Here we are trucking along finding out about our topics. Today you'll all be getting some summaries of some great articles I found.
http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ859274.pdf
In this article Bryan Wehrli writes of his and his colleagues opinions about the technology students themselves are bringing into the classroom. He starts off by saying that when kids have the laptops open, they aren't paying attention to him. Bryan is hurt when students would rather be checking their email than listening to him. Bryan says, "the laptop is both a fence and a bridge." There are two ways to go about technology, embrace it, or condemn it. Bryan talks about as opposed to getting to know what the students do in their free time, some schools are making it seem as though they are not interested in the culture of the day.
Wehrli continues by bringing in Michael Wesch to say "the fact that many students are now struggling to find meaning and significance in their education." Wesch is alluding to the idea of wikipedia and google. Students can find information about anything, anywhere, anytime. Not all students learn the same material at the same rate. Though nothing has been set up, the idea is there that teachers can tailor an education for a specific student or group of students. With the advent of the NetGen student, the way teachers have taught for the last 100 years or so is out of date and needs to be revamped. With Web 2.0 teachers have more resources at their fingertips and must find a way to use these to bridge the gap to the student.
I like this article because of the way it looks at the tools and the system. There is a lot of good ideas and information about how teachers can cope with the fast paced world of technology. Most articles written by older teachers are staunch and old school. While Wehrli almost has a sound of giving in, he seems to embrace that this is the way it is, and to make the best of it. I found a link to this article in another that I did not like at all.
http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ898518.pdf
This is an Excellence in Research Award grant study. Twenty teachers from the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University were challenged to incorporate social networks and other Web 2.0 technologies into their curriculum. Since most kids were on social networks, it made sense that the university would keep up with students in the technology world. The faculty were given an eight hour seminar on how to use and implement the new technology. They then went and changed the curriculum for use in the social world. They called this TPACK. This is the culmination of technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and content knowledge. A system of questions were asked of students and teachers after the semester. About half of the instructors said that using social networks and online sites led to increased feedback and communication with class material. Students could review and respond to each other's papers throughout the semester, and teachers had more control over just how papers and projects were to be set up and done. About forty percent of the teachers said there was a shift from a "teacher led" to a more active role by the students. In addition to this, faculty also found that they could give better feedback also learned as a student would in the ways of technology. Students with technology skills could help out the teachers when needed.
This study gives a direct correlation between the teacher and the path to utilizing technology.
http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ936543.pdf
In this study at a private college, students were asked many questions about the inclusion of Web 2.0 technology in the classroom. Swapna Kumar and Katya Vigil seem to have done the study to see what was being implemented in the classroom. Their conclusion was that though the NetGen is savvy at social networking and online video, there are plenty of other outlets that could be used for education that they know little or nothing about. Blogs and Wikis and Social Bookmarking were among those that got the least use. The look at formal and informal use of the web of these future teachers was alarming. It is yet to be seen whether using the technology in studies will lead to the classroom in the future, but the more people know, the more apt they will be to use it.
This study was interesting because these are the future teachers of America. I would think that they would be taking complete advantage of all the tools out there, and they barely touched the surface.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Friday, July 13, 2012
I have started off my research online. I had to stay close to home this week and did not have an opportunity to get to a library. The information that I found has been quite interesting. There are many studies and articles about teachers and technology. While most of these I would not use in a paper, I found a couple that definitely helped define how and when it can be used.
Games Simulations and Social Networking in the Classroom
I found this article very useful. Most of the information does not pertain to the direct question, it provides a glimpse of the struggle educators have to implement technology on their own. It is written as a paper, which was nice to read. It has page numbers and was well laid out. It was written at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Eric Klopfer, Scot Osterweil, Jennifer Groff, and Jason Haas. The paper starts off by saying that today, people of all ages are utilizing technology. It has led to increased interaction between people, collaboration, and communicating with people from all over the world. Young kids these days have grown up and grasped this technology in their everyday lives. It only makes sense that this same technology can be utilized in the classroom. Simulations and games are used in the business world to train and test employees, why can't it be used in school?
