Analyzing Learning Potential of Informal Sites
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The document analyzes 305 informal learning websites across five categories: language learning, outdoor/adventure learning, social change/global learning, virtual education, and learning portals. The researchers developed an 8-point coding scheme to evaluate each site based on criteria like content richness, technology functionality, learning potential, and scalability. Overall ratings found that virtual education sites scored highest while language learning sites had the highest potential for learning. Notable high-scoring individual sites included Khan Academy, MERLOT, and iCivics.
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Analyzing Learning Potential of Informal Sites
- 1. Analyzing the Learning Potential of Informal Learning Websites with Emerging Technology Anyone can learn anywhere at anytime Abdullah Altuwaijri, Indiana University Minkyoung Kim, Indiana University Eulho Jung, Indiana University Yurong Wang, Indiana University
- 2. Background: Extreme learning? We are living in an age of open education where anyone can now learn anything from anyone else at any time (Bonk, 2009) Informal and non-traditional learning exploring how people learn or teach with technology outside of traditional educational settings A wide range of disciplines: Adventure Learning, Virtual Education, Social Change, Global Learning, and Language Learning Today, there is much educational hope and opportunity on the Web to personalize and individualize learning on a moment-to-moment basis
- 3. Methodology Locating Websites Developing of Coding scheme Under Five Categories: 305 (1) content richness (1) Language Learning: 63 (2) the functionality of the technology (2) Outdoor/adventure (3) the extent of technology integration learning: 51 (4) the novelty of the technology (3) Social change/global learning: 57 (5) the uniqueness of the learning environment/learning (4) Virtual education: 57 (6) the potential for learning (5) Learning Portals: 38 (7) the potential for being life changing and (6) Shared Online Video: 39 (8) the scalability of the audience Evaluating the identified websites Ratings were made on each Web site based on the eight criteria using a 5- point Likert scale (1 is low; 5 is high).
- 4. Extreme Learning Coding Scheme Criteria Definition Content Richness This criterion deals with how much information the Website, resource, or project contains on the topic chosen, how adequately it fulfills the purpose of learning, and whether the information is credible and up-to-date or not. Functionality of This criterion deals with the ease of access, navigation, and use of the Website, Technology resource, or project and whether it contains effective and appropriately employed technology to serve the stated learning purpose. Extent of Technology This criterion deals with the range, amount, and types of technologies employed Integration including issues of interaction, collaboration, and information collection, contribution, and community through such technology. Novelty of Technology This criterion deals with whether the Website, resource, or project contains emerging, unusual, or novel technologies. Uniqueness of Learning The Website, resource, or project serves the purpose of learning in a non- Environment / Learning traditional, unique, or extreme learning environment, which is highly different from traditional classroom settings. Potential for Learning This criterion deals with whether the Website, resource, or project enables and provides learning activities or learning opportunities for the target audience to achieve the intended learning goals. Potential for Life This criterion deals with whether the Website, resource, or project influences or Changing improves the quality of life and extends or changes the perspective of the world for the intended audience. Scalability of Audience This criterion deals with the potential impact of the Website, resource, or project including the possibility to broaden the size and scope of its potential intended audience.
