Preface Introduction For 21st century learners, competency in diverse technologies is not an option. It is integral to success in their academic and personal lives. For the 21st century educators who support these learners, technology integration is a mandate. This fifth edition of Teaching and Learning with Technology offers a comprehensive review of educational technology and its application to teaching and learning to help future educators prepare for their careers as 21st century educators. Using an interactive eText platform, this edition models while it teaches the core technology skills you need. And with the International Society for Technology Education’s (ISTE) National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) as its guide, Teaching and Learning with Technology focuses on the competencies that you are expected to demonstrate as you integrate the many current and emerging Digital Age resources into your classroom. Courses in educational technology can take a variety of approaches to help prepare educators for technology-rich classrooms. Some focus on educational technology theory and research; others that have evolved from computer courses emphasize the use of hardware and software. Teaching and Learning with Technology, fifth edition, takes a more pragmatic approach. This text presents the many diverse technologies available to educators but from the perspective of how best to utilize them for teaching and learning. From a discussion of how technology impacts a teacher’s life, to how it fits into learning theory, to how best to utilize it in planning and in instruction, this text explores not only the many technologies teachers may be expected to implement but also the opportunities and challenges these technologies present. Whether computers and mobile devices or the Web, networks or distance delivery, assistive devices, or technologies still on the horizon, this text examines how each can best support teaching and learning. Furthermore, in the Pearson eText edition, Teaching and Learning with Technology offers interactivity, multimedia, and robust resources to fully experience the technologies under study.
New to This Edition! The fifth edition has been revised in response to the needs of the 21st century teachers it seeks to prepare. ■
Now available as an exciting new interactive and affordable Pearson eText*. To review the interactive features of the Pearson eText please visit Preface page xxv.
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Learning Outcomes at the beginning of each chapter identify what students should be able to do after reading the chapter by providing measurable and observable goals.
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ISTE NETS-T standards are aligned with learning outcomes and chapter content and are provided in the margins to raise students’ awareness of relevant standards.
*Please note that these enhancements are available only through the Pearson eText platform. Other third-party eTexts (i.e., CourseSmart, Kindle) might not contain these enhancements. To identify system requirements, please visit www.pearsonhighered.com/etextbooks.
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A comprehensive review of the latest digital technologies—from tablets to cloud computing to augmented reality—has been revised to include the latest approaches from the flipped classroom to gamification.
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AUPs and other policies governing social media in school, which have become pressing concerns for all educators, are covered.
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The theme of digital citizenship emphasizes the responsibilities inherent in digital citizenship and how teachers can encourage ethical participation in a digital world.
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Advocacy is considered as an essential skill. This edition emphasizes the educator’s role in ensuring the preparation of 21st century learners through technology leadership in the classroom and in schools.
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Expanded web coverage includes a comprehensive review of the educational application of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 tools as well as an introduction to evolving Web 3.0 tools. The role of these innumerable tools to support teaching and learning is presented with emphasis on best practices.
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Self-Checks are offered throughout every chapter so that students have an opportunity to stop and informally review critical content before moving to the next topic.
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Teacher2Teacher features consist of interviews with teachers and professionals across the globe who are integrating technology into their classrooms, using technology for distance delivery, and who are reaching out to colleagues to form professional learning communities.
Organization and Approach of This Text Teaching and Learning with Technology, fifth edition, was designed to combine theoretical, technical, and experiential components into a single approach that is suitable for current and future teachers using educational technology in the classroom. In creating the text, we followed three basic principles: 1. Ground the study of educational technologies in effective teaching and learning and in the real-world classroom. 2. Explore all technologies that are useful to prepare and support 21st century learners. 3. Develop an awareness of the professional opportunities and challenges associated with technology integration to help you to become an educational technology advocate. With this approach, we hope to have created a relevant and meaningful text that will provide current and future educators the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to effectively and efficiently integrate technology. A constant aspect of our pragmatic approach is the reader-friendly style of the text. To maintain interest and readability in a content area that tends toward jargon and technical detail, we deliberately engage students with a conversational tone and easy-to-use definitions and tools. Together, these elements present the complexities of educational technology in the most readable and engaging format possible. Whether reviewing standards, planning for technology-rich instruction, examining web tools, considering issues, or previewing technologies on the horizon, we have endeavored to include the need-to-know skills and knowledge required for 21st century educators. This new, entirely updated text/eText will serve to provide educational technology essentials to current and future educators at every level of the technology literacy spectrum. Changes to each chapter follow:
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Teaching, Technology, and You, which offers a professional framework for technology in teaching and learning, has been updated to reflect an emphasis on 21st century teaching and learning models including those advocated by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, current standards in the field
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i ncluding Common Core, and relevant technologies that impact the education professional both inside and outside of the classroom.
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Technology and Learning, has a streamlined discussion of the theoretical frameworks for technology integration and an expanded exploration of the numerous new online technologies applicable to learning. Planning for Technology Integration, has abbreviated and modified the Dynamic Instructional Design model to better reflect the changing focus on 21st century instruction. The chapter has been expanded to include the opportunities and challenges inherent in technology integration. Technology for Diverse Learners, revisits the application of technology for students with unique needs and includes updates to reflect changes in assistive and supportive devices.
Schools and Technology, has condensed and streamlined the discussion of the core technologies essential to schools with emphasis on the essential concepts every teacher needs. The chapter explores the technology most likely found in schools and provides the framework for effectively utilizing the technology that future educators will be expected to use in their classrooms.
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Technology in the Classroom, offers an examination of the specific technologies that teachers are likely to encounter in their classroom. In the fifth edition, discussion has been expanded to reflect the academic potential of current and emerging technologies, including mobile technologies integrated into the classroom.
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Software for Teacher Tasks, includes a discussion of essential software for teacher tasks and expands the review to include not only productivity software for educators but also other essential installed and online tools to help teachers manage essential tasks such as attendance and grades. This chapter explores the opportunities and challenges associated with using these technologies and provides opportunities for critical thinking in chapter activities.
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Software for Active Learning, explores standalone, networked, and online software that supports learning. The use of active learning software— whether using productivity software for academic purposes or integrating the latest app—is examined within the framework of sound pedagogy. Opportunities and challenges that teachers face when integrating software for learning are fully addressed.
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Teaching, Learning, and the Web, offers a thorough examination of World Wide Web resources and their application in schools and in the classroom. From a discussion of the evolution of the Web from 1.0 to 3.0, this chapter examines the powerful tools and resources available to every educator. It culminates with a discussion of the teacher’s role in helping students to become productive members of the global digital world and good digital citizens.
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Technology for Distance Delivery, offers an examination of the impact of technology on the delivery of instruction from blended to flipped to education at a distance. This chapter provides an overview of the evolution of instructional delivery models, offers methodology for evaluating them, and provides a robust discussion of their merits and the opportunities and challenges inherent in their implementation.
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Technology in Schools: Implementation Issues, expands its examination of the diverse social, ethical, and legal issues associated with technology integration to include those most pressing for today’s educators, cyberbullying and cyberstalking. Various new online resources to assist teachers in addressing these issues are provided to prepare for and address the many concerns they might encounter.
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Technology in Tomorrow’s Schools, takes a forward look at the diverse technologies that will affect schools as the 21st century unfolds from those at the cusp of adoption to those still on the horizon. It culminates with a discussion of the role of 21st century educators as advocates for technology in teaching and learning.
Support Materials for Instructors The following resources are available for instructors to download on www.pearsonhighered .com/educators. Instructors enter the author or title of this book, select this particular edition of the book, and then click on the Resources tab to log in and download textbook supplements. Instructor’s Resource Manual and Test Bank (0133477282) The Instructor’s Resource Manual and Test Bank includes questions that tie to the learning outcomes, discussion questions, and activities. For each chapter the IRM includes: ■
Alternative individual, reflection, and group activities to expand your instructional choices for reinforcing chapter content
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Suggested assessment strategies to help evaluate competencies.
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Educational Technology Pre and Post Tests to help students gauge their mastery at the beginning and end of their ed tech course.
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Chapter Puzzler crosswords to help students practice chapter concepts
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Field experience activities for those students who are completing a field component of their educational technology course
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Problem-based learning projects on multichapter, critical educational topics
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A an annotated list of Suggested Readings that offer options for further exploration of key topics
PowerPoint Slides (0133477266) The PowerPoint slides include key points pertaining to key concepts, skill, and strategies to enhance learning. They are designed to help students understand, organize, and remember core concepts. TestGen (0133477290) Test Gen is a powerful test generator available exclusively from Pearson Education. You install TestGen on your personal computer (Windows or Macintosh) and create your own tests for classroom testing and for other specialized delivery options, such as a local area network or the web. A test bank, which is also called a Test Item File (TIF), typically contains a large set of test items organized by chapter and ready for your use in creating a test based on the associated textbook material. The tests can be downloaded in the following formats: TestGen Testbank file—PC TestGen Testbank file—MAC TestGen Testbank—Blackboard 9 TIF TestGen Testbank—Blackboard CE/Vista (WebCT) TIF Angel Test Bank (zip) D2L Test Bank (zip) Moodle Test Bank Sakai Test Bank (zip)
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Acknowledgments When we created the first edition of our text, we discovered how essential the help, encouragement, and support of those with whom we live and with whom we work was to the success of our text. We continue to be very grateful to all. As we prepared this fifth edition in its new ebook format, we found the support of our families and colleagues to be critical once again. First, we would like to thank our families for their continued encouragement and for their patience and tolerance of the time spent away from them during the creation of this edition. Special thanks to Judy’s son, Jonathan Lever, for his suggestions and contributions; to Dewayne Roos, editor, contributor, colleague, and husband, without whom this edition would not have been as well conceived or well executed; to Jean’s sons and daughters-in-law, Mike and Mary and Tom and Jenny; to her daughter, Melany; and to her son, Mark and his friend, Lori; and to Jean’s grandchildren. At Pearson, we gratefully acknowledge the patience, hard work, creativity, and support of all those known and unknown to us who made our fifth edition a reality. Special thanks to the remarkable team that made this edition happen. We sincerely thank Max Chuck for her professionalism and expertise, limitless enthusiasm, thoughtful guidance, endless patience, and sincere friendship as we traversed the complex experiences of moving together to an eText format. We thank Karen Mason for shepherding us through the intricacies of the production process with a steadiness and kindness we have come to rely on and could not have managed without. We thank Caroline Fenton for her technical support and expertise as she turned our ideas into innovative interactivity. The scope and breath of this revision would simply not have been possible without this team, and we are very grateful for their participation and immense support. We also want to acknowledge the essential leadership provided by Jeff Johnston and Meredith Fossel who made this eText edition with its diverse new features possible. We also appreciate Linda Bishop stepping in and being our interim editor; we are grateful for her support. We also want to thank our production team led by John Shannon at Jouve. We much appreciate the attention to detail and the addition of John’s own unique polish that ensured both the quality and appeal of this edition. We gratefully acknowledge the many reviewers of the text, including Tracey Sheetz Bartos, Seton Hill University; Dr. Catherine L. Bertelson, Central Washington University; Dr. Jane C. Bowser, High Point University; Cathy Cole, Ivy Tech Community College; Douglas M. Harvey, Richard Stockton College; Dr. Debbie Heroman, Louisiana State University; Suzanne Horn, Queens University of Charlotte; Carol Nelson, Central Christian College of Kansas; Cynthia Snell, Columbia College and Clarion University; Janice L. Thiel, St. Petersburg College; Gretchen Thomas, University of Georgia; Dr. S. Bola Tilghman, Georgia Southwestern State University; and George Watson, Marshall University. Finally, thanks to our many colleagues who offered suggestions, advice, and support. A special thanks to Justin Birtwell, our Tech Tutor creator, for his outstanding production of the many multimedia tutorials included in this edition; Jan Strohl from Ivy Tech for her updates to the Skills Builders 2010 and 2013; to Jean Ulman for her thorough review and excellent suggestions for Chapter 4, Technology for Diverse Learners; to Victoria Brown for her contribution to Chapter 9, Teaching, Learning and the Web; and to Jean Callary, for several of her Teacher2Teacher interviews; and to the many teachers across the country and across the globe who shared their stories with us. A sincere expression of gratitude to Dr. Renee Murley, Clinical Associate Professor, the Department of Instruction and Curriculum Leadership; Dr. Linda Brice, Academic Dean, University of Memphis Lambuth; Dr. Deborah Lowther, Department Chair, Instruction and Curriculum Leadership, University of Memphis; and Dr. Donald Wagner, Dean of the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, University of Memphis. Thank you all. Surely, this new, very improved eText edition would not have come into existence without you!
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A Note from the Authors to Instructors The authors of this text understand the challenge of learning about and teaching how best to use our ever-changing technology resources to help people learn. With many technological resources changing quickly and many diverse pressures affecting teachers and schools, it is difficult to determine what needs to be included in a first course in educational technology. In preparing this text for your use, we have used as our barometer the ongoing question, “What do teachers really need to know about this technology to help them use it to prepare 21st century learners?” We hope that the result of our continuous response to this question is this text, which offers you an inclusive, focused, and practical survey of educational technology. With this fifth edition, we have revamped both content and presentation and moved this text to its next logical evolution, an interactive eText. We have updated this edition to reflect the most current and emerging technologies likely to impact education. We hope that we have provided both faculty and students an abundance of useful, interactive tools to teach and learn about technologies for education. With the introduction of interactive multimedia elements in the eText, new features in both print and eText versions, and a comprehensive downloadable collection of electronic resources, this edition offers a robust set of tools instructors might require when teaching this course. However, we know that we can always do more for both the faculty and students who use this text. We encourage both faculty adopting this text and students using it to share with us your thoughts about whatever might be done to make this text more useful to you. We look forward to hearing from you! Judy Lever-Duffy Jean B. McDonald
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Technology, Teaching, and You Learning Outcomes ●
Define educational technology and identify its role in teaching
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Evaluate the application of educational technology standards to 21st century teaching
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Determine the technology requirements for professional preparation
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Identify the types of educational technologies available in today’s classrooms that are useful for teaching tasks
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Describe the teaching challenges and opportunities associated with integrating technology in the classroom and in schools
1 This chapter addresses NETS-T 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. To review the N ETS-T standards, go to ISTE’s website.
