Interactive Learning Environments: Where They've Come From & Where They're Going

Keywords:

OVERVIEW

1. o Limited computational power: Up until very recently, the horsepower available to the user has been minimal: while timesharing and early desktop machines made computing available on a large scale, it is only in the last 2-3 years that computing has become available on a truly significant scale. For example, it is estimated that there are approximately 33 million personal computers in the U.S. alone. Moreover, the new generation of chips (Intel Pentium, Motorola PowerPC) offer considerable horsepower.
2. o Limited models of learning and teaching: Up until recently, the dominant theory of education focused on learning as knowledge transmission; technology was thus used as a method to deliver information (Skinner, 1958). For example, computer-assisted instruction packages employed, for the most part, a drill-and-practice methodology of instruction.

This limited instructional model matched, however, the limited computational resources available. In contrast, open-ended teaching and learning strategies that are becoming more popular now (Gardner, 1991; Papert, 1993; Collins, Brown, Newman, 1989) require considerable flexibility on the part of the computer. While studies have shown (Kulik & Kulik, 1976) that CAI can reduce learning time by up to 30% and improve test scores by up to 10%, when compared with human-taught courses, it has been felt that such gains have only just begun to tap into the potential of computers in education.

The situation on both computational power (and communications power) and models of teaching and learning is different from what it has been:

1. o High-Performance Computing and Communication: The coming generation of 3- and-4 digit MIP machines and high- bandwidth communications are providing a quantum jump in what can be carried out: while previous generations of machines were hard pressed to handle even text, video and audio are coming to be commonplace on the computer screens. Moreover, the transmission of such data types is coming to be seen as routine.
2. o Learning Through Doing: John Dewey (1916) had it right: he argued that one learns through direct experience, by being engaged in authentic tasks. Learning is not, then, a process of transmitting information from someone who knows to someone who doesn't; rather, learning is an active process on the part of the learner, where knowledge and understanding is constructed by the learner. Moreover, learning is a social process: learning proceeds by and through conversations. Learning is mediated by the construction of external artifacts, where the construction of artifacts leads to the construction of understanding.

Learning through doing dovetails with the integration of computing and communications into the very fabric of the workplace. Thus, supporting on the job training, just-in- time learning, learner-centered design (Soloway, Guzdial, Hay, 1994), etc. via technology makes a great deal of sense: the computational and communications "zorch" is up to the task, finally. Moreover, in schools we are seeing students engaged in what has come to be called "project- based learning," (e.g., Blumenfeld, et al., 1991) where learning is centered around an investigation and development of artifacts and solutions to real problems (e.g., in what ways does my school waste energy and what can we do about this?). As computer notebooks (not notebook computers) become commonplace in the classroom, as they will over the next 5 years, technology in schools will function for learning much as it functions in the workplace: as integrated into the very nature of the activities that students (and workers) engage in. To signal this major change in how technology is used for learning and teaching, we have coined the term "interactive learning environment."

In this tutorial, then, we will survey the history of technology in education, exploring how psychological theories of the mind, and derived educational theories, have guided the impact of technology in education. We will expand on the above arguments as to the promise of interactive learning environments. Specific case studies will be used to illustrate and support our claims. The goal of this tutorial is to paint a bigger vision of how technology can impact learning, teaching and training.

1. 1. Blumenfeld, P., Soloway, E., Marx, R., Krajcik, J., Guzdial, M., Palincsar, A. (1991) Motivating Project- Based Learning: Sustaining the Doing, Supporting the Learning, Educational Psychologist, Vol. 26, No. 3-4.
2. 2. Collins, A., Brown, J.S., & Newman., S. (1989) Cognitive Apprenticeship: Teaching the Craft of Reading, Writing, and Mathematics, In L.B. Resnick (Ed.) Knowing, Learning, and Instruction: Essays in Honor of Robert Glaser, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ
3. 3. Dewey, J. (1916) Democracy and Education, The Free Press, New York.
4. 4. Gardner, H. (1991) The Unschooled Mind, How Children Think & How Schools Should Teach, BasicBooks, New York
5. 5. Papert, S. (1993) Children's Machines: Rethinking Education in the Age of the Computer, BasicBooks, New York
6. 6. Skinner, B.F. (1958) Teaching Machines, Science, 128, 889-977
7. 7. Soloway, E., Guzdial, M., Hay, K., (1994) Learner- Centered Design: The Next Challenge for HCI, ACM Interactions, April.