1. How can a teacher find balance between traditional knowledge-based content standards and more process-oriented skills?
It used to be that teachers spent a fair amount of time teaching children the "facts" about different subjects. This left little room for encouraging children to figure out any of these facts themselves. With the introduction and use of the internet now, most people are able to research things themselves if they are wanting to know more about a particular subject. Along with this ability to research information, a person must first understand what specifically it is that they want to learn and then how to go about obtaining that type of information. This requires a higher process thinking skill level because you are directing the learning instead of simply letting someone else tell you what you need to know. This also requires a higher level of comprehension.
In order for a teacher to be able to find "balance" between the two, he or she needs to not only teach or explain the facts but also find ways to encourage children to analyze and apply those facts to real world situations and be able to understand how they could investigate similar information and use it.
One way of being able to incorporate these two or "balance" them is to use inquiry based programs in collaboration with existing lesson plans. If for example a teacher were to be presenting a lesson plan in English on writing a factual newspaper article, he or she could use an inquiry based program to help the students figure out how to successfully write an article. Rather than to simply give them the components needed in writing an article and then testing them on the facts needed, the teacher could explain the different parts included in a factual newspaper article and then set the students up using an inquiry based program. This inquiry based program could then guide them in the following ways:
1. Getting them to Create a list of questions that would be used up front to write the article
2. Hypothesizing or determining what the ultimate goal should be in writing the article (what the students hope the reader will realize after reading their article)
3. Investigate or research information for the article (have them decide what are they going to report, how are they going to get this information and then actually obtain the information)
4. Analyze or determine what is the best way to convey the information that they were able to find. What is the best way to write or convey this information.
5. Modeling (actually writing an article)
6. Evaluating (ask the students to evaluate each other. Have the students read each others articles and determine if they were able to come away at the end of the article with the hypothesis that was created. In addition, the teacher could evaluate the article to determine if it met the criteria of what an investigative article should include.)
2. Key Factors that help improve the success of inquiry-based lessons?
According to several critiques of the student led inquiry-based programs, these programs tend to net positive results only when there is a sufficient level of higher knowledge in a subject that the student possesses. This would seem to indicate that in order for these types of programs to really be successful the student must first have a solid higher level of understanding of the subject matter that he or she is trying to gain further insight into by using the inquiry based program. This would also seem to indicate that a teacher must first make sure to teach the student the basic facts around a subject before asking the student to then analyze those facts and manipulate them and hypothesis about what they think will happen.
Secondly the teacher needs to determine how the students knowledge and performance will be evaluated using these types of programs. If the teacher has a firm outcome determined up front of what he or she hopes the student will realize after using the program, then the inquiry-based program will be considered more successful, meaning that the goal of the lesson plan can be seen as being accomplished.
Another key factor similar to the knowledge understood and performance is aligning the standards expectations up with inquiry-based programs. What this means is that the teacher needs to determine up front how the expected state standards can be applied within the inquiry-based programs. Schools are not going to be willing to support inquiry-based programs unless they see the positive results between knowledge of standards being comprehended in conjunction with using these types of programs.
Lastly, another strong factor for success is to make sure that these inquiry based lessons are done in group situations. This encourages the students to be able to collaborate with each other on ideas.
3. What role can technology play in assisting those factors?
First technology can provide access to information that students need to research. For example, if students were investigating things that would affect the growth of grass or plants in science, they can research or look up information on the internet or specific science websites through their school district library system. This would help them to quickly compile a list of things that they thought might make an impact in the growth of their plant or grass.
Allowing students to create models, charts or graphs to show the results or the expected results related to an investigation they are questioning, researching and hypothesizing about. In the example from above, students could make a chart to show what the expected growth would be of the grass or plant when they introduced certain stimuli and they could also create a similar chart or graph to show the actual results. These two charts or graphs can then be compared.
Lastly, it also enables students to be able to collaborate with other students in different locations. They can review the results of similar types of experiments being performed in other schools not in their district or even in their home town. They can compare information, hypotheses and view other models that other students have put together.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Reflective Blog #1
After reading all three articles concerning different factors that played a role in ensuring positive results when integrating technology in the classroom, a few main themes seemed to emerge under which most of the individual factors would fall.
