Team 2
From Instructional Technology Wiki
Paper One
Rhonda Griffith Karon Hughes Terri Ferguson Evan Herreid
Instructional Television
Contents |
INTRODUCTION
In the classrooms of today, teachers are expected to be somewhat of super human robots, accomplishing more and more with fewer and fewer resources. We are told, “Make every minute count! As soon as that bell rings, begin classroom instruction!” We are focusing completely on getting students to achieve higher and higher test scores, while very often losing our abilities to maintain close connectivity, implement creativity, and adjust to varying levels of student ability. To fulfill these ever increasing demands made upon them, teachers should be willing to incorporate all aids possible to achieve the goals before them. Instructional television can be a great facilitator to aid the instructional process if used properly.
Today’s digital learners are comfortable with interactive mediums, especially as “television (TV) evolves from being a passive to an active medium, it has the potential to engage learners and reach a mass audience on a scale much larger than traditional education and training” (Chen, Li-Leng; Iris, Carole, 2004). Effective educators are beginning to utilize methods of instruction with which students are already familiar and accustomed to, such as instructional television. The world in which our current students live is very much different from that of even 10 or 15 years ago. Our learners today see video bombarding them from every angle: cell phones, computer pop ups, music mp3 files, and interactive video games. Students are highly synthesized to graphics, sound, and color. Educators should utilize these benefits toward their advantage and have instructional television “create an environment conducive to learning from a variety of media by ensuring that the employed media correlates from the curriculum and ensure that students are active users” (Bransford, Klee, Michael, & Warren, 1993).
DESCRIPTION
Instructional television (ITV) is a form of distance education designed for use in schools to supplement other forms of instruction. Because of the program’s focused subject matter and short length (typically fifteen to thirty minutes in length) teachers can easily integrate the use of ITV into the curriculum. Many of the producers of the televised educational programs provide teachers with lesson plans and other materials to integrate along with the curriculum.
ITV is integrated into education on three basic levels: single lessons, selected units, and full courses (Lochte, 1993). 1. ITV used as a single lesson introduces one specific topic or concept. The lesson provides an introduction and overview of the topic. 2. ITV used as a selected unit provides the foundation of the topic for the course curriculum. 3. When ITV is used as a full course, a series of programs is integrated into the curriculum along with printed materials.
ITV can also be used to supplement and enhance the learning process in the classroom in varying ways. ITV can be used passively or interactively. Passive ITV is a pre-produced program distributed on videocassettes, by broadcast, cable, or satellite. Interactive ITV provides opportunities for interactions between instructors and students.
The instructional television programs in the United States are usually shown during the daytime on public television stations. There has been a decrease in the number of public TV stations allotting time towards ITV.
HISTORICAL AND/OR CURRENT PRACTICES
There are various accounts that reference the start of Instructional Television (ITV), but they all seem to somewhat agree that it was first actively integrated into the classroom in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. During this time ITV was mainly used as what some refer to as “the master teacher” in which the instructional video itself was the main source of information while the teacher assumed the role of supervisor. By the late 1970’s, ITV became a "back to basics" movement which presented opportunities for the application of basic skills to life situations. By the 1980’s, ITV had begun to offer more programs and series available than ever seen before. The production of the VCR and DVD, as well as schools acquiring cable systems, gave way to more integration of ITV programs readily available for teacher use. Some teachers used them as a classroom aid to help with regular instruction; some teachers used them as the source of instruction, while a lot of teachers never used ITV at all—due to reasons that still exist today with the use of computers.
Today, hundreds of millions of students have had access to ITV programming due to programs being recorded to videotape by media specialists and then made available throughout the school year to teachers—such as today’s Channel One seen across America in many schools. Even now the growth of the Internet and the impending arrival of digital video transmission have all created new channels for ITV delivery. Many ITV programs can now be viewed over the Internet complete with a teacher’s reference guide to assist the instruction of the video itself. A few of today’s examples of ITV sources include: 1.) North Carolina’s own UNC-TV which broadcasts many ITV programs on the air as well as loans out IT videos to teachers for classroom use. Many of these programs come readily available with teacher’s guides which explain how they can be used. 2.) Video loans to teachers supported by many colleges and universities as well as libraries and state departments of public instruction. 3.) Internet sources like The Futures Channel. 4.) North Carolina offers free to all NC educators an instructional videotape library known as School Television (STV).
