The editorial reproduced below is current. It was written with the winter 2008 course in mind. Read it and post a response to one of the questions that follow the editorial.
Abramson, T. (2007). Digital toys and learning tools. Journal of Instruction Delivery Systems, 21(2), 3-4.
Society evolved from the industrial to the computer and then to the communications/information age in less than half a century while education, which should be grounded in society, continues to lag behind. Probably the best definition for technology is that which did not exist in one’s youth. Accepting that thinking, children should use in school the computer tools they use outside of school. But wait! Are all the home-based computer tools suitable for learning or are some just digital toys?
We have consistently opposed the perspectives that the teacher must accommodate all learning styles and that the school day should be a series of pleasurable experiences. Both may sound good but are virtually impossible to implement. A classroom teacher cannot accommodate 24-30 unique learning styles and still get the subject matter taught, reinforced and tested, not even with the support of technology. Some things are difficult to learn, others are tedious; the fun part comes with the relief of mastery, not the struggle to get there.
Technology in society during this decade has been moving at an unprecedented pace. A recently-published paper described how the net generation requires collaboration to maximize learning. The net generation, also called the Millennials, is made up of the people who were born after 1981, for whom communication technologies are natural artifacts of their society. It turned out that collaboration, a process in which people work together to achieve a goal, was not the term intended by the author. A more accurate requirement might be communication or interaction.
Our crystal ball had not anticipated social networking tools such as IM (instant messaging), texting, wikis, blogs, podcast and vidcasts, and sites such as MySpace and SecondLife. Many of the tools work through computers, tablets, Blackberries and cell phones. These technologies and applications enable two conditions that serve the emotional needs of school-age children. First, one never needs to be alone. Second, one may be anyone he wishes; truth and fiction become one in cyberspace.
Beyond the needs of children, these technologies have created an economic windfall. The devices are small and fragile. They fall out of pockets and backpacks and into toilets and washbasins; they get lost and stepped on and need to be replaced immediately if not sooner. Who, among our readers, has not wondered, “What is there to talk about so much all the time?” The answer, of course, is “You would not understand”. We do not even try. One of our colleagues observed that her nephew’s fingers move as he speaks even when there is no device in hand for texting. Another reported that highschoolers who text or IM are “talking with their fingers”, not writing.
We asked several high school students how they cope in class when (we assumed) they were detached from their technology. It was explained that phones were to be turned off and put away during class but few really complied. Phones were put on vibrate and texting could be done surreptitiously on one’s lap. If caught, the phone was confiscated but could be redeemed in the school office by making a charitable contribution, usually $5. We were about to ask whether it was worth the risk but decided not to sound additionally ignorant.
We read about multi-tasking and how brains are developing differently based upon the variety of digital experiences during the formative years. Even computers do not multi-task; they perform so quickly that, to the human eye, it appears that more than one action is taking place concurrently. There is a difference between one-way and two-way communication. The car radio broadcasts music or news but it makes no demand upon the listener; a cell-phone, even if not hand-held, is a device for speaking and listening. Driving and conversing is multi-tasking with the probability of bad consequences. A stereo or an I-Pod that plays favorite music during study times does not create a multi-tasking situation. The music helps the individual relax and be receptive to the task at hand.
A widely syndicated cartoon, Cathy, by Cathy Guiswite, on September 9, 2007, featured a mother with a daughter about to start third grade shopping for supplies. They bought a notebook computer, a printer, an electronic planner, a calculator, a cell phone and a wireless router. Cartoons are largely political statements; this one was a statement about the state of education. Reading it brings forth concern about the growing digital divide. Is education in wealthy neighborhoods to be totally different from that in areas where parents cannot provide comparable equipment? So far, according to independent assessment reports, there is not much to worry about. All the electronics on the market and in the schools have yet to raise the level of achievement as measured by state and local standards.
Returning to the title of the editorial, Is it possible to make two distinct technology piles – one for digital toys and another for learning tools? How does a technology migrate from one pile to the other? Will web-publishing tools such as weblogs and wikis become useful artifacts for learning? Will the ability to create online content including text, photos, audio and video become valuable assets in the skill set of an educated person? Will teachers at all levels devise learning experiences that capitalize upon the digital toys of today? Many answers are on the drawing boards as we write. Migration from toy to tool occurs when innovative teachers devise, use, and evaluate applications to improve learning.