- 5. Findings Average Web Site Rating According to Criteria and Category Category Average 5.00 4.00 3.15 3.25 2.89 3.01 2.68 2.76 3.00 2.00 1.00
- 6. Findings Category Comparison in Each Criteria 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00 1.Content 2.Functionality 3.Extent of 4.Novelty of 5.Uniqueness 6.Potential for 7.Potential for 8.Scalability of Richness of Technology Technology Technology of Learning Learning Life Changing Audience Integration Environment / Learning Language Outdoor / Environ. / Adventure SC / Global Virtual Education Learning Portals Shared Online Video
- 7. Findings: 1. Language Learning The average score of language category (2.89) In language education websites, the highest score on potential for learning (3.1) The lowest score was on potential for life changing (2.63) 4 coolest sites: BBC Learning English, Chinese Pod, Englishpod, Live Mocha
- 8. Livemocha: http://www.livemocha.com Connection with People Home Lessons
- 9. Chinese Pod: http://chinesepod.com Mobile Support Home Various Tool Supports
- 10. BBC Learning English: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish Topics from Everyday Life Home Assessment Tool
- 11. Findings: 2.Outdoor / Adventure Learning The average score of Outdoor / Adventure Learning category: 3.01/5.0 The highest score: Uniqueness of the learning environment/learning (3.65) The lowest score was novelty of technology (2.57) Four coolest sites: Earthducation, Explore, Jon Bowermaster, Nautilus Live
- 12. Earthducation: http://lt.umn.edu/earthducation Field Update Home Focused on Real Issue
- 13. Jon Bowermaster : http://www.jonbowermaster.com Blog Home Videos
- 14. Findings: 3. Social Change / Global Learning The average score of Social Change/Global learning: 2.96/5.0 The highest score: potential for life changing (2.93) One coolest site: iCivics
- 15. iCivics: http://www.icivics.org Social Games Home Resources for teachers
- 16. Findings: 4. Virtual Education The average score of Virtual Education category: 3.15/5.0 The highest score: potential for learning (3.39) The lowest score was on novelty of technology (2.82) Nine coolest websites: Ed Tech talk, Florida Virtual School, John Hopkins OpenCourseWare, Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseWare, MIT OpenCourseWare Highlights for High School, NASA for Educators, Open University UK-OPenLearn, Smithsonian.
- 17. Khan Academy: http://www.khanacademy.org Assessment Home Lessons
- 18. MIT Open Courseware: http://ocw.mit.edu Video Lecture Home Assignments
- 19. Open Yale Courses: http://open.yale.edu Video Lectures Home Downloadable Resources
- 20. Findings: 5. Learning portal The average score of Learning Portal: 2.76/5.0 The highest score: the content richness (3.19) The lowest score was on novelty of technology (2.49) The coolest website: MERLOT
- 21. MERLOT: http://www.merlot.org Learning Materials Home Community of Interest
- 22. Findings: 6. Shared online video The average score of Shared Online Video category: 3.25/5.0 The highest score: the functionality of technology (3.41) The lowest score was on novelty of technology (3.00) Six coolest websites: Academic Earth, Discovery News Video, Explo.tv, Link TV, National Geographic Education, Wonder How To Videos.
- 23. Academic Earth: http://academicearth.org/ Sorted by Subject Home Involved Universities
- 24. Discovery News Videos: http://news.discovery.com/videos/ Sorted by Subject Home Involved Universities
- 25. Q&A Thank you! Contact information Abdullah Altuwaijri: aaltuwai@indiana.edu Minkyoung Kim: kimmink@indiana.edu Eulho Jung: euljung@indiana.edu Yurong Wang: yurwang@indiana.edu
- 26. Reference Bonk, C. J. (2009). The world is open: How Web technology is revolutionizing education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Bonk, C. J., Kirkley, J., Hara, N., & Dennen, V. (2000, April). Advances in pedagogy: Finding the instructor in post- secondary online learning. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA. Iiyoshi, T., & Kumar, M. S. V. (2008). Opening up education: The collective advancement of education through open technology, open content, and open knowledge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Kong, K. (2009). A comparison of the linguistic and interactional features of language learning websites and textbooks. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 22(1), 31-55. Kartal, E., & Uzun, L. (2010). The Internet, language learning, and international dialogue: Constructing online foreign language learning websites. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 11(2), 90-107. Veletsianos, G., & Klanthous, I. (2009). A review of adventure learning. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(6), 84-105. Warschauer, M., & Kern, R. (eds.) (2000). Network-based language teaching: Concepts and practice. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Zaidel, M., & Luo, X. (2010). Effectiveness of multimedia elements in computer supported instruction: Analysis of personalization effects, students' performances and costs. Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 7(2), 11-16.
Notas do Editor
- Good morning everyone! Thank you for your participation. Today, I would like to share our scholarly work on extreme learning. Before we get started, we would like to briefly introduce what we did. Basically, our research is still in progress. To give you a background of our research, we tried to identify whether learning really happens through the websites related to informal and extreme learning, then if there is learning happening, what quality and kinds of the learning occur. We believe that we entered the open educational era with a motto, anyone can learn anywhere at anytime. Among those, we focus much on individual life-changing moment through technology and education. Put simply, the work we are about to present is the first phase of our research, which is an identification of extreme learning with the coding scheme we developed and an evaluation of extreme learning websites.
- Let’s begin with a quote from Dr. Bonk. He said “ We are living in an age of open education where anyone can now learn anything from anyone else at any time”. That being said, thanks to the technology, it is possible that we learn ubiquitously. With the advancement of learning technology during the past decade or two has broadened the possibilities for online learning both in formal as well as informal settings. With a focus on the latter, research in extreme learning explores how people learn or teach with technology in unusual or unique ways outside of traditional educational settings.Therefore, the purpose of this research is to offer insights into where and how the cutting-edge technology for educational purposes in authentic learning environments, especially outside conventional perspectives of where learning takes place. Furthermore, by categorizing and evaluating hundreds of informal learning Web sites, educators should begin to fathom the potential of learning.
- For several semesters, a research group led by Dr. Bonk in IST identified the theme of extreme learning. As I mentioned in the previous slide, extreme learning explores how people learn or teach with technology in unusual or unique ways outside of traditional educational settings. Driven by a curiosity that whether learning really happens or not, or what kinds of websites play such a role, we first developed coding scheme based on the literatures and expertise in IST, then started locating websites based on the developed criteria. As a result, we identified 305 websites after we went through several rounds of filtering. Using 1-5 likert scale, we also evaluated the websites and ranked them based on the scores. We will provide you with some examples in a minute.
- the Web sites evaluated were composed of 63 language learning, 51 outdoor and adventure learning, 57social change and global learning, 57 virtual education, 38 Learning portals, and 39 Shared Online videos. As the figure indicates, the shared online video scored the highest rating (3.25), whereas the Social change and global learning was rated the lowest (2.68). For those who are not familiar with the categories, we will explain those soon.
- In regards to the highest and lowest criteria on average, the uniqueness of learning environment and potential for learning were rated as the highest (3.2). In contrast, the novelty of technology was rated as the lowest on average (2.6).
- As we have seen, we often learn foreign languages through technology nowadays. In the context of extreme learning, language learning is defined as a technology-aided language education with an integration of sound, voice interaction, text, video, and animation. It empowers self-paced interactive learning environments that enable learners to achieve learning outcomes without being restricted to place or time.Given that functionality of technology received the highest rating, technology interactivity and support seems to be one of the most-valued factors in language education. The average score of languagecategory (2.89) reveals scores without much fluctuation in terms of the average score in each criterion. For the next slide, we would like to give you some great websites we identified based on our criteria. Even though we have several great examples, we will only review one of those due to the time constraint.
- Livemocha is the world’s largest online language learning community, offering free and paid online language courses in 35 languages to more than 11 million members from 196 countries around the world. As you might have heard of it, it comes with a broad range of functions and tools that captivate people’s attention. For language learning, it is often said that interactivity is important. As you can see, the website encourages users parried up to promote learning more fun and engaged. A wide variety of lessons are also provided.
- ChinesePod is a web-based Chinese language-learning service composed of three key components: audio lessons, mobile & online review tools, and live speaking practice with professional Mandarin teachers. As the users of mobile learning increases, Chinese pod seems promising to reach many potential users.
- Another great example is BBC Learning English thatis an accredited online open learning website that provides a range of learning materials about English. We found this also interesting and helpful in education wise.
- I believe many of you have thought that learning comes from experience. Our second category, outdoor and adventure learning is a hybrid online educational environment that provides students with opportunities to explore real-world issues through authentic learning experiences within collaborative online learning environments.Overall, the highest score of this category is on the uniqueness of the learning environment/learning (3.65) and the lowest score was on novelty of technology (2.57). This finding is parallel to the general notion in which adventure learning is effectively promoted by providing authentic learning environments. 4 Web sites were selected as top rated web sites that include Earth education, Explore, Jon Bowermaster, Nautilus Live.
- Earthducation is an adventure-learning program developed in response to a challenge by the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. This is designed to integrate the principles, values and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning. Centered on inquiry-based learning, they provide authentic learning environments for the learners with daily updates on journals, pictures, and lectures with the real exampelsduring the trip they encountered. The vivid and authentic learning offers a somewhat different perspective compared to the traditional textbooks. Imagine that your teacher travels and broadcast what he eats, how he or she reacts with the unfamiliar environment, or even how he got accustomed. No matter what cotext, this specified indirect experience helps learners understand, culture, language and so on.
