Meaningful learning experiences require a balance between agency and support. Achieving this balance is challenging, as the more control the system takes, the less control learners have over their own learning. An alternative approach is one in which technology provides agency instead of reducing it. In this talk I will describe the role of technology in focusing on learning processes rather than correctness of outcomes. Such experiences facilitate the development of higher-order competencies together with better learning at the domain level. Common to these examples is the use of Learning Analytics techniques to capture patterns associated with skills such as effective help-seeking, scientific reasoning, or mathematical modelling. Taken together, these results challenge common views of effective support and uses of technology in learning.
About the speaker:
Dr. Ido Roll seeks to understand how students become better learners and scientists and how this process can be supported. Towards that goal, he develops intelligent and adaptive learning environments that facilitate meaningful learning in which learners explore, err, and make sense of their learning. Developing learning analytics techniques allows Ido Roll to assess learning processes, inform theories of learning, and provide tools for teachers. Ido is particularly interested in using large-scale fine-grain data across different time scales, from seconds (in problem solving environments and simulations) to months (in MOOCs and full courses).
Ido Roll received his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University, and later served as the Director of the Institute for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning at the University of British Columbia. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Artificial Intelligence in Education Society and the Steering Committee of Learning at Scale. He is also a member of the PISA Special Domains Expert Group.
