Bernard Robin

Digital Storytelling: A Powerful Technology Tool for the 21st Century Classroom

Digital storytelling has emerged over the last few years as a powerful teaching and learning tool that engages both teachers and their students. However, until recently, little attention has been paid to a theoretical framework that could be employed to increase the effectiveness of technology as a tool in a classroom environment. A discussion of the history of digital storytelling and how it is being used educationally is presented in this article. The theoretical framework, technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK), is described, along with a discussion of how this model might be used with digital storytelling.

Preparing for the Changing Role of Instructional Technologies in Medical Education

As part of an international faculty development conference in February 2010, a working group of medical educators and physicians discussed the changing role of instructional technologies and made recommendations for supporting faculty in using these technologies in medical education. The resulting discussion highlighted ways technology is transforming the entire process of medical education and identified several converging trends that have implications for how medical educators might prepare for the next decade. These trends include the explosion of new information; all information, including both health knowledge and medical records, becoming digital; a new generation of learners; the emergence of new instructional technologies; and the accelerating rate of change, especially related to technology. The working group developed five recommendations that academic health leaders and policy makers may use as a starting point for dealing with the instructional technology challenges facing medical education over the next decade. These recommendations are (1) using technology to provide/support experiences for learners that are not otherwise possible-not as a replacement for, but as a supplement to, face-to-face experiences, (2) focusing on fundamental principles of teaching and learning rather than learning specific technologies in isolation, (3) allocating a variety of resources to support the appropriate use of instructional technologies, (4) supporting faculty members as they adopt new technologies, and (5) providing funding and leadership to enhance electronic infrastructure to facilitate sharing of resources and instructional ideas.

Facilitation interaction, communication and collaboration in online courses

Abstract As the Internet evolves into a truly world wide communications medium, the roles of faculty and students at institutions of higher learning are changing. Traditional face-to-face classes are being converted to an online setting, where materials from syllabi to lectures to assignments are available at the click of a mouse. New technological options are challenging and changing the very nature of teaching as faculty migrate from being deliverers of information to facilitators and mentors. Students are also undergoing a transformation from passive recipients to participants in an active learning environment. Interactions are at the heart of this revolution as students and faculty create new methodologies for the online classroom. New types of interactions are emerging between faculty and students, between students and other students and between students and the educational resources they are exploring. As the online teaching and learning environment expands and matures, new social and instructional interactions are replacing the traditional occurrences in face-to-face classrooms. New communication options are also evolving as a critical component of the online classroom. The shift from a synchronous to an asynchronous communication structure has also had a significant impact on the way students and faculty interact. The use of e-mail, listservs and web-based conferencing has given teachers and learners new flexibility and has fostered a climate where learning takes place wherever and whenever it is convenient. HyperGroups, a communication tool that was developed at the University of Houston, allows students and faculty to seamlessly participate in course-related discussions and easily share multimedia resources. This article explores the many issues associated with facilitating interaction, communication and collaboration in online courses.

Creating a course-based Web site in a university environment

Abstract The delivery of educational materials is undergoing a remarkable change from the traditional lecture method to dissemination of courses via the World Wide Web. This paradigm shift from a paper-based structure to an electronic one has profound implications for university faculty. Students are enrolling in classes with the expectation of using technology and logging on to the Internet, and professors are realizing that the potential of the Web can have a significant impact on classroom activities. An effective method of integrating electronic technologies into teaching and learning is to publish classroom materials on the World Wide Web. Already, many faculty members are creating their own home pages and Web sites for courses that include syllabi, handouts, and student work. Additionally, educators are finding value in adding hypertext links to a wide variety of related Web resources from online research and electronic journals to government and commercial sites. A number of issues must be considered when developing course-based Web sites. These include meeting the needs of a target audience, designing effective instructional materials, and integrating graphics and other multimedia components. There are also numerous technical issues that must be addressed in developing, uploading and maintaining HTML documents. This article presents a model for a university faculty who want to begin using the Web in their teaching and is based on the experiences of two College of Education professors who are using the Web as an integral part of their graduate courses.

