Enhancing Undergraduate Learning with Information Technology A Workshop Summary (2002) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A: Workshop Background Paper
Appendix A: Workshop Background Paper
Pages 33-91
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Appendixes
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Appendix A Workshop Background Paper: Excerpts from a Document; Prepared by the Committee on Informai;ion Technology BACKGROUND: THE COMMITTEE ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN UNDERGRADUATE SCIENCE EDUCATION The Committee on Information Technology in Unclergracluate Science Education was organized in December, 1995 and completec3 its work in November of 1999. The committee's charge was to improve unclergracluate science education through the use of information technology.
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disciplines, professors and instructors are using more than one technological innovation to help students learn. Earth scientists employ geographic information systems (GIS)
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Mathematicians, scientists, engineers, teachers, and educational researchers will need to reach a consensus on such questions. Both the power and widespread availability of these new technological capabilities, and recent scientific findings about how people learn are forcing science, mathematics, and engineering faculty members to rethink what and how they teach.
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. ~ scribed an Innovative Instructional sequence in which students learn about nucleophiles and electrophiles in a lecture, construct electron density maps of assigned compounds using molecular modeling software, and then use these maps to predict the outcome of the laboratory experiment they are about to undertake.
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Thus, GIS tools that only recently were restricted to use by professional scientists and engineers, are now becoming part of undergraduate science and engineering programs and courses.2 These developments are likely to result Available: http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/EHR/DUE/ web/ate/atelist.htm#geos.
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Other databases contain images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of planets, stars, asteroids, anc3 comets,4 which can be clownloaclec3 for use in astronomy courses. Digitized video can help students unclerstanc3 the physics involvec3 in sporting events (e.g., pole-vaulting)
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The integration of simulations with real-world data allows the learner to incorporate both theoretical and empirical data to understand a complex phenomenon. Many simulations have been constructed to help students learn long-term research strategies.
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By linking to research databases, simulations may enhance data mining8 and, in some cases, allow students to do original, open-ended research. Using simulations, students can replicate aspects of historically important models and classical experiments.
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. aec1s1on-mak1ng te.g., The BioQUEST Curriculum Consortiumii )
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Information technology can offer all students the opportunity to learn teamwork skills, including students who live off campus. These students often have full-time jobs in abolition to family responsibilities.
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, science (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993; National Research Council [NRCl, 1996b) , and technology 46 (International Technology Education Association, 2000)
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For these reasons, students who have been exposed to inquiry-based learning in their K12 education could be frustrated by many of the prevailing postsecondary SME&T pedagogical practices, particularly at the introductory level. Unfortunately, the laboratory component of many undergraduate SME&T courses also can be less than optimal in developing students' conceptual understanding.
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An increasing number of academic institutions are beginning to integrate computers into introductory science and engineering courses. in the traditional lecture/recitation/laboratory system, computers have been used as aids for demonstrations in lectures, to run simulations, in microcomputerbased laboratories, and for out-of-class problem solving.
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Although CAD bears a superficial resemblance to simulations they both attempt to reproduce real phenomena graphically CAD is only one step on the pathway to designing and manufacturing a real product. Growing numbers of engineering schools are offering CAD instruction, because it provides important workplace skills.
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Table A-1 provides aciclitional examples of innovative pedagogical practices, organized by discipline. 50 ASSESSING STUDENT LEARNING Currently, the dearth of effective instruments for measuring the effectiveness of new teaching anc3 learning approaches that incorporate IT poses a tremendous barrier to the diffusion of these new approaches.
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[8/8/0 11. · Real-World Problem Solving Artificial neural networks that distinguish novice and expert strategies during complex problem solving.
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17/25/01~. 52 · Visualization · Simulation · Real-World Problem Solving · Collaboration · Inquiry Applications of technology include multimedia components for illustrating concepts through simple simulations, animations, and video clips; World Wide Web-based literature searching; MathCADbased problem solving; molecular modeling; graphical representations of large data sets with Quick Time movies; and a few modules with large-scale interactive multimedia components.
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[ 1 0/3/01 1. · Real-World Problem Solving · Collaboration · Inquiry The Center develops curricula, activities' and computer tools that allow students to participate actively in their own learning and to construct scientific knowledge for themselves.
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· Visualization · Real-World Problem Solving Real applications and complex data modeled with computer packages such as MathCad, Mathematica, and Maple. · Visualization · Real-World Problem Solving Single variable and multivariable ca Iculus explored with extensive use of graphics and computational environments.
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A major thrust of the coalition's work is a collection of collaborative educational technology and methodology projects that facilitate sharing of data, information, and resources among member institutions. · Visualization · Simulation · Collaboration Member institutions are developing a variety of hypermedia-based instructional modules covering modern methods and new technologies for manufacturing to be used in campus-based engineering courses and workplace-based training programs.
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The American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) defines assessment as "an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning.''15 Most definitions of evaluation, on the other hand, put little emphasis on feedback and instead concentrate on discrete measures of the overall success or failure of a process or project.
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Assessment data can also help researchers anc3 educators explore varying hypotheses about effective teaching anc3 learning outcomes. Using Information Technology Assess Student Learning , to While information technology is increasingly used to improve unclergracluate teaching anc3 learning, its use in assessment
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It also underscores the fact that evaluation strategies must parallel new classroom practice and learning goals (Linn, Baker, and Dunbar, 1991 ~ and not be neglected as information technology enables a paradigmatic shift in postsecondary teaching and learning. Information technology offers cost and scale benefits, decreased reporting time, and increased validity in assessment of postsecondary student learning.
