The instructor’s guide contains several useful tools, discussion questions, a case study, review questions, additional chapter assignments, lesson examples and a student application assignment. Chapter 1 also contains the Lesson Analysis and Application Worksheet, referred to in each of the chapters. As the Instructor, pick and choose which of these materials work for you or you may decide to use our ideas and create your own. This guide is intended to help solidify the information from the chapter and help you as an instructor implement the application of these materials.
Discussion questions
The following questions are intended for use in a small group discussion setting. Please use these questions to help the students understand the important concepts in this chapter. To add interest to class discussions, copy and paste some or all of these questions into a Nearpod https://nearpod.comor PowToon, https://www.powtoon.com, to create a fun, user-friendly, student-voice based, review.
- Define what technology in the classroom means to you. Why is it necessary to learn to use technology, as a classroom tool?
- When considering technology as an educational tool, what role do you think it should play in your future classroom?
- Put your creative thinking hats on, what is educational technology to you, how can it enhance creative thought?
- Please discuss 4 educational technologies that you know about or have used in the classroom in the past.
- Look at the National Education Technology Standards (NETs) located in your text. Discuss how 2 of these standards can be used to help you use technology to teach a math or science lesson.
- Think about the different groups of students you might have in your classroom. List 3 areas and discuss where technology would benefit special needs and ELL students.
- How can online website research contribute to a positive classroom experience? Do you see yourself using the websites and apps with your students? If so how?
- Brainstorm In your small groups:
- Discuss some of the changes you’ve seen when considering the use of technology in the classroom since you were in elementary school.
- What technological changes do you expect to see in the future? How do you see these changes affecting the classroom?
Case: Balancing Act
As you read the following scenario, think about what teachers need to know in order to support learning with technology effectively.
“Let’s discuss why you’re taking this class,” said Dr. Ritter on the first day of her education technology class for pre-service teachers. “What do you think teachers need to know about supporting learning with technology, and why do they need to know it?”
She wrote “What” and “Why” at the top of the whiteboard at the front of the room.
“I don’t know why we need to take an ed tech class,” lamented Barbara, a first-semester pre-service teacher. “I’ve been using computers since I was 4. We don’t have a class that just talks about using books, do we?”
“Interesting point. Can you put that in a form that I can list here, please?” Dr. Ritter replied.
“Oh, okay,” said Barbara. “Under ‘Why’ you can write: so they know why they need to know.” As the class laughed, Dr. Ritter smiled and asked, “What do others of you think?”
“Well, I can say that I use computers every day,” said Josh. “But I don’t really know how to use them in a classroom except for writing and maybe sending email to someone. So I need to know how to use them with students.”
Dr. Ritter wrote, “How to use computers in the classroom” under “What” on the board.
Brittany added, “There’s a lot of software and other technologies out there that I have never used. So I need to know more about technical stuff. But how can we learn everything in one course?”
Dr. Ritter said, “Good question—we’ll need to answer that one” and wrote “Technical stuff” under “What.”
The conversation continued for several more minutes. When the students ran out of ideas, the short lists on the board looked like this:
What Why
• How to use computers
• To meet state requirements in the classroom
• Because we have to
• Technical stuff (all of it)
• To meet student standards
• What’s available
• To keep up with students
• What’s required/expected
• To have an edge in job searches
• The best software and activities
• Exactly what to do
“Those don’t seem like very strong reasons for you to spend 5 hours per week in class for a whole semester, do they?” said Dr. Ritter. “There must be additional whats and whys that we haven’t considered yet. Let’s think about the questions in another way.”
She displayed a PowerPoint slide on the screen in the front of the classroom. On it was written:
Teaching is not a science; it is an art. If teaching were a science there would be a best way of teaching and everyone would have to teach like that. Since teaching is not a science, there is great latitude and much possibility for personal differences. (George Polya, cited in O’Connor & Robertson, 2002)
“What do you think this quote has to do with the reasons you’re here?” she asked.
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Case Review Questions
Answer these questions about the case with your current level of knowledge. There are no right or wrong answers to this chapter preview—the goal is for you to respond before you read the chapter. Then, as you interact with this chapter’s content, think about how your answers might change.
1. What would you add to the lists the class made? Why?
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2. What does the quote from Polya have to do with learning about educational technology?
