CBLE blogs edited final
CBLE Blog week 1
“We define learning as the transformative process of taking
in information that—when internalized and mixed with what we
have experienced—changes what we know and builds on what we do. It’s based
on input, process, and reflection. It is what changes us.” –From The New Social
Learning by Tony Bingham and Marcia Conner For the CBLE course I will be
looking to the rapidly growing world of Computer Based Learning Environments,
these range from online course delivery systems such as UCP’s VLE system
through to games designed for educational purposes. The purpose of this blog, is to research how
the technology can be used effectively for learning and to demonstrate an
understanding of both technologies involved, and various learning theories as
well as research and ideas for the project prototype artefact.
This course will be broken down into two parts: Underpinning
Learning and Learning Theory which is worth 30% of the total marks for this
module. As part of a group participating in the creation and expansion of a new
group Wiki, this blog will be used to keep track of my progress, also to
identify potential resources of values for the rest of the group.
Analysis of a selected "real world" learning
situation, and the development of a prototype CBLE 70%
Enhance the learning experience in the chosen
situation.
Own choice of technology for implementation - You are free
to select a variety of development and delivery vehicles as you judge to be
appropriate.
You may use an individual Moodle area as either the main
delivery vehicle or as a development storage area for this. This should be put
up for discussion with your peers and lecturer.
Own choice of target audience - this may range from a
conventional, instructional type environment to the use of computer games and
could also be a mix of appropriate elements.
The scope of your build should be manageable within the time
you have available You will be required to justify and evaluate the prototype
CBLE which you have developed, with reference to the specific learning
situation and target audience
Looking into Technology for Learning - Virtual Reality
and Augmented Reality
The class
was split up into groups to look at different assistive technologies, which
resulted in looking at Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) systems.
VR is a new
and emerging technology, only made possible by the leaps in computing power
over the last 10 years. It gives the users a unique experience when donning the
headset you are completely surrounded by a virtual world. Some headsets even
come with one or two controllers to interact with the virtual world via motion
control, similar to the seventh generation console controllers.
AR is a
similar concept but instead of using a head set and going inside a virtual world,
Virtual assets are layered over real life when viewed through an app on a smart
device with a camera, such as Smart Glass and Smart Phones. Examples of this
include the likes of Pokémon Go on mobile devices, and an Ikea furniture app
that will allow users to view furniture from their catalogue in their own home
at the correct size. These devices can
bring a huge amount of extra immersion, bringing the students face to face with
dinosaurs, the creatures of the deep below, or even tag along on the Apollo 11
moon landing mission.
The full
potential of VR software is far from being reached as capable systems have only
been sold to the public for a couple of years, and still carry a high price tag
at entry level. But in a few years as prices drop it is likely to be common to
see engineering students stripping and rebuilding engines, or science students
exploring the structure of atoms and molecules, all within virtual reality.
It is
likely that AR will show up in classrooms long before VR is generally affordable.
The main advantage is that students can use their own devices to access the AR
applications. This sort of augmented learning is of great interest as many students
have trouble engaging with classroom and group work during school education.
Some links
to websites explaining the full benefits of these systems have been uploaded to
the group wiki.
CBLE Blog week 3
“Learning Theories”
In this
lesson we were looking into learning methods and theories. The class was split
into groups to research, and I was tasked with looking into Albert Bandura’s “Bobo
Doll experiment” from 1963. In brief,
two groups of children were shown an inflatable clown doll and given an
opportunity to play with it. The children in the control group were sent in to
play with the doll with no instruction of how to play with it, and the children
interacted with it for a short while before losing interest.
The test
group was also sent in to play with the doll; but first they were shown an
adult playing roughly with the doll, bouncing it hard and hitting it with their
fists. In this case the children played aggressively with the toy and for a far
longer time than the control group. The experiment was designed to test Bandura’s
social learning theory, which states that people learn through observing and
imitation.
This test
proved that people not only learn by reward and punishment, known as
behaviourism, but also by observational learning. These were important
experiments because they opened the doors for more research into observational
learning, such as other more recent studies on how children can be influenced
by watching violent media.
