taking stock of information events will help us ...€¦ · web viewmost of the teachers surveyed...

Elliot Soloway, Information Seeking Theorist,

Believes Maximized Use of Technology

Will Enhance Curriculum

Delivery and Assessment

By Liz Ryan and Catherine Benson, SISP students, 523L

Use Technology to Enhance Learning

Elliot Soloway understands when the general public and education environment

become frustrated when they don’t have reliable sources of information readily available.

He is on the faculty at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, as an Arthur F. Thurnau

professor in the College of Engineering, School of Information and School of Education.

He and his colleagues from the Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education,

have researched the use of computing technology to enhance learning in the classroom.

To alleviate some of the stress encountered in using computer technology, our

society needs information specialists dedicated to teaching the general public and

educators how to use these innovative computing technologies to help teach people

become less fearful and frustrated by their world. When people are educated using

computer technology, and become familiar with its use in their everyday lives, they will be

grasp new technologies and the futuristic visions that come with them, and use the

technology to their benefit. “It is our responsibility to create the workplace conditions that

Liz Ryan and Catherine Benson Information Seeking Behavior Research PaperISP523L October 19, 2004

enable, compliment, and support teachers,” (Soloway, Becker, Norris, and Topp, 2002, p.

23). Soloway supports the integration of computing technology so that we may get the

most beneficial use for our educated society.

Maximize the Use of Computers

Taking stock of information events will help us collectively understand where we

are going, where we have been, and where we should be heading in the future, as

information specialists. Elliot Soloway’s current research makes a good attempt at

helping educators analyze what has happened and where we are going so we can gain

insight into the benefits technology has for us in the classroom. Soloway’s research

shows that science and information technology are available to teachers and students but

their skills and knowledge levels are limited to realizing how to maximize the use of the

technology.

Elliot Soloway’s studies show students are not exposed enough to computers

during the school day to make and impact in the curriculum, or able to enhance test

scores. Soloway’s theory suggests maximizing the use of information technology and

other technologies, will enhance curriculum delivery and assessment. Soloway argues

that maximizing the use of technology should increase administrative efficiency with

respect to time, information and organization, and accordingly, positive measurable

results will be attained.

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Computer Lab vs. Computers in the Classroom

Soloway participated in research reflecting the most sensible way to organize

school computers. In the “Teaching, Learning and Computing Survey” (Becker, 2000, p.

24), Elliot Soloway and his fellow researchers investigated the instructional uses of

computers at more than one thousand schools. The study concluded that generally

teachers have access to shared computer laboratories or general resource centers like

the library that are set up for student use. Most of the teachers surveyed said their

students go to the computer lab for instruction, rather than having computers in the

classroom for students to use.

When computers are not integrated into the classrooms, a hindrance in student

fluency with computing technology results, because the teachers don’t use them

frequently enough with the students to make a noticeable impact on their learning.

Conversely, the study found that teachers, who do have access to classroom computers,

were more likely to have students utilize the computers for authentic learning. Notably,

there is a difference in giving students access to computers in the computer lab,

compared to having students use computers available to them in the classrooms, with

their use tied thoughtfully into the lesson plans, thereby maximizing the technology

available. Keep in mind, most schools have computers available for students use in the

library as well. With more collaboration between the library media specialist and

classroom teachers, computer technology could be integrated into curriculum in yet more

learning opportunities, as information seeking skills may be taught to students, in using

the Internet, accessing databases, or using the automated card catalog.

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Success Comes When Certain Conditions are Met

As a result of this research, Soloway concluded that there are insufficient teacher’s

computers available to work on technology in the school. Although there is a lack of

access to computers, which hinders technology integration in schools, Soloway

concludes, over ”…the past 25 years when certain conditions are met, computing

technology has a positive effect on learning and teaching in the primary and secondary

grades,” (Norris, Soloway, Sullivan, 2002, p. 15). The conditions that must be achieved

in order for Soloway’s theory to work must include the following:

sufficient access to technology,

adequate teacher preparation,

effective curriculum,

relevant assessment,

supportive school districts and administrations and

supportive family and community

There are no surprises here. These conditions are needed for any educational

innovation to be successful. (Norris, Soloway, Sullivan, 2002, p. 15).

