DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Using Technology to Enhance Student Learning (EDUC 450) was a course I took in the Winter 2015 quarter with Professor Pedro Hernández-Ramos. One of the options for the final project was to build a course ePortfolio. I chose this, which helped me to 1) become familiar with the Digication platform in preparation for EDUC 499, and 2) get experience with reflective writing. Through this experience I was able to put my knowledge of CSS and HTML to good use, an opportunity that I appreciated. I enjoy web design, and for the other primary artifact for the course, the midterm project, I made a webpage with Google Sites, presenting and analyzing a mathematics education software program called Reasoning Mind. Though I found that the customization possibilities with Google Sites were limited, it was a creative challenge to organize my thoughts and analysis in a website, as opposed to writing about the technology in a paper. These two projects, the midterm website and course ePortfolio, reflect the M.A. Degree Qualification of communication fluency, presenting ideas, descriptions, and reflections using different online tools, that can be made available to broad audiences.

 

The following reflection on EDUC 450 is from the course ePortfolio. This describes my experience in the class in depth.

 

Coming into a class titled Using Technology to Enhance Student Learning, I thought the course would be all about different educational technologies and how we can use them most effectively. I now believe that a key word in the name is “Enhance.” While we talked about several technologies, we focused on them within the contexts of learning modalities. Learning can happen with or without the sophisticated modern tools we associate with the word technology. The primary focus of the course, in my view, was on how students learn, and ways that technology supports teaching and learning was secondary.

 

An important point was made by Diana Laurillard, the author of Teaching as a Design Science,[1] early in her book:

 

"We cannot challenge the technology to serve the needs of education until we know what we want from it. We have to articulate what it means to teach well, what the principles of designing good teaching are, and how these will enable learners to learn. Until then, we risk continuing to be technology-led" (Laurillard, 2012, p. 4).

 

First, we must understand how people learn, before we rely on technology – technology can provide new mediums to structure learning, deliver information, and provide educational spaces and experiences, but it cannot teach.

 

I am supportive of technology in education, and in my current and future curriculum design work, I plan to incorporate a variety of technologies. But a takeaway from this course is that I have to carefully consider the technological tools and resources, their functions, abilities and drawbacks, and how best to employ them.

 

First, what types of learning (acquisition, practice, inquiry, discussion, collaboration) are best in what situations? How does a technology support and enhance this learning?

 

Second, does the technology make learning more accessible to “nontraditional” learners? How can it facilitate learning for a rapidly growing population in U.S. schools – English Language Learners? Does interacting with the technology help all students construct knowledge, to “learn better”?

 

This is the second technology course I’ve taken in the MA-IDE program, the first was “Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity with Technology Tools.” Between these two courses, I feel more equipped to design curriculum that will help students build solid, conceptual understandings in mathematics, by incorporating 21st Century Skills, using backwards design, paying close attention to the five types of learning and how the conversational framework can be enabled (or inhibited) by curriculum. I can consider how accessible the curriculum is for all types of learners as well, and importantly how technology can enhance learning when used effectively. I believe that what we want students to learn should inform the selection of the technological tools, not vice versa—though we should embrace any tangential learning that happens when a wealth of information becomes available through technologies. On the whole, it’s become clear how fast our world is changing, and how critical it is that education keeps up with this. Today’s learners are tomorrow’s creators, and we are at an interesting point in time where we have to educate our students to thrive in a society we cannot quite envision. The top jobs ten years from now probably do not exist yet. We have to foster the development of lifelong learners, and equip students with the knowledge and tools to function and adapt to an evolving, interconnected, innovative planet. 


[1] Laurillard, D. (2012). Teaching as a design science. Building pedagogical patterns for learning and technology. New York: Routledge.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.