PAPER USING MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR FOSTERING INTELLECTUAL ENGAGEMENT Using Mobile Technology for Fostering Intellectual Engagement http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v7i3.2888 A.P. Preciado Babb, C. Saar, C. Marcotte, J. Brandon and S. Friesen University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada Abstract—Student engagement, and in particular intellectu- al engagement, has been identified as a key factor in learn- ing at the high school level. While this type of engagement has an impact on student learning in fields related to sci- ence, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), it also has a positive impact on the learning of other disci- plines such as English, Fine Arts, and Social Sciences. This report describes a set of projects co-designed by teachers and education specialists aimed at engaging students intel- lectually in each major high school subject area. Student use of mobile technologies, in this case the iPad2, features prom- inently in each of these projects. Interviews with teachers and students were conducted in order to identify evidence of intellectual engagement, as well as students’ interactions with the mobile device. Data from a survey was also used to identify the level of engagement of students involved in these projects. Index Terms—Intellectual engagement, mobile technology, high school, curricular design. I. INTRODUCTION In recent years student engagement has acquired in- creasing attention from researchers and policy makers. Focused originally on high school completion [1], student engagement has been associated with student achieve- ment, positive classroom and school climate, and effective instructional practices [2]. In contrast, disengagement has been identified as a cause of withdrawal from school, and seems to be more prevalent in student populations from low socio-economic areas or where great cultural and lin- guistic diversity exists [1,3]. The social effects of students disengagement has been researched in several countries, including Canada: “disengagement in and from school is linked to school violence, social exclusion, and a polariza- tion severe enough to pose a threat to social cohesion in Canada” [4]. Student engagement has been considered not only as a strategic process for learning, but also as an ac- countability outcome unto itself [1]. As we share this per- spective, we believe that engagement should be consid- ered beyond final grades or school completion. Student engagement has been defined generally as "a disposition towards learning, working with others, and functioning in a social institution” [5]. In this paper we focus on three dimensions of engagement: social, institu- tional, and intellectual [4,5]. Social engagement refers to the sense of belonging to school, including the participa- tion in school activities such as sports, arts and communi- ty involvement. Institutional engagement corresponds to the fulfillment of school requirements. Intellectual en- gagement is described as a serious emotional and cogni- tive investment in learning characterized by intrinsic mo- tivation and higher order thinking skills—associated with the state of flow [6]. Our focus on engagement entails a shift of educational paradigm. Current conceptions of education have evolved from schools organized to meet the needs of the industrial age [7]. Such conceptions are based on a traditional notion of knowledge being static and the need for schools to sort people into categories based on their final employment destination. Instead of considering knowledge as static content and standard procedures that can be broken down and transmitted to students, new conceptions of knowing and learning place importance on: collaborative knowledge building, scaffolding learning, through ongo- ing formative assessment, understanding the connections and interactions among different knowledge systems and modes of representation; emphasis on diversity; and fore- ground process, rather than products [7]. In order to shift the focus from educational paradigms from the industrial age to these new conceptions, educational reforms need to focus on creating the conditions needed to engage all stu- dents intellectually [8]. Such reforms also require support- ing teachers in the design of learning environments in accordance to these new perspectives. The Galileo Educational Network Association (GENA) provides professional learning support for teachers to ena- ble them to design tasks and assessment practices that foster student intellectual engagement. For the past two years GENA has worked closely with teachers from a high school in a low-income, culturally diverse district located in a Western Canadian city, to design and enact a variety of discipline-based studies aimed at increasing students’ intellectual engagement. This report describes the studies these students and teachers were engaged in, as well as their perceptions of the work and the role of mobile tech- nology in this context. A preliminary version of this re- search report was presented at the IEEE Global Engineer- ing Education Conference, Berlin, 2013. This refined and extended paper elaborates further on both the methodolo- gy and the implications of the research. II. STUDENT ENGAGEMENT Student engagement has been studied internationally for more than 25 years, mostly from the psychological and the social perspectives with a strong focus on measurement using self-reported surveys [9]. Research has consistently shown strong correlations between student engagement and completion of high school as well as improvement of grades. In [2], Yazzie-Mintz and McCormick argued for taking into account students' perceptions of the learning environments and conducted a survey with multiple op- tions and open questions. They concluded that the quanti- tative data commonly used for measuring student en- 46 http://www.i-jim.org PAPER USING MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR FOSTERING INTELLECTUAL ENGAGEMENT gagement do not provide information on the kind of learn- ing that students have experienced, the depth with which students have engaged in their learning, or what adults might do to help students experience school in a more engaged way: There is a need for qualitative research