Technology Effectiveness and the Learning Cycle

Michael Milone, Ph.D.

Technology & Learning Magazine

MMilone@aol.com

The two most persistent questions in educational technology are:

How do we use the technology that is available to educators and students?

How do we evaluate the effectiveness of technology?

Milone, M. (1981) Presentation made at first annual TALMIS conference on educational technology.

The Learning Cycle

Assessment

Application

Elaboration

Initial Learning

Practice

Evaluation throughHigh-stakes testing

Screeningor

Placement

Fidelity of Implementation

Motivationand

Interest

Fidelity of implementation with appropriate adaptation may be the most critical consideration influencing the effectiveness of any instructional practice.

The Learning Cycle

Initial learning involves direct instruction, modeling, or providing the opportunity to learn.

Practice may be guided or independent, but it requires meaningful feedback.

Assessment may be followed by additional learning activities or practice if necessary.

Application is the use of a skill for further learning, such as reading a science textbook.

Elaboration is the self-directed use of a skill in a meaningful way for an assignment, enjoyment, enlightenment, a career, or public service.

Screening or placement assessment are more feasible with technology than with traditional assessment. The results of these assessments should be considered carefully in order to avoid misjudging students’ knowledge.

Motivation and interest are enormously important, and technology can promote both. Be careful not to confuse the motivational aspects of technology with other purposes.

Assessment takes place within the learning cycle and is intended to inform instruction. Evaluation takes place outside the learning cycle and is intended to inform policy makers and stakeholders.

Practice

Practice is the meaningful repetition of a behavior, with feedback, for the purpose of improving the behavior.

Ericsson, K.A., et al. (2006) The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (p. 601)

Deliberate practice is focused, programmatic, carried out over extended periods of time, guided by conscious performance monitoring...It involves appropriate, immediate feedback about performance…But, again, length and amount of practice alone do not determine top-level performance; what is most important is that the practice be “deliberate and well-structured.”

Remember this?

Durkin, D. (1979) What Classroom Observations Reveal about Reading Comprehension Instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 481-533.

Before the present study was undertaken, it had been assumed that at least some of the time they are teaching reading, teachers adhere to a sequence like the following: instruction, application, practice. The data that were collected, however, do anything but support that assumption. Instead, they portray teachers as being “mentioners,” assignment givers and checkers, and interrogators. They further show that mentioning and assignment giving and checking are characteristic whether the concern is for comprehension or something else. Just as comprehension instruction was slighted, therefore, so too were all other kinds.

Not much has changed

Of course, way back then, there was an excuse: The explosion in comprehension instruction research had not occurred yet. Given the large volume of research on the topic in the past quarter century, there has been the potential for a revolution in schools with respect to comprehension instruction. Even so, no revolution has occurred. For example, when my colleagues and I observed fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms in the late 1990s, we, too, saw little comprehension instruction but many teachers posing postreading comprehension questions.

Pressley, M. (2001, September). Comprehension instruction: What makes sense now, what might make sense soon. Reading Online, 5(2).

Most Unappreciated: Practice

Most Neglected: Initial Learning

Most Misunderstood: Assessment

Most Hurried: Application

Most Anticipated: Elaboration

Most Reviled: Fidelity of Implementation

Learnie Awards

Not all students learn at the same rate, in the same way, or with the same motivation.

Teaching, modeling, and the opportunity to learn are easy to overlook, especially after third grade.

Practice, whether guided or independent, requires feedback.

Multiple skills can and should be learned at the same time. Assessment rarely measures underlying skills, just their

manifestations. We measure what we can. There is a difference between application and elaboration.

Related Considerations

Big Questions

How is technology best matched to the learning cycle?

How well does technology work in each stage of the learning cycle?

How do you manage technology so it meets the needs of different students who are in different stages of the learning cycle?

How do you evaluate the use of technology as it contributes to student learning?

How do you determine where your students are in the learning cycle for specific subject areas?

How are computers being used in your school? What are some skills that you want your students to

learn, practice, assess, apply, elaborate? Think of some specific students. How can technology

be used through the learning cycle to meet their needs? What are some specific programs or applications being

used in your classroom? Where do these programs or applications fit into the

learning cycle?

Evaluating Your Technology

Where do these fit? Soliloquy, Fluent Reading Trainer Accelerated Math or Math Keys Read 180, My Reading Coach Achieve 3000 Discovery Education Science Accelerated Reader or Reading Counts STAR Early Literacy, SRI, or NWEA MAP Email, IM, TM youtube.com rocknwrite.com gutenberg.org nationalgeographic.com maps.google.com

“To be really smart about this, you’ve got to use the technology where it works best, not in areas where you need teacher instruction and tutoring,” said Ted S. Hasselbring, a research professor of special education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.