Kelly, D. S. (2016, February 11). Top 10
Education Technologies that Will Be Dead and Gone in the Next Decade. Retrieved
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Wolff, J. (2011, November 07). Technology just
makes us all busier. Retrieved February 08, 2017, from
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Blog: How Technology Found its Way into My Classroom
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Moore, A. H., Fowler, S. B., &
Watson, C. E. (2007). Active Learning and Technology: Designing Change for faculty,
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Utecht, J. (2008). Evaluating Technology Use in
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http://www.thethinkingstick.com/evaluating-technology-use-in-the-classroom/
As Jane Ryland, President Emerita, CAUSE, Boulder, CO, says, “technology should not drive the strategic direction for any college. Rather, technology should be assessed with regard to its potential for helping achieve a college’s strategic goals.” (Ryland, 2017). In other words, educators should look to the available technology to facilitate and become part of their learning activities. That being said, sometimes we have no real choice. For example, my college, Delaware Tech, uses the Blackboard Learning Management System (Blackboard) as our equivalent of a virtual learning environment. I have spent the last five years getting used to its little quirks and now the talk is that we’re going to replace it with a shiny new, as yet unnamed, modern system. The learning curve stretches upwards again for me and my students.
Most schools and colleges have built-in systems that we don’t even notice until they stop working or are replaced. This type of technology is almost invisible and is taken for granted by frequent users. I am certainly guilty of assuming that my students were born knowing how to use Blackboard, a mistake I don’t intend to make as I introduce new technologies into my lessons – virtual or otherwise.
What Does this Button Do?
All of my classes
involve Blackboard to some extent. I use
it to store my course materials, policies, schedules, web links, and many other
educational artifacts. Most of my
quizzes and other assessments are hosted on Pearson’s Mastering Anatomy and
Physiology website – another virtual classroom used by all our BIO 120 and BIO
121 Anatomy and Physiology courses.
While 95% of my students are technology enabled, the remaining 5% are
not and are in real need of a software upgrade!
Although the number of students who are technology novices is dwindling,
those who lack technology skills are at a significant disadvantage when they
are first exposed to online systems like Blackboard. Fear of breaking the
system because of an incorrect keystroke still exists in some students. Fortunately, Delaware Tech is set up to help technology novices with various
beginners’ courses and help centers. I
also encourage my students to find study buddies and exchange contact details
with fellow students, plus I’m always there to help.
Blackboard is the
first technology the students meet at the start of a course. Usually,
the first thing that they see is the standard Blackboard interface – Blackboard
Blue and Bland could be its name. The rather unexciting default look for
Blackboard can be replaced by one of a collection of only slightly more
exciting looks plus teacher –made banner images and icons. Blackboard can be tailored and personalized
to fit the subject matter and the class requirements. Revamping the look of Blackboard is the first
thing I do when I create a class.
Obviously, the students take it for granted, but I really enjoy making
the graphics. I think the students feel
more at home and have more of a feeling of ownership of their course if their
virtual classroom is designed to fit them and their course. This ownership
facilitates the introduction of active learning practices by the teacher (Ryland, 2017).
The Changing Face of Teaching
(Economics Teacher. 2009)
Obviously, the image of the teacher
image of the
teacher standing at the front of the class, laser pointer in hand, ready to spout forth about the content of his latest
PowerPoint – I’m blushing with guilt!
This is an image that I intend to modify. I say modify because I think that
old-fashioned teaching still has its place as a valuablepedagogical strategy (Moore, 2007) - an
educational tool, not the only tool.
I think that many great teachers fear
that they will lose some of their identity and self-esteem if they let
technology take over (Moore, 2007). However, if given a chance, the introduction
of technology-based active and group learning activities can help educators
realize that such activities have a genuine
educational value that will actually bolster their self-esteem (Moore, 2007).
Technology: A Personal Progress Report
When I started at Delaware Tech I decided to follow the technology yellow brick road, albeit in a
careful baby steps sort of way. The
first thing I did was to see what courses Delaware Tech had to offer – plenty
was the answer. Delaware Tech has a Center for Creative and Instructional
Technology (CCIT) and it offers a Certificate in Instructional Design and
Technology upon completion of a 15 credit course (Instructional Technology, 2017). A
salary lane-change goes along with the certificate – obviously, this was of no
interest to me! Here is a list of the
courses that I have completed or am about to complete:
Teaching with Technology
Foundational Technologies
Advanced Classroom Technology
ePortfolio Design
Designing a Flipped Classroom
These courses involve us working in teams
to research new teaching technologies, learn their educational applications,
and assess their strengths and weaknesses.
The whole process has been a great example of how to incorporate
technology into the classroom. Completing these courses has helped me to
develop my skills and confidence when producing technology-rich activities for
my classes. Likewise, many of the
activities on this and other units on this course have helped in the same
way. I now have a working vision as to
how to include technology-based and group activities into my classes.