on student engagement [2]. In the Canadian context, in 2007, an initiative aimed to capture, assess and inspire new ideas for enhancing stu- dents’ learning experiences was launched: the Tell Them From Me survey (TTFM), designed by Dr. J. Douglas Willms, [4]. In 2008, Penny Milton, Chief Executive Of- ficer of the Canadian Education Association brought two other research and development organizations, GENA and The Learning Bar Inc., to engage in a 3-year research and development project to study, assess and enhance the learning experiences of adolescents in classrooms across Canada. Intellectual engagement was a construct added to The Learning Bar’s TTFM student engagement survey instrument. In the province of Alberta, in Western Canada, provincial, district and school leaders have been tracking student engagement using the TTFM survey instrument. Three aspects of student engagement are assessed in the TTFM survey: sense of belonging at school, including participation in school life (social engagement); the extent to which students value schooling outcomes, (institutional engagement); and the extent of their serious emotional and cognitive investment in learning (intellectual engage- ment). The results of this survey have consistently shown that students: (a) prefer strong relationships with the teachers and their communities; (b) want to explore real problems, issues, questions or ideas that are of real con- cern to individuals and their communities; and (c) seek learning environments that build interdependent relation- ships—these results are consistent with [2]. However, a more detailed description of how students experience in- tellectual engagement is barely reported in the literature. As far as we know, the only two studies that have ana- lyzed qualitative data used open question in surveys ([2] and [4]). The need for more studies that include voices of teachers and students has been a current concern among researchers—e.g. [4]. Focused on the experiences of adolescents in class- rooms and schools from across Canada, the TTFM initia- tive expanded into a framework which put forward a set of teaching principles and strategies shown to improve levels of student engagement: the Teaching Effectiveness Framework (TEF) [10]. This framework is based not only on psychological and social features of engagement, but also on neurological research in education. The most ef- fective learning takes place when learners have reached what Csikszentmihalyi calls a state of ‘flow’ or intense cognitive and emotional engagement [6]. At this point, the brain begins to make connections and patterns emerge in the information, resulting in powerful illuminations and understanding [10]. This approach contrasts to the mainly psychological and social approaches to student engage- ment commonly held by other researchers—e.g. [9]. The TEF framework served as a guide for the develop- ment and research initiative outlined in this paper. At the risk of an oversimplification, we summarize the core prin- ciples that underpin the TEF as they framed our analysis and data presentation. First, teachers are designers of learning environments that engage students intellectually and academically: In addition to having disciplinary, cur- ricular, and pedagogical knowledge, teachers thoughtfully and intentionally design learning environments to engage their students. Intellectually engaging environments spon- sor curiosity and awaken the desire to know and under- stand within learners. The result is a deep, personal com- mitment on the part of students to explore and investigate ideas, issues, problems or questions that have personal relevance, that matter to the discipline being studied or the world beyond the classroom. Second, work students are asked to undertake is worthy of their time and attention, personally relevant, and deeply connected to their world. This work engages students in the broader community where they explore real problems and concerns not only relevant to the discipline, but also connected to students’ lives inside and outside school. Such explorations foster strong habits of mind where students are invited to formu- late plausible theories and defend them through reasoned discourse based on evidence and in light of different viewpoints. The work that students undertake is authentic in that it mirrors the ways of thinking and acting reflective of practitioners in the field—e.g. historians, biologists, journalists, photographers, and architects. Third, assess- ment practices improve student learning and guide teach- ing. Assessment is a seamless part of the learning process that involves students in examining their work in progress, checking to decide what has been learned and what needs to be learned next. It includes setting and using criteria, having students self-assess, being engaged in peer coach- ing, receiving feedback about their work, collecting and organizing evidence, and presenting evidence of learning to others. It identifies what has been accomplished, what needs to be done, and informs the next steps for both teacher and students. Four, teachers foster a variety of interdependent relationships. Effective learning environ- ments are characterized by a series of interdependent rela- tionships that promote and create a strong culture of learn- ing. The teacher engages students in dialogue by: stimulat- ing discussion, posing questions, provoking thinking, sug- gesting resources, and helping students determine their next learning steps. Students collaborate with each other as well as with discipline experts both inside and outside of the classroom in order to build their collective under- standing about the topic under study. And five, teachers improve their practice in the company of peers and others. Teachers improve their practice, and hence their effective- ness, when they have opportunities to learn in the compa- ny of their peers. A scholarship of teaching begins to emerge where a regular part of the school discourse cen- ters on the learning of students, and where teachers have access to each other’s classrooms, and time to plan col- laboratively. Teachers become reflective practitioners who seek out the constructive feedback from peers, mentors and experts in an effort to constantly improve their prac- tice. An additional aspect of