Monthly Archives: June 2017

I interviewed a colleague who has taught for seven years in several elementary grades. She currently teaches a Grade 3-4 split and, in recent years, has been an Inquiry-Based Learning teacher. We had sat down for a 20 minute conversation, which I transcribed after. The three words I would use to represent the themes of our conversation would be value, caution and support.

Value

Much of the conversation focused on the interviewees belief in the benefits of technology with regards to learning. For example, she mentions that technology “provides a chance for kids to show their learning in a lot of ways. Without having to be great at fine motor, technology kind of provides a way to lift barriers and allows a lot more kids in, who may have challenges.” Overall, she appreciates the value that technology can add to learning, and the way it can facilitate a variety of meaningful experiences.

Caution

Although the interviewee is convinced of the benefits of technology, she integrates it with critical reflection and caution. She is highly aware of her own context and the young age of her students. She has developed opinions regarding the style of integration she seeks in her class in Math and Science. With her students, she defines the good use of technology to be “any technology that allows them to actively engage with learning. I think it’s best, especially in the early years, when learning has a physical and digital element. Effective technology use allows them to still have hands-on experiences and there is a danger going towards just using technology to show learning.” She continually reflects on the benefit of adding technology to an experience.

Support

She communicates a desire to integrate a variety of new technologies in math and science but does not typically rely on institutional support to help her. She stated that it “mostly feels up to me. Most of what I have done was because of my interest in trying the technology. I’ve heard about it somewhere and just want to try it myself. I think we’re supported in that we get the freedom to try things in class, but I do not find the type of PD offered useful for me.” She has a developed notion of what she would need to help her achieve her goals; “I would say that peer driven PD, that is mixed group, that takes place alongside kids in an actual classroom would be helpful.”

Overall, her conception of good technology use with children connected with this quote from Clements (2002), “the computer offers unique opportunities for learning through exploration, creative problem solving, and self-guided instruction.” (p. 341) She looks for these unique opportunities and critically reflects on her experiences to inform her practice.

Clements, D., & Sarama, J. (2002). The Role of Technology in Early Childhood Learning. Teaching Children Mathematics, 8(6), 340-343. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/41197828

Mr. C. has extensive experience with educational technology. Beginning with his career in the Canadian military and later as an elementary school teacher, technology has been a consistent component of his professional experiences. Mr. C. has used his talents as an educational technology consultant and more recently as a grade 7 teacher toward his endeavor to “make a difference”.

During our interview, Mr. C. talked about the different ways he uses technology and his thoughts on technology and its impact on student learning. Throughout the interview, it became evident that Mr. C. uses technology as a means to an end. Three words that helped to frame this notion are: Experiences, Engagement, and Goals.

Goals:
When asked about the strategies used to integrate technology, Mr. C. was very clear in stating his views. Learning goals and student needs are the basis from which decisions concerning technology are made.

Mr. C:

When I integrate technology I begin by looking at the curriculum learning goals. Then I look to see what technology we have available that can help in meeting those learning goals. Knowing your students and knowing you’re curriculum comes before knowing what technologies to use in the classroom.

Engagement:
Mr. C. recognizes that his students are more engaged when they are having fun. He also sees technology as a strategy that allows students to show their knowledge in multiple ways. He spoke in detail about the ways he integrates technology in his classroom. In science, his students enjoy learning by using robotics, simulations, and virtual reality tools. However, he also identified the importance of close monitoring and facilitating student learning noting that some students can get carried away or become sidetracked and need support and guidance to produce interesting and quality work.

Experiences:
As a grade 7 teacher, Mr. C. is responsible for teaching music. However, he does not have an educational background in this area. Yet despite his lack of knowledge, he’s able to provide students with a meaningful learning experience by using technology.

Mr. C.:

Where I don’t have all the intricacies of teaching grade 7 music, I can look at the big ideas in the curriculum and use technology like Garageband and the Finale Music to help me.

Mr. C. uses an integrated approach to teaching music by using musical technology as a part of his Language Arts program.

Mr. C.:

I’m showing students different ways to use technology to reach their learning goals. For example, in our novel study, we used Garageband to show demonstrate the mood of the novel. We used Finale which is a program that uses music notation to write a song about the book.

This brief ½ hour interview with Mr. C. provided me with a unique opportunity to understand a seasoned educator approach to using technology. From my perspective, Mr. C. shows signs of being very intentional and thoughtful about his approach. Pedagogy and the process of learning are strong influences that govern how Mr. C. uses technology in his classroom. He is also acutely aware of how technology can be used as a bridge for a teacher in their teaching and for students in their learning.

