The Complex Process of Scaling the Integration of Technology Enhanced Learning in Mainstream Classrooms
Alison Clark-Wilson, University College London, United Kingdom
Quality and Evaluation in Higher Education
Francisco Arcega, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
Dropout Rates of Regular Courses and MOOCs
Leon Rothkrantz, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Today and Tomorrow - Can ICT Assist Learning and Living?
Margaret Ross, Southampton Solent University, United Kingdom
The Complex Process of Scaling the Integration of Technology Enhanced Learning in Mainstream Classrooms
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Brief Bio
Dr Alison Clark-Wilson, a former secondary school mathematics teacher, is a Research Fellow at the London Knowledge Lab, UCL Institute of Education where her primary research interests concern the opportunities and challenges that dynamic mathematical digital environments present to school mathematics education. Alison became a teacher-researcher in the early 1990s during the UK government funded “Portable Pilots” project, which first investigated the impact of early handheld technologies for mathematics and science education. Since then, Alison has been involved in national and international research, curriculum and teaching development projects that simultaneously explore the design of new mathematics curricular alongside professional development programmes for teachers. She directed the EU funded ‘EdUmatics’ Project from 2009-12 and is currently Co-Principal Investigator for the current phase of the ‘Cornerstone Maths’ project, funded by Nuffield Foundation, which extends the earlier work that had been funded by Li Ka Shing Foundation (www.cornerstonemaths.co.uk). Alison’s most recent book is The Mathematics Teacher in the Digital Age (with Ornella Robutti and Nathalie Sinclair), which was published by Springer in 2014. She is an active member of The Mathematical Association, a Trustee of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics, a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and an elected member of the Executive Committee of the British Society for the Learning of Mathematics. Alison has given keynote talks, appeared on panel discussions, chaired symposia and is a regular presenter at UK and international conferences and events.
Abstract
The early optimism for how technology might transform teaching and learning practices in mainstream school classrooms has long faded in many countries around the world. Whilst early research findings suggested that this was due to obvious barriers such as access to the technology itself, more recent attempts to scale student-access have illuminated other factors and provided a more sound theoretical foundation for us to understanding the processes and products of scaling educational technology innovations. This keynote will use findings from a number of key projects and initiatives to highlight what is being learned – and how this might inform future endeavours to realise a more 21st century curriculum.
Quality and Evaluation in Higher Education
Francisco Arcega
Universidad de Zaragoza
Spain
www.unizar.es
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Brief Bio
Francisco J. Arcega (M’76–SM’05) was born in Caspe (Zaragoza), Spain. He received the M.Sc. in Physics in 1976 and Doctorate in 1981 at the University of Zaragoza, Spain. In 1976 he joined the Electronics Department at the University of Zaragoza and since 1982 he is in the Electrical Engineering Department where he is currently Professor (CEU). His main research interests are in the field of electrical measurements and their applications in the industry field. As well he is involved with quality in the education and in the laboratory activities. He is co-director of the research group EduQTech devoted to research and use the quality in the education and in the technology.Dr Arcega has been Director of the Department of Electrical Engineering and later Dean of the Faculty of Engineering (EUITIZ) at the University of Zaragoza (2004-2009). He is Member of the IEEE since 1980, Senior since 2007 and currently member of the Directive of the Spanish Chapter of the Education Society of the IEEE and Chair of the Chapter (2014-15).He has published a lot of papers in education and in Electrical Engineering mainly in aspects related with Quality and Measurements. He has published a book on Sensors and one in Metrology. He is reviewer of several journals and conferences.Since 1997 he is Director of the Laboratory of Electrical Measurements (LME), accredited by the Spanish National Accreditation Body (ENAC) for calibration Electricity and for testing Electrical parameters of Power Plants. As well he is Technical Expert for the accreditation of Testing Laboratories in Electrical Safety and Electromagnetic Compatibility acting for the Spanish, French and Italian Accreditation Bodies. As well, he has been auditing engineering university Faculties for Diplomas (Degree and Master) and Doctorate level for the Spanish National Agency for Accreditation (ANECA).
Abstract
Quality is important in industrial production and all kinds of services. In particular, education is one very important service for our society. Since the Bologna process, European universities try to do their best using the resources the society has given them to satisfy the needs of the European citizens.
Quality is very important but it has no value without a well-established system of continuous improvement based on measurement and knowledge of our capabilities and the needs of the society. The best way to measure the results of a service is by way of evaluation. Evaluation always needs to consider two inputs: self-evaluation and external evaluation, but it is particularly interesting when evaluation is considered for improving, not when evaluation is considered as inspection.
During this lecture, a review and comparative analysis between quality and evaluation in industry and in universities, based on the speaker’s own experience, will be done. The experience of industries and other services implemented in our world is a source of knowledge for improvement, so the main part of this lecture will be addressed to the review of what is done in industries and how to translate it into the European Higher Education Area.
Two main parts are intended in the presentation: One devoted to the application of quality concepts to the Higher Education, in particular in engineering. The second will be devoted to the evaluation of this education in university degrees, mainly in Europe with some reference to US evaluation done by ABET.
Finally, some proposals for daily activity in university education will be presented, based on the experience of the research group EduQTech.
Dropout Rates of Regular Courses and MOOCs
Leon Rothkrantz
Delft University of Technology
Netherlands
http://ii.tudelft.nl/~leon/
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Brief Bio
Leon Rothkrantz received his MSc degree in mathematics from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands in 1971, the PhD degee in mathematics from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 1980 and the MSc degree in psychology from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. He received a Doctor of honours from the Czech Technical University in Prague. As an Associate professor he joined the Man machine Interaction group and Knowledge based system group of Delft University of Technology in 1992. Since 2008 he is appointed as full professor at the Netherlands Defense Academy at Den Helder.
