Notes from the Volunteer Front
SIGMS Second
LifeTM Speakers Series Begins
This year, ISTE’s SIGMS (Media Specialists) is
sponsoring a special program in the virtual reality environment
“Second Life.” This program will host a series of
speakers on topics of all kinds in a virtual platform. On September 18,
the series kicked off with David Loertscher, a nationally recognized
expert in school librarianship from San Jose State University, and Robin
T. Williams. They hosted a program entitled: “In Command! Teaching
Kids and Teens to Build and Manage Their Own Information Spaces
And…Learn to Manage Themselves in Those Spaces.”
Loertscher and Williams presented innovative ideas about using free
Internet sources, such as iGoogle, to help students create personalized,
collaborative work spaces. They also spoke about an exciting new
world-wide reading challenge called Knowville. If you
missed this event, please visit http://blogs.cuip.net/dlis for a link to the
transcript and full slide presentation!
This presentation was an extremely successful beginning to what will
surely be an enriching professional development series organized by
SIGMS. Stay tuned for information on the next speaker! To find out more
about SIGMS’ current undertakings, or to participate in
SIGMS-led discussions, please feel free to stop by the SIGMS Wiki at: http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/.
Second Life Tips:
If you do not have an avatar account in Second Life
(SL), go to http://www.secondlife.com in
advance. Set up your free account, download the client reader
software, and sign in after launching the reader. You must access
SL from a high-speed connection using a newer computer with high-quality
graphics. (See systems requirements at http://www.secondlife.com/corporate/sysreqs.php).
Become familiar with the basics of communicating and navigating in SL in
advance.
Arrive at the event at least 15 minutes prior to the start time.
Our events usually fill up and many latecomers are not able to
attend.
SIG1to1 Asks: Do Laptops Really Improve
Learning?
By Mike Muir, SIG1to1 Chair
Some folks ask if laptops improve learning. Often they mean to be
asking deeper questions about whether improvements in learning are
linked directly to the laptops or to other factors. A
recent preliminary study about the Maine Learning Technology
Initiative (learn more: http://www.mcmel.org/tech/MLTI/index.html)
showed there is evidence to believe that students from Maine’s
Exploration (pilot laptop program) Sites did slightly better on
Maine’s 8th grade standardized tests than students who did not yet
have the laptops. In response, one educator wrote to me asking,
“Were the increase in scores due to the laptops or to increased
efforts by teachers and staff? To improvements in teaching and
programs?”
1-to-1 advocates readily recognize, however, that laptops do not
raise test scores or improve achievement. Only good teachers and
teaching improve learning.
Does that mean that we don’t need laptops?
Not at all! Educators are finding that technology, especially when
students have access to it anywhere/anytime, is a powerful tool that
allows for improved teaching and learning. This isn’t a
contradiction, it is simply placing credit where credit is due. A
classroom full of laptops, which aren’t being used, or
aren’t being used well, will have no benefit to students and their
learning. Only when teachers are using them well does learning
improve.
In fact, the research on technology initiatives indicates that when
they focus on the technology (i.e. a “tech buy”) there is no
significant benefit to achievement. Analyzing more than 700
studies, Schacter concludes that technology initiatives have to focus on
teaching and learning, not the technology, in order to be successful:
“One of the enduring difficulties about technology and education
is that a lot of people think about the technology first and the
education later” (1995, p. 11). Studies that show a negative
impact of technology often indicate that the initiatives themselves
focused on hardware and software, or teachers taught about the
technology instead of using the technology to enhance learning
experiences.
In fact, Maine recognized from the beginning that the initiative
could never be about laptops alone. As many educators involved with
1-to-1 recognize, the true value of technology lies in using technology
to learn, not in learning to use technology. You cannot separate the
technology, the learning and teaching, and the professional development
in MLTI or other 1-to-1 initiatives. The initiatives are all those
things together. Intentionally. You can’t just say, “well
then it was just the professional development and the technology
doesn’t matter.” You have to remember that many students are
doing things with their laptops that aren’t convenient/possible
without the laptop.
Sure, you can write with pen and paper, but the quality and quantity
of writing improves because of the perceived ease of revision and
editing with a laptop. Sure you can look up extra facts in the library
after class, if you want to go to all that trouble. But it’s a lot
more likely to happen when a student can just flip open the laptop, open
the browser and do a search. The technology extends our capabilities as
teachers and the engineers of learning experiences. Only when technology
initiatives focus on teaching and learning (including well-supported
teachers) do they impact achievement.
“Do laptops improve learning?” is not, nor should it ever
be, the right question. The right question is “How are teachers
using technology to improve learning?”
Strategic Responses:
- When people ask if laptops improve learning, reply with confidence,
“Only good teaching improves learning. But 1-to-1 can be one of
their strongest tools for improving learning.”
- Share with the school board, community, and other stakeholders the
evidence of improved learning from your own initiative and from
others.
- When people ask how you know it was the laptops and not the teachers
or the professional development, respond that yours is a learning
initiative including all of those things, not just the laptops.
To discuss this topic further, please visit the SIG1to1 Wikispace at:
http://sig1to1.iste.wikispaces.net
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