Be Careful Out There
One of the first active learning group games I introduced is called Anatomy Buzz Groups involving groups researching and reporting (teaching) about topics such as bones of the body. Although this wasn’t strictly technology-based, the students were encouraged to use the internet for research purposes. I am still developing my skills but I now include a Quizlet (Quizlet.com) area for each unit of my anatomy and physiology courses. These study areas are aimed at bolstering my students’ skills when they are studying for their summative unit exams. I use Quizlet because it can generate several assessment activities based on existing information in the system or on information added by the instructor. Analytics are provided to help build a picture of individual students’ levels of success. Quizlet provides instant feedback to the students and the games/assessments can be repeated as needed. With each repetition, students build on their knowledge and understanding of the course materials that form the knowledge base for the Quizlet questions.
I also use EDpuzzle (edpuzzle.com) an app that allows instructors to repurpose any video to include prompts and questions based on the content. Student answers are graded by the system with analytics and feedback being made available to the instructor. I like this form of assessment because it is fun for the student and because of the 24/7 feedback that is available to the instructor.
As both the Quizlet and EDpuzzle activities are created by the instructor, students have ample opportunities to work together on content that is tailored to their course and its specific requirements. Both EDPuzzle and Quizlet are also ideal for formative assessments and flipped classroom activities.
Ethical Dilemmas
I have a few reservations regarding the ethical use of both of these tools. With Quizlet, it is easy to search for and use Quizlet sets that have been created by others. However, it doesn’t seem possible to credit the people who produced the work in the first place. With EDpuzzle, YouTube videos are used as the primary video source for the repurposing. Again, there doesn’t seem to be a simple method of crediting the producers of the work. I’m not even sure if the producers have to be credited, hence my ethical dilemma.
I mentioned technology overload in my first blog and the same thing applies here, along with technology fatigue. The best advice I had about introducing technology-based activities such as flipping the classroom was to flip a class and not a course. For one thing, I simply do not have the time to develop new materials an entire course. But, if I did have the time, I wouldn’t do it because it could cause my students to develop technology fatigue as the new becomes old and boring. Also, I suspect that courses would take twice as long to complete.
How do I know that this Thing Actually Works?
The introduction of new technology-based activities should be part of a review process to monitor their success. Success should be measured using the following criteria (amongst others):
Student feedback: Do the students think that they have benefitted and/or enjoyed the experience?
Student assessment: Do these activities lead to a better understanding of the topic in question? Formative assessments will help here.
Application feedback: Can you, as a teacher, access your student’s usage records?
How much does it cost to use the app and can teachers get a discount or is it possible for a school to pay for a site license?
Does it fit the schedule: How long will it take to access and use these activities?
Ease of preparation: Does it take a lot of time to prepare in return for little benefit?
Software support: Is the software or website still supported, in other words, will it be there next week when you want to use it?
We should also evaluate our reasons for integrating specific technology-based activities. The educator Jeff Utecht developed the method of evaluation (Utecht, 2008) including the following questions:
Is the technology being used “Just because it’s there”?
Is the technology allowing the teacher/students to do Old things in Old ways?
Is the technology allowing the teacher/students to do Old things in New ways?
Is the technology creating new and different learning experiences for the students?
We should be aiming to give our students transformative experiences, but sometimes a change is as good as a rest.
Where to Now?
Keeping
up with new developments is my main aim for the next year or two. It’s a daunting undertaking looking for the
good stuff and rejecting the bad. I just
hope that I don’t miss a gem, but you’ll let me know – won’t you?
Isn’t it just time to stop? Retirement isn’t far below the horizon, so isn’t it time to kick back and rely on your time-honored notes and not care a hoot about the latest apps or whatever they’re called? Hell no!
If you’re in your fifties, like I am, we grew up with technology. We are the generation that was brought up with satellites, moon walks, and color television.
Anyone for Pong?
We ruined our parent’s television screens by forever etching the Pong court on to them after countless hours of play. We know technology, we are technology.
Back in the UK, I had the first affordable home computer, the Sinclair ZX81. The ZX81 was a super powerful machine with a massive 16KB of memory. I bought the additional 16KB RAM pack for it, it was the size of a brick and didn’t fit well. The ZX81 saved to cassette tapes which meant that it was slow, really slow, and it was very unreliable. Once my ZX81 ate three hundred lines of code – one at a time – the screen blinked with each lost line of code. I swear that the thing was laughing at me. Over the years, I got through numerous useless home computers until I bought a Commodore Amiga.
This had a disc drive, real software applications like WordPerfect, and a WIMPS environment – Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointers. It could be used by anyone- even today. My first PC followed the Amiga. With its massive 60MB hard drive, it had all the memory that I would ever need and then some. My first PC was followed by many, many more including laptops, notebooks, and PCs – many of which I built myself. I now have at least 10TB of storage at home – It’s all that I’ll ever need, and then some!
Cell Phones are Mobile and Handy
I bought my first Motorola cell phone in 1993. As I lived in the UK, we called it a mobile phone and my girlfriend of the time, who had lived in Germany, called it a handy The battery lasted about ten minutes and the calls dropped frequently. I remember calling my mother and telling her that I was going to be late leaving my house to visit her. She was clearly disappointed but also rather distracted because her doorbell was ringing.
She was so surprised to find me standing at her front door, cell phone in hand. That was the sort of gag that can only be performed once at a single point in time.
