Gary+Nelson

​ Gary Nelson

FNDS 6170: Advanced Educational Psychology Fall 2009

New and Emmerging technologies in Education 

It is apparent that with the influx of new technology both in the classroom and outside of it, the educational world is certainly shifting to adapt to the needs and desires of students. Because the students are cultured to be proficient in the use of technology, it is important for educators to continually work to remain at the forefront of technological innovation. It is also important that teachers make sure to keep the use of technology in the classroom within the confines of proper educational development. After all, it would be to little or no avail for teachers to integrate technology simply for the sake of doing so. Therefore, because of the influx of new technology and the need for teachers to stay on top of the game, it becomes ever more important for teachers to act based on the findings and theories of educational psychologists, so that students' developmental needs are understood and met.

Daniel Pink theorizes in his work //A Whole New World// that the pendulum of success in society is swinging from those who are logical and linear thinkers to those who are inventive and empathetic, seeing the big picture. It is important that teachers not lose site of this theory, making sure to always employ a variety of methods to develop these skills that theorists such as Pink believe to be vital in the evolution of society. Because of the importance of technology in our society, it seems obvious that the skills Pink advocates will be developed not on pen and paper as in years past, but through the usage of technological devices and software programs as even student development is "going digital".

As new technologies with classroom implications are studied, it is obvious that a wealth of resources certainly does exist from which teachers are able to choose. It is vital that the technologies be current, accessible, and content relevant. Through examining these technologies from a psychological/ developmental prospective, a select few of these numerous possibilities rise to the top, especially in regards to a Social Studies classroom: 1. Geocaching/ Global Positioning 2. Social Networking 3. Podcasts/Digital Recording 4. Moodle 5. Digital Video Creation 6. Handhelds

1. **Earth Cache**   Earth Cache is a geocaching site developed for GPS users to be able to enjoy the Earth and its geography firsthand. Earthcache.org is administered by the Geological Society of America. Geocaching is when Global Positioning Satellite users are actually able to cache and find the location of actual physical objects. This adventure/treasure hunt can be used as a very valuable tool for educatiors, especially in the Social Sciences.

All that is needed to begin a geocaching activity is a GPS unit and a free login name at geocaching.com, where Earth Cache sites are hosted. Once ready to begin an activity, one simply selects from the Earth Cache listing and navigates, using their GPS, to the location of the cache by using latitude and longitude. Because the caches are typically located in areas with some sort of unusual or special geography, and because of the navigational skills required to find a cache, these activities can be quite useful in a Social Studies classroom.



There are numerous examples of geocaching activities that teachers can use. Some involve going to various Earth Cache locations, while others simply involving plotting coordinates on the GPS unit and researching the area in question. One such example comes from an educator who contacted other geocache users and had them send postcards to various nearby geocache locations. The students then used the GPS unit during a field trip to locate the various postcards, plot the locations from which the postcards came, and research the geographical features of those areas.

Numerous aspects of Educational Psychology come into play when assessing the applicability and usefulness of an activity such as geocaching. Piaget argued that people actively create knowledge through direct experiences with objects, people, and ideas. An activity such as geocaching capitalizes on this theory as it provides the student with an opportunity to physically examine various geographical features and learn the benefits of developing navigational skills. Windscgitl asserts in one suggestion of meaningful learning that students should be given frequent opportunities to engage in complex, meaningful, and problem-based activities. Geocaching activities certainly provide students with those opportunities by allowing them to explore geography firsthand, using a technology that has come to dominate the study of geography over the last several years. 

Social networking sites like Facebook.com and Twitter.com are widely popular and are seemingly growing in popularity by the day. Facebook allows users to create a profile consisting of photos, background information, an about me section, and to select friends from anywhere in the World, with whom they will communicate with and share this information. Twitter on the other hand is far simpler. The concept behind the website is based on one simple question: "What are you doing?" People from around the world respond to this question via twitter, submitting their tweets, or less than 140 character updates, which can be submitted via instant messaging, cellular device, or the basic personal computer.
 * 2. Social Networking **

The classroom application of social networking seems almost limitless. These sites allow students to follow the profile of any subject in which they may be interested. Vgotsky believed that human activities must be understood in their cultural settings and that the tools of culture are key factors in development. There is no doubt that these networking sites are certainly a part of our students' culture, and teachers must take advantage of this. Because many students are already familiar with these applications, teachers would easily be able to promote use in the classroom. This could be an extremely valuable tool in the Social Studies as students could for instance, create a facebook page for a figure of historical significance, researching the figure in order to fulfill the background and "about me" sections, and using the status updates tool as a means of communicating understanding of the greatest achievement of that figure. Students could then add the historical figures their classmates have been assigned in order to learn more about them.



