EVA_pm: Design and Development of a Scaffolding Environment for Students Projects Paraskevi (Vivian) SYNTETA TECFA - FPSE, Univ. of Geneva July 6, 2001

Project-Based Learning  Increases student motivation  Improves student problem- solving  Promotes meta-cognition  Promotes self-regulated self- learning  Opportunities for interdisciplinary learning  Culminates in realistic results A constructivistic instructional model that organises learning around projects.  Initiating inquiry  Direct investigations  Managing time  Overcome writer’s block  Limited experience in project design  Collaboration & feedback  Project follow-up  Monitoring progress  Monitoring knowledge AdvantagesChallenges Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001

Efforts to improve PBL Direct inquiry Initiate inquiry Draw conclusions Acquire & present knowledge Collaboration Overall context CSILE Learning Appropriate Goals Torp & Sage Barron et al. Cognitive & Technology Group Guzdial CaMILE PIViT Reflective learner MOST PBLSS WBILE Design Diary Team Facilitator Blumenfeld et al. Barron et al. Klein et al. Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001 EVA_pm

EVA_pm’s Goal Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001 Develop a constructivist environment and method to scaffold students projects through all it’s phases. overcome writer’s block direct investigations manage time knowledge on project design promote reflection initiate inquiry team management scaffold tutors role motivate…

Conceptual Framework Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001 Genex Scaffolding Reflection Engagement Theory Resources-Based Learning Project-Based Learning Constructivism + Net PBL

EVA_pm’s components  EVA_pm ML  EVA_paper ML  Editing toolset  editor in favor  stylesheets  commNcontrol + tools  Virtual Book Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001

EVA_pm ML Markup Language for project specification & management  specification (setting goals, breaking them up into achievable objectives) scaffolding to initiate inquiry express and concretise ideas reflect on solutions by providing explanations produce a coherent research design  management (work packages, planning) structure the work for planning, communication, reflection and resourcefulness  meta-report (meta-cognitive scaffolding) reflection to engage in learning enhance learning by monitoring understanding Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001 XML as cognitive tool

EVA_pm ML example (merci Nico :) Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001 Resources Specification Comments Work packages

EVA_paper ML Markup Language for project’s final paper  about the final product (summary, intro, body, conclusions, etc.) scaffolding to writing a paper express and concretise ideas reconstruct learning meta-reflect on the result(s) by providing explanations produce a coherent research review focus on text, distract attention from decoration Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001

EVA_paper ML example (merci René & Sylvain :) Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001 Abstract - Preface Main body Conclusions Introduction

The editing toolset Editor in favor & style sheets  editors in favor (?) XMetal for Microsoft users ($$$) epcEdit for all platforms ($$$) XEmacs for rare cases :)  style sheets for project and paper (multiple views) from one xml file from a combination of xml files with or without discussion Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001

commNcontrol & tools Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001 EVA’s web portal for the projects (for tutors, students, guests)  monitor, share & visualize information through the portal that parses XML information  motivate with peering through awareness tools  promote collaboration & scaffold interaction with tutor(s) through discussion tools & mailing lists  facilitate group editing through a versioning system (file transfer tools and file locking)  facilitate tutor’s evaluation(s) through the evaluation tools (audits & final evaluation)

commNcontrol ex. (merci nathalie & Yves :) Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001

commNcontrol (2) Configuration according to authentication tutorstudent Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001

commNcontrol (3) Mailing lists Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001

commNcontrol (4) Awareness Tools Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001

commNcontrol (5) Visualise complete files Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001

commNcontrol (6) Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001

commNcontrol (7) Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001

commNcontrol (8) Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001

Virtual Book Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001 EVA’s web portal for the papers  concretise students work by seeing it as a part of a virtual book  distribute results (peer benefits) through the portal that parses XML information  searchable information by being structured

Development method Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001 Co-operative prototyping Evolution of commNcontrol Evolution of Virtual Book  with STAF-18 mostly

Implementation Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001  XML Infoset Grammars: 2 major DTD’s (as cognitive tools), 4 minor (for data storing) & 1 reused (ibtwsh6.dtd) XML files: 4 major (to structure semantics), 4 minor(to store data) XSLT: 7 stylesheets (to visualize)  Cocoon (Apache XML Project) it’s XSL processor to transform to HTML & XIncludes (to merge)  Java 8 Java servlets 2 Java classes reuse & modification of a DOMWriter import of an O’Reilly class  SAX & DOM API to parse XML files & update them

Testing & Evaluation Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001  Evaluation = Prototyping Group: 12 students STAF-Gina for STAF-18 Steps: Choose project - course - presentation - explanation - follow phases - edit XML - coaching - finish - questionnaire  Evaluation of the LE (Learning Environment) general approach: good & encouraging grammar : quite mature toolset: useful & stable scripting code usability of the online interface: can be improved XML editing: remains difficult & challenging objective  Evaluation of the student learning Fairly good: Students manage to make a simple research plan

Conclusions Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001 Initial goal Develop a constructivist environment and method to scaffold students projects through all it’s phases. direct investigations manage time knowledge on project design promote reflection initiate inquiry team management scaffold tutors role motivate… verify whether knowledge was acquired distribute to bigger audiences

Perspectives Vivian SYNTETA, TECFA, July 6, 2001  Interesting method needs more testing (bigger/different classes - better XML editor) interface can be improved thanks to feedback gathered  Wishing list for future versions of EVA_pm easier editing better interface of commNcontrol more interaction features possibility to configure the grammars make EVA_pm a Web archive (a servlet 2.3 compatible *.war distribution) to make it completely portable