The first theme was access to computers at school. In one study conducted in 2005 by O'Dwyer, Russell, Bebell and Tucker-Seeley, it was found that fourth grade students were likely to have higher language arts and writing test scores on state measured assessment tests after the students reported that they had greater frequency of using technology at school in order to help them accomplish such things as editing papers. In yet another school example, students in seventh and eighth grades saw significant increases by about 10 to 30 percentage points in state administered assessment tests, after being given access to wireless laptop computers at school. According to the Learning form Case Studies of Technology Integration article, "Without access to computers when students are engaged in a related project, technology cannot be considered integrated into the curriculum and instructional context." Lastly, teachers need to have reliable equipment and Internet access at school and adequate technical support in order to ensure that every student has computer access at school.
A second theme that emerged from reading the articles was the inclusion of all students in computer usage including students who speak English as a second language, special education students and students in schools in lower socioeconomic areas. One article included a study that was done in which the researchers measured the computer usage in public schools where there were more higher-income families and schools that included more lower-income students. The study found that 61% of teachers in public schools with higher-income students used computers in their classrooms versus 50% of the teachers in the lower-income schools.
The use of computers in helping English language students and special education students, enables these students to now learn by writing e-mail, conducting on-line research and adjusting the text styles and fonts. With the addition of these items, students are better able to understand the subject material and be tested in a manner easier for them to comprehend.
A final theme that emerged was the idea of the teacher's background and training with computers. These included such things as a teacher's demographics, his or her beliefs and attitudes and a teacher's training on educational technology and how to incorporate it in his or her classroom. In an article entitled Factors affecting technology integration in K-12 classrooms: a path model, the researchers found that a teacher's readiness, his or her beliefs and computer availability were the three most important factors with a significant positive effect on technology integration in a classroom.
Although the above listed themes did not encompass every factor influencing the success of computers in helping children achieve better learning results, they managed to address quite a few of the obstacles that teachers face when trying to incorporate an educational technology component into part of a unit lesson. With that being said, there are a few things that teachers can do to address some of the above issues.
In the case of access to computer usage at school, a teacher can request to have access to computers at the school even if they are not provided in the individual classrooms. This might require some adjustments to the teacher's own teaching schedule, to allow for adequate computer usage but certainly should take precedence into the lesson planning stages if this is considered a vital component to the overall unit lesson. In addition, teachers can assign students to groups to ensure adequate computer usage and might also contribute to the time factor. Often times students can learn from other students and the slower students would not negatively affect the overall time constraint given on the teacher in planning computer access time.
Another factor that the teacher can have direct control over is his or her own attitude and belief and in some cases training on computers. Certainly a teacher is able to control his or her own attitude and beliefs about computers simply by making a commitment to do so, or if necessary, attending a seminar or researching on line some of the benefits and ways to use technology in helping students. A teacher can also request to his or her school district to allow him or her to attend additional training either in person or on line as a way to help with training and exposing himself or herself to the different programs and methods that exist in helping to educate students. In the ever changing world of computers, it is important that everyone in their career keep up on new technology as a way to help them.
Once a teacher makes the decision to integrate technology into his or her classroom and is able to ensure access to all the students in the classroom, the next step is to incorporate the use of this computer technology into a lesson plan or unit. There are a couple of ways that I would go about evaluating the success of a unit or lesson plan that involved the integration of new technology. The first thing that I would do would be to present my lesson plan in a format that did not include technology. For example, if presenting a lesson plan on American Indians, I would teach the information without the use of computers and then give the students an oral or written assessment to see what information they retained. Then I would plan another lesson plan on American Indians and within that lesson plan I would either require the students to use the computer themselves in researching information or pictures or I would use the computer in presenting the information to them. At the end of this I would then assess them orally or with a written test. Lastly, I would present a lesson plan on American Indians and I would teach with some educational technology and some oral or hands on approach and I would assess them using educational technology. This way I could try to determine in which way did the use of computer technology seem to affect their learning.
I am a firm believer in helping others in their quest to be successful. Often times it is easier for a person to learn from several different people than to simply learn from just one person. This enables a person to compile different types of information and apply them in their own way. In disseminating my success and failures to my colleagues and others I would present them with the information from above that I was able to compile. Meaning that I would share with them the three different approaches to the lesson plans that I explained from above, and I would also share with them my results that I found in using the different methods. I would also try the same tactic on a different subject such as the study of the human body in science. This way the results would be less likely to be attributable to the subject material itself versus the medium.
