Hello Colleagues,
What education software actually works, produces learning progress results with which kinds of students, at what levels, and under what conditions? What education software shows promise? What is the evidence that it works? How confident can we be in the results of a particular study of particular education software? How generalizable are the findings of a particular study? Where can I find research on the effectiveness of (a particular) piece of education software or a mobile app? What new research do we need on a particular promising technology?
Although LINCS, across its several adult basic skills education services for practitioners and adult learners, is concerned with evidence-based practices, we have not had a prolonged and focused discussion in the Integrating Technology or Program Management groups on specific studies of adult basic skills education software, and their uses. (I intend adult basic skills education in this context to include basic literacy through adult secondary education, ESL/ESOL, family literacy, workplace basic skills, and possibly more.)
I would like to begin this discussion thread with the expectation that both practitioners (program administrators, teachers/instructors, tutors, professional developers and others) and researchers will join in. The questions above are a few of the questions that our field may be interested in. Which of these questions do you have? What other questions do you have? What studies are you aware of that address one or more of these questions? What education software studies have influenced how you teach?
I look forward to your contributions to this discussion.
David J. Rosen, Moderator
LINCS CoP Integrating Technology and Program Management groups
Comments
Hello colleagues,
Here's an April 20th article about a new University of Massachusetts Amherst study of a free app that shows promise for enhancing at-risk pre-schoolers' readiness. The psychology researcher, David Arnold, found that "4- and 5-year-olds from low income families who used a Khan Academy Kids App for three months at home achieved 'substantial gains in their pre-literacy skills that brought them nearly to the national average.' " Researchers said, “This finding suggests that high-quality educational apps could be an important tool in reducing the SES achievement gap, which is especially exciting given that the app is free, that mobile technology is available to almost all children in this country, and that children enjoy using the app” and that such apps could provide “an important and practical tool for fostering academic success in at-risk children.”
"Among other findings, Arnold and colleagues report that the Khan Kids group showed “statistically and substantively larger increases in overall pre-literacy skills than the comparison group” with overall pre-literacy scores going up from the 34th percentile to almost the national average 47th percentile. Parent-rated academic interest also significantly increased for the experimental group compared to the control group."
If helping parents help their pre-school children get ready for school interests you, please read this short article, "New Educational App Shows Promise for Improving Pre-schoolers’ Pre-literacy Skills" and share your thoughts about it here. Have you or your adult students use this software? If so, what do you think? If you are a professional developer working with family literacy programs, would you consider asking teachers to ask parents to try this software? If you would, or already have, what do you find? If not, what are your reservations?
David J. Rosen, Moderator
LINCS CoP Integrating Technology and Program Management groups
David and friends,
The basic premise of the question is "What education software actually works?". I'd like to look at this question a bit differently. What are the different skills an educator needs to develop and integrate software or educational technology in order to aid student learning? There are learning opportunities, benefits, and level increases that come from the thoughtful integration of apps and software or often predicated on the skills of the educator. So, to build on this conversation, what tech skills do educators need? And what skills in lesson planning do teachers need in order to create defined learning objectives which link the content in the apps with assessment? (Based on the premise that assessment should drive instruction). And finally, why do we hold educatonal software and apps resposonbile for learning -when we don't hold classroom textbooks to the same standard?
There's a lot to unpack in these conversations and I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Kathy
Hello Kathy and others,
"Is it the Technology or is it the Teacher?" is a great question for us to all think and write about here. Thanks! Here's my take:
The simple answer is both. Technology literally means "tool." While we use "technology" as a shorthand for hardware and software, or digital technology, there are other technologies in this broader category. Consider the pen or pencil, for example, as a technology that enables us to write. Suppose you bought a defective pencil, one made of soft rubber that looked like wood, but that bent every time you pushed it to write. If that were your only writing tool available you couldn't write. Consider as an example of digital technology the router. If your home router fails, until you get a new one, you will not be able to access the Internet and to write emails or posts in LINCS groups like this one. In the context of education software, for some education purposes there are much better or worse programs and it is important to select your software tool carefully; in other cases the tools have pretty much the same features and the only important difference may be cost.
