Classroom 2.0: The Effects of Media in the Classroom

1. Classroom 2.0: The Effects of Media in the Classroom IDT 600Kevin Kieffer

2. The Question How is media being used it today’s classrooms, and what effect does it have on learning?

3. Why is this Important? • Many school districts are pushing for a change in the classroom. This change is one that has to be implemented by the teacher. • There is a shift in the way that we are preparing students to think. They are no longer simply memorizing facts and numbers, they are being required to use higher order thinking skills. • Time is of the essence in the classroom. Many teachers are straining to get everything mandated by the state finished in the year before statewide testing. Teachers are in need of a more efficient and effective way to teach their students.

4. Why is this Important? • Employers are looking for employees that have social skills that allow them to work cooperatively with their peers. In addition, they often need someone who has experience with using technology already. Technology literacy is no longer just an option.

5. Why is it Important? • School districts are pushing for the use of technology in the classroom. Teachers in West Virginia are being required to teach technology lessons in their classrooms.

6. What is classroom media? • Any type of technology that is brought into the classroom for instructional purposes. • Examples include: virtual white boards, computers, laptops, cell phones, television, etc.

7. The Traditional High School Classroom • Technology focused areas (computer labs) • Teacher centered • Rows of desks to face the “sage on the stage” • Worksheets and textbooks are heavily used

8. A New Traditional • Cooperative learning is making it’s way into many classrooms. • What is cooperative learning? • Cooperative learning encourages students to work together in order to achieve goals, while still retaining individual accountability. • Uses the concept of PIES • Positive Interdependence • Individual Accountability • Equal Participation • Simultaneous Interaction

9. The Effects of Cooperative Learning • Research has shown that cooperative learning can lead to positive results. • Student’s often worked harder • Promotes face-to-face interactions between student peers as well as teachers • Strengthens social skills and team work

10. Classroom 2.0: The Flip • One of the most drastic changes that are being made in media rich classrooms comes with the concept of flipping the classroom? • What does it mean to flip your classroom? • Flipped instruction refers to moving aspects of teaching out of the classroom and into the homework space

11. Classroom 2.0: The Tools • Virtual Whiteboards • Streaming • Internet • Laptops, computers, mobile devices • Social media

12. Classroom 2.0: The Effects • Research has shown that correctly using media in a classroom can lead to: • Higher order thinking skills • Creativity • Research abilities • In a 2000 report a team from SRI International identified four ways that technology enhances how children learn • It offers active engagement, • the opportunity to participate in groups, • frequent interaction and feedback, • and connections to real-world contexts • Classrooms that make use of media also have access to the ever changing information circuit.

13. Classroom 2.0: A Be All End All? • Heavily relying on media in the classroom can be as devastating as heavily relying on traditional methods. • Digital blackouts • Technical difficulties • Lack of availability • Lack of funding • Multiple learning styles

14. Student 2.0 What is the best approach to creating a classroom? Each has it’s benefits… • Preparing our students for a world where they will have to work together with their peers in the job market • Higher order thinking skills and a better ability to communicate with one another • Students become technology literate • Leads to students building on their creativity, an attribute that employers are looking for Cooperative/Traditional Media

15. The Solution? • A teacher living and teaching in the world of today should be able to embrace change, while still maintaining methods that have worked in the past.