student engagement is the rela- tionship of new generations with technology. The infusion of digital technologies is an essential part in the programs of study, in most Canadian provinces [11]. However, in order to take advantage of this technology in education, roles of, and interactions among, students, teachers, aca- demic subjects, and the technological devices must be re- conceptualized [12]. New forms of learning are associated with the daily use of technology. New generations born into high-technologized societies, known as “millennium learners,” have different ways of learning and socializing [1,13]. Mobile devices have played an important role in iJIM ‒ Volume 7, Issue 3, July 2013 47 PAPER USING MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR FOSTERING INTELLECTUAL ENGAGEMENT the emergence of these new cultures and now the role of teachers, students and technology at school are shifting in such a fashion that the teacher is no longer the expert, at least not in the use of the mobile technology [12]. III. RESEARCH DESIGN The study presented in this report was based on a three- year participatory design-based research ([14]) in which researchers were actively involved in working with teach- ers and students. The purpose of this study was to better understand how student learning and engagement are im- pacted when teachers are provided with intensive profes- sional learning informed by the principles outlined in the TEF. Design-based research in education is situated in real educational contexts and studies innovations, as they are implemented, involving multiple iterations of design and testing of significant interventions in collaboration with researchers and practitioners. In the last ten years, the adoption of this methodological approach has been in- creased prominently in educational research ([14]). Due to its focus on the complex phenomena of education, design- based research employs both qualitative and quantitative methods. The term 'participatory' refers to the role of prac- titioner—e.g. teachers—and researchers in the study. In contrast to other forms of research in which students, and teachers, are studied by researchers, in participatory de- sign-based research both researchers and practitioners play an important role in the design of the innovations. Researchers are co-designer, and teachers are often co- researchers, as they engage also in the development of new insights and knowledge derived from the collabora- tion. The first year of this participatory design-based re- search was mainly devoted to: building trust between teachers and GENA's staff, assessing teaching practices, evaluating levels of student engagement, and developing a strategy for teacher professional development. The prelim- inary findings reported in this paper correspond to the perceptions of students and teachers of two Grade Ten groups, called the pod, during year two of this research and development initiative1. We particularly addressed the following research questions: How did students experi- ence intellectual engagement when involved in the learn- ing environments co-designed with GENA? What were the teachers' experiences, in terms of the TEF, when par- ticipating in the second year of this project? In order to capture the experience of students and teachers in this project, we considered a mainly qualitative approach for this part of the research. We incorporated varied sources of data as a means to better understand the complexities of the school setting: field notes; task designs and unit plans; class observations; semi-open interviews conducted at the end of the year with six students, the teachers involved, and administrators; artifacts of stu- dents’ work; and the Tell Them From Me (TTFM) survey [4,15]. While the survey and the class observations pro- vided quantitative data regarding the level of engagement, the interviews provided details of students and teachers' perceptions of their engagement in the studies co- developed and enacted with GENA. The TTFM survey 1 Although this initiative was extended to other teachers at this school, we had the opportunity to work with all the teachers in the four main subjects who taught these two groups served as an external measure of student engagement as a dependent variable. However, the survey accounts for the whole experience at school, not only for those projects co- designed with GENA. In this sense, the results of the sur- vey are considered only as an indirect measure of the re- sults of GENA's initiative. Class observation was adapted from the Class Observation Protocol designed by State Educational Technology Directors Association. Class ob- servation was conducted as a means to identify instruc- tional practices and levels of engagement. Each observa- tion was conducted by at least two researchers, who com- pared their results thereafter, discussing and negotiating discrepancies. Class observation took place during the first year of the intervention, evidencing a prominent teacher- centered approach to instruction, with a strong emphasis on procedural knowledge and memorization. This obser- vation informed the design of the intervention for the se- cond year. The TTFM survey was usually administrated twice a year. However, during the academic period 2011 and 2012 it was only administered in November, which was a limi- tation for this study. During the first part of this academic year, GENA worked intensively only with the Mathemat- ics and Science teachers of the pods. Students and teachers were interviewed in pairs by the end of the school year. One pair of interviewed teachers were the English Language and Arts and Social Sciences, the other pair consisted of the Mathematics and the Sci- ence teachers. Only six students agreed to participate in the interviews and were sorted in three pairs. The Inter- views were transcribed and coded in terms of the five core principles of the TEF by at least two researchers. The Nvivo software for qualitative research was used to com- pare and select excerpts based on both the students' de- scriptions of their intellectual engagement and the teach- ers' activities reflecting the TEF core principles. Follow- ing the principles of quality for qualitative design, we pre- sent excerpts of these interviews as a means of giving par- ticipants