Vignette #2

Nick Hadfield
ETEC 532
Spring 2008

In the Vignette “Has my teaching changed with my focus on technology? What am I assessing
and how?,” the teacher has a common problem with assessment practices. Whenever students are
engaged in large project-based learning assignments, it becomes difficult to assign marks, because it
becomes difficult to separate the various types of learning that the student demonstrated while
completing the project.
The role of the teacher and student, and how the learning is presented changes from a traditional
model where the teacher is the expert and lectures to the class. Students are given choice over their
learning, and become experts in areas that the teacher may have very little knowledge. The teacher
steps aside as the expert, and instead becomes the coach guiding the student along their journey. The
teacher provides a structure and framework for the learning, and mini-lessons on how to use various
technologies effectively. The students' role becomes a very empowered one, because they need to read
and learn the material, learn how to use the new technology, and finally display their learning in a
computerized format. The students' learning is therefore to demonstrate their understanding of the new
concepts, provide evidence that they have gained the knowledge, and finally to learn how to use the
new technology to present their findings.
The introduction of technology becomes both a help to student learning, as well as a
hindrance. Technology makes researching new knowledge much quicker and easier, while at the same
time adding to the burden of the students' workload because they have to learn both the new concepts
to be studied as well as learning how to use the technology. I have had students who in the past have
spent 70% of their learning time learning the technology, and only 30% spent learning the concepts of
the Socials Studies project! Technology does have the added benefit that it appeals to all different
types of learners. Visual, audial, and kinesthetic learners are all equally served by the introduction of
technology to the classroom. Multimedia projects allow students to play to their strengths as learners
and complete assignments that really show their growth and understanding as learners.
Technology plays the role of the learning aid by helping to locate the new knowledge needed to
be learned, as well as a presentation tool to publish the final work. The knowledge that the students
need to learn is no longer limited by the knowledge of the teacher (expert), but instead the students'
learning environment has gone beyond the walls of the classroom or school to encompass all that
Google has to offer. Many studies about technology and writing frequently find that students have
greater motivation while writing on a computer (Trimmel and Bachmann, 2004, p. 156), and that their
writing is quantitatively greater (Wallis et al., 2006).
With diverse assignments, assessment of student learning becomes very challenging. The
teacher must try to look into the overall learning process and separate the learning. The technology is
the medium that is used to find and display the information, the content is what knowledge is found and
learned, and also important is the pedagogy or how they learned the material. Recently, teachers
(sometimes with the help of students) have started to use rubrics to break up assignment criteria into
smaller parts to ensure that all students can measure their learning progress throughout the project
study. For the teacher in this vignette, a clear rubric separating student learning in English Language
Arts from the technology skills makes for clearer understanding for both the teacher and the student.
Once students have reached their desired grade level on the rubric and have met that criteria, then
further effort in this area is not required and they should focus on the other parts of the rubric criteria.
With clear expectations for student work and a clear understanding of how to help them to
achieve, project-based learning with technology can be a powerful learning tool for the classroom.
With increased student motivation, and student ownership over their learning, projects empower
students to become lifelong learners.

References:

Trimmel, M. and Bachmann, J. (2004). “Cognitive, Social, Motivational and Health Aspects of
Students in Laptop Classrooms.” Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 20, 151-158.

Wallis, T. J. and Susan Howcroft (2006). “Research into student writing on computer: a qualitative
and quantitative comparison between pen and paper and computer as modes of writing.” Retrieved
February 25, 2008 from: http://www.formatex.org/micte2006/Downloadable-
files/oral/Research%20into%20student%20writing.pdf. P. 3