My philosophy

Here is another item from my web site to provide context on my passion for transformation and innovation in technological education.

Here is the original post -

My Philosphy

From my dissertation proposal:

Cultural-Historical School

All the information on this site will be situated in the cultural-historical school of psychology. Cole defines the cultural-historical school as “the structure and development of human psychological processes [that] emerge through culturally mediated, historically developing, practical activity” (Cole, 1996, p. 108). Cole goes on and summarizes the key concepts of the cultural-historical school:

1. Mediation through artifacts. The initial premise of the cultural-history school is that human psychological processes emerged simultaneously with a new form of behavior in which humans
modified material objects as a means of regulating their world and one another.

2. Historical development. In addition to using and making tools, human beings arrange for rediscovery of already-created tools in each succeeding generation. Becoming a cultural being and arranging for others to become cultural beings are intimately linked parts of a single process called enculturation. … Culture, according to this perspective, can be understood as the entire pool of artifacts accumulated by a social group in the course of its historical experience.

3. Practical activity. The third basic premise of the cultural-historical approach, adopted by Hegel by the way of Marx, is that the analysis of human psychological functions must be grounded in human’s everyday activity. (1996, p. 108-110)

Social Learning Theory

Although this site will use the cultural-historical school of thought for looking at human activity, it will also use Wenger’s concept of social learning theory and communities of practice. Wenger believes that learning is social participation. Wenger (1998) states “participation here refers to not just to local events of engagement in certain activities with certain people, but a more encompassing process of being active participants in the practices of social communities and constructing identities in relation to these communities” (p. 4). The four components of Wenger (1998)’s social learning theory are meaning, practice, community, and identity. Meaning is “a way of talking about our (changing) ability – individually and collectively – to experience our life and the world as meaningful” (Wenger, 1998, p. 5). Practice is “a way of talking about the shared historical and social resources, frameworks, and perspectives that can sustain mutual engagement in action” (Wenger, 1998, p. 5). Community is “a way of talking about the social configurations in which our enterprises are defined as worth pursuing and our participation is recognizable as competence” (Wenger, 1998, p. 5). Identity is “a way of talking about how learning changes who we are and creates personal histories of becoming in context of our communities” (Wenger, 1998, p. 5).

Community of Practice

A practice, as Dr. Linda Polin (2002) of Pepperdine University defines it, “is a full-blown domain of expertise; it has a productive value. The following are practices: architecture, professional French Horn, oral surgery, health insurance processing, Pokemon trainer,
scriptwriter” and others. Wenger (1998) defines practice as the following. In a sense, practice is always social practice. Such a concept of practice includes both the explicit and the tacit. It includes what is said, and what is left unsaid; what is represented and what is assumed. It includes the language, tools, documents, images, symbols, well-defined roles, specified criteria, codified procedures, regulations, and contracts that various practices make explicit for variety of purposes. But, it also includes the implicit relations, tacit conventions, subtle clues, untold rules of thumb, recognizable intuitions, specific perceptions, well-tuned sensitivities, embodied
understanding, underlying assumptions, and shared world views. (Wenger, 1998, p. 47)

Each of these practices belongs to a social community, which is called a community of practice. “Communities of practice [CoP] are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002, p. 4). Everyone belongs to one or more communities of practice whether it is in our family life, work, education, or profession. This study will look at the IT profession through the lens of CoPs and the cultural-historical school lens of activity. Communities have histories, artifacts, and activities that allow members to participate. The community decides the competence of its members through changes in member identity. Members in a community of practice exist at different levels of participation. The newcomers sit on the periphery in the beginning (legitimate peripheral participation) and start moving towards full participation as they change their identity (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Older members of the community of practice provide newcomers with models of performance for newcomers to replicate. Communities of practice have reproductioncycles in which newcomers enter the community of practice and become full participants, and eventually “old timers”, through their changing identity in the practice.

Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) or Activity Theory

Since participation in a community of practice is about activity, activity theory is a model for analyzing the community’s activities. This study will treat IT work, also known as knowledge work, and education as activity systems for analysis. Members of a community think, act, and
learn together as a system. Activity theory is a framework in the cultural-historical tradition that looks at activity as the basic unit of analysis. Activity is the relationship between a member’s or subject’s action in pursuit of a goal of transforming some object, which is mediated by artifacts/tools, and/or signs. The subject is the person or groups of people who are initiating and performing the activity. The mediating artifact can be tools or technologies such as physical tools, instruments, signs, people, and others. The mediating artifact allows a subject to transform some object into a goal or outcome. An object can be a physical entity or a problem space. Rules are the methods, laws, procedures, and processes that subject follows to transform an object. The community is the collective that are the stakeholders in the activity. Individuals do not act in isolation but in relation to a community. The division of labor is the organization of the labor in the activity as related to the transformation of the object. Figure 1 illustrates the model of an activity system (Engestrom, 1987).

