EDUC 5313 - Week 2 - Authentic Intellectual Work

This week, our Learning Technologies course asks us to describe and discuss Authentic Intellectual Work:

Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW) is purposeful. It's not busy-work that only teaches a concept, but instead is work that can put to use to actually complete a task or solve a problem. To me, this is what project-based-learning (PBL) should be. Traditional instruction has students learning concepts and practicing finding answers to problems that we already know the answers to. AIW and PBL are what students get to experience when they find, or are presented with a problem that they must develop a solution for - that we don't know the "correct" answer to yet. Students get to use their prior knowledge and research they perform to guide their solutions. They get to collaborate with others on the same problem so they can see multiple viewpoints and potential solution ideas to consider. Not only do they get to solve a REAL problem, but they get to socialize and collaborate on the solution with other students and professionals as they work.

Newman, King, & Charmichael (2007) describe Authentic Intellectual Work as having three major characteristics: Construction of Knowledge, Disciplined Inquiry, and Value Beyond School. Disciplined Inquiry resonates with me because I feel it contributes to the Construction of Knowledge and Value Beyond School. Disciplined Inquiry includes using what you already know and information you find to develop and communicate a solution to a problem. As more information is found and incorporated into the solution, the knowledge base is improved. If the problem truly is a real-world problem, the solution that is communicated has value beyond school.

In a study conducted by the Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools (CORS) from 1990 to 1995, Newman et al, (2007) note that the use of Authentic Pedagogy increased math and social studies performance by 30 percentile points. In another study conducted in 1997 demonstrated a 30 to 56 percentile increase in test scores when Authentic Pedagogy was employed (Newman et al, 2007). Newman et al, (2007) noted gains regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, or socio-economic status. They also note the achievement gap between high and low socio-economic status students was decreased when authentic instruction was employed. Their major takeaway that really resonated with me was "the more teachers expect from students, the better the students' performance" (Newman, et al, 2007, p. 26).

I've always tried to have high expectations from all students - likely the result of teaching at Cornerstone Academy (CSA) for ten years. Jill Wright, our principal during my time at CSA, believed strongly that all children can achieve at high levels. We taught an all Pre-AP curriculum to ALL students - Special Education, 504, "regular", and Gifted & Talented (GT) students. Most of our GT students were on an accelerated track, but all students received instruction through projects that had very high expectations. After being away from CSA for four years, I feel I may have forgotten to maintain that higher level of expectation. This week's readings were a good reminder for me as we enter a new school year.

Authentic Intellectual Work in my Classroom

I hope to implement my CSA-level expectations more regularly in my classes, but especially in an upcoming project this year. This fall, my students will research various endangered species to determine what has caused them to have a decline in population. Students will select a specific species to focus their research on and they will attempt to find/develop solutions that may help increase the population of their selected species. After they develop their potential solution, they will share their ideas with their class and will post their solution to their digital portfolio. With their solutions posted digitally, their ideas will be available for others to view and potentially implement.

I hope to convince them to focus on local species so they may be able to implement their solutions. Rule notes that "science instruction should involve authentic tasks that address real-world problems encountered by scientists, allowing students to investigate problems in their own lives and communities (2006, p. 3)." However, with any project of this nature, having a choice is important. If it is their choice, they will be more likely to remain engaged and really put their heart into the research for a solution.

Throughout this project, students will use their district-provided Chromebooks to perform their research and will collaborate with other students on campus to develop solutions. The National Educational Technology Plan (NETP) wants all learners to "have engaging and empowering learning experiences in both formal and informal settings that prepare them to be active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in our globally connected society" (NETP, 2017). I feel that AIW and the expectations of the NETP merge nicely in this project. This project allows peer interaction, encourages persistence to develop a workable solution to a difficult challenge, includes sharing solutions on a digital platform so others may see and contribute to the solution, is a real-world challenge, has value beyond the classroom, and provides digital accommodations for students with learning challenges. Our campus has one of the highest populations of English Language Learners and also has one of the highest percentages of students that qualify for free and reduced-price meals. We are very fortunate in our district to have these resources available for all of our students!

References

Reflection on Technology Integration for 21st Century Learners

As I complete my first graduate school course, my final assignment is a reflection about technology integration for 21st Century Learners. 

