“Web 2.0 is any World Wide Web technology or website that
allows interactive content,” including
blogs,
wikis, online games, virtual worlds, video posts, podcasts, social networking
sites, RSS feeds, and videoconferences (Tammy, 2008,
p. 1) as well as forums, chat rooms, and classroom portals. Increasingly, teachers are integrating
the use of web 2.0 tools into classroom instruction. As a result, they find
that the effective use of these tools increases student motivation and improves
learning. At the same time, educational research demonstrates that authentic,
engaging homework assignments improve student learning, as well (Marzano, Pickering,
Pollock, 2001, pp. 61-71).
One
of my challenges as a middle school language arts teacher is to increase my
students’ motivation to extend their learning through the completion of high
quality homework assignments, while they would prefer to socialize after school.
Therefore, I propose a research study to determine how the meaningful use of
web 2.0 tools affects student performance on homework assignments in the middle
school language arts classroom. Data gathered in this study will answer three
questions: In what ways are teachers most effectively incorporating the use of
web 2.0 tools into homework assignments? Are students more likely to complete homework
assignments that require them to use web 2.0 tools versus traditional textbook
homework assignments? Is there a difference in the quality of homework
completed when web 2.0 tools are used versus the quality of homework completed
without new technologies? Research currently available does not definitively
answer these questions.
Current
research does suggest that middle school students’ performance improves when
school-wide laptop programs are implemented, and their use of computers for
homework increases at the same time, but studies have not analyzed these students’
performance on homework specifically. Studies have determined that students are
using web 2.0 tools effectively in class, but perhaps not to their fullest
potential outside of class. Research also shows that students benefit from the parental
support created when teachers use web 2.0 technology to communicate with
parents about homework assignments. Additionally, studies show that students
benefit from the feedback from teachers and peers made possible through web 2.0
tools. They also benefit from having an authentic audience online; fears about
online safety are one of the factors that sometimes prevent schools from
integrating technology with homework. More research must be done to determine
whether the integration of technology with language arts homework assignments
has a positive effect on student performance overall, and to determine if this
is a key to motivating middle school students to complete homework assignments.
Laptop Use Improves
Student Performance
Many
middle school students are provided with laptops they can use both during
school and for homework. A Harvest Park Middle School (Gulek & Demirtas,
2005, p. 1) study measured the effects of school-wide laptop programs on middle
school student achievement by following students at 259 middle school students
participating in a laptop immersion program in a school of 1085 students. The
demographics of the group of students using laptops closely mirrored the
demographics of the overall student population. Students’ GPA’s, end-of-course
grades, writing test scores, and state-mandated standardized test scores in
language arts, math, and writing, showed no significant differences initially
between laptop and non-laptop students.
After
one year, students with laptops showed significantly higher achievement in almost
all these categories. Analyzed again in a second and third year, these students
continued to show higher achievement (Gulek & Demirtas, 2005, p. 3). This quantitative
study found that students who received laptops spent more time doing homework
online. They also worked collaboratively more frequently, and participated in
project-based learning and self-directed learning more than non-laptop
students. Student who received laptops produced more writing and writing of
higher quality than non-laptop students, and they demonstrated greater skill in
research analysis (Gulek & Demirtas, 2005, p. 5).
Students Already Use
Web 2.0 Tools Outside School
British researchers found that students spend more time using a computer
to complete school work outside school than they do during school, “with 34 per
cent of all learners estimating that they spend only an hour each week using a
computer at school” (Luckin, Logan, Clark, Graber, Oliver, & Mee, 2008, p.
6). They also found students use computers differently outside school,
with more collaborative activities taking place and with greater use of audio
and video tools taking place outside school.
Researchers in
this study determined that students are consuming content more frequently than
they are creating content, and that they are not consistently acting as
critical consumers of information outside school. Therefore, teachers have a
role in providing students with “the technical skills to
use the tools effectively and the metacognitive, synthesis and critical
reflection skills to use web 2.0 applications to support learning wherever they
are” (Luckin, Logan, Clark, Graber,
Oliver, & Mee, 2008, p. 6). Not only can students benefit from
strengthening web 2.0 literacies within the classroom, but outside school as
well.
Teen Bloggers Write More Than Other
Teens
In a large-scale survey, The Parent & Teen Survey on Writing,
conducted in 2007 by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, 700 12
to 17 year olds and their parents completed telephone interviews. The data
collected showed that teen bloggers write more frequently than any other group
of teens, including social networking teens. In fact, “fully 47% of teen
bloggers write for personal reasons several times a week or more… 23% write
outside of school just about every day” (Lenhart, Arafeh, Smith, & Macgill,
2008, p. 7). Teen bloggers do more types of writing than other teens, including
“short writing, journal writing, creative writing, write music or lyrics and
write letters or notes to their friends” (Lenhart, Arafeh, Smith, &
Macgill, 2008, p. 7). Teen bloggers also recognize the importance of writing
more than other teens. “Fully 65% of teen bloggers feel that writing is “essential”
to later success in life, compared with 53% for non-bloggers and 56% for teens
as a whole” (Lenhart, A., Arafeh, S., Smith, A., Macgill, A., 2008, p. 7).
Using Web 2.0 for Parent and Teacher
Communications Improves Student Performance
In another
study, teacher-researcher Lewis demonstrated that
communications technology (in this case “the SchoolCall system, a phone-based
telecommunications device designed to facilitate parent and teacher
communication, and a teacher-created website to communicate with parents”) can
positively affect both homework completion and accuracy. Lewis collected baseline
data for one week and compared the rates of homework completion and the
percentage of accuracy over a three-week intervention period while using these
technologies.
