Notes on Learning Object, Video Conferencing, GPS and other Navigation software

Notes on Learning Object, Video Conferencing, GPS and other Navigation software

A learning object is a particular set of items to be learned. It is the combination of content and its various aspects. In other words, a Learning Object is –

• collection of content items
Collection of practice items suitable to the collected content items
Assessment items that are combined based on a single learning objective

The concept include by “Learning Objects” is known by numerous other terms, including: content objects, portion, educational objects, information objects, intelligent objects, knowledge bits, knowledge objects, learning components, media objects, reusable curriculum components, nuggets, reusable information objects, reusable learning objects, testable reusable units of cognition, training components, and units of learning.

Videoconferencing 

Video conferencing is the conduct of a video conference (also known as a video conference or video teleconference) by a set of telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to communicate by simultaneous two-way video and audio transmissions. Video conference can be formally conducted for teaching purpose. For example, a class room teacher can organize video conference with an expert in class room situation. The expert can be from a distant location. Students in the classroom will get opportunity for asking questions, clearing doubts and so on. Video conference can be video chat in types.

Nowadays video conference can be easily conducted by the use of Skype, or Imo or Line or any such software that provide option for video chatting.

Impact on education

Videoconferencing provides students the opportunity to learn by participating in two-way communication. Furthermore, teachers and lecturers worldwide can be brought to remote or otherwise isolated educational facilities. Students from diverse communities and backgrounds can come together to learn about one another. Such students are able to explore, communicate, analyze and share information and ideas with one another. Through videoconferencing, students can visit other parts of the world to speak with their peers, and visit museums and educational facilities. Such virtual field trips can provide enriched learning opportunities to students, especially those in geographically isolated locations, and to the economically disadvantaged. Small schools can use these technologies to pool resources and provide courses, such as in foreign languages, which could not otherwise be offered.

A few examples of benefits that videoconferencing can provide in school campus environments include:

·         faculty members keeping in touch with classes while attending conferences;

·         guest lecturers brought in classes from other institutions;

·                     researchers collaborating with colleagues at other institutions on a regular basis without loss of time due to travel

·         schools with multiple school campuses collaborating and sharing teacher’s expertise

·         schools from two separate nations can engage in cross-cultural exchanges

·         faculty members participating in thesis defenses at other institutions;

·         Tele conferencing can be conducted as Tele-seminars.

Navigation

Navigation is the system to navigate on any place in the earth! Internet provides support for navigation through satellite riding.

GPS navigation software

GPS is navigation software. There is some other navigation software like IRNSS or GLONAS.

GPS means Global Positioning System. This is a navigator to find any place by using satellite navigation system. But GPS is the word used to navigating while use American satellites. If we use it by Russian satellite then it is called GLONAS. Now India too developed a positioning system by using satellite. It is known as IRNSS. Now we can say good bye to GPS and use Desi navigating system by IRNSS ( Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System or IRNSS) 

Navigation tracking, often with a map ‘picture’ in the background, but showing where you have been, and allowing ‘routes’ to be preprogrammed, giving a line you can follow on the screen.  One can find road ways in a screen while drive a motor car by using navigation system.

This note development is done in collaboration with Sri. Arun M R, Assistant Professor, Ezhuthachan Training College, Manhapra, Palakkad

Diagnostic Tests. How and why diagnostic tests for learners

DIAGNOSTIC TESTS

Diagnostic tests are used to diagnose or identify the problems of the learner in learning a particular area of content and achievement in that area. The diagnostic test helps to locate on the exact area of difficulty or exact reasons of difficulty.  (Achievement tests also have some diagnosing values, but the roughly identify the reasons.)  A diagnostic tests aimed only diagnosing the difficulties and not the achievement.

The diagnostic tests can be:

·         At higher level classes a diagnostic test can measure learning problems of specified difficult areas to find out what are the difficulties of achievement in those areas.

