FUTURE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTh t t p : / / f l e . u i a h . f i

Teemu Leinonenteemu.leinonen@mlab.uiah.fi

UIAH Media Lab, University of Art and Design Helsinki

Future Learning Environment R&D Project

Research Partners UIAH Media Lab, University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland Applied Cognitive Science Research Group, Dept. of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland Media Education Centre, University of Helsinki, Finland Savonlinna Dept. of Teacher Education, University of Joensuu, Finland

Industrial Partners Sonera Ltd (Telecom Finland) Grey Interactive Ltd WSOY Publishing Ltd Apple Computer Finland

Financing TEKES (Finnish Technology Development Centre) Finnish Ministry of Education Industrial & Research Partners

The Aims of the FLE-Project

To research and develop innovative ways of using new media in the field of collaborative learning

To develop a www platform supporting collaborative learning and thinking

To build new ways of sharing educational www based multimedia material

FLE Design Principles

Problem-based and inquiry learning Collaborative building of knowledge Collaborative design process Sharing of expertise

Problem-Based and Inquiry Learning

Shared knowledge advancement by members of a course

Questions and problems guide the process of progressive inquiry

New knowledge is constructed through solving problems of explanation and understanding

Collaborative Building of Knowledge

Questions and explanations derived from users’ own understanding and scientific information

Tools for working with knowledge objects like explanations, theories, hypothesis, and interpretations

Tools for monitoring the learning process

Collaborative Design Process

Engaging users to generate new design ideas Collaboratively work to further develop their

ideas Tools for sharing conceptual and visual design

ideas

Sharing of Expertise

Creating a learning community with shared goals

Support for expert-like processing of information

Multiple modules for representing user’s various fields of expertise

Tools for monitoring advancement of comprehension in scientific and design inquiry

Technical Background

What is FLE Server Software?

WWW-platform on the Internet for Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)

FLE-software can be accessed through Internet (TCP/IP) with any HTML 3.2 compliant browser e.g. Netscape Navigator 3 (or later)

Technical Background A Client/server system using www browsers, a www server,

application Server and a persistent storage (e.g. database) Programmed in an object oriented language called Python Scalable to a large number of concurrent users and transactions Freely available for non-commercial educational use,

commercial use licenses available for a fee Available as pre-compiled self-containing installations for

multiple platforms (1st quarter/2000) Most of the source code available for modification under a

request

Modules Presentation

FLE Modules

Virtual WebTop Knowledge Building Module Jam Session Module Library People Administration

The Virtual WebTop

The Virtual WebTop

A personal desktop in the environment

To store and share digital materials with fellow users

Access to evaluation tools

Access to thinking tools

Viewing and sending personal short messages

The Knowledge Building (KB) Module

The Knowledge Building (KB) Module

Shared space for discussion and conferencing

The discussion is constructed around the “Deep Principles” of the field

Messages posted to the database labeled with a “Category of Inquiry” reflecting a step in inquiry

Categories of scientific and design inquiry are default sets, other sets can be defined by course administrator

The Jam Session Module

The Jam Session Module

Experimentation with representation of ideas, concepts and sketches

Collaborative construction of digital artifacts

Storing different versions of objects being developed

Representing the elaboration process graphically

The Library

The Library

Shared documents in various formats: text, graphics, audio, video, multimedia, or www-links

Space to publish and browse multimedia learning materials

Allows tutor to select relevant parts for course material

The People

The People

User-database, information entered by user

Defining user-groups: basic users, tutors and system administrators

The Administration

The Administration

Creating new, removing and editing courses

Uploading and removing course materials

Adding new users and tutors, removing and editing access rights

History & Milestones

Background work for FLE project at UIAH Media Lab is carried out (9/97)

FLE-project received funding from Tekes, OPM and industrial partners, such as Sonera, Apple Finland and Grey Interactive (2/98)

FLE project is started at UIAH Media lab in co-operation with industrial partners and Dept of Psychology and Dept. of Media Education, University of Helsinki

Development of the FLE software prototype (v.1.0) is started in close cooperation with the industrial partners (4/98)

FLE software (v.1.0) goes into limited testing at university level cases

FLE software (v.1.0) evaluated by Dept. of Psychology and Dept. of Media Education, University of Helsinki (9/98)

