EDU 6215 Article 2: student engagement with media

Reference:

Junco, R., & Heiberger, G., & Loken, E. (2011). The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 27 (2), 119-132. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=9367a513-cac8-4003-aca0-1fca4b00dfc7%40sessionmgr115&hid=106&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=59268352

The article I read discussed using social media, specifically Twitter, to increase student engagement in college courses.  Engagement covers areas such as energy put forth in the class, participation, and out of class activity related to the material.  The main idea behind increasing student engagement in college is to assist students in achieving their ultimate goal, which is often a degree in a specified field.  If student engagement increases, logically this would mean students are more successful in terms of grades, and thus more likely to continue to pursue their degree.  The study sought to answer these two questions: 1. What effect does encouraging the use of Twitter for educationally relevant purposes have on student engagement? 2. What effect does encouraging the use of Twitter for educationally relevant purposes have on semester grades?  The study was conducted with seven sections of a one credit introductory seminar specifically taken by pre-health majors.  Thus although the sample was somewhat diverse in terms of ethnicity, it did not have a diversity in regards to varying majors.  This is one of the limitations of the results of the study that will be discussed later.  There were four experimental sections that used Twitter during the semester, and three sections for the control group.  Both groups used Ning, a social networking site that replaces a learning management system that is typical of other colleges.  There were 125 students in the study to begin, and seven dropped out as the semester progressed. The ages of the students were all between 17-20, and this is another important aspect of the sample used.

The method of the study was to introduce Twitter to the experimental groups, which included the basic training for how to use Twitter.  Then throughout the semester, particularly assignments were completed or enhanced using Twitter.  Some other aspects of the semester also transferred to Twitter, such as class updates, arrangement of study groups, academic supports, etc.  The students used Twitter for assignments to post responses to required readings, ask questions about the course, and comment on other student’s opinions.  The average number of tweets sent out by a student in the experimental group during the semester was 48.20.

Several results were seen at the end of the study.  In relation to the two main questions that were asked before the student began, there were positive results to share.  For the first question about student engagement, students in the experimental group had significantly higher scores in favor of positive engagement.  These scores were obtained by a pre and post-test that asked students to answer questions about their engagement for the course.  Also for the second question, students in the experimental group ended the semester with GPAs that were significantly higher than the control group.  Thus it seems that Twitter may have a beneficial impact on the overall learning outcomes of a college course. 

Some reason behind why the results may have been so positive is that Twitter alleviated several issues for students that they typically face in a college course.  Twitter was able to make students feel more connected to their instructor and the course.  Since the course was only one credit, it is difficult to create a community with such a short amount of time.  Twitter allowed students to interact outside the classroom, in a very non-threatening manner.  Thus Twitter significantly deepened the discussion the students were able to have in regards to required readings.  In addition, student relationships developed much faster through Twitter, because were less afraid to share their opinion.  Also Twitter gave students a sense of relief because through the channels of Twitter they were able to voice their anxiety about course material.  Once students started realizing that they were not the only one who was having issues, that bonded together to form study groups.  This is likely the reason for the increase in GPA for the semester, because these students also took other classes together since they were all pre-health majors.  Thus the benefit of Twitter quickly spilled over into other academic areas. 

There are several important implications about this study.  One of the biggest issues in college is student attendance and participation.  Twitter appears to be a tool that would allow students to interact more often, creating an education community that they can rely on to assist them in the completion of their courses.  When students feel engaged, they are more likely to show up for class.  This becomes a snowball effect, as the community and attendance spur on more success.  The second big implication about this study is that instructors can extended their course outside of class time.  In order for students to be successful in many courses, they need to be thinking about the subject more than just the few hours of class time.  Assignments through Twitter create more opportunities for students to be engaging in the material of the class.  The more immersed a student can become, the better the chance that student is successful and continues on in their program of study.

EDU6215 Article 1: Multimedia

Reference:

Schrand, T. (2008). Tapping into active learning and multiple intelligences with interactive multimedia: A low-threshold classroom. College Teaching, 56 (2), 78-84. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=20bbd1bf-52fc-403e-9f24-b1b1432b865c%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4109&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=32013591

The article by Schrand gave several insights into the benefits for learning when using multimedia in a classroom.  The article was written by a college professor who teaches liberal arts courses.  The article focuses mainly on interactive technologies, such as an interactive whiteboard, flash program, or similar products that allow manipulation to occur easily. 

            The professor took two different activities from two of his courses and reworked them to allow the introduction of multimedia into his course.  The first activity was to separate a list of phrases into two columns based on similar characteristics.  Without multimedia, the professor would teach this lesson by collecting the list of terms from the students, writing them on the board, and then erasing and rewriting until all terms were in the correct category.  Note the majority of this lesson involves the instructor being at the head of the class, and directing the discussion.  The second activity was for students to show cause and effect relationships between several topics using arrows.  Without technology, students would break up into groups, create a poster with large paper and markers, and then post their result on the wall. Students would present their ideas to the whole class, and comparison and discussion would ensure regarding each groups choices.  Not in this case, the students not in the group presenting had a very passive role in their learning. 

