* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download National Institute of Education
Survey
Document related concepts
Instructional scaffolding wikipedia , lookup
Albert Bandura wikipedia , lookup
Educational psychology wikipedia , lookup
Problem-based learning wikipedia , lookup
Educational technology wikipedia , lookup
Inquiry-based learning wikipedia , lookup
Learning styles wikipedia , lookup
Learning disability wikipedia , lookup
Implicit learning wikipedia , lookup
Reflective practice wikipedia , lookup
Project-based learning wikipedia , lookup
Differentiated instruction wikipedia , lookup
Cooperative learning wikipedia , lookup
Concept learning wikipedia , lookup
Learning theory (education) wikipedia , lookup
Transcript
The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium Steven J Coombs National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Accepted for publication in the October 2000 Korean Journal of Thinking & Problem Solving The Korean Journal of Thinking & Problem Solving, 10(2), 19—31 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium Abstract Since the advent of Information Technology (IT) software systems over the last 20 years or so, the term 'user-friendly' has become widely used and is generally associated with well-designed IT solutions that the user can easily interact with. Indeed, user-friendly software implies that the human computer interface (HCI) and interactability of the IT system have been designed in such a way so as to allow immediate and meaningful participation. This article attempts to provide a psychological conceptual model that explains the idea of user-friendliness in terms of IT systems operating as an easy-to-access reflective learning tool. Further, that the quality of critical thinking interaction via IT software depends on both humanistic and instructional technology design considerations which affect the system's ability to operate as an efficient reflective learning interface with a person. IT software learning systems that enable the user to transfer ideas and experiences into new conceptual knowledge is proposed by the author to be a knowledge elicitation system (KES). The critical and creative thinking design rationale and generic criteria of a KES will be shared with readers, in order that any IT learning system can be readily evaluated in terms of its user-friendly 'learnability' and reflective learning capability. Many of the core pedagogic concepts and innovative theories in this article have been summarized into an information table (see Table 1), which provides a synthesis of the relationships between what is meant by a reflective learning interface and a KES. Page 1 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium The need for IT thinking tools The last few decades has brought about an information technology (IT) revolution that now affects the social and political agenda of most nations. The new millenium is now perceived as the dawn of the knowledge society. Human resource development is now being considered in terms of educational policies that include the twin implementation issues of IT and critical and creative thinking. In particular, Asia-Pacific countries, such as Malaysia and Singapore, have been addressing these needs through radical shifts in education policy. Malaysia has currently embarked on an ambitious IT scheme called the Multi-media Super Corridor (MSC), while Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE) has recently launched a programme entitled “Thinking Schools, Learning Nation” that includes significant changes in educational policy. These changes include a move from didactic teaching methods to learner-oriented project work that will be included in the assessment system – as reported by Singapore’s “The Sunday Times” 22nd March 1998, in the front page leading article: “Less chalkand-talk, more project work for students”. This move towards delivering project work as a means of inculcating greater learning and creativity is to be supported by a dramatic increase in the use of IT as a curriculum-oriented thinking tool. Indeed, the MOE has provided guidelines seeking IT to be infused into at least 30% of all curriculum time. It has provided a huge S$2 billion budget as part of a national IT MasterPlan initiative for developing IT in schools that aims to achieve a ratio of 2 pupils/students to every computer throughout the education system. Clearly, the pedagogic quality and purpose of IT as a learning resource to support the educational curriculum is of considerable importance. It is my contention that the knowledge transfer capability of IT learning resources is dependent upon their ability to operate in a user-friendly manner with the learner. This is in terms of both physical personal access into the IT-based instructional system and how the learner psychologically elicits knowledge from it. This suggests that designing instructional technology software that can maximize thoughtbased learner interaction contributes toward a fertile learning environment for the personal construction of knowledge. This idea agrees with Jonassen's notion that educational technology learning resources should operate as student-centred "Mindtools for critical thinking" (Jonassen, 1996). This article considers user-friendliness in the context of recent leading-edge developments in IT software systems from both a business and educational perspective. User-friendliness is defined in terms of a psychological model of