Jasmeet Virk's ETEC 533 journey

The Good Use of Technology:

1.Learning Environment 4 [Elementary School: Space Science]

As I watched the interview and the activities happening in the back what stood out for me was the collaborative group work and active learning happening in the class. It was an implementation of Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) principle of developing reciprocity and cooperation not only among students but also students and teacher; and using of active learning techniques.

The grade 6/7 teacher mentioned that technology was able to break through the language barriers. She had many students of Indian and Pakistani descent and many were new immigrants. This highlighted for me the fact that technology is the common language for this generation of digital natives.

The Project Based Learning model being implemented in the class was able to cross curricular boundaries. Students showed that they were combining art to show their understanding of the movements of hurricanes. The teacher discussed how they were able to connect fiction [novel study of Parvana’s journey] from a language arts class to a reality across the world [working with woman’s group in Afghanistan]. This is a great example of technologies deftness at promoting interdisciplinary approach.

The retiring and the new teacher interviewed showed trepidation about using technology, despite availability of help from colleagues.

2.Learning Environment 7 [Science Elementary – Pre-service teacher]

By making the use of technology a compulsory part of their course, the professor not only modeled that group work could be continued in their professional life with their colleagues, but also allowed the pre service teacher to realize the advantages of including technology in the learning environment. The pre service teachers recognized the technology’s ability to be multimodal [Pair 3] and interactive [Pair 1]. By adding narrative to text [Single student], adding animation to pictures [Pair 1 and 3], technology could help them reach out to more learners. Some pre service teachers used the collaborative and cross curricular ability [Single student] of technology where one class did the art which was used by the other class to make their science project about fish life cycle. There was concern (Pair 1) that technologies being used were too complex for the students and time taking.

Issue that Stood Out from both environments:

• What does technology use look in the elementary school?
• What online learning tools are suitable at elementary schools?
• What technologies can be used to enhance F2F environment?
• What is a good balance between online and F2F learning at elementary level?
• Which online tools can be effectively used at elementary level?
• How to use technology to achieve a collaborative, multimodal, cross curricular approach?

Other Issues:
Some other issues that also stood out for me:
• How to encourage teachers to adopt technology?
• Is it fair to students that many teachers are unwilling to use technology?

Reference:

Chickering, Arthur and Stephen C. Ehrmann (1996), “Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever,” AAHE Bulletin, October, pp. 3-6.

Though, like many, I am guilty of using technology to display information in science and encouraging math games and drills on websites, playing Jeopardy, or some labeling activity on the Smartboard, I believe that a more meaningful use of technology in a science and math class would be an interactive setup where students can examine math and science topics actively in a realistic setup.

Though at my grade level [4] I am able to connect all math to real life quite easily, I have heard my own high school children moan about, “how is this ever relevant in real life!” and “when am I ever going to use this in real life?” In our examination of learning theories we know that meaningful learning only happens when students are able to relate to concepts that are relevant to them. (Constructivism, Social Learning Theories)

I believe that if we can create learning scenarios with inquiry based or problem based learning with technology which will allow students to learn and apply the math and science concepts that they are learning to relevant, real life situations, that will be create an immersive learning environment. By using technology in a combination of F2F and online environments, students could actively explore concepts in realistic situations collaboratively. For example at my grade level students could do a webquest about biomes, follow some animal webcams, blog and discuss, and then create a class wiki about different biomes. They could create and decorate a room using software to explore measurements and shapes in math, or plan trips around the city using transit system to delve into mapping, time, and money outcomes. I believe if I could create these interdisciplinary lessons which allow students to interact with different outcomes using different modalities, it would be the ideal application of technology!

Reverting back to my current practices with use of technology in science and math – while these practices do have a place in learning, they lack interactivity and collaborative learning and so should probably just supplement the main activities.

What I envision is doable but challenging. It involves a lot of time on the teacher’s part to plan all topics interactively and with technology – which means teachers need to be tech –savvy. It might be harder to implementing it as well. In a perfect classroom all students will have access to a computer at all times to pull this off. However with 2 computers in the classroom and access to computer lab twice a week for 45 minutes only, it might be hard to use technology interactively all the time for all science and math lessons. Solution? Start small… Taking baby steps… One project at a time… think positive!

Growing up in a remote town in India, my education was never touched by technology. When I finally saw a computer in my late teens, it was treated as an office machine that was to make life easy for the secretaries and the accountants. I went ahead and learned dBase IV [a data management system] and Excel and worked in an office creating payrolls in Excel and sales reports in dBase IV!

As a teacher, my initial use of computer with students was to teach them to make slide shows and create desktop publishing using the word processors. I really enjoyed this as these activities would be content related and the students would have to make posters on science and socials topics. Otherwise I used edutainment software like the Reader Rabbit and the Math Blasters to enhance student learning. There were piles of CD’s to choose from in the computer labs for different grade levels. Then another teacher showed me some websites which provided similar learning experience and were free! Thus began the online activities!

The turning point in my relation to technology was when my Learning Assistant teacher showed me a few remedial programs she was using with some of my student. When I saw the level of student engagement and its effect, I was impressed. This changed my way of thinking. Why cannot my entire class reap the benefit of such technology? That is how my laptop ended in my classroom then got connected to an overhead projector and a white board, and then to a smart board almost two years later!

In all honesty, initially the issue of pedagogical sanctions got lost in the preliminary success of student engagement and rigor. Then it was like planning the lessons backward to check if the activities planned fit well with sound pedagogy. I have come a long way now and do not do that anymore! MET has been a great help in consolidating my understanding and practice. My main goal now in every lesson I plan is to ensure multimodalities for teaching and learning. It is such a challenge to reach every child in the classroom!

ETEC 533 is a MET course about Technology in the Mathematics and Science Classroom. It is an examination of how people teach and learn mathematics and science with digital technologies while implementing sound pedagogical frameworks.