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using the technology of today in the classroom today the instructional power of and how teachers can leverage them eric klopfer scot osterweil jennifer groff jason haas an education arcade paper

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the education arcade massachusetts institute of technology eric klopfer scot osterweil jennifer groff jason haas © copyright 2009 http creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

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what is good learning that may be a subjective question but it s likely that many educators would give answers that fall in the same ballpark students collaborating and discussing ideas possible solutions project-based learning designed around real world contexts connecting with other students around the world on topics of study immersing students in a learning experience that allows them to grapple with a problem gaining higher-order thinking skills from pursuing the solution to many educators these notions are music to their ears would it seem terribly strange then to hear that students indeed are doing these things regularly outside of their classrooms while timmy or susie may not be running home from school saying what fun deeply-engaging learning experience can we do today they are engaging with new technologies that provide them with the same opportunities every day many students are spending countless hours immersed in popular technologies such as facebook or myspace world of warcraft or sim city which at first glance may seem like a waste of time and brain cells but these genres of technologies social networking digital gaming and simulations deserve a second deeper look at what s actually going on when you hear myspace or world of warcraft what do they bring to mind for you what emotions do you associate with them have you heard of them before your students have and they almost certainly have strong opinions about them you don t need to be a teenager to use or understand these technologies or to use them in your classroom market research data indicates that many a normal middle-aged adult1 uses these technologies with frequency the fact is you can be 17 35 or 60 and when you begin to engage with them and observe what s really going on you can begin to see that these technologies are more than just entertainment these technologies are already demonstrating how they impact the way we think learn and interact and they are also demonstrating the tremendous potential they have in these areas as well the emergence of social networking technologies and the evolution of digital games have helped shape the new ways in which people are communicating collaborating operating and forming social constructs in fact recent research is showing us that these technologies are shaping the way we think work and live this is especially true of our youngest generations those arriving at classrooms doors soon to be leaving them and entering the workforce and society-at-large our newest generation ­ currently in k-12 ­ is demonstrating for us the impact of having developed under the digital wave these youth have been completely normalized by digital technologies it is a fully integrated aspect of their lives green hannon 2007 many students in this group are using new media and technologies to cre usi ng th e t ech nol og yoft oday inthe clas sroo m t oday 1

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ate new things in new ways learn new things in new ways and communicate in new ways with new people behaviors that have become hardwired in their ways of thinking and operating in the world green and hannon give an excellent example of this children are establishing a relationship to knowledge gathering which is alien to their parents and teachers 2007 p 38 not surprisingly this transformation has serious implications for us in the space of education nearly all institutions ­ business industry medicine science and government ­ have harnessed aspects of these technologies for decades games and simulations have been a key component of training doctors and military personnel but even businesses like pricewaterhousecoopers used a game about a mining company in outer space to teach its employees about derivativesi although that may seem a bit off the wall the fact is major corporations the department of defense and the medical community would not use these tools if they were not highly effective although these examples are mainly centered on training purposes there are deeper educational benefits to digital simulations and games yet educational institutions have been reluctant to embrace these technologies likewise where schools have often shied away from giving students an online identity in a digital networking platforms to increase opportunities for learning professional organizations are leveraging networking technologies to increase collaboration knowledge-sharing and production amongst their employees traditionally education has been impeded by the security and other potential dangers of employing social networking technologies these concerns should not be ignored however neither should these tools due to these concerns advances in these technologies continue to afford us new ways to manage the potential dangers simulations digital gaming and social networking technologies have all definitely suffered the same public relations problems that all new technologies do however there are countless examples of these technologies demonstrating their educational value to other industries confirming the powerful learning opportunities and advantages they afford it is our position that these technologies are safe valuable tools schools must take seriously of course changing instructional approaches is no easy task particularly when technology is involved adopting and integrating technology-based instructional strategies has a long history of challenges but with it has come a great understanding of how to achieve success with them in the contents to follow we will discuss · the background and affordances of simulations digital games and social networking · the cognitive implications of these technologies · specific challenges with using these tools in the classroom as well as strategies for overcoming these challenges in order to achieve successful learning experiences and · the future of these technologies and their impact and learning and teaching 2 usi ng th e t ech nol og yoft oday inthe clas sroo m t oday

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technology can have a reciprocal relationship with teaching the emergence of new technologies pushes educators to understanding and leveraging these technologies for classroom use at the same time the on-the-ground implementation of these technologies in the classroom can and does directly impact how these technologies continue to take shape while many new technologies have emerged throughout history so has the cry for educators to find meaningful ways to incorporate these technologies into the classroom ­ be it the typewriter the television the calculator or the computer and while some professional educators may have become numb to this unwavering `call ­ and for good reason ­ it is crucial to consider that the excitement over games and social networking isn t just business and industry crying wolf indeed those previous technologies have a powerful place in instruction and the classroom but without them strong lessons and learning objectives can still be achieved with these more recent technologies we think educators should take the call even if only on a trial basis undoubtedly without these recent technologies i.e digital games web 2.0 etc in the classroom strong lessons can still be achieved but there s a sharp disconnect between the way students are taught in school and the way the outside world approaches socialization meaning-making and accomplishment it is critical that education not only seek to mitigate this disconnect in order to make these two worlds more seamless but of course also to leverage the power of these emerging technologies for instructional gain of course as a result of these assaults on formal education those in the outside world are often quick to pounce on educators and the way education is perceived to be conducted in u.s classrooms this bandwagon perspective has become a mounting dialogue charging the field of education with the imperative for a revolution radical transformation of its system and practices while it is clear that education is no different from the other sectors in its need to adapt and modify to our transforming world it is also clear that many educators currently already implement excellent teaching practices and are able to skillfully create dynamic learning environments attacking educators current practices combined with the lack of acknowledgment of current best practices only hinders the growth of the education sector there are countless educators who are masters at their craft currently employing an array of exceptional instructional strategies lauding and building upon these strategies is critical to effective growth in the education sector in order to bridge the aforementioned divide we advocate for an evolution in educational practices and approaches to instruction which not only align with the processes and operations of the world outside of school but also leverage the emerging power and potential of these new processes and technologies attending to this end of the technology-teaching relationship has the additional benefit of helping to shape emerging technologies that is most effective for cognition and instruction usi ng th e t ech nol og yoft oday inthe clas sroo m t oday 3

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why digital gaming simulations and social networking simply put these technologies afford us the ability to convey concepts in new ways that would otherwise not be possible efficient or effective with other instructional methods in other words these technologies don t just help us teach the old stuff in new ways ­ they can also help us teach new stuff in new ways below we provide a brief description of these technologies popular educational and non-educational examples of each and what researchers and practitioners are finding about their potential and impact on teaching and learning digital games encompass much more than your computer s solitaire or nintendo s super mario bros over the last decade the genre of digital games has exploded to include numerous platforms and designs digital games whether computer game console or handheld-based are characterized by rules goals objectives outcomes feedback conflict competition/challenge/opposition interaction and representation of story prenksy 2001 or more simply purposeful goal-oriented rule-based activity that the players perceive as fun klopfer 2008 they are distinguished by two key elements 1 an interactive virtual playing environment and 2 the struggle of the player against some kind of opposition gaming is already a widespread activity in our culture more than 45 million homes have video-game consoles feller 2006 over 154 million americans play video games that s about half of the country s population emrich 2005 in a given week the average eighth-grade boy will play video games for about 23 hours while the average girl will play about 12 that s even more time than they spend watching tv dawley 2006 therefore one of the most obvious benefits to using these technologies for learning is that students are often already familiar with these interfaces and the language of interacting with and utilizing them both inside and outside the classroom some strong examples of powerfully engaging gaming models have emerged some have been used quite a bit in the educational setting while others have mainly garnered popularity in pop culture we outline some examples of both below civilization this commercial off-the-shelf cots game originally appeared in 1991 as a result of the game s popularity design multiple installations in the series have been developed the goal of the game is to successfully build an enduring empire the latest version civilization iv allows players to form teams in order to increase collaboration and strategy efforts in this turn-based strategy game players must make decisions for their civilization around societal development and diplomacy including when and where to build new cities what societal advances in knowledge should be sought and when and how to handle adversarial and nonadversarial neighboring civilizations at the onset of the game players even have the choice of which civilization to play aztecs romans mongols etc as time advances in the game new technologies emerge such as pottery and nuclear fission and civilization leaders have the choice to try to capitalize on these technologies or not 4 usi ng th e t ech nol og yoft oday inthe clas sroo m t oday

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the cultural popularity of civilization has been tremendous howcivilization ever it s also been highly touted by those in the educational space kurt squire and folks at the games learning and society group type commercial have extensively written about created materials for and implegame complexity moderate mented c ivilization in educational settings they contend that overview players select a historiplaying a game like civilization can be a profoundly powerful way cal civilzation to develop in a for learning about history and that through game-play players can sustainable way gained advanced terminology and knowledge of geography goal to be the dominant principles of history and generally increase their interest in this surviving civilization area of study their website supporting this work [http civworld.gameslearningsociety.org has numerous resources for the educational implementation of civilization many of which have been contributed by students who have taken an interest in the game games like civilization have an easier onramp to the educational space than other cots games that are a big hit in popular culture that at first glance may give off the guise that they would have zero educational value however many of these types of games have also been able to demonstrate their tremendous ability to cultivate key skills which although may not be directly related to a content area they are critical higher order thinking skills applicable in all areas of life perhaps the most prominent example of this is the online multiplayer game world of warcraft wo w while not targeted at education nor seeking to cover any type of educational content green hannon 2007 cite multiple skills associated with being a guildmaster one of the roles in wow attracting evaluating and recruiting new members creating apprenticeship programs orchestrating group strategy and managing disputes as you might imagine these are frequently cited as being skills highly sought after in the workplace both of these games ­ civilization and world of warcraft ­ provide us with clear demonstrations of the educational implications and possibilities of cots and as educators continue to adopt and adapt these games we will in turn further learn the benefits and best designs of these games world of warcraft wow type commercial mmorpg game complexity variable overview a fantasy role-playing game like dungeons and dragons played over the internet with millions around the world goal outfit and improve your character through quests both cooperatively and competitively with other players lure of the labyrinth designed to appeal to youth like a cots game the lure of the labyrinth was most certainly created with educational intentions designed at the mit education arcade in development collaboration with maryland public television fablevision johns hopkins university and macro international labyrinth is funded by the u.s department of education with a primary goal of enhancing pre-algebra mathematics learning and a secondary goal of improving literacy labyrinth is a web-based long-form puzzle adventure game played over many sessions the game s storyline is a persistent narrative that evolves over time where the player s character enters the game looking to recover a lost pet and subsequently is led by clues through a fantasy world an underground factory populated by mythical monsters who are stealing pets by the game s conclusion players will have recovered their own pets freed many others and halted the monsters plans by deusi ng th e t ech nol og yoft oday inthe clas sroo m t oday 5

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stroying their factory using algebra as a result of the player exploring this space learning how to navigate it and solving puzzles with mathematical reasoning players can earn enough points to free their pet these puzzles are the central mechanic of the game often players will not succeed on a puzzle on the first try and the second time the puzzle is encountered the piece will be different although the dynamic or puzzle rule will still be the same throughout the game players are in communication with teammates via an in-game message board players seek or give advice about solving individual puzzles or the overarching game goals however since no puzzle is ever the same twice help for teammates can only offer meta-level thinking about the game this skill of articulating the solution makes them valuable team members and also builds skills required on many standardized assessments ultimately these puzzles were designed to help students embody the thinking processes and habits of mind of a scientist mathematician or engineer which include probing sometimes random sometimes focused observing one s environment in response to stimuli introduced forming hypotheses and testing and altering single variables for more educational g ames go to www.educationarcade.org while additional high quality research on the effects of gaming is needed there are important reasons for educators to engage with digital games initial reports show that gamers have well-developed skills including enhanced visual perception researchers such as patricia marks greenfield also argue that habitual playing of video games results in the development of new cognitive abilities that translate into the key skills for our transformed world facer 2003 · the ability to process information very quickly · the ability to determine what is and is not of relevance to them · the ability to process information in parallel at the same time and from a range of different sources · familiarity with exploring information in a non-linear fashion · a tendency to access information in the first instance through imagery and then use text to clarify expand and explore · familiarity with non-geographically bounded networks of communication and · a relaxed approach to `play the capacity to experiment with one s surroundings as a form of problemsolving jenkins purushotma clinton weigel robison 2006 other researchers have found that games improve skills in communication and collaboration problem-solving and various number-related skills mcfarlane sparrowhawk heald 2002 gee in press expands the skill set potentially as it can vary from game to game developed by games to include 6 usi ng th e t ech nol og yoft oday inthe clas sroo m t oday

