Lesson 7: Evaluation of Technology Learning

CONTENT

Changes in learning styles demand changes in learning experiences, and changes in learning experiences mandate changes in assessment methods. The concept of change is positively viewed as a steppingstone towards development with no exemption to the broad field of education. 19^th century learners are quite different to that of the 21^st century. It is quite irrational to apply an old assessment method to a new variety or set of learners. Educational developers are comprehensively building up the requisites of technology-assisted education, and they have now classified the various fluencies that are popularly seen in the new-generation learners which were identified in the previous section (solution fluency, information fluency, collaboration fluency, media fluency, creativity fluency and digital ethics).

There is a clear emphasis on the revision of some outdated assessment methods. The act of assessment should considerably meet the abovementioned competencies in order to come up with a valid result of evaluation. There would be no justification of learning outcomes if teachers would stick to the old ways of assessing learning despite of being fully aware of the fast-changing demands of the modern learners. If educators would neglect the adaption of new assessment methods, learning would lose its tract and the learners’ development would become undeterminable.

An effective way of teaching 21^st century learners includes problem-solving. Through this, high-order thinking skills will be cultivated and metacognition will be put to practice. Sited in this section are the 4 D’s (define, design, do, debrief) which can be applied to strategic learning and instruction-development activities.

Define – define the problem. “What is the issue here? What do I need to know?” Keen observation helps one to notice the occurrences of certain problems in the immediate surrounding which will later become the subject of study.

Design – plan out the steps to be followed. Distribution of task assignments should be encouraged, and everyone should know who is good at taking the lead for every proposed charges. The possible outcome should be assumed and weighed “Would this hit the targets? Would this aim the planned objectives?”

Do – it doesn’t just stop on planning out, does it? Plans should be implemented and assignments should be satisfied!

Debrief – after the plans are implemented, determine if the targets have been satisfied. Things that have successfully worked out should be acknowledged and things that haven’t worked out should be identified. What things still need to be improved? When results have been branded, it would be best to pursue revision for further improvement.

In the past, only businessmen and military personnel could enjoy computer services. However, due to the increasing availability of technological tools in the public market, ordinary people can now use computers thus obtaining the privilege to engage in business (for example) without having the official “brand” of a businessman. For another instance, even a high school student can now become a journalist through just feely posting news on-line. Professional roles are now shared with the masses, and this phenomenon is called mass amateurization.

EXPERIENCE

I had my first encounter with Mr. Microsoft PowerPoint when I was in fourth year high school. I was really amazed with how the software works – the transitions, the visual and sound effects – the idea. Our first practical exam with PowerPoint was to create a presentation. Regardless of the topic, our teacher checked how we combined the effects, choose the appropriate font style and size, and put persuasive soundtracks. Through that, our teacher was able to give us with corresponding points. Our teacher’s assessment method is making sense to me now as I ponder – there are really certain competencies which the paper-and-pencil test cannot cover. However, I noticed that our teacher didn’t use a rubric in rating our outputs and I wonder how he did the rating part objectively – or was it really objective? Anyways.

REFLECTION

Flexibility is an important trait of every teacher. Being flexible means to adjust and cope up with the needs of the learners, even if it would bend our traditional ways of dealing things. It is made clear to me now that assessment take in many forms – it should be proportional to the competencies being imposed. At the end of every learning activity, learners should be able to go beyond the act of theorizing – they must be able to apply what they have learned. As a teacher, I can assess the learning development of my learners through the application of appropriate assessment methods – performance-based (for the application of scientific concepts in actual events), project-based (for the application of collaborative learning, analysis and creativity), product-based (in determining students’ degree of understanding on the presented concepts) and many more.

APPLICATION

Having made aware with the fluencies of the new-generation learners, as a future teacher, it is my responsibility to meet the learning needs of my future students. Correspondingly, the determination of these learning needs requires a rigid set of appropriate assessment methods. Through the application of a suitable assessment strategy, I’ll be able to identify the particular strengths and weaknesses of my students. The identification of students’ position in terms of learning will enable me to define the occurring problems, design a plan on how to remediate it, implement the planned remedial activities, and revise methods based on the recognized learning outcome.

Lesson 6: Developing Basic Digital Skills

CONTENT

An effective teacher acknowledges the critical needs of the learners. Basically, every educational institution follows a standardized competency which a good teacher religiously realizes. As the key prime mover of the learning process, it is dogmatically important for a teacher to always see to it that the learners are learning what is intended for them to learn. This can be substantially evaluated through imposing behavioral assessments. Alongside the increasing demands of technology in educational whereabouts, educators should as well establish an increasing attention on the development of students’ essential skills.

There are enumerable specific skills, values, and attitudes a teacher should help the learners obtain. It is in this section that the six essentials to equip students for success is enumerated and summarized into: solution fluency, information fluency, collaboration fluency, media fluency, creativity fluency and digital ethics.

