Resources

This page is a list of resources, articles, relative advantage charts, etc. that can help you integrate technology into your ELD classroom and become a Techno-Constructivist.

Relative advantage chart for high school English Development with integrated technology applications

Software Support Tools High School ELD

Good Reads

Resources and Tools

Foundations of Effective Technology Integration:

Instructional Software and Technology Tools for 21st Century Teaching:

The Basic Suite: Presentations, Docs, and Spreadsheets

Using Video to Enhance 21st Century Learning:

Online Tools, Uses, Web-Based Tools:

Game-Based Learning:

Math and Science Learning Activities:

Language Arts Learning Activities:

Social Studies Learning Activities:

English Language or Foreign Language Instruction:

Adaptive/Assistive Technology:

Academic Research Resources

Foundations for Effective Technology Integration:

Teacher pedagogical beliefs: The final frontier in our quest for technology integration?

Abstract

Although the conditions for successful technology integration finally appear to be in place, including ready access to technology, increased training for teachers, and a favorable policy environment, high-level technology use is still surprisingly low. This suggests that additional barriers, specifically related to teachers' pedagogical beliefs, may be at work. Previous researchers have noted the influence of teachers' beliefs on classroom instruction specifically in math, reading, and science, yet little research has been done to establish a similar link to teachers' classroom uses of technology. In this article, I argue for the importance of such research and present a conceptual overview of teacher pedagogial beliefs as a vital first step. After defining and describing the nature of teacher beliefs, including how they are likely to impact teachers' classroom practice I describe important implications for teacher professional development and offer suggestions for future research.

Why Do Teachers Not Practice What They Believe Regarding Technology Integration?

Abstract

Research findings indicate that teachers' beliefs play an important role in their deciding how they will integrate technology into the classroom. The author used qualitative research methods to explore the relations between teachers' pedagogical beliefs and technology integration. Participants were 12 Taiwanese high school teachers, and findings indicated inconsistency between the teachers' expressed beliefs and their practices. The author categorized the reasons for the inconsistency into 3 interrelated aspects: (a) the influence of external factors, (b) teachers' limited or improper theoretical understanding, and (c) teachers' other conflicting beliefs. The author presents suggestions for school settings, professional development, and future research.

Instructional Software and Technology Tools for 21st Century Teaching

Teaching with Technology: Applications of Collaborative Online Learning Units to Improve 21st Century Skills for All

Abstract

Inquiry-based learning methods, coupled with advanced technology, hold promise for closing the science literacy gap for English learners (ELs) and students with learning difficulties (SWLDs). Project ESCOLAR (Etext Supports for Collaborative Online Learning and Academic Reading) created collaborative online learning units for middle school science to meet the needs of ELs, SWLDs, and general education students. In a randomized controlled trial with 1,174 students, 28 teachers implemented one of two online units in their classrooms after completing a Web-based professional development course. Results showed that treatment condition students, including ELs and SWLDs, significantly improved science knowledge compared to controls; ELs’ gains indicated a knowledge gap reduction compared to general education students. Findings suggest that quality science curriculum and effective technology practices can help all students learn science and prepare for future global scientific challenges.

Preparing teacher-students for twenty-first-century learning practices (PREP 21): a framework for enhancing collaborative problem-solving and strategic learning skills

Abstract

With regard to the growing interest in developing teacher education to match the twenty-first-century skills, while many assumptions have been made, there has been less theoretical elaboration and empirical research on this topic. The aim of this article is to present our pedagogical framework for the twenty-first-century learning practices in teacher education. We will first review the current status of policy frameworks for the twenty-first-century learning skills. Based on our previous work and current understanding in the field of learning sciences, we will next elaborate the processes and strategies for collaborative problem-solving skills and strategic learning skills to specify current, rather general claims presented regarding the discussion on twenty-first-century skills. We will also provide concrete case examples facilitating strategic learning skills, collaborative problem-solving skills, and the skills to use information and communication technologies in contexts of our previous studies.

The Basic Suite - Presentations

Presentation Software: Tools to Engage an Audience

Abstract

Column description. The Technology column examines current and developing technology topics in libraries. The column's focus is creative uses of technology, introductions to new technologies, and critiques of current technologies, their uses, or their future. Readers interested in contributing ideas or writings to this column may contact column co-editors Suzanne Townsdin and Susan Whitmer.

“Presentation software: Tools to engage an audience” explores three specific tools to communicate ideas that librarians have successfully used in library instruction. The three tools presented in this article are Haiku Deck, Pecha Kucha, and Presentain. These tools provide dynamic audience engagement using visual structure and audience participation. This information about presentation tools will help presenters gain confidence to try a variety of techniques. Librarians will learn how to tailor each presentation tool through practical demonstrations by librarians who create presentations as instruction materials and conference programs. The three authors are librarians at Texas Woman's University. Amanda Mims and Susan Whitmer are instruction librarians and Christina Cool is an electronic resources librarian. Each librarian describes her chosen presentation tool by providing background information, practical tips to create a presentation, and the tool's shortcomings.

