Online Journal Article Reviews

Technology Confidence, Competence and Problem Solving Strategies: Differences within Online and Face-to-Face Formats
By: Sharon L. Peterson and Louann Bierlein Palmer

http://www.jofde.ca.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/index.php/jde/article/view/733/1267

This article is about a five year study about the use of technology and problem solving skills among 1,500 undergraduate education majors. The studied attempts to see if there is a correlation between the lack of confidence among students who take a conventional technology education classroom in a traditional face to face setting compared to those who took the same course in an online manner. The study is also a useful tool to understand how these students attempt to use problem solving skills with difficult tasks.

The study shows that students who took the online course were more confident in using technology in the classroom compared to students who took the class in a traditional manner. The study also shows that there was differences in students in approaches to solving problems in the class. Traditional students use the teacher as a method for figuring out problems. While the online students use trial and error problem solving methods to figure out problems.

Our textbook explains that in order for a person to comprehend and understand information, one must be use practice and be given feedback, but for a non-traditional student, feedback does not always come immediately (Ormond, 2009). So, one must rely on the trial and error methods until a positive result is reached. This article is a great example of how traditional and non-traditional students learn technology. In many ways, students who take online courses attempt to solve their own problems without relying on assistance of an instructor. The student tends to be more independent and self-motivated in their learning and understanding processes. This article also shows that the online students confidence in using technology in the classroom later in their careers is much greater. This article helps to prove that the newer non-traditional styles of learning in the area of technology is better in giving students more confidence, than found in the older traditional styles of classroom learning.

Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants:

Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age

By:  Lynn Helding

http://www.mediafire.com/?mdrdcat1g7jwmhm 

This article evaluates how the increase in technology information is affecting the learning process and how well people are retaining information.  It shows a trend in the amount of information that our short term memory will take into it each day compare to 40 years ago.  It also examines if this is a good or bad thing for the brain.  Short term memory can only hold so much information into it, and with the on rush of new technology and information overload, these items are not being processed into the long term memory.  The article also goes into how the younger generation of today is becoming addicted to technology and new gadgets and how this affects them.  It shows how an adolescent is constantly glued to their smartphone, tablet, or computer.  They are constantly in the "know", and this can have positive and negative effects on a person.

This article is an extremely important article for me.  I too am a technology junkie, and many of my students are the same way.  I enjoy having my iPhone or tablet with me, but there are many times I do not even want to have the items near me.  On the other hand, my students have a difficult time going through an entire class period without trying to sneak out their smartphone to view their latest text message or send a Facebook update.  It is a slippery slope in the education.  Students need to be constantly entertained visually if they are to learn.  Their attention spans are much shorter, and if a task does not entertain them, then they shut down mentally.  As our textbook explains, our short term memory takes can only take in limited amount of information (about seven items) (Ormond, 2009).  It is also noteworthy that students writing and spelling abilities are deteriorating.  They want to write in the short hand version of text messages and do not use proper grammar and spelling.  This article does start an important discussion on the positives and negatives of technology and does help open one's eyes to it.


References:

Helding, L. (2011, Nov ). Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants: Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age. Journal of Singing, 68, 199-206.

Ormrod, J., Schunk, D., & Gredler, M. (2009). Learning theories and instruction (Laureate custom edition). New York: Pearson. 

Peterson, S. L. & Palmer, L.B. (2011,). Technology Confidence, Competence and Problem Solving Strategies: Differences within Online and Face-to-Face Formats. 25(2), Retrieved Jan 12, 2012, from The Journal of Distance Education 

 

The World of Education Technology Blogs

Blogs are a great way to keep up to date on various topics that interest you, and there are thousands of them out there that are sure to peak your interest.  I have taken some time browsing through various sites that are dedicated to educational instruction and technology education.  I thought I would take a moment and share a few of my favorites that you might find interesting as well.  Enjoy!  

Eric

Educational Technology

http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/blogger.html 

This education technology blog founder is Ray Schroeder from the University of Illinois.  It is a blog with various writers.  Updates are done on a daily basis and has existed since 2002.  It includes a number of various resources and articles that are valuable to an educator or anyone involved in educational instructional design.  The topics can range from using technology in your classroom to using everyday technological tools, such as the smartphone to make education more fun and interesting for you and your students.  It is also a worthwhile tool for anyone is an adult learner and taking online learning courses.  The focus is to keep the reader up to date on the latest technology and instructional tools available.  This blog is important for an educator to read since technology changes at such a rapid pace.  

The only downside I see to this blog is that it does not allow for comments and is strictly an information only blog.  It would benefit if educators and IT personnel could interact with one another.  The site also goes out to other news agencies and sites and places links to stories that also relate to the education technology.  It can be a valuable site to gather multiple sources into one place.

iLearn Technology

http://ilearntechnology.com/

This education technology blog publisher is Kelly Tenkely, who is a former elementary and middle school history teacher.  She is also a former technology integration specialist.  This site devotes itself to giving assistance to educators with integrating technology into their classroom and daily lesson plans.  It receives updates on a regular basis and has articles that vary across various curriculum.  It is also a worthwhile blog since it gives access to lesson plans.  Some of the materials are free and others cost a small fee, but many times it is worth it to have prepared lesson plans that give you detailed access to technology in the classroom.  

The site also allows one to search for multiple articles and/or lesson plans based on various learning theories such as Bloom's taxonomy.  It also allows one to narrow down topic fields by grade levels or subject matters in searching for items.  The site does allow one to post comments and start various discussions with others on articles.  It is difficult to find anything negative to say about this site.  The publisher has a good background in education and technology, and the site design is user friendly and makes it easy to find items.

Always Learning

http://kimcofino.com/blog/

This education technology blog publisher is a teacher by the name of Kimberly Cofino, who is currently in her tenth year of teaching technology in international schools around the world.  It receives updates often and is visually appealing with the use of pictures and videos to go along with the articles.  This site gives the reader a global perspective on education and technology in the classroom and is a good source for learning about the unconventional teaching methods that most teachers use.  The article focus is for teachers using technology in their classrooms.  This site goes beyond the usual articles and gives the reader access to multimedia presentations and video training sessions.  The site also gives links to other teachers and students blogs and projects from around the world that can be used in a conventional or non-conventional classroom setting.

The site does allow for comments on articles, so one can interact with other educators.  It is a worthwhile blog to use since it takes perspective from a teacher who is currently active in a classroom setting and because it has a global perspective.  Educators will find this site useful for technology and non-technology information that they can use in their own classrooms.  The only complaint is the site does not allow for narrowing the search for articles according to specific key words or by grade levels.  It is rather large and would be beneficial to be able to narrow the search down to more specifics.

Just Blogging Around!

Hello and welcome to my blog!  It is a pleasure to have you here with me.  My name is Eric Fowler, and I am high school social studies teacher at Wheeling Park High School located in Wheeling, WV (45 minutes southwest of Pittsburgh, PA).  I am also a former IT network systems administrator for a software company.  I have been in education for 12 years, and I love my job.  I also love my job IT job as well.  

I am very familiar with blogs, especially in the world of technology.  I usually spend about 1 hour a day browsing through a list of technology blogs to keep up to date on the latest trends.  I am also excited about this class introducing me to a world of educational blogs to incorporate into my daily reading.  

Cheers!

Eric