It has been an exciting experience to participate in this course and learn about the different digital tools that educators are able to access. The amount of technology and digital tools that schools throughout Australia are now incorporating into their classrooms, and all the new technology yet to become available, makes studying to become a Learning Manager an exciting prospect. When thinking of what we are learning in this course and its' applications in the classroom, it is amazing to think of all the possibilities and opportunities that are becoming available to transform learning. I am now more eager than ever to get into the classrooms and share all this new information I have learnt with the students; and even more excited to see what; the students can accomplish with all the new digital tools; their enthusiasm to engage in their learning and explore what they can now accomplish.
In this new age of 21st Century (Appendix 1) learning it is important to remember that E-Learning is vital in classrooms as '... students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.' (Prensky, M. 2001) This is because as stated by Mark Prensky (2001) students of this era '... have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, video games, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age'. Therefore, as an up and coming educator, I believe, it is vitally important for all educators to learn as much as possible about technologies, digital tools and learning theories (Appendix 2) to help engage students, support their learning and give them different options to express themselves. The importance of teaching students how to use all the technology at their fingertips is something that educators need to think of also. There are many ethical, legal and safety issues that students need to be informed of and shown how to work within.
The Wiki tasks of mobile phone use in classrooms and the practise quiz (Appendix 3) were interesting to do and my first experience using Wikispaces. Both tasks were well set out and easy to contribute to allowing for a lot of information to be gathered in one place on a topic. The task mobile phone (Appendix 4) use in the classroom using the de Bono's hats was an excellent learning experience. De Bono's Six Thinking Hats encourages the person using them to attempt to discover as much information they can about a topic as possible, while thinking about the topic in different ways. This scaffolded learning experience allowed me to see how using a constructivism learning theory (Appendix 5) approach to teaching can support learning by; allowing social interactions within a learning community, thereby having the students learn from their peers. This resembles peer tutoring which is also a great resource.
By contributing to this task I was able to learn from my peers and find new ways of thinking about a topic, even when the same thinking hats were used. The different perspectives on the topic questions were easy to access and comment on. Having all of the students' thinking and understanding of the topic in one place will allow me to; go back to it in the future and still understand what it is I am looking at; find information I wish to revisit and explore further; and if wanted contribute more ideas.
Group one tools consisted of creating a blog (Appendix 6), Wikispace (Appendix 7 blog post) and Weebly page(Appendix 8) (Appendix 9 Weebly blog post). All of the tools have merit and opportunity for use within a classroom. However, from my experiences of using them for the past few weeks, I personally think that Wikispaces has the most to offer. Wikispaces has the options of; allowing for collaborative learning; scaffolding and learning theories/frameworks to be applied; different media to be added and is easy to use and has security option features.
Wikispaces is a fantastic tool that allows multiple participants for collaborative learning, for example; collecting information (text), images, videos and sound/voice recordings of an excursion and class research into a topic. Once all the information is gathered and placed on the site, the link can be sent to either another class; school (even across the world); expert in the field or parents and have further information, comments and content added. It would also be a great way to allow students present their assessments.
My Wikispace can be accessed here: http://amys-managing-e-learning.wikispaces.com/
Group two tools were images, videos, audio and a combination thereof (Appendix 10). The most important of these in my consideration is images (Appendix 11). This is because no matter what types of media are used images are, always the main component if not at least a minimum part of any visual media. Students from Prep to Year 12 use and associate many things in their learning journeys with images. In fact most of everyones' lives consist of image recognition and processing. Magazines, books, textbooks, lectures, newspapers, television, movies, iPods and many, many more digital devices or older types of communication involve the use of images, whether static or moving and with or without sound.
There are many places to use and store images online or on a device and many things that can be done to them (Appendix 12 image manipulation blog post).
However, it is vitally important to research and understand the many rules in using them. Some of which involve; copyright, privacy, security, ethical issues and the permission needed to take and show some images (especially in schools concerning not just the students but any of their work also).
Group three tools consisted of presentation medias such as PowerPoint, Prezi and Glogster(Appendix 13). All of these have great uses in a classroom. The three mentioned are all presentation based. My favourite of the tools in this group is PowerPoint. This is because I am most familiar with it, having used and watched it the most. It is a tool that most people have had exposure to and know how to use.