·         In lower level classes (school levels) the diagnostic test can be from low difficulty area or easy area. In other words, for lower classes, the questions for a diagnostic test are mostly from low difficulty level as the purpose is to identify the learners’ weaknesses and limitations.  (In achievement test the questions are varied with different difficulty levels. But in diagnostic tests they are from either low difficulty level or high level. Mostly from low difficulty level)

·         In diagnostic tests, questions arranged on learning area wise, It can can’t ask one question from first unit, second from fifth unit and so. Content wise sequential arrangement is needed in asking questions

·         Diagnostic tests are much larger than achievement tests, because we cannot ask many dimensions in same question. One question - one answer is the best system. From a small area itself we have to ask many questions.

·         Diagnostic tests are larger in size doesn’t mean test for more marks. It means more questions from a same area.

Administration of Diagnostic Tests

Diagnostic tests can be done in two occasions:

a.       A teacher can grasp the difficulties of students in certain areas of learning by going through their learning tasks. The responses of learners also will help a teacher to identify the difficulties. In such cases, teacher can administer diagnostic tests to find out the depth of difficulties.

b.      Diagnostic tests are mostly administered after the conduct of achievement tests. By achievement test, teacher can see the difficulty areas of the learner and based on that the diagnostic tests can be prepared. The analysis of answer helps to identify the difficulty areas of the achievement test (question wise analyses)  Identifying the difficulty areas means to see the areas those are mostly unanswered. The unanswered areas are the difficulty areas for the learners. For diagnostic test, the questions should be from these unanswered areas and they should be simple questions.

c.       Normally diagnostic tests are constituted with objective type questions and short answer type questions. But it is not mandatory. If a teacher find out that the difficulty is with answering an essay, such questions can also be included.

·         A diagnostic test can be so simple in its language and directions and so on. Because it aimed to identify the difficulties in learning.

·         Sufficient time should be provided for attending the questions. Mostly , there is no need of question wise time limit for a diagnostic tests

·         Diagnostic tests are not to measure the achievement of the learner. It is to identify the difficulties of learner in content area/s.

·         The diagnostic test after achievement test must be prepared for the most unanswered areas only.

·         The diagnostic tests are to be followed a diagnostic analysis and remedial teaching.

Prognostic tests

The test can be conducted in anticipatory to identify the possible difficulties of a learner in a particular content are. Such tests are called prognostic tests.  

JIDHU KRISHNAMOORTHY'S Educational Views

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Life History

             Jiddu Krishnamurti was born on 11 May 1895 in Madanapalle, a small town in south India. He and his brother were adopted in their youth by Dr Annie Besant, then president of the Theosophical Society. Dr Besant and others proclaimed that Krishnamurti was to be a world teacher whose coming the Theosophists had predicted. To prepare the world for this coming, a world-wide organization called the Order of the Star in the East was formed and the young Krishnamurti made its head.

                  Krishnamurti is regarded globally as one of the greatest thinkers and religious teachers of all time. He did not expound any philosophy or religion, but rather talked of the things that concern all of us in our everyday lives, of the problems of living in modern society with its violence and corruption, of the individual's search for security and happiness, and the need for mankind to free itself from inner burdens of fear, anger, hurt, and sorrow. He explained with great precision the subtle workings of the human mind, and pointed to the need for bringing to our daily life a deeply meditative and spiritual quality.

Philosophy

It is essentially as a philosopher of mind that Krishnamurti looks at education. Krishnamurti is truly an educational philosopher in that his thinking is centred on education, on understanding its fundamentals as well as praxis. Krishnamurti addressed educational problems, even the nitty-gritties of day-to-day classroom teaching, squarely and directly. He dealt with them by probing into their very roots with his penetrating insights. His educational concerns are strikingly contemporaneous and global. They include: freedom and discipline, comparison and competition, learning through the senses, scientific temper, joy and creativity. A primary audience of his has been the educational community–schools, teachers, students and parents. Krishnamurti’s educational teachings also encompass such broad, general concerns of mankind as freedom, fear, god, living and dying, love and loneliness, peace and the future of humanity. It is against this awesome sweep of ideas and his deep love of humanity that one has to understand his educational philosophy.

