Technology Enabled Learning

Technology in Education
Using Technology for Learning
Learning Math with Technology
Learning Language with Technology
Learning Art with Technology
Learning Health with Technology
Learning with Technology Conclusions

1. Technology in Education

There are many uses of technology in the education system, some with little or no association to student learning. Technology is used for administration, communication, for development of technological skills and, for supplemental and occasionally for basal (grade level core curriculum) instruction and for assessment. Within the instructional realm, some technologies may involve primarily presentation devices (projectors and screens) or offer opportunities to enhance classroom presentations (interactive whiteboards, wireless mouse pads) while others are specifically designed to manage the learning process in a given subject area (course and skill building software, online learning courses).

The category of educational technology is a very wide one. Expenditures on educational technologies are not equal in delivery of learning outcomes and it is important that policy makers understand what their objectives are in investing in particular educational technologies.

For more information on the use of technology in the education system , go to web sites for federal and state Departments of Education.

2. Using Technology for Learning

Core Learning is first and foremost an educational publisher with a focus on achieving learning gains by students in base or core skills. These base skills are the building blocks for higher learning at high school and post-secondary level. They are also the necessary skills to enable people to function effectively as an adult, beyond the realm of academic study. Important life skills in how to think and problem solve, how to calibrate and measure, how to maintain good health, how to communicate clearly and effectively verbally and in writing and how to think and express oneself creatively are the areas of current focus for Core Learning.

There is an extensive body of research about how we learn and even specific research about the learning opportunities and challenges associated with computer-based learning. This research tells us not only do people have different learning styles or respond in different ways to certain types of presentations but the optimal learning environment will vary depending on what is specific thing that is being learned. There is no one approach that is optimal for all subjects or even certain concepts within subjects. For example, where a part of learning history may require development of memory and recall skills, there are elements of history that require synthesis and understanding of events to interpret their significance and connection to future events. Similarly, math has a memory component (e.g. recall of math facts) but largely requires synthesis of concepts. An otherwise intelligent student who relies on memory (cram, test and dump) to pass math tests, will eventually ‘hit a wall’ – usually at the start of high school. The learning path for recall of facts and recall and deployment of concepts is quite different.

Brain Building Software Brain-based learning research also informs us that to learn involves processing information in our ‘working memory’ in such a way that it can be stored in our long term memory. Our working memory has a limited capacity. Too much information causes overload and impairs or prevents the completion of information processing sufficient to enable storage in long term memory. This is referred to as ‘cognitive overload’. It is not only sheer quantity of information that can create cognitive overload – it is also the concurrent delivery of different cognitive stimulations. Whereas sound and movement can engage a student and enhance instruction, if not carefully integrated with the instructional objective and kept in proper proportion , there could be a distractive effect and therefore an interference with the learning process.

There is a popular notion that because children like games, including computer and video games, there are opportunities in educating children using game formats. This is sometimes referred to as ‘edutainment’. We agree that there are learning opportunities with educational games, particularly with critical thinking skills, although the cognitive benefit is achieved fairly quickly by most children and further repetition is of little cognitive help.

Apart from games, there is a wider opportunity in using computer technology to simulate real world environments. This can be used for a variety of subject areas. Science, history, geography, art and music are areas where simulations can enhance or broaden the student experience. Problem solving and critical thinking skills can also be developed in a simulated environment.

There are also opportunities to use the multi-media effects and interactivity to engage children and develop interest in areas that have challenges for teachers to make interesting for students. Areas of history, geography, science and health are subjects that can be aided by technology enabled presentations. In the areas of math and language arts, use of multi-media effects can always be helpful in offering variety in presentations and in so doing, address more student individual learning needs. However, math and language arts also require a measure of focused attention and one needs to be skeptical of claims that a student will fully grasp an important concept by a game or entertainment approach alone.

Below is a discussion of how Core Learning has used technology to benefit the learning process in each of its 4 current subject areas: math, language arts, art and health.

For more information on learning research and technology go to the web site for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) at www.iste.org.

3. Learning Math with Technology

Math involves the use of numbers to help us quantify and order things. Number sense is consequently a foundational math skill. One cannot expect children to become interested in math, let alone excel in it, without developing confidence and ease with calculating simple numbers. The immediate recall of simple arithmetic answers by adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing is referred to as knowing ‘math facts’. Math facts at least involve numbers 1 through 12.