An example of activity is designing and implementing a software product for a customer. The subject of the activity is the team who develops the software product. The object is the project of developing a software product. The outcome is a fully functional software product. The mediating artifacts are the software tools, procedures, computers, and other artifacts needed to transform the object into an outcome. The rules are the norms of the community such as how the software is written, and what methods are being used. The community is the development team, the customer, and the management. The division of labor is the different duties and roles
each team member plays on the team. There is a hierarchical structure of activity. “Activities are oriented by motives, that is objects that are impelling to themselves. Each motive is an object, material, or ideal, that satisfies a need. Actions are the processes functionally subordinated to activities; they are directed at specific conscious goals. Actions are realized through operations that are determined by the actual conditions of activity” (Kaptelinin, 1996, p. 108).

My History

I published this on my web site a while ago and I need to post it here for everyone to understand the context of my passion for transforming technological education. Here is my original post -

My History

My College Days

My interest and research in educating the future technology professional goes back to college when I was a student at Florida Tech in Melbourne, FL. I always knew that hands-on experience was critical in securing a good high paying job in this economy. I experienced that as a student at Florida Tech when I knew to be competitive that I needed to gain work experience. So, throughout my college experience, I always tried to find work in technology. My first experience came at Harris Corporation as a computer operator during the third shift. I took this job because I knew that I needed experience. About a year after that, I was hired by Rockwell International as a computer operator and I ran the department on weekends.

Also, I worked on creating a student foundation at Florida Tech and I took a role in helping secure real world capstone experiences for my fellow students. I knew that was the key to success along with a four year degree. I graduated with a BS in Computer Engineering at Florida Tech.

My First Job

I landed my first full time job at E-Systems, Melpar Division, in Falls Church, VA. I had an opportunity during my spring break in my senior year to interview with three places - E-Systems in Texas, E-Systems in Falls Church, VA, and the Navy in Connecticut. I ended getting an offer from E-Systems, Falls Church, VA. I got this job based on my summer internship experience with Dictaphone Corporation where I was a technical writer. E-Systems hired me as a Systems Engineer. During the interview, I did have my portfolio of my senior design project that I showed to people who interviewd me. Even at this point in my life, I was convinced that I needed experience to land a good job. I brought my
experiences to the interview because of this.

My Teaching

I was hired by Northern Virginia Community College as an Adjunct around 1994 in the electronics department to teach computer repair. I took a full time teaching job with Computer Learning Center (CLC) in Alexandria where I started in the Electronics department and moved to the client/server programming department which I started as Lead Instructor. I then was hired full time by NOVA in 1998 once I secured my Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from George Mason U.

My Interests and Research

While I was at NOVA, I was program head for about 5.5 years. I decided that I would be a voice for change in the Information Systems Technology department. I became very interested in workplace experiences for my students. I piloted a capstone course, worked on Internships and partnerships. I was able to secure partnerships with Intel, Teligent, and others. I often interviewed students and reviewed resumes. I got resumes that were pitiful. One resume was a quarter of a page. I would interview students who had no clue about the concepts they had learned in their courses. Students would tell me that 'I took that class six
months ago'. Yikes! I thought. From this experience and the minimal research I was doing, I knew that we needed to transform what we were
doing in our IT program. We need graduates who could hit the ground running and that obviously was not happening from what I was observing.

Finally, I worked with the Commonwealth of Virginia to write a proposal to the NSF ATE program about a hunch I had about teaching and learning which needed to be transformed in 2002. This work transformed my thoughts on how we educate and train students in technical programs.

My Interests and Research

While I was at NOVA, I was program head for about 5.5 years. I decided that I would be a voice for change in the Information Systems Technology department. I became very interested in workplace experiences for my students. I piloted a capstone course, worked on Internships and partnerships. I was able to secure partnerships with Intel, Teligent, and others. I often interviewed students and reviewed resumes. I got resumes that were pitiful. One resume was a quarter of a page. I would interview students who had no clue about the concepts they had learned in their courses. Students would tell me that 'I took that class six months ago'. Yikes! I thought. From this experience and the minimal research I was doing, I knew that we needed to transform what we were doing in our IT program. We need graduates who could hit the ground running and that obviously was not happening from what I was observing.

Finally, I worked with the Commonwealth of Virginia to write a proposal to the NSF ATE program about a hunch I had about teaching and learning which needed to be transformed in 2002. This work transformed my thoughts on how we educate and train students in technical programs.

The more I worked with our students the more I became aware of workplace readiness issues that needed to be addressed. I met Scott Brainard, who at the time was project manager of the SCANS 2000 Center at John Hopkins University. I met him at the announcement of the voluntary partnership between NWCET, NCTT, and National Skills Standards Board at NVCC, Annandale Campus. I believe this was in 2002. I talked to him about our NSF ATE grant proposal we submitted and we started a partnership. The SCANS report was published in 1992 that talks about the key workplace skills that were missing. We started a partnership with them and learned from them how they 'teach' these skills in their local high schools. I knew that college students also needed these skills too.

