Section 7 New Directions in IDT

In my science classes, my students are often required to learned and manipulate processes that occur in nature.  One such unit that is coming up in my environmental science classes involves natural cycles that exist in the environment, for example, the water cycle (that is the one that most people are familiar with). 

I can take a textual description of this or another cycle and process it in my mind and understand what is going on.  I also spend tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of time studying ecology, human geography, geophysics, environmental and biochemistry, etc. to be able to do that.  Imagine asking a high school student to read the same passage and process the information! 

 I have never tried to teach this unit using textual descriptions alone.  The cycles are too complex to describe using only words.  Diagrams not only allow users to process large amounts of information quickly, but can also give students an image that they can hold in their minds.  There are also animations out there that will guide users through particular cycles.  The diagrams work best if you require students to explain the cycle verbally, i.e. tell someone else what is going on in the cycle, and through writing.  Technology can be helpful in this regard because students would be able to use simulations or animations of the different cycles.  For example, you could follow the water cycle from the perspective of a drop of water.  The simulated movement of the animation would help show the orderly process of going through the cycle and how the different parts are connected.  They can also be tied to interactive exercises that help support retention and application of knowledge.  Viewing animations and participating in interactive activities could be useful for students at the beginning of their exploration of the cycles, before the teacher and students have had a chance to discuss the cycles and their importance to the environment and humans.  They can also be used as supports for information provided by the teacher.  The challenge would come in determining the best time to use the animations and making sure that the information contained within the animations fits within the scope of the lesson you are teaching.  Unless you make your own animations/videos, you will be at the mercy of the original makers as far as the information provided.  Incorporating the animations at an additional tool/instructional object, while using content delivered primarily by the teacher, would alleviate some of these problems.  I ended up reading several of the chapters and drew from them, mostly ch. 29, 30, and 32.

The use of diagrams, animations, and videos are also useful in order to achieve various educational goals (ch. 38) and increase accessibility of information (ch. 36).  They can be used in guided instructional settings, where the teacher formally guides students through the material in a more traditional educational setting, i.e. I talk, use the diagram as a visual aide and the students follow me.  They can also be modified to allow students to explore the information on their own in order to create initial conclusions before formally discussing the content.  That way, the students can create prior knowledge that the teacher can draw from when formally discussing content.  Informal, student-centered discovery and exploration may not be the best methods in terms of acquisition and retention of information but they are ways to allows students to create connections with their own previous knowledge in a way that works best within their particular schema.  Students can work within their developmental, linguistic, physiological, and neurological limitations if allowed develop their own connections to the content being taught, under the guidance of the teacher.  It is true that a child needs close guidance from a teacher, parent, or other adults when learning something brand new.  However, students also need room to flex their newly acquired information in novel ways that more closely mimics real-world applications.  This can also lead to increased student engagement, since the students are developing new knowledge in a way that “works” for them.  Student engagement is a very strong predictor of student success.