This course has certainly opened my mind to a broader view than my island of a classroom. I chose to develop a plan to integrate technologies into our whole campus.  I feel that my experiences in this course have better prepared me to discuss options and help implement a new technology integration on my campus. Diving into all the resources, professional development, planning, budgeting, collaboration, and assessment of the plan was a bit overwhelming at times but very educational. This process has shown me many of the intricacies that I had previously not even known to consider.

As a teacher, we frequently hear of a particular device or piece of software and wonder why our campus isn't using it. Now, I know that not only is cost a factor, but a long-term view has to be evaluated, as well as how much training it would take to implement. Since teachers need instruction and time to adequately plan, it's important to have enough time and resources to train teachers far enough in advance that they're comfortable using the technology and they have time to integrate it into their lessons. At the top of my list for successful technology integration: having engaging PD sessions with options that meet teachers' individual needs and allows time to practice and plan. We can also use this learning model for our teachers to guide instruction for our students - meeting their individual needs with the assistance of appropriate technologies and allowing time for them to practice and collaborate with their peers while their teachers provide guidance.


One piece of research I read by McKnight, et al., Teaching in a Digital Age: How Educators Use Technology to Improve Student Learning (2016), found six instructional strategies used by teachers when integrating technology:

1. communication and information management
2. direct instruction of content
3. access and accommodations
4. collaboration
5. research, exploration, and creativity
6. assessment and feedback 

These six strategies were found to be supported by five roles of teaching and learning:

1. improve access - This should allow students to have access to digital information anytime and anywhere and should differentiate their instruction to meet their level and needs.
2. enhance communication and feedback - This means timely feedback is given and instruction is adjusted to meet the needs of students. Multiple modes of communication can be used - email, chat, forum, face-to-face...
3. restructure teachers' use of time  - This transforms the teacher into a coach or guide instead of a source of information. Less direct instruction is needed and allows for more small-group and one-on-one discussion and assistance.
4. extend purpose and audience for student work - Students can now actively find information and share their creations with classmates and people around the world. Teachers that have their students write for a larger audience have found that their students seem to put more effort into their work, claiming that they want to look like they know what they're talking about.
5. shift teacher and student roles - Teachers shift to the role of facilitators instead of information sources and students shift to researchers and evaluators instead of consumers being spoon-fed information.

My take away from this article is that technology use without sound instructional methods embedded in lessons is just a digital babysitter. We must have sound pedagogy in place and support our learning objectives with technologies that are appropriate for the task to be completed. This is where collaboration is key. Nurturing our Professional Learning Communities and growing them to include sources from all around the globe can only give us access to more information and experiences that we can use in our daily instruction of students, which will benefit both us and our students.



Citation

Mcknight, K., O'malley, K., Ruzic, R., Horsley, M. K., Franey, J. J., & Bassett, K. (2016). Teaching in a Digital Age: How Educators Use Technology to Improve Student Learning. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 48(3), 194-211. doi:10.1080/15391523.2016.1175856

Digital Devices and the Educational Experience

The use of digital devices in the K-12 classroom is becoming more commonplace. My son's district is one-to-one with iPads starting at grade 4. My district is one-to-one with Chromebooks starting at grade 6. In addition to Chromebooks, my district allows students to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), which includes anything they can carry into the classroom. Lower grades in both districts have classroom access to various devices, mainly intended for whole-class or group activities. My daughter's pre-Pre-K class (she's only 4) even has a technology class twice a week!

Gura (2018) says technology integration needs to happen soon or we risk losing student interest in the classroom entirely. On days in my class when we shift away from technology, students go through a withdrawal. Students are much more difficult to keep on-task without technology since it's become such an ingrained part of their routines. Look at how much we use technology as adults. I grew up when the internet was just becoming "a thing" and dial-up was the standard. Our children, at least mine, have grown up with devices in-hand since they could hold a phone. 

Sheninger (2014) noted that internet use by Americans increased from 2.7 hours per week to 2.6 hours per day in the span of time from 2006 to 2010. Common Sense Media (2015) found that, on average, teens spend 9 hours, and tweens spend 6 hours online daily for non-academic purposes. Our children spend plenty of time using digital tools! Sheninger (2014) mentioned how it's hard to deny the creativity and collaboration inherently encouraged by using technology. As I watch my students complete assignments, they're constantly sharing work with their neighbors, asking if their work looks good, and researching more about something they find interesting. We need to give them enough room to explore, but we still need to be available to guide and support them in doing so safely and with reliable sources.

