TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING tel.ac.uk System Upgrade Realising the vision for UK education Connect Share Analyse Assess Apply Personalise Engage Streamline Include Know Compute Construct

Contents

2 Introduction: Technology Enhanced Learning Research Programme 4 Mapping the territory 8 Connect 12 Share 16 Analyse 20 Assess 24 Apply 28 Personalise 32 Engage 36 Streamline 40 Include 44 Know 48 Compute 54 Construct 58 Further reading

tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 1 Introduction: Technology Enhanced Learning Research Programme

The Technology Enhanced Learning research videos to upload on YouTube, or socialising programme has spent more than four years with their friends on Facebook. They and their developing systems and software that, for parents may be perfecting their digital photos example, use artificial intelligence to teach on their multi-touch tablet or doing the week’s teenagers algebra and help autistic children shopping online. Colleges and universities are with their social skills. We have created virtual making headway, but there is much more that islands where young people acquire the can be done. And the possibilities for lifelong confidence to tackle some of life’s bigger learning are endless, though yet to be challenges. We have exploited the potential of thoroughly realised. giant touch-screen tables to encourage young children to work together. We have taken Driven by the desire to discover, create and sense-of-touch technology – the sort that communicate (and play and shop), people of all makes that gaming controllers vibrate – and ages have developed impressive skills in order used it to train dentists cheaply and effectively. to pursue their own interests. Somehow, this has not yet transformed learning and teaching The potential for learning is clear when we in the same way. Partly, this is due to a reluctance consider the technologies that are present in to change what counts as learning. All forms Richard Noss homes and in people’s pockets. But there is of professional life have been transformed by Director little sign that this kind of technology is being technology, but we are wary of making radical adequately exploited for teaching and learning. changes to what is taught and what is learned. The massive ambitions we share, as a nation, Yet this is where change is most needed – to learn for education cannot be met without Of course some schools are pioneering the the new things that matter in the 21st century, technology. Crucially, they cannot be met use of technology in learning. But too many and find new ways to teach and assess them. without technology designed to help people are struggling with cumbersome networks learn. For too long learning has been subsisting and outdated computers and a fear of all There are signs of change: new technologies on the crumbs of technologies designed for that lurks on the internet. Meanwhile, their like tablet computers are helping to turn the other purposes. It is too important and too students are busy at home setting up servers tide as is the long-overdue recognition of the complex for that to continue. to allow them to play online games, or making importance of teaching children something

2 The TEL Report tel.ac.uk about the art of programming. And of course The Technology Enhanced Learning This report was prepared by the TEL almost everyone in the UK has a powerful (TEL) Research Programme is: programme task group: computer in their pocket, even if they have to switch it off when they enter the school. • a £12m programme funded by the UK ESRC Professor Richard Noss and EPSRC from 2007-2012 London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, Education at all levels needs technology that University of London, Director of the TEL is designed for learning and teaching, not the • designing and evaluating systems to advance programme leftovers of systems designed for quite other our understanding of learning and teaching Dr Richard Cox purposes. Without it, our schools will languish, in a technological context locked in an analogue mind-set while the rest School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh of society goes digital. Our economy, our • supporting eight large interdisciplinary Professor Diana Laurillard children – indeed all of us – will be the losers. projects London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, University of London This report addresses 12 key themes, with • working to achieve impact for emerging recommendations that will be relevant to research results and Professor Rose Luckin everyone involved in learning – including London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, teachers, policymakers, lecturers and workplace • mapping progress on key themes University of London trainers. Our ambition is to feed these into the Professor Lydia Plowman debate, to provide focus and, where possible, School of Education, University of Edinburgh evidence that can guide policy and practice. As such, our recommendations are not simply Professor Eileen Scanlon demands on government or a set of unrealistic Institute of Educational Technology, calls on the public purse; they are an attempt to Open University map out the territory of what we – academics, Professor Mike Sharples industry, policymakers and practitioners – should recognise as crucial for getting the best Institute of Educational Technology, out of technology, and finding effective and Open University productive ways to invest for the future. tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 3 Mapping the territory: 12 key themes and recommendations

1. CONNECT 2. SHARE 3. ANALYSE

Technology-enhanced learning research Preparing our children for the future is hard Technology can help us analyse and is exploring how the worlds of informal when we don’t have a clear idea of what the understand how people learn. As technology and formal education can be connected. world will be like in 20 years’ time. But one takes an increasingly central place in Organising access to school intranets, school- thing is certain. They’ll need to be able to education, work, and in everyday life, it provided podcasts and social media at home work together to solve problems. Teamwork becomes vital to understand how people is a start. But simply importing school into the is vital in the knowledge economy and there learn with it. We are fortunate that the same home is not enough. Equally, allowing children are new forms of collaboration that are not technologies that enhance learning also give to bring personal devices into the classroom being exploited. us fresh insights into the nature of learning. can be seen as disruptive and dangerous. Yet This is because the devices that students use evidence is emerging of the benefits of such Technology can help, not just by encouraging can also serve as microscopes revealing, in devices when harnessed to target learning. people to work together, but by helping them close-up, the details of their learning. So the profit from collaboration, to learn about things technologies can help us make sense of the Technology-enhanced learning can reconceive that would be difficult to learn alone. There are learning process. This is important if learning the connections between formal and non- significant new gains that can be designed into with digital devices is not to become just a formal learning. Both worlds are transformed technology-enhanced learning, preparing speeded-up version of what we have done for if young people are engaged in productive students for 21st century teamwork. decades. Making sense of how people learn can learning using personal technologies and help teachers, lecturers and workplace trainers networks within and outside the classroom. rethink how they teach.

Recommendation Recommendation Recommendation Exploit the power of personal Catch the wave of social networking Use technology to understand better how devices to enhance learning. to share ideas and learn together. we learn, and so help us learn better.

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4. ASSESS 5. APPLY 6. PERSONALISE

Understanding how people learn with Everyone knows that it’s not always easy to Technology by itself doesn’t solve anything. technology helps to solve a long-running apply the maths we learn in school to solve The point is to design technology so that it problem: how to assess what really matters – everyday problems. A substantial amount addresses problems of learning and teaching. the emergence of understanding – rather than of time is spent in schools teaching people For example, we can design personalised what’s easy to assess – whether someone can about ratios and percentages, but it doesn’t technology which, courtesy of artificial follow the rules. For far too long we have all stop people getting into horrendous messes intelligence, is sensitive to what learners know been like the drunk looking for his five-pound with their credit cards. A recent study showed and how they work, and can adapt to optimise note under the lamp post – he knows that this that even people who spent all day looking the feedback they receive. We are already is not where he dropped it, but there is no light at spreadsheets and talking to customers on used to computers that know our favourite to look anywhere else! Now, with the latest the phone, had little idea how the numbers websites, recommend what to listen to or read, artificial intelligence techniques, it is becoming worked, or how to apply them to customers’ and predict our text messages. This is just the possible for new forms of assessment to problems. And it’s not just an issue with maths. tip of the iceberg: in the future, computers will assist teachers and students alike, to attribute People can struggle to use any classroom know enough about us to offer a personalised meaning to what students do, and to help learning in the outside world. Technology can learning, adapted to our strengths and styles. teachers optimise their strategies. help them make the learning they’ve acquired They can learn from us about how best to help at school or college relevant to and useful in us learn. their work and leisure.

Recommendation Recommendation Recommendation Develop technologies to assess what matters, Allow technology to help learners apply Utilise artificial intelligence to rather than what is easy to assess. their education to the real world. personalise teaching and learning.

tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 5 7. ENGAGE 8. STREAMLINE 9. INCLUDE

Technology is moving beyond keyboards and Doctors, architects, musicians – all take Many people are not able to take advantage mice. Increasingly, IT systems are supporting for granted software that enhances their of digital technologies, excluded from this interaction by touch or movement, for creativity and productivity. Teachers need major new medium for learning and for example Nintendo Wii. tools like that too. participating in the world. Nearly a fifth of the UK population makes little or no use of the We have known for decades that learning is Thanks to technology-enhanced learning they internet. You know how it feels when you leave embodied in movement. Young children often can have them. We can design power tools for your phone at home? Technology can’t make use gesture to express ideas before they use teachers to make learning more effective and up for inequalities based on race, or gender, words, underlining the educational potential of their time more productive. We can help them or class, but without it, those gaps risk getting these technologies . Learning can reside in the share expertise, give them the opportunities ever wider. With technology, the gaps can flick of a finger sending an object across a screen. to think more deeply about what they teach, narrow. Technology-enhanced learning has the how they teach it, and what their students are power to bring learning to anyone, anywhere, The recent advent of cheaper technologies learning. And we can exploit AI techniques that anytime. Enabling it to do so will help create a for providing haptic (touch) feedback, mobile ‘know’ what teachers want, tapping in to their learning society for more people, and a more tablet computers, large interactive surfaces and needs and those of their communities to make equal society for everyone. low-cost movement detection systems, leaves the process of being an education professional us well-placed to deliver learning that is active more streamlined, more productive. and fun. And we can also gather data that helps us understand how embodiment really works.

Recommendation Recommendation Recommendation Go beyond the keyboard and mouse to Enhance teachers’ productivity with new Empower the digitally and socially learn through movement and gesture. tools for designing teaching and learning. excluded to learn with technology.

