A Case Study of Classroom Management on Wireless-Based Learning by Tablet PC
A Case Study of Classroom Management on Wireless- Based Learning by Tablet PC
Shinn-Rong Lin
Graduate Institute of Learning and Instruction National Central University, Taiwan.
Hsiao-Ting, Teng
Graduate Institute of Learning and Instruction National Central University, Taiwan.
Abstract: The advancement of information technology (IT), especially on the advancement of wireless technology and Internet, provides many possibilities for using technologies in many educational settings. In this project, Wireless-Based Learning by Tablet PC (WBLT), we are trying to reflect the problems encountered in the WBLT and to suggest some strategies for classroom management for teachers while using the system. The dimensions of the reflection include: whether focusing on student-centered or teacher-centered instructional designs, considering teachers’ need on conducting on-job-training, revising implementation strategies on the experiment, and considering document management. Each of the dimensions has several suggestions.
Keywords: wireless-based learning, reflection, classroom management
Introduction
The advancement of information technology (IT), especially on the advancement of wireless technology and Internet, provides many possibilities for using technologies in many educational settings. Roblyer (2003) summarized some rationales for using technology in education, such as:
motivation, unique instructional capabilities, support for new instructional approaches, increasing teacher productivities, and required skills for an information technology. Cuban (2001) pointed out that
“ using technology, the teacher would organize the classroom differently, giving students far more control over their learning.”(p. 134) Based on the similar perspective, the researchers of Wireless- Based Learning by Tablet PC (WBLT) in Taiwan believe that the system can motivate students’
learning interest, enhance students’ performance, increase teachers’ and students’ interaction, and increase students control over the learning process. Moreover, some researchers of the team believe the WBLT can shift the instructional paradigm more easily, from teacher-centered to student- centered. The theoretical base of student-centered instruction approach comes from constructivism.
Characteristics of constructivism include problem-oriented activities, visual formats and mental models, rich and complex environments, cooperative or collaborative (group) learning, learning, through exploration, and authentic (performance-based) assessment methods (Roblyer, 2003).
According to Cuban (1993), one of the characteristics of student-centered approach is informal instructional talk and informal students talk between teacher and student, and among the students.
However, at the beginning of the implementation of the WBLT project, the students felt novel about the system of WBLT, especially to Tablet PC, the classroom discipline became one of the problems for the implementation of the experiment. There are several problems to be solved, such as the management of the Tablet PCs for the whole classroom. Due to Tablet PC is so expensive and the elementary students are so active, to avoid the damage by students’ carelessness, some schools in
the WBLT used a storage cart to protect the device. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to reflect the problems encountered and suggest some strategies for classroom management on WBLT.
2. The Functions of the System
The infrastructure of WBLT system consists of 30 Tablet PCs for a whole classroom, a storage cart (optional) for cart for store and charge the Tablet PCs, a wireless receiving and launching system, software, and a platform for running the system. In that the cart includes a wireless network receiving and launching system, teachers can move the cart to different classrooms or sites where there are not any wireless receiving systems. The platform of the system includes interaction system between teacher and student, teacher’s instructional materials, quiz materials for formative and summative evaluation, and students’ learning portfolio. Students’ files mentioned above could transfer from the teacher’s Tablet PC to students’ PC freely without requiring a wire connection.
3. The Purposes and the Participants of the Project
The purpose of the WBLT is to enhance students learning by using tablet PC on wireless environment both in classroom and the outdoor settings. For example, students can write down their key words about their group discussion on the tablet PC and shown for the whole class discussion. The students also can use the Tablet PC at the outdoor settings, and use the tablet PC to search and record what he or her observed.
However, the main purpose of this paper isn’t focused on the function of WBLT. On the other hand, the purposes of this paper are to reflect the problems encountered in the WBLT and to suggest some strategies for classroom management for teachers while they use the system. The participants of this study were three classes of grade five in two elementary schools in North of Taiwan. There were 33 students at the first school, and 58 at the second school (two classes, each class with 29 students).
4. Methodology
In this case study, observation and interview were used to collect the data, from September 2003 to March 2004. Video was used to record the classroom activities in WBLT. The transcripts of the video recoded were typed into words for analysis.
5. The Results and Discussions
The following results of this study are based on the reflection of the observations on the implementation of WBLT.
5.1Students-centered vs. Teacher-centered
At the beginning, the researcher of WBLT project was based on the belief of constructivism that students-centered instructional approach would help the students to construct of their knowledge, attitudes, and skills if we provide students more autonomous leaning environments, such as more interactive systems between teachers and students by wireless Intranet and Internet system. By the
system, teachers and students can see the instructional and learning materials immediately. Students can write down their comments or share some ideas on Tablet PC, and teachers can show those comments and ideas to all students by the teacher’s Tablet PC.