Though Prezi, with its' zoom in and out feature is an interesting way to put across ideas, I consider it a tool more suited to student presentations then for use in lessons. Glogster is a great tool to use for students to compile information for presentation of their learning. It is essentially a poster - which all students have a fascination with creating - but allows for multiple media formats to be embedded into it. This creates a more interactive and visual aid for students to use to present their learning and saves all the mess of glue and glitter the enemy of teachers everywhere.
PowerPoint also has add-ons such as Mischief Mouse, which allows for multiple student interaction within the slides of the presentation. The educator can construct a lesson with PowerPoint and engage students by having them use a mouse - all students at once- to select answers to questions or, complete tasks on screen by, for example moving objects. What is possible with PowerPoint is limitless; it can be used as a tutorial feature for students who need extra help; as a whole lesson with use of add-ons if wanted; as a student presentation tool for tasks and a number of other things limited only by the imagination of the user. PowerPoint also supports the inclusion of different medias into the slides such as images, videos, text and music to name but a few.
Group four tools consisted of online medias such as Google Earth, bubbl.us and Zooburst. Though all these tools provide great support to lessons and tasks for students I have chosen to focus on an ICT tool, the iPod Touch (Appendix 14).
The iPod touch has been a great resource allowing for learning on the go and raising my engagement in my learning to a new level. I have been able to do everything I do on my laptop on the iPod touch, which has been a new experience and, one that has made me realise how valuable a resource they could be and in some cases already are in schools.
IPods are a less expensive cost for schools to acquire than new computers for all students. They have the option of students taking their learning outside and exploring their environments for answers instead of being stuck in a classroom. Since they are so portable learning can be documented and supported not just in school but on excursions and camps. There are so many applications that can be downloaded to the iPods to support and build learning for students and to provide limitless options for students to express themselves and their learning for tasks.
In conclusion I have come to the understanding that the use of any of the tools looked at and the many more out there and more yet to be invented is only limited by the imagination of the user. It is important as an educator not only to use and teach these technologies but, to allow the students to express themselves; their ideas, thoughts, knowledge and learning in ways they want to, when utilising these technologies. We as educators are not limited by how we could use them to support learning; so too should students not be restrained in their use of them to express themselves. I have discovered just how important knowledge of the digital age and all its tools are to the new generations of students that we will be required to educate. This is because we are educating them for a future that, none are sure of, nor the extent of technology they will be a part of to keep the world turning. As long as we are teaching about all the technologies out there it is also of vital importance that we teach them how to safely, ethically and legally use all this technology at their finger tips.
Everything that I have so far learned and attempted to express about digital tools and their use, has been stated by the Queensland Education Department (2008) with the explanation of, E - Learning:
'...is about engaging the digital generation, improving individualised learning opportunities, sparking innovation in learning, enhancing teachers’ digital pedagogy and getting the best from schools’ ICT investment. It is a transformative strategy to transition from traditional ways of working to a digital way of working that is meaningful, engaging and connected. The challenge lies in shifting from teaching and learning about ICT to teaching and learning with and through ICT. This means rather than using technology to do old things in new ways, we want to do new things in new ways and use technology to enable and transform teaching, learning and the curriculum. Digital Pedagogy is defined as the convergence of technical skills, pedagogical practices and understanding of curriculum design appropriate for digital learners. Digital Pedagogy used effectively supports, enhances, enables and transforms teaching and learning to provide rich, diverse and flexible learning opportunities for a digital generation. It provides the basis for engaging students in actively constructing and applying rich learning in purposeful and meaningful ways. Digital Pedagogy enhances opportunities for authentic, contextualised assessment that supports learning in a digital context.'All that is now left for us, besides continually exploring ICT and digital tools for future use is, as mentioned in the quote above from Education Queensland; to start the journey of learning how to plan for the effective use of the technologies in our classrooms to benefit the learning of the students we will teach.
Reference List
Education Queensland (2008) Smart Classrooms Bytes. Retrieved from:
http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/pdf/scbyte-elearning.pdf
Prensky, M. (2001) On the Horizon. MCB University Press. Vol. 9 No. 5. Retrieved from:
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/prensky%20-%20digital%20natives,%20digital%20immigrants%20-%20part1.pdf
