Authentic Learning and Technology

Judith M. Conway

Teaching for Better Thinking

May 26, 1998

A teacher walks into a technology class with a frown on her face. "I have a problem that I hope you can help me with," she says to the class. "I would like to organize a career day for the students in our high school. It is a big job. I can't do it by myself. I know that if I use the computer to help manage the details, it would make it possible. But I don't know how to do that. You have learned to use word processors, spreadsheets, data bases, and presentation software could you design a system that would help me?"

The class starts to discuss the issues related to a career day. "We should take a survey first, so that we know what kind of speakers the students are interested in," says one student. Another adds, "We could design the survey forms on the word processor." A third volunteers, "I could write a program in C++ to calculate the results." A fourth student continues with, "I think we'll need a data base for the presenters who are coming so that we can use a mail-merge to send them reminders and thank-you letters."

And so it continues, the teacher of the class guides the discussion, the students decide who will work on what aspect of the job and how technology can best be used. The students are interested, involved, and motivated to do their best. They know that their solution to the problem will be carried out and the Career Day experience of all their fellow high school students will depend on their ideas. Along the way they will discuss, argue, compromise, and persuade. They will use the word processor, create and use two data bases, a desk top publisher, a spreadsheet, and the Internet. They will use their computers as a tool to accomplish a real task and they will understand how the pieces of the solution fit together.

Authentic learning activities are those which involve the student in an activity that solves a real-life problem or allows students to share the product of their learning with an audience that goes beyond the teacher. Technology can make possible and practical the use of authentic learning activities in the classroom.

The above example is one that I have used in my classroom. Click here to see some sample documents that the students produced. There are many more examples of authentic learning activities:

• In a school in Oregon high school students hold a "community faire" for elementary students in their area. The high school students research and set up displays that depict how their community looked and what people in their community did in different decades. Each display deals with a different decade, and each has a 'hands on' activity for the elementary students to try. Students start at the earliest time period and progress with their community to the present day.

• Students across the United States work together to study the seasons by reporting online when they first see robins and daffodils. They also study the migration of Monarch butterflies the same way.

• Students in Warner Middle School in Delaware are studying the Brandywine watershed. The information they discover is posted on the World Wide Web in a project called the Alphabet Super Highway under sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Education's READ*WRITE*NOW! Initiative. (http://www.ash.udel.edu)

Authentic learning activities involve students in complex tasks that require them to use higher level thinking skills. Onosko and Newmann define higher-order thinking as "when a person must interpret, analyze, or manipulate information, because a question to be answered or a problem to be solved cannot be resolved through the routine application of previously learned knowledge" (Onosko, Newmann, 1994 ). It is important to teach higher level thinking skills. "To succeed in the workplace, children need to become independent, critical thinkers. They must know where and how to find information, organize it, evaluate it, and then effectively express their new knowledge and ideas. They must work cooperatively in teams" (The Role of Online Communications in Schools: A National Study, 1996). Authentic learning activities can play a vital role in preparing children for their adult lives.

Authentic learning activities in conjunction with the use of new technologies have the power to stimulate the development of intellectual skills such as reasoning and problem solving ability, learning how to learn, and creativity( Grégoire, Bracewell, Laferrière, 1996).

In a project students participated in scientific experiments conducted jointly with students in other schools online. By drawing their information from various sources for the execution of their projects, using powerful telecommunications networks, students "learn critical information-age skills" and "build higher-order thinking skills" (Newman, 1994).

Technology can help make authentic learning practical for teachers by providing convenient access to the information gathering and presenting tools that students need. Many schools have access to information gathering tools such as electronic dictionaries, encyclopedias, magazine indexes (many with full text available), subject indexes (for example the SIRS index on CD has the full text of hundreds of articles grouped by topic), in addition to the wealth of information available on the Internet. In order to present the product of the learning activity students can use word processors, data bases, spreadsheets, desk top publishers, HTML to create pages to publish on the World Wide Web, and multimedia authoring tools such as Power Point or HyperStudio.

