Blog # 10 Revolutionizing Learning in the Digital Age

I believe that Mitchel Resnick presents a very clear and interconnected model of educational reform we need for our digital age. He says that we are now in an information age in which the learners should construct the knowledge around them through experimentation, exploration, discussion and reflection (2001). I believe that this idea is connected with the constructivist educational philosophy that we are trying to implement in the schools. Constructivism suggests that simulating real-world problems and situations, giving learners’ chance to manipulate their own ideas and organize the concepts in the way that they learn is one of the greatest benefits of using technology for teaching and learning (Cates, 2003). Resnick claims that the technology will be able to revolutionize the education if the students become digitally fluent. When the learners use technology as a tool to produce information, take an active role in constructing knowledge in a meaningful way, and use their creativity in producing new materials, then they will be getting the full advantage from the technology.

In relation to that Risnick gives computer clubhouses as an example to demonstrate how technology should be used for effective learning so that we can improve the students’ performances. In these computer clubhouses, students create amazing projects like generating videos, digital collages, graphical designs, computer games etc. I am amazed the works the students produce. Especially, Mike Lee’s success story impressed me a lot. Mike was a student who had drop out of high school. He finds freedom to develop his talent of drawing in computer clubhouses and soon he becomes competent in computer techniques. He develops a distinctive style as an artist and even exhibits his artworks in online gallery. I think that this indicates us that if we, educators, choose to use technology as a tool to develop students’ various skills as well as letting them to using their creativity, we can make the necessary educational reform real.

Consequently, I think Risnick’s argument of using technology as a tool to support learning parallels with David Jonassen’s idea of mind tools and fondness to use technology as a tool to learn with rather than learn from (1998). I strongly agree with their suggested applications of technology into learning and believe that perceiving technology as a powerful tool to learn with is the initial step of revolutionizing the education field.

References

Resnick, M. (2001). Revolutionizing learning in the digital age. Publications from the forum for the future of higher education. Boulder, CO: Educause.Available online at https://imp5.cc.lehigh.edu/services/go.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.educause.com%2Freources

Jonassen, David H. (1998). Computers as mindtools for Engaging Learners in critical thinking. TechTrends , 43, 24-32.

Cates, W.M. (2003). Constructivist Teaching/Learning. [PowerPoint Presentation for Lehigh University course EDT 471: Planning for Implementing Technology in School Settings]. Retrieved September 27, 2006 from
http://ci.lehigh.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_10261_1\

Blog #9 Rethinking Assessment

The field of education is transforming itself according to the needs of our century. As far as I see, the shift to authentic assessment constitutes a big portion of this educational reform. Assessing student achievement is changing, because the students should gain the new knowledge and abilities of 21st century. In today’s global economy, students need to gain skills like critical thinking, analyzing information and making inferences on the information they have retrieved (Bond, 1995).

The new assessment model focuses on performance-based assessment which helps the educators to focus on higher order thinking skills of the learners. This assessment requires the learners to have a broad understanding of the subject and then perform more complex thinking skills like analyze the information given, synthesize that information and draw conclusions form their evaluation. The students of our current education have to perform these skill, because our current market seeking creative and free-thinking individuals who are not memorizing the information but processing the information that is presented to them.

Moreover, the performance-based assessment helps students to understand real life tasks, since they learn how to apply the knowledge into real life situations. Unlike traditional assessment types like fill in the blanks, multiple choice answer questions in a quiz, the authentic-based assessment gives students a chance to relate the information that they have learned into the real life examples (Wiggins, 2002). Involving in projects, doing research assignments, making presentations are all examples of authentic-assessment, which familiarizes the learners with the real life projects and presentations. The students of our era definitely need to learn how to do projects, search and collect data in order to get ready to enter the world of business.

I believe that technology can do a great contribution to education in this sense. Online resources for teachers provide lots of lesson plans that are filled with performance-based assessment activities. I believe that webquests, e-portfolios, wikis, concept mapping tools are only a few examples of how technology can help education in its process to move to performance-based assessment applications in schools. Through the use of these tools effectively, educational reform will be an easy process. By integrating technology into the classes and using authentic assessment, technology will become a tool that fosters students’ higher-order thinking skills, problem solving skills and creativity. As all of these web tools foster students to produce performance-based tasks, I believe that technology would be helpful to education in accomplishing its reform in assessment and therefore preparing our generations for the 21st century.

