Danielle Herro

Mobile Technology: Case-Based Suggestions for Classroom Integration and Teacher Educators.

Abstract Mobile technologies permeate the lives of 21st century citizens. From smart-phones to tablet computers, people use these devices to navigate personal, social, and career responsibilities. Educators recognize the instructional potential of mobiles and are seeking ways to effectively utilize these technologies in support of learning. Research is beginning to surface to aid this endeavor. This paper contributes to the literature by summarizing emerging evidence and offering case-based suggestions for effectively integrating mobiles in classrooms. We conclude with implications for teacher education programs and next steps.

Exploring teachers’ perceptions of STEAM teaching through professional development: implications for teacher educators

This research involves a multi-year study examining the perspectives and classroom practices of 21 middle school mathematics and science teachers, in the southeastern United States, participating in professional development (PD) exploring science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) literacies. This study sought to understand teachers’ perceptions and practices before and after a PD in which STEAM integration was explored through project-based learning involving the political, social, economical, environmental and historical context of a local river. Participants used digital media as a means of communicating and collaborating with peers and mentors, collecting and analyzing data, and creating and sharing projects. Results suggest teachers increased their understanding of STEAM to teach content and perceived the STEAM PD as an effective initial step to change practice, citing the importance of collaboration and technology integrated directly into the learning process. Implications from this study offer other teacher educators valuable considerations towards developing successful STEAM PD to effect successful STEAM teaching.

Techno Savvy: A Web 2.0 Curriculum Encouraging Critical Thinking.

This paper reports results from a case study focused on understanding student practices regarding production-oriented problem-solving with digital media. Thirty-seven students participated in an elective curriculum called, “Techno Savvy,” a nine-week course focused on student exploration of global issues, and designed around Web 2.0 tools. Socio-constructivist theory provided the theoretical lens to write and study the curriculum. Complexity in student practices using digital media tools to determine critical thinking is highlighted. Data were analyzed for patterns observed in student practices, video, artifacts, oral, and written work. Results suggest that student interaction and practices afforded by tools and content within the curriculum encourage critical thinking. This study implies a need for further classroom research linking pedagogical approaches with digital media to critical thinking and achievement.

An academic home for play: games as unifying influences in higher education

Purpose – This paper aims to address opportunities and tensions when creating game-based learning practices in higher education. By detailing examples from a university in the Southeastern USA and the communities it serves, we suggest game-based research and learning be approached as a unifying influence adaptable across contexts. Design/methodology/approach – We use a working example methodology where someone with expertise “works through” a well-known issue while making the thinking overt. In this manner, we reveal processes, successes and challenges infusing game-based learning in higher education to deepen understanding between fields and encourage research and practice with games across disciplines. Findings – The working example demonstrates that games served as a unifying influence in three primary ways, which included redesigning courses and implementing programmatic changes; using existing programs to promote interdisciplinary teaching and research; and increasing outreach and partnerships. In ea...

A Tangible, Story-Construction Process Employing Spatial, Computational-Thinking

The outcome of a multidisciplinary and iterative process, CyberPLAYce is a tangible, interactive, cyber-physical learning tool for children supporting computational thinking and, particularly, playful storytelling. CyberPLAYce finds inspiration in the concept of child-computer interaction, where meaning is constructed through spatially reconfiguring the physical environment. The novel aspect of CyberPLAYce is its extension of cyber-learning to the dimension of space where children construct meaning at a larger physical scale. This paper outlines the motivations for CyberPLAYce, focuses on the full arc of design and evaluation activities concerning computational thinking (CT) practices that engaged 8-12-year-old storytellers, and concludes with a consideration of future work focusing on spatial thinking with CyberPLAYce. Results from our empirical study suggest that cyber-physical play afforded by CyberPLAYce scaffolds computational thinking, creating, and sharing in children. Particularly for IDC researchers in the educational domain, CyberPLAYce represents a Research-through-design exemplar supporting childrens enjoyment of learning and meaning-construction.

Dancing literacy: Expanding children’s and teachers’ literacy repertoires through embodied knowing

This paper explores dance as literacy. Specifically, it examines qualitative case study research findings and student examples from a dance artist-in-residence that explored curricular content using dance as its primary mode of enquiry and expression. Throughout the residency, students constructed meaning through their dance experiences in dynamic and autonomous ways, exhibiting complex literacy practices of enquiry and communication. Focusing on the kindergarten student participants’ experiences, the authors highlight three themes in their dance literacy practices: (a) artistic autonomy, (b) embodied knowledge and (c) multimodality. As embodied knowledge, dance innately allowed for integrative literacy possibilities in the dance residency. The dance experiences observed and referenced in this research illustrate the complexities of dance as literacy, as both a unique literacy and in meaning making across literacies. Drawing on the findings of this study, the authors seek to inspire teachers to foster similar experiences to develop transformative literacy practices individually in their classrooms and collaboratively in their schools.

