It’s easy to walk into a traditional classroom and measure engagement. Depending on how you defined engagement, you could find several different ways to determine if students are engaged in the learning process. During classroom lectures, you could simply look to see how many students raised their hands and participated in the discussion or whether or not the students were on task. Student engagement could also be viewed by the level of academic challenge for the students, or their ability to actively collaborate with other students and the teacher. Nevertheless, over the last two decades there has been significant growth in the awareness of and the ability to assess student engagement.
But how can you measure student engagement when it comes to the use of technology? Can you simply walk in a room and assess how engaged students are by whether or not they have technology in their hands. Our natural inclination as educators would be to view hands on activities as one of the best indicators of engagement. For example, if you were to see several students using iPod touches and collaborating with each other, you would might assume that the students are highly engaged, the same as you would if the students were using math manipulatives.
However, while these students may be engaged, it is hard to qualify the degree of engagement. While using technology may be engaging in and of it self, it is important to evaluate the level of engagement and its role in the learning process.
Traditionally, playing a math game (skill and drill software) would be an acceptable means of learning math skills. However, with the advances in technology, combined with an enhanced need for developing 21st century skills, simply playing games on the computer may no longer be the ideal method of learning. It is not to say that computer games and other types of hands on technology do not have uses in the classroom, but rather that these technologies do not necessarily enhance or promote higher-order thinking skills.
How do we define higher-order thinking?
Higher-order thinking by students involves the transformation of information and ideas. This transformation occurs when students combine facts and ideas and synthesize, generalize, explain, hypothesize, or arrive at some conclusion or interpretation. Manipulating information and ideas through these processes allow students to solve problems, gain understanding and discover new meaning.
-Department of Education, Queensland, A Guide to Productive Pedagogies
Before we look at how to integrate higher-order thinking skills with technology, it is important first to determine and categorize the levels of student engagement with technology. Based on research ² we have found two common labels for describing the level of student engagement with technology. The two common labels are Adaptive and Transformational. Adaptive uses of technology refer to students using technology to do things they have always done but in a different way that incorporates technology. For examples, students have always been able to give oral presentations or create posters with information about a topic they have learned. Now however, students are able to use PowerPoint or other presentation tools to demonstrate what they have learned. This engagement is considered adaptive because the student is essentially learning and demonstrating the same information in the same way, but rather using technology to present.
However, the word adaptive does not always have a positive connotation. Using a word like TRANSITIONAL is a more appropriate way of describing this level of student engagement. The word transitional implies that students are transitioning to digital technology as opposed to simply adapting their learning to fit the technology.
In contrast, TRANSFORMATIONAL student engagement refers to the technology transforming the learning process for the student, and often contains some form of higher-order thinking skills. A very simply example of transformational engagement is a student using Google Docs to compose a paper. Google Docs allows the student to compose the paper in a transitional way, as it essentially acts as a word processor. However, where Google Docs allows the engagement to become transformational is in its ability to allow for collaborative writing and editing. Students can use Google Docs to combine their ideas, compose, analyze and evaluate writing, all within one space. This engagement is transformational in that it takes various elements of the writing process and combines them into one experience, allowing the process to become collaborative, rather than just an individual experience.
In the 1950, Benjamin Bloom created a taxonomy that looked at cognitive objectives. The taxonomy organized and ordered thinking skills under the premise that in order to accomplish higher order thinking, one must first accomplish each cognitive objective. There have been adaptations and revisions made over the years, include ones by Bloom’s own student. Educator Andrew Churches of New Zeland, used the revised taxonomy to create his own Digital Taxonomy.
The new taxonomies put a greater emphasis on creation rather than evaluation. However, we feel that creating can also come at the applying objective. We feel that it might be more appropriate to re-label the final objective as Transfering rather than creating.
In this objective, once students have gone through each process, they should be able to transfer the knowledge and understanding that they have gained and apply it other ways. Creating can still be accomplished at this objective, but it is important to note that the ability to transfer the knowledge and understanding gained should be the ultimate goal.
Technology can be integrated at each of these levels to engage and enhance the learning experience of each student. Teachers plan lessons each day that utilize one or more of these objectives without necessarily knowing it. Yet it is important to evaluate and look at examples of how teachers can engage students in a transformational way that accomplishes these objectives. These are just several examples teachers can use when creating engaging transformational experiences for students.
Remembering: This refers to the students ability to memorize and recall information. An example of a transformational way that students can use technology is the process of bookmarking or social bookmarking. Social bookmarking sites like Delicious allow students to create bookmarks over the web and share their resources with others. This service allows students to collect information in a collaborative way.
Understanding: To help enhance and demonstrate students’ understanding, teachers can create, or have students create blogs. Free, open source software such as WordPress and Blogger are good solution for teachers. Blogs allow student to journal about their experiences and comment and ask questions of other students. An extension of blogging to demonstrate understanding is micro-blogging using websites like Twitter. Micro-blogs can prove to be a challenge for students because they limit the amount of characters students can write. This forces students the condense their thoughts and focus their understanding.
Applying: In this objective, students can use the information they have collected to create something that applies what they have learned. Students can create podcasts or digital stories using various applications to demonstrate what they have learned to this point. It is important however that the student is able to share this with other students, teachers, and/or parents.
(NOTE- We believe that there may be the ability to interchange these two steps. Often times, it is vital to analyze information before a student applies that information in order to create a product/project)
Analyzing: In many cases, the process ends for students before this objective. This is an important step as the students can use information or content from the previous steps and analyze it using technology in a collaborative or transformational way. An example of this could be using Google Docs or a mind-mapping application to collaboratively edit, revise, analyze and re-organize the content.
Evaluating: This objective allows the students to reflect on their learning experience by using technology in a transformational way. Students can create electronic portfolios that combines all of the elements of their learning process on a given topic. Google Sites and wikis are great ways for students to collect their work, reflect, and share with others. This objective allows students the chance look critically at their learning process and experiences, and gives opportunity for other students and teachers to help provide feedback.
Transferring: This is the final objective in the learning process that promotes students transferring the knowledge and understanding that they have acquired throughout the learning process to other problems. For example, students who have used this process to learn about the Bill of Rights can then take the information that they learned, and identify issues within the school to create their own student Bill of Rights, using various modes of collaborative technology.
It is important to note that all of the objectives are not mutually exclusive, and they do not necessarily have to integrate technology. Yet, when planning lessons, teachers should keep in mind these higher-order thinking objectives when planning to use technology that is engaging for students in a transformational way.
With the heavy emphasis on transformational student engagement, it would be easy to assume that transitional student engagement is inferior. This is simply NOT true. There is a place for both types of student engagement, and often the only way to truly embrace transformational uses of technology is for both students and teachers to begin by using it in a transitional way.
The challenge comes in being able to recognize the differences between the types of student engagement with technology, and embrace designing lessons that promote and utilize higher-order thinking skills after the transitional student engagement has been accomplished. When looking at your classroom, here are some questions for teachers to ask themselves when evaluating the level of student engagement with technology:
1) Are students required to use problem solving or higher order thinking skills, or does the activity simply require them to recall information?
2) Are the students engaged with technology in a hands-on way, or are they vicariously using the technology through the teacher’s use?
3) Does the technology serve a purpose that requires students to achieve learning standards, or is it just an additional technology activity?
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