Technology and the Kindergarten

 

Technology is transforming how students in kindergarten through grade 12 are being taught as new ways of e-learning start to become part of the standard curriculum. With the help of the Internet, mobile devices and specialized educational software and hardware, today's technology is empowering educators to bring a new level of interaction, communication and collaboration to the classroom. The K-12 generation is adept at using this technology, having grown up in a world steeped in digital media, so learning comes naturally in the context of interactive applications and online social networking forums. Here are the top 10 tech trends we're seeing as K-12 educators take advantage of mobile devices and rich media applications to communicate, inspire and engage students.

1. Educational games: Video games challenge kids to explore an imaginative world and engage with visual information. Educational games use this interactive interface to impart knowledge and expose students to new concepts. The new learning format is not only fun for kids, but also takes advantage of the learning abilities they have developed through gaming. The vast majority of the K-12 student body is gamers; a 2008 Pew survey found that 97 percent of children aged 12 to 17 play video games regularly.

Researcher Patricia Marks Greenfield has found that gaming cultivates skills useful in learning: enhanced visual perception, the ability to process information quickly and in parallel, the ability to analyze information and the ability to access information through imagery and text. Just this month the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation announced that it invested $20 million in online learning, with a third of that dedicated to educational video games and tools. Popular educational games include Civilization and Europa Universalis, which teach history.

2.Interactive whiteboards (IWB): These large interactive displays bring the blackboard and the overhead projector into the 21st century. Teachers use the technology to project images and videos, share a computer screen and write information through pen and touch technology. Lessons projected on the whiteboard may be saved for later viewing, aiding students who benefit from repetition or were absent from the classroom.

3. Classroom management software: Software designed for the K-12 classroom allows teachers a central platform for managing the classroom. Standard classroom management software gives the teacher remote access to all computer workstations in a classroom, for the purpose of sharing a computer screen, supervising online activities or monitoring progress. Comprehensive course management systems go further, offering a platform for managing all classroom activities. Instructors may use these platforms to record grades, integrate lesson plans, track student progress and communicate with parents. Some platforms allow students to access the system, providing a forum for posting assignments and sharing information with peers.

4. Computer-adaptive testing (CAT): Computer-adaptive tests adjust to the student's ability level, automatically selecting questions based on performance on preceding questions. The technology uses item response theory (IRT) to select optimal questions. Research says that compared to static multiple choice tests, computer-adaptive tests require fewer test items to arrive at equally accurate scores. Computer-adaptive testing is used by TOEFL and GRE.

5. Dynamic assessment software: This adaptive learning software provides teachers with the ability to create customized learning plans, allowing the teacher to assess each student's strengths and weaknesses and adjust the learning experience accordingly. The software may operate as a standards-based assessment database or as a real-time automated system. The assessment database allows teachers to record and analyze student performance data over time. Teachers may customize the standards to reflect their particular class requirements or adopt state or school district-mandated testing standards. The adaptive assessment technology is generally a program that reacts real-time to student performance, identifying trouble areas and speeding up or slowing down lessons in response.

6. Simulation programs: Simulations model the real world, allowing students to explore concepts and solve problems in a fictional environment through role-playing. Simulators are already commonplace in workforce training, where they are used to simulate medical procedures for health professionals, flight controls for pilots and astronauts and more. Teachers can use 3D modeling and simulation software to "create learning experiences that are authentic models of real world situations," helping students contextualize abstract concepts. Simulations allow students to work through implications of different scenarios and solve problems in an imaginary environment. Popular simulations include SimCity, which models urban development, and ChemLab, a virtual chemistry lab.

7. Social networking: When properly supervised, blogs, online chat rooms and communication tools such as Twitter and Facebook have a place in the K-12 classroom. Students connect with each other online, using the web to collaborate on projects and share ideas in a structured digital environment. At the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, for example, students use social media to message each other, share documents and blog. One assignment, for example, had students write memoirs, upload them onto the school's network and then turn them into podcasts using GarageBand software. They posted blogs about the memoirs and shared them on social-networking site EduSpaces.

8. Mobile devices: Teachers are using handheld devices in the classroom to connect students to the web, to e-learning applications and to each other. Examples include tablets such as iPads, netbooks, smartphones, MP3 players and even GPS and GIS systems. These devices support digital quizzes and assessments, access to podcasts or online videos, conferencing and other activities. GPS and GIS, for example, can be used for teaching astronomy (viewing constellations), geography (mapping latitude and longitude) and more. Classroom-specific devices such as "clickers" are among the handheld tech trends in K to 12 education. These voting devices allow the instructor to gather feedback in real-time through group assessments, polls and surveys.

9. E-readers and digital books:The use of e-readers, such as the Kindle, and tablets, such as the iPad, in the classroom is on the rise, fueling the emerging trend of interactive e-textbooks. Electronic textbooks enable multimedia features such as embedded videos, quizzes, highlighting, text-searching features, note taking and interactive graphics. A biology book, for example, might allow students to navigate 3D molecules from any angle. One innovator in the interactive textbook market, Inkling, lets students share and comment on the texts: "By selecting a piece of text you can leave a note for others to read and develop a conversation around the text." Teachers can view and moderate the students' textual commentary, incorporating it into the lesson.

10. School community networks: Cloud computing offers an affordable means for schools and school districts to set up shared networks. Teachers and education specialists access these networks to share lesson plans and information, upload documents and communicate with other education professionals. The community network can also serve as a student information database. Cloud-based applications eliminate the need for schools to invest in costly hardware. As educational technology specialist Lynn Reedy observes, "We don't have to worry about space because the files are all stored in the cloud and accessible to everyone." Cloud-based networking applications allow teachers and staff to collaborate and share their best classroom practices, bridging classrooms, schools and districts. One recent successful example: the Portland Public Schools moved its staff and student resources to Microsoft's Live@edu cloud computing platform.