1. Craig Prince General Examination Talk January 17, 2008

2. Motivation
Goal: Improve education by integrating computing devices into classroom. Do in low-cost, sustainable way. One way, leverage devices students carry! 2

3. Before I Begin… Who has a laptop or Tablet PC with them?
Who has a cell phone or PDA with them?
College Students:
86.1% Cell Phone
12.0% Smart Phone
11.9% PDA
56.3% Digital Gaming Device
73.7% Laptop
Source: The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2007

4. My Talk – In Three Parts Part I: Background Part II: Systems
Active Learning
Classroom Responses Systems (CRSs)
Different CRS activities
Part II: Systems
Tablet PC-based
Handhelds
Part III: Future Work
Improve type of exercises on handhelds
Integrate diverse handhelds into class 4

5. Part I: Background Active Learning Classroom Responses Systems (CRSs)
Different CRS activities

6. Active Learning
Active Learning = teaching pedagogy were best way to teach students is to have them be active in the learning process
Abrahamson’s “Socratic teaching” method
“Constructivism” vs. “Behaviorism”
Student needs to:
Build on existing mental framework
Incorporate existing knowledge and ideas
Abrahamson A. L. “Teaching with Classroom Communication System – What it Involves and Why it Works”. Mini-Course presented at the VII Taller Internacional "Nuevas Tendencias en la Ensenanza de la Fisica". Puebla, Mexico, May 27-30, 1999. 6

7. Quantitative Evidence
Hake’s study
62 physics courses
>6000 students
Set taught interactively
Set taught traditionally (lecture focus)
Students in interactive courses had learning gains 2 std. dev. greater than traditional courses
University, Community College, and High School
Hake R. “Interactive-engagement Versus Traditional Methods: A Six-thousand-student Survey of Mechanics Test Data for Introductory Physics Courses”. American Journal of Physics, 66 (1), Jan

8. Active Learning in the Classroom
Mazur’s “Peer Instruction”
Mechanism for Active Learning
Basis for many classroom technologies
Promotes:
Discussing/collaborating between students
Integrating student work into lectures
Mazur, E. Peer Instruction: A User's Manual. Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, 1997.

9. Classroom Network C B D A Classroom Network Public Display Instructor
Students A B C D
Classroom Network 9

10. Classroom Technology Classroom Network Cooperative Note-taking
e.g. LiveNotes
PowerPoint Slides
Digital Whiteboards
Public
Display
Instructor
Students
Classroom Network
What is the benefit of technology in the classroom?
Digital Ink Presentation Tools
Digital Whiteboards
Classroom Response Systems
Classroom Feedback Systems

11. Classroom Response System (CRS): Learning Cycle
Activity
Public
Display
Instructor
Students
Classroom Network
Activity
Activity
Activity
Activity B
Now we want to talk a bit about classroom response system.
Here is how they work.
Activity

12. Multiple-Choice Example
And these are the types of exercises that are enabled by these systems, start with simple multiple-choice questions, and more to more complex digital ink questions
Clickers

13. Multiple-Choice Example 2
Classtalk

14. Textual Example 14

15. Diagrammatic Example

16. Diagrammatic Example

17. Image Example

18. Brainstorming Example

19. What Activity Types are Best?
No quantitative studies showing digital ink makes for better activities in CRSs
Advantages of Digital Ink
Strictly more expressive
Some activities clearly easier with Digital Ink
Instructors like using these types of activities
Disadvantages of Digital Ink
Harder to aggregate/understand
Need to make it clear why you are showing this slide

20. Part II: Systems
Tablet PC-based
Handhelds

21. Tablet PC CRSs General Properties: Examples:
Support many types of exercises
Examples:
Classroom Presenter
Ubiquitous Presenter
DyKnow
GroupScribbles 21

22. Classroom Presenter Devices: Activities: Features: Limits: Tablet PC
Laptop
Activities:
Whole Slide, Ink/Text
Features:
Anonymous Submissions
Push Model
Limits:
Cost
Anderson R. J., Anderson R., Simon B., Wolfman S. A., VanDeGrift T., Yasuhara K. “Experiences with a Tablet PC Based Lecture Presentation System in Computer Science Courses”. SIGCSE '04, pp , Site:

23. Ubiquitous Presenter Devices: Activities: Features: Limits:
Web-browser
Activities:
Whole Slide, Text
Multiple-choice
Features:
Same as Classroom Presenter
Limits:
Requires Web Server
Wilkerson M, Griswold W. G., Simon B. “Ubiquitous Presenter: Increasing Student Access and Control in a Digital Learning Environment”. SIGCSE ’ Site:

24. DyKnow Devices: Activities: Features: Limits: Tablet PC Laptop
Whole Slide, Ink/Text
Multiple-choice
Features:
Integrated System
Instructor Control
Pull Model
Limits:
Cost
DyKnow Website:

25. GroupScribbles Devices: Activities: Features: Limits: Tablet PC Laptop
Post-It Note, Ink/Text
Features:
Multi-part Activities
Multiple Subs.
Editing/Moving Sub.
Limits:
Cost
Brecht J., DiGiano C., Patton C., Tatar D., Chaudhury R., Roschelle J., & Davis K. “Coordinating networked learning activities with a general-purpose Interface”. To appear in the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning.

