10 Ways Mobile Learning Changes the Teaching-Learning Process

 

Teachers’ role

Higher level thinking

QR codes

Students show learning

Teachers monitor learning

Bring outside in

Take learning out

Communicate

From text to media

Global/ Cultural

Extra: Use all of mobile, not just apps

Ideas Worth Spreading TED

Covey wrote about the need to sharpen our saw. TED certainly sharpens our mental saw.  TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.  We learn from the passionate speakers at TED.   TED allows us to enter new worlds of thinking; we can  think bigger, think in new ways and make more connections.   TED speakers cover diverse topics such as  the world’s best whistler, the sound of the universe, the birth of a baby’s word, mesh, saving streams and rivers, using art to turn the world inside out, printing a human kidney, the new feminism, curating humanity’s culture, etc.  TED does reignite wonder!

If you have not visited  the TED website or have not watched a TED video recently, go and watch any of these under 20 minute videos.  Pick a video at random.

I’ve started a sharpening-the-saw regime of watching one random TED video a day. I daily share insights from these videos with family and friends.  From watching TED videos, my little world of thought become bigger!

Will  you enlarge your world of thought through TED?

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Your Students, is available through Eye on Education.

Also, my  book,  Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment, is available through Eye on Education.

21st Century Skills Critical Thinking- Fact? Inference? Judgment?

Many students need help in developing critical thinking skills as part of  the 21st century skills.  A technique that I have used both when I taught Critical Thinking courses at the college level and when I have taught higher level thinking  in my own Spanish or English  classes is Fact-Inference- Judgment.

Look at this picture taken by me  in Costa Rica:

Fact – something that is obviously (physically)  in the picture, text, movie, etc.  Everyone will agree to this fact.  For example, there are four people in the picture.  There are pigeons.

Inference- based on noticing  things in the picture, text, movie, etc., a person  makes an assumption. This assumption is only a short logical  step from the observation.   A person can state what he/she observed and what inference this lead to.  Others can easily understand the logic of going  directly from the observation to the inference.  Inference making people use statements like “Based on observing… I notice … I see and therefore …).  For example, I notice that they have on short sleeves so I infer it is warm.   It looks like there are young children, a young adult and an older adult, I assume that this is a grandmother, a daughter and her children.

A judgment is a value statement or emotional statement. Although something in the picture or text may be a springboard, there is no logical leap.  Judgments take a strong value or emotional stand on the media.  Judgments usually express their viewpoint through  opinion-based adjectives (“handsome”,  “unsafe”) , adverbs  (“dangerously”,   “peacefully”), verbs (“kill”, “love”) and nouns (“murderer”, “saint” ).  A judgment can be easily challenged by others.  Some judgments for this picture are “The family is happy”  (Not really, the little boy began to cry as the mother moved the pigeon closer to her son.” A fact is that the two older women are smiling. ) and  “Costa Rica is overrun by pigeons.” (Fact: Pigeons are in some city parks.)

As we help students to give only  facts and inferences about media, we develop their critical thinking.  As we help students to see that some statements are judgments (pure opinion not based on  facts  or inferences), we develop more critical thinkers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Your Students, is available through Eye on Education.

Also, my  book,  Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment, is available through Eye on Education.

Web 2.0 Learning Only Works With Critical Learning

Web 2.o  allows students to have more access to information through the social interactions. Collecting information is not creating knowledge.  Some  of my writing students have a ton of information about a topic through Web 2.0 tools but they cannot put the information together in a coherent fashion. The problem is not access to information; the problem is thinking.  As we get more into Web 2.0, we need to get more into Critical Thinking.  Students need to be able to analyze, synthesis, and evaluate information (Bloom) . They need to be able to see information from various perspectives (Chaffee) and to think through various aspects of the issue  such as purpose and  consequences  (Noisch). If we want to “teach” how to use Web 2.o tools, then we need to teach Critical Thinking.  Instead of  Web 2.o courses/”new literacies” courses, we need “Critical Thinking with Web 2.0” courses. The thinking skills will be transferable as new tech tools quickly evolve.

Let’s focus on critical 21st century thinking skills so we can use Web 2.0 tools wisely!

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Students, is available through Eye-on-Education.

DeBono’s Thinking Hats and Student Learning

This semester I have introduced and constantly use DeBono’s thinking hats in my class.  I ask students to put on their black critical analysis hat or to put on their green alternatives hat.  When a student asks a question, I identify which hat the student is using.  Ive found that using the 6 hats (white-data/facts; red- emotion; black- critical/negative; yellow -positive’s; green – alternatives; and blue – overview/process/reflection) creates a structured approach to their thinking about something.  I can say  “We think of other ways of doing this” so use your green hat.  Therefore, there can be no negativity, no emotion, no facts, no positive, only alternative thinking.  Students feel uncomfortable at first in compartmentalizing their thinking but they do become better thinkers.

