Development and Validation of the Student Tool for Technology Literacy

Source:

Hohlfeld,  Tina M.,  Ritzhaupt,  Albert, D.,  &  Barron,  Ann E.  (2010).   Development of Validation of 


     the Student Tool for Technology (ST2L).  Journal of Research for Technology in Education,  42(4),  

     361-389.

This week I read the an article from the Journal of Research of Technology on Education about the Student Tool for Technology Literacy (ST2L). The article discussed schools' reasoning for applying this literacy tool in their middle schools. In 2007, No Child Left Behind required that all eighth grade students in the United States must be documented on their technology literacy. Technology literacy consisted of students being able to perform technological-based tasks while staying within a specific assessment. The assessment was distributed to 106 students in five middle schools in the state of Florida, who had to perform tasks using Email, Spreadsheets, Software, Graphics, Presentation, Video Editing, and Word Processing. Overall, the group of students found the tool to be interesting. 57% of the students found the tool to be too easy for them, which showed in the results. 75% of the students received a score above 70%, meaning that many of the technology tasks may have been easy to accomplish, but also showed the students level of skill. The majority of the students finished the assessment in 30 minutes, and then participated in an hour long discussion group about the tool to get feedback and see if the student was able to provide meaningful content about the assessment.This type of Technology Literacy needs to be planned incredibly in advance and requires a lot of funding. According to the article, the creation of these particular assessments also took some time to develop. The article states that these assessments can be beneficial to literacy, but assessment, no matter what type, takes time.

I found that I agreed with a lot of points in this article. I agree with the statement that assessment takes time for all students, and I was pleased to see that the group of facilitators and teachers who developed the assessment really spent time finding content that would be meaningful to these students. I wasn't surprised that the students performed well on this assessment, since this generation has been exposed more to technology and is already comfortable with using it.

I did have a hard time understand what they meant by literacy in this article, unless they were generally speaking about technological literacy. Regardless of that, I think that this assessment is a great idea for middle students to take. I feel that with the constant enhancement of technology, students should know how to use all of it. Since teachers ranging from Pre-K to High School are encouraged to incorporate technology into their classrooms and lessons, more of this technology will be implemented, and students will have to know how to use it. I think that assessing where a student is in their understanding of technology is another great way to get students prepared for their next level of education.

A Tablet Computer for Young Children?

Source:

Couse, Leslie, J. & Chen, Dora, W. (2010). A Tablet Computer for Young Children?: Exploring It's 


    Viability for Early Childhood Education.  Journal of Research on Technology in Education,   43(1),   


     75-98. 

The article that I read this week regarding technology in the classroom was about tablet computers evolving in the early childhood classroom. A tablet computer is a PC that includes a pen-like tool or a touchscreen. The article discusses the possibilities of including tablet computers in Pre-k classrooms, due to the positive feedback of this type of PC in elementary and high schools. Feedback included studies in higher level writing skills as well as an increased interest in drawing. The article addresses the argument that technology is not for everyone, and that all Pre-K aged children should still be learning the other techniques of drawing and writing. The idea of learning how to draw with a pen is compared to learning how to draw on a computer, with the conclusion being that children still use many of the same motor skills when operating both ways. To show this, a study was prepared, where an average Pre-K class would participate in learning how to use tablet computers for several sessions. "Average" in this case, means that the teachers in this classroom claimed to use a sufficient amount of technology in their classroom, and made sure that technology was incorporated into their curriculum. These children were sent in to play with these tablets and draw a self portrait. Over the weeks, studies did not show that there was a drastic increase in a higher level of thinking; however, there was a distinct increase in progress among the children's tablet skills and understanding of the use of the tablet in general. The study concluded that using technology can be taught to young children at the early childhood level, and can still be a useful tool of assessing and tracking a student's progress of certain motor skills.