6 The TEL Report tel.ac.uk 10. KNOW 11. COMPUTE 12. CONSTRUCT

Sometimes it feels as if we are struggling Computational thinking is a powerful and Watching young children make sense of the under an information avalanche. Yet the general way of exploring how systems and world teaches us an important lesson: people massive increase in the volume and diversity processes work, including societies, the spread learn best when they are making things, and of information does not necessarily make us of diseases, interacting technologies, and our sharing what they’ve made with each other. all more knowledgeable. Access to information own minds and bodies. As the world becomes Reflecting on what you have constructed is a by itself does not guarantee wisdom or insight more and more automated and digital, the key part of learning. Until now, this lesson didn’t – meaning must be added. language of computers needs to become the easily translate into learning more generally – fluent second language of learners. you couldn’t make a model of the solar system, Where does meaning come from? Humans play around with the forces of gravity, or model rely on context and culture to transform These kinds of new knowledge are the the outbreak of the first world war. But now, information into knowledge; computers can’t understandings required in the 21st century. with computers, literally anything is possible. do this – yet. Gradually though, as ‘semantic We are living in a world of increasing Ideas that could only exist in the minds of web’ tools come on stream, they are starting interdependence and complexity. Science people can now have a life on the screen. Not to gather meaning from the web, not just and maths underpin so much of everyday life only does this bring them alive, it gives people information. We need to learn how to use yet too few people understand how they are the chance to construct their own mental these powerful tools that link data and create done. Quite simply, this knowledge is currently representations alongside virtual ones. new ways of looking at information – turning owned by the 21st century digital priesthood – it into knowledge. we have yet to democratise it. This knowledge is essential if we are to be productive and engaged citizens.

Recommendation Recommendation Recommendation Employ tools to help learners make sense Understand how computers think, to help Unleash learners’ creativity through of the information overload. learners shape the world around them. building and tinkering.

tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 7 1 Connect Exploit the power of personal devices to enhance learning. Mike Sharples, Shaaron Ainsworth, Russell Beale, Elizabeth FitzGerald, Giasemi Vavoula

Outside school, young people are enjoying bring their smartphones, netbooks and other • collecting data ‘in the wild’ to take back into and being empowered by personal technology. personal devices into the classroom could the classroom, enabling authentic and original They can converse and be contacted be seen as difficult, disruptive, and – given investigations that ground the development anywhere, anytime. They can discover the issues with internet access – potentially of abstract knowledge in observation and and share media and products. They can dangerous. Yet some researchers have shown experimentation in the real world; collaborate through social networks and that such connections can be beneficial when multi-player games. done in a well-considered manner. • unobtrusively capturing individual children’s interests and learning strategies; Contrary to the way these activities are often portrayed, research shows that they enable • making use of communities and social young people to develop powerful skills that Learning technologies can reconnect the interactions that happen outside the employers want. worlds of formal and informal learning. classroom. Inside school, the story is very different. Little Learning technologies can reconnect has been done to link these digital activities These benefits include: the worlds of formal and informal learning. with formal education. The status of schooling • helping children to learn in and out of Doing so successfully will see young people in society means that headteachers have to school, through activities that start in the engaged in productive learning with personal be cautious in adopting new curricula and classroom and then continue in the home technologies and networks within and outside teaching methods. This limits how they can or outside, enhanced by technology that the classroom. engage students and connect with their reinforces, extends and relates formal and out-of-school culture. non-formal learning;

So what is the best way to connect the • putting children in touch with the expertise worlds of informal and formal learning? While and alternative perspectives of people other young people can be given access to school than their teachers, as well as increasing intranets, podcasts and social media at home, their awareness of places outside the doing so risks overloading their private lives classroom, strengthening the relevance with school. Conversely, allowing them to of classroom learning; tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 9 In action: Essa Academy

The Essa Academy1 in Bolton has given young online research; accessing dictionary and people the technology to transform learning thesaurus tools; accessing other useful apps. – to make it, in their words, more ‘exciting, creative, inspiring and innovative’. As part of The Essa initiative is also bringing parents into a drive to raise standards, it has provided each school and involving them in their children’s of its 900 pupils with an iPod Touch, which education, something that has proved difficult allows them to be in charge of their own in the past. learning inside and outside school. Pupils are using technology to communicate Showk Badat, Essa’s principal, says this with the wider world. They produced a innovative use of technology is at the heart documentary of the academy’s innovations, of the huge improvement in the academy’s including interviews with teachers and pupils, results – up from 55 per cent to 99.5 per cent for the BBC News ‘School Report’ initiative.2 Innovative use five A*-C grade GCSES in two years. ‘The iPod And they made a YouTube video3 on how of technology is at the heart of the huge Touch is a really motivational tool, empowering technologies such as laptops and handheld each child to explore his or her personal devices are transforming their learning. improvement in the academy’s results – up from... creativity and learning potential. It has done the most remarkable thing: removed the limits 1 www.essaacademy.org/ to learning.’ 2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oCfQSj0BHU 3 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScNZM8rU4rc) Communication between staff and pupils has 55% TO 99.5% improved with pupils happy to use the iPods to ask for help or advice. Teachers can also use them to monitor all their pupils’ progress in a lesson. Meeting one of their biggest challenges is made easy by being able to monitor A*– C GCSEs in two years responses to questions sent to everyone simultaneously. Other uses include doing

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2 Share Catch the wave of social networking to share ideas and learn together. Charles Crook, Karen Littleton, Eileen Scanlon, Alison Twiner

When computers first appeared in classrooms with the views of others. This collaboration across time and space. One example of this is the fear was that they would isolate students is a potent preparation for the demands of found in the potential of mobile technologies from each other and, perhaps, from their team and group activity in working life. Both to support distributed fieldwork explorations. teachers. Here, surely, was a dangerously individuals and organisations often make Another example is in higher education where absorbing technology with the power to encase progress through coordinated forms of social distance learners work in groups, but at their users in a bubble of private concentration. In thinking such as ‘brainstorming’. If we wish to own speed on university courses. fact, the opposite has turned out to be the case: encourage students into ways of thinking that Technology has cultivated a form of learning that make the most of collaboration then we should Technology can extend the traditional model is more social in quality than its predecessors. recognise how technology can help. of a collaboration from a short, intimate, private episode of problem solving to one In the early days of computing there were that is distributed across time, space and too few computers and too many students participant structure. Technology can also wanting to use them. Students had to work Technology has cultivated a form of extend collaborations to involve experts – together at these machines and – perhaps making possible their short-term engagement to their surprise – teachers found that these learning that is more social in quality with a problem. collaborations could be lively and constructive. than its predecessors. Collaborative learning is increasingly Since then, working together around and important for students and technology through computers has continued to evolve. Perhaps the image most readily conjured offers powerful support for such experiences. But technology could do even more to support up by the notion of collaborative learning Technology can help team members this social learning. And it should do so because is a pair of students working together, communicate their understanding of such learning has become increasingly valuable. heads down, in a classroom. Yet, thanks to problems and make the components of those networked technology such collaborations problems easier to grasp. Technology can free According to educational psychologists, need not be constrained by classroom walls collaborations of the restrictions of time and joint problem solving and inquiry encourages or school timetables. location. Finally, it can enable collaboration to social and intellectual development. It puts become a more loosely coupled affair: drawing students under pressure to articulate their Networked technology can create a kind of in new sources of expertise that continue to be views and, in particular, to reconcile them ‘distributed thinking’, as students work together ‘social’ in nature. tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 13 In action: Personal Inquiry Project

The Personal Inquiry project4 was set up to help to monitor wind speed, temperature, young people develop the investigative skills infra-red irradiance and carbon monoxide needed in modern science. Using a tailormade data, and took GPS readings of the data computer toolkit called nQuire, pupils work collection locations. Working in groups together to research issues that affect their of four, they entered the information into lives – whether they are at school or at home, the nQuire toolkit running on PC netbooks. in a town centre or a nature reserve. They were encouraged to add text comments for each location and to take photos. Their The nQuire5 software runs on both mobile and teachers then integrated the results of their desktop computers. It guides and supports investigations back into their lessons. young people through their investigation by giving them structured activities, data probes, The nQuire toolkit also enabled pupils to visualisations of data, and a fluid means of access expert help. For example, 14-year-olds communication. gained input from a nutrition expert in their project on healthy eating. Similarly, in an nQuire was tested out by more than 150 investigation into the effect of noise pollution secondary students researching urban heat on bird feeding, pupils were able to work with islands in Northampton and Milton Keynes. two university experts in animal behaviour, This study of the phenomenon of towns being so expert knowledge became part of the warmer than surrounding rural areas was a collaborative problem solving. Technology can extend the traditional major component of their GCSE geography model of a collaboration from a short, work for several months. They used sensors 4 www.pi-project.ac.uk to collect environmental data in the field as 5 http://www.nquire.org.uk/ intimate, private episode of problem well as to support analysis and presentation back in the classroom. solving to one that is distributed across During a fieldtrip, the students used time, space and participant structure. Sciencescope data loggers and sensors

14 The TEL Report tel.ac.uk Students working together on the ‘urban heat islands’ fieldtrip. 3 Analyse Use technology to understand better how we learn, and so help us learn better. Richard Cox, Shaaron Ainsworth

Education is far less tied to traditional information presentation and feedback, Such social learning underlines the classrooms and now happens at home, with discover the extent to which students differ, complementary relationship between friends and online. With technology playing and encourage collaborative learning. And technology and education – what technology an increasingly key role in its liberation, it it means that learning technology systems discovers about learning being used to shape becomes important to understand how can be continually improved on the basis how technology promotes learning and people learn with it. of real-world evidence. vice versa.

