Louise Ireland

Teacher Pedagogical Beliefs: the final frontier in our question for technology integration. By Peggy Ertmer. 

The reading this week by Peggy Ertmer focused on teachers pedagogical beliefs about technology and the barriers that may be at work which prevent rich technology integration in the classroom. 

The article begins positively by highlighting that more teachers are now using technology – with 85% of teachers as highlighted by the ‘Integrated Studies of Educational Technology in the US’ feeling ‘somewhat well prepared’ to use technology for classroom instruction, and 80% being interested in how to integrate technology into the classroom.  However, the article then highlights that the use of high-level technology is still surprisingly low. 

 The article then proceeds to examine why high-level technology integration by teachers is low, relating this to teachers’ entrenched beliefs about technology. 

 Ertmer then goes on to investigate how teachers’ pedagogical beliefs are formed, as these beliefs directly affect the implementation of technology within the classroom.  After investigating the formation of beliefs the article proceeds to suggest ways that beliefs can be changed.  One potent way that beliefs are changed is by increasing teachers confidence in using technology, by not inundating them with high level systems to begin with, rather, gaining their confidence with low level practical uses then building on this knowledge to achieve higher order functioning with technology. This example supports the constructivist view of learning, whereby the teachers would be building on existing knowledge and success then incorporating new skills into their existing positive schema’s about technology.

 Ertmer goes into detail within the article as to beliefs; how they are formed; the nature of them; links between beliefs and practice and how beliefs are changed, which I found quite weighty to read and decipher.  I do, however, strongly agree with the overall sentiment of the article, which is that for students to achieve rich learning and reach their full potential that teachers need to challenge their existing ICT beliefs which will help them to embrace new technological practices.

The Growth of Enterprise Pedagogy: How ICT Policy is infected by Neo-Liberalism. By Dr Mark Brown, Massey University New Zealand.

 Brown’s article questioned why ICT is so important in Australian schools in view of the huge investments being made in new digital technology versus the evaluation of this technology. 

 The article, which had a political vein, questioned and posed statements about: 

• The overselling of technology
• The use of the computer as a babysitter
• Whether students will be more informed with the current use of technology
• The conception of technology as progress
• The negative unanticipated effects of ICT

 Whilst I did not agree with many of the statements made in this article, I appreciate the writer’s intellectual right to question existing practices and their motivation. Personally, I found this article to be quite ‘one-sided’ through the expression of mainly negative comments about technology.  I felt that the writer was trying to make a statement about Governments adopting technology and technological practices within schools as a way to stimulate the economy via manufacturing and ICT jobs in society, rather than focusing on whether the technology has specific benefits for learning.  I disagree with this, as I believe that the integration of technology is vital for enriching learning and for equipping students 

Decorating the backpack by blakespot (creativecommons)

Attached is a video called the Digital Backback.  

http://blip.tv/file/1452610

Which learning style/s does this ICT support?

This learning style suits both visual and auditory learners.  Being able to hear about a concept and see visual representations of what is being spoken about helps learners become engaged as as a result would increase their cognition of the subject.  

How could this ICT be imbedded as a good cognitive tool within the learning environment?

Video’s could be used in many instances in a learning environment.  For example, instructional video’s could provide learners with a visual demonstration of a procedure – such as how a science experiment would work or how to operate technical equipment.  It could also be used to engage children as they learn about new topics, for example as an introduction to a topic. Moreover, it could be used to relate to and expand upon a unit of work and this visual/auditory medium could add another dimension and deeper cognition for students. During this video the speaker explains the amazingly rapid growth of technology-  mentioning that the Internet is only 5000 days old (as of 2007) – this information is heard, while the viewer sees images of the many new types of technology available. During pauses from the speaker, fast paced music is played whilst images are shown. Through this video the subject has greater impact to for the learner as many of their senses are being used and stimulated.  

How is this ICT enabling the development of creativity?

Through the viewing video’s students are exposed to another means of communication.  Students are not limited, however, to viewing video’s to enhance learning, by making their own video about their learning they are actively constructing their own meaning of a subject, as well as creatively expressing their ideas. 

Some thoughts about Webquests

This article by Bernie Dodge – the creator of the Webquest – highlighted the importance of having agreed upon terminology and instructional activities to describe new types of learning environments such as Webquests. 