a voice, to represent multiple perspectives, and to allow the reader to judge the merits of our conclusions ([16,17]). Descriptions of the Projects Designed for Stdents The teachers involved in this research had expertise in one of the four subjects students are required to study at high school in Alberta, Canada: English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. During the se- cond year of this initiative, teachers worked in pairs: Mathematics with Science; and Social Studies with Eng- lish Language Arts. The later pair merged their two cours- es into a single-year course: Humanities. The following projects for students were selected due to their deliberate focus on intellectual engagement. It must also be noted that the appropriate use of digital technolo- gies is infused into each of the five principles outlined in TEF. In this case, the iPad 2 was the mobile technology that featured prominently in the teaching and learning of students involved in this stage of the initiative. A. Humanities - Mash-ups As part of a novel study in their Humanities class, stu- dents were invited to choose one of the key ideas from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, and develop it into a digital collage, or mash-up. They were encour- aged to use any combination of media from a variety of sources, including movie trailers, news clips (audio and 48 http://www.i-jim.org PAPER USING MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR FOSTERING INTELLECTUAL ENGAGEMENT video), still images, music, poetry, sound effects, pop- culture representations from television, and radio to repre- sent their interpretation of a key theme or message from the novel. The multimedia features of the iPad played a central role for this project. The mash-ups were aired for an authentic audience dur- ing a public screening when prospective new students and their parents, were visiting the school. B. Humanities - Romeo and Juliet Students worked with professional actors to interpret and re-enact scenes from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Many of the scenes were placed in different contexts and represented fresh and original interpretations, re-created in contemporary contexts proposed by the same students. The portability and versatility of the iPad tablets ena- bled students to take on and easily switch between diverse production roles: from scriptwriter, to director, actor, pho- tographer and film editor. It also meant that student pro- duction teams could set the stage in almost any setting where today’s teens might actually congregate including coffee shops, shopping centers and movie theatres. This approach inspired students to both study the play and also work through their own original interpretations in ways that closely mirrored those employed by contemporary actors and film production companies. C. Science/Math - Field Study The mathematics and science teachers collaboratively designed a unit with experts from a biogeoscience station located in a nearby provincial park. Teachers used the Galileo Discipline–Based Inquiry Task Rubric, described in [18], to guide their design of an engaging study. Work- ing in teams, students used the same tools and methods of gathering data that scientists at this field station would use to explore how the environment changes as you move up a slope or in a northerly direction. Once students had col- lected their data, they were asked to synthesize their find- ings, compare their results to other studies conducted by scientists in that area, and identify questions for further study. Students presented their findings during a poster session using the same format that scientist from the field station used in presenting their results. The connection with scientists at the field station was essential for the design of the task and to enable students to obtain mean- ingful feedback about their work as they tested the validity of their findings. The iPad allowed students to gather, record and analyze data they collected during their visit to the station. D. Science/Math - Public Service Announcement After visiting an energy efficient house, students were asked to identify energy issues in the school building and develop a proposal for improving energy efficiency. This project demanded students to provide a sound scientific rationale for the basis of their conclusions relative to the amount of energy saved, as well as determine the real cost of implementing their proposals. Students used the iPad to develop and present their proposal in the form of a short, but compelling, video Public Service Announcement (PSA). Proposals that students presented to the School Board facilities and maintenance directors were both de- fensible and feasible. As a result a monetary sum was awarded to the school to enable a number of the proposals to be implemented. Figure 1. Results from the TTFM survey E. Mathematics - Expanding Cube Students used the multimedia capacities of the mobile technology to solve a mathematical problem during sever- al sessions—see [5] for more details on this task. The technology enabled students to conjecture and verify re- sults, and to communicate both their process and final solution in the form of electronic documents that included photographs, tables and both written and oral descriptions of their findings. At the end of the unit students wrote a test on manipulation of polynomials based on the formu- lae developed through the project. IV. RESULTS The TTFM survey indicated an increased level of en- gagement when compared with other Grade Tens during both the same and the previous year (Figure 1). In particu- lar, the level of intellectual engagement was 11% higher when compared with non-pod students in the same year, which suggests that the intervention impacted positively on student intellectual engagement. Although it was not a main focus of this research, it is worth noting that social engagement improved as well: The category Sense of Belonging was 14% higher in the pod group compared with the other non-pod Grade Ten students in the school, as illustrated in Table 1. The data from student and teacher’s interviews provides additional details of how engagement was embodied in the studies students undertook as part of the initiative. During the interviews conducted at the end of the year, students were asked to identify work they had completed that they were most proud of. The examples cited most frequently were those projects co-designed with GENA: particularly, the Romeo and Juliet, Mash-ups, the Biology field study and PSA projects. A. Students’ perceptions The following excerpt from a student reflection journal in science and mathematics represents an instance of intel- lectual engagement: the student was intrinsically motivat- ed and self-directed during the study. I now understand that an ecological field biologist is a very interesting profession. It’s like solving a mystery. You have questions, a purpose, and you try to figure out the !"