Program Learning Outcome Three:
Design learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the needs of all learners
Introduction
Supporting
the needs of all learners whether it be in an elementary, high school, online
course or training workshop, should be at the top of the list of considerations
when a designer lays out his/her plan of instruction and learning
activities. Technology has become a
great tool for designers of instruction to use to help enhance the lessons or
learning opportunities they create.
There are a number of instructional design theories and principles that
educators and instructors should use to help them create effective and engaging
learning opportunities for their students.
Designing learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced
instructional strategies to support the needs of all learners will be discussed
in this paper along with the redesign of a prior MALT activity. With any design or creation comes challenges and
challenges with the redesign of the prior activity will also be discussed.
Supporting the
Needs of All Learners
Student
diversity is present at all grade levels and in all areas of content
(Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2011). The
author of this paper is a kindergarten teacher and a witness to student
diversity daily. The challenges at the
kindergarten level make reaching the needs of each student in the classroom
difficult. Students are diverse
ethnically, culturally, and in their learning styles. Diversity in the classroom is not only due to
students with special needs or language barriers but also students with
exceptionalities such as gifted students.
These students need special instructional strategies to help them reach
their learning potential. Awareness of
the diversity within a classroom is the first step in effectively meeting the
needs of all students. The author
realizes that meeting the needs of all learners instead of a instructing to the
whole needs to be a top priority when designing lessons and instruction. Differentiated instruction is an approach
that targets instruction to the varying abilities found in the same learning
environment (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2011).
This approach suggests that all instruction be designed so all learners,
regardless of their unique needs, have effective and quality access to
education (Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2011).
Hall, Strangman, and Meyer (2003) explain the model of differentiated instruction
requires teachers to be flexible in their approach to teaching and adjust the
curriculum and presentation of information to learners rather than expecting
students to modify themselves for the curriculum. Careful planning on the part of the educator
considering and addressing the needs of diverse learners is essential in
meeting curricular standards and content goals (Lever-Duffy & McDonald,
2011). When technology is creatively
applied it becomes a powerful tool that can be used to enhance lessons to meet
the needs of diverse learners and make the teaching/learning process more
effective, efficient, and successful for all (Lever-Duffy & McDonald,
2011). Technology offers educators and
instructors a helping hand when it comes to finding ways to support students of
diversity. Technology offers many
solutions for students with special needs such as technology to support
participation and independence, content goals, writing, reading, communication,
computer use, as well as assistive input and output devices. The author has
learned of many technological tools to incorporate into the classroom that will
help differentiate at the kindergarten level.
Computers, iPads and Smartboard activities are just a few of the tools
that are currently being incorporated. Specific
guidelines to ensure that educators address the diversity found in their
classroom offer a set of parameters for instructional design that consider what
all students, no matter how they are diverse, need to be successful learners
(Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2011).
These guidelines are called the Universal Design for Learning
(ULD). ULD principles must be considered
to make certain the lessons and instruction designed creates the best learning
opportunities for all learners no matter what unique or special needs circumstances
are present within any given learning population.
Original Lesson
EDU652
Week Four Assignment: Connect-Type
Activity
What is a connect-type activity and what
type was selected for this activity?
Horton (2012)
describes connect activities as those that prepare students to apply learning
in situations they come across at work, in their personal lives and in future
learning efforts. Connect activities
bridge gaps of knowledge and skills that are already known to with new
knowledge (Horton, 2012). There are six
different types of connect-type activities; ponder, questioning, stories by
learners, job aides, research activities, and original work (Horton, 2012).
The connect-type
activity selected for this assignment was based on a needs assessment of a
kindergarten class of twenty-four students.
The needs assessment was performed to determine what knowledge these
kindergarten students had of Halloween trick-or-treating safety. In a group discussion it was determined that
several students had some knowledge of trick-or-treating safety. The needs assessment determined that the
students would be able to connect some prior knowledge to the knowledge that
would be presented to them in after they participated in an absorb-type
activity about Halloween trick-or-treating safety.
“Stories by
learners” was the connect-type activity selected for this particular group of
students. It was selected due to the age of the students and the limited
capabilities these students would have when it came to some of the other
connect-type activities listed above.