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echnology is an integral thread woven into the fabric of our society. It assists us in our personal, academic, and professional lives. As a result, the ability to use this technology or technology literacy has become an essential skill. From researching information via the Internet, to getting driving directions, to making purchases, to paying bills, and to interacting with others, technology has become a central part of 21st century life. Being conversant in all aspects of technology gives us the ability to function in the Information Age. It can become only increasingly important in our collective future. For educators— the professionals charged with ensuring the next generation is prepared for its
This section addresses NETS-T 3, 4, and 5. To review the NETS-T standards, go to ISTE’s website.
place in our technology-rich society—technology literacy becomes even more vital. We cannot imagine a teacher unable to read or write being charged with ensuring his or her students’ verbal literacy. We should no more be able to imagine a teacher unable to use technology being charged with preparing 21st century learners. Educational technology skills are, for today’s educators, baseline skills. They are necessary for the many administrative and instructional tasks a teacher has each day. They are even more essential to teach and to model the 21st century skills our students require. This professional mandate for technology literacy is the focus of this chapter.
Educational Technology and Teaching
To begin an exploration of educational technology, it is useful to understand its scope and purpose within the framework of education. Just as technology has become a central force in our society, so has it impacted all aspects of an educator’s professional life. Current and future teachers must embrace this change, particularly in light of the changing skill sets that students need for success in the 21st century. To begin this effort, it is best to have a clear definition of educational technology to understand the skills that must be acquired. Some consider all classroom media to be included in the concept of educational technology. Others include only digital media. Although these competing views are equally valid, this text adopts the scope of educational technology as defined by the Association for Educa tional Communications and Technology (AECT). The AECT is one of the oldest and most respected professional educational technology organizations. Begun in the 1920s, it remains focused on effectively using technology in instruction. As described in the AECT’s 2008 publication, Educational Technology: A Definition with Commentary, “Educational technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources.” This viewpoint takes the Figure 1.1 The Scope of Educational Technology broadest possible view and encourages the Educational technology includes all real, analog, and digital technologies and media that exploration of the full range of technologies can be used to support teaching and learning. and processes that a teacher might use to Sources: © Examphotos/Fotolia; © Maksym Yemelyanov/Fotolia; © Monkey Business/Fotolia; enhance instruction and augment student © SkyLine/Fotolia; © Sergiogen/Fotolia; © Elnur/Fotolia; © Suslo/Fotolia; © Dmitry Goygel-Sokol/ learning. With this broad approach, it is Fotolia; © Scanrail/Fotolia; © Hakki Arslan/Fotolia.
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useful then to consider how this extended concept of educational technology might be used to encourage and support 21st century teaching and learning. Figure 1.1 suggests the range of media that might be considered within the definition of educational technology. As you can see, all technology and media find a valid place in support of teaching and learning. For educators charged with ensuring that our students are prepared for their place in society, teacher and student literacy in this broad range of technological tools is critical. To that end, every educator needs to master essential technology skills not only to accomplish his or her administrative and instructional tasks but a lso—more importantly—to prepare students for contemporary life. But educational technology, like all other aspects of instruction, cannot be successfully employed outside of the instruction, goals, and objectives they support. Instead, these powerful instructional resources can be effective only if recognized as a component of and integrated into a framework of standards-based teaching and learning. The implementation of educational technology itself is not the objective of instruction. Instead, the reason for integrating technology is to be a support and a means to the instruction necessary to meet identified standards for 21st century learning. In today’s s tandards-based educational landscape, educational technology and technology literacy have become foundational elements. It is therefore useful to explore the technology standards framework you are likely to use to define and inform your t echnology-rich instruction.
AECT broadly defines educational technology to include all technology resources and processes appropriate to education.
1. What is AECT?
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2. What technologies and media are included within the concept of educational technology? 3. How do standards impact the integration of technology?
Technology Standards for 21st Century Learning Standards address competencies in educational technology just as they do in all areas of education. Standards provide a roadmap for instruction and define the ultimate goal in terms of student performance. Technology standards, then, provide the direction and target for the technology skills students will need for success in 21st century learning. National and international professional organizations have articulated standards identifying the specific sets of technology skills necessary for both teachers and their students. These standards define the framework for technology inclusion in states, districts, and schools.
This section addresses NETS-T 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. To review the NETS-T standards, go to ISTE’s website.
International Society for Technology in Education and the National Educational Technology Standards In the field of educational technology, the most frequently applied set of technology standards for students and educators are those identified by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). ISTE has led a federally funded initiative to develop standards for technology for teachers, other education professionals, and students. This initiative has been instrumental in defining what you need to know about educational technology. ISTE’s project, called the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), is part of the Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) grant program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. ISTE’s NETS-T are standards for evaluating the knowledge and skills that teachers should have. The NETS-T standards assume that teachers have already met the NETS standards for students (NETS-S). NETS-S articulates not only the basic technology competencies for students but also their application. Together, these two sets of standards provide current and future educators direction for effective and appropriate goals for the implementation of educational technology.
National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) identifies definitive competencies for technology skills that students and all educators should have.
Technology Standards for 21st Century Learning
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techtools NETS-S Resources 4 schools
The ISTE’s website identifies for teachers not only the student standards they must address when teaching but also a series of profiles for technology literate students. It also provides a statement of essential conditions necessary to effectively leverage technology for learning and offers implementation resources including the NETS-S Implementation Wiki. Profiles offer examples for preparing students for becoming lifelong learners. Essential Conditions summarize the necessary information and communication conditions needed for schools and students to effectively meet all standards. These resources will help you to implement the standards effectively and are well worth the time and effort to read. The NETS-S Implementation Wiki offers teachers expanded resources including videos, lesson planning templates, sample lessons by grade level, and opportunities to collaborate with colleagues on NETS implementation. Through this powerful interactive resource, teachers can share their best practices and learn from their colleagues’ instructional efforts. All teachers are charged with preparing students to be 21st century digital citizens, and the NETS student standards are at the core of this preparation. This resource goes beyond just stating the standards and offers you an opportunity to work with colleagues worldwide to determine how best to achieve those standards.
As a result of the ever increasing pressures for technology literacy and for compliance with the national technology standards associated with it, most states have developed state technology standards and have included these, directly or indirectly, within their certification and licensing requirements for teachers. Therefore, as a matter of your own professional licensure, technology standards and their resultant requirements have become significant in every educator’s professional life. NETS standards are foundational to the exploration of educational technology for current and future educators and are therefore an essential focus of this text. As you peruse each chapter, you will find references and links relating standards to the content presented. You are encouraged to use these links to keep the relevance of NETS at the forefront of your understanding of educational technology and its role in teaching and learning.
1. What are standards?
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2. How did NETS come about? 3. How do NETS-S and NETS-T impact teachers?
The Partnership for 21st Century Learning The Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21) defines a new essential skill set for 21st century learners that emphasizes technology skills.
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The Partnership for 21st Century (P21) Learning has provided an additional significant framework for educators regarding the skills students will need for their futures. It is no longer enough to be satisfied with student outcomes limited to the 3Rs. Student outcomes must now address a broader skill set that includes technology literacy. The “Framework for 21st Century Learning” developed by P21 offers a view of teaching and learning focused on student outcomes to help them master the skills critical to their future success. One of the key skills components of the framework relates to information, media, and technology skills. The P21 Framework mandates that professional educators become qualified to prepare their students only when the educators’ own level of technology literacy includes these key skills. Figure 1.2 presents P21’s Route 21, an interactive review of P21 skills and initiatives. Exploration of this website will help you to understand the scope of the changing skills you will be expected to have and to facilitate.
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The Common Core Standards Initiative The Common Core Standards Initiative is a national initiative led by state professional organizations, the National Governors Association (NGA), and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). Its goal is to establish a clear and agreed upon set of standards for K–12 math and language arts so that students are ready for success as they continue their academic career or enter the workforce. Forty- five states have adopted these standards, which in turn drive their state curriculum mandates. Technology skills are incorporated within the bounds of the Common Core Standards. Rather than segregating technology components, the standards include and integrate technology skills into Common Core Standards. This approach recognizes and mirrors the inclusion of technology skills in 21st century life. For example, writing anchor standard 6 states that sixth-grade students will be able to collaborate, write, and publish together via the Internet. This type of inclusion of required technology skills within the framework of a Common Core Standard is typical. It serves to demonstrate that tech- Figure 1.2 The Partnership for 21st Century nology skills are now integral to 21st century content Learning competencies. P 21 offers multiple resources to better understand and implement the Given the NETS-T standards, the imperative defined P 21 Framework. by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning, and the Source: Partnership for 21st Century Learning. P 21.org. Used with permission. inclusion of technology in Common Core Standards, most national, state, and local organizations and districts recognize educational technology literacy as a core competency for educators. Other professional organizations, including those responsible for teacher preparation, further reinforce this mandate. 1. How has the Partnership for 21st Century Learning impacted instruction?
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2. What is the purpose of the Common Core Standards Initiative? 3. How do technology skills relate to P21 and Common Core Standards?
Teacher Preparation Accreditation The AECT and ISTE standards contribute to and have been folded into the professional preparation requirements for all teachers as defined by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). These requirements and their impact on current and future educators have changed the way future educators prepare for their profession. Colleges of education seek to be recognized as meeting the NCATE standards in order to affirm that their graduates have met the nationally accepted criteria for teacher education. NCATE, like other education organizations, incorporates technology within the framework of its professional standards for teacher preparation. Multiple NCATE standards require future educators to integrate technology into instruction to facilitate student learning and support teaching.
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Teacher preparation standards help to identify the competencies needed to be successful in the classroom. Source: Morgan Lane Photography/Shutterstock.
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Educational Technology Integration
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NCATE has also partnered with ISTE in developing endorsements for future educators in the areas of technology facilitation, technology leadership, and computer science preparation. The impact of technology in teacher preparation is now ingrained and a component of quality teacher preparation. NCATE standards and endorsements evidence this.
Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Preparation
NCATE and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC), second only to NCATE in teacher accreditation, voted in 2010 to merge CAEP into a single accrediting agency, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). Although the merger process continues, CAEP has already developed standards and has begun drafting its next Figure 1.3 Standards and Educaevolution of merged professional educator preparation standards. These tional Technology Integration standards directly and indirectly identify technology as an essential skill The application of standards developed by various in teacher preparation. For example, in the current CAEP standard 1.4, professional organizations has impacted the speed teachers are expected to “use technology to enhance their teaching, classand structure of technology’s integration into room management, communications with families and assessment of teaching and learning. student learning”; the draft version of the same standard regarding the technology requirement states, “Candidates engage students in reasoning and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local, state, national, and global issues, incorporating new technologies and instructional tools appropriate to such tasks.” These two Click here to access versions demonstrate that technology continues to be recognized as an essential skill HANDS ON for educators. It is clear that competence in and application of educational technology LEARNING are now considered a mandate for both schools of education and national professionTechnology Standards Review als. Figure 1.3 illustrates the professional forces at work to ensure technology integration.
1. How do the teacher education accrediting agencies impact you? 2. How are technology skills included in teacher preparation standards?
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This section addresses NETS-T 3, 4, and 5. To review the NETS-T standards, go to ISTE’s website.
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3. What agencies have merged to develop new standards for teacher preparation?
Professional Licensure and Technology Preparation Many states have utilized NETS not only in adopting standards but also in developing statements of required practices for teachers and in strategic planning for technology. The federal mandate created by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which requires students be technologically literate by the end of the eighth grade, has put pressure on states to find appropriate technological benchmarks for teachers and students. Because NCLB requires technology literacy without specific mandates on how to achieve it or to assess its level of success, states have taken a variety of approaches to meeting technology requirements. These approaches are typically incorporated into each state’s technology plan. You can review your state’s technology plan via the U.S. Department of Education. Most K–12 technology plans require that students have access to appropriate technologies, including hardware and connections, and to teachers who are highly skilled in the uses of technology. The plans also recognize the need for ongoing professional development for teachers. These mandates affect district decision making as to technology acquisition and implementation. States vary widely as to how to incorporate NETS. For example,
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some designate additional certification requirements while others might identify student technology competencies within the curriculum and still others may include mandates within a strategic plan. Regardless of how the state addresses the standards, it is clear that technology literacy is now a critical component of education across all states. ISTE NETS can often be found at the heart of state solutions to achieving technology literacy.
Accomplished Practices Once a state adopts or adapts NETS and aligns with them, these technology standards may become part Technology standards and accomplished practices mandate teacher of its “accomplished teacher” requirements. Also competencies and skills in order to effectively prepare 21st century known as accomplished practices, these require- learners. ments dictate a set of expectations for educational Source: Jules Selmes/Pearson Education. professionals. Once a state determines what it considers accomplished practices, institutions that are preparing future teachers and local school districts employing new educators must demonstrate how they ensure that teachers meet these requirements. Teachers who meet these NETS based requirements are well prepared to include and apply technology standards in their local schools and individual classrooms. From accomplished practices to NCLB’s emphasis on technology in education to the impact of diverse standards pressure has mounted to address technology i ntegration. These collective forces have mandated that states, districts, and schools evaluate their application of technology for improving student achievement. In response, most states have developed technology standards for students and associated professional requirements for teachers that are likely to impact your career. These requirements often become a component of teacher certification and professional licensing. Whether directly or indirectly, technology has become foundational to the teaching profession.
