Problem: “Each morning as you walk the hallways prior to first bell, you see your students' plugged in to their iPods, you hear them discussing the latest "castle craft conquest", you see cell phones put away in lockers, you overhear discussions using terms like LOL, O.M.G. your school's hallways are buzzing with energy. First bell rings. Students file into their seats. It’s quiet. Books are pulled out. You realize the students have already tuned out.”
The Instructional Challenge: “Your instructional challenge is convincing your administration that you can recreate the hallway energy and students will still be learning. Your solution must have a research foundation, must include models of practice, and must demonstrate how these models could be modified for use in your own learning environment.”
Resolution:
To convince my administration that I can recreate the hallway energy while maintaining an atmosphere of learning, I would discuss the power of mobile learning and vodcasting in education. Both of these technologies are widely available outside of classrooms and it is our job as educators to teach students how to use them. Illinois State Learning Standard 13.B.5e states that students will be able to “assess how scientific and technological progress has affected other fields of study, careers and job markets and aspects of everyday life.” There is no way for students to be able to assess how technological progress has affected other aspects of life without being able to use them in schools. We will need “to think beyond ‘what is’ to ‘what could be’ in order to prepare for the future.” (International Society for Technology in Education, 2012) Below, I will describe two technological models that will increase the energy within the classroom while still maintaining an atmosphere of learning that are not currently accepted in most schools.
Research Model 1- Mobile Devices
Mobile devices are existing resources in secondary schools. Students use cell phones before class for social reasons but can be used as an educational tool. According to the 2010 Horizon Report, “The range of technologies converging in mobile devices is very broad, as is the variety of ways they can be applied: GPS and compasses allow sophisticated location and positioning, accelerometers and motion sensors enable the device to be used in completely new ways, digital capture and editing bring rich tools for video, audio, and imaging — more and more, mobiles encompass it all.” (2010 Horizon Report K-12 Edition, 2010)
In theory, cell phones can be used in multiple ways in a classroom. At Hinsdale Central High School, students are allowed to use their cell phones during the school day. According to the Assistant Principal Bill Walsh, “We're encouraging opportunities for students to engage in technology to further the learning process. There are ways for the students to create educational opportunities using electronics during the school day." (Doyle, 2011) Researchers have found that mobile phones can enhance any topic of study if teachers invest time and attention in designing the activity, and that “for mobile-savvy Digital Natives, education will look quite different from what it did until the early years of the 21st century.” (Lalvani, 2012)
In practice for my learning environment (11th grade Physics), students could use mobile phones in multiple ways. Students could use them to access the internet, perform research, watch videos not accessible on school computers, or use the SMS features to find synonyms and definitions. (Nielsen, 2008) I could also have the students use their cell phones to play review games or study electronic flashcards. Chemistry professors from Georgia Gwinnett College have been using mobile devices in their organic chemistry classes for their students to learn functional groups. They surveyed the students and found that more students found using flashcards in their mobile devices helped them learn more than traditional paper flashcards because they were more convenient, more fun, and offered the opportunity to study anywhere. (Pennington, Pursell, & Sloop, 2010) Below is an image of one of the functional groups flashcards that the students could use to study. (Pennington, Pursell, & Sloop, 2010). I could create similar electronic flashcards for information that my chemistry and physics students need to memorize if cell phones were allowed in my school district.
For me as a teacher, mobile phones could be useful as a student response polling system and to save costs because the students have their own stopwatch, level, accelerometer, digital camera, video camera, and compass (Nielsen, 2008). Student response systems are traditionally very expensive but if students were allowed to use their mobile devices, I could poll the students throughout each class period as a formative assessment without any cost to the school district.
One argument administrators may present against mobile devices in the classroom is that students will not be on task and that they will use them to cheat on tests. While this is a valid point, researchers from Vancouver Island University have found that more high school students stay on task when they have their cell phones out in class and very few of them actually use their devices to cheat. A graph of their findings is shown below. (Turner, 2011)
Research Model 2- Vodcasting/ “Flipped” Classroom
According to Wikipedia, a vodcast (or video podcast) is “a term used for the online delivery of video on demand video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures.” (Video Podcast, 2012) A vodcast is different from a podcast because podcasts are most commonly audio files while vodcasts contain the video component as well. Vodcasting would require both available resources and for the teacher to design resources. The available resource would be either the iPod or computer for the students. The teacher would need to create the vodcast using a computer, recording device, and audio equipment.
