Learning how to learn

Author: Rui

  • Georgia STEM Accessibility Alliance

    I had this great opportunity to facilitate this grant retreat last week. This is a collaborative grant between UGA, GAtech, and NSF. The purpose is to develop models for students with disabilities to learn in Second Life at secondary, post-secondary, and graduate level. People from UGA and GA tech attended the meeting physically, whereas there were some people from Finland (Holland) and LA attended the meeting via Horizon Wimba.

    A lot of people from all kinds of departments and schools. Dr. Michael Hannafin gave presentation on how his team did the work of using video documenting teachers’ classroom teaching. Joce Bettencourt and her team introduced their company The Vesuvius Group http://www.thevesuviusgroup.com/.  Mr. Frans gave the presentation about how teenagers can learn in Second Life. He presented an example of avatars stepping on a light floor and so the lightening colors change while the locations of the foot pressured change. In a word, that was an exciting meeting.

  • Finally finished upgrading my old versio…

    Finally finished upgrading my old version wordpress. crap….

  • How to host a virtual classroom in Moodle?

    Yesterday afternoon, I just suddenly thought that I should figure out a way to host a virtual conference room on my Moodle server (http://moodle.varvoo.com). So I started to search on moodle.org for downloadable modules and plugins. First I tried the keywords of “virtual conference” but I got nothing. Then I tried “rooms”, here is the list I got:
    After going through all these options, looks only the “CAE Virtual Classroom” one is what I want. So I went to download it and then install it in my Moodle. Guess what? When I went to the configuration page, I found it is in Spanish. I don’t know anything about Spanish. Tried using Windows live translation service and the Google Chrome Browser translation. Both didn’t work. So I gave up this one.
    Then I went back to search with the keywords of “room”. This time I am luckier:
    This is the first page of my searching results:
    and this is the second page:

    Basically, the results on the second page are all about online reservation of face-to-face meeting. I tried the module on the bottom of the first page, which is face-to-face. Unfortunately, it is also about online booking.
    Then I tried WiZiQ Live Class and Moodle-Google Apps. The first one is actually kind of a trial version, which allows you to initiate about two meetings or so, and then you need to pay for it. The second one of the Google Apps is very interesting, and can be very useful in terms of checking Gmail, using Google Documents from the user’s Moodle page. However, like most of other users on the comment page of this module, I didn’t figure out how to run it correctly on my Moodle page. So I gave up on this one too.
    Until now, I have spent my whole afternoon on this.
    Then I googled “virtual classroom moodle” and found people said the openmeetings is good. Here comes how I spent all my whole night stayed up until 1 am and crawling all different websites and documentations trying to figure out how to make it work:
    I first downloaded the Openmeetings module from the search result page of moodle.org. Then I installed it as I did for all other modules. The Openmeetings module did appear on my administration options of my Moodle. However, I kept getting error message of like this:
    ”
    wsdl error: HTTP ERROR: cURL ERROR: 7: couldn’t connect to host
    url: http://moodle.varvoo.com:5080/openmeetings/services/UserService?wsdl
    content_type:
    http_code: 0
    header_size: 0
    request_size: 0
    filetime: -1
    ssl_verify_result: 0
    redirect_count: 0
    total_time: 0
    namelookup_time: 0.001382
    connect_time: 0
    pretransfer_time: 0
    size_upload: 0
    size_download: 0
    speed_download: 0
    speed_upload: 0
    download_content_length: -1
    upload_content_length: -1
    starttransfer_time: 0
    redirect_time: 0
    Error