Tasks, Tools and Time

What is needed for the successful integration of computer technology into the

curriculum, these conditions must be met, but Soloway has additional suggestions for its

incorporation to have an impact in schools. Technology may sometimes be a roadblock

for collective sharing of knowledge and therefore, improvised solutions are impossible,

through the lack of collaboration and deficiency of support. But, inspirations arise and

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technology problems may be solved through more informal social interactions in a

collaborative educational setting according to Soloway’s solution called “The Three T’s of

Elementary Education” (Soloway, Norris, Blumenfeld, Fishman, Krajcik and Marx, 2000,

p. 15). Through tasks, tools and time, information specialists and technology instructors

can “construct a new generation of computationally based networked tools to support

teachers and teaching” (Soloway, Norris, Blumenfeld, Fishman, Krajcik and Marx, 2000,

p. 15).

Soloway suggests using the Three T’s Theory will solve and thus eliminate

consistent problems affecting the integration of technology including the following

complaints: technology is available in schools, but the pedagogy and skills are not

available to teachers; there are no training plans, there is a lack of professional

development time or proficiency levels for the necessary skills; there are but few experts,

self-taught through their own initiative and tenacity; few teachers maintain their own

websites; servers are not always available for teachers to upload their websites or

subject associations to share resources; insufficient teacher’s computers available to

work on the technology at school (Soloway et al., 2000, p. 20). These are the problems

schools face when adding technology without fully thinking the issues through.

Technology is added for the sake of adding technology, and not for gaining the maximum

benefits it has to offer.

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A Change is Called for

For solutions, Elliot Soloway suggests a change in the educational system is

called for in supporting with a new generation of standardized assessment and teacher

collaboration. He suggests using embedded assessment to give students, “ongoing

feedback and assessment to the children themselves, their teachers, and to local and

state boards of education” (Soloway et al., 2000, p. 20). In support of collaboration,

Soloway states “when teachers meet with fellow teachers to plan their instructional

activities…[this common planning period] is correlated with schools in which significant

improvement in education has been achieved” (Soloway et al., 2000, p. 20). The school

library media specialist should be able to collaborate with teachers to achieve student

improvement, to offer diverse reliable sources for lessons, to help students get excited

about knowledge seeking, and help students develop into life long learners.

The Role of the Librarian

Technology knowledge is the understanding and use of information or “know how”,

where as information is simply just data or “know that”. This very difference is the key

evidence that information professionals and librarians in particular will continue to play a

crucial role in our future. As our society is bombarded with information on a daily basis,

these essential professionals are trained to know how to sort, locate and retrieve valuable

information. Why do we need librarians, if information can be accessed from home

computers? The answer lies in the role of the librarian, to pass on the knowledge of

using the correct resources to find reliable information that is being sought.

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Elliot Soloway contends this important piece of technology integration: knowledge

a student can learn, and using that knowledge to gain more knowledge, building upon

what the student knows, as in scaffolds, which “are designed to make often complex work

tasks more accessible to learners” (Abbas, Norris and Soloway, 2002, p.98). From his

research in computing technology, he admits “using information resources as part of the

school curriculum is extremely complex for students and teachers. At the same time, it is

increasing important that we help students learn skills that enable them to navigate the

complex world of information and help teachers develop methods, strategies, and

knowledge for teaching with and about these skills (Wallace, Kupperman, Krajcik and

Soloway, 2000, p. 102). Technology is the keystone toward implementing “The Three

T’s: tasks, tools and time” (Soloway, Norris, Blumenfeld, Fishman, Krajcik and Harx,

2000, p. 15). Information specialists can help navigate through the influx of information

and collaborate with educators in this process, to teach such skills, to find reliable and

credible sources of information. Soloway does not ignore the fact that there are many

technology problems to deal with today. The proliferation of information on every subject

imaginable is difficult to wade through but it is only different, not bad, according to

Soloway.

Keeping Students Engaged

With the influx of computing technology, also comes with it, new ways to engage

students as they learn programming in computer science. The “Nintendo Generation”

(Guzdial and Soloway, 2002, p. 17) wants to use “today’s technology [to] manipulate

sound, graphics, and video with …responsiveness and ease” (Guzdial and Soloway,

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2002, p. 20), unlike in the past twenty five years one would program by inputting

seemingly endless and monotonous code with little output to show. Soloway’s studies

have brought him to believe students will be excited and enthusiastic to learn in this

manner, to manipulate the technology to get results, in sound, graphics and video. This

technology presents vast opportunities for entertaining, authentic learning, meaningfully

engaging students as they learn. It is the job of the teacher to learn new strategies that

work toward implementing new technology (Guzdial & Soloway, 2002, p. 20). But, as

stated before, technology should be thoughtfully implemented, not simply thrown into the

curriculum. It should be utilized for a purpose, because it has been proven effective in

engaging the learner or provides an enhanced opportunity that would not have been

accessible without that technology.

