February 5th, 2008
When I started my dissertation research, I struggled to describe what I was doing. Was I studying online reading, digital literacy, information processing? While the exact phrasing is still up for grabs, I understand the process, the experience I’m studying. I’m studying how students use online resources to complete academic assignments. Specifically, I’m trying to measure the cognitive processes involved in gathering, evaluating, and integrating online sources to compose academic texts. This first step is part of a larger agenda. I am starting with students in a relatively controlled environment to develop baseline measures to later study how this process plays out in other scenarios, such as task-oriented searches or recreational browsing. I’m using a cognitive science model to identify differences in the processes of domain expert and novice students’ approaches to this task. However, this model is just the starting point. I am also blending qualitative methods of textual analysis from the fields of Education and English to look more deeply at the practices behind the process. Specifically, I’m interested in quantifying Jenkins’ theories of re-mixing. In Convergence Culture, Jenkins (2007) describes re-mixing as a process by which users blend a variety of media from multiple sources to create their own work. Basically, this process is what new media is: combining media from multiple sources and modes to create a new whole. Certainly, new technologies fit into this paradigm, but more importantly, how the users appropriate technologies to suit their needs is what interests me. While media theories can certainly describe trends in use, cognitive science provides an actual method of applying and testing these theories.
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January 31st, 2008
At this point, my blog is likely a case of a tree falling in the woods, but I have to start somewhere. My interests are in the pedagogic implications of educational technologies; simply put, I’m interested in identifying instructionally sound methods of using technologies in the classroom.
Why? I spent three years as a Lecturer in the UCSB Writing Program, bookended by one-year stints as a TA. I was recruited because of my technical writing background to teach the Engineering Writing sequence (three-quarter curriculum specifically designed for first-year engineering freshman). At the time, my colleagues had to reapply for their jobs every year until they reached their sixth year: if accepted for “tenure,” they had to reapply every three years. They were under intense pressure to incorporate technology into their instruction. The administrators didn’t really understand the technologies, so there were no models of effective pedagogical use. Thus, I observed many classes where the instructor simply held their lecture-based course in a computer lab and used the board or an overhead projector to post notes. Overwhelming research on the pitfalls of lecture-based instruction in writing courses aside, this practice placed students in front of a highly seductive distraction, and most couldn’t resist checking e-mail or visiting websites.
When I’d argue against this practice in faculty meetings, I got blank stares. In the late 90′s, educational uses of technology were a bit fuzzy. I knew I’d need solid research to back my claims if I wanted to effect change.
I believed that technology was simply a tool and that we should make it fit within our pedagogical goals and not vice-versa. I attended conferences in my field that touted flashy best practices of flash animation creation and website use. While I saw the need for students to be able to communicate with new media, I also saw the content of student writing deteriorating. Sure, the design looked good, but the students couldn’t write. So, what next? We needed a way to better understand how to integrate technology into our instruction in a pedagogically sound way: we needed to determine whether we could use technology to improve learning outcomes.
I took a class with Richard Mayer in 2004 and his research examined exactly the same issue. With a focus on student understanding as the ultimate learning outcome, Mayer’s research considers how multi-media affects student learning retention and transfer.
His research provided a foundation and framework for me to explore issues of educational technology use in writing courses.
In the past four years, I have studied student engagement, instructor engagement, learner expertise, and, currently, effects of delivery modes on learner comprehension. While in each of these studies, I’ve encountered best practice examples, my goal is to build an empirically-based understanding of effective uses of technology in the classroom. At the same time, I’ve been involved in teacher training through the South Coast Writing Project, so I’ve been able to apply this research to training local K-College teachers in effective uses of technology for writing instruction.
Stay tuned…
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