Andrew Roberts Home Page
Electronic Education Home Page
Stephen Boyd Davis's Time Pictures
Sally Mitchell and Carlos Sapochnik on Academic Argument
Chris Osborne, Lisa Crivello and others,
1994, on Academic Skills
Mark Torrance and Rachel Pilkington on Analysing Educational Dialogue Interaction: From
Analysis to Models that Support Learning
Virtual Society
June/July 1999:
From the Middlesex University's Electronic NoticeBoard:
Improving the quality of argument in design
A message for all academic, technical and administrative staff in the
School of Art, Design and Performing Arts
This project, an action research project in the School of Art, Design
and Performing Arts, is in its pilot year. It has centred on two
multidisciplinary design programmes at postgraduate level and has had two
main aims:
- to develop the students' ability to engage in argumentation
- to improve students' understanding and practice of design
We have sought to achieve these aims by
- making argument an explicit part of the curriculum
- giving students a clear conceptual model of
argument
- providing experiential opportunities for students to engage in
argument
- providing feedback and support
WHY ARGUMENT?
[Andrew Roberts has put links in Sally's text that go to parts of
his Study Guide that he thinks are relevant]
We take argument to be a relational structure which involves the making
of a case supported by evidence and
justified according to
socially agreed principles or rules.
We believe this structure underlies much of the
important creative thinking that
people - specifically, designers - do, but
that they often do without reflection
and uncritically.
It is our contention that if both students and tutors have a clear and
explicit conception of what argument
involves, then the quality of their
arguments - and so the quality of their interactions and the critical
evaluation of the design work - will improve.
We believe this to be the essence of the learning experience, a mark of
graduateness and a key factor in the successful development and
presentation of design solutions.
Click here for Study Guide on
Argument.
OBJECTIVES:
Developing a clear conception of argument in a design programme
- makes evident how meaning is made through verbal interaction
and reveals that the construction of knowledge is a shared
responsibility of the learning group
- raises awareness of design as a culturally-determined practice,
based on assumptions that can be exposed to purposeful
questioning
- makes the design solution accountable and provides the learning
group with a evaluative model they can share
- clarifies the importance of the design brief as the basis for
evaluating the success of design solutions
- aids in the management of creativity by providing a mechanism to
ascertain whether innovation has taken place and whether
solutions are appropriate
- helps to shift focus from the creative act to the setting up of the
creative act through defining assumptions, constraints and
possibilities, i.e. clarifies the processes involved in research
- highlights both learning and design as reflexive practices, by
focussing on the protocols of thinking, and of thinking about design
- not only what is said but how it is said
- provides a model for presenting a case/solution convincingly
links the presentation of a case to the research process by making
clear that the solution will be tested with reference to the process
- enables issues of power between student/tutor/client to be exposed
by shifting from a scenario where the interlocutor accepts or rejects
an unyielding claim (which cannot be argued against but does not
convince) to a situation that opens the possibilities for interaction
and collaboration.
STUDENT RESPONSE:
Although the pilot year is not yet complete we have received positive
responses from students to the work on argument. They welcome the
challenge it presents and recognize the role that it plays in the
development and evaluation of their own and their peers' thinking. We
have also learnt from the students what is difficult in our approach and
what needs to be developed in the second year of the project.
WHAT NEXT?
Our aims for next year (1999/2000) are to further develop and apply in
full the practices which we have devised through the pilot year of the
project. We intend to involve a wider range of staff and to extend the
work to other programmes.
We would like to invite interested colleagues to join us in this
project so
that we can work across ADPA and other institutions identifying needs,
developing theoretical issues and practical applications, and evaluating
their implementation.
We are running an ARGUMENT WORKSHOP on Tuesday 6 July from
2.00 - 5.00 pm at the Cat Hill Campus of Middlesex University. This will
provide an opportunity to engage with the model of argument we use
with design students and to discuss the work we are doing. Please let us
know if you would like to attend. You are very welcome.