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· pattern and rule recognition · `embodied empathy for a complex system where a person seeks to participate in and within a system all the while seeing and thinking of it as a system and not just local random events p 5-6 · fluency with `cross-functional affiliation [operating in a group to achieve a goal by using specialist and general common knowledge necessary for group operations and · illumination of attributes of human cognition distributed intelligence and situated meaning what all these skills represent are the ways in which individuals are increasingly required to effectively operate and function in our highly digital world any educator can tell you ample anecdotes of where a critical piece to a classroom project was accessing sorting and processing information exploring possibilities to identify problem solutions and collaborating with others both live and asynchronously in order to achieve a goal although the aforementioned capacities don t show up in all state standards just yet national organizations such as aasa have already identified and supported these skills as critical capacities for 21st century operation meet ross 7th grade central subject teacher at a traditional independent school in cambridge massachusetts the curriculum is anything but digital although technology is valued this pre-k ­ 8 school is built upon the philosophy of education through meaningful realworld play and exploration it may seem strange then that ross has embraced and been wildly successful with digital game-based education in his classroom for the past several years ross has been using commercial content-related games like diplomacy in his classroom although he believes the ideal scenario is to partner up students on one computer and each team plays the role of a country he has also played the game as a whole class at the front of the room via one computer and a projector which serves as the content from which ross facilitates the activity for ross there are numerous benefits to playing diplomacy in the classroom versus his traditional instructional methods one of the strongest benefits of the game is the framing of the content as the students explore and interact with the scenario-at-hand such as the political causes of wwi as found in diplomacy this serves a profoundly engaging vehicle for covering the content in his curriculum however ross has observed in his classes that diplomacy provides additional benefits that would otherwise be challenging for him to emulate · teaches students about the skill of negotiation · teaches students how to solve problems collaboratively and · teaches students to be mindful of their actions/impact on others an attribute of systems thinking ross sees these habits of mind or conceptual knowledge as the greatest outcome of the learning experience the conceptual knowledge is critical because if you can grasp that then you can transfer skills and morph into usi ng th e t ech nol og yoft oday inthe clas sroo m t oday 7

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other domains roles and work more easily with digital games students get to experience the concepts versus passively watching a video on it the learning benefits described by ross seem clearly advantageous but is there an inherent benefit for ross according to him having tools like digital games has only enhanced his teaching games don t teach the content it teaches [students the conceptual knowledge and sets the environment for you to teach what you want although analogous to digital games and often included in the gaming spectrum simulations are analog[ies of a real world situation[s prensky 2001 p 128 as they recreate a modeled or modified version of a real world situation one essential aspect that separates digital games from simulations is the lack of game dynamics or the win state that exists in digital games some examples of simulations include molecular workbench as technology has improved so has the quality of simulations developed for education developed by the concord consortium in concord massachusetts molecular workbench provides interactive visual simulations to aide in teaching simple and complex science concepts such as dynamic molecular structures tinker xie 2008 molecular workbench also has a unique additional instrument a reporting and assessment system which can be used by teachers to can collect data and measure learning with models and simulations starlogo the next generation starlogo tng simulations do a great job of helping learners to visualize and conceptualize complex phenomena however the learning can be even more powerful when the student is creating and altering a simulation they themselves are building starlogo tng is an open-ended tool that allows the user to do just that a 3d modeling and simulation software starlogo tng is a user-friendly programming language represented by colored blocks that fit together like puzzle pieces the programming possibilities are seemingly endless and numerous teachers in math and science have created an array of applications with it including a model of a health epidemic to a simulation of the dynamics between fish and plankton klopfer scheintaub huang wendel 2009 klopfer scheintaub 2008a 2008b simcity one of the first and biggest cots simulation games to come onto the market was simcity where the objective is to design and create a thriving sustainable city players designate which land is residential industrial or commercial and as the mayor of their city they are forced to confront issues of pollution crime waste management transportation and so on by building their own city they are in control of the various parts that make up a city system helping to underscore concepts of system dynamics the scenario that this presents allows for direct connections to economics math and science simc ity also comes with built in scenarios real world cities with the occurrence of a fictional event although a few scenarios are based on actual events in history such as boston 2010 where there is a nuclear meltdown in the city and the mayor must contain toxic areas and rebuild and hamburg germany 1944 where bombing from wwii has destroyed much of the 8 usi ng th e t ech nol og yoft oday inthe clas sroo m t oday

