Outreach Lesson: Achieving Educational Goals through Technology

Abstract

In this white paper, we first define the goals to achieve in a good educational programme. The strengths and shortfalls of traditional teaching methods used to achieve these goals are then discussed. This is followed by discussions on the use of modern technologies to augment these traditional teaching methods to reduce the impact of the identified shortfalls.

1. Introduction

A typical one sentence description for the award of the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree, the highest award for a formal educational programme is: an original contribution to learning which is coherently structured and clearly presented and which shows evidence of systematic study and of ability to relate the results of such study to the general body of knowledge in the subject.

This definition touches on originality, coherence, presentation, process, and practice. It excludes opportunistic events while demanding originality, and perhaps innovations and its relations to real life. It highlights the process to the achieving of the results and emphasizes on the ability to properly structure and present the results.

The above are not easy criteria to achieve, but then, these are capability requirements for the top echelon of the workforce, and rightfully should be stringent. It is clear that the more people in a society we can equip with elements of the above criteria, the better would be the competitive edge of that society.

While the one-sentence definition is good in identifying the key factors of the ultimate educational goal, let us list the intermediate steps towards the goal. They can be described as follows.

Acquiring knowledge. This can be divided into two parts. The first is relating to first time encounter of new knowledge. In this case, the evaluating criterion is the ability to understand the new knowledge in the ways that were presented. The second phase of knowledge acquisition involves deeper understanding. This second phase is normally entered after a period of incubation, where the student already has an anchor in one aspect of the knowledge.

Relating to practice. This can be in the form of solving problems in the area of the subject matters. The more elementary form would be individual problems, while the advanced form would be open-ended problems in the form of small projects. In relating to practical situations, there can be many possible variations. While the correct answers or solutions are important, the understanding of the process to obtaining the solution is as important.

Presenting the results. The ability to effectively communicate results takes centre stage in educational programmes. These are traditionally written and oral communication. Today, with the advent of computers, oral communication has taken a multi-media flavor. Oral presentation is no longer just a pure narration, but a synchronization of visual and audio communication.

Structuring the process. To have a process is to ensure consistency. Quality of output should not be left to luck. Proper management of the project, of the learning process, is as important as the end result. The ability to define a correct structure and the management of the resulting process is important to ensure success of a project. This need to be emphasized both at the individual level as well as the team level.

Creating and innovating. Finding good solutions to problems is difficult. Finding good problems to solve is even more difficult. This requires students to think out of the box, to deviate from the norms, to shed inhibitions, in order to come up with a list of exciting possible problems and/or solutions. However creativity is not about chaos. Evaluating the list of possible problems/solutions and relating them to reality is a systematic process.

Having defined the steps in the educational process, the next immediate issue is the solution to achieving the objectives of each step. There are many well established approaches in the achievement of these objectives. The approaches are implemented in many traditional methods. While many of these methods are effective, many are dependent on the quality of the people or teachers involved. This leads to yet another problem. How to ensure the consistency of teachers¡¯ ability and quality? It certainly is not an easier problem to solve than the formal problem. Many of the traditional methods are also not efficient.

In the next five sections, we will examine the strengths and shortfalls of traditional methods. For the shortfalls, the natural question to ask is: can modern technology overcome some of these shortfalls? We have seen modern technologies transforming many parts of our lives and habits. Can they do the same for educational methodologies?

2 Acquiring knowledge

The traditional approach in helping students to acquire knowledge is to package the subject matters in lectures, and to deliver them in class. The form of delivery has changed over time, from pure speeches in the earlier days to speeches together with visual aids such as blackboard/flipcharts illustrations, and more lately computer-based projections.

The classroom method of teaching, while still used extensively to this day, has its drawbacks. An age old problem is that there are lapses in the concentration of students. There are many reasons to the occurrences of these lapses. Examples are distractions, slow pace of lectures, daydreaming, fatigue, among others.

Many solutions had been proposed and implemented. Solutions include having a break in a lecture every half an hour, monitor and adjust the pace of lectures, introduce humor during lectures, ask questions to attract and retain attention of students and many others. Of course, in the case of very small classes, these methods work relatively well. However, as the class size gets bigger, the effectiveness of these methods goes down. The effectiveness of the methods is also heavily dependent on the experience of the teacher in charge.

