ETEC 533

I thought I would put my synthesis thoughts on the TELEs up on my blog, as they represent a culmination of learning and analysis of 4 pedagogical methods and curriculum tools that each significance to today’s classrooms.

Pedagogy

The four TELE that we have examined all have a distinct focus on student-centered, constructivist pedagogy. While it is possible to distinguish between the four pedagogies and their particular learning paradigms, in many ways the methodologies have similarities. Learning for Use (Edelson, 2001), inquiry (Linn, Clark, & Slotta, 2003), and T-GEM (Khan, 2007) each have a distinct cycle of learning, with T-GEM specifically emphasizing its cyclical model. Jasper (“The Jasper experiment,” 1992) is a bit different in its approach. While maintaining strong constructivist pedagogy, its Problem Based Learning is not nearly as formalized as the other three. However, the goals of each remain the same: each TELE inspires students to explore science in not only meaningful settings but in a concrete manner. Japser’s problems, WISE analysis paradigm, MyWorld’s data exploration and Chemland’s simulations all strive to offer students real-life situations and contexts. It is worthy to note the striking difference between the environments provided in each TELE, as opposed to the attempts at pedagogy in a book, as promoted by textbook publishers. The former is undoubtedly realistic, whereas the latter is pseudo real life, at best.

Technology

Each TELE also shares in offering a technological solution that can be implemented within a variety of educational communities, with little to no requirements for special devices or hardware. While there will be variable costs associated with each TELE, I imagine that the limiter for each TELE would be availability in computers. It remains to be seen how well public education will invest in personal computers in schools, as there is a strong drive for implementing mobile devices within a BYOD (bring your own device) mandate. In this sense, the future success of the TELE, and MyWorld and Chemland in particular, are at the political table of educational funding. As students of educational technology, we not only should consider the frameworks and theories of the technologies that we encounter but also relate them to our working environments. In this sense, I think it’s reasonable to see all four TELE in the same light of ease of implementation, but be aware of the restrictions in actually apply the technology to their full extent.

Implications

It is easy to see how my exposure to the four TELE will affect my teaching. While I am constrained by resources and technology, partly as mentioned above, the TELEs themselves validate their operational frameworks. This allows me to confidently adapt a TELE and apply it to my own classroom practice. For example, a WebQuest (Dodge, n.d.) can be modified using the scaffolded knowledge integration framework from WISE (Gobert, Snyder, & Houghton, 2002) to achieve an experience similar to a WISE project.

Dodge, B. (n.d.). WebQuests. Some Thoughts About WebQuests. Retrieved February 25, 2012, from http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html

Edelson, D. C. (2001). Learning-for-use: A framework for the design of technology-supported inquiry activities. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38(3), 355–385.

Gobert, J., Snyder, J., & Houghton, C. (2002). The influence of students’ understanding of models on model-based reasoning. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), New Orleans, Louisiana. Retrieved from http://mtv.concord.org/publications/epistimology_paper.pdf

Khan, S. (2007). Model-based inquiries in chemistry. Science Education, 91(6), 877–905.

Linn, M., Clark, D., & Slotta, J. (2003). Wise design for knowledge integration. Science Education,87(4), 517–538.

The Jasper experiment: An exploration of issues in learning and instructional design. (1992).Educational Technology Research and Development, 40(1), 65–80.