The Scholarly Paper – Please let me know what you think

How the Computer Saved Education

Abstract

               Being a teacher in today’s society can be overwhelming.  Teachers are asked to accomplish a lot of things by the end of the school year: students passing high-stake testings and for them understanding everything they need to go to the next grade level.  How can this be done?  Technology is a great answer and there are many ways that technology can be used in the classroom to assist the educators.  Technology is a vast amount of information that is easily accessible for the teacher.  Proper mentoring and guidance can make integrating technology in the classroom less overwhelming.  This will bring back excitement, engagement and interaction with the students on learning and even for the teacher.

Introduction

        LCD projectors, IPOD, SMARTBoards, Elmo, What is this list of words?  Another foreign lanuage?  Has someone entered the Twlight Zone?  No, neither scenario is true, this listing is simply the reality of just some of the technological tools waiting to be used by today's educators.  Choosing to embrace this new challenge can result in advancing the students of today into the 21st century, empowered to meet the challenges of their future.  Failure to accept this route can only spiral education down the black hole of ill prepared students facing a society with no place for them to go.  Technology is in the here and now.  

When Did Technology Come Into Learning?      

The impact technology has on education is an important issue.  Teachers need to realize how effective it is to integrate and utilize the components that technology has to offer.  Where did technology become such an important aspect for education?  Randy Chafy in his review from “Exploring the Intellectual Foundation” talks about the history of technology in relation to education.  “Since the colonial era, Western institutionalized education increasingly has been put into the service of civilization-building by seeking to advance practical industrial needs (Chafy pg 1).”  Technology is a fantastic way to work with manufacturing and creating.  What better way to help in this process then to show the students how it is done properly?  “The validity of using technological advancement as a benchmark of civilizational progress – an ideological belief that continues to be implicated within non-critical approaches to technology education (Chafy pg 2).”  This is an important message that Chafy puts out.  America assesses to see if advancements are being made in student learning throughout their education.  Unfortunately, the data from those assessments need improvements. 

            Another tribute to the history of technology in education is why it is so important to have technology in the classrooms?  In the beginning of incorporating technology in the school system was very disconnected.  The students would take a technology class but there was no real assessment given in their school.  During the 1980’s a government report titled

“A Nation at Risk, addressed four issues in the American school system. 

They were poor structure on the curriculum and content areas, low

expectations on student outcomes with low requirements for acceptance

to higher learning facilities, students were not in school as long as students

from other parts of the world, and finally, teacher preparation programs

were not producing able minded educators.  (Fletcher pg 2).”

 

Teachers had a lot of stress in what they needed to do to improve the core curriculum, technology was not part of this.  As a result, computers were used as free choice and teachers were not emphasizing the importance of knowing how to use technology.  Enter a new federal act, “in reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind Act), the federal government has required all states to establish accountability systems with high-stakes testing. (Fletcher pg 3).”  Also the act states that schools need to use technology as an aid with improvements in education.  Many experienced teachers are nervous integrating a new content within their lessons.  They are nervous because it is a new learning strategy.  However integrating technology is actually not a new learning strategy; incorporating technology is based on a variety of learning theories.

Learning Theories and Technology – Together Again

            People learn through many different strategies because there are a variety of ways teachers use instructions in their classrooms.  One view is through the behaviorist model approach.  Here the instructor goes over their lessons routinely, over and over again until the student understands the objective.  People refer to this routine as ‘skill and drill’ and using a game online will help reinforce the students to remember.  When winning the game there is praise, which helps the student feel good.  In order for the student to win again they will need to answer the questions correctly and hopefully they will understand the lesson’s objective. (Fernandez-Caballero 505-506.) 

            Another learning view is the social learning theory, where students learn and understand when they are watching others.  The goal here is that after observing the model, the students should be able to copy the modeled behavior.  An example of technology being used in this theory is using simulations.  In a webcast, the talk is about how beneficial using games in particular simulations are to address lessons.  One discussion was learning about economics and in particular a program titled Lemonade Tycoon2 and by observing the environment around the students will pick up the key vocabulary and concept because they are taking part of the simulations. (Games in Education 07/09/2006). This webcast helps with social learning because they are observing others around and have to copy the concepts in order to succeed in the simulation activity.

