Poster Session at ISTE 2014 Atlanta, GA
Digital empathy is a taxonomy of cognitive, emotional, and physical literacies that helps educators assess, design and teach using technology for the Common Core standards.
Sunday, June 29, 2:00 pm–4:00 pm
GWCC Murphy Ballroom Galleria, Table 34
The purpose of this poster presentation is to share experience and create a dialogue about the innovative Digital Empathy Taxonomy that was developed as a media production curriculum evaluation in the summer of 2013. Using five parameters of students’ behavior, we were able to assess the assimilation of technology in the classroom. The Digital Empathy Taxonomy is a tool for educators, curriculum designers, and administrators to evaluate the students’ learning processes using digital media. The educational goal of this taxonomy is to identify the cognitive, emotional, and fine motor skills that students develop while using digital technology in the classroom.
In the summer of 2013 at the University of Rhode Island we tested this taxonomy in a month-long summer camp with 27 high school students. The students used computers to create their own blogs or websites. They researched for information using different applications. They produced their own videos using flip cameras. Results show that on five parameters (agency, engagement, compassion, role playing, imitation) students developed their cognitive, emotional, and fine motor skills in the digital classroom.
The educational significance of this research is that teachers, curriculum designers, and administrators can use the Digital Empathy Taxonomy to better understand the educational process of their students in the digital classroom. This tool allows educators to assess student progress during class time on three levels of literacy: cognitive, emotional, and physical. The teachers and technology coordinators can easily identify how students have perceived their lesson plan design and then change their delivery method on site to adjust to the classroom environment. This assessment assists curriculum designers as well as administrators to assimilate technology into the regular classroom.
The participants in this poster session will have the opportunity to see how this assessment works and to experience the benefits of Digital Empathy in the classroom. The poster session will briefly showcase our research and findings of the summer curriculum evaluation program, and suggest different approaches to teaching with digital technology (computers, mobile devices, and cameras). The grades 6-12 educators will be able to participate in a short demonstration of the use of our taxonomy. After the session educators will be able to bring the taxonomy into their classroom to evaluate their students’ cognitive, emotional, and fine motor skills development using digital media.
Outline
The poster session will include three different interactive components involving participants. The first one will be an interactive presentation of the Digital Empathy Taxonomy. Using two tablets (iPad© & Surface©) or on their own device, using SlideShare©, participants will be able to go over an interactive PowerPoint© presentation with embedded videos and animation. The presentation will showcase each element of the Digital Empathy Taxonomy. It will allow participants to see how they can evaluate their students' skills in real time in the classroom.
In the second part, participants will be able to see on the screen at the poster table a video describing research findings regarding students' artifacts and behavior. The video will demonstrate the enhancement of students' cognitive, emotional, and fine motor skills.
In the last part, the participants will be asked to use their mobile devices to compose a small video production task to experience how the Digital Empathy Taxonomy works to enhance students' skills. The participants will be asked to take three shots with their mobile phones and to edit them on Animoto©. After sharing their videos, participants will receive Digital Empathy assessments from the presenter.
The three interactive components will describe the Digital Empathy Taxonomy, showcase our findings, and allow participants to experience using the taxonomy in the classroom.
Standards addressed
The Digital Empathy Taxonomy addresses the three English Language Arts Literacies (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) for grades 6-12 by assessing students’ cognitive, emotional, and fine motor skills to advance their literacy skills in the digital classroom. The taxonomy evaluates the students’ level of engagement, agency, compassion, role playing, and imitation. All five behaviors are being weighted to assess the students’ Common Core Standards of reading, writing, speaking, and listening in real time in the digital classroom. Aligned with the ISTE standards for students’ communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making, the Digital Empathy Taxonomy allows educators to evaluate and adapt their lesson plans and pedagogy using digital technology.
The Digital Empathy Taxonomy addresses the following three Common Core Standards with the correlative ISTE Students’ standards:
1. Reading Literacies
Common Core Standards for grades 6-12 Reading Literacies, and ISTE Students Standards Research and Information Fluency, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: All standards relate to cognitive abilities to locate, assess, synthesize, and communicate information. At the same time students’ cognitive skills can be enhanced only if their fine motor skills using computers and mobile devices are developed enough and their emotional states are stable. For these reasons the Digital Empathy Taxonomy merges the three: cognitive, emotional, and fine motor skills into one assessment. The evaluation of students’ agency and role-playing helps us to assess the level of reading skills they achieve in the digital classroom.
2. Writing Literacies
Common Core Standards for 6-12 grade Writing Literacies, and ISTE Students Standards Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: In order to create a text and reflect upon it, students need to learn to imitate writing formats and typing skills as well as express their agency through thoughts and emotions in a creative way using different media including digital platforms. Students’ critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making can be evaluated using the Digital Empathy Taxonomy according to their think-aloud process as well as their usage of the technology in their digital writing.
3. Speaking and Listening Literacies
Common Core Standards for 6-12 grade Speaking and Listening Literacies, and ISTE Students Standards Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Decision Making, Communication and Collaboration: Speaking and listening require students to be engaged in a conversation and to collaborate as well as communicate. The social interactions with their peers are evaluated by the degrees of engagement and compassion they show on three different scales: cognitive, emotional, and fine motor skills. The Digital Empathy Taxonomy assesses the student’s degree of engagement and collaboration in the communication process and at the same time the level of literacies used in the process.
In order to practice and enhance these literacy skills (access information, analyze concepts, create messages, reflect upon our and others’ work, and engage civically) we offer the Digital Empathy Taxonomy for educators to evaluate their students’ cognitive, emotional, and physical literacies according to the Common Core Standards and ISTE Students Standards.
Supporting research
Anderson, C. A., Shibuya, A., Ihori, N., Swing, E. L., Bushman, B. J., Sakamoto, A., Rothstein, H. R., & Saleem, M. (2010). Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial behavior in eastern and western countries: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 136(2), 151-173. doi:10.1037/a0018251
Bailey, B. (2011). “When I make a film, it’s out of my head”: Expressing emotion and healing through digital filmmaking in the classroom. Digital Culture & Education,3(2), 76-97. Retrieved from http://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/dce1056_bailey_2011.pdf
Gee, J. P. (2004, May). Video games: Embodied empathy for complex systems. Paper presented at Electronic Entertainment Exposition, Los Angeles, CA.
Greitemeyer, T., Osswald, S., & Brauer, M. (2010). Playing prosocial video games increases empathy and decreases schadenfreude. Emotion, 10(6), 796-802. doi:10.1037/a0020194
Jenkins, H. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. M.I.T. Campbridge, MA: The John D.and Catherine T.MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. Retrieved from http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF
Lawrence, E. J., Shaw, P., Baker, D., Baron-Cohen, S., & David, A. S. (2004). Measuring empathy: Reliability and validity of the empathy quotient. Psychological Medicine, 34(05), 911-923. doi:10.1017/S0033291703001624
Manney, P. J. (2008). Empathy in the time of technology: How storytelling is the key to empathy. Journal of Evolution and Technology, 19(1), 51-61. Retrieved from http://www.jetpress.org/v19/manney.htm
Tran, P., & Subrahmanyam, K. (2013). Evidence-based guidelines for the informal use of computers by children to promote the development of academic, cognitive and social skills. Ergonomics, 1-14. doi:10.1080/00140139.2013.820843
