Enhancing Classroom Instruction with Collaborative Technologies

[1]Incorporating collaboration and digital tools may boost

student engagement.

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Enhancing classroom instruction with collaborative technologiesBy Jody Bowie

Best Practices News,Communication and Collaboration,Featured Best Practice,Mobile and Handheld Technologies,ProfessionalDevelopment (PD),online learning

“Technology presents a huge opportunity that can be leveraged in the ruralcommunities and inner-city urban settings, particularly in subjects where there is ashortage of highly qualified teachers. Good teachers can utilize new technology toaccelerate learning and provide extended learning opportunities for students.”– Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of EducationThe times have changed: A look at today’s studentsToday’s students are raised in a completely different technology-rich world thanprevious generations. Typewriters are non-existent and cursive writing isbecoming an art of the past. For our students, video games, laptops, MP3 players,cell phones, online gaming, and social networking are, and always have been, apart of everyday life.These are the digital natives [2]. Technology–especially related to communicationsand interaction–is omnipresent. Their screens are not just those of the television,

but also those of the laptop, digital tablet, and smart phone. Some of our peers may be skeptical about these technologiesbeing used as educational tools, and that is understandable. Although they might be hesitant to embrace technology, theMacArthur Foundation found that time online is essential for youth to pick up the social and technical skills they need to becompetent citizens in the digital age—skills such as critical thinking, decision making, collaboration, leadership and more.Look around and you’ll find students from all demographics sending text messages, checking their Facebook, posting totheir blog, playing video games, and tweeting. Often, they are doing them all at once. Students are highly engaged withthe technology around them. Imagine the possibilities if teachers could capture students’ attention by using technologiesstudents are already using, inside the classroom.Struggling to engage? The solution may lie in collaborationMany teachers struggle with keeping their students engaged in classroom activities. Many blame distractions fromtechnology, but let’s face it: whether it’s passing notes in class, talking over the teacher or texting under the desk, keepingstudents’ attention has always been a challenge. I have found that if you allow students to direct their learning through anactive voice in the materials and curriculum they are being taught, they respond with more involvement and excitementabout their learning experience.Whether teachers embrace technology or not, the classroom dynamic is changing. Students are connecting andcollaborating with one another on school assignments, usually through social media. Students are creating and publishingcontent on wikis and blogs. They want immediate feedback, such as when they are using a discussion board or when theyreceive comments to their online posts. They want to work collaboratively, sometimes outside the hours of 8 am to 4 pm.Finally, they want some power and control over their education experience. In order for schools to meet these needs, wemust incorporate the technological tools students love and interact with everyday into their daily curriculum at school.The entire educational system is responsible for seeing today’s youth through to their ultimate goal: graduation. Currently,only about 70 percent of students graduate. This statistic indicates that teachers are still struggling to make educationrelevant to today’s digital learners. According to the Center for Exceptional Children, about half of students who drop out ofschool point to the fact that they find classes “uninteresting” as a primary reason. This is where Web 2.0 [3] technologiescan come into play. Many educators are realizing the importance of Web 2.0 in the classroom and the role it can play inencouraging students.Of pre-service teachers, 82 percent said collaborative tools such as blogs and wikis are important instructional tools in theclassroom (Speak Up, 2009). Similarly, 67 percent of administrators said their ideal school of the future should includeonline collaborative tools. As more research is conducted and district administrators are presented with positive results,they are beginning to see that implementing collaborative Web 2.0 technologies could be the cornerstone of future learningstrategies that engage our students.Something great for both teacher and studentI knew changes needed to be made in my classroom. I saw my students losing interest in their studies. They were boredwith assignments and with tackling the curriculum the routine way. They needed something more interactive and exciting tograb their attention. Thankfully, I was not the only one who noticed this change, and our district decided we needed to finda way to make learning more interactive and engaging, while improving the effectiveness of our teaching.Many different learning tools were discussed, but our district decided on a student-centered learning network calledjourn(i)e. This solution allows students to blog, collaborate, and interact with other students on a safe and secureeducational network. Most importantly, this tool has empowered my students to direct their learning experience while I, asthe teacher, play a facilitative role.The positive response to this new technology has been immediate. Students commented on the familiarity of the interfaceand were immediately more engaged in our classroom activities. They readily use journ(i)e, a student-centered mobilelearning network from TH(i)NQ Ed, at home to collaborate on projects I assign, instead of putting them off and trying tofinish in the minutes just prior to class.Where they used to write essays with a pen and paper, students are now collaborating on topics and writing papers on their

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wikis. Students also blog about their activities, much like they do on social media platforms they are using at home.Additionally, they are collaborating on shared documents, such as group lab reports in the science classroom. They arelearning in school but carry this learning behavior outside the boundaries of our classroom.The students are more engaged, and the new tools make learning more concrete for them. Our teachers like the simplicityof the technology. The ability to present the curriculum in a new way is exciting for both teachers and students. Parentshave some peace of mind, knowing their students are in a controlled environment. Students can showcase their work forparents in a way parents find valuable and insightful. Students are even able to keep up with their assignments throughintegration with various grade book programs.Blended learning [4]: Matching education with the timesWith students, teachers, and district administrators all in agreement that there is a growing need for technology inclassrooms, more districts are using blended learning to improve student engagement and achievement. Secretary ofEducation Arne Duncan said: “Effective teachers need to incorporate digital content into everyday classes.” Technologyshould not be a special event; it should be an integral part of each classroom. Every day should be technology day! Thedays of rolling out the television to show a video lecture are, hopefully, a thing of the past.As a teacher, I do not think the problem with technology is that we teachers are not capable of integrating its uses into ourclassrooms. I think the problem lies with the disconnect between our students’ technology use outside of school and thetechnology they are, or are not, being asked to use inside the classroom.Students are changing, and our teaching methods need to match the times in which students live. Technology is relevantto them; to hold their interest, we need to make technology relevant to our curriculum.We need to provide our students with the best education possible. That may mean looking for new ways to engage ourstudents and, in this case, technology is one of the keys to our success. By no means do I think it is the solution to all thewoes of the education system. It is simply one of the pieces of the puzzle.Education needs to keep up with the other areas of our lives, and technology is already a part of every student’s life.Personally, I wouldn’t go back. Seeing my students excel because of the addition of blended learning is the only evidence Ineed to convince me students are as willing to learn as ever. We just need to give them, and ourselves, the right tools.Jody Bowie is a high school teacher at Putnam City Schools in War Acres, Okla. He is a Physics and Education instructorwith a focus in technology integration.

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Enhancing Classroom Instruction with Collaborative Technologies