Contacts:
Sally Mitchell
Leverhulme Research Fellow / LL&E
phone 020 8 411 6533
fax 020 8 411 6349
e-mail s.mitchell@mdx.ac.uk
Carlos Sapochnik
Principal Lecturer / ADPA
phone 020 8 411 5064
fax 020 8 411 6954
e-mail c.sapochnik@mdx.ac.uk
This research is part of the Leverhulme Trust
funded project
'Improving the Quality of Argument in Higher Education'
which is based in the
School of Lifelong Learning and Education.
Report of the Task Group on Literacy, Numeracy and Academic
Skills. Middlesex University paper.
December 1994. The Report contains
a Research Report of Staff Attitude Survey, by Lisa Crivello.
Membership: Ted Booth, Lisa
Crivello, Tony Dix,
Jeff Evans,
Philip Frame, Jorge Kubrie,
Jane Moran, Alan Muller, Osborne (chair), Pat Pearce, John
Rees-Smith, Mike Riddle, Grenville Wall, Judith Harding.
Educational Dialogue
Date sent: Fri, 03 Sep 1999 09:51:01 +0000
From: Mark Torrance
Subject: Call for Papers Special Issue IJAIED
To: wricom@mailbase.ac.uk
Send reply to: Rachel Pilkington
Organization: University of Derby
Special Issue of International Journal Of Artificial Intelligence in
Education
First Call for Papers on "Analysing Educational Dialogue Interaction:
From Analysis to Models that Support Learning"
Papers are invited for a Special Issue of the International Journal of
Artificial Intelligence in Education. This special issue will be based
around the themes arising from the recent Workshop on Analysing
Educational Dialogue Interaction held at AI-Ed '99 Le Mans, 18th -
19th July 1999 but is open to submissions from anyone in the research
field.
Themes for Papers
Theme One: Valid and reliable approaches to identifying dialogue
structures and features Theme Two: Investigating the role of
dialogue in acquiring domain concepts and skills Theme Three:
Computational Models of Dialogue for Intelligent Educational Systems
Theme Four: Applications of Dialogue Analysis to enhance teaching in
classrooms and CSCL
Papers addressing the use of dialogue analysis to inform models of
dialogue or to formatively evaluate computer based systems are
particularly welcome.
Topical Outline
Advances in Computer Mediated Communication and the need for future
developments in this area to be theory-led have increased interest in
Dialogue Analysis. Those working in the field are increasingly
recognising the need to capitalise on different types of analysis to
explore the relationship between dialogue features (e.g. roles,
strategies, form and content), and learning. For example, using
Exchange Structure and Speech-Act analyses, it is possible to
determine which participants are active in dialogue and in what ways.
This can give useful insights into the nature of collaboration,
including whether and when the dialogue of peer or tutor is effective
in prompting a successful outcome. By focusing on the patterns of
interaction emerging as particularly important and by refining them
(to give them a formal and computational definition), dialogue
analysis can assist in bridging the gap between empirical evaluation
and the design Intelligent Educational Systems. Having developed such
systems, dialogue analysis of users' interactions with or through such
systems can further serve to validate them as models or evaluate their
success in supporting learning. For example, a system aimed at
prompting directed lines of reasoning needs to be validated by
checking that it does indeed produce the types of speech acts and
argument structures it is intended to model. Further, dialogue
analysis can help to show whether or not a user interacting with the
system has a productive interaction in terms of the learning-task
outcome. This requires further triangulation with measures outside the
dialogue but in general, will involve at least some comparison of
structure, form and strategy with content, focus and relevance of
contribution. Based on the thorough evaluation of such systems we can,
as a research community, be better placed to shift policy and
curriculum to favour the types of activities, tasks and tools we
believe develop critical thinking and argumentation skills (learning
to reason) and domain expertise (reasoning to learn). The workshop
aimed to bring together researchers to discuss these themes.
