IT and the Victorian Essential Learning Standards ... knowledge building and collaboration

“ICT supports knowledge-building among teams and enables team members to collaborate, inquire, interact and integrate prior knowledge with new understanding.”

PAST

The word collaboration comes from the Latin ‘collaborare’, meaning: work together. Sharing information and learning through teamwork has been around for decades. It’s application and use in education has fluctuated over the years, but the most significant adoption occurred with the advent of the Internet. As access to the Internet has exploded across the globe, so too has technology facilitating collaboration.

Consider gathering a group of 60 year olds from all over Melbourne and asking them to collaboratively work on an assignment? What tools would they use? How effective would their time be used? Interestingly, I’d imagine that much of their content would rely on their own individual expertise and knowledge. Whereas with students of today, technology has opened the door for them to quickly source information from so many places, in an instant (their challenge is more about information credibility and validity).

PRESENT

Significant research points to the benefit of students constructing their own knowledge. The concept of scaffolding student learning and empowering individual discovery is a theory that was developed by Len Vygotsky, a Russian Psychologist.


Constructivist ideas can be found in many areas of education, including curriculum and learner-centered programs (Schunk, Dale H., 2008. Constructivist Theory (Chapter 6). In "Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective. 5th Edition". (pp.234-277). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson, Merrill Prentice Hall). Furthermore, people produce knowledge in different ways depending on their context; learning is now seen as a social activity. Therefore, by encouraging students to undertake active learning in collaborative environments, (Kukulska-Hulme, A., 2010 "Learning Cultures on the Move: Where are we heading?") has shown that student performance can be improved.

How does this link to digital technologies and science education in Victoria?

It was interesting to read that the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) concur with the contructivist model and highlight that “Using ICT tools for building knowledge and understanding can transform students’ learning in all domains”. Amongst others, VELS goes on to cite research done by Jonassen, D., 1998 in his paper ‘Constructivist Learning Environments on the Web: Engaging Students in Meaningful Learning’. It is clear that Victorian schools are encouraged to use technology to share ideas with peers, provide feedback to others and enhance their own understanding.

Students who share collective responsibility for a task are required to utilise skills which differ from those necessary for individual tasks. This is important to recognise because science research has become incredibly interconnected. Collaboration not only occurs within a laboratory, but across different laboratories, different specialist fields and different countries. An individual person is now just the smallest component of the larger scientific community. 

Research projects such as the Human Genome Project or the Hadron Collider are examples of such projects which demand the skills and knowledge of hundreds of people/systems working in unison to answer some of science’s biggest questions. As such, students must be encouraged to learn the skills, behaviors and processes that make up this on-demand collaborative framework.

Is it about the technology?

Let’s consider the Human Genome Project in more detail. Would the results of this work have been as likely if digital technologies were not as pervasive? Hardcopy texts and physical newspapers are no longer the ‘norm’ for students. VELS acknowledges this and, amongst others, lists immediacy of results, ability to collaborate and multi-modal learning opportunities, as valuable benefits of using ICT instead of just pen and paper. BTW, if you are interested in knowing more about mutli-modal learning, check out:  Multimodal Learning Through Media: What the Research Says by Fadel, C., & Lemke, C., 2008.

So, how do students prefer to access material? They prefer on-line, instantaneous access to information. With the explosion of social networking, students have access to people across the globe. This is powerful. Ideas can be shared and gaps in knowledge can be filled without the need to visit a library or speak to a teacher after class. Experts are now much more accessible – to all levels of society. Collaboration is no longer a planned activity, it is part of (student) life.

The IT domain of VELS encourages the use of IT and collaboration, in fact one of the three dimensions of the IT Domain deals specifically with communication. In fact, VELS seems to strongly promote digital technologies and their value in education. Interestingly, the only question I have relates to the absence of any specific IT relates content. In my day there was explicit IT education (which was called computer science). In essence, a student’s experience with digital technologies really depends on the school and the teacher. Fortunately, research from indicates that students enjoy working with digital technologies and will do so when they have the opportunity. Moreover, they are forever developing their ability with friends and family through the use of their mobile devices. This daily usage affords an advantage to teachers; it results in students being much more comfortable with ICT in the classrooms and beyond.

Of course this new era comes with pitfalls. The key is to focus on the advantages and invest the time to properly supported students; highlighting the limitations and boundaries of ICT and properly scaffolding their use.

FUTURE

I leave you with a question for further consideration: “when people find information quickly and integrate this information with prior knowledge to create new understanding … is there a relationship between the time taken to find the material and the retention of the new understanding?

How does VELS deal with Ken Robinson's views in the above video?

MD.