T-527 Fall 2009

How to Teach for Understanding Perspectives on

Educational Technology

10 September 2009

T-527 Fall 2009

Last week• What is understanding?... a flexible performance

capability

• How is it developed and demonstrated?…through

performances of understanding

• What is curriculum: product? process?

• How do I unfreeze my current thinking without

drowning in uncertainty?

• How do I balance my passions, my partner’s

interests, the T527 agenda, and feasibility to

define a project that is generative for me?

T-527 Fall 2009

Goals for today

• What are some alternative perspectives

on the role of new educational

technologies in teaching and learning

for understanding?

• How can we make sense of readings to

guide analysis and the design of

effective curriculum plans and

technology integration?

• How can I develop my project plans?

T-527 Fall 2009

Activities for today

• Analyze readings about potential and

problems of educational technologies

• Analyze practice in relation to readings

• Learn about project possibilities

• Consult about your own project plans

T-527 Fall 2009

Policy, Cultural Context

Family/Community

Learning Setting

Instructional Core

T527 Ecology30K feet View

T-527 Fall 2009

Policy, Cultural Context

Family/Community

Learning Setting

Instuctional Core

I

T527 Landscape30K feet View

Thou It

InstructionalCore

T-527 Fall 2009

Policy Context

Family/Community

Learning Setting

Instructional Core

Technology as a Force

Technology as a Tool

T-527 Fall 2009

“Book schools” reproduce inert knowledge

Don’t map new technology on old curricula:Yelland

T-527 Fall 2009

Multimodal, hyperlinked networked media reshape:

Curriculum

Learning

Literacies

Pedagogy

Institutions

T-527 Fall 2009

Transforming Schools with TechnologyZucker’s Goals

• Student Achievement

• Relevant, engaging schools

• High quality education for all

• Attract, prepare, support, retain good

teachers

• Support families and communities

• Promote accountability of schools

T-527 Fall 2009

Use Technology Wisely-Zenglinsky

• Constructive pedagogy is superior to

didactic instruction alone

• Technology can support constructivism

• Technology use improves test scores

when it is used to promote higher order

skills: metacognition, data analysis,

analysis of simulations, revision of work

T-527 Fall 2009

Teaching for Understanding with Technology—Wiske et al.

• Use elements of the Teaching for

Understanding framework to guide

design of technology-enhanced

curriculum

• Review uses of technology with the

Framework elements to take full

advantage of educational technology

T-527 Fall 2009

• Active (manipulative/observant)

• Constructive (articulative/reflective)

• Intentional (goal directed/regulatory)

• Authentic (complex, contextual)

• Cooperative (collaborative, conversational)

Jonassen-Meaningful Learning

with Technology

• Vehicle, authentic context, social medium,

intellectual partner

T-527 Fall 2009

Subjects Object/ OutcomeMotive

Mediating Tools:(e.g. books, talk,

computers, schedules, etc.)

Rules(norms and

values)

Community Division of Labor

The instructional core is part of a larger systemYelland

An Activity SystemEngstrom 1987

T-527 Fall 2009

Cuban doubts the impact of technology in schools

• Policy makers buy technology; few teachers use them

• Schools resist change

– Must serve multiple purposes: moral, social, civic, economic,

academic

– Structures and practices are resilient

– Not enough technical support

• Technology does not change pedagogy

• Technology use does not improve learning

T-527 Fall 2009

How do and should technologies affect what and how we teach?

Where do the authors that we read this week (Zucker, Wenglinsky, Wiske Yelland. Cuban) stand on this matrix?

Where do you stand and what affects your position?

How do this week’s readings influence your position and ideas?

How does national/cultural context affect positions?

T-527 Fall 2009

Teaching for Understanding

Generative TopicsGenerative Topics

Build the curriculum around important, accessible topics related to learners’ interests and experience

Understanding GoalsUnderstanding Goals

Publicize explicit goals for what learners will not just learn but really understand (flexpertise)

Performances of UnderstandingPerformances of Understanding

On-going AssessmentOn-going Assessment

Offer multiple and varied opportunities for learners to perform in ways that develop, demonstrate, and apply their understanding

Assess performances frequently, using public criteria tied to learning goals and provide helpful feedback and coaching

Support reflective, collaborative communities where everybody shares

responsibility for teaching and learning

The Teaching for Understanding Framework

Generative Topics

Performances of

Understanding

On-Going Assessment

UnderstandingGoals

T-527 Fall 2009

Contrasting Views of EducationNorton and Wiburg

• Teachers present• Students listen• Collaboration is cheating• Subjects are separate• Learning is fact-centered• Teacher and texts are

the sources of knowledge• Assessment is based on

reproduced knowledge• Schools are isolated

• Teachers facilitate• Students construct• Collaboration fuels learning• Subjects are integrated• Learning is problem-centered• Many people and resources are

sources of knowledge• Assessment is based on flexible

performance capabilities• Technology links schools with

the world

Didactic Instruction:Few intelligences

Constructivist Learning:Multiple Intelligences

T-527 Fall 2009

http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-teachers-vicki-davis

How does this examplefit with your criteria for high-quality

learning and teaching with technology?

T-527 Fall 2009

New technologies for T527to support our learning

• T527 Website

– Announcements

– Class session slides and readings

– Discussion

– Communally Assembled Resources

– Office hours sign up

• Multimedia Case Study

– Dynamic Earth: A Case of Teaching for Understanding with

Technology

• Collaborative Curriculum Design Tool

T527 Project Process

• Develop

relationships

• Frame a project

• Sketch Purposes

• Make a proposal

• Cycles of design:

think, consult,

draft, review,

revise

T-527 Fall 2009

Preparing for class next week• Readings: compare the authors’ perspectives

on clarifying the overall purposes of learning-- curriculum goals, desired results, big ideas, targets of difficulty--and consider them in relation to your own and your partner’s views

• NOTE Additional reading in the website• Project: clarify plans with your project

partner(s). Use the course website discussion forum to exchange ideas and plans. Review guidelines to prepare a draft proposal, due September 18

• Explore Shamsa’s case• Meet Stone and Shane in office hours