Charles Patton

Ink, Improvisation, and Interactive Engagement: Learning with Tablets

Instructional models that reflective educators develop and share with their peers can primarily drive advances in the use of tablets in education. Communities that form around platforms such as Classroom Presenter and Group Scribbles should provide an excellent forum for such advances.

Designing Networked Handheld Devices to Enhance School Learning

Abstract Handheld devices, especially networked handheld devices, are growing in importance in education, largely because their affordability and accessibility create an opportunity for educators to transition from occasional, supplemental use of computers, to frequent and integral use of portable computational technology. Why and how might these new devices enhance school learning? We begin by discussing a simple but important factor: networked handhelds can allow a 1:1 student:device ratio for the first time, enabling ready-at-hand access to technology throughout the school day and throughout the learners personal life. We argue that designers need to understand the capabilities of the new generation of handheld computers and wireless networks that are most relevant for learning. We follow this with a discussion of Learning Science theories that connect those capabilities to enhanced learning. The capabilities and features feed into design practices. We describe a set of example applications that are arising from the capabilities, theories and design practices previously described. Finally, we close with a discussion of the challenge of scale.

Conceptual tools for planning for the wireless classroom

Wireless and mobile devices are beginning to offer stunning new technical capabilities for collaborative learning. Yet, researchers in this field must recognise the importance of complementing these technical advances with improved understanding of the patterns of classroom activity that most need support. The approach taken in the work reported in this paper has been to create conceptual tools that help thinking and talking about technology-supported collaborative learning. A particularly powerful tool is Collaborative Design Patterns, which captures common learning situations and benefits in written form. This paper uses four classroom scenarios to describe eight patterns. These patterns fall into two categories: whole-activity patterns, which suggest ways to organise one or more class periods, and smaller-grained support patterns.

Collaboration design patterns: conceptual tools for planning for the wireless classroom

Wireless and mobile devices are beginning to offer stunning new technical capabilities for collaborative learning. Yet, researchers in this field must recognize the importance of complementing these technical advances with improved understanding of the patterns of classroom activity that most need support. Our approach is to create conceptual tools that help us think and talk about technology-supported collaborative learning. A particularly powerful tool, we have found, is collaborative design patterns, which capture common learning situations and tradeoffs in written form.

Eight Issues for Learning Scientists About Education and the Economy

Linking research to a compelling societal interest can build financial commitments to research, bring increased attention to findings, and grow support for scaling up impacts. Among many compelling societal interests that learning scientists can cite—such as increasing the quality of life, preparing citizens to make decisions in a complex world, and enhancing social cohesion among a diverse population—economic competitiveness is a compelling societal interest that resonates broadly among stakeholders. Indeed, it is now somewhat common to introduce learning sciences research, as in the Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences and the U.S. National Education Technology Plan, by citing economic rationales. Despite the utility of evoking a potential link between learning research and economic competitiveness in the minds of broader audiences, learning scientists engage in rather little critical discussion of whether such links are meaningful and empirically sound within their own programs of research. This article seeks both to problematize conventional wisdom about links between learning sciences research and economic growth and to suggest possible directions for future research aimed at discovering stronger links. Because the issues are complex, we do not reach firm conclusions. Rather, this article seeks to spark a discussion within the field.

Dynabooks: Supporting Teachers to Engage All Learners in Key Literacies

We focus on how a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework can be used to design Dynabooks that are sensitive to the needs of all learners as they engage in sense making, expression, and inquiry in challenging domains. UDL directs our attention to multiple representations, supports for students’ action and expression, and ways to engage diverse students with material. We report on how a UDL approach has been developed in Dynabooks for reading, science, and mathematics and discuss some key challenges going forward, as well as the lessons for educators.

Orchestrating handhelds in the classroom with SRI's ClassSync™

In our interactive experience, we address the problem of a teacher or other leader managing the use of electronic communication devices by their students. We have embedded the control elements into the physical class structure itself so that the teacher may control the interactive system by moving about the classroom and interacting with the devices therein. We have shifted control from a teacher-controlled display in a static location to a teachers dynamic control that is interactive with items spatially distributed in the room. Our demonstration shows how this orchestration can be accomplished with low-cost infrared communications as opposed to more expensive radio-based solutions.

Trace Theory, Coordination Games, and Group Scribbles

Distributed, highly coordinated activities for learning are becoming more and more important as we move further into the world of pervasive mobile computing. These activities can be explored and developed using GroupScribbles, a system to allow the easy creation and exchange of shared information. However, to have confidence in the efficacy of shared activities for learning at scale, we need to be able to model the relationship between the rules and tasks as communicated to the group, and individual behaviour and experience. Trace Theory is a formal modelling language that allows us to do this. We show how Trace Theory and GroupScribbles can be used to model and test different ways a jigsaw pattern of engagement can be implemented, with implications both for the design of emergent pervasive technologies and for acute thought about coordination and collaborative learning.