Paper presentation for the eLearning Conference

Plymouth University – 26th November, 2005

eLearning Scaffolds for Creativity

Steven Coombs: School of Education, Bath Spa University, UK.

Email: Tel: +44-(0)1225-876149

Keywords

Knowledge Elicitation Systems (KES), Critical Thinking Scaffolds (CTS), Practice-Based Research (PBR), Informocracy.

Abstract

In the world of Information Technology (IT) software systems the term 'user-friendly' has become widely used and is generally synonymous with well-designed IT solutions that the user can easily interact with. Indeed, user-friendly software systems imply that the human computer interface (HCI) and interactability of the IT system have been designed in such a way as to allow immediate and meaningful participation. This paper attempts to provide a conceptual pedagogical model that explains the idea of user-friendliness in terms of IT systems operating as an easy-to-access reflective learning tool. Further, that the quality of critical thinking interaction via IT software depends on both humanistic and instructional technology design considerations which affect the system's ability to operate as an efficient reflective learning interface with a person. IT software learning systems that enable the user to transfer ideas and experiences into new conceptual knowledge is proposed by the author to be a knowledge elicitation system (KES). The critical and creative thinking design rationale and generic criteria of a KES will be shared with readers, in order that any IT learning system can be readily evaluated in terms of its user-friendly 'learnability' and reflective learning capability. Many of the core pedagogic concepts and innovative theories in this paper were summarized into an information table (Coombs, 2000), which provides the conceptual rationale of a Critical Thinking Scaffold. Critical Thinking Scaffolds (CTS) have been applied as learning tools to support practice-based research modules within the Professional Master's Programme at Bath Spa University and case study exhibits of student work using CTS technology will be shared.

Introduction

This paper is written at a time when many countries around the world accept that developing the creative potential and talents of their people is an important imperative in the struggle for economic survival in an increasingly competitive and globalised world economy. This realisation has started to affect education policy across the globe with major Information & Communications Technology (ICT) developments such as Malaysia’s Multi-media Super Corridor and the Singapore-One island-wide broadband projects developed in the late 1990’s. Such ICT projects were paralleled with the coming of third generation mobile communications systems that has seen the convergence of multimedia and communications technologies. At the same time the Ministry of Education in Singapore launched its ‘Thinking schools, learning nation’ policy as long ago as 1997 with a desire to link critical thinking with the ICT curriculum (Coombs & Smith, 1999), whilst the UK developed the ‘National Grid for Learning’ (NGfL) initiative for schools and colleges. Meanwhile, the US Federal government launched a large ICT-related professional development project called ‘Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to use Technolgy’, or, the PT3 initiative, as it has become known. The interesting point to note here is the global consensus of the covert ontological assumption that improved access to better quality ICT resources has the potential to improve the creative learning capacity of the populous. Indeed, the UK’s DfES has recently been campaigning on the merits of introducing various critical and creative thinking initiatives into the school curriculum supported in many cases by using ICT resources from the NGfL.

Clearly, the pedagogical quality and purpose of ICT systems as a learning resource to support the educational curriculum of schools is of considerable importance. It is my contention (Coombs, 1995 & 2000) that the knowledge transfer capability of ICT learning resources is dependent upon their ability to operate in a user-friendly manner with the learner interacting with it. This is in terms of both the physical personal access into the ICT-based instructional system and, more importantly, how the learner psychologically elicits knowledge from it.

Reflective Learning Tools to Support Learning

This suggests the need to design instructional technology software to use with ICT systems that can maximize thought-based learner interaction that then contributes toward a fertile learning environment for the personal construction of knowledge. This concept agrees with Jonassen's idea that educational technology learning resources should operate as student-centred "Mindtools for critical thinking" (Jonassen, 1996). This paper considers eLearning user-friendliness in the context of recent leading-edge developments in IT software systems from both a business and educational perspective. User-friendly learning systems are defined in terms of a psychological model of human learning that assumes a conversational cybernetic paradigm (see Table 1) in which learner interaction is considered to be a systems-based combination of reflexive and reflective thinking skills. This pedagogical concept of a conversational constructivist paradigm is explained more fully later in this paper. However, it is from this systems-thinking psychological model of user-friendly learning systems that we can understand how to enable the conversational fluency of learner interaction through the deployment of appropriate knowledge elicitation tools and, hence, understand how to evaluate such eLearning thinking tools as a reflective learning technology.

