Playing with the parameters

I'm trying to find a way to make what I feel is an important point about online course design. First up, as I've used the word "parameter" in the title, it might be useful to define it.

parameter
1. A numerical or other measurable factor forming one of a set that defines a system or sets the conditions of its operation.
2. A limit or boundary which defines the scope of a particular process or activity.
Synonyms include: framework, variable, limit, boundary, limiting factor, configuration, specification, criterion, guideline.

Especially but not exclusively, boys learn by testing the boundaries.

Back in the day we built box carts and raced them down the hill. Social conditions prevailing at the time facilitated this: playing in the street was the norm; bobbies were on foot and basically friendly; the occasional broken collar bone was not interpreted as parental neglect.



Onset of speed wobble, the velocity at which the friction brake became ineffective, and the point at which the unsprung vehicle became airborne over bumps marked the safe operational envelope of the box cart. Optimising the design and build of the box cart (combined with fearlessness) won races. Later we graduated to motorbikes. Our grown up heroes were racing drivers and test pilots.



All very amusing, but how does it apply to online course design?

Well...

Test each idea you have for an online course design using the following...

1. Does the student have a project (or model)?
2. Does the student have access to the project (or model) controls?
3. Does the student have access to peer reviewers?

This idea that learners (kids or adults) can learn by their mistakes in a supportive community of learners goes by many names: social constructionism; social learning; learning by doing; learner agency; locus of control. Whatever we call it, it's a good thing and it's the way to go. Without exception.

Ed Catmull

I don't know about you, but I've always found it hard to get my head around stuff like

F(x,y)=x*y^3-y*x^3

As a boy, I'd chew my pencil and stare out of the window and wish I was playing with my kite or riding my bicycle. With dreams of being a navigator I would need not just to pass maths, I'd need an A. Easty (we called him that because his brain had gone west) failed to capture my imagination. The chalk squeaked on the blackboard and some days tears would well up as I tried to get to grips with it all. Mr Kirkwood's class was a slight improvement, we plotted parabolas on graph paper. We weren't sure what parabolas were for, but at least there was a physical manifestation, a drawing on a piece of paper.

Not until I was 17 and attending sea school did it all start to make some sense, because now there was a globe, and angles subtended at the centre of the earth, and arcs described on the surface of the earth. Arcs along which you could steam a ship.

But now, in second childhood, I am happy playing on my Chromebook...

Read the full post on the CORE Eduction blog

DIY VR

My colleague Rochelle Savage tries out the home made viewing specs. If you get the distance just right and relax your eyes they work remarkably well. They're something anyone can make with salvaged items and a glue gun. This is the approach we're encouraging: improvise; quick; easy; and low budget. You're just using this 3D VR stuff as an object-to-think-with, you really don't need the state-of-the-art consumer experience.

Cardboard 1

With the help of Phil Blair at Copyfast we now have Cardboard 1. Phil used the file on the Google Cardboard site. It's made of lighter weight cardboard than specified, but it's plenty strong enough; it's a good design. The lenses were the hardest bit, and we tried raiding various toys, loupes and so on, but the ones we used in the end were ground by Independent Lens Specialists in Christchurch. That's an expensive solution, but that's OK for prototype 1; deeper into the project we'll need to find a cheaper source.

The phone is an LG Nexus 5. It has a big screen and runs the Cardboard app perfectly. Next step has to be to open up the SDK and try making something of our own, however basic.

Garden space

"The syllabus becomes a garden space, a context setting within which learning can happen and the curriculum is the things that grows there." Cormier So, #5DL has become my "garden space" and the stuff I'm aggregating now (ARRF) are the seeds that I hope will grow here. I think it maybe started (together with the ATC stuff) when I first saw fov2go out of USC's Institute for the Creative Arts; that's probably really where it began. I'm at home. I run the app on my iPhone 4 which rests in a viewer by Hasbro. I navigate this 90s-feel multimedia space in a way that I can see could be compelling. Friends and family experiencing it for the first time express wonder, and some confusion; need prompts. Soon become bored and put it down. Oculus Rift is taking off, and we're all watching that space like meerkats. That's sort of February through to June 2014.

Five dimensional learning

I've dubbed it #5DL, at least I think it's me... I haven't seen it anywhere else. It started with the ATC stuff. ATCs (air traffic controllers) operate in a four dimensional space of three dimensions (x+y+z) plus time (t). So I thought they should be learning in that space too. But then there's one more dimension... the meta layer. That provides the learner with orientation (where am I in this course?) timely feedback (how am I doing?) and a recommender system (what should I do next?). So that's the five dimensional learning model. The idea is that the meta layer should fly away when not wanted leaving the 4D environment in full screen mode. A button or a gesture recall the meta layer when needed. It's all built in html5, css3, and javascript... so no plugins.

Interactive avionics

It's like not a fully blown flight simulator; nowhere near. But it's animated instruments that respond to certain situations, scenarios. Not simulations exactly, but discrete moments or components that could finally, one day, be built into a simulation. One step at a time; it would be the start of a big project. Well it is the start of a big project. Shoot for the stars. Anyway, bye bye Flash. Hello html5, css3, javascript  in the creation of discrete interactive avionics and the question of whether they can run inside epub3.