Presentation at UWCSEA Teach IT Event - November 2009

1. Evaluating the effectiveness of laptops in the classroom – some initial thoughts Andrew McCarthy | ISS | International School Singapore

2. A professional reflection With the implementation of a 1 to 1 laptop scheme, teachers and students are equally excited at the potential to change learning in class. The journey to develop a teaching style that incorporates ICT into the learning of Economics is a tricky adventure. This talk and discussion will introduce some initial thoughts from the first four months of a laptop implementation. The presenter will suggest some tools that teachers could use to evaluate the effectiveness of using ICT in their classroom to improve teaching and learning.

3. How to approach evaluation in your school? student centered approach “how do I use my laptop to learn in the classroom” teacher centered approach “am I using laptops in my class to achieve the greatest gains in students learning”

4. Student Evaluation Questions Do students collaborate and construct knowledge in different ways when they use computing devices in a 1:1 environment? Does the availability of technology change what can be learned or when it can be learned? What are the impacts on students’ engagement with school, their motivation and attendance? What are the impacts on students’ responsibility for their own learning? http://ubiqcomputing.org/framework11_stulearning.html Ubiquitous Computing Consortium

5. Student and School Demographics ISS International School – 48 different nationalities Grade 9 and 11 ‘mac school’ with wireless internet. Implementation began in Aug 2009. Use StudyWiz Online Learning Environment and Apple server for internal wiki and blog Student choose from specified models of mac book or mac book pro only. Installed with set bundle of software. Economics class – International Baccalaureate, Diploma students in Grade 11. No previous exposure to business or economics. Survey Form

6. High expectations (parents, teachers, students) positive influences support from technicians easy to carry, good battery life reliability of internet connection makes lessons more interesting evaluating and creative tasks, teacher with excellent classroom management skills negative influences hand writing tends to deteriorate, completing activities on a laptop which are more suited to book work, activities are unsuited to students ICT skills, using laptop for rote learning improvement in learning outcomes, 21st century creative learners Failure, reversal of laptops in classrooms, chalk and talk

8. What are the positive and negative influences in your school? What planning can occur to minimize or accentuate these? What is realistic?

9. Staying focused and behavior?

10. Negative influences on focus? Short attention spans, and getting shorter ! What types of tasks are I asking students to complete on a laptop? Are deeper learning activities with greater creativity possible? Availability of internet and games as distractions Can the school completely block every distraction? Probably not. Importance of role modeling expectations, individual warnings, repercussions

11. Perceptions of effectiveness Realistic student expectations?

13. Lower andHigher Level Thinking Skills

14. “Where laptops and Internet use make a difference are in innovation, creativity, autonomy and independent research,” “If the goal is to get kids up to basic standard levels, then maybe laptops are not the tool. But if the goal is to create the George Lucas and Steve Jobs of the future, then laptops are extremely useful.” Mark Warschauer, an education professor at the University of California at Irvine and author of “Laptops and Literacy: Learning in the Wireless Classroom” (Teachers College Press, 2006).

15. Summary of student perspective Positive implementation Student are adapting their learning style to laptops Some students are perhaps more distracted From survey results they are enjoying Economics Using both at home and at school Ineffective with their time on the laptop Have teachers changed their ways?

16. What am I trying to achieve? 1970’s 1990’s Can technology be used to shift the balance to the higher order thinking skills. Can ICT tools encourage students to be more productive in remembering, understanding and also creating? What ICT tools are more efficient in developing each of these thinking skills. Anderson and Krathwohl's taxonomy - Diagrams: by Andrew Church (2009)

17. Blooms Digital Taxonomy Creating Bloom’s Digital Taxomony Making a clear links between the use of technology to develop thinking skills. “its not about using the tools, its using the tools to facilitate learning” Andrew Church, Kristin School, NZ http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/ Evaluating

18. Diagrams: by Andrew Church (2009) Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy

20. Whilst it is the lowest level it perhaps the most important to learning.

21. Remembering is reinforced by many other tasks, but most students begin here.

22. Retrieval of material is more important than the remembering. It is impossible for a 21st century learner to remember everything. Anderson and Krathwohl's taxonomy

23. Blooms Digital Taxonomy Creating Evaluating Anderson and Krathwohl's taxonomy

24. advertising.html

26. Free trade and WTO

28. Being prepared to use tried and true approaches to develop lower order thinking skills?

29. Develop your tool box to several activities, each that hits a different level of thinking skills. Avoid using a scatter gun approach

30. Remember they are a tool to complement the learning process, like exercise books in 1920 and calculators in 1990’s.Creating Evaluating Anderson and Krathwohl's taxonomy

31. Bibliography - Laptops Centre for Digital Education Project Team, A complete guide to One - One computing in a K1 - 12 environment (Maine, United States: MPC Gateway) http://www.centerdigitaled.com/story.php?id=106570 Thomas, “Bloom’s Taxonomy and the Digital World — Open Education,” Blog, Open Education, http://www.openeducation.net/2008/04/11/blooms-taxonomy-and-the-digital-world/. Andrew Church, “Educational Origami,” Wiki, Educational Origami, http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/ Andrew Church, “Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy,” Educational Origami, http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/file/view/bloom%27s+Digital+taxonomy+v3.01.pdf Florida Centre for Instructional Technology, “Technology Integration Matrix,” 2007, http://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/index.html. Center for Education Policy, “Ubiquitous Computing Consortium - Evaluation Materials: Framework - Students and Their Learning,” Ubiquitous Computing Consortium, http://ubiqcomputing.org/framework11_stulearning.html

32. Bibliography – News articles Winnie Hu, “Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops,” The New York Times, May 4, 2007, sec. Education, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/education/04laptop.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1. Madeleine O'Connor, “Professors call laptops a class distraction - News,” The Hatchet, December 11, 2009, http://media.www.gwhatchet.com/media/storage/paper332/news/2009/11/12/News/Professors.Call.Laptops.A.Class.Distraction-3830265.shtml Bruce McCabe, “Don't Let Computers Distract Us from Good Teaching,” The Age, December 7, 2007, sec. Opinion, http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/dont-let-computers-distract-us-from-good-teaching/2007/12/06/1196812919672.html Corey Jacobson, “Banning laptops does not ban boredom - Opinions,” http://media.www.gwhatchet.com/media/storage/paper332/news/2009/11/16/Opinions/Corey.Jacobson.Banning.Laptops.Does.Not.Ban.Boredom-3833121.shtml. “Simpson Crazy, the ultimate Simpsons fan site — in association with KrustyKrowdKontrol Barriers,” http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/.

34. Spot the odd one out