Equity and Engagement Through Digital Storytelling and Game-Based Learning

2022 ◽  
pp. 1451-1472
Author(s):  
Leslie Haas ◽  
Jill Tussey

This chapter is founded on the idea that literacy is the cornerstone of teaching and learning across disciplines and is the scaffold for quality communication across modes. Therefore, it contends that the ever-widening education and opportunity gaps seen throughout United States school systems have the potential to be bridged through engaging communicative literacy experiences. Information and resources provided are supported through a theoretical framework based on engagement theory, equitable access as a construct, and multiple literacies theory. As educational equity gaps continue to develop and widen for students based on race, income, language, and technology, it is imperative that innovative practices be researched, reviewed, and put into practice. By utilizing digital storytelling and game-based learning, this chapter attempts to provide the reader with a deeper understanding of issues related to classroom practice, educational equity, learning engagement, and literacy opportunities.

Author(s):  
Leslie Haas ◽  
Jill Tussey

This chapter is founded on the idea that literacy is the cornerstone of teaching and learning across disciplines and is the scaffold for quality communication across modes. Therefore, it contends that the ever-widening education and opportunity gaps seen throughout United States school systems have the potential to be bridged through engaging communicative literacy experiences. Information and resources provided are supported through a theoretical framework based on engagement theory, equitable access as a construct, and multiple literacies theory. As educational equity gaps continue to develop and widen for students based on race, income, language, and technology, it is imperative that innovative practices be researched, reviewed, and put into practice. By utilizing digital storytelling and game-based learning, this chapter attempts to provide the reader with a deeper understanding of issues related to classroom practice, educational equity, learning engagement, and literacy opportunities.


Author(s):  
Heather Fehring

The exponentially changing world of the Information Age is reflected in the emphasis on multiple literacies and the impact of information communication technology (ICT) in teaching and learning practices in global educational environments. Students’ learning, teachers’ curricula and teacher education programmes are being adapted to these changing circumstances. The concept of multiple literacies has had a powerful influence on classroom practice. Multimodal and multidimensional curricula have become the standard for students from a very young age to lifelong learners. While discipline-specific literacies such as scientific literacy are widely acknowledged as essential components of a multiple literacies concept, notions of ‘information literacy’ have taken centre stage in discussions of students’ ability to access, retrieve and critically evaluate the information that floods the ICT driven delivery modes of the 21st century. However, it is important to remember that learning is a complex process, and that “Who is looking after our children?” is still an essential question to ask.


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Childs ◽  
Richard Lofton

Traditionally, education policy focuses on reforms that address class size, teaching and learning within classrooms, school choice, and changes in leadership as ways to improve students’ educational outcomes. Although well intentioned, education policy can distract from the multi-layered causes that impact achievement and opportunity gaps, and how students’ life circumstances can affect their school attendance. Students who miss school frequently are less likely to be impacted by even the most robust and comprehensive education reforms. This paper discusses how the root causes of chronic absenteeism are complex and that policy distractions can stifle solutions to solve school attendance issues. As a wicked problem, chronic absenteeism, requires a conceptual framework that helps to organize policy responses within all levels of the educational system, as well as expansive to include other social sectors within public policy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sam Baddeley

This article, written at the start of April 2021, is a personal reflection on what has and hasn't worked in remote/online education. I have drawn on my own experience of teaching over the course of the past year, observations of classroom practice I have undertaken as a mentor and middle leader with responsibility for teaching and learning in my school, and conversations I have had with colleagues in my school and elsewhere; it is, therefore, highly anecdotal, and the reader is asked to bear in mind the fact that, like many others, my journey into online teaching was enforced by the closure of schools during the first nationwide lockdown in March 2020. My core aim during both lockdowns was to provide for my students the best experience possible until such a time as we could all return to the physical classroom. As it became clear towards the end of 2020 and the start of 2021 that we were going to need to return to remote education, I began to think more deeply about the strategies I was employing in my online teaching, how effective they were for my students, and what I might do to maximise their learning experience and outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Kouider Makhlouf ◽  
Zoulikha Bensafi

The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the teaching and learning process has been the subject of extensive research in the past few decades. Many studies have discussed the benefits of ICT for teachers and learners. However, little is known about the main factors that influence teachers’ attitudes toward the use of ICT in their teaching practices. This study aimed to explore the attitudes of secondary school EFL teachers in the Western District of Chlef toward ICT use in Algeria. Additionally, the study attempted to investigate the relationship between teachers’ computer attitudes and five independent variables: personal characteristics, computer attributes, cultural perceptions, computer competence, and computer access. Mixed methods research was used to combine both quantitative and qualitative research methods. A questionnaire and semi-structured interview were used in order to collect the data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics as well as content analysis were conducted to analyse the data. The findings indicated that EFL teachers held positive attitudes toward ICT in education. There were statistically significant positive correlations between teachers’ attitudes toward ICT and the five aforementioned independent variables. It was also found that age and academic qualification had negatively correlated with attitudes. The results of this study give meaningful insights for educational practitioners and policy-makers in relation to the implementation of ICT for teaching and learning in the classroom. Finally, the study presented some implications for policy and practice and recommendations for further research that will enhance teachers’ use of ICT in their teaching practices.