    wsdl error: HTTP ERROR: cURL ERROR: 7: couldn’t connect to host
    url: http://moodle.varvoo.com:5080/openmeetings/services/UserService?wsdl
    content_type:
    http_code: 0
    header_size: 0
    request_size: 0
    filetime: -1
    ssl_verify_result: 0
    redirect_count: 0
    total_time: 0
    namelookup_time: 3.9E-5
    connect_time: 0
    pretransfer_time: 0
    size_upload: 0
    size_download: 0
    speed_download: 0
    speed_upload: 0
    download_content_length: -1
    upload_content_length: -1
    starttransfer_time: 0
    redirect_time: 0
    Could not login User to OpenMeetings, check your OpenMeetings Module
    Configuration
    ”
    After tried all of the following:
    Backuping my current courses on my current Moodle site;
    Installing a new Moodle site using Simplescript (I also installed other applications such as Guest book and Drupal on the way, which took more time from me);
    Installing a new Moodle site using Fantasico De Luxe;
    Trying to figure out how to import an external course to Moodle (although I figured out that is the option in the Course administration section, which called “Restore”. It was very frustrating that the Moodle site kept giving me error msg saying that I can’t import Guest Login because it caused conflict, even when I removed everything that possibly related to Guest Login.);
    Trying to rename my old Moodle site and then install a new Moodle site from scratch;
    Trying to recover my old Moodle site and then overwrite it using the latest version of Moodle 1.98;

    Nothing can fix this.

    During this process, I posted a question on the Openmeetings google group, and got the response from the author this morning, saying that there was no Openmeetings server running on the same URL where my Moodle runs… Confusing, then I went to search on the whole Openmeetings site again, and finally found something like on this link:
    http://code.google.com/p/openmeetings/wiki/InstallationOpenMeetings
    Finally I know what I needed to get an Openmeetings run on my Moodle server…wait! It asks for these things:
    Java Version greater or equal 6
    Database available (MySQL,Postgres,… MSSQL,Oracle,DB2 see full-list) It is recommended to make/use an empty database/scheme
    Database MUST listen and allow TCP/IP connections! And the default character-set/scheme must be UTF8! For example a fresh MySQL does not listen on TCP/IP by default and has not utf8 as default-character-set defined. You have to change these settings and restart your database server so that changes take effect (mysql-config is in my.cnf). Postgres for example does also not listen by default on TCP/IP but uses by default UTF8 (since postgres 7 or 8). To change Postgres listening on TCP/IP check postgresql.conf and add your host to the pg_hba.conf. In Postgres you need to create a database using template1 cause template1 create automatically a scheme called public which is needed (and since postgres 8 you can use several schemes inside one database public is the default one Postgres-Docs).
    OpenOffice-Service started and listening on port 8100 (see OpenOfficeConverter, this is not necessary for installation but for running later on)
    Installed ImageMagick (this is not necessary for installation but for running later on), you can get more information on http://www.imagemagick.org regarding installation. The instructions for installation can be found there http://www.imagemagick.org/script/binary-releases.php, however on most linux systems you can get it via your favorite package managers (apt-get it)
    Installed GhostScript (this is not necessary for installation but for running later on), you can get more information on http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/ regarding installation. The instructions for installation can be found there, however on most linux systems you can get it via your favorite package managers (apt-get it).
    Installed SWFTools (this is not necessary for installation but for running later on), you can get more information on http://www.swftools.org/ regarding installation. Some of the Linux distributions already have it in there package manager see http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/swftools), the recommended version of SWFTools is 0.9 as prior version have a big that does lead to wrong object dimensions in the Whiteboard
    Install FFMpeg (this is not necessary for installation but if you want to test the recording you have to install it). You should get FFMPEG in an up to date copy! For Windows you can download a Build for example from http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/builds/ Linux or OSx Users should be able to use one of the various Installation Instructions on the Web. You need to enable libmp3lame!
    Install SoX (this is not necessary for installation but if you want to test the recording you have to install it). You should install SoX in a up to date copy! SoX 12.xx will NOT work!
    MAC OSx / Linux Users => Get Flash Player 10 Beta!! It fixes the CPU Problem for Streaming Video => http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/

    and I need to work on these:
    Download OpenMeetings including Red5
    Unpack it (Please make sure that you use an up-to-date unzip-software) (and copy it somewhere in you system, do not start it from your Windows Desktop)
    you have now a folder openmeetings_version_no_xx
    Prepare Database Settings – go to openmeetings_version_no_xx/webapps/openmeetings/conf/hibernate.cfg.xml
    MySQL-Database-User: Rename mysql_hibernate.cfg.xml to hibernate.cfg.xml and alter following config values in (mysql_)hibernate.cfg.xml