____________________________________________________________________
3. What role(s) do you believe technology should play in education? Why?
____________________________________________________________________
4. What are your goals in taking this course? What do you hope to accomplish?
____________________________________________________________________
The questions from Dr. Ritter help to set the tone for the rest of her course and stimulate her students’ previous knowledge so that they can make connections between what they know and what is to come in the course, as this chapter does for the rest of this text. As mentioned above, this text focuses on foundational, or essential, ideas for effective technology-enhanced learning and teaching. More specifically, this chapter will help you to understand how technology has been defined and why it has become such an important educational topic. The chapter also discusses some initial fears that you may have as you begin to integrate technology into your teaching, as well as benefits and barriers to using technology. Additionally, examples of tools and activities provide an overview of what is happening in today’s classrooms. Refer to the Teacher Tools section in this chapter for a list of websites and ideas.
Chapter Review Questions
Following each chapter’s case is a list of objectives that you should be able to meet after completing the chapter. For example, when you finish this chapter, you will be able to meet the following objectives:
• Explain why a learning focus is important to supporting learning with technology.
• Describe the relevant standards and the 21st-century skills that ground the learning in this text.
• Define “educational technology” and related terms.
• Discuss the use of technology tools to provide access to learning for physically challenged students, English language learners, and others who might face barriers to learning.
• Present an overview of computer-based and computer-assisted assessment practices.
• Understand how and why to adapt lesson plans for more effective learning.
ISTE Standards for Teachers
The format, content, and objectives for each chapter have been developed to help you to meet the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS*T). These include:
1. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity.
2. Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments
3. Model digital age work and learning
4. Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility
5. Engage in professional growth and leadership
ISTE standards https://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf
-Look at the objectives for this chapter listed above. Which NETS*T do they address, at least in part?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-Which of the five learning goals are you confident that you know how to support? Which do you need more work with? Why do you think so? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-What is your theory of how people learn? How does your personal theory affect how you plan to teach?___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-What are your reasons for learning about educational technology? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-What do you remember about using technology when you were K-12 student? What ideas do you already have about using technology in your instruction? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-What else would you add to this list? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-What might be some of the barriers to learning for the students you plan to teach? Ideally, how could technology help overcome these barriers? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-Being media literate requires that the students understand the source of their information. How can understanding the parts of a URL aid in this understanding? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-Have you ever witnessed or participated in a thoughtless use of technology? What did you learn from the experience? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-Based on you reading of this chapter, what else would you change about this lesson? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-Which information in this chapter is most valuable to you? Why? How will you use it in your teaching?_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
TECHNOLOGY-SUPPORTED LESSON EXAMPLE
Chapters 2–8 include a lesson section that has three parts: (1) a sample technology-enhanced lesson, (2) a lesson analysis, and (3) suggestions for adaptation to better fit the classroom or situation addressed in the case. Each sample lesson is written by a classroom teacher and is tied to the chapter’s topic. Each chapter’s lesson is chosen because it demonstrates ideas from that particular chapter. This section not only shows how the chapter concepts fit together but also demonstrates how technology-enhanced lessons created for one context might be adapted to work effectively in another context. Note that any adaptation must be based on who the students are, the teacher’s experience and knowledge, and the context (available technology, support structure, curriculum, and so on).
This chapter explores an example of a lesson developed for grades 5–7 that is being adapted for grade 3.
The Lesson
Following is a plan on current events from http://www.teacherplanet.com/content/sites-teachers?ref=sites4teachers. Note that the lessons in other chapters might follow different formats because there is not one right way to create a lesson plan, and teachers usually personalize their lessons in some way. However, certain elements such as objectives, goals, materials, and procedures will almost always be present and can be analyzed for appropriateness.
Source: Reprinted with permission of The Montana Standard.
Analysis
The lesson in each chapter is analyzed according to the categories from the following Lesson Analysis and Adaptation Worksheet. The first column contains criteria for an effective lesson. Indicators (explanations) of the criteria are in the middle column. The third column in the worksheet is for teacher comments about whether and how the lesson meets each criterion and, if it does not, how the lesson might be adapted.
From the analysis, it is clear that the lesson has some good aspects. However, a number of areas can be improved or changed to work better in general and for third graders specifically. Following are some adaptations that could be made to this lesson based on the analysis.
Adaptations
A synthesis of the comments on the worksheet indicates that to work better for the range of third graders in any class, these adaptations could be made:
- Make the standards explicit and tie them to the objectives and tasks. Common Core Standards could include those addressing media and technological literacy, thinking skills, current events, and reading and writing.