A Narrative Analysis of an English Teacher’s Experience in Using Prezi Presentation Software in Teaching Vocabulary

Abstract

This research investigates the use of Prezi Presentation Sofware incorporated by an English teacher in teaching vocabulary at elementary school level. The narrative inquiry was choosen as the research design to uncover the story of the English teacher’s experience in using Prezi Presentation Software, and the students’ perception towards the use of Prezi. The results of the study indicate that: 1) the reason why the teacher uses Prezi is its simplicity, interesting lay-out, and effectiveness, 2) the problem encountered by the teacher in using Prezi mainly was limited ICT facility, 3) preparing teaching materials must be done before using Prezi, and 4) students showed positive attitude towards Prezi by admitting that Prezi eased them to learn vocabulary, increased their motivation, and made vocabulary learning more enjoyable. The implication of this research is intended to contribute toward the improvment of ICT-based media integration in teaching English, especially teaching vocabulary

The Basic Suite - Docs and Spreadsheets

Oh Sheets!: A Tool for Online Collaboration in the Cloud

Abstract

Higher education needs to bring students into the practice of cloud based online collaboration such as they will encounter after graduation. A useful introduction starts with data collecting and pooling with Google Forms followed by real time graphing and computations, easily accomplished in the Excel-like Google Sheets. We find students and in-service teachers are very positive about their experience. Here we review the limited literature and describe how instructors can get their students into cloud based online collaboration using spreadsheets and other powerful collaborative options available via Google Drive.

Using Spreadsheets to Simulate an Evolving Population

Abstract

Biology teachers inevitably struggle with how best to teach evolution. Students arrive in their classrooms with preconceptions, many of which are overwhelmingly skeptical, and science teachers are increasingly being pressured to adhere to an arbitrary degree of objectivity that makes discussing scientific worldviews challenging. These challenges have resulted in evolution being taught largely as a series of explanations for questions arising from observations of the living world. In so doing, students may not have a chance to grapple with the worldview that produced those explanations, or develop a more mechanistic intuition for inheritance and change in the world they see around themselves. Here we put forth all the tools necessary for a class to build a simulation of an evolving population experiencing natural selection from scratch in a Google Docs spreadsheet. Not only will this activity help students experiment with the natural world more mechanistically, but it will also allow them to learn as actual evolutionary biologists do.

Using Video for 21st Century Teaching

Integrated Digital Storytelling: An Active Learning Strategy for Building 21st Century Skills

Abstract

Digital storytelling combines the power and flexibility of multimedia to tell a story from the creator's’ viewpoint. In this paper, higher education participants (N=65) created digital stories using original images and text in a digital book format. Embedded within the digital book the students created an original 1 minute (video story) that complemented and related to the original story. Both the digital book and the video were designed and developed by the students following a model for student created video (XXXXX, 2015). Students digital storytelling knowledge and skills increased and they perceived that they were engaged in critical thinking and collaborative learning throughout the process.

Using 21st century video prompting technology to facilitate the independence of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Abstract

Barriers in acquiring, maintaining, and generalizing daily living skills are factors that contribute to discrepancies in independent living outcomes among transition age youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Acquisition and generalization of daily living skills empowers transition age youth and young adults with disabilities to meet their own needs with minimal reliance on others. Infusing the use of technology as a self-prompting device facilitates the acquisition of tasks that may not be otherwise attainable. In this study, self-directed video prompting on an iPad with the My Pictures Talk application was used to help young adults with IDD in a postsecondary program acquire daily living skills in a single subject, multiple probe across subjects design. The effects of the intervention on generalization to tasks that were one, two, and three components different were also assessed. Results demonstrated a functional relationship between the introduction of the intervention and improvement in skill performance.

Developing and Using Web-Based Learning Activities

Effects of storytelling to facilitate EFL speaking using Web-based multimedia system

