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Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age
A Professional Development Presentation by Leslie Witten
The Issue
The 21st Century:A Digital Age
Digital technologies have become part of the everyday lives of people in industrial and post-industrial societies.
Technology tools are used to express knowledge creatively.
The Internet is a powerful tool allowing people of all ages in all parts of the world to access information, communicate, and work together.
Increasingly globalized economy.
Teaching and Learning in The Digital Age
As these factors collide and grow exponentially…
...Shift HappensA presentation by Karl Fisch, Modified by Howie DiBlasi, 20071
What are your initial reactions?
What do we think it means to prepare students for the 21st century?
What implications does this have for our way of doing things?
Teaching and Learning in The Digital Age
“The sheer magnitude of human knowledge, world globalization, and the accelerating rate of change due to
technology necessitates a shift in our children’s education – from plateaus of learning to continuous
cycles of learning.” - The 21st Century Literacy Summit, 20052
Technology + Globalization = New Literacies + New Skills
New Culture, New Practices, New LiteraciesTraditional CORE Literacy PLUS…
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Growing Up in the Digital Age
Digital Natives: Do They Really Think Differently?
Various kinds of stimulation change brain structures, which affects the way people think.4
Digital natives process information as though their
cognitive structures were parallel, not sequential and leap around in hypertext-like thought. 5
Learning for the digital native is a totally different cognitive process than for previous learners.
The Digital Age StudentDistinct Learning Preferences and Needs6
Favor working with technology.
Prefer multimedia learning environments vs. text-based ones.
Learning is supported by social interaction in learning communities.
Highly individualized approach to learning.
Strong achievement orientation.
Short attentions spans except when actively engaged in learning4
Weak reflection skills.
ACTIVITY
Have you observed any of these cognitive development effects and learning needs in your classroom?
Discuss with one other person what you have noticed.
Implications on Education
Traditional Methods
Teacher-Centered Direct Instruction Textbook-Based
Linear Design Passive student learning
In-Effective for Digital Learners
21st Century Methods
Student-Centered Active, Authentic
Experiences Multiple Sources of
Information Collaboration Technology-Infused
Effective for Digital Learners5
Constructivism for 21st Century Classrooms
Based on the Constructivist Learning Theory7
Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner, Feuerstein, Papert, Gardner
Emphasis on how to think, how to learn…foundation of lifelong learning.
Constructivist Principles
Knowledge must be actively constructed by testing new information against prior knowledge.
Knowledge is constructed distinctively in multiple ways through a variety of contexts, resources, and tools. Learning will be demonstrated uniquely by the individual learner.
Reflection plays a central role; facilitates cognitive and metacognitive processes.
Constructivist Principles
Learning is social; collaboration deepens understanding.
Learning communities support student learning.
Meaningful projects sharpen scientific thinking and higher-ordered cognition.
From Theory to Practice:Constructivist Methods7, 8, 9, 10
Active Learning
Authentic Learning
Multiple Perspectives
Communities of Learners
Constructivist Methods:Active Learning
Hands-on learning revolves around inquiry; challenges the learner’s preconceptions.
Student-centered; teacher facilitates learning.
Learning is hands-on; experience, interpret, organize, reflect, and share knowledge.
Technology utilized as a tool throughout the learning process.
Constructivist Methods:Authentic Learning
Real-world experiences.
Use of ordinary practices and tools that the professionals in the field of study use.
Situated learning; learning is directly linked to the appropriate context.
Technology used to simulate authenticity and/or allow for collaboration in real-world contexts.
Constructivist Methods:Multiple Perspectives
Each learner is unique; learning process and products will vary.
Present information from multiple and alternative views.
Thematic units of study, incorporate multiple disciplines; promotes cognitive flexibility.
Tasks are multidisciplinary to affirm that learning is about useful, personal knowledge, not abstract general truths.
Constructivist Methods:Communities of Learners
Collaborative learning: students develop, compare, and understand multiple perspectives on an issue.
A rigorous process of interpretation, articulation, and consensus building; the goal is to create learners who can articulate, evaluate, and argue their perspective.
Student learning is supported with access to:
domain experts who operate in an apprenticeship relationship with the students,
teachers who facilitate and scaffold thinking and problem solving, and
cooperative relationships with other students.
Constructivist Methods:Assessment
Uses multiple measures of assessment; evaluate growth over time.
Built-in and ongoing assessment throughout the learning experience.