- Include handouts for reading strategies. Content reading strategies such as predicting and inferencing could be addressed by having students complete a handout for each article. The handout would provide scaffolding and help students focus their reading. The handout could include simple questions such as:
- “What do you already know about this topic?”
- “What does the title mean?”
Current Events Awareness
An Educator’s Reference Desk Lesson Plan
Author: NIE Curriculum Guide—The Montana Standard—Butte, MT.
Grade Level(s): 5, 6, 7
Subject(s):
-
-
- Social Studies/Current Events/Issues
-
Objective: To increase student awareness of current events at local, national and international levels
Materials Needed: Newspapers, scissors
To Start:
Ask students to recall some of the biggest local news events of the year. Can they do the same for national news? World news? Which stories affect them directly (teachers’ strikes, park closings, etc.)? Which stories affect them indirectly (world hunger, rising oil prices, etc.)? Which stories do not affect them at all?
Group Activity:
Divide the class bulletin board into three categories: local, national, and world news. Break the class into three groups, one for each category. Every day for a week or so, have each group clip from the newspaper two or three articles and photos they feel are most important or interesting. Each group should arrange its examples on the bulletin board.
At the end of the week, have students report on one of the events pictured on the board. The oral reports should include the 5Ws and H—the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the story—as well as why the group felt the event was important.
Follow-Up:
When a major local, national, or world news story breaks, bring it to the class’ attention; challenge students to find follow-up stories in the days that follow. Have them summarize events that have occurred. Story examples might include natural disasters, political crises, major crime investigations, disease outbreaks, organ transplant operations, etc. (Note that as the days go on and the story becomes less timely, it may be harder to find follow-ups. You might make the assignment a challenge: Who will be the first to uncover the news?)
Lesson Analysis and Adaptation Worksheet
Content Area/Topic: Current events/News
Location and Title of Lesson: http://www.sites4teachers.com/, Current Events Awareness
Intended Audience for the Adaptation: 3rd grade
| The lesson . . . | Indicators | Comments |
| Works toward appropriate goals. |
|
The goal of increasing student awareness is stated, but the standards are not. These need to be listed for grade 3 and tied to the objectives and tasks. |
| Requires the use of higher-order thinking skills and “new” literacies. |
|
The lesson includes summarizing, some synthesizing. It could easily include predicting and other literacy skills. For third graders, visual literacy is important and there should be a segment about WHERE they got the story and why they believe it. It doesn’t have to be in depth but should raise awareness. |
| Integrates the learning goals. |
|
It includes one-way communication and simple production but needs to integrate research, critical thinking, and content learning more. |
| Includes a variety of resources. |
|
The resources need to be made explicit—is it USA Today and the local paper or something else?
Reading levels differ, and using online papers and magazines made specifically for students would help more students have choices and include other types of news like video reports. |
| Engages all students actively in authentic tasks. |
|
There are groups but no specific tasks. Students need to be given some recommendations here. It’s too easy for one or two students to control this task. A general connection is made at the start of students’ lives but not carried through. More specifics could help form an essential question. |
| Uses technology effectively, efficiently, and as a learning tool. |
|
Technology is not used. Students could print news from many different sources from the Internet and thereby get a much broader picture of each event. Saves the teacher time from trying to get enough newspapers and gives students more options, especially for the follow-up stories. |
| Addresses the needs of a variety of students, including ELLs and students with physical and other challenges. |
|
Not all students can read a newspaper. Using the Internet to find a variety of levels of news would help these students access the lesson content. Also, instead of an oral report at the end of the week, students should be allowed to draw, graph, or whatever else they need to do to show their understanding. A class journal might work, too. |
| Includes appropriate assessments. |
|
No real assessment is mentioned. It needs to be made explicit and tied to the standards/objectives. Adding choices for presentation would also make the assessment fairer. |
- “What do you think will happen next?”
- “Is the source trustworthy?”
- “What did you learn about this topic?”
This could lead to great discussions around media literacy, content learning, and personal experience. In addition, this could give each student a task that the teacher could assess.
Include a greater variety of resources. Third graders, like all students, vary greatly in reading and thinking skills and preferred learning strategies, so materials at a number of levels should be available. The Internet can help by allowing students to access Time for Kids, CNN Online, local news in repeatable video clips, and so on. This allows students with a variety of challenges to participate and work toward the same goals.