Table 1: Key pedagogic concepts and learning theories (Coombs, 2000)

Pedagogic/ Technical term / Pedagogic concept / IT learning theory implication
Human Computer Interface (HCI) / The HCI is a communications interface between a human being user and a computing machine from which learning interaction can occur. This term is used a lot in cybernetics and systems thinking theory and affects the quality of the user's interaction with the system. / IT learning theory concentrates mainly on visual design considerations regarding how software is graphically presented to the user.
Man Machine Interface (MMI) / Similar to the HCI concept, except this term occurs more in the software engineering fields. / Similar to above with a concentration on the technical software solutions to achieve user-friendly interfaces, e.g. Windows.
Reflective Learning Interface (RLI) / A learning device or systems that enables the learner to actively reflect on some useful task or goal. The RLI affects the quality of learner interaction through the learner's capability of engaging with the medium in a critically reflective manner. / Underpins the IT interface design characteristics for a knowledge elicitation system (KES).
Informocracy / A construct between a standardized information technology software system and something that is widely used across a large society of users, i.e. democratic usage. / A globalised IT package such as Microsoft's Office software is a good example of informocracy in practice, i.e. everyone is using the same software application across many countries and shares the same IT skills and knowledge.
Knowledge Elicitation System (KES) / The user elicits knowledge from the learning system through self-managing their own constructs. The KES becomes a learning coach scaffold. / An IT system that allows the user to meaningfully engage with it in a reflective manner so that new knowledge might be elicited from the self-managed experience.
Courseware / Educational learning resources covering a range of different media formats, e.g. video, audio, software, multimedia systems etc. / IT courseware can be designed in the form of computer-aided learning (CAL) packages or computer-based learning (CBL) materials.
Personal Construct Theory (PCT). / PCT provides a psychological constructivist process that explains and links critical thinking to the construing of one's learning experiences. / Reflective experiential procedures can be built into IT software systems so that they might operate as learning coach scaffolds.
Cybernetics & Conversation Theory. / Cybernetics is the science of systems-based thinking and covers a range of academic fields including engineering and psychology. Conversation theory is a branch of cybernetics that considers the psychology of thinking as a conversational process. / Systems-based critical thinking and conversational learning are linked to Kelly's PCT and explain how knowledge might be constructed through systematic reflection. Explains the instructional and pedagogic basis of a KES.
Interactability and Learnability of a software system. / Relates to the quality of learning interactions that a user has with the software system's instructional medium. / The interactability of an IT system can be understood as the learning quality of a KES in terms of the medium's RLI, while the learnability relates to the prior learning IT skills required to use it and is often referred to as a learning curve.
Self-Organised Learning (S-o-L). / S-o-L is drawn from Harri-Augstein's & Thomas' (1985) conversational learning paradigm, which is underpinned by Kelly's (1955) PCT model of how we think, reflect and experience. / S-O-L is related to the instructional technology design criteria for intelligent learning systems.
Artificial Intelligence (AI). / AI is a concept that suggests intelligence can be designed and built into machines. Whether the machines actually possess knowledge or not is a philosophical debate. I would argue that AI machines do not, so far, possess a psychological capability and, as such, do not possess knowledge as knowledge is derived from a person's psychological experiences. / AI relates mainly to designing computerized machines that are intelligent in the sense that they can perform stand-alone decision-making tasks.
Critical and reflective thinking scaffolds. / Enables a learner to elicit knowledge from experiences in a focussed and organised manner. The critical thinking design process can follow the 3-step criteria outlined in this article. / Educational Technology IT thinking tools operate as critical and reflective scaffolds when they enable the user to perform reflective learning experiences that are focussed toward understanding the specific learning objectives of the task concerned.
Virtual Reality (VR) / VR represents an alternative form of experiencing an event outside of the normal physical world. The quality of a VR experience, or its fidelity, would relate to how life-like the virtual experience actually was. / IT VR systems usually engage three main senses, sight, sound and touch. This is achieved by using 3-dimensional headsets, audio headphones and interactive gloves and other body-based transducer devices that detect the body's physical movements.
Virtual Learning (VL) & Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). / Virtual Learning (VL) is when a learner can achieve their real-world learning through simulated and artificial learning environments, i.e. a virtual learning environment (VLE). / VLE IT scaffolds can provide an alternative sensual framework from which the user can model new experiences, i.e. can achieve conceptual reification by visually modelling and experiencing abstract phenomena.
Graphical User Interface (GUI). / A GUI is considered to be a user-friendly interface as it represents an easy-to-use tactile interface, which is common to many different software systems and represents a lower IT skills learning curve. / The Windows, Icons, Mouse and Pointer environments used on PCs and Macs are all IT examples of a GUI.
Sensual fidelity. / This represents the quality of a user's experiential engagement with a learning system. A simple pedagogic rubric would be to engage the maximum number of senses within a learning experience activity, thus boosting the overall fidelity of the learner's engagement. / VR IT systems tend to have greater sensual fidelity than normal multimedia learning courseware that depends on stimulating the audio and visual only. The number of senses within a VR system is usually 3; sight, sound and touch. And where the visual sense is also enhanced through stereoscopic effects.