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3. Because portfolios offer students a variety of ways to demonstrate what they know anc3 can c30, students are steered towarcis becoming reflective learners responsible for their own growth, thus encouraging anc3 supporting multiple learning styles.
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For example, the Interactive Multimedia Exercises (IMMEX) Project at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine,18 which was created to 18 Available: ht~p://www.coled.umn.edu/edutech/ immex/.
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The projects also are consistent with what research has shown about how students learn. Finally, many of these information technology-based innovations include appropriate ongoing assessment and evaluation.
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62 EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND CURRICULUM REFORM Traditional postseconciary instruction has relied primarily on oral presentation of fundamental science anc3 engineering concepts, sometimes accompanied by a laboratory component for students to verify the basic principles presented cluring lectures. These mostly passive learning environments can help some postseconclary students learn effectively.
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; when it is driven by student interests and prior experiences (Shymansky et al., 1997) ; and when a variety of pedagogical methods are used to reach students with a diversity of learning styles (Felder, 1993)
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Similarly, individual differences in motivation to learn and achieve can profoundly impact student learning and need to be considered in developing technology-enhanced curricula. These factors, as well as the three educational theories of constructivism, situated cognition, and distributed cognition, are discussed below.
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. ~ misconceptions can arise trom erroneous original learning, which forms a portion of the foundation of subsequent information that the student perceives as related to the existing knowledge (Zoller, 1996~.
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Many of the examples of unclergracluate SME&T reform initiatives clescribec3 in the previous section are grounclec3 in eclucational research about student learning. For example, the use of the computer as a ciatacollection crevice is consistent with constructivist learning theory.
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situated Cognition Theoretical Background According to constructivism, learners use prior experiences and existing schema to understand new information and create new knowledge. The theory of situated cognition expands that premise by examining the context and culture in which knowledge is constructed.
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Proponents of situated cognition often use the term "cognitive apprenticeships" to describe experiences in which learners engage in "authentic practices" through activities or social interactions. The term is reminiscent of a craft apprentice who learns from a more experienced traclesperson (Brown et al., 1989; Wilson, 1993~.
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This example illustrates several principles of distributed cognition, including the danger of having all the knowledge reside in one individual (Norman, 1992~. As with so 1 1 many act1v1t1es, a commercial plane cannot be flown by a single individual but requires 11 1 collaboration among all crew members.
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The committee reviewed several examples of curricula that incorporate collaborative learning techniques. The Workshop 70 Physics curriculums uses cooperative learning strategies for guided inquiry activities and student projects.
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Group members are responsible for gathering data on a facet of a problem, sharing that data anc3 their knowledge with other group members, anc3 integrating that knowlecige into the overall solution to the problem. The examples iclentifiec3 also enable students to connect to rich resources on a network anc3 communicate with their peers outside the classroom, consistent with the precepts of clistributec3 cognition anc3, to some degree, situated cognition.
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Research to understand gender differences in learning has increased during the 22Benning, V
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Levy argued that visual-spatial cognition, which is typically attributed to the right hemisphere, must share neural space with language functioning in the right hemisphere in females. In comparison, language functioning for males is lateralizec3 to the left hemisphere, allowing more neural space in the right hemisphere for functioning related to visual-spatial activities.
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, who focused on how these layers overlap; options for helping students determine and understand their own learning style; trends in gender-related differences in learning style; and the implications of this information for SME&T faculty members. Two models of learning styles have be
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? Felder and Soloman24 have developed a "Learning Styles Inventory" to help students answer the first four of Felder's questions about their own learning.
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Information technology-basec3 initiatives that allow students to visualize complex phenomena, such as mathematical functions or molecular structures in three dimensions, can broaden the range of learning styles the instructor can accommodate. For example, visualization of math.
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Projects that feature GIS usage or multimedia tools similarly enable instructors to reach students with a variety of preferred learning styles. The Role of Motivation in Learning Theoretical Background The role of science education is to help learners grow in all three educational Ao .
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Information Technology can also be used to tailor instruction to the needs and learning styles of individual students. Instruction that recognizes how much each student has already mastered and what sig.
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(1992~. Prir~ciplesofgood practice for assessing student learning.
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(1989~. Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning.
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(1987~. Learning Styles: Implications for Improving Educational Practices.
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;Jourrlal of College Science Teaching, 23:235-239. Fischer, G
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(1996~. Situated cognition and cognitive style: EEects on students' learning as measured by conventional 83
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;Iourr~al of College Science Teaching, 27~3~:163-165. Herron, J.D.
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(1993~. Accommodating diverse learning styles: Designing instruction for electronic information sources.
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(1997~. Studer~t-active science: Models of ir~r~ovatior~ ire college science teaching.
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(1998~. Developirlga digital national library for undergraduate science, mathematics, erlgirleerirlg, arid technology education.
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;Iourr~al of Research ire Science Teaching, 29~8~:791-820. Orlansky, J
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;Iourr~al of College Science Teaching, 27:317-318. President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology.
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Presented at the American Educational Research Association meeting, Chicago, IL. Springer, L., Stanne, M.E., and Donovan, S
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, Ir~structior~al desirers fur~damer~tals: A review arid recorlsideratiorl. Englewood CliEs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.
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