References

Bond, L.A. (1995). Critical issue: Rethinking assessment and its role in supporting educational reform. North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. Retrieved November 12, 2006 from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/assment/as700.htm

Wiggins, Grant. (1993). Assessing student performance: Exploring the purpose and limits of testing. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc. Publishers

Blog #8 Mastery Learning & Technology

In this article, Bloom (1968) talks about the ways of promoting mastery learning. He argues that the educators should consider the individual differences in learning and try to promote the fullest development of the individual. I personally find his ideas and the stages in which he suggest the strategies on how to promote learning crucial. Here, I would like to focus on the section, Ability to Understand Instruction, where he talks about the need of varying instructional materials in teaching and learning.

Bloom argues that the learners first have to understand the task, procedures and the material that they will use in order to understand the instruction. Bloom suggests that the use of different mediums can help to reach different kinds of learners. He says that different textbooks can be used, rather than depending on a single textbook for one class. Workbooks and programmed instruction units can also help the learners who are having difficulty on learning the topic from the textbook. This idea reminds me Gardner’s theory on multiple intelligences. Gardner (1997) says that each individual differs in their learning. While some learners are visual, some are literary and some are kinesthetic learners etc. I agree with both of them and I believe that recognizing these differences is very important in teaching and learning.

Additionally, depending on how to address the multiple intelligences, Bloom (1968) suggests that some students learn best with audiovisual methods and academic games. I believe that in this point, technology can play a significant role in addressing the different kinds of learners’ needs. I believe that the technological tools like videos, concept maps, online conferences, simulations, computer games etc. can all be different kinds of mediums that helps learns to grasp the information easier and better.

Another advantage of using different materials in learning is that different instructional mediums can help learners to achieve high-levels of learning and help them identify and learn new ideas. For instance, Marks and Vitek (1996) argue that using remote sensing from satellites help the students to learn about Earth and can provide the learners greater global awareness. The learners can analyze and evaluate satellite images and the photographs and practice higher-order thinking skills. I believe that this is a very clear example of how technological tools can help not only understanding complex and abstract educational topics, but also can help the learners to interpret, analyze and evaluate the knowledge that is presented to them.

Consequently, I conclude that all of these researches support Kozma’s (1994) argument that the media will influence learning. I believe that his suggestion to use different mediums to help teaching and learning is a vital argument. I believe that technology will be one of the favorite tools of the educators to address the needs of the different kinds of learners.

References

Bloom, Benjamin S. (1968). Learning for Mastery. Evaluation Comment, 1(2), 1-11.

Kozma, R. B. (1994). Will media influence learning? Reframing the Debate. Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(2)

Marks, Steven K, Vitek, John D. (1996). Remote Sensing. The Science Teacher, 63 (3), 28-31.

Gardner, Howard. (1997). Multiple Intelligences as a partner in school improvement. [Special Issue]. Educational Leadership, 55(1), 14-19.

Blog#7 Computers as Mindtools

This article focuses on the technology’s role on learning as knowledge construction tools. Jonassen (1998) argues that the technology should be used as a tool that the students learn with rather than students learn from. Computers as mindtools are very effective in helping students to foster skills like interpreting and organizing the knowledge that they learn. The students can demonstrate higher-order skills through these mindtools. He believes that instead of simply using the technology for instruction and seeing it as a source, we can see technology as a tool that the students can learn with by producing and designing materials. I agree with him about the effectiveness of mindtools very much, because I believe that mindtools have significant contribution to learning not only in construction of knowledge but also in the development of high- level of thinking skills of the learners.

Concept mapping is one his example of a mindtool that fosters students’ organization and analyzing and interpreting skills. As Plotnick argues concept mapping is a effective tool as it has many advantages like helping the learners easily and quickly recognize concepts, understand hierarchical connections between concepts, freeing the mind and fostering creativity thorough brainstorming activities etc... I personally can say that I used concept mapping during my student-teaching and find it very useful in eliciting ideas from the students. In the brainstorming activities we have had, concept mapping helped students to think broadly on a specific topic and organize their thoughts and create connections among their ideas. They also enjoyed concept mapping activities very much. So, concept mapping is definitely a very useful mindtool that promote learners’ thinking skills.

