Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

1.11.10 | Last week was a good week for Kathryn Eyolfson.

Eyolfson,  a fifth-grade teacher at Coyote Hills Elementary School in Aurora, Colo., has been teaching math and science for more than 18 years.  Last week she traveled to Washington, D.C., to receive a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching—one of among 87 recipients . I caught up with her the morning before she was to meet President Obama. (And yes, she was very excited.)

Eyolfson is also participating in the National Lab Day Initiative, funded in part by the MacArthur Foundation. Both the PAEMST awards and National Lab Day aim to improve math and science education.

Customizing Lessons with Digital Media

Eyolfson won the PAEMST award because of menus she designed for her students to use on a website called Blackboard. The menus are list of activities for kids to do outside of class, and they’re aimed at “teaching 21st- century kids,” Eyolfson said, meaning kids who multitask, and who learn visually and kinesthetically.

“I’ve never been a teacher who stands up in front of the room and delivers a lesson,” Eyolfson said.

One of Eyolfson’s menus teaches kids about the moon. To engage them immediately, the menu starts with a story called “Moon Tricks,” one of the Science Mysteries series from Richard Konecek-Moran. The story doesn’t neatly explain the cycle of the moon, but rather leaves it up to kids to inquire why the moon is doing what the boy in the story observes. Kids write a summary, and then they’re directed to the Brainpop website, where they watch a video, take a quiz, and complete a moon-related activity. They may do some more writing on Brainpop, listen to a song, and analyze 3-D graphs and charts. At the end, they complete an “assessment probe,” where they write up what they learned about the moon and explain their reasoning.

In other words, Eyolfson’s menu takes a multimedia approach, putting traditional methods of teaching, such as reading, smack up against new approaches such as using websites and virtual graphs and charts. 

“The menus was my best thinking for addressing the varying abilities and skills of kids in my class,” Eyolfson said.

People who advocate for digital learning often say that one of the most powerful tools in their arsenal is the way teaching can become customized. One teacher in front of one class: one lesson. Twenty kids learning through interactive digital teaching tools: 20 lessons.

Digital Media Helps Expand Limited Resources

Eyolfson has been lucky, she says, because her principal encourages her to use digital technology. It’s no secret that many in the public education system are wary of digital technologies as teaching aids.

Inside her classroom, Eyolfson likes to use web and digital tools. For example, when she’s teaching about minerals, she uses simulations from ExploreLearning.com. (In her classroom lab, Eyolfson has 16 computers.) She says kids in the fifth grade tend to rush when they’re working, but the simulations and the questions the site asks forces them to slow down and think about what they’re doing.

The kids use smart tools to scratch the rocks. The information is then recorded in the simulation, and they can manipulate the rock in 3-D space. Eyolfson’s students first identify the rocks on their own, and then through the computer. This, she says, allows them to compare results, or, in scientific terms, do “repeated experiments.”

Eyolfson is keen on replicating the real scientific process in her classroom. With the digital laboratory of ExploreLeraning.com, the kids could learn about 100 different kinds of minerals.

“The schools just don’t have access to 100 different minerals,” Eyolfson said.  “The technology can offer tools and resources that just aren’t necessarily affordable in the classroom.”

Of course, there’s always a lot of talk about how math and science skills are necessary to keep the United States competitive in the 21st- century workplace. But Eyolfson said it’s important for another reason as well.

“The deeper understanding we have of science,” she said, “the more we can think critically about how we want to handle ourselves in the world.”