Technology

Using Technology to Enhance

Student Learning:





Uses, Impact & Next Wave

General Thinking About the Use of Technology in Teaching



Technology, including, information technology (IT) has great

potential to support improved student learning in STEM, but there is

nothing inherent in the use of technology in teaching, by themselves,

that would lead to improvement in student leaning.





Innovations in teaching that lead to improve student learning in

STEM are possible without technology but the capabilities of IT

make them easier, more practical, and perhaps more engaging for

students.





Use of technology, including IT, is evolutionary rather than

revolutionary.



From Enhancing Undergraduate Learning with Information Technology: A

Workshop Summary (2002) -- Center for Education (CFE ) and Why People Learn

How is Technology to Enhance Student Learning?





Basic Skills Instruction

 Computer assisted instruction to drill

 Multi-media software - teach to a variety of learning styles

 Videodiscs - strengthen basic skills

 Video and audio technologies - bring material to life

 Distance learning - at least as effective as traditional methods

of instruction

 All forms - develop new skills related to use of technology

itself, necessary in workplace







http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/tiol.html

How is Technology Used to Enhance Student Learning?



Advanced Skills Instruction



Interactive educational technologies, including:

***Computer-generated simulations

***Videodiscs

***Internet

***CD-ROM



 Students learn to: organize complex information, recognize patterns,

draw inferences, communicate findings



 Learn better organizational and problem-solving skills



http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/tiol.html

How People Learn Chapter 9 on Technology and

Learning summarizes how new technologies are used





 Bringing exciting curricula based on real-world problems into

the classroom;

 Providing scaffolds and tools to enhance learning;

 Giving students and teachers more opportunities for

feedback, reflection, and revision;

 Building local and global communities that include teachers,

administrators, students, parents, practicing scientists, and

other interested people; and

 Expanding opportunities for teacher learning.

How Does Technology Impact Student

Achievement, Attitudes, & Behaviors?



Quantitative (Achievement)

 Often modest increases in teacher given student’s grade

 Larger increases in test scores for low achieving students

 Increase student’s understanding of concepts

Qualitative (Attitudes and Behaviors)

 Improved student attendance

 Motivation and Interest

 Attitude and

 Improved student retention

 Improve workforce skills

 Improve workforce placements.

http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/tiol.html

http://fermat.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10270&page=13

Podcasting Lectures

http://educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EQM0634.pdf

Concerns about evaluation of technology and learning



 Technologies do not guarantee effective learning, however. Inappropriate

uses of technology can hinder learning--for example, if students spend most

of their time picking fonts and colors for multimedia reports instead of

planning, writing, and revising their ideas. And everyone knows how much

time students can waste surfing the Internet. (How People Learn)





 The level of effectiveness of educational technology is influenced by the

specific student population, the software design, the teacher’s role, how the

students are grouped, and the level of student access to the technology.

http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/tiol.html





 Assessment methods are often traditional – fact recall, pencil and paper.

http://fermat.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10270&page=13

Uses of Web 2.0 – The New Wave of Innovation in

Teaching and Learning





 What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O'Reilly Media in

2004[1], refers to a supposed second generation of

Internet-based services—such as social networking

sites, wikis, communication tools, and

folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration

and sharing among users. O'Reilly Media, in

collaboration with MediaLive International, used the

phrase as a title for a series of conferences and

since 2004 it has become a popular (though ill-

defined and often criticized) buzzword among

technical and marketing communities.





What does folksonomy mean?

A folksonomy is an Internet-based information

retrieval methodology consisting of collaboratively

generated, open-ended labels that categorize

content such as Web pages, online photographs,

and Web links. A folksonomy is most notably

contrasted from a taxonomy in that the authors of

the labeling system are often the main users (and

sometimes originators) of the content to which the

labels are applied. The labels are commonly known

as tags and the labeling process is called tagging





Podcasting

Podcast





A podcast is a multimedia file that is distributed by

subscription (paid or unpaid) over the Internet using

syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and

personal computers[1]. Like 'radio', it can mean both the

content and the method of broadcast. The latter may also

be termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast

is often called a podcaster.

Though podcasters' Web sites may also offer direct

download or streaming of their content, a podcast is

distinguished from other digital audio formats by its ability

to be downloaded automatically using software capable

of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom.

What is a blog?

BLOG

 A blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and

displayed in a reverse chronological order.

 Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject,

such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more

personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images,

and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to

its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on

photographs (photoblog), videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting),

and are part of a wider network of social media.

