Prior to this module, TELEs were not something I was familiar with…and I have been missing out! All Technology Enhanced Learning Environments (TELEs) focus on student-centered learning through enrichment and learning by doing. Students are not the passive recipients of information and each of these TELEs aims to motivate students. Technology itself can be motivating, however, these experiences allow students to construct and engage with curriculum material in new and more authentic ways rather than being a “consumer” of technology or via traditional pen and paper. These TELEs are all based on a constructivist theory of learning, valuing the building and integration of new concepts on previous knowledge, and collaborating with others to construct meaning. Utilizing real-life scenarios creates a natural “buy-in” for students – they are motivated and are able to “see” the context of these problems. Creating our own “Jasper Series” of math/science videos depicting “real-life” situations is something I would like to pursue next year with a group of teachers (and students) at my school. The individualized nature of the videos (which would also connecting to ADST – Digital Media) would engage our middle school students and provide cross-curricular opportunities (Language Arts, Math, possibly science or SS depending on the storyline). There are so many possibilities. I am curious to see how TELEs support our struggling math and/or science students. Have they (TELEs’ visuals, hands-on, scaffolding, etc) been successful in the past? What about our students who lack motivation? This is something I would like to further investigate.
Overall, I can see benefits of using each of these platforms in the science and/or math classroom. Implementation of these TELEs would depend on a number of factors including teacher comfort (learning the technology, mindshift in thinking about knowledge acquisition), time (there is never enough, using TELEs instead of something else, time to learn these platforms), and the physical technology available (sharing the limited resources in the school). These platforms would provide opportunities for students to use technology to visually represent traditionally abstract concepts, and to manipulate data that may not normally be accessible in a science or math classroom. What an exciting time to be a student! The role of the teacher is one of guide/facilitator as opposed to “keeper of all knowledge”. However, allowing students to construct their knowledge as opposed to to just giving them the information is something that will be a challenge for some educators. In all TELEs, I believe that teachers need to create the technology enhanced learning “experience” with their students in mind. As I do not have my own classroom next year, my role will be to support teachers as they continue to implement inquiry learning in their classrooms. I am excited to bring my new knowledge of TELEs (even their existence!) to add to our teachers’ toolkit and I look forward to seeing what new learning opportunities and experiences we can create for our students in math/science.
References
Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (1992). The Jasper Experiment: An exploration of issues in learning and instructional design. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 40(1), 65-80.
Edelson, D.C. (2001). Learning-for-use: A framework for the design of technology supported inquiry activities. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38(3). 355-385.
Williams, M. & Linn, M. C.(2002) WISE Inquiry in Fifth Grade Biology. Research in Science Education, 32(4), 415-436.