Getting Familiar with the Tools , Tasks , and Strategies Technology Integration Framework

1. Getting Familiar with the Tools, Tasks, and Strategies Technology Integration Framework Brian Giza, The University of Texas at El Paso, United States, SITE Conference Tuesday, March 26, 2013 1:30-2:30 PM in 13 Online at http://www.educationtechnologies.com/modules/2013site/ Teachers use a wide variety of technology (tools) in modern classrooms. These tools range from the very simple (e.g.: a pencil or ballpoint pen) to the very sophisticated (media rich online databases). However, teachers are rarely helped to think about using technology tools in innovative ways. Because technology professional development is often targeted at a particular technology tool and a particular use of that tool they tend to use a tool in just one way when the affordances inherent in a tool may actually empower them to use it in additional, creative ways. The Tools, Tasks, and Strategies (TTS) Framework is a simple way of approaching tool use in modern classrooms that can be used by teachers to re-examine how they use technology to teach content and to re-consider their pedagogical approaches they may have available when they use technology tools to accomplish teaching objectives This hands-on active learning presentation focuses on how the free and open source (FOS) software is used as in a TTS Framework lesson to show ways that a graphics editing tool may be adapted to student-centered middle school mathematics and science learning activities.

2. Pedagogical strategies Task Analysis Tool Mastery Effective use of technology in the classroom depends on the interaction of three domains: The Tool domain (mastery of the tool), the Task Domain (being able to analyze and describe a task effectively), and the Pedagogical Strategies Domain (understanding how to use the tool in an effective way to help a pupil master a particular task)

3. To illustrate the concept of the TTS Framework, we often use the common “Rock, Paper, Scissors” game. What are the tools being used in this game? How do the tools inherit qualities or behaviors from other tools? What is the Task (goal or outcome) of the game? What are some strategies that can be used, and why do they work (or not work)? Turn to the person next to you, do a few sessions of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” and see if you and your partner can answer these questions.

4. Tools, Tasks and Strategies (1) • The Tool, Task and Strategies (TTS) Framework is a method for re-examining lessons ('tasks") in light of changing tools in order to utilize effective teaching strategies (pedagogies). TTS is a way of looking at how technology and lessons fit together and can assist a teacher in tool-transference, adapting a new tool to a task and updating related learning strategies to the use of a new tool.

5. Tasks and task analysis • The TTS framework is derived partially from the concept of technology task analysis. Task Analysis is well known in training and industrial design. It has a venerable tradition in classrooms, going back to work done by the US Department of Defense in breaking down the steps required to master skills as diverse as operating a can opener or in driving a tank.

6. Tasks and task analysis (2) • There are two general camps in task analysis: Cognitive task analysis which looks at what is going on in the brain of an individual as they consider and order the steps required to do a task (Kiera & Meyer, 2000) and Human performance task analysis, which looks at the procedures an individual actually performs in accomplishing a task (Dix, et al., 2004).

7. Task Analysis (3) • In simplistic terms Cognitive task analysis can be summarized as studying what is going on in the mind of an individual as they perform a task. • In equally simplistic terms Human performance task analysis studies the behavioral aspects and physical steps of performing a task.

8. Task Analysis (4) • To the typical educator the term task is usually closely associated with a pedagogical task or objective - what is it that the educator wants the pupil to learn? • In the Tools, Tasks, and Strategies framework the term TASK has two meanings, depending on the context: (1) What is it that the pupil is to learn (the learning goal or objective) or (2) What are the steps or processes involved in learning something? (The actions that take place in learning).

9. Teacher tasks as objectives • Experienced teachers are pretty good at writing tasks. A typical learning objective that involves a tool in the lesson can be written this way: • "...using the X technology tool, students will be able to create an [artifact] that demonstrates their ability to...etc.".

10. Swapping tools in tasks • "...using a pencil & paper, students will be able to create an essay that demonstrates their ability to...etc.". • "...using Microsoft Word, students will be able to create an essay that demonstrates their ability to...etc.". • "...using a Wiki, students will be able to create an essay that demonstrates their ability to...etc.".

11. Tool-Task Dependence • Tool-task dependence is when a tool is usually used for only one task. It is sometimes the result of the “common knowledge” or expectations for the way a tool is used, and is sometimes the result of the limited TTS experiences of novice teachers. • Some tools are ‘tightly-dependent’ and some tools are ‘loosely-dependent’

12. A tightly task-dependent tool

13. The Dyson hand-dryer is ‘Tightly task dependent” • The electric hand dryer can be said to be coherent to the task of drying hands. • The electric hand dryer is incoherent for a task that involves drying hair. Tool-task dependence is also referred to as tool-task coherence. An iPad is tightly coherent to certain modes of use. Question: Are the common instructional strategies that are promoted for iPad use coherent for its tool-task dependence? Why or why not? Are the answers tool-related, task-related, or strategy-related? For example: Are iPads being used to deliver knowledge or construct knowledge?

14. Tool-Task Independence (1) • The Tool, Task, and Strategies Framework gives the educator more ways to explore some important concepts: (1) the use of technology in student-centered, inquiry-based ways with educational outcomes at higher order cognitive levels; and (2) the use of technology in novel ways that categorize tools by how they may be used to accomplish an inquiry-based instructional goal, rather than their traditional, role. It is this ability to re-examine a tool's use that frees up an educator's creativity, and promotes a kind of thinking about technology applications that the author refers to as "tool-task independence". It is the learning task that is most important, not the tool.

15. Tool-Task Independence (2) • The ability to re-think tools to accomplish a learning tasks is only part of the puzzle. The desired pedagogy is particularly important. The TTS Framework simply provides more ways to think about pedagogical options because the number of tool-task options (ways to use different tools to accomplish the same task) is increased.

16. iPads are popular tools that may or may not be being used effectively in classrooms. Consider their use from the point of view of the TTS Framework Tool-task dependence is also referred to as tool-task coherence. Assumption: An iPad is tightly coherent to certain modes of use. Question: Are the common instructional strategies that are promoted for iPad use coherent for its tool-task dependence? Why or why not? Are the answers tool-related, task-related, or strategy-related? Consider: Are iPads being used to deliver knowledge or construct knowledge?

17. What are the affordances of an iPad? • Affordance does not mean “how much does it cost”? • Affordance is a technical term meaning “what does it allow the user to do”? • iPads have certain features – these features afford their use in certain learning situations to perform certain tasks using particular strategies. • When does an iPad facilitate a learning task, and when is it a barrier to a learning task?

18. A loosely task-dependent tool (PowerPoint) • PowerPoint can be used for presentations. • PowerPoint can be used as a graphics program, creating handouts or layered text-and-graphics wall displays for classrooms. • PowerPoint can be used by a person organizing ideas (slide-sorting index cards) • PowerPoint can store digital media, allowing it to be used as a digital portfolio. • Etc., etc., etc.

19. Tool-Task Dependence and Tool Task Independence are also teacher attitudes • Sometimes teachers are trained in the use of a particular technology tool to accomplish a particular learning task using a strategy (pedagogy) they understand. These teachers are often reluctant to vary the tool, or the strategy to accomplish the same task. If the original tool is absent, they drop the task. • Examples?

20. Tool Task-Dependence can lead to orphan technologies • The LaserDisk Player • The Apple QuickTake camera • The floppy disk • The phonograph record • And someday… • The Amazon Kindle? • Encrypted (DRM) audio or ebooks?

21. A particularly sad case of a tightly task-dependent tool that has begun showing up in classrooms is the Chromebook RE: SIED_5321_24657.201320: chrome book (Name redacted) Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 2:20 PM To: Giza, Brian H Thank you so much I will get them to you. By the way, do not buy a chrome book computer. I hate mine. Thanks again, (Name redacted) ________________________________________ From: Giza, Brian H [bhgiza@utep.edu] Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 8:51 PM To: (Name redacted) Subject: RE: SIED_5321_24657.201320: chrome book Yes, I will take them if you can give me doc (NOT DOCX) or rtf format in the next week. (Well the first assignment is a ppt) best wishes, Brian H. Giza, PhD. ________________________________________ From: (Name redacted) Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 11:17 AM Subject: SIED_5321_24657.201320: chrome book Dear Dr. Giza, My name is (Name redacted) and I found out through your e-mail last night that my chromebook computer sends documents in the gdoc format which comes out to be the same as docx. Therefore, I have recieved 0 credit for my submitted assignments. I hate my new chromebook computer. I am now using my computer at work to send the assignments in the proper format. Can I re-submit the assignments in the proper format again so I can get credit. I worked hard on those assignments and now I have 0 credit for them. Please, (Name redacted)

22. The Chromebook issue came up because • This issue came up in an online course in which students must share documents in specific file formats – rtf, doc, ppt. No proprietary or uncommon formats are allowed because the sharing of documents for collaboration requires a “common denominator” file type…and doc or rtf files are able to be created by most word processors. • But several new products do NOT use these common file types. What is the solution? To change the tool? The task? The strategy?

23. Strategies: Technology tasks are often found in lessons in which students perform at lower cognitive levels • Sadly, more often than not, technology has been employed to reinforce basic knowledge and skills at the lower cognitive levels. This has been a problem for many years and in many countries. Passey (1999, p 243) noted that evaluations of the National ICT Curriculum in the United Kingdom had the vast majority of the learning objectives at the Bloom's knowledge acquisition or comprehension level (27 items) versus higher cognitive levels (Synthesis and evaluation: 5 items).

