Learning and Technology

This main page of my blog has my first general thoughts as I began learning about educational technology.  As I have moved into other courses that expand my knowledge of the subject, I've expanded the pages on my blog to include my thoughts and answers to a number of deeper questions about instructional design. 


Please feel free to browse through my pages focusing on Learning and Technology.

Journal review i wanted to remember

Finding Opportunities for Unique Online Interaction for Writing Students



My key interest in studying educational technology is to find clues and keys for ideas that I can translate into my own developmental writing classroom. I was intrigued by the idea that I found in Mary McVey’s article in the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, titled “Writing in an Online Environment: Student Views of “Inked” Feedback.” It was the inked feedback that first sparked my interest. I have strong memories of reading through professor’s reviews of my writing assignments and having those handwritten comments, directly beside and intertwined with my text, was an excellent learning tool.

McVey’s research reviewed the challenges that arise when technology takes the place of the traditional pen-in-hand response from an instructor. The study focused on a format for providing effective and useful feedback specifically on writing for students in an online course. Students in a child development course had the opportunity to have their instructor’s offer feedback through a template that complies with a standard writing rubric, along with the additional component of hand-written comments through the inking feature of a Tablet PC.

The article includes a quick, but thorough review of studies that link the role of effective feedback in the learning process. The studies that McVey noted highlighted the need for immediate feedback that offers ideas and suggestions students can use to improve in their next performance. The McVey’s research also addressed one of my biggest concerns in using technology, in that the personal aspect of feedback can easily be lost. In an online environment, the e-mails, instructions, grades, etc., can be the only communication between instructor and student so building and maintaining a sense of connectedness with the “class” is especially difficult.

Students who took part in the study were given a template where they could paste their final written work. This template functioned as a rubric to outline the instructor’s expectations for the writing assignment. When students received feedback from the instructors, it was based on this template, but with the addition of the inking from the tablet students also could see what how their writing assignments had been marked up for grading. The tablet PC allowed the instructors to write, as they would with a pen on top of the document that the students submitted for grading. So the traditional arrows that show this sentence would have been better here or the question marks that highlight that a particular portion of a paper is unclear would or at least could be written all over a student’s “paper.”
Using the inking feature proved to be convenient for the instructors in that they did not have to copy and paste sections of the students papers for comment or type out long explanations indicating where problems had occurred. Students responded to the study survey, commenting that the feedback inked onto their papers “gave a more human aspect to the feedback” (McVey, 2008, p. 41). The interactive manner of the feedback also showed students that the instructors were actively reading their work, adding to the connectedness of the experience. This type of feedback also made a visual impact, which allows for a wider variety of learning styles to be accommodated.

Students also indicated that the specific feedback they received helped them identify problem areas and areas in which they were doing well. The specific feedback gave these students information they could use in their future writings. On the whole, students very well received the experiment with the main negative response from students being that on occasion the instructor’s inked feedback was difficult to read. The outstanding difficulty was the handwriting of the instructors more than all-else.

“The survey responses send a clear message. Students saw this feedback method as providing personalized contact with the instructor, and, they viewed that connection as being especially valuable in the online setting” (McVey, 2008, p. 42). As an English instructor, the written word is an integral part of how I express myself, but having studied English (or even if I had not) there is no doubt that written communication is open to interpretation in a way that personal interaction is not. There are no nonverbal cues to guide our understanding of a written passage, and it is in the interpretation of or feeling generated by feedback that the sense of connectedness between an instructor and a student could suffer.

During my second class meeting this semester I had a student ask me if I had sent a mass e-mail to the class outlining the next assignment or if I had sent each student an individual message. It was clear that he was impressed with the idea that I had responded to each student individually as they had sent a test e-mail to me. It is in this sphere of personalized contact that I see my clearest concern with educational technology that is used solely for simplifying the instructor’s workload or for any of the very valid reasons for adding technological components to a course—if these components are not carefully handled with a personal touch from the instructor.



Reference

McVey, M. (2008). Writing in an Online Environment: Student Views of "Inked" Feedback. International Journal of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, 20(1), 39-50.

Oh, so that's what I could do ...

Throughout these past eight weeks, I have had several “Aha!” moments. My first was in using iMovie to create my first concept map. It is one of those standard features on my Mac that I never really played with or considered. I had fancy Adobe movie programs for splicing and editing. What I discovered is that the biggest and fanciest tool, may not be the best tool for the job. So I learned to keep it simple instead of letting myself get carried away with the technology and possibilities.