POSITIVES
Instructional Television can be an effective teaching tool due in part to its familiarity and ease of use. ITV has a low cost of entry into education therefore has been a good medium for instruction over the years. (Corcoran, John S) Instructional television can be scaled to the user’s benefit by using short segments to introduce subject matter as well as delivering total course content over time. An example of this is the use of United Streaming as a medium of delivering short segmented instruction. The fundamental capabilities of Instructional Television can be described as either Passive or Interactive. Whereby passive being described as content delivered, devoid of feedback from the population, and the audence is being administered to, interactive is enabling the audience to interact in some form or activity with what the audience has seen or heard.
In passive method instruction, students in a classroom can view pre-prepared content which can have the ability to allow the student to see and learn about content that may not be accessible in their current surroundings. In an interactive environment, the audience has the capability to respond to the original presenter or to others if the instruction is being presented to within multiple groups, thus allowing the audience to ask questions of the presenter, group, or comment on what they are seeing (Wheeler).
Instructional Television can also be used as a motivational tool to aid in the development of knowledge. It can be used as a supplement to daily instruction for students that may be falling behind as an extension of students' instructional day. As the knowledge base increases, the instructor can reward the student by allowing the student to choose additional content that they would like to learn about from the available viewings.
ABUSES
Instructional Television has many advantages for its users, but those who utilize it must also consider some of the weaknesses that surround this medium and what can be construed as abuses of the technology. One abuse of the system possible unmonitored instructional outcomes. If the facilitator does not monitor the broadcast in a passive environment and something goes wrong with the transmission, the audience cannot let the facilitator know about the issues. This demonstrates an environment similar to that of a complacent teacher showing a movie just to pass time in a class.
Another abuse to consider is that of over usage. In a study published from the National Association of Media and Technology Center, Ron Enger looks at the use of ITV and other media devices in Japanese schools and how they have affected learning within a media and educational setting. The article concludes with Enger rethinking his position altogether on technological aids in the classrooms. The students in Japanese schools still had a high achievement level even without a great number of media and technological aids in the classroom.
SUMMARY
Electronic learning has become an integral part of organized learning in today’s high tech society. Whether learning by modes of satellite broadcasts, audio/videotapes, interactive television, online classes, or virtual worlds, electronic instruction is a means that can be individualized specifically to each student’s needs and their own individual pace at which he or she needs to move throughout the curriculum (Kirk, 2002).
Educators today need to move from states of complacency and return to the reasons they first entered the field of education. Ask the question, “Why am I truly here?” If it’s just to collect a paycheck until the 30 year retirement mark rolls around, the classroom may not be the ideal place to work out the remainder of those years. However, if there is a genuine passion for learning, instruction, and assisting students of all ages in the quest for improving themselves and their situations, then the classroom may be the right place for that educator who will never earn what he or she truly is worth. The question to ask every day before entering the classroom should be, “how to teach information efficiently” (Cuban, 3).
WORKS CITED
Bransford, J.D., Klee, T., Michael, A.L., & Warren, S. F. (1993). The transition form theory to therapy: Test of two instructional methods. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 7, 139-153.
Chen, Li-Leng, Iris, Carole. (2004). Interactive tv: An effective instructional mode for adult learners. A paper presented at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology – October 19-23, 2004. Chicago, IL.
Cuban, Larry. (1986) Teachers and machines: The use of technology since 1920. New York: Teachers College Press. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Information Resources. Syracuse, NY. Gunter, Glenda A., Kenny, Robert. (2004). Video in the classroom: Learning objects or objects of learning? A paper presented at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology – October 19-23, 2004. Chicago, IL.
