F UTURE L EARNING E NVIRONMENT h t t p : / / f l e. u i a h. f i Teemu Leinonen UIAH Media Lab, University of Art and Design Helsinki

Future Learning Environment R&D Project Research Partners UIAH Media Lab, University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland Applied Cognitive Science Research Group, Dept. of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland Media Education Centre, University of Helsinki, Finland Savonlinna Dept. of Teacher Education, University of Joensuu, Finland Industrial Partners Sonera Ltd (Telecom Finland) Grey Interactive Ltd WSOY Publishing Ltd Apple Computer Finland Financing TEKES (Finnish Technology Development Centre) Finnish Ministry of Education Industrial & Research Partners

The Aims of the FLE-Project To research and develop innovative ways of using new media in the field of collaborative learning To develop a www platform supporting collaborative learning and thinking To build new ways of sharing educational www based multimedia material

FLE Design Principles Problem-based and inquiry learning Collaborative building of knowledge Collaborative design process Sharing of expertise

Problem-Based and Inquiry Learning Shared knowledge advancement by members of a course Questions and problems guide the process of progressive inquiry New knowledge is constructed through solving problems of explanation and understanding

Collaborative Building of Knowledge Questions and explanations derived from users’ own understanding and scientific information Tools for working with knowledge objects like explanations, theories, hypothesis, and interpretations Tools for monitoring the learning process

Collaborative Design Process Engaging users to generate new design ideas Collaboratively work to further develop their ideas Tools for sharing conceptual and visual design ideas

Sharing of Expertise Creating a learning community with shared goals Support for expert-like processing of information Multiple modules for representing user’s various fields of expertise Tools for monitoring advancement of comprehension in scientific and design inquiry

Technical Background

What is FLE Server Software? WWW-platform on the Internet for Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) FLE-software can be accessed through Internet (TCP/IP) with any HTML 3.2 compliant browser e.g. Netscape Navigator 3 (or later)

Technical Background A Client/server system using www browsers, a www server, application Server and a persistent storage (e.g. database) Programmed in an object oriented language called Python Scalable to a large number of concurrent users and transactions Freely available for non-commercial educational use, commercial use licenses available for a fee Available as pre-compiled self-containing installations for multiple platforms (1 st quarter/2000) Most of the source code available for modification under a request

Modules Presentation

FLE Modules Virtual WebTop Knowledge Building Module Jam Session Module Library People Administration

The Virtual WebTop

A personal desktop in the environment To store and share digital materials with fellow users Access to evaluation tools Access to thinking tools Viewing and sending personal short messages

The Knowledge Building (KB) Module

Shared space for discussion and conferencing The discussion is constructed around the “Deep Principles” of the field Messages posted to the database labeled with a “Category of Inquiry” reflecting a step in inquiry Categories of scientific and design inquiry are default sets, other sets can be defined by course administrator

The Jam Session Module

Experimentation with representation of ideas, concepts and sketches Collaborative construction of digital artifacts Storing different versions of objects being developed Representing the elaboration process graphically

The Library

Shared documents in various formats: text, graphics, audio, video, multimedia, or www-links Space to publish and browse multimedia learning materials Allows tutor to select relevant parts for course material

The People

User-database, information entered by user Defining user-groups: basic users, tutors and system administrators

The Administration

Creating new, removing and editing courses Uploading and removing course materials Adding new users and tutors, removing and editing access rights

History & Milestones Background work for FLE project at UIAH Media Lab is carried out (9/97) FLE-project received funding from Tekes, OPM and industrial partners, such as Sonera, Apple Finland and Grey Interactive (2/98) FLE project is started at UIAH Media lab in co-operation with industrial partners and Dept of Psychology and Dept. of Media Education, University of Helsinki Development of the FLE software prototype (v.1.0) is started in close cooperation with the industrial partners (4/98)

