PD Lindgren-Comprehensive Exam and Portfolio

Introduction

When referring to "new technology tools", I am somewhat in the camp of "there is nothing (or at least not a whole lot) new under the sun". Many of the technology-based tools that are used by individuals and institutions as part of the learning process are primarily just variations on themes that have been around for a long time. Useful developments are often just the result of changes in magnitudes of capability that result from research conducted by industry and individual entrepreneurs.

As the lever and inclined plane were amplifiers of early man's physical abilities, this evolving tool-box of information tools handed to the educational community by technology developers can serve as amplifiers of individual's mental abilities. There is much that individuals and the educational community pass off as "instructional technology" that provides very little true educational or intellectual impact. Some teachers, parents, and students are scammed into thinking that the use of some high-tech information tool or process will inevitably result in intellectual growth. A flashy student-produced technological product like a PowerPoint or an iMovie may convince many that the author experienced thoughtful cognitive change. This is an assumption that cannot be relied upon.

In the paragraphs that follow, I focus upon five general capabilities of information technology tools and examine them in light of their potential and their pitfalls. Each of these capabilities have seen rapid advancement in recent times. Extraordinary levels of convergence has occurred as these have been integrated into new technological systems.   These involve advancements in:

   Access
   Storage
   Management
   Automation
   Mobility

As I make an accounting of these advancing capabilities, I will also briefly touch upon potential some potential disadvantages that might accompany them. Each offers some great possibilities as well as some significant challenges.

Inventory of Advancements With Cautions

Access.

As a society, we no longer turn on the television religiously at 5:30 PM in order to "get the news". We no longer have to scan the horizon as our only option for identifying signs of an approaching hurricane.   We now rarely wait at the mailbox for a letter from afar. Wise men no longer need to travel vast distances for an opportunity to examine the compilations of astronomical data archived in the Library of Alexandria.   All of these types of information can be hurled at us, not at specific times of the day, but as a continuous stream from a seemingly never-ending supply.

Individuals are more easily connected than ever before and are enabled to generate discourse that is profound, commonplace, or even inane. Social networking sites continue to experience exponential growth. It is not unusual for a single individual to receive hundreds of emails in a single day. Tidbits of personal conversation pass back and forth in the form of instant messages and text messages.

Thousands of news and special interest stories are updated by the minute and are made available to the interested reader.   Data sets of immense size, scope, and variety can be obtained almost instantly.

Wireless technologies allow this access to information and people wherever wherever we wish. The transmission speeds for information transferred through wired and wireless networks continue to increase. A single weather satellite image that took nearly 45 minutes to transfer about fifteen years ago now causes impatience in a user if it fails to load and appear in less than 10 seconds.

Modern information technology provides a never-ending supply of food for thought for minds eager to consume it. Whether it is generated by humans or captured by machines, access to all of this text, audio, images, and video has the potential to enable and empower a motivated learner.

While there is great learning potential in having access to this immense variety and quantity of information, it can nonetheless be overwhelming. The smaller amounts of useful "signal" are often obscured by the large quantities of "noise" that can also be present. An individual attempting to learn within the context of this voluminous information stream will probably be faced with the realities of coping with a great deal of extraneous cognitive load.

Music, MySpace, Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Flickr all have potentially redeeming qualities.   They can, however, occupy a great deal of an individual's attention with no real promise for learning or academic potential. Many of these tools get their extraordinary value from the openness and freedom associated with them. That same openness, unfortunately, can facilitate a descent into petty arguments, vile comments of denigration, and bullying vocabularies of hate speech among immature populations.

What of this vast supply of information should just simply be skimmed? What aspects of it are worthy of extended thought? What portions are worthy of being completely ignored and immediately deleted by the recipient? What is possibly even worthy of larger-scale institutional control and censorship? These are enormous questions that need to be considered by institutions, parents, and individuals. With a limited quantity of attention that each of us has in the course of a day, decision-making regarding the direction of that attention becomes a critical skill that needs to be developed from a young age. Individuals who are not skilled in metacognitive strategies of self-monitoring and control can become lost in the midst of all the "noise".

Storage.

The first computer with an integrated hard drive that I ever used had twenty megabytes of storage space (less than that once the size of the operating system was subtracted off of the top). Today, we clip media players the size of jewelry onto our clothing that can hold a thousand songs--each song file probably larger than twenty megabytes! A seventeen dollar USB compact flash drive can be worn around one's neck on a lanyard and can reliably store and transport nearly four gigabytes of data wherever desired.

Not only can we access nearly every piece of information that we want (as referred to in the previous section), but we can also store it and keep it for ourselves for extremely long periods of time. With relatively little financial expenditure we can practically conquer time and never throw away any digital information that we have ever possessed.

The continued development of cheaper and cheaper mass digital storage is very important in light of the fact that our society is generating and amassing enormous compilations of media and data. There are many different examples of this; I will point out two. In its few years of existence, the photo-sharing web site "www.flickr.com" reportedly has achieved an inventory of more than 3 billion photos as of November ("Flickr," 2008).   While I have been unable to find a source of the actual numbers, I believe that it is safe to say that the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration collects at least a thousand pieces of meteorological data every day from at least a thousand different locations across the United States. It is a hugely conservative estimate to presume that at least a million pieces of data are added daily to the NOAA archives. One should also add to this total the thousands of radar and satellite images that are generated daily. The quantities of information generated by just these two entities alone are immense.