Without that understanding, the evidence- Such evidence has told us in the past that Take the example of gaming. Educational informed design of technology-enhanced learning can benefit from a cyclical approach games are increasingly seen as a compelling learning systems is hampered, limiting and from a social one. A learning cycle might way of engaging students. Difficult concepts our ability to provide rich and effective consist of traditional teaching followed by a can be accessed in ways that are interactive educational experiences. Luckily, the same phase in which students explore material on and concrete, and players motivated to technologies that enhance learning also their own or in small groups. By observing explore them because the games are fun. But enable us to gain insights into the nature others, they learn what works and what not the key challenge for designers is ensuring of learning. This is because the devices to bother trying themselves. Importantly for that educational games have a positive that students use can also serve as their academic self-esteem, they also come to influence on learning rather than one that is microscopes, revealing in close-up the understand that they are not unique in their negative or distracting. One answer is to log details of their learning. misconceptions and misunderstandings. students’ interactions with games and use the data to determine how well they are learning, Researchers in education now ‘data mine’ the Technology-enhanced systems enable whether their performance is influenced by records of thousands of students’ interactions new and large-scale forms of social learning issues such as gender and how the game itself with technology-enhanced learning systems. that provide powerful experiences for can be improved. Data-mining is revealing which curriculum students and masses of data for researchers. components pull their weight in terms of A good example is social network behaviour, learning outcomes, very difficult information understanding how networks of people come to collect in traditional ways. It can also be together and move apart, how they access and used to study how students use online social create information, and how they construct networks, experiment with new forms of individual and group knowledge. tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 17 In action: Zombie Division

Zombie Division6 is a 3D adventure game which Data can also be scrutinised to see if children helps eight to 11-year-olds with maths. Matrices, can apply what they’ve learnt in the game to the hero, explores a labyrinth populated by other contexts. For example, their performance skeletons of warriors with numbers on their when dividing a number on a skeleton can be chests. To complete the maze, Matrices must compared to how they get on doing the same engage some of these warriors in combat and calculation in a typical maths lesson. defeat them; others he must avoid as he cannot overcome them. The key characteristic of the In trials children performed better on the design is that the mathematical ideas – identifying ‘skeletons’ than they did on the numbers; number patterns, multiples, primes, factors and but still did better on the numbers if they had squares – are embedded in the game, not just first practised on the skeletons. Such data can added ‘chocolate-covered broccoli’. be used by parents and teachers to ensure Divide and rule… Matrices meets some children practise appropriate tasks, help warrior skeletons. This embedding is achieved by providing designers find features that make games Matrices with three weapons to divide effective and help researchers understand opponents. If he chooses appropriately, he why we learn more when having fun. defeats the warrior skeleton, but if he makes a mistake the skeleton will attack him instead. 6 http://zombiedivision.co.uk/

Zombie Division doesn’t just help children improve their maths skills. It also logs their performance in order to provide teachers Data-mining is revealing which curriculum with valuable information. They can see what division problems a particular child finds components pull their weight in terms difficult or easy. They can discover if factors such as gender, amount of game experience or of learning outcomes, very difficult mathematical knowledge influence their ability to play and learn. information to collect in traditional ways.

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4 Assess Develop technologies to assess what matters, rather than what is easy to assess. Richard Cox

‘If you mention computers and testing in the of students’ performance towards to avoid making mistakes. As anyone who same sentence, the first things most people assessments that track how their learning has suffered exam nerves knows, traditional think of are long sequences of multiple-choice is developing over time. Assessment that is modes of assessment are too sensitive to questions, and specially designed answer cards rooted in ranking students and schools needs stress, illness and emotional upsets. filled in with No. 2 pencils.’ So observed David to give way to a more enlightened approach Michael and Sande Chen7 in their 2005 report that works ‘harder’ to provide: Assessment also needs to be rethought on the potential of ‘serious’ video games both because it is increasingly out of kilter with to promote and assess learning. contemporary teaching and learning. Compared to days gone by, students now work To some extent this is still true. Assessment Assessment rooted in ranking students much more collaboratively and cooperatively methods need to be better aligned with our on group projects at school and university. current understanding of how people learn. and schools needs to give way to more Inquiry learning is common, with learners Too many high-stakes tests are administered encouraged to ask questions about the world, to individual students in examination rooms, enlightened approach. to collect data to answer their questions, and contexts far removed from those in which to make and test their discoveries. Technology learning originally took place. • useful diagnostic feedback to students allows for the sophisticated assessment of about their learning; students’ inquiries and the results of those Improving assessment is important for inquiries, be they in the form of hypotheses reasons of equity, validity, and compliance • useful information to teachers; or models. with government policies on, for example, e-portfolios and inclusion. But reforming • a solid basis for evidence-based decision 7 Michael, M. & Chen. S. (2005) Proof of Learning: assessment is difficult because it requires making for policymakers. Assessment in Serious Games. Gamasutra website: change at all levels of an educational system – http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2433/proof_of_ from classroom to government. This means assessing the process as well as learning_assessment_in_.php (accessed Jan 5th 2012) the product of learning – the ‘how’ as well as For the first time, we can assess what really the ‘what’. Currently, assessment may inhibit matters, rather than simply what is easy to creativity and turn enthusiastic, inquisitive assess. We need to move beyond ‘snapshots’ students into results-driven people desperate tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 21 Another source of misalignment concerns data-mining techniques, researchers analysed multimedia. Students now learn, communicate the help-seeking behaviour of 1,400 students and socialise via e-books, websites, social who used an intelligent tutoring system for network websites, simulations and a high-school geometry. They reported that not plethora of other multimedia. They routinely only could they better assess students while communicate their learning via written teaching them, but also that the assessment and spoken English, mathematical and could be done more efficiently. These logical notations as well as diagrams, digital results suggest that there may be no need to photographs, videos, charts and graphs. differentiate between ‘teaching’ and ‘testing’ Assessment needs updating so that students – over time, learning is reliably indicated by can demonstrate their learning in the same how a student responds to teaching. Tracking wide range of forms that they encountered how much help a student needs with a task will during its acquisition. result in as valid an assessment as a traditional test taken after teaching has ended. Finally, assessment needs to reflect a wide variety of teaching and learning practices JISC8, which champions the use of digital such as project-, inquiry- and problem-based technology in education, advocates learning, in other words learner-centred as well technology-based portfolios known as as teacher-centred practices. Such methods e-portfolios. It says they encourage ‘profound can engross students in their work, but their forms of learning’, as well having a role in engagement – and their performance – often professional development and accreditation, plummets during formal assessment. and the potential to support students moving between institutions and stages of education. By contrast, e-assessments have the potential to engage students in immersive, meaningful 8 http://www.jisc.ac.uk/ and challenging activities which provide them and their teachers with rich insights into their reasoning and knowledge. For example, using

22 The TEL Report tel.ac.uk In action: PATSy

Dr Helen Kelly always keeps a special patient up her sleeve for when she has to assess her speech and language therapy students at University College Cork. As the dreaded day looms, she can determine the complexity of the case by altering the number of clinical evaluations available to her students. The range should be ‘enough for them to make a differential diagnosis, but not too many so as to overwhelm them’.

Dr Kelly’s obliging patient comes courtesy 9 of PATSy , an established online case-based Unlike a real patient PATSy is available resource. PATSy allows medical students to any time, any place. A case of assessment repeatedly practise their skills on more than successfully contributing to students’ 60 virtual ‘patients’. Used in medicine, health learning as well as evaluating it. science and clinical psychology, the system provides students with interactive virtual patients as well as real data in the form of Dr Kelly says that PATSy ‘gives students videos, assessments, and anonymised real-life data to practise their clinical skills in medical histories. assessment, differential diagnosis and linking theory to clinical work. It allows measurement PATSy, recently used as the core platform in of their clinical decision-making skills as well PATSy allows medical students to a large research project10, allows students to as their theoretical knowledge’. sharpen up their clinical skills as often as they repeatedly practise their skills on like – even on the same patient. It is real 9 www.patsy.ac.uk 10 more than 60 virtual ‘patients’. learning by doing. www.tlrp.org/proj/phase111/cox.htm tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 23 5 Apply Allow technology to help learners apply their education to the real world. Rose Luckin, Shaaron Ainsworth, Charles Crook, Mike Sharples and Chris Dede

A good way to learn about a volcano is to pass a test did not mean that they could take is overlaid with information from the digital to visit one. Similarly, driving a racing car advantage of that knowledge or skill in a different world – hugely expand the variety of problems makes it easier to understand the physical situation. Much has been discovered since then students can study, and their ability to use this forces involved. However, such lessons are about how to help people apply their learning. new knowledge. Simulation authoring tools difficult to organise and some – such as such as SimQuest11, enable them to explore, observing the effects of changing gravity for example, the physics of motion with skaters to understand better how it works – may on ice, trains on railways and lorries on roads. simply be impossible. Here’s where ‘Augmented reality’ – where the real technology can help. Some people excel at judging the extent of world is overlaid with information from their understanding and the standards of their People need to be able to use what they work. This self-knowledge or metacognition have learned at school to solve problems in the digital world – hugely expands the influences their ability to apply their learning. everyday life. But they find this difficult. Their Ideally, everyone needs to be able to evaluate struggles to apply or ‘transfer’ their learning variety of problems students can study. the extent to which they have reached a solution have vexed psychologists and educators for and to assess their own learning needs. decades and represent an important issue for We now know that it helps if people are able Technology can help people develop their society. We need citizens who can use their to tackle a problem ‘for real’, if they can vary metacognitive skills, through, for example, education to help themselves, their colleagues the situations in which the problem occurs, enabling them to see and interact with a and society to prosper. They need to be able and if they can see it from a variety of description of their performance on a task12. to come up with answers using the general perspectives. It also makes a difference if Software also exists that can build a model of principles they have been taught. And they also they can join in activities that are ‘multi- a learner’s developing metacognitive skill and need to be able to do the opposite – to extract representational’ – allowing them to see and offer personalised feedback to hone these skills. general principles from the experience of manipulate representations of the same thing solving everyday problems. in different ways, exploiting the potential of 11 http://www.simquest.nl/learn.htm) dynamic images, colour, sound and so on. 12 http://www.eee.bham.ac.uk/bull/lemore/examples.html At the start of the 20th century, the American psychologist Edward Thorndike showed that Computer-based simulations, games and just because someone had the knowledge or skill ‘augmented reality’ – where the real world tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 25 In action: EcoMUVE

