NECC: Powering Up: Supporting Constructivist Teaching with Technology
This was a research paper session. The first presenter was the writer of a book titled Powering Up. It was based on her dissertation research and has been the subject of a few blog entries here, here, here, here and here. I really had no idea it was the same study until shortly before the session.
Her recommendations are worth noting:
*Make technological and material support a predicatable constant.
*Accept that learning to integrate computers takes a lot of time.
*Keep pedagogy front and center. The best technology use will be rooted in sound pedagogy.
*Urge teachers to use technology through high expectations for teaching practice, not by requiring the use of technology.
*The best teachers are intellectuals - provide material and cultural support to allow development and growth.
There was also another presentation, but the materials were not on the NECC site. I do not remember the woman’s name, but she studied the constructivist use of a software program, Alien Nation, to teach middle school students about the solar system. Her research question dealt with the effects of the program on student motivation and attitude toward science.
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