As digital leaders, how can we ensure technology is being used to allow students to construct knowledge, share experiences, reflect on practice, seek feedback, and contribute to the learning of others? Why is this important?
The use of technology should be purposeful and is aimed to enhance learning. We do not use technology because it is available, we use it because it can assist our students to learn better and more efficient. According to Budhai (2015) “Technology should not be used if it is not positively influencing the learning goals of the school, no matter how innovative technology may be”. The school may use a lot of expensive apps but this is not what determines the level of function; it is how this tool or app is being used to achieve the identified goals. As a digital leader of my school, we use ELIOT (Effective Learning Environments Observation Tool) for teachers to ensure that technology is being used or integrated in the daily lessons. ELIOT Tool helps us to make sure that the learning environment in the school uses technology to gather, evaluate, and use information for learning. It also helps to assess if students use technology to conduct research, solve problems, create original works, and work collaboratively for learning. We also use ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Standards for teachers and students to integrate technology in all subject areas of our school. With the use of ISTE Standards, students are asked to construct knowledge, share experiences, reflect on practice, seek feedback, and contribute to the learning of others (ISTE, 2016). I agree that technology alone does not improve education, but, nevertheless, the technology integration in classroom could bring enough benefits to education. Technology integration in education have created high hopes among teachers and administrators who believe that the digital devices offer great promise as instructional tools for learning (Biancarosa,2012). The students in our school are provided with educational apps that can help them to construct knowledge and share experiences with others. One of the favorite app that they are using is “Explain Everything” wherein students can create original video presentations and explainer videos about any topic that they want to present. This app is also good for collaboration and working together as a team, thus teaching students to contribute to the learning of others and at the same time, seeking feedback from others in order to improve learning in the classroom. References Biancarosa, G. (2012). Technology Tools to Support Reading in the Digital Age. University of Oregon’s College of Education, Or 139(3). Budhai, S. S., & Taddei, L. M. L. (2015). Teaching the 4Cs with technology: how do I use 21st century tools to teach 21st century skills? Alexandria, VA: ASCD. International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2019). ISTE standards for students. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students.
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References
Evans, S.R. et. al. (2007). Evaluation of district learning in an introduction to biostatistics class: A case study. Statistics Education Research Journal. 6, 59-77 D'Agustino, S. (2012). Toward a course conversion model for distance learning: A review of best practices. Journal of International Education in Business, 5(2), 145. doi:10.1108/18363261211281753 Khatoon, S. (2015). Strategies for Maintaining Quality in Distance Higher Education. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 16(15), 238-248. Nsiah, G. K. B. (2013). Best practices in distance education: A review. Creative Education, 4(12), 762-766. doi:10.4236/ce.2013.412108 Sweller, J. (2010). Element interactivity and intrinsic, extraneous and germane cognitive load. Educational Psychology Review, 22 , 123–138. Book Chapter Review
Chapter 18 – Applying the Guidelines- from the Book: E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning (3rded.) by Clark, R.C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). This chapter consolidates all the guidelines that were presented in the previous chapters of the book and how they should be applied. Three (3) e-learning lessons are presented in this chapter to show how these guidelines are being applied or violated. Two of the samples reflect a directive architecture for teaching Excel skills—one asynchronous and the other synchronous. The third sample is a simulation based on a guided discovery architecture designed to give automotive technicians practice in troubleshooting. Lesson 1 uses an asynchronous e-Lesson on Excel for Small Business. This lesson is designed to help small business owners use spreadsheets, including identifying cells and using formulas for common calculations. It is recommended that for most workforce learning applications, designers should rely on higher‐level application questions. It is also a good practice to separate the practice directions and input boxes from the spreadsheet, requiring the learner to expend mental effort integrating the two. It is also suggested to provide an explanation for all response options to improve learning. However, praising the student of their accomplishment may draw attention to the ego rather than the task. Research on feedback recommends that praise be avoided in lieu of explanations that focus on the task or process. Lesson 2 uses a Synchronous e-Lesson on excel on how to use excel formulas. In this sample lesson, the authors showed how to properly use the guidelines in order to achieve learning in a synchronous environment. Because the class proceeds under instructor rather than learner control, it is especially critical to apply all guidelines that reduce extraneous mental load. It is recommended that lesson designers should create effective visuals to project on the whiteboard that will be described verbally by the instructor applying the multimedia and modality principles. The instructor should use a conversational tone and language and incorporate participant audio to apply personalization. Skill-building classes can apply all of our guidelines for faded worked examples and effective practice exercises. The presence of multiple participants in the virtual sessions lends itself to collaborative projects. Most virtual classroom tools offer breakout rooms in which small teams can carry out assignments. As with asynchronous e-learning, instructors should minimize irrelevant visual effects, stories, themes, or audio in accordance with the coherence principle. Lesson 3 presents an automotive troubleshooting simulation. In this lesson, the authors presented a simulation-designed activity to give experienced automotive technicians compressed opportunities to practice unusual troubleshooting situations. This lesson applies most guidelines applicable to e‐learning to build thinking skills. By situating the learner in a typical automotive shop, he has virtual access to the tools and resources he would have on the job. The goal, rules, activities, and feedback of the simulation are all aligned to the desired learning outcome, that is, to promote an efficient troubleshooting process to identify and correct the failure. Learners can see a map of their steps and compare it with an expert approach. Thus, the lesson focuses not only on finding the correct answer but on how the answer is derived. Since the structure of the case study is guided discovery, it emphasizes learning during problem solving. Regarding navigation, there is a high level of learner control. Overall, this course offers a good model for