Time | Education with Technology Harry G. Tuttle

Archive for the 'Time' Category

Smartphone -1 Computer -0 Speed of Getting to Material

I have been using Smartphone / Mobile Learning for the semester in my Spanish class. The class does meet in a computer lab. However, the other day, the power of mobile learning and QR codes shone. I offered students the opportunity to do an activity on the smartphone or on the computer. The students who used the Smartphone & QR code were on the site and most had completed the short activity before the computer students had even logged on the network. The computer students had to turn on the Windows machine before doing the log in. The more time we save on getting to material in the classroom , the more time there is for learning.

An additional speed benefit of Mobile Learning /Smartphone and QR codes is that students do not incorrectly type in the URL (Http://…) even when I have shortened the url. When students mistype the url, they have to retype it. Again, wasted class time.

How do you use Smartphones/ Mobile Learning to Speed up getting to learning materials?

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Your Students, is available through Eye on Education.

Also, my book, Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment, is available through Eye on Education.

Time to Teach or Time to Learn

Published May 13, 2008 Achievement , Learn , learning , Student , student learning , Teacher , Time , Time on task Leave a Comment
Tags: Achievement, Learn, learning, practice, Student, Teach, Teacher, Teaching, Time, Time on task

I was talking with another educator who teaches the same course I am now teaching. He spends the first half of the course in teaching about how to give a speech and then, in the second half of the semester, he has the students do speeches. I have my students give speeches after the third class. I think that I have scaffolded their speeches so that they can be successful in including all of the elements of good speaking. The proof will be tomorrow when they give their first speech.

Do you spend much time in teaching the material and then give the students a little time to practice it or do you present the material quickly and then give the students much time to practice?

Time for Formative Assessment?

Published January 28, 2008 Accountability , Achievement , Assess , Assessment , assessment for learning , Formative , Formative assessment , learning , Time , write , Writing Leave a Comment
Tags: Education, English, Feedback, Formative, Formative assessment, Proficient, Rubric, School, Time, Writing

I have been trying to apply a formative assessment approach in my writing class. Based on the learning gaps that my students demonstrated on their diagnostic writing, I developed a checklist for proficient writing. We went over the list in class. Then I used that checklist to assess their next writing. Sixteen hours later I am still going over their papers with about five papers to go. I’m assessing about 64 papers. Most teachers do not have 16 hours+ to develop to assessing two sets of papers. I am not happy over all of the time I’m spending and I wonder how much students will actually improve based on the feedback.

My guess is that the students will be shocked at their 2 out of 4 (4= above proficiency) rating. Probably I gave them too much detailed feedback to be effectively; research shows that 2-3 salient points are best. If I use a more general writing rubric then the rubric will only serve a summative purpose and not a formative one since the rubric will not offer help to the reader on how to improve specifically.

Teachers are caught in a delicate balance between wanting to give formative assessment and yet not wanting to spend hours and hours on an assessment. I’m searching for a middle road where the students get formative assessment on their writing that helps them to improve and where I do not spend my life in giving them formative feedback.

Time for Technology:Getting Teachers Interested

Published June 8, 2007 Student , student engagement , Teacher , technology , Time 1 Comment

Frequently when I talk with English teachers, I hear that they do not have time for technology. However, they do have time for the students to:

Produce many drawings about the story
Put on a play/skit about the story
Watch a long movie about the story
Do several word-searches about the story
Complete elaborate study guides about the story

They do have the time; they do not have the desire to use technology.

Do we as learning specialists (technology integrators) help them to see:
How it will benefit their students?
How will it motivate the students
How it will benefit them (What’s in it for me?) Saving time and not have to reproduce the same thing usually rank as some of the highest reasons for teachers using technology.

How do you convince teachers technology is worth their time?

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Learning Time Increased by Technology

Published June 2, 2007 learning , Student , Teacher , technology , Time , Time on task Leave a Comment

As I have observed many classes this year, I am amazed at how much time is spent in low level learning tasks such as word searches, puzzles, doing handouts, coloring (high school level), making dioramas, creating posters, producing factual PowerPoints, web-surfing for facts, making imovies of non-important information, and creating podcasts. What if we had used that time for higher level learning activities?