human learning that assumes a conversational cybernetic paradigm Page 2 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium (see Table 1) in which learner interaction is considered to be a systems-based combination of reflexive and reflective thinking skills. This pedagogic concept of a conversational constructivist paradigm is explained more fully later in this article. However, it is from this systems-thinking psychological model of user-friendly learning systems that we can understand how to enable the conversational fluency of learner interaction through the deployment of appropriate knowledge elicitation tools and, hence, understand how to evaluate such IT thinking tools as a reflective learning technology. Defining “User-friendliness” as a form of reflective learning In answer to the question “what is a user-friendly learning system?” I would give this insightful answer: “ something that enables the user to interact in a meaningful and conversationally fluent manner, so as to maximize one’s creative learning potential”. It is from this perceived concept of learner interaction with machines, such as computers, that the term of user-friendliness was first coined. Advanced software systems have been identified with improving the so-called Man-Machine Interface (MMI) (see Table 1) and the IT software industry has made great strides over the last few decades towards the current user-friendly desktop environments that are collectively known as graphical user interfaces (GUI) (see Table 1). This article considers user-friendly interaction from the conversational learning paradigm perspective of Laurie Thomas and Sheila Harri-Augstein (1985). They define human learning as “ the construction and reconstruction, exchange and negotiation of significant, relevant and viable meanings” (p.2). Their theory of the self-organized learner (S-O-L) is a personal constructivist theory of human learning that considers the design and use of reflective tools and processes which lead to an improved repertoire of inner-reflexive skills. Steven Coombs and Ian Smith (1998) have explored the person-based relationships between reflection and reflexivity. In their article “Designing a Conversational Learning Environment” they identify a learning theory based on "conversational constructivism" that provides a new insight into understanding the relationship between thinking and learning. They summarize Harri-Augstein & Thomas’ S-O-L conversational paradigm in terms of three core principles: 1. Real personal learning depends on self-assessment and reflective evaluation through the construction of internal referents; Page 3 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium 2. The S-O-L practice depends on the ability of the learner to self-monitor and control the learning process whilst developing appropriate models of understanding; and 3. Shared meaning is negotiated conversationally from social networks. Such social networks can be understood as conversational learning environments that construct their own viability and validity, resulting in a capacity for creative and flexible thinking. (p. 7) All these reflective learning and self-organisational thinking processes can be achieved through either real-life or virtual learning environments. Virtual learning environments (see Table 1) have the ability to simulate real-life environments, which is very convenient for instructional technology designers wishing to emulate a diverse range of rich social learning encounters from within an institution. However, it shall be later argued that IT virtual reality (see Table 1) learning environments can provide an enhancement to learning that goes beyond normal real-life encounters and can contribute a new kind of critical thinking scaffold (see Table 1). David Jonassen (1996) also suggests that learners need to be able to reflect on, self-assess and construct personal meaning from their computer-aided instructional learning system. Jonassen proposes that any system which supports a learner with this kind of higher-order thinking task is an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) and Coombs and Wong (2000) describe this kind of learning support as a self-coaching thinking scaffold to enable better quality student-centred learning activities. Thus, user-friendliness can be seen not just in terms of reflexive behavioral navigational control qualities of the IT learning system, but also in terms of its capability to encourage the learner to participate in critical and creative thinking activities. Jonassen refers to such an IT thinking system as a "Mindtool" and maintains that: "Mindtools are a reflective use of technology. That is, using Mindtools necessarily engages learners in reflective thinking, which leads to knowledge construction" (p. 13). Thus, we have an important pedagogic link between reflective thinking and knowledge construction via an educational technology tool operating as a 'critical thinking scaffold'. The context of user-friendly interfaces for Information technology A user-friendly conversational learning environment, therefore, requires the user to be able to control and reflectively evaluate ideas through the internal construction of referents, that is, to develop an appropriate system of meaning as a personal model of understanding. Checkland (1993) has described Page 4 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium a systems-thinking or cybernetic portrayal of a psychological model of understanding