simulation environments designed for workers with relevant back- ground knowledge and experience. This whole chapter is important because it gives a summary of the unique promises and pitfalls inherent in digital technology for instruction. The guidelines and evidence that are described in this chapter are good resources that minimizes the pitfalls and optimizes the promise of multi-media learning. The knowledge that I learned in this chapter is helpful for me particularly in designing my ISD Project. I learned that in lessons that support audio, best learning will result from concise informal narration of relevant graphics. I will try to incorporate this idea in my ISD Project in order to produce better learning outcomes. I also learned that in situations that does not require audio, best learning will result from concise informal written explanations of relevant graphics in which the corresponding text and graphic are placed near each other on the screen. In all cases, learning of novices is best promoted by dividing content into short segments and allowing learners to control the rate at which they access each segment. I am thankful that resources like this is accessible for us so that we can be guided on the proper and correct way to design online lessons. I wish that there will be more research on the design of e‐learning to maintain high standards of scientific methodology with a balanced focus on both practical and theoretical implications. Reference Clark, R.C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning (3rded.). San Francisco, CA: Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 9780470874301. References
Horton, W. (2011). E-learning by design (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer. ISBN: 9780470900024 Kearns, L. (2012). Student Assessment in Online Learning: Challenges and Effective Practices. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. Volume 8(3),198-207. Moe, T and Chubb, J. (2009). Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics, and the Future of American Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. References
Garrison, D. R., & Anderson, T. (2003). E-learning in the 21st century: A framework for research and practice. London: Routledge Falmer. Lipman, M. (2003). Thinking in education (2nd Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Peacock, S. Murray S., Dean, J., Brown, D., Girdler, S., Mastrominico, B. (2012). Exploring Tutor and Students Experiences in Online Synchronous Learning Environments. Creative Education, 3 (7). References
Demiralay, R. (2014). Evde ders okulda ödev modelinin benimsenmesi sürecinin yeniliğin yayılımı kuramıçerçevesinde incelenmesi. Doktora Tezi, Gazi Üniversitesi. Johnson, L. W., & Renner, J. D. (2012). Effect of the flipped classroom model on a secondary computer applications course: student and teacher perceptions, questions and student achievement. Dissertation. University of Louisville, Kentucky. Wiki is a great collaboration tool to create a group project in which the participants can easily modify the content and structure of the site without learning HTML code. According to Al Shareef (2016) “Wiki is one of the easiest and the most effective Web-based collaboration tool”. This is a powerful platform for collaboration and teamwork among members, one of the essential skills for the 21st century learner. The tools are very useful in group projects that need cooperation and editing. In a recent study, Sun and Qiu (2014) found that learners admired wiki for enhancing their motivation and the group achieved much more in terms of performance outcomes.
This is my first time to use Wiki and one of the hardest part is to find a good Wiki platform to host our Wiki page. There are many available Wiki sites to choose from but most of them are either too complicated to use or, we need to pay a significant amount of money in order to use the tools and publish the site. After several days of searching, our group came across a site called “Wikidot”, a place to build wiki-based websites. Users can easily use Wikidot to publish content, share documents, collaborate with friends, and create a place for your community. This is the perfect tool that we need in order to start with our group Wiki, so we decided to use it and made an outline for the Wiki Literature Review Assignment. We then divided the tasks of our team members to focus on a certain part of the Literature Review that he or she is convenient to work on. In my case, I volunteered to work on Part 1- Introduction and Definition of Terms. All the members of our team can also edit and modify any part of the Wiki that needs to be improved. Once we are done with our assigned topic, we can help improve other parts of the Wiki such as adding graphics, video links, and formatting it to make it look professional and appealing to the readers. What I really love about using Wiki is that it encourages collaboration among our group members. The basic significance of Wiki is enhancing cooperative work and sharing ideas. Cooperation with group members ensure that each will get help to create a successful work in a team, providing an opportunity to bring their experience and skills for getting improved outcomes. As part of our collaborative work, we also used group emails to comment on each other`s work, give suggestions for improvement, and give encouragement to each other. Since many members are editing the Wiki page, open communication is an essential part of the task. Members of the group should communicate constantly in order to keep track of the document changes and come up with the best results. With Wiki collaborative work, it made me excited every time I see the contributions made by other members of my group, it just made the task easier with many people editing the contents of the page. Wiki enhances and supports the common and collaborative work among members in our group. It teaches me to respect the ideas of my team mates and understand the importance of teamwork and collaboration. As a team, all members of the group work together constructively in order to achieve the desired goal. Collaborative learning is indeed a powerful tool to help members share ideas at the same time, share comments and suggestions to improve the contents and quality of the project. References Al-Shareef, S. Y., & Al-Qarni, R. A. (2016). The Effectiveness of Using Teacher-Teacher Wikis in Collaborative Lesson Planning and Its impact on Teacher’s Classroom Performance. English Language Teaching, 9(4), 186. doi:10.5539/elt.v9n4p186. Sun, Z., & Qiu, X. (2014). Evaluating the use of wikis for EFL: a case study of an undergraduate English writing course in China. International Journal of Information Technology and Management, 13(1), 314. References
Nuwak, D. (2013). Screenshots and Copyright. Teaching English with Technology,13(4). Shields, D.(2016). The impact of Cambridge and the determination of fair use in educational settings. International Journal of Educational Administration and Policy Studies.8(6). References
Garrison, D. R., & Anderson, T. (2003). E-learning in the 21st century: A framework for research and practice. London: Routledge Falmer. (Framework of evaluating e-learning) Peacock, S. Murray S., Dean, J., Brown, D., Girdler, S., Mastrominico, B. (2012). Exploring Tutor and Students Experiences in Online Synchronous Learning Environments. Creative Education, 3 (7). |
Author:Aldwin Lauron is currently working as Technology Integration Specialist in ISC (International Schools of China). Archives
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