user can post an idea for an Jonathanpb of New Zealand. adventure game character—say, a girl who is good at math and Welcome to the world of speaks eloquently—and get Scratch, a design and program- immediate feedback and sug- ming language that enables Cameron Fadjo gestions for ways to bring her to creative spirits such as Ched- digital life. Fadjo also notes that dargirl to create and discuss interactive stories, Scratch’s design arose in part from the cognitive games, music and art. Released in 2007 by MIT development theories of Jean Piaget, who believed Media Lab, Scratch has attracted more than that children learn by, among other ways, making 1 million registered users who have generated mistakes, discovering their errors and correcting more than 2.5 million unique projects. them. Seymour Papert, an MIT epistemologist and artifi cial intelligence researcher mentored by Piaget, “Scratch enables people of all ages and back- developed the Logo programming language to help grounds to meet on common ground,” says TC children explore mathematical problems. Papert, in doctoral student Cameron Fadjo, Research turn, infl uenced younger computer scientists such Associate with the College’s Institute for Learn- as Mitchel Resnick, head of the Lifelong Kindergar- ing Technologies (ILT), who has been researching ten group at MIT Media Lab, which created Scratch. the use of Scratch in the classroom. “The beauty of Scratch is that it is not exclusively confi ned to Recently Fadjo and Black hosted Resnick and programmers or designers. It breaks down barriers Karen Brennan, also of MIT Media Lab, at the to learning computing by creating opportunities fi rst-ever Scratch Educators Meetup at TC. Some for anyone to create and share their work.” 45 classroom teachers, a er-school coordina- tors, researchers and museum staff gathered for Scratch derives its name from the technique of DJs workshops and lectures on how to use Scratch. who create music by spinning records on phono- graph turntables. Like that practice, the Scratch “Teachers are taking this tool and applying it as environment enables users to work without knowing creatively as the Scratchers,” says Fadjo. Mean- the medium’s syntax. Instead, Scratchers employ while, Scratch researchers are seeking a better a system of graphical blocks, each representing understanding of how learning occurs in infor- a diff erent animation element (for example, “play mal settings and of how Scratch might increase sound”) that can be used in a nearly endless num- motivation and engagement. ber of combinations. Scratchers program by drag- ging together these blocks, which resemble puzzle The response to Cheddargirl’s recent post sug- pieces and fi t only when they make sense. gests the answer to that last question is “a lot.”
This intuitive, visual approach makes Scratch ac- “Really great art, good animating, great music, cessible across all ages and cultures. At ILT, Scratch even,” wrote Sunrise-Moon, a user in the United has been a catalyst for exploring the develop- States. “If I might point out one problem, though— ment of video games and visual novels to improve many of the scenes get a bit repetitive. For mathematical and computational thinking. Under example, if the dancing scene had more moves, it’d the direction of John Black, Cleveland E. Dodge be funnier. Still, ve good animation :D.” tc TC FILE PHOTO FILE TC
WWW.tc.EDU/today SPRING
fea_black.indd 51 4/2/12 4:52 PM fnd_hyland.indd 52 SPRING SPRING WWW. tc .EDU / today 4/2/12 1:27 PM
TC FILE PHOTO TC FILE PHOTO fnd_hyland.indd 53 COLLEGE OF THE FRIEND - I by Jack Hylandistheadviserwe’d allliketohave Thinking Through It E O J Soviet Union had just launched Sputnik. When I went in to ask ing a recent interview at his office in midtown Manhattan. “The the end of freshman year,” Hyland recalled almost sheepishly dur physics. theoretical in jored landscape: As an undergraduate at Williams College, Hyland ma ¦o years ago to help companies navigate the volatile new media cofounded he which Partners, Advisory Media for website the there’s the real shocker, quietly buried midway down in his bio on the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. and Association, Art College Williamstown,the Massachusetts, in Institute Art Clark Francine and Sterling the of on boards served the and Rome in Academy American the of board the magazines. and newspapers in up show locations far-ung other and Bhutan ¶ grandfather. his of biography admired widely a Stidger, Bill wrote ber/YoungVentures.Rubicam & PaineWebWarburg,and SG Stanley, Morgan including rms, banking nation’sinvestment the leading of some at roles top in person. same the be ferent ., incarnations surface that you start to , wonder if they can all . Co-chair of the Teachers College Board of Trustees, so many dif hr’ Hln te htgahr woe itrs from pictures whose photographer, the Hyland There’s
INE N VI E L Evangelism’s First Modern Media Star: The Life of Reverend of Life The Star: Evangelism’sMedia Modern First ¶ hr’ te r etuis wo a chaired has who enthusiast art the There’s ¶ There’s the Jack Hyland who has served has who Hyland There’sJack the ¶ “We had to declare our majors at at majors our declare to “Wehad ¶ There’s who Hyland Jack the WWW. tc .EDU ¶ / today And then And then SPRING SPRING - - - -
4/2/12 1:27 PM fnd_hyland.indd 54 country of 50 percent or more in our ment gap. teaching achieve-U.S. the of closing the and American of reshaping the than less nothing includes tion they wanttogo.” whereto get can they so important, help most what’sthrough I think to them and problems, have who companies, run who people with deal I work. my nancial in same it’sthe And right. always I’m mean doesn’t “Which grins. Hyland ing.” distract- are that but nice, very be may that than up come that things other rather course that on xed stay then and fuss, of done, lot a without be to needs what identi people help to it’swork, board my an advisory role. “If I do anything in affiown his on light ni playing for shed may counselor Williams ago Hyland’s senseofdebttothatlong- all, of Most learning. and teaching improvingfor holds technology ties possibili- the about excited so is he why to institutions and systems of workings deeper the riosi about cu- wide-ranging his from Hyland, science andinlife.” in both work, things interesting how of really view a you gives “It says. he discipline,” of sort sophic he But Harvard. doesn’t regret hisoriginalchoice. at MBA an ing gears as soon as he graduated, earn- switched He interests.” my with up keep “to courses humanities diting than most of his classmates while au- for physics.” math of ton a take to Youhave lie. total a was “Which laughs. Hyland want.’” you courses arts liberal the all take still can you worry,‘Don’t said, literature.’He and philosophy and music in courses great these therearecollege; all arts liberal a is haveways career.’a this ‘But said, I al- you’ll because ‘Physics, said, he choose, should I what adviser my “We have a dropout rate in this this in rate dropout a have “We destina- that TC, of case the In about lot a reveals story The philo- fascinating, a is “Physics harderworking up ended Hyland SPRING SPRING WWW. tc .EDU / today
time when, among time when,among acting president—a working withan when theboard was during theyear appreciating Hyland recalls particularly done that.”She and Jackhasalways the institutionfi rst, ego—you have toput “you can’t have abig as aboard chair Grumbach saysthat extremely well.” Jack playsthatrole advise theboard, and chair’s role isto president, and the role istoadvise the opinions. Theboard’s mandates hisown handed leaderwho chair tobeaheavy- don’t wantaboard great, because you listener. Andthat’s and ave good is easytowork with calm person,who extremely thoughtful, says. “He’s an College,” Rueckert all aspectsofthe he getsinvolved with of timetoTC, and incredible amounts “Jack commits Transcultural Studies. International and the Departmentof of Educationin Elbenwood Professor by HopeLeichter, about family, taught a courseonwriting class eachyear in guest-teaches a Rueckert. Healso currently withWilliam TC Trustee) and (who remains a Antonia Grumbach Co-chair, fi rst with has served asBoard Trustees in1988and J THE HYLAND YEARS—THUS FAR THE HYLANDYEARS—THUS Board of joined TC’s ack Hyland a majorcapital the reorganization a revision ofthe successful searches board leadership: under Hyland’s accomplishments College’s major Among the that withJack.” that, andIalwayshad during atimelike in your co-chair trust andconfi dence need to have absolute in Afghanistan.“You TC facultytowork made aboutallowing decisions hadtobe other things, of education a graduateschool ever conductedby largest campaign at thetime, $154.6 million— 2007, thatraised 2002 through extending from campaign, 60 programs departments and offerings intonine of TC’s academic governance and statutesof College’s bylaws contract of Fuhrman’s and theextension Susan Fuhrman, Arthur Levineand for two presidents, been invaluable.” scholarship have reputation for brilliant research andnational commitment to contract. “Susan’s of Fuhrman’s recent extension pleased by the He isparticularly board members. well astohisfellow and Fuhrman, as milestones toLevine year, credits these board Co-chairlast was reelected as with Rueckert Hyland, whoalong the creation ofTC’s the launchof TC’s the creation ofthe the refurbishing Rueckert andGrumbach the creation ofa Social Analysis Education Policy and department, new academic Community School. Teachers College the openingof Partnership and Harlem Schools Educational Equity Campaign for Center Cowin Conference facility web-enabled cutting-edge, Libraries asa the Gottesman and recasting of 4/2/12 1:30 PM