My next “Aha!” moment came during wiki week. As an open dialogue tool, I was very leary of the idea of using a wiki for anything but documentation. I thought it was too free a format for use in a classroom setting. I have been working in a wiki for years and so the wiki we used was one of the early wikis and is nowhere as simple and straight-forward as the new wikis we used on this class. So, in this instance, I learned that technology always moves forward, and even though you are familiar with a tool the technology to use that tool will move forward as well.

My biggest “Aha! Moment came in seeing all the ways that people within the class are planning to use their new skills and understanding. I’ve always used technology a great deal in my work, and being married to a techno-geek, I hear about technology advances all the time. I had come a bi complacent in my thinking about technology and in my understanding of how technology could be used. I thought I had a whole lot more figured out than I actually did. What was key in this whole process for me was hearing the ideas of others. While I plan to keep looking for and playing with technologies, I know that I also will work to keep sharing ideas with colleagues.

Still Watching the Oscars but finished this ...

I built my teaching plan keeping in mind two things.
First – a large number of my students do not have internet access at their homes, so they aren’t able to access many of these great tools from home. I don’t want to build a teaching plan that requires a heavy commitment of additional time online, beyond what is already required for their essays. I don’t think it would be a benefit for them.

Second – My primary goal has to be to teach my students to be better writers, so I can’t spend too much time introducing new technology.

I want my student to share their ideas and see what technology is out there. I don’t want to take hours away from writing instruction to spend it teaching how to make a wiki work. I do believe that I can create a page they will look at, and this project will introduce the possibilities of technology to my students. I think that if I add in the piece about having them text me their responses, I may draw them in based on a technology they ALL use (occasionally even in class).

When I started teaching, I got a little discouraged that the students didn’t have the technological skills base to put some of the things that I had hoped to use into practice. I didn’t think technology was going to be something I could end up using in my classroom. Instead, I think I can make it an opportunity to introduce new technologies to students and to build their familiarity with technology without the pressure of making it an assignment. I would rather intrigue them with cool new things, than annoy them with assignments.

State of the internet

I stole this from my husband's facebook page, but it's a good one:
http://www.focus.com/fyi/information-technology/state-internet/

Moving forward to embrace it!

I found an article while I was looking for a journal article that outlined the different ways to use a wiki. Last week, I didn’t like wikis, but after reading this article I have discovered a new respect for them as tools for building a learning community.

I had always thought of wikis as a tools best used for building a resource bank. That was the first way I was introduced to them and after a few years of use, that was the only way I could see this tool. The article I found listed five purposes for wikis and two of these concepts sparked ideas for further potential. Presenation wikis were defined as a way to share a draft of a document; this format would provide an inwardly focused toward the construction of an individual project. I can see this form being a great way for students to offer peer review of essays. Students seem to wait until the end of the assignment period to write their essays and then once you have a rough draft, they don’t make half the changes I suggest. I think it may feel too much like starting over when I give them feedback on what they may need to change.

If they were part of a collaborative process with other students making suggestions on their draft documents, I think they would be more likely to make changes. By getting feedback from other students in real-time as they write, it would build community in the classroom without having to carve out the extra time from class hours. We have so much material to cover while in class that it often feels that we can’t really take the time for students to read and then comment on one another’s papers. The other wiki format that they mentioned also allowed students to interact in different way to share ideas for problem solving.

In essence, what this pointed out to me was that even though we may have ideas about what tools can do within the classroom, there are always ways that the tools can be re-interpreted to fit a new purpose. I think that it is these pre-conceived ideas of the tools are, how they can be used, and the ways we can use them in the classroom are the same notions that affect the adoption of the new technologies themselves. What I am realizing is that no teaching form can be stagnant. No teacher can grow without changing to meet the adapting needs of students and that includes constantly looking for new tools and different tools to do a better job. If I had a magic wand, I would change the idea that any one school of thought had it “right” when it came to education and technology. By embracing new technology, we are just as likely to get stuck in our ideas of what effective teaching might be as those who are still photocopying worksheets. Both ideas have valid points, but neither can remain the same indefinitely.

With all these tools available, what are the implications for changing the way we work, teach and learn? What is preventing us from such changes? If you could wave a magic wand, what would you change and why?

Those Wacky Wikis

Wiki’s are not really my favorite tools. While they have a lot of flexibility and options for collaboration and growth, I think I’m just too much of a control-freak to feel comfortable with all the freedom other users have.

A lot of my friends and co-workers are very comfortable with technology, so a wiki has worked well for our Web projects at the office and I think a wiki about book reviews will be good for the group I invite. Some of my friend, well one, keeps a database of all the books she has read so that she doesn’t buy the same books again and again. She should be able to just import most of that information to the wiki if she wants to share. Wikis are a great place to share digital information in any format with a large or small group.

You’d think I’d like wikis since so much of my life happens in digital spaces, but that’s not really the case.

