Week Three Response

I'm not required to add this week's response to the reading to my blog, but as I created this blog for the class, I'm doing it anyway.  We were asked to read chapters one and three of Trends and Issues in Instruction Design and Technology by Robert A. Reiser and John V. Dempsey.  Then we were asked to respond to the definitions in the reading as well as some of the questions raised.  Here goes.

Like many language constructs, the term "instructional technology" has had an evolving definition since its earliest uses in the first decade of the twentieth century.  In the earlier half of the 1900's, it would seem that the term mostly referred to different media used to assist instruction in the classroom.  During much of the latter half of the century, a switch was made to focus on the process of designing, implementing, managing, and evaluating educational experiences in a meaningful and effective way for students.  (By the way, students in the context of instructional design and technology extend beyond the traditional view of K-12 students.  It applies to them, yes, but it also applies to workers, professionals, military members, and basically anyone who needs to learn new ideas and skills.)  Reiser and Dempsey maintain that both aspects need to be recognized, as well as asserting that the intent is "to improve learning and performance" (Reiser and Dempsey, 2012).  They also claim  that most people, including many individuals in the profession, will list of types of media when asked what educational technology means, but they will miss the whole concept of designing, preparing, and using the media in a manner to improve learning and performance.

Maybe I have the pleasure to work with dedicated, intelligent teachers at my school, but based on my experience, I must disagree with the last claim.  The people I work with are for the most part young, and they understand that using media in the classroom is not the same as utilizing technology effectively in the classroom. They know that they can't just show a picture of a cell to a class and say, "There you go.  Learn."  They know that while pictures of various cells definitely have their part in a Biology classroom, the lessons and processes used to impart the knowledge and understanding to the students must be well planned and executed; they know that ideally, mere pictures are not enough, but rather the use of technology that engages students in conversation is more effective.

An older definition of the term "instructional media" was the physical means by which instruction is presented.  I was surprised by this definition, as it is extraordinarily broad.  (Hey, cool, I'm "media"!)  Reiser and Dempsey want to ruin my enjoyment of being called media by defining it for their purposes as the physical means... other than teacher, chalkboard, and textbook.  Joking aside, though, this is for the best.  Teachers have been used since oral tradition societies, textbooks since the dawn of the printing press, and chalkboards (sort of) since elk were scribbled onto cave walls.  These things are hardly cutting edge, highly engaging tools.

I've been given a hypothetical situation.  I'm an evaluator at a Pseudo Middle School, which has been given laptops and internet access for every teacher, student, and mouse (presumably) at the school.  The innovation had very little effect on the manner of instruction.  One possible reason for this is that teachers are resistant to change, especially change that is instituted from the top-down.  For the sake of an example, we'll say one teacher that didn't change instruction was Mr. Fossil, who's in his 47th year of teaching at PMS.  He's seen film, television, and desktop PCs enter the classroom with little change in the resulting learning, so now this punk administrator is telling him to use the internet to teach, and he'll be damned if it's going to change anything.  A second possible reason that the experiment was not immediately successful could be that teachers utilized ineffective teaching methods on the computers.  The old drill and practice method is not looked upon favorably by just about anyone, and it can be done on computers just as unsatisfactorily as it can be done on paper or slates.  A third possible reason for the manner of instruction remaining stagnant, and this could be the cause of the second reason, could be mediocre instructional quality of the materials given to teachers prior to this experiment.  It's not as if laptops with internet access are a magic wand - teachers need to be trained how to utilize them effectively, and if the teachers aren't trained effectively with high quality instructional materials, they haven't learned effectively, so they won't perform effectively.

To mitigate these hypothetical factors, I would recommend two things.  First: while the materials are mandatory for all teachers and students, their use is not mandated.  The School Board might have a fit: "Why are we spending all of this money on materials if you aren't going to make teachers use them?!"  However, Mr. Fossil will never willing use and effectively utilize something that his young-whipper-snapper boss tells him to use, like he knows anything anyway.  So, while Mr. Fossil's laptop sits unused in the corner, and the students keep their laptops in their bags during his class lest they be subjected to one of his rages, across the hall, the other Math teacher, Ms. Fresh, is learning how to implement successful systems of learning into her classroom through the use of the new technology.  Who knows what might happen?  Maybe over time Ms. Fresh will be able to convince Mr. Fossil that her students rising test scores are because of this great new system she uses.  Maybe she can convince him that the internet can actually be utilized effectively to improve learning and performance.  (If not, Mr. Fossil's going to retire or die soon anyway.  We can always hire a teacher who is more willing to work with technology when the time comes to replace him.)

