standards for smart learning environments

Standards for Smart Learning Environments – 

towards a development framework

Tore HoelOslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences

Norway

Lecture at Beijing Normal University2016-11-21

Who is this guy?

Standards

Open EducationalResources (OER)

ICT in education

EU & Nordicprojects

Learning Analytics

Interoperability Communication &Information Management

愚笨教育现象比比皆是

Understanding Smart• To define Smart Learning as the counterpoint to Stupid

Learning is not so smart!• A is, what B is not: Mathematically, this gives an indefinite

space of A – you will never be able to know what the boundaries of A are

• We have the same problem defining Scope when developing standards!

Smart StupidSmart

Grounding new theories

• Flat vs Deep• Associative vs Grounded• 2D vs 3D

Smart should be grounded…

So should also our standards work!

What is the implied theoretical and empirical model behind

Smart Learning Environments?

What theoretical and empirical model of learning technologies

should inform LET standardisation?

Smart as in the Journal

Launched in 2014

The aim of the journal is to help various stakeholders of smart learning environments better

understand each other's role in the overall process of education and

how they may support each other.

Conceptualizing the field

• Zhi-Ting Zhu• Jonathan Michael

Spector• Gwo-Jen Hwang• Rob Koper

Zhu Zhi-Ting

• For learners: Smart refers to wisdom and intelligence

• Ability to think quickly and cleverly

• For educational environment, ‘smart’ refers to engaging, intelligent and scalable.

• Collective intelligence

The essence of smarter education is to construct technology-infused environments and create finer ecology of pedagogies, so that higher achievements of teaching, better experiences of learning and personalized learning services could be enabled, and thus talents of wisdom who have better value orientation, higher thinking quality, stronger doing ability and deeper potentiality of creating could be fostered. ( Zhu Zhiting, 2012)

智慧教育的初步定义A preliminary definition of Smarter Education as proposed

（ 1949-20?? ）

Zhu: 10 key features of SLE• Location-Aware• Context-Aware• Socially Aware• Interoperability• Seamless Connection• Adaptability• Ubiquitous• Whole Record• Natural Interaction• High Engagement

Mike Spector

• Necessary characteristics

• In a general sense, a smart learning environment is one that is effective, efficient and engaging

Hwang Gwo-Jen

• Minimally, a SLE should be• context-aware• adaptive• personalized

Rob Koper• Smart learning environments

(SLEs) are physical environments that are enriched with digital, context-aware and adaptive devices, to promote better and faster learning.

• Human Learning Interface: set of interaction mechanisms that humans expose to the outside world, and that can be used to control, stimulate and facilitate their learning processes.

Educational Modelling Language• Based on a

Pedagogical meta model

• empirist (behaviourist)

• rationalist (cognitivist and contructivist)

• pragmatist-sociohistoric (situationalist)

EML Unit of Study model (Koper & Manderveld 2004).

Where Koper is

coming from

Koper: 5 Human Learning Interfaces

• Cognition: Representations!

What behaviours and learning processes can be represented?

Koper: Conditions for effective SLEs

• Digital devices added to physical world

• Support for core HLIs: identification, socialisation and creation

• Support for meta HLI: practice and reflection

• Adaption based on location, context, preferences, physical & mental condition, culture

• Intervention: questions, tasks, information, resources, conditioning

• Specify and communicate learning objectives

• No friction

SLEs are physical environments that are improved to promote better and faster learning by enriching the environment with context-aware and adaptive digital devices that, together with the existing constituents of the physical environment, provide the situations, events, interventions and observations needed to stimulate a person to learn to know and deal with situations (identification), to socialize with the group, to create artefacts, and to practice and reflect.

Koper: Definition of Smart LE

Testing the framework

SLE framework

(Koper 2014)

Where do Zhu, Spector, Hwang requirements fit?

