Designing for personalization and

contextualizationProf. dr. Jozef COLPAERT

University of Antwerp, Belgium

7 May 2014

#TISLID14

¡Gracias!

Henri De Braekeleer. 1872. Antwerp Cathedral

Warning!

Some statements in this presentation may be perceived as provocativeand may cause irritation and even frustration.

This speaker is not responsible for possible side effects like goosebumps, peak blood pressure, stomach burn or headache.

Some participants will probably say:

This is why he has added the following two slides …

Look who‟s talking …

1970-1976: student Latin-Mathematics

1976-1980: master Romance Philology

1980-1986: teacher French-Spanish secondary education

1986-2004: developer ( > 100 applications)

1988-2007: project manager ( > 100 projects)

2002- …: editor CALL Journal (Taylor & Francis)

2005- …: director R&D LINGUAPOLIS Language Institute

2005- …: professor CALL, Educational Technology & ID

2007-2013: vice-chairman Institute for Education and Information Sciences

Look who‟s talking …

More info:

jozef.colpaert@uantwerpen.be

www.uantwerpen.be/jozef-colpaert

www.jozefcolpaert.net

www.facebook.com/jozef.colpaert (personal)

www.twitter.com/JozefColpaert (academic & scientific)

www.linkedin.com > Jozef Colpaert

www.linkedin.com > Computer Assisted Language Learning Group (1.800 members)

XVIth International CALL Research Conference Antwerp 7-9 July 2014: www.antwerpcall.be

How do I feel ?

Torn between …

what I know I should do …

what I feel I want to do …

what they tell me I have to do …

But how do you feel ?

You feel …

… you should use technology for „some‟ reason

… pressured by:

peers

students

superiors

researchers

companies

techies

…

You feel…

… you should use words like:

flipped classrooms

virtual learning environments

digital pedagogy

blended learning

BYOD

MOOCs

digital natives

serious games

…

Problem: pervasive terms, persuasive language use & blurred ontologies

You feel …

… you should use advanced statistics

From “my students just loved it” to Structural Equation Modelling

But: “If you need advanced statistics to show a difference, then the difference is notbig enough” (me on Twitter)

… you should „prove‟ or „measure‟ something in research

“When we give proper weight to local conditions, any generalization is a working hypothesis, not a conclusion.” (Cronbach, 1975: 125)

Need for replication in other contexts

Bayesian epistemology: knowledge building = changes in probability that something is true

You feel …

… you should start an article with statements like

“The Internet has revolutionized the way we learn and teach.”

“In recent years, computers have shown to play an important role in the language learning process”

… you should refer to others

“Games increase motivation (x 2001; y 2009; z 2013)”

Just submitted:

“With the rapid development of technology, technology-assisted language learning (TALL) (Kuure, 2011; Thorne & Smith, 2011) is a trend. Some studies revealed that using computer-assisted language learning (CALL) (Claire & Mike, 2009; Jarvis & Achilleos, 2013; Ramirez & Alonso, 2007; Rusanganwa, 2013) can facilitate achievement in foreign language. With the progression of technology, mobile learning (m-learning) not only possesses the advantages of computer-assisted learning (CAL) but also has fewer limitations on time and space (Jarvis & Achilleos, 2013). (…)”.

“Nowadays English has become the most important international language (Cheon, 2003; Huang et al., 2012). Thus, English as a foreign language (EFL) is emphasized and commonly taught in countries of the Asia-Pacific region, such as Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. According to foreign language learning theories (Harmer, 2007; Krashen, 2009; Swain, 2008), to make language learning more efficiently, a student needs not only receive the target language (read and listen) but also makes meaningful output (write and speak). However, there are limited opportunities to speak English or listen to a speech in English in countries where it is not a native language. (…)”

“With the advent of the digital age, emerging technologies have come to permeate many daily activities, be they chatting with friends, checking bank statements or shopping online. Because of their unlimited potential and adaptability to multiple uses, “It should come as no surprise, then, to find that, to a great extent, these technologies have been co-opted by the field of education in general, and TESOL in particular” (Smith & Rilling, 2006, p.1). EFL researchers and practitioners globally acknowledge the fact that technology-enriched learning produces enhanced output. Emerging technologies provide opportunities for instructors to adopt the latest approaches in their teaching on the one hand and to challenge students on the other. (…)”

Just submitted:

“Giving feedback in second language writing is a popular point of debate and a common practice for second language instructors. With the myriad of affordances provided by the growing array of technology-based tools, instructors constantly have new ways of providing, delivering and using feedback.(…)”

“College students of today, identified as so-called “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001; Rosen, 2010; Thompson, 2013) who have grown up surrounded by digital technology and are thus keen to integrate it into various aspects of their daily lives, including in learning (Alghazo, 2006). The impact of instructional technology on students‟ learning outcomes is still controversial, and both the academic and practical domains of education await more empirical evidence (Thompson, 2013). (…)”

