Educator= Designer+Facilitator+Researcher, Engineer
Formal Education
Projects done in the context of an education program and as a research associate in a school
Contexts of Learning
Context: Assignment during Post Graduate Diploma in International Education
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Situation: As a part of the course I taught math and history to 10 underserved learners over two sets of 2 weeks each. The learners were completely new to a constructivist approach. My process involved backward design, facilitation, analysis, collaborative planning and iteration. There was no technology available. The assignment was to select one student, track their progression and analyze the influence of their context on their learning.
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Solution:
I designed manipulatives to enable the learners to visualize and play with the concepts of area and perimeter.
I designed a situation which got the learners to engage with measurement of size of 2D shapes and why we need both area and perimeter
I introduced various interventions for the learners and analyzed the impact on their learning
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Impact:
The learners were able to successfully complete their assessment on the concepts
The learners displayed mathematical thinking
The learners expressed an observation that math can be creative and that they can access it
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Learning:
There is no one silver bullet pedagogy or explanation that will make all learners understand a concept at the same time. Learning is an organic, dynamic process.
There is nothing called an average learner. All learners bring with them their past experiences, levels of understanding and emotions.
Collaboration between learners is a complex, emergent process which cannot be completely designed or controlled. Its fluidity contributes to the earning through collaboration.
The relationship between the learner and the teacher is at the heart of learning experiences.
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What next?
How might we build non-tech tools and manipulatives to spread constructivist teaching to underserved learners?
Development of innovation-mindedness in pre-service teacher-learners
Context: Research project during Post Graduate Diploma in International Education
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Situation: The institute wanted to explore and understand the topic and I volunteered to lead the research. We were a cohort of 50+ teacher learners and the concept was to design interventions and track the development of innovation-mindedness.
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Solution:
I analyzed and chose appropriate measurement instruments for innovation-mindedness in the context of teacher learners
I designed the interview protocol and conducted semi-formal interviews
I analyzed all the data and presented results at various stages
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Impact:
We identified some learners that showed progression but the interventions did not work for all learners. Further study to understand the other variable factors is planned.
We presented are intermediate findings to researchers at University of Glasgow and they plan to re-create the experiment at their teacher education institute.
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Learning:
I learnt the concept of a construct and that has helped me think about and understand education, assessments and research methodologies a lot better
I learnt how fidelity of implementation matters as people tend to domesticate ideas into their pre-existing frameworks and then the desired effect is not achieved
I learnt the complexities and importance of designing interview protocols to get valid and reliable data and make the interviewee feel comfortable enough to share their observations and insights
I learnt that transfer of learning is really hard to achieve and that learning in context is the most efficient way to bring about change
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What next?
How might we bring about and measure a change in mindset?
Capturing learning in student-centered classrooms
Context: Independent project during Post Graduate Diploma in International Education
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Situation: During the program and practice teaching, I observed that there aren't any tech tools to capture moments of learning for different learners quickly in the middle of facilitation. One professor demonstrated using sticky notes and putting them into a notebook with a page for each student. I believed that this could be significantly enhanced with technology.
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Solution:
I explored existing solutions which solve similar problems and found one meant for teacher observations to be the closest match but it was only designed for Ipads.
I put together a concept prototype using Evernote and Google Forms to quickly capture and tag notes, images, etc in the classroom and have them stored in a searchable, analyzable format
I built a sample app which would enable teachers to make seating arrangements and other configurations to improve the user flow.
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Impact:
I was able to capture learning a lot better during my practice teaching
8 colleagues started using the Google Forms/Evernote prototype to capture learning in their practice too
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Learning:
Mindset change and availability of tools are closely inter-related. People who are on the edge of changing their mindset can be nudged further by giving them tools to smoothen the new practice
Classrooms are complex environments, learning, the display of learning and the assessment of learning are complex processes and we need better tools to do justice to them
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What next?
How might we design tools that enable classroom teachers to capture meaningful learning moments and compile them to derive insights?
Video Analysis of student attention
Context: Project while working as Research Associate at Indus International School.
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Situation: The school had a robot teacher. They wanted a way to analyze the attention levels of the students in the class and get summary data for future reference.
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Solution:
I built a system using Intel RealSense and OpenFace to recognize all student faces and get their head angles
I coded the logic for various scenarios to infer level of attention from the head angle data
I built a system for the robot to call out learners who were not paying attention and send a summary email at the end of the class
I analyzed the ethical considerations involved and presented scenarios where this system can hurt a child
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Impact:
The system was integrated into the past and future robots
The system will be used in schools once they reopen after Covid
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Learning:
Got comfortable with video analysis in Python, particularly OpenCV and Open Face
Grappled with a lot of ethical issues in education, manifestations of behaviorist theories and ideas about monitoring, surveillance and data security
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What next?
How might we shift education away from behaviourist ideas?
Socratic Teacher Avatar App
Context: Project while working as Research Associate at Indus International School.
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Situation: Because of Covid, new formats of teaching and learning had to be devised. The school wanted an asynchronous learning tool that learners could use anytime, anywhere and which felt personal unlike a collection of videos and assessments.
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Solution:
I developed the concept of a Virtual Robot teacher
I searched and analyzed existing offerings of interactive 3D avatars but none of them suited our purpose
I built a prototype using SmartBody, implemented a pedagogically sound user flow and shared it with others to get feedback
I worked with freelancers to get a production level app developed according to the final prototype
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Impact:
The prototype was approved by the stakeholders
The production level app is being built
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Learning:
Learnt about virtual robots/avatars/artificial humans, what makes them likable, what makes them uncanny or eerie and how we can design ours for maximum engagement
Analyzed various pedagogical tools and chose a socratic exchange to be the most appropriate for the format of a virtual robot
Learnt the whole 3D character development pipeline and the available tools for each step
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What next?
How might we make SmartBody more user friendly to enable learners to build their own 3D avatar interactions to conduct psychology experiments?
Assessment and Promotion of Curiosity
Context: Project while working as Research Associate at Indus International School.
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Situation: The school had a robot teacher which delivered instruction, asked and answered questions. They wanted to design the interaction and technology to increase students' curiosity as a starting point for creativity and innovation.
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Solution:
I analyzed the research on curiosity, identified potential methods of promoting curiosity in the classroom and chose tools to asses it
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Impact:
We were not able to run the experiments because the school shut down due to Covid
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Learning:
In education research, there is a strong reductionist approach towards something as complex as curiosity for example one major way of promoting curiosity is 'priming' students with words like curious and wonder
Taking averages of learning gains doesn't seem fair to students whose experience was different from that of the average
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What next?
How might we study and understand curiosity through wholesome qualitative research?