Educartinal views.

Education is usually taken to be an organized, purposive activity, with pre-established goals. What sense can one make of Krishnamurti’s “truth is a pathless land…it cannot be organized…” and his ardent espousal of education and his setting up of a number of schools? The reconciliation of the apparent contradiction lies in K’s situating education in the active, existential, living present and consideration of education as a cooperative exploration by the teacher and student.

Krishnamurti sees education not with the eyes of a reformer, as a means to serve this or that end, but as an intrinsic, self-fulfilling experience requiring no further justification. The function of education, he said, is “to bring about a mind that will not only act in the immediate but go beyond…a mind that is extraordinarily alive, not with knowledge, not with experience, but alive”.“More important than making the child technologically proficient is the creation of the right climate in the school for the child to develop fully as a complete human being”. This means giving him “the opportunity to flower in goodness, so that he is rightly related to people, things and ideas, to the whole of life”

It is not possible to do justice to the richness of the body of K’s insights on teaching, learning and other aspects of education in a brief write-up. I quote a few below that have a significance all their own and leave a lasting impact.

Methods of education

The Point of Education: Education is essentially the art of learning, not only from books, but from the whole movement of life…learning about the nature of the intellect, its dominance, its activities, its vast capacities and its destructive power…learning it not from a book but from the observation of the world about you…without theories, prejudices and values (Letters to the Schools).

Principle of Method: If one really has something to say, the very saying of it creates its own style; but learning a style without inward experiencing can only lead to superficiality…Likewise, people who are experiencing, and therefore teaching, are the only real teachers, and they too will create their own technique. (Education and the Significance of Life, p.21, 48).

Schooling without Competition and Comparison: When A is compared to B, who is clever, bright, assertive, that very comparison destroys A. This destruction takes the form of competition, of imitation and conformity to the patterns set by B. This breeds…antagonism, jealousy, anxiety and even fear; and this becomes the condition in which A lives for the rest of his life, always measuring, always comparing psychologically and physically… Goodness cannot flower where there is any kind of competitiveness. (Letters to the Schools, p.80)

Learning through Observation: Learning is pure observation – observation which is not continuous and which then becomes memory, but observation from moment to moment – not only of the things outside you but also of that which is happening inwardly; to observe without the observer. Look not with your mind but with your eyes… Then you find out that the outside is the inside…that the observer is the observed (On Education).

Freedom and Order…if you want to be free…you have to find out for yourself what it is to be orderly, what it is to be punctual, kind, generous, unafraid. The discovery of all that is discipline… Freedom is not from something or avoidance of constraint. It has no opposite; it is of itself, per se. Clarity of perception is freedom from the self. Flowering of goodness in all our relationship is possible only in freedom (On Education).

Contributions

The KFI schools

The KFI was established originally in order to set up an educational institution—the Rishi

Valley Education Centre in Andhra Pradesh. The origins of the KFI also lie in Krishnamurti’s

links with the Theosophical Society. Dr. Annie Besant (President of the Theosophical Society

at the time) was one of the seven founder-members of the KFI, which was originally a

charitable institution under the name of the Rishi Valley Trust, set up by Krishnamurti in

1928. Later, this Trust became the Foundation for New Education (in 1953) and eventually

the Krishnamurti Foundation India in 1970. The work of the Foundation includes education,

research and environmental programmes that are conducted in an overall perspective deriving

from Krishnamurti’s thought. Another major KFI activity is the preservation, acquisition and

publication of Krishnamurti’s works and materials relating to his life. Study centres and

retreats have also been set up at most of the school locations to enable people to be in places

of great quietude and natural beauty for study and reflection.

