Take it, Prensky

This week we discussed 2B or Not 2B? From Pencil to Multimodal Programming: New Frontiers in Communicative Competencies by Lotherington and Ronda, 2014. The following passage stuck out to me as being so honest and so true, and made me react with "Yeah, that's right! Take it, Prensky!". 

There is no speaker native to the virtual world, and the concept of digital native (Prensky, 2001), which assigns innate expertise by birthright, is both dated and ageist. Digital competencies are socially learned, not innately developed (p. 21, Lotherington & Ronda, 2014). 

We've  discussed the terms digital native and digital immigrant as a class, and generally agreed the terms are offensive for a number of reasons. First, as L&R point out, they are dated and ageist terms. Secondly, especially today, the word immigrant has such negative and racist connotations, it doesn't adequately convey the attributes of someone who is learning a new skill set: naïveté and continuous improvement. Third, the choice of labeling individuals as one of two end members is a narrow-minded generalization. Digital competency is a spectrum of digital familiarity, confidence, exposure, and practice, all of which increase over time or with continuous dedication. Sure, kids who grow up playing with an iPhone are going to take to similar technologies because it became second nature to them over time, and with lots of practice (screen hours). But I agree with L&R, that children these days do not have an "innate expertise by birthright". I feel lucky to have a bit of a head start on learning to type at a young age and having a shared computer in my house at about 5th grade. But I know I know more about computers and technology than "kids these days".


I'm reminded of a TED talk I saw about Sugata Mutra, an educational researcher who installed a computer in a hole in the side of a wall on the edge of a slum outside New Delhi, India where children grow up without access to technology. He filmed their curiosity and progress of learning and teaching each other to use the computer. There are a couple different videos about his "School in the Cloud" idea, but here's one. I found it quite interesting that no matter the language, the children could learn to use the computer. Mutra's Hole in the Wall studies remind us that children are fearless and naturally curious, something Neil deGrass Tyson has talked about in terms of science and technology.

3D video chatting -- future cultural experiences and exchanges

In class, we talked about cultural exchanges and interactive cultural experiences as being almost as good as studying abroad, but generally more affordable. For only $900, you can have an immersive virtual reality environment :D (that's an estimate for 3 kinect cameras and an oculus rift, like the setup in the video below). Something else we talked about in class is how awkward Skype/video conference calls and lectures can be -- you don't know where to look. You end up looking at the video feed of yourself, or the camera, but then you're not looking at a person, you're looking at your computer. It's not a realistic interaction with another human. You can hear them, but you're not really with them. The thing that's really cool about video chatting with another person who's using the oculus rift is you can make eye contact with that person. You can both move through the same virtual reality construct (second life, a VR enviroment I hadn't heard of till I read it in Kayla's blog), or collaboratively look at data with a colleague (that's what I've thought about using it for). 

We live in the future.
Oliver Kreylos (@okreylos) is a very smart and clever scientist -- he's designed all the virtual reality software I've used to create 3D movies of my carbon isotope data sets to explore ocean circulation changes across ice ages. I hope to be able to collaborate with my colleagues using a kinect camera/oculus rift setup to look at data in a video call -- people can explore the same data, and make measurements, all remotely. Below, he demonstrates what 3D videoconferencing looks like in a virtual office using an oculus rift, and 3 kinect cameras set up on tripods in the shape of an equilateral triangle. He talks about his brain being tricked by the virtual table, that he wants to lean on the table, and he can't help but move his legs out of the way of the virtual table leg.



In this video, Oliver is building a molecule in the 3D virtual reality cave (KECKCaves at UC Davis), then watching that 3D video playback in the Cave with the oculus rift...mind blown.



For an immersive cultural experience, this sort of system would be ideal for the language class room. Cultural exchanges could be carried out in 3D where students could have L2 conversations with native speakers, and explore virtual worlds with second life for C2 experiences. One kinect camera would work for a low-tech 3D experience -- the only visible part would be what the camera is pointed at (i.e., the front of your body, but the back of your body would look like a gray shell). I worry that the high cost of this technology might be hard for educators to come by -- it seems like funding agencies aren't too keen on shelling out $$$ for 3D immersive "toys and gadgets" cause they don't fully realize the value as an educational tool, and not just for gaming-fun-time. We live in a 3D world -- our remote collaborations and interactions should seem just as real.

Just for fun: augmented reality sandbox where you can build hills and valleys, elevation lines (contour lines) are projected onto the sand surface, and virtual water flows according to shallow water equations of Saint-Venant. These sandboxes are starting to be used as a teaching demonstration tool, especially for science outreach at schools.

Internet cultural experience? Tangent on augmented reality

This is a new idea for me -- learning and exploring culture through the Internet. Of course, we use the Internet to find information like photos, videos, music, and words that are some aspects of culture, but what about the parts of culture that can't be transmitted through the Internet, like food? I suppose you can share recipes via the interwebs, but that's not the same as experiencing a meal with friends. Although you can learn a lot about culture through the Internet, I can't think of an experience comparable to physically immersing yourself in another culture: seeing the buildings in a city, smelling the city ;-) (^_~) and food, hearing native speakers communicating with one another, observing mannerisms, seeing how people live (and living among them), etc.

I have an American geologist friend who just moved to England to start a Post Doc at Oxford, and he recently tweeted the following: 

Hardest part so far is training myself not to step to the wrong side when encountering ppl in halls and sidewalks. That and learning coins.

