For me, the ideal learning environment is one that is ergonomic, technological and collaborative in nature. This means there is good natural lighting, there is separate control over lighting in various areas, there are height adjustable chairs for table and computer use, there are comfortable spaces for students (and the teacher) to sit and work together in small groups. As well, technology is ubiquitous, with a robust wireless network connected to wired desktops, printers and other devices. There are handheld devices of various kinds (such as tablets and smart devices like the iPod), and there are specialized electronic devices to take and record a variety of data. There would be ample well proven pedagogical software available for things like concept mapping and access to collaborative groups spaces such as GLOBE and not just the standard office suite, browser and video/image manipulation software along with specialized software to interface with the data collection hardware. Additionally there would be “pods”, areas dedicated to experimental work, which would be stocked according to the current unit of study. A couple of large displays (big screen TV or projector) for presentations and collaboration would complete the room. These requirements are based on the pedagogical assumption of a constructivist approach involving cooperative groups involved in project based learning. The learning space needs to be comfortable, dynamic, and afford cooperative group learning, yet foster an excellent work ethic amongst the students.
Category: e-folio
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Educational Technology, redefined
My definition of Educational Technology is grounded by AECT’s definition that “Educational technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources” (Januszewshi & Molenda, 2008). I like this definition because 1) it encompasses both the practice of teaching and learning and the study of the same, and 2) it includes improving performance, a pivotal and central reason why we use technology as well as facilitating learning, which would include learning aids of various kinds. What I think it is missing is an acknowledgement that learning is a social activity, and therefore a definition of educational technology needs a social viewpoint to be complete (Luppicini, 2005). Therefore my definition of educational technology is that it is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources in the social context of schools and education.
Resources
Januszewski, A. & Molenda, M. (2008). Educational technology: A definition with commentary. Erlbaum. New York.
Luppicini, R. (2005). A systems definition of educational technology in society. Educational Technology & Society, 8(3), 103-109.
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Interview: Reflection and Fallout
There were two issues which came to the forefront during the analysis of my interview and through reading and reflecting on the shared interviews. The first is a question of support for teachers wanting to use technology in the classroom, and the second is a question of whether or not we can actually measure the effectiveness of the use of technology in the classroom.
Support for teachers
Supporting teachers and students in their use of technology is part of my job. I am allocated time to do this, it is not just something expected on top of my teaching load. This makes the question of support for teachers wanting to use technology quite important to me. When I hear that teachers feel unsupported in training, pro-d and funding, I nod my head in agreement, because I feel the same way: unsupported in training, pro-d and funding. What was surprising was even the experienced, tech-savvy teachers feel this way, but maybe not in all three areas. My interviewee said he felt he kept up to day through what he was doing on his own, yet he felt he was limited in what he could do because of the lack of funding for new technology and the lack of time committed to maintaining the existing technology. As, one reader commented, “if the tech savvy teacher feels they need support, where does that leave us?” I am not alone in seeing this as an issue; TW also saw a trend in poor support hampering technology use by teachers.
When I see Conrad Wolfram (2010) talk about turning the math curriculum inside out, that we should be teaching math using computational tools I agree with him and then go but where is the support networks, where are the technologically competent math teachers, where is the time to get the math teachers techno-confidence up to a point where they will be comfortable in a classroom where the computerized device is the main tool being used, not paper and pencils. In my mind schools and school districts, education as a whole, do poor jobs of supporting the technological needs of the teachers. When talking about supporting technology, schools, school districts, education as a whole, tend to talk about how much is spent on computers and software. They do not talk about constant collegial sharing sessions for teachers; they do not talk about built in time during the day for all teachers to keep current in the latest technologies. They sometimes talk about teams they create to support teachers, but with very few exceptions these teams are made up of full time teachers who are expected to support other teachers on top of teaching a full complement of students.
This issue is, of course, not unique to Science and Math, but, as it seems Science and Math tend to use more specialized equipment and applications, the issue of not having suitable support is greater here than in the other subject areas. As well, it is our scientists and mathematicians in the real world that are seen as the heavy duty technology users. As such we need to work to ensure our students are experiencing the best possible education in science and math, that they are not just learning “computation by hand” as Wolfam put it.
