I'm Brian Myers. I'm Mike Ritalik. I'm Becky Hiddad. And this is Alpellis, a podcast featuring tips for ag teachers.
We are your agricultural education resource across the web, sharing research based tips and tackling the tough questions facing agriculture teachers every day. Hello, Ag teachers and welcome to another episode of Alpellis, Tips for Ag teachers, where we dig through the latest research and find the nuggets that you can use in your own classroom. I'm Brian Myers, joined as always by the fantastic Hiddad. Today we are exploring an exciting topic that has every Ag teacher asking, how can we pick the right technology to meet our learners' needs?
Does educational technology mean more laptops or more meaningful engagement? To help us answer these questions more, we have some of the authors from a brand new research article that dives deep into how Ag educators can match tech tools to curriculum, learning objectives, and yes, even the quirks of your own students. So whether you love running multimedia lessons, experimenting with the newest apps, or if you still have an overhead projector working over there in the corner, you're in the right place, here by the Alpellis. And we are so excited to get started and we welcome our guest to let everyone know who we have here at the Alpellis today.
Hello, I am Tung She from Texas and I'm University. I am from the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications and Associate Professor here. We are very excited to share our work on the meta-analysis looking at how education technology affects student achievement in agriculture education. Hi, everyone.
My name is Shui Ma. You can call me Shui and I'm currently a PhD student at Texas A&M University and also in the ALIC department and Dr. Shri's my advisor and my research focuses on agriculture education and communications. Thank you so much for inviting us here today.
Hello, everyone. My name is Anjari Adiyemi. I don't know if I should say I'm a candidate, but I already defended my dissertation and passed. Yeah.
Oh, right. Yeah. So I graduated next month and started position at Fort A State University next month. Dr.
Shui is my chair and together we've also been examining conducting various studies on educational technology and how it impacts the data and outcome. I'm super excited to be here today. Fantastic. I've been in the future, so when this podcast drops, you will have had it all be sides of the liver to be all done.
That's fantastic. Well, as soon as we get done blowing the trumpet of celebration for that, my first question for this esteemed panel is we got to talk about this topic. What really got you excited and why did you decide to dig into educational technology and how it impacts education? Yeah, so my own research agenda always centers around educational technology and its impact on student outcome in higher education.
So we all know that technology has made its way into just about every corner of education, but here's the thing, while there's plenty of research on how technology helps students in general, not many folks have looked specifically at how it's working in agricultural education. So that's where our study comes in. We put together over 20 years of data from 2000 to 2022 to get a big picture view of how different types of education technology are actually influencing learning in our field. We will share what kinds of tools are making the difference, how subjects, aerials and grade levels play a role and most importantly, what all these means for your teaching.
So whether you are already using technology every day or just to start to explore your options, we hope this conversation gives you some practical down to earth ideas to bring back to your students. So I would like to start with a few key takeaways first. So first up, and this might sound like common sense, but it's worth seeing out loud education technology does help. So, we'll be that.
And most of the secondary and undergraduate classrooms, our little analysis showed us more about meaningful positive effect on student achievement on educational technology is used in agricultural education, but a lot of tech is equally effective. Its impact depends on factors like the type of technology, subject, aerials and especially the students who are in level. In fact, we saw the strongest results at the secondary level and at the undergraduate level. So if you are high school teacher, high school agricultural teacher, using technology tools for things like content delivery or reinforcement activities can really make a visual difference.
The second big takeaway is that some technology work better than others. It's all about picking the right tool for your goals. Interestingly, our analysis found that even traditional tools like PowerPoint, video lessons and online modules have a bigger positive impact than student relations or digital games. So in fact, those funds are towards sometimes a little or even negative impact in agricultural settings.
We are thinking maybe one reason. One reason might be that it requires more skyfolding and the structure to be effective. So you don't really need cutting edge tech to be effective. What matters is thoughtful use of tools that aligns with your learning goals or suggestions to consider using videos on our modules or virtual lives that are tightly connected to what we want students to learn.