“It’s true that classroom technology has not had a positive impact on teaching and

learning, but it’s equally true that the lack of impact is overshadowed by a widespread

lack of technology access” (Norris, Sullivan, Poirot & Soloway, 2003, p. 25). This was the

conclusion drawn by the end of “The Snapshot Survey” (Norris, Sullivan, Poirot &

Soloway, 2003, p. 16), which surveyed over 4,000 K-12 classroom teachers, and it

clearly shows there is a failure of significant positive impact that technology has made in

schools overall. The Snapshot Survey cries out in the critical need for Elliot Soloway’s

theories of authentic learning and the Three T’s need to be implemented. Librarians will

be crucial to this implementation. As information specialists, they open the door to

technology exposure by offering students use and access to technology for a purpose.

Information specialists will utilize technology for: interpretation and enactment of task

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and engagement in the information-seeking process, gathering information and

information evaluation, navigation strategies, searching strategies. The ultimate goal for

the learner is to become information literate through carefully chosen technology use and

guided instruction, whether by the teacher/librarian or by scaffolding, building upon what

the learner knows already.

Online Classes

Online classes and the Internet will also play a major role in reshaping education,

not because simply providing information to students from a distance offers and

alternative way to learn, but traditional classrooms will change for the better, with the

addition of technology, thoughtfully added to the curriculum. Many classrooms have

become information dispensers, where student achievement largely depends upon the

degree of and individual’s motivation to learn and their ability to internalize the knowledge

dispensed to them. If the same type of learning can be achieved without geographical

boundaries, than more doors open for communication to students who may not have had

this opportunity. The advantage of virtual classrooms is that it will finally force educators

to utilize their strongest tool in their arsenal, the benefits of the social impact of learning,

and to use these benefits toward the passing on of critical knowledge to students

(Soloway, Norris, Marx, Blumenfeld, Krajcik, & Fishman, 2003, p. 19).

Online Learning

A yearlong study was done with sixth grade students attempting to describe how

students interact and learn from on-line learning environments (Hoffman, Wu, Krajcik,

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and Soloway, 2003, p. 324). This study concluded that “students can benefit from access

to on-line resources when extensive support and scaffolding are provided by the teacher,

but this is far from automatic (Hoffman et al., 2003, p. 343). Again, the role of the

information specialist should be to facilitate this support and offer knowledge to ease the

consistent difficulties of technology integration.

So Much Information

Although information technology has its complications and presents difficulties,

with the explosion of information readily available at your fingertips – in almost any

subject imaginable – but the benefits are found in harnessing its accessibility, and we rely

upon information literacy skills to locate the appropriate information when sought.

Soloway and other researchers help us become conscious of the information

technology we use. In addition, they articulate the annoying inconveniences we

experience when information is not always readily available or accessible. In conclusion,

occupations such as librarians or information specialists are pertinent to assist society in

conveniently accessing credible and reliable sources of information. Committed

information specialists are here to prevent the fear and overwhelming burden society

seems to have of new technology. Education is the key to understanding technology of

the past, present and future. As educators, information specialists will serve as a liaison

by connecting the separation of fearful users to the technologically advanced future.

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Additional Technology—New Roles

One of the talents a School Library Media Specialist should possess is to be able

to help students refine their questions and able to teach them to hone their searching

skills in order to find the most appropriate information. This ability is no longer limited to

finding information in encyclopedias, books, newspapers and magazines. Librarians are

now responsible for technology leadership in the school and with that, there are new

techniques they may use and teach others to use in order to find an answer. Teachers

and helpers play a significant role in modeling their behavior to keep students continuing

on a productive search for reliable information. The librarian also needs to teach that

while some web pages may seem appealing, the content may not be significant. Not all

of what is retrieved from the World Wide Web is going to be relevant, or even correct,

and the students must be taught to evaluate the sites when they are gathering

information. In the information-seeking process, the librarian is available to help the

student bring focus to his search, refine it, and through their further investigation and

exploration of the material on the subject, help them obtain relevant information (Wallace,

Kupperman, Krajcik, Soloway, 2000, p. 88).