            Using cognitive learning in the classroom, students keep gaining more insight by learning more.  Whatever their foundation was gets build upon that through discovery and lessons throughout their years.  At the World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications had a lecture titled “Combining Instructional Models and Enabling Technologies to Embed Best Practices in Course Instructional Design.”  A review of the lectured was cited and helped explain what the strengths were of using technology as an aid for teachers in their classes.  “Two distinct fields of educational activity should inform instructional design of courses using teaching technologies.  These are cognitive theory and instructional theory.”(Malone 1685).  They explain that with cognitive thinking everything is done conceptually and so they bring up using conceptual map tools to help with teachers classes in the university level.  “concept-mapping software…study aid for students needing to master the more difficult and abstract content areas in the study.  The model supports the need to ladder content into instructor supported incremental steps that allows modeling of best writing practices through interactive feedback processes.” (Davies & Carbonaro 1376).  Using technology in the classroom will help scaffold the learning process from basic to comprehensive.  In David Hung’s review is based on the problem-based learning theory in relation to cognition theory.  “Draw conncetions between situated cognition and Problem Based Learning (PBL) as an instructional process…argue that PBL is fundamentally congruent to situated cognition…argue that instruction and the use of technology should focus on the historical and social process of learning centered on authentic problems and tasks (Hung 393).”  Hung’s review is based on the relationship between cognition to PBL and explains the importance of authenticity with technology. 

            A constructivist approach has its emphasis not on the teacher but on the lesson and environment; here the teacher is not the focus.  In this theory, the learner has the ability to build their knowledge from their interpretations in the class.  An example using the constructivist model is problem-based learning with technology.   During a conference at the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference, Susan Gibson talks about the importance of using problem-based learning in the classroom.  She states, “a key characteristic of problem-based learning is that the learning should be situated in the examination of authentic, real-life problems of relevance to the learner. Using the computer in this way provides authentic examples and problems of education from real classrooms, thereby heightening students’ appreciation of the realities of teaching practice. (Gibson 2179.)”  The emphasis on the seminar at the conference was stating how important using technology is at school, yet few course requirements discuss the importance of technology in education.  Preservice educators have a lot on their plate and trying new ideas is somewhat difficult with their mentor teacher.  However with this problem-based learning virtual tour, preservice teachers have that power to experience and find the possibilities to include technology in their class.  “The problem-based approach set within a “real” school context gave students a meaningful, authentic and relevant learning experience (Gibson 2180).”

            A final model of learning is the constructionist model.  This is similar to the constructivist theory but develops a little more on the assertion of knowledge.  The learner makes connections through meaningful activities that they are able to construct upon the foundation.  Engagement and building connections are important for this theory because the student must actively participate to get a full effect from the theory.  Sally Beisser and Catherine Gillespie from Drake Univeristy wrote about using technology with the constructionist learning model.  This project was designed and used within a kindergarten setting.  “Students used LEGO construction bricks and pieces to solve problems by building, working on personally meaningful projects, and sharing their work with others…learn and practice LEGO/Logo computer programming language (Beisser and Gillespie 243-260).”  From here students gained insightful meaning from the project and learned about how to solve problems through a variety of ways.  Another example of technology in the classroom with using the constructionist model is from Jakob Tholander.  Jakob explains, “In the Playground project we applied a constructionist learning perspective in order to build a computational learning environment in which children can design and build their own video games (Tholander 51-82).”  Children designed their video games based on their perspectives but as Tholander states, “in order to achieve the goals of learning about the mechanisms that control game behaviors, children must be able to adapt their perspective to the expectations of each subtask and to the task as a whole. (Tholander 51-82).”  Students can gain a new insight on how to publish and create something, the video game is like a story and this will help in their understanding on the writing process. 

 

The Impact Technology Has On Learning

Impact that technology has on education is all around, teachers just need to see the benefits that technology can bring and assist in the students learning objectives.  In Podcast for Teachers, there was a discussion on using wikis.  A wiki is a collaborative way of writing, where groups write a project together.  It shows who writes what, who edits what and the teacher can view that on the site.  Wiki can also help those students who are not organized in writing their class notes from lectures.  Students and or teachers are able to make updates and see when those changes were made.  This can help students with study sessions and class discussion on certain topics with the notes.  It really adds a level of interaction and as a result, students can pick up more information.  Another topic that was discussed was the importance of using blogs in the classroom.  Blogs is a way to incorporate writing, discussed was that it was student creation and it was what teachers wanted having students create their ideas in written format. (podcast episode 47 Podcast for Teachers.).  Using blogs students have their own space and freedom to respond in their language instead of teacher templates.  Some arguments were on the use of standards.  Use of standards that are driven by the state so that students can understand them in time before the standardized tests in hopes that they will pass to show that the school is meeting the yearly progress on education. 

There are some negative sides on using blogging and web space.  One is that it goes away from standards, but arguments there is that teachers can utilize the blogging to fit with the standards.  Another concern is the ability on protection for the student.  Solution brought out is simple protection and adult guidance.  Students should not post photos of them or any other personal information. (podcast episode 47 Podcast for Teachers.).  The idea here is comparing the blog to a paper.  Does a student really put their age, residence, orientation in their paper?  Not really and if they do, the teacher does not display their work to the public.  An understanding that one may ask themselves, does it feel right posting that information so that everyone can view it?  A third issue is the format style.  Sometimes students’ writings transform into a diary or journal format and as a result they miss the objective of the lesson.  As discussed in the podcast students are encouraged to work with the English language and they did just a little overboard (podcast episode 47 Podcast for Teachers.).  A final problem is publishing.  Anything that is submitted online is published to the public, meaning anyone can view.  Possible solutions are to limit personal information.  The podcast solution is “all of it should be pursued for educational purposes, that’s why you are doing it you are engaged…for an educational purpose in mind (podcast episode 47 Podcast for Teachers.).” 