I work with a wide variety of ages and skill-levels in my job and I’ve found that the same is true in my classes. While it seems like a wiki is really straight forward and easy to use. One of the articles on eLearning Tools Wiki, also highlights the fact that some people will not feel at ease operating in this kind of environment. I’m working on a project right now with a group of other employees from across the district and we have tried out a number of online tools to help us collaborate. There are a few members of our group who have given-up using a few of the options and won’t do anything but e-mail.

A wiki would have been a great way to share ideas and work in progress, but if everyone isn’t comfortable with technology, I think it would be a scary proposition for them. I especially think the idea that they could delete or over-write someone else’s idea would freeze these people out of the process.

For those who are natives to the digital world, a wiki can be an engaging and creative environment. For those who are still making the emigration to the digital world, and there are many who are bring forcibly moved there, wikis are more likely to be frightening overwhelming than inspiring.

Assessment for Learning

I’ve had potential employees’ send me links to their ePortfolios as part of their résumés. Some really highlighted their talents and skills, but the ones that stand out in my mind are those that REALLY turned me off a potential employee because of misspellings or grammatical errors. This was when hiring for a position where writing was a key function and requirement for the job.

My husband administers a digital imaging program at one of the DCCCD’s other colleges and I could see where this kind of ePortfolio would be a great opportunity for his students. Right now he uses a club web site to give students to highlight their design work. Student’s look forward to finding pieces for the site. Motivation, that was the potential piece of the ePortfolio and assessment for learning ideal that interested me the most.

Working with developmental writing students, motivation can be a very real challenge. The student’s don’t get college credit for the course, but still have to pay college tuition and it may take them several levels before they can move on to reach their goals. Finding ways to keep them motivated is one of the key reasons I work to mix lectures, assignments and activities and technology is one of the tools we are working into the mix to keep students moving forward. I don’t think that portfolio assessment would work for students at this level.

I think that ePortfolios are much better suited to students who are at a higher level in their learning. For those who aren’t already in a technology field and those who are at a development level, could be easily overwhelmed by the scope of such a large project. I do think that the ePortfolios would be a great tool for use in service-learning projects. Too often in the reflection sessions for service-learning there are those who don’t want to speak out, so the portfolios would give all students the same level of anonymity so that they could speak freely about their experiences.

So far, personally, I really like the potential that the online portfolio offers for putting my learning into practice. In putting this information “out there” on the Web, you have to think clearly and concisely about the image that you will put forward.

Reflections #3 - Matter of trust

This week on Facebook everyone has been passing around the “definition” of their name that they found on Urbandictionary.com. That exercise seems to fit well with this week’s reflection. The definitions are very obviously input by those who bear that name or those with a grudge against someone by that name.

I knew that it was pretty easy to put anything that you wanted out on the Web. As someone who works with design, I had often used that as a simple clue when I looked at the ‘legitimacy’ of a Web site, but this week’s exercises proved that’s not a valid test. If someone has a lot of time, a lot of talent, and just the funds needed to buy a domain name, he or she can build a site that looks like a reliable source.

I usually stick with well-known sources for any of my Web searches, looking within library sites and trying to find lots of sources for comparison. More than anything else, I use the Internet for entertainment. I do spend time reading about media trends and advertising ideas, and I use sites for teaching tools that I use in my class. Most of the sites I use though are recommended by people that I trust and I never use just one source. Today’s students are using searches in their schoolwork in elementary school, but I had to tell my daughter that Wikpedia wasn’t the only source she should use for research even if it was the only one her teacher recommended.

For a critical look, I took a site that I’ve used a lot in the past. Mousesavers.com is a site that I’ve used to prep for our last two family vacations to Disney World. It’s a great site for trip planning, money saving ideas, and reviews of places to stay. It even keeps up-to-date on attractions that are closed for repair. It was one of the first sites that came up in Internet search for Disney discounts and many of the other sites I visited referred to MouseSavers.com as a good research source. The history shows the site growing from 8 Pages in 2001 to 224 pages in 2005, and shows how often the site is updated throughout each year. It is a personal Web site, but Mary Waring, the site author tells you that up front.

As for the de.li.cious, I’m not sure yet how helpful it will be. I have my home computer, but the kids take that over most of the time. I have both a PC and Mac for work, but I use my Mac laptop 80 percent of the time and take it home most nights. I use it most as the computer that I love so most of my bookmarks are on that machine, so it may take a while to see if there’s a benefit for using the outside source for bookmarking my own favorites. I think the networking is more likely to be useful but I haven’t been able to play with it much as yet.