The first theme was access to computers at school. In one study conducted in 2005 by O'Dwyer, Russell, Bebell and Tucker-Seeley, it was found that fourth grade students were likely to have higher language arts and writing test scores on state measured assessment tests after the students reported that they had greater frequency of using technology at school in order to help them accomplish such things as editing papers. In yet another school example, students in seventh and eighth grades saw significant increases by about 10 to 30 percentage points in state administered assessment tests, after being given access to wireless laptop computers at school. According to the Learning form Case Studies of Technology Integration article, "Without access to computers when students are engaged in a related project, technology cannot be considered integrated into the curriculum and instructional context." Lastly, teachers need to have reliable equipment and Internet access at school and adequate technical support in order to ensure that every student has computer access at school.
A second theme that emerged from reading the articles was the inclusion of all students in computer usage including students who speak English as a second language, special education students and students in schools in lower socioeconomic areas. One article included a study that was done in which the researchers measured the computer usage in public schools where there were more higher-income families and schools that included more lower-income students. The study found that 61% of teachers in public schools with higher-income students used computers in their classrooms versus 50% of the teachers in the lower-income schools.
The use of computers in helping English language students and special education students, enables these students to now learn by writing e-mail, conducting on-line research and adjusting the text styles and fonts. With the addition of these items, students are better able to understand the subject material and be tested in a manner easier for them to comprehend.
A final theme that emerged was the idea of the teacher's background and training with computers. These included such things as a teacher's demographics, his or her beliefs and attitudes and a teacher's training on educational technology and how to incorporate it in his or her classroom. In an article entitled Factors affecting technology integration in K-12 classrooms: a path model, the researchers found that a teacher's readiness, his or her beliefs and computer availability were the three most important factors with a significant positive effect on technology integration in a classroom.
Although the above listed themes did not encompass every factor influencing the success of computers in helping children achieve better learning results, they managed to address quite a few of the obstacles that teachers face when trying to incorporate an educational technology component into part of a unit lesson. With that being said, there are a few things that teachers can do to address some of the above issues.
In the case of access to computer usage at school, a teacher can request to have access to computers at the school even if they are not provided in the individual classrooms. This might require some adjustments to the teacher's own teaching schedule, to allow for adequate computer usage but certainly should take precedence into the lesson planning stages if this is considered a vital component to the overall unit lesson. In addition, teachers can assign students to groups to ensure adequate computer usage and might also contribute to the time factor. Often times students can learn from other students and the slower students would not negatively affect the overall time constraint given on the teacher in planning computer access time.
Another factor that the teacher can have direct control over is his or her own attitude and belief and in some cases training on computers. Certainly a teacher is able to control his or her own attitude and beliefs about computers simply by making a commitment to do so, or if necessary, attending a seminar or researching on line some of the benefits and ways to use technology in helping students. A teacher can also request to his or her school district to allow him or her to attend additional training either in person or on line as a way to help with training and exposing himself or herself to the different programs and methods that exist in helping to educate students. In the ever changing world of computers, it is important that everyone in their career keep up on new technology as a way to help them.
Once a teacher makes the decision to integrate technology into his or her classroom and is able to ensure access to all the students in the classroom, the next step is to incorporate the use of this computer technology into a lesson plan or unit. There are a couple of ways that I would go about evaluating the success of a unit or lesson plan that involved the integration of new technology. The first thing that I would do would be to present my lesson plan in a format that did not include technology. For example, if presenting a lesson plan on American Indians, I would teach the information without the use of computers and then give the students an oral or written assessment to see what information they retained. Then I would plan another lesson plan on American Indians and within that lesson plan I would either require the students to use the computer themselves in researching information or pictures or I would use the computer in presenting the information to them. At the end of this I would then assess them orally or with a written test. Lastly, I would present a lesson plan on American Indians and I would teach with some educational technology and some oral or hands on approach and I would assess them using educational technology. This way I could try to determine in which way did the use of computer technology seem to affect their learning.
I am a firm believer in helping others in their quest to be successful. Often times it is easier for a person to learn from several different people than to simply learn from just one person. This enables a person to compile different types of information and apply them in their own way. In disseminating my success and failures to my colleagues and others I would present them with the information from above that I was able to compile. Meaning that I would share with them the three different approaches to the lesson plans that I explained from above, and I would also share with them my results that I found in using the different methods. I would also try the same tactic on a different subject such as the study of the human body in science. This way the results would be less likely to be attributable to the subject material itself versus the medium.
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