Stories are what kindergarten students enjoy the most whether it be
listening to a story or telling one on their own. The students will listen to an absorb-type
activity and will then tell their own story as a connect-type activity (Horton,
2012). This will be a good way to
connect the students to their real-life experiences of trick-or-treating on
Halloween. Horton (2012) tells us that
storytelling activities allow students to tell stories that are related to what
they are learning about. In this case,
the students will share their experience with trick-or-treating. This is relevant to the upcoming activities
these students will participate in on or before Halloween.
Horton (2012)
explains that storytelling should be made optional where students are
encouraged to share but are not demanded to.
He suggests that the students be given the assignment ahead of time so
they will have time to think through their story. At the kindergarten level it would be a good
idea to have the students participate in a do-type activity of drawing a
picture to illustrate part of their story because some may feel more
comfortable sharing with a picture rather than just telling their story
aloud. Horton (2012) offers five elements
for a simple story structure that would be good to follow:
1.
Setting: When
and where does the story occur?
2.
Characters: Who is involved?
3.
Conflict: What difficulty had to be overcome?
4.
Resolution: How did things work out?
5.
Moral: What is the point of the story?
At the
kindergarten level the students will need a model and example of how to tell
their story. Using a presentation type
video of an example of the teacher telling a story following the simple story
structure would help the students have an idea of what to include in their
story. Porter (2012) explains that
digital storytelling helps to transform facts into easier understanding. She shares that when students explore lessons
learned they go beyond telling about the content and find a deeper significance. Newby,
Stepich, Lehman, Ottenbreit-Leftwich & Russell (2011) explain that multimedia
and hypermedia are good choices for writing and storytelling. They describe digital storytelling as a new
type of storytelling using short multimedia narratives often created with
video/audio to tell a compelling and/or personal story. Porter (2012) suggests creating a docudrama
where students step into the shoes of a person or character as an imaginative
approach for weaving together important facts.
She explains that students will students demonstrate understanding of
key concepts and deliver a lesson learned to disclose deeper thinking about
their topics.
The Activity
Halloween is just
around the corner and on the minds of the young and the old. Kindergarten students in particular are very
excited about dressing up and trick-or-treating. Since Halloween is a big part of the end of
October in most schools, discussing Halloween safety is important. There is a need for this based on a
discussion had with the twenty-four students in this kindergarten class. The activity that will be used to determine
whether or not students in this class connect their prior knowledge to the
knowledge shared with them in the absorb-type activity is story telling by the
learners. The activity will begin with
the students watching a short video describing Halloween trick-or-treating
safety tips. The video is posted below:
Halloween Safety Tips from Joy
Berry’s “Taking the Scary Out of Halloween”
After the video is presented, a discussion will be had
describing the tips given in the video.
The students will also share what they will be dressing as for
Halloween. The students will then be
given their assignment, a do-type activity where they will draw a picture of
themselves in their Halloween costume.
They will also be told that they will need to think of a story to tell
(connect-type activity) of them going trick-or-treating in their costume. They have the option of telling the story as
themselves or they can try to imagine themselves as the costume character and
describe in their story how they will follow the safety rules presented in the
short video they watched. This connect
activity will be easier for some students and difficult for others. The option to tell a story will be given or
they may just share their picture. Those
students with higher level thinking skills and who are able to share stories on
a regular basis of their world will be more apt to participate. An example of storytelling will be presented
to the students prior to them drawing their pictures and taking time to think
up their stories. The example is
presented in a VoiceThread below:
The students will present their stories or pictures to the
group. This activity may be broken up
into a few segments due to the attention span of students at this level. I am excited to have the students give this
connect-type activity a try to see who will be able to connect their prior
knowledge to knowledge they have learned in class and to relate it to their own
lives. I look forward to seeing what
students at this level will be able to do with this type of activity.
Redesigned Lesson
The lesson addresses auditory and visual learners through
the video of Halloween safety and the “Silverlicious” animation. The lesson also gives the students a choice
of whether or not they will offer a story to go along with the Halloween
costume picture they drew. The lesson does
not offer a kinesthetic way of bringing their drawn picture life and it does
not offer any hands-on opportunities for the students to use technology. The lesson only tells the reader that the
students will present their stories to the group. The lesson will be redesigned to offer
auditory, visual, and kinesthetic ways for the students to share their
thoughts, ideas, and drawings as well as offer students a way to express
themselves through technology.