#$ %"#$ &"#$ '"#$ ("#$ )*+,-$."/$ 0"."$ )*+,-$."/$123 42,$0"..$ )*+,-$."/$42,$ 0"..$ !"#$%%$&#'(%)*"+(+$,$"#)("-) .$"/$)01)2$%0"+3"+) 516-77-869+7$-1:+:-;-16$ <2=>6>?-$=-1=-$2@$A-721:>1:$ iJIM ‒ Volume 7, Issue 3, July 2013 49 PAPER USING MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR FOSTERING INTELLECTUAL ENGAGEMENT answer to the questions. What is causing it? It’s all about questioning something and then getting out there and try- ing to figure it out. It’s a hands-on experience. You pick your own tools and YOU decide how you will solve your mystery. It takes patience and constant monitoring, and lots and lots of observations. You also need to be able to interpret information and make connections. Students were also asked to describe the difference be- tween their courses with their experiences of those same courses in previous years. The following comment con- trasts a superficial experience of language arts with a more challenging program that demanded more of students. We would usually do whole bunch of grammar things and just general learning how to use the language. This year, there was a lot of reading comprehension, like we had to do with To Kill a Mockingbird. We had Romeo and Juliet. We had all of these essentially bits of reading or we would read through the passages of anything that [teachers] gave us and we'd have to comprehend what we read, like what did this character do at this time and how did that affect the story? So, it was a lot less learning how to use the language and more learning to kind of think with it, really, because we know how to use it now, so you get to think. Students were asked to identify something they did in high school that had meaning and relevance for them. The following two excerpts show how work students under- took was relevant to their personal life in terms of effort invested in the project, personal relevance, authenticity regarding arts, and being proud of their work. I was sort of thinking of the Mash-up that we did. We spent so much time on it, it’s like it was so important it was just...I don't know, it was just all the experience built into it and what we got to do and how it like, related to us. To me, it felt like it was really important I like the Romeo and Juliet project, that was really fun filming. We just did like a little thing and we have like, we did–I think it was Act 3, Scene 1, the fight scene. We just did like this cat fight it was really fun. It was like a film. I still like the To Kill a Mocking Bird project. We got– I'm pretty sure I had a fairly good mark on that because we showed (our teacher) that one and he was speechless. Ours was just like, it was completely done when we showed it so it was like, "Oh Yes, let's show it." When he watched it he was like, "Wow, I don't know what to say, it was really good." I was really happy with that one, it took a lot of effort, so much work. The relevance of the mash-up study went beyond a good mark: it was rewarding, as suggested in the student comments from the previous excerpt. Another aspect of relevance mentioned by students was the involvement of a broader audience, as we can read in the following: The challenging part is to make my Mash-up appeal to— you want to make it appeal to all age groups, from old to young— explaining how the young shouldn't try to grow up too fast. And reminding the adults that it's OK to have fun, and not be yourself and just be a kid. … [And we] try to make it seem sentimental and trying to incorpo- rate the “To Kill a Mockingbird” [ideas] into the mash- up. It took my group a while but you notice how Scout, the girl in the movie, she isn't afraid to be a tomboy and just play around and not try to grow up too fast, since she doesn't want to grow up to be a lady. She just wants to be herself. So we tried to incorporate it. Students were asked also about how assessment was conducted in their courses. In this case, the interviewed student explains how the expectations for the assignments were made explicit. On the first day [teachers] gave us like an idea and then the next day we would talk it over and then they'd give us more of like what they expected and stuff. They wanted it to be like a lot of details and like appealing and good pictures and stuff. Moreover, most interviewed students described their preference for performance-based assessments over quiz- zes and tests. In the following transcripts students explain their preference based on how these studies were more interesting and allowed creativity. I like the Mash-up better. I do not like tests. It's more interesting and really got me involved and I learned a lot more than on a test. Same with her, like I prefer the Mash-up because I guess to show my creativity and if I'm having fun I put more effort into the work I've done. So on tests and quiz- zes, even though I study hard on it, once the test comes there are terms that I couldn’t get or I just get lazy and I just guess or I second guess myself. Only one of the interviewed students preferred assess- ment in the form of tests and quizzes. However, this stu- dent acknowledged that the studies and projects supported a deeper understanding of the course content, as we can read in the following comment: I think tests and quizzes I do best on, and I think it’s just easier for me to express when it’s taught that way, rather than say writing your answers for an assignment. … The assignments and seminars and things helped me with my understanding of the content of the course. But I think tests and quizzes are really, they’re the best way for me to determine how much I actually know on the subject. The previous