LWF11 - Professor Diana Laurillard

Adaptive learning games for handhelds

There are a number of persistent problems in education despite investment and a great deal of effort. For example there are ongoing problems with numeracy. This is important because historical evidence suggests that a very small increase in a population's numeracy rates can lead to a significant increase in a country's GDP.

An experiment in Italy showed that chicks have a concept of number and are able to choose to join the larger group of chicks. The presenter showed a Chicks Test they developed to look at children who had difficulty in processing numbers. They looked at brain activity in children doing this test to see what was happening. Children with numeracy problems need microworlds that allow them to get the practice they need to develop the skills, for example a Number Bonds game (Tetris like) that adapts to pupil input to help develop their understanding of number.

Also showed a What's the time? example. The learner is given support in the form of constructive help rather than just a reward for getting it right. Also, the program adapts the timing to support pupils who are struggling.

LWF11 - Professor Richard Noss

Changing what we can know

As technology is built into the infrastructure, there are two things we have to consider: the technology is shaped by the cultural niche in which it is placed but it also shapes the niche. That's why the iPad is interesting. It fits with what people are doing with technology - browsing pictures, watching films, surfing the Internet...

Educational resonance. What people learn in schools needs to be as powerful and engaging as what they learn at home. Needs to be meaningful. (As an aside, the speaker noted that a huge amount of data on how Boris Bikes are used is available online and is begging to be used by learners.

How do we teach algebra? Pencil and paper may not be the best way. How do we give tools that help children learn algebraic concepts. Speaker showed a function machine type application that allows children to play with numbers.

Handheld Learning Research strand

{Unfortunately, the seminar got off to a difficult start because two of the speakers pulled out at very short notice.}

Nick Hughes (Nightingale Primary School) - Redbridge Games Network

Games: "Probably the most powerful learning tool ever invented" - Lord Putnam

Games are a contextual hub for learning - it can be no different from using a book as the context for learning. A range of learning activities developed using the game (or the book) as a base to work from. Games are something the pupils used to and can be exciting and immersive.

The network formed around people who were interested in using games in this way. It was partly funded by the council but they also charged people to join and the funds were used to buy equipment that is loaned out to the members.

One of the first things they did was have a Wii development day where they played games, collected their ideas and then took them back to school. Some of the activities generated from this day were tried out in the class. In general, the game playing does not take up a significant portion of the day - perhaps five or ten minutes to set the context and generate interest. The focus is on literacy, numeracy, etc. rather than the game per se.

Pupils described what they liked about using games and why they liked it. One child said he liked it "...because you can do stuff - not just watch". They liked that it was interactive.

One of the things the network is looking at is: do games keep you active? They are looking at the Wii and Kinect, with games such as "Just Dance". They do find it an effective way to get children physically active.

Another area they are investigating is how children can become games creators using 2Do It Yourself, Scratch and Kodu. They found it empowered the learners. Year four children wanted to learn how to use action script in 2DIY (previously introduced to year 6 classes as it was considered advanced work), a child used Scratch at home and came back to teach the teacher how to do scrolling background games.

Just starting to experiment with Flips Books on the DS. {Derek Robertson is doing stuff in Scotland with Flips Books too. - DM} There are top books in this series, for example Artemis Fowl, and they are currently only £4.99 in Toys R Us!

Quotes from children: "It's not about the game." and "It's secret learning." The games help develop learners who are excited, interested and engaged. Ofsted have recognised the value of games, so schools need not be frightened about using them in class.

{Note to self: Two or three times, Nick used Wordle clouds to summarise data collected from free response questions. Worked well - visual impact plus key issues/words clearly indicated.}

Some of the discussion was how you use immersive games where you need more than ten minutes to get into them. It was acknowledged it can be difficult but perhaps it could be set up and running in the background when pupils come in from break.

Also asked why the research community has not fully engaged (with a few exceptions) games based learning. Is it still seen as fun and therefore not appropriate for education or for academic study? Lots of questions to be investigated, for example, can we show that games are at least as good or more effective than "traditional" tools.

We need the research to show to parents, directors of education and the press (and...) that games in schools are not a waste of time and money. In some ways, edutainment is seen as more acceptable but possibly {probably? - DM} less useful. Worth noting as well that games (not computer games) have been used in schools for ages.

Do games need to be tweaked to make them more "educational"? The Network was very clear that they did not want this. They see the teacher as being key - the teacher chooses the commercial off the shelf game and chooses how to use it to promote learning. They do not rely on the game creator to do the teaching.

Is there a "grammar of gaming" that can be adopted to help learning? {Does that extend to the language of games, e.g. cheat sheets instead of revision sheets? - DM}

Chocolate broccoli! Can you make a game that is entertaining and is good for you? Should you try? Extrinsic motivation has diminishing returns - do we really want to adopt game systems to reward children for brushing their teeth longer?

Evan Roth, Graffiti Research Lab

Evan is interested in the art that connects with popular culture and free culture.

"Lazy like a fox" - Eric Raymond. Maximum impact for minimum effort. In particular, he became interested in hacker culture and how it could be applied in art. First example was adding a small, submersive, message to official US Mail postcards and placing them back into the post office. Another example was using tin foil (I think) letters to write messages on things inside backpacks that would show up on security x-ray machines, e.g. "Mind Your Own Buisness"

{Sorry missing capturing this because he is too interesting!}

He teaches a class where you grade depends on how many hits/likes etc. you get on your online art stuff. Brilliant! Even looks to open source model of distribution - release early and often. Art is research - it is not something you polish and complete in a room before showing in a gallery.

