USING LEARNING BLOCKS TO PREPARE E- CONTENT FOR TEACHING MATHEMATICS CADGME’10, Hluboka nad Vltavou, June 30 th, 2010

USING LEARNING BLOCKS TO PREPARE E-CONTENT FOR TEACHING MATHEMATICS Matija Lokar,

Changes Substantial changes in the world we live. The changes in our everyday life just in the last 100 years are impressive. UL FMF 3

"LET'S TRAVEL IN TIME" UL FMF 4

In the kitchen … UL FMF 5 Sources: Battlefield-Photos/red_bank_012.htm custom-kitchens/

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UL FMF 7 In the operating room Sources: end-dynasty-doctors-dating-1792.html

At school … Any differences?

Source: UL FMF 9 Even if … The teaching model is the same

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Changes in the society Industrial Age  Information Age Major influence on educational systems Informatization Of the teaching process Of everyday life: Students (learners) - "Net (digital) natives" Requirement for individualization 11

Main challenges Appropriate usage of technology Personalitization and customization Different role of teachers 12

Usage of techology Substantial research done on appropriate usage If we want very short summary Two sentences from Teaching Matters: A handbook for UTS academic staffTeaching Matters: A handbook for UTS academic staff, University of Technology, Sydney, Institute for Interactive Media and Learning, “New technologies should be used in the most appropriate way to provide a quality learning experience for students. “

The most appropriate “The most effective kind of learning experience is determined not by the technology available, but by considering what is most appropriate for the students, the subject and the learning objectives and then selecting the most appropriate technology to use, be it a book, an online discussion, a multimedia simulation, or a workplace experience.”

Individualization We live in a society, where everything is individualized and personalized: computers built to our exact specifications we personalize our cell phones with ringtones, wallpapers, and skins … Kids enter the classroom and are taught the same way day in and day out. They sit in seats, in rows, filling out worksheet after worksheet and then, they take a test. 15

Individualization Not all students are able to learn successfully at the same pace with the same approach, in the same environment, following the same path, in the same style and manner. Research confirms that every individual assimilates information according to their own unique learning style, need, and interest. Learning styles vary. 16

Individualization The public education system nowadays continues to insist that a one-size-fits-all, full time classroom-based model can and will effectively serve all students Education needs customization as well Just part of this: customization of the resources Challenge for the teacher: Concretize educational content and adapt it to the interests and capability of students 17

"Ex cathedra" lectures are vanishing UL FMF 18

The 21 st century teacher Change in a teacher's functions We are not “walking encyclopedias” or “talking textbooks” anymore 19

Teacher of the 21 st century Instead, teachers are: Planners, strategists, researchers, pedagogical diagnosticians, work organizers, counselors, tutors … Task: Guiding a learner through pieces of information (teaching resources) towards knowledge With the requirement to Concretize educational content and adapt it to the interests and abilities of a particular learner Learners are a very heterogeneous group 20

ARE THE ESSENTIAL RESOURCES AVAILABLE FOR THESE NEW REQUIREMENTS THE TEACHER IS FACING? 21

Organizing and using teaching resources One of the fundamental steps in the learning process In this step we take into the account the class we are teaching, the day, the pedagogical situation … So we Choose a certain textbox and stick with it from the first page to the very last one Of course not (or very rarely at special circumstances) Making a selection of different materials Choosing workbooks, choosing tasks, choosing pages on the Internet, choosing... Thus:

Path through resources "Pile" of resources Necessary to provide the learner with a path through resources Prescriptions are given: Let's start with page 15 in textbook Y Follow the explanation and then turn to page 21 for exercises To see how this knowledge can be used in "real life" see handouts you were given Then continue with page 12 in textbook X … Or else technology is used: UL FMF 23

Prevailing technology … Source: Source: simplepress.wordpress.com Source:

WHY AN IDEAL RESOURCE FOR ALL OCASIONS DOES NOT EXIST Is making combinations of resources really necessary UL FMF 25

Reasons Authors of resources consider a hypothetical pedagogical situation with hypothetical students The actual teaching process is always at least slightly different And never the same A good teacher Uses resources in the most appropriate way So s/he is “forced” to adapt the resources

What about “modern” e-materials Could teachers … use … them more effectively? Unfortunately not! (most of the time) Lots of teaching e-materials are prepared in technically "closed form" “Monolithic” Hard to change Complete portals, web pages with embedded flash animations, usage of frames, applets without the source … combine

Source: Source: Which model do you prefer?

