Highlight
K-12 Embodied and Mediated Learning group
Children exploring the SMALLab environment
Achievement/Results
The K-12 Embodied and Mediated Learning project has continued its research into the design, delivery, and evaluation of a scalable, mixed-reality learning environment called SMALLab. We have conducted a number of recent studies to examine the efficacy SMALLab teaching and learning in real world contexts. We are addressing questions such as How is student achievement impacted by mixed-reality learning as compared against traditional methods? How is teacher performance impacted by the use of mixed-reality technology? We have worked in close collaboration with our teacher-partners to collect data in their classrooms at Coronado High School across a number of STEM areas.
For example, we recently implemented a new Earth Science learning scenario and curriculum called the Layer Cake Builder. In the scenario, students explore the complex process of geological morphology. Teams of students interact with one another and visual/sonic media to enact, in real time, the geological forces that shape the surface of the Earth. Students choose depositional environments. They grab and deposit fossils and sedimentary rocks. They shake a wireless input device to generate fault events. All the while, geological time is ticking down toward the present as new layers are built up for each period. Subsequently, students engage in whole-class discourse to evaluate their decision-making process and outcomes.
Our teacher-partner implemented the Layer Cake Builder activity in five of his Earth Science classes, reaching a total of 71 ninth-graders enrolled in a specialized program for at-risk students. To compare SMALLab learning against regular classroom instruction, we divided the students into two groups in a wait list control design. Group 1 received 3 days of regular instruction regarding geological morphology, followed by 3 days of the SMALLab treatment. Simultaneously, Group 2 received 3 days of the SMALLab treatment, followed by 3 days of regular classroom instruction.
To measure student achievement, we designed an invariant concept test with items derived from our teacher’s existing instructional materials. We administered this test at pre-, mid- and post- treatment times for both groups. Analysis of mean scores demonstrates that both groups were matched at pretest. Group 1 made significant gains from pre-test to mid-test (Lecture), but highly significant gains from mid-test to post-test (SMALLab). Group 2 made highly significant gains from pre-test to mid-test (SMALLab) and a non-significant change from mid-test to post-test (Lecture). These findings are illustrated in the graph below. We conclude that the SMALLab treatment was a highly effective experience for these students that led to significantly higher achievement when compared against regular instructional approaches.
This year we received a $590,000 grant titled, Gaming SMALLab, from the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning initiative. The project establishes an ongoing collaboration with researchers at Parsons the New School for Design and the Institute of Play, both in New York City. In addition, we received a multi-year award from the Intel Foundation to pursue the Gaming SMALLab project in Arizona and New York. With these resources we have expanded the network of SMALLab partners to include a new 6th – 12th grade school site in New York City that opens Fall 2009. Furthermore, these awards have provided international visibility for our research efforts and our IGERT students.
We continued to refine and extend the SMALLab platform this year. We have recently built out the SMALLab infrastructure to include interactive robots. This new capability will be featured in a three-day exhibition at the Arizona Science Center called, GameBot. In the GameBot exhibition, humans and robots come together for interactive game-play that explores the social, technological, and sustainability dimensions of robotics. The Arizona Science Center is the major informal science education venue in our region.
In addition, we have continued development of SMALLab’s web-base toolset, SMALLab Link [SLink]. At the SLink website, teachers, students, and researchers can contribute multimedia content, author SMALLab curricula, review documentation of SMALLab learning scenarios, and study the emergence of communities of practice across the network of SMALLab stakeholders. SLink serves as a bridge between participants’ online and physical experiences, and serves as a hub to link our geographically distributed sites.
In total, our school-based programs have reached approximately 300 students and 20 teachers in classrooms in Arizona and New York this year. These programs are spread across multiple content areas including Earth Science, Physics, Chemistry, Special Education, Wellness, and English Language Learning. In addition, we will reach approximately 5800 informal learners via our exhibition at the Arizona Science Center. We are currently in conversation with the leadership of two additional school sites in Arizona and Pennsylvania with the expectation that our network of partners will continue to expand next year.
Stemming from these efforts, our research has been disseminated via several journal articles (Advances in Human Computer Interaction, International Journal of Learning and Media, Journal of Science Education and Technology) and conference proceedings (American Educational Research Association, National Association of Research in Science Teaching). In addition, we have been selected to demonstrate SMALLab in the Emerging Technologies track at the upcoming ACM SIGGRAPH conference this summer. In addition, our initiative has received major media attention with recently published articles in Education Week and T.H.E. Journal; both nationally prominent publications that target a broad audience of educators and researchers.
Address Goals
Learning: The K-12 Embodied and Mediated Learning group is working to cultivate a 21st Century workforce among today’s youth, and at the same time train a cohort of teacher-mentors. Much of our current work is conducted at a large Title 1 school where we are reaching a diverse population of underserved and at-risk students. Many of these students struggle to succeed with traditional modes of classroom instruction. However, in a series of recent studies, we have documented that these same students can achieve significant gains in Earth Science, Physics, and Chemistry when exposed to SMALLab learning. Moreover, we have demonstrated that this trend holds true for academically struggling, regular, and honors students. Beyond their mastery of a set of content-area concepts, we are working to ensure that these students emerge with a set of digital literacies and an ability to think at a systems-level that will prepare them to enter the workforce of tomorrow.
We are also contributing to the professional development of teachers by hosting a number of onsite Professional Learning Communities [PLC]. These PLC’s bring together classroom teachers, digital media experts, and curriculum specialists to design, implement, and assess new mixed-reality learning scenarios. This is a capacity-building effort that will yield a cohort of tech-savvy teachers who can serve as mentors for their colleagues in our region and beyond.
Discovery: Our team is conducting fundamental research that draws together emerging work in the Learning Sciences and Human-Computer Interaction. We are developing and assessing new models for teaching and learning that integrate embodied, multimodal, and collaborative learning in new ways. As such, our work is contributing basic research from a trans-disciplinary perspective that will have a transformative effect in shaping the learning environments of the future. We are disseminating this research through international journals, conferences, and exhibitions. Ultimately, this will enable our efforts to achieve a broad and lasting impact.
