In Touch With EdTech

This site is intended to be used as a resource for educators who are interested in integrating technology into the K-12 classroom.

In Touch With EdTech

RESEARCH PAPER: Using Technology to Motivate At-Risk K-12 Students

Abstract:
Motivation of at-risk students is of great importance in K-12 education. When properly implemented, the use of technology in a K-12 classroom setting increases student motivation for learning among students esignated at-risk. Positive outcomes from the use of technology with students identified as at-risk include higher levels of self-esteem and self-efficacy, higher school attendance rates and increased time on-task. Technology motivates students by increasing work efficiency and allowing for improved finished products so students can share work with confidence. Technology integrated with proven education models like student-centered learning and differentiated instruction increases motivation. Furthermore, the identification and implementation of particularly functional modes and success factors increase the likelihood that motivation will occur in a classroom.

Read the Paper

EdTech 571

What is the one thing about Educational Technology you will take with you from the course?

Something I will take with me from this course is the idea that technology can make a difference in the education of a person. It was interesting reading about the history of how technology went from barely supporting education to, in some cases, becoming a central form in the educational process. It seems that this transition came about because of the proven effectiveness of learning with technology.

As a classroom teacher, I am especially interested in information about integration of technology on a K-12 classroom and its impacts. In the assignments we completed in this course we looked through many current documents based on recent research in the field. I have already found some ways to apply the research and will be planning and implementing these ideas in my classroom as early as this fall.

Equipped with the knowledge that technology can make a difference in the education of students, I am excited to learn more and bring the information to my school district, fellow teachers and staff members, and use in my personal classroom.

Tech Use Plan

The following presentation uses VoiceThread. Click on the play arrow in the middle of the screen to let the presentation play through with sound. You can pause it at any time. You can also navigate through the presentation using the arrows on the bottom left or right corners without sound.

Digital Divide Memo

Our assignment was to post a memo to a school board with some specific suggestions for helping students bridge the digital divide:

School Board Members,

I would like to bring your attention to a subject that I feel should be of great concern to our school district, the digital divide. As a school that concerns itself with not only the well-being of our students, but also our community, you must clearly understand the concept of the digital divide in our society. The digital divide refers to the rift that exists between those who have the practical access to technology and those who do not have the ability to access it. This term refers to the fact that some people do not have the physical resources to access information as well as the skills necessary for effectively accessing information. Based on results from a 2002 study by the U.S. Department of Commerce, digital inequality exists along socioeconomic, racial, generational and geographic lines in our country. The effects of this digital inequality could be staggering to our community. The largest concern I observe in our district is a socioeconomic digital divide. It is a fact that most jobs today require at very least a basic understanding of information technologies if not the ability to skillfully access and utilize technology. Those students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who lack the ability to access technology face further economic problems in the future while the wealthy continue to take advantage of these resources for their benefit. It is our responsibility as a school district to address and close this ever-widening gap.

I would like to propose seven different recommendations of resources that may help to address the digital divide in our district.

1. Conduct a survey of our administration, teachers, staff, students and parents of the students to gain information specific to our district using SurveyMonkey.com. (http://www.surveymonkey.com/) This website helps you to personally design your survey, collect the results in one place and then analyze the results with powerful reporting tools. Paper copies of the survey can be mailed to parents without access to a computer or the internet. Also, access district and national demographics using the census website. (http://www.census.gov/)

2. Address administration and faculty with a presentation about concerns of the digital divide. Use the video Did You Know 2.0 on youtube.com (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U) to motivate and allow the district to begin to see truth behind how quickly the world is changing and how important technology it is becoming. Be sure to clearly define the digital divide with the help of the international website dedicated tackling the issues of the divide, digitaldivide.org. (http://www.digitaldivide.org/) With all of this in mind, begin to form a task force of people passionate about bridging the digital divide.

3. Start a blog about the digital divide in our district. Post information about the divide and keep people up to date on new topics with information from The Benton Foundation website. (http://www.benton.org/) Invite the task force and anyone else with interest to collaborate on the topic of goals for bridging the digital divide. Educate the group on goals, indicators and benchmarks and post ideas while allowing them to propose new ideas.