The KFI has focused on education to a large extent, and this resulted in the

establishment of two more schools in India, in addition to the existing five, after

Krishnamurti’s death in 1986. A significant aspect of the schools is their location in places of

great natural beauty and splendour. This is a result of Krishnamurti’s emphasis on learning in

natural surroundings, as well as the importance of physical space, to ensure harmony in

relationships and in developing a questioning, creative mind.

there are certain limitations in implementing Krishnamurti’s perspective on

education in State-funded schools in India, where certain basic necessities and infrastructure

such as safe drinking water, toilets and large spaces simply do not exist. A minimum structure

is thus necessary before teachers and students can work together for ‘right education’. The

obvious implication is that KFI schools are therefore the only places where Krishnamurti’s

perspective can be shared and developed. It is possible, however, that there are certain

universal features of the KFI schools that can easily be shared with, and developed by, other

schools. These include an abiding interest in and commitment to the environment and the

community in which the KFI schools are located.

See also

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiddu_Krishnamurti

http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/about-krishnamurti/biography.php

http://www.krishnamurticentre.org.uk/teachings/extracts.php

infed.org/mobi/jiddu-krishnamurti-and-his-insights-into-education/

www.kfoundation.org/

Freedom from the Known

The Book Of Life

The First and Last Freedom

The Awakening of Intelligence

How to conduct a classroom discussion

Sample Guidelines for Classroom Discussion

Argument and Inquiry Seminars:

Potential Activities to Set Classroom Discussion Environment

Objectives

1.      Create a safe environment for productive classroom discussion

2.      Set expectations for class participation and discussion content

Activity 1: Students set discussion criteria and rules

Time: 45 minutes

The class I use this exercise for is an upper-level seminar of about 15 students.  I expect students to attend and actively participate in class – both speaking and listening to others.  There are two student discussion leaders assigned to lead each class, which includes a discussion of several readings, connections with earlier course material and with everyday experience.  I tell students that one of my objectives, as a professor, is to give them experience expressing their ideas orally and in leading a group discussion – two important skills in the post-collegiate “real” world.

I start the class off by telling students that class discussion is the core of the class – they will get more out of the class if they attend and participate in discussion, and they will get much less enjoyment and information out of the class if they opt out of these activities.  In fact, they have to attend class in order to pass – too many absences results in an automatic no credit.

I then challenge them to think of elements that make a good discussion – either a casual discussion with a friend or a larger classroom discussion.  I write everything down on the board, even if it doesn’t initially seem relevant, using commentary and arrows to draw connections between different ideas and to draw out elements that were not clearly stated.  Sometimes I will try to group related ideas on the board.  If items that come up later would better fit a follow-up question, I’ll write it down, then use an arrow to move it later in discussion.  We end up with a messy map, and it usually includes many of the following ideas (roughly organized and edited here).

1.      What are qualities or characteristics of good discussions?

a.       Participant engagement

    i.      Meaningful conversation

    ii.      Fluid discussion

    iii.      Balanced participation

    iv.      Active listening

    v.      Leave wanting more

b.      Participants have mutual trust and respect

      i.      Development of intellectual relationships

1.      Honesty

2.      Develop mutual respect

3.      Everyone is heard

4.      Mutual sharing

5.      Acknowledge others’ contributions

    ii.      Open-mindedness

    iii.      Safe space

1.      Freedom to question, disagree, or admit non-understanding

2.      Sensitivity  

c.       An opportunity to affirm and develop existing ideas

      i.      Validate ideas and theories

      ii.      Deeper understanding

      iii.      Understanding pushed to new areas

d.      An opportunity to explore new ideas

       i.      Learn something new and interesting

       ii.      Contribute something new and interesting

       iii.      Spark new ideas and directions for thought

       iv.      Feeling unsettled

       v.      Explore new ideas

       vi.      Variety of viewpoints

       vii.      Take risks

Next, I ask students to set ground rules for discussions.  What kind of expectations do they have for themselves and their peers in a discussion that they want to be productive?  They need to set up a set of criteria that will nurture good discussions.  These should be more concrete than the responses to the first question.  I tell them that I will be using these criteria to evaluate their class participation.  While the students don’t always realize it explicitly, they generally have criteria that address each of the main qualities discussed in (1).  If they don’t include any guidelines that address a particular goal, I might explicitly point out the parallels.

