Designing the Digital Classroom

With everyone hopping on the digital bandwagon these days, it’s no wonder educators are doing the same. Technology affords numerous opportunities for learning unparalleled by any other medium, and teachers, unhampered by distance barriers, can now find resources from all over the world.

In 2003, the National Science Foundation launched the National Science Digital Library—a massive amalgamation of resources for science, engineering, and mathematics education and research.  With over 1.5 million learning resources online, the NSDL literally puts the world at teachers’ fingertips.

Such a plethora of knowledge is certainly a tremendous resource, but it can also be overwhelming for a busy teacher.  Between the lesson planning and the class time, teachers often don’t have the time to sift through thousands of resources on the web, no matter how useful they may be.

Thanks to USU researcher Mimi Recker, however, using the NSDL is now easier than ever.

“The goal of digital libraries is to provide instant access to a growing network of high-quality, interactive, and free online resources for teaching and learning,” said Recker.  “These libraries give access to a collaborative network that allows teachers and learners to share knowledge freely.  They offer tremendous potential for enriching and transforming classrooms.”

The NSDL may be replete with knowledge, but synthesizing all of the information into an effective lesson plan isn’t always the easiest task.  Besides not having enough time, teachers may not know how to integrate the information they find on the NSDL into their lesson plans.

“America’s youth were born in a digital world, so they are fluent with all kinds of technology,” said Recker.  “But teachers need support developing their capacity in regard to effective 21st-century teaching.”

To help teachers delve into the increasingly digital world, Recker and her fellow researchers, with funding from both the NSF and USU, have devised software, dubbed the Instructional Architect (http://ia.usu.edu), to help educators find online resources in the NSDL, assemble them into classroom activities, and share them with students or other teachers.

“The Instructional Architect enables users—particularly teachers—to discover, select, sequence, annotate, and reuse online learning resources stored in digital libraries to create lesson plans, study aids, and homework,” said Recker.  “In this way, the IA is intended to make it easier for teachers to use online learning resources in their classrooms.”

In addition to organizing and annotating resources, users can also peruse other lesson plans that teachers have already produced.  These lesson plans can be found by searching under a keyword, subject area, grade level, author’s last name, or project title. 

Recker says there is also a growing user base among school library media specialists who use the IA to create special media collections for their teachers. 

To maximize the IA’s usability, Recker has focused her research on user-centered design. 

“Because the IA’s focus was user-centered design, we tried to incorporate only features requested by our teachers,” said Recker.  “This makes it different than a product like Microsoft Word, which also includes in its interfaces extra features that only high-end editors would need.”

Recker’s work has opened a whole new world of informational networking to educators, but what happens if they aren’t familiar with technology in the first place?

 
Recker has developed a solution for that too.  It’s called DLConnect, and just like the IA, it makes the NSDL more easily accessible by facilitating professional development workshops for teachers.  Offered both face-to-face and online, these workshops are filled with tips on how to use the IA and NSDL, including how to tie IA materials to state core curriculum standards, how to gather resources, and how to create projects using the IA.

Recker has found that the online workshops are of particular interest to teachers because of their ability to integrate with numerous time demands.

“It is challenging to find time in teachers’ packed days, with their myriad responsibilities, to schedule training opportunities,” said Recker.  “This hurdle has led to a recent focus on offering professional development online so that teachers can engage with our activities at their convenience and on a just-in-time basis.”

And the teachers are certainly grateful.  Recker’s research shows that teachers are raving about the benefits offered by the IA and NSDL. 

“The IA does not require advanced computer skills, which might be a barrier for some teachers,” said Vessela Ilieva, a teacher and doctoral student at USU.  “The IA project structure resembles the framework of a lesson plan, and this makes it very convenient for instructional planning. The person developing the project also decides on the length and the amount of detail in a project, so teachers are not locked in a format predetermined by someone else.”

Not only can teachers find meaningful, interactive content for their lesson plans, but they can also network with their fellow teaching peers across the country, taking research and networking to a whole new digital plane.

Since 2003, over 2,700 users have registered with the IA, 5,000 projects have been created, and over 21,000 online resources have been collected from the NSDL.

The ease of access offered by the IA is definitely a plus, but teachers also love the fact that all the resources are free.  Instead of cumbersome and pricey textbooks, students can now log on and get the same information at no cost.

“The work with teachers has been particularly rewarding,” said Recker.  “We see their enthusiasm grow as they use the IA to further their content knowledge as well as their teaching knowledge.” 

While Recker realizes that lasting change takes time, she hopes that the IA will become a vital tool for teachers in every sector of education. 

“Our work has shown that the NSDL is providing critical infrastructure for linking teachers, students, and resources,” said Recker.  “By making the NSDL easier to use, the IA is allowing teachers to capitalize on this remarkable resource.  They can create and share their ideas and expertise with the click of a button—the opportunities are endless.”