• Location-Aware

• Context-Aware

• Socially Aware

• Interoperability

• Seamless Connection

• Adaptability

• Ubiquitous

• Whole Record

• Natural Interaction

• High Engagement

• Scalable

• Flexible

• Personalized

• Conversational

• Reflective

• Innovative

What about Learning Cell (Yu Shengquan)?

«Learning cell will be adapted to ubiquitous learning and informal learning environment, and has some basic characteristics including • utilizing collective wisdom, • sustaining evolvement, • generative information sharing, • distributed runtime resource

sharing, • social network sharing, • intelligent resources, etc.»

Developing standardsfor SLEs

The standard setting experts of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36

SC36 structure today• WG 1Vocabulary • WG 2Collaborative and

intelligent technology • WG 3Learner information • WG 4Management and

delivery • WG 5Quality assurance and

descriptive frameworks

• WG 6Platform, Services, and Specification Integration

• WG 7ITLET - Culture, language and individual needs

• WG 8Learning Analytics Interoperability

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36

SC36 has published metadata standards, mainly related to description of learning content and content delivery systems, competency structures, quality metrics, and accessibility.

New work items in SC36• Digital Badges• Smart Learning Environment – “Smart Classroom”• Environments and resources for augmented reality and virtual reality

• MOOCS• Study group on a higher level within ISO on blockchain (electronic distributed ledger) technologies

• A working group wanted input on “collaborative learning communication with social media”

• Work on privacy and data protection in the context of learning analytics

Should SC36 be restructured

according to a Smart Learning

Environment Framework?

Pro• SLE is the most modern and

most general framework being discussed

• Comprehensive, extensive• Could be robust - if done right• Change working process to

include the whole committee – work more across work groups

• Too fuzzy, the boundaries are unclear

• People issues• Existing projects must go on• Legacy work on published

standards

Con

How would standards

development according to Koper’s SLE

framework look like?

Physical Environments

• CCNU project on developing metrics for describing Learning Space

Situations and Events

• Curricula standards• Competency frameworks• Vocabulary for contexts (LA

activity specifications - xAPI)• Nomadicity and Mobile Learning

Interventions• What types of interventions?

• Question management• Task management• Provisioning of learning resources• Conditioning of learning environment

• What digital support for pedagogical interventions?

Digital Devices

• Learning Technology Architecture • Types of devices• MOOCs• Augmented and virtual reality tools

Observations• All aspects of learning analytics

• Metics• Activity stream formats• Collection• Storing• Analysing

• Assessments and tests

Context-Awareness

• Need for vocabularies describing contexts

Adaptiveness

• Support for setting up learning instances based on observations

Identification

• Competency descriptions• Learning targets• Tasks• Problem descriptions

Socialization

• Social learning support• Peer learning• Group learning• Role Negotiation

Creation

• Support for all types of externalisation of learning activities

Practice• Storage and retrieval• Performance targets• Self-monitoring systems• Drill & practice• Serious games

Reflection

• Create and present representations of representations

And how should it be tested?• vocabulary• collaborative

tech• intelligent

technology• learner

information• managemen

t & delivery• quality• service

integration• accessibility • analytics

• wisdom• quick

thinking• clever• engaging• at scale• Location-

Aware• Context-

Aware• Socially

Aware• Interoperabil

ity

• Seamless Connection

• Adaptability• Ubiquitous• Whole

Record• Natural

Interaction• High

Engagement• personalised• adaptive• conversation

al

• reflective• innovative• learning

status• evaluation• content• support• knowledge

base• tests• portfolios

Conclusions• Smart learning, smart education, smart learning

environments, etc. need to be grounded in a verified theory• We need a coherent framework model of Smart Learning

Environment• When a new element is identified and being run through the

model you see where it fits, and if not, where the model needs to be fixed

• A Smart Learning Environment Framework could be a model for structuring learning technology standardisation – needs further exploration

谢谢您的关注

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Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).tore.hoel@hioa.no

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