Study Num:2

Utilizing Instructional Games To Improve Students’ Conceptualization of Science
Concepts: Comparing K Students Results With Grade 1 Students, Are There
Differences?

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/3d/0e/4e.pdf

Summary:-

This study discusses findings of a game activity intervention conducted, reports on prior intervention results obtained a year ago, and also gives practitioners’ views and perspectives on the effectiveness of instructional games for pre k and k-5 students (for improve performance and motivational levels).

Essentially, this study addresses the following overarching

questions:
- how does the recent results for K students compare with the prior results obtained a year ago with grade 1 students?
- Are there similarities or significant differences between the two grade level results?
- And, what light does practitioners’ interviews and survey results shed on the differences seen?

The paper concludes with suggestions for future research that can fill in the gap in the field, and also gives some implications for practice and suggestions for cross curricular applications of instructional games.


Features:-
• Using the ideas of game activities could be extended to other topics in biology, general
science, or even mathematics.

• Game boards can consist of numbers rather than words for mathematics content delivery and students can be allowed to identify ‘even digits’ on the game board, or ‘odd numbers’ on the game board, if teachers wanted to explain and test the concept of ‘odd numbers’ nversus ‘even numbers’ with younger students.

• Basically, this activity could be a great educational tool for k – 2 students in any subject; it can also be used by science and mathematics practitioners who may need to explore creative ways to engage younger students and to retain their interest in classroom
lectures.

• Further, difficult concepts can be broken down or simplified for younger children through game activities (such as the game board activity explored in this study).

• Can facilitate engagement of younger students in their own learning; that is, it may help
to cultivate a constructivist teaching and learning environment in which students are
‘active learners’ as opposed to ‘passive recipients’ of knowledge (Freire, 2005; Klein &
Freitag, 1991; Sawyer, 2004).

• Can serve as both a practice and drill activity to reinforce lecture notes for older students, beyond the grade 5 level.

• Can be a motivational tool for students, especially slower learners (see Klein & Freitag,
1991).

• Can or should improve K-2 students’ achievement and overall science performance (refer to tables 3 & 4, figure 1 & interview data of teachers)


The impact of instructional games in student's achievements:-

- improving students' conceptual understanding and motivational levels to do academic work.

- some young students do have the mental capability to understand science concepts if made really simple for them

A MULTI-CHANNEL APPROACH FOR COLLABORATIVE

WEB-BASED LEARNING

Approaches:
This research contains two approaches which are the scientific approach and social approach, in which it describes an architectural framework and a prototype implementation of a web-based multi-channel e-Learning application that allows users to collaborate regardless of the communication device a user is carrying and will improve the learning processes.
The prototype application has been tested locally (on a localhost computer) using a mobile device emulator. The study concluded that with the multi-channel approach, feedback between the students and lecturers is faster since scope of communication device used by clients are more, and interaction is flexible and community based.

Levels:
This research is implemented at the project level in which it aims at creating an architectural framework and web-based application that will improve learning processes using multi-channel technologies that connect students, faculty and the researcher community in a growing network of education environments, irrespective of the communication device such as WAP phones, Laptop/PC, Pocket PC and PDAs owned by a subscriber.

Techniques:
The researcher used a number of tools in his study, which are:

· Observation and study of important documents and information from the Internet was used to elicit relevant facts or information on web-based learning .

· The Microsoft Visual Studio.NET framework was employed in developing the prototype application.

· Microsoft development tool was chosen (since it can be downloaded free from the Internet), because it is compatible since they are all from the same company (Wei-Meng, 2007).

to see the study :-
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/41/ac/8f.pdf

Study Num:1

The name of study:-
EVALUATION OF THE SKILLS OF K-12 STUDENTS REGARDING THE
NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS FOR STUDENTS
(NETS*S) IN TURKEY

Author:-
Adile Aşkım KURT
Ahmet Naci ÇOKLAR
Kerem KILIÇER
Yusuf YILDIRIM


Summary:-
This study was carried out on students who completed their K-12 education and just started university. The purpose of the study was to evaluate their skills
regarding the educational technology standards and to examine the factors that influence these skills.

Consequently, it was found that the students examined had an average level of educational technology standards. Moreover, it was also revealed that their easy access to the internet via their own computers as well as the education level of their mother helped them develop their skills.

Purposes:-
This study examines the overall conditions of students’ skills in educational technology standards.

Data Collection Tool:-
The data collection tool of the study was developed by the researchers considering the NETS*S standards and the current education programs in Turkey. The data collection tool developed was made up of two parts. The
first part of the tool included statements about personal information, and the second part comprised statements about educational technology standards.

The statements about educational technology standards were prepared
as 5-item likert type like “Never”, “Rarely”, “Sometimes”, “Often”, “Very Often.”
In the process of developing the data collection tool prepared on the basis of NETS*S standards, the researchers first prepared items as a rough draft and gathered them all in an item pool. A total of 33 items gathered in the item pool were sent to 5 experts, 4 of whom were expert in the field of Educational Technologies and 1 of whom was expert in the field of Education Programs and Teaching. Following the expert-feedback process, 5 items were excluded from the data collection tool, and some of the items were changed. Thus, the final version of the data collection tool included 28 items. Following its application, the reliability coefficient (Cronbach Alpha) of the data collection tool was calculated as α=0.93.


http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/3f/7c/b3.pdf