Dodge’s statements, that ‘there is questionable educational benefit in having learners surfing the net without a clear task in mind’ and ‘it is important that the learner is not left to wander through webspace completely adrift’ highlight the importance he places on Webquests making the best use of learners time.  This is achieved, according the Dodge by Webquests including:

• An introduction to the topic
• An interesting task
• Information sources needed to complete the tasks (not exclusively web based information)
• A process which learners need to go through to complete the task
• Guidance on how the information is to be presented/completed
• A conclusion – which assists in summing up the experience for participants.

Dodge goes on to examine some attributes that a longer term Webquest may have and the skills, including comparing, classifying, inducing, deducting, analysing errors, constructing support, abstraction, analysing perspectives that may be required with a longer term quest.  Examples are then given by Dodge on good short term Webquests.  Dodge then describes the steps that are required for a teacher to create a good Webquest, including a link to catalogue of catalogs of websites for teachers, a template link and useful link to assist in organising resources. 

This article was clear, concise and easy to read.  I interpreted this as a reflection on Dodge’s attitude towards the design of Webquests and instructional material for use with ICT. I agree with Dodge that the goal of the Webquest is not just to find information, rather it involves higher level thinking, questioning, reasoning and communicating tools, which result in greater cognition. 

The Question is the Answer

 In this initial pages of this article some very insightful reflections of the use of great questions to achieve great research.  It made some excellent analogies including one of the travelling on the information highway, referring to the traveller without strong questioning skills, as being a passenger on someone else’s tour bus.  After the initial links in this document I became confused by the many links to other information – one question was leading to other avenues of research which became circular and very frustrating to navigate through.  In the end, I gave up looking through this article and began questioning whether I was not ‘computer savvy’ enough to understand it.  On further reflections, and after discussing it in our tutorial, I was relieved that others shared my frustrations. 

 This article is vastly different from ‘Some thoughts about Webquests’, which I found easy to use and interpret.  It highlighted to me just how important it is to have a well structured Webquest, as the alternative is to flounder in a sea of information that is difficult to interpret and learn from. 

Question Mark in Esbjerg by Alexanderdrachmann

My brain mynameisron in creativecommons

This week’s tutorial readings focussed on the idea of ICT being used as a tool for cognition, or in other words ICT as tool for thinking, understanding and learning. I reviewed two articles: ‘What is meaningful learning’ Johassen, Howland, Morra and Crismond (2008) and ‘Preparing Students for Elearning’ Elearnspace (2002).

The article ‘What is Meaningful Learning’ advocates schools helping students to learn how to be learners, rather than students who are successful at standardised tests but have not engaged cognitively with the subject they are studying. Furthermore it encourages the use of ICT to enable ‘active, constructive, intentional, authentic and cooperative learning experiences, rather than being used for skill and drill style testing practice.  Active learning involves the interaction with, and manipulation of, objects in the environment.  Constructive learning involves students being able to puzzle over, question and then articulate their findings to enable them to actively construct meaning from what they are engaged in. Authentic learning involves students being engaged in meaningful read-world tasks rather than complex formulas or ideas removed from everyday contexts.  Finally, cooperative learning involves students working together to research, discuss and explore ideas.

To enable the kind of authentic learning outlined above it is suggested technology is used as a tool to learn with, rather than from.  Some examples of this may involve students constructing their own inspiration ‘mind-maps’ which would enable students to represent their thoughts and ideas on a subject, engage with other students through internet, blogs and on-line discussions boards to debate ideas and beliefs and collaborate on projects and to engage in real life problems to learn more about particular subjects.

As a result of meaningful experiences with technology students are cognitively and actively engaged with their subject.  There are several types of thinking fostered with technology, which include causal, analogical, expressive, experiential, and problem solving. This type of rich thinking and learning does not occur when technology is being used in traditional ways, rather it is learnt when students engage with the technology, using it to investigate and uncover what they need to know, not perceiving it as a tool that will provide them with fast answers.

