PLO 3 -- Supporting the Needs of All Learners
This
paper will discuss this author’s understanding of the importance of designing
lessons that will support the needs of all learners by redesigning a prior
MATLT lesson to demonstrate attainment of Program Learning Outcome 3 by
designing “learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced instructional
strategies to support the needs of all learners”. An original lesson from the course, EDU 648,
will be presented, after which the redesigned lesson will integrate a technology
tool that will enhance students’ ability to better express and demonstrate
their understanding of the presented lesson, as well as an ensuing discussion
as to some of the possible challenges of using the technology tool.
The Importance of Addressing Different Learning Styles
Howard Gardner’s 1983 theory of
multiple intelligences has revolutionized the way we think about
intelligence. We all have intelligences,
yet individuals differ in their respective profiles of intellectual strengths
and weaknesses. It is our intellectual
strengths that will determine our preferred style of learning. Some people are considered to be visual
learners. That is, they gain more from
being able to see the thing they are learning about as opposed to, say audio
learners, whose preferred style of learning favors the examination of auditory
materials.
Since we all learn differently, we
also prefer to express how we demonstrate our understanding of the things we
are learning in different ways.
For
educators it is important that we understand the importance of designing
lessons in such a way that will support all learners by offering a myriad of
opportunities for them to demonstrate their understanding. The emphasis should be more on how students learn as opposed to what they learn.
In
today’s ever-advancing world of technology, educators are fortunate to have at
their disposal an ample choice of technology tools to assist them in meeting
the needs of different learners. The
better understanding instructors have as to the differences of these tools, the
better chance they have of meeting the diverse learning needs of all of their
students (Felder & Brent, 2005).
By
using technology in a lesson plan, an instructor is able to more easily present
the information to the learners using different formats that will match the
material presentation to the needs of the student (Hall, Strangman, &
Meyer, 2003). Likewise, the more choices
of technology tools the student is offered for them to demonstrate their
understanding, the better the possibility that they will satisfy the prompts of
the lesson, as well as their own understanding and intellectual growth.
The Original Lesson: EDU648
In
this lesson, students will learn and write about The Early Modern Era of
history which can be divided into two periods, the Reformation (ca. 1500-1650),
and the Enlightenment (ca. 1650-1800).
World history, in itself, is the study of connections and relationships
among the many societies and peoples of the world. The Early Modern period marked the coming
together of parts that formed capitalism.
Capitalism, in essence means the private ownership of industry and
trade. Capitalism paved the way for
liberalism, the philosophy that promotes the place of equality and liberty in
human societies (Getz & Brooke, 2012).
After
The Black Death (1346-53), which killed approximately 50 million Europeans (60
% of Europe’s population), new states began to emerge. One of the greatest was the Mughal
state. This empire began in Central
Asia, but quickly spread to the Indian subcontinent. By 1520, it had defeated many of the
sultanates of Northern India. The
geography of Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and Northern Africa was more
fragmented, divided by water, mountains, or desert, and so they were not able
to flourish into vast empires due to a lack of communication, which enabled the
Mughal, Russian, Ming Chinese, and Ottoman Empires possible.
The
Habsburg Dynasty was a powerful family that was comprised of, what are now,
Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, and parts of Germany. Maximillian Habsburg I (the Holy Roman
Emperor) married Mary of Burgundy. Her
inheritance was comprised of Spain, Eastern France, and the Netherlands, and so
the Habsburg Dynasty about doubled in land and in power with that
marriage. Their son, Charles V (1519-1556)
inherited their vast territory; however, he failed to assert imperial authority
throughout his empire. Without having
done so, and with internal pressure from the Lutherans and other Protestants,
along with foreign pressure, especially from France, who did not want to be
encircled by the Holy Roman Empire. The
Ottoman Empire also did not want encroachment onto their territories from the
East. This leads to the development of
more regional states.
Henry
VIII of England confiscated much wealth from the Catholic Church and was able
to enforce his rule on the nobility and therefore keep them in check. Other Catholic kings use the Reformation
movement as an excuse to mobilize their resources and enforce their demands. In
1478, the Spanish Inquisition sought to root out heretics. Led by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabelle,
they would hang people from the gallows and burn them at the stake if they were
found guilty of heresy. This sent fear
throughout Europe, especially among the women.
The English and Dutch governments claimed limited powers and recognized
individual rights and representative assemblies known as parliaments. State policy favored trade and the building
of commercial empires.