Another mindtool that takes my attention is visualization tools. Jonassens’s description of the visualization tools remind me Kozma’s example on the use of different mediums when teaching Newtonian physics. Kozma (1994) suggest that abstract concepts that are difficult to visualize and understand through traditional teaching techniques can be taught easily by using technology. Similarly, Jonassen (1998)says that chemical bounding is a difficult subject to understand, because it is an abstract topic. Through the use of MacSpartan, a visualization tool, the learners can comprehend this chemistry subject easily. I believe that the visualization tools can provide us the mental images that we need to create to understand the conceptual information.

As a result, I believe that most of the research show how useful technology can be in learning and teaching if it is used effectively. Many researchers like Jonassen has already started answering Kozma’s question on what ways can we use the capabilities of media to influence in learning. I think the positive results of mindtools on learning are enough to prove that Kozma’s question is a major point to look at for the improvement of teaching and learning.


References

Jonassen, David H. (1998). Computers as mindtools for Engaging Learners in critical thinking. TechTrends , 43, 24-32.

Plotnick, Eric. (1997). Concept Mapping: a graphical system for understanding the relationship between concepts. Syracuse, NY: Clearinghouse on Information and Technology. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No: ED407938)

Kozma, R. B. (1994). Will media influence learning? Reframing the Debate. Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(2)

Blog#6 Seymour Papert on Learning

Seymour Papert in The Children’s Machine (1993) talks about how human beings learn words. He gives real examples from his life and explains how he has learned the names of different kinds of flowers. He says that cognitive processing is essential for learning, because thinking is the most valuable part of learning. He criticizes the schools according to this view and says that the learners are expected to only know about grammar, numbers etc. He believes that the schools do not foster students’ thinking skills. I agree with him to some extend, since teachers at some schools rely on memorization in teaching and learning rather than the cognitive process of the information on the learners’ mind.

His basic focus as a whole is that learning occurs when the learner makes certain kinds of connections. These connections can be visual, lexical etc. His visit to botanic garden to recognize each kind of flower with its name is a good example of a visual connection that can be used for learning. I believe that visual connections are very effective in learning any subject. I think that trips to museums, historical places, going to art exhibitions have always been powerful activities for learning. In terms of technology’s contribution, I can say that websites that have good visuals such as pictures, graphics or videos are more likely to appeal the learners’ interest and make learning much easier and interesting. Now, we have even online museum tours in Internet that the students can reach visually and visit these museums even if they cannot go because of distance, time or any other reason.

The lexical connection that he makes to learn the different kinds of flowers is another good example for how to learn. As an ESL teacher, I must admit that we use this technique very often in teaching new vocabulary items. For instance, we provide words that belong to the same lexical family and help the students to relate their prior knowledge on those specific words. The students can guess the meaning of these new words by looking at the roots of them or to the words that they already know. Making lexical connections really helps the learners to process the new information and learn quickly, since they think and engage in their learning actively.

Therefore, I believe that making connections is a necessary element of effective teaching and learning. There is also a correlation between this method and the educational philosophy, constructivism which stresses the importance of cognitive processing and higher thinking skills for learning (Cates, 2003). I think, many schools are trying to implement constructivism, because the success of these teaching methods is obvious.

References

Papert, S. (1993). The Children’s Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer. New York: Basic Books.

Cates, W.M. (2003). Constructivist Teaching/Learning. [PowerPoint Presentation for Lehigh University course EDT 471: Planning for Implementing Technology in School Settings]. Retrieved September 27, 2006 from http://ci.lehigh.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_10261_1

Blog #5 High-Tech and Deep Thinking

Tarlow and Spangler draw our attention to a very critical question about use of technology in education. In their article, (2001), they ask a controversial, yet greatly essential question “Will high-tech kids still think deeply?”. I agree with them that we need to be careful when integrating technology into education, because it may deprive students from high level thinking skills and some literacy skills. As educators, all of us should think thoroughly on this question and try to answer it while bearing in mind that the focus is on the learning of the students. Technology is a means to attain high level of student learning achievements and should never be an end itself.

