Peter Rich

Video Annotation Tools Technologies to Scaffold, Structure, and Transform Teacher Reflection

While video has long been used to capture microteaching episodes, illustrate classroom cases and practices, and to review teaching practices, recent developments in video annotation tools may help to extend and augment teacher self-reflection. Such tools make possible the documentation and support self-analysis using verifiable evidence as well as to examine changes in development over time. Video annotation tools offer the potential to support both the reflection and analysis of ones own teaching with minimal video editing as well as the ability to associate captured video with related student and teaching evidence. In this paper, we compare and contrast emerging video annotation tools and describe their applications to support and potentially transform teacher reflection.

Factors and Interactions Influencing Technology Integration during Situated Professional Development in an Elementary School

This study examined factors that influence K–5 teachers’ technology integration efforts during a semester-long Collaborative Apprenticeship. Results suggest that shared planning time, shared curriculum, connection to an individual, expertise, physical proximity, and comfort level influenced interactions across the community of practice. Posing and responding to task-based questions, giving and seeking advice, and sharing ideas composed more than 70% of interactions between teachers. However, the nature of interactions changed as teachers assumed increased responsibility for designing technology-enhanced lessons. Teacher-leaders initially modeled exemplar applications of technology-enhanced lessons and gave advice on their classroom use. Subsequently, the community of teachers brainstormed ideas collaboratively as teacher-leaders supported peers to develop original lessons independently. Implications for collaborative apprenticeships and learning in professional environments are provided.

Decisions and reasons: examining preservice teacher decision-making through video self-analysis

METHODS USED TO STUDY TEACHER THINKING have both provided insight into the cognitive aspects of teaching and resulted in new, as yet unresolved, relationships between practice and theory. Recent developments in video-analysis tools have allowed preservice teachers to analyze both their practices and thinking, providing important feedback for self-improvement as well as insights into their thinking. In this study, four student teachers used the Video Analysis Tool to enquire about and analyze their teaching. Constant-comparative methods revealed different decision-making and reasoning patterns, indicating decisions driven primarily by teacher-centered thinking and decisions driven primarily by student-centered thinking. We discuss how understanding these differences might benefit the teacher education community and describe the implications of video analysis in both research and practice.

Scaffolded video self-analysis: discrepancies between preservice teachers’ perceived and actual instructional decisions

While video is commonly used to record “expert” teachers, video editing and analysis tools have made it possible for preservice teachers to systematically document, assess, analyze and adapt their own teaching practices. This case study documents the experience of three preservice teachers as they used a Web-based video analysis tool to analyze and subsequently act on their instructional decisions. Findings highlight the ability to identify and address discrepancies between thought and action, resulting in marked differences in teaching practice.

Using Online Technologies to Extend a Classroom to Learners at a Distance

The authors studied a course in which an instructor allowed individuals at a distance to participate. Although these students were not formally enrolled in the university where the class took place, the instructor gave them full access to all course materials and encouraged them to complete course assignments. The authors examined the time and technical proficiency required to involve learners at a distance. We surveyed these learners to determine their perceptions of the course and examined their work. Learners at a distance reported receiving some benefit from the course, particularly in terms of learner–content interaction. We surveyed students in the face‐to‐face classroom to determine whether having students participating at a distance in the same class affected their perception of the course. They reported no impact. The implications and limitations of these results are discussed.

Identifying Motivational Styles in Educational Gamification

Little work has been done to understand the motivational impact of specific game elements and how they combine to form student motivational styles in educational gamification. In this exploratory study we evaluate the level of motivation reported for a variety of game elements by 184 students. Using this data we generated a principle components analysis to identify the underlying factor structure that govern students’ motivational styles. Four motivational styles were identified: (1) Personal Progress – being motivated by gamified elements that show one’s individual progress in a course; (2) Competition and Praise – being motivated by game elements that show one’s progress compared to their peers and provide social reinforcing feedback; (3) Individual Assignments – being motivated by completing traditional assignments and exams; and (4) Group Work – being motivated by social assignments like group work and peer review.

Innovating How We Teach Collaborative Design Through Studio-Based Pedagogy

Over the past decade, a handful of researchers have studied the most important skills for becoming an effective instructional designer (Kenny, Zhang, Schwier, & Campbell, 2014; Lowenthal, Wilson, & Dunlap, 2010; Ritzhaupt, Martin, & Daniels, 2010; Sugar, Brown, Daniels, & Hoard, 2011; Sugar et al., 2012). While nearly all employers indicate the need for specific instructional design skills and knowledge (e.g., ADDIE, ID models), many of the most requested skills are neither technical nor theoretical, but instead include social skills such as creativity, teamwork, and communication. For example, collaboration was the second most requested skill of instructional design job postings in Sugar et al.’s (2012) findings, while communication skills was the third most requested ability. In a Delphi study of instructional designers in higher education, communication and social skills were the first and second most important skills, respectively (Sugar et al., 2011). In this chapter, we discuss how a studio-based approach to instruction may foster such skills.

Trends and Issues in Qualitative Research Methods

In the almost two decades since the first AECT Handbook article on qualitative research debates about research philosophy, design, and purposes have led to clashes of opinion in the field of educational communications and technology as well as in the larger sphere of educational research. At the same time, the number of publications on qualitative methods specific to the field has increased, expanding the understanding of the potential of such approaches to explore, describe, and explicate key issues in instructional design and the application of technology to learning. While other chapters have included examples of qualitative studies related to specific disciplinary topics, this chapter focuses on trends in the use of qualitative research design and emerging approaches more generally. Within this framework, issues of design, methods, and knowledge generation are reviewed and examined through a sample of recent directions in qualitative studies and designs. For each method reviewed, examples are provided along with common issues and potential directions for future use of these.

Computational Thinking: Toward a Unifying Definition

This chapter reviews the current state of Computational Thinking (CT)—an idea that promotes the use of computer science concepts to enhance problem solving in various subject domains. Although millions of dollars have been spent promoting CT, our review revealed that in spite of various studies on the application of CT and the pedagogical promise, few studies have sought to operationalize the term “Computational Thinking” for curriculum or assessment. We conducted a Delphi study to gain consensus among experts in CT to formalize a definition and clarify the latent educational possibilities. The results of the Delphi study are reviewed followed by a discussion for future directions of Computational Thinking research.

Describing Spiritual Growth in an Online Religious Education Course

ABSTRACT This research examined the phenomenon of spiritual growth in students taking an online religious education course at Brigham Young University–Idaho. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 students who reported positive gains in spirituality as a result of the course. Students described their experience in the online course and the factors that contributed to their success. Results suggest participants took a great deal of ownership in their own spiritual growth. Although it seems likely participants were already highly self-directed, aspects of the online experience appeared to encourage self-direction. The course design was flexible enough for research participants to explore ideas on their own while also being structured enough to provide a guided experience. Online instructors acted as guides and facilitators, playing a less prominent role than face-to-face instructors. Frequent engagement in and reflection through writing appeared to be important for students’ spiritual growth, whereas online interactions with other students seemed to have minimal impact. However, some responses suggested online interaction with peers was an area with potential for greater influence.