Ask a scientist, an entrepreneur, a musician, a writer, and all can tell you that innovation isn’t made of straight lines. With advancement comes regression – with each scaled wall, a possible fall. It’s this idea – in the context of collaborative online learning – that will inform Jack Carroll’s upcoming talk sponsored by the Center for Online Innovation in Learning (COIL).
Carroll, distinguished professor of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) and director of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction, will present “Developing Critical Thinking Skills Using Critical Thinker” from 1 to 2 p.m. March 1, in 221 Chambers Building, University Park. The event is free and open to the public, and requires registration at: http://goo.gl/QpqkqV.
COIL Conversations is “a community-centered webinar series that seeks to stimulate conversation and idea sharing around emerging technologies or pedagogies,” according to their website. Each session lasts roughly an hour, and consists of a short presentation followed by a discussion with colleagues and community members.
About his topic, Carroll said, “One of my current passions is facilitating collaborative learning in online learning contexts. It’s not that no one has ever worried about this, but I think it is far from achieved. Collaborative learning is a key tool for quality educational experience, and we just know much more about evoking those experiences in face-to-face classes.”
Caroll noted that many issues in today’s online collaborative learning environments are starkly exposed when considering MOOCs, or massive open online courses.
“Innovation-wise MOOCs remind me of the World-Wide Web in 1993,” said Carroll. “It was undeniable from the very start that the Web was a transformative innovation with respect to inclusion, but it was also evident that it was initially a step backward in usability and user interfaces. Analogously, MOOCs are a transformative innovation – but they are also a step back in terms of educational quality, specifically in regard to collaborative learning experiences.”
Carroll and IST doctoral student Yu Wu designed a tool called “Critical Thinker” to explore and address problems in online collaborative learning. Currently maintained by IST doctoral student Na Sun, “Critical Thinker” scaffolds learning dialectics – collaborative pro-con analysis of learning materials in which students articulate viewpoints, challenge assumptions, and synthesize their own understanding.
“We want to create software to manage thousands of groups, thousands of debates, and to make collaborative learning more than just “liking” opinions in a Facebook group or yelling in a MOOC forum. We want students to be able to critically analyze arguments, and synthesize lessons learned from the argumentation,” said Carroll.
Carroll’s March 1 talk will be recorded and made available online at the Penn State COIL YouTube channel, along with recordings of all COIL Conversations, at https://www.youtube.com/user/psucoil.