Gaming the system: culture, process, and perspectives supporting a game and app design curriculum

Games and digital media experiences permeate the lives of youth. Researchers have argued the participatory attributes and cognitive benefits of gaming and media production for more than a decade, relying on socio-cultural theory to bolster their claims. Only recently have large-scale efforts ensued towards moving game play and design into formal schooling. Educators are beginning to recognize the instructional potential of games but are seeking ways to understand and effectively support them in learning environments. This paper offers a working example detailing the process of creating a high school curriculum focused on game and app design. Through the example, the author addresses the ‘why’ and ‘how’ to move forward with games in schools and argue the necessity of cultivating a participatory culture. The example concludes with assumptions from this experience and an invitation for scholars to critique and discuss the instance.

Implementing Game Design in School: A Working Example | Mise en œuvre de la conception de jeu à l’école : un exemple pratique

This case uses a worked or “working example” model (Gee, 2010), documenting the implementation of a novel game design curriculum in the United States. Created by an Instructional Technology Administrator (ITA) and two classroom teachers, it was subsequently offered to high school students. With an aim of providing in-depth understanding of conditions necessary to bring game design experiences to classrooms, the research describes the context while revealing processes and instructor perceptions of the experience. Data collection and analysis in this working example include observation, teacher interviews, student surveys, and artifacts intended to make thinking and practices overt while inviting scholarly conversation around the curriculum’s successes and failures. Drawing on a previous case focused on initial course planning and early implementation (Author, 2013), this paper advances insight regarding the process of moving game design into schooling and concludes with a discussion of educational implications. Cette etude se sert d’un modele « d’exemple concret » (Gee, 2010) pour documenter la mise en œuvre d’un programme de conception de jeu aux Etats-Unis. Cree par un technopedagogue et deux titulaires de classe, le programme a ensuite ete offert a des eleves du secondaire. Visant a fournir une comprehension approfondie des conditions requises pour l’integration des experiences de conception de jeu en classe, l’etude decrit le contexte et revele les processus et les perceptions qu’a tires l’instructeur de l’experience. La collecte de donnees et l’analyse dans cet exemple concret comprennent l’observation, des entrevues avec les enseignants, des sondages aupres des eleves et des artefacts ayant pour but de rendre manifestes la reflexion et les pratiques tout en stimulant la conversation savante a propos des reussites et des echecs du programme. S’appuyant sur une etude prealable qui mettait l’accent sur la planification initiale du cours et le debut de sa mise en œuvre (Herro, 2013), cet article propose une perspective sur le processus d’integration de la conception de jeu dans la formation et conclut avec une discussion portant sur les repercussions pedagogiques.

Co-Measure: Developing an Assessment for Student Collaboration in STEAM Activities.

BackgroundThe shortage of skilled workers choosing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers in the USA and worldwide has fueled a movement towards STEAM, in which the “A” addresses the arts and humanities. STEAM education has been proposed as a way to offer relevant problems to solve while drawing on creative and collaborative skills to increase interest and engagement in these fields. Despite the interest in increasing STEAM globally, research on the efficacy of instructional approaches, including ways to assess collaborative problem solving (CPS), is lacking.ResultsThis paper reports the development of a rubric, named Co-Measure, for researchers and educators to use to assess student collaboration, at the individual level, when students are working in K-12 STEAM activities. Our project team provides the rationale, process, validation, initial iterations to the rubric, and next steps to inform STEM researchers and move STEAM instruction and learning forward. A final rubric is provided and made freely available to researchers and educators.ConclusionsAs STEAM education gains popularity in K-12 schools, assessment of student collaboration is needed to identify the dimensions of the skill in order to provide appropriate problem solving opportunities within instruction. The assessment is also needed to adjust instruction when students are not offered opportunities to work collaboratively during STEAM activities. Utilizing existing generalized frameworks of CPS provided the initial guide to direct research specific to CPS in STEAM activities. Using an iterative process to identify and evaluate attributes of student behavior associated with CPS in STEAM classrooms by a project team comprised of learning scientists, educational researchers and psychometricians allowed for rigorous research while drawing on appropriate expertise. Co-Measure has the potential to be modified and broadly extended to assess CPS in elementary and post-secondary classrooms using STEAM instructional practices.

Innovating with STEAM in middle school classrooms: remixing education

Purpose This paper aims to broaden the conversation regarding STEAM by investigating the new form of education. The novelty of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) instruction in K-12 classrooms means few cases of STEAM teaching are documented in depth. Design/methodology/approach As part of a larger multi-year study researching STEAM teaching practices in 14 middle school classrooms in the southeastern USA, the article first summarizes prior research findings and then presents ideas for higher education and K-12 researchers to consider when incorporating STEAM teaching in pre-service education, professional development and in classrooms. Then, the authors use a second-order narrative approach to describe three cases of teachers enacting STEAM practices in classrooms. Findings Drawing on the notion of “remixing” education in the context of STEAM, the authors show how each teacher alters existing practices, instead of offering entirely new instruction, as they implement STEAM teaching. Originality/value With few cases of STEAM teaching detailed in the depth, this paper advances the understanding of STEAM teaching practices in K-12 classrooms.