State Certification and Licensure Technology Requirements In all states, teachers must be licensed or certified by the state to be employed as educators. Each state’s department of education sets the requirements for teacher licensure/ certification. Although the state licensing requirements may differ among states, teachers must fulfill certain basic requirements including specific technology requirements that are often met through an undergraduate course in educational technology. For teachers who entered the profession before such technology requirements were instituted, courses in educational technology are often strongly recommended for certificate renewal. Awareness of licensure or certification requirements is every educator’s individual responsibility. Although districts and colleges may provide support, the ultimate resource is the agency that grants the license, a state’s department of education. Reviewing your state’s requirements is strongly recommended to be sure you are meeting all licensure provisions for the area in which you plan to teach.
1. What are certification requirements for teachers? 2. How do certification requirements impact accomplished practices?
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3. What is the relationship between technology standards and certification?
Professional Licensure and Technology Preparation
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techtips Finding State Certification Requirements State licensing requirements are typically very specific descrip tions of what is needed for initial certification. They also describe what teachers must do to maintain certification. Every state has its own unique licensure requirements and every educator must stay aware and informed about their state’s mandates. Some states have reciprocity of licensing between them. When reciprocity exists, a teaching certificate in one state may be recognized by another state. That enables a teacher to work in or move to multiple states without requiring additional significant steps for certification.
Every state has an office, usually a department of education, for handling teacher certification. But finding the exact information you need on a complex state website can be confusing and time consuming. To facilitate the process, the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California has created an easily accessible national Certification Map that provides certification information from all states. The site also provides a discussion of the certification process as well as a report of average salaries in all states. This useful resource can help any professional answer her or his licensing questions.
National Certification and Educational Technology In addition to state licensure, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) offers national certification recognition. The NBPTS is a nonprofit, nongovernmental agency governed by a 63-member board of directors, the majority of whom are classroom teachers. Influenced by the release of A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century, a report of the Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy’s Task Force on Teaching as a Profession, this board was created in 1987. NBPTS’s purpose is to improve teaching and learning by encouraging teachers to become nationally certified through a voluntary system. This certification is awarded to teachers who can demonstrate that they have achieved high and rigorous standards in what they know and what they do. NBPTS also promotes educational reform by guiding this voluntary certification process, and it uses the expertise of already National Board–Certified teachers to promote the process and assist others to attain certification. Although National Board Certification currently has no directly stated technology requirements, diversity of teaching methodology and assessment strategies including the use of media are components of evaluation. Teachers who obtain National Board Certification must use multiple methods and pathways, including those grounded in technology, in their approach to teaching. Furthermore, the national certification process itself is done via electronic portfolio. Educational technology literacy is not only critical for participation but also assists teachers in demonstrating the level of competence needed to be granted this prestigious recognition.
Technology Skills in Professional Evaluation and Recertification Technology competencies are often mandated for state certification, accomplished practices, professional evaluation, and recertification criteria.
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Technology standards and requirements are often included directly or indirectly as a component of i n-service teachers’ annual professional evaluations associated with continuation of their professional contracts. To ensure that teachers are prepared to demonstrate these skills, two options are commonplace within the profession. Teachers can either return to a college or university to take credit courses in educational technology or other targeted technology skills, or they can participate in district in-service workshops to develop the same competencies. For those who wish college credit, the additional value in having it may include meeting requirements to add additional endorsement areas to their teaching certificate or meeting state certification renewal requirements. States and districts also provide ongoing professional development activities to support continuous improvement in technology skills and curriculum integration. Professional development options range from individually attending or accessing in-service workshops to participating in g roup-or
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Table
1.1
Online Tech Training for Teachers
Online Training Source
Resources
Edutopia
Videos and resources on w ide-ranging technology integration topics
National Teacher Training Institute
Free series of multimedia online workshops in a wide range of technology and teaching topics
PBS TeacherLine
Online courses for graduate credit in diverse topics include educational technology; coordinated by a variety of universities
21 Things 4 Teachers
Free online self-paced multimedia training in 21 top technology topics aligned to NETS
g rade-level offerings. School districts typically provide these training opportunities free of charge and on campus to in-service educators. In either case, whether through college credit or in-service training, the expectation of educational technology literacy has come to be at the core of professional preparation and ongoing development. Perhaps one of the most convenient opportunities for achieving technology literacy results from the application of distance educational methods for technology training. Online training opportunities in technology are rich and varied. Many vendor and public sites offer professional development courses and workshops. Sites such as Annenberg Learner provide quality free professional development and training as an outgrowth of their mission. These online resources ensure continual technology training opportunities for teachers. Table 1.1 summarizes some of the most useful.
1. What is National Board Certification? 2. How is technology included in NBPTS certification?
self-check
3. What role does technology play in in-service teacher evaluation and recertification?
Technology Training for Other Educators Technology literacy is no less important for noninstructional educators. Each education professional serves unique student needs and contributes to the school community. For technology to succeed in enriching the instructional environment, all educators need to achieve technology competencies. Although these may vary from one noninstructional professional to another, all are critical to achieving successful technology implementation in schools.
Media Specialists Media specialists are Information Age librarians. As a result of the Internet, library information is no longer bounded by walls. Media specialists must be able to assist students seeking information via all media in order to complete a research assignment. Keeping up with the latest online resources and developments in scholarly research is a part of the media specialist’s responsibility. Professional publications for media specialists are dominated by the technology they must be able use to obtain information for students and teachers. Library Journal and School Library Journal feature articles largely devoted to technology literacy in the context of media centers. In addition, the American Library Association (ALA) offers ALA Online Learning devoted to a wide range of topics including technology applications in media centers. Media specialists, like teachers, have access both to credit courses and in-service and online workshops to hone their technology skills. Technology literacy is particularly critical for the media specialist who often assists teachers and their students in using the school’s technology
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both in and outside the media center. This group of educators must not only provide services to students but also often schedule, organize, and offer technology training to their peers. For media specialists, current and comprehensive educational technology literacy is a necessity.
Administrators As recognized by diverse professionals organizations, technology competency has become essential for all educators.
For administrators, technology literacy is a key skill not just for administrative purposes but also for effective decision making. The 2001 Technology Standards for School Administrators (TSSA) were developed by a collaborative effort of several school administrators professional organizations, the departments of education of Mississippi and Kentucky, several regional educational organizations, and ISTE. This group recognized that administrators are essential in determining how effectively technology will be used in their schools. The TSSA was the foundational document for the establishment of ISTE’s NETS for Administrators standards. The N ETS-A standards articulate the skills and knowledge that administrators need to ensure that technology supports learning and transforms schools into 21st century institutions. Technology leadership is just as essential as the many other aspects of leadership an administrator provides. The N ETS-A standards help to ensure that administrator preparation readies school leaders for the digital age. To achieve and maintain educational technology literacy, administrators may also par ticipate in university or college credit courses and targeted leadership workshops, many offered by their profession. In particular, the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) and the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) offer numerous publications as well as a comprehensive list of online workshops, many of which focus on technology to help enhance educational leadership skills.
Other Educational Professionals
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HANDS ON LEARNING My Technology Competencies
For future guidance counselors and those in instructional support fields, such as speech therapists and reading specialists, technology literacy is as important as it is for classroom teachers. In addition to accomplishing the many administrative tasks associated with an education support role, technology literacy is required to make the most of available online resources for the benefit of students. Specific technology skill requirements vary, but professional organizations supporting each of these professionals offer targeted online resources, and school in-service and college credit opportunities offer general technology skills support. ISTE has recently recognized the specific technology requirements for those directly engaged in supporting fellow educators seeking to improve their technology skills through the development of NETS for coaches (NETS-C). These standards articulate standards for technology coaches, facilitators, and others who assist in teacher support and school technology integration. Training for these technology specialists is offered online and through college credit and specialized advanced in-service workshops presented by the district and state. For all these categories of educational staff, training opportunities are abundant whether through college courses, workshops, or professional organizations and conferences. Like all other educators, support personnel must acquire and maintain their technology skills to perform professionally in 21st century schools. Every educator regardless of their specialty must take responsibility for his or her own level of competency and seek the training needed to develop and maintain his or her skills.
Technology for All 21st Century Educators To address standards and to support 21st century learning, every educator has a critical role. Professionally, every educator must be aware of the NETS-T or other applicable professional technology standards and to participate in classes, workshops, and other professional
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activities to ensure that they meet requirements that affect them. Educators must also be cognizant of the P21 skills framework and the mandates it places on the students in their charge. For Information Age students, being passive learners is not acceptable. They must instead exit their academic years with content mastery and information that will serve them throughout their lives. In the 21st century classroom, the 3Rs must be accompanied by the 4Cs (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity); only technology literate, innovative teachers can provide these. To help you on your personal journey toward technology mastery and to develop a sense of technology advocacy, it is useful to explore the powerful possibilities technology offers to enrich and enliven your teaching and your classroom. That is the focus of the next section of this chapter.
Voices from the Classroom Technology for the Future All educators, from superintendents to administrators to teachers, must participate in transforming education for the 21st century. Watch Dr. Mark Edwards, Superintendent of Mooresville Graded School District, describe his views on the impact of technology in schools. Watch the video in Voices from the Classroom by clicking the play button. ➤
1. Besides teachers and students, what other professionals does NETS address?
self-check
2. What is a technology coach? 3. What are P21’s 4 Cs?
Technology in the 21st Century School Technology is and will continue to be an essential part of education. As you have learned, technology literacy is a requirement for the professionals who work in this field. You have explored the standards that mandate its inclusion and the various opportunities available for your own personal development of these necessary skills. The next useful step is to examine the types of technologies you can expect to encounter and the role they will play in your classroom, your school, and your professional life.
This section addresses NETS-T 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. To review the NETS-T standards, go to ISTE’s website.
Technology Implementation in Schools School districts have spent a substantial portion of their limited resources equipping their schools and classrooms with a wide range of technologies. The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has awarded billions of dollars to states for educational technology. Individual states and districts provided additional funds. The 2009 DOE report, Teachers’ Use of Educational Technology in U.S. Public Schools, noted that 99 percent of teachers surveyed had computers in the classroom every day or could have them brought in every day (see Figure 1.4). Given the substantial annual investment in technology and its presence in America’s classrooms, it is clear that the education profession and the societal institutions that support technology are firmly committed to its use in schools and in classrooms. Schools invest technology dollars for district record gathering and reporting, connecting schools within a district, equipping individual schools with technologies, and providing appropriate hardware and software in individual classrooms. Regardless of the purpose of the specific technology expenditure, the nation and its schools recognize the merits of technology at every level of education. For teachers, technology’s uses range from assistance in performing a variety of administrative tasks to supporting an instructional event to addressing the unique learning needs of a student attempting to master a particular concept. Classroom technology can offer teachers
Technology in the 21st Century School
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Table 1. Percent of teachers with computers in the classroom every day and percent that can bring computers into the classroom, ratio of students in the classroom to these computers, and percent of these computers with Internet access, by schooland teacher characteristics: 2009 Computers in the classroom every day
Characteristic
Percent of teachers1
Percent of computers with Internet access
97
5.3
98 95
5.4 5.2
97 97 96
All public school teachers ........................... School instructional level3 Elementary .................................................... Secondary ..................................................... School enrollment size Less than 300 ................................................ 300 to 999 ..................................................... 1,000 or more ................................................ Community type City ................................................................ Suburban........................................................ Town............................................................... Rural............................................................... Percent of students in the school eligible for free or reduced-price lunch Less than 35 percent ..................................... 35 to 49 percent ............................................
Figure
Computers that can be grought into the classroom
Ratio of students in the classroom to computers2
Total computers (in or can be brought into the classroom)
Percent of teachers1
Ratio of students in the classroom to computers2
Percent of computers with Internet access
Percent of teachers1
Ratio of students in the classroom to computers2
Percent of computers with Internet access
93
54
2.4
96
99
1.7
95
92 94
52 57
2.6 2.3
96 96
99 98
1.7 1.6
95 96
4.5 5.4 5.3
92 94 92
53 53 56
2.4 2.5 2.3
98 96 96
99 99 99
1.6 1.7 1.6
96 95 95
96 98 96 97
5.2 5.4 5.2 5.3
92 93 93 95
54 56 52 52
2.7 2.3 2.7 2.4
95 97 96 95
99 99 99 99
1.8 1.6 1.8 1.6
94 96 95 95
96 98 97
5.9 5.4 4.9
93 92 94
61 52 47
2.1 2.5 2.9
97 96
99 99 98
1.5 1.7
96 94
1.4 U.S. Department of Education Report: Teachers with Classroom
Computers
Today’s classrooms have computers with Internet access widely and consistently available. Source: U.S. Department of Education. http://www.edpubs.gov/document/ed004986p.pdf?ck=148.
and students effective, efficient, and tireless support for all these purposes. Table 1.2 summarizes the most common teacher applications of school and classroom technologies. Most teachers have a teacher workstation with the classroom computer at their desk. Whether helping report attendance, entering grades, preparing a worksheet, or researching a topic on the Internet, the computer and its software have become a necessary tool for teaching tasks. However, using the computer for an administrative task is just the beginning. The computer, the peripherals that can connect to and interact with it, and the mobile devices associated with it offer teachers an amazing array of tools that can enhance and support teaching. Indeed, how these technologies are used is limited only by the creativity of the teacher applying them.
