Bridging the Digital Divide: A Building Block for Teachers

Briding the Digital Divide: A Building Block for Teachers is an article written by Colleen Swain and Tamara Pearson about "the difference in access to and equity of technology experience based on categories such as income, race, gender, location, or education." (Swain & Pearson, pg 11) The article can be found here. I chose this article because it is particularly relevant in our day and age, as well as our geographical location. As implied in the article, students of certain socioeconomic statuses are typically less likely to have access to equal and equitable technology than students of different socioeconomic statuses. As future educators who will more than likely begin our teaching in districts that serve students of lower socioeconomic status, we need to be aware that the Digital Divide exists, and how to bridge the gap created.

Swain and Pearson discuss the effects of the Digital Divide, the gap created by the "haves" and "have nots", so to speak. However, Swan and Pearson do not only focus on the negative aspects of this situation. Rather, they address what can and must be done to solve this problem. They suggest that in a perfect world, classrooms would each have several computers accessible by students throughout the day, as well as a large computer lab accessible by the entire school before, during, and after school hours. They recognize that this is not realistic in most cases, but with quite a bit of work, it could be realized. "[L]ack of funding cannot be an excused. There are exemplary uses of technology in low-income communities and schools." (Swain & Pearson, pg 13) They go on to describe several ways schools and teachers can work to raise funding for technology. Swain and Pearson describe the numerous ways technology can be helpful, and offer suggestions on ways that technology can be best utilized in all K-12 classrooms.

Swain and Pearson make several great points in their articles. They offer many free resources for teachers to access helpful software and technological lesson plans, as well as suggestions on how to earn more money for technology in their classrooms. Their point about equitable use of technology should not be ignored -- just because students have some access to technology does not mean they have similar technological experiences. Students should not be forced to only use software which drills them on concepts, they should also be allowed to explore the more creative side of technology. Swain and Pearson also make the point that it should be the schools' responsibilities to educate the parents of their students on technology as well. Students, particularly from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, do not always have support at home when it comes to technology. But if we as educators take it upon ourselves to teach ourselves, our students, and their parents about technology, we can all unify as a team with one goal-- to further the students' education.

School districts, school administrators, and teachers should all begin to take a look not only at how many computers are provided within the school, but also the quality of the technology provided and how often it is provided to students. There are quite a few simple steps that can be taken to provide quality, equitable technological experiences to all students. If schools care about helping their students to become quality digital citizens in the 21st century, they should begin to place more importance on allowing their students fair, equitable, and integral access to technology in the classroom.

Resources:

Swain, C., & Pearson, T. (2001, May). Bridging the digital divide: a building block for teachers. Retrieved from http://people.virginia.edu/~har4y/edlf345/elementary/files/digital_divide.pdf

Web 2.0 Tools

In Terry Freedman's The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book (free PDF download available here) he has compiled a very large number (121 pages worth!) of really neat Web 2.0 tools that have been used in classrooms, along with commentaries from the teachers who have implemented these tools in the past. I find it very helpful, and interesting, that Freedman has included commentaries from the teachers so that other teachers who may choose to use these Web 2.0 tools in the future will be able to better utilize them in their classrooms. Freedman asks teachers to include a description, project URL or screenshot, what challenges had to be overcome, what would you recommend to others, the age range, and the applications used. This is a very comprehensive list and I think it will allow teachers of all technological comfort levels to better utilize these Web 2.0 tools.
The first Web 2.0 tool that I chose to look at in Freedman's book was CSI Twitter, which was submitted by Silvia Tolisano and can be found on page 22 of The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book. Tolisano's third grade class found an unidentified animal skeleton on the school's campus and used Twitter, a micro-blogging social network site, to broadcast the news and images onto the web and ask for help. The class eventually was able to discover what type of animal it was, thanks to the help of the Twitter community. This is a wonderful example of how the Internet can help spread the word quickly and help a student's search for an answer. The full experience was documented and blogged about, and can be found here.
The second Web 2.0 I found in Freedman's book was The Turkey and Germany Digital Connection, submitted by Shelly Terrell, which can be found on page 28. Shelly, a teacher from Germany, collaborated with a teacher in Turkey as well as a teacher in New Zealand. These three teachers had their classes full of young students (ages 4-10) collaborate over long distances using technology with one goal in mind: to allow their students to all get a better grasp on the English language, which all classes were learning as their second language. The teachers had their classes collaborate to tell (narrate and illustrate) a digital story in English. Shelly's blog can be found here. It details her process and her trials and tribulations with the project.
These Web 2.0 tools are all very creative ways in which teachers have done remarkable things using technology to enhance the education of their students. The Web 2.0 tools highlighted in this blog post are very good examples of how teachers have included the NETS-T and NETS-S standards in their classrooms. The CSI Twitter Web 2.0 tool is a great example of the first three NETS-T standards: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity, Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments, and Model Digital-Age Work and Learning. I think it is inspiring how the teachers, perhaps without even realizing it, incorporated over half of the NETS-T standards into one seemingly impromptu lesson. The Turkey and Germany Digital Connection, though not developed by a teacher in the United States, also exemplifies the first three NETS-T standards, as well as the NETS-S standards. Namely the first and second: Creativity and Innovation, and Communication and Collaboration, respectively. It is obvious in these examples that the students, who are all very young, were very enamored with the technology and were able to learn quite a bit more than without the technology. Terry Freedman's The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book is a great resource full of Web 2.0 tools that can be utilized in all sorts of K-12 educational settings to really supplement activities and enhance learning.

