The ability to capture large amounts of data that describe the interactions of learners becomes useful when one has a framework in which to make sense of the processes of learning in complex learning environments. Through the analysis of such data, one is able to understand what is happening in these networks; however, deciding which elements will be of most interest in a specific learning context and how to process, visualize, and analyze large amounts of data requires the use of analytical tools that adequately support the phases of the research process. In this article, we discuss the selection, processing, visualization, and analysis of multiple elements of learning and learning environments and the links between them. We discuss, using the cases of two learning environments, how structure affects the behavior of learners and, in turn, how that behavior has the potential to affect learning. This approach will allow us to suggest possible ways of improving future designs of learning environments.
This special issue brings together a rich collection of papers in collaboration analytics. With topics including theory building, data collection, modelling, designing frameworks, and building machine learning models, this issue represents some of the most active areas of research in the field. In this editorial, we summarize the papers; discuss the nature of collaboration analytics based on this body of work; describe the associated opportunities, challenges, and risks; and depict potential futures for the field. We conclude by discussing the implications of this special issue for collaboration analytics.
Across a broad range of design professions, there has been extensive research on design practices and considerable progress in creating new computer-based systems that support design work. Our research is focused on educational/instructional design for students' learning. In this sub-field, progress has been more limited. In particular, neither research nor systems development have paid much attention to the fact that design is becoming a more collaborative endeavor. This paper reports the latest research outcomes from R&D in the Educational Design Studio (EDS), a facility developed iteratively over four years to support and understand collaborative, real-time, co-present design work. The EDS serves to (i) enhance our scientific understanding of design processes and design cognition and (ii) provide insights into how designers' work can be improved through appropriate technological support. In the study presented here, we introduced a complex, multiuser, digital design tool into the existing ecology of tools and resources available in the EDS. We analysed the activity of four pairs of 'teacher-designers' during a design task. We identified different behaviors -in reconfiguring the task, the working methods and toolset usage. Our data provide new insights about the affordances of different digital and analogue design surfaces used in the Studio.
This paper introduces system dynamics modeling to understand, visualize and explore technology integration in schools, through the development of a theoretical model of technology-related change in teachers' practice. Technology integration is a dynamic social practice, within the social system of education. It is difficult, if not nearly impossible, for the human mind to fully conceptualize complex social systems. Therefore, it is necessary to use conceptual frameworks designed to examine these phenomena. The model presented in this paper draws together known factors of integration and findings from a large-scale technology initiative in Australia to create a preliminary casual-loop model of technology integration in secondary school teaching. The preliminary model illustrates feedback and multiple effects in the system of education. The use of system models can potentially support a shift from focusing on teachers' technology use to student outcomes, and the feedback loop of students' technology use on teachers' practice. Implications for technology integration, teacher change and learning are discussed.
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