excerpt can be analyzed in terms of two different types of assessment: summative and formative. The student seems to focus exclusively on summative assessment—to evaluate the state of knowing at the end of a unit or semester regarding content matter. However, an important component of the studies and projects co- designed with GENA was formative, ongoing assess- ment—to improve student's learning. The student's com- ment in the excerpt places a value on the assignments in terms of the learning of course content, which is the pur- pose of formative assessment. B. Teachers’ perception Teachers’ perceptions are presented in relation to each of the five core principles of the TEF. These core princi- ples are interwoven and the excerpts therefore reflect more than one principle. However, one example illustrative of each of the five principles is included in this paper. The interviews were conducted in the corresponding pairs Mathematics-Science, and Humanities. 1) Teachers are designers of learning Prior to the work conducted in this second year of the intervention, the mathematics teacher used a workbook for the course. In every single class, mathematics teachers had to cover designated pages of the book. However, after the second year of the intervention the teaching practices of the mathematics teacher were more in alignment with those outlined in the TEF as evidenced below: 50 http://www.i-jim.org PAPER USING MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR FOSTERING INTELLECTUAL ENGAGEMENT We don't start at the textbook and work towards the curriculum anymore. We start with the curriculum, start with a big project, and work in the details. It's no longer about starting with the details and getting to the big pic- ture. It starts with the big picture and then filling in the details–and I find that it's actually a much better way to do it because then the students really understand the con- cept. It's not just the details and they get lost in the con- cept. It's the other way where they get the concept and then the right details. One of the Humanities teachers reflected on how the mash-up study provoked greater reflection about the quali- ty of the tasks students were being assigned. I think the one thing it did make me more conscious of though was thinking deeply about why are we giving stu- dents this task? What do we hope for them to accomplish? How does it cover those competencies? Especially in a Humanities class, where English and Social Studies are so closely linked, thinking about can we kill two birds with one stone? If we give them this piece of literature to read and it links to historical globalization but it also requires them to analyze a piece of literature then we’ve really hit on the competencies for both subject areas. 2) Students engage in worthwhile work The PSA project engaged students in a real problem that was directly related to their school: energy consump- tion. The Science teacher explained that students went deeper in their studies by examining the environmental impact of the material of one alternative put forward by students. I think they certainly went much, much deeper than we expected them to go because they were into it and they want to do it. They were so interested in it that one group started looking at insulation materials and then started looking at, well, what kind of environmental impact it is going to make. So they found this awesome material but it's really expensive and it's not very good for the envi- ronment to make. So then they decided, well, they're going to switch to a local company 3) Assessment practices Assessment for learning was a key feature of each of the projects co-designed during this part of the initiative. In the following script from a Humanities teacher a con- nection between strong feedback and the personal rele- vance for students is explained. When you are constantly giving them that feedback it enables them to feel as though their final product would be something that's worthy of all of their efforts and has made use of that feedback that they had been given. I know for the Mash-up project, a number of the kids, when we saw their first sort of go-around, we were able to say to them, you know you might want to rethink the sound track, or you might want to rethink some of those images, are they really conveying your theme? They were able to take that feedback and then go back and make some changes. That I think resulted in a more meaningful final product. In the following excerpt a Humanities teacher explains the relevance of peer assessment in the Mash-up project. The script also reflects the expertise in the use of technol- ogy of some students in the classroom. The teacher is no longer the expert in the classroom; some students are ac- tually the experts and provide feedback to classmates. I think that in particular the peer assessment is quite powerful. … In the case of the Mash-up, I think I said ear- lier, they are all pretty savvy consumers of technology. … I think for a lot of them that was probably more meaning- ful than having their 40-year old teacher say, "I don't re- ally understand what you've tried to accomplish with this set of images." I think it was scary frankly to do a project where you are asking kids to use technology but you yourself don't really understand how the technology works. Another component of assessment is the student en- gagement in the design of the assessment tools, such as performance-based rubrics. In the following excerpt the Mathematics and Science teachers explain the process of developing the assessment rubric for the PSA project. Then [the project] was marked on every rubric we had but it's the same rubric that the kids have been working with for all the feedback loops. There must have been at least four or five loops. … Specifically when it came to PSA's. We looked at exemplary examples and poor exam- ples and really came up with what makes a good PSA, what makes a poor PSA. So when we have a project such as PSA we would give them an opportunity to kind of start working [through it and] assess themselves, and then we'll give them some more chances to improve on the scale, I guess. Then one of us would sit down with them and go through it again. Then they would try to improve a bit and then they might sit down with their