Authentic evaluation (task performance) examines the learner’s thinking process and emerges naturally from completing an authentic task; aims to measure the process of learning more so than the product.
Incorporates self- and peer- evaluations.
Includes rubrics and portfolios.
Constructivist Methods:A Framework
1) Begin with a problem to solve or decision to make that is relevant and meaningful to students.
2) Provide opportunities for interdisciplinary exploration using content standards as curricular priorities;
3) Develop tasks that require higher order thinking such as prediction, interpretation, analysis, and creation that use raw data and real-world data from primary sources.
4) Create a community of learning: students use technology, teachers, experts, and peers to facilitate learning; students share ideas with each other.
5) Assess both the process and products of learning with multiple measures like rubrics, portfolios, and constructed-response/essay writing, peer evaluation and self evaluation.
ACTIVITY Mark your handout or jot down notes to
identify which constructivist—based teaching strategies you currently employ in your classroom.
By self-assessing your use of constructivist strategies, you will be able to more explicitly understand how to further shift your instructional practices towards teaching and learning in the digital age.
Technology Tools to Support Constructivism
Technology tools for learning: Provide for exploration Allow for highly creative and individualized
expression invigorate learning and foster student motivation
Technology + Constructivism = Creative, Autonomous, Collaborative,
and Reflective Learning11
Technology Tools to Support Constructivism
Learning Objects Web 2.0 Tools Cross-Cultural Exchanges Productivity Tools Creativity Tools
Learning Objects12
Internet-based instructional materials that support understanding a concept or process.
Examples: A single picture, short video clip, statistical data, primary sources, virtual field trips, tutorials, comparison charts, simulations, WebQuests.
Used in a variety of contexts for various learning outcomes.
Can be accessed repeatedly by many people from many locations.
Can be used to enhance traditional lecture methods but real power comes when students access the materials to support their own learning.
Learning Objects:WebQuests13
Inquiry-based activities using Web resources to solve a problem collaboratively.
Learners explore issues from multiple perspectives, determine a course of action, interpret knowledge, discuss it with their peers, transform it into personal knowledge, and share the new knowledge with the public.
Create your own using Filamentality or TeacherWeb.
Internet search, ex: “WebQuest and dinosaurs”.
Learning Objects: Simulations
Software or Web-based tool.
A model of real or imagined events with which the user interacts.
Effective cognitive tool: learners negotiate and solve authentic problems, manipulate and experiment with variables in the scenario, and receive immediate responses to those changes and decisions.
Examples: SimTown, Interactive Frog Dissection, The Stock Market Game.14
Learning Objects:Where to Find Them
Google Search, e.g. “learning objects fractions middle school”
Gateway to Educational Materials
Apple’s Learning Interchange Thinkport Wisconsin Online Resource Ce
nter Multimedia Educational Resour
ces for Learning and Teaching Online (MERLOT)
The Library of Congress Los Angeles Public Library Pho
to Collection California Learning Resource N
etwork Internet4Classrooms
TeachersFirst Los Angeles Public Library
Photo Collection California Learning Resour
ce Network NASA Virtual Field Trips (Google) Illuminations Shodor Web Cam (Google) Blue Web’n PBS Teacher Source Thinkfinity (formerly
Marcopolo)
Web 2.0 (a.k.a. the Read/Write Web)
A new generation of Web use in which participants connect, collaborate and create on the Internet
Communities of learning where knowledge is created, shared, discussed, recreated, and shared again amongst community members.
Web 2.0 (a.k.a. the Read/Write Web)
Wikis are collaborative Web sites in which participants create works of knowledge together; use as meeting places to collaborate on school work together in a hypermedia context.
Podcasts are used to create and listen to Internet broadcasts of information.
Weblogs (blogs), are online discussion forums where learners post responses to issues and other peoples’ previous postings.
Online Photo and Video and Management (Flickr or Ourmedia)
Social Bookmarking: to store your bookmarks online; can share with other using tags that identify content subjects. (del.icio.us or Fleck)
Presentation Tools: Bubbleshare - create story
albums with your pictures and record your voice telling your story
Slideshare - Share your presentations online
Explore more at: www.webtopointo.wikispaces.com or ww.internet4classrooms.com/web2.htm
Cross-Cultural Exchanges
Transformative opportunities in which learners can connect and interact with people and organizations all over the world.11
Using Web sites, email, blogs, video-conferencing tools such as webcams and free software such as Skype, students participate in inter-regional exchanges to enhance global awareness and cross-cultural understandings.
