Otis Faculty

synoptic case study of the Visible Knowledge Project (VKP), a five-year project looking at the impact of technology on learning, primarily in the humanities, through the lens of the scholarship of teaching and learning. 

Learning for adaptive expertise: the role of new media in making visible the thinking processes intrinsic to the development of expert-like abilities and dispositions in novice learners; Embodied learning: the impact of new media technologies on the expansion of learning strategies that engage affective as well as cognitive dimensions, renewed forms of creativity and the sensory experience of new media, and the importance of identity and experience as the foundation of intellectual engagement; and Socially Situated learning: the role of social dimensions of new media in creating conditions for authentic engagement and high impact learning.

As Michael Wesch puts it in his commentary on the meaning of these changes, “Nothing good will come of these technologies if we do not first confront the crisis of significance and bring relevance back into education.

ePortfolios

A key element in this transformation is shifting the unit of analysis from the learner in a single course to the learner over time, inside and outside the classroom.

Lessons and assignments are sequenced, in a scaffolding fashion, so that each assignment builds on the last. A scaffold provides support for the student and is structured so that one level builds upon the other. For instance, instead of a single introduction to searching online, the introduction to search engines can be a starting point for progressively more complex assignments building on previous knowledge. Lessons are delivered at regularly scheduled intervals throughout the course, so that learning is evenly distributed. Lessons balance the transfer of information about technology and research skills. Critical thinking concepts, which provide an essential framework for research evaluation, are incorporated into class and practiced regularly through such means as textual annotation, concept mapping, and research logs. Reading skills are adapted to the online environment; students learn to “read” search results, database information, and Web sites. Reading Web sites in particular requires that students read vertically, horizontally, and through multiple layers and that they recognize the key words that most Web sites use to guide the reader (such as “about us” which often leads to publication information). One student comment was typical about the course: “I learned how to read a site and how to read the hits.”

Research challenges students conceptually. Consider the complexity of the metaphorical language we use about areas of research: the “search” and the metasearch (a truer search?) sound mystical, a kind of archetypal quest (especially when combined with geographical terms like “mapping” and “logging”); the term keyword has a metaphysical promise; other terms invoke complex spatial images such as Web, network, and links; and finally “operators” (as in Boolean operators) echo with the lingering implication of agency. Given this profusion of rich terminology and complex skill building, students need to be grounded in regular, persistent sequencing of lessons and activities that encourage meta-cognition.

As we teach research skills, fostering that sense of amazement at discovery develops students as thoughtful researchers capable of handling the serendipitous moment online.

My goal for this course was to increase effective instruction on Internet research and improve the quality of Web-based sources used in student papers. I focused on developing a series of lessons in research methods, analytical reading, and critical thinking, all in the context of Internet research. Moreover, I wanted students to develop a better sense of the “art” of research, of finding good sources by sheer work, good judgment, and a bit of serendipitous luck.

nformation Gathering: students appreciated a wide range of options and felt that the Internet allowed them more choices. They also expressed awareness of the pitfalls of searching the Web and cautioned against gathering too much information without focusing their topic or evaluating their results as they progressed in their research. Discovery: students appreciated the exposure to new perspectives and areas of research--essentially the increased opportunity for serendipitous events.   Connectivity: students liked the brainstorming aspect of Web searches and how they would return to their searching strategy as new information appeared. Students also made connections in terms of sequencing tasks and developed a sense of the connections emerging between their sources. Evaluation: students want to read a lot of articles to find the “best ones.” They expressed awareness of practicing more caution in their choices and understood the need to look at sites for the publisher’s bias.2

“information coaches”