Classroom Technology Richard Anderson CSE UW

Educational Technology …in the winter of 1813 & '14 … I attended a mathematical school kept in Boston…On entering his room, we were struck at the appearance of an ample Black Board suspended on the wall, with lumps of chalk on a ledge below, and cloths hanging at either side. I had never heard of such a thing before. [Samuel J. May, 1855]

UW Educational Technology and CS Education Projects Professional Masters’ Program Tutored Video Instruction Program CSE 142/143 Classroom Assessment Tools

Large lecture classes Challenges Maintaining attention Communication Feedback from students Flexibility in presentation materials Conducting activities in class

Our projects Presenter Initial development at MSR Classroom Feedback System Structured Interaction Presentations

Presenter Initial problem Develop a distributed presentation space for use in a distance learning class Later Many of the same issues / challenges in large lecture classroom

Background studies Studied UW CSE PMP Interviews, Surveys, Observations Greatest pain in distance course Presentation environment “PowerPoint is a pain for the same reason it’s a pain in a non-distance course, the slides impose a rigid structure on the lecture and make it more difficult to adjust to the interactions that occur during it.” “PowerPoint sucks the life out of a class.”

Important features Wireless Integration of High Quality Ink and Slides Multiple views “Performance UI”

Classroom Deployments Spring 2002 Database (Masters) Summer 2002 Introductory Programming (142) Fall 2002 Introductory Programming (Ext 142) Introductory Programming (143) Algorithms (417) Software Engineering (403) Languages (413) Compilers (Masters)

Results Observation, instructor comments, some system logging Positive reception from instructors Sustained use of writing through full term Wide range of use Highlighting / Attention Derivations Recording comments Diagrams

Results System easy to use Flexible navigation important Superior to shuffling transparencies Auxiliary inking surfaces useful Whiteboard, border, mylar Pen based UI for navigation and controls is critical Generally works well (large buttons, workflow) Remaining issues

Questions What is the educational impact of Presenter? Across different disciplines, teaching styles Different components of the system UI Issues for delivering presentations Future development plans Integration with viewer devices Expand use of ink Manipulatives to go beyond virtual whiteboard

Classroom Feedback System Student feedback does not scale Encourage participation Ease of expression If the method does scale, how does the instructor make sense of it

Design choices Low attention requirements Embed in context of the slide Slides are the mediating artifact Fixed feedback Avoid having to compose questions Instructor control of feedback Example, More Information, Got It Slow Down, Question, Explain, Cool Topic

Experiment Roughly 12 students given laptops to use in class 2 week deployment in CSE weeks no intervention 2 weeks Tablet PC 2 weeks Tablet PC + feedback system Extensive observations, logging, surveys, interviews

Results Mixed results Classroom culture not what we had expected Instructor goals different than expected Interactions did increase Pre CFS 2.4 (spoken) episodes per class With CFS 2.6 (spoken) episodes per class 14.8 (feedback) episodes per class 5.0 (feedback – "Got it") episodes per class

Structured Interaction Presentations Assume students have wireless devices Build interactive activities into lecture Computer support to overcome logistical barriers

Why Computer Support? Facilitate execution Unify design Enforce polices

Why Structure? Attain broader participation and more input Achieve specific goals Spread cognitive effort over planning time Mediate classroom activity Share activities across instructors and across terms

Example: America Before Columbus [Cross and Angelo] 1. How many people lived in North America in 1491? 2. How many years had they been there by 1491? 3. What significant achievements had they made in that time?

Your Impressions of America Before Columbus 1. About how many people lived in North America in 1491? 2. About how many years had they been on this continent by 1491? 3. What significant achievements had they made in that time?

1. About how many people lived in North America in 1491? 2. About how many years had they been on this continent by 1491? 3. What significant achievements had they made in that time? Your Impressions of America Before Columbus % completed

How many people? FromTo4002,500, ,000100,0001,000,00010,000,000

“Solving” Natural Language Problem: handling free text responses in class is impractical Solution: “distributed student computation” allows rapid, in-class turnaround can be pedagogically sound

Significant Achievements Get together with your neighbor and: rate the significance of each achievement note if an achievement repeats an earlier one

Significant Achievements Get together with your neighbor and: rate the significance of each achievement note if an achievement repeats an earlier one

Significant achievements

Credits University of Washington Ruth Anderson, Steve Wolfman, Tammy Vandegrift, Fred Videon, Ken Yasuhara Microsoft Research, Learning Sciences and Technology Group Jay Beavers, Jack Davis, Randy Hinrichs, Alvin Hui, Chris Moffat, Steve Wolfman