Enger, Ron. (2004). Use of instructional television and other instructional media in japanese schools. National Association of Media and Technology Centers. Retrieved June 3, 2007 from http://www.namtc.org/newsletter-file.php?id=17
Hendry, Dave. (2001) Instructional television's changing role in the classroom. The Technology Source Archives at The University of North Carolina. http://technologysource.org/article/instructional_televisions_changing_role_in_the_classroom/
Kirk, James J. (2002). E-learning: An executive summary. Retrieved June 1, 2006 from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/0d/bf/40.pdf
Lochte, R.H. (1993). Interactive television and instruction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications. Zugner, Lisa Crooks. (1987) A reappraisal of instructional television.
Retrieved from "http://zeno.ced.appstate.edu/wikis/CI5630/index.php/Team_2_discussion"
Wheeler, Candace, Batchelder, Ann, Hampshire, Mike. (1996). Instructional practices of televised distance education at Northern Arizona University, The. Education, Winter: 1996. Retrieved on June 6, 2007 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3673/is_199601/ai_n8738474/pg_4
Zugner, Lisa Crooks. (1987) A reappraisal of instructional television.
QUESTIONS
1. How do you use ITV?
2. How do you see the future of ITV?
FUTURE (PAPER TWO)
Schools in 2029
Well, I’d better get up from this breakfast table and finish my lesson plans for the week! Nothing is being accomplished by me going through these holographic news images of what some reporter thinks is going to happen tomorrow. Whatever happened to the good old days of simply reporting on what actually happened to yesterday? That we could count on as actually being true! This stuff is just like going to a palm reader or ‘using data and statistician’s results based on previous happenings for the past 100 years on this date in history to accurately reflect the day’s outcome for today. .’ blah, blah, blah. Personally, I don’t think anyone can predict the future, and I don’t think it’s healthy for us to know about what may or may not happen to us our world. But who am I to suggest anything such as that?!? I am just a lowly educator in the year 2029.
I can remember back to my first year of teaching. Most teachers say their first year was their worst, and mine was bad in the fact they had taken all of the juvenile delinquents and put them in my third period Computer Apps I class, third period. It’s funny how I still remember their names: Solo, Walker, Andrei, Jewel, Matthew, Dustin, Smith, and that girl I had my first confrontation with, the one I had to throw out of my class for cheating on a current events quiz . . . oh, what was her name? Meagan Poole! Oh, I didn’t think she was going to leave! In fact, she told me she wasn’t going to; she stood right up in my face and defiantly said, “No, I will not leave, and you cannot make me!” The first thing I wanted to do was grab her by the hair of the head and throw her out! But I didn’t think that was the thing to do for a first year teacher in her first week of school. Instead, with my heart racing and pounding within my chest, I said, “Oh you’ll go . . . One way or another!” And with that I went to the phone and began to dial the office in order to get the principal or SRO or someone to get this infidel out of my room. My hands were shaking so bad, I could hardly hold the phone. And once I read the office number from the list on the wall, I was so nervous, excited, and angry all at once, I ended up calling the cafeteria the first time and had to redial the office a second time in order to get the secretary. I guess Meagan knew I meant business because by the time I finished my call, she had collected her things and left my room in order to head to ISS. The entire display had all been a test, a test to see if I would really throw her, an excellent student with a mouth problem (and a cheating problem) out of my class. Besides, I was new and all of the kids wanted to see how far I would go. I had no idea that day would set the wheels in motion for my reputation as an educator and me that my life’s motto would be “fair but firm.” Meagan returned the next day amid a shower of tears, throngs of “I’m sorry’s,” and 2 days of ISS to boot. I accepted all but informed her she would never perform her charades in my class again! Had that actually been 29 years ago? In some ways it seems like only yesterday, and in others it now seems like a lifetime. Those were times when I was able to actually interact with my high school kids, be able to comprehend what they were going through by their actions, facial features, and body language, and work late after school enabling the students to come back and talk about everything, something, or just . . . nothing. They would see me in the halls before school or during classes and say, “Hey, Mz. G., what’s up?” then come and run to give me a big hug. There’s nothing better than seeing a 6’4” gangly junior boy smiling with braces standing with open arms to give a high school computer teacher a hug because you made a connection with him over spreadsheets and databases. That boy’s name was Lucas Walker, and I’ll certainly never forget him! He wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box, but in my class, I offered him something many teachers never gave him—respect. And in return, he did as I asked: the assignments, projects, group work, and even passed the