Solution fluency – exposures to real-life situations and problem-solving encourage critical-thinking among learners. Their ability to respond, react, and resolve is demarcated from the way they see conditions and how they analyze real events. Such activities allow students to think carefully, look for appropriate methods, and monitor facts thus developing metacognition.

Information fluency – with the availability of ICTs at home and school, storage of information goes beyond just plain texts. The ability to store information of all forms (texts, pictures, audios and videos) is an important skill that every student must be fluent at. This is unquestionably useful to them, especially in fulfilling their future educational pursuits. Information fluency is not only referable to technology as a medium to store information. It also includes the reasonable utilization of various technological tools in receiving and disseminating information. Hence, information fluency is always associated with reflection fluency. One must reflect before accepting or giving-off information.

Collaboration fluency – learners have multiple intelligences. Although they don’t exhibit them in equal degrees, honing these intelligences is always a challenging possibility. Role-playing, brainstorming, and other activities that would allow students to collaborate with their peers are essential for their interpersonal growth. Applying collaborative strategies helps students to develop their ability to communicate with people. Evidently, learners of today are more likely to engage in communication via social media. The on-line virtual world have offered modern learners to express their ideas more comfortably and are able to hear other persons’ viewpoints. A flexible teacher looks at this as an opportunity to engage the learners on virtual collaborative tasks. Today, educational technology developers have devised applications and software that would provide a conducive virtual setting for the teaching-learning process such as Edmodo.

Media fluency – if the learners understand how technological tools work, they are able to work with uniqueness. A mindful teacher helps the learners in attaining media fluency through giving them tasks that would correspondingly require the act of looking for concrete information sources. This could be the television, radio, magazines, or the internet. Media fluency is the ability to use learning tools to the fullness of its usefulness. Part of being media fluent is obtaining critical analysis and evaluation, and the ability to use concrete graphical objects to represent certain concepts.

Creativity fluency – creativity is an intelligence and supposedly, we should not compare one’s creativity to that of the others since it is relative. However, there are “creativities” that are more pleasing to the eyes and are generally acceptable, and this is what an ingenious teacher aims to inculcate in the permanent artistic domain of the learners. Unless the learner has the inclination, we cannot force him/her to make a perfectly proportionate hand-made or digital portrait of Justin Beiber or Zayn Malik. But a teacher can always teach learners the specific guidelines in producing creative outputs. “Does this font style fit my presentation? Which contrast is better to look at? Is my font size readable enough?”

Digital ethics – digital learners are prone to the exposures of negative entities from the net. Yes, information is just one click away, but so as pornography, privacy hacking, cyber bullying and so much more. Although values orientation starts at home, a watchful teacher can reinforce the formation of positive values through presenting the students their total accountability in using the net, informing them ahead the possible harm that a virtual misconduct may bring, and of course, through being an iconic model to them. Learners are being molded to become globally conscious and not globally inconspicuous.

EXPERIENCE

In my educational endeavor, so far, technology has been really helping me a lot. Of course, my first one-in-one encounter with Mr. Computer was like that of the usual – shaking hands and hesitation I would ask, “Am I going to click ‘ok’ or ‘close’?” whenever an unfamiliar notice pops out into the screen. Continuous exposures on computer along with the step-by-step guidance of my teachers helped me develop a close relationship with technology, and as I continued to explore new things, I learned more. The skills that I have acquired are helping me in producing comprehensive and creative outputs. Through being fluently skilful, I can communicate with others and vividly deliver useful information.

REFLECTION

Without conforming to the common conception of the majority about technology which believes that the latter is a bane, I can testify that technology is an amazing tool for effective learning. The application of technological tools, however, still greatly depends on the intentions and values of the input source which is the person in control. It is important that I understand these things so I may be able to impart knowledge to my future colleagues and students in a way that is not contradictory to the ethical values of the social context.

APPLICATION

WOW! Teaching is really an act of nobility. There are many things to take into consideration, and tasks are just multi-disciplinarily overwhelming! The purpose of letting learners learn to manipulate useful technological tools is not only to acquire information more effectively but to be more flexible as well. In my future teaching exertion, I can always have technology as a friend. However, its use should never be overwhelmed, it should be modulated. Appropriateness and the suitability on students’ learning styles are still of a great consideration in selecting teaching strategies. If it is best to include technology in the learning experience, then be it. Students, however, should be made aware of their accountabilities as active users of on-line information media, and must be well-oriented on the must-be-observed limitations of net browsing.

Lesson 5: Preferences of the Technology Generation

CONTENT

Imagine how will it be like to be a student without the computer and the internet… FRUSTRATING! Although not every person in the world are aware of the current revolution being imposed by the ICT particularly in education, there is still a great number of students who rely on the internet as a source of useful information. Whenever a question is in mind, a modern student just simply sit in front the screen, enter the keys, and with just one click in few milliseconds – ting – comprehensive answers are obtained! That’s how technology helpfully assists learning nowadays. If it happens to cross our mind: how did our grandparents survived in their educational endeavors without even obtaining an idea of the existence of helpful technological aids like computers? Life back then must be really very patience-and-industry-demanding. 

