Alix’s Exploration of Learning Technologies

As a high school science teacher, I have many questions to consider when I engage in instructional design. How am I going to address the curriculum? What learning theories and corresponding pedagogy should I subscribe to? How am I going to address the needs of diverse learners? How am I going to create engaging lessons with educational value? Additionally, I need to consider which educational technologies I should employ. With the commercialization of educational technology, today’s teachers have more technologies available to them than ever before. In this burgeoning digital age, educators not only have a wealth of new,  educational technologies for their tool kit, they must also prepare their students to be literate and competitive in a digital world.

As a biology teacher, I am well aware of the fact that if a species does not adapt to a changing environment, it will become extinct. Similarly, in the rapidly changing climate of the digital age, if a teacher does not adapt their teaching practice, they will have difficulty staying relevant. Being an adaptable teacher, keeping my teaching practice relevant to my students, and being competent at preparing my students for success, are some of my motivations for undertaking a Masters in educational technology.

I am interested in learning more about online education, and would consider teaching online in the future. However, for now I would like to incorporate more digital technology in to my traditional face to face classroom. In order to incorporate more digital technology into my practice I must:

1.  Be aware of what it “out there”
2. Evaluate each technology according to my pedagogical goals, and
3. Become competent and confident in using those that I choose.

I am hoping that theoretical frameworks covered in Module 1: Selecting and Using Technologies will give me a tool kit of criteria with which to critically evaluate potential technologies and find those that are in line with my personal pedagogy. It is my hope that Modules 2-5 (presentation tools, interaction and evaluation tools, social media, and multimedia) will expose me to (good) current technologies and that the assignments and activities in these modules will give me practice with some of them, thus fostering competence and confidence.

I think that the learning technologies that I could most easily incorporate into my current practice are asynchronous communication (e-mail, wiki, blog), a teaching website, digital assessment, social software, and multimedia. However, I am most excited to learn about developing LMS such as Moodle.

With respect to resources for needed for mastery, all I need is access, some direction (in the form of tutorial), motivation (in the form of assignments) and time to play around.

While the SECTIONS framework presents a holistic set of criteria to consider when choosing amoung  educational technologies, I find the Seven principles for good practice useful for assessing my teaching context. I teach high school science and biology in an older public school in Vancouver. The school has a strong community service mandate with many successful programs to support it. With respect to technology, the school is slow to adopt newer learning technologies. My classroom has blackboards, but I have access to an LCD projector with internet access. There are two computer labs in the school that can be accessed on a sign-up basis. Because I am new to the school I work at, I can not describe in detail how the 7 principles of good practice are accomplished at the administrative level. However, I can discuss how I address them in my own classroom.

1. Encourages contacts between students and faculty: This is not too difficult to accomplish at the high school level. I have daily contact with my students and try to have individual conversations with them on a regular basis. Students are encouraged to come ask for extra help if required and I offer advice on post-secondary and career options. I strive to inform my students about competitions and opportunities in the field of science and biology.

2. Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students: I often incorporate group work into my practice. Group assignments, projects, and studying make students accountable to each other. I have also tried having students assess each others work before submitting it to me.

3. Uses active learning technique:  This is an element I am constantly trying to include in my practice. I subscribe to the learning theory that you can not learn anything unless your brain has processed the information. In order to process information, you have to actually think about it. The more times and ways that you think about the information, the more chances you have to process and thus learn it. As such, I encourage my students to think about the information I am presenting by trying to make it relevant to them, asking higher level Blooms taxonomy questions (eg. application) and assigning “translation” tasks (eg. turn the information into a story , skit, comic, song etc. )

4. Gives prompt feedback: I strive to have tests and assignments marked promptly and returned while the information is still fresh in their minds. When possible, I offer feedback on how students could improve aspects of their assignments and when appropriate, I allow them to re-submit with improvements.

5. Emphasizes time on task: As discussed in number 3 above, the more time spent processing information, the greater chance that the information will be “learned”. At the high school level, we often promote time on task by offering extrinsic motivators such as work habits marks. I am interested in learning more about promoting “life long learning” and fostering intrinsic motivation.

6. Communicates high expectations:  I have experimented with my level of expectation from my students. In general, I have found that they generally rise to the level of expectation. Even those students who choose to scrape by on the minimum possible work will rise when the minimum standard is set higher. I think as my career progresses, I will only keep raising my standards.