Preparation of Manuscripts
Acceptance of contributions will be based on the usual IJAIED
independent peer review process and authors are referred to IJAIED
'guidelines to authors' for the preparation of manuscripts. These are
available at:
http://cbl.leeds.ac.uk/ijaied/
Submission of Manuscripts
Completed submissions should be marked "Special Issue on Analysing
Educational Dialogue Interaction" and four copies should be sent to:
The Editor, IJAIED
Computer Based Learning Unit,
University of Leeds
Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
Important Dates
First call for papers 1st September 1999
Submissions due 1st November 1999
Camera Ready Copy 31st March 1999
http://www.cbl.leeds.ac.uk/rachel/A-IED%2799W3/
SpecialIssue.html#SpecialIssue
Rachel Pilkington (Guest Editor)
Mark Torrance Tel 01332 622222 x2090
Institute of Behavioural Sciences Fax 01332 514323
University of Derby
Mickleover m.torrance@derby.ac.uk
Derby DE3 5GX m.s.torrance@birmingham.ac.uk
UK
From Stephen Boyd Davis
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 19:16:27 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Pictures of Time
A request for assistance with a research project
---------------------------------------------------------------------
I am engaged in research into the visual representation of time. In
your subject your probably use such a representation, and I am interested
to collect examples.
Such time representations might be used for...
- Computing -- how programs execute
(flow diagrams would be an example in this case)
- Physical geography -- geological change
- Dance -- sequence of movements
- Languages -- how tenses work
- History -- timelines
- Education -- recording time-samples in observational research
- Animation -- storyboards
I am particularly interested in examples where time appears explicitly
(for example as the horizontal axis in a historical timeline) but please
don't feel constrained by that.
Also, please don't think that the particular representations you use
are unimportant or that I will already have examples. If in doubt, tell me
about it, rather than keeping it to yourself! Hand-drawn representations
used during teaching might turn out to be as important as those which are
formal and printed.
What commitment will this involve for you? -- Very little if that is
what you prefer. You could simply give me a reference to the texts where I
can see such representations used. Or you could send me photocopies of
examples. If you have digital examples you could send them on disc (of
course I will return these), or as email attachments.
If (and only if) you would like to help more substantially, you might
like to explain how the representations help (or hinder) work in your
discipline. And of course I would be happy to tell you more about my
research.
From Andrew Roberts to Stephen Boyd Davis 28.5.1999
Subject: A simple "picture?" of time
Thank you for your interesting circular.
I use chronologies in my Social
Science History and on [this] web site.
I do not know if these are "visual representations", but I have
called them "time lines". You can see the web one at this link:
Social Science History Time Line
[Also, developed since:
Mental Health History Time Line
In my book [Social Science History] the chronology is just an
appendix that helps people understand the text.
On the web I intend to use it as the main link
to other material. [at the time I wrote I was still converting the
chronology from its book format].
I am rather intrigued by what you are doing. If you are circulating
anything more about it, please let me hear!
From Stephen Boyd Davis to Andrew Roberts 7.7.1999
Belatedly, I must thank you very much for responding (and promptly too)
to my plea for help. Your web work is interesting and certainly not
trivial! I will certainly keep you up to date on my research as it
proceeds.
Do you have any feedback from the users of your timeline pages, or any
reflections of your own on their strengths and weaknesses?
From Andrew Roberts to Stephen Boyd Davis 26.7.1999
My web site started in April 1999, so students have not used the
electronic time line yet.
I have included a history of the chronologies and time lines on my History of SHE page
The use of the chronologies from September 1990 must have solved some
problems for students, because we no longer had students complaining that
they did not know enough history to understand SHE.
I use images from the frontispiece of Hobbes Leviathan to explain both
issues in social theory and historical events. I do this mainly with
respect to the relationship of writers like Hobbes, Filmer and Locke to the
Civil war. You will find one of the images if you click
here.
Students appreciate the way that issues are linked by images and words,
and the way that the same images and words are used to take you from one
area to another.
A big difference between
- the use of chronologies (on SHE) in documents and books and on the
overhead projector,
- the use of the time lines on this web site
is that the Social Science History Timeline is central to the organisation
of the course. It will be a link to where students find resources for their
essays. They should walk the path of time to the theorist they are
researching, rather than just being able to see where he or she is by
turning to an appendix.
Systematic feedback on SHE is gathered by an evaluation form (regular)
and (this year) a written report. If we do a report next year it might be
possible to ask students for feedback on the time line, if that would be
useful to you. You can see the SHE2 Report
questions we asked this year, and some of the
issues raised by students.