The
other side of that was absolute monarchy or absolutism, which meant the divine
right of kings. This meant that the king
made the law and this determined policy.
There was no place for commoners or nobility even. This was best represented in France and
especially by King Louis XIV. The 30
Years’ War (1618-1648) was fought between Sweden, France, Spain and Austria,
mostly on German soil, began when Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II of Bohemia
attempted to curtail the religious activities of his subjects, sparking
rebellion among Protestants. The war
ended with the signing of a series of treaties that made up the Peace of
Westphalia. This established state
sovereignty throughout Europe. That
meant that policy would be in the hands of the states and would no longer be
under religious authority. Also
established was a balance of power across Europe. The individual states had begun to compete
vigorously for military supremacy, which also enhanced the development of
Europe.
Early
modern European society was a hierarchy, with most of the people identifying
closely with their social class. People
expected and accepted inequalities as a part of life. At the top of the hierarchy were the
nobles. Most nobles gained favor and
land from their king as a reward for doing well in the military. Careers, however, switched from positions in
the military to political ones. The noble landowners controlled the peasants
who worked the land for them. Throughout
the 1600s, about 90% of society was made up of rural peasants who lived on
farms or in small rural villages. Their
agriculture was, for the most part, based on the seasons. They grew crops according to what the climate
permitted. Most were quite poor and
owned very few possessions. Their diets were usually made up of bread, beans,
peas, and vegetables; rarely any meat or dairy products. This poverty is what led to many revolts
across Europe, but the peasants were squashed each time. Cities began to grow and flourish quickly. Merchants, bankers, and tradesmen gave birth
to the middle class.
The Redesigned Lesson
The
types of intelligence I expect this assignment and the corresponding technology
to support are linguistic, spatial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. I wanted to use Concept Maps and so I chose
the Bubbl.us type of Concept Map, not only because it has been introduced to me
as one of the first technologies in this course, but because it is very simple
and straightforward to use.
Students
will be writing about the powerful movements that transformed European society
during the early modern era while they describe the origin of each, and how it
affected society as a whole. Mind
mapping, or concept mapping helps students to stay on track while they are
following the steps of the writing process. By using Bubbl.us, they will be able to easily
map out how one event led to another as it unfolded. Color-coding the bubbles is an attractive way
to put things in order and into groups. This
also makes it easier to go back and reference the groups that they have created
at a glance.
I
am hoping that this technology will support all students, but in particular,
those students whose thoughts are sometimes scattered when they are faced with
having to write an essay. Even seasoned
writers use concept maps as a sort of blueprint to follow and to make certain
that they are on track and covering all of the important aspects of writing, as
well as their particular subject matter.
Challenges
One
of the greatest challenges to using concept maps is that there is always a lot
of revising and editing going on. Important
events or aspects that may have been temporarily overlooked will have to be
inserted into their correct frame of sequences. Depending on the depth of a concept map, it
can become quite confusing and complex if the map is overdone. The purpose of using a concept map is to take
a plan and to simplify it by giving it structure. A concept map that crams too much information
into the bubbles can be more detrimental than it is useful. I have found that the best way to overcome
these challenges is to keep it simple.
Overcrowding a concept map with too many facts can be more confusing
than it is helpful.
Conclusion
In conclusion, an
understanding of the importance of addressing different learning styles, an
original lesson from a prior MATLT course, a redesign of the lesson to
incorporate a technology tool, and some of the challenges of using the tool
have been examined. The technology tool
that was used in the redesigning of the activity was Bubbl.us, which is a concept
map. Concept maps are great tools for
keeping our thoughts in order. This is
especially helpful when dealing with the writing process.
References
Bubble.us. Retrieved from https://bubbl.us/
Getz, T. R. & Brooke, J. E.
(2012). World history: The human experience from 1500.
Published
by Bridgepoint Education, Inc. San
Diego, CA.
Felder, R. M., & Brent, R.
(2005). Understanding student
differences. Journal of Engineering Education,
94(1), 57-72. Retrieved from
http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/Understanding_Differences.pdf
Hall, T., Strangman, N., &
Meyer, A. (2003). Differentiated instruction and implications
for UDL implementation. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing
the General Curriculum. Retrieved
from
http://aim.cast.org/sites/aim.cast.org/files/DI_UDL.1.1.14.11.pdf