The opportunity and potential disadvantages of the swelling expanses of digital information storage are similar to those related to the section on access. The difference lies in the fact that this vast information stream that is continually being created and aimed at humanity is also largely being indiscriminately being "pooled".   In addition, this pool of information is likely to persist and continue to grow exponentially for a long time into the future. The same issues of extraneous cognitive load and metacognitive direction of attention are now exacerbated by the need to enlist the help of search tools and strategies as well as large-scale analytical tools and strategies.

It will be a great challenge to equip students with the skills to use the tools and attitudes of discretion that they will need to efficiently prosper within this type of wild information environment. This will be addressed further in the next section on management.

Management.

The large storehouses of information mentioned previously can become unwieldy and difficult to use, even when it is in digital form. Today's information management tools can provide elegant means to not only search for various files by name, size, or creation date but also by the contents of the files themselves.
Other tools provide capabilities beyond search and furnish ways to group, analyze, and graphically visualize information in ways that were previously impossible. Discovery of patterns, correlations, and relationships are no longer primarily products of serendipity and of theories produced by individual flashes of genius as they have been in the past. Discoveries are becoming more and more frequently the result of technology-enabled designs and strategies that utilize high-speed computer processing cycles operating on enormous data sets (Anderson, 2008). In the hands of creative people these and other powerful tools can be used to combine, organize, and present information in forms that audiences can more easily grasp and understand.

As more and more information moves to being stored "in the cloud" (that is, stored in servers on the internet) and becomes searchable by the tools of Google and the like, there are important issues of access, privacy, and ownership that need to be considered. We continue to become incrementally more and more dependent upon these commercially owned storehouses and management tools, we risk losing control of the portion of this great sea of information that is individually ours.

Systems like Google Docs, Blogger, Facebook, Flickr, etc. are so convenient and powerful that we rarely direct much attention to the volumes of legal-speak that make up the site user agreements that we and our students so cavalierly "sign".   Many young people of this day and age have very little restraint when they put personal information, pictures, videos, and conversations into publicly available spaces that can be easily mined for good and for ill. Search and management tools are becoming powerful enough to help students organize information of all kinds into formats that enable their brains to create new knowledge. On the other hand, these highly accessible tools are also capable of assembling personally and financially damaging collections of information from the volumes of carelessly shared personal information that can be found on the internet.

We should see and communicate great promise in the information tools that are now available.   They offer promise to both researchers and students in the quests to discover and gain new schemas of knowledge.

Automation.

There are many difficult things that people can do very well.    Yet people generally have little patience for doing things again, and again, and again. Many repetitive, boring, and time-consuming tasks can be accomplished by computer-controlled systems. These systems can even accomplish these tasks more rapidly and reliably than humans. Systems with sophisticated design and complex logic can go beyond the performance of mundane tasks to functions approximating (at least imitating) some aspects of human intelligence.

While it will likely be quite some time before an automated system can pass a strenuous Turing-test, let alone take over the role of an instructor in an online class, there are still incremental ways that automated systems can facilitate learning. Smart systems can be designed to present students with information, assess their knowledge and skills, and then offer modified instruction based on the indicated level of progress.

Systems like this are fairly difficult to build and are usually constrained to multiple choice assessment formats. Nonetheless, these systems can provide positive supplementary feedback to students beyond what a "live" teacher can provide. In the absence of the ideal situation of a 1 to 1 tutoring environment with an expert teacher, automated systems can allow students to learn and practice outside the walls of their normal classroom. The student can apply cognitive processing cycles of attention to profitable instructional content without a living, breathing instructor being in the room.

There is also the possibility of email-triggered, web-based review systems that would help students to maintain knowledge that they have previously acquired.   Such a system could keep records of key concepts that individual students have acquired during previously conducted coursework and could provide regular reminder emails with links to online assessments that make use of that knowledge. Feedback on failures could be provided as well as additional maintenance assessments to further solidify the knowledge that the students are assumed to have.

Each of the services described above could also remove load from a teacher and allow them to direct more attention to students who need more live feedback and individual interaction.

Once created and distributed, automated system are much cheaper to maintain that live teachers. No salary, benefits, parking stalls, or cost of living increases are needed. I suppose that far down the road automated systems may achieve a sufficient level of sophistication to make it a temptation to reduce the number of teacher enlisted to educate our youth. While the presentation of content and and rudimentary feedback is possible to approximate, the emotional and motivational guidance that a live educator can provide can not be simulated and replaced.

Mobility.

Miniaturization of technological components, improvements in battery technology, and the common application of high-speed wireless information transfer have made extraordinary information tools commonplace in our pockets and laps. These relatively affordable devices are endued with the advantages of each of the previous four capabilities discussed earlier. With the developments that enable mobility these powerful tools are now able to be carried with the user for frequent and convenient use. They can be at the student's desk in the classroom, at the student's desk at home, alongside the student in the car, with the student at the school bus stop, and in the student's pocket during biking and skateboarding.