How do you help your students to think more critically?

Mystery Object, Critical Thinking, and Pretest

I’m teaching a course in critical thinking to college students. I showed them a glass case, asked them to think of five questions to determine what was inside and then to write down the questions. Next, I had them get in groups of 5-6 and read aloud their questions. Then, I asked them to think about the answers of others and their own answers. Finally, I asked them to rewrite their questions based on the questions they had heard. I was amazed at how many students did not change their questions. 20 questions became 100 questions. They handed in their original questions,their reflection and their “revised” questions. I realize that pre-assessment revealed much about their critical thinking and the skills that I have to teach them.

Creating Thinking Curriculum

How do we change our curriculums from memorization of facts to higher level thinking curriculums?

One way is to ask questions that require our students to compare and contrast. How is the American Revolution like the French Revolution? How is it different? How  does the Spanish present tense compare to the Future tense?

Another way is to ask questions that ask our students to explain the consequences of some act.  For example, Science classes can explore the implications of every American home using five compact bulbs on the energy use for the nation.

In a third technique students evaluate a situation.  Which  of these solutions is better and why?  Math students can figure out which of three loans will be a better financial deal and explanation their reasoning.

Students will still know the basic but more important, they will be able to use the basic information in higher level thinking.

How do you  cause you students to engage in higher level thinking?

Encouraging Student Errors

I believe that we have to encourage students’ to make errors since only when they make errors do they reveal their in depth thinking.  If students get a correct answer, we do not know if they remembered it from class, copied it from their textbook  or if they truly understood the concept. When they answer incorrectly, we can see their thinking- their misconceptions, their faulty logic,  and their lack of comprehension of the learning goal.  Once we see their errors and  diagnose the errors, then we can provide formative feedback to help them.  The feedback will be differentiated based on their unique answers.

Right answers do not reveal students deep thinking while errors do.

How do you engage your students in in depth projects where they can show their thinking and their errors?

Quiz- Book’s answers or students’ in-depth thinking

I recently gave a quiz on a textbook chapter; they had done six exercises applying the ideas in the chapter. The ten item quiz had application and evaluation questions; I had taken the questions from the book’s test bank.

As each student came up with the quiz, I corrected it. Next I asked the students to reread the question and tell me their thinking for their answer. However, about 3/4 of the “wrong” answers were not “wrong” if you explored the students’ thinking. In one question, the book had the correct answer as the four steps in the negative message, a student reasoned that it was more important to think about your negative message first and then plan your four steps around it. I agreed with him. In another question, a student said that a certain positive word in one of the answers might go against the negative bad news so she selected another answer. Good thinking.

I was overwhelmed by how thoughtful they were in their thinking. They were “right”!

Graphic Organizers/Concept Maps – Limiting or Encouraging Thinking?

I made a concept map that I thought would help the students in their writing. As I observed the students, I realized that my concept map actually stopped their thinking. When students have a paper concept map, they stop when all the bubbles, boxes, or lines are filled in. When they have an online one with bubbles, boxes or lines, they do the same. They fill in the bubbles, boxes or lines and they stop thinking. However, often these concept maps are just the start of the students’ thinking about the topic. The concept maps are more like a writing prompt than the actual writing.

I realize that my concept map did not have enough boxes, bubbles or lines to guide the students to explore the writing topic more thoroughly. Likewise the boxes, bubbles or lines were too small. Once the students have written something that fills the boxes, bubbles, or lines, they stop writing. The boxes, bubbles or lines confine the students.

This concept map needs to be extended to include the three major examples and the details that the students will use to prove each cause or effect. The concept map will double in size. In addition, if I am using a paper version, I will stretch it out to be a full page so that the students have plenty of writing space. Bigger spaces equals more room for thinking.

What do your concept maps look like? Do they encourage additional thinking or do they stop the students’ thinking?

Necessary Educational Tool – Digital Camera

I see a digital camera as a required technology for every educator. I think that educators enjoy simply tools- tools that help promote students’ higher-level standards-based learning and tools that do what we want when we want without a lot of complication.

With it, we and our students can

-take still images that represent stages of learning in a process. Most cameras allow you to take low resolution images which work great for most classroom and web projects. If you take at the lowest resolution, then probably you do not have to use a third party program to get “small memory” images.

-make movies for our class or for other classes using YouTube. Many cameras can directly upload to YouTube type programs. For example, mine records in .mov. Check your camera manual for the format of your movies.

-do audio recording for podcasts, collecting oral interviews, recording language experiences.

Simple technologies can help our students in powerful learning.

