Incorporating Technology

Today’s classroom may use technology to engage learners and enhance learning experiences in ways that the classrooms of five or ten years ago did not through the use of the Web 2.0 technologies.  However educators long before the advancement of computer assigned various actives to engage the leaner in a collaborative learning environment.  For educators this exploration as a means of “knowing” was the core or student engagement.  The observation of different social classes, conversation and debate, or the exploration of music, dance and the arts, for example.  These traditional means of this engagement can be enhanced through the use of technology to be sure, and through the use of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) an educator may further enhance the learning experiences of students.  Their engagement in an interactive environment may begin with scaffold course work so that it supposrts "different domains of learning, including knowledge construction, critical thinking, and contextual application." (West, 2009 p 58).

The focus of this essay is incorporating technology, not the technology itself. However, an example of a Web 2.0 technology that incorporates the use of CSCL environment may prove useful.  The use of social collaboration software like “wikis” has been widely explored in secondary and post-secondary education.  “The simplicity of wikis makes them a wonderful tool for young” and experienced “learners in collaborative tasks” (Fu, Chu, & Kang, 2013 Pg. 85).  Wikis are a collaborative tool that can be edited by students who can each contributed to the discussion.  Assessing participation of each student can be accomplished by examining the quality of edits made by students.  This technology moves us past the simple domains of cognitive development, to accessing the intelligences of individual students.   

Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) fits the use of CSCL perfectly and the web 2.0 (wikis) in particularly.  Wikis are the perfect collaborative learning tool to ensure and monitors student participation, further each student can add to the project based on his/her MI.  For example, a student may have a high degree of spatial intelligence; this student would then find inserting video or pictures appealing.  However, another student may have a high degree of Logical-mathematical intelligence; this student would learn best from the collaborative environment the wiki provides. 

More importantly, students are familiar with blogs and wikis and as such accept the technology as logical extension of the educational environment.  “Results suggest that individual technology acceptance behavior is a function of their holistic experience with the technology and cognitive perceptions formed by rational assessments and these impacts are mediated by individuals’ attitude toward the technology” (Tan, 2007 Pg. iii).  Therefore the use of wikis enables the assignment to easily facilitate interactions between group members.  In this type of learning environment the talents of each student can be accommodated thus promoting active learning. Gardner (2000) makes the connection as well as warns educators “Clearly, a marriage of education and technology could be consummated, but it will only be a happy marriage if those charged with education remain clear on what they want to achieve…Otherwise, like other technologies, the new ones could end up spawning apathy, alienation or yet another phalanx of consumers” (p.35) 

Reference

Fu, H., Chu, S., & Kang, W. (2013). Affordances and constraints of a wiki for primary-school students' group projects. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 16(4), 85-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1462203798?accountid=32521

Gardner, H. (2000) Can technology exploit our many ways of knowing? Retrieved from https://howardgardner01.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/can-technology-exploit-our-many-ways-of-knowing1.pdf  

Tan, W. (2007). An integrated view of cognitive absorption in a technology-mediated learning environment. (Order No. MR34783, Concordia University (Canada)). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 112-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/304797056?accountid=32521

 West, J. A. & West, M. L. (2009). Using wikis for online collaboration: The power of the read-write web. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Today’s Students

During the past four weeks, I have blogged about the who, what and where of education. In my final blog, I would like to discuss the people at the center of all this debate, students.  Educators today face students who demand more than tedious memory exercises.  Lectures must be interactive and engaging.  Today’s students are assaulted, nearly from birth, with text messaging, Facebook, TV, Twitter, Myspace, blogs, podcasts, iTunes, and the latest apps.  These students do not have the same attention span because they are the tweet-text-info junkie generation or the fact that so many students have ADD/ADHD, these combined make it impossible to keep today’s students engaged.  Teachers today are in direct competition with a world full of distractions.

I use the 50 minute rule in the classes I teach, 50 minutes of classroom work and then 10 minutes of free time.  This is for a class comprised of 19 to 25 year olds.   Preston J. 2013, states that for the K-12 instructors, the attention span of students “is the average age in your class and then add 5 minutes” (par. 3).  After this amount of time, no real learning is achieved; therefore, a 5 minute break is needed to refocus the students. Faced with a shorter attention span of students and a growing demand for accelerated, progressive curriculum's, a teacher today is ask to do more than their predecessors.   

Expectations in Education

http://www.state.tn.us/education/core_values.shtml

Two weeks ago I discussed the continuing struggles Tennessee is having implementing a school reform plan called the Common Core.  Despite the backing of a popular Governor who comes from the majority party, Republican and the nearly universal support of school superintendents and teachers, we are left with one burning question, what’s all the fuss?  There may be multiple answers to this question, but it boils down to one thing, expectations.  Stakeholders in education are giving and receiving conflicting expectations.  For example, the state of Tennessee reports on their web site, “We believe in the potential of all Tennessee students to reach high levels of academic achievement.  We believe that, in collaboration with our colleagues across the state, we can and will build a system that helps our students meet their potential.” (tdoe, 2014)  This is listed as an “Optimism” core value.  However, President Obama stated on many occasions that school should prepare students for college or the work force.  As an example, at Graham Road Elementary school in Falls Church, Virginia, the president stated, “we encouraged states to adopt more challenging standards that will actually prepare our kids for college and their careers.” (Obama, 2010)  So what is expectation?  Help student reach their potential or prepare them for college/workforce.  I believe this is more than semantics, as we raise expectation for our students we need to define those expectations.  Reforms like the common core will only be palatable if/when the expectations are understood.