 You can learn (in books, or the Internet) that in England, they drive on "the other side" of the road, which causes people to walk through halls and around corners in the same pattern, but it might not sink in that it is a cultural norm to hug the left side of a hallway when going around a corner until you yourself smack head on into a stranger! Similarly, you're not going to feel that panic when you're trying to buy a snack, and you're holding a handful of British pound coins and realize you don't know which coin is for which denomination unless you're in that situation in real life (unless someone designs a game or some type of virtual reality environment where you're shopping in England, which would be weird, but kinda cool?). The Internet is not a substitute for reality, but it can be used as a powerful learning tool...more as a primer for a "real" cultural experience where you're physically present.

On the flip side, this brings augmented reality to mind...some of you might be familiar with Google glass, just one example of augmented reality. There are different definitions and examples of augmented reality, but let's look to wikipedia for a definition:

Augmented reality (AR) is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements areaugmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPSdata.

I think about it like this: 

Artificial information about the environment and its objects can be overlaid on the real world.

Let's say you visit Pompeii, and you know people who lived there a long time ago died because a nearby volcanic eruption rained down loads of fiery ash on the former city, but you don't know a lot about the details, and you want to learn more. Instead of just looking up information online, you can use an app for your smartphone or tablet that gives additional information about a place or an object. You point your phone at some mural or skeleton, and information about the it will come up on your phone, like a virtual "informational placard" which enables you to learn more. 

When I visited Pompeii alone a year or so ago, I somehow missed the informational maps, so I was wandering around the city, reading the few placards they had around the sites, but absorbing very few facts about the things I was looking at. If I'd had access to some augmented reality app, I could have learned more while physically being immersed in the culture of Pompeii...from most parts of the ancient city, you can see Mt. Vesuvio looming in the distance, an ominous reminder of the fate of those unlucky Pompeiians. 

But there are more details to learn -- archaeologists and anthropologists have been able to figure out who was who in Pompeii, from merchants to rich folks. The benefit to augmented reality is you can teach yourself at your own pace without having to use "the map" or hiring a docent to walk you through the ruins -- you choose what additional information you access. Additionally, you save time and effort because you're not stumbling upon Googling the right phrase to learn about the thing you're looking at. Actually visiting a cultural landmark is superior to learning about it on the Internet -- but technology, like the Internet and augmented reality, can help people learn more, and enhance cultural experiences.

An Earth science lesson idea -- inspiration from thinking about multiliteracies and digital literacy

This quarter, I’m teaching Introductory Oceanography, a general education class at UCSB, so I’m constantly looking for new, relevant stories in science, as well as neat technology and media to use in the classroom to engage students and enhance learning. I recently came across this website http://earth.nullschool.net/ with some really sexy visualizations of “current” atmospheric and ocean circulation that I want to use in the classroom. I think it would be an effective tool to demonstrate atmospheric circulation, winds, ocean circulation, or waves, either in a lecture setting, or as a group work lab assignment. Teachers can let students play around with visualization of atmospheric wind velocities at different heights in the atmosphere, ocean surface circulation or waves, and sea surface temperature anomalies relative to the average across years 1981-2011.

One timely example is to investigate air travel times between New York City and London by exploring the wind velocity visualization at 250 hPa to observe the speed of the winds at ~10,500 m above Earth’s surface, the height of the jet stream in the atmosphere. Students could record the wind velocity from the Earth visualization, and use the travel distance between NYC and London to calculate the travel time of a jet flying in the same direction as the jet stream. How might the travel time change when a jet is flying in the headwind of the jet stream? Would the flight path be altered in consideration of a strong jet stream?

...and check this out, somebody has already used this visualization tool to enhance this "screamin jet stream" story http://www.iflscience.com/environment/commercial-plane-reaches-near-supersonic-speeds-during-flight-london

What is multiliteracy and how can it be used to enhance pedagogy?

Literacy is about making sense of the world (or the part of the world you have been exposed to). Multiliteracy is a way of interpreting things (e.g., the world, conversations, concepts, etc.) by utilizing contextual information and oral, audio, visual, tactile, and spatial patterns to understand things (e.g., culture and language). Students are more likely to retain information presented to them in a variety of modes (audio, visual, relatable, etc.), therefore, using multiliterate modes of teaching can greatly enhance classroom learning. Designing coursework around peoples’ varied life experiences, cultural backgrounds, and other aspects can enhance a class’ potential for preserving new learned things. Additionally, technology, multimedia, and internet resources can broaden the scope of contexts and examples a teacher can draw from for lessons. Using technology and software with real data can be a great way to tap into the multiliterate potential of Earth science students by breaking up the monotony of traditional lecture-style classes by varying modes of instruction.

One way to connect with a class might be for a teacher to gather demographic information about their students through an anonymous poll to learn how to include examples relevant to students’ interests, hobbies, where they grew up, where they’ve traveled to, etc. In an Earth science class, like an introductory geology course, a teacher could include examples of local geology, providing pictures or video, to enhance topics. Software like Google Earth allows students to explore the geography of mountains, valleys, or lakes without having to travel outside the classroom. With Google Earth, students can load in real data sets and make measurements, for example, of fault offset after an earthquake event. To understand changes in landscape topography, students can make elevation profiles to explore, observe, and describe geologic features identified from the elevation profiles. Teachers can customize lessons in Google Earth, and students can design their own “tours” in the software to teach their peers, use in a presentation, or for later reference. Effective use of technology in the classroom can enhance lessons and better-engage students in learning.