Impact of technological tools in public schools

Dr. Ghada Awada & Dr. Ghazi GhaithAmerican University of Beirut

The Impact of Technological Tools in Public Schools: Digital Storytelling, WLMM, Wiki, Google Drive & WebQuest

Abstract

This lecture aims at shedding light on the significance of the integration of technology and the implementation of the ISTE standards in all classrooms. The efficiency of the use of the Blogger, WebQuest, Wiki, Google sites videos, Google Drive, Window Movie Maker, Audacity, Photo editing techniques, and digital storytelling tools will be asserted through reporting the findings of some literature.

IntroductionThe effects of the use of innovative technological tools has enhanced the originality of teaching and learning practices and boosted creative, collaborative and interactive learning such as group work and project research. McCoy (2011) highlighted the preference of today’s learners in utilizing the internet search engines for learning resources.

Digital Storytelling

Meadows (2003) defined digital stories as short personal multimedia tales narrated beautifully and conveying the feelings and the emotions towards a certain event. The main advantage of digital storytelling is that it enables students to employ the basic multimedia tools such as Windows Movie Maker and Audacity which are used to build graphics, animated graphics, video, animation, text, and photos and develop creative and cognitive skills.

Digital storytelling

  Storytelling and literacy are the foundation of

language development, and more so, the foundation of learning. Telling stories remains important from childhood to adulthood because stories allow people to express experiences and feelings in an engaging way, help them to understand the world around them, and develop and sustain peer relationships.

Digital StorytellingEngaging students in producing their own digital

stories allows the entire learning experience to take place in an anxiety –reduced environment leading to increasing their self-confidence,due to the interesting nature of videos (Bennette, 1988; Kinnaman, 1993; and Clovis 1997).

Digital Storytelling Study

The researcher asked her students, the control and the experimental groups, to narrate the historical events that preceded and led to the issuance of the Seneca Fall Convention and to women's emancipation. The control group was asked to narrate the events using the story graphic organizer and the experimental group received instruction to use the digital storytelling to report their findings.

Results and Findings

The researcher found that the digital storytelling is a means to obtain the development of content understanding and oral skills.Digital storytelling hinders the respondents’ reluctance to listen to own recordings in a digital storytelling production phase. Learning and documenting, content understanding or personal reflections on a topic are all ensured by the digital storytelling.

Digital StorytellingAlong the same line, using the digital storytelling,

the teacher plays an important role related to the student’s zone of proximal development.

Digital StorytellingDigital storytelling is a language learning activity

that embraces writing as well. A script for a digital story is short and requires reflection on every single choice of word.

Digital StorytellingThe findings were as expected, and hence

confirmed the researcher’s experience. Participants embraced all aspects of digital storytelling, in the sense that they saw learning potentials related to much more than developing their digital skills.

Implications

Learners whose previous pieces of writing lacked detail, voice, or creativity emerged with digital stories that displayed their writing abilities in a whole new light. Beyond building confidence as an author, the inclusion of music and personal narration gives students more control over how they present themselves to the world.

The Use of Window Movie Maker Journaling

Journaling is considered as a stress management and self-exploration tool .A study conducted by the researcher revealed that students were generally motivated and excited about the WMM journaling although initially there were some hesitations due to lack of experience as well as skills in movie-making.

References-Awada,G.(September,2014). Relative impact of

Windows Movie Maker journaling on Writing proficiency and apprehension. AWEJ Volume.5 Number.3, 2014 ,Pp.31-44

The study looked into the perceptions of the participants towards the efficacy of a computer-assisted language learning tool versus journal writing in improving the English as a foreign language (EFL) writing Proficiency and decreasing the levels of writing apprehension.

The study employed an experimental pretest- posttest control group design whereby two intact classes were randomly assigned to control and experimental conditions. Descriptive statistics were calculated and a series of independent sample t-tests were conducted in order to address the questions raised in the study. Finally, a content analysis of the qualitative data gathered from the study participants to the open ended questions in the experimental group was carried out to describe and concretize their perceptions of the WMM experience.

The results of the study indicated that the WMM journaling proved to be more effective than the traditional pen and paper journaling in enhancing Proficiency and decreasing writing apprehension.