Bartholomew, et al., (2017) studied mobile device use by middle school students in an open-ended engineering project. They found environmental characteristics, like classroom norms and teacher guidance, had more impact on learning and achievement than mobile device usage. Both students and teachers noted that students were used to not having access to devices during class, and most students used devices less than 30 minutes of the 360 minutes allowed for the project. This would certainly not be the norm in my classroom! My students typically use their Chromebooks daily for at least 30 of the 50 minutes each class. Most of my students only use their smartphone if their Chromebook battery dies. They would rather use a device with a full keyboard and larger screen. Some students in the study mentioned that the mobile device they were given wasn't the right tool for the task they were to complete. Gura (2018) would likely agree since he notes teaching modality must be considered when selecting devices. Type and amount of information needed must also be considered when selecting devices.

Sheninger (2014) notes that student input is needed to properly reshape curriculum, pedagogy, technology purchases, and how time is allocated. Students in the study conducted by Bartholomew, et al., (2017) shared feedback on device type, and gave data on time allocation based on device type. I try to find ways to use software students already use, but I also try to locate innovative resources that they may find engaging and informative. One of my recent go-to resources is LegendsOfLearning - a website that gamifies science topics. 

Gura (2018) also considers the impact of the space we use technology in. When we launched our one-to-one initiative, I found myself standing at the back of the room so I could monitor screens. Now, I've flipped my students' desks around to face the back of the room. When receiving direct instruction, they turn their chairs to face the front and they don't have the distraction of a device in front of them. 

My students have choice of digital or paper for most assignments. They're split on how they choose to complete work, frequently going back and forth between paper and digital options. They need a digital break sometimes, and most students still enjoy coloring or doodling on assignments when they finish it on paper. While digital devices don't have to be integrated for every assignment, they are definitely here to stay and educators need to learn when and how to integrate them or risk becoming obsolete themselves. 

Citations

Ready to launch!

Hi there! Let me introduce myself and give a bit of history before we begin this blog to chronicle my journey into Educational Technology.

My name is Haylee Carroll. My husband, Daniel Carroll, and I have two wonderfully different and adventurous children! Daniel and I met skydiving. We recently introduced our children to the iFly wind tunnel and were thrilled that they had so much fun flying. We can't wait for their skill level to rise so we can fly together!

I began teaching in Houston, Texas, in 2005. I enjoyed teaching middle school science, math, ASL, PE, Health for high school credit (face-to-face and virtual), and a variety of other elective courses over a 10 year stay at Cornerstone Academy in Spring Branch ISD.

While at CSA, my husband and I welcomed our 1st child in 2009. I decided to move to the Dallas-Fort Worth area to be closer to family when my husband and I found out we were expecting our second child. She was born in October of 2014, and we moved to DFW in the summer of 2015.

After moving to DFW, I shifted from middle school to high school instruction. I taught high school biology, algebra, and geometry from 2015 to 2016 and then decided to try the stay at home mom gig for a while. I didn't last very long... I ended up working more by staying at home than by teaching because I was trying to keep myself busy by doing as much as I possibly could. I found a job as a community manager for a startup company called Favor. It was a very interesting and rewarding experience. I learned about so many new tech tools and kind of got a techie bug I guess. I started trying to figure out how I could use some of what I learned at Favor back in the classroom - I missed my students so much!

I rejoined education as a 7th grade science teacher in 2017 at DeWitt Perry Middle School in Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD. I was very fortunate to be asked to join the Digital Learning Project that Google asked our campus to join in 2017. I just completed my 3rd cycle with the DLP in December of 2018. It has been a great tool to help focus energies on finding solutions to specific, identified problems. In addition to the DLP, I also joined a group on our campus that elected to try New Tech Network techniques on our campus during the spring and fall of 2018. Over the summer, I earned my Level 1 and Level 2 Google Certifications. This fall (2018) I decided that I needed to push myself farther and finally pursue my Masters Degree. I was torn between Curriculum and Administration, but I finally landed on Curriculum & Instruction with a focus on Educational Technology. (Those that know me agree that this is the perfect fit!)

Over the course of my teaching career, I've accumulated many certifications and I look forward to adding to the list! I currently hold seven certifications from the Texas State Board for Educator Certification: Life Sciences 8-12, Science 4-8, Math 4-8, Physical Education EC-12, Health EC-12, Core Subjects EC-6, and ESL Supplemental EC-12. Next, I will likely pursue a Tech Apps certificate in addition to my Masters of Education.

So, here we are - ready to launch!