With higher more complex numbers, recall is not expected but performing calculations mentally is a useful life skill as well as important to cognitive development. Although it is true that for precision with calculations of complex numbers technologies such as calculators and computers can help speed the process and improve accuracy, it is important that people have the facility to approximate and calculate to answer questions that require a general answer, not a precise one. For example:

A family drives on vacation to a seaside cottage. After a while driving, the children ask, when will we get there? The parent will use the speed of travel and the distance to the destination to calculate an approximate time. For example, if the speed is 60 miles per hour and the distance is 235 miles, the time will be about 4 hours (235/60 is about 240/60 = 4)
You go to the store and buy a large drink for 89 cents and a bag of chips for $1.29. There is tax of 5%. What will these things cost and how much change will I get back from a $5.00 bill? The chips and drink will cost about $2.20 before tax. A 5% tax on $2.20 is 11 cents. The total cost will be about $2.31 – to be exact, deduct the extra 2 cents added to calculate the tax. So the total costs will be $2.29 and the change from $5.00 will be $2.71.

$Calculation Skills Education Collection$ Learning math facts and developing mental arithmetic skill requires practice. Practice can be over done if it is not focused and structured to promote skill development. Excessive practice is referred to derisively by math educators as ‘drill and kill’. Calculation practice environments need to avoid the ‘kill’ part of this. Core Learning has developed its Calculation Skills Education Collection software with numeracy skill development in mind. The features include:

with over 100 drills and exercises, there is a wide selection of calculation practice types and level of difficulty to suit individual learning needs
a Novice and an Intermediate level are each devoted to learning math facts; the Advanced Level is devoted to mental arithmetic skills
a module with Making Change drills provides a practical use of subtraction skills
the interface is designed simply with little distraction; this helps students to concentrate
each drill or exercise is limited to 10 questions; this demands focused concentration but for a short period; students are not over-loaded cognitively
practice can be done either with results saved or not; students can reduce possible testing anxiety by practicing on their own; where results are saved, teachers can use the results as assessment tools.

As the Calculation Skills Education Collection demonstrates, because math is a concrete subject with right and wrong answers, it is suitable for use of computers to administer test questions. Math is not only computational in nature. There are a variety of concepts associated with math that are important to our reasoning or critical thinking skills. These concepts or learning objectives can be demonstrated and practiced in a computer managed environment. Most importantly though, test questions can be written against these math learning objectives and administered by computer as assessments ( pre-testing) or as post-study tests to validate learning gains.

Math Software This methodology is the key to the design of the four course Math Course Series. The courses are organized by discrete subject area:

Math is linear, or progressive. In each Course, the order of Units and Lessons is important. Each Lesson involves an important learning objective. The next Lesson that follows builds on the learning objective from the previous Lesson. A Unit has a group of interconnected Lessons that represents key set of math conceptual skills e.g. How to Add Fractions.

To recognize that students’ learning styles can vary, each Lesson offers not only instruction but also presents opportunities to do practice work to help reinforce understanding of the learning objective. Students can do exercises and/or activities. The activities are typically ‘hands-on’ real experiences that communicate concepts to visual and experiential learners.

Technology not only can manage a self-paced, objectives-based learning path, but the existence of the internet enables online applications to be available 24/7 from any computer with internet access. This facilitates convenient access to online courses. It also means that students have the opportunity to access online lessons when needed to help with homework problems, address a missed class or address other specific learning needs.

4. Learning Language with Technology

There are many technologies that can support acquisition of language skills. For most people though, language is mostly learned through immersion. Part of language is subjective in nature: doing creative writing or interpretation of someone else’s written work, for example. The objective components of language concern vocabulary, spelling and grammar. The rules of grammar and their application can be objectively assessed in a computer managed environment.

Core Learning’s Language Arts Companion Series has four courses devoted to grammar and its effective use in creative writing. Similar to the Math Courses, each Lesson addresses a learning objective or objectives that can be tested. Unit tests can be used to pre-test to identify learning needs and to post-test to confirm learning gains. Lessons have an instructional and practice component. Each Lesson includes a writing activity to reinforce the proper use of a grammar rule.

Learning the English language is not like learning math. Although there are some sensible progressions topic to topic, it is not as linear as math. Course design is therefore less prescriptive and students can select Units of greatest interest. The Course subject areas also are similar from Course I to Course IV but later courses have greater breadth and detail than earlier Courses. Courses are aligned by national curriculum standards on a grade level basis.

The Language Arts Courses are also available online. The unlimited access to Language Arts Courses online allows students to use Course Lessons as resources to help with writing assignments.

The same lesson content contained in English Grammar II and III Essentials courses has also been re-delpoyed in Promethean's ActivInspire software. The Core English Essentials ActivLesson Collection optimizes the use of the preserntation tools, adds additional activities and review materials, and enables whole-class quizzes with Promethean's ActiVotes and ActivExpressions voting devices.