TC FILE PHOTOS Rueckert andGrumbach
TC FILE PHOTOS fnd_hyland.indd 55 in with them. We need to take ad - take to need We them. with in bring they that technology of ments ele- we’rethe accommodating always not and environment, school a is into go that like problem children some that the And technology. with adept and home who’sat completely child young a other, the on of and years, way 400 for that’sexisted life a hand, one the on there: juxtaposition the see “You amazed. and them pause them,withnohelpfrom me.’” start can she how and how many other games she can play, ‘That’s said, see youshould nothing, mother her ‘That’sand remarkable,’ said, I iPad. an on game a playing dely was old, years o was who girl, This stroller. a in daughter her apartment with on got woman my a and building, in elevator the in books. of Well, justanhourearlier, Ihadbeen burying the symbolize Bibles on them. I thought that might were carrying red costumes velvet pillows with Renaissance-like in iers court- four These Bible. James King anniversarythe 400th of the brating cele were they where Abbey, ster Westmin at scene a of video short a showing was screen TV the and nology canplayineducation. tech- that role critical the illustrate to encounters recent o describes he and compete?”), child poor that does How pover. in raised child a as words many as ice hears least at pically family to-affluent medium- a in raised child year-old ve- a that read(“I’ve intervention for window critical a offers hood make educationasawholebetter.” should be, TC must inform policy to they what be teachers great making in force major a being beyond but problems, of set tough a comprises Education jail. on kid per year per dollars of thousands spending up that, not least because we could end not wasted,” he says. “We can’t afford arereduced kids if those of many so of lives the and schools, high urban Hyland shakes his head, still still head, his shakes Hyland “I got on the elevator here at work, child- early that believes Hyland - - College Communi School. recently,Teachersthe of launch the with public schools in Harlem and, more partnerships College’s the tremendous buzz goingon,”hesays. this always there’s where thoroughfare, major a into transformed been has books, out take to whereyouwent place quiet library’s EdLabcreative services unit. is particularly excited by the work of the and accomplishment, major a as Natriello, directionGary the underof Libraries, Gottesman College’s the of recasting the cites He Trustee. a as served has he years 24 the goal during that toward strides important mizing people’s abilitolearn.” maxi and learning to teaching from around equation the key—turning the really that’s And learning. ther fur promote to questions up and serve feedback immediate to provide abili technology’s of vantage Hyland is also enthusiastic about enthusiastic also is Hyland library,this “The once was which make TC seen has he says Hyland to learning and people’s abili - —JACK HYLAND, “That’s really around from maximizing maximizing turning the the key— to learn.” equation teaching
- - they can’t bethoughtthrough.” doesn’tmean that “But last. at says he issues,” tric¦ really are “These quali ofourcourseofferings.” the diluting without and ourselves overextending without our reach, extend own to technology how use understand to to effort an ing mak- we’re that pleased I’m ment. employ- successive and graduation individual’s an through website a clicks teaching someone moment of the from issue the proached ap- they’ve and cam- worldwide, puses 200 and students 500,000 promoted onlinelearning. aggressively has which Phoenix, of Universi the as such institutions for-prot from page a take to ness College’sthe willing- applauds also He legislation. No Behind Le federal Child the by dictated Arts Language English and math in ing test- on overemphasis an of result public schools, which he sees as the from programs arts near-dis- of appearance the laments He own future. its secure to and general education in for both exert in£uence, TC its see to like would land evaluate the controversial questions.” people help can that source a as acts and polemics, the forgoes that place the be to want we but answers, the all have never “We’ll says. he well,” as institutions other of that but own, our just not research—and for trust, of place a intermediary, an of more even become to us allows it because Col- the lege’s diverse castofpolicyexperts. unites time rst the for which department, Analysis Social and Policy Education new a of fall past TC’sthis about is launch excited adviser, perennial the Hyland, mate test of our own ideas,” he says. ulti- the really is own our of school nation’s the a having and system, school largest of thick the in right WWW. e osdr fr moment. a for considers He like something have “They Hy- whereareas other areThere important so is work policy “The characteristically, most Perhaps us puts work partnership “Our tc .EDU / today SPRING SPRING 4/2/12 1:27 PM tc
news alumniCALLING ALL INTERNATIONAL ALUMNI! TC is eager to (re)connect with To update your information, visit If you are living in a country with alumni both in the United States www.tc.edu/alumni/update. no Country Rep, or if you are in and around the world. The Interna- Alumni without email can send their a country with a large number of tional Outreach Committee of the information to: alumni, we hope you will consider Alumni Association especially wants Office of Alumni Relations, volunteering to become an IAN alumni overseas to connect with oth- Box , West th Country Rep. Visit our website for ers in their country or region as well Street, New York, NY a job description and application as to increase their participation in USA. Please include your name, the information. College activities “virtually,” if not in name you used while attending TC, We are excited that Teachers person. We are asking you ) to pro- your graduation date, all contact College will be celebrating its th vide/update your contact informa- information and any additional anniversary in . To include tion in the Teachers College Alumni information you would like to share. overseas alumni in the celebrations, database and ) to spread this mes- we need to build our International sage to any and all TC alumni whom HOW CAN YOU CONNECT Alumni Neork and increase the you know. Talk to your colleagues WITH TC ALUMNI IN number of Country Representatives, to see if they know any TC alumni.... YOUR COUNTRY AND REGION? who will serve as the College’s liai- expand your own TC neork! First, check the TC website to see sons in planning anniversary events Our goal is to spread this mes- if there is an International Alumni around the world. We are enthusi- sage to as many TC alumni as Neork Country Representative: astic about the opportunities that possible around the world using www.tc.edu/alumni. Contact the th anniversary will provide the powerful “grass roots” energy your Country Representative to for alumni to (re)connect with each of each graduate’s own neork. help her/him build local neorks. other and with the College.
FAREWELL, FRIENDS
TC President Susan Fuhrman (center), with graduating international students and their families, at the International Graduate Tea in May 2011.
