Interactivity

** __Devi Lam

Goal: For teachers to experience and learn how interactivity is described as multimedia learning which clearly engages learners in meaningful activities. Within the classroom, teachers and students demonstrate interactivity through a variety of ways to include: __ **

Before reading the articles, peruse through the vocabulary bank only if you need a refresher on interactive terms :)

Vocabulary Bank

Article 1 Reinforcer || Applications teachers use to address correct and unusual context answers || Pedagogy || relating to the characteristic of teaching || Article 2 Dialogic Teaching ||< Student has a high influence over the activity within the software or program parameters || Authoritative || Student use tutorial as a participant in interaction which include predetermined answers || Dialectic || Student constructs their own meaning from the use of the model of a tutorial format || Synergistic || Student reflects within a whole class setting on the activity using tools to to store, review, and represent ideas that have been learned || ITC || Information and Communication Technology || Article 3 listserv || an electronic mailing list of people who wish to receive specified information form the Internet || weblogs || individual or group of users produce an ongoing narrative. ||


 * __Research Articles about Interactivity in the classroom__**
 * 1)  [|EBSCOhost: Teaching with Interactive Whiteboard]
 * 2) [|ScienceDirect - Computers & Education : Interactivity in the classroom and its impact on learning]
 * 3) [|http://innovateonline.info/pdf/vol1_issue5/Instructional_Blogging-__Promoting_Interactivity,_Student- Centered_Learning,_and_Peer_Input.pdf]
 * My Personal Summaries**


 * __Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards__**
 * In this study, research showed a 16% percentile gain in student achievement in classrooms where teachers and students worked with Interactive Whiteboards.
 * Classrooms using voting devices experienced a 26% gain in student achievement on test scores.
 * Reinforcers such as virtual applause, dragging and dropping capabilities, and uncovering information under objects were connected to a 31% percent gain.
 * In contrast, classrooms that scored better without the Interactive Whiteboards revealed some interesting findings.


 * Potential Pitfalls **
 * Teachers and students need not only to focus on the overall percentage of how the class did on each question, but actually note incorrect findings and quickly bring up why an answer is incorrect.
 * Teachers using video segments and images need to allow time for student and teacher discussion and analysis of the graphics. Time spent on each flipchart is worthwhile, remembering not too forward ahead so quickly that students do not grasp the content.
 * Too much stimuli takes away from the content and overdoing visuals and displaying them in great quantities takes away from the subject.
 * Lastly, when using virtual applause, it may become the center of attention instead of clarifying the content at hand.

**__Interactivity in the classroom and its impact on learning__**

__**Blogging - Promoting Interactivity**__
 * The article shares how there is presently, a need, to shift and change how teachers and students use ITC to support learning in the classroom.
 * One goal is to include a more dialogic foci so students are able to approach ITC with more analysis and independent thought processes.
 * The other objective is to shifting authoritative instruction which is more lecturing towards a dialogic approach. This approach would focus on the way teachers are: 'funneling questions, probing questioning, focusing questioning and uptake' and lastly, ' collecting reflections,' to develop higher level thinking.
 * Good classroom practice should never be replaced with flipcharts alone. It can consist of a combination of organized information with meaningful segments which include flipcharts that are solely there to process and discuss whole class what is being taught.
 * Blogging can help students feel that they are a part of the community and yet feel that they still have their own personal virtual place.
 * Blogging is a knowledge-centered instructional tool.
 * Students are able to use what they have researched and share what they have synthesized in a structured environment, adding to the blog their own weblogs and comments to the content and to each other.
 * The three main components include:
 * 1) Receptive learning - encourages students to acquire information and report what they have learned.
 * 2) Directive learning - provides students with equal access to important information, to broaden the scope of understanding, and direct student to additional resources and information.
 * 3) Guided discovery and knowledge construction - Students revisit the learning space, build on prior knowledge, and think about what they have learned, and strive for further information. All the while, sharing and reflecting within their own username, but also giving responses, questions, and comments to peers and teachers.
 * To increase effectiveness teachers need to create a blog for each student, require them to post entries, and respond to others' entries within a timely manner.


 * Potential Pitfalls **
 * The study revealed how some students were negatively effected because their blogs never were commented on by the teacher or other students.
 * Another case revealed how a teacher asked for students to blog, but never allowed for entry posts and also never responded back. Eventually, students stopped blogging altogether.

**__Images__ I chose these image because it compares and contrasts technological interaction. **

**__Videos__**

I too, teach plants vs. animal cell structures and thought it was great how this teacher used her Promethean Board to engage learners. Both the teacher and students were clearly involved and motivated.

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 * __Additional Resources:__**
 * 1) [|Interactive Whiteboard Community - Educational and Teacher Resources : Promethean Planet]
 * 2) [|ActivEducator Blog from Promethean Planet]
 * 3) [|How to Use Blogs: Grades 6–8 | Scholastic.com]

**__References__**

Beauchamp, G., & Kennewell, S. (2010). Interactivity in the classroom and its impact on learning. //Computers and Education // , //54 // (3), Retrieved from [|http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VCJ-4XJN4NY-1&_user=10&_coverDate=04%2F30%2F2010&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_] [|urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=2b457b0d83cc380c9640b0f842567710]

Glogoff, S. (2005) Instructional blogging: promoting interactivity, student-centered learning, and peer input. //Innovate//, 1(5), Retrieved from, []

Marzano, R. (2009). Teaching with interactive whiteboards. //Educational Leadership//, 67(3), Retrieved from [|EBSCOhost: Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards]

Zane, L. (Producer). (2008). //Smart board interactive whiteboard // <span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 1px; line-height: normal;">. [Web]. Retrieved from <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">[|TeacherTube Videos - SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard - Lisa ZaneImage Retrieved from http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3290/2855720793_7d22db791e.jpg]