Findings

The study revealed that the participants were generally motivated and excited about the WMM journaling although initially there were some hesitations due to lack of experience in movie-making. The WMM journaling project was able to draw out the participants’ creativity in integrating language with computer skills.

Window Movie Maker JournalingData collected were analyzed and the findings

indicated that the WMM journaling was more effective than the traditional instruction as students improved their writing performance significantly and interestingly.

Implications

All teachers who wish to engage their students in authentic language learning should consider classroom videos. The teachers might be able to use the prior knowledge of the subjects to teach them the new information about the topic.

Windows Movie Maker Journaling

 Using WMM, the teachers can implement the making and editing of a video journaling at the end of each lesson as a post-reading activity.

The Use of Wiki

Ward Cunningham used the word wiki to name the collaborative tool he developed for use on the Internet in 1994. Wikis are fully editable websites; any user can read or add content to a wiki site. Users can visit, read, reorganise and update the structure and content

Wiki Use According to Lev Vygotsky, learners develop socially

when they collaborate with their more capable peers. In this context,wiki helps with the materials that can be presented in a variety of formats (text, pictures, audio, video, multimedia) embedded to cater to students’ needs.Harriman( 2010: pag. 78) asserted that a prior analysis of the learning context, together with negotiation, fosters language awareness and promotes learner autonomy.

Wiki Research

A study conducted by the researcher aimed at investigating the effectiveness of wiki tool and Google Drive in enhancing the learning, collaboration and writing and research skills of the twelfth graders of a public school in Lebanon.

The study was designed to investigate the impact of the

Wiki tool and the Google Drive survey on enhancing the

12th graders' research projects made by employing Google

Drive Surveys and using the videos, pictures, files, and

surveys to conduct their projects .

The study aimed at answering the following questions:1. Does the use of wiki encourage students to make their own research projects?2. Do students demonstrate motivation to use the Google drive in their research projects?3. Do students demonstrate efficient use of Wiki project skills?4. Do students make proper use of the Google Drive to conduct their project surveys?

Instruments• The data were collected by means of 2

questionnaires, 2 rubrics, participants’ projects, and Google Drive surveys. The first questionnaire was adapted from Wiki Use Questionnaire (Chen, 2008) to collect data on the participants’ motivation and use of wiki.

InstrumentsThere are two subscales in the questionnaire: Use of Wiki (12 items) and Students’ Motivation (13 items).  Another questionnaire was devised to examine the participants’ motivation towards the use of the Google Drive in their research projects.

Using Google Drive, the participants prepared the surveys of their research.(see Figure 1)

Using Google Drive,

the particip

ants yielded

the results of their

research.

(see Figure 2)

The participants used

the "Comment "tool

to discuss their

projects(see Figure

3 ).

The participants used their wiki pages to upload videos

and to facilitate the colloboration and

discussions (see Figures 4 and 5) .

Figure 4

Figure 5

Research Findings

The findings of the study indicated that the use of

Wiki encourages students to make their own research

projects, and it enables students to use the Google

Drive in their research projects.

Research Findings

In alignment with other studies (Chao & Lo, 2009; Ducate et al., 2011; Lee, 2010; Lund, 2008; Zorko, 2009), The findings of the study conveyed that the subjects revealed great motivation towards group work and projects upon using the wiki tool and Google Drive.

Implications

Wiki-based collaborative writing enabled students to scaffold each other in content development and gain more perspectives of a certain topic (Kost, 2011; Li & Zhu, 2011; Lund, 2008). Alyousef and Picard (2011) observed that cooperative learning was at a peak where students divided/distributed the task among themselves.

Implications and Recommendations

Wikis allowed students to negotiate, cooperate, and learn

from each other. A Wiki provided an observational

learning or modeling environment for students to learn

from others’ work. Learning material, vivid interface and

interactive activities were recommended to prepare a

Wiki as a learning environment rather than merely a

useful place for completing group assignments.

Implications and Recommendations

The Google Drive forms make conducting questionnaires and studies a fun and interesting task, and these forms enable students to avoid plagiarism committed by adopting other's statistics and figures. Above all, the feasibility of inserting a video and sending it along with the survey form makes students highly motivated and increases their confidence in the work they produce.

