Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Assignment Outline: 2683
Table of Contents
Introduction p.3
Problem Area p.3-5
Pedagogical Premise & Digital Technology p.5-7
Pedagogical Goals p.7-8
Artifact & Pedagogical Design p.8-12
Conclusion p.12-13
Bibliography p.13-14
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Introduction
As part of Assignment 2 for UBC ETEC 533 master’s course, this paper is
developed to outline a technology-enhanced learning experience (TELE). Altering
existing WISE projects appear to be a suitable solution to find suitable TELEs. The
assignment includes two online components – a modified WISE and a webpage (i.e.
Weebly) to support the use of the WISE project. The website is intended to guide
educators as their Grade 4-6 students embark on the inquiry project. Students can
complete the WISE after 7-8 lessons. Users can navigate various parts of the Weebly
to help scaffold learning during the WISE inquiry. Academic sources have been
consulted and additional teaching materials are designed to support learning about
sound. When teaching, educators should use both the WISE project and the website to
support student learning.
Problem Area
Jonassen’s (1998) assumes that technology can make learning easier for
students because the digital tools help carry cognitive loads. Computers and other
tools can perform simple computation tasks and document important information.
Learner can then engage in more cognitive exhuasting tasks such as critically
analyszing a phenomona. Specifically, “technology-enhanced scaffolding can
facilitate evidence exploration by supplanting lower-order tasks such as simple
calculations and typing thereby allowing students to allocate cognitive resources to
higher-order tasks, such as generating hypotheses, seeking and identifying variables.”
(Kim & Hannafin, 2011, p.409) Digital tools often allows for hassle-free exploration.
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topic, misconceptions can easily form (Fosnot, 2013). Learning then happen when
these preconceptions fail to explain first hand experience. More specifically, “[i]f the
dissatisfaction with the existing conception created by its inability to make sense of
experience is followed by learning of an intelligible alternative which resolves or
promises to resolve some of the anomalies of its predecessor, then the new conception
may be plausible” (Posner, Strike, Hewson & Gertzog, 1982, p.221). Like simulators,
visualizers also provide other plausible conceptual relationships. Thus, any digital
tool that allows for exploration and conceptual modification would serve as a solution
to learning challenges.
Beyond cognitive benefits, digital tools bring many social affordances. Most
prominently, it enhances communicative methods and opportunities. First, there are
many digital platforms to share ideas. Users may communicate with a myraid of
synchronous or asychronous tools such as messenger, emails or conferencing
applications. These have direct implications in learning about science and math as
students can easily find information and solutions. Moreover, digital tools also allow
for distributed knowledge. As communicaiton can be centralized, participants around
the world can be invited to answer a question or solve a problem.
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effects of sound waves. The following sections describe the WISE pedagogical theory
more fully and provide a rationale of using WISE to approach learning about sound.
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WISE designers believe that learning should be made accessible for students.
Since all WISE projects can be found online, students can access their research
project at any time. More recently, WISE projects are made more accessible because
now available on handheld device (Linn et al., 2002). Enhancing accessible also has
implication about the learning concepts. This also materializes as “[engaging]
students in problems that they find personally relevant, and [supporting] students at an
appropriate level of analysis and explanation” (Gobert, Snyder, & Houghton, 2002).
For example, most of the WISE projects feature authentic situations and scenarios.
WISE allows designers to differentiate learning by inserting multimedia components
and embedding external resource links.
WISE theorists strongly believe that these tools should help make thinking
explicit. Visual and interactive representations should be available and accessible for
students. There should also be space for students to document and to reflect upon
personal thoughts and beliefs. This strategy promotes learning because it may expose
misconception. Within the WISE, there should also be opportunities for students to
assess and organize ideas as they inquire more about the topic. Consequently,
educators can better support students’ learning since they can review student notes
and revisions (Linn et al. 2002).
Social learning is another key priority in WISE. Theorists share insights with
Vygotsky and believe that learning is a socially constructed. Thus, WISE inquiry
models should have a strong social component where students can learn from each
other. Designers can make use of “[o]nline asynchronous discussions [that] enable
students to make their ideas visible and inspectable by their teachers and peers and
give students sufficient time to reflect before making contributions.” (Linn, et al.,
2002, p.531) Thus, designers should embed class-wide discussion opportunities.
Promoting life-long learning
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WISE inquiry maps invite students to practice as scientists. Similar patterns of
inquiry make it easy for learners to adapt it in order to solve their own problems (Linn
et al., 2002). Learners who complete many of the WISE projects will recognize
familiar components of inquiry that are employed to solve a broad range of topics.
More specifically, “in every project, students look at evidence, write notes, reflect on
the connections among the pieces of evidence, and form a cohesive argument.” (Linn
et al., 2002, p.531)
PHET
The goal of this TELE is to support students’ inquiry about sound. They are to
explicitly share their thoughts about sound and share their design of an instrument.
Students also assess, validate and revise their thinking models as they work through
simulators. Ultimately, students reflect upon their new understandings and revise their
model to represent accurate conceptual understandings about sound.
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- design an instrument that reflects the understanding of sound
Artifact
This is a science based technology assisted unit designed for grade 4-6 learners.
Students should have a sounded level of English with previous experience using a
device for learning. Students who have inquiry experience will benefit more fully
from this revised WISE project.
