Augmenting Reality

With the horizon of augmented reality and mobile computing just around the corner, I wholeheartedly believe that we are on the verge of a new phase in education. The possibilities of these technologies are awesome in the true sense of the word. New avenues are available that have never been available before and have made me reflect in real ways about the potential benefits of these technologies for the regular classroom teacher. I was presented, in a course on instructional design, with a series of scenarios to look at and one of them closely mirrors a situation that I may find myself in. So, I started thinking about the possibilities of these technologies, and others, in a situation like the following:


"A high school history teacher, located on the west coast of the United States, wants to showcase to her students new exhibits being held at two prominent New York City museums. The teacher wants her students to take a "tour" of the museums and be able to interact with the museum curators, as well as see the art work on display. Afterward, the teacher would like to choose two pieces of artwork from each exhibit and have the students participate in a group critique of the individual work of art. As a novice of distance learning and distance learning technologies, the teacher turned to the school district’s instructional designer for assistance. In the role of the instructional designer, what distance learning technologies would you suggest the teacher use to provide the best learning experience for her students?"


The possibilities for learning here are numerous for everyone involved, but I think that some of the best tools to use in a situation like this would be a communication tool like Skype, a screen recording program like Screencastomatic, a wiki site like Wikispaces, a blogging tool like Wordpress, and a citation site like Bibme. I say like these tools because depending on district policies not all of these tools would necessarily be available, but all of the specified tools are free and can be adapted for a variety of purposes. As an overview, these tools would allow the students to interact with the museum staff, record the interaction on video (with the ability if software was available to break out the audio stream separately), post combined research to a collaborative workspace, cite that research in a common bibliography, and then post a finalized review on a class run blog that could be used to further conversations about the artwork while synthesizing all aspects of the project into a common information distribution tool that provides an authentic audience. This would be an interesting project to be involved with and would address numerous state standards as well as the International Society for Technology in Education NETs-S and the American Association of School Librarians Standards for 21st Century Learners. This would be a kind of real world preparation that we often times do not see in traditional high school classes. 


Blogging can be a powerful learning experience (Halic, Lee, Paulus, & Spence, 2010). Though studies have mostly been done at the level of higher education, these kinds of studies show that technologies like blogs have begun to be used in academic settings. Wikis can have the same kind of usefulness in an academic setting if properly implemented and students can see the value of using the tool (Guo & Stevens, 2011). Citing sources is becoming an important skill for all students to have due to the fluidity of information on the internet so a citation machine of some sort would help students to keep track of resources and raise the level of their academic discourse. Using a screen capturing software would allow the students to archive the discussions with the curators and their virtual tour. Of course, the main tools of the day would be the distance communication platform...more about that in a minute though. All of the tools that I specified above are free, relatively easy to use, and have lots of tutorials available online that have already been produced and posted online for free. 


Without a tool like Skype though, the entire day would be a bust. I picked Skype as the main tool for this experience because it would allow the classroom teacher to use a single computer, webcam, microphone, and projector or a computer lab with a one to one setting or to arrange for his/her entire history department to be involved at multiple locations within a school allowing the teacher flexibility to address the learning outcomes. In addition, Skype is now available on multiple smartphones and allows face to face videoconferencing on the move over wireless or cellular networks. That means that the curators at the museums (and other museum goers) could literally lead a tour of the exhibits in real time with the students and direct cameras to the locations students have questions about. These cameras and microphones would allow students to augment their reality and the curators could point out research topics that students could work through during the course of the videoconference or "tour". Skype is relatively easy to set up, to use, and to find tutorials for. 


There are a host of issues that could arise on the day including poor connections, technical difficulties, loss of power, and a host of other issues, but many of the tools I selected have relatively stable uptimes. Each of them could be substituted for another tool if policy or circumstances required so. 


I would encourage the teacher to scaffold the learning experience by having students research the artists, museums, artistic movements, cultural/historical significance of the exhibits, and other information ahead of time so that students could prepare good questions to ask on the date of their "tour" and could help guide the tour with informed and thoughtful contributions. All information over the course of the unit could be collaboratively posted to a common, private wiki. Once the students had experienced the tour and synthesized the information into their wiki, they could work to write their reviews on a public blog where their global audience could about their learning experience as well as their review of the exhibits. Assuming that the teacher in question gave enough time to prepare, we could hopefully run through a test of the software before the official day. This kind of learning experience could be at the forefront of what K-12 education will look like. As a matter of fact, I just might look into trying to do this kind of experience with my students this year. 




