Oregon State University Free Choice Learning Lab

While we don’t yet have the formal guest researcher program up and running, we did have a visit from our collaborator Jarrett Geenan this week. He’s working with Sigrid Norris on multimodal discourse analysis, and he was in the U.S. for an applied linguistics conference, so he “stopped by” the Pacific Northwest on his way back from Dallas to New Zealand. Turns out his undergraduate and graduate work so far in English and linguistics is remarkably similar to Shawn’s. Several of the grad students working with Shawn managed to have lunch with him last week, and talk about our different research projects, and life as a grad student in the States vs. Canada (where he’s from), England (Laura’s homeland), and New Zealand.

We also had a chance to chat about the video cameras. He’s still been having difficulty downloading anything useful, as things just come in fits and starts. We’re not sure how the best way to go about diagnosing the issues will be (barring a trip for one of us to be there in person), but maybe we can get the Milestone folks on a screenshare or something. In the meantime, it led us to a discussion of what might be a larger issue, that of just collecting data all the time and overtaxing the system unnecessarily. It came up with the school groups – is it really that important to just have the cameras on constantly to get a proper, useful longitudinal record? We’re starting to think no, of course, and the problems Jarrett is having makes it more likely that we will think about just turning the cameras on when the VC is open using a scheduling function.

The other advantage is that this will give us like 16-18 hours a day to actually process the video data, too, if we can parse it so that the automated analysis that needs to be done to allow the customization of exhibits can be done in real-time. That would leave anything else, such as group association, speech analysis, and the other higher-order stuff for the overnight processing. We’ll have to work with our programmers to see about that.

In other news, it’s looking highly likely that I’ll be working on the system doing my own research when I graduate later this spring, so hopefully I’ll be able to provide that insider perspective having worked on it (extensively!) in person at Hatfield and then going away to finish up the research at my (new) home institution. That and Jarrett’s visit in person may be the kick-start we need to really get this into shape for new short-term visiting scholars.

Last month I wrote about Literacy in the 21^st Century and the wonderful new project evaluation I’m working on, Project SEAL. I first want to share a blog post that the Model Classroom team wrote about their time with the Project SEAL teachers during the professional development in February. http://www.modelclassroom.org/blog/2013/03/projectsealoregonpd-intro.html. It has a wonderful synopsis of the two days as well as some teacher reflections.

Since the February professional development, I have turned my attention to the family literacy nights. I have never attended a family literacy night. They were not part of my K-12 experience and I have never heard of or seen them as a researcher/evaluator. The Project SEAL team told me that literacy nights can differ greatly and they did not have standards for the schools to follow for these events. This presented some troubles with me as an evaluator. How can you standardize an evaluation tool for something that looks different each time?

After having some conversations with the Project SEAL team, we decided on a short and sweet survey. Something parents would be willing to fill out throughout the night and something that would focus on literacy, ocean science resource use, as well as structure of the event. We hope that these literacy nights 1) lead to families checking out ocean-related books (purchased for the libraries through the grant), 2) give parents an opportunity to see technology that is being incorporated into literacy (the grant also bought a classroom set of iPad mini’s for each school), and 3) give teachers and students time to present on learning experiences they’ve had with the iPads and new reading material available in the library. Here are the questions on the Family Literacy Night survey.

1) What was your (or your child’s) favorite part of this Family Literacy Night?

2) What went well during this Family Literacy Night?

3) What suggestions for improvement do you have for future Family Literacy Nights?

4)What did you hope to take away from tonight’s Family Literacy Night? (check all that apply)

More activities and games to do at home

Information on what is being done in my child’s classroom

Information on assessment in reading and writing

Information about how children learn to read and write

Information on how to work with the school and my child’s teacher

New resources available in the library

Ways to use technology with my child at home

How my child’s class has been using library resources

5)You or your child have checked out ocean science resources to read together at home.

6) Your child presented or talked about a class project at this Family Literacy Night.

7) You learned what you wanted to learn tonight. Agree / Neutral / Disagree

8)Tonight I gained new information about ocean science resources available to my child through his/her school library. Agree / Neutral / Disagree

Hopefully the data can be useful in proving the effectiveness of this project but also give the schools some ideas for future family literacy nights.

Part of my thesis project involves semi-structured phone interviews with COASST citizen science volunteers. I’m patiently awaiting IRB approval for my project, and in the meantime I’ve completed 4 practice interviews with COASST undergraduate interns. I ended up using the ZOOM H2 recorder, which has a lead with an earpiece microphone. It worked great! If anyone needs to do phone interviews, I recommend this audio recorder. A friend also told me he used the Olympus digital voice recorder (VN 8100PC) for his interviews, which was sometimes tucked into his shirt pocket around a campfire… and he said he could hear everything perfectly! Just thought I’d share.

