Over the years
research has shown that “if student learning is the goal, effective teaching
means creating effective learning environments and environments where students
are actively participating and engaged with the material are crucial to student
learning”. (Tewksbury and Macdonald) To use any technology as an effective
learning tool, a teacher must critically assess if the tool will successfully
address intended learning goals. The use
of technology must be closely guided by alignment to learning outcomes and
academic content standards so that learning will afford educators, and
ultimately students, the opportunity to connect classroom concepts to
real-world applications. However, for
successful design and adoption of new strategies, educators need interaction
with the technology, time to build their skill and comfort levels and, most
importantly, participate in active, collaborative learning opportunities to
plan for implementation in their classrooms.
As one of eight
educational technology agencies supported by eTech Ohio and the Ohio Department
of Education, WGTE Public Media realizes that technology cannot stand alone in
the pursuit of individualizing student learning and nurturing 21st century
skills. Therefore, our professional development focuses on supporting these
efforts.
In the last 4 weeks,
we hoped to build upon these ideas and instructional strategies by helping
teachers learn about professional development programs offered through
WGTE. As an EdTech agency we have
struggled with effectively communicating our programs and events with our
partner schools. To help bridge this
gap, we put together an implementation plan that focused on ramping up our
communication efforts with the use of Twitter, Blogger, and an electronic
newsletter.
Project
Goals:
1. Increase teacher awareness of WGTE
professional development programs and events via tools such as Twitter,
Blogger, and an E-Newsletter.
2. Develop a shared body of standards-based
activities and best practices that utilize technology to foster communication,
collaboration, creativity and critical thinking skills. (information to be
posted to blog)
3. Demonstrate how
technology can effectively serve as a tool to individualize student learning.
Technology
Implementation Goals:
1. Have between 15-30 Twitter followers.
2. Post at least
once a week on our blog.
3. Collect email
addresses and email a monthly newsletter.
Learning, Teaching, and Technology
The technology that
was chosen for implementation was social networking and online
communication. The challenge that I
faced was building communication with WGTE schools and teachers in NW
Ohio. My plan was to work with three
specific tools; Twitter, and electronic newsletter and a blog.
Looking at learning,
there are many things that can be assumed about the learner. One of which is that he or she knows how to
access information online and knows basic computer navigation skills. Since the “learning” is taking place online,
students would be required to have internet access of some kind. Therefore, the teaching strategies that I
have chosen support the technology that I have chosen and vice versa. The strategies that I have chosen represent
effective discussion, using visuals and multimedia. Twitter and Blogger help support effective
discussion in that questions are used to prompt teachers in discussion. Links
and videos help support multimedia learning. The electronic newsletter helps
support using visuals as well as multimedia.
The social
networking tools selected helps make the content extremely accessible to all
teachers and administrators. Links and
video are available on Twitter, Blogger, and the newsletter to give educators
easy access to all programs and professional development at WGTE.
The instructional
strategies are more communicative and visual in nature and focus on getting
information to educators. The strategies
make the content more accessible and easier to explore. For example, if I wanted to share information
about a session on Flipped Classroom that WGTE has coming up in January, I
would post a discussion question up on Blogger and let teachers discuss. Then, I can let them know about the class. In this way, the strategies and the content
work very nicely together.
Information
Processing and Social Constructivism were prevalent throughout this
project. Students were acquiring facts,
skills, and concepts as well as collaboratively and socially responding to
questions and tasks. Similarly, Behaviorism can be seen through the acquisition
of new content and self-guided learning.
As with all
learning, you try to accommodate for all different learning styles. That is why I made some of the communication
available through email and not just on the web. As well, the content that was posted or
emailed was differentiated in formatting.
Therefore, in order for this to be a success, a heavy emphasis was
placed on multiple media formats as well as varying ways of communication. How
are important differences among learners taken into account?
The evaluation of
this project consisted of a mixed-methods approach, using both quantitative and
qualitative data to determine the extent to which project goals and objectives
were achieved. The evaluation tasks conducted throughout this project evaluated
the implementation of the project activities as well as the impact of the
project on educators.
Implementation
Technology has
played an extremely important role in the project. Using web tools such as Twitter and Blogger made
it very easy to stay connected to teachers and the community. The drawback of using these methods was the
unfamiliarity with social tools that some teachers have. Given the nature of these tools, it is very
easy to access information 24/7.
Therefore, teachers can go back and review information anytime they
want. This is an awesome way of facilitating
learning all the time; even when you are not in the classroom.
Since this project
was aimed at teachers, there is not clear visual reaction to the technology. I can say that as a result of this
implementation project, we have increased teacher awareness; 29 Twitter
followers, 2000 + emails, and 10 blog followers. We have also developed a shared body of
resource information housed on our blog and multimedia content posted via
Twitter. WGTE has also demonstrated how
technology can be used in the classroom with a variety of technology topics
covered (E-Connect, Blog & Twitter).
(Designing
Effective and Innovative Courses, Dr. Barbara J. Tewksbury and Dr. R.
Heather Macdonald, 2005, On The Cutting Edge, October 15,
2012,http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/tutorial/strategie
