INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY IN TO THE CLASSROOM Austintown Fitch High School May 10, 2015

How do we reach students today? “Traditional Instruction” Memorization & recall/rote Facts, names, dates, formulas, etc Lecture & note taking Overhead displays Teacher-centered environment Less engaging for the student “discourage students from adopting a deep approach to study” (Entwhistle, 2003)

What is student-centered learning? Engages the student, fosters understanding rather than memorization Student is an active participant in the learning (Elen et.al, 2007) Example – report on water pollution vs. investigating the water quality of the community “real world” investigation Promotes critical thinking More practical knowledge

Rational for Student-Centered Learning Students must collect information, consider & reshape it to gain a thorough understanding Students strive to eliminate discrepancies between what they know and what they observe Motivation to seek a resolution of the differences Knowledge is continuously refined and reshaped through interactions with other students

Student-Centered Environments Access to computers Social media Social nature of learning Interaction with other students Group projects, partner projects, group discussions, collaboration Open ended learning environments Allows students the ability to decide what information is important, how to gather it, what approach should be used Allows students to “play to their strengths” Field work Real world technology

National Educational Technology Standards Creativity & Innovation Communication & Collaboration Research & Information Fluency Critical Thinking, Problem Solving & Decision Making Digital Citizenship Technology Operations & Concepts

Examples of NETS Exploring distant ecosystems up close (Hunnicutt, 1993) Use /social media to expose students to first hand experiences with widely varying ecosystems Gather data, communicate it to others, use it to draw conclusions about the different ecosystems Students gather information, do research, interpret, share findings Study water quality in the community Use public resources Youngstown Water Department annual report Department personnel Field measurements & analysis

How can we integrate technology at ALSD? Chromebooks-students are issued Chromebook laptops at the beginning of the school year Google docs—how many of us are already using?? Drund Student devices

Copyright Issues Be aware – all information published on the internet is copyrighted! (Morrison & Lowther, 2010) The law allows for fair use of copyrighted material Purpose of the use Character of the copyrighted work How much is used Effect on the market value of the work used Use with citations vs. plagarism

Examples of Copyright Infringement Placing another person’s photograph or graphic on your web page Profiting from placing another’s work into your own work Taking credit for another’s work Use of another’s work without giving proper credit/citation

What is allowed? Up to one copy of a work per student 250 words or less of a poem Complete article 2,500 words or less Excerpts of 500-1,000 words One illustration per publication. (Crawford, 1993)

Sources Crawford, T. (1993). Legal guide for the visual artist. New York: Allworth Press. Elen, J., Clarebout, G., Leonard, R., & Lowyck, J. (2007). Student-centered and teacher-centered learning environments: what students think. Teaching in Higher Education, Volume 12 (1) pp Entwhistle, N. (2003) Enhancing teaching-learning environments to encourage deep learning, in: E. De Corte (Ed.) Excellence in higher education. Wenner-Gren international series, volume 82 (London, Portland Press), Hunnicutt, W. (1993). A combined “distant site” environmental research project. The Florida Technology in Education Quarterly, 5(3), Morrison, G.R. & Lowther, D.L. (2010). Integrating computer technology into the classroom: skills for the 21 st century. Boston, MA: Pearson.