friends and try and improve again until they know exactly what they're getting assessed on. They know exactly what our expectations are. 4) Interdependent relationships One of the educators from GENA arranged for profes- sional actors to work with the students on their Romeo and Juliet projects. A teacher commented in an interview about the significance of having an expert in the group. The actors helped the kids write their scene and gave them some notes about how to do their performance. We had time to kind of walk around and give suggestions but again we weren’t necessarily saying you have to have this, this and this in your scene. It was very much up to them. They blew us away with their creativity and humor. They were really well-done at the end and they were really proud of them [Romeo and Juliet projects]. The English teacher reported students who were so in- volved in the creation of poems during a field trip, that they kept doing poetry afterward. So, having the chance to do outside trips to see what they're learning in the real world. We went to a Spoken Word Festival for English. They were really into that. They were doing slam poetry on the train home. Both social engagement and institutional engagement seemed to be outcomes of this initiative, as we can read in the following excerpt from the Science teacher. Another thing that I'll add to that too is our students are much more involved in our school, that there's been mul- tiple times where we would just ask "Do we have any vol- unteers?" and 20 hands would go up when we only needed five but that's okay. Our students love volunteering. They are always the first ones to step up to the plate and it's part of the relationship that we've built. They know that we need them and we'll give back to them. iJIM ‒ Volume 7, Issue 3, July 2013 51 PAPER USING MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR FOSTERING INTELLECTUAL ENGAGEMENT 5) Teachers practice in the company of their peers Humanities teachers explained how the process of co- teaching was a process of mutual teaching and learning. In terms of my development, I think it’s really a new teacher’s dream to be with an experienced teacher first thing. I went from being absolutely terrified walking in to having someone I trusted and was able and willing to help me. I feel that I learned a ton from [my teaching partner]. I don’t know how she would feel. [Laughter] I think it’s reciprocal. … Day one, [Partner teacher] was getting to know the kids, talking to them, engaging with them, getting to know them as learners and as individuals and bringing creative ideas that I haven’t thought of or haven’t ever considered. I think it worked out well for both of us. She got to be with somebody a little more expe- rienced. I get to be rejuvenated with her new ideas. The Mathematics and Science teachers also commented on their learning when planning as a whole group of teachers from the four major disciplines. We have common prep times ourselves, the four of us, and we meet at the minimum once a week. We meet with all four teachers involved with this initia- tive. It's not that Math and Science are separate from the Humanities; we all get together and talk. The teachers’ excerpts presented in this section demon- strate how the major studies and projects co-designed with GENA were related to the TEF. These excerpts describe ways in which students became intellectually engaged when involved in the projects. Additionally, this evidence suggests that social engagement and institutional engage- ment could be other outcomes of the initiative. V. CONCLUSIONS It is very challenging to disrupt conventional teaching approaches. The projects and learning environments de- scribed in this report not only served to engage students in authentic tasks related to the major subject areas at high school, but also engaged teachers in designing rich learn- ing tasks and in strengthening their practices. The preliminary findings reported in this paper offer accounts of intellectual engagement from the perspective of teachers and six interviewed students: representing a contribution to the research on student engagement—as suggested in [4]. The results of the TTFM survey evidence an increase in the levels of both intellectual and social engagement in those students involved in the studies co- enacted with teachers and GENA. The excerpts provided in this paper represent the voices of students and teachers involved in this development and research initiative. Teachers participating in this professional learning op- portunity came to understand the importance of thought- fully and intentionally designing learning opportunities to intellectually engage students. The mobile technology played a significant role in enabling students to think dif- ferently, use digital technology to solve problems, and express their understanding in more richly textured ways than paper and pen may have afforded. Also, the technol- ogy in this case required teachers to assume a new role in which they came to realize that they do not hold all the knowledge and expertise. Students, with their expertise and capability using multi-media and iPad Apps, assumed leading roles as experts who supported both peers and their teachers in using these technologies. The mathematics study, the Expanding Cube, was not mentioned as a memorable project in the interviews. We observed students being engaged during this project and initially expected comments about it in the interviews. Notice that the results of the survey could only be impact- ed by the work with the Science and Mathematics teach- ers: no major projects, other than the Expanding Cube, took place before the survey was conducted. A reason for this may be the fact that this math study happened early in the school term and lasted for only one week, while the other studies were conducted more recently and required longer periods of time, sometimes exceeding a month. Another reason might be that students were asked to cite the most memorable and relevant projects. However, there may be an additional explanation. This mathematical task did not involve a broader community, and did not entail connections outside of the classroom: two features de- scribed in the TEF. These two factors may be important features of the design of memorable learning