Ecosystems are complicated, requiring students to be able to reason about complex causal patterns. As these patterns often clash with students’ preconceptions, they can struggle to acquire and apply their knowledge. To help them, Professor Chris Dede and colleagues at the Harvard Graduate School of Education developed the EcoMUVE13 curriculum. This multi-user virtual environment offers students two immersive, simulated ecosystems in which to conduct scientific investigations. Taking water quality measurements at the A green marker shows direction and One of these virtual worlds is a pond in which EcoMUVE pond. distance to the next hotspot. fish have been mysteriously dying. Students can explore the pond, including under the water. They can investigate the surrounding ‘augmented reality’ technology and understand the flow of matter. And they can area, observing the plants and animals in their environmental probes so that students can accept some information and guidance from natural habitats. Their task is to work together, visit a real ecosystem, such as a pond, and a virtual adviser. collecting and analysing data, in order to solve use their mobile devices to collect data. the puzzle of why so many fish have died. Overlaying this virtual data, information, Students walk to a ‘hotspot’ identified by the simulations and visualisations on to The system helps students gain deeper mobile device. It prompts them to investigate experiences in the real world helps students understanding of difficult concepts, which helps the organisms they find, asking questions about apply formal science concepts to the solution them apply their learning in different situations. their observations, and giving constructive of practical problems. feedback based on their answers. They can also EcoMUVE is now complemented by the watch a video simulation of an atom involved in 13 http://ecomuve.gse.harvard.edu EcoMOBILE system14. This combines a process such as photosynthesis to help them 14 http://ecomobile.gse.harvard.edu

26 The TEL Report tel.ac.uk The virtual person offers information and guidance to support specified activities in a particular place. 6 Personalise Utilise artificial intelligence to personalise teaching and learning. Rose Luckin, Joshua Underwood, Kaska Porayska-Pomsta, Lewis Johnson and Lee Ellen Friedland

From HAL in Space Odyssey, through C-3P0 that are appropriate for them, problems that even their moods – is underpinned by and R2-D2 in Star Wars, to Sonny in I Robot, stretch them and help them progress. sophisticated AI techniques. Hollywood has been good at making money out of our fascination with machines that think Software that uses AI can help ensure that There are three main ways in which AI and behave intelligently. And it’s no longer learners receive relevant feedback, whether techniques are used to develop ‘adaptive science fantasy. working individually or as part of a team. It can software’ systems: give them valuable information about their We have computers that can fly planes, performance, enabling them to manage their Building computer models that can act model countries’ economies, search the own learning and emotions. as scientific tools internet and predict what we want to type ThinkerTools15 is a microworld that allows into a text message. We’re also developing 10 to 14-year-olds to test their ideas and computers with human qualities such as the understanding of forces and motion. ability to understand language and recognise Tailor-made learning is within our grasp Students can run simulations of objects visual images. moving and observe how various forces as artificial intelligence (AI) empowers such as impulses, gravity, and friction impact Education can take advantage of all this on these objects. The software can be set up progress. Tailor-made learning is within our computers to deal with the fact that to run according to Newtonian laws, and also grasp as artificial intelligence (AI) empowers according to other laws of physics. Students computers to deal with the fact that everyone is everyone is different. can run existing simulations or create entirely different. We differ physically, emotionally and new microworlds, including game-like cognitively – and in our ability to understand Education systems with AI are very adaptable. simulations with targets, and timers. how we learn and when we need help. They can respond quickly and appropriately to information about what the aim of a lesson 15 http://thinkertools.org/Pages/force.html An education that recognises these is, who the students are, who is working with differences can help everyone achieve their whom and where it is all happening. And they potential. Such personalised learning requires can do this even if the information changes teachers, tutors, parents and mentors to or is incomplete. The capacity to adapt to ensure that every student works on problems students’ abilities, needs, circumstances – tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 29 In action: Alelo

Enabling a learning environment to adapt Imagine learning how to argue about the to input from learners, teachers or others standard of your accommodation in France Andes Physics Tutor16 is an intelligent homework by standing in a hotel lobby having a heated helper, popular in the United States. Students conversation with the manager. Not only are presented with a physics challenge, would you acquire the words, but you would requiring them to, for example, draw vectors also assimilate the body language and pick or coordinate systems, define variables or write up tips on how to behave in such a situation. equations. Andes provides them with feedback That, in essence, is the kind of lesson offered every step of the way and encourages them to by Alelo’s ‘virtual-world simulations of real-life use helpful problem-solving strategies. It also social communication’. changes its advice in response to the kind of error the student makes. Alelo’s Operational Language and Culture Training System19 uses a virtual game- Designing computer models based upon based environment and interactive lessons a particular theory of learning to provide foreign language and culture The Ecolab17 software simulation environment training. AI techniques create convincing is intended to help eight to 10-year-olds social simulations that can process students’ explore food chains and webs. It is based speech and behaviour, engage in dialogue and on our understanding, courtesy of Russian AI techniques create convincing social non-verbal interaction, and evaluate their psychologist Lev Vygotsky, that children performance. Independent evaluations have make good progress when their learning is simulations that can process students’ shown significant gains in students’ knowledge ‘scaffolded’ or supported by a skilled adult. of language and culture and greater self- speech and behaviour, engage in dialogue confidence in their ability to communicate. 16 http://www.andestutor.org/ 17 https://sites.google.com/a/lkl.ac.uk/ecolab/ and non-verbal interaction. 19 www.tacticallanguage.com/

30 The TEL Report tel.ac.uk In action: Echoes

Andy is adept at using his intelligence to improve the social skills of young children, particularly those on the autistic spectrum. Through interacting with this virtual boy who inhabits Andy’s built-in AI allows him to have a touch-screen magical garden, five to seven- year-olds are encouraged to practise skills credible interactions with children – related to ‘joint attention’. This crucial skill, and they generally enjoy the opportunities by which one person makes another aware of an object or event by pointing or looking he gives them. at it, is often missing in children with autism.

Andy plays with the children, coaxing them A child enjoys a game in the magic garden to, for example, pick flowers or stack pots. with Andy, the artificially intelligent Thanks to AI modelling, he can ‘see’ his young Echoes agent. users, reason about their actions and, crucially, tailor his responses to them in the light of his observations and inferences. Andy’s built-in AI allows him to have credible interactions with children – and they generally Andy is the invention of Echoes, one of the enjoy the opportunities he gives them for Technology Enhanced Learning research exploration and experimentation. They also programme’s projects18. Echoes researchers have enjoy having a go at the challenges he sets, equipped him with an underlying personality that particularly the immediate feedback minus influences his actions – much like a human, albeit any real-world consequences. The fact that in a simplified way. This means he can emulate, the scenarios can be repeated endlessly gives using AI techniques such as planning, at least them both pleasure and a sense of control some human behaviours such as having goals and over the Echoes environment. acting on those goals based on his understanding of the current state of the world. 18 http://echoes2.org/ tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 31 7 Engage Go beyond the keyboard and mouse to learn through movement and gesture. Andrew Manches

Young children can struggle to master a mouse Making it easier to manipulate technology capture and respond to particular actions that or a keyboard, yet it is through these devices doesn’t only benefit young learners. Digital relate to concepts being learnt. For example, that most are introduced to the world of digital materials can represent different ideas, and by linking the acceleration of a handheld device technology. Fortunately this is changing. new forms of interaction can facilitate, and to an on-screen representation, children can Engagement with technology is becoming extend, the way these ideas can be explore how their physical movements link to easier through touchscreen devices such as manipulated and explored. For example, concepts of motion. the iPad and game consoles such as the number blocks can be slid around a touch Nintendo Wii or Microsoft Kinect that respond screen using fingers on both hands, or images To understand how new technologies can to children’s gestures and body movements. can be enlarged or reduced with a ‘pinching’ enhance embodied learning, we need to gesture. As technologies become more adept identify the relationship between thoughts The popularity of such devices with children at recognising specific gestures, learners will and actions. In this regard, concepts that has, unsurprisingly, generated excitement be able to manipulate and investigate digital were once considered rather ‘abstract’, such in their educational potential. Our challenge information more and more seamlessly. as many mathematical ideas, are now being is to better understand how these new ways examined in terms of embodiment, raising of directly engaging with technology can There is increasing support for the idea that the possibility of using new technologies to enhance learning. This will not only help us the way we think may be ‘embodied’, or enhance learning in these areas. The Embodied decide which devices to use and how, but inseparably linked to our physical experiences. Design Lab20 in California, for example, is also inform the design of new, more effective Evidence has largely come from the way that looking at developing children’s understanding technologies. we use gestures when explaining ideas, for of proportion. Building on the fact that example, moving our hands up and down to children’s understanding is often first Children find new technologies exciting, and explain the notion of balance. These gestures expressed through gesture, they are they can make learning more active and fun. do not just help listeners’ comprehension; they investigating how a gesture recognition However, there is always a risk of the novelty help the speaker’s own thinking. device (the Wii in this case) can help them wearing off and what may be more significant explore and reflect upon the physical is that new devices make interaction with Significantly, children are often able to express components of their understanding. technology easier. Indeed, devices such as ideas through gesture before they can do so the iPad offer exciting digital interaction even verbally. This has important implications for 20 http://edrl.berkeley.edu/ to infants. new forms of technology because devices can tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 33 In action: SynergyNet

New technologies make it easier for several Such information is particularly important people to interact with digital information at given the increasing evidence that the ideas the same time. Multiplayer games on the Wii that children develop are strongly related to and multi-touch devices, for example, offer particular physical actions. exciting new ways for children to play and learn together. Whilst considering the benefits of new forms of interaction, we need to recognise The potential of multi-touch devices is the fundamental role played by educators in currently being explored by SynergyNet21. mediating learning with these tools. Indeed, In this Technology Enhanced Learning a significant aspect of the SynergyNet project programme research project, children work has been to identify ways to support the at one of four large multi-touch tables, a little teacher in orchestrating learning with new like giant iPads. The tables allow them to forms of digital interaction. work on their own or with others; manipulate different forms of information such as text 21 http://tel.dur.ac.uk/synergynet/ and diagrams; and communicate with other groups by ‘sliding’ an item off their table towards another table. Initial findings indicate that using the tables encourages the children to have more task-focused conversations and increases their joint attention.