Can we measure effectiveness of technology
Can we measure the effectiveness of using technology in the classroom is a question that has come into my mind as I reflect on the interview and the other shared interviews. Teachers do not have time to conduct their own original research into whether their teaching benefits from the use of technology. So how can they tell their students learning is improved by using technology? This is a good question, and one that I may pursue further. One thing does come to mind – technology use should change the learning experience of the learner, make it more dynamic, more collegial, less mundane and remove repetitive rote learning.
Another question arose as well – should we even be trying to measure the effectiveness of technology? If we are exposing students to 21st century learning we should be having them use 21st tools. I wonder if debates raged when ball point pens were first introduced? I experienced a situation where I was required to write using a fountain pen even though ball point pens were already well established (and the only people buying fountain pens were parents, for their children). When our family moved to a different province I never wrote with my blotchy old fashioned fountain pen again. Are we holding on to teaching with familiar, well established tools because they are familiar and well established? When people talk about advantages to reading from paper over reading from a screen do they have years and years of reading one way as a bias? This is another question that I may pursue further.
Wolfram (2010). Teaching kids real math with computers. TEDGlobal. Retrieved from www.ted.com/talks/conrad_wolfram_teaching_kids_real_math_with_computers.html
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Interview Anaysis
“Fred” has been teaching for only 3-4 years. He teaches Math and Science both in a traditional classroom and as part of the student directed learning team. He was interviewed in his classroom during his preparation time the week before end of semester exams.
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Transcript Excerpts |
Analysis |
| Q. What educational technologies do you use in the classroom?
Fred tries to work in computer technology every couple of units, making extensive use of Excel and GeoGebra, a free version of Geometers Sketch Pad. GeoGebra does everything a graphing calculator does, and does it for free, you don’t need to buy a $100 piece of equipment (graphing calculator), you can get it on your iPods etc. As well he has students develop “transferable skills” by making them use applications like PowerPoint and sites like Google Docs in the math classroom. He tries to work technology in wherever it seems to flow naturally.
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Fred is very cognizant of what technologies are available to aid in teaching and learning mathematics. He is aware of financial limitations schools (and students) may have. He sees the value Since he feels transferable skills are valuable, Fred has students take time from paper and pencil math to learn some of those skills. Fred is a new age teacher, embracing technology as a tool that is here to stay and attempts to make use of it as much as possible. |
| Q. How do you evaluate the effectiveness of the use of educational technologies in your classroom?
When Fred was asked about how he evaluated technology usage in the classroom he had difficulty in finding an answer, and finally stated he really did not know, that it either “just felt right” or did not. However earlier in the interview he said he felt expensive technology is not worthwhile in the introductory physics classroom. He feels traditional (tickertape) equipment is more valuable in showing students visually concepts like acceleration and velocity than using electronic equipment. With ticker tape you can “actually see the difference, instead of just reading a number that is telling you the ball is shooting faster, you can watch the little dots get further apart”. |
To me, Fred is a digitally immersed teacher who sees a necessity in students becoming familiar with computer technologies as part of their learning, but is hesitant to immerse his students in a digital classroom. He sees the need to have students exposed to typical technologies like spreadsheets and graphing applications, technologies that have become mainstream and in many jurisdictions are mandated by the curriculum.
There are a number of reasons Fred could be hesitant to go past mainly using computer technology in his classroom. One reason is because he has not been able to formulate any criteria on how to determine if technology is beneficial to student learning, and therefore only uses the obvious or mandated technologies. This could be because he has a lack of experience in the classroom, and has been spending the first number of years getting well grounded in the basics of teaching. A second reason Fred is hesitant to use more sophisticated technology in his classroom could be the lack of knowledge or opportunity to make use of these technologies. This could be a result of not having the time or opportunity to have professional development in these areas, or could just be that although he knows about the technologies, he does not fully understand how they work or what they are capable of. Additionally, This reason is somewhat supported by his response to the final interesting question.
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| Q. Do you feel you are adequately supported in your classroom technology use by the school, district and pro-d opportunities?