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city and the mayor must guide the city through the end of the war these scenarios serve as excellent jumping-off points for your instructional endeavors and curricular needs for simulations to be successful at whatever their goal they need structural elements to give them shape and this often comes from the rules of game-play and/or digital enhancement prensky 2001 many of the same benefits and skills previously detailed around digital games are also true for simulations for simulations to be effective instructionally in the classroom they like most instructional tools need guided facilitation from the teacher however the beauty of simulations is that they create learning opportunities and experiences that might otherwise never be able to be created in the traditional classroom learning experiences that are authentic models of real world situations allowing for strong transfer of understanding to real world situations truly creating authentic learning experiences is perhaps the most critical aspect and benefit to digital games and simulations bridging the all-too-well-known gap between the classroom and the real world the learning has meaning and relates to the real world because it is modeled on the systems of the real world not broken down compartmentalized and stripped from context as many lessons must be in order to be compacted into a 45minute period the majesty of well-designed learning games and simulations is that through technology they present a scaffolded simulated world in a manner that makes it more digestible and engaging for students shaffer explains computers let us work with simulations of the world around us and these simulations let us play with reality by creating imaginary worlds where we can do things that we otherwise couldn t do at all 2006 p 9 not only is this highly motivating and engaging for students it allows students to retain connect and transfer learning from these experiences to future learning and experiences meet hal kali 12th grade physics teachers simulations in physics class that doesn t seem out of place but in the classrooms of hal and kali in lawrence massachusetts simulations are much more than a digital depiction of trajectory or newton s laws of motion for the past eight years veteran educator hal has been using starlogo tng described above to create digital simulations to demonstrate the principles of complex concepts such as evolution or the factors in a forest fire two concepts that would otherwise be difficult for the students to experience helping students gain conceptual understanding of these challenging concepts is just one major outcome of tools like starlogo tng but since it also allows users to create and program their own simulations students can be creative problem-solvers and demonstrate mastery of the concepts by altering the simulation based upon their understanding of how it works for hal this coupling the simulation with programming in his class is the most powerful manifestation of experiential learning i will give students a partial simulation of a forest fire the kids then manipulate the simulation to program a solution such as programming a fire fighter kids can then compare these multiple solutions according to hal it s different from the science test i just gave because it allows him to pose more interesting questions and to allow students to generate multiple correct answers instead of looking for one correct answer usi ng th e t ech nol og yoft oday inthe clas sroo m t oday 9

