RESULTS
AND FINDINGS
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The
teacher's IPT experience and application
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| Ms. Rose,
who began using IPT in 1998, had five-month's experience using this
technology when the study began. Ms. Rose explained that even though
she had used IPT in the computer lab and in the classroom as a teacher
demonstration tool, introductory tool, assessment tool and visual
images concepts, she was still continuing to investigate how to
use it in the most effective way in her classroom. Noted Ms. Rose:
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"When we were doing
Sound Waves, as an example, there is an image that shows both the
crest it went through very well, we were able to cut through and do
a plot. This became a teacher type of demo I used it that way, where
I could demonstrate visual images of a concept (I: CPS: Ms. Rose,
p.2). When I did the counter map section, we used IPT as an introductory
aspect, did a little bit more work outside of the computer framework,
and then I went back in and started using it as an assessment tool"
(TI: CPS: Ms. Rose, p.3).
Ms. Rose varies the way she
uses IPT depending on the nature of the activities. She may have the
students work in pairs on one computer, or she may have the students
in small groups or sometimes she demonstrated the IPT activity in front
of the whole class. She usually utilizes curriculum related IPT activities.
She also uses the tools in IPT to design her own activities. For example,
she designed a Sun Dial activity to show her students the relationships
between sun and time.
Information gathering
Most of the time Ms. Rose prepared activity sheets for the data collection
for her students. This was helpful for the students when they started
to make conclusions and draw inferences from their data. Ms. Rose said:
"…It is a
State objective…All of the data are right there…if we are
doing measurements, there is a measuring table that will store the
measurement for them. But I'm finding my kids do better with paper
and pencil in front of them, so I have them transfer from that table
to the actual table there. The other thing is reality. The Ohio State
requires students to develop their own charts, their own graphs, and
their own tables rather than computer programs develop them. So, this
actually allows them to get the data and report it, then do a chart
or table on their own" (TI: CPS: Ms. Rose, p.7).
Using activity sheets was
a good way to report and track students' responses from both the teacher's
and the students' sides. When the students finished with the task, Ms.
Rose collected the activity sheets for evaluation purposes. At the same
time she was meeting the state's objectives that require the students
to gather data and report information.
Ms. Rose also designed and
created an activity "Sun Dial" using the
drawing program, which is part of IPT. Ms. Rose said:
"…. [It] was
one of the activities I designed…. I animated it. It was in the
middle of winter; normally I would take the kids outside to do a living
sundial program. Because of the weather condition we could not do
that, so I supplemented this with what I would normally do and used
the program that way" (TI: CPS: Ms. Rose, p.2).
The students' background
in technology and IPT
According to a computer background questionnaire, all students in the
class were computer literate. Ms Rose also stated that her students
were familiar with technology and most of the software related to the
seventh grade. However, most of the students were confused regarding
the use of computers and an understanding of the IPT software. The students'
perception of IPT was not related to the images, but the computer program
itself. This was not surprising at all since the IPT Technology was
new to these students and the teacher. To get correct information from
my interviewees I reminded them of the names of the activities in IPT
and of the terms I used during my interviews.
Problems encountered in
implementation of IPT
Class A had completed seven activities in earth science, biology, physics
and math during my data collection. These activities were Devil's Tower
in 3-D, An Eagle's - Eye View, It's Just a Phase: Observing the Moon's
Cycles (Earth & Space Science), Polygon Patterns (Math), Roller
Coaster, Wave Watching (Physics), and Animal Hands (Biology). Ms. Rose
defined the activities according to the difficulty level of her students.
They sometimes had difficulty following the steps. Therefore, Ms. Rose
prepared handouts for the students. She gave me an example of the instruction
sheet of step by step directions. One of the interviewees also clearly
defined that their teacher usually worked on complicated activities
before or after class to determine if there were any problems. When
they used that activity the teacher told the students how to avoid the
problems or work through them. My third observation, the class was working
on how to construct a "Contour Map" Ms. Rose was warning the
students:
"Don't use the
whole screen since the computer doesn't have enough memory to handle
the whole screen (FN-6: CPS: Computer Lab 1: 11-15). …Pay attention
the color of the brush, which should be black. If your brush is white,
you can't see the background since it is white (FN-6: CPS: Computer
Lab 2: 2-3). If you are not good with a mouse, be careful and don't
be so close to the boundary you draw" (FN-6: CPS: Computer Lab
2: 9-10).