class, though he ended up dropping out of high school. I often question did the system fail Lucas somewhere along the way? Boy, I sure am being nostalgic this morning! It must be the fact that I am a short timer and looking retirement right in the face! This is the middle of my last year of teaching and has it changed from what I once knew as the love of my life—education. Teaching used to be my life, my passion, my dream profession. Oh, I wasn’t in it for the money! That would be a laugh. But I never had any children of my own, couldn’t. Those children that came through that door every day, every week, every semester were my kids. I loved them like my own. I taught them all the requirements the State of North Carolina said I had to ‘STRAIGHT FROM THE CURRICULUM GUIDES,’ but then, I also taught them a great deal more. I taught them about morals, values, ethics, how to be kind to others, how to forgive even when you didn’t want to, treated our classes as ‘families’ instead of groups of rows of seats and desks enabling the students to bond with one another for a few short 90 days at a time. For some of the at-risk students, these were the only family atmospheres they ever knew. We laughed while we completed drills for formulas in spreadsheets. We used creativity in compiling Desktop Publishing flyers. I allowed them to use their own music and photographs of friends in the simulation of Photo story presentations, which made the applications more real to them. We did all of this and so much more! This was teaching before the year 2010.In 2010, North Carolina handed down different mandates to all educators and so began the end of my teaching career as I knew it. Subtle changes began before 2010, but we really didn’t say too much about the things they were asking us to do. Oh, we griped and complained about the scripted lesson plans we had to read, and I had technology VoCATS tests that I actually had to teach in order for the students to be able to know all the tests. But we never said, “NO! We refuse to do this! We refuse to teach this way, refuse to allow you to make our students become mechanized!” And now, it’s just happened. We’re all stuck in this way of life and can’t get out. I don’t really have lesson plans to prepare, not like I once did. There aren’t even any textbooks to use anymore. All information is burned on CD’s and archived in computer memory. If the students want to do research on a specific topic, they use a touch screen, enter a few key words, and everything is there for them. The sad part is they never question, “Is this information correct? Who put this information out there? Where did it come from?” We have lost our generation of thinkers. I remember a time when we, as business teachers, used to teach courses like word processing, and even before that, typing! Now, with plasma touch screens, none of that is necessary. Keyboarding skills are obsolete. Computer users simply memorize where the letters are on the screen. My lesson plan involves a hologram of myself each morning welcoming the students to Central High School, giving them announcements such as if there will be a football game after school or when the school yearbooks will be available for shipment to their drop boxes (if they want one, they simply order it online, paying for it the same way). School photos are no longer taken but rather collected from school ids electronically, so there’s no need for students to go through that process any longer. Having no textbooks, there is no need for lockers now, which has actually cut down on a great deal of space in our new high school. Naturally, we are one centralized high school with all students in one location. It is much easier to monitor security and crime rates this way. All students wear an id bracelet containing the entirety of their school records from kindergarten forward in this bracelet. Each year, the bracelet is updated and downloaded wirelessly from the schools mainframe computer. As the students enter school and pass through the metal detectors each day, the bracelets are also read and scanned for all of the information. Needless to say, once the bracelets are placed on your left arm, you can never remove them. And we all wear them--students, teachers, administrators, janitors. Even though I have never committed a wrong against society, every day I go through that metal detector, my heart skips a beat until I clear. I’ve heard more than one kid that was taken away say, “THIS IS A MISTAKE! I’ve never done anything like that! You have to call someone! Computers make mistakes too!” There were some good kids too they took away, but now, I’ve learned not to question. In my first few years of teaching, I would have fought for them. But now, I would be taken away and never heard of just like the rest of them. So, I keep my mouth shut and wait out the rest of my time. Other information contained in this bracelet is how many days the student have been absent from school. If the student has been absent over the allotted number of 5 days, containment officers come and pick up the student from class, and quite honestly, I don’t know what happens to the student after that. I’ve seen a few leave but never return. I shudder to think what has happened to them! If the student has ever been involved in a crime, the bracelet will set off an alarm, and once again the containment officers come to take away the students, who are never seen or heard from again.