A second normally encountered problem is the teaching of complex issues. In such cases, not all facts can be absorbed in one listening session. The mind requires a period of rest, to digest incoming complex information. Periodically it blanks out incoming information, as overload sets in. The first attendance of a lecture on a complex subject by a student often has understanding well below 100%.

For educational administrators, the obvious solution, is to hire experienced teachers, reduce the class size and increase the class contact hours. However these criteria are not complementary. Smaller class size and increased contact hours lead to an increase in the number of teachers. Experience, on the other hand, takes time to accumulate. The pool of experienced teachers is therefore small.

When students do not completely comprehend a lecture, an usual remedy is to mount remedial classes. In remedial classes, some teachers simply repeat the contents. Others attempt to present the material from a different angle, hoping the students may be able to benefit from the different views. It has been shown many times that, presentation of the subject matters from different angles, give rise to a more in-depth understanding of the subject matter. This is the requirement for students to be able to put the knowledge into practice, which we will discuss later. However the pre-condition for the students to benefit from this different view perspective is that the students already have good understanding of the subject matter. In the event that this is not the case, such presentation can only lead to more confusion.

The first task is therefore to ensure good basic understanding of the subject matter. Ensuring in-depth understanding should be undertaken specifically for that purpose, as a new lecture to achieve different perspective of the complex issues. It should not be part of the remedial lessons.

It appears that a simple solution to the above problem is to record the lecture, and to get the students to go through the lectures again. A simple re-play of a previously attended lecture goes a long way to enhancing comprehension. It works in both cases, where the initial under-comprehension is due to too fast a pace, or a lapse in concentration on the part of the students. Repetition has been a widely used teaching methodology. This is used extensively in teaching young children, where the same things are repeatedly played back to children.

Another method that is used to get students to enhance comprehension of the subject matter is to dictate that students go through the notes of the lecture again after the lectures. However there is no mechanism for teachers to effectively enforce this requirement, other than to give periodic assessment tests. Nevertheless for practical purposes, these tests cannot be too frequent.

An ideal situation would be to convert the notes of each lecture into ¡°fill in the blank¡± or perhaps multiple choice questions. Students would effectively be forced into reading the notes ¡°carefully¡±, since they have to select the correct answers. While this can be done in a traditional fashion, modern computer technology is best suited for this task. Progress can also be monitored very closely, by computers.

3 Relating to practice

This is an intermediate level in the study of a subject. Students are ready to attempt this aspect once they have a good basic understanding of the subject matter. This aspect is usually taught as a series of problem solving exercises in a more guided situation, or as small projects in a more open ended manner.

For the case of a series of problem solving exercises, the usual method is to mount small group teaching classes, where students are asked questions, leading to the solution of the problem. One possible problem that may arise out of such a teaching method, is that, given the environment where only one person can speak at any one time, ideas of students who are not asked questions are not expressed. The end result is that the many variations of the possible solutions are not explored. In many cases, the problem solving session turned out to be more or less another lecture, not achieving the objective of helping the students to effectively relate the concepts to practice.

In the case of a small project, students worked on their own, to produce eventually a report. This report is graded by the teacher. In such cases, the teacher is not able guide the process to the production of the solution. Secondly the students have little opportunity to view alternative approaches to the solution. It is often said that learning has to come in two forms, learning what is correct is important, but learning what is wrong is equally important. Thus even if student is able to view the final report of all other students, the full extent of the problem solving process is not observed.

With modern technology, it would appear that such shortcoming can be easily overcome. Online collaboration and monitoring tools would offer a perfect environment for such problem solving exercises. Take for example the use of an online class forum as the platform for a problem solving session. The teacher can put fore a problem in a thread. Students are then invited to provide possible solutions. The following advantages can be immediately observed.

• All students can simultaneously put fore their ideas to the solution(s) of the problem.
• Students have ample time to consider their proposed solutions to the problem, so that proposals are at least properly considered, as against impromptu solutions.
• All ideas can be evaluated by others in the class, or the teacher. Every solution, correct or wrong, is pointed out.
• Some solutions could generate debates. Students can see the process of what goes right and what goes wrong, and the reasons for accepting or rejecting various approaches.
• Students who do not participate are known to the teachers, and be appropriately counseled.