Well, that's a great big one. I think we'll talk about that a little bit more later. But the big idea there is that that same tried and true technology, when it was the right tool, was effective. And so basically what that tells me is if you're trying to hammer a nail, a new screwdriver is not going to help you do it.
The old hammer will work just as fine to actually use the tool that you need to be doing there. Very true. So when you look here, what do we get into the nuts and bolts here for the classroom? So what does that actually mean for our classroom and how do we end up using that every single day?
Yeah, I think I'll just respond to that. Like Dr. Shui already said, we can all agree that education or tech, they work. But number one, it's more about how they are used than what is used itself.
And so as every teacher going to the classroom, trying to make the students understand more, trying to let the students engage more depending on what the goal of that course is or what the topic is. The most important thing is how are these technologies used? And so the teachers, the instructors must always find a way to make sure that in as much as I want the students to participate, I want them to engage, I want them to learn. There is also a huge responsibility on the teacher to ensure that you're using the right ed tech at the right time with the right kind of student and getting feedbacks.
Because most times we just feel like, yeah, we've used the ed tech and yeah, the students are enjoying it, but they must also be feedback. And so I think that's what I'll say about that. For the classroom usage, it's more about how they are used than the educational technologies themselves being used. I would also like to add that if you, because when we think about education, talk knowledge, we always, we are thinking maybe we need to integrate it into our curriculum and maybe we need to do a lot of things about our curriculum design.
So but our study shows that as we already mentioned just now, so maybe just adding structured online modules or simple videos to your desk and can boost engagement and then as Andrew pointed out. So it also depends on what type of students you are teaching, right? So maybe your students are very virtual and nurse. So then I think a simple video would really boost their engagement, right?
So not, it's not about like we need to use like, we know that AI is very, it's a topic. Now everybody is using AI, but do you like learning to use AI in my classroom? So that's like a classic question, right? So the most important thing is to observe your students and then decide what type of technology, which are most suitable for them.
And we're a big AI campus here and only took me several months before I started when I started hearing AI to think artificial intelligence rather than artificial insemination from that background. So it took me a while to get there, but I'm finally caught up a little bit. I'm a little slow on the uptake. I mean, it show if this is, you know, summer 2025 and we're still making your artificial insemination joke, it gives you an indication of how long it took Brian to have our digital intelligence.
But I think that brings, I think one of the things that I immediately thought of as you were talking through this, when I think about kind of the right tech at the right time, when we're thinking about one to one, we're thinking about AI, when I think about when I look around even my undergrad classroom and see what students have up on their laptops, laptops are up, you know, students are accessing this tech all the time. And so thinking about where's our own as instructors to really think about how do we kind of channel this technology availability that our students have in a really in productive ways in our classroom, recognizing that they are often using technologies that we are not as instructors and that they're learning through those technologies. It's not necessarily all just, hey, I select like, I'm not the only one who has the tech tools in my classroom or all of my students have access to a whole bunch of these things all the time. So how do I as an instructor bring some more attention to that?
When I think about like, I have a lot, we talked a little bit in a couple of other episodes about kind of the control I have as an instructor like I can plant implement certain technologies. I can plan to bring certain things in. But how do I, you know, I think some of this is how do I recognize kind of this balance between my students have access to these things that they are learning through, whether it's an intended ad tech tool or not, how do I bring additional attention to that as an instructor to embrace what they are using with what I am hoping they use to kind of bring right tech right time together? Yeah, I think maybe before that to show you, maybe show I think the way I see that is, you know, like in some of the classes I've taught in the past, it's just like you're struggling to gain your student's attention because their eyes are fixed on the phone and you're like, oh, please don't bring phones to the classroom.
It's futile. Sometimes I walk around the class and I see them down Amazon shopping and I'm like, oh, and I'm like, oh my God, you know, but what I've learned is how to really introduce with the technology they have already like the phones. So for example, when I come to class and I use like a Mentinita Kahoot, and I make sure that with a period of these 15 minutes of the class, they are using their phones. But what they are using the phones for is something that it's number one, it's engaging number two, they are learning, it's education.
