Assessment Task 2 - Analysis of digital technologies

Reflective Synopsis

Technology is the fundamental way of society; we as a society have become so reliant on it. The digital age is officially upon us, this being the case we must incorporate digital technology in order teach students more efficiently. For example, if I was to ask you to find the meaning of ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’, instinctively most students would go to Google on an i-device as opposed to paperback texts like a dictionary. The question is how do we as educators, achieve the inclusion of ICT’s into the classroom to teach students with and the answer is E – Learning.

What is E – Learning though? E – Learning, as explained by CQUnivesity (2012) is “Using information communication technologies (ICTs) to engage, enhance and extend learning in pedagogically sound, flexible and innovative ways”. This is the bridge in order to connect to students on their level of thinking through the experiences they have had with technology. As educators, this is the tool for educating students effectively in the 21^st century. Thanks to E – Learning, classrooms will be more about the actual learning of the key learning areas instead of the time being used on classroom management, this will be due to the students being engaged and willing to learn through technology.

Through my own experiences of E – Learning I was able to observe, explore, connect and most importantly experience a whole new way of teaching. I have only heard about some of these programs and as for others I had no idea about. All this time the technology was there but the learning by me in order to use them was not.  As of now I can safely say I am fluent in majority of them now and have a few favourites in which I will now use in teaching students in a classroom.

Learning Theories

Through active participation in course reading, I encountered different perspectives of theorists where each of them identified a need in teaching. There was deBono, (as mentioned more below in the Mobile Phone Wiki) simply put it is where each student takes on a role of a different ‘hat’ which represents a different view on a topic. The next theory was that of Felder, R (n.d.) and his work with identifying learning styles. Think about how you learn best and that is your learning style some examples are kinaesthetic, auditory and visual learners. Everyone has a learning style; if you understand the learners within your classroom and their preferred learning style, then as a learning manager you will be able to teach them to their full capabilities of learning by catering this.

Next was the learning through the ideas of Pransky. Pransky stipulated that if you compare the technology and learning needs that students have now in the 21^st century to students fifty years ago there is a vast difference. Technology plays a vital part in the way students learn and furthermore impacts on the fact if they even engage with learning now. Pransky (2005) raises an important issue; that is children fifty years ago did not demand to be engaged while educated, it was expected of them. Students fifty years ago, majority of them did not even know what real engagement was nor experienced it. As for the students being brought up in the 21^st century, they are constantly being stimulated with real engagement on a daily premise with iPods, mobile phones and the easy access to internet. This validates the importance of E – Learning. Prensky (2005) goes on further to explain that “All the students we teach have something in their lives that’s really engaging—something that they do and that they are good at, something that has an engaging, creative component to it”. At this point in time we need to harness this creative component in technology to gauge their learning through engagement.

Lastly, was the theory from Siemons (2005) which was called connectivism and what it is, is instead of teaching students information you ‘arm’ students with the ability to find where the information is located. This will provide students a broader range of capabilities and a wider spectrum of interpreting knowledge along with having access to more information than what is being learnt (Siemons, 2005).

In reality, it is applicable to implement this learning theory. It allows students to be more ready for when they leave school because information is everywhere around us and now thanks to modern technology it is a lot more accessible through phones, tablets and other items.
For more information on any of these learning theories visit this website: Learning theories

Mobile Phone Wiki

Through the engagement of the Mobile Phone Wiki , I was able to experience a way which both a learning theory was used within a ICT Tool. This approach is what I tried to do with the ICT Tools that I was asked to experience, this website deepened my understanding of de Bono's Six as well. DeBono’s 6 Thinking Hats demonstrated a simple but effective teaching strategy that could be utilised multiple times on different subjects. The teaching strategy was to write something about mobile phones in a Wiki in accordance to the Thinking Hats – challenging myself to think in a different perspective creating a new meaning or a different point of view. It showed how a Wiki could create an interesting and yet valuable learning experience within a classroom (because you can view other peoples points of views as well and take them into consideration) which made myself think differently on how effectiveness of a Wiki. A Wiki creates higher order thinking amongst students along with peer teaching assuming it is being used with deBono’sSix Thinking Hats. Even though I have not used this in one of my four tools, I would also recommend this particular ICT.

Legal, Safe and Ethical Practices 

Technology is a vital tool in supporting and creating a meaningful and enriched learning experience for all students. Like most things though, where there is something good, there are also apparent risks and implications. In order to incorporate ICT’s into the classroom, safety and legal requirements are needed in place for students and more importantly students need to know what they are and how to prevent such circumstances. This is known as the duty of care, which you, the learning manager must uphold and ensure you have covered in all aspects of teaching; protecting both yourself and the students.  This can be done by ensuring the school takes certain steps in order to relinquish any possibility of students not receiving an enriched lesson free from any online predator danger, students are safe both legally and ethically as well.