A phenomenological study: teachers’ experiences of using digital storytelling in early childhood education

Abstract This study investigates how early childhood education (ECE) teachers incorporated digital storytelling in their classrooms and the challenges and successes that they faced in the process. After the teachers attended a digital storytelling workshop, in-depth phenomenological interview, observation and focus group interviews were used to collect data. Phenomenal data were collected from 5 kindergarten classrooms, each of which contained approximately 20 students and a teacher. The study presented examples that illustrated how ECE teachers had used digital storytelling to enhance learning. The results showed that an emphasis on specific points may assist teachers, parents, educational researchers and education policy-makers in using technological tools in young children’s learning environments.

Animating Best Practice

This article discusses the affordances of the explanatory animation creation process on the person who makes the animation, specifically, how his or her own conceptual understanding of any chosen topic is challenged, deepened, and ultimately consolidated throughout this process. Third generation activity theory was used in this study as a methodological lens to examine the explanatory animation process at various stages as both a tool and an object. Whilst educational animations have traditionally been the result of collaborations between professional animators and educators, this article documents how children can be engaged in this same process, as a means in itself, for the sake of their own learning. Our claim here is that the children’s mental models, as depicted through the animation key frames, functioned as both flexible models and diagnostic tools.

The Teacher Education Internet Server: an evolving resource for educators

ABSTRACT The Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) is an international organization of teacher educators from all disciplines who are interested in the creation and dissemination of knowledge about the use of information technology in teacher education. The Teacher Education Internet Server (TEIS) has been established by SITE to support professional interchange and academic discourse and will serve as a complement to traditional ways of sharing academic information such as professional journals and conferences. With the evolution and spread of Internet information servers, it is envisioned that TEIS may make worthwhile contributions to use of technology in teacher education. As telecommunications technologies evolve, from FTP to Gopher to the World Wide Web, a major challenge for TEIS remains: to develop guidelines for collaboration at a distance that allow educators from around the world to work together to identify, acquire, and organize information and related materials. The n...

Supporting geoscience with graphical-user-interface Internet tools for the Macintosh

Abstract This paper describes a suite of Macintosh graphical-user-interface (GUI) software programs that can be used in conjunction with the Internet to support geoscience education. These software programs allow science educators to access and retrieve a large body of resources from an increasing number of network sites, taking advantage of the intuitive, simple-to-use Macintosh operating system. With these tools, educators easily can locate, download, and exchange not only text files but also sound resources, video movie clips, and software application files from their desktop computers. Another major advantage of these software tools is that they are available at no cost and may be distributed freely. The following GUI software tools are described including examples of how they can be used in an educational setting: 1. ∗ Eudora—an e-mail program 2. ∗ NewsWatcher—a newsreader 3. ∗ TurboGopher—a Gopher program 4. ∗ Fetch—a software application for easy File Transfer Protocol (FTP) 5. ∗ NCSA Mosaic—a worldwide hypertext browsing program. An explosive growth of online archives currently is underway as new electronic sites are being added continuously to the Internet. Many of these resources may be of interest to science educators who learn they can share not only ASCII text files, but also graphic image files, sound resources, QuickTime movie clips, and hypermedia projects with colleagues from locations around the world. These powerful, yet simple to learn GUI software tools are providing a revolution in how knowledge can be accessed, retrieved, and shared.

Technology’s Role in Stem Education and the Stem SOS Model

Technology is an indispensible component of any science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) or project-based learning (PBL) activity. Technology may contribute to the design and implementation of the STEM activities in multiple ways. However, two patterns emerge when technology use is analyzed for STEM education: 1) direct integration and embedding of technology into STEM activities; and 2) using technology as a tool or facilitator to enrich STEM PBL (Akgun, 2013).

Setting up a SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol) server and Gopher site

Abstract The effort required to establish a communication facility that supports SLIP, PPP, Gopher, or other network services is substantial and cannot be undertaken without some background in TCP/IP networking and system administration. This paper provides a thumbnail sketch of the issues involved in setting up SLIP, PPP, and Gopher servers. It will familiarize the reader with the concepts underlying SLIP, compressed-SLIP, and PPP protocol, showing that they are examples of dial-up IP protocols. The paper will prepare the reader to develop an implementation plan for a dial-up IP facility suited to the communication infrastructure of their institution and relevant to the needs of their users. References to vendors and and sources of information are given throughout the chapter.