To come up with a full understanding on the variations in terms of preferences of the old generation and the new, let’s have a concise elaboration of the latters’ differences:

Single and multi-track activity patterns – the old generation has availed a slow and single-track pattern of activities while the new is actively enjoying the opposite. Using the advanced technological tools that we have today, the possibility of serving two or more masters at the same time is becoming a real practice!

Text vs. visuals – before, if you wish to internalize educational concepts, you should read a lot. Looking for related and promising sources back then was quite time-consuming and effort-exhausting. You might find one, but the visual displays wouldn’t give you sufficient and enriched details. You had to browse through all the mind-blogging texts to come up with an understanding of the desired concept – really arduous! But today, useful information are sorted comprehensively in the internet, and in just one setting of browsing, YouTube will offer you numerous options of conceptual motion pictures!

Linear vs. hypermedia – although it was difficult for students to look for good information sources, they are more logical than the learners of today. Old-generation learners are more focused when it comes to fulfilling specific tasks than today’s digital learners who simply rely on random hyperlinked digital information without deep reflection.

Independent vs. social learners – old-generation learners prefer to learn by themselves and tend to make individualized class involvements. They lean towards working alone, communicate less when it comes to learning, and more likely to engage in self-study. New-generation learners are more sociable. They work more comfortably with peers and are more exposed in discovery learning. Social media help modern students to communicate with their peers even at long distances. Cooperative learning gives way for students to obtain constructive skills which are essential in authentic learning.

Learning to do vs. learning to pass the test – there’s quite a difference when one engage in learning to obtain a skill than just to obtain a good grade. Old-generation learners are more prone to learning-to-pass-the-test cases. Since the provision of real instructional materials are very limited back then, students often stop in the theorizing phase and skip the application phase. Today’s learners have the advantage in partaking engagements to real learning activities which help them in obtaining skill-based competencies thus learning beyond the reason of just “to pass the test.”

Delayed reward vs. instant gratification – rewards for students’ performance are distributed in delayed periods in traditional schools. Medals and certificates of merit are distributed usually once or twice in a year which is totally different from that of the new way of giving rewards. Although award ceremonies are still operational nowadays, students’ performances on a daily basis are now instantly rewarded. For an instance, teacher Jean conducted a short check-up on students’ understanding of cell division. She used a web-directed assessment method which allowed students to pick choices within a short span of time. Right after all the items were completed, the computer automatically made a calculation of the students’ scores and automatically deposited the garnered points in the students’ accounts. Then appeared on the screen are three stars with a corresponding passage, “Great job! You got three stars in the test!”

Rote memory vs. fun learning – the availability of new technological tools trigger learners’ interests on the curricular subject matters. The presence of digital learning media has created an environment for modern students to have fun while learning – providing hands-on-minds-on experiences, exposures to certain events, and sufficient generation of essential information. Today, learning goes far beyond the act of memorizing.

EXPERIENCE

I have to admit that I really hate going to libraries. Such places provide me a perfect atmosphere for a good sleep. I’m a solid digital learner, whenever I have question in mind, if I don’t speak it out or address it to someone who really knows, I just simply browse the net. I’m a new-generation learner and technology really helps me a lot in fulfilling my tasks as a student. Having enrolled in the course subjects like Astronomy, Earth Science, Geology, Meteorology, and Educational Technology, I don’t see any reason why I should neglect the use of technological tools as a companion for learning. I need the internet! Through digital learning, one can learn while having fun.

REFLECTION

Although being a new-generation learner offers me a lot of privileges, it also exposes me to certain risks. Since I have discovered the sufficiency of the internet as an information resource, I have observed that I have not developed the habit of doing things ahead of time – time consciousness. Knowing that the answers are just one click away, I often choose to delay the completion of many of my tasks. Let me give you a concrete example: this. I was working for this blog because this is the only time left for me to have my tasks completed. Technology is a great relief for exaggerated urgency, but when applied uncritically, it would trigger the development of undesirable attitudes. Mindfulness is always a necessity. We must always be conscious that technology is not something that we should be abusing.

APPLICATION

It is observed that majority of the learners today are exposed to digital tools. Education is dynamic (this is an overused line), and part of the change is the transformation of learning styles. As an educator in the future, in appropriate conditions I can make use of technology as an aid for instruction. The degree of learning outcome of my future students would largely rely on how I facilitate the teaching-learning process. Technology is a help, but in times I need to go beyond just the act of presenting the lesson via Microsoft PowerPoint, I have to take the lead. I have to set my students out to the real world and allow them to see things as they are.