His research interest are: multimodal communication, automatic speech recognition, recognition of facial expression, pattern recognition and (dynamic) routing. Since 1999 he published more than 250 papers in Journals an Conference Proceedings and supervised 12 PhD students and 10 MSc students during the thesis project.
Abstract
Recently we observe an enormous grow of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Consortia like edX started by Harvard and MIT stimulated many outstanding Universities to develop their own MOOCs and to join the consortium. At start most MOOCs were developed by gifted teachers and the course was similar to a digital recording of regular classroom lectures. The underlying didactic models were similar to models used in regular classroom lectures. Current xMOOCs are composed of short blocks of video lectures, simulations, movies and assignments with real life problems. Learning analytics research shows that transferred classroom models are not the most optimal instruction models.
One of the main differences between MOOCs and regular classroom lectures is that the role of the teacher is minimised. The main role of the teacher is to design the course material, instructional design and transfer of knowledge. But his role as course manager should be implemented in the course material and the interaction teacher and student is minimal. In current cMOOCs students are supposed to cooperate in learning networks. Given the huge amount of participating students real life interaction with teachers or tutors is no longer an option.
In most current MOOCs, self-management of students is assumed. Students select their courses, plan their study activity and take initiatives to contact fellow students for joint study activities. There is a focus on 21st century skills such as critical reflection, cooperating, creativity, ability to handle big data and problem solving. The connectivist learning theory supports network learning. Unfortunately it proves that giving students the freedom to manage their own study is one of the causes of bad success rates. Only a minority of students is able to control their study behaviour. To improve the success rates of MOOCs specific didactic models should be used.
New requirements for the Learning Management System (LMS) are needed to improve the learning process and to realise the learning goals. In network based leaning some roles of the teacher should be fulfilled by fellow students. Special attention is needed to form automatically heterogeneous groups of students to perform project work with a huge group of students. Special experiments using specific didactic models as inquiry based learning will be discussed. MOOCs are nowadays employed in honours-programmes. Students have the freedom to compose their own programme, to develop their own abilities and competences, being a member of different learning communities and with a lot of community engagement and applied problem solving. But the question is if this only holds for the happy few of for the majority of students? MOOCs are supposed to enable students to develop themselves according to the “Bildung” principle. What is the most appropriate didactic model?
Today and Tomorrow - Can ICT Assist Learning and Living?
Margaret Ross
Southampton Solent University
United Kingdom
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Brief Bio
Margaret Ross is Emeritus Professor of Software Quality at Southampton Solent University. Margaret received an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) at Buckingham Palace in 2009 from Prince Charles for Services to Higher Education. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Staffordshire University in 2004, became a Freeman of the City of London and also Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Engineers in 2001. Already an FBCS, (Fellow of the BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT), she was awarded an Honorary FBCS in 2007 and then the BCS John Ivison medal in 2011. Margaret is an active member of the BCS, and is on various Boards and committees, including the BCS Council and on the Trustee Board of the BCS. She is Vice Chair of the BCS Quality Specialist Group and also Vice Chair of the BCS e-Learning Specialist Group, Secretary of the GreenIT SG and Chair of the Hampshire Branch. She is also on the BCS committee of BCSWomen Specialist Group. Margaret's area of interest is Quality and Professional Issues, relating to computing and education. She has also been Conference Director since 1992 of the annual series of Software Quality Management international conferences, aimed at benefits to industry, and since 1995 of the annual series of international educational INSPIRE conferences. She has edited over forty books, has examined over twenty Phds and currently supervises Phd students and lectures part-time.
Margaret’s original degrees were in mathematics. Margaret had been an Independent Member of PITCOM (Parliamentary IT Committee) and had been elected onto its Council. She is particularly active in encouraging students to consider technology. In 2001, she won the UK National PAWS Special Award for a TV soap idea that, if televised, could raise the profile of engineering and attract youngsters to computing and technology.
Margaret was a founder member and currently a Trustee of a charity to support the elderly in officially the most deprived area of the city of Southampton. By obtaining lottery funding, a once beautiful four-storey Grade 2 listed building, then derelict, was purchased in that area. After major rework, it was opened in 2001, to support local elderly communities. This Third Age centre holds many daily and regular weekly activities, including sessions on IT, encouraging fitness and mobility, art and craft sessions organised by the Alzheimer's Society, and opportunities regularly for counselling sessions for the elderly and those diagnosed with serious illnesses, including Cancer and HIV. In addition these activities, there is also a local community radio at the centre which provides dedicated sessions in seven different languages, for the local population in their own languages.
Abstract
The presentation will consider the current and future possible developments in education, health and living from the perspectives of students, the elderly, educational establishments, organisations and governments. Various legal and ethical issues will be also considered.
The changes in September 2014 to the English school curriculum relating to ICT, the introduction of Higher Apprenticeships and the need to address employers' requirements, together with the introduction of MOOCs, possibly affecting universities, will be discussed. The combination of these could lead to new developments in e-learning, including in developing countries.
Some current and potential future medical developments, together with their ethical issues, will be addressed, including the Internet of Things, embedded chips and robotics.
The methods to change the views of those working directly and indirectly with the elderly will be considered. These include the use of “ageing suits” to make those more aware of what it is like to be elderly. These are used by medical and care workers, and designers of clothes, goods and furniture, suitable for the disabled and the elderly. The experiences involving these and other aging equipment at Southampton Solent University will be discussed.