Critical Thinking Scaffolds as Knowledge Elicitation Systems

In answer to the question “what is a user-friendly eLearning system?” I would postulate: “ something that enables the user to interact in a meaningful and conversationally fluent manner, so as to maximize one’s creative learning potential”.

This paper proposes a pedagogical paradigm that helps to explain the psychological nature and encounter of what constitutes as a user-friendly eLearning interaction. This pedagogical assumption is derived from the conversational learning paradigm perspective of Laurie Thomas and Sheila Harri-Augstein (1985). They define human learning as “ the construction and reconstruction, exchange and negotiation of significant, relevant and viable meanings” (p.2). Their theory of the self-organized learner (S-o-L) is a personal constructivist theory of human learning that considers the design and use of reflective tools and processes which lead to an improved repertoire of inner-reflexive skills. Steven Coombs and Ian Smith (1998) have explored the person-based relationships between reflection and reflexivity. In their article “Designing a Conversational Learning Environment” they identify a new learning theory based on "conversational constructivism" that provides an insight into understanding the relationship between thinking and learning. They summarize Harri-Augstein & Thomas’ S-o-L conversational paradigm in terms of three core principles:

  1. Real personal learning depends on self-assessment and reflective evaluation through the construction of internal referents;
  2. The S-o-L practice depends on the ability of the learner to self-monitor and control the learning process whilst developing appropriate models of understanding; and
  3. Shared meaning is negotiated conversationally from social networks. Such social networks can be understood as conversational learning environments that construct their own viability and validity, resulting in a capacity for creative and flexible thinking. (p. 7)

All these reflective learning and self-organisational thinking processes can be achieved through either real-life or virtual learning environments. Virtual learning environments (see Table 1) have the ability to simulate real-life environments, which are very convenient for instructional technology designers that wish to emulate a diverse range of rich social and situated learning (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989) cognitive encounters from within an institution. However, it shall be later argued that ICT virtual reality (see Table 1) learning environments can provide an enhancement to learning that goes beyond normal real-life encounters and can contribute a new kind of critical thinking scaffold (see Table 1).

David Jonassen (1996) also suggests that learners need to be able to reflect on, self-assess and construct personal meaning from their computer-aided instructional learning system. Jonassen proposes that any system which supports a learner with this kind of higher-order thinking task is an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) and Coombs and Wong (2000) describe this kind of learning support as a self-coaching thinking scaffold to enable better quality student-centred learning activities. Thus, a user-friendly eLearning system can be seen not just in terms of reflexive behavioral navigational control qualities, but also in terms of its capability to encourage the learner to participate in critical and creative thinking activities. Jonassen refers to eLearning ICT thinking systems as a "Mindtool" and maintains that: "Mindtools are a reflective use of technology. That is, using Mindtools necessarily engages learners in reflective thinking, which leads to knowledge construction" (p. 13). This means that we have an important pedagogical link between reflective thinking and knowledge construction via an eLearning tool operating as a 'critical thinking scaffold' (Coombs, 2000 & 2002).

