For this week’s breakdown, I’d like to examine how I, unknowingly until delving into this week’s research, have been implementing the RASE model as highlighted in the Churchill, Fox and King article “Framework for Designing Mobile Learning Environments”, and reflect how my practices align with Kearney, Schuck, Burden, and Aubusson’s article “Viewing Mobile Learning from a Pedagogical Perspective. With the influx of technology and access to 1:1 laptops for my students this year, I’ve been attempting to make some adjustments to my teaching approaches from years past. Reflection and technology affordances paired with gained perspective from LDT research has challenged me to approach my classroom teaching in new ways.
RASE stands for… Resources, Activity, Support, and Evaluation, and is a learning design framework for harnessing the multiple affordances of mobile learning technology for effective learning environments.
RESOURCES IN MY CLASSROOM:
As mentioned above, every student has the affordance of a laptop, which we use regularly. Students access their coursework through our learning management system (LMS), Google Classroom. By implementing an LMS as the hub for coursework, I’m working towards shifting my role as the “sage on the stage” to “the guide on the side.”On Google Classroom, I’m able to filter and funnel massive amounts of online resources for my students to interact with. These range from interactive videos, discussions, webpages, articles, pictures, slides, and my favorite…games. All this technology comes in addition to typical resources you would find in a classroom such as manipulatives, textbooks, and anchor charts. Most importantly, the students have access to other people such as myself and their classmates to rely on as resources. However, the resources alone are not sufficient enough to guarantee students make the proper gains. The use of a learning management system is my attempt to try and make the learning for my students more seamless. Students are able to access the Google Classroom both within students’ space and
ACTIVITIES IN MY CLASSROOM
According to Churchill, Fox and King (2016) “What can be observed from these theoretical approaches is that an Activity is central to learning. Learning is an experience where learners construct and use knowledge” (p. 7). Activities are the hallmark to what is learned. This year I’m attempting to move a lot of our curriculum online with strategic tools for rich activity creating.
One of my main games and quiz practice is through a program called Blooket, which is similar to Kahoot or Quizizz. What is unique about Blooket is that I, the teacher, can customize the game’s questions to whatever content I’m teaching, and students can play asynchronously across space and time. Blooket has different game modes that students can play to try use of the LMS helps students easily access the exact game I want them to play, which I create and align to standards and learning goals. Blooket is a favorite activity for both me, and my students.
Click here for the Blooket Wiki
Online discussion posts on Google Classroom simulate social media type experiences. Students practice interacting with others respectfully online when posed a discussion question by the teacher. Classmates are able to provide their perspective on a particular topic, read the other posts by their classmates, and comment.
Another strategy I’ve been attempting to use more is that of interactive videos. Edpuzzle has been another key component in my learning design due to effectiveness for guided practice with limited teacher guidance. Questions are embedded into the videos as opposed to a typical standalone video. Edpuzzle allows users to transform these static videos into interactive activities with feedback and backend data.
EVALUATION IN MY CLASS
Data drives instruction. From students playing Blooket as frequently as they desire both in the class and the option to play outside of class, I am able to collect useful, autogenerated, data on the backend. This evaluation process is not punitive or affective of students grades, but helps me work for more personalized instruction.
Google Classroom discussions give me a window into the thinking of the students in my class. Informally assessing the content the provide to discussion questions I pose gives me insight that would be otherwise hard to come by.
Edpuzzle’s questions that are embedded in the video help me evaluate how well my students understand the content in the video. Questions can either be multiple choice, or short answer. Evaluating student responses helps me recognize who needs more assistance, and whose flying high with minimal teacher support.
SUPPORT IN MY CLASS
After data collection from my evaluation process, I’m better equipped to support my learners. There isn’t a shred of doubt of where I need to fill in gaps, plug holes, and correct misconceptions. I can pull and then executive small group instruction lessons to provide support student who need it. Beyond that, I’m able to tweak my instructional practices to focus on where students need the most help. I can push out more specific resources to start the cycle over again.
Furthermore, I think some of my new approaches to teaching are align with Kearney, Schuck, Burden, and Aubusson’s conclusions of new pedagogies emerging within mobile learning. The authors cite authenticity, collaboration and personalization as 3 distinctive features of mobile learning. Within each group, subgroups exist to further breakdown each concept. Table 5 on page 13 in Kearney, Shuck, Burden, and Aubusoon’s article “Viewing Mobile Learning from a Pedagogical Perspective breaks down how games based in mobile learning aligns to their features of mobile learning design.
As evidenced by the diagram, column E: games-based mobile learning tend to have high effects within student agency, customization, conversation, and data sharing. Using Blooket as a primary game for students to play and self-assess seems to align with the author’s strong recommendation for designing rich mobile learning environments. Games in mobile learning score lower in terms of contextualization and situatedness, but no other category contains 4 ratings of “high” other than column a: use of Twitter at a conference. I’d like to think that I’m hitting this aspect through the use of discussion forums on our LMS and other tools like Padlet to help get more out of students, rather than trying to cram information into them.
By no means does my reflection and analysis of how the RASE learning design model and the emerging pillars of mobile learning pedagogy are being implemented in my class make me an expert in mobile learning or in learning design. However, I like to think that if my instructional practices are aligning with research in mobile technologies, I must be taking steps in the right direction. It’s a refreshing feeling given the current state of affairs in education.
