Time to Teach or Time to Learn

I was talking with another educator who teaches the same course I am now teaching. He spends the first half of the course in teaching about how to give a speech and then, in the second half of the semester, he has the students do speeches. I have my students give speeches after the third class. I think that I have scaffolded their speeches so that they can be successful in including all of the elements of good speaking. The proof will be tomorrow when they give their first speech.

Do you spend much time in teaching the material and then give the students a little time to practice it or do you present the material quickly and then give the students much time to practice?

70% Not Focused/Not Efficient Technology Integration

I would guess that 70% of all technology-infused learning experiences are not focused on a specific standard component or do not use technology effectively.

A teacher who has her students produce autobiographies using digital camera and word progress or software is certainly doing English Language Arts but probably the teacher is not focusing on the particular skills that are needed for the state ELA assessment. When two librarians videoconference and read a book to each other’s group, they are not focused on the state ELA assessment unless they ask meaningful questions about the books.

Likewise, when a class spends five days on doing a podcast about a battle in the US Civil War, they are not focusing on the state assessment (DBQs). They could do a quick Inspiration comparison chart about the war and learn just as much. The technology does not support the real learning purpose. In addition, when a class has a blog in which students talk about the story they have read, they may be missing the individual analysis that could be done just as easily through word processing. The word processing is more similar to what they will do on their state assessment.

How well does your technology use support the state standards as expressed on the state assessment?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

Learning Time Increased by Technology

As I have observed many classes this year, I am amazed at how much time is spent in low level learning tasks such as word searches, puzzles, doing handouts, coloring (high school level), making dioramas, creating posters, producing factual PowerPoints, web-surfing for facts, making imovies of non-important information, and creating podcasts. What if we had used that time for higher level learning activities?

Let’s say that during a unit of three weeks (15 days), four days are spent in lower-level activities of knowledge and comprehension (my guess is that most days are really spent in lower level activities in many classrooms). If we change it so that we spend two of those four days in higher level thinking activities of application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation, we would be doubling or tripling what the students understood about the topic. They would be learning more in-depth and with more comprehension. If there is time for 12 15 day units (180 instructional days) and if we do higher level learning for 2 days for each of the 12 units, we will have gained 24 days (or three weeks) of higher level learning. We are doubling or tripling the learning value for the same amount of time. We will have virtually added almost five school weeks to the students’ learning without ever changing the time of the school day or the school year. If we increase to three days of higher level learning for each of those 12 units, we would be up to 36 learning days (over 7 school weeks). Students would have learned the material to a greater depth and in a more comprehensive manner due to the higher level thinking learning.

How have you used technology to engage students in higher level thinking about your subject area standards? How have your doubled or tripled their learning in the same physical time that you used to spend in lower level learning?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Learning and Technology Score: Time on Task vs Student Learning using Bloom’s

I realize that technology can be a motivator. I realize that students like to see their work when it is done on the computer. However, I also realize that there are only so many minutes in a class period and so many class periods in a year.

How efficient is the students’ time on time on task vs. their final learning? If a student takes five hours to do a project, does that mean it is better than a one hour project?

One way to evaluate a learning project is to use Bloom’s Taxonomy where a point value is associated with each level of Bloom.

1 = Knowledge
2 = Comprehension
3 = Application
4 = Analysis
5.5 = Synthesis
5.5 = Evaluation

So if Juan works for five hours on a PowerPoint country report (factual information or knowledge), his score would be a 5 (hours) x 1 (Knowledge) = 5.

If Huan works for one hour on a PowerPoint country evaluation report ( 5.5), his score would be 1 (hour) x 5.5 (Evaluation) or 5.5

Time is not the critical factor in learning. It is the level of learning.

So, in your class, how much time and on what level of Bloom are your technology-infused learning activities? What is your learning score for each activity?

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