Abstract

This study applied storytelling in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom in order to promote speaking skills. Students were asked to practice speaking EFL through producing individual and interactive stories with a Web-based multimedia system. We aimed to investigate an effectiveness of applying individual and interactive storytelling on speaking skills and the potential effects of multimedia aids in storytelling to facilitate language learning. Furthermore, we explored the relationships between research variables of this study, such as speaking performance on individual and interactive storytelling, the number of animation representations, and the system actual usage, with learning achievement. Four main findings were found in this study. First, students who used the system for creating stories significantly outperformed students who did not use it on the post-test. This finding suggests that storytelling activity with support of the system was beneficial for improving speaking skills. Second, speaking performance and the number of animation representations significantly correlated with learning achievement. Students who performed well during learning activities usually studied diligently and scored higher on final test. Animations could help students remember vocabulary and practice speaking to describe their animated stories. Third, only the speaking performance on individual storytelling was found as the significant predictor of learning achievement. Students working individually on storytelling were independent; they were less distracted from others, and had more opportunity for practice. The last but not the least, most students expressed positive perceptions and attitude toward the system and learning activities. Based on these findings, we suggest that storytelling learning activities supported by the Web-based multimedia system and implementing them in EFL learning classroom can be beneficial for facilitating speaking skills. Students can remember new vocabulary better, practice speaking skills more frequently, become competent in speaking target language, and improve learning performance.

Influence of an integrated learning diagnosis and formative assessment-based personalized web learning approach on students learning performances and perceptions

ABSTRACT

The advancement of computer and communication technologies has enabled students to learn across various real-world contexts with supports from the learning system. In the meantime, researchers have emphasized the necessity of providing personalized learning guidance or support by considering individual students’ status and needs in order to improve their learning performance. Based on this perspective, this study proposes a formative assessment-based approach for improving the learning performance of students in a personalized learning environment. An integrated learning diagnosis and formative assessment-based personalized web learning system was developed based on this approach. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted in an elementary school mathematics course in Thailand. The experimental results showed that (1) the students learning with the proposed system revealed significantly better learning achievement and learning perceptions than those learning with the conventional learning system and (2) students’ learning perceptions of the system had significant relationships with their learning achievement.

Game-Based Learning

Challenging games help students learn: An empirical study on engagement, flow and immersion in game-based learning

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the impact of flow (operationalized as heightened challenge and skill), engagement, and immersion on learning in game-based learning environments. The data was gathered through a survey from players (N = 173) of two learning games (Quantum Spectre: N = 134 and Spumone: N = 40). The results show that engagement in the game has a clear positive effect on learning, however, we did not find a significant effect between immersion in the game and learning. Challenge of the game had a positive effect on learning both directly and via the increased engagement. Being skilled in the game did not affect learning directly but by increasing engagement in the game. Both the challenge of the game and being skilled in the game had a positive effect on both being engaged and immersed in the game. The challenge in the game was an especially strong predictor of learning outcomes. For the design of educational games, the results suggest that the challenge of the game should be able to keep up with the learners growing abilities and learning in order to endorse continued learning in game-based learning environments.

Assessing the effectiveness of digital game-based learning: Best practices

Abstract

In recent years, research into the effectiveness of digital game-based learning (DGBL) has increased. However, a large heterogeneity in methods for assessing the effectiveness of DGBL exist, leading to questions regarding reliability and validity of certain methods. This has resulted in the need for a scientific basis to conduct this type of research, providing procedures, frameworks and methods that can be validated. The present study is part of a larger systematic process towards the development of a standardized procedure for conducting DGBL effectiveness studies. In a first phase, the variety in methods that are used for sampling, implementation of the interventions, measures and data analysis were mapped in a systematic literature review using Cochrane guidelines. The present paper reflects the second stage, where this variety in elements are presented to experts in psychology and pedagogy by means of semi-structured interviews, in order to define preferred methods for conducting DGBL effectiveness studies.

Teaching and Learning with Technology and the Content Areas

Teachers’ Engagement with New Literacies as Support for Implementing Technology in the English/Language Arts Classroom

Abstract

This is a qualitative study about in-service teachers who were enrolled in a graduate level course that focused on new literacies and the integration of technology with literacy. They also taught children enrolled in a summer writing camp as part of the course. The authors also followed the teachers into their classrooms once the graduate course ended to see if and how they were integrating technology. The primary focus of this article is on how some of the teachers began to integrate technology into their instruction. An additional finding was that testing presented an especially challenging barrier to technology integration.

Connecting Technology, Literacy, and Self-Study in English Language Arts Teacher Education

Abstract

This chapter shares two English teacher educators’ use of self-study to examine the integration of technology and literacy in two English Language Arts methods courses. The purpose of this self-study was twofold: (1) to examine how technology was specifically used in two methods courses and (2) to consider how that usage informed preservice teachers’ teaching and learning of literacy. Through self-study, the teacher educators were able to develop their own – and, by extension, their preservice teachers’ – understandings of the connections between literacy and technology. Specifically, they were encouraged to revise curriculum in order to integrate technology more authentically into the methods courses and revisit their own understandings of technology in order to reconcile previously unrecognized discrepancies in their pedagogy. By engaging in self-study, the teacher educators confronted tensions in their own practice, better understood their own beliefs about literacy and technology, and better articulated their reasoning for integrating technology into literacy teaching and learning.