Include specific, differentiated assessment. Third graders cannot always explain in text what they want to say. They should have the option of using other modes (e.g., speaking or drawing) to present their stories, but a rubric should be included that evaluates all of the presentations on the same criteria tied to whichever standards the lesson is based on. Depending on these standards and the related outcome goals, sample categories could be completeness, expression, explanation, ability to answer questions, and use of technology or other aids.
These four important changes make the lesson content more relevant, more consistent, and focused on language and content standards that are easily integrated into the third-grade lesson topic. Just as important, incorporating the use of technology makes all of these goals possible.
CHAPTER EXTENSIONS
Adapt
Choose a lesson for your potential subject area and grade level from the Lesson Plans Library at Discovery Schools (http://www.discoveryeducation.com). Use the Lesson Analysis and Adaptation Worksheet to analyze the lesson. Use your responses to the worksheet to suggest general changes to the lesson based on your future students and context. Use the Lesson Analysis and Adaptation Worksheet to analyze the lesson. Use your responses to the worksheet to suggest general changes to the lesson based on your future students and context.
Practice
These activities will allow you to apply the ideas from the chapter and use your understandings of the foundations of technology use.
- Map the standards. List the 6 learning goals for this text in a table. Use the Education World Web site (http://www.educationworld.com/) or http://www.educationworld.com common core to find standards for your specific grade and content area. Put each standard under one or more of the learning goals. What did you find?
- Think about technology. List the ways in which you interact with technology in a typical day. What does this technology interaction imply about what students need to do in real life with technology?
- Outline your personal teaching philosophy. What do you believe education is and can do? How do you believe learning happens? Why?
- Explore literacy needs. Explore a piece of software or a Web site from a multiliteracy viewpoint. Which literacies listed in this chapter do students need to employ to use the software you chose? How will you teach them?
- Find an example. Using one of the Web sites mentioned in the chapter or one you find yourself, find a real-life example of classroom technology use. State whether the use might be effective or not and explain why you think so.
- Examine task characteristics. Using the characteristics of effective tasks outlined in this chapter, examine one of the classroom examples provided in the Learning Activities section. Explain how it has or does not have these characteristics.
Explore
These activities will help you to explore possibilities outside the chapter.
- Interview a K–12 student. Think about what students in a specific grade and/or content area need to know about technology and technology use. Prepare questions ahead of time to discover what your student knows about technology. Prepare a summary of the interview to share.
- Interview a K–12 teacher. Find out what technologies are most useful for the teacher and what else he or she would like to know about technology and learning.
- Make a list. Research information on students with special needs from the DO-IT Web site (http://www.washington.edu/doit/) or conduct a Web search. List some of the needs that students in your future classes may have. List any other kinds of differences that you may find in children in your future classes that could affect both learning and technology use.
Lesson Analysis and Adaptation Worksheet
Content Area/Topic: Location and Title of Lesson:
Intended Audience for the Adaptation:
| The lesson . . . | Indicators | Comments |
| Works toward appropriate goals. |
|
|
| Requires the use of higher-order thinking skills and “new” literacies. |
|
|
| Integrates the learning goals. |
|
|
| Includes a variety of resources. |
|
|
| Engages all students actively in authentic tasks. |
|
|
| Uses technology effectively, efficiently, and as a learning tool. |
|
|
| Addresses the needs of a variety of students, including ELLs and students with physical and other challenges. |
|
|
| Includes appropriate assessments. |
|
Student Application Activity
The following questions are intended to help the students go beyond what they have read and apply the information from the chapter. After reading chapter 1 they will have a broad overview of some of the technologies available in the classroom. By completing the following assignment students will have the opportunity to look more deeply into ways in which technology can affect education and the world around us.
Instructors, please divide the class into small groups and follow the directions below to complete this assignment.
Group 1
Please watch this Ted Talk that describes multitasking and how it affects us. https://youtu.be/PriSFBu5CLs
After viewing the video please respond to the following questions
- How does this speaker define multitasking?
- In this Ted Talk, discussing multitasking, what are some of the conclusions?
- In your opinion, do you think people can be successful at multitasking? Do you think you are successful at it?
- What are some things that are amenable to multitasking? When is it dangerous or harmful to multitask?
- Please write a short paragraph discussing why you feel that you are successful or unsuccessful at multitasking. How is multitasking related to the use of technology?