            After reworking both lessons, the professor noted some interesting changes.  For the first activity, the professor used a manipulative board, in which all phrases were listed in the middle of a 3 column chart to begin with.  Each column on the side represented to the common characteristic that students were meant to put each phrase.  The lesson then progressed with students working in groups to discuss where each phrase should go.  After discussing each group was responsible for going to the board and moving a few phrases into the column they thought fit best.  After the first round, students from each group were given a chance to argue or challenge the choices made by some of the other groups.  Students were allowed to again go to the board and move the phrases around as the arguments progressed. 

            There are several large benefits to the change in this activity.  First, it removes the teacher as the expert in the classroom. Students become responsible for their own learning, as they themselves must go up to the board to rearrange the phrases.  Since this was done in groups though, it was a very low risk action for the students.  Also, the teacher did not need to lead the discussion anymore, and students could argue and rearrange the phrases as they saw fit.  This resulted in very good discussion, with critical thinking skills being developed along the way.  A second benefit was that because the teacher was removed from facilitating the discussion, he could observe and moderate the lesson more effectively.  Paying attention to how the discussion progressed, the professor was better able to judge the learning outcomes that occurred.  Finally, multiple modes of learning were accomplished during the same lesson.  Kinesthetic learners were able to move around, go up the board, and interactive with the phases.  Visual learners we able to clearly see the separation of the columns on the board.  Audio learners were able to participate in the discussion that followed each move.  The multimedia created a very diverse lesson, in which students were actively engaged in their learning.

            The second activity had many similar benefits as the first.  By creating an interactive lesson, again students took control of their learning, and the teacher was not the main focus.  The movement of the arrows to show cause and effect created a very fluid lesson that was allowed to develop naturally with the students understanding of the material.  Students were much more engaged with the interactive technology as opposed to posters on the wall because the entire classroom was responsible for creating a final flowchart.  Instead of each group creating their own, a final productive was produced.  This means as other groups were making arguments about particular viewpoints, other students had to be actively listening so they could refute the arguments if they chose to disagree.  Again multiple intelligences were addressed during the lesson, including kinesthetic, visual, and audio learners. 

            In conclusion, the use of the interactive multimedia allowed for a classroom that was student centered.  The technology created a great environment to collaborate, investigate, discuss, argue, and adapt.  The multimedia used to create these two activities were not significantly difficult technologies for the professor to implement into the lesson, yet the benefits resulting from the change was impressive.

Article Review # 3

 Kodippili, A., & Senaratne, D. (2008). Is computer-generated interactive mathematics homework more effective than traditional instructor-graded homework? British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(5), 928-932. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=e0ed8f42-b0b8-4a19-ad64-9782b569b3f4%40sessionmgr4005&vid=3&hid=4206

My most recent reading regards the use of online homework versus traditional paper and pencil instructor graded homework.  The basis of the article revolved around College Algebra courses taken at the college level.  Two instructors were selected who each taught two sections of the College Algebra course.  For each instructor, they assigned homework in one section using the online homework program MyMathLab, and for the other section they assigned homework to be completed on paper and graded by the instructor. 

Before discussing the study, I would like to give some background on MyMathLab.  MyMathLab is a web based program that students can purchase in association with a particular textbook.  An instructor sets up the online homework by choosing select problems from each section that is taught in class.  Students create and account, and login to the website to complete their homework.  The online homework gives questions that are similar to the textbook exercises.  A student will put their answer into the online program, and then MyMathLab will tell the student if the answer is correct or incorrect.  The teacher can limit the number of attempts on any given problem to whatever number the choose.  If the student gets the question correct, they move on to the next problem.  If the student uses all their attempts and still does not get the question correct, the program will tell the student the right answer, but mark the question wrong on the assignment.  Students are able to click on resources for aide such as seeing an example or asking for a similar exercise to practice.  Some online homework systems even have videos for specific problems to aide students in understanding.  The homework is automatically graded, with a total score calculated at the end of an assignment. 

For this study, 72 total students were enrolled in the four different sections.  The results for the study showed that there was not a significance difference (using a t-test with a significance level of .05) in performance on homework assignments when comparing the online homework versus traditional homework.  However there were other benefits that seem to be correlated to the online homework sections.  The 2 sections using online homework had a student success rate (meaning the student received an A, B, or C in the course) was 70% versus 49% in the traditional homework sections. 