Technology in Language Use, Language Teaching, and Language Learning

Abstract

This article offers a capacious view of technology to suggest broad principles relating technology and language use, language teaching, and language learning. The first part of the article considers some of the ways that technological media influence contexts and forms of expression and communication. In the second part, a set of heuristic questions is proposed to help guide language teachers and researchers in determining how to incorporate technology into their teaching practice or research agenda and evaluate its suitability and impact. These questions are based primarily on the goal of helping learners to pay critical attention to the culturally encoded connections among forms, contexts, meanings, and ideologies that they will encounter and produce in different mediums, both traditional and new.

Using an online collaborative project between American and Chinese students to develop ESL teaching skills, cross-cultural awareness and language skills

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the potential of computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools to facilitate second language acquisition and develop English as a second language (ESL) teaching skills and cultural awareness. The paper describes a collaborative online project between students from China and the USA. who communicated using the discussion board and e-mail tools on blackboard for tutoring and learning different aspects of English grammar and for developing culture awareness. Twenty-three American students from an ESL teaching program were paired up with 26 Chinese first-year English majors and tutored them on grammar structures that they selected after analyzing the Chinese students’ introductory essays on American life and culture for grammar mistakes. The tutorials addressed specific grammar points and were presented through texts that described different aspects of American culture. The Chinese students used the discussion board and e-mail as well as Skype to communicate with their American partners and at the end of the project wrote a second essay on the same topic which was analyzed for grammar errors by the American students. The results from analyzing the students’ postings, essays, and interviews suggest that the two groups benefited in three areas: (1) improving teaching skills through tutoring non-native speakers of English; (2) developing cross-cultural awareness; and (3) improving non-native speakers’ language skills. This study demonstrates that CMC can be used to help students from two different countries and two different programs to improve their skills in their field of study and at the same time to develop cross-cultural awareness.

Smart textile objects and conductible ink as a context for arts based teaching and learning of computational thinking at primary school

The shaping of Smart Textile artifacts brings together a variety of learning activities, such as imagining, designing, drawing, constructing, wiring, programming, controlling, testing, debugging and presenting self-made, invented media objects, realized in project- and team based arrangements. A variety of human senses are addressed when pupils develop and sketch their project ideas to be realized. In the paper, we discuss the topic of self-made Smart Textile objects as a learning content for primary school level, towards the development of curriculum modules for project learning in the classroom as well as teacher training. It was developed in the 'Teachers Aids on Creating Contents for Learning Environments' TACCLE3 coding project.

Efficiency of using the teaching technology while developing healthy lifestyle skills in arts students

Abstract

The article reveals the main aspects of healthy lifestyle skills development in college students doing the course of Arts. The authors have carried out the technology of development of healthy lifestyle skills in physical education of students majoring "Fine and Applied Arts." The aim was to prove the effectiveness of the technology of developing healthy lifestyle skills in students majoring "Fine and Applied Arts" by the following methods: theoretical analysis and synthesis of scientific and technical data found in library resources, sociological methods (survey); pedagogical monitoring; pedagogical testing, pedagogical experiment; medical and biological methods; expert assessment, and methods of mathematical and statistical data processing. The efficiency of the newly created technology has been proven by pedagogical experiment that was found out by improvement of morphological parameters in the experimental group of students: the level of physical health and functional status of the organism, the degree of adaptation and functional reserves of the organism, the positive dynamics in change of evaluation standards of physical fitness and improvement of the level of healthy lifestyle skills development.

Adaptive-Assistive Technology

Meeting the academic needs of Assistive Technology for special education students: Teacher perceptions

Abstract

This qualitative case study explored the barriers of Assistive Technology in Special Education. The data was collected using individual online surveys and face to face interviews. The survey participants also recognized that a wide range of Assistive Technology devices are used at the school. Lastly half of the participants identified they have not had any college level or graduate training courses that covered Assistive Technology training in detail. The third article, a training manual, is a practical application of the first two articles and provides guidance to teachers and staff in implementing support on identifying and understanding the uses of Assistive Technology in education.

Towards Adaptive Social Behavior Generation for Assistive Robots Using Reinforcement Learning

Abstract

In this paper we explore whether a social robot can learn, in and from a task-oriented interaction with a human user, how to employ different social behaviors to achieve interactional goals under specific situational circumstances. We present a multimodal behavior generation architecture that maps high-level interactional functions and behaviors onto low-level behaviors executable by a robot. While high-level behaviors are selected based on the state of the user as well as the interaction, reinforcement learning is used within each behavior to optimize its local mapping onto lower-level behaviors. The approach is implemented and applied in a scenario in which a social robot (Furhat) assists a human player in solving a Memory game by guiding the attention of the user to target objects. Results of an evaluation study demonstrate that participants are able to solve the Memory faster with the adaptive, assistive robot.