Literature Review:
Fostering personalized learning
in science inquiry
supported by mobile technologies
Learning to become a teacher is an
endeavor of epic proportions to say the least.
Coupled with the traditional classes in pedagogy and methods, comes a
new challenge of integrating technology in useful and meaningful ways that will
embrace and foster the next generation of learners. In his 1984 book, Experiential
Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, David Kolb
states, “Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through
the transformation of experience.” This process looks as different for each of
my students as the features on their faces do. Technology will allow me to
differentiate, individualize, and personalize the experience for each of my
students. (Too much edu-babble? Check out this blog
for the differences between differentiated, personalized, and individualized
instruction.) My students today are
digital natives and it is my goal to help them use their expertise and
connectedness to aide them in becoming lifelong learners. By employing digital technology to make
learning a continuous, flexible, authentic experience, my students will achieve
lasting learning and take ownership in their education. The experiment that
Song, Wong, and Looi conducted demonstrates how to create a flexible pathway to
sustained learning and incorporate mobile devices to meet the students where
they are, both intellectually and physically.
Song, Wong, And Looi discuss the flow of learning and the
ability to meet students’ needs in their article Fostering personalized learning in science inquiry supported by mobile
technologies. They begin their
article by discussing some benefits field trips can offer and how digital technology,
specifically a smart phone, can enhance and exponentially increase the amount
of learning that can take place both in and out of a formal classroom
setting. As I prepare to take my senior
marine biology classes on a field trip to the aquarium, this article gave me
countless ideas and an overwhelming sense of ill-preparedness. Song, Wong, and Looi spent over a year on
their experiment and I’m going to try to implement some elements in just under
a month. During their experiment, fourth
graders were given the goal to learn about life cycles of plants and animals. There were various assignments and experiments,
some were required and others were optional, as well as a whole group field
trip to a farm. By tracking data
recovered from the students’ smart phones, the researchers found that each
student took their own path to get to the final result. Each child started in a different place and
jumped around the curriculum based on interest and readiness. This really struck a chord with me. Almost all of the teachers I work with,
myself included, follow a very sequential plan.
I know that not all learners absorb material the same way. In my class I have so many different types of
learners; auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and even my “pacer” cannot learn unless
he is walking. I use a wide range of different techniques to reach them all. But it was not until I looked at the data
from this study that I realized that not only method of instruction mattered
but sequence was completely individual as well.
Image by Marsha on her
blog Taste
and See God's Goodness
How will I transform my field trip into a meaningful, lasting learning
experience?
The article Fostering personalized learning in science
inquiry supported by mobile technologies looks not only at learning
sequence but explores how to make a field trip a springboard for deep
learning. What tools will my students
need in order to maximize their adventure at the aquarium? What technologies
can I employ to engage them and enable them to capture their own moments of
real learning that can be brought back to the classroom for further processing
and inquiry? Song, Wong, and Looi suggest a “Mobile Learning Environment” which
gives each student their own smartphone and allows them 24 hour access to it
and its full functionality. I can only
imagine the look on my Dean’s face if I asked for 24 smartphones for my
students to take home with them. The
good news is that a vast majority of my students have smartphones. The bad news, how do I help those students
that do not bridge the technology gap? What devices and technologies, that I
already have access to, will allow my students the best opportunity to capture their
moments of authentic learning? I believe
that a photo/video camera will allow them to capture aquatic animals and their
behavior in a manner that would be consistent with the types of images and
clips other students will take with their smart phones. These tools coupled with a laptop will allow
students the ability to meet some of the functionality of a smartphone. The nature of mobile technology lends itself
to spontaneity and allows students to be in charge of the direction their
education goes in. Squire and Klopfer
discuss the traits that make mobile devices the best for personalized,
individual instruction. In their 2007 article Augmented reality
simulations on handheld computers, they point not only to the mobility but also to the “immediacy” and “individuality”
that will help engage students. We need
to move away from simply asking if technology is being used in the classroom
and ponder a deeper, more poignant question: Are students using technology on and individual basis to direct their
own learning and personalize their experiences? Check out some great ways
students and teacher alike are using technology to meet students individual
needs in the article Ten
Tips for Personalized Learning via Technology BY GRACE RUBENSTEIN
Image from Learning Services - NVSD44
“What
is the moral of the story?” you ask.
Allow students to be in charge to some extent to the flow of their
education. Give them the tools and
skills to ask real questions and nurture their sense of wonder. Jeremy Frieberg gives an amazing TEDx talk entitled Revolutionizing Education with Personalized
Learning in which he asks, “Why
is play a break from education?” Our students play on their phones. They tweet,
vine, crush, Facebook, and play all day on their mobile devices. Jeremy points
out that “learning” is delegated to a specific place and time, namely
school. But as he recognizes, as well as
Song, Wong, and Looi, learning is a process that should know no
boundaries. It should be constant and
flexible and should not be limited by the time of day or location of students. Real learning
should look more like play. Where each
student is allowed to discover their own truth, at their own pace, in a place
inspires them. I will arm my students
with knowledge and technology to make our field trip to the aquarium a genuine opportunity to
explore and learn and create artifacts that can be used in future deeper
learning experiences.
Class
Objectives that I believe were met and reinforced in this review:
#1 - Demonstrate
the understanding of how technologies can effectively promote student learning.
Technology can allow students to approach their own learning in the time,
space, and order that works the best for them.
By allowing the students a greater sense of ownership, technology will
allow students to make more meaningful connections and observations as they
progress through the content. Student engagement will increase and make their learning
experiences more relevant and personal.
#7 - Demonstrate
an understanding of the use of adaptive technologies and other digital
resources to personalize and differentiate learning activities for every
student.
This article really resonated with me when the fact
that no two students will take the same path to reach the same goal. Looking at the photo that showed the very
different paths that students took was an A-ha moment.