    root jdbc:mysql://YOUR_HOSTNAME/YOUR_DATABASE If you have problems in connecting your database, a common error is that the Database does not listen to TCP/IP Connection, or you properly need to replace the jdbc-driver with the one for your database-version. Of course you must alter YOUR_HOSTNAME/YOUR_DATABASE to fit your needs for example to:jdbc:mysql://localhost/openmeetings
    Postgres-Database-Users: Rename postgres_hibernate.cfg.xml to hibernate.cfg.xml and alter following config values in (postgres_)hibernate.cfg.xml

    postgres jdbc:postgresql://YOUR_HOSTNAME/YOUR_DATABASE Of course you must alter YOUR_HOSTNAME/YOUR_DATABASE to fit your needs for example to:jdbc:postgresql://localhost/openmeetings
    Any-Database-Users: Rename any_hibernate.cfg.xml to hibernate.cfg.xml.
    Alter the following config values to fit your needs:

    user *****

    org.postgresql.Driver org.hibernate.dialect.PostgreSQLDialect jdbc:postgresql://localhost/openmeetings

    You can see a list of available dialect’s here hibernate-SQL-dialects. You must download the driver for your database and copy it to $OPENMEETINGS-HOME/WEB-INF/lib
    (Re)start Red5 (The table’s will be automatically created by hibernate if there is something wrong with your database values you will see errors in Red5 logfile
    go to the Installer by accessing it via browser: http://localhost:5080/openmeetings/install and follow the instructions
    After Running the Installer all basics are installed. Now login and go to the Meeting-Rooms and check all features. You possibly will have some difficulties uploading files. Check if OpenOffice is really running, swftool, ImageMagick (including GhostScript, FFMpeg) is available on your System-Path (or your customize the path in the Configuration).

    Finally… I lost my ambition of running a virtual classroom on my Moodle server. I know if I have enough time, I will figure out the way of doing this, but I just don’t have that much time to spend on this right now.
    Hopefully in the near future, someone will read this blog entry and will give me some updates on what is available on Moodle for a free and easy virtual classroom…

  • Developmental research & design based research

    It was was 3 years ago that I took Dr. Reeves’ doctoral course on design based research. We students in the class worked in groups, under his guidance, built this DBR EPSS (http://projects.coe.uga.edu/dbr/index.htm). We were discussing the differences among several similar terms or phrases: design experiment, design based research, experimental research, and experimental design. However, today I cam across Dr. Monica Tracey’s  (2006) article on ID model construction and validation and for one moment the concepts of developmental research was mixed with the concept of DBR in my head. So I think it is necessary to make sure myself clearly understand the difference between this two:

    According to the DBR EPSS,

    Design-based research is research on how theory and innovative learning environments converge to support human learning and performance. The dual purposes of design-based research are to 1) develop theoretical design principles that are grounded in systematic inquiry about the process of teaching and learning, and 2) develop innovative tools, technologies, methods, and resources that put these design principles into practice.
    (Generated by Thomas Reeves, Richard West and Chandra Orrill during EDIT 9990 online discussion)

    Whereas Rita Richey (1994) defined developmental research as

    Developmental research, as opposed to simple instructional development, has been defined as the systematic study of designing, developing, and evaluating instructional programs, processes, and products that must meet criteria of internal consistency and effectiveness. Developmental research is particularly important in the field of instructional technology. The most common types of developmental research involve situations in which the product-development process is analyzed and described, and the final product is evaluated. A second type of developmental research focuses more on the impact of the product on the learner or the organization. A third type of study is oriented toward a general analysis of design development or evaluation processes as a whole or as components. A fundamental distinction should be made between reports of actual developmental research (practice) and descriptions of design and development procedural models (theory). Although it has frequently been misunderstood, developmental research has contributed much to the growth of the field as a whole, often serving as a basis for model construction and theorizing. One figure illustrates the discussion.