How else do you use a digital camera to help promote students’ higher-level standards-based learning?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

Real Focus in Technology-Infused Academic Learning in Podcasts-NECC

At NECC, I had several people come up and challenge my ideas about technology-infused learning in podcasts. They did agree that the students only spent 25% of their time in learning science (1 day of learning content, 1 day to plan the podcast and 2 days to produce it) but they insisted that the students were doing higher level thinking within the podcasting. I agreed that the students were but that higher-level thinking had nothing to do with science content. It focused on media literacy. They were selecting which images to use and which words to use. Hopefully, each time they were becoming better at media literacy. However, media literacy does not show up on state assessments. Nor have most schools identified it as a major academic priority. If a school has identified this 21st skill as a priority, then they have to have a way to measure it and assess it. If it is not on the state assessment and not a school recognized academic priority, then doing such an activity does not contribute to the school’s academic priorities.

They still are only learning science 25% of the time during the project! What is your percentage of learning to technology in a project?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

Effective technology-Each Technology at Different Thinking Level- NECC

I gave a session at NECC on Wed. on “Assessing how a school’s academic priorities are supported by technology.” Based on many observations of schools, I’ve come to believe that 70% of all school technology-infused activities are neither focused on state standards or state assessments nor are they effective uses of technology.

Many teachers use multiple technologies in a project. Do the teachers use each technology to raise the thinking level of the project or do they use each technology on the same level of thinking. For example, in a project of analyzing the health of a stream if a teacher has students use digital camera, PowerPoint and Podcasts during the project, does each technology serve as a step to the next ladder of higher learning or are all technologies used at the same level such as comprehension? A teacher can start with digital images for comprehension, have a compare and contrast PowerPoint, and an evaluation done in a podcast.

Do you increase students’ level of thinking through each technology use in the same project/unit?

 

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

 

 

Professional Development NECC Workshops- “Hands on” or “Brains On”

I’m finalizing my presentations for NECC (2 workshops and 1 session). Conducting a workshop is an interesting game. People want to learn new information. They want to practice it. However, they often do not want to spend time in workshops which focus more on developing new thinking skills involving technology than on the actual “technology.” I tend to give “brains on” workshops instead of “hands on” workshops. I always build in time for people to think about the new skill such as using Flickr and to plan how to integrate it into their classroom. Yet at this most critical time, the actual implementation of the skill, is when many participants zone out or leave. Usually I build in time to for them to share their implementation ideas with another participants so that they can get feedback. Participants often do not want feedback.

If I show them sites all during workshops, they are happy. However, when I stop and ask them to seriously think about how they will use this technology to improve student learning, I find their interest descending quickly.

Do we want our students to be “show and tell” or “show and think”? Do we think about the hard questions about technology use so that we use the technology in a way that truly benefits our students learning? Or do we just want to learn the technology?

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Transfer of Learning: Thorough and Diverse

A critical condition before students can transfer their learning is that they they understand the material thorough and in-depth and that they can apply their learning in diverse conditions. If students have not mastered the initial skill, then they will not be able to transfer it to another situation.

Have your students learned subject area information in a comprehensive and in-depth (Application or higher of Bloom’s levels)? Do they know more than surface information ( the mere facts about an event or situation)? Can your Modern Language students do more than list the vocabulary words for shopping? Can they create spontaneous conversations about various shopping situations? Can your Social Studies students do more than list the generals in the US Civil War? Can they compare the reasons for the US Civil War to other Civil Wars? Can they compare the results of the US Civil War to other Civil Wars?

Do we use technology to help the students to learn our subject area thoroughly and indepth and in diverse ways. Social Studies teachers can easily find information on other civil wars for the students to compare the US Civil War to. They can talk with students in one of these countries through email or videoconferencing (Skype or bigger videconferencing systems.

Help your students to be able to transfer their learning so that their learning is not pigeoned-holed but applicable to many other learning situations.

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

Transfer of Learning: Low-Road or High Road with Technology

How often can students use what we have taught them beyond our classroom? How will this learning transfer to future learning situations?

We know our subject area is important and the topic we are teaching is critical. The essential question is how useful is this learning to the students’ future learnings/decisions? Life requires us to apply what we have learned to new situations.

Do we use technology to help students memorize information (low-road transfer) or to search for connections (high-road transfer)? For students to be successful in low-road transfer, the situation has to be almost identical to the original and only requires a very specific response. Jeopardy Social Studies games prepare students to repeat specific facts.

For students to be successful in high-road transfer, students have to be able to abstract and use information in very different situations. Social Studies Simulations require students to apply information in a broader context.

Do you have your students take the low-road or the high-road with technology?

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Flickr – Student Learning by Associating Categories (Tags)

There are several Flickr programs that allow you and your students to find tags associated or clustered with the initial tag you searched for.