Technology for Administrative Tasks In 21st century schools, technology is applied to a broad range of tasks including administrative tasks, communication, and diverse teaching and learning tasks.
Table
1.2
Just as technology has streamlined business processes, so too has it streamlined the administrative tasks in classrooms, schools, and districts. In the classroom, teachers can use packaged and online software to help them perform the many tasks once laboriously done with pencil, paper, or typewriter. Electronic attendance reports and word processing software are as essential in today’s classroom as paper. However, many more administrative tasks can be addressed by classroom technology and an abundant number of online tools such as those found on websites like Teach-nology offer teachers resources they can include in their own teaching toolbox. Administrative teacher tools available on the Internet are abundant and often free. These tools include Classroom Architect that will help you set up your classroom. Other tools such as Class Set Up to create seating charts, Engrade to customize gradebooks, and Education World’s Monthly Calendar to create a class and assignment calendar
Classroom Technology Tools for Teachers
Types of Technology Tools
Application
Examples
Administrative
Assist and support in teacher tasks
Application software suite, classroom management software, grading software
Presentation
Support lecture and class presentation
Presentation software, multimedia hardware and software
Lesson Preparation
Assist in creating and planning instruction
Lesson planning software, lesson planning resources, standards alignment software
Communications
Support collaboration and communication
Social media, teleconferencing, email, discussions
Teaching
Support and enhance classroom teaching
Puzzle and test generators, online surveys, teacher apps
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are available. With a quick Internet search, these abundant administrative tools are widely available, typically without cost. A teacher looking to maximize the effectiveness of a classroom computer for administrative tasks is not limited by the financial resources and technical support of his or her school. Instead, the resources available are limited only by the effort a teacher is willing to make to find them.
Technology for Presentation Effective teaching requires that content be presented in the modalities best suited to student learning styles. Anyone who has ever experienced a lecture that lacked visual enhancement intuitively understands that the presenter restricted his or her effectiveness by limiting the variety of presentation media. Technology offers free and abundant tools such as those available at Empressr that provide a variety of opportunities to enhance and improve classroom presentations. Packaged presentation tools available with office suites such as Microsoft Office PowerPoint and Apple’s Keynote® are widely recognized support available for presentations. These applications are capable of much more than offering just a sequence of t ext-based slides. They can also easily embed and display video and audio and provide links to saved or online resources from within the presentation. And given the many templates, formats, and graphics available within packages or through download, these tools offer a presentation toolkit rich with instructional impact. But these tools are only a beginning of the technological resources that teachers can use to enhance their presentations. Many more are available online, often without cost. Innovative technology-using teachers can find tools such as Microsoft’s free downloadable Photo Story that, among other capabilities, collects and displays photos with commentary and music, Museum Box that can create a visual sequence of events to teach history, and resources that can record, store, and edit audio lessons such as Audacity. Free online resources can create presentations with text pages, photos, graphics, and commentary interwoven together as is available in AutoCollage. Other presentation support tools such as Prezi let you create dramatic animated video presentations featuring images and text elements that zoom and rotate to add interest to your display. Wordle, another free online resource, can create word clouds from text passages to demonstrate key points as a focus to your presentation. These and many more support tools allow teachers to add depth and vibrancy to the presentation of the content they are teaching. Some also provide capabilities for online sharing and posting to websites. Others offer rich multimedia capabilities to be used both online and in the traditional classroom. Given the time, interest, and technology abilities any particular educator possesses, online presentation tools are available to meet any educator’s needs and for little or no cost.
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HANDS ON LEARNING My Top Three Presentation Tools
1. What are some examples of teacher administration tools?
self-check
2. How can online tools enhance content presentations? 3. What types of online tools enable multimedia in presentations?
Technology for Lesson Preparation Instructional design and lesson plans provide the foundation of good instruction. Technology has enhanced the process of design and planning by offering both tools that facilitate the creation of effective instructional plans and an abundance of model lesson plans. Some lesson plan tools such as The 10 Minute Lesson Planner offer a format to facilitate the creation of lessons. These systemic lesson design tools include step-by-step planning for effective instruction. Other lesson preparation tools correlate lesson outcomes with the appropriate state and national standards they address. Still other tools ensure that learning styles and intelligences are addressed and assessed in meaningful ways. Lesson preparation tools range from downloadable fill-in forms to online lesson builders that create, save, and publish the lesson. For any educator looking to facilitate the planning process, valuable technology is available to
Technology in the 21st Century School
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techtools 4 schools
Share My Lessons
Lesson planning is a core competency for all teachers. Lessons need to be created, articulated, and carried out for each unit, each week, each day. Teachers across the nation create powerful learning scenarios through the planning process. Many teachers are willing to share their efforts with their colleagues and in doing so create a potential for a community of instructional planners. The Web offers teachers a format for managing and supporting this type of sharing. The American Federation of Teachers and TES Connect (Think Educate Share) have partnered to create an online lesson planning community, Share My Lesson. This free best-practices website was developed by teachers for teachers. It provides a platform for exchanging and collaborating on lesson plans aligned to standards. It also offers high-quality teaching resources to augment and support the plans. This free online resource includes many common c ore–aligned activities as well as advice and guides on how to carry them out. Use this sharing and social networking to collaborate with colleagues the next time you need to create an innovative lesson plan. You will be inspired by your peers and can in turn inspire others by sharing what you create.
make the process easier. Click the Tech Tutor: Online Lesson Planning Tools link to see how an online lesson planner works. In addition to planners, many thousands of standards-correlated lesson plans such as those found on Thinkfinity are available online in every content area and for every grade level. Although teachers may be required by their schools to use the school’s planner format, perusal of these online plans offer teachers a critical mass of creative and innovative ideas that can be adapted, customized, and implemented for any classroom. Furthermore, sites such as Curriki offer a platform for collaborating and sharing s tandards- aligned curriculum across all content areas and grade levels. Teachers seeking to explore the creativity of their colleagues will not be disappointed in the diversity of the instructional resources they will find. And your own plans that you will implement and find particularly successful can be a valuable contribution to other teachers when shared on these lesson plan sites.
Technology for Communications Social networking has clearly demonstrated technology’s ability to facilitate communications. That same capability can be equally powerful in the classroom. Whether o ne-to-one communication with parents or colleagues via email or one-to-many communications with students via a website blog or forum or through a learning management system, technology enhances a teacher’s ability to communicate. Some of the most popular communication tools available at little or no cost to teachers include the following: • Email accounts provided by a school or a free online provider. • Private discussion and chat spaces that support topical discussions and r eal-time conversations.
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• Website hosting for your class website provided by the school or a free provider. • Web log (blog) facilities such as Edublog to carry on a class commentary and Edmodo, which provides the capabilities for Web 2.0 resources such as tweets and newsfeeds of your updates that your students can follow. • Podcasts of instructions or content that your students can download and listen to repeatedly. All of these resources help facilitate communication by removing barriers to a teacher’s interaction with students, parents, community, and peers.
Technology for Teaching As you have seen, technology offers many resources to support the tasks expected of a teacher. However, it is at its most powerful when used to support instruction. The tools available are diverse and always emerging. Even the most common tools, such as a computer with an Internet connection or an application in an office suite, become powerful instructional devices in the hands of a creative educator. An abundance of specialized education- oriented tools exist and are frequently free to educators. These tools will be explored in more depth in other chapters but for now it is sufficient to be aware of their range from the commonplace such as puzzles or worksheet generators and science demonstrations; to
Teacher 2 Teacher Technology for Every Classroom Abbey Roos teaches Kindergarten at Dr. John A. Langford Elementary School in East Hartford, Connecticut. Her class includes 20 students from different academic and cultural backgrounds. Their diversity in abilities, learning styles, and school readiness challenges her instructional creativity. She often turns to technology to support her teaching and their learning. Her classroom includes an interactive smartboard and teacher computer station with access to the Internet. Her classroom also has four student stations. “I use technology to help me with classroom management and to keep my students engaged in active learning. For classroom management, I use a software program called ClassDojo. ClassDojo is a tool that helps improve student behavior through monitoring and feedback. This software captures and generates data on behavior that I can also share with parents and administrators. Using the ClassDojo website, I can easily award feedback points for behavior in class by just one click on my Smartboard or Smartphone. Students get instant feedback (i.e., “Well done, Jon!). Students find this website to be fun and rewarding. When I began using this program in my classroom, students were motivated to follow the rules just so they could earn positive points on the Smartboard. I find this website to be extremely helpful not only because it provides me with a b ehavior-tracking report that can be shared with parents, but also because I can spend more time teaching and less time managing behaviors. I can email behavior reports directly to parents and administrators. I can also customize and tailor to each individual student and their needs. And, It’s FREE!”
Abbey uses many websites to support learning. She regularly uses a variety of content websites with her students via her classroom Smartboard. All of the classrooms at this technology-oriented school provide teachers and students interactive Smartboard technology. “Most of the sites I use are free and very effective, but one of my favorite websites that I used with the first graders I taught last year is a subscription site that my school has made available. It is called PebbleGo. This site is made up of different research databases. Each database contains leveled text and navigation specifically designed for beginning researchers. I used this site to help my students to conduct a mini-research report. My students were able to navigate through the database with ease to collect facts about a specific animal. Also, the audio and video clips were highly engaging. I use this site as a supplemental resource for their nonfiction reading units. This year I am looking forward to seeing how this site works with my Kindergarten class. ” Abbey is an advocate for the use of technology in every classroom. She notes, “I believe there are many advantages to using technology and online resources in the classroom. Technology has the potential to reach students of all learning styles. It adds interest and motivates students. Technology ignites student’s interest making its usage very important for active learning. It opens up the whole world as a resource for learning. And using technology in the classroom helps prepare students to become successful members of the 21st century workforce.”
Technology in the 21st Century School
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online interactive multimedia instructional posters such as those offered by Glogster; to the online polling service Polleverywhere; to SchoolTube and Animoto for creating, mixing, and sharing online video to support a lesson. With a quick search of the Internet, every teacher can find teacher tools for her or his skill level and instructional interest. And with the advent of mobile devices in the classroom, apps have provided another format and an even larger selection of teaching and learning tools for mobile devices. Enhancing your instructional capabilities is just a matter of selecting and using these resources.
1. What technology tools help create lesson plans?
self-check This section addresses NETS-T 3, 4, and 5. To review the NETS-T standards, go to ISTE’s website.
2. What types of social networking tools support collaboration? 3. How can online tools and apps support teaching?
Technology Challenges and Opportunities for Teachers As you can see, technologies offer teachers exciting and engaging tools to add quality to teaching and to learning. However, very few technologies are seamlessly incorporated into everyday life. Most come with challenges as well as opportunities for those who choose to use them. This is just as true for educational technologies as it is for the many other types of technologies that society has embraced.
Challenges for Technology-Using Teachers Every day, teachers face the challenge of helping their students meet content standards and outcomes with limited time, restricted resources, and often overcrowded classrooms. Adding technology to the mix can seem to be a challenge for even the most energetic educator. Still, to prepare 21st century students teachers have little option but to ensure that technology has the same definitive presence in the classroom as it does in the society in which they will live. Although pressed for time in their many daily tasks, teachers must overcome this challenge and make the time to integrate technology for 21st century instruction. Source: Studio 8/Pearson Education.
Financing Educational Technology To begin to meet the challenge of technology integration, it is useful to examine the most pressing components of the challenge. For many classrooms, schools, and districts, lack of economic resources is the first critical challenge. Although much is spent on technology, given other pressing priorities and difficult economic times, it is often insufficient to ensure that students and teachers have what they need to maximize learning. Many schools keep and use computers beyond their ability to utilize current software. Others opt for fewer computers per classroom or limited Internet access speeds. Still others restrict technology support positions or offer only limited technology training for teachers. The challenge of finite and often insufficient economic resources is as much a challenge to the integration of educational technology as it is to any other costly aspect of education. Still, it is a necessity for 21st century schools. Financing educational technology has become a critical part of the competing demands for education dollars.
Allotting Time for Integrating Technology Another challenge faced by teachers integrating technology into their classroom is time. Teachers must plan, teach, test, manage administrative tasks, manage student’s learning and progress, participate in school and district activities, learn about new resources, and report g rades—all within a very restricted
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time frame. Learning about and integrating classroom technologies is as much a time challenge as it is a technological one. Like most educational challenges, however, there is no simple solution. Time must be prioritized and allocated to integrate educational technology as a part of instruction as standards dictate. Creative solutions must be found and implemented by schools and teachers to meet this challenge.
Adapting to a School Culture WHEN IMPLEMENTING Technology
Voices from the Classroom Teaching with Technology The addition of technology to teaching and learning is shifting the classroom paradigm. Watch as Chris Gammon, seventh grade social studies teacher, explains what happened in his classroom when his school integrated technology.
A school’s culture may be an additional roadblock for teachers attempting to meet technology stanWatch the video in Voices dards. Sometimes the culture of the school and the from the Classroom by community it serves may not recognize the critical clicking the play button. ➤ role of technology in classrooms. In some communities, interests such as sports, after school care, or enrichment programs may be of greater concern. As a result, technology may not be emphasized in schools. Staff may be less inclined to embrace technology and may prefer an emphasis on traditional classroom expenditures. Regardless of the forces behind this unique form of cultural bias that is disinclined to support technology, the end result is that some schools may not be technologically oriented. T echnology-using educators may find integrating technology in this type of culture an additional challenge.