Another example was a video he did with typographic illustrations for Jay-Z.

Now talking about the Graffiti Research Lab and how it fits with open source ideas and how it has morphed into F.A.T. He talked about the "Tootsie Pop" style of his work. There may be a serious message at the heart but it is wrapped up in fun.

He has created a graffiti markup language to capture (and project) graffiti - for archiving and for creating. It is open source and has been adopted and used by others.

{This post completely fails to capture how good this chap was. I hope it has been videoed.}

He wants children to get computers they can hack!

LWF11 - David Bott, Director of Innovation Programmes, Technology Strategy Board

Title: Learning from Disruption

What does it mean to learn from disruption? Disruption is about discontinuity, it causes disorder and it is painful. Do we really want to do that? David Bott started by talking about glass drinking containers - why glass? It keeps it's shape, it doesn't melt in high temperatures and you can see through it. There are problems though - one of them is the number of people injured by smashed drinking glasses every Saturday night. It was the Romans who chose glass and it shows how difficult it is to disrupt long established patterns that we still use it today despite the disadvantages.

Next example is the development of the internal combustion engine - at least in part, it developed and has continued to develop in tandem with the the oil industry. Even major problems (e.g. global warming) and concerted effort from governments have made minimal impact on practice. The market evolves relatively slowly. What is it we really want from cars - what do we use a car for? Cars have not really been disruptive technology - they have evolved.

The Internet and digital technology has changed rapidly. For example, in retail, look at the growth of Amazon. In a very short space of time, it has gone from being a novelty for buying books to something that delivers all sorts of stuff to us on a regular basis. Online retailers collect all sorts of information about our buying habits. Is this disruptive? David says no. Tescos knowing what we buy is not significantly different from the man in the corner shop knowing I like Hobnobs.

Disruptive learning. Is learning about content or about process? Learning in schools and universities is still largely about books. Yet now, when people want to know stuff know, they don't concentrate on stuffing things into their heads, they look to access it online. Question is therefore, why do we have education? Why did it develop the way it did? There is always a drive for standardisation - look for images of classrooms from round the world (and through history) they look remarkably similar. How do we disrupt education?

Learning without Frontiers - Saul Nassé, Controller, BBC Learning

Live(ish) capture of Saul Nassé - Inspiring Lives Full of Learning

Talking about the power of media to inspire and shape peoples' learning. For example there was a video of Nick Park saying how he was inspired by seeing Morph on Take Hart and how at the time he didn't see this as learning - he was being entertained but he realises now what an impact it had.

The power of the moving image to ignite sparks of learning is immense. There is a false dichotomy between formal and informal learning. The BBC for example are formally linking the PSHE curriculum to Eastenders - specifically thought the E20 website. Extracting real learning from the combination of media and the online social community.

Also talked about the Doomsday project from the 1980s and how they will, later this year (March?), and place the Doomsday disk resources online. Also, they will enlist the public in helping them to update and develop the material. {Excellent - it seems the technology has caught up with the ambition of the original intent of the project.}

He said with young audiences, the BBC will struggle to keep up with what they are already doing.

Learning without Frontiers - Theodore Gray, Co-founder, Wolfram Research

Is the world ready for real electronic books?

Theodore published his first book in print and electronic form - but the world wasn't ready. People did not want to read books on a big, clunky PC. Distribution was also tricky. So, he moved into application development. He also developed a web page to support teaching of Calculus, Calculus and Mathematica, but found it had minimal impact on classroom teaching.

Described how he was sidetracked by reading a book by Oliver Sachs where he talked about a periodic table and Theodore thought he meant an actual table... so he built one! He migrated the physical table to the web but realised that websites don't make money so he developed the site into a print book.

Then came the iPad... They developed the iPad version of the book and realised that here was a platform that was ideal for electronic books and a market that would allow authors/publishers to make a living from it. Wants to see eBooks that are more than pdf versions of print books. Theodore thinks you need three sets of people to create effective eBooks:

1. Authors
2. Software developers
3. Media (TV/film) producers

Traditional publishers may understand the value of authors but see software as something you buy for a one off cost. Media people may not understand the need for authors and software developers need to talk to media people. A successful ePublishing company will need to bring the three people together. A successful eBook should allow you to "curl up with it" like a paper book, be imersed in it like TV or film and allow interaction like a game/program.

"In the very near future, no one will pay for textbooks". Textbooks have priced themselves out of the market - "it is cheaper to buy an iPad than a semester's worth of textbooks. In general professors would be happy to provide learning material for free but don't know how to get them printed - so publishers step into the middle of the process and hike the cost. Theodore thinks therefore that people will not pay for textbooks but will pay for enrichment material.

Presentation finished with a Japanese version of Tom Lehrer's Elements Song. Brilliant!

Q: How do you lend people an electronic book?

The days of textbooks are numbered but not print books in general. You can't gift wrap a gift code! But the model works for ephemeral things: "If you don't have a parrot, there is no point in subscribing to a print newspaper."