  • Gardner’s 7 ways of knowing the world & learning styles

    1. verbal-linguistic
    2. logic-mathematical
    3. musical-rhythmic
    4. visual-spatial
    5. bodily-kinesthetic
    6. interpersonal intelligence
    7. intrapersonal intelligence

    This website and several other websites say:
    The learning styles are:

    Interesting enough, the learning styles item on wikipedia has not mentioned any learning style models related to Multiple intelligence.

  • reading reflection on Fiedler Rebecca’s dissertation

    Contradictions and tensions are important to the activity theorist because they give rise to
    the “need states” which lead to change as the actors in the network seek ways to satisfy needs the
    existing activity system can not satisfy. (p.64)

  • Researching Lived Experience: Human Sicence for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy

    Pedagogy is the activity of teaching, parenting, educating, or generally living with children, that requires constant practical acting in concrete situations and relations. p.2

    So phenomenology does not offer us the possibility of effective theory with which we can now explain and/or control the world, but rather it offers us the possibility of plausible insights that bring us in more direct contact with the world. p. 9

    A person cannot reflect on lived experience while living through the experience. For example, if one tries to reflect on one’s anger while being angry, one finds that the anger has already changed or dissipated. Thus, phenomenological reflection is not introspective bu retrospective. Reflection on lived experience is always re collective ; it is reflection on experience that is already passed or lived through. P. 10

    Phenomenological human science is the study of lived or existential meanings; it attempts to describe and interpret these meanings to a certain degree of depth and richness. P.11

    As in poetry, it is inappropriate to ask for a conclusion or a summary of a phenomenological study. p. 13

    One difference is that phenomenology aims at making exlicit and seeking universal meaning where poety and literature remain implicit and particular. ….””human science starts there where poetry has reached its end point.”” p. 19

    But what does progress mean in phenomenological human science research? It dos not necessarily imply that sound human science will lead to increasingly effective management or control of human behavior. In fact, just the opposite may be the case. Human science operates on the principle of the recognition of the existence of freedom in human life. And self-consciously free human beings who have acquired a deepended understanding of the meaning of certain human experiences or phenomena may in fact be less susceptible to the effective management or control of others. p .21

    And yet, phenomenological human science, too, sponsors a certain concept of progress. It is the progress of humanizing human life and humanizing human institutions to help human beings to become increasingly thoughtful and thus better prepared to act tactfully in situations. In other words, sound human sceicne research of the kind advocated in this text, helps those who partake in it to produce action sensitive knowledge. p. 21

  • Schraw, G., Bendixen, L. D., & Dunkle, M. E.

    At the end of the chapter, they wrote, “Three salient cognitive outcome measures see especially important to us, including moral reasoning, cirtical thinking and argumentation, and identity formation”.
    How do epistemological beliefs influence or predict faculty members’ identify formation in their teaching, and therefore predict or influence the way that they assess their students?

  • Barnard, 2007: The Expert Ceiling in Epistemological Beliefs

    Paulsen and Wells (1998) stated that, “it seems unlikely that substantial differences in
    epistemological beliefs across domains would persist in studies of faculty or other more
    advanced experts,” (p. 380).

    According to Schommer’s work, epistemological beliefs as a whole appear to be more
    or less domain general when controlling for a variety of background characteristics including
    academic discipline, which indicates a certain degree of association of academic discipline with
    epistemological beliefs. When not controlling for academic discipline (as did Paulsen and Wells
    (1998)), Jehng et al. (1993) discerned differences in epistemological beliefs of college students,
    “who study in the soft fields (i.e. social science and arts/humanities) have a stronger tendency of
    believe that knowledge is uncertain, are more reliant on their independent reasoning ability, and
    have a stronger feeling that learning is not an orderly process than students in hard fields,” (p.
    23). Hofer (2000) found strong disciplinary differences among college students whereas students
    in psychology more so viewed personal knowledge as a basis for justification of knowing than
    students in science while students in science viewed authority and expertise more as the source
    of knowledge than students in psychology.