As a teacher, I no longer have interaction with my students. The students file into an enormous lab daily in order to complete all of their assigned coursework. The lab houses 100 computer stations all separated by temporary walls 4 ft. high, so they cannot have any interaction with anyone else. The stations are stainless steel, the chairs are stainless steel, and the floor is stainless steel. The lights overhead are all fluorescent and make no sound at all. Once my hologram has made the few daily announcements, it then disappears from the work area. Students know they are to complete all of their assigned coursework depending upon their grade level, assigned courses, and tasks. I have grades 9-12 in the same lab. They work independently on all courses from Algebra, Geometry, American History, Literature, English, Earth Science, Civics, Computer Applications, Spanish, and so on. They will work on any of the required courses for them to graduate. They work in modules (similar to what I used to call chapters). Once they complete a module, they take a computer generated test on their own. The student must make 85% or better on the module test in order to advance to the next module. If the student does not make 85% on the module, he or she will go back and repeat the module again. I do not assist the student in any way with questions on content. There are holographic images built into the modules of other teachers’ lectures explaining that module from which the student can generate for explanations or assistance. Students may not work together or ask questions of one another. My computer monitors the work of all 100 students. It will alert me if any one of the students is off task and automatically generate a demerit for that particular student. Once a student receives 10 demerits, he or she loses credit for the entire class they have signed up for, and the containment officers . . . well, you know the rest. The students work from 8:00 a.m. until 12:00 on their class work in complete silence. At 11:59 a.m., a red light in each of the stations signals, and the students stand up, file out single file, walk to the cafeteria, to be handed their lunch pre-arranged on a lunch tray for them. They have exactly 29 minutes to eat. During this time, they are assigned tables according to grade levels. The administrators feel assigning students according to grade levels will reduce the opportunity for gang related activities and fights to break out. However, they do allow the students at each table to talk to one another, which I think is an enormous benefit to the students. Teachers are also assigned to tables according to seniority. I guess the administrators do not want those of us who have been around almost 30 years to affect the new teacher’s outlook on education. Again, administrators afford us the great luxury of being able to talk among our colleagues during our lunch break. They are very good to us here at Central High School! At 12:29 p.m., a huge red light above the door in the cafeteria flashes red, all students stand, carry their trays in total silence to the kitchen window, and walk single file back to their assigned labs. All students take their seats and resume their class work until 2:49 p.m., when the next red light signals the end of the day. Students exit the building single file, making sure to scan their wrist bracelet to upload pertinent test scores, parent emails, and other valuable information to take home. As I sit at my stainless steel desk, assigning demerits, I have to ask myself, “How did I get from an interactive, creative teacher who knew all of her kids by name to someone who now sits here for 8 hours a day overlooking 100 droids that are only known by #3575, #9750, and so on?” Is this the passionate career I was looking for? Is this the difference I wanted to make in someone’s life? I could never have imagined in a thousand years this is what a school system would have become! And yet, here I am, staring at the end of a 30 year career with flashing lights and stainless steel. These “students” wouldn’t know a creative thought if one slipped into a crack into their mind! However, they score wonderfully on every test that is put before them. Why shouldn’t they? They are test driven. That’s all they ever do! But are they learning? Do they retain the knowledge they see before them? None of the administrators ever bother or even care to ask these questions. Will I be able to make another 6 months until my retirement? Some days, I feel as if MY head is about to explode in this stainless steel environment! How do they do it? “Mrs. Griffith, you have exactly 2 minutes to prepare your holographic lesson plan for tomorrow’s lesson. Do you wish to proceed now?” (Pause from the computer) “Yes, I wish to proceed.” (ahem) “Good morning, and welcome to Central High School! Today . . .”
- This is the fictional account of a High School Computer Lab Teacher
