Horizon Report

The article outlines various ways that technology can and most likely will be of use to teachers and students within the classroom. The five ways that the article outlines are:

Collaborative environments:

These are already in place in many of the higher education environments and social networks. These environments allow individuals to work together towards a common goal. These environments are being touted because they can model how companies work together towards a common goal. Students can work together either at the same time or at different times on a project and other group work. Collaborative environments can also be set up for students explore situations as a group to learn new content and skills.

Online communication tools:

These are also more prominent on the college level. These tools allow students and teachers to communicate with each other rapidly outside of school. Chatrooms, instant messaging, skype and email allow for fast communication and opportunities for instruction that occur outside of a traditional classroom. Some of these tools can be used to store information and recordings of various types that students can access later.

Mobiles:

Research is suggesting that individuals will receive the majority of the web content via a mobile device. Mobiles are also becoming more powerful, being able to run outside applications, take pictures, recording video and audio. Outside applications have the greatest chance to increase the use of mobiles in classrooms, as the options for content delivery with these applications are numerous. Mobile applications are taking the place of other tools, such as personal response systems, making these systems obsolete or unnecessary as their uses are being replaced by mobiles.

Cloud computing:

Cloud computing occurs when many computers are linked together to function as a unit. They share network space and processing power. This allows information to be accessed anywhere that the network is accessible. Teachers and students can use these networks to store information that individuals can access. The primary hindrance to the use of these clouds is the restriction of access by school districts. Many school districts restrict web access, and this makes it difficult for teachers to take full advantage of these clouds. For these to become more prominent in schools, restrictions will have to be lifted.

Smart Objects:

Smart objects are objects that contain technology that possess knowledge about themselves and possibly about objects that surround them. Smart objects are slowly becoming more prominent in every day life. These objects sometimes can connect to the internet, interact with other smart objects, and provide information to the user of the object. These will need to be developed more before they become more prominent in the classroom.

The technology that could be a potential boon to teacher is online communication tools. Students spend a significant amount of time online, and can be instructed outside of classroom time. When students are most interested in a subject is the time for instruction, which may not necessarily be when the student is in the classroom. This will also increase the workload for the teacher, in terms of quantity of time spent working, but will also increase many aspects that are beneficial to the student-teacher relationship. Students will also learn more.

The technology that could present the greatest problems are the use of mobiles. Cell phones present greater complications within the classroom than benefits. Rampant cheating and distractions from instruction come to mind immediately. There are other tools out there that do similar things that outside applications on cell phones do, and do not present these complications.

Learning Needs First: Technology Enhancement Grounded in Content & Planning

Technology in the classroom should be based around planning and learning needs. Planning and learning needs should not be based around technology. This is the main idea of the articles that we read for homework. Often teachers focus on technology first and then planning. Maybe they are excited about a new technology or see technology as a silver bullet. This is called "technocentric" instruction, and puts the emphasis on the technology instead of the learning. "Grounded Tech Integration" hearkens back to the problems that we identified with technology as a class early on in the semester. Some teachers throw technology at a class regardless of whether or not that technology fits with their content and pedagogical goals.

Harris and Hofer remind us that the approach to technology integration needs to support students "standards based learning needs," it needs to be usable by teachers with different levels of tech understanding as well as different teaching styles, it needs to be easily learned and implemented, and it is dependent on teachers truly having control over their planning and implementation processes.

The way to meet these specifications is to focus on planning first and choosing the appropriate technology to match the content and skill goals LAST. Technology options should specifically relate to or match learning activities. This called an "Activity Types" approach to tech enhancement. Harris and Hofer state that there are five steps to planning a learning event:

1. As stated above, first and foremost, learning goals must be chosen.
2. Pedagogical decisions are then made. Harris and Hofer suggest using 8 pedagogical decisions for this process.
3. Select the activity types that will be used to achieve the learning goals. These will differ depending on the content area.
4. Select formative and summative assessment strategies to monitor student achievement of learning goals.
   
5. Select appropriate tools and resources. By choosing recommended technologies to support and enhance appropriate activities, teachers are able to incorporate technology without overshadowing the overall skill and content goals.