Existing e-learning content Very often looks very appealing but is often realized as a digitized book, Just adding some multimedia features is not enough the content is too strongly integrated into the presentation of the material – no changes are possible is linearly structured - the process of learning is usually not linear... UL FMF 29

The “life cycle” of a resource Frans Van Assche, Riina Vuorikari, (2006). A Framework for Quality of Learning Resources. In U. Ehlers & J.M. Pawlowski (eds.), European Handbook for Quality and Standardization in E-Learning "public" usage "private" usage

Design decisions Task – produce a resource explaining Thales' theorem Different models Agreement: web page GeoGebra as a tool Which one to choose? Which one is the most suitable? UL FMF 31

Video Instructions / Construction steps UL FMF 32

Video Instructions / GeoGebra Applet UL FMF 33

Construction steps with list steps/ GGA UL FMF 34

Different tool Cabri Geometre or C. a. R. instead of GeoGebra Group of teachers polled No "first place" Votes dispersed among all possibilities Is it realy wise for the author to make a choice which can not be changed? UL FMF 35

Teacher is the one who must adapt the resource to concrete teaching situation and to a particular student So the teacher takes from the various resources and reorganizes and adapts author's ideas and models in his/her own way UL FMF 36

THE TEACHER “COMES FIRST” s/he should have control over the content s/he uses to teach the student

Put teachers “back into the game” E-resources should be flexible Allow the teacher to adapt them, combine in his/her own way... Resource authors should prepare: Basic “building blocks” Pre-constructed models Instructions / tools for making new combinations Source:

More than Lego Basic blocks should be adaptable, too Thus the teacher should be able to reword a question, change the explanation slightly, add a link to another material on the topic in the feedback … Change the order of questions Make a Jack in the story into Mike Instead of cars we could count baloons...

More than Lego II the teacher should be able to use a particular building block in different shapes. For example: to use an exercise (a question) as a text (e.g. as part of a test written with the help of a word processor), a question in a Moodle virtual classroom, in the shape of Java assisted interactive question on a web page … So the teacher would be able to use the technical form that is best suited to the given moment

Re-using resources Author creates the resources for an ideal situation, teacher teaches in “real world” Teacher should gain control over the resource Author should merely be an initiator of the resource in various forms Teacher is the one who upgrades the idea, adapts it to a certain pedagogical situation, his/her beliefs, … Teacher has the possibility to: Adapt Change (Re)combine

And technology nowadays … allows this! Using standards Small, flexible units covering small pieces of subject taught Available in different formats Additional advantage Ready for the future New devices, new technology … Content is mostly still appropriate, there are merely changes in (re)presentation

The NAUK research group NAUK (advice / study) NApredne Učne Kocke – NAUK Advanced Learning Blocks

NAUK projects Aim: to create a computer-powered system for managing and serving e-learning content that will be extremely suitable for teachers. Instead of the author-learner relation, we want to introduce the three-way author- teacher-learner relation. UL FMF 44

Everything starts with an idea The teacher should be able to take teaching materials from different online sources, and change and combine them to make a lesson that suits his or her style of teaching and the current situation in the classroom. Using the resulting content in different situations. Different ways of export, that conform to the most important up-to-date standards. UL FMF 45

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Changes in basic block composition 47 Web based simple editor with GUI.

Wiki-style syntax 48 Separating content from presentation

Everything is about the content 49 The scenario of the e-learning content is “one- to-one” description of the presentation – without the detailed design instructions. My title= My title| slide1 = [[image: flower.jpg]] [[button:+ | Next]] = My second slide| slide2 = [[button:slide1 | Previous]] My second slide Next Previous

Presentation 50 Representation depends on the output media – teacher needs no specific technical skills.

The custom presentation 51 The author can easily describe the custom content with a lot of functionality and interactivity.

Mistakes 52 After a mistake is made, a hint is displayed. If too many mistakes are made, the correct answer is given.

Teacher decides on the scheme 53 Adaptable – different learning paths

Different export formats 54

E-LEARNING CONTENT SHOULD BE EASILY ADAPTABLE BY THE TEACHERS 55

Contacts Děkuji vám za pozornost! UL FMF 56