The March issue of professionally speaking has an article on The High-Tech Class. What I really like is the format of the profile they provide on the 4 teachers that are using technology in their classroom. Each profile begins by identifying the instructional challenge that prompted them to re-examine their teaching practice in order to select a teaching strategy and technology which would help to address the challenge.
An excellent example is that of the grade 6 teacher, Kent Manning, who used a project of stop-motion animated movies to address the difficulty of inspiring boys to want to write. An examination of existing data revealed a tremendous gender gap in writing. Previously unmotivated students became engaged in the process of writing through storyboarding. The project required students to improve their understanding of story-telling structures and to apply this knowledge to make animated movies.
Did the technology enhance the learning all on its own? Absolutely not. It was the forethought and analysis required by the teacher that made this instructional technology effective in addressing the challenge that was identified. Selecting the correct teaching strategies to employ in concert with the technology was what made this project a success with students. The re-examination and reflection of one's teaching practice is a critical piece, otherwise mapping one's existing teaching practice onto new technology is not likely to lead to improved outcomes for students. As Danika Barker in the article suggested, "don't make the mistake of implementing 21st century teaching tools while hanging on to 19th century teacher-centric pedagogy."
A comment in the editorial section referred to the previous article on Using Social Media in the Classroom and suggested that, "we need to ask ourselves whether this type of learning is really better?" I think we need to move beyond the debate about which method of learning is better. There is no doubt that reading books and interacting with other people in person is an effective way to learn. Technology is not the panacea of teaching and learning. If used correctly instructional technology can become one of the many ways in which teachers can effectively differentiate instruction for students. Tony Bates has a great quote at his website.
"Good teaching may overcome a poor choice of technology but technology will never save bad teaching".
I couldn't agree more.
I couldn't agree with you more, that technology must be apart of the classroom but we must understand how individual's learn not just groups. When applying the Instructional Design to a classroom/online setting we as designers must do our home work. We must start with the analysis of the students and the needs of the school. Looking at both the setting and the individual student. After we have completed this first step we would need to move on to the planning, development, then implementation of the appropriate curiculum for the students. Is the social media better in this 6th grade classroom yes a believe it is but only at a minimum. We again must not just because it is the now thing to do put it in the classroom, but make sure it works. The reason I'm saying this is because one the tight budgets that schools are dealing with these days, they can't afford any hit and miss situations.
ReplyDeleteRoger,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your insights. You make a very good point about continuing to evaluate the way we employ instructional technology to ensure that it is effective in helping learners to achieve the desired learning objectives. Learning impact studies would be a good way of identifying what is working well and what needs to be improved.
Ferdinand,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your interesting thoughts on the article "Tech Class" in the month's Professionally Speaking magazine.
I've been interested in motivating and encouraging our boy writers for about 5 or 6 years now. Interestingly enough, I use very little social media to encourage and support these boy writers. I mostly try to engage them in creating media texts where none existed before. Using technology to create digital stories, radio commercials, and animations are what I do most with students in the classroom. The results are palpable. The boys are engaged, interested and want to write.
Again, thank you for the mention in your post.
Kent
http://motivatingboywriters.ca/