The article ‘Preparing Students for Elearning’ was a collection of thoughts from several contributors regarding the problems with existing elearning, which result in high drop out rates for students.  The main focus of the article was preparing students for elearning to enable them future success. The themes in this article were concurrent with that in ‘What is meaningful learning?’, in that a change in the perspective of how learning occurs is required for students to become successful.  The article suggests that students needs to be prepared for how elearning operates, making them familiar with how an online environment operates, as opposed to traditional learning environments which students may have more experience with. Furthermore students need to be prepared for the exploratory nature of elearning, where they may not receive immediate clarification; rather they are required to undergo their own investigations into a subject.

I agree that the use of ICT as a cognitive tool can lead to rich and meaningful learning engagements.  Personally, being educated in a more traditional environment, I can understand that some educators with the same background may have ‘phobias’ towards technology.  However, I believe that it is vital to overcome these and embrace the use of technology to foster deep cognition rather than to resist the advantages of progress. 

Here is a link to a great online game from The Learners Federation.  

I liked this game, which is about adding or subtracting numbers on a number line, as it had great visual information and a fun voice narrating through the game.  It gives the learner time to answer questions and reconfirms their answer, so that the learner has time to absorb and make meaning from the engagement.

  index.html

Which learning styles/s does this ICT support?

On-line games suit many learning styles including: students who have good visual/spatial intelligence – whose learning preferences are towards visual information including games, puzzle building, charts and graphs.  It would also suit students with logical/mathematical intelligence due to their skills in problem solving, classifying and categorizing information. The ‘hands-on’ nature of on-line games would also be suited to those with body/kinesthetic learning styles. 

How could this ICT be implemented as a good cognitive tool within the learning environment?

Games are great ways for children to interact and construct their own knowledge about a subject.  Games enable students to work at their own pace, and develop their own understandings of a subject. Students who are struggling in some areas can benefit from a visual representation of their subject, for example, in the game I have chosen, the student is able to see the number line and physically manipulate the data, thereby giving them a clear picture of the concept.

How is this ICT enabling the development of creativity?

Many on-line games focus on building or designing.  In my investigations I found a great game which focussed on children collecting items from a beach and creating their own artwork.  Games also allow children to experiment, enabling them to try out ideas, and make adjustments/amendments, this fosters their creative and experimental thinking. 

Our second tutorial reading focussed on constructivism, in an article by J. Brewer and C.J. Daane.  The constructivist model of teaching and learning is based around Piaget’s theory of knowledge being actively constructed by learners, not passively received. This article revolved around the study of eight primary school maths teachers, who professed to be working with a constructivist philosophy, and the investigation of whether this philosophy translated to practices within the classroom and had a positive affect on the learning of students within the classes.

The methodology of this study involved eight primary school maths teachers  - teaching grades Kindergarten through to Year 3.  These teachers had worked together for several years and formed a close-knit team called the ‘Explorers’. Researchers used a variety of methods including interviews, field notes, video observations, and unannounced observations to obtain data and collate a profile of these teachers and how their constructivist philosophy translated to their students learning.

The result of this study confirmed the teacher’s beliefs about constructivist theory and showed that their beliefs were transferred in classroom learning.  In interviews the teachers articulated to the researchers four main area’s of focus which include: ‘(a) learning is an active, constructive process (b) new knowledge is built on prior knowledge (c) autonomy is promoted (d) social interaction is necessary for knowledge construction and active learning’. (Brewer & Daane, 2002, p.418). Examples of the teachers constructivist theory in practice in all four areas were shown in the classrooms, such as active learning, discussions – building on prior knowledge and incorporating new information into existing schemas, strong autonomy, with students encouraged to be independent thinkers, and problem solving group engagement amongst children.

I found this article a positive and inspiring example of the principles of constructivism at work.  I appreciated the teachers transferring their philosophy into classroom engagement, as it seems often to be the case where a philosophy is advocated but not actively employed.  I also liked that the teachers used constructivist theory when dealing with their teaching peers, for example, by working in groups with other teachers, therefore allowing ideas to be generated between them.  The teachers’ role rather than being that of a solitary transmitter of information was more fluid, focussing on constructing, discussing, planning and evaluating in line with the needs and abilities of their students.

Digital Immigrants by Oso                                                                

Digital Natives by Cristobal Cobo Romani

Question: Which learning style/s does this ICT support?

The use of images supports those who use spatial intelligence and prefer to learn through visual information.    

Question: How could this ICT be implemented as a good cognitive tool within the learning environment?

