Teresa Franklin

Mobile math: math educators and students engage in mobile learning

The public and educational communities are aware of the continuing crisis in math education in our middle schools and the convergence of technologies for teaching and learning. This paper presents a case study in which iPod Touch® was used to help middle school students learn about algebraic equations and, in particular, the concept of slope, absolute value, and elimination. The development of math movies for use on the iPod Touch provided students with a mobile means of informal math learning beyond the hours of the classroom. While the study explored the use of mobile devices in an eighth grade math classroom, the lessons learned are invaluable to those seeking to implement mobile technologies to support teaching and learning with typical software, such as iMovie, PowerPoint, and iTunes®.

Designing Asynchronous Online Discussion Environments: Recent Progress and Possible Future Directions.

Asynchronous online discussion environments are important platforms to support learning. Research suggests, however, threaded forums, one of the most popular asynchronous discussion environments, do not often foster productive online discussions naturally. This paper explores how certain properties of threaded forums have affected or constrained the quality of discussions, and argues that developing alternative discussion environments is highly needed to offer better support for asynchronous online communication. Using the Productive Online Discussion Model developed by Gao, Wang and Sun, we analyzed current work on four types of asynchronous discussion environments that have been developed and researched: constrained environments, visualized environments, anchored environments and combined environments. The paper has implications for developing future asynchronous online discussion environments. More specifically, future work should aim at (1) exploring new environments that support varied goals of learning, (2) integrating emerging technologies to address the constraints of current environments, (3) designing multifunctional environments to facilitate complex learning and (4) developing appropriate instructional activities and strategies for these environments. Practitioner Notes What is already known about this topic Asynchronous online discussion plays an important role in facilitating learning., It is hard to foster a focused, interactive and in-depth asynchronous discussion in traditional threaded forums., Researchers have investigated multiple ways of structuring or facilitating asynchronous online discussions., What this paper adds The paper analyzes how existing features of threaded forums constrain the quality of online discussion., The paper identifies the progress made in designing alternative asynchronous discussion environments and discusses four major types of asynchronous discussion environments that have been developed and researched., The paper provides suggestions for developing future asynchronous discussion environments., Implications for practice and/or policy Designing alternative asynchronous discussion environments is necessary to improve the quality of online discussion and communication., New asynchronous discussion environments need to be designed to meet varied learning goals and facilitate complex learning., Appropriate instructional strategies need to be developed for both existing and new online discussion environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overview of the STEAMiE Educational game Engine

Today, there exists a significant disparity in the degree of technological development between commercial and educational games. The STEAMiE educational engine is a cutting-edge system used to create advanced, realistic, immersive learning environments. These environments have been shown to influence comprehension and retention of hard-to-teach science concepts. This paper will present an overview of the features of our STEAMiE educational engine and how to use it to create games/simulations capable of enhancing a userpsilas learning experience. The STEAMiE educational engine contains a rich feature set allowing for development of powerful modules within a short period of time. From a development point of view, the STEAMiE educational enginepsilas object oriented design is modular and can be easily extended to support new functionality in a timely manner. This significantly shortens development time and abstracts complexities from the developer allowing for clean and efficient implementations of games and simulations.

The Mobile School: Digital Communities Created by Mobile Learners

Mobile technologies are beginning to interface with Web 2.0 tools, immersive virtual worlds, and online environments to present educational opportunities for traditional and nontraditional learners within communities of learners. The use of Web 2.0 tools to build new community learning ecosystems by today’s students using cell phones, mp3 players, and iPod devices to stay connected will be discussed in the context of digital citizenship. The use of simulations and virtual environments to build learning spaces that provide connections to students globally will be explored. How these 21st century digital interfaces will challenge the educational institutions of K-12 to create a more rigorous, immersive, and differentiated learning environments will be presented.

Virtual gallery walk, an innovative outlet for sharing student research work in K-12 classrooms

This paper discusses a case study which aims to make research projects more engaging for middle school students by incorporating a variation to the traditional gallery walk workflow. The process begins by having the students conduct individual research on one of a finite list of topics and produce a poster that details what they have learned. We collect the research posters and transfer the media into the shared virtual world of second life, where a developer organizes the posters into a ldquovirtual museumrdquo of full-color high-quality panels displaying the studentspsila creations. Students return to the computer lab, log in to the virtual world, and explore the virtual gallery. This gives students the opportunity to learn more about the other topics from their peers in an engaging, interactive, and fun way. We evaluate the effectiveness of this workflow by injecting quizzes on the topic material before the research phase, after the research phase, and after using the virtual gallery walk. As virtual worlds are rarely utilized in K-12 classrooms, the virtual gallery walk is innovative as a vehicle for student learning and as a possible outlet for sharing the work with community of other students active within second life.

