Dochy - The use of self-, peer and co-assessment in higher education: A review

 Peer assessment is an excellent way to engage students in course content and build interpersonal relationships in the classroom.  I am particularly interested in how we can play off the inherent social networking strengths of information technologies in the classroom.  All the components are there to make a compelling peer assessment activity for students using mobile technology.

I envision a collaborative learning environment where students can post and easily assess peer responses in a student centered informal assessment activity on mobile devices.  Just as a good analog lesson without technology, needs to be compelling, relevant and accessible to student learners in order to maximize student motivation, new pedagogical models need to reassess how to inspire and motivate learning on mobile devices.  

Some researchers are looking at how software design patterns can be used to support human behaviors when using information technologies.  Within the classroom setting student behavior needs to be supported and guided to increase confidence and motivation in manipulating course content for peer reviewed formative assessments.  In order to integrate peer assessment with mobile technologies in a classroom, the software interface needs to reflect the psychological underpinnings of what motivates and inspires users to participate in a peer assessment activity using mobile devices.  

miller 2015 ch9

The article offered a variety of good teaching advice to promote student engagement and accountability.  There were several ideas that I felt are significant for teaching with technology.  Future learning environments will benefit from collaborative learning and peer instruction.  Miller points out that through collaborative learning lessons can emphasize critical thinking and higher thought processes.  

This is an important shift in contemporary pedagogy because it implies some relinquishment of didactic learning models.  Online technology offers two primary contributions to learning.  The first is accessing information the second in the inherent social networking potential of the devices.  If we are going to use mobile technology in the classroom, both strengths of mobile devices need to be incorporated into structured activities in the classroom.  I believe that mobile devices at this point of classroom integration offer these two resources for classroom enrichment.  The most important part of technology integration is thoughtful application and meaningful integration into everyday lessons.  

The experience of three flipped classrooms in an urban university: an exploration of design principles

The flipped classroom promises a learning environment where students are applying course content and not just absorbing it.  This integration and utilization of technology allows for a project based learning environment that allows for student centered learning and peer instructed learning models that engage students and hold them accountable for alternative assessment opportunities.  

The author acknowledges some limitations of this learning models in that some students may not participate in the online tutorials.  Students critique this learning model by identifying that the tutorials need to connect to classroom activities.  The researchers acknowledged that there needs to be clear guidance with structured scaffolded activities and specific in class  goals and learning objectives.  Despite these limitations, a flipped classroom learning model allows for a progressive student centered learning environment in the classroom.  Nevertheless, proponents of the learning model indicate that higher levels of cognitive activities are utilized in the classroom.  The author brings to the attention of the reader that ultimately there is a need for specific design principles the flipped classroom to maximize student learning.  

Ultimately, I find that student efficacy and teacher organization to be the limiting factors of this learning model.  I find that this acknowledgment further highlights how organic and personal contemporary education is.  New teaching models may show promise in contemporary education, however, there needs to be relevant and organized implementation of such pedagogical models.

Studio based learning

      Studio based learning emphasizes collaborative critiquing as a central activity.  One study looked at pedagogical code reviews in undergraduate computer science classes that bring together 3-5 students to review each other’s code.  This model of peer instruction and critique is based on a constructivist learning theory where students must manipulate, examine and construct their understanding of course content.  Peer instruction has been most thoroughly documented in physics, biology, chemistry, computer science and math.  Research shows that when studio based critiques in beginning level computer science classrooms provide students with collaborative opportunities to review each others code; students coding improved.  

      There are two main components of mobile device integration.  First, designing a structured pedagogical model to guide students through a lesson with a mobile device.  Second, creating a corresponding software application to support student engagement in steps.  Within the software application there are stages to support independent student engagement with a lesson and also a collaborative feature to share and review student generated content.  The educator finally assesses the achievement of the students to further inform how to further direct student engagement to reach the lesson objectives.

Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture

     The article calls attention to participatory culture for user created media and content.  This emerging and contemporary participatory culture is a degree of digital literacy. The author advocates that we prepare our students for skill sets they will need in the future.  However, one way to facilitate a skill set for participatory culture is to focus on, in classroom collaboration that utilizes the real time communication potential of mobile devices for the application of critical thinking communications between students.  Mobile devices are inherently social collaboration and communication devices that provide powerful tools for enabling social constructivist pedagogy. Thus, projects focused upon student- generated content and collaboration rather than the delivery of teacher-generated content supports student practice at participatory culture. For example, mobile devices can be used in a structured constructivist application for the specific task of facilitating student generated responses on a social platform for peer and instructor review.  Classroom settings can benefit from a variety of media integration in student generated content, such as audio, video, picture, text links or original content.  

Wikis and forums for collaborative problem-based activity:

    A considerable component of online collaborative spaces for students is user experience and utility of the forums.  The article identifies an increase of student group contributions in the wiki forum as compared to the threaded discussion.  Further, there were more expansion, deletion and content-editing and formation in the wiki.  This observation suggests that wikis support co-writing.  Yet, groups produced more discussion postings in the forum, compared to the wiki.  However, the content of the students' discourse in terms of collaboration, complexity, monitoring and planning were similar.  The forum writers were more verbose and the wiki entries were more condensed.  Wiki Collaborative articles proved to be easier for students, seeing that they started days earlier than the forum.  The article concluded that wiki collaborative discussions were better at facilitating problem based discussions.  

     An important consideration for future scholastic discussion venues is to consider the psychology of making online forum writing useful and fun.  Gamification has caught the attention of education apps designers.  Gamification involves the integration of addictive game like elements into an app to make the user interface more engaging.  I think we need to reexamine how learning can happen on collaborative online forums integrated with gamified engagement components.  

Behavior Design - App Developers Secret Weapon

Behavior Design - App Developers Secret Weapon

BJ Fogg conducts research into behavior models with user experience.  His work suggesting that in order someone to participate in an action there are several factors that must be considered to act.  

First, there must be a clear motivation for the participant to perform the target behavior.  Second, the participant must have the ability to perform the target behavior.  Third, there must be a sufficient trigger or stimuli to perform the behavior.  This model of behavior design suggests that certain motivations, opportunities and triggers must be met in order for a participant to engage in a desired task.  

Current research into user interface, behavior design and components of gamification in software application design are necessary components to support structured mobile device integration in learning environments.  Gamification is the use of game design elements and game mechanics in non-game contexts.  Software applications for structured mobile device integration into classrooms need to be designed to engage and motivate student participants to manipulate course content in meaningful ways.  These dynamic application platforms are needed to support the individual student, in addition to collaborative and whole class engagement of course content material.  This new pedagogical context enables the educator to evaluate and facilitate digital class discussions from student generated output.

Nir Eyal has identified four steps to support behavior design with mobile device interface.  Eyal first identifies that a software application needs to have a trigger to prompt the target behavior.  Second there must be an action on behalf of the participant.  Third there participant must perceive a variable reward.  This variable reward in an academic setting can take on a social, scholastic or other kind of perceived value from their action.  Fourth, the participant feels invested in the action and ready for the next trigger to participate in the cycle once again.  However, if the behavior design of the user experience does not meet these steps, the application is not compelling and the user has little motivation or ability to participate in the application.

Two Behavior Design Guys

http://www.bjfogg.com/

http://www.nirandfar.com/