as: “ An intellectual construct (related) to observables in the world. … (This) leads to descriptions of the world couched in terms of models, as if the world were identical with models of it.” (p.315). These psychological “models of understanding” can be further refined and developed through conversational negotiation and exchange via social networks and forms the pedagogic basis of collaborative and reallife situated learning experiences (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989). This may be achieved through real-life group learning encounters or by way of IT-based virtual learning environments, such as the Internet, with its diverse range of social collaborative online facilities such as chat rooms and discussion groups (Maddux, Johnson & Willis, 1997). These types of social-learning interactions are important considerations toward understanding the nature of a user-friendly learning environment and provide a social psychological explanation that links motivation and learning. Indeed, Bandura (1986) affirmed this assumption when he stated that behavior is a function of the person and his/her social environment (i.e., B= f(P, E)). Contemporary IT communications systems, such as the Internet, provide a user-friendly gateway to a virtual learning society that has resulted in millions of global participants being ‘hooked’ to the system. The challenge to the educational world is to properly understand the pedagogy of virtual learning environments (VLE) and take advantage of user-friendly IT social systems, such as the Internet, and provide suitable curriculum delivery solutions. However, many teachers have avoided integrating into their curriculum IT communications resources such as the Internet, fearing anti-social phenomena such as the availability of pornography and failing to understand such technology as a basic educational tool (Maddux, 1998). Winn and Jackson (1999) recently suggested that a virtual reality (VR) interface enhanced the quality of the learning experience through generating a more meaningful social interaction with data: "[virtual environments (VE)] allows the user to look around inside the virtual world just as in the real world. The effect of this interface on the user is to create the sense of being inside the data and of being in immediate interaction with it. Since the VE responds to users' natural behaviors, such as looking around, moving, pointing, touching, grasping, and picking things up the interface in effect disappears" (p. 6). Page 5 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium This implies that user-friendliness is psychologically complex and relates holistically to all one's natural experiential senses from both the physical and emotional affective domain. It appears that the ultimate user-friendly goal for an IT learning system is to create a VLE real-world type interface that the user is oblivious to, but totally immersed within. Winn and Jackson also suggest that a VE learning interface in certain circumstances may be better than normal reality, where concepts and ideas can be simulated within an alternative sensual framework. For example, they suggest a VE in which a user can directly experience and manipulate an atomic world for which there is no other form of experiential access. Thus, a user-friendly VLE scaffolds the learner into performing higher-order thinking skills that result in conceptual reification, or, an ability to model abstract phenomena that have no other natural form: "The ability to manipulate virtual objects as if they represented real things has significant benefits for the student" (Winn and Jackson, 1999, p. 7). Goffman (1974) explains learning experiences as a social psychological phenomenon that is embedded within one's social frame and sense of reality with his concept of "social framing". A VLE can therefore be understood as a decontextualised alternative social framework in which to engender new forms of motivation and trust in the learner. This suggests that VLEs have the potential to operate as a kind of technology-assisted experiential scaffold that achieves Rogers' (1971) pedagogic goal of establishing "total positive regard" in the learner-cum-client relationship. An experiential scaffold is therefore a tool, which helps the learner to both manage and direct their experience of the learning process. All IT software learning systems represent some form of a virtual learning environment. It is just that the user's experiential access is usually via a keyboard, mouse and graphical display, which is a limited, or, 'low fidelity' form of personal entry into the system compared to the 'high fidelity' virtual reality IT learning systems of Winn and Jackson. But both kinds of IT software systems suggest that it is the quality of the user's experiential engagement in the form of an interface's sensual fidelity (see Table 1), combined with an ability to control the system that determines overall user-friendliness and potential for learning. This implies that the learning quality (L) of a person is a function of the learner's reflexive control (C) capability of being able to use the IT system combined with their reflective (R) critical thinking experience of being able to elicit knowledge from it, or, L= f(C, R). Given Bandura's notion that a person's learning behaviour (B) is a function of both the person (P) and their social environment (E): B= f(P, E); then real-world learning experiences (L) via a virtual learning Page 6 