Part A – Profiling and Learning Theory Behind eDesign
Profiling – Year 8 SOSE: ‘Ancient Greece’
The Unit ‘The Ancients’ has been delivered to Year 8 SOSE students during Semester 1, Term 2 at North Rockhampton State High School. Within this unit, I was given the opportunity to design an elearning experience for one particular class on the mini-unit ‘Ancient Greece’. Opportunities for ICT involvement in the course were limited however due to the resources available. The classroom that the class was situated in did have access to individual laptops with wifi internet connectivity. There was also a data project and ordinary whiteboard.
Before I embarked on my edesign it was necessary to conduct some basic audits of the students to determine their current skills and knowledge in the use of ICTs (computer, internet and reading literacies) as well as their prior knowledge on the mini-unit itself (geography, lifestyle, religion / gods and government of Ancient Greece).
The preferred learning style of the 22 students in the Year 8 SOSE class was predominantly Visual (refer to Appendix 1). Preferred learning styles of the class are broken down as follows:
Visual 12
Auditory 4
Kinaesthetic 6
A basic audit of their computer, internet and reading literacy indicated a spread across the categories of Low, OK and Good (refer to Appendix 1). Results of this audit are as follows:
Low OK Good
Computer - 9 13
Internet 4 6 12
Reading 3 11 8
In terms of prior knowledge of the mini-unit material, while students had a significant amount of prior knowledge on Ancient Egypt, their understanding and knowledge of Ancient Greece was restricted mainly to the Olympic Games and Greek mythology (refer to Appendix 2). There did not appear to be any appreciable knowledge on Ancient Greek lifestyle or governance, however there was some knowledge on the warlike nature of the Spartans. Geographical understanding was restricted to ‘somewhere near the Mediterranean Sea’. An indication of overall prior understanding of Ancient Greece can be shown as follows:
Low OK Good
Geography 17 5 0
Lifestyle 22 0 0
Religion / Gods 12 10 0
Government 22 0 0
Learning Outcomes and eLearning Theory
An overview of the mini-unit learning outcomes is as follows:
Learning Outcomes
1. Students to be able to examine the geographical attributes of Ancient Greece and identify what
challenges and opportunities they would have held for Ancient Greeks.
2. Students to be able to appreciate the influence of Greek religion on everyday life. Students to
be able to utilise literacy skills in producing a narrative based on Ancient Greek mythology.
3. Students to be able to explain the origins of the Olympic Games and its celebration of the
human form and mind. Analysis skills to be able to identify similarities between Ancient and
modern Olympic Games.
4. Students to be able to identify the characteristics of Ancient Athenian government. Students to
be able to compare and contrast Ancient Athenian democracy to modern Australian democracy.
Individual learning needs and goals were integral to the lesson outcomes detailed in the mini-unit outline above. In order to attain meaningful knowledge on this unit it was imperative that their personal skills were of a level that they were able to achieve such outcomes. It was recognised that there were no students in the class who were complete novices to the use of laptops and the internet, nor were there any students identified with significant learning difficulties which would make the edesign learning experience unachievable. They each had their own student logons which they have used at various times in other classes. It was recognised however that there was the need to assist some students when it came to conducting research on the internet so as to assist them in such a task. Refinement of search queries was sometimes necessary to help students find meaningful information. Because of some students’ low reading ability, it was also recognised that there may be a need to provide access for some students to clearer and more direct content material on the website. Scaffolding on how to interact with the website and the information contained thereon was sometimes necessary as some had trouble in identifying pertinent information. On the whole however, once implemented there were few troubles that the students encountered, and through the collaborative nature of the edesign they were often supported by their peers.
In thinking about my edesign for the mini-unit I revisited the findings from Assessment 1, which focussed on learning theory and the use of ICT in the classroom, as well as my own introduction to the use of ICTs in learning. I was conscious of the contention between those who believe all school children to be digital natives and those who believe that students have a varying degree of instinctiveness when it comes to using ICTs. I believe that the students in my class are those of the latter rather than former category, which makes Thrupp’s assertion (2010, pp.1-2) that a blended approach to the use of ICTs in the classroom are more appropriate as this will better meet the varied range of abilities and interests of students in that class applicable in this case. Further supporting the use of supported ICT activities in my mini-unit is the assertion of Mishra and Koehler (2006, p. 1026) that it is important to include technology in learning experiences to complement more traditional teaching strategies so as to provide a single and streamlined pedagogical learning experience.
