Week 7 Response

Even though I'm not a big math/science person (probably because I never got to program with Turtles in grade school), I still enjoyed this week's readings. Other than our very first readings (when I was temporarily convinced that technology is the bane of education), I haven't been altogether convinced of the place of technology in instruction or the merit of it in learning. But this week . . . this week I'm feeling more convinced. The Klopfer et al. paper, "Complexity and Biology," demonstrated in very concrete and practical ways how technology - in this case, computer simulations - can actually build student learning. Being a School of Information student, and having read so much about information technology and information literacy skills, I have this feeling that I've read too many arguments about the role of technology in learning -- that technology helps students think more critically, build new understanding, and apply their knowledge in new ways -- that have left me feeling unconvinced. I feel like I just haven't really seen the evidence of precisely how technology can achieve these goals. Or, at least, I haven't really been able to grasp the connection between the purported outcomes and what technology does differently than what a good teacher can do. However, the authors' discussion of using computer simulation programming as part of an ecology unit on population made the benefits of technology real to me. They point to the way that computers allow for running quick and repeated experiments and help students collect data instantly. After reading this, I felt like: Yes, that makes sense. This is what computers are good at and how they should be used. I think the key is incorporation, rather than replacement. When technologies are worked in carefully with traditional (and proven) methods for teaching content and high-level thinking, then they are helpful and useful. For example, because the computer simulation was just one activity among many, and because it was situated after the students gained field experience and used a tactile exercise to experiment, I think that it was able to have a greater impact on student learning than if it had been used as a stand-alone (like Jasper) or follow-up activity (such as drill-based software or educational games). One more comment - in Klopfer & Yoon's "Developing Games" article in Tech Trends, they mention their goal of moving beyond helping students simply manage information. Sometimes I feel as though this is what we (as in, the SI people) focus so much on - how to deal with, navigate, and evaluate the vast information spaces of today. This is boring sometimes. (I feel guilty admitting this.) The really interesting stuff, I think, is using all the information that we absorb and creating with it. (I suppose that's why i like reading and writing and art - because these are creative activities that can build on each other.) Reading this week's articles made me wonder (and I don't have an answer) how I, with my LIS and school media training, can realistically incorporate learning technologies in a school media classroom environment and/or lesson to push beyond just managing information. What can I do to help students not just acquire information literacy skills (which will be a huge part of my job), but actually use what they learn to make and create and write and think new things altogether?