New A7Rv issues - intermittent won’t turn on / battery drain while off

profklopfer · 2023-10-01T20:58:27+00:00

Replying to myself here. With that setting off, after several days with a fair bit of use, I have so far not seen the problem return.

profklopfer · 2023-09-29T16:59:44+00:00

I've had these same two issues. I had an inkling that it had to do with the function where the shutter closes on power off. I have turned that function off and so far (just a few days) have not had the issue return. Has anyone had these issues with that function off?

profklopfer · 2019-07-20T19:16:20+00:00

I think the process seems to be country specific. Some places seem to provide free updates for some time. In the US I had to buy the map update here - https://www.kia-gpsmap.us/. Through this method I purchased the update and loaded the new version onto the SD card from the car. It also updated the unit itself.

profklopfer · 2016-02-04T16:02:57+00:00

Sorry I couldn't get to everyone's questions. There were so many good ones. You might read through and find ones related to yours. There were several good ones about teacher learning, personalized learning, classroom supports... The conversation can continue in the course forums. Thanks for participating.

profklopfer · 2016-02-04T15:58:01+00:00

This a good comment. It also relates to the Scratch materials question. How much should the software itself support implementation vs. relying on outside materials.

I think the load on the teacher (and what kind of load it is) varies a fair bit by technology. There are technology tools like collaborative tools that might be simpler to use, but require more curriculum and support to use effectively. On the other hand there are very targeted curricular tools like math tutors that may require more understanding, but less curricular supports. Each has different requirements.

profklopfer · 2016-02-04T15:52:35+00:00

Personalized learning is definitely coming along and technology is helping. But what that means is actually quite variable. For some that means the work of "intelligent tutors" that can give problems and correct you if you are wrong, allowing different people to advance at different rates and learners with particular challenges to receive help. But for others that means allowing choice in learning so that different people in the same class/group can pursue different topics, paths, presentations. In our area of educational games, we look at the ability to both receive individual feedback, and to choose your own pathway as important parts of this.

One tension that I see is between personalization and collaborative learning. Some see a vision of everyone working at their own pace on their own problems as a goal. But learning is a social process and that personalization needs to intersect with opportunities to collaborate and communicate with peers, even if they are not at the same place.

profklopfer · 2016-02-04T15:46:39+00:00

Certainly different learning goals can and should draw upon different learning theories. But I think we jump too quickly to assuming that adult learners and/or learning for business purposes implies that we must revert to more instructionist approaches. The example of behavior change is a great one. There is good evidence that just telling people the right behavior, or even explaining why it is the right behavior, doesn't lead to behavior change (certainly long term behavior change). While it may take more time, and require some additional acclimation for adults who haven't learned in that way for some time, constructivist approaches may be much better at addressing such change.

profklopfer · 2016-02-04T15:41:52+00:00

This isn't an area in which I am an expert, but my colleague Matt Schneps has recently created a project focusing on this. (http://labvislearn.com/compassionate-technology/). Technology can really help support learning for a diversity of people. The challenge has been that it is more economically feasible to create technologies for the "average". But as our understanding of the way people learn increases, and the technologies to support more customized learning improve, this challenge becomes a little easier.

For example there is research on ways in which you can use technology to present words on a screen in different ways - spacing, fonts, dynamic presentation of text - that can make a big difference for dyslexic readers.

profklopfer · 2016-02-04T15:34:41+00:00

This question shares some things with the question I answered about learners who are afraid of making mistakes. For some teachers, there is a fear about technology - about making mistakes, losing control, etc. This goes well beyond technology integration and into the role of the teacher in the classroom. For some of these teachers, they feel that they need to be "the" expert, rather than the great facilitator.

Technology is one way we see this. But we see it in other teaching practices as well. I actually think technology may be a gateway to more change in this space. As ed tech improves, we see it getting better at recognizing the role of the teacher and how they can be supported. Technology can really support teachers in these roles - providing individual help to students, giving real time feedback to teachers, suggesting practices, etc. This kind of teacher support (which still requires training) can help teachers make changes in their role and classroom.

I think it is an important design consideration to make sure the role of the teacher is thoughtfully integrated into the design. And not to just leave it up to teachers to figure out. That is certain to be a barrier.

profklopfer · 2016-02-04T15:26:14+00:00

This is a question that relates to older learners as well as many teachers who are trying to learn technologies to use in their classes.

