Challenging Subjects & Technology

Some subjects in a school’s curriculum pose more challenges when incorporating technology into the mix. We want to make sure students are participating in meaningful learning and they are able to understand the facts of a subject and have a conversation with real understanding. We don’t want to students to merely memorize facts in preparation for a test and later forget what they have memorized. (2006. Ashburn and Floden. p.87) There is a lot of talk about meaningful learning and some fear that it is becoming only a catch phrase when it really requires planning and preparing to create lessons that facilitate meaningful learning. It not easy to create a lesson that will engage students and some subjects can be more challenging than others. Ashburn and Floden discussed that history has been “cursed by bad publicity” (p.88). I agree that this is true. When we think back to history class we usually think about a boring string to facts to memorize. What we were missing was the connection to the events that surround the facts. We needed to make these events real to our lives so we can make a connection.
How can we achieve meaningful learning in challenging subjects such as history? “New technology can become a sociocultural tool that can bridge the gap between students’ novice acts of thinking and the more sophisticated cognition located in the discipline’s practices.” (1998. Kozulin) Technology is the way to understanding for subjects such as history that have been challenging for students to understand and connect to the meaning. On page 111 of Ashburn and Floden Mr. Robert Bain discusses his sample web page that provides navigation boxes alongside text about a subject in history. These navigation boxes are hyperlinks that connect to further explanation of a word or subject or go back and reference a previous lesson. This kind of web page has scaffolding build in so the student can fully understand the reading.
In technology supported learning environments, the metaphor of scaffolding is appealing in principle…the appeal of the principle lies in the fact that it directs attention to the role of instructor or teacher in the learning process and emphasizes that good teaching is responsive to the state of understanding achieved by learners. (1999.McLoughlin. p.2) If students are coming into our classes and without the understanding required to learn about history or social studies scaffolding is a great way to meet them where they are and provide these students with the support they need. Not all students will require the same amount of support so scaffolding on a web page using hyperlinks is a great way that students can choose the help they need.

Citations:
Ashburn E.A. and Floden R.E. (2006). Meaningful learning using technology: What educators need to know. Teachers College Press. New York.
Kozulin, A. (1998). Psychological tools: A sociocultural approach to education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
McLoughlin, C. (1999). Scaffolding: Applications to Learning in Technology Supported Environments. http://search.ebscohost.com