UbD:
Integrating Technology Meaningfully
Summer Institute Series
July 25, 2012
Kristen Swanson
Workshop Resources:
http://smore.com/hzwt
[email protected]
1
Excerpt from Schooling by Design
Keeping the End in Mind: Framing Curriculum Around Performance Goals
Until we grasp the idea that a curriculum has no coherence or power
divorced from vital accomplishments related to transfer and meaning, we will not
avoid aimless coverage of content objectives. Nor will we have a mechanism for
doing what we so badly need in order to achieve our goals: an effective method for
prioritizing and pruning content.
How does a constant focus on a long-term performance goal solve the
problem of incoherence and too much indiscriminate content? Consider the
challenge of learning to drive a car in preparation for getting one’s license. The longterm goal is clear enough: learn how to be an effective, courteous, and law-abiding
driver. It is a clear example of an accomplishment involving transfer. We cannot
prepare you for every possible driving event, but we can equip you with enough
skill, knowledge, and savvy to earn a license and head down the road to becoming a
capable driver. The goal, equivalent to state testing and accountability
requirements, involves passing the written and road tests.
Now, we could say that to become a really good driver you first need to learn
lots of information (for example, all the rules of the road or the name and function of
every part of your automobile) and master a host of discrete skills (like how to use
the brake, turn the steering wheel so it snaps back, respond to a skid on ice) before
getting in a car. And we no doubt would do this if getting a license were based
exclusively on an extensive written test. But we don’t do this. Why? Because we are
focused on accomplishing the desired performance from the start and throughout
the learning. Is all “content” important? Of course! Should we wait 10 years to give
you a license? No. Is the goal mastery of only the content as represented on a paperand-pencil test? Of course not! The practical goal of preparation for real driving is
key to prioritizing content knowledge and framing the learning around actual
practice in the key challenges of driving.
Indeed, this is the critical point: the transfer goal of having students ready to
drive a real car on real roads by the time they are 16 or 17 shapes our methods of
teaching and compels us to pare down the content to a bare minimum and to
translate it to useful information for driving. Too often in traditional academic
curriculum design, however, we postpone the learners’ needs to try to apply their
learning in genuine situations, claiming the belief that “you’re not ready; you need
more content.” We don’t have a method for paring and shaping content, either.
The propensity to cover lots of content before allowing students to use it in
authentic situations may be well intentioned, but it reveals a fundamentally flawed
(we believe) conception of learning. This view may be characterized as the
“climbing the ladder” model of cognition. Subscribers to this belief assume that
students must learn the important facts before they can address the more abstract
concepts of a subject. Similarly, they think that learners must master all relevant
discrete skills before they can be expected to apply them in more integrated,
complex, and authentic ways.
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Ironically, this view of teaching and learning may have been unwittingly
reinforced by Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956), an educational model originally proposed
more than 50 years ago for categorizing degrees of cognitive complexity of
assessment items and tasks on university exams. Although hierarchical in nature,
Bloom’s Taxonomy was never intended to serve as a model of learning or a
guideline for instruction. Nonetheless, we have known many teachers who use it in
this way.
One practical problem with the “climb the ladder” view directly affects lower
achieving students. Because they are less likely to have acquired the basics on the
same schedule as more advanced learners, struggling learners are often combined
to an educational regimen of low-level activities, rote memorization of discrete facts,
and mind-numbing skill-drill worksheets. The unfortunate reality is that many of
these students will never get beyond the first rung of the ladder and, therefore, have
minimal opportunities to actually use what they are learning in a meaningful
fashion. Who wouldn’t be inclined to drop out under such conditions?
Cognitive psychologists have for some time rejected the “climb the ladder”
view, based on research on learning. Lorrie Shepard, noted researcher and former
leader of the American Educatoinal Research Association, summarizes the
contemporary view as follows:
The notion that learning comes about by the accretion of little bits is
outmoded learning theory. Current models of learning based on cognitive
psychology contend that learners gain understanding when they construct
their own knowledge and develop their own cognitive maps of the
interconnections among facts and concepts. (1989, pp.5-6)
Her view is echoed throughout the widely read book titled How People Learn
(Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999), published by the National Research Council of
the National Academy of Sciences.
YOUR THOUGHTS:
3
An Ever-Changing World 2011-2012
Review each substantial world-changing event below and decide whether it has
already happened or when it might happen in the future.
Age of 2011-12 Kindergartners:
Event
1. There are 2.6 million Internet users in the entire world
2. IBM’s Deep Blue computer defeats world chess champion
Garry Kasparov
3. Tivo, the first television DVR is released
4. Government allows civilian use of advanced military GPS
signal
5. First iPod released
6. FaceBook launched
7. YouTube launched
8. Nintendo Wii (motion gaming) launched
9. First iPhone released
10. First iPad released
11. Cell phones (not cash) are used to pay at vending machines
< 6
It Already
Happened
Year: _____
9
By
201
5
14
By
202
0
24
By
203
0
44
By
205
0
1990
1997
1999
2000
2001
2004
2005
2006
2007
2010
12. Lawyers sift through Facebook to inform jury selection.
13. Cars automatically brake to avoid hitting people or other
objects, regardless of driver response.
14. Flexible video screens are paper-thin, bendable, and can
withstand being hit directly with a hammer.
15. Robots complete very technical tasks like picking ripe
strawberries and de-boning ham.