The interviewee was an elementary teacher in the same school district. She has been teaching general Primary grades for the past 4 years. The interview was conducted at lunchtime in her classroom. Three key points were brought up in the discussion: differentiation, balancing technology and real-world activities, and supporting implementation.

Differentiation

The interviewee’s primary use of technology was to “support the math units” by “using the ipods as an extension for the grade 2’s”. This allowed her the freedom to work in a split class, “while the grade 2’s were still engaged with something that was math related on their own.” She also felt that technology was a valuable way to extend learning beyond the scope of science inquiry lessons. Using QR codes and a growing Youtube playlist, students could independently listen and learn. Other applications she used allowed her students to receive extra practice or review of a topic independently. Her main goal for having technology in the classroom came from a desire to differentiate for her learners. 

Balancing real-world and tech

The interviewee also stressed the importance of balancing the amount of technology students are exposed to with the physical opportunities of the real world. Much of the interview described ways in which students can “blend” the physical with the technological aspects of learning. By introducing coding and manipulative apps to her kids, she builds her students’ thinking of math and science to relate to the real-world. They can become better engaged if they know it “comes from something [they] used in real-life”.

Support towards Implementation

Finally, an ongoing challenge the interviewee felt she encountered was the need to “get the kids rolling” with new technology. At the younger ages, students have such diverse knowledge of how to use technology. She feels many activities need heavy teacher support to get going, that some of them are not worth all the effort it takes. Parent volunteers or older expert students could be a viable solution. She proposed a “tech circle” opportunity for older kids to teach younger kids similar to a literature circle. This way students can build their knowledge together and rely less on teacher support.

This interview involved Dr C, who is a maternal fetal medicine specialist, located at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton. She is also an associate professor of the Faculty of Medicine at University of Alberta. She has been teaching for 14 years. She teaches a variety of learners from undergraduate students, to postgraduate residents, ultrasound technicians and students. She does large lectures at the university, but also does a lot of small group teaching and bedside teaching. This interview was conducted on May 31, 2017 at 4:30 in the maternal fetal medicine clinic. The three key concepts that arose during our interview was Training, Context and Flexibility

Training
Dr C felt that one of the greatest barriers to integrating technology into her teaching practice is training. She states that she is “interested in trying to keep up to date with technology and have been trying to be an enthusiastic adaptor” but at the same time comments that she is a bit of a “luddite”. She identified time as well as geography as a barrier to training. “I’m a very busy clinical and the patient practice sometimes makes it difficult to coordinate time to learn some of the new technologies that we could use for teaching and learning”. Her clinic is also geographically separated from the university, which is where all of the faculty development activities occur. She seems to feel disadvantaged compared to clinicians located at the University Hospital in this regard. She also states that being a “cyber immigrant” makes it more time consuming for her to grasp some concepts and learn to use technology in the classroom.

Context
When discussing the use of technology and whether it was useful to enhance learning, she really felt that this dependent on the context. In a small group discussion or with bedside teaching, she feels that students are engaged regardless of technology and that technology did not enhance learning in this setting. But in a large group session, she finds students are less willing to be interactive without some form of technology that facilitates this.

Flexibility
We discussed her goals when she is integrating technology into her teaching, she stated that her main goal was “to make it interesting and in a format that the learners are more used to learning from”. She thought it was important to be able to present information visually and audibly. She felt that vodcasts allowed students to learn and review concepts at their own pace. It seemed that flexibility and accessibility for students was an important component to her teaching and she felt that students demanded this. I initially labeled this student-centred but changed it to flexibility, as the material that is taught is still knowledge centred or teacher-centred.

My reflections on the interview
My interview with Dr C further solidified by opinion that medical education is slow to change compared to K-12, and large class sizes adds an added dimension of challenge. Dr C identified a few challenges but I don’t think it’s unique to just her. I think many clinician-educators have difficulty due to time constraints and their other responsibilities such as patient care, administration etc. Financial limitations may also contribute. Many physicians are paid fee for service, and the educational component in many cases is done for free. Though this system is likely to change in the future, for now it seems that education is not as valued as services provided to patients. There needs to be a cultural change where innovation in education is as valuable to the university as research and services provided to patients. Only then will we see pedagogical changes within medical education.

D has been a teacher in the Surrey School District for 4 years. She teaches primarily grades K through 3. D is currently teaching a grade 2 class at an inner-city school, which is predominantly ELL (English language learner). Our interview was a phone interview on Thursday evening. She is currently working on her Masters of Arts in Educational Leadership and Management through Royal Roads University.

