Increasing learning motivation and skills through computer ...

Premier's Special Education Scholarship Increasing learning motivation and skills through computer technology for
students with behavioural and/or learning difficulties Ray Handley
Campbelltown Suspension Centre, Lomandra School Sponsored by
It started with a question asked by a senior NSW Department of Education
administrator in 1989. Looking at the issue of students being repeatedly
suspended for long periods from school, the question was asked "What can be
done to turn around the attitudes to school of these students?". This
research study was one outcome in a series of approaches developed to
answer this issue within education in NSW.
Introduction This 2008 Premier's Special Education Scholarship was used to investigate,
in two locations, the ways in which technology could be used to motivate
students presently disengaged from mainstream school. The use of one-to-one
laptops with the support of an integrated learning management system (LMS)
or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), as these are increasingly being
called, was investigated in the state of Maine in the USA. The Maine
Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) had been operating since 2001 and
provided an example of the effects of a coordinated and intensive
application of technology within public education. While the ongoing
evaluation of this program had looked at changes in teacher attitudes,
pedagogy, student outcomes in basic literacy skills and the accessibility
to learning for students with specific special needs, the effects of the
program on students with behavioural and learning issues invited further
investigation. Complementing the program in Maine was the general introduction of
technology across schools in the United Kingdom (UK). The use of
electronic whiteboards, school-wide VLEs and the integration of information
and communication technology (ICT) into the curriculum had been actively
encouraged through the provision of facilities to schools and ongoing
support through evaluation and policy research by organisations such as
BECTA (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency). In both the UK and USA, students with identified behaviour and learning
needs have available an extensive range of support programs to provide them
with alternative learning opportunities. The programs and approaches that
used technology to provide these opportunities were the particular focus of
this research scholarship.
Scope of the research The scholarship was used to provide travel and accommodation costs while
visiting programs and talking with key people working with learning
technology across the state of Maine and throughout the United Kingdom.
Destinations were targeted from extensive reading as part of an ongoing PhD
project and previous experience as the director a regional alternative
program in Maine. The focus questions of the research concentrated on
finding strategies and approaches that used technology to increase the
participation in education of students presently disengaged from mainstream
schools and looking at how these approaches were working to effectively
achieve what other non-technology approaches had repeatedly been
unsuccessful in accomplishing. The research focussed on finding patterns and connections between the
technology and implementation processes that were used across different
programs and locations rather than focussing on trying to quantify the
changes that might be occurring for these students. The primary rationale
for making this distinction was the difficulty of isolating causal factors
for change with these students when they are involved in programs that
introduce a multitude of influencing factors such as relationships with
staff, change in setting, timing of interventions, interaction with peers,
changing expectations, increased staff interactions, modified curriculum
and increasing maturity. In looking for patterns, the study involved visits to a range of programs
and extensive discussions with the students, teachers, administrators,
policy-makers and evaluation teams working in these programs.
Overview of Findings Before embarking on this study there was some anticipation that the
findings would identify a set of technology tools (eg Animation software,
Powerpoint, Multimedia programs) that were most effective in motivating
the targeted students as well as the best approaches for implementing these
tools. What was evident as a result of the study was that the tool itself
was not of particular significance. What could be identified was that
within the software programs or tools being used to effectively engage
students in learning there were common characteristics that formed the
basis of their success. These characteristics could be found across a range
of programs from sophisticated multimedia programs to simple exercises
using interactive text. In this report these characteristics will be
detailed with support from examples found within the programs visited.
These examples will also be used as the basis for understanding how
technology is achieving this function as the principles of experiential
education and brain physiology guide the discussion.
Characteristics of engaging technology The widespread use of computer technology has only been available in
schools since the early 1990s. Over this time researchers have been
challenged to quantify the effectiveness of technology based strategies in
the improvement of student learning outcomes. Schacter (1995) examined a
number of programs involving technology in West Virginia, USA. While
programs reported a more positive attitude in students and some improvement
in standardised test results when technology was used, these changes seemed
more linked to the teaching approach applied and the enthusiasm of teacher
than in the inherent qualities of the technology implemented in the
classroom. Reeves (1998) further articulates this link by looking at the
difference between learning from technology and learning with technology.
As a result, Reeves et al (2002) developed a model for authentic learning
tasks involved students working co-operatively on significant projects
based on their real life experiences and using technology as the means for
research and presentation. For students with some level of motivation this approach has provided an
effective structure for learning design and with the support of scaffolding
or 'chunking' to enable tasks to be broken down into more easily accessible
components, students with a range of ages and abilities can be
accommodated. Therefore, it was anticipated that elements of authentic
learning would be evident in the patterns found in approaches found to
remotivate students in learning. However, what was identified has little
correlation with the principles outlined in authentic learning tasks
(Reeves et al). An explanation for this disparity will be suggested later
in this report. Within the technology strategies or tools used by programs to successfully
motivate students previously disengaged from mainstream education, the
follow characteristics are evident. The tools:
1. Include immediate, unambiguous feedback to the user
2. Are short in duration, simple to use and clearly defined in length
3. Are responsive and adaptive to student efforts such as creating easier
questions when several questions are incorrectly answered or providing
additional information through pop-ups or links to other resources
4. Provide clear options for explanation, additional information or correct
response
5. Are embedded in a wider framework of activities such as webpage,
multimedia file or VLE
6. Enable students to measure progress and achievement
7. Enable students to produce attractive and high quality work
8. Facilitate mentor support or guidance in designing work programs or
completing tasks
9. Enable students to multitask and access varied media types Each of these characteristics can be expressed with the use of varied
software tools and packaged in different program formats but they remain
the key components for successfully engaging unmotivated students. The
evidence supporting the definition of these characteristics is provided
from the observations of programs across Australia, Maine, the USA and the
UK. In examining each characteristic individually, connections can be
identified with the programs investigated.
Evidence of characteristics While it is beyond the scope of this report to detail the specific way in
which programs use technology to engage their students, an overview is
provided that allows links to be made and cites key examples to explain how
the characteristics were defined. 1. Include immediate, unambiguous feedback to the user
An example (Figure 1) from the Mathletics program used in Australia, the UK
and the USA demonstrates this characteristic by checking the answer and
providing the correct response:
Figure 1 Although presented many different formats across different programs this
type of feedback consistently created in students the desire to move to the
next question and try again. When students were asked 'Why don't you
question the computer?', they looked back perplexed and answered to the
effect it would be stupid - it was just a computer telling me the answer. This example raises one of the key issues when looking at how technology
leads to greater engagement. If a teacher were to look over a student's
work and then place a large, red cross next to the answer then add the
correct answer nearby, students in this target group would often respond by
either refusing to complete the task or by personalising the correction of
the answer and trying to engage the teacher in a confrontation over the
work. However, this does not occur. Students see the computer correction
as a challenge for them rather than an affront to them and respond by
attempting the next question. At Winslow Junior High