Harris and Hofer have pulled together lengthy and informative lists of activity types specifically for each content area and the corresponding recommended technologies for those activities. For example, with Social Studies, a teacher who is interesting in having students view images can integrate technology by using PowerPoint, Photostory, Bubbleshare, Tabblo, or Flickr. Or, if a teacher wants students to create a timeline, suggested technologies include Timeliner, Photostory, Word, or Bubbleshare. As you can see, with this method, you think about content and pedagogy FIRST, and THEN choose the technology.

When reflecting on using Activity Types approach, it is very apparent that this aligns with the way that we are asked to do lessons in Dr. Stoddard's methods course. He always asks us to identify the content topic and learning/standards objectives FIRST. All other work in the lesson planning process must flow out from those goals. I think the Activity Types approach is extremely useful because I often find myself thinking, "Okay, so I want to achieve x content goal and y skills goal, but I don't know how to do it and make it fun with technology." The Activity Type list cuts down on that "not knowing what to do" anxiety by giving you multiple options for every activity you could think of as a teacher. I will definitely be using it in the future! The one area that I was a little confused on was step 2, making pedagogical decision with the 8 categories. That part is something that I am not used to doing and would like to go over in class.

Five potential topics

These five topics are applicable to the introductory biology courses that I am involved with:

Energy cycling,

Nutrient cycling,

DNA replication,

Historical figures in evolution

Pollutants and biomagnification

THe Possibilities Are Endless: But Here Are Five

The Gilded Age is always a possible focus point for me. It is one of my favorite time periods. An often overlooked or under-appreciated era of history, it intrigues me immensely. The Gilded Age is arguably the birth of America as we know it today, and specifically American culture. The dawn of the entertainment industry and print media played a large role in this phenomenon; and so their is great potential for students to encounter this, engage with, and maybe recreate this time period and the print culture using technological tools and mediums.

For my African American History class, it might be interesting to have students compare and contrast the way leaders of the Civil Rights Movement rallied and engaged their followers to the ways activists employ the used or technology and media for similar ends.

Not long after the birth of our nation and the ratification of the Constitution, presidential elections were becoming more competitive and many times contentious. Comparing political slander in the media between then and now could be another interesting focus.

Another couple of focus points could be industrialization and urbanization, since I have written an inquiry lesson on the subject for my Methods class. I could certainly bring in technology as a way of introducing the new sources. I have also written a concept formation lesson on de facto segregation. I'm sure I can connect this to technology as well; if not directly, then as part of a follow-up lesson/assignment.

Lesson Plan Ideas

Share Lesson Plan Ideas Here!

The Charge of the Light Brigade

The following is Sasha's lead-off post. She's not listed as an author for the blog and therefore couldn't post new material, so she sent me the text to post on her behalf. Enjoy!
-Matt

Like everything else in Education, all aspects of the grander technology issue need to be considered before any broad-spanning decisions can be made about how a teacher should use technology as a medium of communication from their classroom to the world. And even after that, some people may still not be satisfied, no matter who wants the issue to be permanently resolved.

The Communicating with Parents article states that “parents are only worried about their children.” Nothing could be truer. Therefore, these technology enhancements could provide a great service. Yet, so many people make this issue heavier than it is and drag it through the mud. I have a feeling this issue is going to be like the Priesthood in the Catholic Church. As 0.3% priests are pedophiles, there will be a similar number of sex scandals among teachers. This does not make the issue any better, however what should the other 99.7% of teachers do who would like to utilize the new technologies as timesavers, aesthetically pleasing means of communication, and the educational tools of a new knowledge base?

A more rhetorical question was never asked. Teachers are going to be using the new technologies such as web pages, Twitter, texting, and Facebook to communicate with students and parents. In my opinion, there are simple, common-sensical rules that teachers should follow to score brownie points with parents and colleagues. The one I like the most is the posting of credentials online. My doctor, lawyer, insurance agent, and former professors all had their diplomas hanging in their office somewhere. No less should be asked of teachers. This is in agreement with some of the issues raised by the Writing for the Web article.

