There are many facets of educational technology research. The topics that stand out to me center around the accessibility, effectiveness, integration, and usefulness of technology.
“Enable Access” by cogdogblog is licensed under CC0 1.0
Accessibility to technology is a conundrum that is faced in many schools and it’s generally based on funding. Either because the technology itself is inaccessible or the training for the technology is inaccessible. At my school we are lucky to have a program built on technology where our students are supplied with a device to make their online distance learning program accessible. Accessibility also involves whether students specific needs can be accommodated for within the technology. As the digital equity summary pointed out, technology has made great strides in accessibility features but some media is not compatible with for example, screen readers or voice to text options. We teach using an Learning Management System (LMS) which has accessibility features but as a teacher I am not testing all the content and information that I post to see if it is accessible. Another area that I believe could use attention at our school is accessibility to training for teaching using a LMS. I believe that further training is needed for teachers so that the technology that is available to them is utilized and to ensure that they are creating accessible formats for all learners.
“Round Social Media Icons” by Kyle Milec is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Once students and teachers have accessible technology, we then look at the effectiveness of using technology to meet the learning outcomes. This is where the curricular changes for 21st century learning come into play. The curriculum in BC is changing to encourage schools and teachers to use technology and teach 21st century skills. The summary for this section outlines that students are digital natives but exposure to technology does not mean they are competent in using it. It also outlines that teachers themselves are not well versed in digital identity and digital citizenship making it a difficult area to teach effectively. Using technology or social media as a hook without a meaningful link was shown to be an ineffective use of technology. This linked to the summary of basic principles in multimedia learning that showed split-attention adds a stress to the cognitive load. As well as linking to the advanced principles in multimedia learning summary that demonstrated that technology should not be used just for the sake of using technology because it can distract from the learning if it is not integrated. Deciding on how to use technology effectively when teaching by distance is complex. As a teacher you are not beside them as they learn and practice using the technology tools which can be difficult. Some students do not ask for help, and when they do it is hard to help students troubleshoot virtually. Our LMS is our method of instruction, assignment submission, feedback and communication and we try to include multimedia learning opportunities. I may take a closer look when I decide on including technology and media to see if it is effective for the learning outcome and how it can be integrated to become more meaningful to the students.
“”Knowledge is stored in two forms: linguistic and nonlinguistically. Research proves that the more we use both systems of representation the better we are able to think and recall knowledge.” Robert J. Marzano”
by katerha is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Integration of technology can take on many forms. An effective way to integrate technology includes the modality principle, using auditory and visuals in conjunction to support learning. For example, a video that narrates and includes related graphics when explaining a process. I didn’t know it was a fine line between multiple modalities and redundancy (where visual and audio explain the same thing). Another interesting finding from the advanced principles in multimedia learning summary was that ‘the learner control principle’, where the learner chooses from media and technology to assist with the learning task, has little evidence to support it. I was surprised by this, I would expect that preference would correlate to higher learning outcomes. This is similar to the principles of flexible learning, and maybe the outcome would be different if the students learned the meta-cognitive skills to make educated decisions about their learning path. I have noticed that students tend towards a method that they are familiar with even if it is not the most effective method for their learning needs. Which I believe further supports the need for technology integration so that students get used to multiple methods of acquiring, learning and documenting knowledge and skills. Some interesting areas of research to read more about include: the guided discovery learning principle, the multimedia collaboration principle and game-based learning.
“To learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know.” by planeta is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Flexible and distance learning is a useful area of research since I work at an online distance learning high school. Our students have diverse needs and we have technology on our side to support them. Being able to personalize quizzes, assignments, and content that a specific student or a group of students accesses allows me to differentiate instruction and tasks discretely. We are working towards personalizing learning and offering flexibility however putting into place the structure for a course to run smoothly with personalized differentiation takes time and takes troubleshooting. After consuming all of this research, it makes me wonder how professional development for teachers can model after the evolving needs of personalized and flexible learning. This links to the above image, ‘learning’ or ‘knowing’ a method is not the same as ‘doing ‘ it. If we want our teachers to teach in a personalized, flexible way then should we not offer learning opportunities for teachers that are flexible and personalized. We as teacher researchers are able access the research to learn new ideas and find out what methods are effective quickly thanks to technology. However, an area that I want to find more research on is how to structure an online course using multimedia techniques, and flexible learning styles. Another area of research I would like to pursue is what part of the course I should start with restructuring, in this way, to have the biggest impact on learner engagement and skill acquisition. Engagement in the content can be a challenging task with online teaching which is why the methods listed above intrigue me as I develop and consistently update my courses.
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