Projects such as this certainly take advantage of the process of self-determination as described by Deci, in which is stated the idea that when students feel capable and competent in their interaction with the world, have some choices and a sense of control over their lives, and feel connected to others, they meet activities with a greater sense of competence, creativity, conceptual learning, and preference for challenge. Social networking projects such as the aforementioned one certainly provide students with the opportunity to have control over the direction of the project, and to interact with the ideas of others. Because the students are typically already familiar with these sites and enjoy using them, it seems obvious that schools must take advantage of these sites whenever an opportunity arises.

**3. Podcasting and Digital Audio Recording**

Podcasts are a simple and cost-effective means of technological integration that teachers can easily take advantage of. Teachers can easily train students to use podcasts through free software sites such as Audacity Audacity is a free audio editor and recorder which can record live audio, convert and edit audio files, and mix sounds together. Teachers can have students create audio recordings, which are then published and broadcast via the internet, at the leisure of the prescriber, or listener who desires to access the podcast, taking advantage of the open-source software that audacity utilizes.

In the Social Studies classroom, podcasts could be an extremely valuable tool for both presentations and for teaching students valuable methods of historiography. One example of a potential project involving podcasting would be to have students interview a local historian, author, important figure, or a person who has a firsthand account of an event or series of events with historical significance. The students could record these interviews, using a series of pre-drafted questions that are standard for an interview seeking a historic account, along with some questions created by the student. The students would conduct the interviews, then present the audio, via podcast, to the rest of the class. A project such as this is unique in that through technology, a student is able to take advantage of the process of Enculturation, a process of acquiring knowledge and understanding that occurs when presented with good models of thinking, provided with direct instruction in the thinking process, and encouragement of practice of those thinking processes through interaction with others.

Activities such as this again provide students with a sense of autonomy in the project, and this one in particular takes advantage of yet another of Windscitl's suggestions, providing students with information resources as well as the tools necessary to mediate learning. While activities involving the question and answer of an expert in a particular field have been present in education for a number of years, through the technology of podcasts, teachers are able to encourage some excitement in the students and hopefully, create a situation in which the students retain the information through the firsthand experience of the activity. The activity also employs Allan Collins' Cognitive Apprenticeship as it allows students to observe an expert (the figure being interviewed), get external support (from the teacher), and articulate their knowledge on the subject and reflect on the progress, through teacher and peer feedback on the activity.

**4. Moodle**



<span style="color: #ff8e00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Moodle.com offers a virtual classroom that provides teachers and students with many valuable educational opportunities. In using moodle, teachers are able to grade and give comments on assignments created both on and offline. Teachers are also able to create databases and glossaries of key terms and content material, as well as being able to offer links to a classroom calandar, online syllabus, and discussion forums. Students are able to take advantage of features such as online access to grades, real time chat, quizzes, and forums. This technology allows teachers to create a paperless method of classroom organization, which in turn allows them to become more efficient with their organization method, freeing up more time for classroom instruction and presentation. This software is obviously unique in its education-specific design, and is a very valuable resource for educators across the content areas.

Numerous educational theorists and psychologists have pointed to the need for an effective classroom management and organization strategy. As Marzano and Marzano suggest, Classroom management stands out as the variable with the largest impact in regards to student achievement. A serious advantage to a program like Moodle is that it allows the teachers to become more organized in their outside the classroom preparation, making the in-class management and organization easier to maintain. Moodle also accomplishes a major goal of management, which is to increase allocated time, or the sheer number of minutes available for learning, a statistic that is according to Berliner, extremely relevant as nearly every study has shown a significant relationship between time spent on content and student learning.

