Week 11 Blog
Part 1
Article 1: Mathematics and mobile learning
The reason I chose this article is because I have a strong passion for teaching math, and I believe mobile learning can enhance student engagement in math. I have always wondered how I can incorporate more inquiry with math because it’s very straight forward. This article stresses how important mobile devices are for more informal learning.
On page 64, White and Martin (2014) categorize mobile use into 4 reasons: capturing and collecting, communicating and collaborating, consuming and critiquing, and constructing and creating. The use of mobile devices in the classroom allows for more informal learning to occur, especially in the math and science world. Students build knowledge from making connections to what they already know. As teachers, we should try to incorporate student knowledge in our learning environments. I have talked about the unlimited amount of resources available using mobile devices. In this study, they used an app for graphing and collaborating, which is something 5th graders could even benefit from (this was done in a middle school setting). Students were using their Ipods to find images, then worked together to complete the math.
I believe a quote from page 64 describes how most teachers feel about education technology: “devices have transformed the ways that people communicate, seek information and work with data of various forms. Yet, in the classroom context, mobiles are often seen as a threat to the serious work of school (White & Martin, 2014).” A big takeaway from this article is that any subject can be enhanced with technology. Finding the appropriate tools to strengthen lessons is the teacher’s role, the students’ role is to embrace the technology to further their own wonders.
Article 2: Social anxiety and technology: Face-to-face communication versus technological communication among teens.
I chose an article on social anxiety because 5th graders start to feel self-conscious about themselves, and worry about what their peers think of them. Some argue that using technology often will lower students’ abilities to talk face-to-face. But I have seen more positives for shy children from my personal experiences. Students who are nervous to speak in front of their peers, for fear they’re wrong or whatever the reason, communicating online allows them an opportunity to have a voice. Especially in collaboration when students aren’t sitting with each other, each student has an equal opportunity for their voice to be heard. They also have time to figure out what to say, instead of being put on the spot.
Technology allows students with social anxiety to engage in some social situations, hopefully that will boost their confidence to speak more face-to-face after developing relationships with people. Skype is also a great tool to use in the classroom. Students are still talking to a live video, however they have the physical space between them, along with a mental space that they aren’t actually in front of them.
Taking away from this article, my female students are more likely to feel more comfortable using a mobile device for communication than males, yet they also report feeling more social anxiety around their peers. I also have to keep in my mind that my socially anxious students will feel more comfortable using texting or IMing to communicate, rather than out loud. Teaching elementary students, I feel I would have to balance both types of communication; preparing my students for the 21st century workforce, while also not squashing their confidence to speak publicly.
Article 3: Exploring young students’ talk in Ipad-supported collaborative learning environments
The identity of a student changes when using Ipads and through their experiences when collaborating. They have the ability to transition from private to public work spaces. Depending on the activity, students will be collaborating with both peers and teachers using different types of “talk”. The three types of talk defined by Mercer (1994) are cumulative, disputational, and exploratory. When they completed this experiment with the 3 different apps, I’m not surprised that the two most common types of talk were consensus and teacher-student. Consensus is part of the cumulative talk, which builds understanding through talking about ideas in a civil manner. Student-teacher talk is important for feedback and clarification. The three apps used in this study were popplet, puppet pals, and pic collage. I’ve used puppet pals with reading comprehension and popplet for brainstorming, which is similar to this experiment. The results “are very encouraging, and highlight the potential of collaborative learning environments supported by iPads to generate opportunities to raise the quality of student talk (Falloon & Khoo, 2014). When students use mobile devices, their ability to work with others will grow, which is an important skill to have as a 21st century learner.
Part 2
I used the beginning and end of my original teaching philosophy. Hitting the key point about the learning environment, student engagement, and motivation are the important factors in my classroom. I want my students to grow, both as learners and people. I teach 5th grade, which is a critical year in their social and academic development. I want to teach them what it means to be a good person, and how to interact socially with others. Of course I must cover the standards, and I enjoy teaching those subjects too. But I don’t just teach 5th grade, I teach kids how to become successful young adults.
I still feel mobile learning enhances student learning by giving them more options, which in turn gets them motivated to learn and helps them engage in personal inquiries. The biggest takeaway from this class is the endless amount of available resources out there! Time is always critical with teaching, but teachers should spend time learning new resources. Even if we don’t become an expertise, we can still introduce the new resource to our students, and see where their inquiry takes them.
Revised Learning Philosophy
Learning occurs best when teachers put student individual needs before their own. When students feel like they’re a valuable part of the classroom community, and feel safe to speak openly, it creates a healthy learning environment for students to prosper and learn. Mobile devices allow for an unlimited amount of resources that students can use to inquire more about their personal interests and learning, while reinforcing the taught and assessed curriculum. Interacting with technology not only makes learning fun, but also engaging for the students. This helps their motivation to learn, and gives them their own positive reinforcement that they’ve created something to show their learning.
References
Falloon, G., & Khoo, E. (2014). Exploring young students’ talk in Ipad-supported collaborative learning environments. Computers & Education, 77, 13-28.
Pierce, T. (2009). Social anxiety and technology: Face-to-face communication versus technological communication among teens. Computers in Human Behavior, 25(6), 1367-1372. Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2009.06.003
White, T., & Martin, L. (2014) Mathematics and mobile learning. TechTrends. (Article in press for January 2014).