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium environment of some IT system could be expressed as; L= f(C, R, E). Thus, we have a complex pedagogic relationship that links the learner's capability to control the IT learning environment with their ability to reflect meaningfully within it via some situation that encompasses a real-world social and cultural context. A conversational interface, such as Jonassen's ITS, that provides the learner, as user, with easy access to his/her own learned experiences through a reflective tool can provide both a learning theory and design model from which to understand and develop user-friendly learning environments. Jonassen's pedagogic philosophy and notion of Intelligent Tutoring Systems and Mindtools can now be better understood through the useful concept of L= f(C, R, E). The design criteria for enabling user-friendly conversational learning environments have been identified by Coombs & Smith (1998) as satisfying two important social and pedagogic contexts: the building of a conversational Learning Organization; and authoring conversational tools that may be used within the social context of the Learning Organization. The IT world – as we know it – has been mostly developed by commercial businesses that have produced user-friendly software systems for the mass-market as a means of maximizing financial turnover and profits. This business-led democratization of IT systems now operates within society as a form of informational democracy, or, informocracy (see table 1). This has been manifested through the mass-market access of common user-friendly software systems such as Microsoft's Windows® operating system and Office® and similar graphical systems available on Apple's Macintosh® computer range. The informocracy market-driven revolution that has swept the world for the closing decades of the twentieth-century has proved to be a very successful IT business strategy and has led to consequent spin-off benefits for education in the form of cheap generic IT learning tools. However, the business ethic and financial rationale that has underpinned the rapid development of user-friendly IT learning systems has not been fully matched with educational research into the learning theory, nor with development of a plentiful supply of suitable educational content software suitable for the classroom. However, innovative IT-based curriculum development and research projects, such as Singapore's microLESSONS™ (Wong & Coombs, 1999) have recently been launched to turn-around the content Page 7 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium deficit of suitable classroom-based courseware (see Table 1). In conclusion, it was that situation – a deficit of viable learning theory – that motivated the core conceptual questions behind this article, which seeks to understand and clarify the psychological learning theory underpinning user-friendly knowledge elicitation systems. User-friendly IT systems and knowledge elicitation From this core question of “what is the learning theory of user-friendly knowledge elicitation systems?”, I have considered the psychology of systems-based learner interfaces in terms of a philosophy called conversation theory. The area of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has classified computeraided learning (CAL) systems (see Table 1 for AI & CAL definitions) into various orders of thinking skills. Drill and practice software is considered as stimulating low thinking skills (Roblyer, Edwards & Havriluk, 1997), while higher-order thinking skills are generally associated with user-oriented and highly interactive exercises (Jonassen, 1996), such as those activities and tasks designed for social and collaborative learning environments. AI educational researchers’ have created IT learning environments that are generally referred to as knowledge-based systems (KBS), which tends to describe the user as an individual cognitively retrieving knowledge via various routing systems from some informational database. However, Coombs (1995) has redefined this concept of a KBS in terms of a conversational IT learning environment and proposed the term "knowledge elicitation system" (KES) instead, in recognition that it is a critical thinking person that is interacting with a computerbased learning system. That is, that the information is not merely retrieved by the user in a passive manner, but can be reflectively constructed and deconstructed by the learner with other comparable experiences. This type of personally constructed thinking experience is explained by George Kelly's Personal Construct Theory (PCT) (1955). Kelly's PCT explains how knowledge can be constructed experientially through a psychological process of continual elicitory experiences that the individual self-manages through critical thinking activities and this psychological concept is generally referred to as a form of construing one's personal constructs. A KES considers user-based learning through reflective self-management of one’s elicitory experience, which also draws upon Boud’s (1985) notion of linking autonomous learning to personal reflection and Schön’s (1987) concept of the learner operating as a “reflective practitioner”. From this psychological stance that personal knowledge is derived from one's inner reflective experience, KES satisfy parameters that affect the design criterion Page 8 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium of reflective interactive tools, whereas