D uses a web-based program called Splash Math which students can access on the iPads at home and at school. She can align it with the curriculum’s big ideas and curricular competencies they are working on in class. “As soon as I bring Splash Math into our day, the kids are highly motivated, especially because they get feedback immediately.” Roschelle et al. (2000) explains that research and teachers suggest that students who participate in computer connected learning networks show increased motivation, a deeper understanding of concepts, and an increased willingness to tackle difficult questions. D explains that Splash Math is differentiated because it is tailored to each learner’s individual needs and it takes the pressure and embarrassment that comes with being a grade or two behind. The students can attempt harder questions without the fear of failure in front of their peers.

Technology allows D to check in with each of her students through apps like Book Creator. The students can take pictures or evidence of their learning in math and science and share it with her, and then post it on their digital portfolio. “FreshGrade is my reporting style. It shows their parents, them, and me where they are this point in time. I would use that information to then change my teaching, or go back and reflect with them on that concept, or show their parents what their child needs to continue to work on at home.” Digital portfolios encourage reflection at home, encouraging students to set goals for themselves. In their life cycle unit, students are making observations and documenting the life cycle of a plant with iPads. Students make predictions and reflect on what they’ve observed. “The learning results indicate that prompting students to reflect significantly increases knowledge integration in science projects” (Davis, E. A. 2000).

One of the challenges she faces is the lack of technology at her school level. There have been push backs from senior staff who are not willing to embrace something new. She explains that the more she models how technology can enhance student learning, the more teachers are willing to dip their toe into uncharted water. In the beginning, she was hesitant to bring technology in the classroom. Her students are at the centre of her decisions when it comes to technology, so she looks for technology that supports her learners. The question she asks herself when she considers new technology is, “Is it meaningful? More recently I started working with some more technology-minded colleagues and that really helped to push me into allowing technology to be a little bit more open-ended and to use it for more inquiry purposes. I have to trust my students and promote digital literacy. I’ve gone from being somebody who was quite nervous about it, to someone who is embracing it, and as soon as I embrace it and I lose that anxiety, I’ve noticed that my students have also started to embrace it, and its helped them to develop that growth mindset as well. Using technology and making mistakes, and pushing themselves to explore things they may have not otherwise”

For science lessons, she often shows BrainPop Jr. animated clips to support all learning styles: kinesthetic, auditory, and visual. D uses technology to support inquiry, and with iPads, students are learning to research, access different websites and videos, and find answers to what’s really important to them. Technology has enhanced science in her classroom, and made inquiries more meaningful.

References:

Davis, E. A. (2000). Scaffolding students knowledge integration: prompts for reflection in KIE. International Journal of Science Education, 22(8), 819-837. doi:10.1080/095006900412293

Roschelle, J. M., Pea, R.D., Hoadley, C.M., Gordin, D.N., & Means, B.M. (2000). Changing How and What Children Learn in School with Computer-Based Technologies. The Future of Children, 10(2), 7. doi: 10.2307/1602690

My interviewee has been a teacher in the British Columbia school system for 21 years teaching senior science.  My interview was conducted through Google Docs as it allowed my colleague the flexibility to answer the questions at their own leisure.

Through the interview I learned that his views on technology in the classroom are that “it is essential to practice” as it allows the teacher to bring in a wealth of resources to aid in student learning and many times, drive student learning.  Tools such as an LMS like Moodle and electronic meters are used “every single class”.  The use of an LMS allows transparent conversation with parents, helps to keep students accountable, and creates inefficiencies (such as reducing paper usage or direct feedback to students on assignments).

Some of the barriers that my colleague has encountered throughout his teaching career is when large technology decisions are made, but teachers are not consulted on their needs.  We understand that administrators have tough decisions to make, but the users of the technology should be key stakeholders in those decisions.  Specifically, he utilizes a lot of simulations that use both Flash and Java and class sets of iPads will limit their use – rendering this technology useless for him.

In regards to how tools are picked and how often they are replaced, he will first look at what his pedagogy states and then find the tools and is not driven by simply what is new.  Further, he will “only replace if something better comes along”.  In terms of assessment, and in line with the changing BC curriculum, he states that he no longer uses test and instead utilizes ongoing feedback and interviews – all with technology as an aid and not the driving factor.  I was impressed by his uses of alternative methods in a senior science class so asked him how he finds the time to implement technology in his classroom and still cover all of the course content and his response was simple:

“Technology is a tool that we need to take advantage of, to me it’s as basic as a pencil.  We wouldn’t ask an educator how they have time to utilize a pencil in the classroom would we?”.  

It was a stark reminder that if we have the right mindset and embrace its use, the veil of mystery covering technology can be lifted.