Could you explain more about why you are researching pictures of time?
Virtual Society
Date sent: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 14:33:29 +0000
From: steve woolgar
Subject: Virtual Society? Get Real! - conference
announcement
To:
cyberculture@cmhcsys.com,
cyberspace-and-society@mailbase.ac.uk,
nextGENDERation@let.uu.nl,
CyberSociety@listbot.com,
sts@kant.ch.umkc.edu,
mgm@acm.org, socbb@surrey.ac.uk, soc-hods@mailbase.ac.uk,
social-theory@mailbase.ac.uk, digital-culture@mailbase.ac.uk,
virtual-methods@mailbase.ac.uk
Copies to: caroline.ingram@brunel.ac.uk
Send reply to: steve woolgar
Apologies for cross-postings
Conference announcement and CfP
Virtual Society ? Get Real !
4-5th May 2000, Ashridge House, Hertfordshire, north west of London
The last few years have seen a burgeoning awareness of the potential
impact
of new electronic technologies. We recognise the crucial need to understand
the social circumstances which can realise technological benefits, to
temper cyberbole with social scientific research. Frameworks have been
developed to help us ask: to what extent are significant changes in the
ways we interact, relate to each other and organise ourselves associated
with the new technologies. So what now are the prospects for a "virtual
society"? Are we now at the point where we can remove the question mark
Should we replace it with an exclamation mark! Or should we now redouble
our analytic scepticism??
This major international conference is being held to reflect on the
current
state of the art. It marks the culmination of 2 « years research under the
UK's ESRC Programme: Virtual Society? the social science of electronic
technologies. The conference brings together researchers working both in
and beyond the VS? Programme. The aim is to take stock, to reflect on the
wider perspective and to identify the best ways forward.
Possible sub themes include: e-commerce: has the bubble burst?;
resisting
the virtual life; education; self, responsibility and ethics; space, place
and locality; social exclusion; what to do with counter-intuitive
findings?; privacy and surveillance; ICTs, audit and accountability.
Keynote speakers include Leigh Star (UC San Diego), Marilyn Strathern
(Cambridge), Jonathan Ree (Middlesex), Mel Pollner (UC Los Angeles) and
Deborah Heath (Lewis and Clark). Other speakers include: Steve Brown
(Loughborough), Roger Burrows (York), Eleanor Burt (Glasgow Caledonian),
Steve Carver (Leeds), Charles Crook (Loughborough), Penny Harvey
(Manchester), John Hughes (Lancaster), Tracey Ibbotson (Glasgow), David
Knights (Keele), Scott Lash (Goldsmiths), Martin Lea (Manchester), Sonia
Liff (Warwick), Paul Light (Bournemouth), Brian Loader (Teesside), David
Mason (Plymouth), Brian McGrail (Open University), David Morrison (Leeds),
Charles Raab (Edinburgh), Kevin Robins (Goldsmiths), Neville Stanton
(Brunel), Peter Swann (Manchester), Frank Webster (Birmingham) and Sally
Wyatt (UEL)
The conference will cover participants' accommodation and travel costs
(with a contribution towards travel costs for overseas participants),
although places are limited. Deadline for paper abstracts (500 words) is
22nd March 2000; registration deadline is 29th March 2000. See website
(below) for details and online registration. For further information
contact Caroline Ingram at: caroline.ingram@brunel.ac.uk
Professor Steve Woolgar, Director
ESRC Virtual Society? Programme
Brunel University
Uxbridge
Middlesex UB8 3PH
England
+44 (0)1895 203210
+44 (0)1895 203071 (fax)
*********************************************************************
Recent additions to the web site!
- Are teenagers stopping using the Internet?
- Realities of E-commerce: symposium report
- PROFILE '99 - get your copy of the Interim Programme report.
- many new conferences and workshops announced, including:
- - Virtuality in Europe 23-26 March 2000
- - Performing Virtualities, postgraduate workshop, 2-3 May 2000
- - Virtual Society? Get Real! 4-5 May 2000
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/research/virtsoc
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