EME5404 Example of ways new technologies can improve education in less-developed regions

For this assignment I have been tasked with finding an article, podcast, or video that is a good example of how technology can be used to improve education in disadvantaged areas. The article I found, which I think is a good example of how the proper use of technology and support of that technology can help students in disadvantaged areas is The Role of Technology and Computer-Based Instruction in a Disadvantaged Alternative School's Culture of Learning. In this research article by Watson and Watson (2011) it shows the value of implementing CBI (Computer-Based Instruction) in a responsible way to help disadvantaged youth achieve at a high level.
The first thing that Watson & Watson (2011) show is that CBI has not been shown to make a large change in general student achievement. One study evaluated the impact of a variety of math and reading software products, implemented at four different grade levels...across 132 schools in 33 school districts....found no significant difference on student test scores in classrooms using the software as compared to classrooms not using the software (Dynarski et al., 2007). What is interesting is that one of the schools, an alternative high school for disadvantaged youth, found improvements of up to 60% on achievement standards and pass rates on state exit exams ranged up to 85% in English and 100% in math (Watson & Watson, 2011). This kind of improvement from this school is worth looking into, what this research study found was that along with CBI, having a learner-centered culture, learning environment helped these students to be successful.
When students felt they had a voice and some say in what their education was going to look like, they took more interest in what they were learning and why they were learning it (p.46). Students could choose how they would master the content and what tools they would use to master that content. The most popular choice was the Plato CBI and technology projects such as Power Point presentations, brochures and WebQuests. The CBI platform allowed students to engage in an active, self-paced, self-learning planning process (p.46). This perception of freedom allowed students a safe environment to take risks and explore in their own learning.
Because the school had very few resources they relied heavily on the internet to get information to students. As the principal stated:

We don't have textbooks...so a lot of it is internet-based. I find things for them to learn and read on the Internet. It enables us to do a lot of things that we would not be able to do otherwise (p.47).

Teachers spoke of the importance of technology to realize the learner-centered, self-paced, instructional choices that were a part of the school culture. Most of these students did not have access to computers outside of school. These students were impressed with computer technology in how it helped them find anything they needed to find. They expressed how they enjoyed the interactive nature of the computers, and how technology provided fun in learning while still helping them to focus on their work (p.48). Some students even mentioned that their first experiences with a computer was in that classroom.
Through the technology that was provided to these disadvantaged youth in this alternative school, in the Midwest of the United States, they were able to achieve what they were unable to in a mainstream high school setting. CBI provided these youth with a pathway to success that otherwise would not have been their for them.
This article shows the important contributions that technology can have on disadvantaged environments to help student achievement. This study does need to be replicated in other areas to test its validity but the findings are strong to show that there is a positive correlation between technology and improving education for disadvantaged youth.

 

How do we define who we are, and shape or reaffirm our identity using social networks? EME5404

Posed with this question I spent some time reading a few required readings and a few I found online about social networks and the issues with security I have changed my view about how we define or reshape our identity using social networks. I initially felt that I could self-select my social networks and what was put on those site, or rather the image that was portrayed of myself. While I do think we can define who we are on those social networks, we cannot prevent unwanted content from appearing. What I mean by unwanted content is if we have friends or family who have taken pictures of us or been a part of an experience of ours, they often do not ask our permission to post those things on their social media networks. When those things have been posted it is nearly impossible to get them back. Not all is lost though, we can still shape or reaffirm our identity online even if we cannot control all the social media networks that have information about us.

With the growth of media online culture has come the ability to connect with more people who share our ideas and beliefs. We can now shape the type of news we get exposed to as well as other medias of interest. No longer do we have to conform to the cultural ideas created by others such as large media corporations or even parents (for those who are still youth). While we are inevitably influenced on some level by these large corporations and our parents we now have access to a wealth of information to form our own ideas which create our own unique identities.

We also get to decided what part of our lives we share to others. We can be members of multiple communities while still being our authentic self as Megan Sims mentions in her article in the Harvard Political Review. Megan claims, which I agree with, that there is more transparency as communities online have become safer.

With the move towards transparency, people have found a sense of safety online, and therefore membership in online communities has become less taboo. The move towards online transparency, likewise, increases a sense of Internet authenticity (Megan Sims)

With an increase in transparency people have become more willing to put themselves online. This has been especially true for young people. The ability to identify oneself through such textual and visual means is valuable...they also afford another level of personalization (boyd 2007). We can now share ourselves to a broader audience, while controlling how much others know about us. We can create a persona of ourselves that may show us in a positive light. We can also connect to others who share our interest and are willing and able to provide us more valuable validation.