- JonBowermaster is a writer and filmmaker. As an environmentalist, his work centers on protesting and documenting The Threats to the Sea.
- This is interesting and critical part I would say. Have you heard North Korea’s serious human right problem or the bloodysuppression of the Syrian government for their anti-government demonstrator? Probably yes and here we decided include social change category as we acknowledge the importance of social movement through education. Social Change/Global seeks to educate and inform people about issues and needs relating to social change, including poverty, hunger, AIDS, civics etc. Technology is often used to create innovative ways to spread social good and access to learning worldwide. It is also used to empower and inspire people for the right cause.Let’s take a look at the example.
- iCivics prepares young Americans to become knowledgeable,engaged21st century citizens by creating free and innovative educational materials.iCivics is designedto reverse Americans’ declining civic knowledge and participation. Securing our democracy and it requires teaching the next generation to understand and respect our system of governance. Today iCivics comprises not just our board and staff, but also a national leadership team of state supreme court justices, secretaries of state, and educational leaders and a network of committed volunteers. Together, we are committed to passing along our legacy of democracy to the next generation.In just two years, iCivics has produced 16 educational video games as well as vibrant teaching materials that have been used in classrooms in all 50 states. Today we offer the nation’s most comprehensive, standards-aligned civics curriculum that is available freely on the Web. This is very user-friendly and also kind of addictive game that kids may like.
- Virtual Education might be the most familiar type of education for you. Itrefers to learning environments where teacher and student are separated by time or space, or both. Course delivery can be through course management applications as well as various multimedia and Web 2.0 tools. Virtual education may be managed by organizations and institutions that have been created through alliances and partnerships to facilitate teaching and learning.
- Khan academy is a not-for-profit organization with the hopeof changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere. As a type of Open Educational Resources, With a variety of lessons, instructor’s help, progress statistics, different types of assessment are examples of making learner self-directed and self-paced. We are very interested in knowing more about Khan Academy through survey questionnaires as well as interviews for deeper information.
- MITOpenCourseWare is focused pretty much on higher education. Providing recorded lectures to the audience around the world seems promising and valuable. For the second phase of our research, we plan to interview some OCW learners that have been inspired and changed their life significantly through the learning.
- Open Yale Courses is a similar type of OCW from MIT. Let’s skip this example we are running out of time.
- The fifth category is learning portal. Learning Portals are centralized learning centers or repositories that contain an aggregation of educational information on a topic, often current or continually updated. Learners explore according to their own interest, time, and space. Learning portals support user and context learning, and are less centered on administration of that content and the results of the learning.5. Learning portal: Overall, the highest score of this category is on the content richness (3.19) and the lowest score was on novelty of technology (2.49). Only one Web site was selected as top rated web sites that include MERLOT.
- MERLOT is a free and open online community of resources designed primarily for faculty, staff and students of higher education from around the world to share their learning materials and pedagogy. MERLOT is a leading edge, user-centered, collection of peer reviewed higher education, online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services.
- Last but not least, I assume that everyone here has used Youtube before. As a very common and popular type of media, we considered shared online videos play such an important role in education. In the context of extreme learning, shared online video is any educational video (YouTube or other web streamed videos) that can be watched or shared. Some such sites offer syndicated programming and professional documentaries or filmmaking, whereas others are supporting by lay people. These sites often allow for interaction via comments and annotation. They often allow for downloading of content.
- As an example of shared online video, we picked up Academic Earth as a top-rated website. Thisis an organization founded with the goal of giving everyone on earth access to a world-class education. Same concept as OER, this learning portal gives you a more centralized platform where you can easily navigate the contents. If you are interested in a specific instructor, you could go and find out a person by name. As you can see, many accredited universities including Yale, Harvard, and MIT are sharing their intellectual properties willingly without being paid. We think this would be the first step to visualize the true meaning of education.
- Discovery News reports on the science that matters to everyday life. As you can see here, this is more video-oriented discovery channel. They deal with a wide range of topics related to science. From technology to Biology, it is very interesting that they provide a scientific knowledge with a daily life example. We found it very interesting and helpful when it comes to learning with so much fun. Therefore we gave this a high score.