PLO 2 - Demonstrate knowledge and skills in current and emerging instructional technologies
PLO 3 - Design learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the needs of all learners
It is important as an educator today to continually strive to refine the way technology integrates with education in our classrooms, whether those classrooms are virtual or physical. New technology is being developed all of the time, and especially in the educational field, where teachers must find ways to connect with and engage students who are increasingly technology driven. Many times during this program, someone would mention an application such as Jing or Glogster, and it was the first time I was hearing of it. Not only have I become proficient in the use of these applications and programs and how to incorporate them into my own curriculum, but I am also actively seeking out new technology, and networking with other educators on how to use it in teaching and learning.It isn't enough to take technology and integrate it into a lesson plan. It must be the correct technology for the task, used to make the learning activity more effective, to engage the learners, and to appeal to more styles of learning than the lesson would without the use of technology. That should be the first thing a teacher thinks of with technology - that technology for its own sake is not effective. Technology is a tool that supports teaching and learning.
All of these learning outcomes are represented here, in the redesign of a short story lesson I did that incorporates using technology in learning in a current and relevant way, to better appeal to multiple learning styles in a differentiated learning environment:
Technology Enhanced Strategies:
Short Story Lesson Redesign
Introduction
Thirty years ago, students were often
given just one way to learn. Classrooms were designed around traditional
teaching and learning methods, many of which had stood unchanged for decades.
This often meant a teacher lecturing at the front of the room, while students
took notes and were later tested on what they had absorbed. Students were
expected to conform to these techniques, regardless of learning style or
learning disability, and successfully absorb the information being presented. However, in more recent years, education is
becoming more and more aware that every learner is different, and that multiple
teaching tools and strategies can be employed to greater effect among students.
Additionally, advances in technology have provided teachers and classrooms with
an enormous variety of technology tools to use in support of learning; in some
cases, this technology is even becoming the classroom itself, such as with
online schools. This is truly revolutionizing an educational experience that
had not previously changed much over a span of several decades. Education is
expanding, growing, changing, and in many ways, shifting its paradigm
completely.
Supporting the Needs of All
Learners
Just twenty years ago, my best friend
graduated from high school with a fourth grade reading level. Severely
dyslexic, she had been passed through the system with only the extremely minimal requirements to succeed achieved. She
was not diagnosed, and no special supports were put into place to help her
learn. She was simply expected to succeed just as well as a student who was not
dyslexic, and if she did not and received poor grades, no one offered her any
insights as to why that would be the case. As a result, she believed she was
stupid compared to others her age, and did not choose to go on to college,
partly because she was convinced she could not succeed. It was only after
fifteen years of life experience that she began to believe that she was just as
smart as anyone else. Job experience had placed her in management positions
that required a clear degree of critical thinking communication skills. She
even took an accounting class, and did fairly well. This is what finally
convinced her that perhaps she could succeed at a college level of education.
In fact, she chose to pursue her education online, and is one class away from
graduating with not one, but two BAs. Perhaps a traditional learning
environment would not have worked as well for her. Online classes allowed her
to pursue her education at her own pace, utilizing supports such as audio
textbooks and speech-to-text programs for writing papers. She even asked me to
edit her papers for her. With these supports in place, she stayed at the top of
her class, and will graduate as a valedictorian. This made her think that
perhaps an online classroom might benefit her son, an eighth grader who is also
severely dyslexic. The benefits of an online classroom allow him to work at his
actual learning level, in smaller classes, working with media that are visual,
auditory, and even tactile (via a touch screen). Some learners learn best by
seeing material, while others learn best by hearing it, and still others by the
practice of doing the activity (Felder & Brent, 2005). Gabe’s
online school classroom environment appeals to all three of these and gives a
greater number of students the opportunity to succeed.
Meeting the varying learning needs of
many different students has never been easier than it is today. Technology
allows teachers to differentiate instruction to a variety of learning styles,
and offer much more flexibility to students. “The model of differentiated
instruction requires teachers to be flexible in their approach to teaching and
adjust the curriculum and presentation of information to learners rather than
expecting students to modify themselves for the curriculum” (Hall, Strangman
& Meyer, 2003). In many ways, this encapsulates the modern classroom: a
place where instruction is adjusted to meet the needs of students, rather than
a place where students are expected to modify themselves in order to learn.