Authentic learning activities can involve "virtual reality" and simulations as well. Enhanced student reasoning skills have been demonstrated following use of the Archaeotype multimedia software (Wallis, 1995). This software simulates an archaeological site in Assyria and allows small groups of students, for example, to dig at the site, discover artifacts, send them to a laboratory for measuring and weighing, and develop hypotheses on the culture of the society that inhabited this site (Semel, 1992). The assessment of the effectiveness of using this software was conducted by comparing the group of grade 6 students with a control group in an equivalent private school. It covered students' analytical skills and was based on a simulation activity not familiar to either of the two groups. The findings were very favorable to the students who had used the software. In fact, they were found to be twice as skilled as the control group at developing and defending an explanation based on data.

Authentic learning activities involve students in social and focused conversations, working as a team. In conjunction with the use of new technologies, it promotes cooperation among students in the same class and among students or classes in different schools, near or far, for the purpose of making them more aware of other realities, accessing relevant knowledge not strictly defined in advance, and executing projects with a genuine relevance for the students themselves, and possibly for other people (Grégoire, Bracewell, Laferrière, 1996). Use of the computer in conjunction with one or more computer networks outside the school has numerous benefits. Thus, as demonstrated by the popular National Geographic Kids Network, in which students conduct scientific experiments while gathering data useful to current research, "joint projects are possible between schools.... Likewise, students and teachers can immediately obtain information about their projects from a wide variety of sources" (Newman, 1994).

The Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow project also demonstrates that when computers are used in conjunction with activities increased communication results. The first phase of the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) project ran 10 years (1985-1995). It started in seven classrooms in seven different elementary and secondary schools in 1986. The project made extensive use of computers and a wide range of software. One of the most striking and consistent results of this experiment was that use of this technology did not isolate students from one other, but instead increased the relations between them. Cooperation in a wide range of learning activities, often intellectually demanding and involving a certain scope and time, over the years actually became one of the main characteristics of the ACOT project. This evolution led in part to a lasting work atmosphere, an arrangement of time devoted to educational activities more respectful of individual paces and the nature of the activities, and a growing number of links between subject matters and with reality (Grégoire, Bracewell, Laferrière, 1996).

The value of authentic learning activities when used in tandem with technology has much to offer the teacher and the student -- opportunities for high student involvement, motivation for students to do their best work, encouragement for students to use high-level thinking skills, opportunities for students to engage in conversations in which they persuade, summarize, argue, and compromise -- and (as if that's not enough) it's (honestly and truly) fun.

Dwyer, David (1994).Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow : What We've Learned. Educational Leadership, 51 (7), 4-10.

Dwyer, David C., Cathy Ringstaff and Judy H. Sandholta (1991).Changes in Teachers' Beliefs and Practices in Technology-Rich Classrooms. Educational Leadership, 48 (8), 45-52.

Grégoire, Réginald, Bracewell, Robert, & Laferrière, Thérèse.(1996) The Contribution of New Technologies to Learning and Teaching in Elementary and Secondary Schools. Available online: http://www.tact.fse.ulaval.ca/fr/html/impactnt.html. Accessed May 26, 1998.

Mangieri, John N. and Block, Cathy Collins (ED.) (1994). Creating Powerful Thinking in Teachers and Students: Diverse Perspectives. Orlando, Fla: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc.

Means, Barbara (ED.) (1994).Technology and Education Reform. The Reality Behind the Promise. San Francisco, CA : Jossey-Bass. XXIV et 232 p.

Newman, Denis (1994).Computer Networks : Opportunities or Obstacles? See above Means, Barbara, p. 57-80.

Joseph J. Onosko and Fred M. Newmann. Creating More Thoughtful Learning Environments. See above Mangieri, p. 27-47.

Semel, Susan F. (1992).The Dalton School. N. Y. : Peter Lang Publishing (American University Studies, Series XIV, Education, Vol. 34). XIX et 205 p.

The Role of Online Communications in Schools: A National Study. (1996). CAST. Available online at http://www.cast.org/stsstudy.html. Accessed May 26, 1998.

Wallis, Claudia (1995).The Learning Revolution. What Wondrous Things Occur When a School Is Wired to the Max. Time, Special Issue, 145 (12), 49-51.

West, Peter (1995).With Computers, Apple Project Finds Less May Be More. Education Week. XV (11), 6.