Category Archives: Module B

Jasper Impressions

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In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee developed and launched The Adventures of Jasper Woodbury, which consisted of a series of videos and mathematical problem solving scenarios aimed at middle school students. The videos depict real people in authentic situations that require math reasoning to solve.

Springing onto the educational scene in 20-30 years ago, this series would have been cutting edge in terms of video quality and problem-based learning. Allowing students to move through problems and challenges at their own pace provided more opportunities for learning,but the video clips viewed in Lesson 1 did not showcase the interactivity potential that is promoted by Vanderbilt. How do expectations for interactivity in a TELE compare between the late 80’s and the present? This goes hand in hand with inquiring into what social collaboration entailed, and how it was used. Given the time frame for this series, asynchronous learning was probably most relevant, but with the advent of greater social media, how could this affect interactions, collaborative opportunities and how collective knowledge is built?

Pedagogical design left me with some questions as well. How did the Jasper Series address diversity of instruction to meet various learning styles? Would this meet expectations today? As interesting as some of the problems seemed, it left me feeling that students seem to be expected to fill and keep a lot of information in their heads as they are navigating the problem. How did this program fare, with specific attention to student abilities and learning styles?

Ultimately, I wonder about what this program would look like with further inquiry embedded into it. That means that less data is handed to students as they try to figure out which variables to change and how resulting in greater complexity of problems.

image: Eyespy by KayVee.INC released under a CC Attribution – Noncommercial – Share Alike license

The Technology-Enhanced Landscape

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Ideal Pedagogical Design

Ideally, a technology-enhanced learning experience in math and/or science will emphasize learning as a process of knowledge creation and knowledge sharing within an environment authentically designed to stimulate inquiry, collaboration, metacognition, and communication.

In response to Kozma’s (2003) recommendation that “designers should provide students with environments that restructure the discourse of … classrooms around collaborative knowledge building and the social construction of meaning”, and the following questions:

  • What do you think designers of learning experiences should do?
  • How would you design a technology-enhanced learning experience?

image: A Mindset, Not a Skillset by superkimbo released under a CC Attribution – Noncommercial – Share Alike license

Defining Technology

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What is technology? For a word that is ubiquitously used, within formal and informal educational settings, to describe so much in our digital world, it makes me wonder to what extent people actually stop and contemplate what it means to them.

As eluded to by Muffoletto (1994), prevailing assumptions tend to categorize technology as “gadgets, instruments, machines, and devices” that can offer some form of educational cure to what ails the disenfranchised learner. Treating technology as an appendage or accessory to learning further entrenches it as a separate entity endorsing the need to teach media skills in isolation from other subjects in school, which is what Dede (Kozma, 2003) and Trotter (1998) caution against.

I believe technology is derived from innovation. It is engineered to fulfill perceived human need because it’s in our nature to strive for better, faster means of accomplishing a greater product; sometimes to streamline a process, while other times at the expense of it. Technological advances and innovative practices have allowed humans to expand their resources as part of a larger process akin to the evolutionary ecology theory of niche construction – a fitting analogy considering humans have done more to alter their environment than any other living creature; therefore, the definition of technology put forth by Roblyer (2004) resonates with me:

Technology is us – our tools, our methods, and our own creative attempts to solve problems in our environment

Building on this premise, technology then also embodies “a way of acting”, as Muffoletto (1994) describes, because its effective use is also characterized by how well educators are able to harness its potential to improve pedagogy, enrich the learning experience for students, and build connections that extend beyond the walls of the classroom, much in the same way Dede and Trotter emphasize technology in Kozma (2003). It is imperative that educational technology is defined with reference to the process it enables a teacher to enhance, rather than limit its view based on the product it helps to accomplish. When “students can learn with [technology] rather than from technology” (Jonassen, 2000) it sets the stage for meaningful learning and thinking whereby students use the technology to create their own meaning making, which helps them develop a clearer path of understanding.

image: Colored Plate – Fractal Mosaic by qthomasbower released under a CC Attribution – Share Alike license