“Game provides communication, sharing and relaxing fields that play an important role in human education process as studied by anthropology, psychology, pedagogy or communication sciences, etc (Binark, 2009, as cited in Soyluçiçek, 2011). In other words, Game is not only an entertaining means but also it could be used as a teaching method. Studies on the using games had shown that teaching a lesson with a game environment attracts students‟ attention and increases their motivation to the lesson (Cornillie, 2012, Demirbilek, 2010). Teaching through games develops into a new method during this decade. Followers of teaching through game concentrate their studies on teaching in the course of computer game or motor activity or language game. CALL programs have been found to be effective in many language learning studies. Through playing digital games, even the shy students participate in language learning (Aghlara& Hadidi Tamjid, 2011). (…)”

Even worse …

An accepted finding or proven fact should be

measurable

repeatable

generalizable

Most statements are vague and gratuitous, many are NOT TRUE.

“Students learn better with technology”

Who has come by plane?

How do planes fly ?

Explanation

So …

Planes are not pushed up by the air.

Technology does not „push‟ learning effect.

Ecological Paradigm Shift

So where does the targeted learning effect come from?

Any targeted learning effect can only come from the entire learning environment (LE) as ecology.

What do we mean by learning environment?

The learning environment

LE ingredients:

actors: learner, teacher, parent …

content

teaching model

learning model

evaluation model

infrastructure

technology

+ recipe, procedure, design model… (how-to …)

Process-oriented paradigm shift

The eventual learning effect is proportional to the designedness of the LE

Designedness = the extent to which it has been designed in a methodological and systematic way

Design leads to polymorphous results

Consequences for research and evaluation

Psychological paradigm shift

Focus on personal goals is a more efficient way to achieve pedagogical goals

COLPAERT, Jozef. “Elicitation of language learners‟ personal goals as design concepts.” Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching. Vol. 4, No 3, November 2010, 259-274. Taylor and Francis.

Between Self-Determination Theory and Dörnyei‟s L2 SELF model

Personal goals

Pedagogical goals: explicit, detailed, conscious

Personal goals: difficult to elicit and to formulate

Elicitation technique: analysis of emotional and cognitive friction

When I think about … I think about the following problems

When I think … I feel ….

I feel … because I …

The learning environment should first focus on …

Ten tenets

1. The ecological paradigm shift

2. The process-oriented paradigm shift

3. The psychological paradigm shift

4. The engineering hypothesis

5. The distributed design hypothesis

6. The ontological specification hypothesis

7. The transdisciplinarity hypothesis

8. The generic content structure hypothesis

9. Educational Engineering as Instructional Design Model

10. Educational Engineering as Research Method

Engineering

What is engineering exactly?

Wikipedia: “Engineering is the discipline, skill, and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes.”

B.V. Koen. 1985. Definition of the Engineering Method. “By the engineering method I mean the strategy for causing the best change in a poorly understood or uncertain situation within the available resources.” (p.5)

Strategy to apply when not enough knowledge is available

Building process-hypotheses to be validated theoretically and empirically

Educational Engineering

EE is about building best possible (optimal) educational artefacts

documents, tools, content, concepts, models and solutions such as textbooks, syllabi, lesson plans, curricula, graded readers, exercises, tests, applications or electronic learning platforms …

Artefact = construct, working hypothesis built on theory and practice

real-world hypothesis testing

less iterative prototyping

Educational Engineering

ADDIE loop (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation)

Series of Intermediate Artefacts towards Optimal (virtual) Artefact

e

id

d

a

v1 v2 v3 v4

Educational Engineering

Number of loops depends on available resources, resistance …

While development focuses on the product (shape, form, role), engineering focuses more on the process

how to build more efficiently?

EE formulates process-oriented working hypotheses built on

theory and practice

The EE process

Analysis

Development

Implementation

Evaluation

conceptualization

specification

prototyping

Design

TheoryTechnology

First steps

Analysis: Formulate requirements in terms of aspects amenable to change (which can

and should be changed)

Design:

Conceptualisation:

Concept based on reconciling conflicting personal and pedagogical goals

Specification:

Pedagogical

Architectural

Content

Technological

Examples

Positive in my case: Wiki for knowledge coconstruction:

http://ce3.ua.ac.be/wiki

Google Docs for synchronous collaborative writing

Interactive textbooks

Flashmeeting

More problematic: OERs, MOOCs …

Evaluation: Cfr Cupcake Wars

Evaluate the process on its reasoning, not the product on its features

EE as Research Method

Hypothesis validation: ∆ (outcome, expected outcome)