Children are often able to express ideas As well as observing how new devices through gesture before they can do so influence children’s learning, the SynergyNet researchers can also use the tables to record verbally. This has important implications children’s interactions, including gesture, providing rich data on the relationship for new forms of technology. between their actions and their thinking.

34 The TEL Report tel.ac.uk Children work together on a SynergyNet multi-touch table. 8 Streamline Enhance teachers’ productivity with new tools for designing teaching and learning. Diana Laurillard

If technology-enhanced learning’s capabilities Collaborative learning: user-generated are carefully designed, it can help teachers foster content tools (digital documents, virtual 3D active independent learning in several ways: environments, videos, spreadsheets) and online discussion forums allow teachers to Active learning: multimodal technologies devise activities in which students can work (pictures, videos, sounds, animations, text) and learn together. Students submit the final help teachers explain concepts and rehearse product, whether it is a shared understanding skills in engaging ways. They can also set or a polished skill, to their peers for constructive inquiry learning activities that students work comment and then on to their teacher for through at their own pace as, for example, formative feedback. in Stanford University’s Star Legacy22. In the hapTEL project, comparison Technology-enhanced learning makes it possible Independent social learning: online with control groups showed that the for teachers to promote learning without being technologies allow students to support each simulation group learned at least as well, physically or even virtually present. Instead of other in teacher-structured discussions as, for but more efficiently and cost effectively. teaching through lectures, class presentations example, in the Interloc23 games that promote and tutorials, teachers dialogue and debate. can use multimodal web resources, simulations The value of this approach has been shown and online peer support. This maintains, or even Adaptive, personalised learning: by hapTEL24, one of the eight Technology improves the quality of learning experience. simulation and modelling environments Enhanced Learning research programme It can also make teachers more productive as mean teachers can give students intensive projects. Dental students are trained on virtual some variable-cost activities (linked to student practice on intellectual or skill-oriented jaws equipped with haptic or sense-of-touch numbers) switch to fixed-cost (technology- challenges. Feedback is meaningful, changing technology. They can feel exactly what it is like enhanced learning) activities. With fewer in response to how well – or not – the student to drill in to a tooth and the system gives them variable-cost activities student numbers can is progressing. Such personalised feedback instant feedback on how much decay they encourages them to spend more of their own have removed. With an inexhaustible supply of 22 http://aaalab.stanford.edu/complex_learning/cl_star.html time practising – making the exercise even virtual teeth, they have endless opportunities 23 http://www.interloc.org.uk/ more worthwhile. to practise. 24 http://www.haptel.kcl.ac.uk/ tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 37 increase without a corresponding increase in sharing more efficient. At university level, teacher time. the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement has already funded collections of It’s expensive to develop technology-enhanced online learning resources, such as MERLOT25, learning resources and activities, so for low Jorum26 OpenLearn27 and the MIT open student numbers the per-student cost is high. courseware initiative28. As numbers increase technology-enhanced learning becomes much more cost efficient. Teachers could draw on existing learning technology resources to save substantial For example, a teacher might currently amounts of time, but we need to understand spend three hours preparing materials for the different metrics of teacher time: it may six two-hour tutorials during which she will take 100 hours (for a teacher and technical teach a total of 24 students. By contrast, assistant) to create a good animation resource; the same teacher could spend eight hours how many hours does it take another teacher preparing web resources for 48 students to to find it, evaluate its relevance, and weave it work online in independent groups, and then into their teaching approach? Five? Ten? It will 15 minutes with each group helping them sum vary, of course. And what is the best way of up what they have learnt. The conventional weaving the animation into their teaching? approach has taken 15 hours of her time for Tried and tested exemplars would help. 24 students. The technology-enhanced We know that ‘collaborative learning’ activities learning approach has taken 11 hours and are hard to get right, and teachers need help This is why teachers need to share the learning helped 48 students. designing them. Perhaps technology- designs they have found to work, for example, enhanced learning has a role here too? to help students collaborate on a summary of Peer support is crucial here, and the key what they have learned from the animation to success is the online activity. If it is well Teachers already help each other by sharing resource identified by their teacher. designed, it can promote active, as well as resources and lesson plans, or learning designs independent and collaborative, learning while – distillations of the best of teaching practice. 25 www.merlot.org 26 www.jorum.ac.uk preserving the all-important teacher feedback. Technology-enhanced learning can make 27 www.openlearn.open.ac.uk 28 www.ocw.mit.edu

38 The TEL Report tel.ac.uk In action: Learning Designer

Teachers, like all professionals, need technology what others have done before and sharing their The design tool can ‘understand’ and to help them become more productive. They results with their community. analyse teachers’ ideas, and provide are design professionals, working out every feedback on their implications for students. day how best to help their learners achieve The Learning Designer29 is a tool to help By collecting learning designs, it can also their aims, and revising their methods on the teachers with the difficult task of working make it easy for teachers to find similar basis of what happens in practice. They need together to improve learning. A TEL designs, adopt and adapt each others’ ideas, design tools to capture their pedagogic ideas, programme research project, it gives them and so build a growing repository of good test them out, and rework them, building on a way of expressing their best ideas, using ways of teaching and using technology. formal categories, such as learning outcome, teaching-learning activity, learning experience, 29 https://sites.google.com/a/lkl.ac.uk/ldse/ duration, group size, and so on.

A lower cost Conventional Online per student for technology-enhanced learning for larger cohorts is possible because of the higher proportion of fixed costs. The Learning Designer analysis screen Relative costs shows the implications of the design for the overall learning experience (pie-chart) and for teacher workload, depending on whether they reuse an existing resource, 20 40 60 80 100 or develop it from scratch. Student numbers

tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 39 9 Include Empower the digitally and socially excluded to learn with technology. Jane Seale, Eileen Scanlon, Vic Lally, Richard Noss

In this wealthy, technology-rich country, IN THIS COUNTRY to open up the curriculum and engage nearly a fifth of people rarely, if ever, venture disaffected learners. Hard-to-reach online. Millions are excluded from the digital students who feel intimidated or rejected revolution, unable to access or make good use by educational institutions, can now learn at of the devices the rest of us take for granted. home, in the local café or community centre, The UK’s digital inequalities mirror its other or in their hostel. Once online with a mobile inequalities. Those on the wrong side of the device such as a smart phone or an iPad, digital divide are those who are marginalised NEARLY A hard-to-reach students are in control of as a result of poverty, age, gender, disability, their learning. race, religion or class. People need to be able to use technology Yet social exclusion does not inevitably mean FIFTH that does what they want in places where they digital exclusion. Many poor families own feel valued and comfortable. Digital inclusion smart phones, PlayStations and PCs. For them, therefore requires: the issue is how to harness the technologies they have to combat the inequalities that blight of people rarely, if ever, • innovative technologies that address their lives – inequalities in income, education, the unique needs and abilities of some housing and health. venture online students, particularly those with special education needs; Helping the digitally excluded to become not only digitally included but also digitally In schools, colleges and universities, • teachers, parents, carers, support workers advantaged is a key theme of technology- technology can transform curricula, practices and community leaders to be creative and enhanced learning research. and cultures. For example, accessible learning imaginative in terms of how and where they management systems and assistive use technologies with learners; In the context of full-time education, three technologies make it easier for students with groups of learners are most at risk of exclusion: special needs to engage with the curriculum • communities, institutions, local authorities those who are disengaged, those who are hard to and with other students. Teachers can use and government to promote creative, reach, and those with special educational needs. interactive media and related technologies transformative digital inclusion practices. tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 41 In action: Inter-Life

Many young people enjoy exploring virtual tension’ between home and school, a space depicting a problem with vulnerability at worlds such as Second Life through the that often challenged its users to act more a point of transition in their lives. Think of persona of an avatar. Liberated from the openly than was their custom. bullying, teasing, taunting, betrayal. Suppose constraints of reality, they can change they met with their avatars on the island and everything about themselves. A diffident boy Island 2 became an authentic place to work used the film as a stimulus, saying “this is the can become an invincible warrior. A shy and and socialise – for the research team as well problem, how can we fix it?” All we’ve done insecure girl can turn herself into a princess. as the young people. It developed both a sense is provide them with the space and the of place and of group history as the teenagers opportunity to make a contribution.’ The Inter-Life30 research team set out to customised it, creating working areas, investigate whether the creative possibilities buildings and presentation tools. They became 30 tel.ac.uk/inter-life/ of virtual worlds had applications beyond play. emotionally engaged with their island and Could they, for example, help young people explored issues of identity through community cope with important transitions such as from activity and dialogue. Accounts of avatar school to university or from local authority care customisation and personalisation also to independent living. With this in mind, they indicated that the experiences of island life set up two virtual islands: the first for over-18s were capable of boosting their self-esteem. to tackle school-to-university and within- university transitions; and the second for 13 On both the islands, users were shown to to 17-year-olds to work on creative activities ‘map’ – or relate – their experiences in the and skills related to leaving a care home. virtual community into their life in the real world. Lessons learned in the virtual world On the islands, the young people participated were lessons that did not need to be re-learned in research and reflective activities, gaining in the real world. insights into emotions and developing their Once online with a mobile device such problem-solving skills. They planned and As one of the Inter-Life researchers said: ‘Our executed creative activities (with support) that hope was not just to disseminate knowledge, as a smart phone or an iPad, hard-to-reach expressed a need, issue, or concern, an interest but to see the kids construct knowledge. or a personal liking. Island 2 became a space ‘in Some of them were interested in making films students are in control of their learning.