Shifting the Instructional Paradigm In schools that have embraced technology, teachers may be challenged by the shift in instructional paradigm that technology integration generates. Abundant technology, successfully integrated, can change the role of the teacher, moving him or her from the authority in the classroom to a facilitator of learning. That shift in roles can also be another challenge for teachers but one often found to be worth the effort.
Opportunities for Technology-Using Teachers Fortunately, educators are accustomed to meeting and overcoming challenges. It is the nature of the profession to optimistically apply all available skills and resources to help others learn. That challenge inherent to the profession provides the framework and motivation to meet professional obstacles with energy and positive action. Just as technology presents challenges for educators, so does it present unique opportunities. Technology is in the process of continuous change. Each day new tools that will support teaching and learning emerge and existing tools evolve as others fall by the wayside. The positive aspect of this change is the resultant ongoing and growing supply of innovative and useful new tools available for the classroom. Opportunities created by technology’s evolution offer new perspectives on 21st century learners. According to tomorrow.org’s Power Up, Speak Up report, “The
Technology offers teachers abundant opportunities to enrich and enliven content in order to fully engage 21st century learners. Source: Monkey Business/Fotolia.
Technology Challenges and Opportunities for Teachers
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New Three E’s of Education” (2011), students need to b e enabled, engaged, e mpowered The report states “students have a very distinct vision of the power of s ocially-based, un- tethered and digitally-rich learning to improve their academic performance and prepare them to participate and compete in the global knowledge economy.” Technology can make this possible; teachers need only embrace the opportunities. Another opportunity for technology can be found in a teacher’s own creative application of it. Past and existing technologies can often be repurposed for teaching and learning. Word processing software can become a tool with which to teach outlining skills, a spreadsheet designed for tracking business data can be used to teach the concept of a graph, and a home digital camera can become the source of an educational photo story. Further, online opportunities are almost limitless. The resources, ideas, and opportunities for collaboration available via the Internet can offer every teacher an extensive personal collection of teaching materials that was unimaginable a generation ago. For today’s teachers, many teaching and learning tools are no longer expensive acquisitions at a teacher store. Instead, they are dynamic, engaging, and readily available for free online. Technology also offers teachers opportunities for becoming efficient in completion of administrative tasks, responsible in planning, creative in teaching, effective in supporting diverse learners, and current in our world’s collective knowledge base. Despite the challenges of technology integration, these combined opportunities make technology a classroom essential that cannot help but be embraced by every educator dedicated to excellence.
1. What challenges exist for technology integration? 2. How can cultural bias become a challenge for technology integration?
self-check
3. What opportunities could teachers who integrate technology experience?
Technology in Today’s Classrooms: A Case for Advocacy Today’s educators must commit to and advocate for technology to ensure the needs of 21st century learners can be addressed.
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As you begin your exploration of educational technology, you may wonder why it is a unique area of study. After all, you most likely know how to use a computer and use many online resources. So why should current and future educators study educational technology? Why should in-service teachers already pressed for time spend their time and effort on technology? Why should schools invest so much in technology when they have so many other pressing needs? The answer lies in our students and in the world they will grow into. Today’s students are already immersed in technology. They are already 21st century learners. To meet their needs, teachers and schools must become immersed in technology as well. Schools are society’s institutions for preparing the young to take their rightful place as productive citizens. How is it possible for schools to prepare today’s students unless they themselves embrace the technology that is as much a part of today’s society as is the automobile? How can they prepare students for the digital citizenship they will be expected to embrace without first being digital themselves? How is it possible for teachers on the front lines of the battle to prepare and support their students to do so without recognizing, embracing, and using the technological tools that students must have for their own success? For teachers in the 21st century, it is urgent to make a commitment to excellence in the integration of technology in their classrooms in order to truly prepare their students for the world in which they live. Teachers must advocate for access to technology for themselves and their students. Furthermore, teachers’ influence should not stop at the classroom door. In schools and districts, they can be powerful voices for influencing the adoption and integration of technology. Every classroom teacher who utilizes technology in her or his own classroom serves as a model for others. Every classroom teacher who serves on a school technology committee has the opportunity to become an academic voice for technology integration. By
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using technology and advancing its adoption, you can become an advocate for bringing innovation and 21st century skills and tools to your students and to your school community. In the Information Age classroom, innovative teachers realize that technology literacy and technology integration are no longer options. For these teachers, it is no longer a question of why technology should be integrated but of how. To that end, the remainder of this text is focused on helping you answer the question of how best to identify, evaluate, select, and integrate the technologies you will need in your classroom to serve your 21st century learners. Just as you are preparing yourself with educational foundation courses to assist you in becoming a fi rst-class educator, it is now time to be a fi rst-class 21st century technology literate educator.
Chapter Summary • This chapter introduced you to educational technology, its role in teaching, and how it will help you as an educator. The first section defined educational technology and identified its role in teaching and learning. This section addressed the first learning outcome, Define educational technology and identify its role in teaching.
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• The next section reviewed the standards that mandate the inclusion of technology in education and addressed the second learning outcome, Evaluate the application of educational technology standards to 21st century teaching. • The impact of technology on both professional preparation requirements and licensure was the focus of the next section of this chapter. It addressed the third learning outcome, Determine the technology requirements for professional preparation. • The next section of the chapter presented an overview of technology applications to show how they will be useful to every teacher in addressing the fourth learning outcome, Identify the types of educational technologies available in today’s classrooms that are useful for teaching tasks. • The chapter concluded with a section reviewing the types of challenges and opportunities technology integration presents by addressing the final learning outcome, Describe the teaching challenges and opportunities associated with integrating technology in the classroom and in schools.
Key Terms accomplished practices apps Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) blog chat class website Common Core Standards core competency Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) cultural bias forum
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) instructional design learning management systems lesson plans media specialists multimedia National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)
Key Terms
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online tools Partnership for 21st Century (P21) Learning Standards podcasts social networking standards
teacher licensure/certification Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) technology literacy Web 2.0 website hosting
Chapter Activities Flash Review
To examine this chapter’s key terms and their relevance to education, click Flash Review.
Reflections 1. Standards have altered teacher preparation programs and curriculum requirements in schools. The intention behind standardization is to ensure equivalent and consistent instruction and to provide measurable outcomes. Do you believe that the implementation of standards identified by national, state, and curriculum organizations has accomplished their intent? Explain why or why not. 2. Lifelong learning is not just a teacher preference; it is also a requirement for maintaining state certification. Technology literacy courses and workshops are some of the most popular learning experiences for certificate extension and renewal. Do you believe that taking additional courses in technology literacy is as important as those for your content or discipline? Is too much emphasis being placed on developing and maintaining technology competency? Defend your view. 3. The number of technology tools available to teachers is already daunting, and more are emerging every day. Given the value of these tools to enliven and support 21st century learning, what will you do to keep yourself informed about the options available to you? How will you manage your discoveries and work toward integrating them into your classroom?
Learning Together 1. Join a group interested in teaching at the grade level or in the content area that you prefer. Research the standards for your discipline or grade on the Internet. Identify the specific components of the standards that relate to educational technology. Prepare a summary to share with your peers. 2. Brainstorm the technology training that you would find most useful during your first three years of teaching. Make an annotated list of the top 10 t echnology-related district or online workshops you would most like to attend. Create a presentation in which to share your list. 3. Create a visual that represents the impact of the N ETS-S, NETS-T, N ETS-A, or other national and/or state technology standards on your state’s standards. Incorporate the visual into a PowerPoint presentation. Include specific examples of how NETS has altered technology planning and/or training in your state.
Chapter Project Filling Your Teacher Toolbox
You have explored a number of widely available and often free educational technology tools that are available online and that you can add to your own personal teacher toolbox. For this project, you will be selecting your favorite technology tools, creating a presentation
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to describe them, and applying your favorite tools to tasks that you will encounter in your classroom.
Instructions
Teaching tasks range from academic to administrative. Whether you are doing tasks as a member of your school’s instructional staff or presenting classroom instruction, you will find technology tools to be useful supports. Research one or more technology tools you might want to add to your teacher technology toolbox in each category presented in this chapter (administrative, lesson preparation, communication, presentation, teaching). Explore how teachers are using each tool and their comments related to its application. Select a presentation tool that you would like to use in completing this activity. You will be applying this presentation tool to share your work with your peers. 1. Research two to three technological teacher tools in each category presented in this chapter and the ways in which they are being used in classrooms. Look for teacher commentary and reviews on the tools as you investigate them. Select the one tool from each category that you believe would be essential for your own teacher toolbox. 2. Use the presentation tool of your choice to create a presentation, “Technology for My Teacher Toolbox,” that a. describes each tool you have investigated and selected for addition to your toolbox b. includes • the name of the tool • a description of the tool and its potential application(s) • the URL at which the tool can be found and/or downloaded • any costs associated with the tool, its equipment requirements, or other information relevant to teachers considering its use c. describes how you would use this tool in your own classroom. Give at least three examples for application of each tool. d. identifies any teacher technology standards addressed by your use of each tool 3. Be prepared to share your technology teacher toolbox presentation as directed by your instructor.
Chapter Assessment Click to go to the Chapter Assessment to review the contents of this chapter by completing a multiple-choice quiz.
Chapter Assessment
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Technology and Learning Learning Outcomes ●
Identify and evaluate the theoretical foundations of learning
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Determine the learner characteristics that most impact learning
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Describe the application of various technologies in support of learning
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Synthesize your own view of the relationships among teaching, learning, and using technology
2 This chapter addresses NETS-T 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. To review the N ETS-T standards, go to ISTE’s website.
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o understand the role of educational technology, it is best to begin with a solid understanding of the learning process and technology’s relationship to it. To be used effectively, educational technology cannot be segregated from the learning that it supports. It is therefore appropriate to begin an exploration of educational technology within the context of instruction. Teachers want to transfer the knowledge and skills they currently possess to their students so that they too can embrace, enjoy, and use that knowledge academically, personally, and professionally. A discussion of learning is a useful beginning for you so that you can plan and implement appropriate instruction and support it with 21st century technology. Providing this foundational understanding of learning is the goal of this chapter. The mechanism of incorporating new knowledge, behaviors, and skills into an individual personal repertoire broadly defines learning. To begin an exploration of how learning occurs, it is useful to first examine the underlying psychological views of human behaviors. Psychologists are not unanimous in these views. There are, in fact, a variety of theories to explain how and why people do what they do. Most
This section addresses NETS-T 4 and 5. To review the NETS-T standards, go to ISTE’s website.
of these theories, however, fall within a few prevailing schools of thought. Each school has its own perspective on human behavior. As an educator, awareness of these differing views on learning can help you clarify your own views as a personal foundation for designing and planning instruction for your classroom. Examining these sometimes opposing views of learning will help you to determine the position with which you personally most agree. In turn, this knowledge will direct you toward an instructional approach most effective for you and your students. Understanding learning is even more critical as teachers integrate technology. Technology is, as defined by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) and this text, a robust set of instructional tools that help you accomplish your learning outcomes. Your clear understanding of the approach to learning with which you most identify will help you to more effectively integrate these technology tools. The instruction you design, the lesson plans you create, and, in particular, the teaching and learning strategies you implement should reflect your approach to learning and ultimately determine the technological tools necessary to implement them.
Theoretical Perspectives on Learning Learning is a complex activity that can be explained differently depending on one’s view of how learning happens. Various schools of psychology offer their own view or perspective on this topic. This section will introduce differing, sometimes contrary, views of learning. Each is correct from the perspective of the theorists presenting it. As you read about each of these perspectives, consider which most closely coincides with your personal views. As you reflect on these different viewpoints, you might find that you agree with part of one theory yet prefer a different one under different circumstances or for different learners. If that is the case, you will have an eclectic approach that takes key ideas from multiple theories. Regardless of what your perspective on learning is, it will serve as a foundation for your instructional planning and the selection of the technologies in support of the teaching and learning process.
Learning as Communication Learning can be thought of simply as a communication process. In this perspective, the teacher is the sender of a message, and the student is its receiver. Within this framework, learning is considered to have occurred when the information is accurately transmitted to the receiver. To be sure that this has indeed happened, the sender checks returning messages (feedback) from the receiver to confirm that accurate communication has taken place. This communications cycle is diagrammed in Figure 2.1. As you know from your own personal experiences, clear and precise communication does not always occur. Three general types of variables can interfere with the communication
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TEACHER
LEARNER
Factors Affecting the Individual
Factors Affecting the Individual
Learning style
Intelligence
Psy cholo
Figure
s gical variable
Experiences
Instruction Feedback
Environmental variables
P E R S O N A L F I LT E R S
Experiences
P E R S O N A L F I LT E R S
Cognitive style
ive style Cognit
Learning style
Intelligence
Psyc h Environmental variables
s ological variable
2.1 Communications Cycle
An analysis of the components of the communication process. Sources: (Left) © WavebreakmediaMicro/Fotolia; (right) © Jasmin Merdan/Fotolia.
cycle: (1) environmental factors, (2) psychological factors, and (3) personal filters. It is important for educators—those who are trying to c ommunicate—to have an awareness of the nature and impact of each of these.
Environmental Factors Environmental factors that can interfere with the communication process include conditions that cause a message to be distorted or even blocked. In a classroom, as the teacher (sender) engages in the communication process, loud, incessant noise from outside the classroom can interrupt the communication or cause environmental static that interferes with the clarity of the message the student receives. Dim lighting, excessive movement, uncomfortable temperatures—any factor emanating from the classroom environment that causes a learner to lose focus and disengage from active participation—can add a disruptive static to the communication process. Some environmental factors affect some learners but not others. This can be the result of those environmental factors interacting with individual psychological factors.
Environmental factors include physical conditions that can impede the message.