Follow us on Facebook at facebook.com /Teachers College Alumni PREVIOUS PAGE: HEATHER VAN UXEM LEWIS; THIS PAGE: COURTESY ADAM VANE ADAM COURTESY PAGE: THIS LEWIS; UXEM VAN HEATHER PAGE: PREVIOUS
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/alumni
alum_alumni 56 4/2/12 3:27 PM TEACHERS COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE The Teachers College Alumni Association is led by the Alumni Council, which consists of 35 Dear Fellow Alumni, members who represent all 90,000 graduates. The Council partners with As you know, the mission of the Alumni the Department of Development Association is to reconnect you to Teachers and External Affairs to advance the College. I hope you have taken advantage goals of the College by providing of the many opportunities that exist for you alumni with opportunities to remain to engage with the College and with fellow involved in the life of the College alumni. I encourage you to stay up to date with through social activities, volunteer all of the latest news and events for alumni by efforts and financial support. updating your contact information or visiting
www.tc.edu/alumni. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Academic Festival is TC’s annual signature homecoming event, and this year, with the theme of “Rewiring the Learning Landscape,” the focus of the faculty- and alumni-led sessions Adam Vane, is the intersection of technology and humanity. Academic Festival is a true celebration of the TC community, and on this day we also recognize Robert Weintraub, the six alumni chosen by the Alumni Council’s Awards & Recognition committee to receive our Distinguished Alumni Awards (including one alumna who will receive our Early Career Award for her achievements Patrick McGuire, - during the first decade following her graduation). To submit your nomi- nations now for the 2013 awards, use the form included in this edition of TC Today. To learn more about Academic Festival and the sessions or STANDING COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS speakers, please visit www.tc.edu/festival. Congratulations to this year’s graduates. We welcome you as the newest members of the TC Alumni Association and hope you will stay Peter Dillon, Carolyn McNally engaged with the College. I know that your focus will and should be on your work and careers. You are destined to do important things in edu- cation, development, health care and as leaders of organizations. But Susan Diamond, Diana Newman please know that in TC you will always have a home and an intellectu- ally rich and diverse community that you can tap into physically and virtually. If you have not already done so, please update your contact Marion Boultbee, Fred Brodzinski information with the Office of Alumni Relations. You can send your updates to [email protected]. Connie Green, Maryalice Mazzara I would like to thank all of my colleagues on the Alumni Council for their many hours of service to our College and our Alumni Association, and for the progress we have made together. Additionally, I would like Patrick McGuire, Kathleen Morin to recognize this year’s ad hoc members for their hard work and dedi- -- cation. If you would like to learn more about how to get involved with the Alumni Council, visit www.tc.edu/alumni. We say goodbye and Maritza Macdonald, Tara Niraula express our gratitude to those whose terms on the Alumni Council end this May—Connie Belton Green, Elaine Heffner, Carolyn McNally, Kath- leen Morin and Robert Weintraub—and we look forward to welcoming James J. Shields our new members in September.
We also eagerly anticipate TC’s 125th anniversa celebration, which All alumni are encouraged to get will begin in 2013. We hope you will all reconnect with us at one of more involved with the Alumni the many events planned throughout this milestone year. Association by serving on one of the standing committees. If you would Sincerely, like to serve on the Alumni Council, you can find a nomination form on the alumni website. Council members serve a three-year term. For more information about the Alumni Council and to download your nomination Adam Vane, President, Teachers College Alumni Association form, please visit our website: www.tc.edu/alumni. PREVIOUS PAGE: HEATHER VAN UXEM LEWIS; THIS PAGE: COURTESY ADAM VANE ADAM COURTESY PAGE: THIS LEWIS; UXEM VAN HEATHER PAGE: PREVIOUS
WWW.tc.EDU/alumni SPRING
alum_alumni 57 4/2/12 3:27 PM Alumni Awards Help us celebrate the distinguished service and been out of Teachers College 10 years or less, has accomplishments of our alumni communi! Teachers earned distinction in her/his eld, and demonstrates College’s 90,000 graduates include leading educators, outstanding future potential will be honored with the psychologists, administrators and other professionals. Early Career Award. The Teachers College Alumni Association is seeking nominations for several Distinguished Alumni The Distinguished Alumni Award and the Early Awards. We invite you to nominate Teachers College Career Award recipients will be announced in graduates who have distinguished themselves in their December 2012 and will be honored during Teachers elds; have earned a high degree of respect among College’s Academic Festival 2013. Final selection their colleagues and in the general communi; and of recipients is made by the President of Teachers whose impact has been felt on a regional, national College upon the recommendation of the Alumni and/or international level. A recent graduate who has Council’s Awards & Recognition Committee. NOMINATION FORM Also available online at www.tc.edu/alumni/DAANominationForm Select the award for which you would like your Nominee to be considered: The Distinguished Alumni Award The Early Career Award
Nominee’s Name:
Nominee’s TC Degree(s) including Year(s) Awarded and Program(s), if known:
Nominee’s Phone Number:
Nominee’s Postal Address: Nominee’s Emailu Address:
Your Name:
Your Relationship to Nominee:
Your Phone Number:
Your Postal Address:
Your Email Address: Please respond to the following questions as completely and concisely as possible (attach another sheet if necessa). 1. What are your nominee’s exceptional professional achievements and contributions or service to her/his field?
2. What impact has your nominee had on local, regional, national and/or international communities?
3. What other attributes has your nominee demonstrated that qualify her/him to be honored by Teachers College with a Distinguished Alumni Award?
4. Is there anything else about your nominee that you would like the committee to consider?
Please submit/send complete nomination form information, along with your nominee’s current résumé or curriculum vitae (if available), no later than September 1, 2012, to: Office of Alumni Relations, 525 W. 120th St., Box 306, New York, NY 10027. You can email your form to [email protected] or fax it to (212) 678-3723. For additional information, please call Teachers College Alumni Relations Office or visit its website at: www.tc.edu/alumni/DAANominationForm LEWIS UXEM VAN HEATHER
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/alumni
alum_alumni 58 4/2/12 4:57 PM Alumni Awards Class Notes ARTS AND HUMANITIES is now serving as Assistant Princi- ness concepts and the exposure of pal, Supervision of English, at the myths and fallacies about exercise Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy in for those over 60. The book helps Michael Johanek (Ed.D. ’95) the Bronx, NY. older individuals establish safe and and Kate Rousmaniere (Ph.D. ’92) sensible wellness programs accord- met in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, for ing to their personal needs. the International Standing Confer- BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES ence for the History of Education (ISCHE) and found a common con- COUNSELING nection: Both are graduates of TC’s David Pargman (M.A. ’59, Ph.D. & CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY History and Education program. ’66) is a consultant, lecturer and au- Rousmaniere, Professor and Chair thor of Boomercise: Exercising as You of the Department of Educational Age (October 2011, Fitness Info Pinar Ozbek (Ed.M. ’09) was Leadership at Miami Universi, Tech). His book focuses on basic t- elected to the Board of the Turk- Ohio, is President of ISCHE, and Jo- hanek, a Senior Fellow at the Gradu- Nutritionist ate School of Education, Universi and media of Pennsylvania, presented at the personality Ellie Krieger, conference. Johanek also directs the le (M.A. ’94), Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Ed- at a book talk ucational Leadership and codirects event, with the Inter-American Educational Isobel Contento, Leadership Neork. Ma Swartz Professor of Nutrition Education. Alexander Marrero (M.A. ’10) is the Program Manager and Execu- tive Director of the Orange Coun Youth Symphony, based in Harri- man, New York.
Erin Counihan (M.A. ’97) just completed her rst year at Washing- ton College as the Secondary Educa- tion Field Experience Coordinator. She works with all students at the college who are interested in teach- ing middle and high school, teaching them, placing them in local schools and observing their progress.
Deborah Jones’ (M.E. ’98) collec- tion of short stories, Tales of Wonder from the Garden State, is an award- winning nalist in USA Book News’ Best Books Awards 2011.
HEATHER VAN UXEM LEWIS UXEM VAN HEATHER Johanna Tramantano (M.A. ’01)
WWW.tc.EDU/alumni SPRING
alum_alumni 59 4/3/12 1:49 PM AlumniNews_CLASS NOTES
ish Psychological Association’s Istanbul Chapter.
CURRICULUM & TEACHING
Corabel Y. Diel (M.A. ’87) is now director of her own school in Cagayan de Oro Ci , Philippines. She would like to reconnect with others who lived in Whittier Hall during 1986-1987.
