Learning Research Group Research Articles

Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) Use Of Physics Learning Research Group (PLRG) Simulator To Increase Concept Mastery

Perkembangan Teknologi Informasi dan Komunikasi (TIK) telah memberikan kontribusi yang signifikan dalam bidang pendidikan. Pembelajaran yang lebih individual dan fleksibel dengan penekanan pada metode instruksi sedang menjadi tren yang berkembang di seluruh dunia. Penelitian ini menekankan pada penggunaan komputer dalam proses belajar mengajar untuk memberikan instruksi dalam situasi kelas. Model Pembelajaran CAI berbantuan Physics Learning Research Group (PLRG) simulator digunakan untuk meningkatkan penguasaan konsep siswa. PLRG simulator menekankan konsep fisika berbasis penyelidikan ilmiah bagi siswa sekolah dasar hingga perguruan tinggi. Populasi yang digunakan adalah siswa kelas X Sekolah Menengah Atas (SMA). Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, disimpulkan bahwa Model Pembelajaran CAI berbantuan Physics Learning Research Group (PLRG) simulator dapat meningkatkan penguasaan konsep siswa. Hal ini ditunjukkan oleh nilai N-gain yang diperoleh oleh siswa pada kelas eksperimen. Peningkatan kemampuan penguasaan konsep siswa rata-rata berada pada kategori sedang.Kata kunci: Model Pembelajaran CAI, PLRG Simulator, dan Penguasaan Konsep The development of information and communication technology has contributed significantly in education. More individual and flexible learning with an emphasis on instruction methods is becoming a growing trend throughout the world. This study emphasizes the use of computers in the teaching and learning process to provide instruction in classroom situations. The CAI learning model used of the Physics Learning Research Group (PLRG) simulator is used to improve the mastery of students' concepts. PLRG simulators emphasize the concept of physics based on scientific inquiry for elementary school to college students. The population used is students of class X High School. Based on the results of the study, it was concluded that the CAI Learning Model use of Physics Learning Research Group (PLRG) simulator could improve the mastery of students' concepts. This is indicated by the N-gain values obtained by the students in the experimental class. The improvement of students' concept mastery ability is on average in the medium category.Keywords: CAI Learning Model, PLRG Simulator, and Concept Mastery

IT Innovative Practices in Secondary Schools: Remote Experiments [Book News

This book presents an overview of how to apply emerging and innovative technologies in industrial electronics teaching and learning processes. It deals specifically with remote labs for secondary schools and was written by key researchers in cooperation with editors Olga Dziabenko and Javier García-Zubía from the DeustoTech Learning Research Group, University of Deusto. The publishing was supported by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union project OLAREX: Open Learning Approach with Remote Experiments. The editors apply information and communications technology (ICT) modern trends to education with an emphasis on secondary and primary levels. The textbook brings together individuals and teams from a wide range of technology and education fields to look into the future and to share visions and ideas about the use of learning experiences and educational technologies in the science classroom of the future. It includes a rich collection of examples of futuristic scenarios. Extended pilot implementations are presented and discussed in detail. The text is divided in three main sections and 13 chapters.

Expansão do Ensino Superior: panorama, análises e diagnósticos do curso de licenciatura em Física a distância da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina doi: 10.5007/2175-7941.2010v27n3p528

A rapid growth in the offer of higher education courses through distanceeducation has been observed in the past fifteen years in Brazil. It is increasingamong public universities due to the lack of high school teachers and in thepossibility of expanding the universities towards remote areas. In this article, wepresent an overview of the public universities growth in the last fifteen years, theimplementation context of the first physics teachers´ graduation course taught bydistance education at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) as well as theevaluation and accomplishing work performed by the Distance Learning ResearchGroup named NUPA.

Researching Computers and Learning: CALRG 30th Anniversary Issue

Welcome to this special issue of JIME which resulted from the 30th Anniversary conference of the Computers and Learning Research Group (CALRG - http://kn.open.ac.uk/calrg) at the Open University.

