Teaching for Understanding Chapter 1 & 2

In reading chapter one and two in Teaching for Understanding with Technology a key point that stood out to me was the importance of teaching for understanding. Sometimes it seems hard to teach for understanding when you have to worry about certain standards that students must know and test students must pass. Many times teachers get caught up in teaching to help their students pass the test instead of teaching for understanding. Wiske, Franz, and Breit (2005) mentioned that Teaching for understanding involves making learning meaningful for students and helping them make sense of what they learn instead of memorizing facts and formulas. In order to achieve making learning meaningful for students it is important to have clear goals about the topics being address. The topic should be worth understanding and the teacher should figure out exactly what is it about the topic that the students should understand. There also should be a clear way of knowing when the student has gained an understanding and a way for the student to demonstrate that they understood the lesson. By this, there is a shift of attention from what the teacher is teaching to what students are learning. (Wiske, Franz, and Breit, 2005).

Another key point that I got out of the reading was about integrating technology when teaching for understanding. Wiske, Franz, and Breit (2005) mentioned that applying new technology would help enhance the lesson and help teachers teach for understanding. I think it is a great idea to incorporate technology in with teaching for understanding but it may be difficult for some teachers depending on the technology provided and training provided. The school in which I am substituting at has a computer lab but is not often used and there is not a computer teacher there. I think that the computer lab was used more when I was a student there. I remember having computer lab once a week and there was a computer teacher. It surprised me to see the lack of use today especially with the way technology is advancing. With the pressures of standards and tests some teachers may feel that they do no have enough time to prepare students for the tests and other requirement and include technology use.

References:

Wiske, M., Franz, K., & Breit, L. (2005). Teaching for understanding with technology. Market Street, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Using Technology to Enhance Student Inquiry

While reading Debbie Abilock’s article Using Technology to Enhance Students Inquiry one key point that was mentioned was that fact that teachers, librarians, and other educators should work together to help students to engage in their learning through enhancing their inquiry skills. A way this can be done is through the use of technology in the classroom. Enhancing inquiry skills can help students become information-literate by being able to find and use information (Abilock, 2001). It is important that students know what they are learning about, how to find more information about the topic, and how to apply the new information.

The second key point brought about through this article is how students’ research can be used to construct knowledge through the use of technology. Abilock used the global warming and history project as examples of this concept. Within these research projects, students were using their inquiry skills through experiments, simulations, and readings. The students were then able to draw conclusions and better understand different points of views on the particular topic. Many times, especially in history classes, students are just given one side of the story or event and are not given a chance to explore other opinions.

A third point is how students can use information that they have learned through inquiry and apply it to real world situations. For these project students used problem-based learning strategy which means that students a presented with ill-structured problems that mirror an authentic situation (Abilock, 2001). Through this process, students are better able to related and understand complex issues, developed informed positions, locate data to support their positions, and evaluate the authority of sources (Abilock, 2001).

ReferencesAbilock, D. (2001).Using technology to enhance student inquiry. In LeBaron,J.F. & Collier C. (eds.). Technology in its place: Successful technology infusion in schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.