Digital Learning Week 15

Inquiry Learning vs. Teacher Inquiry

This week, in this course we are covering inquiry learning, and in the leadership course we are covering teacher inquiry. Team Solutions (2009) make the distinction between them as follows:

Inquiry Learning (DIGITAL)	Teacher Inquiry (LEADERSHIP)
A process where students co-construct their learning in an authentic context	Where teachers inquire into their own practice and use evidence to make decisions about ways to change that practice for the benefit of the students

Healey (2015) underlines the importance of inquiry learning to the contemporary classroom in her blog, stating "A recent popular magazine asked what education will be like for the class of 2025. While the accompanying article mostly rehashed the ongoing debate between content and process, I saw the cover and had a one-word answer: research." She also suggests a couple of processes for inquiry learning.

Which careers are a safe bet?

In 2015 the BBC set up a web page entitled "Will a robot take your job?", which you can find at tinyurl.com/willarobottakeyourjob. A similar page was set up at willrobotstakemyjob.com, based on the same data set  In the session we will ask you to search either of these sites to find out the likelihood that various jobs could be automated within the next two decades. A fuller discussion of the study behind these web sites can be found in Frey and Osborne (2017).

Robotics

The term robot was coined in the English version of Czech writer Karel Čapek's 1920 play R.U.R., translated as “Rossum's Universal Robots”. The word stems from the Czech word robota, meaning ‘forced labour’ (Legacy.com, 2011). There are many definitions of a robot in the present day, view the related media'What is a robot' clip to find out the shared characteristics.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

As with robotics, there are many definitions of artificial intelligence (AI). The following examples come from Russell and Norvig (2014, p22), using secondary references.

• Thinking Humanly: “The exciting new effort to make computers think ... machines with minds, in the full and literal sense.” (Haugeland, 1985)
• Acting Humanly: “The study of how to make computers do things at which, at the moment, people are better.” (Rich & Knight, 1991)
• Thinking Rationally: “The study of the computations that make it possible to perceive, reason, and act.” (Winston, 1992)
• Acting Rationally: “AI . . . is concerned with intelligent behavior in artifacts.” (Nilsson, 1998)

Teaching is not Immune from Automation

Although the research by Frey and Osborne (2017) suggests that the teaching profession is not at immediate risk of automation, it is likely that robotics and AI will have a significant impact on the roles of educators. For example It is expected that artificial intelligence in U.S. education will grow by 47.5% from 2017-2021 (Marr, 2018). The impact of technology will mean that teachers will be working alongside machines. “By leveraging the best attributes of machines and teachers, the vision for AI in education is one where they work together for the best outcome for students. Since the students of today will need to work in a future where AI is the reality, it’s important that our educational institutions expose students to and use the technology" (Marr, 2018). 

It is also likely that we see an increasing number of tasks traditionally associated with teaching that will be taken over by AI. "The embodied presence of the teacher may not be required to the same extent... As AI based on pedagogical models is combined with ‘onscreen teaching’ to underpin adaptive learning the role of the teacher will change. Some aspects of teaching will be automated that would previously seem the purview of human teachers." (Gulson, Murphie, Taylor & Sellar, 2018).

Fertile Questions

Here are some ideas from Harpaz (2005) on six characteristics of 'fertile' questions that might be used in an inquiry:

• Open - there are several different or competing answers
• Undermining - makes the learner question their basic assumptions
• Rich - cannot be answered without careful and lengthy research, often able to be broken into subsidiary questions
• Connected - relevant to the learners
• Charged - has an ethical dimension
• Practical - is able to be researched given the available resources

Tools That Can Help Manage Inquiry Projects

Some tools we have previously introduced that may be useful for this week's In Class inquiry:

• Unitec Library Website
  • When using the library website, do not rely just on Articles-Express to find all the resources you need, since it does not cover the whole of the library's holdings. Also search the databases, e-journals etc.
  • Contact Unitec IMS support if your Library login doesn’t work.
• Google Scholar
  • When using Google Scholar, make sure that you have linked the Unitec library to your searches (Settings -> Library Links -> search for 'Unitec'). Remember that you can also save references to articles you have found in Google Scholar ('Save' -> 'My Library') and generate APA references (the " " symbol).
• Define your Google search by searching i.e. News or Videos and use the Tools option to define i.e. timeframe!
• And don’t forget to search the recent Tweets.