Lost and found in transition: the professional journey of teacher educators

This paper considers the professional development of a group of 75 primary and secondary teachers in Melbourne, Victoria, who had been charged with the responsibility of leading the professional learning of their colleagues in their schools. To support these leaders of professional learning in their roles, the Victorian state government’s Department of Education and Early Childhood Development contracted members of the Pedagogy and Professional Learning Research Group at Monash University to develop and implement an appropriate Professional Learning program. The Leading Professional Learning (LPL) program ran for seven months and consisted of a series of four face‐to‐face workshops that were sustained through the formation of peer networks. Each participant in the program was responsible for designing and implementing a school‐specific professional learning project appropriate to their school setting. At the final workshop in the LPL program, participants reflected on and recorded their learning through the formalised process of case writing. Their cases were published in a book of Cases of Professional Dilemmas and form the basis of the data‐sets that have been used to research participants’ learning about leading the professional learning of their colleagues. As a consequence, this paper offers interesting insights into the journey of these educators of teachers as they have developed deeper understandings of what it means to be a teacher educator.

Exploring the Dialectic: An Interview with James P. Lantolf

James Lantolf has become identified with the sociocultural approach to second language acquisition, as developed from the original ideas of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) and others. His introductory essays in Lantolf and Appel (1994) and Lantolf (2000) are widely cited essential digests of the basic principles and concepts of this theoretical paradigm. Professor Lantolf is Greer Professor in Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics; Director of the Center for Language Acquisition; and Co–Director of CALPER (Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research) at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Lantolf is also the founder of the Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning Research Group, which began to meet in 1993. His dozens of publications include three seminal volumes on sociocultural theory: the two collections of articles mentioned above, and a new book, Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development (2006, coauthor Steven L. Thorne) published by Oxford University Press.

Exploring the Dialectic: An Interview with James P. Lantolf

James Lantolf has become identified with the sociocultural approach to second language acquisition, as developed from the original ideas of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) and others. His introductory essays in Lantolf and Appel (1994) and Lantolf (2000) are widely cited essential digests of the basic principles and concepts of this theoretical paradigm. Professor Lantolf is Greer Professor in Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics; Director of the Center for Language Acquisition; and Co–Director of CALPER (Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research) at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Lantolf is also the founder of the Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning Research Group, which began to meet in 1993. His dozens of publications include three seminal volumes on sociocultural theory: the two collections of articles mentioned above, and a new book, Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development (2006, coauthor Steven L. Thorne) published by Oxford University Press.

Enriching accounts of computer-supported collaboration by using video data

This paper will discuss the approach to the evaluation of computer-supported collaborative learning developed in our group over the past ten years. This approach depends on the collection of video data to allow the analysis of key features of problemsolving behaviour within groups of students working on collaborative learning tasks. Our theoretical framework derives from two sources- the CIAOl framework for evaluating examples of CAL and an analysis of appropriate methods of evaluating computersupported collaboration. Our work in this area has been supported by developing the data capture facilities for the CALRG (Computers and Learning Research Group) at the Open University. We will draw on a number of studies to illustrate this approach and will present a brief case study from work done on a computer-supported learning environment for statistics where we use video records of video-mediated collaboration. This case study gives an example of the rich data that can be collected using video recording and analysed to increase understanding of computer-supported collaboration.DOI:10.1080/0968776030110202

Enriching accounts of computer-supported collaboration by using video data

This paper will discuss the approach to the evaluation of computer-supported collaborative learning developed in our group over the past ten years. This approach depends on the collection of video data to allow the analysis of key features of problemsolving behaviour within groups of students working on collaborative learning tasks. Our theoretical framework derives from two sources- the CIAOl framework for evaluating examples of CAL and an analysis of appropriate methods of evaluating computersupported collaboration. Our work in this area has been supported by developing the data capture facilities for the CALRG (Computers and Learning Research Group) at the Open University. We will draw on a number of studies to illustrate this approach and will present a brief case study from work done on a computer-supported learning environment for statistics where we use video records of video-mediated collaboration. This case study gives an example of the rich data that can be collected using video recording and analysed to increase understanding of computer-supported collaboration.DOI:10.1080/0968776030110202