Internet sites in existence which provide lesson plans, resources for teachers, and connections to real places and people all over the world.
All disciplines can employ them effectively.
Cross-Cultural Exchanges
ePALS Classroom Exchange
UNICEF Voices of Youth
Friendship through Education (Peace Corps and Coverdell World Wise School)
International Education and Resource Network (iEARN)
Global Café
AskAsia Lesson Plans
Global Teachnet
Broadcast Live—Radio and Television from Around the World
My Wonderful World
The American Forum for Global Education
Choices Education Program
United Nations Cyberschoolbus
A few places to start15…
Creativity Tools
Allow for learners to participate in authentic, active, and expressive domains of learning;
incorporates multiple perspectives and representations of knowledge construction.
Concept mapping: a graphic tool to construct and demonstrate understanding; allows for multiple representations of information. (KidPix and Inspiration)
Student-made movies, photos, and music: help students to construct knowledge in abstract and creative modes. (iLife from Mac)
Creativity Tools
Presentation software (PowerPoint, Keynote, or HyperStudio) uses: Teachers:
Multimedia “lectures”. Digital “lectures” can be posted on the teacher’s
web site. Students:
Create own presentation to use for an oral report. Storyboard a book. Hypermedia note cards during the research
process.
Productivity Tools
Free up cognitive resources for deeper thinking by off-loading tasks. 16
National Educational Technology Standards states that students should use technology not only to “process data and report results” but also to “select and use applications effectively and productively”.17
Applications such as word processing, spreadsheets and databases, email, and interactive whiteboards can be used for cognition when implemented into constructivist-based instruction.
Productivity Tools Word processing: critical
skill; allows for knowledge to be created, shared, discussed, and collaborated upon.18
Data organization and manipulation: skill for global economy; use spreadsheets and databases to manipulate data, create graphic representations of knowledge and share quantitative knowledge with others.
Email: connect students to other members of their learning community.
The interactive whiteboard: teachers use to assist with instruction, post their interactive whiteboard lectures to a web site; cooperative student groups may self-elect to use and manipulate it for purposes such as information review or knowledge presentation.19
ACTIVITY
Identify which technology tools are employed in your classroom. Mark your handouts:
With “S” for tools that students use regularly. With “I” for tools that you regularly use.
Place a star next to the tools that you are interested in knowing more about and integrating into your curriculum.
Technology Tools:What’s Really Important?
Know of the tools; no need to master them all.20
Knowing about the tools:
Talk about the different tools as options in learning;
Use the language of your digital natives.
No need to become proficient in all the tools:
Pick one or more to master
Cover the range collectively with other teachers…everyone use different tools.
Let students teach you what you don’t know.
Technology Tools:What’s Really Important?
Be proficient in what the students don’t know: What technology adds value to learning and where
it is most effective.
Important issues about technology:
Online safety
Plagiarism
Information evaluation/source credibility
How to evaluate student uses of technology
Technology Tools:What’s Really Important?
Technology as an add-on to instruction is not effective.21
Integration into instruction using constructivist strategies IS effective:
design a product, analyze the world, access information, infer and synthesize personal knowledge, create unique representations of what they know, participate in authentic learning experiences, and collaborate and share with a learning community.16
Technology + Constructivism = 21st Century Learning
Phases of Computer-Based Technology Integration
Phase I: Print Automation
Phase II: Expansion of Learning
Opportunities
Phase III: Data-Driven Virtual Learning
Computers replace what could be accomplished on paper or by hand.
Papers are typed on the computer but not necessarily composed there
Students practice skills (e.g. math facts) by playing a drill-and-practice game as opposed to completing a worksheet, and
Computer skills are taught as a pull-out activity rather than an everyday tool.
Classrooms operating at this level could use learning objects, but they would be seen more as an add-on to the curriculum.
Instruction is teacher-led; focusing on traditional, core curriculum only.
Students and teachers use technology to:• Collect information, • Carry on dialogues with people from around the world, and • Present findings to their class.
Learning objects are a natural fit in this phase, as the power of the Internet is used for learning and research purposes.
Instruction focuses on some twenty-first century skills, but:• Problems may not be fully real-world focused• Solutions are not presented to audiences outside the classroom.
The type of curriculum that allows development and demonstration of twenty-first-century skills:• Real-world problems, • Critical thinking, • Data-driven decision making, • Communication with others outside of school, • Presentation of solutions to audiences outside of school.