The authors talk about the total replacement of the books and articles and say that this would be definitely wrong. I agree that it would create awful effect on education. The consequences of total replacement of books to videos would be dramatic, since the learner would be a lot less active in his or her cognitive process when listening videos rather than reading books. The learners would not be able to stop, think and reflect on the videos while watching it most of the time. When reading books, the learner can stop at any point of the book as much as they want and discuss those points with their peers, take notes or highlight the sentences they find important. We have some of these things in video, too, but it would be much more difficult stop anytime and go back to the section which you like in the video.

Brian Tobin, (1996) agrees that technology will not replace lectures, as he believes that the basic book-learning knowledge is necessary to have intellectual critique lectures. I believe that high-tech kids of the future cannot be learners who are just watching videos and not producing or reflecting any thoughts on the subjects that are presented to them. They should be able to critically assess the material they see and reflect their opinions on the video they have watched. In order to achieve higher order thinking skill goals, the educators may ask them to write journal entries or have class discussions after they watch the videos. Otherwise, desired learning would not take place, since the learners do not analyze, synthesize and evaluate the information they have just learned from the video.

Therefore, the total elimination of the books would bring a disaster into the education that we desire to change for the better. As Tarlow, Spangler and Tobin suggests, all the educators need to be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the use of technology in educational instructions. Otherwise, we would be endangering our next generations’ need to obtain significant skills for the sake of using technology.

References

Tarlow, M., & Spangler, K.L. (2001). Now more than ever: Will high-tech kids still think deeply? The Education Digest, 67(3), 23-27.

Tobin, Brian. G. (1996). Making Technocrats. Proceedings of the Community College Humanities Association, 1-19.

Blog #4 Reeve on Cultural Sensitivity and Evaluation

I think, Thomas C. Reeves touches on an exceptionally important topic in his article. Cultural sensitivity is a crucial element in evaluating instructional programs. I think that he presents two basic points in his article. Firstly, he argues (Reeve, 1997) that every instructional designer and evaluator should avoid cultural insensitivity by eliminating any cultural, historical, sexual biases, inaccuracies or subjectivities when creating educational materials. Secondly, he suggests that instructional materials should include unique values from various cultures. I strongly agree with him on both of these points, yet I would like to focus on the first one specifically.

I have had an unpleasant experience in relation to the reliability and cultural insensitivity of a book. When I was studying at Bilkent University in American Culture and Literature department in 1999, I had a course called American History. We were reading a textbook called Making America. There is a Middle East map in the book. In that map, current Iraq and the southern region of Turkish Republic is shown as Kurdistan which is historically and geographically wrong and biased. My classmates and I were severely annoyed to see such inaccurate and subjective information. We informed our instructor, Thomas Winter, about the wrong map and fake historical data, immediately. Dr. Winter, as an historian, justified the inaccuracy of the information and told us that he would call the publishers and ask for them to correct those specific pages of the book. I still do not know what the response of the publisher has been, but it was shocking for us to see such a mistake in the book. Professor Winter also said that this book was taught in history classes in some states of U.S. We were terrified to witness that even books can be far away from research ethics and can hold biases.

I think everyone tends to believe that the books are “the most reliable information sources”; since there are a lot of stages for books to go through before getting published. However, this experience has taught me that even the world map, a historical fact, can be changed and displayed incorrectly to the readers. As a learner, I must admit that I begin to question all the information that book holds, because the book has simply lost its reliability in my eyes.

I think, what we can conclude from my experience is very simple. As educators, we should be very careful in creating instructional materials. We should check our works’ objectivity, academic morality as well as accuracy before we give it to the hands of the learners. Moreover, as Reeve argues, we should question the cultural appropriateness of our instructional materials with respect to the values of specific cultures that will be using them. I guess, none of us would want to create educational materials that would affect the learners as Making America has affected me!

References

Berkin, Carol. (1997). Making America: a history of the United States. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin

Reeve, T. C. (1997). An evaluator looks at cultural diversity. Educational Technology, 37(2), 27-31.