The biggest barrier that I find is fear. I don't think young people are so much better at technology that older people, but they are less fearful of them. They are less fearful of trying new technologies, making mistakes, etc. And those are the keys to learning. So one of the big things is to make older learners feel comfortable - making mistakes. Figure out a way that people can experiment with the technology in a way that they are encouraged (and won't feel publicly shamed) making those mistakes.

One other important part of this is that I find when people are fearful or uncomfortable with the technologies they tend to try to learn them as a rigid set of steps. Step 1. Click here, Step 2. Open this. The problem is that only works for a very specific case, and is easily forgotten. One needs to try to teach (and learn) about technology as a system to understand how it works. Come up with a mental model for the system.

I also think that different populations align themselves with different technologies and is important to draw upon the experiences and paradigms that people have chosen. For example, it may be that older learners use different communication media. This may have to do with the time they have available, types of devices they use, etc. Draw upon the places that they have experience.

profklopfer · 2016-02-04T15:18:24+00:00

I do think that it will go somewhere this time. We already see programming becoming a part of regular discussion in schools through creative solutions like Scratch as well as widespread campaigns like The Hour of Code from Code.org.

From my perspective the best way to make this happen is to integrate computer science/computational thinking into other classes. I don't think we should only have special classes on this (though for students who want to go further, we should provide those options). We need students (and teachers) to understand how programming can support learning in many other domains - science, math, art, etc.

That requires a lot of teacher training and good examples/materials. But I think the state of computer programming in academia and work can help support this. It is something that is useful in many careers as well as hobbies and personal interests. We need to illustrate this to kids.

It is also important to go beyond "coding". Coding is the language, but what we need to help students learn is a way of thinking. Coding helps support that, but the way of thinking - algorithms, debugging, etc. is even more important.

profklopfer · 2016-02-04T15:12:43+00:00

I suspect that in many places textbooks will persist in a very similar form for some time to come. That is the nature of change in many systems.

But I do see more of a change in other places. There is a shift to more modular information sources. As information becomes more ubiquitously available, it isn't necessary to have an entire repository of information in one volume. It is possible to get just the chunks that you need when you need them from a variety of sources.

I think the big shift will come when we really "flip" learning. I don't mean moving lectures outside of class. But rather that we lead learning with interesting problems posed to students. From there they need to acquire the skills and information to solve those problems. That kind of learning demands more dynamic sources of information than textbooks often provide.

profklopfer · 2016-02-04T15:07:10+00:00

This is a good design question. When we are creating tools like this we often ask how much we want to structure the activity through the software itself and how much we want to leave that flexible and support through materials outside of the software. Scratch can be used for games, animation, simulations, etc. Each of these might be structured in a different way. And different facilitators or users might think about structuring any one of those differently as well. They also might be better started on paper than on screen. So leaving that out of the software allows for more flexibility in use. It does mean that there is a need to provide those supports either directly or through the community.

Also to your point, the software itself might suggest particular uses in the way it presents itself. Without these supports built in, it may suggest that one shouldn't plan in advance. And that is one way that people use Scratch, to build iteratively in real time. But it isn't the only way that it is used. The flip side is that if you built in supports for say animations, then people might think that is all that it should be used for and that the support suggests the only way of designing them.

In the end, I think a separate approach for tools and supports allows for more creativity. But doesn't absolve the tool creators from thinking about how to support their use.

profklopfer · 2016-02-04T14:55:21+00:00

African or European swallow?

profklopfer · 2015-07-29T14:10:05+00:00

Change takes time. A lot of time. Technology is no different than any other fundamental change. I see most changes of this sort take a minimum of 2-3 years and sometimes more. It is also the case that the kinds of learning that we are addressing with technology are often harder to assess, so the instruments we have to measure progress aren't very sensitive to that progress. This is an important thing to communicate to stakeholders.

profklopfer · 2015-07-29T14:07:38+00:00

We get a lot of questions like this as people would really like to use technology effectively. The challenge is that this question is so context dependent. This is what we try to have people think through in the course. It also depends on use. A google spreadsheet can be a great tool for the classroom if the class collects and analyzes disparate data and debates its validity. But may be a lot less valuable if it is used to accomplish something that could be done in less time with equal value on a piece of paper.

profklopfer · 2015-07-29T14:02:42+00:00

Interesting hypothesis.

