Do we know what good teaching looks like?

Today I was in a workshop in Cedar Falls, Iowa with approximately 50 administrators.  Much of our conversation centered around teaching, and how technology could enhance learning.  Throughout the day we watched videos of three different classrooms, and discussed how the use of technology had impacted learning in each of them.  One guide we used to evaluate the lessons was a form adapted from Technology and Learning Magazine.  This guide is an excellent way to discuss and evaluate lessons, and it can serve as a way to truly determine if technology is actually enhancing learning in the classroom.  Here are the eight questions posed on the guide.

• Does technology advance student learning?
• Are students working toward a lesson-relevant goal?
• Does the technology give students a deeper understanding of the content?
• Are students using technology to solve a problem?
• Are all students benefiting from the incorporation of technology?
• Is learning improved by the use of technology in the lesson?
• Are students motivated by the technology, does this increase their learning?
• Can teachers easily explain the benefit the technology brings to the lesson?

All three videos had some form of technology use, but two of the three lessons didn't use technology to enhance learning.  One of the participants made a comment that accurately described what we saw in the final video.

"This was the first lesson that enhanced learning.  It couldn't have been done without the technology."

That statements sums up one of the most important things that we all should know and understand as we use technology.  Technology must be used as a tool to enhance learning.  When used appropriately, that tool will drastically change teaching rather than just doing the same thing in a flashy new way.

Comments

[Smaugg]

How about a link to the actual guide, instead of an advertiser for magazines?

[Mctownsley]

Great stuff, Nick. Your post reminded me of the TPACK framework. It is a way of thinking about the connection between technology, pedagogy and content from an instructional planning perspective. Denise Schmidt in the CIT dept. at ISU is definitely a person to talk to as she writes on the topic quite often. Here are a few resources that might help you learn more about it:

An article from LL&T: http://punya.educ.msu.edu/publications/mishra-koehler-l&l-2009.pdf

Homepage for all things TPACK: http://www.tpack.org/tpck/index.php?title=Main_Page

Hope this helps further your learning and understanding as much as it has for me!

[Nick Sauers]

I will post a link to the guide as soon as I have access to it or a scanner. The presenter from the session did tell me that she will email it to me. Interestingly, the document is 10 years old, but still totally appropriate.

[Brett]

These are some great questions. I will certainly share them out! Thanks for sharing. The only question that I would love to see added would be along the lines of: "Could the learning objectives easily be met without the use of technology?" We want (I think) teachers to reshape their pedagogy as a result of having access to a new set of tools... not force the use of the tools and maintain traditional teaching practices.

[David D]

These are great questions. I would be really interested in seeing the 3 video lesson examples. Do you know if they are available anywhere?