Now that I have 4 transcriptions from my practice interviews, I’m getting more familiar with what the heck I’m supposed to do with my interview data once I actually collect it! I re-read the book Qualitative Data: An Introduction to Coding and Analysis by Auerbach and Silverstein, and organized the practice transcripts into relevant text, repeating ideas, and themes. I first did this in a Word document, but it seemed a little clunky. I learned some people use Excel for this too. Now I’ve downloaded NVivo and am learning my way around that program. There’s a little bit of a learning curve for me, but I think I’ll really like it once I get the hang of it. It’s been fun, and admittedly a little intimidating, to work through the mechanics of coding text for the first time. Luckily for me, I have some great mentors and am getting great advice. I’m excited to see what I’m able to make of the interview data, and looking forward to using NVivo for other projects I’m working on too!

Hello everyone,

In the light of this week’s lab discussions on defining the many “literacies” there are and search for perhaps a more appropriated term (such as the the term “fluency” suggested by Katie Stofer), I would like to stretch the debate to discuss Environmental Literacy (EL) in particular. So, since I wasn’t in lab this week, here is my two cents on the literary definitions of the term:

Generally, a “desired outcome” of environmental education (EE) is to create a public that is environmentally literate (whatever that means). Many EE programs and materials have this as a stated purpose. However, the definitions and measurement tools of environmental literacy (EL) has remained elusive. Some national surveys have been conducted that attempt to measure literacy of the general public. A few states have attempted to periodically survey their citizenry to gather EL data. While these are important attempts, I believe that many of the questions asked in the instruments used still lack in accurately measuring some “degree” of EL as defined in their proposals. Further, I believe that these important instruments fail to account for cultural and educational system differences and don’t always take into consideration accepted benchmarks for EE.

As the term “literacy” first appeared, it was solely associated with the idea of being able to read and write. Michaels & O’Connor (1990) attempted to provide a better understanding of the concept, proposing that “… we each have, and indeed fail to have, many different literacies. Each of these literacies is an integration of ways of thinking, talking, interacting, and valuing, in addition to reading and writing … [literacy] is rather about ways of being in the world and ways of making meaning…”

Dinsinger & Roth (1992), in their Environmental Literacy Digest, gave credit to Charles E. Roth as the one who coined the term “environmental literacy” in 1968. They reviewed various definitions of EL, and suggested that it should be based on an ecological paradigm, which includes interrelationships between natural and social systems. A person who is environmentally literate relates his/her values with knowledge to generate action. Here is a brief list of EL definitions given by various authors and organizations since then (some referring to it as Ecological literacy), and that highlight the complexity of such discourse:

“[EL] is the capacity of an individual to act successfully in daily life on a broad understanding of how people and societies relate to each other and to natural systems, and how they might do so sustainably. This requires sufficient awareness, knowledge, skills and attitudes to incorporate appropriate environmental considerations into daily decisions about consumption, lifestyle, career, and civics, and to engage in individual and collective action.” ( Elder, 2003)

“Ecological Literacy presumes a breadth of experience with healthy natural systems… a broad understanding of how people and societies relate to each other and to natural systems and how they might do so sustainably… the knowledge necessary to comprehend interrelatedness… an attitude of care or stewardship… in a phrase, it is that quality of mind that seeks out connections… Ecological Literacy is driven by the sense of wonder, the sheer delight in being alive in a beautiful, mysterious, bountiful world… to become ecologically literate, one must certainly be able to read… to know what is countable and what is not… to think broadly, to know something of what is hitched to what… to see things in their wholeness… to know the vital signs of the planet… to know that our health, well-being, and ultimately our survival depend on working with, not against, natural forces…” (Orr, 1992)

“EL is a set of understandings, skills, attitudes, and habits of mind that empowers individuals to relate to their environment in a positive fashion, and to take day-to-day and long term actions to maintain or restore sustainable relationships with other people and the biosphere … The essence of EL is the way we respond to the questions we learn to ask about our world and our relationship with it; the ways we seek and find answers to those questions; and the ways we use the answers we have found.” (Roth, 2002)

“Ecological Literacy is the ability to ask: And now what?” (Garret, 1999)

“EL should aim to develop:

Knowledge of ecological and social systems, drawing upon disciplines of natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities;
Go beyond biological and physical phenomena to consider social, economic, political, technological, cultural, historic, moral, and aesthetic aspects of environmental issues;
Recognize that the understanding of feelings, values, attitudes, and perception at the center of environmental issues are essential to analyze and resolve these issues;
Critical thinking and problem-solving skills for personal decisions and public action.” (Dinsinger & Monroe, 1994)

“EL should aim for:

Developing inquiry, investigative, and analytical skills;
Acquiring knowledge of environmental processes and human systems;
Developing skills for understanding and addressing environmental issues;
Practicing personal and civic responsibility for environmental decisions.” (NAAEE, 1999; Archie, 2003)

Even though all of the definitions above have some common attributes, based wholly or in part on the AKASA (awareness, knowledge, attitudes, skills and action) components listed in the Tbilisi declaration, some different aspects and considerations are arrived at through different perspectives:

Orr and Elder’s definitions are very similar (Orr uses the term “ecological literacy” instead of “environmental literacy”). However, Orr clearly emphasizes the importance of intrinsic values and abstract feelings, as do Dinsinger and Monroe. Dinsinger and Monroe, as well as NPEEE, mention “interdisciplinary” in their definitions; The NPEEE standards and others do not include the latest thoughts and advances in EE, such as notions of sustainability, or even locally-based educational issues. Roth takes these notions into consideration when implying the necessity to understand changes. The NAAEE definition refers not only to personal action but also goes further to mention “civic” obligation.

The question about what Environmental Literacy is and what it should approach at its core are still far from being answered in a common agreement between scientists and practitioners in the field. Morrone et al (2001) reaffirm that the study of environmental literacy is relatively new, and no definition has been given to it that is universally accepted, and consequently the attributes of an environmentally literate citizen are still subject to discussion and investigation. However, what has been discussed so far in the literature, and in the thousands of meetings of the “real world of practicing Environmental Education”, are very important for the understanding of what environmental literacy should be aiming for, even if a widely accepted definition is never agreed upon.

Sorry for the long post if you are interested in the literature cited here visit the link and you can see my entire thesis.

http://www.iowadnr.gov/portals/idnr/uploads/REAP/files/literacy_thesis.pdf

If you are interested, my next post can be about the applied research in environmental literacy.

Hope I didn’t bore to death with this. To me is still a fascinating subject.

Thanks!

Susan

Are you an educator, paid or volunteer, looking for an opportunity to improve your practice through understanding more about learning theory and evaluating exhibits and programs? You may be interested in OSU’s new professional certificate program, starting at the end of this month.

Contacts
Bridget Egan
Bridget.Egan-at-oregonstate.edu

Free-Choice Learning and Informal Education continuing education certificate
program begins April 1st

March 1, 2013

Registration is now open for the Free-Choice Learning Professional Certificate, an
online program offered by Oregon State University.

The program helps professional and volunteer educators in museums, zoos, aquaria
and educational outreach programs discover more about free-choice learning:
the study of what, where and how we choose to learn over the course of our
lifetimes. Participants will study learning theory and practice using theory and
research towards building their professional practice with in their community.
Participants will also actively engage in practice evaluations of exhibits, programs
and curriculum.

Courses are taught by experienced Oregon State faculty and researchers: Lynn
Dierking, Sea Grant professor and interim associate dean for research in the OSU
College of Education; John H. Falk, Sea Grant professor and interim director of the
Center for Research in Lifelong STEM Learning; Shawn Rowe, marine education and
learning specialist at Oregon Sea Grant Extension; and Jennifer Bachman, instructor
and Free-Choice Learning program coordinator.

Learn more about the Free-Choice Learning Professional Certificate on our website.

OSU Professional and Noncredit Education provides education and training for
businesses, organizations, associations and professionals anywhere throughout the
state and beyond. The majority of professional and noncredit students are focused
on continuing education: licensure recertification, professional development and
personal enrichment. OSU Professional and Noncredit Education is part of the
university’s Division of University Outreach and Engagement.

REGISTRATION IS OPEN for the Free-Choice Learning Professional Certificate.

This innovative program immerses museum, zoo, aquarium and science outreach professionals and volunteers in free-choice learning theories. Participants will work with some of the field’s leading researchers and learn how to apply informal learning environments theories in real-world educational settings. Participants can earn the Free-Choice Learning Professional Certificate by completing each required course for this program or take individual courses without enrolling in the professional certificate program.