5. Learning Art with Technology

Art Software Software can simulate real experiences. The visual arts involve the visual display of images as a form of self-expression or communication. Images rather than words are used to convey meaning and express emotion. Technology can be used to create and display digital images. The digital world can therefore mirror expression from real artistic media. Core Learning’s award-winning corefx Three Level and the Crayola Art software titles Crayola Art Studio, Crayola Animation Studio, Crayola PhotoFX Studio, and Crayola Creative Studio demonstrate how easy and effective it can be to use digital art tools for creative expression. Unlike working in real art medi, there are no mistakes with digital art – an errant or ill-chosen action can be undone in the digital world. This fosters fearless experimentation and creative exploration.

6. Learning Health with Technology

Core Health Course Series Health involves our physical as well as our emotional and social well being. The aim of health curriculum is to inform students about healthy (and unhealthy) lifestyle choices and develop awareness and constructive attitudes toward healthy and safe living and responsible conduct.

There are challenges in effecting attitudinal change in pre-teens and teens at the best of times. Well designed health software can engage young people in subjects that they may otherwise not have much interest in. The Core Health Course series is designed for delivery of health curriculum in elementary and middle schools. Each course uses animated characters to guide students through content areas in a non-judgmental, neutral fashion. Bright graphics and interactive activities, games and quizzes, maintain interest and attention. The programs function well in independent, self-paced student use or in classroom display with a projector and screen or interactive whiteboard.

The Core Health Essentials ActivLesson Collection takes the course lesson files and re-deploys them in Promethean's ActivInspire software. Additional teaching resources and quizzes have been added to optimize the use of the presentation tools in the ActivInspire software and to enable the use of Promethean's ActiVotes and ActivExpressions voting devices.

7. Learning with Technology Conclusions

Technology used in the education system is capable of producing many benefits. Digital content is much less expensive than color-printed textbooks. Objective-based testing can be used to assess large populations of students effectively and inexpensively. Self-paced, computer managed courses can allow teachers more time to attend to the needs of students who require specific help. Online courses can provide efficient and timely access by students to resources when they need them and can generate performance data of interest to school administrators.

These are some of the benefits and they are valid reasons to support integration of technology in the education system. Some policy makers pose the question whether students will be ‘smarter’ or ‘better educated’ because of the investment in technology. With technology so differentiated, it is a difficult question to respond to since much depends on what precisely is being purchased and what the expectations are for its use.

To use the four categories in which Core Learning publishes, we can see that in each area the software application has different design features and different learning outcomes:

in health, interactive media is used to create a stimulative environment to engage and support attitudinal change; this is directly addressing the goal of health education but measuring attitudinal change is not straightforward; the software is not designed currently to assess skills or knowledge
in art, corefx Three Level is a tool-based program that equips students with the opportunity to employ their imaginations and creativity; this is a valuable outcome, especially in a knowledge–based economy; it is also difficult to objectively measure
in math and language arts, assessment is central to the applications; learning gains can therefore be measured within the application itself; completion of a Course can be said to be its own proof that the student had mastered the learning objectives in the Course; it might still be argued that the outcome isn’t that the student is smarter or better educated but learned something he or she could have learned from their teacher but instead learned it in a computer-managed environment; in this case, the question could then be repositioned about learning cost per student: computer-based or teacher-based

The integration of technology in the education system varies widely across the United States and Canada. Some educational jurisdictions have well conceived technology integration plans, others have plans but can’t or won’t execute them, and others just have no clue what should be done. I am reminded of the challenge of integrating technology at the law firm I worked for in the 1980’s. The firm made a big investment in personal computers for all lawyers and their secretaries. The business case was supposed to be that with such wonderfully efficient machines to do word processing instead of using typewriters, we could save money because we didn’t need so many secretaries. This required a significant change in operating behavior. Lawyers, especially senior ones, were reluctant to share their secretaries and the norm of a 1:1 lawyer : secretary situation prevailed for quite awhile. This eventually gave way once entrenched attitudes on doing business the old way dissipated.

A similar situation is at work with technology integration in the school system. A large part of the case for educational technology investment is based on potential efficiency gains. However, those efficiency gains will be thwarted if staff do not adapt in ways that enable the efficiencies to occur .Teachers need to embrace changes to their teaching practices that incorporate technology use in ways that liberate them to either handle more students and/or devote quality time to students in need. Without behavioral change by teachers, the economic case for investment in educational technologies will remain clouded enough to sustain a debate for which there is no answer. This behavioral change includes taking a hard look at what instructional resources are required in textbook versus digital formats.

On the optimistic side, the cost of computing hardware has declined significantly and with the improvement of broad band access to the internet, getting to 1:1 student :computer ratios are becoming quite feasible. Change is coming to the education system and technology will play a significant role in that change

Core Learning Provides Educational Software and Resources to Reinforce the Understanding of Grade Level Curriculum.