7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning: Having taught students with learning differences, I have developed an appreciation for diversity of learning styles. I encourage students to play off of their strengths and try to find ways to incorporate their talents into their work.

e-learning has become big business and teachers have more choice of learning technologies than ever before. However, not all learning technologies are designed with sound pedagogical principles and administrators, teachers, parents and students must proceed with caution before adopting a new learning technology. In module one of 565, I was exposed to two selection frameworks for learning technologies. The first, “Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education”by Chickering and Gamson (1987)  suggests 7 basic principles to achieve a good academic program. The second framework offered by Bates and Poole (2003), called SECTIONS, recommends criteria with which to assess learning technologies. I will breifly summarize them here:

The 7 principles for good practice:

1. Encourages contacts between students and faculty.
2. Develops reciprocity and cooperation among
students.
3. Uses active learning techniques.
4. Gives prompt feedback.
5. Emphasizes time on task.
6. Communicates high expectations.
7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

SECTIONS

S – Students: What is known about the students – or potential students – and the appropriateness of the technology for this particular group or range of students?

E – Ease of use and reliability: how easy is it for both teachers and students to use? How reliable and well tested is the technology?

C – Costs: what is the cost structure of each technology?  What is the unit cost per learner?

T – Teaching and learning: what kinds of learning are needed? What instructional approaches will best meet these needs? What are the best technologies for supporting this teaching and learning?

I – Interactivity: what kind of interaction does this technology enable?

O – Organizational issues: What are the organizational requirements and the barriers to be removed before this technology can be used successfully?  What changes in organization need to be made?

N – Novelty: how new is this technology?

S – Speed: how quickly can courses be mounted with this technology?  How quickly can materials be changed?

Citations:

Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: a Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass

Chickering, A.W. & Gamson, Z.F. (1987).  Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education.  American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39 (7), 3-7

In order to incorporate more digital technology into my practice I must:
1.  Be aware of what it “out there”
2. Evaluate each technology according to my pedagogical goals, and
3. Become competent and confident in using those that I choose.

I am hoping that theoretical frameworks covered in Module 1: Selecting and Using Technologies will give me a tool kit of criteria with which to critically evaluate potential technologies and find those that are in line with my personal pedagogy. It is my hope that Modules 2-5 (presentation tools, interaction and evaluation tools, social media, and multimedia) will expose me to (good) current technologies and that the assignments and activities in these modules will give me practice with some of them, thus fostering competence and confidence.

Am I a Digital Age Teaching Professional?

As a high school science teacher, I have many questions to consider when I engage in instructional design. How am I going to address the curriculum? What learning theories and corresponding pedagogy should I subscribe to? How am I going to address the needs of diverse learners? How am I going to create engaging lessons with educational value? Additionally, I need to consider which educational technologies I should employ. With the commercialization of educational technology, today’s teachers have more technologies available to them than ever before. In this burgeoning digital age, educators not only have a wealth of new,  educational technologies for their tool kit, they must also prepare their students to be literate and competitive in a digital world..

As such, I would like to evaluate my current teaching practice according to the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS) published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). In the following I will reflect on how I am currently addressing a few of the listed competencies.

1. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity; To inspire learning and creativity I employ “translation” activities in my practice. Translation activities involve students converting their content knowledge into another form such as a poem, rap, song or skit. Students must ensure they actually understand the content before they translate it into another form. Additionally, the activity requires students to be creative providing additional motivation. Digital technologies have enabled a wealth of  new media through which students can translate their knowledge. Most recently, my students completed a translational activity using digital cameras to demonstrate the concepts included in an optics unit. In the future, I would like to have my students create digital stories instead of the traditional paper stories I have used in the past.

2. Design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments; So far, my design and development of digital age learning experiences has been limited to power point presentations, LCD projected animations and videos, and the occasional computer lab activity. I have recommended websites with online quizzes to help students review, but have never designed one myself. I am in the process of developing a teacher website for students and their parents, where they can access notes, assignments and other resources.

3. Model digital-age work and learning; As discussed above, I do use some digital technology in my lessons. I have started communicating with parents via e-mail. In addition to the website I would like to design, I would like to set up a discussion forum for my various classes where my students can collaborate and communicate.

4. Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility; I am striving to stress proper citation of web resources. I could be better at modeling this myself. In the future, I would like to develop (or find) a good rubric with which to evaluate proper ciatation of information in student work.

5. Engage in professional growth and leadership; I like to think that  taking a Masters in Educational Technology covers this one! As I become more competent and confident with using technology in my practice, I would like to become a technology champion in my school.