LearningForward

Kent Chesnut's technology in education blog.

In 1994 or 1995, I attended a class on personal goals and planning at my workplace.  At the end they handed us a Franklin Planner - along with Hyrum Smith’s “The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management”.  I was hooked.  Although I didn’t follow Hyrum’s methods completely, I believe the methods and planner made a big difference in the things I accomplished.

In about 2000, I was given a 2nd hand Palm III (a manager had upgraded to something better) and started using it as my planning tool.  I was upgraded to a Palm Vx in about 2002 (another 2nd hand device, if I remember correctly) and continue to use a Palm Vx today.  How do I use it?

• I use DateBk3 for planning and scheduling (mostly of personal things).
• I use ListPro for tracking and planning (mostly work efforts).
• I use the phone book and notepad pretty much as usual.
• I’ve never much used the ToDo list (DateBk3 has its functionality included in - and I didn’t like the fact that when you check off a task it disappears).
• I sync the device at work as needed (only ListPro).
• I sync the device weekly at home (full backup).

I try to keep my work and personal stuff separate.  Using the different programs for work and personal makes that easy.  Would the use of the PDA be considered educational technology?  Maybe, maybe not.  If the goals I’m tracking and scheduling are learning goals, if the planning I’m doing is for educational purposes, then I’d say the PDA is being used as educational technology.

Using the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) is pretty much second nature to me.  Lately, a couple of other “Personal”s have intrigued me; the Personal Learning Assistant (PLA) and the Personal Learning Environment (PLE).  I can’t remember where I first read these terms, but I’m going to use this post to reflect on what these might mean to me in terms of educational technology.

Personal Learning Assistant (PLA)

First off, this is not necessarily a device - although it would be very convenient if a PLA was a handheld, internet capable device.  I can’t remember where I read about PLA’s - or even what the author meant by the term.  I’m simply going to reflect on what it means to me and how it can fit into educational technology.  So, I’ll define a PLA as follows…

A Personal Learning Assistant (PLA) is a technology that provides tracking, planning, and possibly delivery of educational materials and strategies.  This could be as simple as using a PDA or day planner to create long term learning goals, short term milestones, and daily tasks to reach those goals.  It could be as complex as a computer system that models the learners progress through a set of learning objectives and adapts and delivers the appropriate content and strategies needed to most efficiently move the learner toward his learning goals.

I suspect that in a learner-centered school environment (rare?!?!), the teacher may well act as the PLA.  I’ll be thinking about this some more and hope to elaborate on my vision for a PLA in a future post.

Personal Learning Environment (PLE)

The PLE is probably not a device, as such.  I believe I first saw the term in one of Wesley Fryer’s posts.   I’ll define a PLE as follows…

A Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is essentially all of the assets one draws upon to aid them in achieving their learning goals.  A PLE would certainly include computers, the internet, books, MP3 players (for podcasts), friends, coworkers, and possibly even schools and teachers (oops, my bias is showing). 

What I’d like to do here is describe what kinds of functions a PLE would need to supply and consider what types of technologies would supply those supports.  Specifically, I’d like to know if there is 1 tool that might form the basis of a PLE. 

• Publish - the ability to publish one’s thought’s and reflections and get feedback from others with similar interests.  A blog is an obvious example of this.  A blog would likely be public.
• Collaborate - the ability to discuss, plan, and work with others.  E-mail, wikis and forums would be examples of this.  Security levels would be needed to support this (most areas would be restricted to people in a workgroup, and there might be more than one workgroup where access to areas might be restricted based on group membership).
• Area to upload / access files.  Security would be needed here.
• Spaces for different projects. 
• Links to other resources.
• Pictures.
• Portfolio of various types of work.

These requirements imply the following:

• A simple Wiki, Forum, or Blog will not meet all these requirements.  An advanced Wiki (like paid levels of PBWiki) might come close, but I’m not sure whether it would support the various levels of security needed.
• The PLE must internet accessible for the collaboration and publishing aspects.

I can think of a couple of possible solutions to this:

• Could a PLE be an offline application that sync’s its various functions to web-based tools when it is connected to the web?  I don’t know of any program that does this! 
• Could a PLE be built from Moodle?