42 The TEL Report tel.ac.uk

10 Know Employ tools to help learners make sense of the information overload. Lydia Plowman, Patrick Carmichael and Steve Higgins

Picasso is reputed to have said: ‘What good are IF... computers? They can only give you answers.’ Answers may provide information, but it’s knowledge that really matters. The knowledge to frame questions, make connections and KNOWLEDGE=INFORMATION+MEANING to help us work out whether the answers are the ones we’re looking for. Search engines where does the meaning come from? can be a quick route to information, but they sometimes close down rather than open up possibilities. We are still finding out how social interaction, but we need to be careful or an agreed canon of what should be taught. technology-enhanced learning can help and learn how to interpret it. In fact, thinking deeply about what knowledge students and adults become skilled finders we need to teach in the 21st century is one of information and discerning consumers One reason that computers aren’t very good of the great contributions that technology- of it. More than ever before, people need at differentiating information and knowledge enhanced learning research can make. to be able to evaluate the credibility and is that knowledge is built socially. The culture validity of what they find in the digital world. that we live in determines what we need to The storage and transmission capacities of know and what we value. This knowledge computers enable us to share information Technology has contributed massively to comes from lots of sources: our parents, our more readily than in the past, but if knowledge the problem of too much information, but friends, our education and our experiences. = information + meaning, where does the it can also help. For instance, Amazon’s We tell stories about all these things and meaning come from? Computers excel at recommender systems use information construct knowledge for ourselves and retrieving something from memory. But about our prior purchases to suggest books others in the process. they’re not so good at reflecting or drawing or DVDs that we might like based on what on experience, yet. people with a similar profile have bought. Technology speeds things up. Useful This may help with wading through the oceans knowledge changes quickly and has become The worldwide web is growing ever larger. of online choice, but it can be a bit hit or miss. more fluid, contingent on local circumstances This growth has prompted much discussion On TripAdvisor, knowledge about hotels and and requirements. This has eroded the of how it might evolve to provide access to destinations builds cumulatively as a result of concept of a standardised body of knowledge useful, timely, trustworthy information, while tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 45 It is naive to assume that simply bringing Governments often refer to the knowledge is presented and understood, challenging economy. They aspire to an economy that our prior knowledge and helping us to seek data into the classroom will enable new, is driven by innovation, change and growth out new directions and associations. to ensure global competitiveness. Increasingly, or better, or faster learning. this is a digital economy – the result of digital In 1910 the educational philosopher, John networking and communication Dewey, wrote: ‘The distinction between infrastructures that provide a global platform information and wisdom is old, and yet requires not overwhelming its users with vast amounts over which people and organisations can constantly to be redrawn. Information is of data. Tim Berners-Lee, an inventor of the interact, communicate, collaborate and knowledge which is merely acquired and stored web, and others have proposed remaking share information. up; wisdom is knowledge operating in the what already exists as a ‘semantic web’ of direction of powers to the better living of life. resources. Clear description of the meaning It relies on skilled labour; even manual jobs Information, merely as information, implies of web content would allow better linkage now need people who are comfortable with no special training of intellectual capacity; of online content, search engines would apply technology. Grappling with vast amounts wisdom is the finest fruit of that training.’ 31 the same kind of reasoning that people use, of information and being able to transform and web users would be offered a more it into knowledge requires an education 31 Dewey, . 1910 ‘School Conditions and the Training of seamless experience. that encourages creativity, clear thinking, Thought, Chapter 4 in How we think. Lexington, Mass: independence and ingenuity. Technology D.C. Heath, (1910): 45-55 This grand vision of a ‘next-generation web’ can help, but it alone is not the solution. has been slow to develop. But increasing Teachers are still vital in the translation of numbers of government and public bodies, information into knowledge. And students research organisations and museums have must be actively involved too – technology recognised the potential benefits of linking can support the process, but it cannot do data from multiple sources. This has it for them. enormous educational potential, but it is naïve to assume that simply bringing data Technology-enhanced learning research is into the classroom will enable new, or better, helping us to rethink the nature of knowing or faster, learning. by changing the ways in which information

46 The TEL Report tel.ac.uk In action: Ensemble

The Ensemble TEL programme project32 For instance, the Ensemble team worked with combination of linked data and visualisation explored how web-based resources might be teachers and undergraduate plant scientists tools that enabled them to see patterns incorporated into teaching and learning in to develop an interactive timeline of plant and resemblances in what might otherwise higher education. It examined how teachers evolution which brought together datasets, seem intractable, dense or vast amounts of and learners use the web, and how data and texts, images, maps and publications, allowing information. These, plus crucially the teacher’s other linked online resources are mobilised to students an overview of trends and patterns expertise in shaping and ‘bounding’ the case meet learning aims and suggest new directions before exploring particular aspects in depth. study – not too broad, not too directed – made for enquiry. Various ‘mediating’ practices help for an engaging yet challenging activity. students make good use of the vast amount The team also worked with environmental of data. These range from teachers making education teachers to develop an assessed 32 http://www.ensemble.ac.uk/wp/ selections and recommendations to students ‘case study’ in which undergraduates (for example, by helping them to narrow down decided the best location for a hydroelectric the results of semantic web searches) to power station. To do so, they had to draw rich web interfaces and visualisations which on authentic data such as climatic records present large, complex data sets in more and measurements of river speeds and accessible, explorable formats. heights over time. They were helped by a

Thinking deeply about what knowledge we need to teach in the 21st century is one The Ensemble plant evolution timeline of the great contributions that technology- draws live data from online sources to enhanced learning research can make. create dynamic visualisations. tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 47 11 Compute Understand how computers think, to help learners shape the world around them. Mike Sharples, Richard Noss

We are living in a world of increasing science, computational thinking is an essential Shut down or restart?34, the Royal Society’s interdependence and complexity. Science tool for making sense of the world. 2012 report into computing in UK schools, and maths underpin so much of everyday life: highlights another benefit of computational yet too few people really understand how the Through computational thinking we gain a way thinking. ‘We want our children to understand science and maths that affects their lives is of questioning evidence and assumptions, by and play an active role in the digital world that done. That knowledge is essential if we are to building models and analysing patterns in data. surrounds them, not to be passive consumers be productive and engaged citizens of the 21st Research suggests that even young children can of opaque and mysterious technology. A sound century. How else can we hope to understand make sense of some of these ideas, including understanding of computer science concepts stock market crashes, compare goods and estimation, interpreting evidence, and dynamic enables them to get the best from the systems services online, or assess competing modelling. Although they originate in computer they use, and to solve problems when things go arguments about climate change? science and mathematics, they are important wrong. Citizens able to think in computational Computational thinking empowers us to for the way we all think and act. terms are able to understand and rationally explore how systems and processes work, debate issues involving computation, such as including societies, the spread of diseases, software patents, identity theft, genetic interacting technologies, and our own minds engineering, and electronic voting systems and bodies. This failure to understand anything of the for elections.’ We need to distinguish computational thinking invisible computer models that dominate A recent study of how people interpret from creative computer programming (or computer outputs in their workplaces found ‘coding’). Both are relevant and important skills. our lives is dangerous. that many people were completely unaware of the systems that underpinned their working Computational thinking involves forms of lives. For example, people working in a pension dynamic problem solving that computer Yet, as Ben Goldacre says, in his book Bad scientists practise, such as splitting problems Science33: ‘The process of obtaining and 33 Goldacre, B. (2009) Bad Science (London: Harper into smaller parts, tracing how things work, interpreting evidence isn’t taught in schools, Perennial) finding ‘bugs’ in processes, recognising and nor are the basics of evidence-based medicine 34 Royal Society (2012) Shut down or restart?: The way analysing patterns. Given the centrality of and epidemiology, yet these are obviously the forward for computing in schools. http://royalsociety.org/ computers in science and increasingly, social scientific issues that are most on people’s minds.’ education/policy/computing-in-schools/report/ tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 49 company did not know that the spreadsheets meet the requests. The bugs in the banking they used every day were governed by system can be repaired, for example by deposit formulae, rather than an arbitrary set of insurance, but this can cause further problems, entries by managers. This failure to understand and so on. Visual techniques such as flow anything of the invisible computer models that charts can show how these processes work, dominate our lives is dangerous. If people are even if there’s no computer present. ignorant of what computers can and can’t predict, they become potential victims, at the But computers make it possible to show the mercy of the programmers. Yet, in the words computational processes in action. They can of the chief executive of a packaging company, show how things work, the bits behind the when workers are introduced to the ideas scenes that are often hidden – but which behind the models, they develop a sense of sometimes, especially when something ‘empowerment’ and ‘job satisfaction’. These unusual happens, people need to know. are new literacies that people need to be workers and citizens of the 21st century. Computers can also empower children to create and run programs, especially when The skills of computational thinking can using languages constructed with young be taught with or without computers, by people in mind. Writing programs means exploring how processes work, looking for children can make things happen, rather than problems in everyday systems, examining have them happen without understanding how patterns in data, and questioning evidence. or why. Children also become part of a vibrant For example, banking crises can be explored global community of people who like to code as computational systems. Banks receive cash and work together to change the way that we Writing programs means children can in deposits. They lend out most of this cash as interact with our technology. loans. The system works smoothly until the make things happen, rather than have them point when there’s a lack of confidence in the For example, Year 10 children from Blatchington bank, the lenders demand their deposits back, Mill school produced a winning entry for the happen without understanding how or why. and the bank doesn’t have sufficient funds to Pearson Innov8 national competition by

50 The TEL Report tel.ac.uk developing science ‘apps’ for mobile phones35. Their playful hands-on science experiments used the built-in functions of phones such as tilt sensors and voice recognition.