Learning objects richly support learning: • Teachers and students can locate and use appropriate resources on the Internet • Provide the information or background knowledge, skill, or process needed by the students to solve a problem.
Instruction is provided by the teacher as a facilitator:• Student-centered,• Scaffolds to mediate learning,• Individualized: “Just enough, just in time, just for you”
Cramer, S. R. (2007) Update your classroom with learning objects and twenty-first century skills. Clearning House 80 (3). Retrieved July 17, 2007, from Academic Research Premier database.
Models of Constructivist Learning in the 21st Century
The Big6 TM Information Literacy Model
Project-Based Learning
The Big6 TM Information Literacy Model
Equips learners with the ability to access, use, and evaluate information reliably.22
Formulated on a set of skills that scaffold the cognitive processes involved in solving a problem or making an informed decision.
Process is flexible, non-linear, recursive.
Emphasizes reflection throughout the process. 23
Can be taught alone but is most effective when integrated with curriculum, technology, and constructivist practices. 24
The Big6 TM Information Literacy Model25
Task Definition
Information Seeking Strategies
Location and Access
Use of Information
Synthesis
Evaluation
The Big6 TM Information Literacy Model26
Technology Big6™ Skill
Word processing, graphics, desktop publishing
Synthesis (writing)Use of Information (note-taking)
Spelling and grammar checking Evaluation
Information Retrieval and Search Systems
Information Seeking StrategiesLocation & Access
Spreadsheets, Database management systems
Synthesis
HypermediaUse of Information
Synthesis
Electronic resources (on CD-ROM, servers, WWW)
Information Seeking StrategiesLocation & Access
Technology Big6™ Skill
E-mail, listservs, chat, video conferencing, instant messaging
Task DefinitionInformation Seeking StrategiesLocation & AccessUse of InformationSynthesisEvaluation
Network navigation (WWW Netscape, Internet Explorer, Portals)
Information Seeking StrategiesLocation & Access
FTP, download/upload Use of Information
Yahoo, Google, Yahooligans, Lycos, AltaVista, portals
Location & Access
Web authoring Synthesis
Web sites Use of Information
Internet Capabilities and the Big6™
Computer Capabilities and the Big6™
Technology as a tool: Applications in a Big6™ context. (2006). Retrieved July 18, 2007, from http://www.big6.com/showarticle.php?id=144
The Big6 TM Information Literacy Model
Used in thousands of K-12 schools and higher institutions, as well as in corporate and adult training programs.26
An estimated 84,000 teachers have been trained in The Big6TM program.
The Big6 TM model creates lifelong learners and well-prepared twenty-first century students.
Project-Based Learning (PBL)
Adapted from The George Lucas Educational Foundation Web site www.edutopia.org27
What is Project-Based Learning?
PBL is curriculum fueled and standards based.
PBL asks a question or poses a problem that ALL students can answer. Concrete, hands-on experiences come together during project-based learning.
PBL allows students to investigate issues and topics in real-world problems.
PBL fosters abstract, intellectual tasks to explore complex issues.
How Does Project-Based Learning Work?
Question
Plan
Schedule
Monitor
Assess
Evaluate
PBL - Question
Start with the Essential question.
Take a real-world topic and begin an in-depth investigation.
Make sure it is relevant for your students.
PBL - Plan
Plan which content standards will be addressed while answering the question.
Involve students in the questioning, planning, and project-building process.
Teacher and students brainstorm activities that support the inquiry.
PBL - Schedule
Teacher and students design a timeline for project components.
Set benchmarks.
Keep it simple and age-appropriate.
PBL - Monitor
Facilitate the process.
Mentor the process.
Utilize rubrics.
PBL - Assess
Make the assessment authentic.
Know authentic assessment will require more time and effort from the teacher.
Vary the type of assessment used.
PBL - Evaluate
Take time to reflect, individually and as a group.
Share feelings and experiences.
Discuss what worked well.
Discuss what needs change.
Share ideas that will lead to new inquiries, thus new projects.
Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age
Recognizes:
How the digital revolution has impacted students culturally and cognitively.
That a new set of skills and literacies are necessary to be successful in the 21st century.
Understands how constructivist teaching strategies support the digital learner by providing:
Active and authentic learning experiences.
Communities of learners who rely upon multiple perspectives of knowledge.
Provides a technology-rich learning environment in which technology tools are integrated throughout the entire learning process.
“The biggest obstacleto school changeis our memories.”
-- Dr. Allen Glenn
Obstacles
Change
“We must bethe change
we want to seein the world.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi
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