These results could be explained by several factors.  First, although homework is not counted as a large portion of the final grade, it could be that students using the online homework were better prepared overall going into an exam.  Perhaps the extra practice and examples caused those students to perform higher on the tests, even though there homework score did not show a significant difference.  Another possibility could be that in the online homework sections, the instructor had more available time to work with students on questions, because the instructor did not have to manually grade each assignment.  Also students are able to access the online homework any time of the day, whereas the instructor only has select office hours during the week to seek assistance.  Some limitations of this study are that the sample size is not very large,  outside influences such as private tutors was not accounted for, and the participants in the study were not selected in a completely random manner.  However the dramatic difference in success rates should call for more exploration into using online homework in mathematics classes. 

This article has several implications.  First, online homework is a great tool for instructors because it frees up a lot of time for the instructor to be more focused on designing lessons and assisting students.  Grading can be an overwhelming task for teachers, and online homework gives the students  the ability to still earn points for the class while not occupying a majority of the instructors time.  Second, online homework calls into question what resources a school must provide to students in order to be successful.  Not all student may have a computer or internet at home, and so schools need to be sure they are providing opportunities for students to complete their homework using on campus resources.  Lastly, online homework opens up options to students as to when the complete their homework.  Lots of students work full time and can not make it to see instructors during office hours.  Or perhaps students can not afford to pay for a private tutor.  The online homework allows students to work on their schedule, with assistance built in to the online program.  There are some downsides to online homework, but in general I believe the pros outweigh the cons.  Overall I think online homework is a benefit to the students and instructors, and as time progresses, traditional homework using paper and pencil may quickly become a thing of the past. 

Article Review # 2

Beauchamp, G., & Jones, S., & Kennewell, S., & Tanner, H. (2008). Analysing the use of interactive technology to implement interactive teaching. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 24 (1), 61-73. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=1926f8df-d5fa-4916-b2ab-b9c6782f06a2%40sessionmgr112&vid=3&hid=107

The purpose of the study conducted in the article was to determine how including a piece of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in a classroom altered the learning atmosphere and outcomes.  The particular technology used for the study was interactive whiteboards (IWBs).  A feature of the IWB that was used is the ability to “manipulate items directly on the display” (61).  This study was conducted in England, where a majority of the IWBs are found in mathematics classrooms.  The characteristics used to determine the level of interaction was based on how student’s involvement in the lesson is encouraged, expected, and extended to higher order thinking.  Also the increased level of interaction should lead to more control by the student over the direction of the lesson.  In an interactive classroom, the group should be able to investigate new ideas through exploration.  The goal of the IWB is to increase the ability and productive outcome of this exploration.  Thus the emphasis should be changing from teacher-centered to student-centered.  The study was broken into two parts: the first part comparing the difference in interactivity between classrooms that are ICT based and classrooms that are not ICT based for students ages 5-14, and the second part involved looking in depth at teacher’s lessons specifically for the ICT based classrooms. 

I will focus on the second part of the study.  The teachers who were selected for the study were chosen based on their effectiveness in teaching in general, rather than an extensive knowledge of the IWB technology.  One particular lesson observed was a mathematics class of 29 boys and girls between the ages of 9-11.  The classroom had an IWB at the front of the classroom, as well as 3 network computers in the back.  There was a teacher and two aides in the classroom for the lesson.  The math lesson involved teaching students how to add and subtract, first with a number line setting, and then extending their understanding to be able to use purely mental math to complete a problem.  The lesson began with the entire class working together on a problem presented on the IWB involving a temperature question.  Students were invited to come to the board and explain their answer to the class utilizing the IWB to assist them.  The teacher then validated or questioned the student’s response.  After the class explored the topic together, students broke up into several groups.  One particular group of six students was allowed to work at the IWB, while three other groups worked at the desktop computers.  At the IWB, the group was manipulating questions to help solve addition and subtraction problems randomly generated by the technology.  The goal was to move from counting on the number line to using mental math.  After a problem was completed, a student was told they found the right answer, or a wrong answer would trigger a noise from the machine indicating a mistake was made. 

The results of the study found that while the IWB assisted students initially in discovering answers, students quickly became more interested in avoiding the noise made by a wrong answer.  Students were reluctant to switch to using mental math, because they wanted to optimize their number of correct answers.  Thus the importance of the lesson objectives diminished, and students focused mainly on completing a base goal of finishing their task. 

When reflecting on the results of the study, several ideas come to mind.  Perhaps the most important understanding gained from this study is that “technical interactivity is not in itself effective in securing learning, and that students also need the intention of learning and the skills required to marshal resources – including the features of ICT, their own cognitive faculties and those of their peers – towards learning goals” (71).  This means the technology can be used as an aide, but the structure of that use in the lesson is extremely important.  Technology by itself will not raise scores, but technology is a useful tool that can be used to enhance lessons and provide a valuable tool for interaction between students.  When continuing this discuss of interactive technology, a focus on the role of the teacher, the role of reflection, and the dynamic of student interactions would be important aspects to examine to decide the best way to implement ICT into our classrooms.  It is obvious that technology provides a great resource for education, but further analysis is needed to create a path for best practices.