Dr. John Barrengos (Ed.D. ’00) is in his h year leading the Inde- pendent Day School, an elementary and middle school in central Con- necticut. Under his leadership, IDS has increased enrollment, initiated a Design Thinking program, refur- bished its campus and grown its re- serves and endowment. Tom Chandler (Ph.D. ’09) and Heejung An (Ed.D. ’04) with their son, Jay, at the “TC Sweethearts” Valentine’s Day event Joel S. Bloom (Ed.D. ’78) has for couples who met at the College. been named President of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, af- John Dodd Marshall (M.E. ’07) ter more than 20 years of service is the new Head at the Holland Hall HEALTH AND BEHAVIOR at the institution. He will head the School in Tulsa, OK. STUDIES 9,500-student universi in Newark through June 2014, a er serving Theresa J. Polli frone-Sinatra / as Interim President following the (M.E. ’73), Superintendent of Laurie Yankowitz (Ed.D. ’10) resignation of the former president, Metuchen Public Schools, was was recently promoted to Vice Robert A. Altenkirch. selected as the 2012 New Jersey President of Individual and Fam- A statement from the universi Association of School Administra- ily Support Services at HeartShare said Bloom, 64, is “ideally suited to tors (NJASA) Central Regional Human Services of New York. The take on this leadership role” dur- Superintendent of the Year. Under role aff ords her new opportunities ing the universi ’s upcoming $150 Pollifrone-Sinatra’s leadership the to contribute, including conducting million “NJ Next” fundraising cam- district has seen a rebirth in the de- research on staff knowledge of au- paign, calling him “passionate about livery of instruction for all students. tism and introducing the use of tab- the universi and its students as She set the stage for new profes- lets and apps to children and adults their education in the sciences, en- sional standards for teachers by with autism. gineering, technology, design and establishing a ve-year curricular management transforms their fu- review process and led the district ture and that of their families.” to national recognition as a pioneer in the area of inclusive education Elise Lev (Ed.D. ’86), Associate Peter J. Foley (Ed.D. ’83) is As- for students with disabilities and in Professor at Rutgers Newark, con- sociate Professor of Education, Na- establishing anti-bullying practices. ceived and spearheaded develop- khonratchasima College Graduate ment of a joint project with the Rut- School, and Managing Director of gers Universi College of Nursing
the website SCLThailand.org. and the Facul of Nursing Science LEWIS UXEM VAN HEATHER SCHWARTZ DANIEL COURTESY
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/alumni
alum_alumni 60 4/2/12 4:53 PM Alumni_FOCUS LEARNING BY TEACHING
an Schwartz likes to recall a addition to shooting down the aliens, graduate student at Stanford players must determine which of the Dwho wanted to off er teenag- two displayed distributions is gener- ers in his native India an alternative ating the alien attack. Schwartz and to the one histo textbook available Arena found that students who played to them. “He got fi ve teachers, each Stats Invaders were better prepared with a ve diff erent perspective, to for a classroom lecture on probability give a lecture based on the same distribution than those who did not chapter,” says Schwartz, a profes- play the game. sor in the Stanford University School of Education. “He put the lectures “This is a nice example of using tech- online, and the students in his test nology to do what technology can group were able to choose the lecture do well,” Schwartz says. “Technology they wanted to hear.” Daniel Schwartz can give you a set of experiences that will prepare you to understand a more Schwartz tells this sto to illustrate formal treatment that you get from a the power of technology to expand textbook or a class.” choice in the classroom. Ever since the Daniel Schwartz mid-1980s, when, as a teacher in an (TC ’88, ’92) Schwartz himself got much the Alaskan village school, he encountered same kind of preparation from the Apple IIe and saw its possibilities has created so ware Teachers College, where he was the for educational instruction, Schwartz fi rst recipient of TC’s Ben D. Wood has been riveted by one question: What that puts students Fellowship. A single father at the is the best way to teach? time, he credits the support for in the driver’s seat helping him to raise his son. One answer, he believes, is to “The faculty I found at TC were pro- empower students to teach others— BY BARBARA FINKELSTEIN even, or sometimes especially, virtual found and inspiring,” Schwartz says. others. To that end, he has developed “John Black, my adviser, provided a series of so ware programs called a model and gave me the freedom, Teachable Agents. A Teachable Agent teachers in a test group used con- gentle steering and support to fi nd called Betty, for example, will wait ventional science kits and Teachable my own interests. Herb Ginsburg for the student to impart knowledge Agents to conduct their classes. The opened the ve precise world of to her. The student might ask Betty other half used only the science kits. children learning mathematics. Rob- to tell him what happens when, say, Schwartz found that students who had bie McClintock showed how to see algae are added to a fi sh pond. During the advantage of both learning mate- the ideas du jour within the sweep- much sophisticated give-and-take rials acquired greater understanding ing themes and changing conditions between human and computer, the of scientifi c concepts. Moreover, when of cultural histo .” student creates a “concept map” in Teachable Agents were removed from Betty’s “brain.” By periodically ask- the classroom, the students were Schwartz also was inspired by his ing Betty what she now knows, the able to apply what they learned about fellow students. “I can still remem- student ultimately teaches her that causal relations to the next unit in the ber my intellectual conversational bacteria increase with an increase in science curriculum. partners 20 years later. We provided algae, which decreases the oxygen each other cognitive and emotional that fi sh need to live. While Teachable Agents are eff ec- sustenance, nourishing big ideas out tive for all students, they have been of rich experience.” Another Teachable Agent, called Milo, particularly eff ective with low-achieving generates more than one interpreta- students. Schwartz believes that the Perhaps technology’s ultimate value, tion of the data that the student gives technology makes up for learning ex- as Schwartz sees it, is that it can him. Information about a rectangle, for periences that the students didn’t have identify the choices that students example, whose length times width when they were younger. make as they learn. “How do stu- equals 8 will prompt Milo to produce a dents deal with failure?” he asks. 1 x 8 rectangle, a 2 x 4 rectangle or a Schwartz has found similar results “Do they t to resolve contradic- parallelogram with an area of 8. in studies of a game called Stats tions, or do they slide over them? Invaders, which he developed with a Technology is helping us teach and Do these pedagogical video games Stanford colleague, Dylan Arena. In understand 21st-centu skills, really work? To test the eff ectiveness the game, which is modeled a er the which aren’t so much about facts of Teachable Agents, Schwartz and his arcade classic Space Invaders, aliens and procedures but about making colleagues designed an experiment drop from the sky according to one good choices when you need to learn and adapt.” HEATHER VAN UXEM LEWIS UXEM VAN HEATHER SCHWARTZ DANIEL COURTESY in which half of the students-turned- of two probability distributions. In tc
WWW.tc.EDU/alumni SPRING
alum_alumni 61 4/2/12 4:54 PM AlumniNews_CLASS NOTES
Alumni from TC’s Art and Art Education Program at a gathering at Macy Galle on the eve of the annual conference of the National Art Education Association, held this year in New York City.
