Choosing
the technology that best suits the lesson or learning goals is vitally
important. Educators today have a wealth
of information and resources available to them, and sometimes choosing the
right ones can be overwhelming.
Technology can truly enhance a lesson, but it can also impede learning
if it is not used appropriately (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2011). Lessons can be overwhelming for students if
too much technology is used, and this can cause confusion and lack of
retention. Information might not make
sense if the wrong form of technology is used, and this can cause students to
struggle to succeed. Because of this,
educators need to make smart decisions about what forms of technology to use in
the classroom (Wright & Wilson, 2011). This paper will examine a previous
assignment completed for the MATLT program.
The lesson required the student to prepare a lesson then revise it to
incorporate technology. Upon review, the
revision needs further revision, so the lesson will be re-crafted with better
use of technology.
Original Assignment
(Includes an original assignment and a revision
which were both previously completed for another course)
Original Assignment:
PSYCH 100 –
Introduction to Psychology
In groups of 3-5
students each, create a poster that demonstrates the various learning theories
we have discussed this week. Your group’s poster should include the cognitive
learning theory, behavioral learning theory, and social learning theory. Then,
present your poster to the class, and explain which of the theories best fits
with your view of learning, and why
Original Revised
Assignment:
PSYCH100 – Introduction
to Psychology
In groups of 3-5
students each, research the various learning theories we have discussed this
week. Prepare a non-linear PowerPoint
presentation that highlights the main points of each of the theories, cognitive
learning, behavioral learning, and social learning. You will present your power point
presentation to the class and explain which of the theories best fits with each
group member’s view of learning. A slide should be devoted to each group
member’s choice with a list of the reasons why that choice was made. Your presentation must include at least one
link to an outside website that contains information that supplements the
material you have presented about one of the theories. Your presentation should also include at
least one video clip that explains one of the theories. This video clip can be
retrieved from the internet or filmed by the students themselves. Make sure to include a “home” button so your
presentation is easily navigable as well as an outline that links to each of
the appropriate pages of your presentation.
Revision
of Assignment
PSYCH100 – Introduction
to Psychology
Instructor will lecture
about the learning theories in psychology.
Instructor will use the Smart Board to show visual representations of
the theories in action as well as information from outside sources about the
theorists, their lives, and the things in their lives that might have
contributed to the development of their theories.
Students will then be
given access to a classroom wiki and will be directed to a page on the wiki for
work on this assignment. Students will
be given time in class to access the wiki but will also be encouraged to
participate in the wiki assignment outside of class. The wiki board will instruct students to
engage in an online discussion about the merits of each of these theories. The goal of this lesson is for students to
consider different opinions and ideas about the theories and to have the
opportunity, through wiki discussion, to cement these theories in their minds.
Students will then be
instructed to complete the power point presentation as described above, except
they will each focus on a single, different theory. This will allow students to really get into
the details of one theory and to learn in more detail about the other theories
from the other students.
Discussion
& Challenges
This assignment was revised in order to meet the learning
objective of this program to “demonstrate the ability to make informed
decisions regarding the use of technology in support of learning and
leadership”. The first assignment was
sufficient, but it did not engage students in the best way using
technology. The goal with the revision
was to address the learning principles that focus on meeting the needs of as
many students as possible with the use of technology. In addition, it sought to
meet the learning principle that technology needs to be appropriately matched
with the lesson material; otherwise neither the lesson nor the technology will
be effective.
The addition of the wiki portion of the assignment was
made for a number of reasons. The wiki
will allow students to collaborate.
Witney & Smallbone (2011) report that wikis have a great deal of
potential for increasing collaboration in the classroom. The key is to
introduce them in a way that encourages participation and instruct students to
use them in a way that is engaging. In
order to do this, the wiki will pose specific questions to the students. The instructor will go to the wiki periodically
and add new discussion points. This will
encourage more thoughtful interaction.
The instructor will also encourage productive discussion by going in and
commenting on the discussion and asking questions directly to different
students.
The Power Point part of the assignment was retained for multiple
reasons. Power Point is an effective way
to communicate information in an interesting way. New versions of Power Point allow the learner
to provide internet links and interesting dimension to what could otherwise be
mundane material (Parette, Hourcade, & Blum, 2011). In order to ensure that students have
retained the information they have learned, the Power Point presentation allows
the instructor to assess their learning and retention of the material. Assessment is an important part of this
lesson because it will reflect whether the lesson has met its learning
objectives (Duncan & Buskirk-Cohen, 2011).
The wiki is an important part of the learning process but does not
provide an easy way to assess student accomplishment. The Power Point presentation on the other
hand will serve as a perfect assessment tool because students have certain
expectations they must meet in their presentations, and those expectation are
clear.
The major challenge in designing this assignment was
choosing the appropriate technology to match the lesson. Even with all of the focus in the MATLT program
on choosing appropriate technology, it is still sometimes difficult to make the
best match. In this instance, I reviewed
the lesson and felt that the use of Power Point was appropriate. I started looking at other assignments
because this one seemed to already have a good match between lesson and
technology. I was having difficulty
finding another new lesson to revise, so I returned to this one. I looked at it again from a new
perspective. I decided to consider the
lesson with other technologies because even though Power Point might work,
there could be another technology out there that would be a better match.
As
I started considering technologies, I had to think of how the technology would
be used in the lesson, and whether its use in the lesson would actually add to
the lesson. Some technologies seemed
inappropriate. For example, I considered
constructing a blog, but this did not seem to add much to the lesson. Students could be instructed to make blog
posts and comment on each other’s posts, but I did not see this adding enough
benefit to justify its use. After
considering the blog, I started considering the wiki. The wiki would allow the students to really
delve into the differences between the theories. The wiki would allow the instructor to pose
new questions to the students to stimulate discussion just as the instructor
would in the real classroom. The wiki
would hopefully increase collaboration and build relationships. This seemed like the best way to attack the
material while also giving students the opportunity to engage in the
information in new and exciting ways.
Conclusion
Revising this assignment was extremely beneficial. I was able to locate a lesson that seemed to
have an appropriate use of technology with lesson and consider the technology
usage even more. This extended
consideration opened my eyes to the possibility that one technology choice
could be good but that another technology choice could be even better. It is true that matching technology to the
lesson is the best way to ensure that the students will gain the most from the
lesson.
References
Duncan,
T., & Buskirk-Cohen, A.A.
(2011). Exploring
learner-centered assessment: A
cross-disciplinary approach. International Journal of Teaching and
Learning in Higher Education, 23(2), 246-259.
Lever-Duffy,
J. & McDonald, J. B. (2011). Teaching
and learning with technology (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education,
Inc./Allyn & Bacon.
Parette,
H.P., Hourcade, J., & Blum, C.
(2011). Using animation in
Microsoft PowerPoint to enhance engagement and learning in young learners with
developmental delay. Teaching Exception Children, 43(4),
58-67.
Witney,
D., & Smallbone, T. (2011). Wiki
work: Can using wikis enhance student
collaboration for group assignment tasks? Innovations
in Education & Teaching International, 48(1), 101-110.
Wright,
V.H., & Wilson, E.K. (2011). Teachers’ use of technology: Lessons learned from the teacher education
program to the classroom. SRATE Journal, 20(2), 48-60.
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