Retrieved from Nicolas Balacheff (1999) notes for the EU/US conference, Stuttgart
One of the main characteristics of complex knowledge is on one hand that to master it requires to master several different pieces of knowledge organised in the form of a system, and on the other hand that its use depends on methods which are not mere algorithms. Such knowledge cannot be constructed spontaneously even when the learner is provided an adequate problem-situation, an in some cases such situations are still unknown (e.g. linear algebra). As a result complex knowledge requires specific learning environments and content specific teaching strategies.
The complexity of such knowledge also comes from the fact that the corresponding conceptions, i.e. cognitive constructs, can be very different the one from the other and rather complex to understand and to model. The current research on students' understanding of the concept of "function" in mathematics or of the concept of "energy" in physics witnesses it. The development of technological tools to use these knowledge (formal computation, simulation, etc.) increases the difficulty by modifying within a kind of systemic loop the nature of the users conceptions.
One cannot expect one universal agent to be able to handle the complexity supporting the learning process in the case of complex knowledge. On the contrary, there is a need for specialised agents, either artificial or human, able to cooperate and to coordinate their actions in order to provide the best support to the learner.
The development in Grenoble of the project TéléCabri, within the "Computational Environment and Human Learning Group" (EIAH) of the Leibniz Laboratory, allows us to get an insight of this complexity at different levels:
It is rather clear that the solution to the problems one meets on such a platform cannot be solved by one super-ITS being implemented on a learner super-machine. It is also clear that the availability of human teachers is crucial either because of the limits of the technology or because of the needs of students for a human presence. Then, the learning environment should be constituted by lot of resources, content specific as well as conception specific (taking into account the variety of learners possible conceptualisations); the teaching power of the whole system will not the property of one of its components but the emergent property of the interactions of all the agents involved either artificial or human, learners or teachers. May be it is just rediscovering that education has never been the result of the action of one isolated tutor but of the Society at large...
Cuban wrote in 1987: "[Teachers] will either resist or be indifferent to changes that they see irrelevant to their practice, that increase their burdens without adding benefit to their student learning, or that weaken their control of the classroom" (p.71). After more than a decade focussing on the learner, we could rephrase this quotation to emphasise the need for more investigations on what could be the conditions for the educational efficiency of learning environments from the point of view of general education or training as well.
Up to now, most of the basic or applied research, have been carried out in classical environments (schools or training centres). This has strong limits since it is not true that teachers and learners can involve in a radical way the new technology.The TéléCabri project is an attempt to do so, targeting students being not being able to join the classical schools (they are cured at home or in an hospital). By the way, this platform developed in the Grenoble Academic Hospital is an excellent example of a EU-USA collaboration (it is the product of a joint effort from the EIAH group, Hewlett-Packard and PictureTel).
A step further would be to set up an Educational Technology Centre (like those suggested by the "President's information technology advisory committee" to President Clinton—august 1998), this would be a very expensive and complex initiative which would surely benefit from an international synergy, putting together the best of education and technology from EU and USA.
One of the main characteristics of complex knowledge is on one hand that to master it requires to master several different pieces of knowledge organised in the form of a system, and on the other hand that its use depends on methods which are not mere algorithms. Such knowledge cannot be constructed spontaneously even when the learner is provided an adequate problem-situation, an in some cases such situations are still unknown (e.g. linear algebra). As a result complex knowledge requires specific learning environments and content specific teaching strategies.
The complexity of such knowledge also comes from the fact that the corresponding conceptions, i.e. cognitive constructs, can be very different the one from the other and rather complex to understand and to model. The current research on students' understanding of the concept of "function" in mathematics or of the concept of "energy" in physics witnesses it. The development of technological tools to use these knowledge (formal computation, simulation, etc.) increases the difficulty by modifying within a kind of systemic loop the nature of the users conceptions.
One cannot expect one universal agent to be able to handle the complexity supporting the learning process in the case of complex knowledge. On the contrary, there is a need for specialised agents, either artificial or human, able to cooperate and to coordinate their actions in order to provide the best support to the learner.
The development in Grenoble of the project TéléCabri, within the "Computational Environment and Human Learning Group" (EIAH) of the Leibniz Laboratory, allows us to get an insight of this complexity at different levels:
- At the epistemological and educational level, e.g. all the problems of learning in an environment which associates the best technology, like the microworld Cabri-geometry, and the classical means (books, notebook, etc.), as well as the teaching problems raised by the cooperation of teachers through the technology but also with the technology, with a full distribution of learners, teachers and resources within space and time.
- At the technological level, e.g. the problems of ensuring that the platform which associates different types of machines, visiocommunication, TCP/IP and H320 protocols, access from the TéléCabri site as well as from students or teachers places. At this level the institution has to realise that education may quickly need not only buildings, teachers and administration staff but also engineers.
It is rather clear that the solution to the problems one meets on such a platform cannot be solved by one super-ITS being implemented on a learner super-machine. It is also clear that the availability of human teachers is crucial either because of the limits of the technology or because of the needs of students for a human presence. Then, the learning environment should be constituted by lot of resources, content specific as well as conception specific (taking into account the variety of learners possible conceptualisations); the teaching power of the whole system will not the property of one of its components but the emergent property of the interactions of all the agents involved either artificial or human, learners or teachers. May be it is just rediscovering that education has never been the result of the action of one isolated tutor but of the Society at large...
Cuban wrote in 1987: "[Teachers] will either resist or be indifferent to changes that they see irrelevant to their practice, that increase their burdens without adding benefit to their student learning, or that weaken their control of the classroom" (p.71). After more than a decade focussing on the learner, we could rephrase this quotation to emphasise the need for more investigations on what could be the conditions for the educational efficiency of learning environments from the point of view of general education or training as well.
Up to now, most of the basic or applied research, have been carried out in classical environments (schools or training centres). This has strong limits since it is not true that teachers and learners can involve in a radical way the new technology.The TéléCabri project is an attempt to do so, targeting students being not being able to join the classical schools (they are cured at home or in an hospital). By the way, this platform developed in the Grenoble Academic Hospital is an excellent example of a EU-USA collaboration (it is the product of a joint effort from the EIAH group, Hewlett-Packard and PictureTel).
A step further would be to set up an Educational Technology Centre (like those suggested by the "President's information technology advisory committee" to President Clinton—august 1998), this would be a very expensive and complex initiative which would surely benefit from an international synergy, putting together the best of education and technology from EU and USA.
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