This study was limited by
the fact that participants were 64 of Lewis’s own English students, but Lewis did
not reveal the two dependant variables (homework completion and accuracy) to
her students. She simply introduced the new forms of communication and measured
the results over three weeks. It would be interesting to observe this group
over a longer time period, to determine whether homework improvements are maintained.
Another limitation of this study was that the teacher assigned only homework
that was easy to grade for accuracy (such as multiple choice questions.)
Therefore, the measure of “accuracy” in this study does not necessarily answer
my question about whether “quality” of homework is improved through the
integration of technology. Clearly, though, the web allows for improved
teacher/parent communications, which Lewis demonstrated can improve homework
completion rates.
Students Prefer Writing Online
In a 2007 study,
teacher-researcher Witte creates an online journaling project with her middle
school students, called the “Talkback Project.” Witte finds that, while she has
difficulty engaging students in classroom writing, they are actively writing
poetry and prose in their own blogs outside school, particularly on Xanga.
Therefore, to promote writing and make her class more engaging, Witte
established a blog for preservice teachers to collaborative with middle school
students by discussing literature. The first year, feedback from the preservice
teachers indicated frustration with students not reading the required
literature closely, and feedback from the students indicated a reluctance to
discuss their thoughts with teachers they felt “talked down” to them (Witte,
2007, p. 93). Keeping these results in mind, the next year the preservice
teachers developed engaging discussion topics that relied less heavily on the
literature studied, and the feedback was positive. Students wrote more and
stated that they appreciate the teachers’ commitment to the project (Witte,
2007, p. 94). Unfortunately, because of fear about a student mentioning the
neighborhood he lives in, the administration asked the teacher to remove the
blog. However, the students and preservice teachers continued their
“conversations” on paper through journals for the remainder of the school year.
Students then expressed frustration that their blog was removed, and discussed
the issues of Internet safety and their rights to participate in a “global
society” (Witte, 2007, p. 96).
Conclusion
These authors indicate that web
2.0 tools can be used to encourage collaboration and self-directed learning
during homework, to engage students in project-based homework assignments, and
to elicit more and better writing from middle school language arts students. They
also suggest web 2.0 tools can also be used to elicit critical thinking during
homework, such as in research analysis. Furthermore, teachers can provide instruction that will improve students’ use of web
2.0 tools outside school; and perhaps we can also take advantage of students’
preferences for audio tools, video tools, social networking, and blogging
within the classroom and during homework assignments to improve our instruction.
There is evidence that student performance and accuracy on homework improves
when teachers use web 2.0 tools to communicate with parents, and that students
are motivated and engaged when using web 2.0 tools for writing online. All of
these pieces can be tied together by a proposed study of the integration of
technology with language arts homework in middle school.
In
my own middle school, I plan to distribute a survey to measure the number of
teachers integrating various web 2.0 tools into homework assignments, and the
percentage of homework assignments that require the use of web 2.0 tools. I
will also learn how teachers are integrating technology into homework using
qualitative methods, such as “narrative descriptions” (McMillan &
Schumacher, 2006, p. 62) and interviews with teachers and students. To evaluate
the relationship between student completion rates on homework assignments
requiring the use of web 2.0 tools versus completion rates on traditional
textbook homework assignments, I will collect data about my own students’
performance and those of my colleagues over a one month period, measuring the
completion rates on assignments that use web 2.0 tools and on assignments that
do not. To determine differences in quality of homework completed when Web 2.0
tools are used versus quality of homework completed without new technologies, I
will collect quantitative data (homework grades) across several classrooms that
will serve as sample populations. I will also record the observations of
teachers, students, and parents; since quality of homework includes not only
grades scored, but also student learning and increased student interest in
subject matter resulting from the homework. Finally,
I will analyze my own students’ responses to homework questions when they are
communicating online versus composing hand-written responses.
References
Lenhart, A.,
Arafeh, S., Smith, A., Macgill, A. (2008). Writing,
technology and teens. Pew
Internet and American life project.
Retrieved from
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/Writing-Technology-and-Teens.aspx
Andrew,
T. (2008). Teaching with web 2.0:
Benefits interactive web technology brings to
education. Retrieved from http://www.suite101.com/content/teaching-with-web-20-a49204#ixzz12eKexFBk
Gulek, J., and Demirtas, H.
(2005). Learning with technology: The impact of laptop use on
student achievement. Journal
of technology, learning, and assessment. 3(2). Retrieved
from http://pdfcast.org/pdf/learning-with-technology-the-impact-of-laptop-use-on-
student-achievement
Lewis, A. Using
Communications Technology and Parental Involvement to Improve Homework
Completion
and Quality. Retrieved from
http://teach.valdosta.edu/are/vol2no1/pdf%20articles/annittalewis.pdf
Luckin,
R., Logan, K., Clark, W., Graber, R., Oliver, M., and Mee, A. (2008). Learners'
use of
Web
2.0 technologies in and out of school in Key Stages 3 and 4. UK:
Becta. Retrieved
documents/research/web2_technologies_ks3_4.pdf
Marzano, R.,
Pickering, D., and Pollock, J. (2001). Classroom
instruction that works: Research-
based strategies for increasing
student achievement. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
McMillan, J. H., & Schumacher, S. (2006).
Research in education: Evidence-based inquiry
(Laureate
custom edition). Boston: Pearson.
Witte, S. (2007). “That’s online
writing, not boring school writing”: Writing with blogs and the
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