I did get to hear
Ian Jukes at the conference, and a couple of his points stuck out for me as challenges that we at Inet-Toolbox need to approach in unique ways in comparison to many of our teaching colleagues. Helping students learn as they go through school is one thing, but helping students learn when you only have them for three to six hours requires some almost acrobatic methodologies on the part of our instructors. Granted, we are still working with adult students rather than digital kids, but those digital kids will soon be our adult students!
K-12 educators are intensely seeking ways to make learning more meaningful and engaging to students, and are incorporating the use of a variety of technologies along the way to support that learning. One of the debates surrounding the use of technology is whether it does in fact improve student learning in a significant way. Ian Jukes noted an interesting study on this that was done in one U.S. school district that went something like this. The district had two classes of students cover the same curriculum on a specific topic. One class was taught using traditional methods, the other integrated computer technologies. At the end, both classes were given the same test - the test results were the same for both groups. However, when the same students were tested on the same material one year later, those who learned in the traditional environment did not fare anywhere near as well as those who had been learning in the technologically rich environment. Those who simply memorized the facts to get through exams did not LEARN the topics as well as those who experienced the learning through the use of computer technologies. (Mention of this study starts on the bottom on page 24 of his transcript,
Understanding Digital Kids). This was only one fascinating point in the discussion, so if you get a chance, read over the entire transcript! Another great resource from Ian is his "
Committed Sardine Blog" where he shares excellent articles about technology, brain research, and a ton of other topics of import for educators.
For us at Inet-Toolbox, I can't help but ask, "how can WE make the learning stick better when we only have students for three to six hours?" We are using computers by default, but that in itself is not what improves learning. I want our students to be able to use what they have learned the next day, six months later, and a year or more down the road. I'll be digging into some of Ian's other papers to find further perspectives that might connect for us. In the meantime, we'll continue using a mix of lecture, hands-on, quizzing, mentoring, one-on-one, after class follow-up, and multiple learning style support in our computer classes to help our students get the most they can out of their three to six hour time with us!
Cynthia
