Teaching, an emergent property of learning environments

Teaching, an emergent property of learning environments - IST 2000

I first presented this view of teaching in the context of the design of learning environment in 1999 on the occasion of a EU-US conference in Stuttgart (see the notes here and there). This new version was prepared for a talk at IST 2000 held in Nice; it includes outlines of the project Baghera which was emerging:

The project Baghera, a leading project of the Leibniz Laboratory, has the objective of shaping and experimenting radically new perspectives on the design of eLearning environments. First, by eLearning environment we mean not only the technology but the whole complex constituted by the machinery, its users and its environment. Second, it is the project basic belief that the complexity of human learning can be faced only if the design of eLearning environments takes the collaboration between artificial and human agents as a foundational principle. This requires a strong pluridisciplinary approach at every stage of the design and of the implementation.

A platform like the one we look for, is structured by several different types of interaction and cooperation: between teachers and artificial agents, between human teachers with the mediation of the technology, but also between learners mediated by the technology. Indeed we must add the interactions between learners and teachers either in an asynchronous mode or in telepresence, and between learners and the learning environment. Learning does not occur because of one specific type of interaction, but because of the availability of all of them. One type of interaction, or one type of agent, being selected depending of the needs of the learner at the time when the interaction is looked for, as well as of the specific characteristics of the knowledge at stake.

Then, the learning environment, constituted by content specific resources and conception specific resources (taking into account the variety of learners possible conceptualisations) gets its teaching power not from 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. In this approach the crucial issue is not that of the genericity of the technological environment (which is always obtain to the detriment of its cognitive and epistemological specificity), but of its adaptability and openess to change.

May be this is just rediscovering that education has never been the result of the action of one isolated tutor, or single intitution, but of the Society at large...

By the way, why “Baghera”? Because at the core of the system we intend to develop a society of non-human agents whose interactions will aim at the education of a human learner. But unlike the famous story, this time some human agents will take part in the adventure…

Learning aware environments

Retrieved from Nicolas Balacheff (2006) e-Agenda European Forum, Casteldefeld

Once upon a time (Eden research workshop, Casteldefeld 2006), I was asked the question: “Can we introduce learning in every human activity”? From a non-English speaking perspective this question may sound strange. Isn’t it the case that learning is present every where and at every moment in our life?  This is a matter of survival. Learning is a competence shared by all living organism. Learning is life long. It starts with our first breath and continues with it until the very last second. However there is something specific to human beings, which is that not only do they learn to survive in their biosphere, but also they have to learn to survive in a noosphere that humanity is continuously building, renewing, transforming. The noosphere is made tangible by human artefacts, but essentially by language. Learning in the noosphere is so complex that specific strategies have been developed to support it, namely teaching (or education, instruction, training, coaching, etc.).

Designing environments likely to stimulate and support learning outside formal education and training experience—or situations mimicking these—was in most cases out of reach until the emergence of the digital technology which bridges the biosphere, where our bodies and activities are developing, and the noosphere where minds and intellectual constructs are developing. While language and the related symbolic technology (writing and reading) were the privileged tools to support learning, digital technologies go beyond by producing highly interactive simulations and virtual worlds. But more significant is the development of augmented reality, the systematic embedding of sensors and system on ship in all artefacts which open the possibility of a “merge” of both spheres. Here is the challenge of ambient computing.

Just as the rest of our environment, modern digital technology cannot support learning if they have not been designed on purpose by incorporating teaching (coaching, instructing, scaffolding, or else) features. This is the challenge of designing, implementing and understanding learning aware environments. That is environments which have the capacity to recognize and capture relevant events from observing the human activity, the ability to understand the learning needs and then to provide the adequate feedback in whatever form. This is a scientific and technology challenge for ambient computing and research on cognitive systems. This is also a political challenge because the full development of learning aware environment will not be possible without addressing ethical (protecting the individuals and the communities) and economical problems (accepting that knowing is a universal right).