This is a brief summery & break down of the readings from each week and how they connect to the
ISTE Student Standards.
ISTE Student Standards.
How Not to Think About Technology
Week 1
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Burbules: Recorded Video Lecture | ISTE Standards 4, 6
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Wesch: Machine is US/ing US | ISTE Standards 2, 6
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Hickman: Dewey’s Pragmatic Theory | ISTE Standards 1, 6
- Knowledge is an artifact of technological inquiry
- The outcome of successful inquiry is more than “seeing new things” it gives us “new ways of seeing”
- Inquiry is more critical than knowledge because it involves a controlled transformation & emphasis is on experiment rather than description
- Technology is the liaison between doubt & resolution / tension & outcome
- Technology can either by the by-product of inquiry or the object of inquiry
- Tools have no essence, they of themselves aren’t good or bad, they only have functions with regard to situations
- Historical stages of technology (1)primitive--few problems, (2) homeric greek--little inquiry only aesthetic, (3) Sophisticated Greek-fail to identify transformative role of technology, separated from world so not science (4) After Greeks: reason & science compete with religion (5) Modern Science: Knowledge recognized as an artifact of inquiry
Open & Closed Horizons
Week 2
Morrow, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, and the Internet of Things | ISTE Standards 2, 3, 5, 6
Spivack, The Third Generation Web is Coming | ISTE Standards 5, 6
Personalized experience on the third generation of the web; for example, Amazon makes predictions about things you would like to buy based on what you have bought in the past, increasing worry about the government using our information but not as much concern that businesses are, constant connection to the web through phones and watches, internet of things -> devices are networked to each other and interacting (i.e. fridge won’t open if you’re supposed to be losing weight)
- Web 1.0: One way accessing of information; the web was similar to a library or encyclopedia
- Web 2.0: Users create content and share it; increase in social media
- Web 3.0: Semantic web, mega data: data about data
Spivack, The Third Generation Web is Coming | ISTE Standards 5, 6
Personalized experience on the third generation of the web; for example, Amazon makes predictions about things you would like to buy based on what you have bought in the past, increasing worry about the government using our information but not as much concern that businesses are, constant connection to the web through phones and watches, internet of things -> devices are networked to each other and interacting (i.e. fridge won’t open if you’re supposed to be losing weight)
Week 2 Video Lecture | ISTE Standards 2, 3, 5, 6
Scary to think about what you might not be seeing, search results are filtered based on your previous internet history, does not allow for ubiquitous learning.
- Education is personalized, always available, resources are customized to you
- Ubiquitous learning
- Delivered in a “just in time” fashion
- Nick hates technology as a delivery system
- Adaptive instruction - learn your patterns and modify the environment to suit your needs, adapt to responses of individual students
- Interacting with smart devices in school
- New kinds of books: multimedia, 3D
- Ubiquitous learning - learning in an anytime, anywhere opportunity versus learn it now, use it later (maybe); new kinds of student projects to show what they know and can do
- Different capabilities to create things (iVideo)
- What are the new kinds of assessments to evaluate?
- Diversify methods of instruction with technology
- Technology should be expanding our options
Scary to think about what you might not be seeing, search results are filtered based on your previous internet history, does not allow for ubiquitous learning.
Identity & Community
Week 3
MCI Advertisement - "On the Internet" | ISTE Standards 2, 5
(paraphrase) There is no race, gender, age, infirmities - only minds. Utopia? No, the internet. Where minds, doors & lives open up. Is this a great time or what?
Video lecture | ISTE Standards 2, 5
Megan Boler, Hypes, hopes and actualities | ISTE Standards 2, 5
(paraphrase) There is no race, gender, age, infirmities - only minds. Utopia? No, the internet. Where minds, doors & lives open up. Is this a great time or what?
Video lecture | ISTE Standards 2, 5
- Internet as medium of collaboration
- Knowledge (e.g. Wikipedia)
- Learning (e.g. self-educating communities)
- Culture (e.g. You Tube)
- The link is the thing (A to B), fiber of the network of the social connection, not neutral
- Content is User generated, organized, distributed….