Reflections #2

My reflection this week is based less on my readings for the course than on some of my recent interactions with students. I enjoyed reading the article I found for the journal review, and I probably chose the one that I did because of the concerns I felt from my classroom interactions over technology requirements.

I’m discovering that many of my students don’t know how to use this technology. They at least are saying that don’t have consistent access to computers. I know there are labs at the school, but since I am writing this well after midnight, I’m sure some of my students face the same challenges in carving out time for schoolwork in a very busy schedule.

In addition, the lack of confidence and comfort these students show around technology leads me to wonder if they may not have attended schools where there was sufficient access to technology to come to college prepared to use it. Some are as ready to use the technology as I am to put information online, but there are others who are scared, don’t like it, and don’t feel confident using it for their education.

I am starting to have doubts about the level of technological skills that this “standard” student has when they reach a community college. In looking at the “Did You Know 2.0” video, it is obvious that it is already out of date to some degree in that it uses MySpace as a measure and doesn’t mention Facebook at all. In looking at the shift to Education 2.0, I may focus some of my research on liking into whether or not we could be creating a an even greater divide between those who have access to technology and those who don’t? Those “haves” and “have nots.” I wonder if those laptops every reached any children who were going to have the world in their hands?

I do believe that to prepare students for the future they will face, they will have to be comfortable with technology, and I am more than willing to work with them so that they can use the tools that are accessible to them. My concern is that some of the students who need the most help and access may not have the ability or the perseverance to take on learning what might be a challenging topic right beside learning the new technology.

Reflections on the blog

I think that blogging can be truly horrible form of human expression. It can easily be corrupted into a place that holds all the worst elements of the internet as an electronic dumping ground for ideas.

It also could be one of the best avenues for connection in a world where more and more we are separated behind our keyboards. It offers a place for ideas to be shared and truly explained in more than 140 characters.

Downes’ article shows the potential for blogging in education, but I think it misses one point. Using technology to reach students should be more about putting things were students want them than about putting things together in ways that are convenient for teachers. It should be more about informating than automating, and that means it will have to move forward almost as quickly as technology moves forward.

If blogs are meant to replace a class Web page, then it’s just layering a new technology on an old idea instead of moving forward.

Blogging would be a great way for teachers to interact with one another, for telling our stories as November suggests in his article. But for students, I don’t think it would fit their needs. Today’s students want short, quick bits of information and a blog or a Web page is too dense for the millennials. The potential Downes’ sees can be met with using new technologies like Twitter or Facebook and putting the information in front of where these younger students are, instead of where we would want them to be.

I believe that blogging can be useful, and that it has a lot of potential. I think that one trap in technology is seeing the potential of that thing and never updating its potential as new technology replaces the old. It is the one thing that stood out the most for me from November’s article, that methods have to change and adapt to the new technologies, not that the technologies are selected and adapted to old methods.

Opening thoughts

This first entry is much more formal than I expect most of my posts to be. Maybe it's just the high-brow nature of being asked to expound on your 'philosophy' of a subject. Defining your personal philosophy seems to require a response that speaks to the future in a way that just telling someone your thoughts on a subject wouldn't. There's nothing wrong with that of course, but as an English major and English teacher it seems to draw out my most intricate writing as well as some of my "higher dollar" vocabulary.

Since this is only the beginning of my study into educational technology. I thought it best to start with the most basic definition of my philosophy towards it. A philosophy is defined as the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct. I am really just beginning my investigation into the roles technology can play in education, so my own educational technology philosophy is only in its most primitive state. I also am just beginning as an educator in a professional sense. As I grow as an educator, my goals will include finding ways to share my passion for writing with others, to give students the writing tools they will need for their future and to innovate my teaching with whatever tools are available—both technological and traditional.

Writing as a skill requires both a technical knowledge of grammar as well as an understanding of the writing process—the process of building an idea or argument into a cohesive structure. I will expect my students to learn the rules of proper grammar and to practice their writing until they gain the confidence many in developmental courses lack. Both of these expectations would benefit from the use of technology in practical applications. Grounded in this pragmatic philosophy toward education, I will first focus my investigation of educational technology on the possibilities presented for skills learning that offers students the ability to practice writing in the forms they are most likely to use, need and understand.

My role as a teacher is to use whatever tools I can to impart the skills and knowledge that my students will need. It also is to expand their knowledge of the tools available to reach their own goals. By using technology in my instruction, I can serve this two-fold purpose. The generations that come will use technology as a given in all parts of their lives. Not learning how to integrate technology is not a realistic option for tomorrow’s teachers and all will need to decide how to integrate technology into their educational philosophy. As for myself, I plan to use educational technology to give my students new avenues for interaction, more convenient pathways for skills practice and additional opportunities to understand the role writing will play in their larger lives.