Second: Train your teachers.  You just give them computers, give their students computers, and tell them to make it happen?  Good luck.  Here's a better implementation plan: Give the teachers their laptops a year before the students.  Have all of the required PD that year be related to using them effectively.  Give the teachers choices of PD classes that they will attend.  (Again, resistance to top-down change is strong - I might add that it's not just teachers, but rather human nature that's to blame for this one.  Choice might help alleviate this.)  Maybe these classes could be led by their tech-savvy peers for a modest stipend rather than some outside speaker - the teachers leading these sessions throughout year would enjoy helping their fellow teachers, and the teachers learning from their peers would be more likely to listen.  As an added bonus, they would have resources to talk to - the person who led the PD is just two doors down the hallway, after all - as they experiment throughout the year.  Then following year, when the students get their one-to-one laptops, you have a staff that has had plenty of instruction and time to acclimatize themselves to the new systems they will be using.  Instructional innovation.  Positive impact on learning and performance.  Happy board, happy parents, happy students, happy teachers.


Reiser, Robert A. & Dempsey, John V. (2012).  Trends and issues in instructional design and technology.  Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Embedding Media - Oops

It looks like I overachieved with my first attempt.  In re-reading the instructions, I realized I was just supposed to embed a static image instead of the gallery.  Here's that.  Dragons!

Embedding Media - Part 3

Alright, it seems this embedding stuff is coming to me fairly easily.  We'll try a map for attempt number three.  I lived in Yuma for a year.  If you ever see me there again, it will be because I had a craving for the amazing Mustard Crusted Tofu at River City Grill.  Of course, there were a number of amazing people my wife and I worked with, so we'll invite them to meet us there.

View Larger Map

Embedding Media - Part 2

Well, I'm certainly happy with how well my first attempt at embedding media worked out (other than imgur being over capacity so frequently).  Let's try my favorite band to come up in the past few years:

Embedding Media to a Blog, Part 1

I've got to learn how to embed media.  Here goes my first attempt:
By the way, if you want to see the album outside of my blog, the link is right here.

Week 2 Reflection

For week two, I've created a wiki, created an RSS Reader account, read some articles (linked below), and now I'm responding to the following questions:

What are your early impressions of using a blog and what was your experience using an RSS Reader this week? Any surprises, pleasant or otherwise?

My early impressions of using a blog would be, to put it simply, I like it. I like the journal feel of it. I enjoy writing, and I enjoy having people read what I write. If I weren't so wretchedly busy for the next couple of months, I might be tempted to create a personal blog right away; after the chaos dies down, I have a couple ideas for blogs I might keep.

The RSS Reader experience has been enlightening to say the least. I never knew what that little orange button with what looks like radio waves even meant until I had to start using it for this class. Again, due to the general time constraints of being a full time student, full time teacher, and full time parent, I am not using it in a personal way right now, but I can envision subscribing to many of my favorite websites in the near future. It's very convenient to be able to read everything from the subscribed blogs all on one website rather than navigating to each individually. (Right now it's enough to just keep up with all of my classmates' blogs. If I added in websites for my personal enjoyment, I fear my time management discipline might fly right out the window.)

Professionally speaking, I can see the value and potential of both of these tools. However, as most of my students are from low-income families, I still worry about internet access at home. I have noticed a positive trend over the past few years for fewer and fewer families to be without, however.

Based on your readings, the videos and your experience setting up and using a wiki space, do you have some ideas about how you could use a wiki in your teaching or elsewhere in your work or life? Describe an idea for an activity you might do with learners that would involve the use of a wiki.
As an English teacher, I can see a great possibility: student created projects on specific literature. “Okay class, as we read Macbeth, we are going to periodically get the laptops out, and you will create the [insert school name here] Macbeth Wiki. Major categories, and by that in this case I mean pages to include on your wiki, will be characters, plot, time line, etc. You will work in groups of [x amount of students], and you will be evaluated on this rubric.”

Okay, so the idea is in its infancy, but the seed is planted in my mind. It would not only potentially address Common Core State Standards in Reading Literature, but also CCSS in Writing, Language, and if they have to present their wiki to their peers, Speaking and Listening.

Which part(s) of Dale’s Cone do you think each tool (Blog, RSS) lends itself best to and why?

Again from an English teacher's perspective, the first category that jumps out at me is Verbal Symbols. Spoken words are verbal symbols, and written words are symbols of those verbal symbols. However, by embedding links images, video, and audio into blogs, or by creating scenarios for students to think of, it's easy to see how these technologies would move down the cone to the broader levels of Visual Symbols, Still Pictures, Recordings, Motion Pictures, Virtual Study Trips, Virtual Demonstrations, (yes, I modified those last two from the 1969 version of Dale's Cone; I doubt he had such foresight to see that possibility as we have it today) and Contrived Experiences. Also, let's not forget that by having students actually do these tasks themselves (creating blogs, following peers with RSS readers, creating wikis), we move right down to the very base of Dale's Cone to Direct Purposeful Experiences. They aren't the same kinds of experiences that are mentioned in the chapter, but whereas he described participation in rural and city areas, we now have online areas that productive citizens should participate in to gain a large knowledge base.

As the question asks what each tool lends itself best to, I feel I should explain my thoughts on how the two tools can work together. I feel blogs are where the educational benefit would come from - RSS I view as more of a tool for managing the task of following many blogs simultaneously. If I am limiting my understanding of the potential of RSS by viewing it in this way, please comment to correct my view.