Resources used:

Freedman, T. (2010). The amazing web 2.0 projects book. Retrieved from http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/cgi-script/csIndex/csIndex.cgi?command=vf&id=82&f=QW1hemluZyBXZWIgMiBQcm9qZWN0cyAyIG9ubGluZSB2ZXJzaW9uLnBkZg==

Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative

     The Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative (or WATI) is "a volunteer network of assistive (AT) consultants from across the state who continue the work of providing AT training and support within Wisconsin educational settings." (WATI website) There are numerous Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative consultants who have all contributed to write the manual, so it is difficult to credit them all. They are all referred to collectively as WATI consultants. The WATI consultants primarily help develop assistive technology to aid students with special needs, and to implement this technology throughout Wisconsin. One of the chapters in the 5th edition of the ASNAT (Assessing Students' Needs for Assistive Technology) Manual discusses the use of assistive technology when teaching Mathematics to students both with and without special needs. A PowerPoint of this chapter can be found here, a Microsoft Word document about this chapter can be found here, and a PDF version of this chapter can be found here.
     The WATI consultants set up steps to help teachers assess the need for and implement assistive technology when teaching students Mathematics. The PowerPoint places importance on "matching the Student, the Environment, and the Task with the best Tool." (WATI Chapter 8 PowerPoint) In other words, the emphasis should not be on the technology; the technology should be used simply to assist the instruction. The PowerPoint goes in depth and discusses what kinds of technology can be used, from the most basics such as work sheets and physical models and calculators, to the more advanced technologies such as voice recognition software and software which helps students build equations. These technologies can be used in a variety of different ways to help all students, not just students with disabilities, learn Mathematics more effectively.
     Assistive technologies, as proven by Chapter 8 of the ASNAT manual, can be very helpful in K-12 classrooms both for students with disabilities and for students without. The PowerPoint associated with Chapter 8 deals specifically with how assistive technologies can be implemented in order to deepen a students' understanding of Mathematics. These technologies range from the simple, such as adapted worksheets, to the more complex, such as Mathematical software. It is important that students are given the best chance possible in order to succeed in math, because so much of everyday life is intertwined in math. "Very few special education students advance into upper level mathematics." (WATI Chapter 8 Microsoft Word Document) This fact alone should be enough to encourage schools and teachers to implement assistive technologies in both special education as well as typical classrooms.
     The WATI consultants have done a wonderful job at outlining very helpful assistive technologies. They have given examples on what technologies are helpful with which material, which will allow teachers to know what to do and how to do it. These examples are important in order to give teachers something to go off of, instead of just assuming they know what they are doing and letting them figure it out. The Chapter 8 PowerPoint discusses many different technologies and how to use them, but places the most importance on the student. Teachers should not lose site of the student when dealing with technology, instead they should focus on the student and allow the technology to supplement their teaching. Chapter 8 of the ASNAT Manual helps teachers do this in a very effective manner.

