Karen Swan

Building Knowledge Building Communities: Consistency, Contact and Communication in the Virtual Classroom

This article looks at factors affecting the success of asynchronous online learning both through a review of the research literature and through an empirical investigation of student perceptions and course design factors in one of the largest asynchronous learning networks in the country. It finds that three such factors—consistency in course design, contact with course instructors, and active discussion—have been consistently shown to significantly influence the success of online courses. It is posited that the reason for these findings relates to the importance of building knowledge building communities in asynchronous online learning environments.

The Changing Nature of Teaching and Learning in Computer-Based Classrooms

AbstractThe study reported in this article provides evidence that the use of computers can change the nature of teaching and learning at its most basic level—the level of interactions between students and teachers. The study compared interactions between high school students and teachers involved in computer-based instruction with interactions between the same students and teachers during traditional classroom instruction. Its findings reveal that student-teacher interactions were more student-centered and individualized during computer-based teaching and learning than during traditional teaching and learning. We argue that such changes may be a McLuhanesque reflection of the computer’s inherent interactivity, and suggest that more profound changes are likely if computers become more fully integrated into our schools.

Programming Objects to Think with: Logo and the Teaching and Learning of Problem Solving

The Logo computer programming language has been described as an environment in which children will develop problem-solving skills. Unfortunately, much of the research concerned with Logo and problem solving has not found such connection, but a careful reading of that literature suggests that explicit problem-solving instruction and mediated Logo programming practice can result in the development and transfer of certain problem-solving abilities. The research reported in this article was designed to test such hypothesis. In particular, it differentiates between interventions combining explicit instruction with medicated practice and discovery learning approaches, and assesses the importance of Logo programming within the former. Results reveal that texplicit instruction with Logo programming practice supported the development and transfer of four problem-solving strategies, subgoals formation, forward chaining, systematic trial and error, and analogy; whereas neither discovery learning in a Logo environment nor explicit instruction with concrete manipulatives practice did so. Indications are that such instruction and practice can support the teaching and learning of alternative representation strategies as well. The findings support claims for the efficacy of Logo as medium conducive to the teaching and learning of problem solving, but only when particular problem-solving skills are explicitly taught.

Nonprint Media and Technology Literacy Standards for Assessing Technology Integration

This article suggests a set of cumulative standards for assessing the use of nonprint media and electronic technologies in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms. The proposed standards are culled from existing standards created for educational technologies, information literacy, and the English language arts, and are offered as a starting point for thinking about expanding our notions of literacy and literacy instruction in the schools. Most importantly, from this perspective, the standards are categorized as addressing three types of literacies—basic skills, critical literacies, and construction skills—to encourage teachers to incorporate all three when integrating technology use in teaching and learning.

Honing in on the Target: Who among the Educationally Disadvantaged Benefits Most from What CBI?

AbstractThe research reported in this paper investigated the efficacy of the use of comprehensive computer based instruction for providing basic skills remediation to educationally disadvantaged student populations. Thirteen CBI programs placed in 26 elementary and secondary schools throughout the New York City school system were evaluated during the 1987/88 school year. Results reveal that CBI programs can indeed be an effective means for delivering such instruction, that they are equally effective in providing instruction in reading and mathematics to educationally disadvantaged students, and that within such population an inverse relationship exists between instructional level and achievement gains resulting from CBI use. The differential effectiveness of differing programs was also suggested in the findings. Interviews with students and teachers indicate that four features of CBI make it particularly useful to educationally disadvantaged students—CBI is perceived by students as less threatening than t...

Exploring the Role of Video in Enhancing Learning from Hypermedia

This article examines the potential of video to enhance learning from hypermedia applications. It reports on two studies that compared responses to, and recall from, hypermedia materials with and without integrated video segments. The results of these studies suggest that embedded video indeed can enhance learning from hypermedia. Two possible explanations for such enhancement are suggested—that video adds an affective dimension to hypermedia materials, making them more meaningful, hence more memorable; and that video is presented in a more complex form than text in memory and so provides more links to elaborated knowledge therein.

Roles for Multimedia in the Response-Based Literature Classroom

As numerous multimedia products for literature become commercially available, questions pertaining to their quality, approach, and role in teaching and learning need to be posed. This study set out to develop criteria with which to examine products, and in turn have teachers apply these to a representative sample of software currently on the market. Findings indicate that while products are attractive on a technical level, their underlying pedagogical approach is not necessarily aligned with response-based practice in literature teaching and learning. In spite of this lack of supportive features, our teacher/reviewers make suggestions for ways in which the applications might be adapted to meet the needs of the response-based classroom.

Using Hypermedia in Response-Based Literature Classrooms: A Critical Review of Commercial Applications

AbstractResponse-based literature teaching and learning regards readers as active meaning-makers, and therefore emphasizes the importance of teaching and learning the processes of literary understanding, which are viewed as both socially and personally mediated. Many of the qualities of hypermedia suggest that it may be well suited for supporting such approaches. The National Center for Research on Literature Teaching and Learning’s ongoing Multimedia and Literature Teaching and Learning Project is concerned with systematically exploring this idea. The project’s first stage, detailed in this article, involved reviewing commercial multimedia literature applications from a response-based perspective. This article describes criteria developed for evaluating applications from that perspective, as well as the program acquisition and evaluation process. Findings suggest that the hypermedia literature applications currently commercially available, although technologically quite good and perhaps supportive of tex...

Knowledge-Based Instruction: Teaching Problem Solving in a Logo Learning Environment.

Abstract Three studies are reported which collectively show that five particular problem‐solving strategies can be developed in students explicitly taught those strategies and given practice applying them to solve Logo programming problems. The studies demonstrate the superiority of such intervention over Logo programming practice alone, explicit strategy training with non‐computer‐based practice, and instruction in content areas traditionally prescribed for the teaching and learning of problem solving. The results indicate that problem‐solving strategies will not be developed through Logo programming alone, rather they must be explicitly taught and practiced. Knowledge‐based instruction linking declarative and procedural knowledge is recommended as a means to this end.

Using Hypermedia to Enhance Response-Based Literature Teaching and Learning

This article reports on the Multimedia and Literature Teaching and Learning Project which explored the potential of multimedia and hypermedia for enhancing the response-based teaching and learning of literature. The projects initial phase involved the development of criteria for considering multimedia applications from a response-based perspective and the application of these to a critical review of commercial software. Findings revealed that while such software was technically quite good, the pedagogical approaches taken were not response-based. The projects second phase, therefore, involved the development of prototype hypermedia applications designed to support response-based teaching and learning at both the elementary (Kidspace) and secondary/post-secondary (the BEATS) levels. These prototypes were tested in real classrooms during the projects third phase. Results suggest that hypermedia can support unique and important responses, but only within compatible classroom cultures.