The Journal of Instruction Delivery Systems has been networking in search of solutions. We hope to present many to our readers starting with this very issue. [End of editorial.]
All responses/comments should be 200 words or fewer.
1. Looking at the subject you teach, explain how is it possible for all learning to be fun and not boring.
2. Which of the new tools mentioned above appears to hold the greatest potential for improving learning within the population you teach. Expand upon your choice.
3. Looking beyond your own situation, what will the new technologies mean for the digital divide or the generation divide?
4. What is your perspective on multi-tasking and learning?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
13 comments:
The group that I work with most closely is that of nurse educators employed within a hospital setting. We frequently need to develop learning packages, patient education material, or policies and procedures, to name a few. The documents developed normally need to be reviewed by several nurse educators, and through the use of email and/or a shared network drive, documents are examined and feedback is provided to the developer either through the use of the Microsoft tracking option in Word or an email response. The methods of feedback; however, are cumbersome, and the developer needs to spend a great deal of time reading responses, making changes to the original document, and saving and reposting or emailing the various drafts.
If a wiki was used by the nurse educators, a developer could post an initial draft of a document, and then edits could be made to the document without all of the other steps just described. The most current version of the document would be visible to all, and changes to the document would be tracked through the history option that is normally included within a wiki environment. Although the developer needs to be open to others editing her material, I would predict that the total development time for a particular document could be significantly decreased, and in some cases a truly collaborative document could be produced. Most importantly, the nurse educators would be learning from each other, and maybe even more engaged in the review process.
I teach occupational therapy students in a master's program in Louisiana. Most of my students are from rural areas with limited exposure to other cultures. After completion of their coursework, students participate in two 3-month fieldwork rotations, usually out of state. This has historically been a very stressful time for the students since they must adapt to a new environment away from family and friends while at the same time learning complex clinical skills.
This spring during rotations I will be using online technology to provide social and instructional support for twenty students spread out all over the U.S. The online portal will be in Blackboard and will consist of a discussion forum, email, and a resource depository. I hope to use podcasting of student messages to increase a sense of social presence. The success of this intervention will be greatly dependent on students’ access to the Internet and their motivation to use the system. However, my research thus far indicates that there is a reasonable chance that it will help students feel less alone during a stressful time.
Currently, I train faculty but my response would be more related to the students they teach. Of all the tools mentioned in the editorial, I would have to choose wikis.
Instant messaging and texting would be difficult to implement as teaching and learning tools. They may provide supporting mechanisms for students as they encounter the concepts but I do not see them as strong contenders for the top place in the list of new technologies to adopt in the classroom.
A discussion with some students revealed that most foreign students own iPods and use them regularly. Podcasting and vidcasting are attractive complements to enhance learning. Lectures are presently recorded and the recordings are made available to the students through a secure online connection, so that they may review their classes at any time. Students carry their iPods with them wherever they go and therefore would have opportunities to multi-task and review their lessons while attending to other live needs. The questions that remain are how much learning would actually take place due to them listening to the lectures while concentrating on other tasks and how do we reach the students without iPods?
Not discounting the value of any of the tools mentioned I believe that the use of wikis in classes has many benefits. Wikis require the students to write - unlike the short cut nature of the messaging or the passive listening of podcasting. In order to provide quality information that would be peer-reviewed, a certain amount of research would need to be done. As much as this is also the case with blogs, the collaborative element of wikis gives wikis an edge over blogs, by adding the many benefits of team productions. Many persons can work together to complement each other’s work and produce a quality document in the form of a wiki. The end product is one that required research as well as benefited from the many positives of collaboration.
What will the new technologies mean for the generation divide? Unfortunately, new technologies often present new opportunities to waste time, especially for young people. Just as my father used to kick me out of the house during Saturday morning cartoons, I find that I have to limit what I call “mind-wasting activities” of my four teenagers. They each have a very generous two hours per day to spend on the video games, TV programs, entertainment web sites, and movies of their choice.
The debate arises when we try to determine which computer activities are “learning” versus those that are mostly entertainment. For example, one of my children asked me, “Why can’t I spend more time on the SIMS? It’s educational!” She then went on to explain how she was learning skills such as budgeting, house design, and child care as she creates the SIMS virtual characters and cares for them. If these skills actually translated to changed behavior in the real world, such as improved management of their own money, bedroom appearance, or pet care, she may have an argument.