Psychological Factors Psychological factors are the unique individual psychological differences that define and affect the reception of a communicated message. They can include the receiver’s emotional state at the time the message is transmitted. For a receiver who entered the communication process immediately after a highly emotional or traumatic event, internal emotional turmoil may be the source of static that distracts the individual from the message. Sometimes, the manner in which the message is transmitted is the cause of the static. All individuals have preferences as to how they best receive information. Each of us has a preferred sensory gateway—that is, the sense that is most effective for receiving and decoding information. When not addressed by the sender, this collection of preferences, or learning style, can cause frustration as the learner tries to grasp the content. This frustration in turn garbles the message. If one’s dominant sensory gateway is touch, then verbal or visual communication is less effective than a tactile-kinesthetic one. An individual’s cognitive style, or the way he or she thinks, can also confuse a message presented in a way other than his or her dominant thinking style. A message transmitted via
Psychological factors are the internal conditions that affect communication.
Theoretical Perspectives on Learning
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Environmental Factors • Ambient Sound • Temperature • Noise • Light • Activity
Psychological Factors • Learning Styles • Cognitive Styles • Emotional State • Disposition
Personal Filters • Personal Values • Cultural Heritage • Social Views • Religious Beliefs • Attitude
allegory can be difficult and frustrating to understand for an individual who learns best through an analytic process that includes a careful examination of visuals and may therefore not be clearly received. If one’s cognitive style focuses on intuition and feeling, a series of facts as an explanation can garble the message. Learning and cognitive styles may act as barriers to communication when the sender does not address the receiver’s preferred style. Thus, one’s unique physiological and psychological predisposition to the way in which a message is delivered is another example of the psychological factors that may disrupt communication. These factors that impact learning are summarized in Figure 2.2.
Personal Filter The final factor that may interfere with the communication process is the personal filter through which the message must pass. Both sender and receiver have a number of personal filters including the individual’s personal values, cultural heritage, and social belief system. The belief system held by the sender or the receiver can distort the pure message—that is, the objective set of data that is to be transferred. For example, a predisposition that the sender or the Figure 2.2 Variables Affecting Learning receiver brings to the communication process could Environmental factors, psychological factors, and personal filters are among distort the message itself. A negative attitude toward the many variables that affect learning. the message or toward the participants in the comSource: © Pressmaster/Fotolia. munication process may cause the intended message to be distorted. A person with this filter type can be described as having a closed mind with reference to the message. Personal filters include values, cultural heritage, and beliefs. Cultural beliefs can also act as a filter and distort a message’s content. A person’s belief that is directly opposed to information in a message can filter and distort it to make it more consistent with her or his belief or lead to its rejection. In teaching, awareness of potential filters, both your own and those of the receiver, will help you overcome the potential for distortion. Whether the message was the original content sent from sender to receiver or the feedback from receiver to sender, you can see that many factors can help or hinder communication. With an understanding of the nature of communication as a foundation, you can begin to see the complexity of successful teaching. The t eaching-learning process embraces all aspects of the communication process but then continues a step further. Understanding the teaching-learning process also requires understanding what happens once a message has been correctly transmitted. Does receipt of the message result in learning, or is more involved? How do understanding and learning occur? How can a teacher implement technology to support communication and learning? To answer these questions, it is useful to explore key theories about how we learn. Communication theory views teaching and learning from a macro view. A review of the way learning occurs will provide a micro (narrower) view. All theoretical perspectives described in this section attempt to explain the complex process called learning. 1. What is learning according to communications theory?
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2. What factors impact effective communication? 3. How do learning and cognitive styles differ?
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The Behaviorist Perspective Behaviorists, or those who see learning from a behaviorist perspective, view all behavior as a stimulus-response cycle in which behavior is a response to external stimuli. A stimulus is the initial action directed to the organism, and a response is the organism’s reaction to that action. According to behaviorists, the learner acquires behaviors, skills, and knowledge in response to the rewards, punishments, or withheld responses associated with them. A reward includes all positive, negative, or neutral reinforcement to a behavior. Rewards determine the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated. Such reinforcements can include rewards (positive reinforcement), punishments (negative reinforcement), or withheld responses (no reinforcement). For behaviorists, learning is essentially a passive process; that is, one learns as a response to the environment, not necessarily because of any specific mental activity. Teachers embracing the behaviorist view of learning tend to focus on structuring rewards and punishments with respect to learning. Strategies include many opportunities for students to perform for rewards and avoid negative actions. Preferred technologies for behaviorists would be those with clear and consistent individual feedback systems such as drill-and-practice software as opposed to those that encourage exploration, discovery, or social learning.
The Cognitivist Perspective
Calling on students and providing positive feedback as they perform in front of the class is an effective positive reinforcement. Source: © Studio 8/Pearson Education.
In contrast to the behaviorist view, the cognitivists see learning as a mental operation that takes place when information enters through the senses, undergoes mental manipulation, is stored, and is finally used. Unlike behaviorism with its exclusive focus on external, measurable behaviors, cognitive theory considers mental activity (cognition) as the primary source of study. Although behavior is still considered critical, it is viewed as an indicator of cognitive processes. Cognitive theorists attempt to explain learning in terms of how one thinks. They believe that learning is more complex than a simplistic behaviorist view. Learning and problem solving, according to cognitivists, represent mental processes that are undetectable by mere observation. Teachers who prefer a cognitive approach are less likely to focus on reward systems and more likely to emphasize the review and application of factual knowledge. They believe that discussion that leads to deep thinking could be a preferred strategy with support from technologies that enable and encourage the acquisition of facts and consideration of multiple viewpoints.
Behaviorism sees learning as the response to an external stimulus.
The Constructivist Perspective Constructivists see knowledge as a constructed element resulting from the learning process. Furthermore, they theorize that knowledge is unique to the individual who constructs it. It is an entirely unique product for each individual based on the experiences within which those mental processes occurred. Constructivism is at present one of the most influential forces in shaping contemporary education. Notable constructivists include Jean Piaget and Seymour Papert, who adapted Piaget’s perspective and applied it to children engaged in using technology. Cognitive constructivism is an outgrowth of the cognitivist view of learning. However, it differs in that the emphasis is placed on the constructs that the individual creates as a result of his or her own cognitive processes.
Cognitivists and constructivists both recognize learning as a mental process but differ regarding individual and social influences.
Theoretical Perspectives on Learning
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Constructivist educators often use collaborative learning as a strategy for students to use to discover and develop personal constructs related to content. Source: © Phovoir/Imagestate.
Educators who embrace a constructivist view tend to develop strategies that encourage personal growth and intellectual development. Reward systems may exist in the classroom of a constructivist educator but are not the focus. Acquisition of facts, although a component of teaching and learning, is less consequential than the way the individual student uses those facts to inform his or her own personal views. For constructivist educators, discovery and social learning may be dominant strategies, and technologies that encourage exploration, creativity, and social interaction would be preferred.
1. What would a behaviorist teacher emphasize? 2. How do cognitivists differ from constructivists?
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3. How might learning perspectives impact strategies and technologies selected?
Toward an Integrated View of Learning All of the theoretical perspectives described in this section attempt to explain the complex process called learning. Many theorists have developed learning theories that dominate educational thinking today (Table 2.1). Depending on the psychological framework Table
2.1
Key Theorists and Their Differences
Theorist
Defining Characteristics
Teacher Role
JEAN PIAGET (developmental theorist)
Key developmental stages may affect learning; children either assimilate or accommodate knowledge based on existing schemas.
Be aware of child’s developmental stage when presenting content; help child construct schemas.
ROBERT GAGNÉ (bridge theorist between behaviorism and cognitivism)
Controlled, external, sequential instructional events with eight conditions for learning determined by developmental stage of learner and by subject matter.
Create systematic design to address student’s needs; individualize instructional events.
LEV VYGOTSKY (social learning theorist)
Zone of proximal development recognizes students’ readiness to bond with the community; speech and language are keys to intelligence.
Arrange for tutoring by skilled and learned adults as a means of student enculturation.
ALBERT BANDURA (social learning theorist)
Concern with the way people acquire socially appropriate behavior; builds on Skinner to form social learning theory; agrees with Gagné that subject matter is central to learning stages.
Outcome expectancies (prediction of results of a behavior) motivate students to imitate the behavior, “modeling.”
SEYMOUR PAPERT (mathematician and educational technologist)
Technology should help children experience knowledge and construct meanings; developed Logo and constructivist software based on this perspective.
Provide opportunities for children to develop constructs through experience; use technology to support experiences.
HOWARD GARDNER (multiple-intelligences theorist)
Nine innate capabilities (with more under study): linguistic, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, logical- mathematical; every child is smart in his or her own way and possesses combined intelligences that child should be encouraged to develop.
Gear curricula and instructional approaches to individual intelligences and their dominant ways of knowing, for the successful pursuit of knowledge, both vocational and avocational, by all.
B. F. SKINNER (stimulus-response)
Learning is as a response to events or stimuli and the result of the reinforcement of the response.
Responses should be reinforced with immediate and appropriate feedback.
JEROME BRUNER (constructivist theorist)
Learning is an active process in which learners build new ideas or concepts based on their current/past knowledge.
Try to encourage students to discover knowledge with instruction organized in a spiral manner so students continually build on what they have already learned.
DAVID AUSUBEL (subsumption theorist)
Learning is based on cognitive processes that occur during the reception of information.
General information should be presented first; use preorganizers to best prepare for information integration.
Source: Reproduced with permission of Greg Kearsley.
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that you believe best explains why people learn the way they do, you may find one of these perspectives more attractive than the others. Or perhaps you believe that all of these perspectives together describe the range of possible explanations of how learning occurs. If that is the case, as an eclectic instructor, you will choose to implement those parts of the theories that best match the teaching and learning needs of the moment. Regardless of the perspective you select, you can proceed with that foundation to design effective instruction, select useful educational technologies, and create a learning environment that will support your students in achieving national, state, and local learning outcomes.
The Learner: A Closer Look Understanding how learning occurs is just the first step a teacher must take in planning and executing effective instruction. Learning theory tells us how learning might occur in general. To better understand how learning happens for any given student in your classroom, it is essential to take a close look at that student. Each learner is likely to have a unique cognitive style, a unique learning style, and some parameters related to intelligence. Awareness of each of these characteristics will help you to design and plan instruction and make the best decisions as to the technology that will support both the instruction and the learner’s unique needs.
This section addresses NETS-T 3, 4, and 5. To review the NETS-T standards, go to ISTE’s website.
Cognitive Styles Cognitive style refers to the specific tendencies and preferences that determine an individual’s style of cognition (thinking). Such preferences can be identified and measured. One of the most widely used cognitive style instruments to determine an individual’s patterns of thinking is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). It requires a learner to answer a series of questions about his or her own preferences. The responses are then totaled and categorized. The clustering of responses points to one of four scales of opposing cognitive preferences: extrovert (E) or introvert (I), sensing (S) or intuitive (N), thinking (T) or feeling (F), and judging (J) or perceiving (P). Thus, a person’s cognitive type consists of a preference comprised of one dominant characteristic in each of these pairs. For example, the thinking process of a person who is an ENFP type (extrovert, intuitive, feeling, perceiving) would be dominated by these tendencies. Everyone has a preference in each of these four pairs of opposites, and each combination results in a noticeably different cognitive style. These cognitive characteristics are also likely to influence how the individual might successfully learn. Awareness and understanding of students’ cognitive preferences can help a teacher design instruction that is consistent with these preferences and therefore more palatable to those students. Figure 2.3 gives you a sense of the cognitive types that the MBTI identifies.
Learning Styles Learning style is another factor that influences how an individual learns. Unlike the broader concept of cognitive style—that is, how we think—learning style refers to those conditions under which we best learn. Most learning style theorists identify three primary modalities for learning: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Some individuals learn best by listening; thus, they may be said to have a predominantly auditory learning style. Others may learn best by
EXTROVERT More interested in outer world of persons and events INTROVERT More interested in inner world of concepts and ideas SENSING Perception based on real objects and solid facts INTUITIVE Perception based on possibilities and personal meaning THINKING Decides on the basis of objectively analyzing facts FEELING Decides on the basis of subjective values and views JUDGING Lives in a planned, organized way, prefers control PERCEIVING Prefers a more flexible and spontaneous way of life
Figure Types
2.3
Summary of Myers - Briggs
Cognitive style can be identified and measured by instruments such as the MBTI.
The Learner: A Closer Look
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seeing and thus have a visual learning style. Yet others learn best by doing, which suggests a kinesthetic learning style. Although everyone can learn using each of these modalities, learning style theorists suggest that each person has a dominant sensory gateway. It is easiest for the individual to learn when information is presented in a manner consistent with her or his personal learning style, or sensory gateway. Therefore, learning styles are of considerable importance to those who are responsible for providing effective learning experiences. Fortunately, many online instruments such as Learning Styles OnLine can help educators determine a student’s learning style.
1. How do cognitive style and learning style differ?
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2. How might a cognitive style impact learning? 3. What three sensory preferences may impact learning?
Intelligence
The theory of multiple intelligence suggests that everyone has a unique profile of talents and capabilities in nine different areas.