In putting together my edesign I was also aware of the need to scaffold my learning experiences in such a way as to provide a valuable learning experience for the students. As personally experienced through our first assessment, I found that failing to ensure that there was sufficient scaffolding meant that learning experiences could end up being more confusing for students than valuable in terms of material or experiences learnt. I also felt that, due to the young age of students in the class (12 and 13 years old), it was doubly important to ensure that scaffolding was sufficient as they may not have the cognitive ability to muddle through and create a meaningful experience themselves. It was recognised that ensuring that enough specific instructions being given in order to create the desired outcome was in line with behaviourist learning theory (Skinner, 1985, p. 292). However, this did not support in itself a rich learning experience. My edesign also had to incorporate experiences that supported higher order thinking in order to provide the best learning opportunities. Therefore, Bloom’s New Taxonomy (Clark, 2010), which presents a framework that starts with creating and evaluating, and moves through to analysing and applying, and understanding and remembering, as well as Kearsley and Shneiderman’s (1999) Learning Engagement Theory, which presents a framework for a learning process similar to Bloom’s but which also incorporates collaborative learning, were both kept in mind.
In the end, my goal was to create an elearning experience which met basic behaviourist theory so as to sufficiently scaffold the activities, but that also provided enough opportunity to develop higher order thinking through Bloom’s Taxonomy and a collaborative learning experience. The learning outcomes that I identified for my edesign incorporated those of the mini-unit itself. They can be described as follows, along with the etool / thinking framework that was integral to that learning outcome:
Learning Outcomes (edesign):
1. Students to collaboratively complete a SWOT analysis on the geographical attributes of Ancient Greece so as to appreciate the benefits and disadvantages that such geographical attributes posed for Ancient Greeks (SWOT Analysis).
2. Students to produce a synopsis of a Greek mythological tale based on their newly attained knowledge on Greek religion, mythology and lifestyle (PowerPoint presentation).
3. Students to compare and contrast collaboratively the Ancient and modern Olympic Games (Venn Diagram on wiki).
4. Students to respond to the Six Thinking Hats framework in examining the early democratic governance of Athens so as to determine how different and how worthwhile this new ideology was (Six Thinking Hats).
Part B – eDesign Rationale and Learning Experiences
eDesign Overview
A version of the edesign is accessible through the wiki AncientHistoryNRSHS (which can be accessed through this link: http://ancientgreecenrshs.wikispaces.com/). An overview of the mini-unit along with learning outcomes is as follows:
Unit: The Ancients
Mini-Unit: Ancient Greece
No of Lessons: 5
Lesson 1: Geography and Life in Ancient Greece
- geography (climate, terrain, distance between city-states)
- how geography impacted on everyday life of Ancient Greeks
- lifestyle and diet of Ancient Greeks
Lesson 2: Greek Religion
- importance of gods in everyday life
- mythology and focus on the quest
Lesson 3: Ancient Olympic Games
- origins of the Ancient Olympic Games
- relationship to gods, honour and glory being the prize, role of women and training of body
as well as mind
Lesson 4: Government of Ancient Greece
- governance of city-states – aristocrats
- governance of Athens and Sparta – move towards democracy
Lesson 5: Government of Ancient Greece – Early Democracy
- comparison of origin, operation and merits of democracy in Ancient Athens to that of
Modern Australia
Learning Outcomes
1. Students to be able to examine the geographical attributes of Ancient Greece and identify what
challenges and opportunities they would have held for Ancient Greeks.
2. Students to be able to appreciate the influence of Greek religion on everyday life. Students to be
able to utilise literacy skills in producing a narrative based on Ancient Greek mythology.
3. Students to be able to explain the origins of the Olympic Games and its celebration of the human
form and mind. Analysis skills to be able to identify similarities between Ancient and modern
Olympic Games.
4. Students to be able to identify the characteristics of Ancient Athenian government. Students to
be able to compare and contrast Ancient Athenian democracy to modern Australian democracy.
