Albany Senior High School - Learning Spaces & Technology

Learning Spaces And Technology

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The Ameritech Classroom

Tiene, D. & Luft, P. (2002). Classroom dynamics in a technology rich environment.

The Ameritech classroom sounds like the sort of learning environment where NET infusion is easy. However, I don't think that schools need to go to such expense to support teaching and learning with NETs. I also don't think it is realistic to expect schools to be able to supply such technologies unless there is funding allocated from the government.

I was interested in the teacher comments that their teaching styles changed from working in the Ameritech classroom. I wonder if the teachers had been more learner-centred and used constructivist practices to begin with whether there would have been less difference in student learning outcomes.

The benefits of the Ameritech classroom for teachers seemed to be that they felt more supported in differentiating learning for their students.

Learning and NET: TAP into Learning

"Constructivism and Technology" & "Knowledge under Construction"

These articles discussed the benefits of constructivism, what a constructivist classroom looks like and the importance of teacher as learner too.

The importance of making connections between subjects was highlighted – many NZ secondary schools are beginning to use cross-curricular projects to facilitate learning. There is more focus on this now with the NZC. I am involved in an Education for Sustainability cross-curricular project for Year 9 students focusing on Sustainability in the Pacific. Science, Social Studies and English are involved and we hope that next year we can get other subjects on board as well. We are also ensuring that what we are doing is evidence based so we are using a range of qualitative (asTTle, PATs, pre and post tests) and quantitative (surveys, interviews, observations) data. It is important to do this with any new initiative or change.

Learning and NET: Are Constructivism and computer-based learning environments compatible? (Gance, 2002)

Interpersonal social interaction of a learner with peers and with teachers is considered a key pedagogical strategy to facilitate learning.

Constructivism =
1. engaged active learner exploring environment for new information
2. hands-on
3. authentic learning context
4. interactions with other learners

My first assignment focused on the use of blogs in education and I looked at how blogs can be constructivist. I agree with Gance that NETs should not be seen as something that will make learning constructivist. Rather we need to ensure that the e-learning that the students engage in is constructivist by the very nature of what they are expected to do with it.

Learning and NET: Computers make kids smarter – right? (Kirkpatrick and Cuban, 1998)

What should we spend money in education on?

This article discussed how the outcome of research into the effectiveness of technology in education can often be used to suit any argument due to the fact that effectiveness statements don’t give enough detail. Limitations include:

· How is effectiveness measured?

· Computer use is often not compared with other educational options e.g. peer tutoring, increased parental involvement …

· No research into the teacher’s role

Food for thought on whether we should give research results as much credence as we do.

It would also be interesting to see whether 10 years on (in 2008) the authors would have similar findings.

The question Are teachers both the problem and the solution? Is one that we need to face up to.

Again the focus of this article was on educators having a clear sense of their goals for technology.

Designing new learning

I have been reading George Siemen's elearning newsletter from 20 August. In it he discusses a number of different issues to do with e-Learning and there is a link to his Powerpoint presentation titled "Designing New Learning Landscapes". It is worth a look as he raises a number of questions which we need to ask ourselves about the potential of e-Learning and whether it is being realised by our education sytem.
Questions such as:
Has the design of our institutions matched the changes in our interactions with information and with each other?

He acknowledges some changes have occurred with teachers moving away from asking questions like "is Technology effective?" to "how can we use Technology as a lever for transformation?"

The presentation ends by looking at scenarios and future directions.

The newsletter also discusses Howard Rheingold's presentation about a project he has been working on called Social Media Classroom which incorporates emerging technologies into classrooms -Key quote: don't worry about keeping up with the technologies so much as keeping up with the literacies the technologies enable. This is similar to what Michael Wesch's says in his presentations. It leaves me feeling relieved as there is no way that I can keep up with the new technologies out there without leaving my job and working on it full time and even then I couldn't be sure ... perhaps it's my "digital immigrant" label revealing itself!

Learning and NET: Metacognition and learning strategies for teachers using computers (Hunt 1993)

I have never heard of McDonald’s paradigms of computer use but I am interested in how computer use can be classified:

Instructional Computing. Behaviourist and individual.

Revelatory Computing. Students learn through exploratory exercises and multi-media.

Conjectural Computing. Students manipulate and test ideas and hypotheses. Constructivist.

Emancipatory Computing.

One of the main messages I got from this reading is that teachers must encourage and promote metacognition for students to make use of potential benefits of computers.