I really enjoyed the article this week, because I specifically searched for something early childhood related. I thought that the people conducting this experiment with the Pre-K class were right on point with what people are trying to say about technology in the 21st century. Technology is not trying to take over the "old" ways of learning motor skills in a classroom, rather, becoming another skill for children to develop. I have to be honest, I'm not truly a fan of having children sitting in front of a computer all the time and using technology for everything. I did enjoy the tablet computer study though, because it was something that was similar to drawing on paper, just on a screen. As a future educator, I would leave things such as tablet computers to become more available in the early childhood classroom- not as a permanent way of teaching children how to write, but having it available as another (fun) strategy for children who may find it more comfortable to write that way.

Digital Backpacks: Facilitating Faculty Implementation of Technologies for Teaching

Source:

Amirian, Susan (2007). Digital Backpacks: Facilitating Faculty Implementation of Technologies for 


Teaching.  Vol. 24,  No. 1,  5-12

This article addressed the always important issue of teachers learning how to effectively use the always-evolving technology that is being integrated into school curriculums. According to the article, many types of teacher-training for technology use seemed to not be as beneficial as all would have hoped. In order to help teachers to better understand and properly use technology in the classroom, the strategies were offered at a different angle called The Digital Backpack. This experiment was first done in 2002 with twelve applicants from a university and it would consist of twelve sessions. This digital backpack contained all different types of hardware and software that teachers needed to learn about and how to use so that it could be implemented into the classroom. For the twelve sessions, the participants would meet and discuss one piece of hardware or software from their digital backpack- focusing on how it worked, actually getting to use it, giving feedback on how they felt about the particular technology, and most importantly, finding out how they could implement it into their curriculum. Though the sample size proved ineffective for information on how well the digital backpack worked, the participants still said that they were highly satisfied with this method of training for technology use.
I was very pleased with all of the information from this article. I worry often as a future educator that I will have a hard time implementing technology into my lessons because I honestly do not look forward to trying to understand certain software. I like the idea of a Digital Backpack because you have multiple objectives for what the participants must learn, however, you are breaking down your objectives until everyone understands how these pieces work. Most importantly, I really liked the fact that each week, the participants were able to give their feedback about how they felt about certain types of technology. I feel that this type of feedback is important for teachers and instructors so that they can figure out ways to teach more effectively about certain parts of technology, and so that teachers can understand they can work together to help each other to understand technology. I hope that this type of training becomes more available, so that future educators like myself are able to get a closer look at all technology that we will be able to use in our classrooms.

Research on the Effectiveness of Technology and Media in Education

Source:

Selwyn, Neil & Huson, Onno (2010).  The education benefits of technological competence.
      
      Vol. 23, No. 2, 137-141.

This article written by an Education Institute in London was recently published in June 2010 regarding the positives and negatives of the uprise in technology and media in elementary and secondary public schools. The article is truly an investigation on whether or not educators and families find technology to be a mostly positive uprise in the education system. Studies were done to answer this question, and from the looks of it, analysis on this subject still remains the same. This analysis still shows that no matter what we do, technology will continue to enhance. Between arguments that technology is saves us time and saves us environmentally, technology will not be frowned upon.
This article and its research provided information that personally did shock me, as a future educator. Research showed that the age group in a household that had most belief in the benefits of educational technology was the middle child in a family. Not so shockingly, the oldest child had the least belief in the benefits. This could possible be because technology was not as prominent in this child's education, as it is to a younger sibling. Or, as the article says, that this child has spent more time in the school system, and has seen that technology maintains "limited" value. According to this article, many of the students that were interviewed did see the benefits of technology, however, believed that video games and other media could make children aggressive, and that basically, not all technology and media is created with an educational purpose.
As a future educator, I do agree that we must embrace technology since it is continuing to expand right before our eyes. However, I must say, that the use of technology may not benefit every student and their individual way of learning. As for Early Childhood, I feel that I still have the opportunity to incorporate all different styles of learning, including using technology. I look forward to learning and studying more regarding this topic.