FLE software (v.1.0) goes into limited testing at university level cases FLE software (v.1.0) evaluated by Dept. of Psychology and Dept. of Media Education, University of Helsinki (9/98) First learning evaluation results are presented at international conferences during 1999 FLE software (v.2.0) development is started to make the software freely available for educational use in the future (6/99) Development on a new freely available software code for FLE Modules started at UIAH Media Lab with the cooperation of GMD, Germany

FLE and Progressive Inquiry

Elements of Progressive Inquiry [Hakkarainen 1998] Setting up Research Questions Creating the Context Constructing Working Theories Critical Evaluation Searching Deepening Knowledge Generating Subordinate Questions Developing New Working Theories Distributed Expertise

Creating Context Anchoring central conceptual principles of the domain of knowledge Establishing the learning community Joint planning and setting up of goals

Setting up Research Questions Generating problems and questions to direct the inquiry Studying is a problem solving process Large initial questions get more defined in the process

Constructing Working Theories Phenomena are explained with existing background knowledge Creates a culture for writing about own thinking and reasoning Intended to make gaps in own knowledge and understanding more explicit

Critical Evaluation Assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of different explanations and approaches Helps the learning community to direct and regulate joint cognitive efforts Evaluation of what knowledge and skills are needed in the inquiry process

Searching Deepening Knowledge The questions and working theories direct the search for more information and answers

Generating Subordinate Questions Transformation of initial general and unspecific questions into more specific questions Focusing inquiry to specific research questions

Constructing New Working Theories New theories built on own explanations and deepening scientific knowledge Summaries of own and shared learning

Shared Expertise Relying on socially distributed cognitive resources Diversity in expertise among course participants promotes knowledge advancement

FLE and Design Process

Design Process and Distributed Expertise [Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, 1998] Defining the Design Task Design Context Creating a Working Idea Critical Evaluation Searching Deepening Knowledge Redefining the Design Task Developing New Working Ideas Distributed Expertise

Design Context Anchoring

Defining the Design Task Generating

Creating a Working Idea Phenomena

Critical Evaluation Assessment

Searching Deepening Knowledge The questions and working theories direct the search for more information and answers

Redefining Design Task Transformation

Developing New Working Ideas New theories

Shared Expertise Relying on socially distributed cognitive resources Diversity in expertise among course participants promotes knowledge advancement

Knowledge-Building in Design Process [Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, 1998] Constraints Composition Space Construction Space

Case: Prematurely Born Babies

Collaborative Cloth-Design Project’s Organization Co-ordinating teachers: FLE-teacher Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, Course Organizatior Päivi Aikasalo, Visual Art Teacher Tarja Salo Students: 34 first-year textile students Partners: The Association of The Friends of The University Children’s Hospital in Finland & Helsinki University Hospital (Department of Prematurely Born Babies) & Nanso co.

Design Process Consists of Four Basic Stages: Knowledge building and visual design Prototype making Testing of prototype in hospital Production procedure design

The Jam Session Module

The Knowledge Building (KB) Module

Conclusions

Empirical Conclusions Encouraging empirical evidence for implementation of progressive inquiry Support for explication and externalization of conceptions and thinking Sharing of understanding and learning

Pedagogical Conclusions Emphasis on the need to produce arguments and discuss research findings from sciences Importance of establishing a learning community with authentic goal Tutor’s participation important for introducing scaffolds for collaboration

Project Future Current Tekes funded project will continue till the end of 1999 after which all the findings and results will be freely available from the project web site The software development will continue on two separate tracks as independent, but collaborating projects Sonera will offer a commercial version of their own www based learning software based on some of the ideas in FLE -project

UIAH Media Lab, Dept. of Psychology and other academic parties will continue to develop the pedagogical and cognitive underpinnings of the FLE framework UIAH Media Lab in collaboration with academic partners will develop and release an open source second generation FLE software free for non-commercial educational use The second generation FLE software will be tested and evaluated in various schools and universities throughout Europe

F UTURE L EARNING E NVIRONMENT w w w. f l e. u i a h. f i Etunimi Sukunimi UIAH Media Lab, University of Art and Design Helsinki