The wiki project aims at enhancing students’ and teacher’s involvement in collaborative online content creation with special emphasis on developing autonomous study skills. The structure of the wiki space allows for a work-in-progress approach to differentiated learning, and the Google Drive helps students quickly obtain the data required for the analysis of their project's findings.

-Awada,G.&Abdallah,A.(September,2014).Wiki and Google Drive: Expediters versus hindrances. International Journal of Education Research(IJER)-Awada,G.&Abdallah,A.(June,2014). The use of WiKi and Google Drive in a public school. EAN 23rd Annual Conference, 2-4 June 2014, Edinburgh Scotland, UK. Conference Paper

References

WebQuest

WebQuests, developed by Bernie Dodge and Tom March in early 1995, are inquiry-oriented activities in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web (Dodge, 1998).

WebQuestWebquests raise students ’ motivation and help in

making the practice of reading and writing more interesting.WebQuest also serves as facilitator for speaking and writing ,and students enjoy the uploaded authentic material .

WebQuests Uses

WebQuests have certain critical attributes (Dodge, 1997). These attributes include an introduction, a task, information sources, process, guidance, and conclusion.

Problem-Solving Approach of WebQuests In line with Dodge (1998) and Dudeney (2003),

Ge Stoks (2002) indicated that the problem-solving approach of WebQuests, including the sequential sections, may facilitate language learning.

Wealth of Accessible Reading Materials for Writing Input According to Krashen (1984), the best way to

learn to write is to receive rich and comprehensive input from reading. There is no source other than the Internet that is capable of providing such a wealth of easily accessible reading materials for writing input.

Inquiry-oriented Application WebQuests, developed by Bernie Dodge and Tom

March in early 1995, are inquiry-oriented activities in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web (Dodge, 1998).

Facilitator for Productive Skills: Speaking and Writing WebQuest also serves as facilitator for speaking

and writing, and students enjoy the uploaded authentic material.

WebQuests

WebQuests begin with an introduction which provides the students with background information on the topic and sets the stage for the investigation or activity.

The next section of the WebQuest is the task which includes an activity that is “doable” and is of interest to the students.

WebQuestThe resource section provides links to high-

quality Internet-based resources that students will use to complete the activity.

WebQuestThe WebQuest should provide a clear description of

exactly what students should do to complete the task. Most quality WebQuests include an evaluation tool or assessment instrument as the next to last section. The evaluation may be in the form of a rubric or checklist.

WebQuestThrough an extensive variety of exercises based on

authentic texts, learners will progressively learn the reading, vocabulary and study skills indispensable to work independently on materials of their own choice.

WebQuestUsing WebQuests, learners retain more information, understand concepts more rapidly and are more enthusiastic about what they are learning. They can often make new connections among curriculum topics and discover links between these topics and the world outside the classroom.

Aims of the studyThe conducted study aimed at shedding light

on the significance of:Investigating the efficiency of WebQuests in

enhancing the 8th graders' descriptive writing.

Examining the extent of motivation rendered by the WebQuest

.

Instructor

The instructor, a native speaker of Arabic, has an extensive experience in teaching English and coordination at Public Secondary Schools .

She has authored several English textbooks and Legal English books so far.

Her role in this research was providing traditional writing instruction to participants in the control group and WebQuest instruction to participants in the experimental group.

Participants This research was conducted in a public school in the

capital of Lebanon, Beirut. The study employs the quasi -experimental pretest

posttest design since the participants of this study are two eighth grade classes in a public school receiving 6-hour- English instruction a week.

The control group includes 22 students whereas the experimental group includes 23 students.

ParticipantsThe control and experimental groups consist of 45 students whose ages range from 13 to 16 years old. The 5 -week instruction given to the subjects covers the listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.

Research Hypotheses The current study was designed to investigate students'

perception of web-resource integrated learning as experienced in WebQuest Writing Instruction (WQWI). Two hypotheses were generated:

Hypothesis 1: Students of the experimental group will be motivated by the authentic materials and tasks posted on the Web Quest. 

Hypothesis 2: Students of the experimental group will demonstrate more progress in their writing skills than that yielded by the control group.

