INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LEARNING IN THE INFORMATION AGE SCHOOL

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LEARNING IN THE
INFORMATIONAGE SCHOOL

• DR. ROSS J. TODD
• School of Communication,
• Information and Library Studies
• Rutgers, The State University
• of New Jersey
• rtodd_at_scils.rutgers.edu
• www.scils.rutgers.edu/rtodd

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Technological Change

• 1708
• Students today cant prepare bark to calculate
  their problems. They depend on their slates
  which are more expensive. What will they do when
  the slate is dropped and breaks? They will be
  unable to write
• (Teachers Conference, 1708)

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Technological Change

• 1815
• Students depend on paper too much. They cant
  clean a slate properly. What will they do when
  they run out of paper?
• (Principals publication, 1815)

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Technological Change

• 1907
• Students today depend too much on ink. They
  dont know how to use a pen knife to sharpen a
  pencil. Pen and ink will never replace the
  pencil
• (National Association of Teachers Journal)

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Technological Change

• 1928
• Students today depend upon store-bought ink.
  They dont know how to make their own. This is a
  sad commentary on modern education
• (Rural Teacher, 1928)

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Technological Change

• 1941
• Students today depend upon these expensive
  fountain pens. They can no longer write with a
  straight pen and nib. We parents must not allow
  them to wallow in such luxury to the detriment of
  learning
• (PTA Gazette, 1941)

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Technological Change

• 1950
• Ball-point pens will be the ruin of education in
  this country. Students use devices and then
  throw them away. Businesses and banks will never
  allow such expensive luxuries
• (Federal Teachers Journal, 1950)

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Technological Change

• 1976
• I can never imagine that anyone would ever need
  more than 640K
• (Bill Gates, once a school boy library monitor)

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Information Technology The Promise

• flexibility to meet the individual needs and
  abilities
• immediate access to richer source materials
• present information in new, relevant ways which
  help students to understand, assimilate and use
  it more readily
• motivate and stimulate learning
• enhance learning for students with special needs
• motivate students to try out new ideas and to
  take risks
• encourage analytical and divergent thinking
• reduce the risk of failure at school
• encourage teachers to take a fresh look at how
  they teach and the ways in which students learn
• help students learn when used in well-designed,
  meaningful tasks and activities
• offer potential for effective group work.
• http//production.edna.edu.au/sibling/learnit/itpo
  t.html 1996

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Are search engines making today's students dumber?
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The Learning Return on our IT Investment
Research to Date

• Significant positive effect on achievement.
• Use of online IT for collaboration across
  classrooms in different geographic locations has
  also been shown to improve academic skills.
• Positive effects on student attitudes toward
  learning and on student self-concept more
  successful in school, more motivated to learn
  increased self-confidence and self-esteem when
  using computer-based instruction.
• Technology is most powerful when used as a tool
  for problem solving, conceptual development, and
  critical thinking This involves students
  using technology to gather, organize, and analyze
  information, and using this information to solve
  problems

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Current Research Suggests..

• Changes brought about by technology are more
  evolutionary than revolutionary.
• Level of effectiveness of educational technology
  is influenced by the teachers role in
  instruction, how the students are grouped, and
  the level of student access to the technology.
• Constructivist or student-centered approaches are
  better suited to fully realizing the potential of
  computer-based technology.
• inquiry, collaborative, technological, and
  problem-solving skills developed using
  technology can lead to increased positive impact
  on students independence and feelings of
  responsibility for their own learning.

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INFORMATION AND TECHNICAL LITERACIES

• The scaffolds for effective engagement and
  utilisation of information in all its forms
  (electronic, print, popular culture) for
  constructing sense, understanding and new
  knowledge

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Learning through Information Technology3
Essential Dimensions

• Understand the complex nature of information in
  this digital environment
• Understand how students use this digital
  environment, and how they learn, or dont learn,
  through it
• Understand the pedagogical implications
  effective instructional design

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• THE TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE
• Information
• Misinformation
• Malinformation
• Messed up information
• Useless information
• (Burbles, 1997)

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• THE TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE
• Information
• Misinformation
• Disinformation
• (Floridi, 1996)

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Disinformation Misinformation