- Be prepared to discuss the video along with your findings with the class.
Group 2
Please watch this Ted Talk, discussing the use of technology in education. https://youtu.be/w6vVXmwYvgs
After viewing the video please respond to the following questions
1. What is the premise of this video? What is this instructor encouraging us to do as educators to change how technology is being used in the classroom? 2. How can technology be used as a purposeful and effective tool in the classroom? 3. What does it mean to have a “students teaching students” classroom? Describe how you might use Genius Hour, described in the video. 4. Write a short paragraph describing how you might make your classroom technology, user-friendly, using students cell phones, apps, and websites. 5. Please look up the ISTE National Education Technology standards (NET’s), how does understanding the use of technology help your students? https://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students (Links to an external site.) Looking at the standards as they relate to teaching, do you think that technology can enhance how you teach? https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators (Links to an external site.) 6. Be prepared to discuss the video along with your findings with the class.
Group 3
Please watch this video, discussing the use of drones in the military. https://youtu.be/ZgCv3tHI9pQ
After viewing the video please respond to the following questions:
- How are drones being used in the military?
- Are drones helping the military accomplish its mission? If so how?
- How are drone pilots being trained?
- How is the military using video games to combat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? (PTSD) http://www.complex.com/life/2016/11/veterans-day-millennials-video-games-ptsd (Links to an external site.)
- Please look up the ISTE National Education Technology standards NET’s, How can the use of drones help students understand the connection between the classroom and a future career? How does that relate to the NET’s standards? https://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students (Links to an external site.)
- Be prepared to discuss the video along with your findings with the class.
Group 4
Please watch this video, discussing video game addiction in South Korea. https://youtu.be/Lzn1_i42HSA
After viewing the video, please respond to the following questions:
- Please describe the video gaming problem in South Korea, how does it affect the video game players and their families?
- What does it mean to be an addict?
- Do you think this is a new problem or has it been around for a long time?
- Do you see the same issue in the US? Why or why not?
- How do you think you as an educator can create an atmosphere of ethical responsibility when using technology in the classroom?
- What are your thoughts regarding this short documentary and video game addiction?
- Be prepared to discuss the video along with your findings with the class.
Group 5
Please watch this video that describes video game use in education. https://youtu.be/6J9vfcW3e8Q
After viewing the video, please respond to the following questions:
- How is video gaming used in education?
- How is this computer education instructor using video games in the classroom? Do you think this use of games is helpful in education? Please list two pros and cons of classroom video gaming.
- Take a look at the website, https://blizzcon.com/en-us/ (Links to an external site.) How does this entertainment company use video gaming? What are your thoughts?
- Discuss your findings, what you observed in the video and your, personal, opinion of video games in education.
- Please list the 5, 21st-century skills, found in the text. Which of these skills apply to a gaming? Please explain.
- Be prepared to discuss the video along with your findings with the class.
Group 6
Please watch this video that describes the use of Minecraft in Education. https://youtu.be/SSimHPmZ0hA
After viewing the video, please respond to the following questions
- How is Minecraft Edu, https://education.minecraft.net (Links to an external site.) being used in education?
- Please describe how Minecraft Edu is used in a variety of content areas?
- Please list 2-3 pros and cons to using Minecraft Edu in the classroom.
- Please list the 5, 21st-century skills, found in the text. Which of these skills apply to a game like Minecraft? please explain.
- Discussing your findings, describe what you observed in the video and your personal opinion of using Minecraft Edu in the classroom.
- Be prepared to discuss the video along with your findings with the class.
Group 7
kaitlyn.sumner@wsu.edu; tess.upchurch@wsu.edu; megan.wittenberg@wsu.edu
Please watch these two short videos that discuss the use of future technology in the classroom.
https://youtu.be/uZ73ZsBkcus
https://youtu.be/loFL5gT_m8I
After viewing these videos, please respond to the following questions
- What does the future of technology in education look like?
- How is the instructor in the first video using technology to enhance student learning? Is this realistic? Why or why not?
- What do you think the biggest change in technology will be, based on the text?
- The text and the video discuss the use of augmented and virtual reality, please describe each of these technologies.
- When considering the information regarding educational technology, found in the text, how will assessment, context, effectiveness, engagement, evaluation, and feedback play a role in the future of educational technology?
- Discuss your findings, what did you think of the video and the future of technology in the classroom?
- Be prepared to discuss the video along with your findings with the class.