Considering Siegel’s concept of “computer imagination”, what do you think would be at least one “imaginative” educational use of each tool (blog, RSS) that takes advantage of each tool’s inherent strengths? That is, what do you think you and/or your students could use these tools for that they might not be able to do with other more simple or low-tech tools? Or, as Postman might ask, what is a problem to which each of these tools is an answer?

What's the problem, Postman would ask? How about the lack of student engagement in classroom discussion? Whereas in a classroom teachers must resort to tricks and limitations to get reticent students to participate, on online discussion eliminates much of the fear of speaking before the group. (Of course, with concerns of cyber-bullying, great attention must be paid by the teacher to pre-teach expectations, norms, and acceptable behavior in responses if an online discussion was to be had, and a generally high level of maturity from the students wouldn't hurt, either.)

How about this class? Each student has created a blog, and each student must write a reflection on what they've read. We are graded upon not only our reflection, but also our engagement with other students by responding to others' reflections. We are therefore not allowed to be reticent during discussions, but introverts don't need to fear the spotlight as they're safely behind their own computer screen. Discussions are open for participation in a way that's rarely achieved in a traditional classroom.

Creating a Wiki

One of my assignments this week was to create a simple wiki.  I had to summarize some key points of an article about Web 2.0 on this wiki, and I had to include links to other places in my wiki.  Oh, another part of my assignment was to create a link to my wiki in my blog, so here it is.

Week One Reflection

My first assignment on this blog is a reflection on two articles. 

The first, titled Beyond Technology Integration: The Case for Technology Transformation by Charles M. Reigeluth and Roberto Joseph presents an optimistic view of a whole new type of learning that can be accomplished through the use of technology.   One of the first things that caught my attention was the key markers of the industrial age versus the information age on Table 1, especially the first on the list.  Whereas standardization used to be the norm, now customization is.  This is true in many places, but not in schools.  The authors point out a fundamental flaw in our educational system - namely that it was designed as a response to the needs of the industrial age.  It was important to sort people into laborers and managers.  It was important to teach people how to behave as if they were on an assembly line.  It was not as important to teach people how to think critically, to master skills and knowledge at their own pace, and how to interact cooperatively with others.  

The article goes on to include some very interesting points. When the authors say that meeting today's educational needs "would require a learning-focused educational system that offers customization rather than standardization", I couldn't help thinking of recent conversations I've heard about so called flip schools.  The "normal" way of doing school is to go to the building, obtain information and skills from the teacher, and practice on your own for homework.  If the student gets stuck, ideally the teacher will help them the next day in class; realistically, the student typically gets an F on the assignment and falls behind his peers.  In flip schools, however, instruction is given at home via online videos, lectures, demonstrations, etc.  Then the students go to school, ready to practice, create, or synthesize their learning with the guidance of the teacher.  I can see potential in this to allow students to individualize their learning pace with the teacher as a guide, and the teacher could rather easily guide many students who were in different places along their learning journey.  

However, I can also see possible problems with this type of system.  I currently work at an alternative high school.  The students who come to my school have learned over the years how to fake success expertly.  Many steal others' work, copy it, and cheat shamelessly.  During my first year at the school, there were "independent study" courses in place which were basically just packets of work for the students to complete for credit.  As many readers can figure out, these courses were an exercise in finding the one student who actually did the work and copying her, or sometimes even paying her to do it for you.  (Thankfully, we eliminated those courses after my first year.)  I could envision a scenario where many students quickly figured out that if their customized learning pace just-so-happened to occur at the same pace as their peers, they could dramatically reduce the effort they had to put in by stealing, copying, and cheating.

One thing that really bothered me about this article was the section titled "How to Transform?".  The best nugget of an idea I could find was that we must use technology "for the purpose of transforming this [teacher-student] relationship."  That seems a far cry from a definite, or even satisfactory, answer.

I did appreciate the nod to various learning styles that technology can accommodate to through computer-based tutorials, simulations, and open dialogues.  However, I would worry that technology can leave behind kinesthetic learners, the very learners who are most neglected in traditional instruction.

Since this assignment is already well over the approximate aim of five-hundred words, I'll be more brief about the second article.  Of Luddites, Learning, and Life by Neil Postman was much more skeptical.  He begs the question: What is the problem to which increased technology in schools is the answer?  We are not starved for information, but we do need to teach students "that their own needs sometimes are subordinate to the needs of the group", "how to cultivate a sense of social responsibility", and how to "think critically, historically, and humanely".  From my perspective, that is precisely what many students who come into alternative education lack the most.

Postman also invokes Alan Kay, saying "any problems the schools cannot solve without machines, they cannot solve with them."  I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment - technology is not a silver bullet, a panacea for our ailing educational system.  

New blog for class

I'm starting this blog for an Educational Technology course I'm taking.  The writing on the wall says that there are going to be drastic changes in the educational structure of this country that involve much heavier reliance on technology in the near future, so I'm taking Educational Technology courses so that I won't become a dinosaur.  Hopefully I'll have lots of insights to come.