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">**5. Digital Video Creation**

Because most computers now come standard with a video editing software (Windows movie maker for PC and imovie for Mac), it is easier and cheaper than ever before to create digital videos in the classroom. There are multiple approaches the teacher can take in assigning projects that depend upon the use of digital video. Of these, two activity styles seem to stand out among the rest in terms of both their ease and applicability to the Social Studies classroom, and both take advantage of cooperative learning.

The first of these activities involves a group of students modifying an existing video file, while creating an original audio commentary to merge with the video. Videos available for re-authoring are available at numerous websites including discovery streaming and pbs.org. Once the students have selected and imported into the editor, all the student has to do is mute the audio of the video and record their own over it. In drafting the commentary, students view the original video several times and research the topic so that the commentary is knowledgeable and relevant.

Another activity that is beneficial is to have groups of students create their own video, using either a camcorder or digital camera. Students could use the cameras to re-create an event with historical significance or create their own news broadcast of an event that happened at some distant period of history. The videos are then edited, perhaps with music, and presented to the rest of the class.

Both of these activities fulfill several of Windschitl's suggestions for activities that encourage meaningful learning: -Elicit students' ideas and experiences in relation to key topics, then fashion learning situations that help students elaborate on or restructure their content knowledge. -Provide students with a variety of information resources as well as the tools necessary to mediate learning. -Student work collaboratively and are given support to engage in task-oriented dialogue with one another. -Students are asked to apply knowledge in diverse contexts, explain ideas, interpret texts, predict phenomena, and construct arguments based on evidence -Encourage reflective and autonomous thinking -Employ a variety of assessment strategies to understand how students' ideas are evoking and to give feedback on the processes as well as the products of their thinking.

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">These video editing projects not only fulfill effective education strategies, they also provide the students with a fun opportunity to grasp a subject from a unique perspective, as well as allowing students to learn software that will be of benefit to know in the future.

<span style="color: #3b023b; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">**6. Handhelds**

Handhelds may have begun as a tool in the business world but the advantage of the usage of these devices in the classroom is not to be ignored. Handheld computers are widely manufactured and are becoming increasingly more affordable. These devices were originally capable only of computing action such as file storage and datebook organization, but are now widely available via Smartphone technology and the ability to synchronize with personal computers, using many of the same programs and applications. Handhelds are advantageous not only in that they are light and compact, but also because they are extremely versatile in their applicability. With handhelds, students are able to access a dictionary and thesaurus, organize their schedules, calculate units of measure, use Kaplan SAT prep, and access databases. These devices are unique in comparison with most other technological tools in education because they allow the use of the device by each student individually. Handhelds bring technology directly to the students at the point of learning as opposed to being mediated through the teacher, which gives the students a sense of autonomy and fulfills the need for individualized instruction that many technological activities may inadvertently leave out.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">​ <span style="color: #3b023b; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">In 2002, Pownell and Bailey described four eras of the growth of technology in the classroom, the latest of which being the wireless revolution. This wireless technology is brought to the students via handheld devices and take advantage of a one to one ratio, which according to Salloway and Norris, "makes students more engaged in technnology supported learning." These devices are obviously part of what seems to be the next step in technology in the classroom, and because of the one to one ratio advantage previously described, their use in the classroom is supported from a pedagogical perspective.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;"> Final Thoughts:

The aforementioned technological applications certainly seem to have their place in the classroom. As previously discussed, it is important that any classroom innovation be discussed from a developmental and psychological perspective, always with the interests of the growth of the student at mind. These six applications seem to accomplish those fundamental educational goals, while making the desired outcome meaningful and interesting to the student, which is obviously a key to success in an educational environment. Because of the accomplishment of those purposes, it seems clear that these applications must be evaluated more thoroughly, and integrated into the classroom whenever possible.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> References : Duebel, Patricia (September, 2009). "Social Networking in Schools: Incentives for Participation. //THE Journal// Gutek, G. (2009) //New Perspectives on Philosophy and Education.// Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. Pink, D. (2006). //A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers will Rule the Future.// New York: Penguin Group. "The Paradox of Integrating Handheld Technology in Schools: Theory vs. Practice" (11 November, 2004). //THE Journal// Woolfolk, A. (2010). //Educational Psychology (11th ed.).// New York: Pearson Education, Inc.