16. Photo software uses facial recognition to tag and sort digital
photos according to who it recognizes in the pictures.
17. A piece of “Virtual Real Estate” that generates $200k profit
per year is sold for $600k (values in actual, real dollars)
18. Functioning biological organs are 3D “printed” from living
cells and successfully transplanted into humans.
19. The first synthetic cell is created (where the genetic material
is removed from the cell’s nucleus and replaced with DNA
that was generated and programmed by scientists to cause
the cell to behave differently).
20. Instant multi-lingual voice translation software available for
free
21. IBM’s Watson computer defeats Jeopardy! champion Ken
Jennings
22. FaceBook reaches 750 million active users
23. Miniature bi-pedal “running” robots complete a full
marathon.
24. “Interactive” Advertising and Billboards send texts to your
phone when you walk or drive by them.
4
94
By 2100
or Never
Age of 2011-12 Kindergartners:
Event
< 6
9
14
24
44
94
It Already
Happened
Year: _____
By
201
5
By
202
0
By
203
0
By
205
0
By 2100
or Never
25. Autopsies are conducted virtually using digital images and
large touch screens.
26. Use of social media like Facebook and Twitter to organize
and promote governmental change.
27. IBM’s Watson (the winning Jeopardy computer) is used by
doctors to successfully diagnose and treat patients.
28. Auto insurance companies use devices to track a person’s
driving habits and determine premiums based on the data.
29. An iPhone app allows you to choose how long you want to be
“out sick,” identifies an illness that lasts that long, & directly
emails your boss about it so you don’t have to lie.
30. The largest landfill in the U.S. is completely full.
31. Mobile phones overtake PCs as the most common Web
access device worldwide
32. Over 3 billion of the world’s adult population are able to
transact electronically via mobile or Internet technology
33. Chinese overtakes English as the most prevalent language on
the Internet
34. Most text will be created using speech recognition
technology rather than typing
35. Parents choose a baby’s gender with 100% success.
36. Increased “life-logging” – every moment of a person’s life is
captured on video and stored on a drive the size of a stamp.
37. Medications are genetically personalized.
38. A living Woolly Mammoth is cloned.
39. Intelligent roads and driverless cars are in use on highways
40. A $1,000 personal computer has as much raw power as the
human brain
41. Spinal cord injury patients walk & climb steps using
computer-controlled nerve stimulation & exo-skeletal
robotic walkers
42. Pinhead-sized cameras are everywhere
43. Computer cables have almost completely disappeared
44. Most business transactions or information inquiries involve
dealing with a simulated person
45. Computers are embedded everywhere (inside furniture,
jewelry, walls, clothing, etc.)
46. Drugs and vaccines are genetically customized for each
person
5
Age of 2011-12 Kindergartners:
Event
< 6
9
14
24
44
94
It Already
Happened
Year: _____
By
201
5
By
202
0
By
203
0
By
205
0
By 2100
or Never
47. Laws developed to address behaviors of Artificial
Intelligence.
48. Commercial flights take passengers into space weekly.
49. Nanobots capable of entering the bloodstream to "feed" cells
and extract waste exist, making the normal mode of human
food consumption obsolete
50. Most learning is accomplished through intelligent, adaptive
courseware presented by computer-simulated teachers. In
the learning process, human adults fill the counselor and
mentor roles instead of being academic instructors. These
assistants are often not physically present, and help students
remotely
51. Public places and workplaces are ubiquitously monitored to
prevent violence and all actions are recorded permanently.
Personal privacy is a major political issue, and some people
protect themselves with unbreakable computer codes
52. Computers do most of the vehicle driving. Humans are in fact
prohibited from driving on highways unassisted.
Furthermore, when humans do take over the wheel, the
onboard computer system constantly monitors their actions
and takes control whenever the human drives recklessly.
53. Virtual artists—creative computers capable of making their
own art and music—emerge in all fields of the arts
54. Household robots are ubiquitous and reliable
55. Most human workers spend the majority of their time
acquiring new skills and knowledge
56. Access to the Internet is completely wireless and provided
by wearable or implanted computers
57. People experience 3D virtual reality through glasses and
contact lenses that beam images directly to their retinas;
these lenses can deliver “augmented reality” by
superimposing “Heads-Up-Displays” in a person’s field of
vision that remain fixed regardless of where the person
looks
58. A computer passes the Turing Test, thereby becoming the
first true Artificial Intelligence
59. $1000 buys a computer a billion times more intelligent than
every human combined.
60. Nanomachines are directly inserted into the brain and interact with brain
cells to totally control incoming and outgoing signals. These allow people
to greatly expand their cognitive, memory and sensory capabilities, to
directly interface with computers, and to "telepathically" communicate
with other, similarly augmented humans via wireless networks
6
Age of 2011-12 Kindergartners:
Event
< 6
9
14
24
44
94
It Already
Happened
Year: _____
By
201
5
By
202
0
By
203
0
By
205
0
By 2100
or Never
61. Artificial intelligences surpass human beings as the smartest
and most capable life forms on the Earth (an event known as
the “singularity”). Technological development is taken over
by the machines, who can think, act and communicate so
quickly that normal humans cannot even comprehend what
is going on. The machines enter into a "runaway reaction" of
self-improvement cycles. From this point onwards,
technological advancement is explosive, under the control of
the machines, and thus cannot be accurately predicted.
7
Transfer Task vs. Performance Task
Your Thoughts:
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