The students will have a choice of how they would like to
share their drawings and stories. The
first option is one they may be most comfortable with and that would be a
kinesthetic way by acting out their drawing or story. The actions could be recorded digitally and
played for the class at a later date via ScreenCast or Jing. The second option would encompass any
auditory or visual learning styles by using a technology tool such as
VoiceThread or Jing to share their drawings and stories. The teacher could either take a picture of
the students drawing using an iPad or digital camera or save it to the iPad or
computer to insert into the VoiceThread or Jing presentation. VoiceThread and Jing both offer voice
recordings which could record the student’s verbal stories. The recordings or actions on any of these
technology tools would allow the students to share their stories privately at
first and make necessary changes, with the teacher’s help, before their project
would be presented to the class. The
story and drawing would be presented to the class at a later date.
Instructional Design Principles
and Theory
Resier
and Dempsey (2012) discuss how principles and theory have contributed and will
contribute to professional practices in instructional design and the use of
technology. They also go on to explain
these theories (behavioral, cognitive, constructivism) are the foundation on
which the field of instructional design was founded and developed. The theory of multiple intelligences offered
by Howard Gardner suggests every individual possesses some degree of the nine
intelligences he describes; linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial,
bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist, and existential
(Lever-Duffy & McDonald, 2011).
According to Dabbagh (2006) this theory falls under the Cognitivism/Pragmatism principle. This principle suggests the learner is
viewed as an active participant in the learning process and examines the mental
structure and processes related to learning (Dabbagh, 2006). According to Lever-Duffy and McDonald,
Gardner explains one or more of these intelligences are dominant in every
learner. These intelligences should be
considered when looking at each learner as an individual and the instruction
should be tailored to maximize student learning.
Challenges
The challenges of redesigning this lesson would come with
addressing all three learning styles through video and digital
presentations. Due to the fact that the
students targeted for this lesson would be kindergarten students, the
presentations would need to be created with the teacher’s help. Each student in the class of twenty-four
students would need to create one presentation, not in extreme length, but
individually, which would take a lot of time on the part of the teacher. This is a wonderful opportunity for
differentiated instruction but not without the cost of time. Another adult or two being present during
this lesson would be a great benefit to the teacher to help speed up the
process of creating the presentations.
Also, providing the appropriate amount of technology tools, such as
digital cameras, computers, and iPads, to make the presentations happen in a
timely manner would also be challenge to the teacher.
Conclusion
When a
designer of instruction creates a plan of instruction, the designer needs to
ensure that the plan meets the needs of all learners in the learning
environment. Knowing the learning styles
and intelligences of each student will help the designer create effective and
engaging learning opportunities that bring the content/concepts to life for individual
learners as well as all learners involved in the learning events. Technology offers the designer many tools to
help engage all learners and maximize the success of each learner
individually. The design is the
key. The tools are the ways to enhance
the design. Challenges are and always
will be present when designing and creating instruction. Technology has offered educators the power to
bring learning to life for every possible type of learner there is in our world
today.
References
Berry, J.
(2010). Halloween safety tips from Joy
Berry's taking the scary out of Halloween.
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ful7kykz4TU
Dabbagh,
N. (2006). Instructional
design knowledge base. Retrieved from
http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/IDKB/models_theories.htm
Hall,
T., Strangman, N., & Meyer, A. (2003). Differentiated
instruction and implications for UDL implementation. Wakefield,
MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum. Retrieved from http://aim.cast.org/sites/aim.cast.org/files/DI_UDL.1.14.11.pdf
Horton, W. (2012). E-Learning
by design (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Wiley.
Lever-Duffy,
J., & McDonald, J. B. (2011). Teaching and learning with technology.
(4th ed., pp. 34-37). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Allyn
& Bacon.
Newby,
T. J., Stepich, D. A., Lehman, J. D., Russell, J. D., &
Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A. (2011). Educational technology for teaching and
learning (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Porter, B. (2012). Digital storytelling
across the curriculum: Part 2-find contents deeper meaning . Retrieved from
http://creativeeducator.tech4learning.com/v05/articles/Digital_Storytelling_Across_the_Curriculum
Reiser,
R. & Dempsey, J. (2012). Trends and issues in instructional design and
technology (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. ISBN: 9781256080831
No comments:
Post a Comment