Keynote Speakers

Abstract

Mark Twain once said that “In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand and without examination”. Unfortunately this appears also to be true in present day education. Educational technologists, educational reformers, local and federal politicians, school managers, and advisory groups are all jockeying to show how innovative and up to date they can be, based not upon science but upon beliefs. As a result of this implementation of change based upon beliefs or philosophies, we now find teachers, parents and students revolting against many of these so called innovations. And the newspapers, television, and other mass-media are having a field day reporting all of this. On top of this, countries like the US, and in its wake the Netherlands and possibly others are discussing and/or implementing educational policies around evidence-based education and are setting up What Works Clearinghouses and Best Evidence Encyclopedias as a reaction to this disappointment and disgruntlement.

And what is the root of all of this? The reforms that we often see are most often not based on science (and specifically the cognitive sciences) and or good scientific research, but rather upon beliefs, plausible sounding rationale and/or arguments, poorly designed research and the strange idea that ‘stagnation means decline’. The reaction to these reforms - though it uses the word evidence - is also based upon beliefs about how education and educational research is and should be carried out.

Paul Kirschner will look at both sides of the coin from the perspective of what cognitive science and good research in the field has to say about both.

Bio

Paul A. Kirschner (55) is professor of Educational Sciences at the Department of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences at Utrecht University (as well as head of the Research Centre Interaction and Learning and dean of the Research Master programme Educational Sciences: Learning in Interaction) and professor of Educational Technology at the Educational Technology Expertise Center at the Open Universiteit Nederland with a chair in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Environments. He is an internationally recognized expert in his field. A few notable examples of this is his election to the CSCL Board (within the International Society for the Learning Sciences), his associate editorship of the highly ranked journal Computers in Human Behavior, his editorship of two recent and very successful books (Visualizing Argumentation and What we know about CSCL) and his co-authorship of Ten Steps to Complex Learning. His areas of expertise include computer supported collaborative learning, designing electronic and other innovative learning environments, media-use in education, development of teacher extensive (distance) learning materials, use of practicals for the acquisition of cognitive skills and competencies, design and development of electronic learning and working environments, and innovation and the use of information technology educational systems.

Abstract

The field of Computer based Interaction Analysis for the support of the Participants’ Self-regulation in technology based learning activities is a new direction of research, which has emerged during the last years. Its main purpose is to offer a cognitive and metacognitive support to learning environment participants (e.g. students, moderators, teachers) as well as to observers of those activities (e.g. teachers, researchers), who need to analyze and understand the complex cognitive and social phenomena that may occur. The core aim is to offer directly the means to the human actors (usually via visualized representations of appropriate interaction analysis indicators) so as to be aware of and regulate their behaviour, either as individuals or as cognitive groups.  In fact, the corresponding interaction analysis tools support the users in three major levels: awareness, metacognition and evaluation. The objective is the optimization of the learning activity through: a) refined participation by the students through reflection, self-assessment and self-regulation, b) better activity design, regulation, coordination and evaluation by the teachers.

This speech will offer the opportunity, at first to identify the differences and the complementarities of the dominant approaches exploiting automated interaction analysis, then to present a theoretical framework so as to outline the corresponding state of the art and finally, to discuss the research perspectives regarding Interaction Analysis tools design.

Bio

Angelique Dimitracopoulou is a Professor in the University of the Aegean, School of Humanities and responsible of the Learning Technology and Educational Engineering Laboratory (LTEE). She is the author of more than 130 scientific publications related to: (a) the design of technology-based learning environments (modelling, intelligent tutoring, collaborative systems, computer based interaction analysis tools), most of them concerning the field of science education; (b) the implementation of ICTs in genuine educational contexts; in a large variety of levels of education (from pre-primary school to vocational education).

During the last decade, she has focused on collaborative learning environments, across a range of themes: cognitively distributed learning activities via wireless technologies for young children, modelling environments for synchronous collaboration with collocated students, teachers’ strategies in synchronous collaboration, virtual learning communities for teachers’ education, while she has worked intensively on founding the field of interaction analysis tools supporting students and teachers for selfregulatory purposes [ www.ltee.gr/adimitr ]

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