By the mid-nineties, I was texting up to my limit of thirty a month and loving it. The UK seemed to be ahead of the US when it came to texting. When I first moved here in 2003, I noticed that very few people were texting. This changed very quickly – my daughter peaked at about 10,000 texts per month and is a prime candidate for repetitive strain injury in the future!
Shapes of Things to Come
I worked on a project for Sony in about 2000, they were about to launch a phone with a color screen that had quite a high definition. I was a part of a team that developed a web navigation interface for the device. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the contract. If we had, I would be writing this Blog from my private island next to Richard Branson’s.
Technology - It has to Have a Real Use
If you’re my age, technology is in your DNA. If it isn’t, where the heck have you been? However, maybe I’m getting old and enfeebled but I don’t believe in technology for technology’s sake. Sometimes, telling someone something is just as educationally successful as making them use an app on the internet and playing a game for five minutes before he or she accesses the important information. Traditional teaching has its place and should be nurtured, cherished, and nursed until it is off the endangered list. It’s a very useful and important part of any educator’s toolkit. That being said, traditional teaching is not the only learning method anymore. It is one tool amongst many, and technology is bringing us more methods of learning on a daily basis.
We risk being overwhelmed by the sheer number of new technologies. We are adaptable and we are interested, but we are only human. We have lives and there are still only twenty-four hours in a day – sometimes it can be too much. We have to be discerning customers when we consider what educational technology to use in our classrooms. At times, we have no choice when we are forced to use a certain application, learning management systems etc. If this is the case, we have to work with what we have. Most systems require a little getting used to, but they usually work. My worry is that many teachers, myself included, are leaving the education walled-garden and using the internet to find apps that will appeal to both us and our students. Apps that will help them to learn faster and better. The problem is that not all apps are developed to a high standard, not all are equally funded, not all are updated frequently, and not all will be around next semester when you need them. If we’re not careful, we run the risk of investing a great deal of time, effort, and money in apps that give us transitory benefit at best (Kelly, 2016). Not all apps are created equal.
They're Out to Get You!
Obviously, it’s tough out there on the interweb thingy. There are many sites that will take your details, money, identity, and then the rest of your money. Many sites have been set up to mimic popular sites with the sole intention of parting us fools from our hard-earned cash. Teachers can be prime targets for this sort of nefarious activity. We frequently spend our own money funding our own classes and this includes subscribing to the “full” versions of the apps and other software. Sometimes they are worth the upgrade e.g. ScreenCastOMatic, and sometimes not. Let’s be careful out there people.
When selecting software apps to use in your classroom I would use the following rules:
A fool and his money are easily parted.
Understand the risks of being an early adopter – make sure the benefits are really really heavy!
When selecting an app, make sure that it has some good reviews. Search on Google for reviews that aren’t on the app’s own site!
If you cannot test an app before they take your money, then don’t buy the app.
Only upgrade if you need to. Most sites provide a free trial version of their apps. These are usually cut-down versions of the full app and many can be used successfully without paying for an upgrade as long as you don’t mind adverts on or around your work.
If you are paying for apps or to upgrade apps, you should use services like PayPal, the Apple store, or the Play store. Try not to use a debit card because you don’t have the same protection as provided when using a credit card.
And Get you Again!
While we are on the subject of people trying to get hold of your money, if someone calls you from “Microsoft Support Center”, who is obviously from India but expects to you to believe that his name is Kevin, telling you that there is something wrong with your PC (out of the billions of PCs in this world they phone you about yours) – please feel free to use the following retort – “You are a crook, a conman, and a thief. I curse you and your family for a thousand generations. I require $500,000 to remove the curse. Goodbye”. I once had one of the callers, called Edward, on the line for over twenty minutes before he finally agreed that it was a con and promised to lead a better and more wholesome life – he was probably lying. My brother fell for this con and had to pay $99 to have his PC “fixed”. These con-artists have a great business model. The take a relatively small amount of money, do no harm, and don’t steal your personal details. They rely on making their victim feel relieved that their “problem” has been spotted by experts and "fixed".
Time Will Not be Saved
Embracing technology and carefully selecting useful apps with good reviews will NOT save you a second of time (Wolf, 2007). You will not be able to relax and have a nice snooze while you students’ brains suck in information and develop understanding like super beings. It just will not happen. You’ll be front-loading your lessons in your own time, monitoring and helping your students in class and then trying to figure out how to get useful feedback out of the now stupid app that you wish that you had never heard of – again in your own time! To add insult to injury, you bosses will assume that using apps frees up your time and they will pile more work on you – you have been warned.
We Can Know Everything - Now!
Technology has given us wonderful tools that we can use to improve the learning environment for our students. We can now give them the world on multiple screens of different resolutions and sizes. Our students have most of the acquired mass of human knowledge at their fingertips 24/7. But, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing – especially when you don’t know what to do with it, when you don’t have context, and when you don’t have a dedicated human teacher to provide structure and support and to point you in the right direction with patients and a smile.
Innovation happens all of the time, but watching something grow from nothing, e.g. computing and cell phones, means that you never lose the feeling that they’re just a little magic.
