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>>Okay, start with the first one
and then move on to the second one.
>>At Abilene Christian University, educators believe
that motivated and capable undergraduate teacher candidates
should be involved in research.
Working under the guidance of an advisor,
teacher candidate Stacie McConnell created a research
project to study the impact of mobile technology
on the development
of twenty-first century skills in a physics class.
The project resulted in some interesting findings.
>>I've seen major growths in all areas, from the beginning
of the project to the end of the project.
>>Providing iPads to students proved to be valuable
in a variety of ways, beginning with creating a concept map.
>>It helps them organize their thoughts, move sequentially
from one part into the next part, and make connections
between different topics that they need to cover.
>>And the magnetic properties of the rocket.
If the rocket is moving in the direction of magnetic fields
of a planet or anything else it will speed up but if it's moving
against the magnetic field it'll slow down.
>>Students have been very creative and they've been able
to take the, the ideas they find researching and be able
to compile them to create a new product.
They also had a lot of success with communication
and collaboration with the iPads.
>>These capabilities are particularly important
when working collaboratively
on a project-based learning assignment.
Observing international students using the iPads revealed
yet another benefit of technology
in a twenty-first century classroom.
>>I wasn't expecting to have three international students
in my class.
And so, seeing how they have grown and matured and been able
to express their ideas more fluidly in English
by having the translated Chinese or Korean version
on their iPads has been an unforeseen
but very beneficial result of having mobile technology.
>>As a foreigner, sometimes teacher speak too, too quickly,
I cannot follow him, so I can use the iPad in Chinese
to search in the internet so I can follow him
so it's very useful for me.
>>ACU and the training I got at ACU was the reason I was able
to conduct my research.
I couldn't have done it without the instruction that I got.
>>I would put Stacie in a classroom today.
She has done an amazing job of working with her students
and helping them not only learn physics,
but develop the research questions
that we were looking at.
Her students really have grown in their ability to think
and be creative and to collaborate.
>>I think technology is absolutely imperative
for a project-based format.
With the experiences that I've had,
it's really almost impossible to be able to study everything
that the students need to study from a textbook
or from a variety of textbooks.
They have to have access to the active and growing community
of information, but not having the technology would limit them
to only what I know.
Having them be able to access the wider world of knowledge
in a way that is directed and constructed is invaluable
to a project-based format.
The people who can benefit
from this research is probably everyone, all teachers,
because it doesn't just look at physics.
Project-based learning is applicable in any classroom
as long as you're willing to try.