Overarching goal of Educational Technology in my teaching and learning environment The overarching goal of educational technology in my teaching and learning environment is to use technology to transform student learning activities so learners can communicate and express themselves in meaningful and novel ways. My instructional approach is centered around five guiding principles that include personalization, adult-world connection, common intellectual mission, shared leadership and responsibility, and supportive partnerships. These five guiding principles summarize Big Picture School Distinguishers (Littky & Grabelle, 2004). When schools infuse with technology integration and the arts, learning can reach higher levels, instructors can promote confidence and evidence of learning goals, and school becomes a culture for life-long learning.
Issues that Educational Technology address in my teaching and learning environment Visual Communication As technologies evolve and become available in learning environments, issues in my teaching and learning environment can be addressed with integration and application of software, apps, computer systems and training. The first issue I have in my courses is I need a means for learners to express their ideas and to communicate them visually. AECT defines educational technology as “media for communicating concepts”, (AECT, 2019). My instructional content and educational technology are a perfect fit for integration as technology can be an authentic source for scaffolding learning in my classrooms.
As an artist and art educator, I teach a wide variety of courses that can incorporate educational technology. I motivate students to express their ideas and communicate visually. I encourage learners to incorporate art and design skills into products that show evidence of their learning and to communicate their ideas to others publicly. An essential part of the process of creating evidence of learning revolves around learners creating authentic, real-world products that demonstrate their learning of concepts and ideas based on standards. Some works are individual, and some are collaborative with sustained inquiry, peer feedback, goal setting. Often the projects include multi-disciplinary approaches, although many are specifically art and design skill building exercises in which students are learning art skills to use in other disciplines, for artistic enjoyment, or for life-long learning. Educational technology can and should be supportive in these approaches in teaching and learning environments in regard to methods, processes and pathways for students to provide evidence of learning. Online technology platforms like Google Sites, Weebly, and YouTube channels for my courses are a few ways I provide these opportunities for real-world collaborations and authentic exhibitions of student work.
Student Voice Another issue that educational technology should address in my teaching and learning environment is my belief that student voice is essential for human growth and learning. Student voice is essential language in the National Art Education Standards (NAEA, 2019).
In 1931, John Dewey was a guest lecturer at Harvard University and gave ten lectures on the Philosophy of Art in which he compiled a book entitled, “Art as Experience”, (Dewey, 1934). He discussed art as an act of expression, the varied substances of the arts, and the human experience of creating art. In his comments on art as expression, he lectured about poets, writers, musicians and visual artist of the past and those who lived during his lifetime. He stated, “For the artist has the power to seize upon a special kind of material and convert it into an authentic medium of expression” (Dewey, 1934). In his discussions on the power of art and acts of expression that communicate with others, he brought to light numerous examples of the experiences of artists and how they expressed meaning through a variety of media. When I consider the advances in technologies available today in our learning environments, his statement about the artist having the power to use material to create authentic expression is truer today than it ever has been.
When learners and teachers utilize digital platforms like YouTube, websites, blogging, and other public digital spaces the reality of communicating with billions of others is possible now. He mentions technology in his last lectures about art and civilization, “Even technological arts, in their sum total, do something more than provide a number of separate conveniences and facilities. They shape the collective occupations and thus determine direction of interest and attention, and hence affect desire and purpose” (Dewey, 1934). To me, this statement is about the artist’s voice and purpose and educational technology can be a vehicle for communicating one’s voice.
Theories that Drive Educational Technology According to M.D. Roblyer, there are four main perspectives that define technology’s role in education: Media and audio-visual, instructional systems and designs, computer systems and vocational training (Roblyer & Hughes, 2018). These four areas in addition to instructional excellence, a caring learning environment, and many other supports are essential frameworks for providing learners with the means to communicate concepts. In addition, learning theories have created the base for driving educational technology integration. Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism are three learning theories that I am familiar with and have analyzed in regard to pedagogical approaches and strategies. Larson and Lockee examine these three approaches in extreme detail for instructional designers and have produced numerous tables and charts that guide instructors and instructional designers in selecting technologies and pedagogues that support learning (Larson & Lockee, 2014).
Behaviorism and Cognitivism theories focus more on the individual learner. Behaviorism involves gamification, web-based training scenarios, multi-media design elements, and learning about behaviors involved with learning itself. B.F. Skinner and E. L Thorndike’s work falls into behaviorism theory. Skinner’s early work with the teaching machine displays behaviorism theory that learning with a machine that provides the correct answer automatically following a student response, provides optimal conditions for self-instruction (Skinner, 1954). Thorndike’s experiments on learning in “puzzle boxes” were also behaviorism because of rewards associated with learning. Videos and publications he produced are available today and are often seen as examples of external motivation in learning (McLeod, 2018b). Behaviorism in instructional practice is based on the idea that the content is usually scripted, and the learners are told what they will learn, how to learn it and learners are tested on the content. Technology integration at this level is usually a support structure to provide information and communication (Ertmer & Newby, 1993).
Cognitivism involves researchers like Piaget, Bruner, and Mayer. Piaget studied the stages of development in learning and mapped the process of learning and analyzed the process a learner moved through to grasp more conceptual ideas (McLeod, 2018c). Bruner studied motivation and intrinsic motivation by rewarding learners with discovery and exciting opportunities to learn. His work with learners involved considering the cognitive properties of learning and how children learn better when they have freedom to explore ideas and concepts and when they learn through observations and relate things to their own life. The nature of the learning in his mind was about providing learners time to go through exercises without lectures and forced and scripted information (McLeod, 2018a). Mayer is involved in the science of instruction and the way e-learning effects learning outcomes (Ertmer & Newby, 1993).
Constructivism theories involve a more social approach and collaborative inquiry and project- based approaches. The learning outcomes are broader based and include higher level thinking skills. Learners usually use prior knowledge and build on that knowledge to create evidence of growth and learning. John Dewey, Etienne Wenger, and Jean Lave are three researchers whose work falls into Constructivism theories. Big Picture Learning fits into most constructivism theories with broad based goals and problem solving at the heart of inquiry and real-world contexts (Littky & Grabelle 2004).