The Blatchington children were not just writing programs, they were engaged in software design. They set out specifications for interactive software, based on the requirements of the competition. They proposed software apps that exploited the features of modern mobile phones. They designed interfaces and produced storyboards for the interactive software. And they presented their solutions in text and video.

By programming computers themselves, people can come to see that software isn’t magic produced only by big corporations, but is based on some principles and processes that they can understand. Programming is not just grappling with long lines of code. Since the 1960s, there have been many attempts to design programming languages and systems that are accessible to the non-programmer – to everyone in fact.

35 http://innov8.pearson.com/ tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 51 In action: Program or be programmed

There are many ways to get involved in to create your own interactive stories, programming. For example, not much more animations, games, music, and art – and than £20 will buy you a single-board computer share your creations on the web’ developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation36. The foundation’s goal is to The key design idea is that as people create stimulate the teaching of basic computer projects and programs for themselves, and science in schools at minimal cost – with the then share the fruits of their programming, ultimate aim of ensuring that people control they come into contact with key mathematical computers rather than the other way round. and computational ideas. Thus while learning to think creatively, they also come to think The foundation has found a ready market. computationally. This is programming in every Since the government announced that it sense but one: it is not just for programmers. was backing the teaching of programming, demand for the cheap, credit-card-sized Scratch is the latest in a long line of computer has soared. It comes equipped programming languages for children. The with a processor similar to the one used first of these was Logo, developed at MIT in many smart phones, a memory chip, an nearly 50 years ago and updated several times Ethernet port to connect to the internet over the decades38. A recent addition to the and a couple of USB ports. list is NetLogo39, a modelling system that, A NetLogo program reveals how 300 based on writing simple programs in a dialect birds, randomly scattered across the After plugging in a keyboard, mouse and of Logo, allows people to build, tinker with screen, start to clump together and form screen, children should be able to use the and share dynamic models of anything from flocks with one bird in front. Each bird Pi’s open-source software to write their dynamic art to models of evolution. only knows about its nearest neighbours, own code. yet the flocking behaviour emerges from This ability to model how complex systems Programming for everyone develop over time comes courtesy three simple rules, shared by each bird. 37 There is no leader bird! Scratch is a programming language that, of modellers that give instructions to to quote its popular website, ‘makes it easy hundreds or thousands of independent

52 The TEL Report tel.ac.uk ‘agents’ all operating concurrently. This way of thinking – that pattern and structure emerge from simple rules applied to many interacting agents – underpins whole areas of modern science and social science. It is a key component of computational thinking that provides ways to think about evolution, randomness, 3D graphics and an ever- expanding list of ideas.

Logo, NetLogo and Scratch aim to tap into activities that children (and adults) find naturally interesting (drawing, emergence and games, respectively). One of the key differences between Scratch and its predecessors is that programs do not Is the Raspberry Pi a simple, cheap solution Scratch lets you write programs by consist of lines of text-based code. There to children’s lack of programming skills? slotting jigsaw pieces of code together. have been several attempts to achieve non- textual programming systems, for example, ToonTalk40. The latest addition to the range is MIT’s App Inventor41. App Inventor is a programming system, not dissimilar to 36 http://www.raspberrypi.org Scratch, that lets novice programmers easily 37 http://scratch.mit.edu/ create games on mobile phones. Instead 38 A powerful recent version may be found at of writing code, you visually design the way http://www.r-e-m.co.uk/logo/?comp=imagine the app looks, and using simple scratch-like 39 http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/ ‘blocks’, specify how the app works. 40 www.toontalk.com 41 http://www.appinventor.mit.edu/ tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 53 12 Construct Unleash learners’ creativity through building and tinkering. Richard Noss

Watching young children make sense of the whether it’s a sand castle on the beach or world teaches us an important lesson: that a theory of the universe’. people learn best when they are making things, and sharing what they’ve made with In similar vein, Douglas Thomas and John Anything is potentially buildable on a computer, each other. Making something produces Seely Brown in 200943 put forward a new something to talk about, reflect upon, and model of education that fuses learning as and if it’s buildable, it becomes thinkable, ultimately learn with. And it presupposes reflecting, learning as making, and learning discussable, and ultimately, learnable. that one has something with which to build as becoming. Creative play and improvisation – blocks, or paints, or musical instruments. are essential for prospering in a complex and changing world. In the past, most things were more or less unbuildable – playing around with the forces The programming systems in Chapter 11 give of gravity, or modelling the spread of diseases some potent examples of what can happen if with pencil and paper has always been out people – even very young people – are given of reach for the vast majority. But now, with powerful tools that allow them to construct computers, literally anything is possible. and share ideas embodied in things (including virtual things). Computers open doors which used to be closed to everyone except the very few – Reflecting on what you have constructed the mathematicians and scientists and is a key part of learning. Until now, this musicians who could build things in their lesson didn’t easily translate into learning heads. Now anything is potentially buildable more generally. But now, with computers, on a computer, and if it’s buildable, it becomes ideas that could only live in the minds of 42 Papert, S (1980) Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and thinkable, discussable, and ultimately, people can have a life on the screen – bringing Powerful Ideas. (Basic Books: New York) learnable. As Seymour Papert said, in them alive, and, most importantly, giving 43 Thomas, D. & Seely Brown, J. (2009) A New Culture describing his theory of ‘constructionism’ people the chance to construct mental of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of some 20 years ago42, the special thing about representations of dynamic systems Constant Change http://www.newcultureoflearning.com/ building is that it constructs a ‘public entity, alongside virtual ones. newcultureoflearning.html tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 55 In action: MiGen

Mathematics is the science of patterns. for themselves. And they are empowered to Identifying, analysing, and predicting patterns present their answers creatively, using simple is the source of the power of mathematics sequences of coloured tiles. – whether it’s a sequence of numbers, the structure of shapes, the change in the climate, In the MiGen microworld, students bump into the spread of a virus. But finding patterns in a powerful ideas. They learn to move from the few cases is not enough for mathematicians: specific to the general. The important lesson the trick is to express the pattern so that it’s here is that students first construct patterns, true for all cases – to generalise it. and only then, when they have built a computer ‘model’ of the tiling pattern, do they have to This turns out to be difficult for learners. The express what they have constructed in some problem is that if you ask someone to spot a form. That form is a sort of algebra, but it looks pattern, say ‘how many tiles do you need to Building the flower model is a two-part a bit different. It is learnable because it gives make a “train track pattern”?’ a natural strategy process. First, students construct; students a language to talk to each other is to count. Why not? We can encourage people second they express. Keeping hold of about what they have made. In other words, to think a little more by asking them to predict the relation between the constructed the system helps students to see the general the number of tiles when it’s very large, but picture and the ‘equation’ help students in the particular, to keep hold of the link even then, asking ‘how many?’ cues people into bring meaning to the symbols. between what they’ve constructed, and the counting in some way. rule that expresses that construction. After three or four lessons using MiGen, studies in The trick is to look at the structure of the MiGen44 is an intelligent, computer-based five schools showed that students were able pattern, to see it as something that is repeated support system intended to help pupils get to apply their knowledge to conventional to form a rule. The classic way to do this is to use to grips with algebra without the difficulty of generalisation tasks. algebra – call the number of ‘building blocks’ N manipulating abstract symbols. Young people and go from there. But that is precisely what we enter a ‘microworld’ that encourages them MiGen adds a new dimension to the idea of are trying to teach! We’re asking learners to use to construct patterns in a colourful, dynamic construction, through its artificial intelligence the language of algebra, before they understand and visual format. They are nudged to explore techniques that support teachers. Intelligent what that language is supposed to be about. the nature of relationships and uncover rules systems that focus only on the students can

56 The TEL Report tel.ac.uk end up marginalising teachers. But MiGen keeps them in the picture by providing a suite of tools to monitor students’ progress and to view and compare their constructions. Two students may, for example, see a pattern in two different ways, both of which are correct. They may both arrive at an algebraic expression for their pattern. But unless they know what the other has done they will not realise that rules that look completely different can in some sense be the same. MiGen can spot the potential benefit of their collaboration and help teachers group them together.

