Center for LifeLong Learning and Design (L³D)

Two cartoons from a 1995 NSF presentation [18] by Gerhard Fischer, Center for LifeLong Learning and Design (L³D) [19], University of Colorado at Boulder, provide simple schematics of both the current state and needed future of education within an increasingly technical society.

  

Figure 2: The Standard Model

Fischer first notes that most technology `utilization' within K-12 is simply `Gift Wrapping', as illustrated in Fig.(2). The Internet, WWW and desktop publishing may well be faster and tidier than old fashioned scissors and paste, but they do little to advance real educational practices beyond the standards of the past decades. This is also the essence of Bereiter's complaint at the beginning of this section. Even the more nominally enlightened uses of educational technology, such as intelligent tutoring systems and computer-based training modules, do little to advance an educational system that is still entrenched in curricula memorization, decontextualized rote learning, and exam performance standards.

The first step in proper technology utilization is likely a big step back to reassess the entire education process itself. A significant, recurring theme in contemporary cognitive science is the recognition of knowledge as a process, and not as a commodity which is transferred from one receptacle (e.g. a textbook) to another (a student's mind). Knowledge is developed - indeed defined - through the discourse of people doing things together. The structured old way of Fig.(2) is replaced by a dynamic, reengineered, and partially ill-defined educational dialogue, as indicated schematically in Fig.(3). In essentially all implementations of the redesign of Fig.(3) the role of teachers changes from truth-tellers to coaches, mentors, and even co-learners. (This is often described as replacing the `Sage on Stage' by the `Guide on the Side'.)

  

Figure 3: Beyond Standards

The real meaning of Fig.(3) is, of course, vague and the subject of considerable ongoing research. Knowledge discovery through discourse is seen to an essential component, although this is not possible without some underlying, structured framework. (An interesting, albeit somewhat simplified `Three Courses' picture of authoritative, dialogical, and diffused discourse is presented by Sidorkin in Ref.[21].)

In Ref.[20], Fischer considers a number of issues related to learning not only in the traditional school context but also from the broader picture of a lifelong process. In order to train students for the continuous (re)learning demands of contemporary careers, the education process should reflect the nature of learning demands within the workplace, including:

• Learning should take place in the context of authentic, complex problems.
• Learning should be embedded in the pursuit of intrinsically rewarding activities.
• Collaborative learning must be supported.
• Skills for `learning-on-demand' must be developed.
• Learning happens in doing. Real learning most often happens in trying, getting stuck, and finding some resolution.

All of the items in this `Life Long Learning Litany' are relevant, but it is perhaps the last one which should be noted most from the perspective of Hrothgar IE design. One need only count the hours adolescents will willingly spend trying to outsmart a recalcitrant troll in some interactive fantasy game in order to appreciate the learning opportunities available through (appropriate) failures. Hrothgar IE should certainly create and pursue instances of `controlled frustration' as genuine learning opportunities.

  

Figure 4: Levels of Educational Computing

Finally, it is useful to extend the right-hand caption of Fig.(3) into a more hierarchical view of computers in the `Education of the Future', as shown in Fig.(4). Basic desktop publishing applications are in the support category, as are the data collection and plotting packages used extensively within Caltech's Project S.E.E.D. Other programs more directly related to knowledge creation activities might be classified as mediating new knowledge (a properly used word processor is a key example here). At the extreme end are activities which are simply not feasible without a significant computational framework. This last category is becoming increasingly common in research and industry, but is still largely unknown in the K-12 world. In this regard, Hrothgar IE can be viewed as a specific campaign to demonstrate the utility of the last bubble.