ED-530-IND Utilizing Emerging Technologies to Improve Instruction
Research project by Thomas Schaaf and Susanne Rasely-Philipps
Implementing the emerging technology of podcasting and/or vodcasting into middle and high school public education can foster improved social learning experiences for students. This paper will review the potential of this tool for use in two different public school settings, a virtual middle school program and a traditional brick and mortar high school program.
The first scenario is the 6th grade program at Commonwealth Connections Academy Charter School (CCA) in Pennsylvania. CCA provides a form of public school that students attend from home. Their program combines strong parental involvement, certified educators, the accountability of public funded education, and the flexibility of online classes. With CCA, parents or other “Learning Coaches” facilitate the day-to-day instruction using a curriculum that incorporates comprehensive daily lesson plans, textbooks from leading educational publishers, and online lesson elements. Teachers at CCA deliver supplemental online instruction and communicate regularly with parents and students through phone and email to review assignments and discuss student work (Connections Education, 2011).
CCA utilizes Connexus, the proprietary Education Management System (EMS) of Connections Education, which gives students single-sign on access to real-time classroom discussion, their online courses, assignments submission tools, iTexts, online tutorials, research tools, a closed email system, message boards and a real-time gradebook (Connections Education, 2012). It is the aim of CCA for all school interaction to take place within Connexus or its secure partner products and websites. Adobe Connect Pro is the virtual classroom platform used at CCA for the supplemental online instruction. For CCA’s purposes, this platform is called LiveLesson. LiveLesson is a remote server-hosted Web environment accessed through a custom URL that is unique to each meeting. LiveLesson enables users to interact using audio, video, and text and to share files, resources, and presentations using applications such as PowerPoint. It also allows for application and desktop sharing. The virtual classroom space is modular in nature, built around a number of “pods” the instructor can reveal or hide as needed. These pods include a shared whiteboard, participants list, camera and voice, filesharing, short-message text (chat), poll questions, notes, web links, and Q&A (Sherman, 1999). At present, LiveLesson is the primary opportunity for CCA students to participate in social learning. However, student participation in the supplemental LiveLesson sessions is not generally required for 6th grade school students. To increase the option for a CCA 6th grade teacher to infuse social learning activities for their students, podcasting and/or vodcasting is being discussed in this paper as a proposed added tool within Connexus. Podcasting and vodcasting are currently not available in Connexus. Rationale for Use
“Podcasting is becoming incorporated into classroom projects as a way to use twenty-first-century technology to build twenty-first-century skills. With [simple technology], students can create their own podcasts…make audio versions of their school writing—research reports, essays, poems, short stories—and…add music, sound effects, video, and animation” (Smithsonian Education, 2012). The sharing of these vodcasts creates another clear opportunity for students to learn socially. Moreover, the use of video in addition to the audio-only podcast benefits learners of multiple learning styles and gives a focal point which increases students’ retention of the audio component (Mann, Wong & Park, 2009).
A majority of the research on podcasting for education tends to focus on how a teacher can utilize this technology to better disseminate information about their course content or events and projects in their class. However, utilizing LiveLesson allows a Connections Academy teacher to deliver the same items with some added advantage. Like pod/vodcasting, a teacher using LiveLesson could record video and audio to share with their class. In addition, LiveLesson allows a teacher to integrate downloadable content (web links, document files) and use poll questions in recordings. There discernible difference between what can be accomplished using LiveLesson versus podcasting is the ease of use by the audience since podcasts can be accessed using an mp3 player and LiveLesson audio cannot be exported in that fashion.
Since LiveLesson proves to be equally effective as a mode of sharing information on the part of a teacher, the focus of podcast usage for this paper will be as a tool for students to present information. Podcasts are a creative outlet for students to express ideas, share perceptions, and debate issues. Moreover, creating a podcast is an engaging opportunities for students to as digit communicators and analytic commentators (Armstrong, Tucker, & Massad, 2009). Therefore, the use of podcasting by the students would be a beneficial experience in multiple ways.
For the CCA middle school program, podcasting would likely be used as the mode of response to a group project. Using it in this way does present some additional challenges due to lack of proximity of students to each other. Group work would thus require a teacher to structure the manner in which students would meet virtually to collaborate. The teacher would additionally need to consider elements of completion timelines, technology skills in each group, and how to assess teamwork. Moreover, it will be important for the teacher and students not to be overly focused on the technology of podcasting and lose sight of the desired growth in content knowledge which will be fostered by the research for the project. However, in the end, by producing podcasts, students will have experienced a highly engaging opportunity to communicate in a cutting-edge way (Armstrong, Tucker, & Massad, 2009).
A great deal of research is not yet available on vodcasting in education, especially on the part of students and in collaboration. However, one recent study which used collaboration among students to create vodcasts to demonstrate a mathematical process and the solution to a given problem using that process verified that the “students showed great interest...in the exercises made by the group, [with] most of the students stated that they were of great utility in the support of the study and the preparation for the final exam” (Rocha & Coutinho, 2011, p. 61). The author’s of the study found students studied with “greater depth and detail” because of the need to rerecord multiple times in an attempt to create a quality final product. Rocha and Coutinho found the use of vodcasts to be highly positive because they believe other competences were developed as well including: autonomy, learning to work in collaborative form, and learning how to learn.
With the advent of this tool for teachers, pod/vodcasting could be assigned as a structured part of the curriculum or at the discretion of the teacher to add further social learning prospects in areas where students would benefit from meaningful, in-depth interaction. Although working in a collaborative group to create one pod/vodcast would be difficult due to lack of student physical proximity, students sharing the pod/vodcasts they create individually could drive further thought and conversation in discussion topics or LiveLesson sessions.