Number three, by the time they leave, that part of the class will stick with them. And like, oh, I remember this picture, like my last class I taught international global issues in agriculture, I wanted them to identify some different parts of the world and the kind of agriculture that has been practiced there. So I brought those pictures and I like, okay, the first person to get these and so they were prizes. So it's not necessarily depriving them, it's just like the debate about AI.
Oh, should I use AI? I think we've already gone past if students should use AI or not because they might tell them not to use the model used, right? So I think the same thing is educational technology, like right now with the technology there, these are digital natives, how gen Z's and younger generations, how they learn, it's totally different from the generations before them. So it's just about seizing those things they were born into, the technology and making sure that we structure the class sessions, the conversations in the class and making sure there is also a form of evaluation at the end that shows that, yes, truly, it was not just all phone and all game, but it was also learning.
Yeah. That's great. Thank you. Yeah, we talk about this again, right, right, right time.
What tips? And I guess I'm almost saying, is there such a thing as a decision tree that I can use as a teacher when I'm selecting the technology to use? How do I help? What should I use to guide my decision to figure out?
Is this the right tech for the tool that I want that I need to do right now? Because several times, and I'm guilty of it, you get caught up in the shiny object and you want to do think, well, I need to be using this newest, greatest thing to do that. How? What kind of guardrails can you give me in making that kind of a decision to figure out?
No, I don't need need this fancy new website when in fact what I need is a really well developed PowerPoint or a really well developed Kahoot or whatever else I might need. I think I can talk a little bit about this topic. I think sometimes we have a lot of factors to consider when we're trying to think if I should use this or how I should use this. First, from our study, we find that the subject matters.
For example, if it's an agriculture science based or agriculture engineering or leadership education communication or economics and finance, those different fields, actually there's quite a lot of differences there. Our findings suggest that education technology works the biggest effect size was generated from the agriculture education leadership and communication field. So those are very discussion heavy based and also lots of reflective activities. So based on our findings, when we are trying to think if I could use this or not use this, we should think of the subject context as we expand from this finding.
I think it's like asking question, what is your goal? What is your learning goal for your students? And then you identify your goal and then you can see, oh, this will guide me through like if this will be more appropriate or not. And also from our study, we have like a lot of, we investigate a lot of like educational technology types like some are like online education only, some are like simulation, digital games, some are like mobile technology use like maybe a mobile app like to do some of the places or something else, like some technology like fleet classroom for the teachers in some are just like very simple, just incorporate multimedia like use images use videos or use like, you know, all very, very traditional kind of like education technology, just like multimedia rather than just like lecturing for the students.
So we in the case of all kinds of and some turned out that you like generally have like really, really good effect. Like we found like multimedia or traditional technology technology still works like really, really good. It doesn't really mean like we have to use AI. We have to use like very fancy and innovative, very new stuff to make it work.
Actually depends on our learning objectives and like our design of the NASA on just like, you know, adding a little bit more would just make such a great difference. So and also on our study, it was like on our year was like on to 2023 and we haven't looked at like, you know, 2024, 2025, like those years we have the technology has like really, really changed. Like for example, like the development of AI, VR, AR and other learning analytics. So those new recently emerging new new technologies, we can also try to consider those two.
For example, just now like Andrew mentioned, how do we, you know, in our classroom activity design, how do we better monitor students like appropriate use of technology, right? Those things maybe we have another like topic that Dr. Shian and I are very interested in is like learning analytics is like tracking, it's like tracking students digital behavior. So some of the technology actually provide that.
So they'll give you a screenshot like students online, like time to spend online and also what activities they did, if they were like shopping for Amazon, it will show on the app. And so these will help us like try to like monitor our students and regulate students behavior. So to like, like just limit to the negative impact that technology brings. And also another thing I think is like for some of the technologies, it might not necessarily all be good for the students.
For example, I think like nowadays, the younger generation, they're like facing a lot of like screen time that might bring some very negative effects for them too. So I think like we just need to balance all of the things like we just like mentioned to to maximize the effect for the students learning. Yeah, I made very good points about how to choose the advantage. But I would also like to add that when we're zeroing this question, this is a good question.