Formal Assessment - Response to Stimulus Test
s Student’s ability to read and comprehend written sources of information
s Student’s ability to utilise declarative knowledge in answering questions
s Student’s ability to use written communication
The edesign framework was set up as a Course identified as ‘The Ancients’ on the website ‘The Learning Place’. All students in the class were able to access this site. Under this Course were a number of folders as follows:
· Artwork and Images
· Gods and Goddesses
· Government
· Historical Personalities
· Life in Ancient Greece
· Maps
· The Olympic Games
Under each of these folders were related documents; some were PowerPoint presentations with notes from teacher talk sessions delivered around the edesign, some were Word documents with various pieces of additional information, and some were images of artefacts such as sculptures, pottery and paintings. In this case, students were verbally directed at the start of each lesson to the folders that they needed to use, as well as instructed on where to locate the class wiki. It should be noted that, due to this being a first-time experience and the need to ensure that students were fully supported, a lot of instruction was delivered verbally and demonstrated by the facilitator which in the properly finished edesign would be scaffolded through the website Course itself. In a more polished edesign there would be an additional folder for each lesson which gave clear instruction and links to the folders and documents that relate to that lesson.
The edesign activities that form this mini-unit were developed with behaviourist and constructivist learning theories in mind. Acknowledging that the average student in the class was at best an intermediate technology user, it was important to scaffold activities sufficiently to allow for meaningful learning experiences. The Course itself fits the behaviourist learning theory in that the student did not have to have any more understanding other than how to log into the site, utilise the documents that were necessary for each lesson, and carry out the activities as directed (Skinner, 1985, p. 292).
In other respects the edesign activities facilitated constructivist learning opportunities. Duffy and Jonassen (1992, p. 3) claim that constructivism asserts that the meaning that we gather from the world is informed by the learner, in this case the Year 8 SOSE student, and that learning is not a concrete construct that is imposed upon the learner (taken from ICTs assessment item 2). In each of the five lessons that form this mini-unit, information is made available for students to utilise in the conduct of the activities that form part of the learning experience. They then use this learning to form new products, for example PowerPoint presentations, based on their understanding reached through the edesign activities.
eDesign Activities
Activity: SWOT Analysis
Lesson 1: Geography and Life in Ancient Greece
- geography (climate, terrain, distance between city-states)
- how geography impacted on everyday life of Ancient Greeks
- lifestyle and diet of Ancient Greeks
The first lesson in the edesign focussed on geography and way of life in Ancient Greece. Students were asked to locate and peruse information in the folders ‘Map Ancient Greece’ and ‘Life in Ancient Greece’. They were assigned to small groups of four students per group and asked to carry out a SWOT Analysis on everyday life as an Ancient Greek person. They were encouraged to consider things such as food, water, defence and trade in their response. During the class the facilitator was available to wander amongst the groups, checking on their progress and providing additional guidance if necessary. Once groups had completed their SWOT Analysis it was emailed to the facilitator. This made it possible to assess the level of involvement of each group in the activity. In the full edesign the facilitator would then amalgamate students’ responses so that all contributions were evidenced in one SWOT Analysis template, which would then also be included on the website as an additional resource for students to access.
It was envisaged that the final version of the SWOT Analysis would prove to be a lesson in the value of the collaborative process. Finding their own individual responses in a larger document would validate the individual student, whereas seeing other suggestions that they did not consider would heighten the importance of staying open to new ideas.
Activity: PowerPoint Presentation
Lesson 2: Greek Religion
- importance of gods in everyday life
- mythology and focus on the quest
The second lesson in the edesign involved students using their knowledge about Ancient Greek gods and goddesses in order to produce a brief synopsis of their own Greek mythological tale. They were asked to use PowerPoint to present their work, including a list of characters (human and gods / goddesses) as well as the quest at the centre of their tale. Some information was provided for students under the folder ‘Gods and Goddesses’, including a list of gods and goddesses as well as the creatures that featured in myths, for example the Minotaur. A short class discussion was held on the recent movie ‘Clash of the Titans’, examining how the humans at the heart of the tale were sent on a seemingly impossible quest set by the gods, and how each died valiantly along the way, leaving Perseus, half-man half-god as the only possible victor. It was noted that the Ancient Greeks felt that they were at the mercy of the gods, and that they felt they were merely game pieces in a game that the gods played with each other. It was envisaged that through this activity students would be utilising many of the levels of thinking as outlined in Bloom’s Taxonomy (Clark, 2010). The first level of understanding and remembering would be covered in the reading of the information made available to students through the website. The remaining levels of analysing, apply, creating and evaluating would then be touched upon in the process of applying their understanding of the information provided to create their own version of a Greek mythological tale.
