Relative advantage of using technology to make the content areas become more engaging, relevant and authentic

Over the past couple of weeks in the 541 course, choice of task has become available to me in regard to integrating technology into my lessons. As a Science/Biology teacher I looked at the science/maths option and thought "I've done this already...several times; not doing it again!", and so I have looked at the lesson options for Language/Arts and the PE/Creative Expressive Arts - I am glad that I did.

In the first instance the choice of task was important and I was reminded why I have been putting in the effort to give my students choice in the way they express themselves.  The National Center on Universal Design (CAST, 2011) for Learning publishes guidelines for the application of choice for the learner to enhance their ability to learn. CAST's Principle III,  Provide Multiple Means of Engagement, includes guidelines: 7 - Provide options for recruiting interest, 8 - Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence, and 9 - Provide options for self-regulation seem the most relevant to my work and I particularly like this point they make:

the same learner will differ over time and circumstance; their “interests” change as they develop and gain new knowledge and skills, as their biological environments change, and as they develop into self-determined adolescents and adults.

My colleagues and I have been enhancing our teaching schemes with #Takeawayhomework (based on @TeacherToolkit idea #100ideas), a "menu" of progressively more "spicey" work the students may choose to do. The idea being that may choose less spice but most eat more of it, or choose more spice but only eat one! The choice provides engagement as the students can design their own path through the content they need to access.

Some students don't talk much so finding out what makes them tick can be difficult. Finding really cool ideas that are relevant to each of my students and giving them the choice to complete what they want to complete has allowed me to witness more depth in these students in a much shorter time; I only teach one particular class two times per week. The recent cross content area lessons I have built have given me greater insight into the teaching with technology my extra-faculty colleagues get up to but also have given me better ways to engage my Biology students with tasks that they are interested in because they are more relevant to their interests.

For the lessons I designed for Language Arts I decided to build an eBook but with biology content. For Music, the biology students need to create a piece of "techno" music using heart and lung sounds. For PE, the students have to use Adidas MiCoach to create a running route in the shape of the circulatory system, then run it with the GPS tracking in the MiCoach App, speeding up and slowing down in the correct places. Finally, for Art, the students must create a blood themed piece of work based on the style of Jackson Pollock's drip art/action painting.

Authentic learning in science lessons can be reasonable easily achieved by the use of dataloggers for data collection, spreadsheets for analysis, and collaborating with other classes on write-ups and through webcasts (Roblyer & Doering, 2013). The authenticity of actually publishing one's work online for others to see and comment on is both a terrifying and very exciting and has an affect on self esteem (Sheldon, K. M., Abad, N., & Hinsch, C., 2011). Personally, I have only begun to really use personal networks like LinkedIn and  Google+ recently to advertise myself as a professional; I have only been blogging for 10 months - the length of my MET course. I see the value in making my thoughts and work public - I do a better job - and this is the value of giving our students the opportunity to do authentic work like creating a eBook and getting feedback from the world on how to make it better. Working with classes from around the world on environment projects or joining the Globe Project:Globe Program or using a space telescope with an astronomer in the classroom through Telescopes in Education.


CAST (2011). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.0. Retrieved from: http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines/principle3

Edutopia (2008). Why integrate technology into the curriculum?: The reasons are many. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-introduction

Roblyer, M. D. & Doering, A. H. (2013). Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Sheldon, K. M., Abad, N., & Hinsch, C. (2011). A two-process view of Facebook use and relatedness need-satisfaction: Disconnection drives use and connection rewards it. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, Vol 1(S), 2-15. doi: 10.1037/2160-4134.1.S.2