Web-based journal

Web-based journal helps students apply knowledge

by Toni Searle

Recording and sharing information on classroom visits have helped some Missouri students take full advantage of network and computing technology to enjoy deeper learning in their courses.

James Laffey designed the system for his students in the School of Information Sciences and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri at Columbia. Laffey is an associate professor there, as well as co-founder and co-director of MU's Center for Technology Innovation in Education.

Laffey shared his experiences at a recent faculty seminar hosted by the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education (UCITE).

Innovation in education has been fueled by two simultaneous developments -- rapid advances in technology coupled with development of new models of human cognition, Laffey said.

Computers are vastly more powerful than they were decades ago, such as through one musical greeting card possessing more computer power than existed in the entire world before 1950.

But he computer revolution has not yet occurred in education, according to Laffey. "It's making a difference in education hasn't happened yet," he said. "It's really an incredible power that we need to take advantage of."

But technology should not simply make it faster, cheaper, or better to do the same things as in traditional models of education. "We need to start learning in a different way," he said.

"Students are learning to be precise, but not to be robust, in their knowledge," Laffey added. This leaves them unable to apply knowledge learned in the classroom to situations outside the classroom.

"Learning is something that happens in a social context," he said, affecting people's understanding. But in many studies, students who do well in school do not perform as well in answering problem-solving questions when presented in a way that differs from the typical classroom format.

"They don't register that this is the same information that they learned in the classroom," Laffey said. "Given knowledge that should shape judgment, we don't use it, or perhaps we don't know how to use it."

Laffey has developed a Web-based journaling system that allows his education students to post and share multimedia reports of their classroom visits to evaluate students' reading skills.

The college students can take their laptops into the classroom and use plug-in attachments to record sound and audio clips of younger students as they read. They then post these multimedia files into their section of the class's journal system, along with their reflections on any reading problems they detected.

"I want the very best ways to represent my ideas, and that can come when I have a rich array of tools to communicate them," Laffey said.

Classmates can view and comment on these materials, sharing their own perspectives on the students' reading skills and how to diagnose any problems.

Having students reflect on their experiences, share them with the rest of the class, and offer feedback on each others' work "can make for a better class" and lead to "rich discussions," Laffey said.

Future classes will have even more powerful tools with which to work, as they review journal entries from previous enrollees. "We should be able to start with that knowledge base," he added.