ICT Reflective Synopsis
"It is the world as they know it."
Technology is improving and evolving at an increasing rate. As it does, there is a generation of students, dubbed the "digital natives" (Prensky, 2001) that will grow up immersed in that technology from the beginning of their development. It makes sense that educators should use this technology to engage and capture the minds of these students, since neglecting to do so would possibly cause the students to just "go through the motions", or "tune out" (Prensky, 2005).
Teachers need to be consciously and actively integrating new technology with their knowledge base and pedagogy, rather than just relying on the level of technology to which they are accustomed. The challenge is to incorporate ICT to work in conjunction with pedagogy and content knowledge so that the three complement and balance each other. Mishra and Koehler (2006) explain this in detail, using the term TPCK.
The integration of technology is a constant process, because of the rapid rate of it's development. In the same paper, Mishra and Koehler (2006) put it aptly (p.1023):
"Teachers will have to do more than simply learn to use currently available tools; they also will have to learn new techniques and skills as current technologies become obsolete. This is a very different context from earlier conceptualizations of teacher knowledge, in which technologies were standardized and relatively stable."Students take an active role when using ICT. They are no longer merely recipients of information that is disseminated to them, but they are actively making choices about how to generate, obtain, manipulate and display information. Teachers should be encouraging this higher-order thinking as much as they can, because when students graduate and enter the workplace, the majority of jobs on offer require computer literacy.
ICTs also allow students with diverse learning styles to engage with the material, which means greater overall retention for the class.
Throughout this blog, I've examined different groups of ICT tools, and looked at how they could be used in the classroom.
Group 1 Digital Tools
The online tools are what form the core of the internet - websites, blogs and wikis. These tools can be used in a variety of learning situations in the classroom. They allow activities to be scaffolded, and they can engage a wide range of learning styles. To varying degrees, they allow collaboration and participation, and all serve a different purpose in the classroom.Participation in the Mobile Phone wiki is a practical example of how a tool such as a wiki could be used in the classroom, and also how different learning theories were brought into play during the exercise. Through collaboration and a meeting of minds in wikispace, the topic of mobile phones in the classroom was examined. Structure was put in place through use of the De Bono Thinking Hats and PMI, and the exercise provided a degree of perspective on the experience through a student's eyes.
Group 2 Digital Tools
Audio and visual tools - still images, audio and video - are commonly used in the classroom to record events and occasions of note. They can be used as educational tools when placed in the students' hands, to enrich their learning.There is enormous potential in images, and this can be harnessed for use in the classroom. Educating the students in the use of photo editing software will help them to harness the power of images and to think critically about the quality of the images before using them online.
Although video is extremely popular, audio recordings still have their place in the ICT toolbox. One application would be to use audio as stimulus for visual art. The teacher could record ambient sounds at different locations, like a seaside, or a busy street, or a rainforest. The sounds would then be played to the class for ten minutes, who would then be instructed to draw pictures of what they heard. After the ten minutes expired, they could move to another sound.
Video recording is likely to be the ICT tool that most people would think of first. YouTube has provided a convenient and popular online platform for publishing videos, which in itself is a vast library of teaching resources.
Cool science experiments:
to time lapse of plants growing:
or how to draw graffiti lettering for an art project:
Group 3 Digital Tools
It's essential for all students to become familiar with presentation tools, whether these tools are online or offline. The most common of these is PowerPoint, which is an industry standard and is used across the board in businesses, schools, and universities for presentations and training. Most people are familiar with PowerPoint and how it works, but there are online tutorials available for people who want to teach themselves.Prezi and Glogster are refreshing variations on a theme, and a nice twist to the original idea. It's key point of difference is the way that it is able to zoom in and out of larger and smaller pieces of information, or to different parts of a larger chart. This allows these bits of information to be presented without the audience being distracted by irrelevant information.
Students could use any of these platforms to present research projects (Anzac Day, for example), to show an "about me" presentation, or show the class any interest area or hobby as a "show and tell" segment. They are allowed autonomy in how they present the information, and their creativity is exercised as they plan the layout.