In theory, vodcasting allows teachers to “flip” their classroom. It is called “flipped” because what is traditionally done at school is now done at home and vice versa. Below is a graphic that describes “flipped” classrooms. (The Flipped Classroom (Infographic), 2011)
There are several benefits to vodcasting. First of all, students that are absent won’t miss the direct instruction that everyone else received. Next, it gives students the opportunity to absorb information without the distraction of their peers. Lastly, the lower levels of thinking are done at home in short bursts while the higher levels in Bloom’s Taxonomy such as analysis, application, and synthesis are done at school with the help of the teacher. Vodcasting also allows teachers to differentiate their instruction and provide a student-centered classroom. Below is a video of Aaron Sams describing how he uses vodcasting in his classroom and why it is beneficial to him. (Learning4Mastery, 2010)
Researchers at the University of San Francisco studied how podcasting affected nursing students. They found that vodcasting significantly helped student learning without affecting student attendance. (Maag, 2006). Furthermore, students generally like “flipped” classrooms because it allows them to control the pace of their learning and be more active at school; “over the course of the semester, many come to appreciate the help that this structure gives them in terms of preparation for each lesson, and really enjoy getting up and being active participants, rather than passive observers, in the class.” (Pennington, Pursell, & Sloop, 2010) Specific benefits that students reported from a “flipped” classroom during the University of San Francisco study are shown in the graph below. (Maag, 2006)
In practice in my learning environment, “flipping” my classroom will provide my students with more time for fun activities during class as well as the opportunity to learn the concepts at their own pace since they can pause the vodcasts or watch them as many times as they need to. Students would also be able to watch the vodcasts on their iPods or cell phones so they could “do their homework” anywhere. They can be energetic, active learners at school, working on higher-level collaborative activities such as research activities or problem-solving while still learning the necessary background information that they need. Vodcasting is also beneficial for students with disabilities and different learning styles because there is audio and visual components (subtitles if necessary) and students that miss school often for medical reasons can still be active in the course.
As a teacher, a “flipped” classroom gives me more time to cover the curriculum because students will learn all of the background information outside of class which frees up time for the higher-level thinking to be done at school while I am there to help. A “flipped” classroom also provides ample opportunities for differentiated instruction because I have the time to help individual students during class and put them in small groups for different level assignments. In a traditional classroom, all of the students would be hearing the same lecture one time- too slow for some students while too fast for others.
Administrators probably would not have any arguments against “flipping” a classroom because there are so many benefits for the students. The only problem is equity- some students may not have a computer or iPod. However, those students could go to the school library during their lunch to watch the vodcasts.
Resolution
Each morning students walk through the hallways buzzing with energy. First bell rings. Students come into my classroom and keep their mobile phones out as a scientific tool. They break up into their groups for that day’s activity and start their differentiated assignment. I walk around the room to see how each student understood the video from the night before and how they are doing on today’s work. I don’t need to wake anyone up- everyone is extremely busy. I assess the students at the end of class using their mobile devices. Students are happy. I am happy. Administrators are happy.
Works Cited
2010 Horizon Report K-12 Edition. (2010). Retrieved February 1, 2012, from http://learn.education.illinois.edu/file.php/1815/Resources_Week_1/2010-Horizon-Report-K12-2.pdf
The Flipped Classroom (Infographic). (2011, August 29). Retrieved February 1, 2012, from Knewton: http://www.knewton.com/blog/knewton/2011/08/29/flipped-classroom-infographic
Video Podcast. (2012, January 27). Retrieved February 1, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_podcast#Video_podcasts
Doyle, B. (2011, October 9). High School Opens Dorrs to Cellphone Use. Retrieved January 30, 2012, from Chicago Tribune: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-10-09/news/ct-met-hinsdale-cell-phones-1009-20111009_1_cellphones-school-day-students-use-phones
International Society for Technology in Education. (2012, January 3). Computational Thinking: A Digital Age Skill for Everyone. Retrieved January 30, 2012, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFcUgSYyRPg&feature=player_embedded
Lalvani, S. (2012, January 23). Education 2.0: Mobile Technology in Education. Retrieved January 30, 2012, from Information Week: The Business Value of Technology: http://informationweek.in/Mobile/12-01-23/Education_2_0_Mobile_technology_in_education.aspx
Learning4Mastery. (2010, December 16). The Flipped Classroom. Retrieved February 1, 2012, from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H4RkudFzlc
Maag, M. (2006, November 17). iPod, uPod? An Emergine Mobile Learning Tool in Nursing Eduation and Students' Satisfaction. Retrieved February 1, 2012, from University of San Francisco: http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/sydney06/proceeding/pdf_papers/p92.pdf
Nielsen, L. (2008, May 12). The Value of Using Cell Phones to Enhance Education and Some Concrete Ways to Do So. Retrieved January 30, 2012, from The Innovative Educator: A Way Out of the Box: http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2008/05/value-of-using-cell-phones-to-enhance.html
Pennington, R., Pursell, D., & Sloop, J. (2010, March 1). Engaging Science Students With Wireless Technology and Applications by Revisiting the Thayer Method of Teaching and Learning. Retrieved February 1, 2012, from Georgia Gwinnett College: http://www.iiis.org/CDs2010/CD2010IMC/CCCT_2010/PapersPdf/TA479MG.pdf
Turner, R. (2011, September 1). Student Use of Cell Phones in the Classroom. Retrieved January 31, 2012, from Vancouver Island University: http://journal.viuonline.ca/index.php/eddev/article/download/23/21
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