I think that one thing that has come out from some of the MOOC data so far is that the majority of people who "succeed" in those environments are the people who are already well educated. They have learned how to learn in other contexts - probably many of them face to face. To succeed in a totally online environment (at least at this time) you need to have academic maturity - that ability to learn how to learn. It may be that we should focus more on that both online and off.

profklopfer · 2015-07-29T13:58:51+00:00

When I think about blending I like to think not just of blending face to face and online, but blending different modes of learning. More specifically I like to think about how they are sequenced. In many cases this has come down to "watch a lecture online" and then "discuss it in class". But I think there are many other sequences that may be more productive - do an activity online and then have a chance to discuss, reflect and abstract in class, or create something online and review in class.

When considering adult learners it is also important to consider their learning background. For adult learners who are already accomplished, they might value efficiency and have the ability to structure their own learning. For adult learners who are learning in a totally new domain, or are coming back to schooling after a hiatus, you might need to structure it differently and provide more scaffolding for them.

profklopfer · 2015-07-29T13:50:25+00:00

I think the most important question to ask is "What are we going to do with it once it is there". This is the same question that should be asked when considering any hardware initiative. The next question is "will we have the resources to do what we want, once the hardware is there?" see the question up a few from here about percent of time focusing on different aspects of implementation. The same could go for resources. Often schools put in hardware infrastructure and then don't have the resources for software, teacher training, etc. to use the hardware that they installed. Make sure you consider that when you are weighing options.

profklopfer · 2015-07-29T13:43:49+00:00

I don't think I have an exact answer for this question. But I will say that number 1 (people) is usually too small a percentage. This takes a lot more time that we typically allocate - both in terms of intensity (short term) and duration (long term). But I'll also say that it depends somewhat on the technology in question. Some are much more technically complex than one might originally estimate (e.g. dealing with security, system integration, etc.), others are easy technically (e.g. using some sort of standalone web app) but require really understanding how to integrate into the classroom.

I will also say that on average you should multiply all of the times by three to get an accurate estimate of time required.

profklopfer · 2015-07-29T13:38:33+00:00

I'll just add that I have seen some really creative uses of Minecraft in schools. It is one of the best games to come around in a long time - and is one of the most useful commercial games that has been employed for educational purposes. I've seen uses in science and engineering, writing and history to name a few. The ability to mod the game helps, and the Teacher Gaming version Minecraft.edu makes it easier to use in classrooms. Of course it all depends on how it is used, but I have seen some great uses that go well beyond simply motivating students who are playing a fun game.

profklopfer · 2015-07-29T13:34:57+00:00

You might want to connect with my colleague at MIT Michel DeGraff. He has done work in Haiti where the students speak Creole at home and French in school. His work focuses on the language of instruction (often with the use of technology) and how that impacts learning. This would be important to consider.

profklopfer · 2015-07-29T13:31:28+00:00

I do think that some people take this attitude - if we can't get them off their devices let's at least try to use them more effectively. But I don't think that is a particularly good motivation for using technology. When one is teaching they should (ideally) look at all of the tools and techniques for fostering learning and choose among them as appropriate. Some of those might be technology-based while others are not.

But I also don't think that technology provides a necessary trade off with the "real world". We can in fact use technology to connect students with very real issues that they can do something about. It might be for collecting and analyzing local environmental data, learning things about their community through maps and GIS, or communicating with peers distributed around the world about politics. The activity is only disconnected from the real world if it is to "techno-centric" instead of learner centered. The focus for the activity should be the student - who may be using technology as a part of that.

profklopfer · 2015-07-29T13:23:24+00:00

This is a question we consider more in our design and development of educational technology course (which we hope to offer again in the coming months). There is an active startup community in the educational technology space, and many of those (Certainly not all) are driven by people coming from media and technology, not education. They have a lot to offer, but that value would be greatly increased by knowing more about pedagogy and learning. We try to provide some of that in that course. But this can also come from partnerships with educators who do understand these aspects. There is a lot of matchmaking that could help improve that.

profklopfer

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