Making communications land - Are they received and understood as intended? we...
Aera2013knowledgebuilding final
1. Connections between
Constructionism and
Knowledge Building, and
their Realization in
Globaloria
2013 AERA Conference
Rebecca Reynolds, Assistant Professor
Rutgers University
Cindy Hmelo-Silver, Professor
Rutgers University
2. INTERVENTION: Guided discovery-based game design program
and curriculum offered by the WorldWide Workshop. MS, HS
teachers and students gain experience and expertise in a range of
agentive digital practices.
3. Flash software, Wiki
Environment, Curriculum, Tutorials
“Hands On” Training Sessions (virtual, local)
• Globaloria Academy – In-person, intensive trainings (3)
• Online Mini Webinars - Web-based workshops (7)
Globaloria Mentors Program
Experienced educators take on a leadership role by
supporting other educators
“24/7” Virtual Support
• Expert Support via wikis, blogs, email, WebEx
• Educator Community Development – private
educators community wiki, peer-to-peer mentoring, weekly
educators newsletter, sharing teaching & learning reports
Rewards and Recognition
•Teachers: Stipends and Graduate credits are earned
•Students: Nationally-Recognized Game Design
Competitions
Learning Supports for Students and Educators:
6. Domains of Learning and Expertise
• Game Example
• Constructionist digital literacy (skills needed in knowledge economy =>
6-CLAs)
• Computational thinking through game design in Flash and programming in
Actionscript
• Core curricular subject matter:
o When game subjects are linked to core curriculum and students deepen
knowledge about topic through online research and design
• STEM career interests: Technology & Engineering; Computer Science
• Motivation, Affect, Attitudes, Life Choices, New Possibilities and Horizons
7. Knowledge Building as Conditions to
Cultivate in Instructional Design
Scardamalia & Bereiter (2006) state these in brief as:
Knowledge advancement as a community rather than individual
achievement
Knowledge advancement as idea improvement rather than as progress
toward true or warranted belief
Knowledge of in contrast to knowledge about
Discourse as collaborative problem solving rather than as argumentation
Constructive use of authoritative information
Understanding as emergent
12. Realization of Knowledge Building
Principles in Globaloria (Afforded, not guaranteed)
Real ideas
and
authentic
problems:
Design
process;
Game
topic
13. Realization of Knowledge Building
Principles in Globaloria (Afforded, not guaranteed)
Improvable ideas:
Ongoing
iteration
Wiki as
coordinating
representation
Day after day
Location after
location
Year after year
14. Realization of Knowledge Building
Principles in Globaloria (Afforded, not guaranteed)
Idea diversity:
Wiki as
coordinating
representation
15. Realization of Knowledge Building
Principles in Globaloria (Afforded, not guaranteed)
Rise above:
Game topic
Game
mechanics and
programming
16. Realization of Knowledge Building
Principles in Globaloria (Afforded, not guaranteed)
Epistemic agency:
Inquiry &
resource use
Collaboration
Studio-based
setting
(educator
training)
17. Realization of Knowledge Building
Principles in Globaloria (Afforded, not guaranteed)
Community
knowledge, collecti
ve responsibility &
democratizing
knowledge:
Communication
Teamwork
Social
engagement
Intellectual
property norms
18. Realization of Knowledge Building
Principles in Globaloria (Afforded, not guaranteed)
Community
knowledge, collecti
ve responsibility &
democratizing
knowledge:
Communication
Teamwork
Social
engagement
Intellectual
property norms
19. Realization of Knowledge Building
Principles in Globaloria (Afforded, not guaranteed)
Symmetric
knowledge
advancement:
Reciprocal
development:
Teachers
Students
Organization
Researchers
20. Realization of Knowledge Building
Principles in Globaloria (Afforded, not guaranteed)
Pervasive
Knowledge
building:
Teamwork
Teacher
mentorship
Cross-sharing
best practices
21. Realization of Knowledge Building
Principles in Globaloria (Afforded, not guaranteed)
Constructive uses of
authoritative
sources:
Inquiry
Information
system
Wider web
Information
literacy needs
more
scaffolding
Teacher
mentorship
22. Realization of Knowledge Building
Principles in Globaloria (Afforded, not guaranteed)
Knowledge building
discourse:
Consciously
improving upon
teamwork and
inquiry
practices over
substantial time
provided
Concurrent, embed
ded, and
transformative
assessment
23. Next Steps
Practitioners and instructional designers need greater insights on
implementation
Contribute to the HOW – PRAGMATICS for realizing these aims in today’s
schools
(e.g., how to meet NETP principles and goals)
Role of wiki and e-learning information resources as coordinating
representations
Collaboration patterns (group flow, activity structures => Zhang)
Self-reports, secondary data yielded initial but somewhat vague findings (role-
taking, peer help, challenge of version control and file management)
Observation, learning analytics approaches are next
24. Next Steps
Formalize our explication of KB principles in the instructional design of
Globaloria (Reynolds, Hmelo-Silver, Harel Caperton, in progress)
Drawing upon interview, observational, and team case study data, develop
evidence base:
Successes and failures
Conditions that supported both
Instructional design improvements?
Given the ongoing nature of Globaloria, and the archive and retrieval
capacities of the wiki, one could hypothesize that year over year, the quality
of the work would improve.
Also investigating this, using knowledge outcome variables including content
analysis, possible addition of a knowledge assessment
This presentation reports on work being done in the context of . . . .
How do we plan to grow exponentially in a way that is sustainable? Strong and innovative Professional Development programs for educators, principals and students ensure the community can self-manage, grow and develop.Hands-on training: Mentor program – cascading and taken to scaleVirtual support – sustainable, scalable – walking our talkRewards & Recognition – we pay
In addition to the amazing impact we have seen over the past few years researching and evaluating the Globaloria program we…We are in unique position of having everything we do be rooted in years of academic research and real-world practice. In the 1980s and 1990s, while at Harvard and the MIT Media Lab, Idit really founded the concept that children learn best by designing – when they are programming computers instead of computers programming them. Ground breaking research with children in Bronx, showing how software designing could change their relationship to education and their engage them in learning in a way that had not been seen before