Research-Practice Industry Partnerships: An Innovative, Connected Learning Environment for Educators

• In Event: Innovative Technology Practices to Support Equitable Schooling

Abstract

Objectives
Connected Learning theorizes the way individuals mobilize relationships, interests, and opportunities to personalize learning (Ito, et. al, 2020). This theoretical contribution and illustrative case study show how Connected Learning theory explains and provokes participatory educator learning in conjunction with the implementation of an early-stage prototype of an AI-enabled smart assistant, which allows teachers to drive their laptop with their voice.

Theoretical Framework
Connected Learning is a theory that arises from participatory cultures (Jenkins, 2009), ecological models of learning (Bronfenbrenner, 1977), and sociocultural learning theory (e.g. Lave & Wenger, 1991; Scribner & Cole, 2001). These antecedents of Connected Learning are operationalized methodologically via scholarship which engages research practice partnerships (e.g. Coburn, et.al, 2013; Gutierrez & Vossoughi, 2010) as a set of tools to engage diverse groups in participatory design based research toward the end of social change, or sociocultural learning (Bang & Vossoughi, 2016). One practice which has been shown to positively impact the development of scalable technologies is to engage practitioners in the co-design of technological devices, or the attendant pedagogical moves necessary to use them in the classroom. However, there are few practical examples of scholarship which specifically focuses on the affordances of research-practice-industry partnerships (though of course, these partnerships have existed, but undertheorized as collaborative learning environments to drive innovation). By applying Connected Learning to RPIPs, we can explore not just the mechanisms, but the tangible outcomes.

Methods
Drawing upon existing RPP methodology, like social design experimentation and traditional RPPs (e.g. Coburn, et. al, 2013), this study overlays learning narratives (Labov, 1997; specifically, personal theories of causation as evidence of agentic learning) with structured classroom observations (content analysis) to construct an illustrative case study (Stake, 1995) which shows how educators engaged in prototype implementation and testing simultaneously model failure, persistence, agency, tinkering, and iteration for and with their students in response to the device.

Data Sources
Structured Classroom Observations focused on Classroom Orchestration with and without device
Practitioner Interviews (pre/post-implementation)

Results
We find that in the context of a research-practice-industry partnership (RPIP), device prototype testing can act as a portal for educational scholars, practitioners, and industry stakeholders to collaborate toward solving a specific problem: that is, the design, development, and scalable implementation of a digital device.

Significance
This model of Connected Learning and RPP methodology point to a viable way forward for the development of scalable technologies that practitioners can actually use. Further, the act of prototype testing provides an authentic learning context for teachers and students to engage in participatory learning toward a common goal, while positioning youth as technological experts, thereby shifting the classroom toward a participatory culture which can be drawn upon to scaffold future individual interest-driven learning pursuits, like personalized and project-based learning, (for both youth and adults), with or without the use of digital tools.

Authors

• Kylie A. Peppler, University of California - Irvine

• Emily Ward Schindler, The Comic-Con Museum