26. Handheld CRSs General Properties: Examples:
Many types of small devices
Activities more limited
Examples:
Clickers
Classtalk
Pebbles
ActiveClass
PLS TXT UR Thoughts
Ubiquitous Presenter (Mobile) 26

27. Clickers Devices: Activities: Features: Limits: Custom Multiple-choice
Small and Affordable
Scales to 100s
Limits:
Limited Utility HW
Used for Wrong Reasons?
Pedagogy relies on aggregated results and discussion with neighbor
Used for attendance and keeping people awake (these are wrong reasons).
Duncan D. “Clickers: A New Teaching Aid with Exceptional Promise”. Astronomy Education Review, 5(1), 2006.

28. Classtalk Devices: Activities: Features: Limits: PDA
Calculator (TI-83)
Activities:
Multiple-choice
Short Answer
Numeric
Features:
Binning (All Responses)
Limits:
PDA Cost/Popularity
Dufresne R. J., Gerace W. J., Leonard W. J., Mestre J. P., Wenk L. “Classtalk: A Classroom Communication System for Active Learning”. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 7, 3-47, (1996).

29. Pebbles Devices: Activities: Features: Limits: PDA Multiple-choice
Question Asking
Features:
General Framework
PebblesDraw
Shared Whiteboard
Limits:
PDA Cost/Popularity
Showed that their technology was preferred to raising hands or cards in class
Myers B. A. “Using Hand-Held Devices and PCs Together”. Communications of the ACM. Volume 44, Issue 11. November, pp. 34 – 41.

30. ActiveClass Devices: Activities: Features: Limits: PDA Multiple-choice
Question Asking
Features:
Voting on Questions
Results Always Avail.
Limits:
PDA Cost/Popularity
Ratto M., Shapiro R. B., Truong T. M., Griswold W. G. “The ActiveClass Project: Experiments in Encouraging Classroom Participation”. Computer Support for Collaborative Learning, 2003.

31. PLS TXT UR Thoughts Devices: Activities: Features: Limits: Cell Phone
Question Asking
Features:
SMS Communication
Anonymous
Limits:
Recurring SMS Cost
SMS Length (160)
Markett C., Sanchez I. A., Weber S., Tangney B. “Using short message service to encourage interactivity in the classroom”. Computers & Education, , 2006.

32. Ubiquitous Presenter (mobile)
Devices:
Cell Phone
Activities:
Multiple-choice
Short Answer
Camera-based
Features:
SMS  Abbreviations
Anonymous
Limits:
Recurring SMS/MMS Cost
Lindquist D., Denning T., Kelly M., Malani R., Griswold W. G., and Simon B. “Exploring the Potential of Mobile Phones for Active Learning in the Classroom”. SIGCSE ’07, March 2007.

33. Summary of All Systems Tablet PC Laptop PDA Calculator Phone Custom
Digital Ink
Textual
Multiple-choice
Whole Slide
Post-It
? Asking
Short Answer
Numeric
Tablet PC CP
Grp. Scrb.
DyKnow
Laptop
Ubiq. Pres.
PDA
ActiveClass
Classtalk
Pebbles
Calculator
Phone
Ubiq. Mob.
PLS TXT
Custom
Clickers
Whole Slide and Post-It can be used for ? Asking, Short Answer, Numeric, and Multiple-choice. This just shows the primary types of exercises that they are used for.

34. Summary of All Systems Tablet PC Laptop PDA Calculator Phone Custom
Digital Ink
Textual
Multiple-choice
Whole Slide
Post-It
? Asking
Short Answer
Numeric
Tablet PC CP
Grp. Scrb.
DyKnow
Laptop
Ubiq. Pres.
Grp. Scrb
PDA
ActiveClass
Classtalk
Pebbles
Calculator
Phone
Ubiq. Mob.
PLS TXT
Custom
Clickers
Whole Slide and Post-It can be used for ? Asking, Short Answer, Numeric, and Multiple-choice. This just shows the primary types of exercises that they are used for.