Learning Outside of Classroom: Exploring the Active Part of an Informal Online English Learning Community in China.

This study explored how the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum, an informal online language learning community in China, functioned to support its members to improve their English writing proficiency. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) model was used as the theoretical framework to explore the existence of teaching presence, cognitive presence and social presence in the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum. The transcript analysis of postings in the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum was used to find the existence of teaching, cognitive presence and social presence, and an adapted CoI survey was sent to members to measure their perceived teaching, cognitive and social presences. The results showed strong evidences of teaching presence, cognitive presence and social presence, and high levels of perceived teaching, cognitive and social presences in the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum. The well-designed technological environment, distributed teaching presence shared by moderators and members, and extensive evidences of social presence in the discussion forum worked together to support learning in the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preservice Teachers’ Intention to Adopt Technology in Their Future Classrooms

This study examined four factors that influence preservice teachers’ intentions to adopt technology in classrooms based on the Theory of Planned Behavior and Technology Acceptance Model. These four factors—technology self-efficacy, attitudes toward technology, perceived ease of use of technology, and perceived barriers of technology adoption—were explored through a multiple regression analysis. The results indicated that technology self-efficacy, attitudes toward technology, and perceived ease of use of technology were significantly predictive of technology adoption intentions when the other predictors were statistically controlled. Perceived barriers of technology adoption was not a significant predictor. Gender analyses were conducted showing no significant difference on all the factors between male and female. Practical and theoretical implications were addressed either to guide practitioners in designing teacher professional development program or assist researchers in their future study.

Technology and Teacher Education: Student Evaluation of Faculty Instructional Quality

This study explored one primary question: To what extent do student perceptions of various forms of instructional technology tools predict instructional quality? Participants for the study were drawn from a teacher education program in a large Midwest public university. Data were collected using a web-based survey with a total of 121 responses used in the final analysis. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to evaluate how well Productivity Tools, Presentation Tools, Communication Tools, and World Wide Web Tools predict Student Evaluation of Faculty Instructional Quality. The overall significant results of the regression model and the subsequent significant results of the t-test for Presentation Tools and Productivity Tools is an indication that Presentation and Productivity tools can be used by faculty to facilitate student and faculty interaction, promote cooperation among students, promote active learning techniques, give prompt feedback, emphasize time on task, communicate high expectation and respect diverse talents and ways of learning.

Preparing Teacher Candidates for Virtual Field Placements Via an Exposure to K-12 Online Teaching

Aim/Purpose The goal of this project was to determine what effects exposure to online K-12 teaching and learning activities had on teacher candidates’ perceptions of K-12 online learning, how the exposure allowed teacher candidates to reach greater understanding of online pedagogy, and what effect such exposure had on teacher candidates’ aspirations to complete virtual field experiences. Background With an increasing number of K-12 students learning online within full-time online schools and in blended learning environments, universities must prepare future educators to teach in virtual environments including clinical practice. Before engaging in online field placement, preservice teachers must be oriented to online K-12 teaching and learning. Methodology Using a design-based, mixed-method research methodology, this study drew samples from four sections of a hybrid technology integration course. Preservice teachers’ papers detailing their perceptions, focus groups, and surveys were used to gauge changes in perceptions of online learning after participating in online teaching and learning activities. Contribution The study demonstrated that an exposure to online K-12 classrooms stimulated preservice teachers’ interest in online teaching as they began to feel that online education could be equivalent to traditional education. Findings Students’ perceptions positively improved the equivalency of online learning to traditional schooling, the possibility of positive relationships between teachers and students, and the ability to create interactive learning. Students also reported being more knowledgeable and showed increased interest in participating in virtual field experiences. Preparing Teacher Candidates for Virtual Field Placements 2 Future Research Future research may continue to examine if the exposure course, combined with a short-term clinical experiences and long-term online apprenticeships may serve to prepare graduates with the skills necessary to teach in classrooms of the future.

Examining participation and engagement in a microblogging-supported college-level hybrid course

Abstract This study sought to understand student participation and engagement in a microblogging-supported college-level hybrid course. Using a case study design, the researchers examined how students participated and engaged in a variety of microblogging-supported instructional activities, including backchanneling, exploration, discussion, and live chat activities. Students were asked to report their perception of their learning experience. Our study suggested that students participated actively in the microblogging-based activities, while challenges remained as well. The degree of participation and engagement varied considerably depending on the type of instructional activity. Despite that students perceived all activities positively, our analyses of student tweets showed that sustained participation and engagement with a high-level of interactivity was rarely achieved among the data.