Using Technology to Enhance Conceptual Understanding of Elementary Students

I am constantly amazed at my two and four-year olds' abilities to navigate through various apps on my iPhone. Not only can they find and choose games, but they can select the options that they desire without even being able to read the words on the links. The motivation that these little hand helds offers is enough to prompt even these young children to use deductive reasoning to navigate through these apps in an effort to get what they want.

During this same phase in the life of my children my oldest, Haley, is learning to read. Although we often use digital books (she LOVES these) we usually find ourselves snuggling up with paper books. The benefit that the digital books have over those in print is that they are interactive. The downfall is that it is simply easier to grab a little book than to lug a computer on her lap (even a laptop). This makes me wonder, why not develop apps for digital readers. I know, I know, there must be a million of these already. But, why not focus on those for preschool-aged children. These can be read together using a hand held (small enough so as not to inhibit the cuddling that children so often desire while reading together with a loved one). Actually, digital books, with the capabilities of being interactive, can also be read independently by the preschool-aged child much like the games that are played by my two-year-old independently now.

So, whay might make an effective digital book for preschoolers and early readers, that can be read both independently or with a loved one?

-personalization (the ability to insert the child's name into the story)

-differentiation (the ability for interaction to support the reading ability of the child) pronunctiation guides, audio, text that can be read or listened to, the child controls the speed in which the pages turn by sliding the screen to the next "page" when ready, definitions and pictures to provide more information about key vocabulary words, etc.
(Many of these ideas are present in the raz-kids.com interactive storybooks.)

-interaction (giving the child the ability to control the actions and effects of the characters in the story-embed character education traits into the stories)

-progression through reading levels (either phonics-based on DRA-based) with credit given to the child as encouragement to move onto the next book

How might this tool impact learning for early readers?
The creation of such an app will presumably encourage the love of learning and of reading for young learners through use of engaging text. The built in rewards will build the users self-confidence with reading and with learning, even at such an early age. The scaffolded progression of reading skills embedded within the program will help young children to develop pre-reading skills and early reading skills that are likely to lead to success in school.

Another idea (more to come): an app for science readers (informational readers) and an app for multiplication concept development and practice towards mastery

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How might a teacher begin the process of implementing a distance education component to a face-to-face elementary school as an alternative to paper-based homework?  What might need to be considered prior to the development of such a distance education program?

Audience

            The audience that will serve as the context for the work in this class will be a face-to-face elementary school.  Although the teaching and learning that currently takes place at _____________Elementary School is face-to-face, there are times when distance education options would be tremendously beneficial to have.  This work will focus on the development of a plan for such an environment and serve as an example of how and why such an environment might be feasible and useful as an option associated with the face-to-face classroom. 

Needs of _____________School

            There are several needs within _____________School that can be served best by implementing a distance education component.  Many students within the school do not currently complete their homework.  It is either not seen as important by the students and/or parents, or it is simply not engaging enough to entice participation among students.  So, there is a need to find a motivating, engaging, worthwhile way to aid in bridging the gap between home and school for Rockwell’s students.  There are other needs including a way for chronically ill students to engage in learning from home, but for the purposes of this project, the focus will remain on the need for a home-school connection through the use of a distance education component to learning used predominately after school hours.  Despite being a “Title I School”, 100% of students surveyed in one third grade class had Internet access during the 2008-2009 school year.  If such is the case, why not take advantage of the motivation associated with Internet-based assignments and use an online learning component to enhance students’ learning outside of regular school hours.  Implementing such a component is likely to help bridge the gap between home and school, build the community of learners, and potentially even increase the probability that students will actually participate in their homework activities (Mcgrath, 1998). 

Tying Mission Statement to Distance Education Solutions

            Part of the mission of _____________School is to inspire, challenge, and empower students to meet high academic standards.  In order to do this it is important to design purposeful activities that will challenge, empower, and inspire students both during school and once they leave for home.  Activities that encourage collaboration and that are created for a real audience (possibly parents, peers, and outside experts) empower students to create worthwhile products for a worthwhile audience.  This is much more empowering and engaging than the typical worksheet that is currently assigned for homework.  The implementation of a distance education component that is engaging and seen as purposeful for learners can help to do this.  Ideas for such use of distance education include a blog space for communication and collaboration, access to digital learning material to supplement the learning that takes place at school, and a location where digital artifacts can be stored and shared with those who are not in the face-to-face classroom.

Current Opportunities for Distance Education at __________

            The current opportunities for distance education at _____________School are virtually non-existent.  There are a few teachers who build in access to online tutorials appropriate for our elementary learners as both classroom activities and extra resources to support the curriculum.  Other than this, we have no access to formal online learning, telecourses, or any other well-known form of distance education (Moore and Kearsley, 2004).  Despite this fact, we do have access to online learning tools such as blogs, websites, and the variety of learning sites available through use of the Internet.

