arKITtech | The Dream Architect

"Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed."

Archibald MacLeish | The poet and Librarian of Congress

My motivation to search for the optimal system design of interconnected learning analytical tools came into blossom when I was certain that advanced research in this particular area would introduce an effective approach for learners to grasp and articulate ambiguous concepts easier and quicker through personal learning analytics, for mentors to develop critical thinking skills and instill a conscientious mindset in learners through enlightening learning experiences and moment of truths, and for education institutions to lower the marginal cost of their educational materials while raising both quantity and quality of learning objects through a standard set of interconnected analytical learning tools.

The relentless dedication of King Bhumibol Adulyadej for creating educational opportunities for people who have none has significantly inspired me to start searching for a complementary piece bridging both the educational gap and the technology fluency gap between the socioeconomic disadvantaged people and the socioeconomic advantaged ones. Together with his word of wisdom saying that knowledge is useless if not applied ethically and for the pratical benefits of others¹, my motivation to leverage my knowledge and skills in computer and information technologies became vivid, especially in May 2010 when I conceived that the absence of a critical thinking mindset contributed to the violence in Thailand. At that time, unverified information and propaganda were spread all over the Internet, resulting in the reckless decisions and inappropriate actions of Thai people.

The tragedy calls for the development of critical thinking skills, which become more important than ever in the Internet era when everyone can create, publish and disseminate information without careful reviews. Since education is the only effective mean to mindset transformation, I am inspired to search for the optimal form of interconnected learning analytical tools where learners, mentors and educational stakeholders can best interact and cooperate to create a series of enlightenting experiences that instill a growth and conscientious mindset in people. I foresee that the mindset transformation will not only bring in a deliberate thinking process but also nurture conscientious thoughts and careful actions in human societies.

Learning as a process of pure information transmission seemed to be untenable when Jean Piaget, a Swiss developmental psychologist, discovered in 1920s that learning appeared to be a process of making meaning from learning environments where incoming experiences are selectively interpreted and internalized based on the prior knowledge of the learner. Piaget conceived two complementary processes during knowledge construction: assimilation and accommodation. While the assimilation is a cognitive process of fitting external objects in reality to prior knowledge, the accommodation is a cognitive process of adjusting the prior knowledge to fit the external objects in reality².

From the Piaget's discovery, although people can digest facts and absorb the collective knowledge on the Internet to enhance their understandings about the world, it is easier for novice learners to interact with a physical object to understand its basic functions in the real world before forming an abstract concept of that corresponding physical object in their mind. This finding motivated me to search for the optimal design of interconnected learning analytical tools with a tangible user interface that not only facilitates learners to construct their personal learning objects but also allows the learners to exchange, modify and build upon existing learning objects.

1. Excerpted from King Bhumibol Adulyadej, A Life's Work. Tien Wah Press, Singapore. Page 212.

2. Retrieved from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/assimacc.htm on December 5, 2011