However, by our observation, at the beginning of the project, the students felt so excited about using Tablet PC. Thus, the teachers had a difficult time to manage the discipline of the classroom. Besides, it is not like the traditional instruction that all students would see the same direction, the blackboard or the screen. On the contrary, the student would see his or her own screen of Tablet PC. In the circumstance, it was not easy for teachers to notice whether students were concentrated on the context showing on the Tablet PC. In order to solve the problem, the system engineer of WBLT project developed one function, called “black screen”, to change the student’s screen of Tablet PC into black. Thus, teachers could shift students’ screen into black if the students could not follow the teacher’s instruction. Another function is used to control the student’s screen as well. The function is quite the same as the broadcasting system. By the function, the teacher can control the student’s screen to show the same context as the teacher’s. The teacher can monitor or lock the student’s screen as well.
Thus, the teachers in the WBLT concentrated their focus on how to use the control system to maintain the classroom discipline. Thus, by our reflection, we suggest some strategies for resolving the problem of dominating by teacher-centered instruction:
• Focusing instruction design. According to constructivism, the teacher plays as a facilitator in students’ leaning activities, while in the WBLT project, the researchers expected the teachers could play as a facilitator, thus they increased some functions in the system for the teachers to get more power to control students’ concentration and discipline. This kind of dilemma could be resolved by a thoughtful instructional design. Hannafin & Hill (2002) pointed out that “design involves the creation of materials and activities that assist learners in constructing and refining individual’s representations and personal understandings” (p, 73).
Thus, it would be more appropriate to maintain students’ discipline and learning interests by a thoughtful constructed design than by using the control system to control the discipline problem in WBLT. For example, teachers can design a problem-solving context for students to discuss and write down their resolving strategies on Tablet PC, and then send them to the teacher’s management files. And then the teacher can pick up the group’s works and conduct a discussion with the students in the classroom. The students can revise their original decision in terms of the whole class discussion.
• Guiding the WBLT by theories. As we mentioned above, based on the student’s discipline problems, the researchers encountered in the WBLT, they revised some functions of the system. However, those changes led to some fundamental changes of the project, such as from student-centered approach to teacher-centered approach. Just as Fullan (2003) emphasized that if a change with weak change theory and weak educational theories, the change will drift. In this case, we saw the phenomenon. Thus, it is very important that the WBLT should be guided or supported by some educational theories. The researchers have to examine their assumptions in the whole experimental process.
5.2 Considering Teachers’ Need
Before being involved in the WBLT, the teachers of the participating schools had taken part in the training courses of the system. Most of the context could be categorized in the technical-oriented. The devices of the project were not correspondent with the training courses, thus the teachers didn’t apply the Tablet PC and the system immediately. As the devices reached the schools, the teachers didn’t take on-site training. When they used the new system (both on hardware and software), we could predict the chaos that the teachers encountered due to the unfamiliarity to the system. There was another gap between the participative teachers and the system engineers of WBLT. That was the communication between the system engineers and the schoolteachers in the WBLT. From the engineers’ perspective, they thought the system was no problem, but from the teachers’ perspective, the teachers thought the engineers had to stay in the classrooms and observe the problems at their beginning to use the system. The teachers also thought that the research team had to develop
materials for their teaching-- something like ready-made courseware. On the contrary, the system engineer thought that the courseware had to be prepared by the teachers. Thus, by our reflection, we have some suggestions for the problem:
• Providing technical support. Teaching is teachers’ profession, but when integrating technology into teaching, it is obvious that the teachers need some technical support just in time. By prompt technical support, teachers can decrease their feeling of frustration caused by unfamiliarity to the new system. It can increase the teacher’s willingness to use WBLT for his or her classroom practice.
• Providing field-based on-job-training. Learning by using is one of the most effective ways for people to learn something new. Though the teachers have got some on-job-training for using the system of WBLT, however, the training courses were held several months before the devices came to the classrooms. The teachers almost forgot what they learned before.
Thus, if the system engineers could hold field-based on-job-training courses, it would be very helpful for teachers’ learning about the new system.
• Conducting a workshop. By a workshop, the teachers can share their experiences of integrating the WBLT into his or her teaching. By a workshop, the teachers can be inspired some innovative ideas as well. A good workshop can provide a professional dialogue environment for the teachers.
5.3 Rethinking the Purpose of Using the Storage Cart
There are three purposes of the storage cart in the WBLT. The first purpose is to store Tablet PCs for the whole class. The second purpose is to charge the Tablet PCs (about 30 Tablet PCs) simultaneously. The third purpose is to provide a wireless sending and receiving system for all Tablet PCs in the classroom. Thus, the cart could connect to somewhere in which there was Internet, and then the system could connect to the storage cart and be used for teaching activities, especially in the classroom without wireless device. However, the cart is too heavy (more than 180 pounds) to reach some out-door setting. Thus, the third function seems not very appropriate in some out-door environments. In terms of the characteristics of Tablet PCs, the first and the second purposes of the storage cart seem problematic. The question is why we use Tablet PC for learning activities. As our perception, it is for its mobile characteristics and for its convenience for handwriting and drawing.
