Professional and Leadership Development
The Science Teacher - Rev Your Engines! Linking physical science and math with car labs
Civilization III and Whole-Class Play in High School Social Studies
This study examined an 11th grade high school class as they played the game Civilization III. Over nine class sessions students played the game in support of other activities related to several predetermined and emergent topics in U. S. history. Gameplay was whole-class oriented and involved students taking turns at the computer controlling actions in the game. Qualitative methods were used to analyze data that included observation, student work, interviews with students and the teacher, and a journal maintained by the teacher. Findings are presented in four areas, suggesting that Civilization III gameplay is complex and requires creative thinking about how to use game within the constraints of standard U. S. history curricula. Given the findings of this study, we suggest that teachers can make effective use of Civilization III in U. S. history classes when care is taken by the teacher to situate students’ game experiences in rich classroom discussions and specific non-game oriented activities.
Connecting Informal and Formal Learning Experiences in the Age of Participatory Media
The renaissance stimulated by the World Wide Web is generating multiple formats and channels of communication and creativity. These include blogs, wikis, instant messaging, and texting in the realm of writing, podcasting in audio, countless sites such as Flickr for distribution and sharing of images, and video shared via YouTube and other sites. The Pew Internet and American Life project reports that the majority of all teens are now engaged in active creation of online content. The rise of social media reflects new opportunities and outlets for creativity.
Energizing project-based inquiry: Middle school students read, write, and create videos
In light of emerging technologies prompting new avenues for teaching and learning, students are positioned to “create” to learn, with video production being an important process for literacy development. There is a growing need for innovative instructional practices with reading and writing that are aligned with student interests and the activities they engage in outside of the classroom. Connecting video production to reading and writing experiences in school taps into a student’s natural predisposition for media consumption and production. This article presents a project-based inquiry process that merges students growing interest in grassroots video with educational goals that are aligned with state and national curricular standards. Through a 5-phase process--ask a compelling question, gather and analyze information, creatively synthesize information, critically evaluate and revise, and publish, share, and act—students are engaged in reading, writing, and creating a video product that captures their multimodal learning of academic content.
New Literacies in the US and China: Middle Grade Teachers Confront the Issues
Central to closing the gap between in-school and out-of-school student technology use is teachers’ dispositions and uses of technologies to support student engagement with new literacies in the classroom. This study presents findings from surveys and focus groups with American and Chinese teachers in an attempt to understand both groups’ perspectives on integrating new literacies into their teaching. Results indicate that although American and Chinese teachers are operating under different policies in their respective countries, their experiences with school changes prompted by the integration of new literacies have similarities. One notable difference was the significantly higher value Chinese teachers assigned to creativity and innovation in contrast to American teachers, which may be a result of current American testing policies. Teachers from both countries are eager to create educational experiences that help students become active global citizens and recognize the role of new literacies in achieving this goal.
New Media Literacies, Student Generated Content, and the YouTube Aesthetic
The proliferation of content generation and sharing through Web 2.0 tools has created what Henry Jenkins refers to as new media literacies. We explore the application of new media literacies through digital media creation with eighth graders. This pilot project promotes online video capabilities in conjunction with the time-honored practice of adolescents reading classic and young adult literature. Through the project’s curriculum design and pedagogical apparatus, student-generated videos illustrate that complex thinking and learning and the YouTube aesthetic do not need to be mutually exclusive. We provide the theoretical foundations for our work as well as preliminary analysis of student-generated products. In future work, we will introduce a revised scaffolding process that incorporates a series of rubrics (based on Henry Jenkins framework on new media literacies and Biggs and Collis SOLO taxonomy) to facilitate evidence of complex thinking in the students’ video products.
New Technologies, New Horizons: Graduate Student Views on Creating Their Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)
The purpose of this chapter is to present graduate students’ views of their Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) development. These graduate students are also teachers. Data was collected using a mixed method approach founded on the TPACK Framework and social network analysis. Koehler and Mishra (2006) claim that effective teaching with technology requires TPACK, or an ability to integrate content, pedagogy and technology flexibly during the act of teaching. As part of a graduate course on new literacies and media, participants were required to design and implement lessons that incorporated a range of technologies, produce written reflections about their experiences, and engage in online interactions with participants in the class. Qualitative results from participants’ written reflections revealed four themes relative to TPACK. Additionally, a social network analysis demonstrated a positive relationship between participants’ views on their TPACK development and their interaction patterns within the online learning environment. This study shows that the TPACK framework can be a useful tool, giving educators a productive way to think about technology integration as they navigate the rapid changes prompted by emerging technologies.
Problem Solving and Game-Based Learning: Effects of Middle Grade Students’ Hypothesis Testing Strategies on Learning Outcomes
Targeted as a highly desired skill for contemporary work and life, problem solving is central to game-based learning research. In this study, middle grade students achieved significant learning gains from gameplay interactions that required solving a science mystery based on microbiology content. Student trace data results indicated that effective exploration and navigation of the hypothesis space within a problem-solving task was predictive of student learning and in-game performance. Students who selected a higher proportion of inappropriate hypotheses demonstrated smaller learning gains and completed fewer in-game goals. Although there was no relationship observed between providing correct explanations for hypothesis selections and learning gains, students providing incorrect explanations completed fewer goals within the game. Finally, there was no significant gender effect observed on the relationship between hypothesis testing strategies and learning or in-game performance. Hypothesis testing strategies play a central role in narrative-centered learning environments, demonstrating their connections to learning gains and problem solving in gameplay.
Scaffolding the TPACK Framework in Reading and Language Arts: New Literacies and New Minds
In his century old seminal essay, What Knowledge is of Most Worth?, social theorist Herbert Spencer stated that this question needed to be answered before designing curriculum or instruction. As we continue into the 21st century, Spencer’s compelling question is still front and center but now in the midst of fast-paced technological changes that are prompting new literacies. Perhaps in no other area is his question more provocative than in teacher education. Mishra and Koehler (2006) assert that in teacher education, the successful teacher is one who can draw from content, pedagogy and technology, forming a technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework—and that it is this knowledge that is of most worth.
Social Studies and History Teachers’ Uses of Non-Digital and Digital Historical Resources
A gap in the literature on digital history was explored through the use of a survey of 104 high school social studies teachers, administered in a large urban/suburban school district in the southeastern United States. The survey examined the extent to which social studies teachers were using non-digital and digital historical resources and the ways in which they were using them. Results indicated that social studies and history teachers were using primary historical sources, but important questions remained regarding the nature of this use. Specifically, it was found that while the teachers in this survey reported using digital and non-digital primary historical sources in their classrooms, they did not report using these resources in a manner consistent with literature-based best practices for social studies and history education.