A final factor affecting learning is intelligence, or the learner’s inherent capability to understand and learn. Intelligence quotient (IQ), a quantitative measure of intelligence, was once thought to be a definitive way to measure this capability within a specified range. Extensive research was done to develop an instrument that would provide a snapshot of a person’s intelligence without regard to cultural or other bias. Bias is any tendency or prejudice that might distort a view. An example of cultural bias in intelligence testing would be the inclusion of questions that rely on a framework that is outside the test taker’s cultural experience, thus potentially distorting the results. One of the most commonly used IQ tests is the Stanford-Binet developed initially by Alfred Binet, a French psychologist. His test was later adapted for the United States by Louis Terman of Stanford University. The S tanford-Binet or a similar IQ test is usually given to students several times during their academic careers. Teachers can easily get an idea of their students’ potential by reviewing IQ scores noted on student r ecords—or can they? Increasingly, this traditional means of measuring intelligence based on verbal and mathematical abilities has come under attack. In fact, the very definition of intelligence is under scrutiny. How to measure intelligence and the value system we attach to these measures has been questioned. Some educators have suggested that the vocabulary and logic/math components that largely compose traditional intelligence testing do not represent all aspects of student capabilities. As a result of the potential inadequacies of traditional intelligence testing, extensive research has been done to develop instruments that will provide a more accurate profile of a student’s abilities. Howard Gardner developed the theory of multiple intelligences, a new view of intelligence. He theorized that there is more to intelligence than what IQ tests have historically measured. Gardner suggested that these objective tests did not go far enough in representing an individual’s intelligence profile. Instead, Gardner proposed that each individual has multiple types of intelligences, only a few of which can be measured by current IQ tests. Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences describes nine different aspects or types of intelligences that every person possesses (see Figure 2.4). These intelligences (or talents) include the following: • linguistic (verbal skills and talents related to sound, meanings, and rhythms) • logical-mathematical (conceptual and logical thinking skills)
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• musical (talents and abilities related to sound, rhythm, and pitch) • spatial (skill in thinking in pictures and visioning abstractly) • b odily-kinesthetic (skill in controlling body movements)
LINGUISTIC The ability to express abstract concepts and ideas in words LOGICAL-MATHEMATICAL The ability to solve problem with logical, analytical reasoning; this intelligence is measured by IQ tests
• interpersonal (responsiveness to others)
MUSICAL The ability to express ideas through music
• intrapersonal (self-awareness and insight) • n aturalist (recognizing, categorizing, and interacting with the natural world) • existential (ability to consider and deal with questions of human existence) According to Gardner’s theory, every individual possesses some degree of each of the intelligences he details, but one or more of them dominates. If any one of the intelligences is of significant capacity, the result is a prodigy in that area. Gardner’s view equally recognizes the unique abilities of Mozart (musical intelligence), Frank Lloyd Wright (spatial intelligence), and Babe Ruth (bodily-kinesthetic intelligence), whereas standard IQ tests might recognize only Albert Einstein (logical-mathematical intelligence) and William Shakespeare (linguistic intelligence). This broader view of individual capacities changes the assumptions a teacher might make about a student’s potential and capacities. Such reevaluation, in turn, changes that teacher’s plan for instruction. A person who adopts the multiple-intelligences approach will then see learning as being affected by the dominance of one or more of the intelligences in each individual student. Teaching then would have to accommodate these various propensities to maximize student learning.
SPATIAL The ability to form mental models of a spatial world and solve problems through their manipulation BODILY-KINESTHETIC The ability to solve problems or express concepts using the whole or parts of the body INTERPERSONAL The ability to understand other people and use this knowledge to achieve goals INTRAPERSONAL The abillity to form an accurate internal representation of self and use this model to relate to the world NATURALISTIC The ability to recognize, categorize, and relate to the natural world EXISTENTIAL The abillity to relate to the human condition and engage in transcendental concerns
Figure
2.4 Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory recognizes an array of talents that individuals may possess that together may form a profile of their intelligence.
1. What capabilities do traditional IQ tests measure? 2. What is the theory of multiple intelligences?
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3. How might multiple intelligence theory impact instructional strategies?
Technology for Learning As you have seen, learning is a complex process explained by various differing theories. The theoretical framework you personally select will inform your teaching and help you to determine strategies for your students’ learning. Your view of learning will impact your selection of technologies. Teachers use technology tools not only to make their professional work easier but also, more importantly, to make learning more effective. Once you have determined your own approach to learning, your integration of technology into the teaching/learning process will unfold in accordance with it.
This section addresses NETS-T 1, 2 3, 4, and 5. To review the NETS-T standards, go to ISTE’s website.
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Technology can engage students in active learning within the framework of all learning theories, all while preparing them for their 21st century lives. Source: Image Source.
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HANDS ON LEARNING Filling Your Teacher Toolbox
In addition to facilitating learning, technology integration in education also has another significant role. Technology is critical to preparing students for the 21st century world in which they will live. The forces of technology are unrelenting and are behind many fundamental changes in schools today regardless of the learning approaches selected by educators in those schools. As you reflect on your own approach to learning and determine how you will address your student’s learning needs, it is also essential that you become aware of your technology options. Although the subsequent chapters of this text address those options in detail, it is useful to begin by exploring the varied roles of technology in the learning process. Just as technology integration is reshaping instruction for the 21st century learner, so too is it reshaping the role of the 21st century teacher. This paradigm shift may well affect your own perspective of learning.
Technology to Reinforce Learning One of the most commonplace uses for technology in instruction is as a personalized, focused reinforcement for learning. Effective teachers plan and execute effective instruction every day in their classroom. However, students may need more than the teacher’s direct instruction to learn. For deep learning, students need to interact with the material presented to them, sometimes repeatedly and in different approaches. Crowded classrooms and the time constraints associated with covering required content in specified time frames make it difficult for any one teacher to provide o ne-to-one instruction to every student. Technology that reviews, reinforces, and expands on content offers a teacher a continuously available resource for one-to-one support that could not easily be supplied or budgeted for by other means. Learning tools similar to Geogebra that demonstrate and reinforce math concepts or that assist with reading or grammar such as those offered at the fun English games website are commonplace and widely available in classrooms and on line. Tools such as A.D.A.M. that allow for video or animated glimpses inside the body or OnLine Labs that allow students to safely conduct science experiments are readily available. To learn about space, exploration of the universe using Hubble telescope images is available at a student’s fingertips. There is very little instructional content that cannot be reinforced and practiced effectively and with a depth that only interactive multimedia can provide. Fortunately, the technology tools to do so are abundant, often free, and always expanding. Teachers need only recognize their capability and enable their students to use them. But reinforcing diverse content with technology is just the beginning of the enhancements possible for learning. Technology can address the broad range not only of content areas and grade levels that teachers deal with in their schools but also of students and their diverse needs that teachers see every day.
Technology to Address Diversity As you have seen from previous sections, learners are diverse in many ways—from learning styles to cognitive styles to styles based on their cultural heritage and their unique learning needs. The range of diversity in the classroom can be a significant challenge to teachers. Every child needs some level of individual attention to foster and encourage her or his learning and to affirm acceptance of all aspects of her or his unique nature. Technology can play a significant role as a teaching assistant by offering instances of o ne-to-one teaching and learning opportunities to every child and in fostering acceptance of his or her diversity.
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To address different learning styles, technology can offer instruction and feedback via modalities best suited to learners. Visually dominant learning styles can benefit from the compelling, interactive presentation of content presented on a computer screen. Auditory students can utilize academic software or audio-enhanced computer- based lessons to review subjects presented by their teacher. Students who need kinesthetic experience for deep learning can experience content by interacting with the computer and simulating software movement. Whether diversity appears in the form of a student’s unique learning style, cognitive style, or multiple intelligence profile, computer software can present content expressly directed at Technology can provide support for all learners including those who are the learner’s needs. Although the teacher must culturally and language diverse. often present content in accordance with the Source: © Annie Pickert Fuller/Pearson Education. majority of styles in the classroom, he or she Technology can be used to can use technology to differentiate instruction and address unique styles and needs. For students with special needs, technology can play a critical role. Assistive devices are reinforce learning and address technologies specifically adapted to help students with a physical or learning disability to learner diversity. learn. These technologies enable and empower students by providing a support that eliminates or lowers barriers to learning, whether helping students who are sight impaired to read a computer screen, offering students who are physically impaired a way to operate a keyboard or mouse, or helping a student with dyslexia practice reading. For students with special learning needs ranging from physical to language, technology offers instructional options to remediate and assist. For culturally diverse students and students for whom English is a second language, technology offers opportunities for language acquisition as well as a platform for expressing and sharing unique cultural heritage. Teachers seeking to make their classrooms more culturally tolerant and supportive for such students will find all manner of technological support from language software that offers tutoring and practice in English, to websites that teach cultural tolerance, and to multimedia software to capture and disseminate aspects of their heritage.
Technology to Foster Critical Thinking Developing higher-order thinking skills is among the most common goals inherent in national standards. However, teachers can find it difficult to allocate the time to develop, prepare, and implement the more complex lessons that encourage critical thinking. Furthermore, many students often resist the more strenuous mental exercise that these types of activities require. Technology can offer an interesting solution to fostering critical thinking in the classroom. For effective learning, students must do more than listen and watch; they must also engage in the content through discussing, writing, debating, collaborating, researching, or performing a mix of these. For deep
Voices from the Classroom
Using Technology to Address Unique Learners Technology offers opportunities to address every learner’s needs. Watch Technology Facilitator Tara Gardner discuss how technology offers differentiated learning opportunities at her school. Watch the video in Voices from the Classroom by clicking the play button. ➤
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Teacher 2 Teacher Active Learning with Technology Thelma Watkins is a fi rst- year teacher at a Memphis, Tennessee, IZONE school (a school designated as performing well below grade level). There she has discovered the value of technology to engage her students. Thelma explains, “I am constantly learning how to employ new and innovative ways to make learning fun and exciting for my students. During my first few weeks of teaching, I would often find several students with their heads down on their desks. This was happening because they were not being challenged to engage in the lesson. After I began utilizing various kinds of technology in our learning environment, my students changed their attitude toward learning, what I call the ‘180 turn to learn.’ ” Among the technologies Thelma uses in her classroom is Pandora, a free personalized Internet radio. “Allowing them to learn to instrumental music, which they can relate to, helps get them motivated to learn.” She
Technology encourages critical thinking and creative learning.
continues, “Another example of my favorite tools that I employ is video on the Web. Our school district restricts us from accessing YouTube, so we most often have to refer to TeacherTube, which is a v ideo-sharing site for teachers/educators. TeacherTube allows me to present documentaries, movie clips, and materials that support the objectives of the lesson.” According to Thelma, technology plays a vital role in enhancing classroom instruction. She believes that web tools help engage students in learning by promoting student learning and overall student achievement. However, she warns, “One disadvantage of relying on the use of technology to enhance a lesson is when it fails during a lesson. So you always have to have a Plan B. But the advantages outweigh the risks. When it is working, you can count on technology to engage learners and keep them actively involved in learning.”
learning, students must think critically about the content, not simply recall and regurgitate facts presented by the teacher. Just as learners embrace technology for their personal enrichment, they can obtain scholastic enrichment from it as well. Technology engages learners, creates active learning opportunities, and offers ways to interact with content at multiple levels. Given that allure, software and activities can be designed to promote critical thinking through using technology-based experiences. Complex p roblem-solving games such as those offered by PBS Kids and webquests that involve implementing the logic necessary for complex web searches promote c ontent-oriented critical thinking skills while entertaining and engaging learners. Furthermore, these technology applications do not require inordinate time from the typical teacher. Implementation of this type of activity is often just a function of a review of available and online resources and a creative application of them. For teachers interested in ensuring that they address standards while they promote critical thinking and encourage active learning, technology offers diverse and engaging solutions. 1. How can technology assist in reinforcing learning?
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2. What can technology do to support diverse learners? 3. What are three examples of technology applications for learning?
Technology to Foster Creativity The Industrial Age required that workers follow directions precisely to create products for market; the Information Age requires something altogether different. Students coming of age in the 21st century need to be able to think creatively, adapt to changing situations, and invent solutions to problems yet to come. Given this change, national, content, and state standards have shifted focus to promoting creativity. Technology is uniquely suited to support teachers as they help their students to enhance their creativity.
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Technology such as LiveBinder and Inspiration offers opportunities for students to reorganize concepts in their own unique way and to brainstorm ideas and solutions to problems. To express and communicate ideas in novel ways, websites such as Wordle help to offer a new emphasis on creativity as a targeted student outcome. New technology tools to foster creativity are emerging at a rapid pace. For teachers wishing to focus on creativity, whether encouraging artistic expression, brainstorming, or imagining, there is or will be a technology tool at your disposal. The only limitation to these tools is the teacher’s own creativity.
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HANDS ON LEARNING Create a Word Cloud
1. What is critical thinking?
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2. What technologies are available to support critical thinking? 3. How might technology be used to foster creativity?
Technology to Foster Communication and Collaboration One of the most significant societal impacts of technology has been its facilitation of instant, worldwide communication via Web 2.0. Social networking has helped alter political organizations and whole governments, support r eal-time citizen news reporting, and foster the creation of international communities. Just as online communication tools have enhanced communication in society, so too has it empowered communication and collaboration in schools. International online interaction has been made possible for teachers and their students through tools such as Skype, which provides a platform for video conferencing, chats, and file sharing; Elluminate, which can give a district a virtual learning, collaboration, and communication environment for training and online instruction; and Moodle, which provides a free learning management system format. Other powerful tools such as the popular Ellg let teachers create private social networking and collaboration facilities for their classrooms. Still other online tools encourage collaboration. Voicethread offers a platform on which to create collaborative presentations with collective audio and text commentary. PBWorks offers an environment in which a collaborative private wiki can be set up. The just-mentioned online interaction technologies are only a few of the many current and emerging online tools available to teachers and their students. Technology offers many innovative opportunities for communication and collaboration across the global society to 21st century teachers and students. It is necessary for teachers to be aware of the potential of these resources and to become familiar with the tools available to them. However, as amazing as these tools might be, they can be effective and useful only in the hands of skilled and innovative educators.