Megan Boler, Hypes, hopes and actualities | ISTE Standards 2, 5
- “The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the potency of these cultural stereotypes which appear requisite to meaning-making within communication and dialogue, and how these reductive conceptions of gender, race and bodies invade even the supposedly ‘transcendent’ space of online CMC (computer mediated communication) which lacks visible markers” (p. 2)
- “...the gaze of the self-seeking itself. In short, while there is a promise of freedom in the anonymity of text-based virtual communities and a promise that we transcend assumed differences in our online interactions, in fact, users may tend to reproduce themselves in imagined others” (p. 9).
- Conclusion, “What would it take to preserve messiness and conflict as foundational values, rather than being tempted by neat and tidy drive-by difference, as we shape the digital future in all its material significance? (p. 24)
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An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube: Michael Wesch | ISTE Standards 2, 5
Cultural inversion/tension Express: Value: Individualism community Independence relationship Commercialization authenticity Anonymity + physical distance + rare & ephemeral dialogue = hatred as public performance OR freedom to experience humanity without fear or anxiety |
Burbules, Like a version: Playing with online identities | ISTE Standards 2, 5
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Ubiquitous Learning
Week 4
Ubiquitous Learning: MOOC’s | ISTE Standards 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Ubiquitous Learning: New Contexts, New Processes | ISTE Standards 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
- University of Illinois successfully partnering with Coursera
- MOOC’s could have thousands of students, provides low-cost or free education. Can provide “truly democratic learning communities” - “Problem is scale,” “...putting limitations on what you can do pedagogically.”
- Crowdsourced evaluations - Peer model of qualitative human evaluations
- MOOC’s: “Worst aspects of pedagogy”
- “A MOOC should be thought of something like a textbook” - Geared towards the delivery of information. Can be part of a complete education experience, but not enough in and of itself.
- MOOC+ model can provide a wrap around model and can provide college credit.
- Flipped Classroom: get the material (lecture) at home then come to class to work on the project. If you are going to go to class just to listen to a lecture, why not just watch it on a video? It is better because it can be paused and rewind. Come to class for the things that can really only be done in a face-to-face environment, hands on activities, interactions
- Completions of MOOCs is minimal, those who actually complete MOOCs are those who already have a track record of academic success (Example given: Rich get richer)
- MOOC a collection of resources, with the knowledge that people will not complete the whole thing, but as a learning resource
- Think of a MOOC like an encyclopedia - better to think of it as a sampling of resources rather than a complete academic course.
- Ubiquitous - not necessarily a class, but a collection of learning resources that people can use as they need that particular information. Ie. YouTube
- “Maybe it should be called a MOOLE [Massive Open Online Learning Environment] rather than a MOOC.”
Ubiquitous Learning: New Contexts, New Processes | ISTE Standards 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
- Technology is transforming the way people learn.
- With technology advancements learning anywhere-anytime is more readily available to more people
- Rethink the need for traditional learning environments, those environments are being influenced by widespread/common use of technology.
- The way people think about learning is changing.
- The way people access information is changing, there is no longer one primary source for information and learning.
- Learning is a social endeavour that is happening naturally within online interactions.
- Teachers are starting to rethink the way they teach. Curriculum design is being redeveloped to fit the new learning styles of the current/future generations.
- Moving from a “Learn-Now, Use Later” model to a “Learn-Now, Use Now” model
- There is (or needs to be) a shift in a teacher’s approach to education, they are the curators of learning opportunities rather than the center of information.
- Teachers still have an important role in helping students process and organize information.
- Learning becomes open and interconnected with everything else.
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Microsoft: “Future Vision” | ISTE Standards 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
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Future(s) of Teaching
Week 5
“Ubiquitous Learning and the Future of Teaching” - N. Burbules | ISTE Standards 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
- Put control of when, where, how, and why one is learning more in the hands of the learner, and shift the motivational focus of learning from “learn it now, use it later (maybe)” to the learner’s needs and purposes of the moment
- Access to this ubiquitous learning environment is hardly equal
- Constant access will create its own problems
- Ubiquitous learning is not all of learning, and not everything can be learned in this way
- Especially for younger learners, a deep foundation of learning needs to be in place before most of these other learning opportunities can have value or meaning
- Teacher education will need to change
- Universities often refer to “continuing education.”- can be situated more into the flow of human activity
- “the learning society” - a culture in which all sorts of activities and experiences, from work to entertainment to family life, and beyond, are viewed as opportunities to discover and explore additional knowledge as a supplement to those activities and experiences.