References:


Guo, Z., & Stevens, K. (2011). Factors Influencing Perceived Usefulness of Wikis for Group Collaborative Learning by First Year Students. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 27(2), 221-242. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.


Halic, O., Lee, D., Paulus, T., & Spence, M. (2010). To Blog or Not to Blog: Student Perceptions of Blog Effectiveness for Learning in a College-Level Course. Internet and Higher Education, 13(4), 206-213. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.


Johnson, L., Smith, R., Willis, H., Levine, A., and Haywood, K., (2011). The 2011 Horizon Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Mapping a Definition of Distance Learning

Distance is an interesting concept. Our understanding of the concept is one that changes based on our frame of reference. So what does that mean? Well, it means that over thr course of years or shifts in our understanding the way that we see distance can change. When paired with the term education or learning a monumental shift occured in the last twenty years with the amazing increases in computing power and the ability of the masses to access technologies. In fact though, distance learning has been around for the whole of human history and possibly before. So how is it that we have forgetten just how long distance education has been around?

I think that part of the issue is that we have a tendency to redefine old words in order to make it seem new and cutting edge. We also have a tendancy to forget that previous civilizations were also advanced and intelligent and to forget our history when that history allows for the ubiquitous adoption of ideas. Nowadays most people would not consider a pencil or a piece of paper technology. Distance education though began with the invention of writing. To be able to educate from a distance requires nothing more than being able to capture ideas and transmit them beyond the moment and location that one occupies. In this sense, distance education has been around since the beginning of history, which is simply the record of what has happened at a specific place and time. Writing is so ubiquitous that many people have convinced themselves that it has always existed.

Now, over the past two hundred years there has been a variety of more organized approaches to distance learning. From written correspondance courses to the invention of broadcasting mediums to televised classes to online interactive courses, new delivery mediums have opened up new learning opportunities and expanded the audiences for distance learning. So with a multitude of potential definitions and applications, what does the term distance learning mean to me?

Before starting my current course, distance learning was a field of study for my father at Nova Southeastern University. We often discussed the idea that distance education was simply education removed from the confines of a traditional schoolhouse and traditional schedule. As I was getting my teaching credential I took classes from Brigham Young University and Lousiana State University through correspondance based distance learning classes. Then, I earned my MS Ed. through Walden University with interactive web based classes. After learning a fair amount in that program I began to design my own distance learning experiences as I began planning blended classes for my high school students. I have also read a fair amount and engaged in video conferencing and podcasting as well as subscribing to some amazing physics lectures from Berkeley's Physics for Future Presidents vodcasts (an amazing intro to physics that was presented by an amazing lecturer, Professor Muller).

Mindmap on distance learning

So distance learning for me is any educational experience that allows one to learn at a time or location different from one's instructor and/or peers. Because my experience with distance learning has been manyfold, my definition for distance learning has not changed. The definition that I have always held incorporates many of the ideas presented by Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, and Zvacek (2009). There have been shifts in the way that different instructional design elements have begun to be incorporated so that the instructional designer has more responsibility than in previous iterations of the field (Moller, Foshay, & Huett, 2008). This leads me to believe that instructional design is becoming a more fluid field with one person taking on more responsibility than in the past. What makes this possible is technology.

That leads into thoughts about where instructional design is headed. According to the Horizon Report (New Media Consortium, 2011) mobile devices and gaming are going to be huge technologies for society in the coming years. I believe that these technologies will have an enormous impact on the field of instructional design and distance learning. When even supreme court justices are on the forefront of using games for learning (Friedman, 2011), you just know it is going to make a huge impact on the field. Mobile learning is going to be just as big with mobile devices allowing for anywhere anytime access to information but also allowing them to interact with apps and allowing the learner to literally augment the world they see with additional information on the go. Both of these will change the way that instruction is deigned, produced, and consumed by the masses. With the price of powerful mobile devices going down and the power and access going up this is where the majority of distance learning opportunities will be in the next ten years in my opinion.

We are finally living in an age when an individual will have the freedom and access to find information that will make every moment a learning opportunity.

References:

Friedman, Danielle. (2011). "O’Connor’s Video Game Revolution." Newsweek . Newsweek, n.d. Web. 3 July 2011. <www.newsweek.com/2011/07/02/sandra-day-o-connor-on-her-american-civics-video-game.html>.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 1: Training and development). TechTrends, 52(3), 70–75.

The New Media Consortium. (2011). The Horizon Report. Retrieved July 03, 2011 from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/HR2011.pdf

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.)