Another podcast was Teaching for the Future, this podcast talks about doing online testing and some of the problems that may occur.  Some positive comments mentioned here were time and grading.  Teachers have to put overtime with tedious grading.  Negative points here are cheating, where students can team with others.  Another negative issue is that if students are cheating are they actually learning or understanding what is being taught (Teaching for the Future Episode 25).  The main reason why teachers should assess students is to make sure the students are understanding the concept and if not the teacher can figure out what they need to do to re-teach.  A possible solution for this problem is making the quizzes short answer then students cannot cheat to an extent because of plagiarizing.  Another solution is to have the quizzes done in school with a time limit.  A final solution is to discuss to the class the purpose of the quizzes and that they are tools to help the teacher see which ones understand and which ones need some more guidance on the subject.

Closing Thoughts

The impact that technology has is immense and needs to be used more in the classrooms.  From various ages, students can learn and understand the core curriculum thanks to the assistance of technology.  Teachers can use a variety of learning theories with technology to teach the lessons to their class.  Technology has been part of education for a long time, it was used as a reward and can also be used for better understanding.  Sometimes technology is misused, teachers teach it because it is stated to meet the standards.  It can also be used to help those who are having a difficult time of understanding.  Technology is growing at a fast pace with new tools and toys for people to use and abuse.  As educators use them, they should be somewhat knowledgeable on how technology will be beneficial for their class and help engage their students.  Educators need to also be aware of the problems that could happen so they are able to help find a solution.  Educators also will need to let go of their fear of the unknown and work collaboratively with peers on the possibilities of using technology in their classrooms. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Beiser S. & Gillespie C. (2003). [Review Kindergarteners Can Do It-So Can You: A Case Study of a Constructionist Technology-Rich First Year Seminar for Undergraduate College Students] Information Technology in Childhood Education Annual Vol. 2003 Issue 1, 2003, pgs 243-260.

Chafy, R. (1997). Exploring the Intellectual Foundation [review from Journal of Technology Education]. Journal of Technology Education Vol. 9, Number 1, 1997.

Davies J. & Carbonaro M. (1999). Teaching Multimedia Tools in a Constructionist Paradigm Via the Web [review from World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications].  Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 1999, 1376-1377.

Fay, R. & Wagner, M. (2006). Games in Education [webcast from EdTechLife] http://robfay.com/2006/07/09/games-in-education, 07/09/2006.

Fernandez-Caballero, Antonio (2002).  A Game Editor for Virtual-Prismaker Learning Environment to Improve Teaching and Learning in Classroom [review from World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications]. Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2002, 505-506

Fletcher, G.H. (2002).  Igniting the Internet Revolution: A New Category for Education Technology [Review of the program Concert from Pearson Education Technologies]. T.H.E. Journal (http://thejournal.com/articles/16752), pgs. 1-8.

Gibson S. (2002) Using Web-Enhanced Problem-Based Learning in Teacher Education [Review from Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference]. Proceedings of Society for Infrmation Technology and Teacher Education International Conference 2002, pgs, 2179-2182.

Hung, D. (2002). Situated Cognition and Problem-Based Learning: Implications for Learning and Instruction with Technology [Review of Situated Cognition and Problem-Based Learning: Implications for Learning and Instruction with Technology]. Journal of Interactive Learning Research Vol 13, Issue 4, 2002, pgs. 393-414.

King, K.P. & Gura, M. (2006) Interview: Adam Frey, Wikispaces and Students Blogging and MySpace.com! [podcast from Podcast for Teachers] http://www.odeo.com/audio/1566227/view, Episode 47, 7/24/2006.

LaMorte, D. (2006) Are You Part of the Problem? [podcast from Teaching for the Future] http://teachingforthefuture.com/teachingforthefutrue25.mp3, Episode 25, 9/01/2006.

Malone, P.M. & Schryer, C.F. & Rossner-Merrill, V. (2000).  Combining Instructional Models and Enabling Technologies to Embed Best Practices in Course Instructional Design [Review from World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications] Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2000, 1685-1686.

Tholander J. (2005). Children’s Perspectives in a Game Programming Discourse [Review Children’s Perspective in a Game Prgramming Discourse] Journal of Interactive Learning Research Vol. 16 Issue 1, January 2005, pgs 51-82