2.      What ground rules / guidelines should we follow in discussions?

a.       Participant engagement

   i.      Participate (Equality of participation?  Quality vs. quantity)

1.      Consider “talkers” vs. “listeners”

2.      Encourage participation of peers

3.      Turn-taking (raising hands?)

4.      Be aware of talking patterns: attend to body language; be aware of who else might want the floor

    ii.      Prepare in advance

1.      Do readings

2.      Come up with specific comments and questions

3.      Read Moodle discussion before class – use it to define terms and establish common ground

4.      Bring in ideas from outside class

    iii.      Active listening

1.      Stay on topic, but know when to move on

2.      Be brief – try not to repeat self or others

        iv.      Have fun!

b.      Participants have mutual trust and respect

         i.      Be respectful of peers

         ii.      Address other students, not the professor

         iii.      Assume best intent of others

         iv.      Have patience with others

        v.      Maintain eye contact with peers

        vi.      Criticize and comment on ideas, not people

       vii.      Don’t interrupt or make careful use of interruptions

       viii.      Maintain confidentiality of others’ opinions

c.       An opportunity to affirm and develop existing ideas

     i.      Support arguments and contextualize knowledge

1.      Refer to readings explicitly

2.      Use concrete examples

3.      Opinions should be supported by evidence

4.      Limit use of anecdotes and examples to illustrations, not social responses

      ii.      Draw conclusions, summarize, end discussions

d.      An opportunity to explore new ideas

      i.      Be willing to take risks – to think out loud

      ii.      Be open to questions

     iii.      Make constructive critiques of others’ ideas

     iv.      Consider bias in own and others’ opinions and assertions

     v.      Contribute new ideas

     vi.      Be flexible

Finally, I ask the students to brainstorm suggestions for discussion leaders to help the class maintain the ground rules and encourage the elements of good discussion.  These suggestions give students who are more experienced in leading groups a chance to share their experiences with students less experienced.  I like this because it is an opportunity for students to start learning from each other.  It makes explicit the various types of work that the discussion leaders need to do aside from just bringing in a few questions and is an opportunity for students to open the floor to more creative methods for fostering discussion.

3.      What guidelines should discussion leaders follow?

a.       Come prepared

      i.      Leaders should meet in advance and collaborate on all activities

      ii.      Read all readings (including optional material)

      iii.      Think critically about readings

      iv.      Print out Moodle discussion

      v.      Provide discussion questions and diverse activities

      vi.      Short videos can be good

      vii.      Have a backup plan

b.      Start with a point of common ground in discussion

      i.      Give overviews of main points (PowerPoint or lecture?)

      ii.      Give handouts

c.       Manage discussion

    i.      Participate in discussion

    ii.      Use different techniques for discussions, e.g. round robins, jigsaw methods

    iii.      Mediate participation

    iv.      Define terms and scope of discussion

    v.      Help discussion move on if it gets stuck

    vi.      Avoid tangents

    vii.      Present all sides of discussions

    viii.      Make decisions and commitments

    ix.      Give summary statements

Generally speaking, students give remarkably similar sets of responses to these questions each term.  At the end of the discussion, I review what they came up with, add anything large that I see is missing, and emphasize that these will be the criteria by which I will grade both their class participation and their discussion leading. I write down all of the comments and post them to Moodle.  A little before mid-term, I administer mid-term evaluations that include a list of the ground rules.  I ask students to rate themselves on meeting the ground rules and ask them to come up with 1-2 things they can do to improve class discussions.  I like that the students generate the criteria, and that gives me additional freedom to hold them accountable for meeting them.