KBS tend to focus on a learner’s ability to use routing procedures for exploring an information database. The KES emphasis upon enabling a learner’s ability to interact ‘reflectively’, and thus elicit learning experiences, is crucial in order to understand how humans conversationally construct their own knowledge via Learning Conversations. This idea is further explained by Harri-Augstein & Thomas’ (1991) cybernetic notion of an Intelligent Learning System, which provides the learner with reflective thinking scaffolds (see Table 1) that they refer to as a Learning Coach and operates in a similar manner to Jonassen's Intelligent Tutoring System. Coombs and Smith (1998) describe this conversational paradigm in terms of generically available IT: Generic IT systems, such as wordprocessors, spreadsheets, databases, graphics packages and Web-pages may now be understood in terms of satisfying reflective learning criteria. Hence, IT tools used for activities which encourage, stimulate and focus meaningful reflection can be viewed as knowledge modeling devices that facilitate learning in a social context. This particular paradigm empowers learner control of the learning process using appropriate conversational tools to achieve one’s learning goals and provides a valid learning theory that explains the motivational role and educational value of a conversational learning environment (p. 27). They also differentiate between reflexive skills as a learned process and reflective skills as a learning process. Reflexive skills are considered to be prior learned and explain automatic, second-nature psychological human activities, while reflective skills are considered to be a conversationally dynamic form of engaged – or active – learning: This type of subsumed learning, which requires no conscious thinking effort, is regarded as a set of reflexive skills that represent an existing state of learning. Reflexive skills can be considered as a psychological algorithm of prior learned meanings, which can be addressed with the minimum conscious effort. This idea explains the phenomenon of personal fluency in executing a prior learned task that operates in practice as a second-nature reflexive activity requiring minimal conversational effort. Fluent tasks include everyday activities such as navigating one’s way around a familiar neighborhood, driving a car, using a familiar software package, tying shoe laces. Indeed, a second-nature activity can be understood in terms of an individual performing a particular set of reflexive skills. Such familiar learning patterns represent our existing repertory of reflexive skills and require a minimal constructivist effort in order to perform them. …. Reflective skills, on the other hand, represent a conversational constructivist effort to come-up with a new model of personal understanding (p. 21). Page 9 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium Reflexive skills, therefore, relate to the user’s personal fluency, or user-friendliness, in executing a prior learned task. This explains user-friendliness in terms of one's prior learned ability to reflexively control a system and explains the concept of a training learning curve, i.e. how many hours does it take someone to learn how to use the system fluently? In the case of a software system – let’s say the Windows 98 GUI – we can see that the extent of the personal fluency gained must relate to a person’s set of subsumed reflexive skills. The more user-friendly and familiar the interactive learning system is to operate, implies a faster learning curve toward the goal of using the IT tool in a sole reflective manner. For example, I’m now authoring this paper using Microsoft’s Word version 8 that comes with Office 97. I’ve already learned how to use MS Word since version 1. Each upgrade is slightly different, but the GUI environment is familiar – the same type of pull-down windows, icon tools etc. Because I have a reflexive set of generic word-processing skills, I only need to update the new skills required to operate the new facilities; this can be done quite quickly. Editing the article is technically easy for me, as using the word-processor has become a second-nature activity – that frees me up to reflectively concentrate on authoring the content. From my perspective I can complete the reflective task of authoring an article using a generic IT tool. To many people, myself included, this wordprocessing IT tool has become a user-friendly authoring resource, as others and myself can use it in a fluent and flexible manner, thus satisfying the pedagogic notion of L= f(C, R, E) for a KES as proposed earlier in this article. When you compare these new graphical-based software interfaces to the old MSDOS version of Word used a decade ago you can clearly see the difference in terms of general user operability and user-friendliness in general. Then, users would be hung-up with having to remember a whole range of technical operations, such as entering control codes for every formatting task. The system was user-unfriendly and would require many hours of familiarization before approaching any sense of fluent usage. I can still remember the difficulty of using the old IT MS-DOS software systems and how they constantly interfered and distracted my own reflective process, resulting in a disrupted style of writing. Thus, easy access and control of an IT learning system is an essential prior learning requirement before any user can meaningfully engage in reflective learning knowledge elicitation tasks. These ideas were recently confirmed in an educational IT-based research study conducted by Shanti Divaharan (1999) in Singapore. She reported positive and significant improvements from the impact of using constructivist IT learning tools, such as standard wordprocessing software, as compared with the traditional written method for the teaching and learning of English across a range of Singapore's Page 10 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium secondary schools. Divaharan's key conclusion stated simply that: "The findings of the study suggest that the use of the wordprocessor in a constructivist classroom environment does improve students written English ability (p.106)." Such a familiar experience of re-engaging a learned repertory – such as personal familiarization of using a word-processing tool – is accounted for by George Kelly’s (1955) PCT, in which his construction corollary explains the reflexive learned process as “ a person anticipates events by construing their replications”. Although, with a second-nature reflexive activity, such as typing up text via the keyboard, the personal construing process would represent a low level of thinking skills due to the automatic nature of the event being replicated. Kelly’s PCT explains human learning in terms of a psychological model of personal constructs that operate according to his main postulate of “constructive alternativism”. PCT provides the philosophical and psychological foundation for selforganised learning (S-O-L) (Harri-Augstein & Thomas, 1985) and conversational constructivism and explains how experiences can be personally constructed – or ‘modeled’ – into new knowledge. From this axiom of PCT a knowledge elicitation system can be postulated as any technology or process that assists the user to conversationally model their experiences into new concepts and related ideas. As a corollary to this fundamental postulate, it can be further rationalized that the learning quality of a KES is dependent upon the system’s reflective interactability or user-friendliness, i.e. L= f(C, R, E). Finally, Harri-Augstein & Thomas (1991) have proposed the following self-organised thinking steps in order to achieve higher-order critical reflection and knowledge elicitation: 1. elicitation of items of meaning; 2. sorting of their relationships; and, 3. display of the final pattern. Well-designed and effective Knowledge Elicitation Systems follow the above 3-step reflective learning design criteria and thus operate as a critical thinking scaffold. Useful KES examples include the PEGASUS repertory grid qualitative analysis software system developed by Harri-Augstein & Thomas (1985). A more contemporary critical "thinking" software solution is the Axon © Idea Processor, which employs the above KES criteria for helping users to come up with new ideas and discoveries to problems they couldn't previously solve. The Axon© Idea Processor (see the overview article at their Page 11 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium Website: http://web.singnet.com.sg/~axon2000/article.htm ) contains utilities that help the user to generate ideas, organise ideas, write creatively and display ideas in the form of annotated charts and spray diagrams. Axon's© tools clearly follow the 3-step reflective learning criteria and encourages the user to be able to elicit ideas, identify and sort relationships and, finally, display resulting patterns of the knowledge gained - see figure (1). Figure (1): Axon's© Idea Processor IT software operates as a knowledge elicitation system (KES) Conclusion It has been argued that user-friendly learning systems can be equated to a form of conversational fluency in the form of reflective learning combined with reflexive user control of an IT software system in an appropriate socially situated learning environment (Coombs & Smith, 1998), that is, L= f(C, R, E). A better-designed user-friendly software system implies faster learning curves and immediacy of usage. User-friendly learning systems are also explained in terms of the user possessing prior learned reflexive skills that operate in a second-nature personalized control manner, thus freeingup maximum psychological thinking engagement in the form of reflective learning activities. This reflective learning theory provides both a practical and philosophical understanding of the conversational interface with a user. This concept of a reflective learning interface (RLI) was first Page 12 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium proposed by Coombs & Smith (1999) and was linked to the pedagogic design criteria of IT thinking tools. Understanding that the technical operation of the system itself must become fluently embedded into the psychological reflexive repertory of the user is important. Satisfying this pedagogic prior learning condition then allows maximum freedom for the learner to creatively explore ideas using the IT tool as an easy-to-use reflective medium. This understanding of user-friendly IT learning systems implies the KES 3-step thinking design rationale that was proposed by Harri-Augstein & Thomas (1991). This KES rationale allows teachers and trainers to evaluate and assess the learning capability of any IT system in terms of its user-friendly interaction that is a complex function of user control of the system combined with its reflective operability. In this way, teachers’ are empowered to consider IT systems as a critical thinking tool learning scaffold within their repertoire of teaching skills and methods. This approach then empowers their pupils/students to adopt appropriate IT KES tools and integrate them as learning coach assistants into their reflexive and reflective thinking systems with the consequent transfer of learning and knowledge. It is, therefore, the integration of using IT thinking tools generically across the entire content-based curriculum of a school that is the key pedagogic issue. This implies that the pedagogic priority is not merely the skills literacy of being able to use the IT tool itself per se. However, it is also true to say that these IT reflexive skills are indeed a prior learning requirement. This IT skills-based prior learning must be achieved before any higher-order critical thinking activities can take place using the IT system. Given that pedagogic proviso, learning coach IT thinking systems can then operate as a curriculum scaffold, or "Mindtool" (Jonassen, 1996), within an appropriately designed constructivist-based socially situated learning environment. References Bandura, A. (1986), Social Foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Boud, D. (1981). Developing student autonomy in learning. London: Kogan Page. Brown, J. S., Collins, A. & Duguid, p. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-41. Page 13 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium Coombs, S. (1995). Design and conversational evaluation of an IT learning environment based on selforganized learning, PhD thesis - London: CSHL, Brunel University. Coombs, S. J. and Smith, I. D. (1999). Integration of critical and creative thinking skills into Singapore's IT post-graduate teacher training programme. Change: Transformations in Education, 2(2), 80-92. Coombs, S. & Smith, I. (1998). Designing a self-organized conversational learning environment, Educational Technology, 38(3), 17—28. Coombs, S. & Wong, P. (2000). Supporting Student-Centred Learning with IT, Ch.12 in Integrating Technology into Teaching and Learning: An Asia-Pacific Perspective (Ed.) Mike Williams, 1st. Ed. Singapore: Pearson Education Asia. Checkland, P. (1993). Systems thinking, systems practice. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Divaharan, S. (1999). Impact of Information Technology and constructivist learning tools on the learning of written English. M.Ed. dissertation research thesis, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis: an essay on the organization of experience. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Harri-Augstein, E. & Thomas, L. (1985). Self-organized learning: Foundations of a conversational science for psychology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Harri-Augstein, E. & Thomas, L. (1991). Learning conversations: The self-organized learning way to personal and organizational growth. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Jonassen, D. (1996). Computers in the classroom: Mindtools for critical thinking. NJ: Prentice Hall. Kelly, G. (1955). The psychology of personal constructs, Vols. 1 & 2. New York: Norton. Maddux, C. (1998). Barriers to the successful use of information technology in education, Computers in Schools. 14(3/4), 5-11. Maddux, C., Johnson, D. & Willis, J. (1997). Educational Computing: Learning with tomorrow's technologies 2nd Ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Page 14 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium Roblyer, M., Edwards, J. & Havriluk, M. (1997). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching. New Jersey: Merrill. Rogers, C. (1971). On becoming a person. London: Constable. Schön, D. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: Towards a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. San Francisco: Jossey–Bass. Winn, W. & Jackson, R. (1999). Fourteen propositions about educational uses of virtual reality, in Educational Technology, 39(4), 5—13. Wong. P. & Coombs, S. (1999). Infusing IT into education using microLESSONS™. National Institute of Education Centre for Educational Research (NIECER), Singapore, 5(1). Page 15 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium Table 1: Key pedagogic concepts and learning theories Pedagogic/ Technical term Human Computer Interface (HCI) Man Machine Interface (MMI) Reflective Learning Interface (RLI) Informocracy Pedagogic concept IT learning theory implication The HCI is a communications interface between a human being user and a computing machine from which learning interaction can occur. This term is used a lot in cybernetics and systems thinking theory and affects the quality of the user's interaction with the system. Similar to the HCI concept, except this term occurs more in the software engineering fields. IT learning theory concentrates mainly on visual design considerations regarding how software is graphically presented to the user. A learning device or systems that enables the learner to actively reflect on some useful task or goal. The RLI affects the quality of learner interaction through the learner's capability of engaging with the medium in a critically reflective manner. A construct between a standardized information technology software system and something that is widely used across a large society of users, i.e. democratic usage. Knowledge Elicitation System (KES) The user elicits knowledge from the learning system through self-managing their own constructs. The KES becomes a learning coach