Adaptive Learning

Adaptive learning has several meanings. It can include software packages that change test questions based on the student's responses, such as the GRE. It can also include a form of learning where students can self-pace themselves through a course. They move quickly through material they already know but slow down with new material. Finally, Adaptive Learning, as we will focus on this course, includes mulitple modalities for students to learn material. For example:

Example: The Founding of Rome

1. Text based version of the myth
   1. Offer other ways of getting the same information: 
      1. Khan Academy video of the myth
   2. Offer another way for students to understand the material
      1. Contemporary analysis of the myth
      2. Crash course video
2. Assignments based on the Founding of Rome
   1. Discussion/writing assignment
   2. Practice Questions after first section
   3. Quiz

Learning with Technology

With increased access to learning resources, tools and information, students are drawn deeper into a topic than ever before. They can even direct their own learning.  In fact, when done well, students don’t just learn with technology- they create. One educator noted:

“When students have this technology, they can create things. They can innovate things…. When they have Photoshop in front of them and I say do this, this, and this, what they can create is always going to be completely, uniquely different. And, they become artists with that or they become filmmakers, or they become web designers.  Like they can take on a lot of really advanced roles, and I think that’s something that technology does uniquely provide, because you can’t be a web designer without that technology.  You can’t create a film without that technology. And, I feel like that’s really different than a textbook…let me let you take your creativity, and using this technology, create something I would have never made.”

With increased access to learning resources, tools and information, students are drawn deeper into a topic than ever before. They can even direct their own learning.  In fact, when done well, students don’t just learn with technology- they create. One educator noted:

“When students have this technology, they can create things. They can innovate things…. When they have Photoshop in front of them and I say do this, this, and this, what they can create is always going to be completely, uniquely different. And, they become artists with that or they become filmmakers, or they become web designers.  Like they can take on a lot of really advanced roles, and I think that’s something that technology does uniquely provide, because you can’t be a web designer without that technology.  You can’t create a film without that technology. And, I feel like that’s really different than a textbook…let me let you take your creativity, and using this technology, create something I would have never made.”

×As research shows new generations of students are fundamentally different from former generations, mostly because of changes in their media consumption patterns (Bourgonjon et al, 2010). Contemporary students, also referred to as “digital natives” (Prensky, Part 2, 2001) and “the net generation”  Oblinger, 2005), have never experienced a world without information and communication technology (ICT). This generation of students grew up with smartphones, social networking sites and video games. Thus it is claimed that these students have gained specific technical skills, new ways of thinking and different learning preferences, which require a new educational approach (McGrath & Bayerlein, 2013). To help cater for different learning styles and those new to contemporary pedagogy, instructors and instructional designers need to effectively use new technologies to aid in the delivery of materials, educating new generations who understand these new teaching methods (McGrath & Bayerlein, 2013).

From: Educating ‘the Net generation’:   Enhancing student engagement with Web 2.0 tools and mobile technology in music Links to an external site.education Links to an external site.

Links to more resources

Article: Using Emerging Technologies to Engage Students and Enhance Their Links to an external site.Success Links to an external site.

Article:Teaching with Technology Links to an external site.