Talk: "Educating People to become Linux Users: Some Key Insights from Adult Education" ====================================================================================== Abstract We all want people to use Linux in favour of non-FOSS operating systems. But how do we convince them to do so? Having done so, how do we convince them to become *good* computer users who will use their systems in an effective manner? 'User education' is a much-lauded phrase in the IT world, but in many cases technology specialists have expressed a great deal of frustration in their attempts. However it doesn't have to be this way. Key insights from adult education, can be applied to Linux user education successfully. In particular, educators will be successful if they take a systemic approach to the subject using andragogical techniques when evaluating the audience, the content, and the delivery. The end result is users who are motivated, who know what they are capable of, and have the motivation to find out more. Biography Lev Lafayette is a committee member and past president of Linux Users of Victoria, who collects postgraduate degrees when not being a political trouble-maker. He has been involved in computer systems education and training for quite a while, and in the past few years through his employment at the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC) has conducted such sessions for researchers at the University of Melbourne, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, La Trobe University, the Australian Synchrotron, the University of Sydney, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, the Australian Institute for Health Innovation at Macquarie University, the University of New South Wales... and many other places. Slide One Linux and User Education ---------------------------------- * Our time is precious. Better users means less trivial problems. * More people using Linux means better economic and technological outcomes. * User education requires disposition and knowledge, both of the subject and of education! * Applicable to ad-hoc and systemic instances. Notes * A computerised society will be less than optimal is people don't know how to use computers. * Breaking operating system and application monopolies means better products because of competition. Slide Two : Convincing Others to Use Linux ---------------------------------------- * Ideological - some people are motivated by the "free and open source" aspect. * Technical - some people are motivated by the technical superiority to other operating systems. * Employability - there are excellent and varied job opportunities for those who have good Linux skills. * Community - there is a vibrant and intresting community directly and indirectly related to Linux. * Utility - Linux is useful even many other ways (troubleshooting, home automation, home file servers) * Required - Work or research requirements means that the learner *must* use Linux. Notes * Last one isn't so great for intrinsic motivation. Slide Three : Andragogy and Lifelong Learning ------------------------------------------- * The adult learner has different characteristics to the child learner. (1) autonomy of direction in learning and (2) the importance of the use of personal experience as a learning resource. * Lifelong Learning: The inustrial-era lifepath (finish school, studying or training for a particular career or job, and then remaining in that job until retirement), no longer holds true. * People use different mechanism for immediate goals compared to future goals. Need to discover what motivates a person to engage and persist in a learning experience. Notes * Adult-child eduation is a continuum, not a binary difference (no, really?). * Adults are usually in a voluntary learning environment, whereas children must attend school. * Adult learning tends more towards self-motivated and independent learning with a greater range of experiental resources. * Adult learning tends increasingly towards a research orientation rather than a teaching-training orientation. * Adults expect to treated *at least* as equals. Adult educators are facilitators and guides, not instructors. Slide Four: Structured Disciplinary Content ------------------------------------------- * Content needs to organised in terms of objectives, timed, and revised! Content needs to provided in as 'structural knowledge', with narrative, analogies, and humour. Provide grounding to a concept (facts *and* reasons). Teach the concepts and the practise as it allows the learner to elaborate their knowledge into new constructions. * Delivery should make use of discipline-based learning styles. For computer use, connectivism (e.g., pair programming) and direct usage ("yield to the hands-on imperative"). The learner-teacher environment is most effective in the "zone of proximal development". Notes * Structured knowledge is modular. This is different to recognition, even if broadly-based or inert ('crammed') knowledge, even if that is temporarily effective. This includes narrative structure, analogies and - much overlooked but essential - humour. * Good instruction will elicit prior knowledge; it builds confidence, it provides an opportunity to explain congruence and misfits for what will be learned. Encourage learners to ask their questions and present their problems using the conceptual frameworks taught to test validity. Take the role of an active peer in the learning process. * Individual learning styles are completely false as numerous studies have shown. But discipline learning styles are true. Combine two discipline based methods in a multimedia fashion (explain, show, copy, assist). Provide reference material for future. ZPD is *also* used in childhood education. Slide Five: From Self-Efficacy to Engaging the Community -------------------------------------------------------- * Attention to content and delivery will lead to learner self-efficacy (i.e., the learner's knowledge and belief in their own abilities). It *should* calibrate with performance and often is close among adult learners. The learner with a high calibration between self-efficiacy and performance will also have accurate attribution for their performativity. * An adult learner who has a high level of self-efficacy is also likely to also have a higher level intrinsic motivation. In addition to this, they are also likely to participate in a "community of practise", whether this is a social or workplace location. Notes * Arguably, even if the direct experience is individual everything else about learning is social, from tools, textbooks, and ultimately language and non-biological motivations. * Despite this socialisation self-determination theory argues that intrinsic and autonomous learning is carried out where actions are actions are carried out from "inherent interest and enjoyment, rather than to achieve some separable contingency". Slide Six: Evaluation --------------------- * Ensure that the material is contextually relevant, attainable, is frequently tested, with plenty of explanatory feedback. Select material that can be actually used by the learners in their life, or at least approximates it. * Selecting several small items of assessable material is much better than one large one. * Positive feedback encourages and satisfies. Negative feedback discourage and threats will be treated with utter contempt with adult learners. Don't say "You are wrong", rather, show what is right. Slide Seven: The Scoreboard --------------------------- * As an example; VPAC teaches postgraduate researchers how to use Linux and HPC clusters. RMIT and LaTrobe started roughly equal in terms of usage. *Change in cluster saw significant increase in usage from both partner institutions... but the one which make use of HPC training improved much more. Trifid Usage (CPU Hours) to December 31st 2014 Year RMIT La Trobe Cluster 2012 1,729,837h 1,719,554h Tango 2013 8,108,695h 3,301,052h Trifid 2014 9,760,919h 4,964,297h Trifid Trifid Course Enrolments to December 31st 2014 RMIT enrolments 229 La Trobe enrolments 29