“Technology
has the shelf life of a banana.” Scott McNealy
As the speed of
technological innovation continues to hasten, so does the potential for
enriched distance learning. Instructional designers are creating new,
exciting opportunities for learners everywhere. The immense choices of
technologies available provide an exciting range of possibilities.
Case
in point
A high school history
teacher, located on the west coast of the United States, wants to showcase to
her students new exhibits being held at two prominent New York City museums.
The teacher wants her students to take a "tour" of the museums and be
able to interact with the museum curators, as well as see the artwork on display.
Afterward, the teacher would like to choose two pieces of artwork from each
exhibit and have the students participate in a group critique of the individual
work of art. (Walden University)
Role
of the Instructional Designer
There are numerous
ways that the instructional designer can help the teacher develop this learning
module. But, the most important first step is to determine the
lowest common technologies (LCT). This can be done through a
student survey where the students are prompted to list the technologies
available to them (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, Zvacek, 2012, p. 116).
Survey Monkey is a user friendly and efficient tool to use to
create and administer surveys. There is no point in developing a module
that requires technologies not available to the learners.
Facebook
High school students
are likely to be familiar with social networking sites such as Facebook.
“According to a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life
project, 55% of precollege Americans ages 12 to 17 were active on social
networking sites in 2006” (Simonson, et al, p. 131). Using Facebook,
students can easily take a picture of the two pieces of artwork they choose to
critique and begin discussion threads. Similarly, the museum curator can log in
to the Facebook page and interact with the students asynchronously. He
/she can engage in a Q&A with the students regardless of time zone or
location.
The “tour” of the
museum exhibition(s) can take place through video created by the museum and
placed on to the Facebook page. Further, most museums already have
virtual tours of their regular collection, albeit they reserve their special
exhibits for those that come in for the face-to-face visit.
Developing a rubric
in order to determine if the learning outcomes have been reached is important
to the design of this module. Discussion threads are an easy way to
evaluate the students’ ability to question and analyze content.
Kristen Nicole
Cardon, a student in a British Literary course, describes how her teacher
facilitated discussions in her class using a Facebook page. She describes
various benefits of the use of Facebook in her class including, “We were
able to benefit from insights from peers who generally don’t participate in
class discussion” and “Through contributions from our classmates, we understood
how each distinct text related to the others and to the class focus, and so on”
(Walsh, 2010). Facebook is a great
tool to use for lively discussion threads particularly because of the
familiarity of the platform and the ease of use.
Facebook is also used
in the classroom for other purposes.
Not only do the discussion threads provide a platform for developing
your ideas but also Facebook gives students a voice they may not of otherwise
had. In a recent article from the
popular educational website, Edutopia,
I learned how teachers have been using Facebook to give students a voice and to
promote advocacy (Walpert-Gawron, 2010). The Buffelgrass Shall Perish fan page
provided Mr. Brian Kievit’s middle school students the opportunity to send
their message to a broader community using Facebook (2010).
Facebook is a useful tool,
with which the teacher can effectively apply distributed learning,
allowing “instructor, students, and
content to be located in different, non-centralized locations so that
instruction and learning occur independent of place and time” (Simonson, et al,
2012, p. 124).
Virtual
Worlds
Perhaps a bit
ambitious, but another exciting possibility is the use of virtual worlds such
as Second Life. Virtual worlds “appear to have exciting potential for placing
students in real-life applications of course content” (Simonson, et al,
2012, p. 132). The instructional designer can recreate the desired
exhibition and the students’ avatars can interact with the art within the
virtual world.
This is an exciting
concept but the limitations may be too difficult to overcome. The
necessity of a large bandwidth for users and the extensive amount of time
required to recreate the scenarios (Simonson, et al, p. 132) may make this
technology impossible for the teacher and instructional designer alike.
However, once developed it would be the next best thing to purchasing a round
trip ticket to New York City and being there in person.
Many educators are
already experimenting with tools like Second Life. As part of a Global Kids Inc. initiative, Second Life was
used to enhance content in urban classrooms. They warn not to underestimate the power of Second Life as
an instructional tool especially when teamed with other Web 2.0 tools (Joseph,
Santo, Tsai, 2007, p. 18). Global Kids offers some ideas for implementing
Second Life in classrooms such as creating interactive workshops and photo
shows (Joseph, et al, 2007, p. 19).
Both of these would be useful in our scenario.
Wikis,
Blogs and Video Conferencing (Skype)
Depending on the
availability of technology and the experience of the instructional designer and
the teacher, the right choice may be different from the two outlined
above. Wikis provide an easy to use platform for collaboration.
Videos can be loaded as widgets and discussion threads can be used to critique
artwork or/and interact with the museum curators. Other possibilities
include the use of blogs for ease of communication and or video conferencing
tools such as Skype to interact with the museum curators in real time.
References
Joseph, B., Santo, R., & Tsai, T. (2007, July). Best practices in using virtual worlds for education
[PDF].
Scott McNealy's top five. (2006, April 25). Retrieved from Tech
Republic website:
Simonson,
M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a
distance Foundations of distance
education (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Walsh, K. (2010, August). Facebook as an instructional technology tool [Newsgroup post]. Retrieved
from EmergingEd Tech website: http://www.emergingedtech.com/2010/08/
facebook-as-an-instructional-technology-tool/
Wolpert-Gawron, H. (2010, May). Social media in education: The power of Facebook [Newsgroup post].
Retrieved from Edutopia website: http://www.edutopia.org/
social-media-education-examples-facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment