Rethinking University Teaching: a framework for the effective use of learning technologies

Rethinking University Teaching, by Diana Laurillard, was a hard slog, especially after reading Biggs and Tang. It's much more technical and jargon-driven, and the author uses words in a manner which just don't match up with dictionary definitions. Having said that, it's an impressive piece of work, looking at computer-supported learning, and how effective the various different forms of digital learning tools are. She sets up a theoretical framework describing how teaching and learning works (the "Conversational Framework"), and then looks at each type of teaching interface to determine how they match the framework.

My personal feeling was that the framework she established was created in a rather arbitrary manner - I come from a mathematics and physics background, where if you're going to set up explanatory theories or frameworks, you bloody well better have solid experimental evidence, otherwise you're just waffling and handwaving. It's taking me quite a while to get used to the world of Education, where the things they are studying are so complex and hard to measure, and the science it's based on (psychology and cognitive science) still so fast-moving and unsettled, that the kinds of hard experimental evidence and proof that I'm used to are a long way off.

However, the value of the framework is not in its explanatory powers regarding teaching and learning, but rather in the way that it highlights the shortcomings of each educational technology, and show what they are useful for. There is a lot of useful information in here about when and where to use video, interaction, discussion tools, and so on; and also in how to mix them.

This is far and away the hardest book I've hard to read, in terms of sheer density and complexity of prose, in quite a few years. And coming from a fan of H. P. Lovecraft, that's quite a strong statement. It reads like an academic paper, rather than a textbook. And since it's from 2002, in technology terms it's almost ancient history, and many of the descriptions are quite dated. On the other hand, pretty much all the technologies she talks about are still with us, and in similar forms. Many of the technical impediments she talks about are largely gone (provide videos on DVD? Pfft!), but the vast majority of the pedagogical issues remain.

Scarlet

Scarlet is the second in the King Raven trilogy by Stephen Lawhead. I read the first one, Hood, a few years ago, before I started listing the books I'm reading, so you'll have to look elsewhere for a description of it.

The premise of the trilogy is that Robin Hood wasn't actually from Nottingham, but rather a Welsh nobleman displaced by Norman invaders. His name is Bran, and Robin Hood becomes Rhi Bran y Hud (King Bran the enlightened). I found the premise interesting enough to grab the first book, and that one was a good enough read to encourage me to get the rest of the series. They're also very nice looking books, which always helps :)

As with most tellings of the Robin Hood tales, Robin is impeccably noble and good, and the bad guys are almost comically wicked. This second book is the tale of Will Scarlet (aka William Scatlocke), an English hunter displaced from his original home by the Normans. Like the first book of the trilogy, it's entertaining and fast paced, the baddies are sufficiently bad and the good guys are brave and noble. It's simple and clean, written in such a way that it will work as well for my 9-year-old son as it does for me, if not better.

In this episode of this trilogy, Will Scarlet joins Rhi Bran's band of outlaws, gets captured by the nasty Normans, and Rhi Bran and his band of outlaws gets mixed up in the near civil war between the King of England, William Rufus, and his brother, Duke Robert. It all ends up with the kind of conclusion you expect given that it's the second book of a trilogy.

It seems well researched (I don't know enough Welsh history to verify that, though), and it gives a good view of life shortly after the Norman conquest, and social changes brought about by very different attitudes at the top of the social hierarchy. If you're looking for good historical fiction that doesn't tax the brain too much, this is series is worthwhile. I'm planning on digging into the last book of the series, Tuck, in a few books' time.

Replay

I picked up this one not knowing what to expect. I'd never heard of Ken Grimwood, and it hadn't come with and recommendation other than being a part of the Fantasy Masterworks series.

In Replay, Jeff Winston is a 43 year old trapped in a series of dead-end jobs and a terrible marriage. He dies suddenly of a heart attack, and wakes up in his eighteen-year-old body, back in college. Armed with a knowledge of future events, he becomes wealthy, and lives an entirely different life, until his dies again at 43, and wakes up again in his eighteen year old body.

What stops this being just another repeat-a-day-until-you-get-it-right* or wake-up-in-a-younger-or-older-body story is the depth and richness of the characterization, the haunting beauty of Jeff Winston's loss and heartbreak and joy and love. The concept has been done elsewhere, but there's an amazing power in Grimwood's writing. Towards the end, I couldn't put the book down, and ended up reading the last six chapters in one sitting (my usual rule is one chapter per night). The ending is also far more subtle, more bittersweet than the thumpingly obvious ones that other tales with the same basic premise leave you with.

If you read this book, expect to feel somewhat haunted when you finish it. Expect to wonder what you're doing with your life, whether you're on the right path, why you're on the path you're on, whether you have any control over the things that happen around you, and how you might even begin to make a rational choice in a world on unexpected consequences. I'm still being dragged through those tortuous, twisty paths of possibilities and improbabilities.

I think this will be one of the books that leaves me touched by its message for many years. There are a few of those over the years, books that have left a flavour in the mind long after the details of the plot and character are gone, that leave a few images and an atmosphere of wonder behind that comes back in flashes now and then; a feeling of having-felt-this-before when in a certain situation or reading a certain passage of prose.

I'd recommend reading this one. It's worthwhile.


*The novel pre-dates Groundhog Day, and the interwebs seem to think it influenced that movie

Saturn's Children

I'm sure I've said enough about Stross in my previous posts, and if you've read any you'll have a flavour of my fanboy-ish regard for his work.

Saturn's Children travels in a different direction from his other works. Rather than a singularity style universe of unlimited potential technological advancement, Saturn's Children is a world where humanity's robotic servants have been left in charge of the Solar System, after humanity rendered itself extinct. The robots, however, were built to serve humanity, so the society they build is warped and missing its core function.

The premise is that humans never worked out AI properly - they were only able to imprint human minds onto robot brains - which means the characters act and react in believably human ways to the events that unfold. It's a great story, and operates on two levels (like much of Stross's work); a story about believable people in believable situations, as well as a gigantic what-if question that looks at what might happen if we ever develop sufficiently intelligent robotic servants.

Overall, a good book, though perhaps not as mind-blowing as some of his other work, if simply because the scale is that much smaller.