In the case of a small project, students can be dictated to maintain the equivalence of a blog, as they worked through their project. These daily entries can then be commented on by the teacher or other students, allowing everyone to view the problem solving process of each student.

4 Presenting the results.

Honing presentation skills in education programmes are not new objectives. Both writing and oral presentation skills are important. In writing skill, technology today can automatically detect spelling and grammar errors, and perhaps simple sentence structure problem. However beyond these, structural organization and actual construction is still an art that comes with practice.

Oral presentation comes in two parts. The first is the structural organization of the presentation, similar to that of writing. The second is really a show, a performance. How to effectively connect with the audience, and get the message across? While it is true that such skill is an art, most students do know the difference between a good and a bad oral presentation. After all, by the time the student needs to do presentations, (s)he would have attended thousands of hours of lectures, by both experienced and not so experienced teachers, seen TV broadcasts, speeches by the principal, among others.

Many speakers never realize they always end a sentence with the words ¡°you see¡±. Many did not realize they persistently put the hand on their cheek while speaking, and therefore sounded muffled. Others did not realize they persistently move their mouse, so that the inadvertent movement of the mouse cursor is a constant distraction to the audience.

In fact, the most effective way to correct these faults is to allow the speaker to view his own presentation. It would be immediately evident to him what the problems are and how to consciously correct those faults.

In the past, setting up a recording session would be difficult, and not easily available to students. However with modern technology, setting up a recording session to record every student¡¯s presentation is no longer difficult. This is especially so since most presentations are presented on the computer. The computer should be able to easily record the presentation, for the speaker to review later.

5 Structuring the process.

To have a process involves disciplined adherence to the rules. To do this manually is difficult as checking is difficult. With technology, this is easily solved, as the computer can be programmed to monitor the adherence down to the minutes. The computer can be programmed not to advance or allow advancement unless all steps are accomplished.

6 Creating and innovating.

To be creative and/or innovative requires students to think out of the box, to deviate from the norms, and to shed inhibitions. Adhering to the normal ways or doing things does not lead to innovative and creative ideas. Virtually the first thing in kicking off a creative and innovative project is to have a brainstorming session, where the individual or more commonly a team undergoes a ¡°no-bound¡± idea generating session. The ideas generated are then collated and a feasibility test/study is applied to check their applicability. After all, a good idea is only good if it can be realized within the timeframe of the project. The second part of the process is often rather systematic.

One of the key problems with the brainstorming session is how to ensure good creative and/or innovative ideas be generated. A few scenarios typically occur. Face to face meetings are often dominated by a few more outspoken students, so that often than not, only the ideas of these students are put forward for consideration. One possible is to have students write down ideas on their own, and then to collate them for further processing. This however is not ideal, as students do not have the advantage of cross generation of ideas. Many good innovative ideas do not come solely from one student. Rather it is built up from a seeding idea by one member, with contributions from all other members.

Another possible solution is to have teachers present to moderate the sessions. However the presence of teachers more often hinders the free flow of ideas, instead of aiding it. After all, students look up to teachers to lead, and tend to be more norm-binding in front of teachers. But without teachers, students on their own may not have the experience to properly manage the meetings and end up not getting the benefits from such exposure. It is a case of the blind leading the blind. Without the teacher¡¯s presence, the process cannot be observed and any mistake cannot be corrected.

The above problem can be solved with technology. Instead of conducting the brainstorming session in a face to face manner, these can be done using a forum format. Of course for effective presentation of ideas, the forum should be capable of multi-media delivery, so that delivery of ideas would not be hindered by the lack of tools. Using such a format, no student can dominate the proceeding, since he is not able to stop other members from posting. Students get a free hand to put forward their own thoughts, and can also benefit from the cross seeding of ideas from other members.

Teachers can also monitor the proceeding "invisibly". If the proceeding gets out of hand (very unlikely), he can interfere and correct things. Participation can also be easily monitored and corrected. Students can also attend a post modem to understand what went wrong or right in their sessions.

Once the results of the brainstorming session are collated, the subsequent reality checking can be done according to a checklist.

7 The Outreach Edusys Solution

The Outreach: Global Campus is designed to address most if not all the problems described above