First learning evaluation results are presented at international conferences during 1999

FLE software (v.2.0) development is started to make the software freely available for educational use in the future (6/99)

Development on a new freely available software code for FLE Modules started at UIAH Media Lab with the cooperation of GMD, Germany

FLE and Progressive Inquiry

Elements of Progressive Inquiry[Hakkarainen 1998]

Setting up Research Questions

Creating the Context

Constructing Working Theories

Critical Evaluation

Searching Deepening KnowledgeGenerating Subordinate

Questions

Developing New Working Theories

Distributed Expertise

Creating Context

Anchoring central conceptual principles of the domain of knowledge

Establishing the learning community Joint planning and setting up of goals

Setting up Research Questions

Generating problems and questions to direct the inquiry Studying is a problem solving process Large initial questions get more defined in the process

Constructing Working Theories

Phenomena are explained with existing background knowledge

Creates a culture for writing about own thinking and reasoning

Intended to make gaps in own knowledge and understanding more explicit

Critical Evaluation Assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of

different explanations and approaches Helps the learning community to direct and regulate

joint cognitive efforts Evaluation of what knowledge and skills are needed in

the inquiry process

Searching Deepening Knowledge

The questions and working theories direct the search for more information and answers

Generating Subordinate Questions

Transformation of initial general and unspecific questions into more specific questions

Focusing inquiry to specific research questions

Constructing New Working Theories

New theories built on own explanations and deepening scientific knowledge

Summaries of own and shared learning

Shared Expertise

Relying on socially distributed cognitive resources Diversity in expertise among course participants promotes

knowledge advancement

FLE and Design Process

Design Process and Distributed Expertise[Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, 1998]

Defining the Design Task

Design Context

Creating a Working Idea

Critical Evaluation

Searching Deepening Knowledge

Redefining the Design Task

Developing New Working Ideas

Distributed Expertise

Design Context

Anchoring

Defining the Design Task

Generating

Creating a Working Idea

Phenomena

Critical Evaluation

Assessment

Searching Deepening Knowledge

The questions and working theories direct the search for more information and answers

Redefining Design Task

Transformation

Developing New Working Ideas

New theories

Shared Expertise

Relying on socially distributed cognitive resources Diversity in expertise among course participants promotes

knowledge advancement

Knowledge-Building in Design Process[Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, 1998]

Constraints

Composition SpaceConstruction Space

Case: Prematurely Born Babies

Collaborative Cloth-Design Project’s Organization

Co-ordinating teachers: FLE-teacher Pirita Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, Course Organizatior

Päivi Aikasalo, Visual Art Teacher Tarja Salo

Students: 34 first-year textile students

Partners: The Association of The Friends of The University Children’s

Hospital in Finland & Helsinki University Hospital (Department of Prematurely Born Babies) & Nanso co.

Design Process Consists of Four Basic Stages:

Knowledge building and visual design

Prototype making

Testing of prototype in hospital

Production procedure design

The Jam Session Module

The Jam Session Module

The Knowledge Building (KB) Module

The Knowledge Building (KB) Module

Conclusions

Empirical Conclusions

Encouraging empirical evidence for implementation of progressive inquiry

Support for explication and externalization of conceptions and thinking

Sharing of understanding and learning

Pedagogical Conclusions

Emphasis on the need to produce arguments and discuss research findings from sciences

Importance of establishing a learning community with authentic goal

Tutor’s participation important for introducing scaffolds for collaboration

Project Future

Current Tekes funded project will continue till the end of 1999 after which all the findings and results will be freely available from the project web site

The software development will continue on two separate tracks as independent, but collaborating projects

Sonera will offer a commercial version of their own www based learning software based on some of the ideas in FLE -project

UIAH Media Lab, Dept. of Psychology and other academic parties will continue to develop the pedagogical and cognitive underpinnings of the FLE framework

UIAH Media Lab in collaboration with academic partners will develop and release

an open source second generation FLE software free for non-commercial educational use

The second generation FLE software will be tested and evaluated in various schools and universities throughout Europe

FUTURE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTw w w . f l e . u i a h . f i

Etunimi Sukuniminimi@mlab.uiah.fi

UIAH Media Lab, University of Art and Design Helsinki