Theories of Learning and Computer-Mediated Instructional Technologies

Lopez, Carrie

ET

Hung, D. (2001). Theories of Learning and Computer-Mediated Instructional Technologies. Educational Media International, 38(4), 281-287. doi:10.1080/09523980110105114. http://woulibrary.wou.edu.my/weko/eed502/Theories_of_Learning_and_CMI_Technologies.pdf

Explains different educational theories and argues that there is a place for all theories in educational practice. I appreciated this article, as I often feel that new theories are presented as "this NEW theory is the right one!" and I have often felt that there really is a little bit of all of the theories I have studied in my classroom everyday. So, I appreciated this article reinforcing what I experience.

Formative assessment practice, formative leadership practice, formative teaching practice, assessment of learning, assessment for learning, assessment as learning

Lopez, Carrie

CA

Dixon, M. (2009). Formative assessment practice, formative leadership practice, formative teaching practice, assessment of learning, assessment for learning, assessment as learning. New Zealand Principals' Federation Magazine, 15-17.

Article on the idea of assessing FOR learning, rather than the traditional 'of' learning. Huge difference, for learning would be much for informative for students and teachers. The article also does a good job of emphasizing the importance of effective feedback for both teachers and students, in order for assessments to be as effective as they can be.

Potential Effects of Teaching Strategies on Students’ Academic Performance under a Trump Administration

Lopez, Carrie

CA

Guirguis, R. & Pankowski, J. Potential Effects of Teaching Strategies on Students’ Academic Performance under a Trump Administration Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1133888.pdf


Article examines the potential effects of the Trump Administration on teaching in NY state, examines possible effects on ELLs and low socio-economic status students as privatization could possible affect access to programs such as Head Start, etc. Though this article focuses on New York State, the implications certainly extend to other areas, food for thought for anyone teaching in an economically disadvantaged school or area.

Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century

Olsen, Norma

IL-21st-century learning
IL-Media Literacy
IL-participatory culture

Jenkins, H., Purushotma, R., Robison, A. J., Weigel, M., & Clinton, K. (2007). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture ; media education for the 21st century. Digital Kompetanse, 2(1), 23-33. Retrieved from https://www.macfound.org/media/article_pdfs/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF

In this article Henry Jenkins, director of the Comparative Media Studies department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, looks at the development of these skills through the lens of participatory culture. Participatory culture, as defined by Jenkins, is a “

“Culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices. A participatory culture is also one in which members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another…” (3)

Since participatory culture already defines the youth today, he encourages creating a more systemic approach to media literacy that can foster these skills and cultural competencies that can promote not only individual expression, but community involvement. He develops a new frameworks for literacy through the lens of participatory culture.

Jenkins identifies 11 crucial media literacy skills that individuals will need to participate in the new media culture:

• Play—the capacity to experiment with one's surroundings as a form of problem-solving
• Performance—the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery
• Simulation—the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes
• Appropriation—the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content
• Multitasking—the ability to scan one's environment and shift focus as needed to salient details
• Distributed Cognition—the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities
• Collective Intelligence—the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal
• Judgment—the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources
• Transmedia Navigation—the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities
• Networking—the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information
• Negotiation—the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.

As he explains each of these skills and competencies he offers a suggestion of what might be done to make the teaching and practice a systematic exercise and natural process of education.

The 21st-century presents an ever-changing landscape when it comes to Internet technologies Educators today confront the challenge of preparing youth to not just be knowledgeable, but to be knowledge-able. In this landscape, educators must look into the horizon and foresee the impact that Internet technologies and inform their teaching practices. This article offers a perspective that teacher librarians can use to support teachers and students prepare for what lays ahead. Technology is a tool; we define its potential by envisioning its use and charting that path.

The School Librarian and Leadership

The School Librarian and Leadership: What Can Be Learned?

Elias, Jenann

ET, IL

ROOTS LEWIS, K. (2016). The School Librarian and Leadership What Can Be
Learned? Teacher Librarian, 43(4), 18-21.

As library professionals we are surrounded by exciting research, brilliant minds, and amazing practitioners. Armed with these resources, we should "elevate library positions in schools, ensure deep student learning and keep libraries at the forefront of teaching and learning" (Roots Lewis, 2016). This can be accomplished in several ways.
First, being a leader means knowing what matters and why. It is not enough to just read research; the librarian needs to share and act on research. This can be accomplished by co-teaching and collaboration. Evidence shows that learning experience increased when classroom teachers and librarians co-taught students. As the librarian co-teaches, it is important to document student learning. Later this evidence can be used to showcase achievement within your program using photos, anecdotes, videos, and even graphs and charts.