A more
in-depth explanation can be found on this YouTube video from CrashCourse, “The
Bobo Beatdown – Crash Course Psychology #12”:
In other
research for the application I came across this video on YouTube from the
Veritiasium science channel, “The Science of Thinking”:
This video
looks into the science on how the brains systems work. In short, the brain uses
two systems to think; one is slow and methodical (this system is used to learn
new skills) the other is fast but less accurate (muscle memory). This is why
the brain can be tricked easily with seemingly easy questions. For example, “What
do you put in a toaster?” or “What do cows drink?” If only the fast system is
engaged, the individual might answer toast or milk, which are obviously wrong
answers, but the brain only picks up on the information it thinks it needs and
answers accordingly. In the video, it goes into exercises where the user is
shown a four digit number and asked to remember the number. This is then
removed and the user is asked to add one or more digits to the number they have
remembered, this task requires the use of both of the brains systems. I found
this a very interesting concept to play around with, but more thought will be
required as to how to make this fun or appeal to children. Links to the videos have
been placed on the group wiki for week 3.
CBLE Blog week 5
“Game Based Learning”
This week we were looking at games-based learning,
educational games and gamification. These are all theories and concepts to try
and help students engage with learning more successfully than traditional class
room methods. These all work on the idea that learning should be fun, because
it does not feel like learning if you are having fun.
This can be effective as most students would prefer to be
playing games, sports or video games instead of listening to a lecturer.
The term “gamification” refers to a learning method that
aims to motivate students by using video game design and gameplay elements in a
learning or classroom environment. The goal is to get the learners to engage
fully by capturing the interest of the students and to inspire them to learn
more under their own steam. Game Based Learning (GBL) is a teaching method that
uses a well-designed game instead of a standard quiz format to provide an
immersive experience for students.
The use of things like novels, films, plays, video games and
other media games can be a source of high-quality materials a teacher can use
to enable students to access the curriculum, as well as making learning fun.
This can in turn liven up a potentially dull class resulting in unmotivated
students and encourages them to continue learning the subject matter outside of
the class room.
This can be used to encourage competition between students,
or by challenging them as individuals, in order to promote better learning.
Educational games can be card, board, or even video games.
These are designed and created to help people learn about a specialist subject
and can work in a number of ways. For example, they can be used to explore and
understand historical events or cultures expand concepts or assist them in
learning a new skill e.g. a flight or driving simulator used in learning to
acquire a licence. The links I have
acquired will be uploaded to the group wiki.
Final Weeks
Towards the end of this project, the time was used to gather
all the information collected about different learning styles and compile them
all into one place.
Gamification, VR and AR pages were pages that I worked on
exclusively, using information I have researched into during the creation of
the artefact and the lesson up to this point. The way the wiki was put together
resulted in a messy home page which also lacked some vital information. When it
was made apparent that certain things needed to be added due to absent team members,
it was hard to coordinate. I took it upon myself to make some disposable pages,
titled with the topics that were currently missing from the wiki. The plan with
these is to fill them in myself and to show them to the rest of the group so
they could know where to focus on to try and to hit as many targets and achieve
the best possible marks.
These were then removed by the group as more detailed pages were added by other members of the group. This seemed the best way to organise things as different group members had been in different group activities and could provide more in depth information on different areas. I also took it on myself to tidy up the home page formatting. Understandably things had gotten a bit messy with different people uploading their page links to the home page. There was a mixture of names with hyperlinks as well as web address by themselves, linking them together. It was then a case of methodically changed all the hyperlinks to a consistent style of formatting and kept on the home page for future updates. I also update my page with information about my artefact.
These were then removed by the group as more detailed pages were added by other members of the group. This seemed the best way to organise things as different group members had been in different group activities and could provide more in depth information on different areas. I also took it on myself to tidy up the home page formatting. Understandably things had gotten a bit messy with different people uploading their page links to the home page. There was a mixture of names with hyperlinks as well as web address by themselves, linking them together. It was then a case of methodically changed all the hyperlinks to a consistent style of formatting and kept on the home page for future updates. I also update my page with information about my artefact.
Comments
Post a Comment