The Internet and a Digital Library

Elliot Soloway encourages librarians and information specialists to feel

comfortable using the technology available to help students navigate the complexities

they come upon when using the different resources. The Internet may be used as a

search tool for inquiry-based learning, but lesson plans must be carefully constructed so

that students will be engaged, and thoughtful learning and synthesizing of the information

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will take place. The digital library created by the University of Michigan would be exciting

for students to use, since it was designed on a platform basis, with the information

tailored to the students learning abilities (Wallace, Kupperman, Krajcik, Soloway, 2000,

pp. 98-99). School Library Media Specialists should be able to make decisions for their

library as to what databases their school should purchase, and one designed with

platforms tailored to each student’s abilities would be ideal. “We must try to identify and

understand the conditions that enhance the use of computers in the classroom, and

develop strategies to create those conditions in our schools” (Soloway, Becker, Norris,

and Topp, 2000, p. 23).

Librarians as Leaders

Librarians need to be at the forefront of leadership in technology in schools. We

should help others learn and become more comfortable with technology, making it more

accessible to teachers and their students (Minkel 2001, p. 36). We should be lifelong

learners and continue to sharpen our skills, staying abreast of advances in technology

and helping to integrate them into the curriculum.

Through collaboration between the School Library Media Specialists and teachers,

lessons may be taught that incorporate technology. Teachers cannot integrate

technology in the classroom if they don’t have access to computers (Norris, Sullivan,

Poirot, and Soloway, 2003, p. 20). Libraries usually have more computers than

classrooms do, so what better place to integrate technology in the curriculum? More

computers are necessary in classrooms, but with more usage time in the library, the

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students would become more familiar with technology, if it has been integrated

thoughtfully into the curriculum.

Students Will Rise to the Challenge

As technology “is transforming productivity in U.S. industry, [it is predicted]

technology will do the same in education” (Soloway, Norris, Blumenfeld, Fishman,

Krajcik, and Harx, 2000, p. 20). If students gain more accessibility to computers in the

classroom, and are engaged in meaningful learning, then that may be something we can

look forward to. In order to ready children for the technology they will encounter in the

workplace as adults, Elliot Soloway suggests teaching multimedia programming first,

before teaching the fundamentals of computer programming in code, to teach students

an array of ways to manipulate the media. The students will rise to the challenge as they

get positive feedback quickly, with relatively few keystrokes. He demonstrated with an

example using sound reproduction in Squeak, a cross-platform multimedia with a digital

recorder (Guzdial and Soloway, 2002, p. 19), to engage students manipulating their own

recorded voice, rather than the usual path of computer programming in numbers. This

suggestion and program is geared toward college-aged students, rather than elementary

or secondary levels. This program may be an option, if the school is advanced teaching

technology skills, and therefore, the School Library Media Specialist should be consulted

to make recommendations for the technology being taught in the curriculum.

Another recommendation Elliot Soloway makes is to have palm-sized computers

for a one-to-one ratio for students in schools for an increased level of accessibility of

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students to computer technology (Norris, Sullivan and Soloway, 2002, p. 4). That desired

level of accessibility may not be available in school districts as of yet, due to monetary

restrictions. In the meantime, not only should School Library Media Specialist provide

access to technology for students and teachers to aid in teaching the curriculum, we also

should keep in mind those who may not have computer access at home. As information

specialists, we can offer access to the media center at hours before and/or after school,

with the support from the administration, for those who may not have access to

computers or the Internet otherwise.

The School Library Media Specialist is Available to Help

In the media center, School Library Media Specialists provide guidance for

students to find answers or explanations in a variety of media: encyclopedias,

dictionaries, databases, books, maps, etc. Students are directed to materials appropriate

for their grade levels and learning abilities. Scaffolding tools help students tackle

problems and find solutions, which may have been too difficult for them to find answers

previously, without the aid of scaffolding (Quintana, Reiser, Davis, Krajcik, Fretz, Duncan

Kyza, Edelson and Soloway, 2004, p. 338). This new approach involves the use of a

digital library and is learner-centered software that is tailored to the individual by his/her

learning abilities and achievement levels, and is based upon their inquiries, or questions

to the system (Abbas, Norris and Soloway, 2002, p. 104). This would be a fantastic tool

to use in the media center; its use envisioned in many purposes for aiding pedagogy in all

areas of the curriculum. School Library Media Specialists make recommendations for

appropriate materials for students and teachers to use in the classroom to aid in learning

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and when this software becomes available, this would be another tool to be

recommended for use.