Group 4 Digital Tools
The fourth group of tools include animations and simulations.I chose to focus on ZooBurst out of the range of tools that were presented in the material.
ZooBurst allows a student to create an animated, pop-up storybook. The author can select the images that best illustrate the story, in the foreground and background. They then enter text for each page, as well as any lines that the characters say. The reader can click on each character and watch them say their lines. This is a great way to enhance story writing in lower grades, as the students are getting experience with text entry, as well as thinking about planning their story to turn it into a ZooBurst book. Students love being able to read these books as well. My daughter Lily had a go at reading my ZooBurst, and she loved being able to click on the characters to read what they said.
Cargo Bridge is a cool way to enhance a maths lesson, and has real-world applications. A good teacher would devise a series of questions that would guide the learner to reflect on the game and how they worked within it. I would use this game to get students to think about strong and weak shapes, and also the impact of the game's budget on their decisions. The students would also be able to learn about the importance of supporting structures in their design. A leaderboard or blog could be constructed to show the best bridges built with the most money left in the bank. Students could be required to justify their decisions on the shape and structure of the bridge. Some designs could be taken from a screenshot and constructed using real-world materials to further demonstrate load-bearing capacity.
Closing Thoughts
The range of ICTs available to the primary teacher is quite broad. If one particular software package is difficult to use or a bit tired and boring, there is usually another one available that will do the job a different way, but achieve the same learning outcomes.There are some significant challenges to take on in order to achieve the goal of ICT as an integrated learning tool, and seeing TPACK become commonplace and accepted.
The first is the technological generation gap between the student and teacher. Most teachers in the system today do not have the same experiences of technology as their students. They aren't immersed in it, rather, they have been introduced to it. Prensky (2001) dubs them "digital immigrants". Even teachers fresh out of university will not be immersed in modern technology the same way that their students will be. But if the "immigrants" can come to terms with the technology, it opens up a wide range of opportunities to engage students with varied and diverse learning styles.
Another challenge is one of online safety. As the world moves and operates more and more online, students will be exposed to the online community on a regular basis. For any online activity, it is essential that students are taught about cyber-safety, cyber-bullying and proper online etiquette as a part of using technology and the internet. Since many online activities require an account to be set up, students need to be aware of how to construct a good password and protect it. Teachers are responsible for ensuring that their students are aware of these issues and how to deal with them properly. It would be wise to seek permission from parents before posting photos and students' work online. Teachers should set ground rules and schools should have internet filters in place. Teachers should also be aware of students using proxy servers in order to try and bypass the web filters. Students often don't need to know how the technology works, just that it does work and it's there to use.
If these challenges can be addressed sufficiently, the classroom will be transformed. A wise teacher will seek use the students' interests to engage the students, rather than trying to make the students learn the way the teacher feels most comfortable with. Rather than shouting at them and trying to make them understand your immigrant's language...
...it may well be easier and more effective for us as teachers to learn the language and culture of the digital natives, and teach them with the tools that they understand best.
References:
Fasso, W. (2013). A brief overview of learning theory. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491: ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=115326Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge. Teachers College Record, 1017-1054.
Ms. Parry's Guide to Correct Online Etiquette (Netiquette). (n.d). Retrieved from the STOP Cyberbullying site: http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/kids/msparrysguidetonetiquette.html
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon, 1-6.
Prensky, M. (2005). Engage Me or Enrage Me - What Today's Learners Demand. Educase Review, 60-62.
Protecting Children From Pornography and Sexual Predators on the Internet. (n.d.). Retrieved from The NetSafe Kids Site: http://www.nap.edu/netsafekids/
Proxy Server article. (n.d.) Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server
What is Cyberbullying, Exactly? (n.d). Retrieved from the STOP Cyberbullying website: http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/what_is_cyberbullying_exactly.html
Appendix 1: Blog Posts
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