As well as highlighting fruitful collaborations, the system can help teachers gauge students’ progress, and pinpoint those in need of assistance. So the idea of constructionism is extended to harness the techniques of AI, to help students construct what matters, to notice what goes wrong, and – most critically – to reflect on and share as productively as possible, what they have built.

44 http://migenproject.wordpress.com/

tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 57 Further reading

1 Ainsworth, S., de Jong, E. & Hmelo-Silver, 5 Collins, Trevor; Joiner, Richard; White, 9 Feng, M. & Heffernan, N. (2010). Can We C. (2010). On the Process and Outcomes Alice and Braidley, Lindsay (2011). School Get Better Assessment From A Tutoring of Inquiry Learning: Changing Approaches trip photomarathons: Engaging primary System Compared to Traditional Paper to Assessment. In Kimberly Gomez, Leilah school visitors using a topic focused Testing? Can We Have Our Cake (Better Lyons, Joshua Radinsky (Eds) Proceedings photo competition. In: ALT-C 2011, 18th Assessment) and Eat It too (Student of the International Conference of the International Conference: Thriving in a Learning During the Test). In Baker, Learning Sciences, Chicago. Colder and More Challenging Climate, R.S.J.d., Merceron, A., Pavlik, P.I. Jr. (Eds.) 6-8 September, 2011, Leeds, UK. Proceedings of the 3rd International 2 Beetham, H., Magill, L., & Littlejohn, A. Conference on Educational Data Mining. (2009). Thriving in the 21st century: 6 Cuban, L. (2003). Oversold and Underused: P 41—50. Learning literacies for the digital age. JISC. Computers in the Classroom. Harvard http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/ University Press. 10 Garcia Garcia, G. & Cox, R. (2010). An projects/llidareportjune2009.pdf Interactive Educational Diagrammatic 7 Cox, R. & Lum, C. (2004). Case-based System for Assessing and Remediating 3 Campbell, S.W. (2006). Perceptions of teaching & clinical reasoning: Seeing how the Graph-as-Picture Misconception. In J. Mobile Phones in College Classrooms: students think with PATSy. In Brumfitt, S. Kay, J. Mostow, V. Aleven, (eds.), Intelligent Ringing, Cheating, and Classroom Policies. (Ed.) Innovations in professional education Tutoring Systems, V2. Springer. Communication Education, 55, 3, 280-294. for Speech and Language Therapists, ISBN 978-3-642-13436-4 Whurr. 4 De Jong, T. & Wilhelm, P. (2010). 11 Goldin-Meadow, S. (2009). How gesture Assessment and inquiry; issues and 8 Eshach, H. (2007). Bridging In-school and promotes learning throughout childhood. opportunities. In Kimberly Gomez, Leilah Out-of-school Learning: Formal, Non- Child Development Perspectives, 3(2), Lyons, Joshua Radinsky (Eds) Proceedings Formal, and Informal Education. Journal of 106-111. of the International Conference of the Science Education and Technology, 16(2), Learning Sciences, Chicago. pp.171-190 Url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/ 12 Goldin-Meadow, S. (1997). When gestures s10956-006-9027-1 and words speak differently. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 6(5), 138-143.

58 The TEL Report tel.ac.uk 13 Gorman, P., Nelson, T., Glassman, A. (2004). 17 Jenkins, H. (2006). Confronting the 21 Noss, R., Poulovassilis, A., Geraniou, E., Organizational Analysis, Vol 12, No. 3, pp. challenges of participatory culture: Media Gutierrez-Santos, S., Hoyles, C., Kahn, K., 255-270. http://www.simmons.edu/som/ education for the 21st century. White Magoulas, G.D., & Mavrikis, M. (in press). faculty/docs/the_millennial_generation_a_ paper for the MacArthurFoundation. The design of a system to support strategic_opportunity.pdf Retrieved on July 1, 2008, from http:// exploratory learning of algebraic newmedialiteracies.org/files/working/ generalisation. Computers & Education, 14 Habgood, M.P.J. & Ainsworth, S.E. (2011). NMLWhitePaper.pdf published online ahead of print 2011, Motivating children to learn effectively: doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2011.09.021 Exploring the value of intrinsic integration 18 Laurillard, D. (2002). Rethinking University in educational games. Journal of the Teaching: A Conversational Framework for 22 Perrotta,C. & Wright, M. (2010). New Learning Sciences. 20 (2) 169-206. the Effective Use of Learning Technologies. assessment scenarios. Futurelab report 2nd edition. London: RoutledgeFalmer. (www.futurelab.org.uk) 15 Higgins, S., Mercier, E., Burd, L., & Joyce- Gibbons, A. (in press). Multi-touch tables 19 Manches, A., & Price, S. (2011). Designing 23 Porayska-Pomsta, K., Frauenberger, C., and collaborative learning. British Journal Learning Representations around Physical Pain, H., Rajendran, G. & Smith, T. et al. of Educational Technology. doi:10.1111/ Manipulation: Hands and Objects. Paper (2012). Developing technology for autism: j.1467-8535.2011.01259.x presented at the 10th Interaction Design An interdisciplinary approach. Personal and and Children Conference, Boston, US. Ubiquitous Computing, 2012, Volume 16, 16 Hoyles, C., Noss, R., Kent, P. & Bakker, A. Number 2, Pages 117-127 (2010). Improving Mathematics at Work: 20 Mason, Robin (2005). The evolution of The need for techno-mathematical Online Education at the Open University. 24 Rainie, L. “Digital ‘Natives’ Invade the literacies. (Routledge: London) In: Kearsely, Greg ed. Online learning: Workplace,” Pew Internet and American Personal reflections on the transformation Life Project, Sept. 27, 2006. http:// of education. USA: Educational Technology www.pewinternet.com/~/media/Files/ Publications. Presentations/2006/New%20Workers.pdf

tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 59 25 Ripley, M. (2007). E-assessment – an update 29 Sharples, M., Scanlon, E. et al. (2011). Final 33 Vavoula, G., M. Sharples, P. Rudman, J. Meek, on research, policy and practice. Futurelab Report: Personal Inquiry (PI): Designing and P. Lonsdale. (2009). MyArtSpace: literature review Report 10 update for Evidence-based Inquiry Learning Design and evaluation of support for (www.futurelab.org.uk) across Formal and Informal Settings. learning with multimedia phones between http://www.pi-project.ac.uk classrooms and museums. Computers & 26 Scanlon, E., Blake, C., Twiner, A., Collins, Education 53, 2, 286–99. T., Jones, A., & Kerawalla, L. (2011, July). 30 Sharples, M. (2000). The Design of Personal Collaboration in communities of inquirers: Mobile Technologies for Lifelong Learning. 34 Warwick, P., Mercer, N., Kershner, R., & An example from a geography field Computers and Education, 34, 177-193. Kleine Staarman, J. (2010). In the mind and trip. Paper presented at the Computer in the technology: The vicarious presence Supported Collaborative Learning 31 Trinder, K., Guiller, J. & Margaryan, A. of the teacher in pupils’ learning of science conference, Hong Kong. (2008). Learning from digital natives: in collaborative group activity at the bridging formal and informal learning. interactive whiteboard. Computers and 27 Schwartz, D., Brophy, S., Lin, X., & Bransford, YORK: The Higher Education Academy. Education, 55(1), 350-362. J. (1999). Software for managing complex http://www.gcu.ac.uk/media/gcalwebv2/ learning: Examples from an educational academy/content/ldn/LDNFinalReport.pdf 35 Wood, D. J., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). psychology course. Educational The role of tutoring in problem solving. Technology, Research and Development, 32 Trninic, D., Reinholz, D. L., Howison, M., Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychology, 47(2), 39-59. & Abrahamson, D. (2010). Design as an 17(2), 89-100. object-to-think-with: semiotic potential 28 Seitemaa-Hakkarainen, P., Viilo, M. & emerges through collaborative reflective Hakkarainen, K. (2010). Learning by conversation with material. Paper collaborative designing: Technology- presented at the 32nd Annual Meeting enhanced knowledge practices. of the North-American Chapter of the International Journal of Technology International Group for the Psychology of and Design Education, 20(2), 109-136. Mathematics Education, Morelia, Mexico.

60 The TEL Report tel.ac.uk Contributors

Alison Twiner Josh Underwood Rose Luckin Open University Institute of Education, London Institute of Education, London Andrew Manches Kaska Porayska-Pomsta Russell Beale Institute of Education, London Institute of Education, London University of Birmingham Charles Crook Lee Ellen Friedland Shaaron Ainsworth University of Nottingham Library of Congress University of Nottingham Chris Dede Lewis Johnson Steve Higgins Harvard University Alelo University of Durham Diana Laurillard Lydia Plowman Vic Lally Institute of Education, London University of Edinburgh University of Glasgow Eileen Scanlon Mike Sharples Open University Open University

Elizabeth FitzGerald Patrick Carmichael Open University University of Stirling Giasemi Vavoula Richard Cox University of Leicester University of Edinburgh Jane Seale Richard Noss University of Plymouth Institute of Education, London

tel.ac.uk The TEL Report 61 Referencing this document

System Upgrade – Realising the Vision for UK education (2012). A report from the ESRC/EPSRC Technology Enhanced Learning Research Programme. Director: Richard Noss, London Knowledge Lab.

ISBN 978-0-85473-925-7 Published 2012

Editor: Stephanie Northen Production Editor: James O’Toole

The TEL programme is the final phase of the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme www.tlrp.org tel.ac.uk Technology Enhanced Learning Research Programme London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, University of London, 23-29 Emerald Street, London, WC1N 3QS youtube: youtube.com/tlrptel twitter: @TLRPTEL email: [email protected] phone: +44 (0)20 7911 5577

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