in Léogâne, Haiti (FSIL), part of the Susan or to support Sharon’s work, Episcopal Universi of Haiti. Partici- please visit www.christopherand pants in the program will complete a susanphillipsfoundation.org. ORGANIZATION certicate in Nursing Education be- AND LEADERSHIP fore beginning a master’s degree in Communi Health Nursing. MATH, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Jody Spiro (Ed.D. ’89) will lead Sharon Phillips (Ph.D. ’10) suf- the Wallace Foundation’s $75-mil- fered a double tragedy this past sum- Robert Vassalotti (M.A. ’02) lion Principal Pipeline initiative, mer when she lost her brother Chris, is Co-chair of the Middle States designed to help school districts 27, and her mother Susan, 64, in 2012 Self-Study for Re-accredi- build a corps of effective principals o separate cardiac-related events tation and Co-chair of the Presi- and to determine whether that ef- within days of one another. Soon af- dent’s Council on Sustainabili at fort improves student achievement ter, she started the Christopher and Fashion Institute of Technology across the district, especially in the Susan Phillips Foundation, which, (www.tnyc.edu/sustainabili). highest-needs schools. Spiro began among other philanthropic efforts, working as a Senior Program Officer will help provide scholarships to fu- in Education at the foundation in ture nursing students. Phillips writes, Jeremiah Sumter, Jr. (M.A. ’04) is 2002 and became Interim Director “I just need something positive to currently nishing his third year of of Education last August, when Wal- come from this loss. I want their op- course work for a doctorate in Edu- lace launched the Principal Pipeline timistic natures and helping ways to cational Policy and Leadership at project in six urban districts: Char- live on.” Chris was an EMT and was Hofstra Universi. lotte-Mecklenburg in North Caroli- studying to be a nurse. His mother na; Denver; Gwinnett Coun (near worked as a pharmacy technician for Atlanta) in Georgia; Hillsborough more than o decades and was mar- Tom Holt (M.A. ’80) received a Coun (near Tampa) in Florida; ried to her husband, Frank, for 38 Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from New York Ci; and Prince George’s
years. To learn more about Chris and the Universi of Illinois. Coun (near Washington, D.C.) in LEWIS UXEM VAN HEATHER KRUGER PETER
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/alumni
alum_alumni 62 4/2/12 4:54 PM Alumni_FOCUS EMPIRICALLY SPEAKING
n education, people o en fi ght delve. They deserve the kind of pro- holy wars that are unnecessa ,” fessional training and analytical tools “I says Josh Reibel. “For example, a that are off ered in a host of other while back the battle was all about industries, and that are needed to learner-centered versus didactic analyze large patterns in increasingly teaching. Today it’s pretty clear that complex data systems. If a tool can’t good instruction blends both.” identify those patterns for them, that tool won’t result in change.” Fi een years ago, Reibel, now President and Chief Operating Judging by the testimonials from Offi cer of Wireless Generation, a various state and county education Brooklyn-based educational so ware systems, Wireless’s products pass developer, was pretty fi rmly identi- that test. For example, in Fayette- fi ed with the learner-centered side ville, Arkansas, students assessed of things. A er majoring in philoso- with the company’s mCLASS tool phy as a Harvard undergraduate, over multiple years now enter fourth he taught in humanities at Dalton, grade at a higher academic level a private school in Manhattan. He than did students in previous years. more or less discovered technology Josh Reibel In addition, the number of students as a teaching tool when Dalton, with reading at benchmark in grades K-5 help from TC faculty member Robbie has increased and the number of McClintock, brought in networked struggling readers has decreased. computers that linked to cultural in- As President The Oklahoma Department of stitutions around the city, empower- Education attests that, thanks to ing students to pursue rich academic and COO of its work with Wireless, teaching and experiences. learning practices across all of its Wireless Generation, Reading First Schools have sig- Following that project, which was nifi cantly improved. And in Clayton written up in Time, Reibel joined Josh Reibel has County, Georgia, which has struc- McClintock on 120th Street to earn learned to tured its elementa -school literacy graduate degrees at TC (he was a program around mCLASS, learning recipient of the College’s prestigious follow the data outcomes have improved steadily Ben D. Wood Fellowship) and to over the past several years. expand TC’s Institute for Learning Technology. He worked on a $24 BY JOE LEVINE Reibel believes these successes million eff ort to bring computers to prefi gure much bigger technology- nearly 100 public schools and led driven gains in the near future. He an eff ort funded by the National understanding of diff erent topics and predicts that as the fi eld overcomes Science Foundation to develop a use the fi ndings to tailor instruc- such issues as the lack of a com- more design-focused curriculum for tion. (One of Wireless Generation’s mon language for pooling data from undergraduate engineering students. early successes, mCLASS Math, was digital tools, researchers will be able developed in conjunction with TC to develop more empirically based “The fi eld was emphasizing a lot of faculty member Herbert Ginsburg.) curricula that lead to maste of math problem-solving, and it was The company’s handheld tools for core concepts. He also believes that losing people with creative sensibili- early grades have been followed schools will increasingly be able to ties,” he recalls. by products and services to help identify students at risk for failure or educators throughout K-12 improve dropping out. But careers in technology, like the classroom instruction, whether class fi eld itself, can evolve in unforeseen by class or at the district level. “Over the last decade, national ways. A er leaving TC, Reibel worked education policy has helped drive us on an online commercial start-up for All of which makes for a focus on toward more specifi c understand- Kaplan, Inc., the for-profi t education what is, rather than what should be. ing of individual learning needs, company, a foray that sensitized him pinpointing student progress,” he to the realities of the market. And “At Wireless Generation we always says. “Now we’re moving to the next at Wireless, where data-gathering ask, ‘So what?’ and ‘Now what?’” phase of that innovation, in which is always essential, he has become Reibel says. “Our tools fi gure out what we will use data to make systemic even more of an empiricist. The sto the data are telling us and what improvements and see real change.” company is known for its expand- we should do about it. Teachers are ing array of digital tools that enable hung for more and better ways to Which sounds pretty learner-centered,
HEATHER VAN UXEM LEWIS UXEM VAN HEATHER KRUGER PETER classroom teachers to probe student use data but o en don’t have time to a er all. tc
WWW.tc.EDU/alumni SPRING
alum_alumni 63 4/2/12 4:54 PM AlumniNews_CLASS NOTES
Maryland. Following her promotion fornia State Universi system. She lower grade levels and dramatically to director of the Education division, also sits on President Obama’s Ad- upgraded its facilities. the foundation changed its name to visory Commission on Educational Education Leadership. Excellence of Hispanic Americans, The foundation said Spiro has advising the President and the Edu- contributed signicantly to its ef- cation Secretary on matters pertain- Mildred Brenner-Pollner (Ed.D. forts in school leadership “by forg- ing to the educational attainment of ’76) is President of Cinema Verite ing strong partnerships beeen Hispanic students. Int’l Inc. In 1993 she was sent by states and districts; through her the U.S. government as a consul- work with the New York Ci Lead- tant to Russian Educational Tele- ership Academy and the National vision, in Siberia, where she pro- School Administration Manager Ann Marie Krejcarek (Ed.D. duced educational programming. Innovation Project; and through ’06) has been selected as Presi- Pollner says that one of her most her leadership of the Leading dent of Schools of the Sacred Heart profound experiences was inter- Change Learning Communi, San Francisco. She has 15 years of acting with the Russian people in Wallace’s most systematic effort to leadership experience at Saint An- closed cities, especially as one of date to help grantees sustain pro- drew’s, an Episcopal school with the rst American women to travel grams and practices that improved nearly 1,300 students. Over the there. She has been invited world- school leadership.” past 11 years as Headmaster and wide by a number of governments Assistant Head of School, Ann Ma- and companies to lecture, teach rie proactively led the development and provide consulting services— Mildred Garcia (Ed.D. ’87) has and support of excellent teachers, work that has taken her to the for- been appointed President of Califor- modications to curriculum and mer Soviet Union, China, Poland, nia State Universi, Fullerton. She is strategic planning. During her ten- South and Central America, Cuba, the rst Latina president in the Cali- ure, Saint Andrew’s expanded into Europe and the Middle East.
Lisa Miller, Associate Professor of Psychology and Education, speaks at “Living in a Traumatic World,” the College’s inaugural TC Roundtable in Psychology, held in December. HEATHER VAN UXEM LEWIS UXEM VAN HEATHER GOURGEY KAEN COURTESY
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/alumni
alum_alumni 64 4/3/12 11:47 AM Alumni_FOCUS PUTTING THE WORLD AT THEIR FINGERTIPS
hen Karen Luxton Gourgey As a longtime advocate of assistive looks back on her career, she technologies, Gourgey has seen a Winvariably recalls a talk given lot of changes in working and social at TC during the late 1970s by John conditions for blind and visually Gill, a British scientist who pioneered impaired people. She’s also come to the development of computer-gener- understand that each advance can ated tactile maps to help blind or visu- create new challenges. For example, ally impaired people orient themselves prior to coming to CCVIP, Gourgey in subways, buildings or cities. learned FORTRAN, a programming language that entailed the use of Just as sighted people do, those 80-column punched cards. “You without sight navigate best when didn’t dare drop those cards, or it they can form their own cognitive would play havoc with your step-by- impressions of a given space or step computer commands,” she says. route, a process they accomplish with Yet despite its unwieldiness, the card their hands. But in the late 1970s system was congenial to blind users, the tactile maps in use in the United in part because the punch-card setup States were handmade paper or Karen Gourgey could be connected to a computer fabric artifacts. The imprecisions and and used to print out Braille. variations in their topography were subject to frequent misinterpretation. Subsequently, graphical user inter- In contrast, the maps Gill was talking face (GUI) replaced text commands about in his lecture were designed by and punch cards, and computer computers and “printed” using tech- users suddenly had to interact with nology that rendered the topography pixels, the complex visual data according to exact specifi cations. structures that make up graphical icons. Soon computer information “A er the lecture, when I put my could be accessed only through the hand on one of the maps, I couldn’t Karen Gourgey (Ed.D., click of a mouse rather than via text believe something this textured had commands. Assistive technology come out of a computer,” says Gour- ’83) champions the developers had to create a new gen- gey, who has been blind since child- use of tactile maps and eration of so ware, such as Active hood. “I knew then that we needed Accessibility, which can translate GUI computer-generated tactile maps in other tools that help information to a screen reader with text-to-speech or Braille output. this count , too.” people who are blind While still working on her Ed.D. in spe- “If that sounds complicated, it was,” cial education, Gourgey got involved or visually impaired says Gourgey. “In fact, we have been with Baruch College’s Computer Cen- dealing with the GUI challenge for ter for Visually Impaired People (CC- more than 25 years.” BY BARBARA FINKELSTEIN VIP), which she now directs. Over the years she has not only championed Even more formidable than the the development of tactile maps and ongoing changes has been assis- other embossed schematic surfaces, tive technology’s climbing price tag. but more broadly sought to “crash Today Jaws, the Windows-based the print barrier” with eve available screen-reading so ware, costs about technology, from electronic Braille $1,200. “That’s a lot of money for a displays to speech systems in which population with a more than 70 per- a synthesizer does the speaking and a cent unemployment rate,” Gourgey screen reader tells it what to say. says. To address that issue, she has overseen the expansion of CCVIP’s “Karen is a groundbreaker who is ve vocational track, which off ers training well known internationally for all that in the use of Microso Word, Excel, she has done to make tactile maps PowerPoint, Internet navigation and and other technologies part of the Microso Access, a relational data- conversation,” says Joe Cioffi , found- base management system. er and CEO of ClickandGo Wayfi nding Maps, a company that has created In addition, to secure funding for → tactile maps for Teachers College and
HEATHER VAN UXEM LEWIS UXEM VAN HEATHER GOURGEY KAEN COURTESY other institutions.