My current PLE consists of the following (in order of usage):

• Paper planning / tracking 
• Computer and Palm pilot planning / tracking tools
• E-mail
• This blog
• Links (to other blogs, podcasts, …)
• Offline computer files

I think an online PLE would provide better functionality - especially in collaboration tools.  I have a Moodle server on this website (www.g4classes.com).  I’m going to try to build my own PLE using this Moodle server.  Big question, will the security features of Moodle be sufficient to handle the various groups I need to collaborate with?  I’ll try to find that out!  If you get a chance, take a look and let me know what you think.  I’ll post my results at a later time.

I know, I know, the XO laptop was designed as a constructive platform for kids in the developing world.  And I’m not one!  When OLPC anounced the Give 1 Get 1 program near the end of 2007, I wanted to find out what this little computer was like.  But… I didn’t have the money to spare at the time.  But I was able to get one of these G1G1 machines a couple of weeks ago on eBay.   

I believe a laptop computer with appropriate constructive software could be the most important piece of technology a student can have.  But I do have some issues with standard laptops for education:

1. They are bulky and heavy (you would need to replace stuff from the heavy kids’ backpack, not just add to it).
2. They are fragile.
3. They are pretty expensive.

The XO appears to address all of these concerns. 

I’ve been evaluating the platform for 3 possible purposes:
(BTW - I recognize that none of these are the specific design goals of the XO.)

1. A platform for learning Scratch
2. A school laptop for my younger kids
3. A backup business laptop

I’ll discuss my general perceptions before looking into these 3 specific purposes.

• It’s small!  Much smaller than I expected.  The small screen is fine for young eyes - and even for me (when I get to the right spot on my bifocals ;-)  The keyboard is a little more problematic.  It is both small (see dimensions below) and covered with a rubber cover that makes the feel a little strange.  I don’t have large hands and I am getting used to typing on it (not touch typing yet).  The size is OK for my teenage daughter (rather petite) - but she hasn’t used it enough to be touch-typing yet.  The size and feel would be fine for smaller kids - especially for those not yet touch typing.  
  The picture at right shows the XO up against a Dell 1505.
  I’ve done a few measurements on other computers.  
  From the left edge of the A to the right edge of the semicolon:
  • Standard keyboard - 7.25″
  • Dell 1505 laptop keyboard - 7.25″
  • XO laptop keyboard - 5.125″
• It’s a little slow.  The XO takes about 2 minutes to boot up.  Activities (programs) take about 20 seconds to start.  Inserting a picture into the word processor takes about 10 seconds to open the file dialog.  Internet browsing seems sluggish.  Scrolling through large PDF files also seems sluggish.  However, switching between activities is fast.  See Wesley Fryer’s blog entry about the XO’s performance here.
• The software is still in work.  A big missing feature is suspend and resume (which would obviate the slowness of booting).  Some activities aren’t quite finished.  The good news is that the software is operational, pretty robust, and development is ongoing.  Also note that shortcomings and problems are documented in the OLPC wiki.
• As I only have access to 1 XO, I wasn’t able to evaluate the collaborative capabilities of the XO.  Too bad, they appear to be some of the most interesting and innovative aspects of the laptop.  For the same reason, I can’t say much about the mesh networking.

On with the evaluation!

XO as a platform for learning Scratch

• Positive
  • There is a Scratch activity version for the XO laptop.  It is very easy to install (just navigate to the activities web page and download the Scratch-1.xo file using the Browse activity).
  • The Scratch activity launches quickly.
  • Scratch on the XO looks / acts just like on other platforms.
  • Unlike on other Linux platforms, the Presentation Mode works (see my earlier post here about Scratch on Puppy Linux and Ubuntu).
• Negative
  • The standard Scratch screen has been scaled to fit on the XO.  This creates a real challenge for the eyes.  Buttons (especially on the dialogs) are very small.
  • MIDI sounds don’t work (same as on the other Linux platforms).
  • It is a little sluggish.  Dragging script components can be a little jerky making it hard to place them.
• Overall
  • I would not recommend using the XO as a platform for learning Scratch at this time.  The screen is just too small to support the standard Scratch user interface (in my opinion).  According to the Scratch website, there is a plan to adapt Scratch for the XO (see here).  I’ll be happy to give it another try at that time!