ED-530-IND Utilizing Emerging Technologies to Improve Instruction
Research project by Thomas Schaaf and Susanne Rasely-Philipps
Implementing the emerging technology of podcasting and/or vodcasting into middle and high school public education can foster improved social learning experiences for students. This paper will review the potential of this tool for use in two different public school settings, a virtual middle school program and a traditional brick and mortar high school program.
The first scenario is the 6th grade program at Commonwealth Connections Academy Charter School (CCA) in Pennsylvania. CCA provides a form of public school that students attend from home. Their program combines strong parental involvement, certified educators, the accountability of public funded education, and the flexibility of online classes. With CCA, parents or other “Learning Coaches” facilitate the day-to-day instruction using a curriculum that incorporates comprehensive daily lesson plans, textbooks from leading educational publishers, and online lesson elements. Teachers at CCA deliver supplemental online instruction and communicate regularly with parents and students through phone and email to review assignments and discuss student work (Connections Education, 2011).
CCA utilizes Connexus, the proprietary Education Management System (EMS) of Connections Education, which gives students single-sign on access to real-time classroom discussion, their online courses, assignments submission tools, iTexts, online tutorials, research tools, a closed email system, message boards and a real-time gradebook (Connections Education, 2012). It is the aim of CCA for all school interaction to take place within Connexus or its secure partner products and websites.
Adobe Connect Pro is the virtual classroom platform used at CCA for the supplemental online instruction. For CCA’s purposes, this platform is called LiveLesson. LiveLesson is a remote server-hosted Web environment accessed through a custom URL that is unique to each meeting. LiveLesson enables users to interact using audio, video, and text and to share files, resources, and presentations using applications such as PowerPoint. It also allows for application and desktop sharing. The virtual classroom space is modular in nature, built around a number of “pods” the instructor can reveal or hide as needed. These pods include a shared whiteboard, participants list, camera and voice, filesharing, short-message text (chat), poll questions, notes, web links, and Q&A (Sherman, 1999). At present, LiveLesson is the primary opportunity for CCA students to participate in social learning. However, student participation in the supplemental LiveLesson sessions is not generally required for 6th grade school students.
To increase the option for a CCA 6th grade teacher to infuse social learning activities for their students, podcasting and/or vodcasting is being discussed in this paper as a proposed added tool within Connexus. Podcasting and vodcasting are currently not available in Connexus.
Rationale for Use
“Podcasting is becoming incorporated into classroom projects as a way to use twenty-first-century technology to build twenty-first-century skills. With [simple technology], students can create their own podcasts…make audio versions of their school writing—research reports, essays, poems, short stories—and…add music, sound effects, video, and animation” (Smithsonian Education, 2012). The sharing of these vodcasts creates another clear opportunity for students to learn socially. Moreover, the use of video in addition to the audio-only podcast benefits learners of multiple learning styles and gives a focal point which increases students’ retention of the audio component (Mann, Wong & Park, 2009).
A majority of the research on podcasting for education tends to focus on how a teacher can utilize this technology to better disseminate information about their course content or events and projects in their class. However, utilizing LiveLesson allows a Connections Academy teacher to deliver the same items with some added advantage. Like pod/vodcasting, a teacher using LiveLesson could record video and audio to share with their class. In addition, LiveLesson allows a teacher to integrate downloadable content (web links, document files) and use poll questions in recordings. There discernible difference between what can be accomplished using LiveLesson versus podcasting is the ease of use by the audience since podcasts can be accessed using an mp3 player and LiveLesson audio cannot be exported in that fashion.
Since LiveLesson proves to be equally effective as a mode of sharing information on the part of a teacher, the focus of podcast usage for this paper will be as a tool for students to present information. Podcasts are a creative outlet for students to express ideas, share perceptions, and debate issues. Moreover, creating a podcast is an engaging opportunities for students to as digit communicators and analytic commentators (Armstrong, Tucker, & Massad, 2009). Therefore, the use of podcasting by the students would be a beneficial experience in multiple ways.
For the CCA middle school program, podcasting would likely be used as the mode of response to a group project. Using it in this way does present some additional challenges due to lack of proximity of students to each other. Group work would thus require a teacher to structure the manner in which students would meet virtually to collaborate. The teacher would additionally need to consider elements of completion timelines, technology skills in each group, and how to assess teamwork. Moreover, it will be important for the teacher and students not to be overly focused on the technology of podcasting and lose sight of the desired growth in content knowledge which will be fostered by the research for the project. However, in the end, by producing podcasts, students will have experienced a highly engaging opportunity to communicate in a cutting-edge way (Armstrong, Tucker, & Massad, 2009).
A great deal of research is not yet available on vodcasting in education, especially on the part of students and in collaboration. However, one recent study which used collaboration among students to create vodcasts to demonstrate a mathematical process and the solution to a given problem using that process verified that the “students showed great interest...in the exercises made by the group, [with] most of the students stated that they were of great utility in the support of the study and the preparation for the final exam” (Rocha & Coutinho, 2011, p. 61). The author’s of the study found students studied with “greater depth and detail” because of the need to rerecord multiple times in an attempt to create a quality final product. Rocha and Coutinho found the use of vodcasts to be highly positive because they believe other competences were developed as well including: autonomy, learning to work in collaborative form, and learning how to learn.
With the advent of this tool for teachers, pod/vodcasting could be assigned as a structured part of the curriculum or at the discretion of the teacher to add further social learning prospects in areas where students would benefit from meaningful, in-depth interaction. Although working in a collaborative group to create one pod/vodcast would be difficult due to lack of student physical proximity, students sharing the pod/vodcasts they create individually could drive further thought and conversation in discussion topics or LiveLesson sessions.