The issues that can arise can be overridden by implementing these steps of pre-caution to protect and make aware of the implications that can arise and how to best avoid them or handle them. These steps of pre-caution are:

·           Ensuring the learning facilitators is aware of their duty of care to students.
·           Inform the parents/guardians of the steps and implementations of the school taken.
·           Inform the students of the dangers that the internet has.
·           A whole school approach’ with a list of standards/requirements for the students.
·           Explain the safety measures the school has used to the children.
·           Making sure students understand copyright and plagiarism and to prevent it from happening.

More information on these steps is found here: Legal, Safe and Ethical Practices

In concluding with the legal, safe and ethical practices make sure that before the introduction of any ICT tools ensure that the correct measures are in place in order to protect both the learner and the teacher.

ICT Group Tools

ICT Tool of Group 1: Blogging

After experiencing all the ICT Tools of Group 1, I thought Blogging was the most beneficial within a classroom. Blogging is an open area to better voice your opinions without criticism of others due to the settings that can be in place. Teachers can allow students to be in a supportive environment whilst on the internet with constant monitoring of their activity. Blogging also provides another option in presenting information; paperback, typed or postings on Blogger. Teachers can also use this ICT Tool to allow students to write up experiments or questions for others to respond to. They could provide links to information that other students may appreciate as well. This site here has more information on the matter: Further information on Blogging and as you can tell this information is also been provided within a blog to show how they can be used.

ICT Tool of Group 2: Podcasting

Podcasting may just seem as though it is a recording of someone talking but it is a lot more than that. While experiencing and interpreting the best ICT Tool in Group 2, I found it to be Podcasting that can be best used in the classroom and out. When a student podcasts it allows them to experience the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, the main two are evaluation and synthesis along with creativity and innovation. As for teachers podcasting, it makes life a bit easy, it allows the teacher to give instructions to complete certain homework etc or a recording of a lesson to students who are away, sick or otherwise not able to attend class, enabling students to catch up on work and not to be behind for missing days of school.
For more information on Podcasting visit: More information on podcasting

Example of podcasting being used, done by myself: http://www.podomatic.com/profile?public=1 

ICT Tool of Group 3: Prezi

Prezi to me is the new and improved way of presenting information, PowerPoint is outdated and no longer engaging because you know what to expect. As for a Prezi though, there are millions of presentation ideas, it is being displayed on a campus which never runs out or you can present on a image on the canvas – as I said before the choices in presentation for students are endless which will keep them engaged. There are certain points in time where students need to listen to a considerate amount of information, could be about a class trip, a lesson or anything really, a lot more will be taken in by the student if the presentation was exciting and engaging which can be achieved through the help of making a Prezi presentation. Students are able to do the same for classroom talks for assignments, to display information for talks with parents to demonstrate what they have learnt, can be used as a member of the school committee to present ideas to the principal. This would be an ideal tool to present information with along with to learn when you’re first understanding ICT tools since it is also really easy to use.
If you want more information go to this website: More information about Prezi.
An example of a Prezi presentation:  Prezi Example


ICT Tool of Group 4: Google earth

After exploring and reflecting upon Google earth, I am thankful for researching this ICT tool further and more into detail. I feel as though when I am teaching, geography is definitely a weak point. Due to this fact I found that I am able to teach more effectively in geography when using Google earth. This ICT tool provides students with a real life context to understand the information in and I think that is where I had trouble relating what was being learnt and how it applies to a real life context. Teachers are able to manipulate Google earth to teach students about their everyday life; how to make a map from their school to their home for example or creating a tour of places and where to go as a school trip to the other extent of understanding and tracking earthquakes in real life context. Visit this website to view other ideas which Google earth could be used for as well: Other ideas for Google earth. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, the tools that I have chosen, I feel as though they will be able to engage students in creating a learning environment that supports everyone’s learning styles, diverse learners and most importantly learners of the 21^st century (Snowman et al., 2009, p. 122). This will allow teachers to focus more on the content and teach as opposed to the classroom management. The only viable way to teach students of the technological age is to first teach them with a common interest, which in this case is technology but with technology there is a need to include Legal, Safe and Ethical Practices. The teaching of students starts firstly and fore mostly with the learning manager, as the students needs change, the learning manager is to adapt.


References

 

CQUniversity Australia. (2012). FAHE11001—E-learning: week 1.Retreived from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=6619

Felder, R. (n.d.) Learning Styles.  Retrieved from http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Learning_Styles.html

Pransky, M. (2005). Engage me or Enrage me. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0553.pdf

Siemons, G. (2005). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Snowman, J., Dobozy, E. & Scevak, J. (2009). Psychology applied to teaching. (1st ed). Milton, Queensland, Australia: John Wiley & Sons Australia Limited.