Original Lesson:
EDU 651
Using PBWorks, I created a wiki for a
learning activity for students grade 9-12, involving learning and using the
elements of a short story. For this activity, students will be outlining the
elements of a short story of their choice, which they have read, from the Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. They
will need all of the short story elements: setting, plot, characters, theme,
point of view, and conflict. They will also need to state how their story follows
the narrative arc, with exposition-->rising action-->resolution. Students
will create presentations on their chosen story to share with the rest of the
class, using the class Wiki to create a database on the stories they read. This
will demonstrate their understanding of both the story elements, and narrative
writing.
Resources for this lesson include:
-
A Wiki database, including a custom page
detailing the assignment: http://paintingwords.pbworks.com
-
Story Elements, an online tutorial: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/lit-elements/overview/
-
The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction: http://www.amazon.com/Norton-Anthology-Short-Fiction/dp/0393926117
The activity will take place in three
stages. In the first stage, students will choose a story to read, and after
they have read it, they will identify the story elements and narrative arc.
They will enter this information into the class Wiki to share with classmates
when they make their presentation. In the second stage of the activity,
students will create presentations on their story to share with the class. This
can be done in a variety of ways: collages or posters with Glogster, a
shareable Evernote Notebook, a mind map via Bubble.us or another similar site,
etc. The third stage will be a class discussion following the presentations,
where students discuss the similarities and differences between their story and
their classmates’. They may feel that some stories do follow the narrative arc,
or they may feel some story elements are not as present as others. Why or why
not? Does this make one story better or worse than another? Or does every story
have to have these elements? Students will finish the activity by turning in a
one page discussion detailing their conclusions, and listing at least one story
they heard about that they wish to read.
Lesson Redesign:
697
This lesson already has elements that
would appeal to various learning styles, with the use of the wiki as a
resource, and the variety of options available to students for their
presentations. A student who is more visual might use Glogster to create a
poster detailing out the story elements and narrative arc of their chosen
story, for example. A student who is an auditory learner may wish to use
PowerPoint and Jing to create a voiceover presentation. However, I do think
more supports could be built in to allow for students from the beginning.
Instead of requiring the story to be from the Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, the teacher can include an audio
short story of the student’s choice, pending instructor approval. The learning
activity is already active learning,
where students discuss, debate, and create and answer questions (Felder &
Brent, 2005). However, it might also be a good idea to split them into groups
or teams working on the same story for cooperative
learning opportunities as well, in which students can work both
individually and interdependently (Felder & Brent, 2005).
Additionally, rather than simply asking
for a one page paper at the conclusion of the activity, students should be
given the opportunity to utilize different technology tools. A PowerPoint
presentation or Podcast, for example, could be turned in instead. A project or
technology based assignment, rather than just an essay or paper, would appeal
to a wider range of learning styles. Some students may prefer to write a paper,
and this would also remain acceptable.
Challenges
The MATLT program focuses largely on the
use of technology tools in learning, so my original lesson already utilized
many of them. The challenge lay in how to revise this to make sure these tools
were being used to help create a differentiated lesson that would appeal to
many different learning styles and levels. Technology tools just for their own
sake do not help either the instructor or the learner; they must be used with
the purpose of aiding learning in a way that would not be easily duplicated
without them. In this case, the technology tools are used to appeal to as many
different learning styles and levels as possible, in a differentiated
classroom. A student who struggles with reading, for example, can use an audio
version of a story.
Conclusion
Today’s classroom is beginning to look
vastly different from the previous model. In many cases, it is not a physical
classroom at all, but a virtual environment. However, whether a classroom is
physical, virtual, or something in between, the way we are conducting education
is changing. Technology tools are giving teachers many more options for
instructional design than were previously available. The ability to
differentiate to multiple learning styles and levels is becoming easier and
more prevalent as these technology tools become more widely available. The
ability to appeal to learners on many levels is priceless; now, teachers can
engage students who are visual learners, auditory learners, and perhaps
especially learners best engaged in the practice of doing the activity. How
technology changes the classroom in ten, or even twenty years is still unknown,
but education has already started down the path to reach it.
References
Felder, R. M., & Brent, R.
(2005). Understanding student
differences.
Journal of Engineering Education, 94(1), 57-72. Retrieved from http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/Understanding_Differences.pdf
Hall,
T., Strangman, N., & Meyer, A. (2003). Differentiated instruction and
implications for UDL implementation. Wakefield, MA:
National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum. Retrieved from http://aim.cast.org/sites/aim.cast.org/files/DI_UDL.1.14.11.pdf
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