Developing In-Service Teachers' Planning for Collaboration in Lessons With Digital Texts and Digital Internships

• In Event: 79.050 - MTCC Roundtable Session 36
  In Roundtable Session: 79.050-6 - Teachers as Learners: Unearthing the Black Boxes of Computer-Supported Technological and Pedagogical Innovations

Abstract

The use of digital texts and digital internships is growing among K-12 populations, especially in light of the opportunities such resources present in relation to supporting classes with large variability in students’ abilities and skill levels. Shaffer and Colleagues use the term digital texts to refer to “…various interactive hypermedia, such as virtual museums, and computer games and simulations of many kinds” and digital internships to describe technologies that provide opportunities for students to engage in “practice-based or work-based learning” (2015, pg.10-11). It is important to note that these two classifications be thought of as existing on a continuum that bridge the categories depending on the features and their use in educational settings. The literature has often considered these categories one in the same in their description of them as “games”, “video games”, and “serious games” (Tobias, Fletcher, & Wind, 2014). In this project, we explore the way in which in-service teachers plan for collaborative learning activities that leverage digital texts or digital internships.
Collaborative learning activities are becoming a more central feature of K-12 education, including blended and online settings (e.g., Dillenbourg & Tchounikine, 2007, Jonassen, 1999; O'Donnell & Dansereau, 1992; Palincsar & Herrenkohl, 2002). Lessons that center on collaboration through digital texts and digital internships are also gaining popularity in the K-12 classroom, revealing both inter- and intra-group advantages such as "positive interdependence" and healthy competition in group experiences (Gros, 2007; Romero, Usart, Ott, Earp, & de Freitas, 2012; Hämäläinen, R., & Häkkinen, P., 2010). This growing instructional approach has left a gap in understanding of teachers’ planning for such collaborative learning experiences.
As such, this study aimed to investigate teachers’ planning for collaboration using digital texts and digital internships through a multi phase design-based methodology. Phase 1 (n=36) results showed that, despite being enrolled in a graduate-level course designed to included readings, discussion, and activities around SMART goals for lesson planning, CSCL theory, and current collaborative technologies (such as games) for the K-12 classroom, only 25% of teachers provided students opportunities to engage with technology beyond simple memorization of ideas. Further, 18 of the 36 plans for collaboration were situated outside the context of the selected games.On a positive note, all teachers did build some level of student-student collaboration into their plans.
In phase 2 (n=23), the addition of a collaborative game play activity was designed into the graduate-course sequence. Results included a 20.4% gain in teachers planning for collaboration that is facilitated through the technology and a 22.8% gain in the use of technology that went beyond simple memorization tasks. Despite these positive gains, nearly half of the teachers were still using technology for simple memorization or review based tasks.
This study contributes to our understanding by documenting how in-service teachers go about the work of planning collaborative lessons with digital technologies. While the results suggest an overwhelming propensity for teachers to plan for collaboration, the data captures a clear deficiency in how teachers leverage digital technology for the purposes of this collaboration.

Authors

• Aaron Kessler, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Kathryn M. Wozniak, Concordia University Chicago