WWW.tc.EDU/alumni SPRING
alum_alumni 65 4/3/12 11:48 AM GOURGEY, CONTINUED IF AT FIRST YOU qualifi ed students of all ages, Gourgey DON’T SUCCEED… works with the New York State Commis- sion for the Blind and … you may be Associate Professor in the Curricu- Visually Handicapped. lum, Teaching and Learning Aca- For students without the better for it, demic Group of Singapore’s National Commission sponsor- Institute of Education. ship, fees are structured argues on a sliding scale. Kapur grew up in India and spent fi ve “Ideally, we would off er Manu Kapur years teaching mathematics at the eve body who wants to junior-college level in Singapore be- take advantage of our BY SUZANNE GUILLETTE fore completing a doctoral degree in services in the Division Instructional Media and Technology at of Continuing and Pro- TC in 2006. He fi rst explored the no- fessional Studies here tion of productive failure in his TC dis- at Baruch some kind of sertation, writing about students from scholarship,” Gourgey Indian high schools who worked in an says. To that end, she is online chat interface to solve complex exploring the possibility problems in Newtonian kinematics. of corporate underwrit- ing, especially for the Kapur’s current research in Singapore bimonthly workshops extends his work from online chat to run out of the CCVIP a face-to-face modality. Students demonstration center, are challenged to generate ideas and where people can t solutions to complex, novel problems, out diff erent assistive and then their teachers conduct les- Manu Kapur technologies. sons that compare those ideas with canonical concepts and solutions. One upside of the Failure may be the dirtiest of all This iterative process helps students budget constraints at words in K-12 education, but it’s and teachers alike identify precisely local and state levels, enjoying a new vogue in Singapore, where and how student thinking is Gourgey says, is that a perennial world leader in inter- either falling short or, in some cases, advocates for blind and national comparisons of student proving to be ingenious. A large visually impaired people achievement. number of teachers have reported are taking an innova- that the method has deepened their tive approach to fi nding There, in an exercise calculated to own understanding of mathematical funding sources. A result in what TC alumnus Manu concepts as well. resource room teacher Kapur terms “productive failure,” a from Long Island, for diverse group of students in grades Kapur has received multiple grants, example, enlisted the 7 through 10 are being asked to both in Singapore and abroad, to test backing of a Lions Club solve challenging and novel math his ideas and has inspired colleagues to support local stu- problems at levels their teachers in Australia, Germany and India to dents who want to take haven’t yet covered. conduct similar experiments. He has CCVIP’s vocational track. also been invited to give a keynote The idea behind this experiment is address in Sydney, Australia, at the “Learning to be com- that learning results from attempting 2012 International Conference of petent computer users to solve challenges that go be- the Learning Sciences, the fl agship allows visually impaired yond one’s current level of skill and conference in the fi eld. individuals to crash the experience. Kapur has added a twist print barriers within their by asking groups of students to One of the most exciting outcomes own lives,” Gourgey problem-solve together. The teenag- of Kapur’s current work is that says. “Learning to get ers pool their “intuitive and formal students who don’t perform well on around with indepen- resources” to generate solutions to high-stakes academic tests learn as dence and effi ciency in problems that target concepts such well from productive-failure lessons a city such as New York as average speed, standard devia- as do their higher-scoring peers. allows people to crash tion, and ratio and proportion. “This surprises teachers because barriers to mobility and it runs counter to eve thing the physical freedom. The “Students o en learn best when system is based on,” Kapur says. combination is truly they learn from each other by work- “But to me, it’s yet another sign emancipating, and I’m ing together, and technology is an that standardized tests can fail to ve happy that CCVIP ideal collaborative medium,” says refl ect the skills and intelligence of continues to work to Kapur, who is both a researcher in students whose minds don’t work in promote both.” traditional ways.” tc the Learning Sciences Lab and an tc KAPUR MANU COURTESY PITTINSKY MATTHEW COURTESY
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/alumni
alum_alumni 66 4/2/12 4:55 PM Alumni_FOCUS SORTING OUT WHO’S WHO
n today’s highly competitive required to get into that college’s civil knowledge economy, education engineering program. Pittinsky calls Icredentials are in many ways the such a feedback loop between high coin of the realm. Nowhere is this schools and colleges “the Holy Grail truer than in the college admissions of longitudinal data systems.” process. Yet the fates of students and institutions alike have been tied While Docufi de.com is an institution- to paper-based transcripts, with oriented service, Parchment.com, nonstandardized formats that too launched last year, helps applicants. o en fail to make essential academ- Parchment.com enables applicants to ic performance data transparent. go online and compare their own profi les to those of successful “While we take for granted many students at schools and programs services in our online lives, tran- Matthew Pittinsky they are considering. The site helps scripts and related data have not students fi nd colleges that are good been unlocked to help students ex- matches for them and predict how plore which colleges are most likely successful they might be there. to take an interest in them and cue Matthew Pittins Pittinsky believes Docufi de.com and colleges about which high schools and Parchment Inc. Parchment.com together make the are likely to best prepare students college admissions process more for their programs,” says Matthew are revolutionizing transparent and effi cient. Pittinsky (Ph.D. ’08, Sociology in Education). “Paper-based transcript the analysis Parchment Inc. faces some chal- exchange consumes much-needed lenges. Its business model is predi- resources at both sending and re- of academic cated, to some extent, on enabling ceiving institutions.” institutions and individuals to mine credentials statistical information. But as Pit- Parchment Inc., a Scottsdale, tinsky notes, the company’s statisti- Arizona, company led by Pittinsky, BY PATRICIA LAMIELL cal analyses are only as good as the markets two online services to ad- information that high schools and dress these issues. Docufi de.com, colleges provide. In addition, colleges a web-based, password-protected Docufi de.com was launched in 2003 have come more recently than high transcript exchange network, allows by Docufi de Inc. Pittinsky joined the schools to the use of electronic tran- participating high schools, higher- company as CEO in Janua 2011 scripts. Many colleges are still unfa- education institutions and employers and subsequently rebranded it as miliar with the notion of an electronic to securely share electronic tran- Parchment. The Docufi de electronic transcript intermedia , and even scripts. Parchment.com is the com- transcript database now includes in- when they are interested in using one, pany’s free, web-based service that formation from about one-third of all they may only just now be developing helps transcript owners (students) to U.S. high schools, and its transcript practices that leverage transcript data establish a secure credential account volume has doubled each year for the beyond the admissions process. and to put their data to work in the past four years, reaching 1.6 million college admissions process—for in 2011. Colleges and universities However, a growing number of example, by identifying institutions use the electronic transcript data higher-education institutions are where they are most likely to be ac- from Docufi de not only to make ad- moving away from using standardized cepted and to thrive. missions decisions, but also to help entrance exam scores to evaluate in the placement of students in fi rst- applicants, precisely because, in “The whole notion of credentials year courses and to fi gure out what their view, these tests don’t give a should be more about the substance kinds