- Fostering a disposition to learn
- Not all ubiquitous learning is about use value; sometimes it may just be about interest, curiosity, and enrichment
- ubiquitous learning culture regards ordinary events as learning moments
- But the reward systems and the broader accountability measures of schooling, at virtually all levels, still reward and incentivize individual achievement as the metric of success
- Teachers need to become ubiquitous learners too.
- Helping learners integrate formal learning, informal learning, and this new kind of situated, experiential learning
- The new skills and capabilities of teaching require a broader understanding of technology-based social networks and the range of learning resources available online
- They require a sociological and cultural understanding of varied learning environments and their characteristics
What is the Future of Technology in Education? Britland, M. | ISTE Standards 2, 3, 5, 6
Future Impact of Technology on Teaching and Learning: Bush, T. | ISTE Standards 1, 3, 6
- Not about one specific device
- The future is about access- anywhere learning and collaborating
- MOOCs
- The cloud- All schools will need is a fast internet connection
- All devices will need access to the Cloud
- Teachers can grade, students can check their grades instantly
- Encourage independent learning
- Flipped classrooms
- The role of the teacher will change
- More social lessons
Future Impact of Technology on Teaching and Learning: Bush, T. | ISTE Standards 1, 3, 6
- Schools are currently being required to do more with less
- In the next decade, 77% of all jobs will require technical skills yet there are many countries that are not producing STEM graduates to fill those jobs
- The role of the teacher is changing to “curator” or “guide”
- Creating emotional and personalized experiences using technology rather than simply digitizing traditional methods is going to be key
- A change in testing- allow for more failure
- The Cloud
More of the Future of Teaching with Technology: Valentine, K. | ISTE Standards 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Why Technology Reform Does Not Always Work
Policy
- Personalizing learning
- Future systems will make informed recommendations (like Amazon- if you like this, then you’ll like this; if your weakness is X, then here’s an intervention)
- Assessing student learning
- Systems will facilitate communities for learning- focus on the positives, not the negatives
- Focus on creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, information literacy, and self-direction
- Supporting social learning
- Diminishing classroom boundaries
- Learning spaces will transcend space, time, etc.
- Learning will not just occur in schools
- Using alternative teaching methods
- Rich interfaces
- No more multiple choice tests
- Will be required to think meta-cognitively
- Enhancing the role of stakeholders
- Preparing learners for lifelong learning
- Addressing policy changes
- Systems will self-improve
- Learning will be highly valued in communities
- Careers will be based on how much someone learns, rather than just how much they earn
Why Technology Reform Does Not Always Work
Policy
- Begin with good intentions, like expanding access
- Many have failed
- NCLB- overpromising from the start
- Produce increased standardization- one size fits all
- “We have to do it because we have to do it”
- More about compliance, rather than original intent
- Can create problems to real reform
- Don’t always listen to overt purpose but to look at the tacit messages/assumptions that are underlying policies
- Can have real conversation
- Treating kids fairly means treating them the same
- Produces standardization
- Produces least common denominator-have to lower quality of content or expectations
- It’s better to do something familiar halfway well than to run the risk of doing something new, badly
- Initial efforts are failures, but that’s how you improve
- Failures can have real, human consequences
- In schools, it’s easier to go the familiar route rather than put kids’ lives at risk
- Trusting teachers vs. trusting policies and procedures
- Training of teachers
- Don’t go as good of a job as we should for training
- Teachers are not trusted or not seen as being able to handle a level of autonomy
- Principals/Leadership
- Can’t force change
- Processes of reform are more complicated/resisted
- Strip away the political buzzwords
- SAMR- What is the human aspect of each of those words?
- “I’m already a good teacher, this won’t make me any better.”
- “I’m already stressed, I don’t have time to do it. I can’t take it on right now.”
- “You’re pushing me out of my comfort zone. You can’t force me to do this.”
- “I’m not a techie.”
- “I have higher priorities.”
- Teacher unions might be part of the problem? Might actively resist?
- People have identities
- Technology is threatening to their identity
The Digital Divide
Week 6
Beyond the Digital Divide: Burbules, Callister, Taaffe | ISTE Standards 3, 5, 6
- P. 85 ...not just one divide, but many.
- P. 86 ...people who are relatively advantaged along one dimension (for example, family income) may be relatively disadvantaged along other dimensions (for example, gender).