I am tempted, in unpacking your question, to say that in all cases it is also the teacher, because that leads us to a particularly fruitful discussion (see below). First. however, I do not want to dismiss the many, many learning experiences in our lives that do not depend on a teacher. You and I, adult basic skills learners, and most people learn new things all the time without relying on a teacher. Some would argue that what we learn from teachers is greatly enhanced by our knowledge; skills, especially learning skills; or dispositions, whether or not a teacher is part of the particular learning experience. So perhaps we should broaden the question to "Learning: Is it the Technology, the Teacher, and/or the Learner?" By doing so I don't mean to imply what I have sometimes heard educators say, and shudder when I do, "I met my responsibility; I taught them, but they just didn't learn it." I have very rarely heard that, however, from an adult basic skills educator. By broadening the question my intention is to also ask what are the skills and dispositions that learners need to have, and in many cases, need to be taught, in order to be effective learners?
Now back to a particularly interesting part of your original question, "or is it the Teacher" which I would like to expand to "For teaching and learning to be effective, what are the skills, knowledge and dispositions that teachers need?" And for the sake of this context, I would like to narrow it to "When using digital technology, what skills, knowledge, and dispositions do adult basic skills educators need?"
Here's my take on that:
1) A teacher/instructor of knowledge or content (math, science, literature, social sciences, plumbing, carpentry, HVAC, etc.) needs to have a solid grounding in the knowledge that the students want to acquire. Although there is a knowledge base in technology, particularly at advanced levels, I would argue that teachers who are experts in teaching their primary content area do not need much of a knowledge base to use technology well. They do need some skills and certain dispositions, however, to do this well. See below.
2) In most cases teachers of skills need themselves to have the skills that students want to acquire. For example, students who want to improve their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills in English as their second or other language, need to have teachers with those skills themselves. Teachers of carpentry need to have building skills using wood, and so forth. Teachers who want to use or integrate software and hardware, need a limited level of skills, and the right dispositions to learn more skills.
3) Dispositions. This is a big area covering attitudes, feelings, and other so-called "non-cognitive skills," "socioemotional skills," or "soft skills" such as passion, optimism, creativity, perseverance or grit, frustration-monitoring skills, social skills, and others.These are sometimes called skills because they can be learned, not traits one is born with. In the context of using technology, perhaps for teachers who are already masters of content and skills to be taught, and of effective ways to teach these, the most important area to concentrate on is their dispositions as learners themselves, in particular, their feelings about teaching with technology such as fear, frustration, "looking foolish", "feeling inadequate" and other feelings that get in the way of their learning how to use and using education technology. We need to talk about these feelings that most of us, when using technology, have. During the last few weeks of the pandemic in the U.S. I have been hearing about wonderful examples of teachers overcoming their fears and doubts about using technology for teaching online or remotely. Many teachers who have been reluctant to use technology have dived into a range of software, on computers and portable digital devices such as electronic tablets, smartphone and plain feature phones because they care about their students, want to continue teaching. Also because, in this crisis, in many states we have a new relaxation of the rules that has allowed state and program administrators to encourage and support teachers in reaching out to their students, help them to get the technology (laptops, chromebooks and/or tablets) and Internet access they need, to connect their teaching to the pressing needs that students have for staying healthy, continuing to work, finding jobs, negotiate with landlords about rent payments, find food for themselves and their families and, as safely as possible, meet other emerging needs.
The word that I hear most often now that applies to teachers and learners who are overcoming these difficult feelings, including when using technology, is resilience. Before the pandemic, when I first heard "resilience" in the context of using technology I thought it was extreme. Now, with the need that learners and teachers (as learners themselves) have to use technology to meet the most basic needs, I think it makes sense..
To sum up my long reply, among many interesting questions that your original question raises, Kathy, here's what I believe is most important: teachers' overcoming fears of using technology with their students by adopting a "WAITT "attitude (i.e. We are All In This Together) about learning how to use new technologies, and declaring to students that "as your teacher of (whatever one teaches) I am no more an expert in using technology for learning than you; we will learn from each other, and by using them, how to use these digital tools well. "
David J. Rosen, Moderator
LINCS CoP Integrating technology group