Using Digital Tools to Enhance Learning |
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What 'Digital Tools' is all about . . . . . . . [excerpted from the original project narrative] Students will use technology and action research methods to perform an interdisciplinary ‘place study’ at a convenient site near their school. Equipped with digital tools like computers, a scanner, a camera, and probes connected to handheld computers they will investigate history, culture, geology, biological habitat, and impacts of their site. This project will improve understanding of core discipline concepts (e.g. science, math, social studies and geography) since all project topics will be aligned to EALR and WASL benchmarks. The project seeks to improve both writing and complex problem solving skills using digital tools. Internet connectivity will improve research, data sharing and collaboration skills. Classes will create digital web products like electronic encyclopedias, picture dictionaries, and presentations—pressing them to CDs—generating a wealth of dynamic resources for future use in classrooms. Assessment will address the question "can digital tools enhance learning" along with technology usage and project-based skills. Extensive technology training will be available both locally and via videoconference and is designed to create minimum interruptions in class time. School districts will receive online versions of all assessment instruments, matched to EALRs for baseline use. Investigating the Past . . . . . When I really want to be alone I get on a trail up behind our house that winds through a dense cedar and Douglas fir grove. This little-known path opens into a small clearing inhabited with scrub apple trees and tall grass. Partially hidden among the fruit trees and grass is an old, crumbling house and an out-building. I like to be there on a bright summer day--to see all of the wild things--and experience someone's life there. And on a warm sunny day a magnificent climbing red rose bush will be blooming--its fragrance in full power--along one side of the old house. I can smell them all the way from my driveway. What was this ‘place’? Who lived here? What can be gleaned from artifacts about the past—what kind of human life was here? Exploring here is fun. I once found an old, rusty metal container that was strangely different than anything I had seen before--shaped like a basketball with the top portion cut off and ornamental webbing around the edges. This is my private place. I come here to sit in silence and watch the world go by and check out the surroundings And I sit among the grasses, trees and roses and ponder. What was this place? A large exposed granite boulder exposes it head above the grass. And I think, why is it here? Where did it come from? My mind wanders 10,000 years ago when this whole valley and bay were covered with glacial ice. Who lived here then? Is there any evidence? Fossils? Sometime I would like to make a timeline, or record what this place is all about. And when this record is complete I could study it in detail. I could to my secret place and go back in time to what it used to be. What is a study of 'place' ? Some days when I come to my secret place I want to take inventory, for this is my place I want to protect it. Even though I am mystified my changes that have occurred here, because I can see them, I this place to stay the way it is now. This is my place. I think, 'what is this place?' What happens here now? I must take inventory. what is here now? I study the habitat--what plants are here. Little plants, big plants. why do they live here? And water, there is a streamlet running through it. Where does it go? Is this place thirsty? And the wind blows quietly. What about the air? What is a study of 'place' ? Each day I come to visit I see new things. What changes are occurring now? What will this place be like in 20, 100 or a million years? The need to harness the power of digital tools will be unleashed in the action research process (e.g. project design and formulating a driving question, data gathering and processing, graphical display, arriving at conclusions and communicating results. Students will need digital tools (e.g. computers, cameras, and scanners) to create digital products like encyclopedias, picture dictionaries, journals, and presentations; internet connectivity to research projects and share data with NatureMapping and GLOBE repositories; portable digital probes connected to personal digital assistants (PDAs) for field work (Note 3). Students will distribute digital products by pressing CDs of their ‘place’ studies. Project history, best practices and next steps: The Salmon Habitat Assessment Project (SHAP) developed best practices in using eMates and CBLs to collect and process habitat data (Note 4 and 5). The Student Learning Enhancement Using Technology in Habitat Studies Project (SLEUTHS) developed best practices in developing digital products like interactive web databases and electronic CD encyclopedias (Note 6). This project will explore two new technologies to improve action research, real-world site investigations. Inexpensive portable handheld computers (PDAs) possess powerful new features to improve data gathering and transfer (Note 7). Geographical Information System (GIS) applications will allow students to display and query data to solve problems (Note 8). Project partners have committed hardware and software for mentors to develop activities using these added technologies for ‘place study’ problem solving. This project seeks to establish a collaborative relationship between school administrators and classroom teachers. Watching students in action in a technology-rich classroom setting will motivate school administrators to develop alternative assessment procedures and encourage a more widespread use of project-based methods. 2. Expected Learning Outcomes and Relationships. Teachers and students will acquire an improved personal stake in academic course content using digital tools in their interdisciplinary ‘place’ study. Here is a sample 6th grade science unit project that focuses on the EALR benchmark concept known as classification of biological organisms. Students could create a "classification electronic encyclopedia" starting with thumbnail images and short descriptions showing connections between phylum, family and species. Those images could be ‘hot-linked’ to detailed explanations and external references. Digital tools needed for this type of activity include multimedia web software to create the webpage, camera and scanner to create images, word-processing for descriptions, database for storage, digitizer on microscope for micros and a portable handheld computer to locate and collect field data; connectivity for background research and for uploading (communicating) plant and animal identifications to GLOBE and/or NatureMapping repositories. A ‘classification CD’ would be pressed and dissemination as an expandable, dynamic classroom resource. Math activities, historical interpretations and geographical display and analysis (GIS overlays) of species could be added. This project will increase student achievement in traditional school disciplines (e.g. science, math, geography, and history) that are tested on WASL, ITBS, etc. As the ‘place study ’ progresses, teachers will direct students to in-depth analyses of specific concepts and skills mapped directly to EALRs and WASL test benchmarks (Note 9). The ‘place study’ theme has been deliberately chosen to provide inclusion of many discipline EALR benchmarks. [Ex. The student understands and uses (applies). . . math concepts and procedures. . . . science concepts and principles . . . . major historical ideas, eras, themes, cause and effect relationships . . . . spatial geographic arrangements, complex human and physical characteristics]. Project activities require the use of digital equipment (e.g. camera, scanner, workstation, digitizer, portable field-oriented data gathering devices, Internet connectivity) to collect and collate data, and collaborate online. This goal will be assessed using a pre/post achievement instrument. This project will encourage students to apply and relate concepts in all academic disciplines in a real-world setting (Goal 2 Wash. Learning Goals). Students will
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