Out there and in here: design for blended scientific inquiry learning

One of the benefits of mobile technologies is to combine ‘the digital’ (e.g., data, information, photos) with ‘field’ experiences in novel ways that are contextualized by people’s current located activities. However, often cost, mobility disabilities and time exclude students from engaging in such peripatetic experiences. The Out There and In Here project, is exploring a combination of mobile and tabletop technologies in support for collaborative learning. A system is being developed for synchronous collaboration between geology students in the field and peers at an indoor location. The overarching goal of this research is to develop technologies that support people working together in a suitable manner for their locations. There are two OTIH project research threads. The first deals with disabled learner access issues: these complex issues are being reviewed in subsequent evaluations and publications. This paper will deal with issues of technology supported learning design for remote and co-located science learners. Several stakeholder evaluations and two field trials have reviewed two research questions: 1. What will enhance the learning experience for those in the field and laboratory? 2. How can learning trajectories and appropriate technologies be designed to support equitable co-located and remote learning collaboration? This paper focuses on describing the iterative linked development of technologies and scientific inquiry pedagogy. Two stages within the research project are presented. The 1st stage details several pilot studies over 3 years with 21 student participants in synchronous collaborations with traditional technology and pedagogical models. Findings revealed that this was an engaging and useful experience although issues of equity in collaboration needed further research. The 2nd stage, in this project, has been to evaluate data from over 25 stakeholders (academics, learning and technology designers) to develop pervasive ambient technological solutions supporting orchestration of mixed levels of pedagogy (i.e. abstract synthesis to specific investigation). Middleware between tabletop ‘surface’ technologies and mobile devices are being designed with Microsoft and OOKL (a mobile software company) to support these developments. Initial findings reveal issues around equity, ownership and professional identity

The Rhetoric of Physicians: a Field Study of Communication With Colleagues and Patients.

The purpose of this field study is to provide a descriptive analysis of the rhetoric of physicians (1) as they communicate with their colleagues, and (2) as they communicate with their patients. To obtain the first objective the oral presentations made during weekly conferences by the surgeons at a major hospital were observed for ten a\u3enths. The physicians\u27 rhetorical training, experience, speech philosophy, and preparation are considered as well as the occasion of the speeches and an analysis of the audience. The speeches are evaluated according to their invention, structure, style, and delivery. The second objective of the study, an analysis of the communication between doctors and their patients was reached by means of observations, interviews, and questiori..Daires. The results of this study indicate that the patients are willing to accept the surgeon\u27s title as sufficient credentials to obey his directives without question. By the same reasoning, the surgeons themselves often seem to expect their colleagues to accept their judgment without asking for documentation. While the doctors are less hesitant in admitting mistakes and controversies concerning treatment to their colleagues than to their patients, they effectively reason that the patients\u27 awareness of such problems would be detrimental to the 1,a1:ients\u27 welfare. The surgeons demonstrate confidence in their own judgment before their colleagues and their patients but many of them lack the fluency and ease of manner whi.ch usually accompany such self-confidence in their formal speaking. The patients interviewed, for the most part, were satisfied with their co-.mication with their surgeon. Explanations for this satisfaction included such characteristics as the doctor\u27s \u27\u27bedside manner, best illustrated by his demonstration of concern for them as individuals. The doctor gives verbal support to the principle that the patient has the right to know about his condition and treatment. Nevertheless, they are not always completely willing to disclose all possible information to the terminally ill, to some patients scheduled for operations, and under some circumstances, when a difference of opinion between doctors exist. The patient, on the other hand, reports a desire for all details but seems willing to wait for the surgeon to volunteer that information rather than to ask questions

African American Women Teachers’ Motivation to Stay in the Profession

Teacher attrition contributes to teacher shortages in public school systems throughout the United States. Some teachers leave the profession because of low salary, job dissatisfaction, lack of administrative support, and infrequent professional autonomy. Researchers have focused on attrition from the perspective of why teachers leave the profession. However, in current literature little is known about what motivates teachers to remain in the profession, including their race and gender. The purpose of this study was to explore African American women middle school teachers’ motivation to stay in the profession. In this study, self-determination theory was used as the theoretical framework to address motivation and its various components. Ten African American women teachers at public middle schools in North Carolina voluntarily participated in this study. Participants’ voice and perspectives were sought in individual face-to-face interviews to understand their lived teaching experience. This phenomenological investigation explicates the experiences of African American women teachers using an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). IPA was used to aid in explaining and describing African American women teachers’ motivation. A thematic analysis was used to analyze data. The themes that emerged were motivation, inspired by others, support, and challenges. This indicated that African American women middle school teachers were motivated by their self-determination to be a teacher. The implication for positive social change is the development of policies that support teachers professionally and financially to remain in educatio

Enabling live dialogic and collaborative learning between field and indoor contexts

This paper explores how field and indoor based students can be connected so that their contrasting circumstances and capabilities are used as a basis for learning. We describe the design of the ‘Out There and In Here’ system and activity. Using naturalistic evaluations in the context of higher education earth science, we find evidence that this approach can be beneficial in developing essential skills, by supporting dialogue and collaboration across diverse contexts. This provokes novel forms of reflection and motivation, and could inspire a new generation of learning tools combining mobile and collaborative technologies. We discuss important issues in this design space, such as asymmetrical dependencies and structures for dialogic and collaborative learning

Effects of Youth Tobacco Access and Possession Policy Interventions on Heavy Adolescent Smokers

This study evaluated the effects of tobacco PUP (Purchase, Use and Possession) laws on tobacco use patterns among students in twenty-four towns, which were randomly assigned into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group involved both PUP law enforcement and reducing minors’ access to commercial sources of tobacco, and the condition for the control group involved only efforts to reduce minors’ access to commercial sources of tobacco. The present study found that adolescents in the control group had a significantly greater increase in the percentage of youth who smoked 20 or more cigarettes per day when compared to the experimental group

DataMoves:Entangling data and movement to support computer science education

In the domain of computing education for children, much work has been done to devise creative and engaging methods of teaching about programming. However, there are many other fundamental aspects of computing that have so far received relatively less attention. This work explores how the topics of number systems and data representation can be taught in a way that piques curiosity and captures learners’ imaginations. Specifically, we present the design of two interactive physical computing artefacts, which we collectively call DataMoves, that enable students, 12-14 years old, to explore number systems and data through embodied movement and dance. Our evaluation of DataMoves, used in tandem with other pedagogical methods, demonstrates that the form of embodied, exploration-based learning adopted has much potential for deepening students’ understandings of computing topics, as well as for shaping positive perceptions of topics that are traditionally considered boring and dull