Danielle Boyd Harlow

INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY INTO TEACHER EDUCATION A CRITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR IMPLEMENTING REFORM

Teacher education programs around the nation continue to be challenged to prepare prospective teachers to use technology “meaningfully” in their instruction. This implies that university faculty in teacher education programs must become proficient at technology use and must come to understand content-specific, pedagogical uses of technology for their own instruction. In this article, the authors present a model for technological change driven by the notion of situated practice and communities of discourse in their school of education. They also describe a critical framework for facilitating discourse among teacher education faculty from which understandings of why, when, and how to use technology emerged. Several cases of situated practice are discussed with particular attention to how an understanding of meaningful technology use was negotiated through interactions between faculty and graduate students. Implicit in this model for technological change is a strategy for sustainability. This is elaborated as the authors discuss their results.

Students' Experience of Synchronous Learning in Distributed Environments

This article reports on a two-year ethnographic study of learners participating in multi-site, graduate-level education classes. Classes sometimes met face-to-face in the same physical location; at other times part of the class met physically elsewhere. Yet all were linked through the virtual space. Ethnographic analysis of four data types explored how the instructor and students were able to interact through videoconferencing technologies. Most of the interaction occurred between the local and distance learners by way of cultural guides, local students assigned to host a distance learner through Google Video chat. The distance learners were able to receive real-time attention from the instructor and were able to share differing perspectives that contributed to increased satisfaction in the course. These interactions allowed for a dynamic collaborative effort among a diverse set of actors in the field of education.

Floors and Flexibility: Designing a Programming Environment for 4th-6th Grade Classrooms

The recent renaissance in early computer science education has provided K-12 teachers with multiple options for introducing children to computer science. However, tools for teaching programming for children with wide-scale adoption have been targeted mostly at pre-readers or middle school and higher grade-levels. This leaves a gap for 4th -- 6th grade students, who differ developmentally from older and younger students. In this paper, we investigate block-based programming languages targeted at elementary and middle school students and demonstrate a gap in existing programming languages appropriate for 4th -- 6th grade classrooms. We analyze the benefits of Scratch, ScratchJr, and Blockly for students and curriculum developers. We describe the design principles we created based on our experiences using block-based programming in 4th -- 6th grade classrooms, and introduce LaPlaya, a language and development environment designed specifically for children in the gap between grades K-3 and middle school students.

Identifying elementary students' pre-instructional ability to develop algorithms and step-by-step instructions

The desire to expose more students to computer science has led to the development of a plethora of educational activities and outreach programs to broaden participation in computer science. Despite extensive resources (time and money), they have made little impact on the diversity of students pursuing computer science. To realize large gains, computational thinking must be integrated into K-12 systems, starting with elementary school. In order to do so, existing resources need to be adapted for a school setting. To make a curriculum with lessons that build on each other over several years, and accountability for student learning, we need standards, an understanding of how students learn, and identification of what students know before exposure to the curriculum. In this paper, we present our detailed findings of what fourth graders know before encountering a computational thinking curriculum. Groups of students participated in activities modified from CS Unplugged in order to discover their knowledge (rather than provide instruction). We identify aspects of the activities students were able to complete successfully, and where they will need further instruction. We then explain how we used these results to modify our pilot curriculum.

Mapping students’ ideas to understand learning in a collaborative programming environment

Recent studies in learning programming have largely focused on high school and college students; less is known about how young children learn to program. From video data of 20 students using a graphical programming interface, we identified ideas that were shared and evolved through an elementary school classroom. In mapping these ideas and their resulting changes in programs and outputs, we were able to identify the contextual features which contributed to how ideas moved through the classroom as students learned. We suggest this process of idea mapping in visual programming environments as a viable method for understanding collaborative, constructivist learning as well as a context under which experiences can be developed to improve student learning.

Educating Teachers for the Maker Movement: Pre-service Teachers' Experiences Facilitating Maker Activities

In this paper, we describe an event where 33 pre-service elementary school teachers planned and facilitated a School Maker Faire as part of their elementary science teaching methods course. We focus on one group of four pre-service teachers who facilitated a balloon rocket station and examine the decisions they made when facilitating childrens interactions at the stations and how these decisions led to constraining or creating opportunities for children to engage in engineering design.

Getting Started in Teaching and Researching Computer Science in the Elementary Classroom

The recent growth of interest in computer science has created a movement to more readily introduce computer science in K-12 classrooms. However, little research exists on how to successfully bring computer science to lower grade levels. In this paper, we present advice for researchers and curriculum developers who are getting started working with computer science in elementary schools. Specifically, we focus on practical tips for studies of this nature, developed from our experiences piloting a computational thinking curriculum with 4th-6th grade students. We address issues arising in elementary school classrooms such as recruiting and interfacing with teachers and schools, classroom management strategies, student computer literacy and developmental stages, and curriculum life cycles.

Differentiating for Diversity: Using Universal Design for Learning in Elementary Computer Science Education

As computer science moves from an outreach activity to a normal classroom activity in the multi-subject, mainstream elementary school classroom, curricula need to be examined to ensure they are meeting the needs of diverse students. In this paper, we present how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) was used to develop and refine a programming environment and curriculum for upper-elementary school classrooms (students aged 9-12). We then present our accommodations and modifications to emphasize the ways our development environment and/or curriculum enabled such uses. Ensuring introductory computer science experiences are equitable and accessible for a wide range of student learners may broaden the diversity of individuals who perceive themselves as capable of pursuing computer science in the future.

Talking to Learn Physics and Learning to Talk Physics

Many words are used in physics differently than they are used in everyday speech. Thus, physics learners must develop conceptual understandings of physical phenomena while learning to use words in new ways. This simultaneous construction of physics concepts and discourse requires that students talk about partially understood concepts using partially acquired vocabulary. Our analysis shows that the development of physics discourse and conceptual understanding, while intricately related, are separate processes.

Compelling evidence: an influence on middle school students’ accounts that may impact decision-making about socioscientific issues

Abstract This study investigates how middle school students make hypothetical purchasing, consuming, and voting decisions about environmental and science-related issues – a key component of environmental literacy. Fifty-three female students were given a packet containing multiple excerpts of information from conflicting positions from stakeholders and interviewed about how they would make decisions about environmental and science-related issues. We first investigated whether and how information presented as evidence influenced students’ accounts that may impact their decision-making (i.e. to make or change decisions). We then investigated how evidence type affected students’ decision-making. Findings indicated that most students did not change their stance after reading additional contrasting information presented as evidence. Implications for science teaching and learning are discussed.