Learning Sciences

An introductory text with plain language as to learning analytics.

When I was reading Blumenfeld and Rogat's article, the part about authenticity, I encountered the term "BGuILE" and checked it out. If you are interested in, it is a tool and it is not active now, last update is 2002. It says BGuILE, learning environments bring scientific inquiry into middle school science and high school biology classrooms. The environments consist of computer-based scenarios and associated classroom activities in which students conduct authentic scientific investigations.

Which one is more important in success do you think: perseverance and passion or intelligence?

Video of Csikszentmihalyi on Flow, the secret of hapiness

What is Learning Analytics?

INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- (EDUCAUSE) -- Today's young adults are often criticized for turning to social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram for real-time feedback, but new research from McGraw-Hill Education suggests that this behavior could be a significant asset when it comes to studying with the help of technology.

Lots of things happened since the last time I guest posted about learning analytics on Edudemic. One of the most popular questions I received was, "Exactly how will it all work?" So we dug deep this time, and we found lots great research on the subject.

I found this paper when I was "googling". It covers legal, ethical and related management issues surrounding the generation, use and sharing of analytics data in the context of teaching, learning and research and the underlying business processes based on current UK law. It may be beneficial for the question marks on that whether the learning analytics has been violating the ethical issues.

this was a good post that involves answers to the questions about analytics such as What are analytics? Why are analytics important? What are the benefits of analysing your data? How do students feel about it? How can I use it in my institution? and What does the future hold for analytics?

The efforts to boost the nascent field of learning analytics could bring about a sea change in education, making it possible to personalize - on a massive scale - students' learning by their individual interests and needs, according to a comprehensive report, involving experts from academia, business, nonprofits, foundations and government .

This Ted Talk is about open learning analytics in which the speaker talks about open lesson you can enter freely.

This is a very nice video about situated learning in mathematics. as i understood, the professor advocates that the more important thing is how you give a context rather than just saying what it is. Moreover, using of context of land, areas, puzzles or folk stories make students learn better. Thus, she mentioned that they prepare the books used in primary or elementary classes in terms of these characteristics, and since they do not have a national curriculum, every state makes its own national curriculum. SOme of the schools adapt to some extent and translate them. What about our country? Is it possible to redevelop the curricula in terms of different regions of our country? How should we make it?

This video is similar to Sibel's but there are some different examples. Here are some interesting points; Jean Lave argues that situated learning does not need to be authentic always because there is algebra. Also she says that the situation must have cognitive complexity. She points that social networks can be used to enable learning environment.

When decisions with important consequences involved, people ask for expert opinion let it be a hotel booking (trip advisor, booking...) or purchasing a book (amazon recommends, kitapyurdu...). If the stakes are high, then it becomes obligatory to go and ask for expert opinion. However this becomes a problem if people rely on experts as if they are getting parental advice. People become addicted to experts because of its certainity, assuredness and definitiveness. In a study, a group of adults' brains' MRI scans when they are listening to experts showed that the independent part of their decision making part of their brains switches off while they are listening. This listening becomes unquestionnable and they use these opinions without distinguishing as right or wrong. Considering the doctors who misdiagnose 4 out of 10, not questionning is an important issue. As a result the role of the expert should change because they are affected by social norms, cultural norms and everything. So their judgements may differ. Think about companies who try to sell their products and include experts in the process. Toothpaste, washing detergents etc. are exagerated. Although they are experts, they have assumptions which may have flaws. People should question and become skeptical about experts. People should not blindly accept or listen, rather they should open their eyes wide open, face the world, use experts for certain things but be aware of their limitations and also their own.

What do they mean by deliberate practice? What are the essential components of practising deliberately? The person continuing on an activity should respond first why, how and when to perform it to become an expert. 

Although this article is a short one, it gives a brief information about six common characteristics that expert teachers have.

And to explain to you how I visualize the concept of an expert teacher I want to share a film trailer named as "Stand and Deliver (1988)" which is about a mathematics teacher and his unusual teaching methods and classroom management techniques that help his desperate students in a rural school pass the advanced calculus exam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG-Cxs8eYkI

The first problem is defined by Dan Lortie in The Apprenticeship of Observations (1975) as being acquainted with the task of teaching.The professor on the video emphasizes that in the countries where immagrants are most successful, teachers spend 50% of their work planning lessons, observing other classes and negotiating about the lessons. She also touches the problem of 'Toxic Environment' of schools for teachers where they gossip about their students and colleagues. She gives a successful school example in which professional development is a part of school culture. Can you list additional problems for teacher expertise faced in schools?

Although sharing ideas and instances about the classroom hours and students can be accepted as components of adult learning for teachers, gossiping about them can be a real barrier to develop on those areas. In my teaching experience, we prohibited the conversations about the negative issues happened in the school.

Research on how deliberate practice combined with innate abilities lead to expertise.

Elanur, Actually, I was trying to find the movie that you mentioned about high-wire actor (Petit). Then I realized that you have already written here. What made me so impressed about him that he worked on that about 6 years. I have read somewhere "experts view mistakes as opportunities to learn", however, this man had no chance to do mistake. the story of the guy in this link http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2015/09/30/the_real_story_behind_philippe_petits_highwire_act_in_the_walk.php

Yes Yasin I totally agree with you about the mistake part but this man dedicated his life to perform on the wire between Twin Towers so I thought that someone who dedicates oneself to perform in a particular area develops expertise in that area eventually and we can call him an expert in being a juggler even he put his life in danger. By the way this is an extreme example of being an expert. I just try to make connections between dedication and developing an expertise through this example.

The study reveals how consumers increase their knowledge when they were posed to extend their existing knowledge and experience. When the learners were assumed to be consumers of knowledge, can this study be a good pathway to understand how people learn?

What I understood from this article is that to move from novice position to expert position, one should increase the range of their experiences. That's why novice consumers experience on a particular product. Am I right in my conclusion to this article?

Another interesting study about expertise similar to the video related to chess players " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWuJqCwfjjc&feature=player_embedded ". Should we use and extend the experts points of view while producing new technological tools for learning?