Through what we post on social media and who we decide to share our information with along with the monitoring of our privacy settings we can define who we are on social media. If I want to be defined as a goof-off who jokes around all the time and rarely takes anything seriously I have the power to send that identity out into the world through social media. Conversely I can change that view any way I would like through the thoughtful way I present myself on social media.

We all can and should take a moment to identify the perception of ourselves online. If you don't know how your are defined, ask a good friend they will tell you.

What are some examples that you consider innovative? How is it new and better than what previously existed? #IMMOOC

I have been thinking about these questions for the past couple of days as well as watching the live discussion with Shawn Clark @shawnblove and Brady Venables @bradyvenables. I then started looking at my teaching and what I have done that would be considered examples of innovation. I have an example of my teaching that I would consider innovative but I am having second thoughts. so I will share and you can tell me what you think and how I could improve.

What came to my mind was something George @gcouros said in the podcast this past Saturday, for something to be innovative it needs to be new or an iteration AND better. So with that in mind, I have been tackling this issue "how do I teach the Reconstruction of the United States following the Civil War in a way that is meaningful but is a review because the focus of the course is post Reconstruction to Modern America?" In the past I would have either lectured through it, boring for me and the students, or had the students debate Congressional v. Presidential Reconstruction. I like having the students debate in my history classes but this is something that I have done before and not every students engages like I would hope. In an attempt to be more innovative and give the students choice, with the goal to empower students. I chose to do something a little different. I decided to have students come up with a proposal all their own for how the United States should solve the problem of reconstructing America following the Civil War. I gave them a few resources and showed them a short clip of the documentary Aftershock: Beyond the Civil War on YouTube (the first 10 minutes) to give the students an idea of what America was facing after the war. I then asked students to work with a partner to come up with a proposal that would be most effective in settling the political, economic, and social issues facing America and the South post-Civil War in the short term and long term.

The reason I consider this activity innovative is because, at least for myself, it is a new way of teaching a topic I have taught before. Also I think it is a better way because students have to think about the short term and long term effects of their decisions. They have the benefit of seeing what happened as a result of the decisions that were actually made following the War in order to propose a better plan. This activity is better because students need to think about and learn about so much more than just Reconstruction such as the social, political and economic issues facing America and how those things work. For example students need to find out what GDP means, what is a tariff and what happens to the consumer when those tariffs go up or down and how the tax system works. Knowing these things can inform students on present issues as well. As emerging consumers in the world today it will be helpful to know how the economy works. Socially students need to answer or at least approach the hard question about race in America. How do you help a society heal following the Civil War that won't lead to groups like the KKK but will still ensure the freedoms of former slaves? Students need to make connections from those events to the issues facing America today such as the Black Live Matter movement and shouldn't we have an American Lives Matter movement instead? Is there a proposal out there that would produce the latter movement?

Having students consider all of the implications of their proposals helps them think critically about those proposals and the impact they will have on real human lives. This activity also validates their ideas, students have great ideas and can solve hard ill-defined problems if given the chance. My hope is that this historical question and others like it will lead to students actively looking for answers to contemporary problems in our society.

Students use the technology they have to research information but the innovative part is the problem solving of real world issues in a new way and empowering young people to take ownership of their ideas. We must believe that our students have great ideas and then allow them to actually voice them, then we need to take those ideas seriously.

Let me know what you think, innovative, not innovative. Maybe this type of thing is already being done and I just don't know about it but then again maybe not.

How Do We Perceive Ourselves and Others in the Media Ecologies in Which We Live? EME 5404

This post is specific to my class at the University of Florida's school of education, specifically Educational Technology. To make the distinction for the purpose of this blog I have included the course name in the title of all posts which are specific to my college courses.

The focus of the readings this week were on Media Ecologies, our own and others. Although I have a media ecology, I had not given much intentional thought to the perception of that ecology or others until this week. After reading the assigned readings (you can check them out in the references below) and doing a little digging around on my own I have a better perception of myself in my own media ecology. In this post I will take from Neil Postman's definition of media ecology and describe the way media communication has effected my understanding and value as a person as well as how I have perceived others in those areas of focus.