experiences. Although social engagement was not a focus for this study, the evidence suggests that the studies collaborative- ly designed and enacted in this intervention had a positive impact on this type of engagement as a side effect. This finding is important in that social engagement has been identified as a factor for both student retention at high school and a pre-cursor to the cultivation of socially en- gaged citizens. The role of the mobile technology was not limited to facilitate the project co-designed with teachers and GENA specialists. While the use iPads helped students to collect, organize and analyze information, as well as communicate their thinking, a students were able to participate in the classroom as expert, savvy users of mobile technology. Both teachers and students acknowledged the lack, in some cases, of teacher's skills in the use of particular tech- nologies. The increased rate of change in day-to-day tech- nology makes it very difficult, or even impossible, for the teacher to be up to date with the most recent apps and software available, and adaptable, for educational purpos- es. The teacher is no longer the expert in the classroom in tis regards, which opens the possibility for students to contribute with their knowledge and skills in mobile tech- nology. As argued in [12], the roles of the students and the teacher change allowing a more participatory contribution of students to the class. Finally, we claim that the work students undertake needs to be relevant, meaningful and authentic–in other words, it needs to be worthy of their time and attention. Too frequently, the work students are asked to do at school does not engage them in personally relevant expe- riences, nor allow them to experience the life and vitality of rigorous exploration. Both the research field [6,19] and the students themselves [2,5], are clear: The work adoles- cents want and need to be able to do must be worthy of their time and attention and therefore must be intellectual- ly engaging. REFERENCES [1] L. Taylor, & L. Parsons, “Improving Student Engagement,” Cur- rent Issues in Education, vol. 14 no. 1, 2011. Retrieved from http://cie.asu.edu/ [2] E. Yazzie-Mintz, & K. McCormick, “Finding the humanity in the data: Understanding, measuring, and stregthening student en- gagement,” in Handbook of Research on Student Engagement, S. L. Christenson, A. L. Reschly, C. Wylie, Eds. Springer Sci- ence+Business Media: New York, 2012. 52 http://www.i-jim.org PAPER USING MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR FOSTERING INTELLECTUAL ENGAGEMENT [3] L. W. Harris, “A phenomenographic investigation of teacher con- ceptions of student engagement in learning,” The Australian Edu- cational Researcher, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 57-79, April 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF03216875 [4] J. D. Willms, S. Friesen, & P. Milton, “What did you do in school today? Transforming classrooms through social, academic and in- tellectual engagement: First national report.” Canadian Education Association, Toronto, 2009. [5] J. D. Willms, “Student engagement at school: A sense of belong- ing and participation.” Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development: Paris, 2003. [6] M. Csikszentmihalyi, “Flow : The Psychology of Optimal Experi- ence,” Harper and Row, New York, 1990. [7] L. Gilbert, “’Catching the Knowledge wave’ Redefining knowledge for the post-industrial age,” Education Canada vol. 47 no. 3, pp. 4-8, 2007 [8] J. D. Willms, & S. Friesen, “What did you do in school today? Research series: Report number two: The relationship between in- structional challenge and student engagement.” Canadian Educa- tion Association, Toronto, 2012. [9] S. L. Christenson, A. L. Reschly, & C. Wylie, Eds. "Handbook of Research on Student Engagement." Springer Science+Business Media: New York, 2012. [10] S. Friesen, “What did you do in school today? Teaching Effec- tiveness: A Framework and Rubric.” Toronto, Canada: Canadian Education Association, 2009. [11] Western Northern Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Educa- tion, 2011. http://www.wncp.ca/english/wncphome.aspx [12] A. P. Preciado Babb, “Incorporating the iPad2 in the Mathematics Classroom: Extending the Mind into the Collective” International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 23-29, April 2012. [13] Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, “Cen- tre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) "New Mil- lennium Learners,” retrieved on December 2, 2012 from http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/centreforeducationalresearchandinn ovationceri-newmillenniumlearners.htm [14] T. Anderson & J. Shattuck, “Design-based research: A decade of progress in education research?,” Educational Researcher, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 16–25, Feb. 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0013189X11428813 [15] J. D. Willms, & P. Flanagan, “Canadian students ‘tell them from me’,” Education Canada vol. 47, no. 3 pp. 46-50, 2007. [16] Lincoln, Y. S. "Emerging criteria for qulity in qualitative and interpretive research," Qualitative Inquiry vol. 1, pp. 275-289, 1995. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/107780049500100301 [17] Creswll, J. W. "Qualitative Inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches," 5th Ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2007. [18] GENA, "Discipline-based inquiry rubric" GENA, 2011. Retrieved January, 2013 from http://www.galileo.org/research/publications/rubric.pdf [19] D. Jardine, P. Cliford, & S. Friesen, “Back to the basics of teach- ing and learning: Thinking the world together.” 2nd Ed. New York: Routledge Press, 2008. AUTHORS A.P. Preciado Babb, C. Saar, C. Marcotte, J. Bran- don and S. Friesen are with the Galileo Educational Net- work Association, University of Calgary, Calgary, Cana- da. This article is an extended and modified version of a paper presented at the EDUCON2013 conference held at Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany from March 13-15, 2013. Submitted 07 June 2013. Published as re-submitted by the authors 26 June 2013. iJIM ‒ Volume 7, Issue 3, July 2013 53 iJIM – Vol. 7, No. 3, July 2013 Using Mobile Technology for Fostering Intellectual Engagement