EDT 620-01: Comparison of Bibliographies

1) Describe any commonalities and differences between your choice of sources and theirs.

Comparing my bibliographies to Ben's, there is one common theme with each of our first bibliographies; if students learn better with text or with other media.  My article was if pictures were beneficial in addition to text whereas Ben's article focused on three aspects: audio, text and audiovisual.

Ben and I compare also in that we both chose resources based on pedagogy.  While both focus on pedagogy, Ben's articles focus on the implementation of specific tools and their success while mine refer more to the planning aspect of multimedia designed lessons.

In speaking with Ben, as you'll read later, he wanted to know if his methods were working and looked for research to support or disprove.  I use a lot of technology in my room and sometimes I wonder if too much.  My focus was to find articles relating to the planning and implementation of technology tools to create meaningful learning experiences.

2) If both of you picked the same source (or sources!), were there any differences between your summary and rationale statements and theirs?

We have no similar sources.

3) Go talk to the other person and ask them how they went about finding their sources. Which databases or collections did they consult? What keywords did they use? How easy or difficult was it for them to come up with what they did?

Ben used Eric, Education Research Complete, and Google to search for articles.  While searching, he began broadly by using the phrase evaluating media education.  His interests lied in whether what he was using in the classroom is working or ideal, so he added terms like middle school and secondary education.  Also while searching he looked for studies with a control group.  He found the searching easy but questioned whether he was on the right track and completing the assignment appropriately.  If he were to do it again, he would focus more on finding tools for evaluating versus articles regarding tool effectiveness.

EDT 620-01 Annotated Bibliography

Rasch, T. (2009, October). Interactive and non-interactive pictures in multimedia learning environments: Effects on learning outcomes and learning efficiency.. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959475209000115

 
Summary
This article discusses possible benefit or detriment to adding pictures and animation to presentations. The study was done on 100 university students.  The article finds that adding pictures/animation to a presentation is not helpful or harmful, but that students are more efficient when learning via text only because there is no processing time needed for the pictures.

Rationale
The article was interesting and helpful because many teachers try to engage their students and make their presentations exciting with all kinds of multimedia aspects.  The article, while with university students, concludes that pictures and animations have no benefit, or harm, to learning outcomes.

Lombardi, M. (2007, May). Authentic learning for the 21st century: An overview. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/authentic-learning-21st-century-overview

 Summary
Authentic learning is defined in this article, partly, as real-world problem solving.  Not all real-world events can be replicated in a classroom, whether current or previous, and so we must find ways for our students to experience and solve these problems and events.  Technology plays an important role because authentic learning experiences are rich in collaboration.  This is accomplished through online community sharing via various media solutions.  The article provides eight factors for creating a learning environment. 

Rationale
When designing multimedia presentations for our students we must consider the long-term benefit to our students.  Education today is not drill and practice so much as it is go out and find the answer.  This is accomplished through search and collaboration.  Depending on your grade level, are you a teaching or facilitating? Most likely you are doing both. Included in their eight factors is developing teacher and student roles as well as including technology pieces and assessment.  Important considerations when evaluating and applying a multimedia lesson.

Shrock, K. (2001, July). E-valuating the web: Six questions to help you decide which cable in the classroom sites are suited to your needs. Retrieved from http://kathyschrock.net/eval/pubs/07_01_cic.pdf

Summary
Discussed here are specific websites related to the journal.  However, the questions posed can be applied to any website available. Questions regarding ease-of-use, relation or acknowledgement to accompanying standards, and options for feedback and interaction by users.

Rationale
The article was written in 2001 and could be perceived as outdated but the information and critical questions are still very valid.  The questions are simple and answers to them should be simple to find as well.  The article is written by an educator who understands the need for validity and safety of the material passed to our students.

Baran, E., Chuang, H. H., & Thompson, A. (2011). Tpack: An emerging research and development tool for teacher educators. Turkish Online Journal Of Educational Technology, 10(4), 370-377. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=25&hid=10&sid=1a6b322c-2eea-4e5b-bb97-c87d9702728e@sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl

Summary
TPACK is an acronym for technological pedagogical content knowledge. It is a framework for understanding the integration of technology.  There are seven components in the TPACK Framework that are focused around teaching, content and technology.  The TPACK strategy is meant to improve the design of technology integration.

Rationale
By understanding how teachers are being evaluated for their integration of technology, teachers can work backwards to have all the necessary components of successful tech integration.  By using this framework, teachers will not just pick a tool and use it, they will understand and work toward a better understanding of one's teaching, content knowledge, and how technology successfully integrates into what they already know.

EDT 620-01: Incoming Reflection

I'm known in my building/district to be a techy guy.  Why? Probably because I taught in the computer lab my first four years and tech doesn't scare me.  I can troubleshoot very basic problems, also known as amazing technological feats by those not so techy. 

My only formal assessment of technology was in my undergrad at GVSU during my Computers in Education class (this was 1999, mind you).  Currently, my "expertise" is finding new tools by following other techy folks on Twitter, Pinterest and Scoop.It.  I read their reviews, review the website/tool myself if I see benefit, and I try it out.  Nothing formal.  Just an idea of how to apply it to my students.  My "review" is more of a, "yeah, I could use this."

The problem with all of this is that these people I follow, some educators, some tech educators, and some just techs, it's often their job or position to just report on new tools.  They don't necessarily evaluate either; to my knowledge.  They'll write about possible educational implications and uses which is often based off of the websites description of the tool and an idea by the author describing the tool.

Another problem is when a new tool is discovered there is often another that comes along shortly thereafter that does something very similar; leaving one to wonder which is really the most useful for me and my students.

From this class I hope to learn how to properly evaluate online classroom tools.  Instead of doing trial and error all the time with these tools, I'll have the knowledge to evaluate them before putting them to the test with my students. 

I believe my application of media resources is fairly good.  My principal commented during my evaluations last year that I was using technology to be useful to my students, and not just to "impress" her. However, I know I can do more and I love learning and implementing new technological tools and websites into my lessons.  The students find it engaging and I enjoy teaching with them and get excited when teaching with them. 

My hope for this course is to further learn how to better implement these tools by using them together to create multimedia presentations that engage students as well as encourage interaction.