Understanding

My media ecology is focused primarily on professional growth, although I do communicate with personal friends and family through media I save social media for professional communication. I use technology in the service of my own creative objectives as Baym and boyd (2012) put it in their article about socially mediated publicness. In and effort to reach more like minded educators and expand my PLN, I use media to accomplish those goals. My understanding about education in general and the innovations in the field have expanded dramatically since using media to grow my PLN that I interact with. Media is a way to expand ideas and speak to larger audiences than ever before. We have become more connected than ever, having more access to different ideas which has increased our understanding. Our media ecologies also have the ability to limit our understanding, it is easy to hear only what we want to hear. For example Twitter is a great media to share ideas but as a Twitter user you do not have to hear or see everything that goes through the media, you can choose what you want to see. These social medias are being used to spread ideas by everyone and giving voice to those who may not have had a voice before such as young people. An example of this is the story of Nza-Ari Khepra who started an organization called Project Orange Tree in memory of a friend of hers and others who are murdered by inner-city violence, you can read the whole story here (Social Media for Good). Khepra's example shows the possibilities that are available to anyone who has an idea they want to share. It also shows how our ever growing media ecologies are changing the way we interact with one another.

Value

When I thinking of value I think about my worth to someone else, what I have done for others to increase those relationships and connections. Media has given me, and everyone else, the ability to connect with people and to staying connected with people gives value to peoples lives. It is human nature to want to have and maintain some type of connection with others, media has always been a way to accomplish this. Watching young people in my classes use media to stay connected and give value to their lives, has proven this point to me. Youth, and ourselves, can find specific groups who share their passions that they can connect with. Barriers to hanging out have been knocked down to some extent through media. Young people can now stay connected with their friends even when they cannot meet in a face-to-face setting. There is value in connection and strength. My perception is that media has added value to many peoples lives by giving strengthening our connections to others.

I also understand that this media can also spread negative ideas and increase bullying which can decrease someones value. Robert Heverly (2008) gave great insight to this idea. He spoke to the persistence of media today, that because of the ease of posting pictures, videos or anything else to the internet we are putting ourselves in a position of vulnerability, especially if those things are of an intimate nature. Once media is put online it is always there and people have created ways of finding it even after you think it has been deleted. Things that we used to chalk up to youthful indiscretion can now come back to haunt a young person when they are attempting to apply to college, get a job, etc.

Overall my perception of myself and the others who I come in contact with through the media ecology that I live in is a positive good. I see great value in the my changing culture as a result of media and its influences on myself and others.

References:

Ito, M., Sonja B., Matteo B., Boyd, D. Cody, R., Herr, B., Horst, H.A., Lang, P.G., Mahendran, D., Martinez, K., Pascoe, C.J., Perkel, D., Robinson, L., Sims, C., & Tripp, L. (2009) Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out: Living and Learning with New Media. Cambridge: MIT Press

Heverly, R. (2008). Growing Up Digital: Control and the Pieces of a Digital Life. Digital Youth, Innovation, and the Unexpected. Edited by Tara McPherson. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 199-218.

Baym, N.K. & boyd d. (2012). Socially Mediated Publicness: An Introduction Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 56(3).

Change is an opportunity to do something amazing #IMMOOC

Change is something that can be nerve racking and more than a little uncomfortable, like blogging for the first time. I think it is human nature to not want to be seen as vulnerable and as a teacher that feeling can be amplified when in front of a classroom of students.With that said I am a firm believer that change always makes us better as people, even if that change does not increase results. 

Right now I am trying to change my practice in order to foster an environment of innovation in my classroom. The way I am changing this year is by giving my students more opportunities to be actively creating information rather than passive receivers. Allowing students to take control of their learning rather than myself telling them what they "should" know. I am in the early stages of this process and already I have felt that uncomfortable feeling come over me as I have let go and allowed students to find their own answers and come to their own conclusions.

One example of change from my 11th U.S. History classroom is a collaborative project students create to show the effects on America of one aspect of U.S. history from Colonialism through the Civil War (HERE is an example of something I made, it is long. Students projects will be kept to 15 minutes or less). The reason for this project started out as a way to quickly review the topics from U.S. history, students learned about in 8th grade history. It quickly turned into an opportunity to see what students could create. The great thing about history is that you can interpret it anyway you want depending on your own point of view. I wanted students to think critically and interpret history according to their background and knowledge not mine. I wanted students to take ownership in their work. 