Flickstorm sorts by topic rather quickly – bottom half has tags
http://www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm/

Airtight Interactive Type in a term, see images about the term and see connections
http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/related_tag_browser/app/

Tagnautica shows the associated tags and images (my favorite visual association so far)
http://www.quasimondo.com/tagnautica.php

Flickr clustering allows for clustering of ideas so that “bill” can be clustered in numerous ways. Type in the tag and then click on cluster
http://flickr.com/photos/tags/bill/clusters

This can be a great educational game for your students. You think of a tag like ice for your science unit and then you ask the students to list all the related tags (categories) that they can think of. Then type “ice” into one of the above and compare the tags to the students. Have the students determine which are science categories and which are non-scientific categories. This type of inference thinking helps to broaden the students’ thinking and helps them to think in terms of connections instead of one isolated term. They have to compare and contrast tags.

So how do you have you students develop tag (category) building through Flickr?

 

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Learning Performance Tasks: Climbing the Learning Ladder

If we want students to learn a standard to its highest level, then we have to structure the learning for them.

One technique is to make sure that you have questions or activities at each of the three different thought levels: Knowledge-Comprehension; Application- Analysis; and Synthesize – Evaluation.

In Science , this would look like:

• Explain the three aspects of the stream (biological, physical, and chemical) and how each can be measured

• Analyze the stream for each aspect

• Evaluate the health of the stream by examining the relationship of the three aspects

You might create a word processed unit planning template to remind you to incorporate all three levels for each standard. You may have a word processed list of the various verbs for each level of Bloom so you can pick active thought verbs. You can structure your assessments so that they assess each of the three levels.

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Challenge Student Thinking Through Differentiated Simulation Cards

Students like adventure in the classroom and a simulation can engage them in in-depth thinking. This approach can work in any class where you create a strong scenario to which students can react.

If you have created a simulation such as creating a nation, you have your students set up their new nation by deciding on a form of government, on the laws of the land, on the monetary system and taxation, on the transportation system, on the types of shelter, etc. Then you present them with situations that challenge their new nation.

You can vary the difficulty of your challenge for the academic level of your class.

One card may say “Your citizens are protesting the high taxes and promise to vote you and other leaders out of their offices in this (democracy) unless the taxes are lowered. What do you do? Explain your action.”

A more structured version may say, “Your citizens are protesting the high taxes and promise to vote you and other leaders out of their offices in this (democracy) unless the taxes are lowered. If taxes are lowered, then there is no money for governmental services. What do you do? Explain your action.”

An even more structured version may say “Your citizens are protesting the high taxes and promise to vote you and other leaders out of their offices in this (democracy) unless the taxes are lowered. If taxes are lowered, then there is no money for governmental services such as highways, water, and health services. What do you do? Explain your action.”

An very structured version may say “Your citizens are protesting the high taxes and promise to vote you and other leaders out of their offices in this (democracy) unless the taxes are lowered. If taxes are lowered, then there is no money for governmental services such as highways, water, and health services. Do you keep the high tax rate and show them what services their taxes support? Do you lower the taxes and lower the services? Or do you ignore them? Explain your action.”

With a word processor, it is easy to differentiate the situations by adding more structure. Also, you could use one or more digital images as a prompt to aid those who have difficulty in reading.

So how do you engage your students in differentiated responses to a scenario through technology?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Similarities and Differences: Avoid Circle Venn Diagrams

When students are asked to compare and contrast, they open their mind to more firmly defining each topic. They come to understand what the topic is and is not in comparison or contrast with another topic. They engage in higher level thinking.

I watched students list the similarities and differences between two stories they had just read. By looking at their circles I could not see the corresponding differences. When there are two overlapping circles such as for butterfly/moth, students do not identify what is the topic of each difference. I would suggest that students do not use circle Venn diagrams.

I prefer that students use block Venn Diagrams in which differences are clearly contrasted. You can easily make this in Word or Inspiration.

You might even want add a final line on the chart that says “Conclusion or Interpretation.”

Do you have another form of a compare and contrast chart that clearly helps learners to develop in-depth learning?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Time on Task: Minimal Computer Time Maximum Thinking Time For More Student Learning

 

A collleague observed many school groups in a museum and she noticed how little time they were actually on task.

I realize that educators can use technology to keep students on task. Students can be very busy when they are on the computer. I am unsure if we have measured how much time studens are engaged in actual content rather than the beautification of the presentation during a technology-infused learning project I am unsure if we have measured for how long students search for “just the right” image when the image does not add any new information to the digital report. I am not sure if we have measured how much students are off task even when they appear to be on task such as reading a website.

I have found that when students are given minimal time on the computer and maximum off-computer thinking time that their learning increases. I have done a one period research project in which groups of students had to give a one minute report on a certain topic at the end of the period. I gave them 10 minuteson the computer to find critical information and 20 minutes off the computer to organize the report. It was amazing that each month we did this project the students increased the amount of different information that they found even though they had the same time. They found much richer information. They were more focused and more on task when they were online so they learned more.

How do you maximize student learning that involves technology-infused learning?