What Does Transformative Technology Use Look Like

There is a lot of talk about technology not fulfilling its promise in terms of improving student learning outcomes. I believe there are two factors at work here: one is that schools are not adjusting the way they assess to take into account what and how students are benefitting from the greater use of technology, i.e. the tests are the same as before, so simply do not measure the gains; the other bigger issue is that schools are not making meaningful use of technology.

I recently had a conversation with a 6th grader at a New York city private school that has a one-to-one laptop program. She has a new Macbook Air and is taking French. I asked her how the teacher makes use of the computer. She said they sometimes play online games used to practice their French.

My intention is not to focus blame on the teacher for not making more meaningful use of the technology. It is in fact very likely that he received little or no training in how to do so. As a result, he is simply replacing what he might have done before using a game in class with a game online (replacement being the initial step in technology integration by most teachers).

Another conversation with a student – this one a 9th grader at one of NYC’s best public high schools (one of the specialized schools that students have to test to get into) revealed that, for the most part, teachers do not make use of any technology beyond the classroom projector. Teaching and learning there look much as they did when I taught at one of the specialized high schools 10 years ago, despite the considerable changes in every aspect of educational technology since then. Students do not even have access to the school wireless network (wifi).

The point is that despite what is available to both teachers and students, despite all of the possible uses of technology to enhance both the teaching and learning experiences, teachers are to a great extent not using them. Why that might be I will save for another post.

How can and should teachers use technology to transform their teaching, and what does transformative technology use look like? Let’s start with what it looks like (or might look like – this is not one size fits all). The reality is that technology is ubiquitous. People today – male and female, young and old, students and workers – use technology constantly.

So what constitutes transformative technology? According to Professor Joan Hughes, referring to a 1985 article by R.D. Pea, technology that truly transforms the education process does so by: changing and/or expanding the mental work involved; increasing the number of variables involved in the mental process; and providing new opportunities for different types of learning unavailable using traditional approaches.

How this might happen can vary widely. There is no one model for transformative use; every school and every teacher will make their own decisions about what works in their school and classroom. For example:

Imagine a classroom where the teacher has provided students access to a wealth of materials – from universities and experts and other teachers – utilizing all sorts of delivery methods – video, audio, interactive websites, simulations, PDFs; where the teacher has chosen tools based on how they help students achieve the learning goals; where students are working at their own pace because the resources – well beyond what is available in any textbook – are all available and organized for them to do so; where they collaborate not only with their classmates, but with students in other classes taking the same course, in other parts of the country and the world and even consult with experts; where the stronger students help the weaker students; where students keep track of their own learning with learning journals that other students and the teacher comment on, and take their newly acquired knowledge and add it to the set of online course materials so that classmates and students in subsequent years can benefit from it; where the results of their hard work are authentic projects that yield tangible products that they can add to their own digital portfolio (When students graduate, they have a portfolio full of examples of their work that demonstrates not only their understanding of the content but also their mastery of the tools.); where the best work becomes exemplars that the teacher shares with subsequent classes, so the quality of work improves every year. In other words imagine a classroom where the teacher makes meaningful and appropriate use of technology and where students are in control of their own learning.

The keys to transformation include: bringing the outside world in; collaboration; 24/7 access to everything; self-direction; and self-differentiation. Transformation, then, means making full use of technology and not simply picking and choosing; letting students determine how technology is used rather than having teachers dictate; embracing exposure to the entire world; working with students to deal appropriately with various issues rather than trying to shield them; and using technology more like the way it is used in the world outside of school.

I would encourage you to read a marvelous report about one school’s rather successful stab at transformative technology use. Learning Untethered asked: “What happens when school children are given the tools they need to extend their learning beyond the four walls of the classroom and the limited hours of the school day?” Their answer (in part): “We were amazed at the degree of richness and complexity these young students demonstrated in their culminating projects compared to students completing the same projects in previous years.”

Notes:

Hughes, J., Thomas, R., & Scharber, C. (2006). Assessing technology integration: The RAT – replacement, amplification, and transformation – framework. Technology and Teacher Education Annual, 3, 1616-1620. www.slideshare.net/joanhughes/hughes-scharber-site2006‎

Pea, R. D. (1985). Beyond amplification: Using the computer to reorganize mental functioning. Educational Psychologist, 20(4), 167-182.

Are MOOCs a Failure?

I have now participated in about six MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). For someone like me – independent learner; learn at my own pace but able to keep to a schedule; like to hover in online discussions; value exploring related resources – MOOCs are an efficient way to learn about topics of interest to me via high quality resources created by people who know what they are talking about.

This NY Times article talks about initial research indicating that MOOCs are not particularly successful, but the meaning of all of the numbers is unclear. Lots of people sign up for the courses, but few keep up after the first few weeks; even fewer complete all of the work. On the face of it, if we measure success as the percentage of those who signed up that complete, then they are a failure ,but that measure doesn’t work for me. Since the courses are free, signing up is little more than saying, “I’m somewhat interested.” Indeed, I have signed up for many courses than I have taken.

But MOOCs are more than just the numbers who complete the courses. They are important for the idea of the potential reach of online education, ad for those attendees who do complete a course, or even those who simply make good use of the resources, any given MOC is “successful.”

The problem with MOOCs – if that’s the right term – may well be in the design. The design – at least of all the ones I’ve seen – is pretty much the same. The content is divided into weeks, each week having a series of video lectures and readings; some have multiple choice quizzes (pointless) to check understanding; some have writing assignments – peer graded – or small projects, and discussion forums. That’s pretty much the extent of the course, though there are often some infographics thrown in as well. Whether a course is any good- at least for me – is primarily a function of how good the video lectures are and how relevant the readings are. The quizzes and assignments have added little value; even if they are well-designed, there is no meaningful feedback available, in which case they are done in a vacuum.

So for me, it comes back to whether I can get value out of the content on my own. I stopped one course because I found the presentation style of the teacher so grating that I couldn’t get anything out of it. The potential for providing the content using different media – video, text, images, websites – makes it that much easier to stay engaged. The key point of a good MOOC, then, is how do you keep students engaged; how do you get them to interact meaningfully with the content in what is a completely impersonal context.

Where Do Education and Technology Meet?

The short answer is, Everywhere. I hope they also meet here, on my online portfolio.

It is no longer a question of using technology in education – that is now akin to asking whether we should use a refrigerator to keep food. Technology is not an option but a necessity. In a survey I did of student use of technology, one student answered the question about what various tools she uses every week by adding under Other, “Kindle (if this is considered a technology).” To students today, what we call technology is a part of their lives. For that reason alone it needs to be more than another part of education; it needs to be incorporated seamlessly into our teaching, as seamlessly as pen and paper and the whiteboard. Another reason it is necessary is that students today must be comfortable with technology in order to be prepared for life outside of school, and by comfortable I don’t mean being able to use a cell phone and update Facebook; they need to be able to connect and communicate and collaborate and do research and make videos and present results. They need to have a digital portfolio of their work to demonstrate their competencies.

The most compelling argument for technology in education is that it has the potential to transform education. Among other benefits, technology:

·      engages students;

·      allows for the use of a wide range of tools;

·      allows for greater student collaboration;

·      promotes student self-directed learning;

·      enhances creativity;

·      provides access to an unlimited number of resources;

·      allows teachers to ‘flip’ the classroom;

·      allows for clearer communication and organization;

·      enables teacher collaboration on a large scale;

·      simplifies the task of catering to different learning styles;

·      makes differentiated instruction easier;

·      allows for the ongoing creation and retention of course material;

·      raises student readiness for college and beyond.