    In concluding their study examining the epistemological beliefs of college students across
    domains of study, Paulsen and Wells (1998) stated that, “it seems unlikely that substantial
    differences in epistemological beliefs across domains would persist in studies of faculty or other
    more advanced experts,” (p. 380). This statement of Paulsen and Wells regarding experts implies
    the existence of an upper limit or ceiling effect in epistemological beliefs as delimited by
    expertise across domains. While Hofer and Pintrich (1997) have noted that, “it is unclear where
    the process of epistemological understanding begins” (p. 122), the researcher contends that it is
    equally unclear where the process of epistemological understanding ends except perhaps as
    associated with the achievement of expertise as an outcome. An examination of differences in
    the epistemological beliefs of any group of experts however has yet to be studied, thus the
    existence of an expert ceiling effect in these beliefs has not been substantiated either way by any
    empirical evidence despite its significance to the study of epistemological understanding and the
    development of expertise.

    As while much literature discusses how novices and experts differ,
    there is little research discussing how experts are similar as a whole, where research is restricted
    to the study of particular expertise in isolation to one another (e.g. Berliner, 1986 & Sternberg &
    Horvath, 1995 in re expert teachers; Lichtenberg, 1997 for counseling psychologists; Rolfe, 1997
    for nurse practitioners; Tanaka & Curran, 2001 studying recognition capabilities of bird and dog
    experts; Wood, 1999 in re visual expertise of radiologists).

    P.90
    The results of this study lend support to the statement of Paulsen and Wells (1998) that it
    is, “unlikely that substantial differences in epistemological beliefs across domains would persist
    in studies of faculty or other more advanced experts,” (p. 380). Evidence from this study further
    lends support for the hypothesis of an upper limit or ceiling effect in the sophistication of
    epistemological beliefs among experts given that the researcher empirically studied the self-
    reported epistemological beliefs of faculty members across forty-six academic disciplines
    represented. No other study to date has examined the epistemological beliefs of experts across
    such a variety of disciplines. The overarching significance of this study is that (1) a ceiling effect
    in the epistemological beliefs among experts can be supported and (2) that we can determine an
    important characteristic of experts in general as having highly sophisticated and similar
    epistemological beliefs.

    P. 91
    An understanding by faculty members as to how they are epistemologically different from their students given evidence supporting an expert ceiling in these beliefs can only improve faculty’s understanding of how their students may best learn. A faculty member knowing for instance that their students’ beliefs about knowledge are generally more naive or less sophisticated in nature permits faculty members to be sensitive to the epistemological development of their students and to scaffold and differentiate appropriately.

    Possible research question:
    To what extent do faculty members understand the difference of epistemological beliefs between theirs and their students?

    To read list:

    • EBI (Schraw, Bendixen, & Dunkle, 2002)
    • Schommer (1990): omniscient
      authority; simple knowledge; certain knowledge; fixed (innate) ability; and quick learning.
    • Paulsen and Wells (1998)

  • Barnard, et. al 2007

    When they analyzed the data from the survey of the facutly members, they categorized a descipline as:

    • hard or soft refers to the degree of paradigmatic development of a field.”Disciplines such as chemistry, biology, and mathematics, for example, were categorized as hard
      while disciplines such as political science, psychology, and fields in the fine arts were
      categorized as soft. “
    • pure and applied.

    Procedure
    As the researchers did not have direct access to the e-mail addresses of faculty members across
    colleges of the university, participation of faculty members was solicited by requesting
    individual departmental and college administrators to forward the recruitment e-mail message to
    their respective listservs of faculty members. The researchers also posted a similar recruitment
    message that was distributed via a university-wide faculty e-mail listserv system after university
    administrative approval.

    To read list:

    • Generally, the attitudes of faculty members towards persons with disabilities become more positive with years of experience in higher education (Leyser et al., 1998) along with their epistemological beliefs becoming more sophisticated (Schommer-Aikins, Duell, & Hutter, 2005; Schommer, 1993).