Classroom Technology
Steve Wolfman
UW CSE Education &
Educational Technology
Research Group
Educational Technology
…in the winter of 1813 & '14 … I attended a
mathematical school kept in Boston…On
entering [the] room, we were struck at the
appearance of an ample Black Board
suspended on the wall, with lumps of chalk
on a ledge below, and cloths hanging at
either side. I had never heard of such a
thing before. [Samuel J. May, 1855]
Technologies in the Classroom
Challenges for
Classroom Technologies

“Raise the floor” [Nass]

Don’t “lower the ceiling” [Nass]

Sculpt an effective design space

Secure adoption!
Our projects
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Classroom Presenter
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Initial development at MSR
Classroom Feedback System
Structured Interaction Presentations
Classroom Presenter
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Initial problem

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Develop a distributed presentation space
for use in a distance learning class
Later
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Many of the same issues / challenges in
large lecture classroom
Large lecture classes
Challenges

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Maintaining attention
Communication
Feedback from students
Flexibility in presentation materials
Conducting activities in class
Background studies

Studied UW CSE PMP

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Interviews, Surveys, Observations
Greatest pain in distance course


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Presentation environment
“PowerPoint is a pain for the same reason it’s a
pain in a non-distance course, the slides impose a
rigid structure on the lecture and make it more
difficult to adjust to the interactions that occur
during it.”
“PowerPoint sucks the life out of a class.”
Important features


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Wireless
Integration of High Quality Ink and
Slides
Multiple views
“Performance UI”
Classroom Deployments

Spring 2002
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Database (Masters)
Summer 2002

Introductory
Programming (142)
Fall 2002


Introductory
Programming (Ext
142)

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Introductory
Programming (143)
Algorithms (417)
Software Engineering
(403)
Languages (413)
Compilers (Masters)
Results

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Observation, instructor comments, logging
Positive reception from instructors

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Sustained use of writing through full term
Wide range of use


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Highlighting / Attention
Derivations / Diagrams
Recording comments
Student
response:
no
less
more
change
Attention to
4%
lecture
Understanding
2%
of lecture
39%
57%
52%
46%
Results


System easy to use
Flexible navigation important


Auxiliary inking surfaces useful

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Superior to shuffling transparencies
Whiteboard, border, mylar
Pen based UI for navigation and controls is
critical

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Generally works well (large buttons, workflow)
Remaining issues
Questions

What is the educational impact of Presenter?

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Across different disciplines, teaching styles
Different components of the system
UI Issues for delivering presentations
Future development plans

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Integration with viewer devices
Expand use of ink
Manipulatives to go beyond virtual whiteboard
Classroom
Feedback System

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Student feedback does not scale
Encourage participation
Ease of expression
If the method does scale, how does the
instructor make sense of it
Design choices

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Low attention requirements
Embed in context of the slide

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Slides are the mediating artifact
Fixed feedback

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Avoid having to compose questions
Instructor control of feedback

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Example, More Information, Got It
Slow Down, Question, Explain, Cool Topic
Experiment

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Roughly 12 students given laptops to
use in class
3 week deployment in CSE 142

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4 weeks no intervention
2 weeks Tablet PC
3 weeks Tablet PC + feedback system
Extensive observations, logging,
surveys, interviews
Results
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Mixed results
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Classroom culture not what we had expected
Instructor goals different than expected
Interactions did increase
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Pre CFS: 2.4 (spoken) episodes per class
With CFS:
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2.6 (spoken) episodes per class
14.8 (feedback) episodes per class
Discovered new interaction patterns
Structured Interaction
Presentations

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Assume students have wireless devices
Build interactive activities into lecture
Computer support to overcome logistical
barriers
Why Computer Support?

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Facilitate execution
Unify design
Enforce polices
Why Structure?

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Attain broader participation and more input
Achieve specific goals
Spread cognitive effort over planning time
Mediate classroom activity
Share activities across instructors and
across terms
Example: America Before
Columbus [Cross and Angelo]
1.
How many people lived in North America in 1491?
2.
How many years had they been there by 1491?
3.
What significant achievements had they made in
that time?
Your Impressions of
America Before Columbus
1.
2.
3.
About how many people lived in North America in 1491?
About how many years had they been on this continent
by 1491?
What significant achievements had they made in that
time?
Your Impressions of
America Before Columbus
1.
2.
3.
About how many people lived in North
% completed
America in 1491?
About how many years had they been on
this continent by 1491?
% completed
What significant achievements had they
made in that time?
% completed
How many people?
0
10
From
100
400
1000
10,000
To
100,000
1,000,000 10,000,000
2,500,000
“Solving” Natural Language
Problem: handling free text responses in
class is impractical
Solution: “distributed student computation”


allows rapid, in-class turnaround
can be pedagogically sound
Significant Achievements
Get together with your neighbor and:


rate the significance of each achievement
note if an achievement repeats an earlier one
Significant Achievements
Get together with your neighbor and:


rate the significance of each achievement
note if an achievement repeats an earlier one
1. Those big mounds
2. Hunting
Repeat of:
3. Sustainable living
Repeat of:
4. Bow & arrow
Repeat of: 2
5. Automobile
Repeat of:
Significant achievements
Credits

University of Washington


Ruth Anderson, Steve Wolfman, Tammy
Vandegrift, Fred Videon, Ken Yasuhara
Microsoft Research, Learning Sciences
and Technology Group

Jay Beavers, Jack Davis, Randy Hinrichs,
Alvin Hui, Chris Moffat, Steve Wolfman
UW CSE Education &
Educational Technology Projects
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Professional Masters’ Program
Tutored Video Instruction Program
CSE 142/143
Classroom Assessment Tools