There are two major components to support the usage of this TELE. First, a guideline
has been developed for educators to use the modify WISE project about sound. The
public link can be found here: http://wiseprojectmymelody.weebly.com/
Second, students will embark on this WISE project. Depending on the speed of
completion, the unit is intended for a span of 6-8 lessons. The modified WISE can be
publically accessed via this website: http://wise.berkeley.edu/project/23785#/
“The children applied their knowledge to formulate several explanations and new
questions before undertaking further investigations. The scientist, knowing of
investigations by other scientists, used their findings to confirm the validity of his
original explanation.” – (National Research Council, 2000, p.11)
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serves as an adequate start, however, the WISE insufficient to fully represent current
academic understanding of a high quality TELE. Some features can be accentuated to
better align with the WISE pedagogy. Thus, the original WISE lesson has been
modified in order to help students reach the outlined goals.
Modified Design
The latter part of this text details the ways in which the original WISE
(#19975) was altered. It describes the modifications that help enhance WISE
pedagogy. It will be appropriate to refer to the revised WISE project (#23785) to fully
understand each modification.
Prompts
In the revised WISE, there are more prompts. Some of these prompts are
exploration, communication and reflective scaffolds. Exploration prompts include
highlighting focus in a video and external links. During discussions and open
responses, students are guided with operational, communicative and reflective
prompts. Kim & Hannafin (2011) suggest that these scaffolds are necessary to help
students “challenge their thinking, consider alternative evidence, and
evaluate alternate solutions.” (p.410)
Hyperlinks
Originally, the WISE frontloads simple definition of explored concepts. In the
new wise, there are hyperlinks and external links. This is helpful since adding “hints
and glossary annotations to WISE evidence pages [may help] overcome obstacles that
appear to derail knowledge integration.” (Linn et al., 2001, p.526). Additionally, these
external resources can help diffieniate learning. Students can independently decide to
click about their learning.
New Simulation
As mentioned before, information visualizers are important learning tools that
help users organize and explore abstract concepts. They are also key tools to expose
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misconception and extend thinking. In the revised WISE, a new simulator is added to
make concepts (i.e. frequency and amplitude) more prominent. By manipulating
interactive components in the simulator, they are providing “opportunities to validate
and justify answers by exploring alternative paths of reasoning.” (Stieff & Wilensky,
2003, p.295) Moreover, more time has been designated for students to explore the
simulation. Embedded extended playtime can help direct students to new thinking
models.
Videos
Videos are added to pique student interest and motivate learning. Like simulations,
students can better access information when they are represented visually. With these
videos, exploration and reflective prompts are also inserted to aid student learning.
Comparisons
Multiple choice and free response appears to be a popular way to gain
feedback. As part of the efforts to make thinking explicit, it is important to include
space for detailed comparisons. Comparisons may also help expose possible
misconceptions and revise thinking models. These comparisons may also serve as
conceptual scaffolds to “help students to identify essential knowledge gaps between
what they already know and what they need to know.” (Kim & Hannafin, 2011,
p.408) Hence, the science notebook has been modified to clearly document student
responses and revisions.
Discussions
Notably, the new WISE is designed to enhance social opportunities for
students to learn from each other. Through discussions, students’ misconceptions may
be exposed. In one of the discussions, it employs ideas from the theory embodiment.
Scholars believe that “[t]he body participates in abstracting the ideas unfolded in the
interaction imaginatively and spontaneously.”(Kim, Roth & Thom, 2011, p.224)
Specifically, gestures help “organizing their thinking in visible and concrete
dimensions.” Kim, Roth & Thom, 2011, p.225)
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Making Learning a Social Activity
Conclusion
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With additional modifications, WISE projects are sufficient TELEs to enhance
student learning. First, the pedagogy premise of WISE helps promote learning. More
specifically, the WISE pedagogy envisions digital tools as methods to help make
learning accessible, to allow thinking to be made more explicit, to increase social
opportunities for learning and to promote life-long learning. Additionally, these
inquiry projects promote active participation in a science learning community.
Moreover, WISE projects easily allow for the use of interactive visualizers and
simulators to help users gain direct experience with learning concepts. Embedded
prompts and scaffolds help direct student focus and allow them to better explore,
document and validate their learning. Thus, a modified WISE serves as a suitable
solution to support student learning in science.
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Bibliography
Driver, R., Asoko, H., Leach, J., Scott, P., & Mortimer, E. (1994). Constructing
scientific knowledge in the classroom. Educational researcher, 23(7), 5-
12. Available in Course Readings.
Gobert, J., Snyder, J., & Houghton, C. (2002, April). The influence of students'
understanding of models on model-based reasoning. Paper presented at the
Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA),
New Orleans, Louisiana. Retrieved conference paper Saturday, October 29,
2013 from: http://mtv.concord.org/publications/epistimology_paper.pdf
Inquiry in Science and in Classrooms." National Research Council. 2000. Inquiry and
the National Science Education Standards: A Guide for Teaching and Learning.
Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9596.
Linn, M., Clark, D., & Slotta, J. (2003). Wise design for knowledge
integration. Science Education, 87(4), 517-
538. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sce.10086/abstract
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Stephens, A. & Clement, J. (2015). Use of physics simulations in whole class and
small group settings: Comparative case studies. Computers & Education, 86,
137-156.
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