1990 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
David K. Cohen ◽  
Deborah Loewenberg Ball

Policymakers in the U. S. have been trying to change schools and school practices for years. Though studies of such policies raise doubts about their effects, the last decade has seen an unprecedented increase in state policies designed to change instructional practice. One of the boldest and most comprehensive of these has been undertaken in California, where state policymakers have launched an ambitious effort to improve teaching and learning in schools. We offer an early report on California's reforms, focusing on mathematics. State officials have been promoting substantial changes in instruction designed to deepen students' mathematical understanding, to enhance their appreciation of mathematics and to improve their capacity to reason mathematically. If successful, these reforms would be a sharp departure from existing classroom practice, which attends chiefly to computational skills. The research reported here focuses on teachers' early responses to the state's efforts to change mathematics instruction. The case studies of five teachers highlight a key dilemma in such ambitious reforms. On the one hand, teachers are seen as the root of the problem: their instruction is mechanical, often boring, and superficial. On the other hand, teachers are cast as the key agents of improvement because students will not learn the new mathematics that policymakers intend unless teachers learn that math and teach it. But how can teachers teach a mathematics that they never learned, in ways they never experienced? That is the question explored in this special issue.


Author(s):  
Rui Leitão ◽  
J.M.F. Rodrigues ◽  
Adérito Fernandes Marcos

In teaching, the use of virtual and augmented reality has been on the rise, exploring different means of interaction and student engagement. Based on constructivist pedagogic principles, augmented reality pretends to provide the learner/user with effective access to information through real-time immersive experiences. Game-based learning is one of the approaches that have received growing interest. This paper presents the development of a game in a teaching and learning context, aiming to help students acquire knowledge in the field of geometry. The game was intended to develop the following competences in primary school learners (8-10 years): a better visualization of geometric objects on a plane and in space; understanding of the properties of geometric solids; and familiarization with the vocabulary of geometry. The authors will show that by using the game students have improved around 35% the hits of correct responses to the classification and differentiation between edge, vertex and face in 3D solids.


ReCALL ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayo Reinders ◽  
Sorada Wattana

AbstractThe possible benefits of digital games for language learning and teaching have received increasing interest in recent years. Games are said, amongst others, to be motivating, to lower affective barriers in learning, and to encourage foreign or second language (L2) interaction. But how do learners actually experience the use of games? What impact does gameplay have on students’ perceptions of themselves as learners, and how does this affect their learning practice? These questions are important as they are likely to influence the success of digital game-based language learning, and as a result the way teachers might integrate games into the curriculum. In this study we investigated the experiences of five students who had participated in a fifteen-week game-based learning program at a university in Thailand. We conducted six interviews with each of them (for a total of 30 interviews) to identify what impact gameplay had in particular on their willingness to communicate in English (MacIntyre, Dörnyei, Clément & Noels, 1998). The results showed that gameplay had a number of benefits for the participants in this study, in particular in terms of lowering their affective barriers to learning and increasing their willingness to communicate. We discuss the implications of these results in terms of further research and classroom practice.


Author(s):  
Chantyclaire A. Tiba Publishing ◽  
Janet Condy ◽  
Agnes Chigona ◽  
Nyarai Tunjera

It has been shown that teachers are reluctant to use technology despite the South African (SA) government’s huge expenditure on technological equipment. This might  be the result of teachers being unable to select appropriate technology that will yield positive learning outcomes  as well as being ill-equipped to integrate  technology  into their pedagogy. To this end, pre-service teachers at a University were trained on how to integrate digital storytelling (DST) effectively into their teaching. The aim of this study is to  gain insight  into the  potential benefits of DST  for teaching and learning  and to determine factors that may prevent pre-service teachers’ uptake of DST during in-service practice. This is a qualitative study in which fifty pre-service teachers were divided into five groups for focus group interviews. Data were analysed, and the results show that pre-service teachers perceived DST to be beneficial in the classroom as it has the potential to (i) motivate and engage learners, (ii) promote  voice/self-expression, and  (iii) promote collaborative learning and  acquisition of multiple skills. Pre-service teachers are of the opinion that a lack of resources, self-confidence and time owing to restrictive curricula may prevent uptake of DST during in-service teaching. It was recommended that school stakeholders create a balance between intrinsic and extrinsic factors that will promote the adoption and integration of DST into teaching. Also,  the education institution concerned strives to balance all three strands of knowledge: technology, pedagogy and content.


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