The students did not have
difficulty using the software, because of the teacher's hints and step
by step directions for some of the activities. Due to their short time
experience with IPT, students were not very comfortable in the use of
IPT as the teacher explained that "the IPT software is not user
friendly and it is basically a teacher-oriented design." During
my interview Ms. Rose strongly emphasized that the user interface of
IPT was frustrating describing some of the activities as complicated
regarding the steps to be followed. This resulted in the time consuming
effort of writing her own directed lessons. She accounted her frustrations
saying:
"It is not student
friendly at all. This is very much a teacher-oriented
program. It doesn't have self-guides or checks in it that keeps kids
from getting into things…. In some of the activities they have
to go through so many different steps that it gets to be confusing.
…. I don't think the program is set up real well for the teachers
to write her own directed lesson" (TI: CPS: Ms. Rose, p.5).
For example, in the activity
Roller Coaster, in order for the students to be able to follow the activity
independently, her effort to redesign the students' directions proved
to be a difficult task. In the end, she opted to present this material
as a whole class activity with discussion as the activity proceeded.
In addition to software implementation
problems, they sometimes had technological problems with individual
computers or the entire system. Mr. Admon, the technology coordinator,
was the support personnel responsible for system failures and other
issues. On the day I was going to do my second observation, we had some
technological difficulties.
Today is Tuesday and I
am supposed to do my second class observation. When I got home, I
found a message on my voice mail both at home and on my office telephone.
It was from Ms. Rose. Her message: "This is Ms. Rose over
at CPS. I left the same message at UC, too. The computer system and
network is down right now. It seems it will be down this afternoon,
too. If we reschedule you for Thursday, then show up on Thursday.
Talk to you later, bye" (FN-5: p.5).
When we were talking about
technology problems during the interview
Ms Rose stated:
"Technology in
itself though can be frustrating 'it's gonna go wrong' like Murphy's
law. 'It's gonna go wrong,' plan on it going wrong when you don't
want it too" (TI: CPS: Ms. Rose, p.18).
Effects on science teaching
and learning
The students I interviewed identified that the advantage of using the
IPT software was a different way of being able to visually view real
life images. Seels (1994) refers to visual learning as the acquisition
and construction of the knowledge as a result of interaction with visual
phenomenon (Moore & Dwyer, 1994; Seels, B. A. p. 107). In IPT images
the values and meaning are embedded in the images, so the students derive
the meaning from the visual information. It is easy to convey meaning
through visual instruction. While students learn things visually they
also improve their visual thinking skills. Seels (1994) describes visual
thinking as the internal reaction stage that involves more manipulation
of mental imagery and more sensory and emotional association than other
stages of visually learning (Moore & Dwyer, 1994; Seels, 1994, p.
104).
Most of the students used
computers to learn science before, but two of them were using it for
the first time. Except for one student, none of them had used digital
images. Although these students did not have a basic knowledge of digital
images, all of them pointed out that computer-based instruction made
learning easier, more visual and enjoyable.
Jenny says "…makes
learning easier and faster because computer images help us better
build pictures and graphics in our minds and heads" (SI-3: CPS:
Jenny, p. 1).
Andy says "….
Easier, because if it is more on the paper, it is boring. It is more
fun on the computer. I think I'm more interested in learning on the
computer" (SI-5: CPS: Andy, p. 2).
Sue says "….
Makes it easier because it gives you pictures instead of reading it
out of the book, so giving visual images. In reading you have to picture
it in your head, if you don't draw picture right, you may get different
picture in your head" (SI-6: CPS: Sue, p. 2).
Ms. Rose believes that students
need visual images to learn. She says:
"…. Most of
our students need some kind of visual images. We hook
onto that new data based on how we interpret, how we learn, how we
store memory, how we hook it on something we already have. They come
with limited past experiences and visual images give them something
to hook the rest of the stuff they have already known" (TI: CPS:
Ms. Rose, p.9).
She approached learning through
constructivism and also believed that the child who is unable to learn
with abstracts, or who cannot develop abstract concepts or abstract
ideas benefited most from the IPT technology. She also pointed out that
the activities in the IPT software were designed as hands-on activities,
therefore, giving students experiences and opportunities to construct
their learning.
