K-12 Teaching and
Learning in the ICT
Era
Five Instructional Design
Principles (from Brenda Sugrue)
Learning is not performance
 The medium is not the method
 Match external and internal conditions
 Authentic practice makes perfect
 One size does not fit all
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Learning is not Performance

Performance depends upon
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Knowledge
Capacity
Available tools and information
Motivation
Learning requires
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Generalization
Reflection
Self-testing of scope of what is learned
The Medium Is Not the Method
Some learning environments support
performances substantially more or
less than the worlds in which those
performances ultimately will be
needed
 Media afford opportunities to use
various instructional approaches but
are not, per se, the source of learning
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Match External and Internal
Conditions
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Allow for initial verbal learning followed by
automation through practice
Allow for reflection opportunities that can
support transfer
Be sensitive to issues of perceived difficulty
and perceived value of learning tasks, as
well as student preferences for features of
the learning environment
Authentic Practice Makes
Perfect
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Since so much of schooling is verbal, it is
easy to confuse verbalizing of concepts and
principles with the ability to apply those
principles and to confuse describing
performances with doing them
Cognitive authenticity is sufficient as long as
the cognitive scope matches the expected
realm of applicability for what is being
learned
One Size Does Not Fit All
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For example, newcomers to a field need
simple text, with no gaps in explanations, or
they get confused; old hands need enough
loose ends and missing details to keep
them from going on autopilot
In general,
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Compensate for weaknesses
Leverage strengths
Remediate weaknesses
Overview
Why use technology?
 Facilitating effective learning
processes
 Simulating instructive environments
 Tutoring
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Facilitating effective learning
processes
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SWoRD [Schunn and Cho]
(http://ladybug.lrdc.pitt.edu/sword3/)

Peer critique of writing
• Manage the process
• Provide incentives by evaluating students via
comparison to other students
• Cumulate the feedback and make it available
• Support reviewee reactions to feedback
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Works as well as or better than instructor
feedback and allows much more use of
writing assignments
Suthers’ Collaborative
Knowledge Construction Tool
Hypothesis
Can have
disconfirming
relationships too
Data
Supporting
relationship
Unevaluated
relationship
Simulating instructive environments –
Yaron’s Virtual Chemistry Lab
Graphs show
additional data
Cognitive
realism of key
artifacts
“Meters”
convey key
information
Instructor Authoring Tool
www.chemcollective.org
Select reagents
Define reactions
Assemble Glassware
Key Aspects of Simulations
Cognitive realism
 Ease of understanding and use
 Recordkeeping
 Instructor modifiability
 Compatibility of timescale and nature
of simulation activities with the school
day
 Direct links to curriculum
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The Importance of
Interoperability
Agile “little guys” do well
 See Tom Friedman’s book,
while the slow-moving “big
is Flat”
guys” run into trouble!

School systems need to have
integrated curricular components
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“The World
Artifacts must work with other artifacts,
gradebook systems, curriculum
management systems, etc.
Offering a proprietary “seamless”
package is no longer sufficient – the
marketplace has been clear about
this. The connection to other vendors’
packages must be seamless!
Use of XML Base to Permit
Interoperability
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes" ?>
- <VIRTUALLAB version="1.4.8">
<TITLE>Gravimetric Determination of Arsenic</TITLE>
<AUTHOR>Jordi Cuadros</AUTHOR>
<DESCRIPTION>Determine the amount of arsenic present in soil samples.</DESCRIPTION>
- <!-- <SOLUTION_MODELLERS> <MODELLER property="waterConcentration" model="waterFinite" /> <MODELLER
property="liquidVolume" model="evaluated" /> </SOLUTION_MODELLERS> -->
- <SOLUTION_VIEWERS>
<VIEWER honorSignificantFigures="false" name="Solution Properties" enabled="true"
driver="irydium.vlab.viewer.PropertiesPanel" />
-->
<VIEWER sEnabled="true" aqEnabled="false" name="Species Viewer" enabled="true" gEnabled="true"
driver="irydium.vlab.viewer.SpeciesViewer" />
-->
<VIEWER name="Thermometer" enabled="true" driver="irydium.vlab.viewer.Thermometer" />
<VIEWER name="PH Meter" enabled="false" driver="irydium.vlab.viewer.PhViewer" />
</SOLUTION_VIEWERS>
- <TRANSFERBAR>
<MODEL name="Precise Transfer" enabled="true" driver="irydium.vlab.transfer.PreciseTransferModel" />
<MODEL name="Significant Figures Transfer" enabled="true"
driver="irydium.vlab.transfer.SignificantFiguresTransferModel" />
<MODEL name="Realistic Transfer" enabled="true" driver="irydium.vlab.transfer.RealisticTransferModel" />
</TRANSFERBAR>
<KNOWLEDGEBASE reactions="arsgrav/reactions.xml" species="arsgrav/species.xml"
driver="irydium.textRealm.TextKnowledgebase" />
<REALM name="arsgrav" driver="irydium.textRealm.TextRealm" filesystem="arsgrav/filesystem.xml" />
- <STOCKROOM>
<MOUNT realm="arsgrav" path="/Irydium Solutions">Irydium Solutions</MOUNT>
</STOCKROOM>
</VIRTUALLAB>
Tutoring
Tasks
 Student modeling
 Coaching
 Progress monitoring
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An Example (Van Lehn et al.)
Richer Example
How a Vector is Entered
Derivative
Variables Are
Defined
Automatically
Building Blocks