“What is the expected/actual effect of a justifiable change in the design process, in terms of product and process indicators?” (Colpaert 2010)

“What are the characteristics of an <intervention X> for the purpose/outcome Y (Y1, Y2, …, Yn) in context Z” (Plomp, 2007)

“If you want to design intervention X for the purpose/function Y in context Z, then you are best advised to give that intervention the characteristics A, B, and C, and to do that via procedures K, L, and M, because of arguments P, Q, and R.” (Van den Akker, 1999)

Current research

Need for:

personalization

contextualization

… of the learning process

Personalization

Literature & experience: adaptive, anticipatory learning

Adaptation: user-defined (menu system)

system-defined (“intelligent”)

teacher-defined

Adaptation in terms of: level, topic, skills, task types, degrees of freedom …

Personalization

How possible? learner information through learner analytics, personal goal analysis, learner

info, teacher info, social media, …

generic routine & architecture

Evaluation less user-defined:

learner autonomy overrated ?

choice stress

challenge for MOOCs?

Contextualization

Literature & experience:

adapt learning process to the geotemporal context of the learner

a.o. Situated Learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991)

Need for:

relevant documents

meaningful, useful and enjoyable tasks

relevant exercises

generated questions

Contextualization

Affordances of mobile devices

detect Points of Interest (such as museums, railway stations, cash machines, post offices, restaurants, attractions …) in close proximity of the user (any GPS);

look up and present information about these Points of Interest (e.g. Google Street View);

find Persons of Interest (friends, family, colleagues, co-learners …) in close proximity to the user and to interact with them (e.g. Foursquare);

adapt their own appearance, content or behavior to the presence of specific locations and users (Ambient Intelligence);

present customized information just-in-time (Google Now);

enrich perception of reality with an extra information or visualization layer (Augmented Reality; e.g. Google Glass)

Contextualization

The Web 3.0 phenomenon entails an explosion of available data based on the concepts of

openness (e.g. Open Knowledge Foundation, Open Data, Open Source)

data enrichment

semantic networks (e.g. Linked Open Data Cloud, Google Knowledge Graph, Microsoft Probase)

interoperability of applications.

Contextualization

Information sources:

authentic content available from the Web;

tagged, enriched materials;

semantic networks (e.g. DBpedia, ConceptNet, BabelNet, Freebase, Europeana, LinkedGeoData);

social media services (e.g., OpenStreetMap, Foursquare, TripAdvisor, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook);

existing course materials and Open Educational Resources (OERs);

existing interactive learning content;

new task-based learning content;

human-delivered information, i.e. interaction with native speakers in the context.

Contextualization

Example:

It is about noon. My smartphone shows me the lunch menu from an Italianrestaurant in the neighborhood, with translations adapted to my level. It shows a button “Make a reservation” and “Invite friends”

… (you?)

LSP

Typical example of personalization & contextualization

need to know more about needed topic for the learner

need for more specialized content

Example: you? …

Computational linguistics & corpora revisited?

I have just told you …

EE is an iterative and cyclic instructional design model:

No technology carries an inherent, measurable and generalizable effect on learning. The LE as ecology does.

This targeted learning effect is proportional to the designedness of the LE (focus on the methodological design process).

“Which, when, how and where ICT” is the result of a process and will thus depend on the LE.

“Which, when, how and where ICT” can only be defined by teachers

I have just told you:

Do not:

Evaluate LE / ICT on product level (boxes ticked)

Apply pedagogical models (theories of learning) as such

Conduct experiments with treatment analysis

Call your work Action Research

Do:

Redesign your LE

Formulate process hypotheses

Consider yourselves educational engineers as professionals

Turn your daily work into EE-research

From push to pull

The role of technology is to allow the realization of a powerful learningenvironment

A methodological design process creates a pull-effect towardstechnology (or not)

Result of the design process = specification of needed technology

Required technology may not exist yet.

Approaches to ICT integration

Pedagogy-based application of a pedagogical model based on theory

Attribute-based effect of specific features on learning

Affordance-based new activities

Technology-driven hype, pressure

Demand-oriented just needed

Educational engineering ??

And finally…

use:

flipped classrooms > well-designed classrooms

virtual learning environments > real learning environments

digital pedagogy > sound pedagogy

blended learning > distributed learning

digital natives > young people

Massive Open Online Courses > freely accessible courses

BYOD > work on any device

serious games > meaningful, useful and enjoyable tasks

XVIth International CALL Research Conference Antwerp (7-9 July 2014) www.antwerpcall.be

Pre-conference activities (30 June – 4 July 2014): International Master Class in Educational Engineering

Summer School in Research Design

www.jozefcolpaert.net

Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn (group: Computer Assisted Language Learning) and Facebook.