So if you've seen any of the other interviews that I've done here at
Udacity, you'll notice that I'm now sitting in the other chair.
And that's because today we're talking about a topic that was part
of my dissertation research, which is Exploratory Learning Environments.
So Jason has agreed to give me my questions, and
interview me on the topic.
So thank you.
>> [SOUND] Absolutely, anything for you David.
I think I've said that before in another video.
So what makes exploratory learning environments so powerful in education?
>> So the reason I really like exploratory learning environments in
education is that they let us build circumstances, or build situations,
or build opportunities for
students that are pretty hard to have in a real classroom.
Also in my dissertation research we did in the context of middle school ecology.
And doing scientific inquiry and scientific modeling in that domain, and
when you're really doing inquiry in ecology.
You're usually doing things that take months or
years to gather the data on, you build models that cover decades of time,
or our current climate change models are covering centuries or millennia in time,
it get's the projections out that far.
And our students in the classroom,
they have 45 minutes or maybe two weeks for a unit.
They don't have time to sit around gathering 12 months of data or
24 months of data or anything like that.
The real power of exploratory learning environments is it let's us take those
very real, very authentic opportunities from the real word, take away some of
the constraints, or the obstacles to using them in the classroom and
strip them down to only those things that are useful for the learning.
So, in our research we had students simulate what would happen to
a particular ecological system over a very large time scale.
Under different initial circumstances.
So if the system started like this, what would it look like ten years from now?
If it started like this, what would it work ten years from now?
In person, we can't model a system for ten years for
a middle school class project.
>> Right. >> Of course.
But we want them to get that experience of
what it's like to authentically investigate that problem.
And so the real power in exploratory learning environments is to
open up those opportunities.
But more than just opening up those opportunities as well, the real,
the meat of them is also how they give students ownership over that process.
So they're called exploratory because the student is exploring.
The student is driving what they're doing.
The student is going in and saying I think want to research this today, or I
want to go explore this area, depending on the the nature of the environment.
>> Right. >> And so
it's not something that we're telling them you have to do this, and
then this, and then this.
And here's your assignment, and here's your reading for the day.
They get to take charge.
And that builds a lot of ownership, a lot of engagement in it.
Experience or constructing is personal.
And it's different for everybody.
>> Right. >> And so that's why I
love using them in that, because it teaches students
the skills they need to actually survive in their eventual real world.
That when you're on the job, hopefully you don't have someone holding your hand
and giving you your to do list for the day.
>> [LAUGH] >> You might.
But, hopefully, you don't.
You're given some free reign,
and you're trusted to go forward with it.
And so exploratory learning environments are a way of opening up
those opportunities, those experiences to students earlier in their education.
>> Sounds like it's going to build a lot of confidence for those students.
>> I hope so, yeah.
Actually in our experience in that class it did, we had
a couple students who didn't consider themselves very good in science.
>> Right.
>> But it was when they were told,
you have the power to question certain accepted truths.
Based on the evidence that you gather, that it gave them this idea that,
I don't have to necessarily be a scientist to do research.
You need to become one eventually to do it in the real world,
but the idea that beliefs and theories are constructed based on evidence, and
you have the power to gather evidence.
That's a really powerful idea for
students to have that early in their science education.
>> Absolutely.
When designing a learning environment, what is important to keep in mind?
>> So for me, the main thing to keep in mind when designing these environments,
is to preserve the authenticity of whatever problem you're mimicking.
I say that because there's a very strong tendency among some who would design
some environments like this to really gamify it.
And I have a strong opposition to gamifying just because it creates,
creates some nice motivation, but
it's motivation that isn't rooted in the material.
>> Right. >> And so, we can
have an exploratory learning environment where, for example,
you're gathering evidence to explain why certain species went extinct.
>> Mm-hm. >> And
every time you find a piece of evidence you get 10 points.
And that's not very often think about it.
>> Right. >> You're basically just looking around
finding clues.
What we really want to do when we're creating these exploratory learning
environments, is preserve the authenticity of whatever activity we're
mimicking out in the real world.
If scientist use simulations for example,
we want to our students to use the same kind of simulations that scientist use.
>> Right. >> We want them to derive value from it
based on what predictions they can make.
Not whether or not they achieved an objective or got an achievement, or
got a trophy or something like that.
>> Right. >> So I think it's really important to
preserve what it is you want to teach in that environment.
And make sure it's what you want to teach that's actually the motivating
part of engaging with that environment.
>> So you're talking about focusing on the learning goals as opposed to
the gamification of the.- >> Right, exactly.
>> All right, very good.
We talked a lot about learning environments in the middle school.
I'm wondering what sort of application for high school or
the collegiate level exists.
>> So you're right. I think most often we see explored to
our learning environments used in lower and middle school.
And part of the reason is that they, they make things very engaging.
They are very visually attracted, they are very interactive,
they're very interesting to look at.
>> Right. >> And so
I think that's one of the reasons we see them a lot at the earlier ages.
But I think they have a very strong place later in life,
that the constraints that we deal with at the lower and
middle school levels don't go away when we're in college.
We're dealing with the same kind of things of when we're learning about
ecology, we're learning about systems and
we're learning about systems that take place over a very long period of time.
I think the difference is that the authenticity actually comes out.
Even more strongly than when we're doing it later in our college career so
we don't need to dress up as much.
We don't need to make it as colorful.
We can actually just sometimes give students the tools that real people use.
And this is especially, I think the case, in computer science education.
The IDEs in many ways are exploratory learning environments.
You're exploring the API.
>> Right. >> You're exploring the different
results of different programs and things like that.
So, I think it definitely has a place later in the educational career.
But I think Jason's right that, I think that exploratory learning environments
are most often used at the lower middle school levels.
And if your interested in working with lower middle school students, or
even maybe some high school students, I think it's a really,
really nice domain to explore.
It lead's itself to some really fun projects, and
some really interesting projects that can really motivate students.
But I also encourage you to think about some of the ways we could use
the same kind of principles in later education.
So, thank you for chatting with me about this.
>> Of course Kevin.