24. New Tools can provide ways to reinvent tasks • At UTEP our technology education program works almost exclusively with Free and Open Source Software (FLOSS). Usually we use portable (USB drive-based) versions that we can give away for free, and that can be carried home or to various labs by our students, allowing them to easily familiarize themselves with them. • For example, instead of Adobe PhotoShop our program uses the free and open source Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) for teaching graphics editing and some forms of animation.

25. Tools come and go and a wise educator does not become too dependent on any one tool - instead they are better off understanding how a class of tools works so that they may transfer learning tasks and learning strategies to new tools.

26. Questions? Comments Contact Dr. Brian H. Giza via email at bhgiza@utep.edu This presentation may be downloaded from http://www.educationtechnologies.com/modules/2013site

27. If time permits:

28. Issues affecting technology in education • For tool mastery an educator must obtain, in addition to their technology hardware, appropriate software that they use on a regular basis in order to achieve the needed level of proficiency. Making these tools available to K-12 pupils for their use in classroom projects is even more important. Although schools may provide the tools on site, teachers and pupils who can practice with hardware and software tools at home have a distinct advantage over pupils who cannot.

29. Issues affecting technology in education • One group, the “haves” can explore and experiment at leisure, increasing their proficiency with the tools, while the other group of pupils, the “have-nots” are limited to practice during school time. Free and Open source software provides an answer for this, with licensing that allows for teacher and students' home use. Much of the best open source software is comparable in quality with the best proprietary software.

30. Issues affecting technology in education • Ascertaining whether these open source tools can be effectively integrated in a school curriculum can be of great significance in reducing the digital divide. • Educators who think differently about the application of more-varied technology tools to teaching and learning tasks can also re-think HOW they may do things, broadening the strategies that they have available to themselves. The Tools, Tasks, and Strategies Framework (Giza, 2011), or TTS is designed to help educators consider technology-enhanced lessons in more generalizable ways.

31. Tool-Task Independence (2) • The ability to re-think tools to accomplish a learning tasks is only part of the puzzle however. The desired pedagogy is particularly important. The TTS Framework simply provides more ways to think about pedagogical options because the number of tool-task options (ways to use different tools to accomplish the same task) is increased.

32. My research has been in the use of Free and Open Source software in classrooms because OS Software greatly increases TTS options • By its very nature, Free and Open Source Software (FLOSS) is ideal for the educational environment, and it offers a large variety of tools for persons desiring to experiment with new ways of accomplishing a learning task. • In recent years "Portable" versions of open source software have become more and more available and capable. Portable software can be run from a USB-drive or other peripheral device and need not be installed on a computer in the traditional way. It does not require administrative rights to be installed or to run.

33. Tools, Tasks, and StrategiesTool-Task Independence vs. Tool-Task Dependence (1) • In the past technology tools and lessons were often provided to the teacher as part of a professional development workshop, or simply as part of the resources associated with the materials that came with a tool purchased for classroom use. "Here are the lessons, here is what you can do with it" was a common refrain - whether the tool or the lesson was a good one or not. Market forces also drive educators to certain software that is highly proprietary, but somehow 'better' - or simply the product supported by their districts. In the hurried and harried environment of the modern classrooms many teachers tended to use the same tool for the same purposes over and over, not being capable of expanding their Technology Pedagogical Content Knowledge.

34. Tools, Tasks, and StrategiesTool-Task Independence vs. Tool-Task Dependence (2) • Proprietary tool use by teachers is not inherently bad - many, technology tools that are developed for educational use are well suited to the task for which they were originally designed. But tools go away. The Apple QuickTake camera is just one example. In the mid-to-late 1990s this early digital camera was one highly marketed to educators, and there were a number of creative lessons developed for its use in the classroom. But its demise left many teachers with no way to convert its proprietary digital image formats to more modern ones to re-use the lesson-related image sets they may have created when the camera was supported by Apple.

35. Remember this core TTS concept: Tools come and go and a wise educator does not become too dependent on any one tool - instead they are better off understanding how a class of tools works so that they may transfer the learning tasks and learning strategies to new tools.

36. Consider the following situation: • To teach the elements of plot a language arts teacher wants pupils to collaborate in small groups in writing short stories (Mott & Klomes, 2001; McLellan, 1992). Each story must include a description of some characters, their motivations, and how they interact. It must have a beginning, a middle and an end. The task the teacher is setting the pupils to do is in learning certain elements of plot. The strategy the teacher is using is collaborative work. In this situation the task is a learning task, and it can be described in terms of a learning objective. The strategy (or pedagogical approach) has its own issues of course - effective collaborative learning requires certain elements that we shall pre-suppose are present. But there are a variety of tools that can be used to accomplish the desired task while using the collaborative learning strategy:

37. Paper and pencil version • The teacher gives each pupil in the group a set of index cards and pencils and tells them that they must each create a character, discuss and come to a consensus as to how the character will interact with each of the other group-member's characters. Then they will each write one or two paragraphs of the story and then pass their card to another group-member who will write the next section and so-on until the story is complete.