In response to this question Fred first pointed out he felt he needed to purchase his own personal laptop to be able to do his job properly. He felt he needed the freedom to do what he wanted to the laptop when he wanted to do it, and that he did not want to have to wait for someone to come around and “install updates and stuff”. He feels he not well supported by the school or district and feels more time and money needs to be spent in maintaining and supporting the equipment, and purchasing new equipment and software. He also sees a difference in learning how to use the technology from using it in the classroom, that it is not acceptable to think teachers have the time to learn how to use new technologies on their own time. |
Fred purchased his own laptop to have more control over that equipment, as well as the likelihood that a request for a new laptop would be turned down. (He had been supplied with a 3 year old laptop when he first started at the school, but when it became clear it would not be replaced any time soon, he bought his own).
This feeling of being in more control of his personal equipment is interesting, and one that those on the technology support team need to be aware of. Perhaps the BYOD movement actually started because teachers felt they needed more control and better equipment than what their employer was offering. The policy of locking down equipment for security reasons as is done in the corporate world needs closer examination in schools. Pro-d and training are different in Fred’s eyes. He sees training as how to use the equipment or software and feels schools should be providing this training. Perhaps after getting training, teachers would be more receptive to pro-d involving technology. Both of these issues are important – technology budgets and training-Pro-D need attention by schools in order for technology to properly afford students real learning advantages! |
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Video Case Studies
As I was watching some video case studies of technology use in some instructional settings a couple of things struck me as interesting. The first was the amount of background noise present in many of the videos. Some of the noise was PA announcements, some was equipment noise and some was noise by the learners.
This made me think about the learning environment and how noise can be a distraction or it can be seen as a regular part of the working and learning environment. As I work at a location where announcements are kept to a minimum (email and a phone in every room helps reduce the need for announcements), constant announcements would be very distracting to me. However, I work in a room full of computers, with fans whirring, keyboards rattling and mice clicking, all which I pretty much do not even hear. During an “electronic” exam session in June, a student was unable to get past the first page of questions because the sound of the fans, keyboards and mice made it impossible for the student to comprehend what was being read. We did find a solution for that student (ear plugs) but I was left wondering about the effects of the unplanned and unexpected technological side effect on the student’s performance on the exam.
Technology often has unexpected side effects, one we do not think about because the teachers, the technology implementers, the course designers did not think about things like the noise level from 30 cooling fans, or 30 keyboards clicking. This is not to say ergonomic concerns are ignored, but that we do not always extrapolate from one piece of equipment to 10 or 20 or 30.
As well as ensuring technology is appropriate for the task, is financially efficient, and integrates with existing equipment, we must also put in some due diligence into examining potential side effects of the technology before we finalize purchasing it.
maurice
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Unpacking Assumptions
The question “what is good use of technology in the math and science classroom?” makes me first ask the question what is meant by “good use”? The use of a word like “good” means, to me at least, that a judgment is being made, that there is no empirical way to evaluate the real question, which should be “In your view, what is effective or efficient use of technology in the math and science classroom?” Effective use would mean learning is enhanced, that learning happened that would not be possible without the technology. Efficient use would technology caused more learning in a given amount of time occurs than without the technology. So, to me at least, good use of technology in the math and science classroom is technology that makes learning math and science more effective or more efficient.
What would effective or efficient technology use in math or science look like? It would be students working cooperatively in groups to solve real problems. Students would be actively engaged in their learning, and the technology would be used to measure or record data, to test scenarios, to produce results, to present findings, to communicate and to
What would be the characteristics of effective or efficient technology use in math or science look like?
- Integrated, not special “high tech time”
- Seamless, easy to move between non-tech and tech work
- Natural, just like using a pencil or a calculator (hey those are technologies too)
- Appropriate to the age and ability of the student
- Appropriate to the task, not trivial, (like using Excel to just add together a few numbers)
- Specialized, if real world mathematicians and scientists use specialized tools for the particular situations being investigated
- Hands on, not just a demo, not just a video
- Involve problem solving, not just following a recipe or a tutorial (although a tutorial may be used to teach how to use the technology
- Student centered and hands on.
I do not think this is just a vision; a vision it may be, but I see it as a possible vision, albeit a challenge, but possible. This is also generic, and is not necessarily specific to the science or the math classroom.
maurice