Thus, how we should keep the Tablet PC more accessible for the students is one of the important concerns, both in the school and out of the school. But according to the first and the second purposes of the storage cart, to make the management easier, they put the Tablet PCs together. However, the notion doesn’t match the belief of accessibility of the Tablet PCs. Thus, by our reflection, we have some suggestions for the problem:
• Designing a holistic wireless receiving and sending system. By designing a holistic wireless Intranet system in the school, the WBLT system could get rid of the heavy and expensive storage cart. The schools can set wireless receiving and sending system in the classrooms, out-door settings, and somewhere in which they probably use the system. By careful planning, the teachers can use the WBLT more conveniently indoors and outdoors.
Teachers and students just bring their Tablet PCs to the setting and the WBLT can be conducted without too much limitation.
• Planning a flexible borrowing system of Tablet PC. Although two major functions of the WBLT are to store the Tablet PC and to charge the Tablet PC. However, in terms of the purpose of mobile learning, these functions seem weird. In order to resolve the contradiction, there is a need to plan a flexible borrowing system of Tablet PC for the students. Thus, they can use the Tablet PC both in-class and after class. Students can use the Tablet PC to develop their works and ideas when they need to use them. If they just lock the Tablet PCs after class, how can the students construct their knowledge by their own steps?
5.4 Considering Document Management
How to manage teachers’ instructional materials, students’ learning portfolios, and some interaction records of teacher and student are important in terms of the concept of document management. The WBLT system also possesses the following functions for document management: managing instructional material and managing students’ learning portfolios. In the function of managing instructional material, a teacher could transmit his or her instructional material to the server of WBLT system. After transmitting the instructional material, the teacher could get into the system to get his or her instructional material through the Intranet at any time and any place of the campus with a well- organized management system. In the function of managing students’ learning portfolios, students’
leaning process is as important as their performance. All students’ learning records (including students’ homework, students’ team work, students’ assignment, students’ interaction with teachers, and etc.) would be stored in the server of the WBLT system. By the storing mechanism of the system, the students’ portfolios could be established in the easier way. Though the functions of the system of WBLT are good for teachers to make “knowledge management”, by our reflection, we also have a suggestion for managing the function of “knowledge management”:
• Creating learning portfolio for every student. Students’ portfolios could provide valuable information for teachers to examine students’ progress. As Lesgold (2003) emphasized that the school environments were complex and it was not easy to detect the effect of a new innovation. For example, Lesgold said “ Many work when used by certain teachers in certain schools with certain children and otherwise fail” (Lesgold, 2003, p.39). One of the reasons resulting in the difficulties in evaluating the effect is that students’ outcomes are not easy to be detected. According to Lesgold, students’ outcomes might include new standard performance, Standardized Test Scores, and important reference performance, such as whether students were engaged in more self-managed learning. Means & Haertel (2003) also pointed that there was a need to conduct a wide range student-learning performance for evaluations of technology-supported interventions. Thus, to create learning portfolios for every student could keep students’ learning process and the recording of the participation in their learning activities (both for formal and informal circumstances). That is, the records could be used for examining those “important reference performance”.
• Developing well-designed on-line learning system. To cultivate students’ possessing self- directed learning ability is very important in the information age. It is not enough that students just download some material from teachers’ courseware of WBLT, or upload their assignments to the website. There is a need to develop a well-designed on-line learning system to enhance the insufficiency on learning activities on face-to-face. By a well-designed learning system, students cannot only be enhanced of the individualized learning but also learn something in terms of his or her paces. There is another important function for a well- designed on-line learning system, that is “remedy-learning system” and “expanding learning system”. By remedy learning, students who learned something left behind on the average (or standard) of the classmates could use the on-line remedy-learning system to learn something that was identified not good enough. On the contrary, students who learned something beyond the average of the classmates could use the on-line expanding-learning system to learn something deeper.
6. Conclusions
Indeed, the advancement of the wireless technology provides many opportunities for advocators of using technology in the education. However, at the beginning of using the innovation in this case study, it is very important to reflect its outcomes, especially the change among the student-learning performance and some problems encountered in the implementation of WBLT. As Means & Haertel (2003) pointed that there is a need to conduct a wide range student-learning performance for evaluations of technology-supported interventions. By the researchers’ observation and reflection, we could find more explicit ways to gather student-learning performance. In this study, there are four dimensions to be taken into account: whether focusing on student-centered or teacher-centered instructional designs, considering teachers’ need when conducting on-job-training, revising implementation strategies on the experiment, and considering knowledge management. Based on the
reflection, we generated some suggestions. These suggestions might be revised for a long-term implementation as well. The WBLT project has to be supported by a lot of money, thus another concern has to be considered, that is, to analyse the cost and benefit of the innovation in the long- term evaluation.
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Acknowledgements
The data of this paper presented was supported under the fund of National Science Council (project No. NSC-91-2520-S-008-012-).
Lin, Sinn-Rong is an Associate professor of Graduate Institute of Learning and Instruction in National Central University, Taiwan, ROC.
Teng, Hsiao-Ting is a research assistance of Graduate Institute of Learning and Instruction in National Central University.