Resources: http://wati.org/?pageLoad=content/supports/free/index.php
                   http://wati.org/content/supports/free/pdf/Ch8-Math.ppt
                   http://wati.org/content/supports/free/pdf/Ch8-Math.doc
                  http://wati.org/content/supports/free/pdf/Ch8-Mathematics.pdf

Digital Storytelling in The Language Arts Classroom

In Glen Bull and Sara Kajder's article Digital Storytelling in The Language Arts Classroom, the impact of digital storytelling in K-12 language arts classrooms is discussed. First, Bull and Kajder define digital storytelling as consisting of "a series of still images combined with a narrated soundtrack to tell a story." (Bull & Kajder, 2004) They then discuss the most important elements of effective digital storytelling. The elements are a point of view, a dramatic question, emotional content, economy, pacing, the gift of your voice, and an accompanying soundtrack. (Bull & Kajder, 2004) Bull and Kajder go into depth about the importance of each element in an effective digital story. Digital storytelling has been shown to be a very important and creative method for students to convey a story to an audience, especially if their writing skills are not as good as their communication skills. Bull and Kajder discuss that digital storytelling puts importance the students' thoughts, experiences, and opinions, as opposed to research material which just requires students to synthesize data. Bull and Kajder point out that digital storytelling can be an effective way to meet language arts standards, but that it is important to keep the focus on the language arts aspect, not just the technology and media of digital storytelling.

Digital storytelling is an incredible new advancement in today's classrooms. Every teacher who has the task of teaching language arts to a K-12 class can use digital storytelling in some capacity. Whether it is the combined efforts of a Kindergarten class to create one collective digital story, or a high school language arts class which is divided into small groups who are then tasked with creating a digital story from scratch, everyone can gain something by creating a digital story. Just the other day, in fact, I was in an eighth grade language arts/history core classroom at a local middle school and the students had been paired up and were using classroom laptops to research one of the original thirteen colonies, find pictures illustrating the colonies, write scripts, and narrate their digital stories about the colonies. The students did not even realize how much they were beginning to grasp the ideas of the colonies because of their use of technology. Their teacher made sure, however, that they were focusing more on their colonies than they were on the technology. This is a perfect example of how the technology can be adapted to fit just about any language arts lesson, and how it reinforces the materials students are learning.

Resources:

Bull, G., & Kajder, S. (2004). Digital storytelling in the language arts classroom. Learning & Leading with Technology, 32(4), 46-49. Retrieved from http://www.digitalstoryteller.org/docs/DigitalStorytelling.pdf

Web 2.0: Today's Technologies, Tomorrow's Learning

In the article Web 2.0: Today's Technologies, Tomorrow's Learning by Jason Haas and Jennifer Groff, the issue of using new technologies such as social networking sites and online games in the classroom. Teachers usually shy away from these new technologies because they are thought to be distracting and superfluous, however the authors of Today's Technologies, Tomorrow's Learning prove that these games and social networking sites can be very helpful in classes. For instance, classroom teachers have had problems in the past simulating real world situations such as exploring the body's circulation system, or exploring the life of a star. But with the help of technology and online games, we are able to demonstrate things like the body's circulation system with ease. This allows students to have a more applicable understanding of the information they are reading about or being lectured on, but in a still controlled environment.

As with all new teaching technologies, there have been quite a few problems and "what-if"s brought up when discussing the issue of implementing new games and social networking sites in the classroom. Teachers not knowing the technology, unforeseeable circumstances such as network failures, and students going farther than anticipated with technology are all issues which have frightened teachers away from using these technologies. The authors of the article, however, have explained that not only are these temporary roadblocks avoidable and fixable, but they are also worth the  benefits of using these technological advances in the classroom. Additionally, they provide teachers with ideas on how to avoid these potential problems. They advise teachers to explore, partner with a colleague, and find additional supports.

I think the use of games and social networking sites is a very unique and beneficial way to incorporate technology in the classroom. For example, the use of Facebook in class is usually punished and frowned upon, however I believe that teachers can incorporate Facebook -- with boundaries and limitations, of course -- to create a strong classroom bond and help facilitate collaboration after school hours. Unfortunately, it is much more likely that a student will have access to Facebook after school than the ability to go to a partner's house. This will allow students to work on group projects more easily. The point of this article is to explain to teachers why it is important to embrace all aspects of technology, which I think is important in this day and age.

Haas, Jason, and Jeniffer Groff. "Web 2.0: Toda'ys Technologies, Tomorrow's Learning." Learning & Leading with Technology September/October 2008. 12-15. International Society for Technology in Education. Web. 4 Oct 2011. <http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=EJ810839>.