Being a leader at a school also means knowing what matters to your principal and why. Determine what similar goals you have, and then build on them using your strengths. Keeping your finger on the pulse of the school can help. Listen to your principal (and other admins) and ask the right questions. Librarians, after all, are “all about matching people with great resources” (Roots Lewis, 2016). So whether it’s bullying, test scores, poverty, attendance, or any other topic, find articles, video, research, studies, and other relatable information and share them.

Always be careful to ferret out gems, because you don’t want to deluge busy admins. In fact, never go unprepared with only problems. Always come bearing possible solutions and an “openness to work out a better solution together” (Roots Lewis, 2016).

And remember to highlight your best practices. According to the late Donald Clifton, who studied leadership for decades, “What great leaders have in common is that each truly knows his or her strengths...and can call on that strength at the right time” (Roots Lewis, 2016). Documenting evidence of learning and providing snapshots of your program in regular intervals are best. This serves not only as a communication tool but an advocacy tool as well.

This author cited a number of other articles and sites to assist in documentation and advocacy including Evolving with Evidence by J. Valenza in Knowledge Quest 43(3), 36-43.

A Digital Teaching Platform to Further and Assess Use of Evidence-based Practices

A Digital Teaching Platform to Further and Assess Use of Evidence-based Practices

Elias, Jenann

CA
Bondie, R. (2015). A Digital Teaching Platform to Further and Assess Use of
Evidence-based Practices. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 34(1), 23-29.

The author, Rhonda Bondie, presents a solution to the challenge of assessing candidate teachers who are learning online. This solution is called Project REACH, which is a free online digital teaching platform.

The platform is learner centered which allows for collaboration, and support is available at any time, 24 by 7.

This paper seems more of an instruction sheet on using this platform. The learning path for teacher candidate steps are:

1. Learn Evidence-based practice (EBP). The website includes resources for 67 EBP’s. A teacher candidate uses resources developed by others to “develop knowledge about specific EBPs and guides for classroom implementation.”
2. Plan instruction, using learning and collaborate tools on the website. Invite other Project REACH users to collaborate on instructional plans. This includes:
1. Unpack curriculum standards
2. Develop multiple assessments
3. Design differential lesson plans
4. Apply Universal Design for Learning
5. A field-test report
6. Analysis of student work
3. Reflect on impact. Field test. Upload and annotate student work. Track student progress.
4. Share accomplishments. Earn “badges”. Learn, share, and add badges throughout career.

The website is: www.projectreachonline.org and much of the article I read includes screen captures and “how-to” instructions.

Relationships Between the Perceived Value of Instructional Techniques and Academic Motivation

Relationships Between the Perceived Value of Instructional Techniques and Academic Motivation

Elias, Jenann

ET, CA

Komarraju, M., & Karau, S. J. (2008). Relationships Between the Perceived Value of

Instructional Techniques and Academic Motivation. Journal Of Instructional

Psychology, 35(1), 70-82.

In this article, the authors discuss the relationships between the perceived value of instructional techniques, including technology enhancements like course material websites (lecture notes, review sheets, grades, sample tests), and the student motivation and learning.

The authors propose that instructional techniques do not impact all students equally. Research prior to this paper has been on the relative effectiveness of different instructional techniques. This assumes that these techniques are perceived equally by all students.

All 172 subjects, students in this case who were enrolled in psychology or business classes. Most had easy access to a computer. The subjects were questioned on their perception of different instructional techniques. All the courses had an online presence including lecture notes, review sheets, grades, sample tests, and links to articles). They stated the perceived value of course websites, active learning, and traditional lectures. The subjects were asked to fill an Academic Motivations Inventory (AMI) that consists of 90 items and includes 16 dimensions of academic motivation.

About 93% of the students reported that they find the course websites useful. The interesting part was that when the 16 dimensions of the AMI and the three instructional strategies (website usage, active learning, and traditional lecture) were correlated, some statistically significant correlations emerged. In layman's terms, “one size does NOT fit all.”

The authors state that “The results of our study clearly suggest that various teaching techniques are significantly associated with distinct aspects of students' academic motivation.” Three profiles of academic motivation emerged, they were engagement, avoidance, and achievement motivation, each associated with unique learning preferences.

From a teaching perspective, engaged students are ideal for learning. These students desire self-improvement and will respond to the widest spectrum of teaching techniques. Avoidant students worry about their performance and grades and are more likely to dislike school and experience stress. They present a challenge to the teacher. Achievement motivated students placed a high value on traditional lectures as well as course websites and online learning.

It is surprising that the questions that the authors, Meera Komarraju and Steven J. Karau, raise here have not been asked before. From my own experience in the field of education (both as a student and as a teacher), I find that not all students react the same way to a presentation, whether in class on online. I am glad that they addressed this point in this paper. My observation is that further study is needed, and with much more refined statistics. The authors acknowledge that there were some internal inconsistencies. It will be interesting to hear the experiences of teacher-librarians and other information professionals working in these situations.