38. The ‘PowerPoint and one computer’ version • The teacher gives the group access to the 'group computer'. They are given PowerPoint and shown how to enter text in a text-field as well as create new slides. Each pupil in the group will take turns at the computer. To start they must each create a character, discuss and come to a consensus as to how the character will interact with each of the other group-member's characters. Then they will each write one or two paragraphs of the story in a PowerPoint slide and then give another group-member access who will write the next section and so-on until the story is complete.

39. The Web 2.0 collaborative writing environment (WIKI & Chat) version: • The teacher provides WIKI access to each pupil in the group (they are all working from home). the instructions for the activity are on the WIKI lesson home page. A chat room is set up in which the members of the group must meet, discuss the characters that each creates, and they must come to a consensus as to how the character will interact with each of the other group-member's characters. Then, using a WIKI page for the story they will each write one or two paragraphs of the story and then turn writing access over another group-member who will write the next section and so-on until the story is complete.

40. As may be seen in examples 1, 2, & 3 above, the tool can be considered separately from the task and the strategy. Even though the actual design of the learning situation may vary considerably, the commonalities of the task and strategy are evident. This is an important consideration because the TTS Framework has as its underlying paradigm that: "a good tool used with an inappropriate strategy will not accomplish the desired learning task".

41. TTS in practice • Students in the graduate and doctoral educational technology program which the author runs have been using the Tool, Task, and Strategies Framework to explore creative new ways to use varied technology tools to accomplish technology-enhanced learning tasks. The Framework is a way to have these educational technology experts reflect and refresh their thinking about technology, to break the mental frames that many of them have when they enter the graduate educational technology program.

42. TTS in practice (2) • Students in the graduate and doctoral educational technology program are provided with a variety of open source tools in order to allow them to have the materials to re-consider and re-design technology-enhanced lessons that they create. The approach is designed to help them work at a higher cognitive level, one in which they must evaluate, synthesize and create new ways of doing lessons that they may have mastered long ago at the application level.

43. TTS Terms and applications • Task-independence: a situation in which a tool can be used to accomplish a different task than the one for which it was designed. Hammering a nail with a shoe is an example of moderate task-independence. • Task dependence and/or tool-dependence (Tool/task dependence) is also referred to as task-coherence*: These terms are reserved for highly proprietary tools, tightly associated with a single task or that must be run in association with another single tool to accomplish their task. Multimedia authoring programs are tools that are often extremely tool/ task dependent. They are very difficult to re-purpose to new tasks. • In our workshops pupils are asked to rank tools from 1 to 5 in terms of levels of task-coherence/dependence. Strongly task dependent / coherent = 5 while largely task independent /incoherent = 1. • * task coherence and task dependence are actually slightly different in meaning…can you identify the difference?

44. Tool-Task Dependence vs.Tool-Task Independence • Teachers are often provided with technology tools that range from the very simple to the very sophisticated. And when teachers receive technology professional development it is often targeted at the use of a particular technology tool, usually how to use it in only one context. The teachers are essentially taught to function at the application level (Tool-Task Dependence). Teachers are rarely encouraged to adapt that tool to support additional learning activities. Tool-Task dependence operates at the lower, application level of Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy.

45. Tool-Task Dependence vs.Tool-Task Independence (2) • In order for teachers to learn to use technology tool to support learning goals that diverge from the original design, they must (1) master the tool, (2) master their instructional environment, and (3)be able to design new and creative ways of achieving a learning goal by adapting a tool to novel uses. This higher level of tool mastery is termed by the author as “Tool-Task Independence“, in which the user operates at the higher, creative Bloom’s level. The Tool, Task, and Strategies Framework is the author’s approach for helping teachers achieve tool-task independence.

46. Conclusion • In this period of constant technology change, educators and their pupils need a way to explore technology tool use in a more generalizable way, one that incorporates thinking at the higher cognitive levels: Analysis, synthesis, creativity (Bloom et al. 1956; Anderson et al., 2001). These levels are the ones that we desire educators to operate at if we hope to see them continually improve their technology pedagogical content knowledge.

47. Questions? Comments Contact Brian H. Giza via email at bhgiza@utep.edu This presentation may be downloaded from http://www.educationtechnologies.com/modules/2013site

48. Selections from TTS training workshops:

49. Tool 1: What is a hammer for?

50. What is a hammer for? • A hammer can be a tool for learning about the physics of cantilevers. Activity and image source: http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/superdoit/balancingact.html