Special Issue on Theory for Learning Technologies: Editorial

<div class="abstract_container"> <strong>Abstract:</strong> The history of this issue can really be traced back to an annual internal conference of the <a href="http://iet.open.ac.uk/research/calrg/home.cfm" target="xref">Computers and Learning Research Group</a> at the Open University. I had been invited to attend as a discussant, and as I listened to the papers, I was struck by the diversity of theories that people were drawing upon, and the very different ways in which they were using them. For some, a theory was a touchstone, a guiding set of principles, the foundation on which their work built. For others, theories were tools, and the important thing was having the right one for the job. What, I wondered, was the right way to use theory here? Should we believe in them, live them, and risk being dogmatic — or should we be pluralistic, tied to none, and risk being superficial? </div> <p class="editors_container"> <strong>Editors:</strong> <A href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/epd/profiles/mo.html" target=xref>Martin Oliver</A> (UC London, UK) (Guest Editor)

Apprentissage et culture informatique : l'approche du Centre Mondial de l'Informatique et Ressource Humaine

This paper presents the Centre Mondial and its various projects in the field of education. Among the Centre's activities : computer literacy programs, development of educational software, dissemination of information concerning available software. A learning research group is investigating the use of the computer as facilitator in the learning process and has developed a methodology for the evaluation of the use of computer in schools.

Rosetta Smalltalk

Rosetta Smalltalk is a personal information handling environment for low-cost microcomputers based on the work of the Learning Research Group at Xerox PARC. Our prototype runs on two different Z-80 based personal computers. The major goals of the system are to support a lively interactive style of working and to provide an open-ended medium in which personalized tools may easily be constructed. Rather than write monolithic programs, the user extends the language with new objects and syntax. He then solves his problems by interacting with his extensions at the keyboard. Multiple independent CRT windows permit several partially completed interactions to be displayed at once.All facilities in Rosetta Smalltalk are represented by objects , which are instances of Simulalike classes. Objects are not operated on directly, but are sent messages requesting them to perform actions and return replies. The language is extended by creating new classes and by adding new messages to existing classes.

Educational uses of a dynabook

The Dynabook personal computing concept, as introduced by the Xerox Learning Research Group (LRG) in the early 1970's, is a new communications tool based on the retrieval of dynamic information. Implementing the Dynabook concept is requiring several stages of computer hardware and software development. At each stage of developing an experimental (or ‘interim Dynabook’) system, we are studying its use for educational purposes by conducting computer programming classes for children ranging in age from 6 to 15 years and by implementing a number of laboratory situations for particular subject areas. Preliminary results of our studies have demonstrated the ease with which we can teach programming when it involves the combination of existing instructions in order to cause some computer-based effect. But more than the ability to combine existing instructions is needed in order to invent and construct a generally useful tool such as a graphical layout system or a text editor. These involve skills we typically associate with expert designers. Many of these skills are teachable, especially with the instructional assistance of a personal computer. Supported by several examples of laboratory situations that we have implemented, we propose a design curriculum based on three conceptual areas: process, symbolic representation, and methods of interpretation, especially with respect to the use of information retrieval as an aid in decision making. In the examples we have chosen to describe, the design skills exercised are: simple and conditional sequencing, rule or constraint specification, hypothesis testing and modelling. The particular situations cited are: programming in Smalltalk, computer-based animation, GameX (a game that involves programming by rule specification). ThingLab (a laboratory for describing physical or geometric objects) and a ‘kit’ for assembling event-driven simulations.

Personal Dynamic Media

The Learning Research Group at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center is concerned with all aspects of the communication and manipulation of knowledge. We design, build, and use dynamic media which can be used by human beings of all ages. Several years ago, we crystallized our dreams into a design idea for a personal dynamic medium the size of a notebook (the Dynabook) which could be owned by everyone and could have the power to handle virtually all of its owner's information-related needs. Towards this goal we have designed and built a communications system: the Smalltalk language, implemented on small computers we refer to as "interim Dynabooks." We are exploring the use of this system as a programming and problem solving tool; as an interactive memory for the storage and manipulation of data; as a text editor; and as a medium for expression through drawing, painting, animating pictures, and composing and generating music. (Figure 1 is a view of this interim Dynabook.)