Previously I would have lectured to them or given a series of quizzes to see what their understanding of the content was. Now by allowing them to form their own interpretation I will have a better understanding of what they know and don't know. My job has shifted from telling them about history to helping them know how to research and problem solve. There are a few parameters set but the focus of the project has remained open to them.

Although this project has not given total control over to the students it is a change in the right direction. As the year progresses I plan to be giving more opportunities to my students and shifting even more of the ownership on to them. My goal is to empower my students to develop creative ways to solve problems using U.S. History as a tool to teach these problem solving skills. 

I believe that life is a series of problems and our job is trying to come up with the best ways to solve those problems. We all have a different lens which we view the world through and I want my students to develop their own lens rather than using mine. If by changing my practice results in students becoming better problem solvers and more able to effectively use the tools around them to solve those problems I would consider that success.

"To improve is to change, to be perfect is to change often." -Winston Churchill

I will update this page when students submit their projects so you can see a sample of their work.

Why is “innovation” so crucial in education? What impact do you see it having on our students and ourselves long term? #IMMOOC

First of all I am very excited to be a part of the #IMMOOC and to have the chance to collaborate with so many other great educators. My goal is to bring something to the "table" that will be of some worth to others while I am confident I will gain great insights and ideas from everyone else.

I believe innovation is crucial in education because it gives ownership to everyone, not just the teacher. Students, teachers, administrators, support staff, we all want to feel like we have some value and are important to a process or idea bigger than ourselves. If people are not given the opportunities to have their own ideas and then encouraging them to share those ideas and run with them, they will feel under valued. If students, teachers, administrators feel they have no value to the process they will leave to try and find that value somewhere else. Education needs to give everyone the opportunity to think critically and problem solve. To successfully think critically and problem solve you MUST be innovative. Great ideas come from developing innovative ways of solving difficult problems.

The impact innovation will have on our students is difficult to measure. The reason I say it is difficult to measure is that there is no doubt that it will impact them but for some it may be so subtle that they, or we, don't notice right away. If a student has the courage to TRY in situations that they otherwise wouldn't have then there has been a positive impact and that student has been empowered. If students learn to endure and work through difficult problems, or situations, then it has been worthwhile to teach them to be innovative. Innovation is not some new "tool" to help students, it is the reason for the "tools" to help students.

Finally the impact it will have on myself, as an educator and a coach, is constant change. Winston Churchill said "to improve is to change, to become perfect is to change often." I think that is what innovation is all about, change. We as educators have to be willing to change and change often. Yes, it is uncomfortable at first but you cannot grow without a little discomfort. As a coach I often talk to my swimmers that their willingness to embrace a little suffering is key if they want to break through to the next level. The same goes for educators if I want to innovative and reach a higher level of educating. I need to "suffer" a little. That "suffering" for a teacher comes in the form of critical thinking, a willingness to be uncomfortable and let go of a little control to allow students to take on the role of a leader in the classroom, being willing to say to my students "I don't have all the answers, lets find them together". All of these things will cause a little "suffering" but in the end will make my students and myself more innovative and better prepared for the questions that lay ahead of us.

Life is just one problem after another, we get to decide how we solve those problems. Are you going to be innovative and change the way you look at and solve those problems or are you going to do what you have always done? #InnovatorsMindset

Anyone looking for a great PBL site for World History?

In my search to find meaningful resources for my students as well as trying to find resources that fit within the context of my school and district's mission of a digitally based curriculum I came across a great site that I wanted to let people know about. If you haven't heard of "The Big History Project" and you teach world history, you need to check it out! First of all the site is FREE to educators. Also you can set up classes to allow your students access to the wealth of resources the site contains. If you don't want to set up a class you can also download the materials and use them anyway you want to.

The reason I have found it to be useful is the Project Based Learning portion of the site. They have some great ideas to engage students as well as empower them to think critically about humanity and how humans have developed over time. While I believe the best part about the Big History Project is this project based learning component, they have many other great resources that would be helpful to any World History classroom.

Something else that is a great incentive to join is the ability to add content to the site as well as connecting with other educators. While I am still learning and trying to find better ways to prepare my students for their futures I also want to share what I find to help others as well as collaborate with anyone who is willing to listen and share.

If you have found some great sites to help students be empowered in their education please share.