Using technology is a new way to bring students acceptance and excitement into the classroom. They spend hours a day playing video games at home. There are educational games that can be used to teach decision making, information processing, and quick thinking. It can also teach collaboration between people. Paying attention to consequences and taking responsible actions also are learned.
Though there are many different way to teach, most of them effective, some teachers have been slow to accept this in the classroom. It is implemented by the teacher in a way that they believe the student will learn best. There was not always television, or slides, or other multimedia, but it was all accepted at one point.
I thought it would be important to take a paper, not a study, and get an outside educator's view of how technology can be used effectively. An MIT paper is definitely a good start. It may be three years old, and much of what they say has already been done, but to get a glimpse of how it is seen by the authors made me ask a lot more questions about the topic.
http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/62/online_stats.htm
This is a study of college students at Wichita State University. There are two groups of students taking the same class but under different parameters. One group is taking a "hybrid" class. The teacher did a lecture at the beginning of each class and then let the students teach amongst themselves. The second class just had the teacher in the room, but the students had to initiate cooperation and learning themselves. Each class had the same information and test days. It seems they used a program much like we do for online learning, but were still in the classroom. The hypothesis was that the student led learning would provide better scores. This was not the case, and the "hybrid" class got better test scores, and was more interactive with each other and the website.
While I plan on centering around high school classes, this is an example that I can use as to how important a teacher might be in a technology based class. Work will still get done, but a teacher might spurn the involvement of everyone around.
As a basic study, I thought this would be useful for at least mentioning, though probably not basing much of my paper on it.
Games Simulations and Social Networking in the Classroom
I found this article very useful. Most of the information does not pertain to the direct question, it provides a glimpse of the struggle educators have to implement technology on their own. It is written as a paper, which was nice to read. It has page numbers and was well laid out. It was written at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Eric Klopfer, Scot Osterweil, Jennifer Groff, and Jason Haas. The paper starts off by saying that today, people of all ages are utilizing technology. It has led to increased interaction between people, collaboration, and communicating with people from all over the world. Young kids these days have grown up and grasped this technology in their everyday lives. It only makes sense that this same technology can be utilized in the classroom. Simulations and games are used in the business world to train and test employees, why can't it be used in school?
Using technology is a new way to bring students acceptance and excitement into the classroom. They spend hours a day playing video games at home. There are educational games that can be used to teach decision making, information processing, and quick thinking. It can also teach collaboration between people. Paying attention to consequences and taking responsible actions also are learned.
Though there are many different way to teach, most of them effective, some teachers have been slow to accept this in the classroom. It is implemented by the teacher in a way that they believe the student will learn best. There was not always television, or slides, or other multimedia, but it was all accepted at one point.
I thought it would be important to take a paper, not a study, and get an outside educator's view of how technology can be used effectively. An MIT paper is definitely a good start. It may be three years old, and much of what they say has already been done, but to get a glimpse of how it is seen by the authors made me ask a lot more questions about the topic.
http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/62/online_stats.htm
This is a study of college students at Wichita State University. There are two groups of students taking the same class but under different parameters. One group is taking a "hybrid" class. The teacher did a lecture at the beginning of each class and then let the students teach amongst themselves. The second class just had the teacher in the room, but the students had to initiate cooperation and learning themselves. Each class had the same information and test days. It seems they used a program much like we do for online learning, but were still in the classroom. The hypothesis was that the student led learning would provide better scores. This was not the case, and the "hybrid" class got better test scores, and was more interactive with each other and the website.
While I plan on centering around high school classes, this is an example that I can use as to how important a teacher might be in a technology based class. Work will still get done, but a teacher might spurn the involvement of everyone around.
As a basic study, I thought this would be useful for at least mentioning, though probably not basing much of my paper on it.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
With the dawn of online high school, is the information learned enough, or is the student-teacher interaction an integral part of education?