Instruction The instructor identified the weaknesses and

strengths of the sample lessons excerpted from the thematic unit titled "Friendship and Honesty".

After that, she employed the thematic unit rubric in order to enhance the pointed out weaknesses and to fill out the deduced gaps.

Next, the instructor revised the sample lessons to bridge the gaps with supplemental materials posted on the web quest.

Instruction• The lesson plans adopted and modified for the traditional

classroom writing instruction were originally compiled by the teacher and had been used for years.

• These lesson plans, in the form of printed materials, were handouts designed mainly for traditional classroom instruction.

• The experimental group received the WQWI lessons and met in the traditional classroom as well as in the language laboratory where pre-writing activities were conducted.

• The three lesson plans for the WQWI lessons were adopted from Dodge's Matrix of web quest Examples at http://webquest.sdsu.edu/matrix.html and modified to a large extent by the researcher.

Data Analysis

The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS) was used for data analysis.

The findings indicated that the WebQuest Writing Instruction (WQWI) was more effective than the traditional instruction in that students in the WQWI class improved their writing performance significantly more than those in the traditional writing instruction class.

Instruments

• Two instruments were utilized in this current study: 1. A writing performance test consisted of a pretest

and a posttest in which participants were asked to perform a writing task .

2. A questionnaire that examines the students’ level of motivation before and after the use of webQuests.

Findings

The findings indicated that the use of the Webquests,when integrated with the proper techniques and strategies, can be a good tool to fuse educational technology and writing inside and outside the classroom. Moreover, the motivation, rendered by the use of the webquests could help students build uptheir writing skills .

WebQuestThe findings of the conducted study indicated that

the WQWI was more effective than the traditional writing instruction, and the fundamental distinction between these two instruction methods was found in the writing input and the way the writing input was provided.

WebQuest Research Recommendations

WebQuests can be a very valuable tool in the classroom for many reasons. WebQuests can motivate students, introduce a new concept, reinforce a previously learned concept, and enhance and expand current knowledge. 

Webquest Research Recommendations

The teachers must upload the clips, presentations, visuals, files, tasks, materials that match the unit or the lesson objectives and will involve the learners in the proposed unit or lesson plan. 

It is imperative that teachers upload pre- and post-task activities that will integrate the authentic materials into the entire lesson structure.

  Implications

The WQWI enables the teachers to :Discuss a range of print and non-print resources required

for English language teaching.Discuss the rationale and procedures of using webquest

as teaching tool.Assess the quality of thematic instructional units.Design authentic materials for English language

teaching.Create a thematic teaching unit.

Research Findings The findings indicated that the use of the

webQuests resulted in a better writing skills and motivation reported by the experimental group than those yielded by the control one.

Moreover, the motivation, rendered by the use of the webQuests could help students build up their writing skills.

Recommendations and ImplicationsThe WQWI enables the teachers to: Implement webQuest in language teaching. Carry out an action plan to enhance instructional

materials pertinent to a thematic unit.

The Methodological Problems and Challenges When using the webQuests, the following

challenges should be taken into consideration. The researchers exerted much effort and time in

preparing and uploading the materials that could meet students' needs. The researchers intended to upload clips, presentations, visuals, files, tasks, and materials that match the unit or the lesson objectives and involve the learners in the proposed unit or lesson plan. 

The Methodological Problems and Challenges After carrying out the present study, the

researchers recommend the following: This study did not measure students' reading

ability through employing the WQWI. In order to uncover the direct effect of the WQWI on students' reading ability, further research could be conducted administering a reading comprehension test to participants in the study.

The Methodological Problems and Challenges Another suggestion is that the Web resources,

primarily web texts, have an impact an EFL writing instruction based on the WebQuest model. As such, further research could explore the potential of combining the WebQuest model with other aspects of Web technology and examine its effect on EFL students' writing.

References -Awada,G. & Ghaith,G. (July,2014). Impact of using

the WebQuest technological model on English as a foreign language (EFL) writing achievement and apprehension .Arab World English Journal,81-93

-Awada, G. M., & Ghaith, G. M. (2015). Impact of WebQuest and Gender on Writing Achievement in Professional Business English. Taiwan International ESP Journal, 6(2), 1-27.