We were awarded an NSF grant in Summer 2002 to look at what we called value-delivery skills and creating a consortium of IT education iVirginia. We setup the SCANS 2000 center as a partner in the grant. We had several meetings to discuss the whole issue with them. As part of this grant, we help several focus groups in No VA. The first focus group used emotional intelligence skills as a foundation to talk about the value-delivery skills needed to be successful. I felt that the first focus group was a success and now we had a second focus group that looked at how we could teach this skills in the classroom.

Well, most of the skills were behavioral. How do you teach behavioral skills? In the past, I would have looked at teaching a teamwork course or the like. But, today, I realize that you can not teach behavioral skills. You can only experience them. This causes you to look at this in whole new light. Now, I need to design activities that allow students to practice these skills in the classroom. So, this means assigning group projects where students work in teams and evaluating their performance during the project. Then, evaluating the outcomes of the project whatever the artifact may be. One big outcome of the second focus group was what are coined 'curveballs'. Now, when we teach projects the complaints that the projects were not realistic enough. We need to introduce curveballs to simulate the real world projects. Some examples of curveballs are change team members, change requirements, etc. Here is a paper I wrote before this focus group and one after this focus group.

Value-Delivery_Skills_-_An_Essential_Component_in_IT_Education_8_26_02.pdf

Oh yea! Before I forget, I wrote a white paper on my vision for the educational system in VA as we were funded by NSF. I attached that to this entry. To continue, the work on the NSF continued my research interest in Workforce Development and actually moved my ideas forward. My partnership with Mike Peterson, who was the Executive Dir of Institute of Excellence in Information Technology, was a great partner in moving my ideas for workforce development forward. Also, I decided to enroll at Pepperdine University in the Educational Technology Doctoral Program to further my education in this area of learning and technology. I have research interests in educating the future
technology professional, learning theory, learning technology, along with technology's impact on today's workforce. The last focus group caused me to contact Case Files (http://www.thecasefiles.org) and I partnered with them because they had a way to design activities that require an authentic business problem. I ended up partnering with Dr Ruth Loring and she became a mentor of mine as I went through the doctoral program and also as we worked on our NSF grant. I attribute a lot to her in helping me understand Case Files and I was invited to every major event that they had. I also worked at them also.

My_Vision_for_Information_Technology_Education_in_Virginia.pdf

The Case Files

Why did the Case Files work interest me? There are actually two projects. One project comes out of CITE at http://www.cite-tn.org/pbcb.htm and the other is Case Files at http://www.thecasefiles.org. Both projects come under the heading of Problem-based Case-based learning.

From my research, each of these projects has merit. The goal of becoming a technology professional requires an apprenticeship in a community of practice of technology professionals. Learners become members of the community through participation in the community's activities. Learning is about participation in a community. This allows an apprentice to under the culture, tools, and technologies of the community. The CSS projects in CITE are what the literature calls 'real fields' and they provide a real authentic problem solved in real time with a sponsoring business. This type of project allows learners/apprentices the opportunities to develop a professional identity.

Now, a Case File is what the literature calls a 'practice field'. A Case File is a real world problem but it is not done in real time. Typically, a CSS project becomes a Case File once the the project is complete. This type of project provides a context that allows for learners to practice their skills in a safe environment but it is not a real field and learners can not develop a professional identity in a community. These problems are isolated from the real world because they are not solved in real time. But, they do have merit. I believe that a combination of real fields and practice field are needed in an technology program. Actually, if we take sports as an example, a team is formed and practices occur to help the team prepare for a game. Then, games provide a context for the team to compete with other teams and also when statistics are kept. Also, team members develop a professional identity in the community of sports players.

Story Centered Curriculm

There is another project that is of interest to me. It is at http://elc.fhda.edu/index.html. While Case Files is based on John Bransford's work at Vanderbilt, SCC is based on the work of Roger Schank. I become a student of both of them. Socratic Arts is Dr Schank's organization that promotes SCC. It is at http://socraticarts.com/aboutscc.html. I recommend you read the pdf there. It is very cool. Also, an implementation of SCC is at Carnegie Mellon West at http://west.cmu.edu. Now, SCC is a simulation of an organization where the faculty are mentors to the learner teams. The simulated organization has projects they do with tasks. Learners are put into teams to work on the tasks in the virtual organization. To do this correctly, the whole environment appears to the learner as a real organization. There is merit to this work. I struggle with whether to call this a practice field or a real field. I tend to favor practice field since this is not done in the real world but in a virtual world.

The projects are not real projects for a real customer. It appears that CMU also has a internship requirement which adds the real field to the equation. I am no longer active with this project as I used to be. I am still active with Case Files.

Implications for Programs

From looking at the different approaches that exist, I strongly believe in the need to develop a balance of practice fields and real fields in developing learners to become technology professionals. I have attached two white papers that talk to learning to become. This work was influenced by working on both projects.

knowledge_work_v2.pdf

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog. I will begin a dialogue about learning and technology innovation for the 21st century. We will discuss the following topics such as communities of practice, innovation, simulations, technology, activity theory, and other topics. I hope you enjoy this blog.