of prior academic experiences clear picture of an applicant’s real of what you have learned than the predispose students to succeed potential. Instead, many are basing status of the institution where you at their institutions. For example, decisions on materials that can’t be learned it,” says Pittinsky, who is per- over time, a college can track how reduced to statistics, such as essays, haps best known for Blackboard Inc., students who took advanced calculus interviews and letters of recommen- the pioneering e-learning company at a particular high school fared in its dation, and this makes deep mining he cofounded in 1997. “As long as own civil engineering program. The of nonstandardized data on tran- credential data are fragmented and high school can access that same scripts and applications all the more paper-based, their power to refl ect information, enabling it to adjust its important, Pittinsky says. “Transcripts that kind of substance is limited. curriculum if necessa and to coun- tend to be more valued as standard- Docufi de.com and Parchment.com sel students as early as freshman or ized-score use goes down.” enable us to aggregate data and mine sophomore year about which courses to take and what grades would be Pittinsky is an experienced data COURTESY MANU KAPUR MANU COURTESY PITTINSKY MATTHEW COURTESY the most essential information.” →
WWW.tc.EDU/alumni SPRING
alum_alumni 67 4/3/12 11:48 AM PITTINSKY, CONTINUED
analyst as well as a successful entrepreneur and businessper- PUTTING son, but education is his fi rst love. His mother taught school on Long Island for 30 years, KIDS and his father was a college administrator. “Education is in my blood,” he says. “It’s what motivates me.” ON THE CASE Pittinsky earned his bach- To engage young people in learning, elor’s degree in education policy from American Univer- Jack McGour poses real-world problems sity, where he studied to be a middle-school social stud- ranging from designing a robot ies teacher. He received his master’s degree in education to running a business from Harvard and then came to Teachers College, where BY BARBARA FINKELSTEIN his dissertation research was about how students’ in-class friendships, as perceived by teachers, infl uence teachers’ From his earliest days teaching Columbia fi rst-year students basic engineering academic expectations. Also and product design, Jack McGourty has employed a method that rests on three at Teachers College, Pittinsky key components: worked with the Gottesman → Teach the theo Libraries’ EdLab unit to create → Create experiments that can be done in the classroom a prototype for the Networked → Work on a problem out in the real world Education Database (NED), a network of Internet-enabled “It’s a fail-proof model,” says McGourty, Director of Community and Global school information systems Entrepreneurship at the Columbia Business School, where he teaches gradu- similar in concept to Docufi de. ate courses in entrepreneurship, venture creation and technology manage- ment. “I use it in the classroom and behind an administrator’s desk.” In 2008, a er graduating from TC, Pittinsky le the full-time In his former role as Vice Dean of Columbia’s Fu Foundation School of En- management of Blackboard gineering and Applied Science, McGourty adapted that model to the Harlem Inc., which had gone public in Schools Partnership, a joint eff ort between the engineering school and 2005, to return to academia Teachers College to improve the teaching of science, technology, engineer- as a faculty member in the ing and math (the so-called STEM subjects) at a group of public schools in “I’M A BIG Sociology Department at Harlem and Upper Manhattan. Arizona State University. He BELIEVER THAT remained Chairman of Black- McGourty began laying the groundwork for the engineering school’s partici- board’s Board of Directors until pation in that partnership in 2006, when he established the Center for Tech- IF WE CAN 2011, when the company was nology, Innovation and Community Engagement (CTICE). In 2009 he joined sold to Providence Equity for forces with TC’s Offi ce of School and Community Partnerships, headed by GET STUDENTS $1.7 billion and taken private. Associate Vice President Nancy Streim, to win backing for the eff ort from the GE Foundation. Since then, doctoral students from TC and Columbia TO USE THEIR What’s up next for Parch- Engineering have been getting kids of all ages excited about robotics, green ment? Pittinsky hopes private audits, cyber safety and a host of other STEM-related topics. STEM SKILLS WITH businesses eventually will use the company’s technology to “We have all sat in math and science classrooms where we were taught ENTREPRENEURIAL improve employee recruitment to fi nd one right answer,” says McGourty, who received his M.S. in Clinical and hiring. Businesses could Psychology from Teachers College in 2002 and completed a Post-Doctoral PASSION, WE’LL benefi t from the operational Re-specialization Program in Clinical Psychology at the College that same effi ciency and analytic ap- year. “This kind of thinking works for computing two plus two, but it won’t SEE GLOBAL plications of credentials data, solve open-ended problems like how to create energy-effi cient buildings or he says. “Companies from even how to design a video game.” CHALLENGES Walmart to IBM are looking to credentials as a proxy for what In focusing on real-world problem solving, McGourty, who also holds a Ph.D. in SOLVED.” we know, how well we know it Applied Psychology from Stevens Institute of Technology, o en emphasizes the and who we are, in a sense,” connection between the STEM subjects and running a business. Through CTICE, —JACK MCGOURTY, he says. “Knowing that an ap- for example, he established the Columbia-Harlem Small Business Development plicant took higher-level math Center (SBDC), a federally-funded project that links students to local businesses , is valuable information.” and supports job creation in the community. He also introduced a 15-credit tc MCGOURTY JACK UZRAD/COURTESY SHAKED
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/alumni
alum_alumni 68 4/2/12 4:55 PM PUTTING Alumni_FOCUS KIDS ON THE CASE
Jack McGourty
interdisciplina undergraduate minor a solar lantern that they are now sell- “I’M A BIG in entrepreneurship that combines the ing through their company, LuminAID development of engineering skills with Lab, as a disaster relief light source to BELIEVER THAT a commitment to community service. people in Haiti, Ghana and Nigeria.
IF WE CAN McGourty won corporate sponsor- Currently, McGourty is the driving ship for these CTICE programs in force behind In-V-Ent-Ed™, a new GET STUDENTS part through his own adroit entre- program to educate aspiring preneurship, but also because of his entrepreneurs across the globe. He TO USE THEIR genuine belief that through such is forging partnerships with corpo- eff orts, teachers and students can rations, governments, NGOs and STEM SKILLS WITH change the way they think and make academic institutions to support life eve where a little better. regional innovation and economic ENTREPRENEURIAL development. This year he will be Many students are showcasing work teaching hundreds of high school PASSION, WE’LL they began in one of McGourty’s students in China, India, Turkey and community-based programs. Victoria the United Arab Emirates about en- SEE GLOBAL Nneji, a sophomore at the engineering trepreneurship and innovation. school, founded Digital STEM, a grant- CHALLENGES funded project that teaches elemen- “I’m a big believer that if we can get ta - and middle-school students how students to use their STEM skills SOLVED.” to refurbish used computers. Andrea with entrepreneurial passion, we’ll Sreshta and Anna Stork, 2011 gradu- see global challenges solved, such —JACK MCGOURTY, ates of Columbia’s Graduate School as buildings using energy more ef- of Architecture, Planning and Preser- fi ciently,” McGourty says. “And we’ll , vation who went through the CTICE see young people use data to solve entrepreneurship program, developed big public health issues.” tc SHAKED UZRAD/COURTESY JACK MCGOURTY JACK UZRAD/COURTESY SHAKED
WWW.tc.EDU/alumni SPRING
alum_alumni 69 4/2/12 4:55 PM (DE)VICE SQUAD LEADER
Nabeel Ahmad
Nabeel Ahmad (Ed.D., ’09, Instructional Technology and Media) believes everyone has something to learn from mobile apps
BY SIDDHARTHA MITTER
When Nabeel Ahmad runs into a snag writing code for a mobile application, he does what many programmers do: He submits his problem to the crowd.