SPRING 2013

Designing Learning Environments: Physical dimensions of free-choice learning
Learning is influenced by the interaction of variables within three contexts — personal, socio-cultural and physical. This course focuses on how macro-scale environmental factors, like space, crowding and novelty, and micro-scale environmental factors, like design elements, real objects and different media, support free-choice learning.
Instructors: Shawn Rowe, Ph.D. and Jennifer Bachman, Ph.D.
Launches April 1, 2013

SUMMER 2013
Developing Effective Evaluations
Developing Effective Evaluations is an introductory course that focuses on providing a hands-on approach to effectively assessing/evaluating learning and behavior within the free-choice learning contexts such as museums, national parks, zoos, aquariums and broadcast media. The design and implementation of an evaluation is used as a lens for understanding the hows and whys of assessment and evaluation. This course is designed to help professionals design their own evaluation/assessment research as well as become informed consumers of others’ research.
Instructors: Marianna Adams, Ph.D. and Jennifer Bachman, Ph.D.
Launches June 24, 2013

FALL 2013

Examining The Learner’s Own Ideas: Personal dimensions of free-choice learning
Investigates the fundamental roles that identity, motivation, interest, prior knowledge and experience, and choice and control play in supporting learning and how learning leaders can build on these dimensions of learning in order to successfully engage lifelong learners.
Instructors: John Falk, Ph.D. and Jennifer Bachman, Ph.D.
Launches September 2013

WINTER 2014

Understanding Cultural Influence: Sociocultural dimensions of free-choice learning
Investigates connections between theories of free-choice learning and the fundamental concepts of sociology, social psychology and anthropology: social stratification, social structure and interaction, social institutions, and cultural background.
Instructors: Lynn Dierking, Ph.D. and Jennifer Bachman, Ph.D.
This course and more electives launch January 2014

I’d like to introduce you to a type of Science Center visitor I call “Fish Stick Boyfriend.” Here’s a common demographic profile, based on my own experience:

-White

-Male

-30-35 years old

-Visiting with a female companion (and sometimes children)

The interaction generally follows a simple pattern. Fish Stick Boyfriend frowns and paces while his companion darts from exhibit to exhibit. I’m siphoning a tank, and she is too engaged with the surrounding interpretive content to notice I’m there. Fish Stick Boyfriend notices me, though. He wants to talk.

“So,” he says, pointing at an equally disinterested rockfish, “can you eat those? What do they taste like?”

He’s being sarcastic—at least that’s what he thinks he’s doing. Fortunately, I’ve seen many Fish Stick Boyfriends before, and I know what’s going on. I tell him what rockfish tastes like and where to get it. Then I tell him why it tastes the way it does, and how that relates to the animal’s life history. Then I show him an animal that tastes different, explain why, and tell him where he can go to buy it.

Fish Stick Boyfriend is now usually smiling and looking at some exhibits, and occasionally we actually start talking. His initial comment reveals some useful things:

1. He feels out of place

2. He’s familiar with fish as food

3. He wants to interact with somebody, but he chose an aquarist over a designated interpreter

On the exhibit floor, I’m “just a guy.” Visitors sometimes feel comfortable talking to me when they might avoid an interpretive volunteer or education staff member. Part of the reason may be that I’m usually facing the same direction they are—a small but significant proxemic distinction. I’m talking with them, rather than at them. I’m having a conversation, rather than giving a lecture. It’s not even much to do with what I say—the visitors’ perception makes all the difference.

When it comes to engaging the peripheral learners in a group, I’ve found that the most effective interpreters are often not interpreters at all. Fish Stick Boyfriend doesn’t think he likes Science Centers, but he’s comfortable talking to “the guy who cleans the tanks.” He sees me as a peripheral figure, too.

Over the past few years, I’ve developed a rough, conversational interpretive plan for just about every object in the Visitor Center. The octopus sculpture at the front desk can be used to talk about anatomy. Laura’s footprint decals can be used to talk about population genetics via variations in calcaneal pitch. Exhibits under construction can be used to talk about interpretation itself.

Whether you’re a trained interpreter or not, it’s important to recognize your relationship to the visitor experience. If you’re not perceived as a representative of the institution, you can use that as a position of power on behalf of the visitor. You’re “just a guy” or “just a girl,” changing a light fixture or measuring a table or feeding a frog or miming the destruction of an uncooperative video player. Some visitors may see you as the only approachable person in the building, and your response is crucial.

Fish Stick Boyfriend is bored, and only you can help him.

The Free-Choice Learning Laboratory at HMSC

Informal science education research

Visiting Scholars

Evaluating Family Literacy Nights

Coding Practice

The discourse of the many “literacies”

New Professional Certificate Opportunity

Fish Stick Boyfriend

Contact Info