Annette Kratcoski

Uses and Effects of Mobile Computing Devices in K-8 Classrooms

Abstract This preliminary study employed mixed methodologies to explore students’ use of mobile computing devices and its effects on their motivation to learn, engagement in learning activities, and support for learning processes. Data collected from students in four elementary and two seventh grade science classes in Northeast Ohio included usage logs, student work samples, student and teacher interviews, and classroom observations. Findings highlight the personalization of learning afforded by such devices both in terms of individuals and individual classroom cultures, as well as their usefulness in extending learning beyond the classroom. They also suggest that increased motivation due to mobile device use leads to increases in the quality and quantity of student work.

Ubiquitous Computing and Changing Pedagogical Possibilities: Representations, Conceptualizations and Uses of Knowledge

This article reports on preliminary findings from an ongoing study of teaching and learning in a ubiquitous computing classroom. The research employed mixed methods and multiple measures to document changes in teaching and learning that result when teachers and students have access to a variety of digital devices wherever and whenever they need them. It identifies ways in which ubiquitous computing environments can support both individual and social construction of knowledge, and the role that unique representations of knowledge supported by a variety of ready-at-hand digital devices can play in such support.

Ubiquitous Computing: Rethinking Teaching, Learning, and Technology Integration

Ubiquitous access to digital technologies is becoming an integral part of our business, home, and leisure environments, yet despite a quarter century of educational technology initiatives, ubiquitous computing remains conspicuously absent from our schools. In this chapter, we argue that simply putting more computers in schools will not solve the problem, but rather that teaching, learning, and technology integration need to be reconceptualized within a ubiquitous computing framework before the full educational possibilities inherent in digital technologies can be realized. Using examples from our laboratory classroom, we discuss how teaching needs to be reconceived more as “conducting” than “instructing”; how learning needs to become more the responsibility of the student, and located with her in an expanded space and time that extends beyond the classroom; and how technology integration needs to be understood not as an add-on, device-driven enterprise, but one motivated by teaching and learning needs and in which multiple technology choices are readily available to teachers and students both within and beyond the classroom.

Problem-based Learning Across the Curriculum: Exploring the Efficacy of a Cross-curricular Application of Preparation for Future Learning

The research reported in this paper explores the applicability and efficacy of a variant of problem-based learning, the Preparation for Future Learning (PFL) approach, to teaching and learning within the context of a cross-curricular, middle school data literacy unit called Thinking with Data (TWD). A quasi-experimental design was used to compare preto-post-test data literacy gains of seventh grade students participating in the TWD unit with other seventh graders in two middle schools in northeast Ohio. Results show statistically significant differences between the two groups. Taken together with participant comments, the findings suggest that the PFL approach can be effectively implemented across subject areas to support the development of data literacy.