And I think the active teachers should ask themselves several questions before considering this question like maybe number one, what learning goals are you trying to achieve? So I'm trying to improve engagement or support student center learning or make grading with it by more efficient. So the best to support pedagogical intent, not just a chance. Like recently, I collaborated with an AI company.
So they can, their AI tools can provide like automated feedback to students' ACs. But when, when, as an instructor, when you are deciding whether you want to use these two of your classroom, maybe you want to ask, for example, if you are teaching just like a small size classroom, maybe these AI tools will not fit your needs. Because I, according to my experience, students would prefer the feedback from the instructor themselves if it is already a small class, small size class. But however, if this class is like 100 undergraduate students or 200 undergraduate students, it will be impossible for you to provide immediate feedback to students' ACs.
And then using these AI tools might be a good finance. So the second question may be the instructor can ask is whether it fits my students' needs or context. So we need to think about the student's grade level and also the subject, like simulations, maybe simulations, even though we found that simulations done to work very well from the previous research projects. But I would say simulations is a great tool for animal science subjects, right?
So maybe if you are teaching animal science, so consider using simulation, digital games will help these students. And also like how easy is the technology to use in this team? So this also depends on our instructor's own comfort level and also its reliability and cost. So there are a lot of things involved in this decision.
Yeah, I think just to what Dr. Shui and Shui said, again, I think also learning the attributes of the students, if they have visual learners or digital learners or kind of basic kind of matrix or kind of static learners, is also very important because that also helps to choose because learning is not complete until it's about the student. And I can add one more thing. So I would say it's also critical to ask the instructor, will truly enhance students' learning or not just to replace learning.
Because sometimes like for example, so we always thinking about using technology in the classroom, but it's this to help your students learn better or just adding school and time especially for younger students. So like for I remember in one of my experiments, because it is an online class, so we used to ask the students to do the collaborative loads, right? So that we would be able to say which students are really engaged in the classroom activities. If it is a face-to-face classroom, that would be not necessary.
So all of those situations can play a factor there. Yeah. Well, I think that's a great word and a great reminder for is that we really need to be finding and using the technology for exactly what it is, a tool that's helping us meet our objectives. And I love that as a curriculum guy, you start off with what are learning, what's our end goal?
What do we want the students to know, do or understand when we're all finished on that? And we select the tools to help us get there. In too many cases in my own classroom or classrooms I'm visiting, I find out that we use technology that becomes more of a distraction than actually because they worry so much about how to use the, especially simulations. I mean, I think simulation, like you have a lot of possibility.
I think sometimes we don't, maybe use them correctly or they're not quite there just yet and they become that distraction. And maybe I'm just trying to be self-justifying in that old, because I worked really hard as a young teacher on those overhead projectors, you know, those overhead overlays that you had to do with the levels, you know? So we still own it. We still have overhead projector running around here somewhere.
I'm sure. You write on the transparency, you're on the actual screen. I would don't transfer it a little bit. It's a little bit of a pass-a-day screen.
Fantastic. With all of that, this has been a fantastic conversation. It's very timely. It's something that we always need to be reminded about to make sure that we're selecting the tools that best help our students.
And that's our ultimate goal. You know, big thanks again to our guests for sharing your insights and for breaking down how educational technology isn't just a new shiny tool but can be a real game changer when it comes to student achievement. We've heard about why it matters to pick technology based on our student needs, not just trying to find the flashiest gadget out there and how bringing in more active hands-on personalized tech experiences can actually make all the difference in your ad classroom. Remember what the research says.
It's not about choosing technology just for technology's sakes, but it's there to create a memorable student-centered moments that stick with the students long after the bell rings. Thank you to each one of our guests for sharing today. Ag educators, thank you for being able to try these new ideas. I know you're being bombarded with new technology all the time and hopefully the tools and the guides that our folks have shared with you today can help you figure all that out.
So for Becky and Brian, we are so excited to have you here by the OutPelody today and we look forward to seeing you again next time. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of OutPelits. Check out our website for more information on this topic and to learn more about our guests. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to stay connected and be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss an episode.
For Mike and Becky, this is Brian here by the OutPelits saying thank you and we look forward to seeing you again on another episode of OutPelits. Tips for Ag teachers.