Reflective Post #3

Reconsidering Research on Learning from Media

As I began to read the article, it mentioned that learning needs to be enhanced.  Learning will be enhanced with the proper mix of medium, student, subject matter  content, and learning task.  That is still talked about in schools today.  Differentiated instruction, data proven assessments,  and ability grouping are used to enhance student learning.  A study was performed, called "media selection".  In this study, the same topic was taught, but with different media.  After the students were evaluated, it was concluded that the media presentation does not have an effect on the learning under any outcomes.  In the 1960s, Lumsdaine and others used television and computers to present new information, and the results reached few conclusions, one being that media would reduce the cost of instruction. The "box score versus the Effect Size" seemed to be inconclusive because of the large difference of the content being taught, and wearing off of the novelty of media.  The article continued to say that different teachers can give different media, depending on their topics.  For example, there is better media for science rather than ELA.  The same goes for social studies; it has a more interesting media catalog than math.  Clarke continued to state that the more attention from the students and if effective media was presented in the school, results and effort would rise.  But again the novelty would wear off and students' effort and attention to detail would soon diminish.  A research of caution was stated in the article; "Five decades of research suggest that there are learning benefits to be gained from employing different media in instruction, regardless of their obviously attractive features or advertised superiority." Obviously media has changed dramatically, but five decades of research is a lot of time and information to find an answer to questions.  In conclusion, the reading states that media has worked to lessen student anxiety, because they will be able to listen to the lecture or lesson again to successfully gain the knowledge that was presented in class.

Reflection:
I tend to agree that media can be a distraction in the classroom.  Anytime you say "movie", students get excited and think it is party time, when in all seriousness it is not.  I will show movies for social studies, and I always follow the movie with a short assessment to see what the students gained from the movie.  The students usually don't gain much from it because they are distracted with the wide screen, and darkness of the room.

Learning with Media
Media can be defined by its technology, symbol systems, and processing capabilities.  (Kozma, 3) Technology is the shape, function, electronically aspects that make up the machine.   The most common learning tool in the school is the book. Books can use words and pictures to help give the reader knowledge.  Learning with text involves two mental representations text-base and situation model.  Text base is the representation of the directly from the text.  A situation model is a mental representation described by the text.  Situation model and text-base connect with appearing early in text to promote long term learning, called, schemata.   One of the four studies where done to examine comprehension and learning with text and pictures. Using both facilitates text-base and the metal picture.  A fourth grade class was tested, and there was better retention for both poor and good readers when text and pictures were placed to together to retained on the topic tested on.  It all also said good readers would only look at the pictures before they started to read, while the poor readers would stop reading and look back at the pictures.  It is said that poor readers would go back to look at the pictures to decode what certain words meant in the reading.  Popular notions were told that when kids watch TV, they sit there like zombies, they usually look away many of times but still have the understand on what is going on.  The child attention is drawn to the TV because of many factors.  These factors are different voices, laughing, sound effects, or visual movement. Besides TVs we can learn with computers.   Computers let us connect what we are learning with real life lessons.  We can type into the computer and it would then read to us what we typed. Graphs, numerical values, or equations can be put into a computer and have it relate to our lives.  The last learning tool is, multimedia.  There is little research because most of the work is done to develop it and it is still evolving around us.  There is no goal on to which media is better served in the classroom, it is done to decide which media better serves your class an effective educational tool.

Reflection
Media can plan an important role in the classroom if it is done right.  Too much media can over-whelm a student, therefor the student has trouble connecting what he or she has just learned. Zoma mentioned, "certain media, possess particular characteristics that make them both more and less suitable for the accomplishment of certain kinds of learning tasks.” Media can make a connection to what we just learned in Social Studies, so the students are able to visualize it more, on the other hand, if we use Khan Academy for a math lesson, it could confuse the student even more, on how to work a problem out. We have to able to connect what we are reading about in a book to some sort of media to connect that gap of low and high learners.  Media is that bridge that can connect it.  Even if it is a short clip, as long as students can connect what we are learning in class to what is being shown on the smart board, we have educated a students.

Redefining Equity: Meaningful Uses of Technology in Learning Environments
A supportive learning community plays a large roll in the engagement of the students learning, design and reflection.  There are many challenges in the school, lack of technology tools, outdated equipment, or resistance to make change.  There is an idea, that groups don't view technology as a learning tool, rather than as an educational tool.  As a result these groups are not often encouraged to use the digital software as a learning tool.  People who don't have the accessibility to technology can go to the nearby Community Technology Center and attend the a "Computer Clubhouse Model".  This is a after school program offered to under-served youth to explore their own interests, become confident learners, and development technological advances.  These clubs want to ensure technological  equality for everybody to enjoy and explore technology.

Reflection
This was my favorite article by far, it is great to hear that communities are coming together to help serve the youth and their technological needs.  It makes me think why I have never heard of these before?  What is holding them back?  Having the  youth explore, on the computer can help motivate and inform themselves on the value of an education.

Thinking Technology: Toward a Constructivist Design Model.

Constructivists construct their own reality to their past experiences or at least construct them on what has happened to them in the past.  Purposeful knowledge construction is facilitated by learning environments that have multiple learning situations, focus on knowledge construction, support collaboration negotiation with others, and real work learning environments.   In the graph titled, "Tentative Web of Construction" three words proved to be the main outline and the basis of learning.  These three words are collaboration, context, and construction (Three C's).  They are the support words that help connect the three power words to each other.  The journal continued to mention that the teacher is not the source of the knowledge but more of a coach and mentor. Besides being the coach or mentor, the teacher also provides the intellectual tool kit to facilitate and engage social negotiations.

Reflection

I agree that students learn better when they make connections to real life lessons.  Every day in my math class I will have various pictures of things in today’s society; a whale, tennis player, or a tree.  My students need to look at the picture and make a connection between the picture and any math objective that we are working on.  My students get really excited when they are able to make a connection to "real life".  I am acting as negotiator of the class when they are making the connections from life to math.