Activity: Venn Diagram
Lesson 3: Ancient Olympic Games
- origins of the Ancient Olympic Games
- relationship to gods, honour and glory being the prize, role of women and training of body
as well as mind
The third lesson involved reading information located in the folder ‘The Olympic Games’. Students were also encouraged to do some internet searching to find out more information relating to both the Ancient Olympic Games and the modern day Olympic Games. The activity asked students to produce a Venn Diagram, or similar document, to indicate those things that were similar to the two Games, as well as those things that are specific to either. This activity was designed as an exercise in contrasting and comparing (Marzano and Pickering, pp. 117-120). Students were asked to prepare their response in preparation for a verbal presentation to the class.
Lesson 4: Government of Ancient Greece
- governance of city-states – aristocrats
- governance of Athens and Sparta – move towards democracy
Lesson 5: Government of Ancient Greece – Early Democracy
- comparison of origin, operation and merits of democracy in Ancient Athens to that of
Modern Australia
Lessons four and five were run in conjunction with each other. Once students had completed lesson four they were free to move on to lesson five and the six thinking hats routine focussing on the government of Ancient Greece. Students were asked to carry out a comparison of the Ancient Athenian democratic governance to that of modern day Australia. Students were then assigned a particular ‘hat’ from the Six Thinking Hats routine and were asked to consider Australia’s system of government from that hat’s perspective. Students were then asked to email through to the teacher their thoughts and findings. This information would then be made available to the whole class.
It should be noted that, through all of these activities, the learners involved are in year 8, and therefore are still developing cognitive and interrogatory skills. While the process was designed with their ability to dictate their own learning journey to some extent, it was also necessary to provide enough information, or guide them where to find enough information, to be able to complete the activities in the edesign. For the main part however, this experience has provided an opportunity to put into practice some of the skills I have developed throughout this course, and has given much inspiration for how I may be able to utilise ICTs in the classroom in the years to come.
References
Clark, D. (2010). Bloom’s taxonomy of learning domains: the three types of learning. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#cognitive.
Duffy, T.M. & Jonassen, D.H. (1992). Constructivism and the technology of instruction: a conversation [Routledge Version]. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.au/books
Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement theory: a framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm.
Marzano, R.J. & Pickering, D.J. (1997). Dimensions of learning: teacher’s manual (2nd ed.). Virginia, USA: ASCD.
Skinner, B. F. (1985). Cognitive science and behaviourism. British Journal of Psychology, 76, 291-301. Retrieved from http://behaviorscience.org
Thrupp, R. (2010, April). ICT created diversity in the classroom: the contemporary learner. Paper presented at the ACEC2010 Digital Diversity Conference, Melbourne, VIC. . Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 Information Communication Technologies, http://e-courses.cqu.edu.au
Appendices
Appendix 1: Learning Style and Skills Audit: Year 8 SOSE Students
Appendix 2: Previous Knowledge – Ancient Greece: Year 8 SOSE Students
APPENDIX 1
LEARNING STYLE AND SKILLS AUDIT:
YEAR 8 SOSE STUDENTS
Learning Style | Comp Skill | Internet | Reading Level | |||||||||
V | A | K | Low | OK | Good | Low | OK | Good | Low | OK | Good | |
1 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
2 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
3 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
4 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
5 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
6 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
7 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
8 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
9 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
10 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
11 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
12 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
13 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
14 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
15 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
16 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
17 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
18 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
19 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
20 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
21 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
22 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
Total | 12 | 4 | 6 | - | 9 | 13 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 3 | 11 | 8 |
APPENDIX 2
PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE – ANCIENT GREECE:
YEAR 8 SOSE STUDENTS
Geography | Lifestyle | Religion / Gods | Government | |||||||||
Low | OK | Good | Low | OK | Good | Low | OK | Good | Low | OK | Good | |
1 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
2 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
3 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
4 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
5 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
6 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
7 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
8 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
9 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
10 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
11 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
12 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
13 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
14 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
15 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
16 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
17 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
18 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
19 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
20 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
21 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
22 | ü | ü | ü | ü | ||||||||
Total | 17 | 5 | - | 22 | - | - | 12 | 10 | - | 22 | - | - |