35. Part III: Future Work Improve type of exercises on handhelds
Integrate diverse handhelds into class

36. Enabling Adoption? Expressiveness Cost Integrate Existing Devices
Digital Ink
Expressiveness
Increase
Mobile
Interaction
Multiple Choice $
$$$
Cost 36

37. Challenges “Increasing Mobile Interaction” “Using Existing Devices”
Understand types of activities
How to do them on mobile devices
“Using Existing Devices”
Dealing with heterogeneous mix of devices 37

38. Steps to Tackle Challenges
Look at styles of activities supported on different devices esp. what interactions are needed
Look at how well each device feature performs on these activity styles
Explore techniques for making activity styles feasible on mobile devices and test
Develop application that supports multiple device types
Develop tool for designing activities to suit multiple devices – design activity once, translate to several devices
Develop tool for taking responses of different forms and interpreting/aggregating them 38

39. Step 1: Activity Styles Taxonomy
What:
Activity Patterns:
Brecht et al.,
DiGiano et al.
Classroom Presenter observations
Other Education Work
Focus on CRS activities
Hierarchical Taxonomy
Goal: Benchmark
How:
Large Corpus of Activities
Compile Taxonomy Manually
Expand as needed
Brecht  41 Activity Patterns (Question Posing, Multiple Representations, Simultaneous Annotation, Image Mapping)
DiGiano  Moon Phases Pattern (partial knowledge), mostly deals with communication in small groups
I am interested in patterns of activities styles based on the information that instructor wants to gain from the activity.

40. Step 1: Potential Activity Styles
Locate Item On Image
Single/Multiple items?
Location?
Scale?
Boundaries?
Create a Diagram
Elements?
Labels?
Connectivity?
Modify/Complete a Diagram
Structure?
Highlight a Diagram

41. Step 2: Existing Techniques
What:
Given device capabilities, quantize performance
Test feasibility of activity for each device
Use existing research where avail.
Text input speed on different devices
Pointing task research
Focus on diagrammatic/image responses
How:
Literature review
Implement techniques
Lab studies to test performance on benchmarks
Transitions to next slide: Let’s look at some of the dimensions that we need to consider for our device
First input,
Also, screen size

42. Device Input Capabilities
Input Modality (Hardware)
Example Mobile Devices
Keyboard
Laptop, Tablet PC (hybrid)
Keypad
Mobile Phone
Directional Pad (2-way, 4-way, or 8-way)
Mobile Phone, PDA, Gaming Device
Mouse
Laptop (external)
Trackball
Touchpad (relative motion only)
Laptop
Joystick
Gaming Device
Accelerometer
Mobile Phone, PDA
Stylus/Pen
Tablet PC, PDA
Touch-screen
iPhone, Tablet PC (some)
Camera
Mobile Phone, iPhone

43. Device Screen Sizes 43

44. Step 3: New Techniques What: How: No adequate techniques?
Try to invent new ones
How:
Identify gaps from prev. step
Examples:
Stylus drawing on small screen w/ large virtual canvas
Drawing arbitrary regions without stylus
Test performance using lab tests

45. Step 3: Example Arbitrary Regions
Rubber-band?

46. Step 4: Develop Application
What:
Base on Classroom Presenter
Requirements:
Identify device type/capabilities
Screen size/resolution
Open platforms? Android?
How:
Use existing standards:
Ubiquitous Presenter uses HTML and JavaScript
Wifi or SMS for networking
Support for:
Stylus Devices (Tablet PC, PDA, Smart Phone, Nintendo DS)
Touch Screen
Keypad
Success = deployment & support for devices

47. Step 5: Instructor Design Tools
What:
Consider classroom issues with different devices
Envy
Equality
Given benefits/drawbacks of different modalities,
Recommend alternative activity types?
Balance activity types given?
How:
Tool Input
Instructor activity (PowerPoint?)
Activity metadata
Tool Internals
Determine activity type
Optimizes interaction for each device in class
Tool Output
Recommendations for activity types
Evaluate with user-study of tool

48. Step 6: Instructor Class Usage
What:
Use activity metadata
Use salient regions of responses
Understand and aggregate results
Finding common misconceptions
How:
Unsupervised/semi-supervised clustering
Evaluation
Test data from real classes
Measure success on data
User-study to observe utility
Multi-device data to test on

49. Step 6: Example Tic-Tac-Toe?
X, X, O
O, O, X ==

50. Conclusions Two Problems Solution Goal Increasing Mobile Interaction
Using Existing Devices
Solution
Activities and devices
Tools:
Enable multiple devices
Help instructor
Goal
Make deploying CRSs a reality
Improve Education

51. Questions? 51