Social media include diverse and emerging communications and collaboration tools for learning.
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HANDS ON LEARNING Collaboration in the Classroom
Technology to Assess Competency The assessment of learning is one of the most critical tasks for educators. Standards articulate specific learning outcomes for students. Assessment measures the success in meeting those standards. Accurate assessment can be laborious and time consuming. Technology offers solutions that can facilitate the process. Teachers must first create and then grade content assessments. Many technology tools such as EasyTestMaker assist in test generation, online and paper-and-pencil implementation, and grading support. Other tools that offer authentic assessment tools include FolioSpaces, which provides a platform for e -portfolio, and RubriStar for creating rubrics for objectively assessing projects and portfolios. Other tools such as SurveyMonkey create and analyze online surveys to help teachers draw more accurate conclusions about student comprehension.
Technology facilitates learning assessment through the use of objective and authentic instruments as well as through the collection of student feedback.
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techtools 4 schools
Web 2.0 Cool Tools for Schools
Numerous Web 2.0 resources are available online, but finding them takes time for busy educators. One resource, Web 2.0 Cool Tools for Schools, offers a collection of the Web’s top tools accessible from one convenient location. This compendium offers links, descriptions, and even demos of all types of powerful social media tools. Checking this site first whenever you are seeking the right tool for your classroom is likely to shortcut your search. The site also uses one of the social media tools it suggests: the wiki. Created in wikispaces, the social writing platform, educators from around the globe can use and add to the resources posted. The collaboration available on Web 2.0 Cool Tools for Schools demonstrates the power of social media tools in creating, updating, and expanding resources that all can share. Teachers can join and use wikispaces for free. There they can develop a safe private social media space for their class, run class projects, create shared writing opportunities, and even assess students. Wikispaces and Web 2.0 Cool Tools for Schools are excellent examples of technology that supports 21st century learners.
Regardless of the tool chosen, technology offers useful resources to teachers as they address the very necessary job of determining student success in achieving target competencies. Most teachers who use these tools find the time spent becoming acquainted with and implementing them to be very solid investments by saving the time and effort in effectively and efficiently accomplishing their assessment tasks.
1. How do Web 2.0 technologies impact collaboration?
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This section addresses NETS-T 4 and 5. To review the NETS-T standards, go to ISTE’s website.
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2. What online technologies can be used as collaborative tools? 3. How can technology support assessment?
Teaching, Learning, and Using Educational Technology: A Personal Synthesis You have explored communication. You have examined learning theories. You have reviewed cognitive and learning styles. You have considered various ways of looking at intelligence. You have also investigated many useful technologies in support of various aspects of learning. These threads, when woven together, create the fabric that is 21st century teaching and learning. It is from this fabric that you must create learning opportunities for your students. Your own knowledge and competencies in learning theory and in technology impact your abilities to create and support effective learning environments. Professional standards articulate the minimum levels of knowledge and performance for teachers. These reflect the need for every teacher to have a solid command of both learning theory and educational technology skills necessary for applying them to learning. As you move from preservice educator to in-service educator, it is essential that you synthesize your own view of teaching, learning, and technology. That is the focus of the final section of this chapter. Clarification of what encompasses educational technology is a good first step in synthesizing your personal approach to teaching and learning with technology. This text has broadly defined educational technology to include all technologies that can be used in support of teaching and learning. This holistic approach to educational technology has
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not always been the accepted model. For many years, educational technology had a very narrow equipment-centric definition. The evolution from an equipment-based view of educational technology to a teaching-and-learning-based view can cause some confusion for those who are new to education. Technology is not so effective as an add-on to instruction. Instead, technology has maximum potential if it is considered to be a foundational instruction tool. Just as you must select the learning theory approach with which you most agree, so too will you need to embrace an approach to technology integration. To help you develop your own approach, it is useful to briefly examine the evolution of technology in an educational context.
Educational Technology: Past, Present, and Future Educational technology started as an audiovisual movement in the early 1900s with the advent of the first form of motion media: early movies. So strong was the belief in this new educational technology that Thomas Alva Edison suggested, albeit incorrectly, that “books will soon be obsolete in schools” (New York Dramatic Mirror, 1913). But Edison’s inventions did indeed have significant and lasting impact on schools. It was soon discovered that films incorporating sound and images could be used to teach as well as to entertain. FotoFlip 2.1 tracks the evolution of these technologies from the 1900s to today. During the 1920s and 1930s, both audio and visual educational technology evolved into The history of educational slides, radio, sound recordings, and video. The use of audiovisual instruction by the military technology demonstrates a during World War II created a surge in the development of audiovisual equipment. To the growth from machine-centric array of technologies used in training and instruction, the military added the overhead pro- to learning-centric views. jector, slide projector, simulator, and audio equipment for teaching foreign languages. After World War II, educational research on the use of audiovisual tools supporting instruction sought to better understand the training successes that evidently resulted from audiovisual- intensive military training. The audiovisual movement gained further momentum with the spread of television in the 1950s. Many people assumed, just as Edison did with movies, that instructional television would revolutionize education. But instructional television (ITV) had slipped into decline by the m id-1960s as a result of teacher reluctance to use it in the classroom, the FotoFlip 2.1 high cost of production of g ood-quality programming, and the passive nature of television The Evolution of viewing, which did not adequately meet students’ learning needs. Educational The 1960s saw a change in the concept of audiovisual instruction as a model closer to Technologies our current views of educational technology began to evolve. Impacted by the work of Educational technology in supbehaviorists, innovations such as paper-based programmed instruction modules evolved port of instruction has evolved into the methodical underpinnings of current educational technology in its approach. The from slate tablets to audio analysis of instruction, its rigorous statement of observable learning objectives, and its use visual equipment to television of a systematic development process gave rise to other individualized educational technol- broadcasts to the diverse digital resources today. ogy systems. With the advent of the microcomputer in the late 1970s, the necessary equipment became available to create interactive individualized instruction envisioned by the programmed instruction movement. Computers offered the best of all the technological tools of the past: multimedia, interactivity, and feedback. Furthermore, they allowed for individualiza1960 1940 1953 tion by allowing students to navigate the material according to their own ITV learning inclinations. Education jumped into the digital age right along The University of with the society it serves. As a result of this shift, educational technology Houston launches took its place as a foundational teaching and learning tool. This new view KUHT, the first of educational technology has resulted in the development of comprenoncommercial education station. hensive educational technology standards and the central role of technology in 21st century learning.
Teaching, Learning, and Using Educational Technology: A Personal Synthesis
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1. How has education evolved from media centric to learning centric?
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2. What are three critical changes in the evolution of educational technology? 3. How has 21st century learning changed the role of educational technology?
Education, Technology, and You This chapter has helped you to clarify your understanding of the learning process, learner characteristics, and technology’s historical and current roles in teaching and learning. In your classroom, you will be expected to effectively integrate technology into instruction and meet the national, state, and local standards relating to its integration. With the knowledge you have gained so far, it is time for you to reflect on your insights and synthesize them into your own personal view of a technology-enhanced teaching and learning process. You will decide how you will approach learning and how technology will fit into your instructional model. To do so, you must reflect on what you have learned thus far. Consider the following: • Your own view of how students learn. • How best to assess and address the learning characteristics of your students. • How best to adapt teaching strategies to your students’ needs. • How educational technology fits into your personal view of teaching and learning. Considering these complex questions is the first step toward becoming an effective 21st century educator and developing an essential foundation upon which to explore educational technology. Your next step is to explore the professional techniques of instructional design and planning that can make the job of designing effective instruction easier. Designing effective instruction applies your synthesized learning approach to and focuses your instructional efforts on making your teaching as meaningful as possible for your students. Planning provides an organized and logical way to implement your design. Applying the processes that grew out of the evolution of educational technology will enable you to present the most effective instruction possible while incorporating technology in a manner that will be appropriate and effective for the learners you serve.
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Chapter Summary • This chapter explored learning and how technology can be used to encourage and support it. The section, which examined the theoretical perspectives on learning to help you to clarify your view of learning, addressed the first learning outcome, Identify and evaluate the theoretical foundations of learning. • The next section of the chapter explored the individual characteristics of learners that impact a student’s learning and that must be considered in addition to learning theory when designing a lesson. This section addressed the second learning outcome, Determine the learner characteristics that most impact learning. • The role of technology in the learning process was explored in the next section. Whether using technology to support creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, or any
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other aspect of learning, it has a unique role in supporting active learning. This section addressed the third learning outcome, Describe the application of various technologies in support of learning. • The final section of this chapter explored the development of a personal synthesis of teaching, learning, and using technology as an addition to your knowledge base. This addressed the final learning outcome, Synthesize your own view of the relationships among teaching, learning, and using technology.
Key Terms behaviorists cognitivists cognitive style communications cycle constructivists critical thinking environmental factors feedback higher-order thinking skills
intelligence quotient (IQ) learning management system learning styles multiple intelligences personal filters programmed instruction psychological factors stimulus-response cycle video conferencing
Chapter Activities Flash Review
To examine this chapter’s key terms and their relevance to education presented in this chapter, click Flash Review.
Reflections 1. Imagine that you are going to teach a unit about Christopher Columbus to the grade level of your choice. What strategies immediately come to mind as good possibilities for teaching this unit? What relationship can you discern between how you might want to teach this unit and your own learning or cognitive style? Describe how you think your own personal style might affect your teaching style. What lessons can you draw from this realization when you teach your diverse students? 2. Cultural filters can make a difference as to whether your message is communicated clearly. Considering the potential diversity of the students you will teach, imagine teaching a unit on how the U.S. president is elected. Analyze the possible cultural filters that you need to address to ensure that the lesson is communicated accurately. List these filters, and suggest how you would overcome each. 3. You have learned about a variety of technologies useful to support learning in this chapter. With which one of these are you most comfortable? Which are most useful in helping to prepare 21st century learners? Describe the technology and its potential applications in the grade level or content area you wish to teach and demonstrate why it is most appealing to you.
Learning Together 1. Describe to your peers in your group the teachers you have had who seem to fit into each of the theoretical frameworks described in this chapter. After each member of the group has shared her or his experiences, select one teacher from your collective
Chapter Activities
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experiences who best represents each learning theory. Summarize the teacher, the reasons she or he was selected, and why her or his teaching style fits a specific theoretical framework. Be prepared to share your group’s views with the class. 2. As a group, articulate the top 10 characteristics you want to foster to ensure that you prepare your students to be 21st century learners. Select a technology you believe would support learning for each of these characteristics. Create a presentation that summarizes your group’s top 10 characteristics and technologies to share with peers. Give specific examples of the application of each technology for the grade level or content area you might teach. 3. Visit a school classroom and a media center to observe the technologies that are available in these areas. Considering the historical trends in technology described in this chapter, where would you place the school in terms of its level of technological innovation? Share your observations with your group and together build a snapshot of the state of technology in the average school today.
Chapter Project Your Personal Technology Strategic Plan This chapter provided a foundation for understanding what learning is and technology’s potential in support of it. Utilizing technology, however, will be up to you, and you need to consider what your own approach to learning and your skill set with relation to technology will be. This s elf-analysis will help you to identify the best steps to take to become an effective technology-using educator. Strategic planning for your personal growth is a useful exercise. Strategic planning is a process that schools and districts use to make long-term plans for improvement. The process begins with a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (S.W.O.T.) analysis, which is a critical examination of how these factors impact achievement goals. This examination can be applied on a personal basis as you consider the opportunities and challenges related to integrating technology in education. As in a school’s strategic planning process, once the S.W.O.T. component is completed, you can better understand the forces that are hindering or helping you. With that realization, strategic planning then calls for a careful articulation of the goals that must be achieved for school improvement. For this activity, you are going to complete a personal S.W.O.T. analysis that helps you to become aware of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats acting upon you as you consider how you will utilize technology in your classroom. With that insight, you will then articulate your top three personal goals that will help you become a better t echnology-using educator. Instructions: 1. Complete the following S.W.O.T chart to determine your own personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats with reference to effectively using technology in your classroom. 2. With your S.W.O.T. chart completed, reflect on these forces and how they impact you now and as a future teacher. What impact will they have on the opportunities you intend to create for your students to maximize their learning? 3. Complete this project by identifying your technology and learning goals and the strategies you will use to achieve them. The following table regarding technology and learning will help you to organize your plan.
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a. Articulate your top three target areas for integrating technology and learning in your future classroom. Consider your own theory about learning. What technologies support that approach? How will you engage students to maximize learning? b. Now that you have identified your goals, the final step is to identify key strategies you can engage in as a student that will help you to achieve your goals by the time you begin teaching. List up to three strategies for each goal. Be sure your strategies ensure that you have completed whatever preparation is necessary to achieve your goals. Be prepared to submit your project and share it with your peers as your instructor directs. MY TECHNOLOGY S.W.O.T STRENGTHS What strengths do you possess that will make it easier for you to use technology in support of learning?
WEAKNESSES What are your weaknesses that might inhibit your use of technology to help your students learn?
OPPORTUNITIES What opportunities do you see while you are in school that will help you overcome your threats and weaknesses?
THREATS What factors will interfere with your integration of technology to support learning?
MY TECHNOLOGY LEARNING GOALS My Technology and Learning Goals
Strategy 1 to Achieve Strategy 2 to Achieve Strategy 3 to Achieve
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Chapter Assessment Click to go to the Chapter Assessment to review the contents of this chapter by completing a multiple-choice quiz.
Chapter Assessment
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