The use of visual information adds another dimension of understanding for students.  For example, if students are learning about rainforests, fantastic verbal descriptions can be made of the environment, however the use of a visual/picture to be able to see exactly what is being expressed in words.  Verbal information can leave the interpretation of a subject open to the imagination, whereas a picture can clarify exactly what, for example, a rainforest environment looks like.

Question: How is ICT enabling the development of creativity?

ICT opens up a range of choices for students through the many options of expression that it offers.  Students can choose to represent information in text, images, charts, videos etc. The choices offered through ICT enable students to develop their creativity and express themselves in the medium that suits them best.  

For this weeks tutorial we reviewed articles by Prensky and Bennett, Maton and Kervin focusing on the idea of generations of people being either Digital Immigrants or Digital Natives. 

Prensky advocates the existence of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants in his article.  Where a generation – Digital Natives – which is native to the use of technology is compared with Digital Immigrants (adults born before 1980) who, according to Prensky, are less technologically adepts.

Prensky argues that Digital Natives live their lives immersed in technology and as a result students in this generation learn in completely different ways to those in previous generations.  As a result of these claims, Prensky believes that fundamental changes need to be made in the way that the Digital Native generation are educated. This change involves adjustments to methodology – the way that teachers teach, and content – what teachers teach.  These changes would involve teaching with a more random access to technological systems rather than the step by step model of Digital Immigrants.  It would also involve enmeshing technology into teaching methods with the use of webquests, computer games and new technologies.

Finally, Presky strongly advocates an embracement of technology by current Digital Immigrant teachers. Prensky believes that the success of the current generation of Digital Natives hinges on new teaching methods being adpoted by Digital Immigrants.

Bennett, Maton and Kervin provide further discussion on the Digital Native vs Digital Immigrant debate.  Whilst they agree that the currently students have more access to technology that ever before, they question Prensky’s assertion that a distinct generation of digital natives exists, and that these students must be taught in fundamentally different ways than previous generations.

Bennett, Maton and Kervin argue that the use and familiarity with technology amongst ‘Digital Natives’ is far from universal.  This familiarity may be due to socio-economic status, or the way technology that is available is being used.  Bennett, Maton and Kervin provide statistical examples which state that while 99.5% of students use technology for ‘surfing the net’ only 11.9% own a hand held computer (Kvavik, Caruson & Morgan, 2004).

Bennett, Maton and Kervin proceed to question the fact that Digital Natives need to be taught in different ways than previous generations, stating that the phenomena of multiprocessing, which is highlighted as an attribute of Digital Natives also existed in prior generations. They also question the approach of attributing a learning style to a whole generation of students rather than acknowledging the variability between them.

Finally, the article likens the debate to the notion of a ‘moral panic’ whereby there is much discourse between individuals over a contentious subject, hinting that this could lead to a panicked situation rather than rational thought.

Coming from a Digital Immigrant generation myself, I personally found this debate very interesting.  I agree with Prensky, that as educators we need to embrace new technologies and intergrate their use into students learning to provide students with skills for future careers, some of which may not yet be established or imagined by the current generation.  However, I also agree with Bennett, Maton and Kervin  in that there is a certain amount of panic around this topic. Whilst I think that technology needs to be incorporated into the curriculum at every level, I do not think that this should make current teaching methods (or teachers) redundant. My final thought is of Bill Gates – I wonder how he would feel being labeled a ‘Digital Immigrant’?

digital-immigrants1

My concept map of Digital Immigrants vs Digital Natives.

Which learning style/s does this ICT support?

The use of a concept map supports visual learners who learn from seeing pictorial/visual representations of their subject. 

How could this ICT be implemented as a good cognitive tool within the learning environment?

Concept maps could have many uses in a classroom environment which would enhance learning.  They can be used by the teacher to represent ‘brainstorming’ sessions about any subject.  Furthermore, they can be used individually by students to represent what they have learned through research.  As the concept map is a brief pictorial representation of a subject, the student needs to think about what they have learned, summarise that information and then relay their findings therefore highly engaging with the subject. 

How is this ICT enabling the development of creativity?

A concept map enables students to creatively represent their research and knowledge in a visual manner, rathen than through the use of written information. The concept map allows more creative learners to access a range of design objects to customise their concept maps.