The opening keynote was by Stephen Dubner, who has authored books and led podcasts on economics. Dubner was able to bring a great sense of humor to his presentation with stories of dirty doctors, mischievous monkeys, and his amusement of modern poultry breeding systems. Through those stories, he was able to portray to his audience the complexity of human behavior. As the precedent to a days worth of discussions on innovation and technology, Mr. Dubner invigorated the crowd for what was to come next.The first session that I attended surrounded a topic that was of a particular interest to me. The topic of the session was Active Learning with Simulations. Teaching with the use of simulations, which mimic real-life experiences, allows students to work their way through complex problems. The example that was shown during the session was from an online course being administered through the Department of Higher Education at Penn State World Campus. The simulation presented a scenario where the student was the dean of a college, responsible for making a decision regarding the budget for the upcoming academic year. The scenario gave the student various options to select regarding the decision they made for the particular situation. Once a selection was made, the student would be presented with either a follow-up question or stopping point. This online tool allowed for the student's progress to be tracked as well as record the amount of time spent on each problem.
The second session that I attended was much different than how I anticipated it to be, but in an enlightening way. The topic of this session was Using Data Science in Support of Learning. The vision I was expecting for this session was how to communicate research findings and statistical evidence amongst an audience. What I was not expecting was a discussion on artificial intelligence and language processing! One of the things that stood out to me was a software program that was able to predict the likelihood of a student choosing a particular course based off of their previous course selections. This program utilized specific algorithms that could be used by college administration to predict course enrollment for upcoming semesters. Since each student is unique, it was not recommended to be used solely for student advisement.
It was a very eye-opening experience to see first-hand the level of technology that is being used within the educational system. The level of mastery it takes to plan and implement these complex instruments is phenomenal, and it is even greater that there are students involved in this process. The level of innovation within our society continues to grow, and it will be amazing to see the learning platforms that will be available for the next generation of students!
Michael Fiorentino is a graduate student in Agricultural and Extension Education at Penn State.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
Interesting how our definitions of "Technology" is often very narrow. Loved the keynote bringing in Norman Borlaug and agriculture!
You had me at 'mischievous monkeys'....
ReplyDeleteI think it's really cool that speakers highlighted the roles that students played in either the development or the testing of some of these novel programs!
I love the idea of using real life simulations in the classroom. We need to put our material into context and show the students that it is important now and will be in their future careers. What we teach matters!
ReplyDeleteI attended the simulation session as well! I really liked that the students would get feedback based on their decisions. This allows them to fail without penalties and learn from the consequences of such decisions. Bonus: the data from student engagement (time spent, amount of times tried, etc.) would also be useful for creating a scholarship of Teaching and Learning!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Steph and Isamar, stimulations would be a great way to prepare the students for their future careers and life in the real world! What a great way of engaging and involving students in their own learning!
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