4. Use the Innovation Network (http://www.innonet.org/) to help with evaluation of the program. This site will help a school move from goal setting to identification of evaluation questions, indicators, and data collection strategies for evaluating program outcomes and implementation.

5. Identify resources within the community by making a webpage through Google Sites. (http://sites.google.com/) This resource allows a website to be easily constructed. Goals can be outlined on the webpage to explain the way the district has chosen to carry out the task. Needs can be posted as a way to identify what resources can be found within the community. Also, look into programs such as Verizon’s Tools for Schools campaign. (http://foundation.verizon.com/) This program gives funding to schools that need resources to teach students and shares the vision of the need for technology in schools.

6. To help with the planning phase, use the web resource Edutopia.org (http://www.edutopia.org/assessment) a website from The George Lucas Educational Foundation that provides great tools for district-wide change. Here they take an in-depth look at five topics: project learning, technology integration, teacher development, social and emotional learning, and assessment. Also, see how the low-income community of East Palo Alto, CA designed and successfully carried out a model for connecting low-income families to information technology. (http://www.pluggedin.org/about/)

7. While I am sure that funding such an endeavor may be at the forefront of your minds, grants can be readily accessed from a number of places. Grants and information about how to apply for these grants can be found at http://www.grants.gov/ or the http://foundationcenter.org/.

With all of these resources at our fingertips, I have no doubt that we will be able to effectively design and carry out a plan that will make a lasting impact on our district.

The digital divide is problem that needs a solution for the betterment of our society. I hope that you see the need for action on this issue. It is very important that we gather our information quickly, build a strong group of leaders to steer the task, set challenging but reachable goals, evaluate our actions as well as the students’ achievements, identify our resources, plan appropriately and write grants to secure funding. I suggest that we begin to formulate ideas of how to get the proper information from our community so that we achieve a proper vision. A strong and clear vision will be very important in the coming weeks and months and will ensure that we see this very worthy cause to its completion.

Best regards,

Joel Scanga

Emerging Trends in Educational Technology

Here are a few of my findings as far as new and emerging trends in the field of Ed Tech.

1. VoiceThread - PowerPoint is great, but it has it's limitations. This web 2.0 application allows you to capture and hold a group discussion on one page using a vast array of multimedia tools. There are many ways to communicate/contribute on this forum: microphone, web cam, telephone, txt messages, drawing, or uploading messages of any kind. The applications in education are seemingly endless.
   
   
   
   
2. RSS - What is RSS? It is basically a way to get information sent to you instead having to go out to each internet site to find the information yourself. This can save a lot of time for teachers doing anything from accessing information about a certain area of interest or receiving work from students published online on a blog or class webpage.
   Common Craft explains RSS in a really fast and easily understandable way.
   
   
   
3. Podcasting - Sound and video meet RSS in this educational tool as you or your students select the content that is downloaded to listen to/view as it is published. Content is usually updated with a new "episode" on a daily/weekly basis.
   This tool can also be used by students creating their own podcasts with just a computer and a simple microphone.
   For a more complicated, but much more entertaining explanation view the following video.
   
   

A Response to Reiser's Articles: Noting Constructivism

The following is a response after reading Robert A. Reiser's articles from from ETR&D:

• Reiser 1.
• Reiser 2.
• Reiser 3.

My Notes on History
My Notes on Definitions

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In researching the history of instructional design and technology, it is apparent that the constructivist view on educational design strongly impacts the technology offered in K-12 schools in America today. The constructivist view on education not only allows for better, more authentic learning for students in the classroom, but also encourages educators' interests in the use of technology as a core part of instruction. This interest seems to stem from these teachers' realizations that young students hold an unmistakable excitement towards instruction that is both hands-on and involves the use of technology.

In the history of instructional design and technology, it seems that the design tends to reflect the interest of the greater educational community at large. With this in mind we could expect to see the field of design concentrate even more on how constructivism can be used to create education that will reach today’s students in a positive way, where students take ownership for the work they create. This brings great hope to the fact that this hands-on, technology driven instruction will bring an interest of learning to even the most uninterested students.