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a few years ago a new colleague named kali joined the school s science department although kali was just getting her feet wet as a classroom teacher the two found that collaborating around a tool like starlogo tng created great synergy that elevated both of their instructional practices although each uses the tool differently in their respective classrooms the discussion and collaboration of using this tool has leveraged new ideas and illuminated critical contributions that each agrees they probably would not have come to on their own according to hal the best part is it s provided a way to collaborate with a colleague across disciplines gender and age differences in the same collaborative ways we seek for our students to develop while using starlogo social networking could be seen as a technology with fewer evangelists for its use as an instructional tool but it shouldn t be given the number of subscribers to this technology beating out google in terms of traffic the social networking site myspace logged almost 46 million users in june 2006 albanese 2006 just to emphasize that was just the site myspace alone these sites allow the user to do it all post a profile photos videos chat blog and connect with their peers through individual bulletin boards private groups and forums these numbers reflect all users from all demographics and age ranges it is highly likely that the tween and teen group nine to 17-year-olds are the heaviest users of this technology a recent report published by the national school board association 2007 found that 96 percent of youth in this age range have used social networking tools at some time with their average engagement with them rivaling time spent watching tv at 9 hours a week yet perhaps the most stunning statistic of their study is that the topic of most conversation at these sites is education 60 percent of the students surveys said they use the sites to talk about education topics and more than 50 percent use it to talk about specific schoolwork what are the critical aspects that define a social networking technology traditionally traits of these tools include creating a login on the site which provides you with a profile page where you often can add pictures and other content you can then connect with other people you know or may have met through this site by becoming their friend a designation to the site that you two are connected in some way this affords you the ability to receive updates on your friends pages communicate with them via in-site email/comments/chat and create specific groups on the site around themes or content culturally popular sites like myspace facebook and bebo however have received intense backlash from schools which are fearful for the online safety of students using these sites as well as the concern that students will misuse them during what is supposed to be instructional time as a result numerous alternative sites have emerged to provide teachers with more suitable platforms to host classroom online communities ning although not specifically created for classroom use ning s personalization and privacy settings have been quite successful in education teachers can create their own private social network housed within the ning site in this way the teacher can designate who is and is not able to participate in their social network as the 10 usi ng th e t ech nol og yoft oday inthe clas sroo m t oday

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network s administrator the teacher may also enable to disable specific parameters such as chat and messaging if so desired there are many great examples of schools and classrooms already successfully implementing these sites in the classroom this type of site has been shown to be excellent for facilitating group projects using those tools2 think.com this learning platform is more than just a fancy social web space hosted by the oracle education foundation this free service is designed to be a password-protected teacher-monitored safe web-space that is free from advertising the site is filled with project ideas and tools to help users create those projects in an online space where students and teachers can collaborate together this high-quality site maintains its quality standards by requiring an application by the school in order to receive an account and careful monitoring of student activity appropriateness diigo this hybrid social networking ­ social bookmarking site does an excellent job of incorporating many of the components of traditional social bookmarking sites such as a developed user profile grouping based on background/interests and so on but what makes diigo special is it s the embedded tools that let you treat the internet like your own personal notebook that can be accessed by anyone you choose to have access to it with a simple download users can highlight parts of webpages attach sticky notes to a webpage and then share these annotations with others panwapa don t think that social collaboration sites are limited to the older kids sites like webkinz and club p enguin are gaining momentum in the pre-teen age group although student interest in these sites has made many educators stop and take notice they have left many skeptical and unclear of how to proceed with them as an instructional tool seeing the potential in these technologies the folks at sesame workshop ­ the same leaders in the field of primary education who produce sesame street ­ have created p anwapa an interactive site where users explore the world and its various cultures through creatures and characters that sesame workshop is known for complete with a teacher s guide printable activities and online communities p anwapa leverages the abilities of social networking while being designed from the start as a robust educational tool since a key characteristic of social networking sites is for each user to have their own profile they have the ability to create their online identity and connect with anyone from around the globe also profiled on the site in the age of globalization this is a tremendous opportunity to connect students with other students who have similar interests as well as different experiences this gets at the heart of social networking technologies social cognition these emerging technologies have connected people in so many ways ways that not too long ago would have been unimaginable as a result we have seen an explosion in the processes and capacities individuals as they collaborate and leverage others abilities in new ways these new ways of operating in the [digital world illuminates new capacities and skills central to usi ng th e t ech nol og yoft oday inthe clas sroo m t oday 11