Building Relationships

            I feel strongly that the parent-child and parent-school relationship would be enhanced if the bridge between home and school were strengthened.  The more that we can do to get parents involved in the learning of their children, the stronger this relationship will be.  Additionally, the better sense of importance parents gauge about their children’s learning, the more support the children will receive in their academic journeys.  The possibilities for distance education to help get parents involved in the learning that is going on in the classroom are powerful.

Guidance from Distance Education Organizations

            The North American Council for Online Learning, NACOL, is a distance education organization that is likely to be able to provide support through guidance, resources, and other ideas, in how to successfully implement a distance-learning program to be used as an alternative to paper-based homework for our school.  The NAOCL website alone provides numerous resources that will serve as guidance as plans for implementation of such a program are underway.  Resources include publications with information relating to K12 distance education, national standards, promising practices in online learning, relevant literature recommendations, as well as other links that may be of help.  

References:

Mcgrath, B.  “Partners in Learning: Twelve Ways Technology Changes

Teacher-Student Relationship,”(1998).   THE Journal.  25.

Moore, M, & Kearsley, G, Distance education:  A systems view, (2004). Wadsworth

            Publishing.

 

 

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This past week I decided to take literature circle discussions and book clubs to a new level.  My students typically lead their own discussions in a face-to-face format.  This week, I decided to try out the iChat tool on our computers in the school's lab.  I had some hesitation when I first thought of doing this.  I am unable to set up groups at school (a feature that is blocked by our tech. department).  I was unsure of my young students' abilities to manage multiple conversations at once.  I decided to start by giving each student two additional group members.  They would have to individually select each member of their group and and carry on two separate conversations using the questions being projected on the screen as a guide for their discussions.  I was amazed at the ability of these novice typers to manage and keep up with both discussions simultaneously.  Not only this, but they also discovered during the second iChat session both the video camera tool and the screen sharing ability of the program.  Talk about motivation!  The expectation for these students to maintain focus on the discussion questions was clear.  They didn't dare vary from this in fear that they would loose the opportunity to participate in these chat groups.  I didn't even have to remind them once to stay on task.  Not only this, but the detail that I saw in these discussions was at least as good, if not better, than the details that they say in their face-to-face discussions.  They had to think of ways to succinctly verbalize, through typing, the thoughts that they wanted to get across to the other members of their group.  They have limited typing skills so it is important to them that they say what they need to say succinctly, even though most do not know what the meaning of the word "succinctly" is.  The power of this chat feature is huge!  We will be using this in our classroom as often as we can get into the lab for these last few weeks of school.  I also plan to implement the use of this tool early on next school year!

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In 2004, when I temporarily left teaching to stay at home with my new daughter, I hadn't yet heard of wikis, blogs, digital storybooks, or podcasts.  I'm sure that they were around but they weren't yet widely used in my neck of the woods, certainly not in elementary school.  I have had the most exciting school year introducing my third graders to many of these web 2.0 publishing tools.  Talk about motivation, it is almost effortless on my part to stir up the motivation and stamina needed for students to successfully complete the learning required to complete such projects.  I'm not even sure that my students are always aware of the learning that is taking place, they are much more focused on the products that they are developing.  As is the case in many schools, ours is a bit technologically limited.  The tools that we do have access to are not always able to be used to their full potential (we could use a lot more bandwidth, for example, as it takes about 15 minutes to log into the get started with our class blog).  Even so, my students find within them the patience needed to get through each task that I've assigned them when they get to create products using these technological tools.  The following posts in this thread will focus on specific uses of different web 2.0 tools and how these have enhanced conceptual understanding of young learners.  Please share your experiences as well so that we may take away ideas and strategies for use in our own classrooms.  Happy blogging!

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Over the past two years I've worked on transforming my classroom into a much more student-centered environment.  I've always believed strongly in a constructivist approach to teaching and learning, but didn't necessarily think that students needed to do very much talking to each other as a part of the knowledge acquisition process.  I used to think that students who were quiet were able to concentrate better and thus learn more.  Not to mention the pressure that I felt at any minute to appear to have an engaged and well-controlled classroom.  I realize now that an engaged and well-controlled environment can be created with talkative students, and that this talking is useful and beneficial to the learning process.  My own observations over the past five years, along with the extensive reading that I have engaged in about how students learn and acquire knowledge and understanding, have led me change the ways that I structure learning opportunities for my students.  I have discovered the power of carefully focused opportunities for student talk that is monitored by the teacher.  These opportunities can be much more powerful than any words that I may come up with to describe the content within the learning goals.  I will continue to make postings to this thread detailing examples of the power that I've found in student talk and how this strategy has led to increased conceptual understanding among my third graders.  I encourage you to share you own thoughts, ideas, and discoveries related to this post in hopes that we can help each other to add effective approaches to our own teaching practice.

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