scaffold. Courseware Educational learning resources covering a range of different media formats, e.g. video, audio, software, multimedia systems etc. PCT provides a psychological constructivist process that explains and links critical thinking to the construing of one's learning experiences. Cybernetics is the science of systemsbased thinking and covers a range of academic fields including engineering and psychology. Conversation theory is a branch of cybernetics that considers the psychology of thinking as a conversational process. Relates to the quality of learning interactions that a user has with the software system's instructional medium. Personal Construct Theory (PCT). Cybernetics & Conversation Theory. Interactability and Learnability of a software system. Self-Organised Learning (S-O-L). S-O-L is drawn from Harri-Augstein's & Thomas' (1985) conversational learning paradigm, which is underpinned by Kelly's (1955) PCT model of how we Similar to above with a concentration on the technical software solutions to achieve userfriendly interfaces, e.g. Windows. Underpins the IT interface design characteristics for a knowledge elicitation system (KES). A globalised IT package such as Microsoft's Office software is a good example of informocracy in practice, i.e. everyone is using the same software application across many countries and shares the same IT skills and knowledge. An IT system that allows the user to meaningfully engage with it in a reflective manner so that new knowledge might be elicited from the self-managed experience.. IT courseware can be designed in the form of computer-aided learning (CAL) packages or computer-based learning (CBL) materials. Reflective experiential procedures can be built into IT software systems so that they might operate as learning coach scaffolds. Systems-based critical thinking and conversational learning are linked to Kelly's PCT and explain how knowledge might be constructed through systematic reflection. Explains the instructional and pedagogic basis of a KES. The interactability of an IT system can be understood as the learning quality of a KES in terms of the medium's RLI, while the learnability relates to the prior learning IT skills required to use it and is often referred to as a learning curve. S-O-L is related to the instructional technology design criteria for intelligent learning systems. Page 16 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium Artificial Intelligence (AI). Critical and reflective thinking scaffolds. think, reflect and experience. AI is a concept that suggests intelligence can be designed and built into machines. Whether the machines actually possess knowledge or not is a philosophical debate. I would argue that AI machines do not, so far, possess a psychological capability and, as such, do not possess knowledge as knowledge is derived from a person's psychological experiences. Enables a learner to elicit knowledge from experiences in a focussed and organised manner. The critical thinking design process can follow the 3-step criteria outlined in this article. Virtual Reality (VR) VR represents an alternative form of experiencing an event outside of the normal physical world. The quality of a VR experience, or its fidelity, would relate to how life-like the virtual experience actually was. Virtual Learning (VL) & Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Virtual Learning (VL) is when a learner can achieve their real-world learning through simulated and artificial learning environments, i.e. a virtual learning environment (VLE). Graphical User Interface (GUI). A GUI is considered to be a userfriendly interface as it represents an easy-to-use tactile interface, which is common to many different software systems and represents a lower IT skills learning curve. This represents the quality of a user's experiential engagement with a learning system. A simple pedagogic rubric would be to engage the maximum number of senses within a learning experience activity, thus boosting the overall fidelity of the learner's engagement. Sensual fidelity. AI relates mainly to designing computerized machines that are intelligent in the sense that they can perform stand-alone decisionmaking tasks. Educational Technology IT thinking tools operate as critical and reflective scaffolds when they enable the user to perform reflective learning experiences that are focussed toward understanding the specific learning objectives of the task concerned. IT VR systems usually engage three main senses, sight, sound and touch. This is achieved by using 3dimensional headsets, audio headphones and interactive gloves and other body-based transducer devices that detect the body's physical movements. VLE IT scaffolds can provide an alternative sensual framework from which the user can model new experiences, i.e. can achieve conceptual reification by visually modelling and experiencing abstract phenomena. The Windows, Icons, Mouse and Pointer environments used on PCs and Macs are all IT examples of a GUI. VR IT systems tend to have greater sensual fidelity than normal multimedia learning courseware that depends on stimulating the audio and visual only. The number of senses within a VR system is usually 3; sight, sound and touch. And where the visual sense is also enhanced through stereoscopic effects. SC/Korean Journal of TPS_User Friendliness Article_May2000.doc/Jun-17 Page 17 The Psychology of User-friendliness: The use of Information Technology as a Reflective Learning Medium