However, my opinion is that so-called “educational activities” that do not have defined, measurable objectives are just plain entertainment. What are the real objectives of online technologies such as simulation games, virtual worlds, and social forums? I think in most cases the creators are simply providing “fun” so that the user keeps returning to their website, subscribing to their services, or buying more of their software. Do I believe online technologies can be used for instructional purposes? Of course. However, it takes much more work and planning to extract real educational value from something that is designed to be nothing but “fun.” I suspect that challenge will be the topic of further discussions in this class.
Trudy said, “Looking at the subject you teach, explain how is it possible for all learning to be fun and not boring.” I teach computer science, and I don’t believe it is possible for all learning to be fun. Fun implies amusement, playfulness, and entertainment. But I do believe that it is possible for learning to be not boring. Boredom implies tedium, apathy, and detachment. Instead of saying that all learning can be fun, I would say that all learning can be engaging. As a teacher, my purpose is not to entertain the students but to engage the students (although sometimes they find me entertaining as well).
Being engaged means that one’s mind and attention is occupied by the task at hand. This is counter to the notion of multitasking. If I am multitasking, my mind is not focused on the task at hand because I am trying to do multiple things at once and am distracted by the demands made by the different tasks I am juggling. But when I am engaged, my mind is focused, and it is difficult for me to pull myself away from what I am doing.
So in my computer science courses, I ask myself how it is possible for all learning to be engaging and not boring. That is my challenge as both an instructor and an instructional designer.
I think it is important to acknowledge that some learning is not intended to be fun, but a means of increasing knowledge. To intimate that all learning should be fun reinforces the misconception that if learning is not fun, then it should not be learned, thus placing the emphasis on entertainment versus the acquisition of knowledge. I believe it is vital that a discrimination be identified and maintained to promote a future of scholars versus players.
I teach in a graduate and undergraduate nursing program, and have found the use of technology as a tool has promoted shared knowledge and group learning. As an example, students in their capstone clinical experience contribute to two asynchronous discussion groups. One forum discusses challenging patient care and the interventions that were delivered, while the second group discusses newly utilized medications. The forums allow the students to gain further knowledge from resources to support their postings, while the entire group gains information and insights from one another.
The inability of retaining and transferring the knowledge present in the discussion groups has provided the impetus for me to initiate a wiki that will have archived pages for past class participants. The material on the wiki will serve as exemplars and provide additional review material. With concerns of students considering completion of their examinations/testing prior to being able to practice, an additional wiki page would allow students to identify and share beneficial means of preparation and items of importance within the review process.
Question 4:
Multi-tasking is doing several things at once, simultaneously. Learning while multi-tasking can be problematic at best for some. Personally, single-mindedness would be best to describe my learning style. One thing at a time - even to the point of no music while studying. Others, have music, surf, do email, comb their hair, chew gum, etc. all while preparing for an exam. Is that still learning, though, or is it all background clutter that they believe has to be going on or those parts of their brain would be bored?
Yet, our brains are constantly multi-tasking with sensory information. And, can be learning through the senses simultaneously: the aroma of flowers, a beautiful site, the taste of food, the sound of music. All remembered and learned for future recollection: Sensory multi-tasking. Can students learn while texting, listening, and chewing gum at the same time? Why not?
My experience with secondary schools students and their proficiency with their personal communication devices leads me to believe that the use of cellular phones would be the most advantageous technology to use in my school's setting to improve learning. First, the percent of students who have one to use daily is approximately 90%. These cell phones almost always have the advantages of having mini- or micro- SD slots where students could acquire podcasts and vodcasts for class so that they can review material outside of the lecture or classroom time. These cell phones also have texting capability which allows them to interact with the instructor as a whole. The students can be given a question and they could answer the question by texting their response to the instructor thereby acting as a "clicker" for instantaneous feedback to classroom inquiries thereby giving the instructor instant feedback if learning has taken place or if more work needs to be done. Cell phones could also be a portal to a blog where students are asked to move away from the IM writing style that they have acquired and move towards a more professional one for the class. The students then could receive feedback from the instructor or other students regarding their writing and help them to develop more advanced writing skills.
As people begin to age certain faculties begin to degrade. Seniors are not educationally handicapped but rather handicapped by the loss or diminishing nature of particular senses. Technology needs to accommodate for the loss of senses. Technology must be customizable to meet the needs of the individual and make it cost effective. These are major issues for program designers. When the programming world evolves to accommodate change the gap in usability will decline.
