Designing an agent-based learning environment--A preliminary study on a pre-service teacher course

Designing an agent-based learning environment--A preliminary study on a pre-service teacher course

一個為教師培訓所設計的基於代理學習環境的初步研究

• Woo, Huay Lit Nanyang Technological University
• Wang, Qiyun Nanyang Technological University

New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Association, (52), 39-52, 2005

Hong Kong

Hong Kong Teachers' Association

2005

• M Teachers & Education for Teachers
  • MA Professional Education for Teachers

Pedagogical Agent Agent-Based Learning Learning Environment 基於教學法的代理 基於代理的學習 學習環境

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Post-Secondary Education

Background: Many of the agent-based products available to education today have been largely confined to games and instructional media that are often produced commercially by non-instructional professionals. Most of them lack customizability and are difficult to integrate into individual subject curriculum. With more agent authoring tools available and the proliferation of client-end computing, classroom teachers can now author their own agents pedagogically to produce learning environments that meet their predetermined objectives.
Aims: To experiment the use of agent technology with a class of pre-service teachers (aka trainee teachers). It hopes to achieve two objectives: (1) to understand how well the agent technology is accepted by the trainee teachers, and (2) to reveal any difficulty in designing the agent-based learning environment.
Sample: 16 pre-service teachers took part in this study. All of them were trainees from an educational technology module that had a main component in designing learning environment. They were second year students doing a Diploma-in-Education course in their own field of specialization.
Method: Pre-service teachers were to design agent-based learning environments on their own. A questionnaire was used to obtain summative assessment from the participants at the end of the course. The score from the questionnaire was used to gauge the trainee teachers' acceptance for their learning experience. Trainee teachers' weekly self-reporting Weblog was used as a formative assessment on their learning processes and difficulties.
Results: This study found that agent technology was well received by the trainee teachers albeit concerns for support by schools and the need to learn programming skills. Generally, trainee teachers were enthused by the use of scenes to support their lessons. They regarded their learning experience as positive and meaningful. They also believed that such technology would be helpful in promoting interest in their classroom teaching.
Conclusion/Recommendations: Based on the results, agent-based technology is recognized as a useful tool to support classroom learning. This study recommends two measures: (1) to build a repertoire of customizable scene templates focusing on very small and specific content areas, (2) to organize optional basic agent scripting training program prior to the commencement of the course for those who are weak at programming skills.
背景：通常基於代理的多數軟體都是由非教育專業人士開發出來的， 如遊戲等，它們往往很難滿足學科教師的教學需要從而被整合到實際教學過程中。隨著代理工具以及代理計算技術的不斷發展，學科教師現在也可以利用代理工具較為容易地製作出基於代理的教學軟體來滿足自身教學需要以及輔助學生學習。
目的：探索代理技術在一門為培訓教師所開設的課程中應用，以期達到兩個目標：1）瞭解培訓教師對於代理技術的接受情況；2）尋求代理學習環境設計的困難所在。
調查對象：16 名培訓教師。他們都是新加坡國立教育學院二年級的學員，畢業以後他們將拿到教育文憑。在本研究中，他們正參加一門教育技術課程的學習，該課程的一個主要作業就是設計一個基於教育技術的學習環境。
調查方法：這些培訓教師被要求獨立設計一個基於代理的學習環境。在課程結束前他們需填寫一份問卷調查。這份問卷調查主要是用來測量他們對代理技術的接受程度。同時，它們還被要求每週用博客來寫一份周記，記錄他們的學習過程，心得以及碰到的困難等。
調查結果：研究結果顯示，儘管培訓教師需要學習一些編程技術，但他們都能較好地接受代理技術以及情景概念，他們也都很樂意嘗試使用代理技術中的情景來支援學習環境的製作。他們認為本課程的學習很有意義，同時他們也相信代理技術對提高學生的學習興趣將會有幫助。
總結：研究結果表明基於代理的技術對學生的學習是一個很有幫助的工具，同時建議：1）建立一個基於學科內容的情景庫，庫中的情景可以被教師適度改變以滿足不同需要；2）最好能夠對編程技術不高的學員預先進行必要的技術培訓。
[Copyright of New Horizons: The Journal of Education, Hong Kong Teachers' Associationl is the property of Hong Kong Teachers' Association at http://www.hkta1934.org.hk/]

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2010-12-02