ارزيابي فرآيندهاي آموزشي فاوا - محور: يك چهارضلعي معيوب

Evaluating IT-Based Pedagogical Processes: A Broken Quadrangle

اين پژوهش به ارزيابي نحوه ي استفاده از فاوا در مدارس «هوشمند» مي پردازد. بدين منظور، رويكرد كيفي و روش مطالعه ي موردي اتخاذ شده ي كلاس هاي دبيران رشته ي رياضي- فيزيك سال دوم متوسطه ي استان زنجان مورد مشاهده قرار گرفت. نمونه گيري به روش هدفمند انجام و 12 كلاس براي مشاهده ي فعاليت هاي ياددهي-يادگيري انتخاب شد. يافته ها نشان مي دهد معلمان از فاوا عمدتا براي ارائه ي اطلاعات به دانش آموزان استفاده مي كنند؛ دانش آموزان كمتر فعال بوده، بيشتر شنونده ي فاوا هستند؛ علي رغم وجود رايانه براي اكثر دانش آموزان، تنها يك رايانه استفاده شده مابقي با روپوشي پوشانده شده اند؛ باوجود جذابيت هاي بالقوه ي فناوري، رفتارهاي حاكي از بي توجهي به درس نسبتا زياد است. به طوركلي كاربرد فاوا در مقايسه با آموزش سنتي تفاوتي در كاركردهاي معلم، دانش آموزان و فرآيندهاي ياددهي- يادگيري ايجاد نكرده، متن و تصاوير كتاب هاي درسي و صداي معلم را در قالب ديجيتال به همان روش سخنراني در سبك آموزش سنتي ارائه مي كند. فاوا در كنار معلم، محتوا و دانش آموزان اضلاع يك چهارضلعي معيوب هستند.

Technology, as a modernity relic, does not have a prolonged background in educational settings. However, in a rather short history, it has seen twists and turns in the course of its appearance in schools. As Simsek (2005) reports, educational technology’s presence was partially due to the supply of industry rather than the demand of pedagogy when the concept of “visual education” emerged in the beginning of the twentieth century. With the expansion of such a concept schools were considered as a potential market and consequently the “visual education offices” were founded) p. 178). Technology Integration Matrix, developed by Florida Center for Instructional Technology, is one of the various models that provides a framework for evaluating technology integration. This study was also an attempt to examine how high school teachers applied technology in their educational activities . Research objective Iranian Ministry of Education spends extensive amount of funds to provide schools with technologies they need. It also implements continuous professional development sessions to prepare teachers in order to keep abreast of technological changes, which in turn consume a considerable sum of expenses. Along with the direct technology supplying as well as teachers preparation costs, there exists a more implicit opportunity cost. It accounts for the opportunity overlooked when an alternative pathway is taken. The opportunity cost, in the case of supplying schools with technologies, could include a variety of educational tools or activities that could have been provided had the aforementioned technology and training costs not existed .Given the importance of examining how these triangular costs, the current research was conducted to explore the applications of these technologies in their educational practices. More specifically, it examined how ICTs were applied in “smart schools .” Method The research benefited from a qualitative approach and a case study method. Participants included twelve 10th grade mathematics and physics teachers in the province of Zanjan, Iran. The classes were used applying intentional sampling, as the research objective was to study the teachers who had ICTs in their classes and used them in their educational activities. Data were collected through non-participatory observations where the researcher used note taking, photographing and/or video recording tools whenever the permission was granted . Results Findings showed that teachers generally use ICTs to transfer the content to the students; students are passive and only listen to the media; despite computer sufficiency, only one of them is used and the rest are covered; and majority of students were mentally absent even though the technology has potentials to attract their attention. Overall, application of ICTs has not changed traditional teaching or students ’learning- transforming the text, pictures, and teachers’ voice into digital ,and presenting them traditionally have been the only changes taken place. Such a picture depicts ICTs along with teachers, content and students as four sides of a broken quadrangle. The teacher uses technology and one of the angles has been created by adjoining them. In fact, from turning the computer on to using the educational software is all done by the teacher. The second angle is formed as the result of bonding technology and content, i.e. the content is delivered by means of technology. The content that traditionally was delivered though the textbooks and teacher’s voice is now digitized in the form of software as a medium. A more important relationship which should be between the teacher and students does not exist. Communication between them is a oneway road as a knowledge transfer route leading to the third broken angle. Students rarely engage with the content to build their own knowledge hence causing the fourth angle to break apart . Studies conducted on the technology applications in teaching and learning emphasize the core idea that technology leads to learning improvements (Noeth & Volkov, 2004). The idea is vital even though hard to examine (WestEd., 2002; U.S. Department of Education, 2002). Examining the idea of “improvement”, this study depicted that technology is rarely used in favor of leading to deep learning; ostensibly, the education seems modern but having roots in the traditional realms where medium is only a means of transmission. Why do educational processes see little improvement in spite of these modern technologies? What is missing which leads to a broken quadrangle? It seems that the teachers were less equipped to integrate technology in pedagogy even though they were trained with the appearance of technologies in classrooms and emergence of “smart schools”. The training agenda has mainly focused on the technology operation mechanisms rather than its pedagogical benefits. To gain these benefits, teachers need to know where, when and what technology should be used and what the pros and cons of a particular technology over the others are. It requires such a mastery to apply conceptual understanding in practical contexts, the highest level of technology literacy that Davies (2011) calls phronesis. Research suggests that a constant integration of technology in daily pedagogical activities has the potential to lead to such wisdom (Lawrence & ,Fraser Calhoun, 2013). It is also worth mentioning that the level of technology integration in the studied classrooms mainly fits within the “entry” stage of the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM). As the matrix developers describe, at the entry level, it is the teacher who normally uses technology to convey content, and students are limited to listening, watching or working on pre-designed activities. This picture is congruent with the “emerging” approach that Anderson and Weert (2002 (showed in their Continuum of Approaches to ICT Development in schools .