Another way School Library Media Specialists could collaborate with teachers is to

help with professional development and help not only themselves, but other teachers

become more proficient at their jobs (Blumenfeld, Fishman, Krajcik, Marx and Soloway,

2000, p. 151). Teachers who are not experienced or comfortable using technology will

be challenged to incorporate it into the curriculum. School Library Media Specialists

could help change the atmosphere by promoting open communication and cooperation,

and that may lead to collaboration. School Library Media Specialists could hold

workshops to teach how to use some of the technology that would be valuable for

teachers every day use, or for individual project-based curriculum. Other suggestions to

bridge the gap in communication with teachers, School Library Media Specialists could

aid by putting examples of student’s project on the school website, or help teachers set

up online grade books for the administration to view, (after privacy issues would be

addressed), recommend websites for teachers to aid in lesson plans (Soloway, Norris,

Blumenfeld, Fishman, Krajcik and Harx, 2000, p. 15).

In the curriculum project presented to Schenectady Christian School, Liz Ryan and

Catherine Benson plan to incorporate some of Elliot Soloway’s theories in how we will

introduce third grade students to understand the electoral process, and raise their

awareness of how a candidate is elected. Scaffolding will be used by the teacher and the

School Library Media Specialist to aid the third graders in finding the most appropriate

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materials for the students’ grade level. In an organized lesson, students will research

election vocabulary words using the dictionary as an aid, using the book as well as the

electronic version. The students will then compare the results of their findings. If time

permits, students who accomplish the task quickly will be given a second vocabulary

word to research. This will incorporate the use of computing technology to the class and

allow for the students to compare the use to physically looking up something in a book. A

web site will be designed with the students’ ages in mind and with information geared to

their learning abilities. Although it is not possible to create a digital library for their

inquiries, as Soloway had access to one in his studies, the web site that we will have

designed will be appropriate for the third graders to use, and it will incorporate technology

into the curriculum.

There are not enough computers in the media center for all fourteen students in

the class. As Schenectady Christian School is a private school, funds may be limited for

increasing the amount of hardware purchased in the school, thus limiting student access.

We will have to split the class up and alternate the groups using the computers so that all

the students will have their vocabulary word researched on the computer, and therefore,

be given an opportunity to compare the results of their findings. There will be a member

of the support staff, available to help monitor and aid students using the computers.

The teacher and the School Library Media Specialist are enthusiastic about the

collaborative project and look forward to seeing how we plan to incorporate the web site

into the lesson. The students are not allowed to surf the web on their own when they visit

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the media center. For this project, our team will design a website that will have content

that is age appropriate and links available to further explain the electoral process to

children. The children will be monitored while they are on the computers to see how they

interact with the website, as we won’t have embedded technology to report the findings to

the inquiries the students make, as Soloway had in his studies and was able to retrieve

information from the tools that were designed to obtain such information (Abbas, Norris

and Soloway, 2002, p. 105).

Students will also be encouraged to find answers using encyclopedias,

dictionaries, books, newspapers and magazines. We believe the students will be excited

to be able to work on the computers, using the website, and we hope to engage them

with interactive activities, as well as having sound, graphics and animation, as they look

up definitions in the online dictionary. They will be able to listen to the word’s

pronunciation from the online dictionary if they would like to hear it. Soloway reminds us

that children who have grown up with computers are comfortable using them to access

information and will want to produce something after they have learned it (Guzdial and

Soloway, 2002, p. 18). The jeopardy power point project using election vocabulary words

should prove to be beneficial in Soloway’s eyes, as we incorporate more technology into

the lesson plan, to further promote the vocabulary words. The web site will be designed

to keep the students engaged with activities, such as the power point game of Jeopardy,

and this curriculum project will help students learn there are other forms of media

available to find solutions, as we incorporate teaching information literacy in the media

center. Students will be asked to compare their findings of definitions using the different

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resources. This project will increase the students’ awareness of the different forms of

technology and multimedia available to use, and help them feel more comfortable using

the different forms to find answers in the lessons we devised.

Conclusion

Elliot Soloway makes a strong argument, backed by his research, to show how

increased productivity and opportunities for teaching correlate with the increase of

technology added to schools. His studies conclude that if students and teachers increase

their access to computers and carefully integrate technology into the curriculum, there

should be a positive impact, as shown in the “Snapshot Survey” (Norris, Sullivan, Poirot &

Soloway, 2003, p. 16). As Information Specialists, we should strive to be leaders of

technology, integrating technology in the library. As School Library Media Specialists, we

should provide opportunities for teachers for collaboration, and help educate those who

may not feel as comfortable, to seamlessly integrate technology into the curriculum. The

theory, technology and tools are available for us to use.

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