 The term "blog" is a portmanteau of "Web log." "Blog" can also

be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.





Next term --- WIKI Source Wikipedia

WIKI



A wiki (IPA: [ˈwɪ.kiː] or [ˈwiː.kiː] [1]) is a type of Web site that allows the visitors

themselves to easily add, remove, and otherwise edit

and change some available content, sometimes without

the need for registration. This ease of interaction and

operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative

authoring. The term wiki also can refer to the

collaborative software itself (wiki engine) that facilitates

the operation of such a Web site, or to certain specific

wiki sites, including the computer science site (an

original wiki), WikiWikiWeb, and on-line encyclopedias

such as Wikipedia.

Next term – YASNS Source Wikipedia

YASNS

An acronym for the phrase "Yet Another Social Networking

Service," referring to the wide range of social networking

services such as Myspace and Friendster.

With a lull following the much-unnoticed creation and

disappearance of the original SixDegrees.com, the world

wide web has been hit with a blizzard of social networking

web sites, with Friendster rekindling the craze, and sites

such as Orkut, Facebook, and hi5 following. The term

YASNS, or Yet Another Social Networking Service, has

been coined to refer to them collectively, in the long

standing tradition of the phrase Yet Another





Next term --- MMORPG Source Wikipedia

MMORPG

 A Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) is an

online computer role-playing game (RPG) in which a large number of

players interact with one another in a virtual world. As in all RPGs, players

assume the role of a fictional character (most commonly in a fantasy

setting) and take control over many of that character's actions.

MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player

RPGs by the number of players, and by the game's persistent world,

usually hosted by the game's publisher, which continues to exist and

evolve while the player is away from the game.

 MMORPGs are very popular, with at least one commercial game, World

of Warcraft, reporting millions of subscribers[1][2]. South Korea had a high

early subscriber base with the national hit Lineage, but numbers have

dropped drastically[3] -- though still impressive given the national

population.





Next term --- Second Life Source Wikipedia

Second Life



Second Life (SL) is a privately owned, partly subscription-based 3-

D virtual world, made publicly available in 2003 by San Francisco-

based Linden Lab,[2] and founded by former RealNetworks CTO

Philip Rosedale. The Second Life "world" resides in a large array of

servers that are owned and maintained by Linden Lab, known

collectively as "the grid".[3] The Second Life client program provides

its users (referred to as Residents)[4] with tools to view and modify

the SL world and participate in its virtual economy, which

concurrently has begun to operate as a "real" market. At precisely

8:05:45 AM PDT, October 18th 2006, the population of Second Life

hit 1 million Residents.[5]





What is RSS

RSS is a family of web feed formats used to

publish frequently updated pages, such as blogs or

news feeds. Consumers of RSS content use

special browsers called aggregators to watch for

new content in dozens or even hundreds of web

feeds. The initials "RSS" are variously used to refer

to the following standards:

***Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)

***Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0)

***RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)

RSS formats are specified in XML (a generic

specification for data formats). RSS delivers its

information as an XML file called an "RSS feed",

"webfeed", "RSS stream", or "RSS channel".

[citation needed]

Bottom Line on Use of Technology in Teaching







Student-Centered Teaching





Is it having a positive impact on student learning?

How Today’s Teenagers View Media

 Never read a newspaper

 Never intend to own a land-line phone

 Less interested in television than past generations

 Believe that everything will move to mobile

 Expect the Internet to be always available

 Community at the center of Internet experience

 Want to be active participants

 Want to move content freely from platform to

platform

―Surveying the Digital Future,‖ 2006 , USC Annenberg School for

Communications (Slide from Walter Baer)

Online References

 The Academic Culture and the IT Culture: The Effect on Scholarship and

Teaching

 http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0462.pdf

 Digital Rights

 http://www.educause.edu/issues/dmca.html

 http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/NET0303.pdf (2pages)

 Educause Teaching and Learning Resources

 http://www.educause.edu/Browse/645?PARENT_ID=107

 Enhancing Undergraduate Learning with Information Technology: A Workshop

Summary (2002)

Center for Education (CFE)

 http://fermat.nap.edu/books/0309082781/html

 The Horizon Report

 http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/CSD4387.pdf

 Podcasting Lectures

 http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EQM0634.pdf

 Social Software in Academia

 http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EQM0627.pdf

 Technology’s Impact on Learning

 http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/tiol.html#Enhanced

 Technology to Support Learning

 http://newton.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/ch9.html

 Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Leaning

 http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm06/erm0621.asp