This is a question that has sparked interest in my little mind. It seems a little hypocritical considering I am taking my summer classes online. This is my first foray into online learning. I do prefer to be in the classroom, but I know many people that prefer online. It is quite the love/hate, very opinionated debate. In college, especially community college, people are very busy in their lives, and online gives an opportunity to work towards a degree when they have time. High school kids for the most part do not have the responsibilities as us older folk.
With all the gadgets and gizmos that are part of our everyday lives, it is hard to imagine a classroom without them. I still remember hearing the beep in the cassette tape when it was time to move to the next slide. If we needed to do research, we actually had to go to the library and find it. Does anyone remember an encyclopedia? They used to sell them door to door and they had to be updated every few years or the information would be out of date. Now they look great on that extra spot on your bookshelf, or as a relic to how tough life was 20 or more years ago.
I certainly had a culture shock going into a classroom this past spring after 12 years away. All the stuff I dreamed about is true. I am sure some of the wealthier private schools must seem like NASA's mission control. Touchscreens and integrated wifi everywhere. Just yesterday I was talking with a coworker about the inter-departmental mail courier system a university near my home had. Handwritten memos and letters sent in envelopes across campus. Crazy. What a job for a stoner college kid. Now there are at least 10 different ways to almost immediately get a hold of someone.
The one thing that technology can not replace is human contact. I thought I would love this online thing, but I miss going to class. Sitting at a table, next to someone who is going through this with me. It may not be on the battlefield, but it is still nice to know there is someone there. I had such a great time in high school. I have friends and acquaintances that I will have for the rest of my life. Memories may have faded, but luckily others I shared them with do remember. A number or letter grade shows knowledge gained, but getting an education is also learning about yourself and those around you.
Everyone is looking for different things in life, but are experiences just as important as knowledge in shaping who we are?
This is a question that has sparked interest in my little mind. It seems a little hypocritical considering I am taking my summer classes online. This is my first foray into online learning. I do prefer to be in the classroom, but I know many people that prefer online. It is quite the love/hate, very opinionated debate. In college, especially community college, people are very busy in their lives, and online gives an opportunity to work towards a degree when they have time. High school kids for the most part do not have the responsibilities as us older folk.
With all the gadgets and gizmos that are part of our everyday lives, it is hard to imagine a classroom without them. I still remember hearing the beep in the cassette tape when it was time to move to the next slide. If we needed to do research, we actually had to go to the library and find it. Does anyone remember an encyclopedia? They used to sell them door to door and they had to be updated every few years or the information would be out of date. Now they look great on that extra spot on your bookshelf, or as a relic to how tough life was 20 or more years ago.
I certainly had a culture shock going into a classroom this past spring after 12 years away. All the stuff I dreamed about is true. I am sure some of the wealthier private schools must seem like NASA's mission control. Touchscreens and integrated wifi everywhere. Just yesterday I was talking with a coworker about the inter-departmental mail courier system a university near my home had. Handwritten memos and letters sent in envelopes across campus. Crazy. What a job for a stoner college kid. Now there are at least 10 different ways to almost immediately get a hold of someone.
The one thing that technology can not replace is human contact. I thought I would love this online thing, but I miss going to class. Sitting at a table, next to someone who is going through this with me. It may not be on the battlefield, but it is still nice to know there is someone there. I had such a great time in high school. I have friends and acquaintances that I will have for the rest of my life. Memories may have faded, but luckily others I shared them with do remember. A number or letter grade shows knowledge gained, but getting an education is also learning about yourself and those around you.
Everyone is looking for different things in life, but are experiences just as important as knowledge in shaping who we are?
Welcome to my humble blog. I, Eric, will be providing and updating what I hope is some useful information. I will be dwelling on a question that I find quite intriguing. Though a great teaching aid, will technological advances ever replace the teacher and student in the classroom? In my formative years we still used slides, VHS tapes, and overhead projectors. Today blackboards have been replaced by smart boards, and YouTube has made any video available at the click of a mouse. This blog may not be life changing, the information stimulation will hopefully bring you back for more.
Cheers
EO
Cheers
EO
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