A user-friendly conversational eLearning environment requires the user to be able to control and reflectively evaluate ideas through the internal construction of referents, that is, to construct and develop a unique system of meaning construed as a personal model of understanding. Checkland (1993) has described a systems-thinking or cybernetic portrayal of a psychological model of understanding as: “ An intellectual construct (related) to observables in the world. … (This) leads to descriptions of the world couched in terms of models, as if the world were identical with models of it.” (p.315). These psychological “models of understanding” can be further refined and developed through conversational negotiation and exchange via social networks and forms the pedagogic basis of collaborative and real-life situated learning experiences (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989). This may be achieved through real-life group learning encounters or by way of eLearning virtual learning environments, now available through the Internet, offering a diverse range of social collaborative online facilities such as chat rooms and discussion groups (Maddux, Johnson & Willis, 1997). These types of social-learning interactions are important considerations toward understanding the nature of a user-friendly eLearning environment and provide a socio-psychological explanation that links motivation and learning. Indeed, Bandura (1986) affirmed this assumption when he stated that behaviour is a function of the person and his/her social environment (i.e., B= f(P, E)). Contemporary eLearning communications systems, such as the Internet, provide a user-friendly gateway to a virtual learning society that has resulted in millions of global participants being ‘hooked’ to the system. Using the Internet in such a way as to support learning encourages a proactive disposition of the learner towards learning in general and thereby generates Bandura’s notion of motivational behaviour linked to the nature of the social environment being experienced.

The challenge to the educational world is to properly understand the pedagogy of virtual eLearning environments and take advantage of user-friendly social systems that boost learner motivation, such as the Internet, and then provide suitable curriculum delivery solutions. However, many teachers have avoided integrating into their curriculum eLearning resources that use the Internet, fearing anti-social phenomena such as the availability of pornography and thereby failing to both understand and integrate such technology as a basic educational tool (Maddux, 1998).

It was from the core question of “what is the learning theory of user-friendly knowledge elicitation systems?”, that I have considered the psychology of systems-based learner interfaces in terms of a philosophy called conversation theory. The area of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has classified computer-aided learning (CAL) systems (see Table 1 for AI & CAL definitions) into various orders of thinking skills. Drill and practice software is considered as stimulating low thinking skills (Roblyer, Edwards & Havriluk, 1997), while higher-order thinking skills are generally associated with user-oriented and highly interactive exercises (Jonassen, 1996), such as those activities and tasks designed for social and collaborative learning environments. AI educational researchers’ have created IT learning environments that are generally referred to as knowledge-based systems (KBS), which tends to describe the user as an individual cognitively retrieving knowledge via various routing systems from some informational database. However, Coombs (1995) redefined this concept of a KBS in terms of a conversational IT learning environment and proposed the alternative term of a "knowledge elicitation system" (KES), in recognition that it is a critical thinking person that is interacting with a computer-based learning system and that knowledge is a psychological phenomena, which is distinct from the information sources that may help to construct it. This suggests that information is not merely retrieved by the user in a passive manner, but can be reflectively constructed and deconstructed by the learner in conjunction with other comparable experiences. This type of personally constructed thinking experience is explained by George Kelly's Personal Construct Theory (PCT) (1955). Kelly's PCT explains how knowledge can be constructed experientially through a psychological process of continual elicitory experiences that the individual self-manages through critical thinking activities. This psychological concept is generally referred to as a form of construing one's personal constructs and forms the basis of Harri-Augstein & Thomas’ (1991) Learning Conversation. A KES considers user-based learning through reflective self-management of one’s elicitory experience, which also draws upon Boud’s (1981) notion of linking autonomous learning to personal reflection and Schön’s (1987) concept of the learner operating as a “reflective practitioner”. From this psychological stance that personal knowledge is derived from one's inner reflective experience, KES satisfy parameters that affect the design criterion of reflective interactive tools, whereas KBS tend to focus on a learner’s ability to use routing procedures for exploring an information database. The KES emphasis upon enabling a learner’s ability to interact ‘reflectively’, and thus elicit learning experiences, is crucial in order to understand how humans conversationally construct their own knowledge via such Learning Conversations. This idea is further explained by Harri-Augstein & Thomas’ (1991) cybernetic notion of an Intelligent Learning System, which provides the learner with reflective thinking scaffolds (see Table 1) that they refer to as a Learning Coach and operates in a similar manner to Jonassen's Intelligent Tutoring System.