Catering to the needs of the growing number of seniors has become a booming industry. New technologies are emerging that are bridging the generational divide. The multi touch interface being created by Jeff Han allows manipulation of data and programs to be easier for all ages. Customizability of technology also increases the usability. Limiting some features prevent clutter and confusion for all age ranges.
I’m not really sure making all learning fun is even possible. I say this for two reasons. First, some material, no matter how well it is dressed up, is just not that exciting (subnet masking comes to mind!). Second, what is fun for me may not be fun for you. So how could it be possible for all of anything to be fun for everyone?
I try to make learning in my class as fun as possible. I especially like to bring amusement to math, a subject most second graders will tell you they can do without. Math in my class is fun… for the most part. I have thirty students in my class. No matter how hard I try I always have a handful of students that don’t like my jokes, don’t find my drawings funny, or could not identify with the “real life” examples I present (I put real life in quotes because my examples are usually very exaggerated in an effort to be funny or to make a point).
I think learning can definitely be fun, but I have to agree with Jen in saying that it is not possible for ALL learning to be fun ALL the time. I teach Kindergarten ESL and thus my class usually consists of 20 or more easily distracted five-year-olds with short attention spans and high energy levels! Within this setting I find that I have 10 minutes maximum to introduce and explain a concept before the children become bored and squirmy. I try to make the initial introduction to any concept as fun as possible. In the past I have taken the students on nature walks or have displayed realia as ways of making the introduction of a concept fun. However, I am careful not to distract them to the point that they put the learning aside in order to be entertained. I feel that “fun” is better fitted for the practice stages of learning such as using finger paint or modeling clay to write the letter of the week. Activities like this are very useful but only after the concept has been introduced, otherwise the lesson will be lost among the amusement.
Which of the new tools mentioned appears to hold the greatest potential for improving learning?
Social networking tools can both distract from and contribute to learning experiences. However, I believe that good design and "orchestration" of the learning experience can make the difference between a waste of time and engaged learning. Each of the tools mentioned in Trudy’s post could be used in a different context to facilitate learning. However, it appears to me that a wiki could provide the best ongoing support for the collaborative activities of any learning or work group of any age. Support of peer interaction and collaborative knowledge building could potentially improve learning.
With regard to the subject of multitasking… There are things which we can and do do simultaneously and many other things which it is impossible to do simultaneously. In my understanding, multi-tasking often refers to rapid change of focus back and forth from one thing to another …. something which Gaby Salomon referred to (in Hebrew) as the “defect of the butterfly”. I sometimes refer to myself as a retired – or is that just tired? - “multi-tasker”. I enjoy focusing on one thing at a time and I believe that we all, even the n, y, and x generations, learn better when we are engaged and our attention is focused.
2. Which of the new tools mentioned above appears to hold the greatest potential for improving learning within the population you teach? Expand upon your choice.
Besides blogs and wikis, one can notice that podcasting is more popular among the net generation. Podcasting is the ability to create audio and video files that can be easily downloaded to your computer or portable devices such as ipods, cell phones, computers, and even gaming devices. Practically all pop music is available for downloading on the Internet. Everywhere we go, there is someone with an ipod and those peculiar tiny earphones stocked to their ears. Some educators believe that podcasting may have some instructional uses. After all, students (of the net generation) are constantly downloading their favorite music and videos, or interchanging their favorite tunes and videos. But, would they be interested in downloading a lecture or a video of a biology lab? Again, this may be transferring what we do in a classroom to the web hoping that it will provide some meaningful experience to the students.
During the MERLOT conference in New Orleans back in August, 2007 I heard some presenters emphasizing that when using those “toys” for educational purposes we may as well get the students to be the authors of their own content. I found that this shift in the way we try to use new technologies is very exciting. Apple Computers is providing free space for educators and students to podcast. We can visit the itunes U web site ( http://www.apple.com/education/itunesu/ ) to appreciate how the academic community (K-12 and higher ed) is taking advantage of this free space to build all sorts of instructional objects by students and educators . As just another new technology, podcasting may be valuable in courses that involve mastery of collaborations, lots of visual aides, and projects where students can create their own content. That good old lecture can be archived.
For more information about educational uses of podcastin you can visit:
Apple Computers
http://www.apple.com/education/resources/podcastingvideos/
University of Houston
http://podcast.uh.edu/allaboutpodcasting/educational/educationalIndex.html
Regards,
Sandra
Post a Comment