Here are some initial thoughts about the use of technological tools in a math and science classroom.
Technological tools should encourage experimentation to construct understanding and show results in an efficient and effortless way. Changes and modification should be easily made and results should be displayed in a seamless way.
Technological tools should encourage social interactions where students reflect upon ideas and identify lines of thinking about a concept. Students should have options to share, view and annotate the contributions from their peers.
Technological tools should support documentation and assessment of learning. Educators and families should be able to track student learning.
Technological tools should be use in combination with support in regards with digital literacy and critical thinking. Students should be supported with additional skillsets to confidently utilize technological tools.
Technological tools should be used outside of the classroom to further support students’ learning. Learning should continue after initial lesson and there should be tools like videos, social media platforms and social bookmarking sits to help consolidate learning and to further develop deeper understanding.
Although a classroom teacher is a one critical element in initiating the efficient use of learning technology, school wide and national policies should also reflect this priority. Schools should share their values about using technology in the classroom and provide professional development opportunities to its educators. National policies should reflect upon current research and trends to consistently support the development and use of educational technology.
Alice
Hi, Alice!
As I was reading through your post, I was struck by how closely your categories mirror the 21st Century Learning skills (which was of no surprise to me, as I know how well read and insightful you are!)
Collaboration and teamwork – Social Interactions
Creativity and imagination – Experimentation
Critical thinking – Critical thinking
Problem-solving – Digital Literacy
Thinking about who is responsible for the use of technology to support learning, I also started to think about how we, as educators, could better support communities and families in developing these same skills so that the learning can continue outside of the classroom. For example, at our school, we use a LMS, like many other schools, yet the only training we gave the parents on how to use it and interact with it was a one-page handout at the beginning of the year. If we want parents to be able to access and learn from the assessment and documentation that we are doing, we need to also empower them to take ownership of their child’s progress as well.
Bers, New, & Bourdreau (2004) have an interesting article about this where they explore a workshop where students and parents learn together about STEM topics, thereby giving all of the participants a chance to be equal learners and share common experiences. By stressing the importance not just to students, but also to parents, they are then more empowered to advocate for their child on boards and committees where these topics are discussed. This is definitely an idea that your posting sparked in my mind and something I now want to pursue with my administrators.
Thanks!
-Jonathan-
Bers, M. U., New, R. S., & Boudreau, L. (2004). Teaching and learning when no one is expert: Children and parents explore technology. Early Childhood Research & Practice, 6(2), n2.
Dear Jonathan,
Thank you for your thoughts. I like how you highlighted the importance of parent communication. It is quite apparent that when learning is consistent between home and school, students are more ready for abstract concepts and STEM projects. Seesaw is our key portfolio piece that students showcase during student-led conferences. Indeed, students benefit from home support. The school and its students benefits when
families believe and support our pedagogy.
Just recently, we held a parent workshop on the spelling tool THRASS. Families learn how to support students’ This a spelling and reading tool that helps student spell unfamiliar words. This is helpful when students attempt to spell unfamiliar words.
Alice
Hey Alice! I’ll echo Jonathan here; a wonderful post which certainly highlights how well-read you are! I fully plan to take your post and save it in a doc so I can reference it later.
Was there a particular document that you used to help develop these ideas or was it simply a matter of reflecting on personal experiences and what you read once-upon-a-time? I ask because I’d really like to save those documents as resources as well!
Finally, I wanted to take a different spin on my comment this time around and ask a bit of an extension question. Based on your criteria, would you consider using Instagram a “good” use of digital technology for a math or science classroom?
Thanks for your contributions!!
Scott
Dear Scott,
Thank you for your feedback. Most of these ideas came from pedagogical understandings. For example, constructivist theory supports experimentation and social interaction. You can read more about that in Piaget’s and Von Glaserfeld’s work. Ideas from
documentation and assessment raised from research findings from data analytics. The rest developed from my teaching experience.
Consider reading Wallis’s (2014) work about Instagram. Personally, I feel that social media can have a place in education. However, there is a limit in which the use of social media is helpful to learning. In the case of instagram, I feel that it can support with identifying concepts. Depending on the task, instagram can be used in an effective way.
Wallis, L. (2014). #selfiesinthestacks: Sharing the Library with Instagram. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 19(3/4), 181-206. doi:10.1080/10875301.2014.983287
Thanks for the reply Alice!
I checked out Wallis’ work you suggested on Instagram – to me, it seems that a lot has changed since 2013 in terms of how Instagram is used and how it’s been used in classes, especially in terms of students being able to connect with other students. I feel like the way it was used in Wallis’ paper was slightly artificial. It didn’t seem to be using the natural ecosystem of Instagram to make connections among students and connect in-class learning to real-life situations. Instead it was used to help them learn to navigate the library and express their experience through Instagram.
I almost see this as gamification… almost like “hey, students are intimidated by the library… let’s make them figure out the library through Instagram activities!”, and it feels artificial. Leveraging the familiar to I agree that in this situation there is a fundamental ceiling on how effective Instagram can be for learning. As you suggested, Instagram was used here to identify concepts. I feel like it should have been used to -connect- students to one another in an effort to -explore- and -learn- about concepts.
I guess what I’m really getting at is that I’d be curious to see research about the effectiveness of using Instagram in the way I feel it should be used 🙂
-Scott
Dear Scott,
Thank you for your feedback. I think what Wallis was working on was how students can use multi-media for educational purposes. Personally, the important part of his work was about hastags. In his article, the briefly talked about the significance of topical hastags. Although hastags are more research extensively with Twitter, this feature accounts for efficient methods to curate information in a network. Moreover, as noted in Wallis’ article, the students are exploring the library with a playful attitude. This is applicable to the idea that exploration of learning concepts should also be play-based (i.e. consider STEM projects).
Nonetheless, is this the most effective way to use Instagram? I am unsure, what I am certain though, is that social platforms have a place in education. Whether it is to facilitate communication, develop new perspectives about learning or to curate information or others, Instagram may have educational affordance.
Alice
Hi Nicole,
Thanks for the great post – you gave me lots to think about.
What is your experience in the documenting and tracking of learning using technological tools? This is something we just starting to talk about this at my school and any ideas and experiences I can bring back are welcome!
Kathryn
Dear Kathryn,
At our school, we use e-portfolios in Seesaw to track progress and document learning. At the high school level, teachers use Gibbon to document and communicate learning progress. Personally, I feel that G-Suite apps are sufficient at documenting and assessing learning.
Alice