Also, there should be some kind of standard that the teacher keeps. Now that all these new technologies are available, there is no need for the teacher to go all freakish. I would say “inform the parents as to what to expect.” Unless an issue arises which needs immediate and extra parental contact, communicating once a month in progress reports is: 1) more than my teachers did when I was the age of my students, and 2) plenty, in my opinion. Teachers are busy.

I thought about this and came up with a delineation of the major topics I will have to communicate to home about. An organized teacher will have all of this already outlined in a syllabus in the beginning of the year. I already know that, mainly, I will want to communicate with parents regarding field trips, laboratory information, special supplies needed, a general outline of the course, and monthly progress reports. Other communication dictated by behavior or the school (for reasons outside of the classroom) will be taken care of on a case-by-case-basis. I think the simplest way to communicate is a class website, upon which everyone can be communicated to at the same time and where class updates can be posted.

This however brings up another issue of student:teacher relationships outside of the classroom. The way I feel about this is also light. Teachers and students are both supposed to be active members of society. Students see their teachers in civic action, church groups, through athletic leagues, and just about the town in general. It is silly, stupid, and pointless for these people to pretend they do not know each other. I solely bring up the issue of student:teacher relationships in public because I do not condone in and believe it will inhibit the use of parent-sanctioned technology when using programs that are not education-specific. If there was to exist a Facebook program that was to be the TeacherTube version of YouTube, this would be much better for professional correspondence.
-Sasha Dofflemeyer

What the Research Says (To Me)

Hi everyone,

Before I begin answering the questions related to this article, I feel that I need to say how interested I was in the detective work of the authors regarding the ultimate source of the "Cone of Learning." I know I have been exposed to these figures before, and for me this bogus data serve as a great example of how a conclusion that makes "logical" sense can be widely accepted without additional verification or criticism. I'd say this is a warning for all of us as we enter this teaching profession - I'm sure most of us will be bombarded by suggestions, tips, rules of thumb, etc. It'll be important to proceed with these bits of wisdom cautiously, even if they seem especially insightful or flawless at first glance.

But I digress. The main object of "Multimodal Learning Through Media: What the Research Says" is to address how multimedia tools may play a role in improving student learning. In general, the article indicates that results are positive, albeit slightly mixed (which might be more a product of specific combinations of teaching practices rather than the use of multimedia in general). I’d say this general trend is misleading however. Not everyone is going to respond equally well to the same type of multimedia learning enhancement. Much like those who assigned percentages to the Cone of Learning, anyone who believes any multimedia enhancement will automatically bring their average SOL scores up 30% is looking for a silver bullet that does not exist.

Rather, what the article is basically saying is that any classroom is full of students with different preferred methods of learning and different types and degrees of prior knowledge in a variety of subjects. As the article states, “Experienced teachers recognize that the design of lessons must adapt to the expertise and prior knowledge of the learner, the complexity of the content, and the interests of the learner.” Multimedia learning enhancement allows for teachers to design lessons that have the possibility of appealing to a variety of these learners by presenting information in a variety of ways. This variety also appears to activate different parts of the brain and thus enhance learning if they are designed and presented appropriately.

Furthermore, there are often multiple goals to learning a certain concept or subject, and the effectiveness of various types of multimedia enhancement is dependent on the particular goal being sought. As the article points out, interactive multimodal learning appears to have a greater positive influence on “higher order thinking” than non-interactive multimodal learning (although both are positive and apparently significant). Conversely, non-interactive multimodal learning has a more significant positive impact on the learning of basic skills than interactive multimodal learning. Interestingly, this latter trend seems to directly contradict the conclusion of the Cone of Learning that all interactive learning is more effective than “passive,” non-interactive modes, regardless of the situation.

So the article provides us with the fact that multimedia enhancement is generally good and it gives us a few potential rules to live by when implementing it, but the article presents a few caveats to its implementation. Beyond the fact that the usefulness of different types of enhancement are goal-specific, the article cites several potential aspects of multimodal enhancement that, if not designed appropriately, can hinder learning. Including extraneous information (a common mistake in PowerPoint), presenting information redundantly, and presenting words and pictures sequentially (as opposed to simultaneously) will not improve learning. I’d say the take home message is that the limitations are not inevitably inherent in multimedia enhancement, but rather a product of poor design. Therefore, this aspect of the practice makes it no different from any other educational tool.