XO as a school laptop for kids

• Positive
  • The XO is small, light, and tough.
  • The XO has long battery life.  If I remember correctly (sorry, I couldn’t find a link), the OLPC web site estimates between 3 hours (backlight on) and 5 hours (backlight off).
  • The XO is usable both inside (with backlight) and outside (reflective screen mode).
  • Good range of constructive activities installed on the computer.
  • Many additional activities available on the OLPC website activities page. 
  • All the activities (and the Operating System as well) are Open Source and available at no cost.
• Negative
  • Slow bootup and activity start times.  No suspend and resume (at this point in time).
  • It’s not fast enough for gaming (such as flash games on the internet) and videos (like You-Tube).  Although these activities are not typically considered to be “school work”, most U.S. students will expect a computer to accommodate such uses.
• Overall
  • I think the XO will prove to be a very good school laptop. 

XO as a backup business computer (way outside the scope of the OLPC project)

• Positive
  • The XO has long battery life. 
• Negative
  • I haven’t been able to get it to connect to my corporate network (WPA, Leap, hidden SSID).   I bet this is possible (or will be in a future system build) but it’s not automatic.
  •  Slow bootup and activity start times.
  • Screen size is pretty small.
  • Keypad size too small for many men. 
• Overall
  • I got quite a bit of ribbing for having the XO at work… it’s small size and color scheme attracts quite a bit of attention.  Not really a positive or a negative - just an observation.
  • I probably won’t be using the XO much as a backup business laptop.

In conclusion, the XO is optimized as a very low cost platform for constructive student activities - particularly in developing countries.  As such, it’s not really optimized for the uses I’ve evaluated.   

• I consider the XO to be a good platform for a school laptop for kids - provided they understand its limitations in games and videos.  It will be an even better school laptop once suspend and resume are implemented.  I’ll know more on this as my daughter uses the XO for school work (assuming she’s able to wrestle it away from me ;-).
• I think the XO may well be a good platform for learning Scratch once Scratch has been optimized for the XO’s screen. 
• The XO is probably not a good platform for a backup business laptop.

I’ve been investigating the use of Scratch as a constructive environment for students to demonstrate their understanding of various concepts in the classroom.  In this post I’ll be making a bit of a stretch… Can students use Scratch in a constructive way to help them learn a foreign language?

So what do you do in a foreign language class?  It’s been a lot of years for me… but if I remember correctly;

• learn vocabulary and conjugation
• practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing in the language to be learned

It appears to me that one of the deficiencies in learning a foreign language in the classroom is a lack of context - a real-world situation in which to use and practice the language being learned.  I began wondering if students could use Scratch to construct simple contexts for practicing listening and reading a foreign language.  To investigate this question, I constructed a simple Scratch program to provide a context for listening and reading in a foreign language.

The assignment would be something like…

• Create a Scratch project that creates a context for the use of this week’s vocabulary words.  Use the words in phrases that make sense within the context.  Phrases should be both visible and oral.
• This could be done individually, but I think it might be more appropriate to do the exercise in small groups of 3 or 4 students.
• Students could use all the projects to practice their vocabulary words - hopefully in a realistic context (as opposed to flashcards).

The stage of the project is shown to the right.  Once the program is running (by clicking the green flag above the stage in the web browser), the student simply clicks the “Say Something!” button.  A text box appears and the student hears the short phrase in Spanish.

The student(s) creating the project get the opportunity to use the vocabulary words in a real-world context, in contextually correct phrases, and pronunciation.

Students viewing the different projects get to see and hear the vocabulary words used in a number of (hopefully) disparate contexts.

Run the project by clicking here.  The project file is available here.

This is a very simple project.  I believe a 4th or 5th grader (9 or 10 years old) familiar with Scratch could easily create such a project.

Could a constructive use of Scratch in building such projects in the context of a foreign language classroom improve student learning?  Would students be engaged by such activities?  Could such projects allow the teacher to better diagnose student learning problems?  What would be the roadblocks to such projects in the foreign language classroom?

 P.S. My 15 year old daughter in Spanish 2 has informed me that my translations and pronunciation are pretty bad.  She was particulary amused with the question about coming to play on top of my house.  “Real” students should be able to do much better!