Standard components
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Model of expertise
Domain simulations
Student Modeling Tools
Dialogue Tools
Interface Components
Eventually, it should be possible to combine
tools from VanLehn’s tutors with other tools by
other people, but even now, interoperability
helps make the project work!
Self-Explanation Tutor
Facilitating effective learning
processes
Better connections to past
experiences
 Digital video
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Support learning by doing
• Novices seldom notice everything of
importance in a situation
• Video replay better ties coaching to
experience
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Make coursework more case-based
Electronic Portfolios

Needs
Provide basis for mentoring
 Document student learning for
accrediting and certifying bodies
 Give student a sense of what has
been learned
 Provide objects for reflection
 Provide basis for video resume
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Alternatives
Open Source Model
 Package
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KEEP Portfolio Editor
Developed by
Knowledge Media laboratory (KML) of
The Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching
Portfolio as Diary or Notebook
Portfolio for Teaching
Lesson plans
 Video of classroom activity
 Student products
 Reflections
 Interactions with mentors
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Lessons Learned: Collaborative
Technology to Support Learning
of Professional Skills
The Mission
 The Process Followed
 Lessons Learned
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The Mission
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Stimulate reform in school districts
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Nested learning communities
Driven by principles of learning
LearningWalk™ as central to process
External quality assessment
Content-Focused Coaching™
Focus on urban districts
Focus on building “high performance
learning communities”
The Principles of Learning
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Accountable Talk™
Clear Expectations
Fair and Credible
Evaluations
Learning as
Apprenticeship
Organizing for
Effort
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Recognition of
Accomplishment
Socializing
Intelligence
Self-management
of Learning
Academic Rigor in
a Thinking
Curriculum
LearningWalk™
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An organized visit through a school's learning areas
Participants move in and out of several classrooms
looking at student work and classroom artifacts, and
talking with students and teachers
Between classroom visits, participants gather to
discuss what they learned in the classroom by making
factual statements and generating questions they have
about what they observed which, if asked of teachers,
could stimulate them to think more deeply about
practice
At the end of the LearningWalk™, participants work
with the principal to refine observations and questions
and to look for patterns within the school.
External Quality Assessment
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Provides school districts with an external
assessment of the quality in teaching and
learning in their schools.
Objectives
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determine if the quality of instruction
supports achievement of rigorous academic
standards by all students
guide principals and instructional leaders in
supporting their teachers to improve practice
guide teachers in analyzing their teaching
and learning to improve instructional
practice.
Content-Focused
Coaching™
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Training coaches to work individually with classroom
teachers to design, implement, and reflect on rigorous,
standards-based lessons that promote student learning
Coach and teacher work together
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during a pre-conference to refine lesson design
during the enactment of the lesson in which both the
teacher and coach are co-accountable for student learning
during a post-conference in which they reflect on evidence
of student learning and plan for subsequent lessons.
Coaches use a set of 'moves' designed to focus the
dialogue with teachers on a set of core issues derived from
the research on teaching and learning.
Nested Learning
Communities
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All members of the school district are learners-students, teachers, principals, and administrators.
Learning is the work of both students and professional
educators
Continuous learning in pursuit of educational
improvement is the norm.
The "glue" that holds the community together is twoway accountability between layers.
A school system that is a learning organization must
treat upgrading of instructional competencies as a key
part of its definition of professionalism.
It should be structured to inspire and require
continuous learning on the part of everyone in the
system, from teachers to senior administrators.
The Process
Stimulate the development of the
higher levels of nested communities,
so that they in turn can stimulate
development at lower levels.
 Study groups
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In person
• Supported by hypermedia tools
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Over networks synchronously
• Supported by discussion tools
Problem
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Teachers don’t just start using the
CD’s that their principals distribute
Solution
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Approach dissemination of technology
as a task of leveraging existing
cultural support and shaping cultural
change to make promising new tools
“fit”
Cultural Support Is the Key
No one takes a course in making
telephone calls!
 We only learn the aspects of a tool
that our culture supports
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Grandma uses email attachments to
see pictures of the grandchildren
 Professor X says he can’t understand
attachments and refuses to use them
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Technology Failures
The clock on a generation of video
cassette recorders still says 1200!
 I flew to New York for a 1-hour
meeting recently, instead of using
NetMeeting!
 The paperless office now has more
paper!
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Academic Conferences – An
Example
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Electronic submission
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Common today but a failure in 1995 –
even with Computer Scientists!
Electronic review
 On-Line abstracts and papers
 On-Line programs that can build a
personal schedule and download it to
a personal digital assistant (Palm) tool
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My Video Experience – First
Time
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Staff Resisted
Complaints about cost
Complaints about quality of staff
efforts
Need for continual motivation of staff
The Second Time
Camcorders are part of our culture
 Minimal training needed
 Moderate enthusiasm among a less
techie staff than last time
 Staff add their own extensions
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The Moral: Enculturated commodities get used;
the best choices do not get used
if outside our cultures
Summary
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The world of instructional technology is
moving toward collections of interoperable
components that come from multiple
sources and permit a coherent overall
approach to curriculum
A key role for technology is to bridge the
gap between didactic and learning by doing
Cognitive realism is always important;
physical fidelity is only important for special
purposes