“I copy-paste the error, and I go to a site like Stack Overfl ow, where there are people having similar problems,” says Ahmad, who earned his doctorate from TC in 2009 and now returns eve year as an adjunct professor. “It’s problem-based learning. You don’t necessarily care who is helping you; it’s just the nature of getting some help.”
Other tools work the same way, Ahmad says—for example, the mobile apps that museums increasingly use to help visitors get the most out of their ex- hibits, or the apps that teach users a language in small but eff ective doses, for instance by selecting and helping them through news articles on topics that interest them. COURTESY NABEEL AHMAD NABEEL COURTESY
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/alumni
alum_alumni 70 4/2/12 4:55 PM Alumni_FOCUS
(DE)VICE SQUAD LEADER In his day job as a learning developer which it is to be applied). at IBM, Ahmad, an Oklahoma native with a background in business and “We learned the word for ‘green’ in computer science, creates and deploys Mandarin,” Ahmad says. “Then we similar learning tools that the corpora- contextualized our learning by taking tion’s 450,000 employees can access a picture of something green nearby on phones and tablets. His work on —in this case, my sweater. Then IBM’s mobile-learning strategy stems the app spoke the word ‘green’ to from his TC doctoral dissertation in “IT’S us and showed us the character and Instructional Technology and Media. PROBLEM-BASED transliteration.” “The main thing I looked at was what Ahmad imports an impressive cast people use their phones for in a LEARNING. of guest speakers to his classroom, workplace setting,” Ahmad says. “Do including scientists from IBM Learn- they want access to learning material, YOU DON’T ing, experts in international media and if so, what type of material?” development from Columbia’s School NECESSARILY of International and Public Aff airs, of- At IBM, he found, most intensive fi cials from the New York City Depart- mobile users were “client-facing” CARE WHO ment of Education and entrepreneurs sellers and consultants on the move. from technology start-ups. They didn’t have time for 60-min- IS HELPING YOU; ute training courses. Rather, “they’re Ahmad is quick to note that, as looking for just-in-time information: IT’S JUST much as Facebook, Twitter and other something they can pull up at the social media tools have become part time of need that will help them with THE NATURE of our lives, schools o en expressly the client. It’s not necessarily the fi rst ban the devices that facilitate their time they’re viewing this information, OF GETTING use. “I don’t blame them,” he says but they need it for quick recall.” of educators lee of the distrac- SOME HELP.” tions caused by smartphones and Problem-based learning is common other gadget in the classroom. But, among computer programmers, but —NABEEL AHMAD, he says, such bans prevent a lot of it’s far from standard practice in , potential learning. schools. Of course, an IBM consul- tant making client calls has needs He believes social tools are edging that diff er from those of an adult their way toward the classroom. He language learner, a college student, cites the platform Piazza, which lets or a child in elementa school. But students and teachers interact and Ahmad says that the increasingly collaborate, and TeacherTube, where ubiquitous tools of smartphones, The latter is designed to appeal to teachers and learners share instruc- handheld devices and social net- students in eve TC department, tional videos. Apps are also sprout- working platforms off er new learning with potential applications that run ing up that students can use outside opportunities in eve context. the gamut from creating physical- of school, for instance on fi eld trips. education instructional videos to “There are core underlying similari- conducting remote, group-based Ahmad says that mobile tech ties from a design standpoint, from therapy in real time. Ahmad guides evangelists are a growing force in a curriculum standpoint,” he says. students from the social learning education policy at both the federal “No matter the setting, you have and social development theories of and local levels. One, Lisa Nielsen to get certain things right.” For in- Albert Bandura and Lev Vygotsky to of the New York City Department of stance, museum apps that are overly the use of these theories in diff er- Education, who maintains a popular visual or text-heavy tend to backfi re ent learning contexts. In one lesson, personal blog on education innova- because they distract the visitor a student demonstrated how an tion, has spoken in his class. from the actual exhibition. Better iPad app called Inkling can be used apps, he adds, make more use of to make reading textbooks more Ahmad is optimistic that the fi eld of audio, which complements the visual social. (Users can see others’ notes education is catching up with inno- input the visitor is receiving. while reading chapters, highlight vative ways that people are learning sections they fi nd useful, and follow in diff erent settings. He fi nds his At TC, Ahmad teaches a class on other users, thereby creating a social TC students eager to know what is mobile-phone learning (with fellow learning network.) In another lesson, happening in the business world, TC grad Dominic Mentor), a spin- the class used the language-learning where neat-sounding innovations off course on handheld devices, app Voxy to demonstrate the power are put to the test. “Ideas are cheap, and another titled “Social Media of situated learning (learning that in a way,” he says. “It’s the execution
COURTESY NABEEL AHMAD NABEEL COURTESY & Learning” (with Tariq Ahmad). takes place in the same context in that matters.” tc
WWW.tc.EDU/alumni SPRING
alum_alumni 71 4/2/12 4:55 PM Alice Wilder_LEARNING ANYTIME, ANYWHERE
Alice Wilder is an award-winning developer of educational children’s media who talks and listens to kids and represents their voices throughout production.
(.., , ’ ) .’ , - creator of PBS Kids’ Super Why!, an interactive preschool literacy series. She also produced Cha-Ching Money Smart Kids, an animated children’s nancial literacy “edutainment” show, for Cartoon Ne¤ ork Asia and hopes to get it distributed in the United States soon. Her latest project isSpeakaboos , a home and classroom resource of online stories and activities to develop a love of reading among children ages 2-7. ON THE POWER OF “E”: “Media in all its various platforms —TV, Internet, tablets—allows kids to learn anytime, anywhere,” says Wilder, a former President of TC’s Alumni Council. “It has made educators think about the teacher as a Amentor—a potential resource rather than an all-knowing sage on the stage. We will always need the human touch, but technology allows educators to reach potentially millions of kids a week. That’s crazy! That’s powerful!” ON PERSONALIZING LEARNING: “Because diff erent learners learn in diff erent ways, technology has the ² exibili´ to reach students where they are and use techniques that work for them. If you are a visual learner, video can make con- cepts concrete that are otherwise abstract. Information is more accessible than ever. Therefore, research skills, problem solving, creative thinking and innovation are some of the 21st-century skills that need to be nurtured and developed.” ON THE TMI FACTOR: “Going forward, the big challenge is going to be distribution. There are over 500,000 mobile apps in the Apple store, and over 70,000 of those are tagged as educational. Six´ hours of video are uploaded to You- Tube every minute. How do you get people’s attention? People can only learn from content we are all developing if somebody’s actually consuming it.” ON SPEAKABOOS: “Speakaboos is an online library for digital books. There’s a high level of both entertainment and education, with an intentional focus on reading comprehension, as opposed to pure entertainment.” ON 120TH STREET: “TC was a perfect home for me. TC gave me both the theoretical knowledge and
the applied knowledge and experience to bridge the gap be¤ een theory and practice.” tc KENNEDY JOEY
SPRING WWW.tc.EDU/today
end_wilder.indd 72 4/2/12 1:48 PM INCOME FOR TODAY— ADVANCING EDUCATION FOR TOMORROW
EARN UP TO 9 % 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!
AGE RATE EQUIVALENT RATE** SINGLE-LIFE 60 4.4% 6.7% 65 4.7% 7.4% CHARITABLE 70 5.1% 8.3% 80 6.8% 11.8% GIFT ANNUITY 90 + 9% 16.9% *BASED ON YOUR AGE WHEN THE ANNUITY IS CREATED. **ADJUSTED UPWARD BECAUSE OF TAX-FREE PORTION. TWO LIFE RATES WILL VARY.
| | , - | . .
cvr_COVER_FINAL.indd 3 4/2/12 6:31 PM Non-Profi t Org West th Street | Box | New York, NY | www.tc.edu US Postage PAID Teachers College
SPRING has arrived at TC and with it a slew of activity—in particular, Academic Festival, this year themed (like this magazine) “Rewiring the Learning Landscape.” To view videos of the many talks and presentations at the Festival, visit www.tc.edu/festival.
PHOTOGRAPH BY HEATHER VAN UXEM LEWIS
cvr_COVER_FINAL.indd 4 4/3/12 12:09 PM