References:
- Looi, C.-K., Seow, P., Zhang, B., So, H.-J., Chen, W., & Wong, L.-H. (2010). Leveraging mobile technology for sustainable seamless learning: A research agenda. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(2), 154–169.
- Kearney, M., Schuck, S., Burden, K., & Aubusson, P. (2012). Viewing mobile learning from a pedagogical perspective. Research in Learning Technology, 20(1), 1–17.
- Churchill, D., Fox, B., & King, M. (2016). Framework for designing mobile learning environments. In D. Churchill, J. Lu, T. Chiu, & B. Fox (Eds.), Mobile learning design: Theories and applications (pp. 3–25). Springer.
TJ,
I love your use of all the gamification in your instructional practices. Like you, my students are 1-to-1, but with chromebooks and my district utilizes the LMS Canvas. A lot of the points you made, especially the connection to the table in the Kearney et al. article are very valid for teaching in today’s times. Thinking about the framework in the Kearney et al. article (2012 p. 8), which category do you think is the most influential in your teaching: personalization, collaboration, or authenticity? Also, what are your thoughts on the ideas of “seamless learning” (Looi et al. 2009)? With all the use of games that can be played synchronously in class or asynchronously at home, do you think the blend of informal and formal learning is evident in your classroom, or is that an area that you are continuing to work on?
Overall, very thought-provoking post!
Sara Campbell
Hi TJ,
Even though you teach 4th grade and I teach 7th, I see some similarities between our classrooms and the things we value as educators. I think it’s a game changer when every student has a laptop. Do your students have experience with this technology or do you spend a lot of time helping students navigate the technology? I teach social studies and I am expected to cover a certain amount of content in one year. However, we’ve been finding that a bulk of our time spent in class (especially at the beginning of the year) teaching students how to use technology appropriately and effectively. I can imagine you have lots of content to cover as well, so I was curious if you had a similar experience in your classroom. Are your students permitted to take their laptops home with them? My students are but the elementary students in my district must keep their laptops at school. Luckily, since my students came bring their laptops home, my students can continue to use their laptops for activities and assignments outside of the classroom- which helps creating that “seamless” classroom. I use Canvas with my students similar to how you use Google Classroom. All student materials, assignments, notes, and activities are in one place. As you reiterate, Churchill, Fox, and King (2016) say that “activity is central to learning and that learning is an experience where learners construct and use knowledge.”I think that the various examples you describe create this rich experience that allows students to construct and use knowledge. I use Kahoot all the time in my classroom. I never hear of Quizizz but it sounds similar to Kahoot in that teachers can control questions and relate it to the current content you are teaching.
TJ,
I enjoyed reading your post this week with the connections to your fourth-grade classroom. As a sixth-grade teacher, I could draw many parallels to your experiences and the resources you shared. My classroom is 1:1 with iPads, and we use Schoology as our LMS. Churchill (2016) goes on to “emphasize the central role of an activity in learning (Churchill, 2016, p. 7).” Considering the relationship between the affordances and the learning activities that can be designed (Looi, 2010, p. 162), a critical analysis has to be completed of these affordances to make sure appropriate activities that support learning objectives are possible with the features available. It’s fantastic to see how you’re taking advantage of those affordances.
My students love Blooket. You should also “tech out” a similar site, GimKit. With Kahoot, the students are out of the game if they get a question or two wrong. With the different games in Blooket and GimKit, the students remain engaged throughout the entire game with various features like “swapping” in Gold Quest.
I also enjoy the discussion features Schoology, the LMS for my district, offers the students The “distributed cognition theory” referenced by Looi (2010) points out that cognitive processes disseminate across the members of a social group” (Looi, 2010, p. 159) and that the production of digital artifacts from individual learning can be shared, modified, built upon and integrated to build new knowledge. (p. 159) These “artifacts facilitate knowledge construction and social discourse and mediate interaction among a community of learners.” (Looi, 2010, p. 160) Artifacts are created from the learners’ interaction with their experiences and prior knowledge, providing a resource to the collective knowledge store. Churchill also details that other learners offer the evaluation and support in a mobile learning activity (Churchill, 2016, p. 9). The social interactions in the LMS are fantastic opportunities for the students to engage socially with their peers to construct knowledge, and the experiences are authentic. They can apply social media norms to their experiences and learn to write in an academic setting to support and justify their assertions.
Again, so many connections in your post that reminded me of my classroom! I’m a huge fan of Edpuzzle! I often use the videos for a flipped classroom experience to engage the students in absorbing the content. The mobile technology mentioned in the experiential learning example above provided affordances that allowed learners to gather evidence for future reflection, collect data seamlessly across contexts, “organizing and capturing thinking processes” (Looi, et al., 2010, p. 158) throughout the learning experience. Looi, et al. (2010) created a list of affordances provided by mobile technology for the classroom, purporting that “the choice of mobile devices for school use (are) a function of (those) many considerations (Looi, 2010, p. 162).”
You mentioned data-driven instruction, but I prefer to refer to it as student-driven instruction. Using the data from the Edpuzzle allows me to provide the best possible learning environment for each student. A common theme resonating throughout the research was the social learning that mobile technology supports. Kearney, et al.’s (2012) framework for mobile learning highlights the various ways in which students interact within a mobile learning activity. I like how you made connections and outlined the different ways your students connect with mobile devices.
Kevin