Ever-present devices, however, have ever-present potential for distraction. Portable devices used to support learning are powerful, yet they also are likely to contain or provide access to non-academic content that offers many chances for interruption of attention. At the best, the individual is distracted from their homework, at the worst they are distracted from the task of safely driving their automobile.

It is unlikely that mobile devices will be leaving us any time soon. They are most likely to become smaller, and lighter, less visibly obvious, and much, much more common.

Implications of These Developments
How are these five categories of ever-advancing technological capabilities   altering and improving the ways that people learn?   How can K-12 and higher education teachers be prepared to effectively utilize these technologies? These five areas of advancement provide a foundation onto which creative developers and instructional designers can generate lessons and instructional environments with capabilities that have previously not been available.

Perhaps no other subject area more broadly exemplifies the impact that emerging technologies can have on the learning process than language learning. In language learning, the ultimate goal would be to obtain the ability to conduct a fluent conversation with a native speaker of the targeted language.   While I am not a language teacher or even much of a student of languages beyond English, I do know that key aspects of language learning are acquisition of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation/inflection.

In the early years of life, children acquire language skills largely from a process of listening, imitating, and responding to feedback. While it is probably necessary to utilize a text book later in life when acquisition of a second language is sought, listening and imitating are still foundational strategies.
How can the information technology capabilities referred to earlier play a role in this process? In the paragraphs that follow, several different ideas for applying these tools are described.

With the capabilities that are now available in computers and more mobile devices, the student has the opportunity to be exposed to hour upon hour of native speakers of the target language. While this content will obviously not be completely understood initially by a new language learner, there are still constructs of familiarity that can be developed as rhythms and other patterns are heard repeatedly.

Today, nearly any digital text document can be easily transformed into an audio file that can be listened to on a computer or portable digital player. Students having difficulties in reading portions of text books or other documents could potentially have the content read to them in a way that is completely under their control.   It could be listened to as a standalone media format or be used in conjunction with a written copy that can be visually read as the audio is being played.

Audio and video recordings of formal language instruction can also be made and distributed to students and their devices through mediums such as podcasts. While there may be advantages of creating these files to allow students to review what has gone on in the classroom, a better strategy may be in order. Expecting students to view/listen to the presentation prior to class would free up actual class time for more interactive endeavors that would allow for more guided practice and face to face feedback.

While it is important for students to attend teacher-led sessions and pay attention to the activities and events that take place in the classroom, it is extremely important for individuals to spend time studying on their own. The student might spend time directing their attention to playlists that contain short audio files that pronounce various vocabulary words from the target language, allow a pause for wait time and thinking, and then the word pronounced in the learner's native language.   Common conversational phrases might be listened to in this same format, with thinking time followed by an appropriate conversational response.

Access to multitudes of native speakers through email and through live audio and video chat provide great opportunities for students to practice and receive authentic feedback on their conversational skills. The world probably has many people that have a desire to polish their English skills as well and are more than happy to practice conversing in their native tongue as long as they also get an opportunity to converse in English.

Online systems that offer instructional content to students, assess their understanding, and provide customized feedback are powerful possibilities for students seeking to acquire skills in a new language. Similar systems that prompt students to recall and maintain their language skills during time periods when they are not taking formal instruction are also possible.

Online text-based collaborative environments provide an opportunity for students to interact and give feedback to one another outside of the normal school day.   A question about a piece of translation homework that might not get immediately answered by the instructor may get answered by another student. Discussion boards and other asynchronous platforms give students an opportunity to work as a community without many of the physical and social constraints that may exist in a traditional learning environment.

These are just a few of the ways that new technological abilities can be applied to the task of language learning.   Many of these same principles can be applied in other content areas such as science, mathematics, history, and others.

Conclusion: The Next Generation of Instructors

When considering the role of technology in the future of education, instructors (professors included) must understand that the battle of learning is not primarily fought in our schools lecture halls and large group classrooms. Yes, there are great technological opportunities that can be made use of in the classroom by creative instructors, but making use of the mental processor "cycles" that students have available outside of class are the ones that must not be neglected. Setting the table and getting students to self-direct their attention toward appropriate practice activities is of paramount importance.

The students of this and the future age will become more and more geared toward interacting with information and media on small, personal screens (and ear-buds) that are completely under their control. Shaping instructional content to similarly convenient forms and formats in which they have similar levels of personal control is a strategy with a large upside of potential. Opportunities to repeat and control their exposure to instructional content really must be provided to the current and following generations of students.

As instructors, we must begin to move our minds from the all-powerful importance of the big classroom screen with the spectacular PowerPoint slide show to the inevitable significance of the small and tiny screens of laptops and portable digital devices. These devices will become only more commonplace as the capabilities that I have discussed here continue to develop at levels of scale that are likely to be exponential. The lives of students will be increasingly found "in the cloud" and on these small screens, instructors need to meet them there with instructional systems that they can find to be useful and with a modicum of commonsense wisdom to share.