Slide Set for the Flipped Preparation Activity

For the before class activity, you should have contributed to the shared slide deck of models used in NZ schools: tinyurl.com/Learningasinquirymodels

Programming the Robots

Edison

• To program the Edison robot go to the EdBlocks site and login, you can program this robot in a web browser and that address is: EdBlocks: www.edblocksapp.com
• Other options for higher level programming include EdScratch: www.edscratchapp.com and EdPy: www.edpyapp.com (version 2)
• If you choose to program the Edison in class, this short video will give some guidance. Tutorials are also available.
• If you are having trouble getting your Edison to work, there is a very helpful troubleshooting guide that may be of some assistance. A quick tip for the 'clap' response, if the environment is too noisy, you may need to tap on the Edison for it to recognise this command. If you choose to programme the Edison to follow a light, you will need to have a good contrast between the light being shone and the environment of the Edison. You will need to have printed the barcodes and the sumo ring from the website lesson plans, to have Edison's sumo wrestle one another, maybe something for later in your own classes ;-) 

mBot

There are three main ways to program the mBbot. 

• The first option is to download the latest version of mBlock (available for both Windows and Mac). This short video will be helpful when programming the mBots in class, it looks at how to generate Arduino code in mBlock and then upload the code to the robot mBot. 
• The flipped preparation was to downloaded for android (Google Play Store) or ios (Apps Store) onto smartphones or tablets, the Makeblock app which allows you to drive, draw and run using a keypad, play music and even try voice control (you may need an American accent ;-)). An alternative app is mBlock Blockly which guides users through coding tutorials.
• And last but not least, if you have a remote, read the enclosed booklet in the box to discover functions available such as line following, obstacle avoidance etc. You can still achieve these using the first two bullet points if no remote is available.

References

Frey, C. B., & Osborne, M. A. (2017). Frey, C. B., & Osborne, M. A. (2017). The future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to computerisation?.Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 114, 254-280. Retrieved from https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf (this link is an early 2013 pre-print)

Gulson, K., Murphie, A., Taylor, S. & Sellar, S. (2018). Education, work and Australian society in an AI world. Gonski Institute for Education. University of New South Wales. Retrieved from https://education.arts.unsw.edu.au/media/EDUCFile/Gonski_AIEd_Final_Aug2018_Formatted.pdf

Harpaz, N. (2005). Teaching and Learning in a Community of Thinking. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 20(2), 136-157. Retrieved from http://yoramharpaz.com/pubs/en_learning/teaching-learning.pdf

Healey, L. (2015). A Student-Led, Flipped, Inquiry-Based Learning Classroom Doing Authentic Work. Teachthought. Retrieved from http://teachthought.com/learning/student-led-flipped-inquiry-based-learning-classroom-authentic-work/

Legacy.com. (2011). Karel Capek, Beyond The Robots. Retrieved from http://www.legacy.com/news/explore-history/article/karel-capek-beyond-the-robots

Marr, B. (2018). How Is AI Used In Education -- Real World Examples Of Today And A Peek Into The Future. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/07/25/how-is-ai-used-in-education-real-world-examples-of-today-and-a-peek-into-the-future/#6e853b69586e

Russell, S. & Norvig, P. (2014). Artificial Intelligence: A modern approach (3rd edition). Harlow, Essex: Pearson.

Stenhouse, L. (1981). What counts as research? British Journal of Educational Studies, 29(2), 103-144.

Team Solutions. (2009). Thinking about Inquiry. Retrieved from http://teamsolutions.wikispaces.com/Teaching+as+Inquiry