Let’s say that during a unit of three weeks (15 days), four days are spent in lower-level activities of knowledge and comprehension (my guess is that most days are really spent in lower level activities in many classrooms). If we change it so that we spend two of those four days in higher level thinking activities of application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation, we would be doubling or tripling what the students understood about the topic. They would be learning more in-depth and with more comprehension. If there is time for 12 15 day units (180 instructional days) and if we do higher level learning for 2 days for each of the 12 units, we will have gained 24 days (or three weeks) of higher level learning. We are doubling or tripling the learning value for the same amount of time. We will have virtually added almost five school weeks to the students’ learning without ever changing the time of the school day or the school year. If we increase to three days of higher level learning for each of those 12 units, we would be up to 36 learning days (over 7 school weeks). Students would have learned the material to a greater depth and in a more comprehensive manner due to the higher level thinking learning.

How have you used technology to engage students in higher level thinking about your subject area standards? How have your doubled or tripled their learning in the same physical time that you used to spend in lower level learning?

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Learning and Technology Score: Time on Task vs Student Learning using Bloom’s

Published December 13, 2006 Bloom , learning , Student , technology integration , Time , Time on task 1 Comment

I realize that technology can be a motivator. I realize that students like to see their work when it is done on the computer. However, I also realize that there are only so many minutes in a class period and so many class periods in a year.

How efficient is the students’ time on time on task vs. their final learning? If a student takes five hours to do a project, does that mean it is better than a one hour project?

One way to evaluate a learning project is to use Bloom’s Taxonomy where a point value is associated with each level of Bloom.

1 = Knowledge
2 = Comprehension
3 = Application
4 = Analysis
5.5 = Synthesis
5.5 = Evaluation

So if Juan works for five hours on a PowerPoint country report (factual information or knowledge), his score would be a 5 (hours) x 1 (Knowledge) = 5.

If Huan works for one hour on a PowerPoint country evaluation report ( 5.5), his score would be 1 (hour) x 5.5 (Evaluation) or 5.5

Time is not the critical factor in learning. It is the level of learning.

So, in your class, how much time and on what level of Bloom are your technology-infused learning activities? What is your learning score for each activity?

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Technology Integration Projects: Structuring,Time, and Student Learning

Published December 2, 2006 learning , scaffold , Student , Teacher , technology , technology integration , Time , Waste Leave a Comment

I watched as a teacher had her students prepare a presentation on a famous person. I heard the teacher say to one student “You’ve been looking at the pictures of her for 20 minutes. Maybe you want to find some information.” Also, the teacher said to another student, “I know he has some good songs but you have just been listening to the songs. Are there some websites about him?” At the 45 minutes of the class, I noticed that most students had produced one screen in their PowerPoint presentation. The screen generally said, “__ is a famous singer.” or there was a picture of the famous person.

Yes, it was a wasted 45 minutes. Was it due to the technology? No! The teacher had not structured the experience for the students. There was no handout that walked the students step by step through going from the knowledge level of thinking to the analysis level of thinking. She had not told students what she expected them to produce by the end of the period. She had not specified the depth of information she wanted from the students. She did not model what she wanted. Without her structuring, the students wasted away the period.

How do you structure your technology integrated projects for successful student learning in an efficient time manner?

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Time on Task: Minimal Computer Time Maximum Thinking Time For More Student Learning

Published October 6, 2006 Classroom , Ediucation technology , Thinking , Time 2 Comments

A collleague observed many school groups in a museum and she noticed how little time they were actually on task.

I realize that educators can use technology to keep students on task. Students can be very busy when they are on the computer. I am unsure if we have measured how much time studens are engaged in actual content rather than the beautification of the presentation during a technology-infused learning project I am unsure if we have measured for how long students search for “just the right” image when the image does not add any new information to the digital report. I am not sure if we have measured how much students are off task even when they appear to be on task such as reading a website.

I have found that when students are given minimal time on the computer and maximum off-computer thinking time that their learning increases. I have done a one period research project in which groups of students had to give a one minute report on a certain topic at the end of the period. I gave them 10 minuteson the computer to find critical information and 20 minutes off the computer to organize the report. It was amazing that each month we did this project the students increased the amount of different information that they found even though they had the same time. They found much richer information. They were more focused and more on task when they were online so they learned more.

How do you maximize student learning that involves technology-infused learning?

Education with Technology Harry G. Tuttle