• Disinformation Deliberate attempt to mislead or
  deceive, resulting in inaccurate information
  arises whenever the process of information is
  defective
• Lack of objectivity eg. Propaganda
• Lack of completeness eg. Lack of evidence
• Lack of pluralism eg. Range of viewpoints
• Lack of security eg technical mishandling,
  virus, hacking
• Misinformation An honest mistake, unknowing
  misrepresentation of facts out of date
• Result availability of inaccurate information

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• Students on the WWW
• Some Research
• Evidence

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Learning in an Information Age School

• Understand the complex nature of information in
  this digital environment
• Understand how students use this digital
  environment, and how they learn, or dont learn,
  through it
• Understand the pedagogical implications
  effective instructional design

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Electronic Information Seeking(McNicholas
Todd, 1996)

• Design of research activities foster
  construction or foster replication (plagiarism)
• Constructing an appropriate search
• Working with search engines
• Critiquing web sites and making quality
  assessments of the information
• Constructing personal understanding

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Connecting with WWW Information Research tells
us

• High levels of information overload
• Inability to manage and reduce large volumes of
  information
• Failure to retrieve documents based on aboutness
  / topicality
• Formulating ineffective search queries
• Lack of in-depth examination of sites

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Connecting with WWW Information Research tells us

• Failure to utilise Boolean operators
• High levels of insecurity and uncertainty
• Lack of understanding of search engines
• Simplistic searches based on guesswork or novice
  knowledge
• High expectation of technology to make up for
  poor searching techniques
• Limited use of systematic, analytic-based
  strategies

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Interacting with WWW Information Research tells
us

• Range of coping strategies including accepting
  errors and delegation
• Absence of critical and evaluative skills
• Not questioning the accuracy or authority of
  information
• Inappropriately favouring visual cues

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Utilising WWW information Research tells us

• Information management issues time, workloads,
  deadlines
• Make use of any somewhat-relevant sites
• Tendency to plagiarise
• Willingness to construct answers on limited
  information

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How do Birds Sing?
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• Cybercheating goes digital
• www.schoolsucks.com
• www.evilhouseofcheat.com
• www.freeessays.com
• www.thesaurus.com
• www.phuckschool.com
• Also go to (for extensive listing)
• http//www.coastal.edu/library/presentations/mills
  2.html

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Learning in an Information Age School

• Understand the complex nature of information in
  this digital environment
• Understand how students use this digital
  environment, and how they learn, or dont learn,
  through it
• Understand the pedagogical implications
  effective instructional design

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Pedagogical Interventions

• Systematic and explicit development of
  information literacy scaffolds
• ? across school
• ? planned
• ? collaborative
• ? diagnostic
• ? guided, staged and transferable

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How do students develop intellectual scaffolds
for working with IT?

• Mysteriously someone else has taught them
• Vicariously by sitting at a computer terminal
• Serendipitously by just doing assignments
  through haphazard information seeking
• Slavery getting someone else eg parents
• Systematically and explicitly embedding
  learning scaffolds into teaching process

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Its not just Good and Bad Websites!Creating
Meaning

• Information on the Net represents peoples
  versions of reality, past, future, knowledge,
  culture, ideology, power
• Need to make clear the ideologies and ideological
  workings of texts
• Need to make explicit the belief systems
  inscribed in texts
• To enable people to read the world and the word -
  past, present and future
• (Misson, 1998)

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Keys to Success in Using IT to Construct New
Knowledge

• Have high levels of reading literacy (including
  visual literacy)
• Able to define problems, frame questions, explore
  ideas, formulate focus, investigate, analyze and
  synthesize ideas to create own views, evaluate
  solutions and reflect on new understandings
• Able to use technology and information tools to
  create information products that accurately
  represent their newly developed understanding
• Can communicate ideas using oral, written, visual
  and technological modes of expression
  individually or in teams
• Are ethical, responsible users of information who
  demonstrate concern for quality information and
  value different modes of thought.

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The True but Little Known Facts about Women and
Aids, with documentation

• http//www.ithaca.edu/library/research/AIDSFACTS.h
  tm

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Ban dihydrogen Monoxide

• http//www.netreach.net/rjones/no_dhmo.html

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Martin Luther King JrAn Historical Examination

• http//www.martinlutherking.org/

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• The Challenge
• You
• Begin
• Constructing
• The Road
• By Walking
• It