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this modus operandi3 jenkins et al note that these new capacities almost all involve social skills developed through collaboration and networking these skills build on the foundation of traditional literacy research skills technical skills and critical analysis skills taught in the classroom 2006 p 19 these are all critical skills often developed in conjunction with distributed learning environments designed to leverage activities around principles of distributed cognition and collective intelligence these two skills in particular are based on the view that intelligence is more than just an attribute of an individual but distributed amongst brain body and world clark 1997 improved reasoning is made possible by the use of technology to expand and augment human s cognitive capacities jenkins et al 2006 p 37 furthermore knowledge cultures assembled in these online communities produce the capacity for cognition and accomplishment far beyond what one person alone could accomplish meet john literature teacher at a small rural high school what could social media possibly do for john s classroom he wasn t sure but he gave it a shot to see what he could find last year john jumped right in by starting a blog at the time he wasn t really sure what he d use it for or exactly who the audience was but he figured it was worth trying out and seeing what it was about it wasn t long before john saw how blogs could be very engaging for both him and those who followed his writings john s success with blogs led him to create social networks for each of his classes using ning from the start these networks were well received by the kids and lively with activity john used the networks as a way to communicate assignments class discussion and content that supported their work such as videos related to his class literature study of fahrenheit 451 john s favorite outcomes from these tools are the opportunities for real world application of the ideas being covered through the site students were able to continue discussion outside the classroom via the discussion board and sharing their ideas and work online which allowed for more opportunities to see other students work and learning these tools open up whole new lessons that feel very applicable for their future in fact john s social networks were so popular that many of his students would check into them to see if anything what was happening even though john hadn t specifically posted an assignment or activity john found other interesting effects as well this online social network was an incredible vehicle for one of his students with social anxiety disorder who would frequently have to go home early because of the disorder not long after john launched the network this student was avidly posting comments and facilitating discussions amongst students within the site she ended up becoming extremely involved in the online network becoming one of the most active students on it which opened up new ways for her to communicate and socialize with students although john s students were by-and-large fairly tech-savvy there still were of course students who had little or no access to technology at home by the end of the school year john had discovered one of these students had created his own network around one of his own passions trading guitar tips one year into this endeavor john is convinced of the powerful educational abilities of such technologies it was me giving the kids something `cool the kids saw that and respected it and it elicits from the kids the respect it deserves it didn t need to be demanded 12 usi ng th e t ech nol og yoft oday inthe clas sroo m t oday

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throughout the past few decades the emergence of new technologies has been paralleled by the evolution of theories on cognition and learning where learning and the mind were once viewed as filling of the bucket the social mind is now a much more prevalent model of course educators have long been aware that learning is a social activity where learners construct their understanding not just through interaction with the material but also through collaboratively constructing new knowledge with their peers this collaborative learning process where children s cognitive development is supported through the interaction and coordination of different perspectives amongst peers bearison dorval 2002 plays out in pedagogical terms as social constructivism familiar aspects of social constructivism include situated learning where students engage in activities directly relevant and applicable to the concepts and context in which the learning will be applied brown collins duguid 1989 and cognitive apprenticeship where students learn through carefully scaffolded projects where expert behavior is modeled and mediated through peer interaction why are strategies like these important because these pedagogies are the onramps to deep learning simple learning can be accessed through various methods but acquiring complex skills requires social interactions in situated contexts which allows them to see how the various parts of the process fit together trent artiles englert 1998 p 285 ill-structured domains such as history are particularly well-suited for the social constructivist approach where language and co-construction of concepts is central the collaborative communicative interrelated nature of the web makes it an especially ideal tool for supporting social constructivism in the classroom mcmahon 1997 this may seem apparent with social networking technologies but the powerful learning attributes of digital games and simulations are can also be enhanced when they occur online in a networked fashion as described in our discussion of world of warcraft with all of these technologies they demonstrate their ability to be excellent tools for supporting social constructivism in the classroom not only through the real time interaction amongst classmates around the technology but those synchronous and asynchronous interactions that occur virtually with classmates and other peer learners our innate beliefs about things like how we think people learn are often unstated but serve as the operating system upon which we base our instructional decisions in the classroom these technologies align strongly with the constructivist and social constructivist theories of learning and therefore will also fit well into classrooms where these theories of learning are embraced as new technologies push instruction in the classroom in new ways so to does our ability as professional educators push the evolution of educational technologies with the recent tide of web 2.0 technologies web services which center around user-provided content like flickr youtube or facebook one can only speculate where things go from here usi ng th e t ech nol og yoft oday inthe clas sroo m t oday 13

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