Week 7 Digital Learning Design

The first part of the tasks for this week was to search Wikipedia for information about our area of study for one discipline, and to make a list of resources that could be used.

My major discipline area is in computers, aka, information communication technology (ICT), sometimes it is also incorporated into business information technology.

1. My searches of Wikipedia did not lead to any useful pages that students would be able to be directed to in order to support their learning. Nearly all the pages I was directed to have inexhaustible information on schools around the world that have ICT classes available. Other pages included descriptors of what the Internet is and what ICTs are, some of these pages could possibly be used for students to access information. However, the information in these pages would be found in textbooks the students have or from other sites shown to students to collect information.

Personally in the classroom I would endeavour to have the students access Wikipedia and the information available there in the context on the subject. Doing this exercise I would be looking at the students using Bloom's Taxonomy for the taking in of information on the subject they are to be learning about, then researching and analysing information they find in Wikipedia and other sites. Then the  information would have to be read and judged for relevance and ability to be understood; lastly the information selected by the students would be complied and presented to show their understanding of it; why some information was selected over others and their ability to get their peers to understand the information they collected in relation to the subject.

2. To make the information that students can access available to them in and out of school, I think the creation of a Wikispace would be best. Wikispaces as learnt about in other weeks would allow many types of media showing information on topics to the students. It also allows them to access the information at any time at school or at home and on different technologies such us desktops, laptops, smart phones or even Nintendo dsi and iPods. Using Wikispace to display topic information for the students with scaffolding (for individual or group tasks) also allows them to interact with the material; add or change content on the pages and lastly to leave comments on what is there.

3. Many of the pedagogies digital or otherwise can be implemented within ICT classes. Using Bloom's Taxonomy encourages the students to learn about a program/s and then to research it further, try new things out with the programs features and lastly to use higher order thinking to combine different programs and software capabilities to create a final product that can be used and viewed on multiply format devices. Habits of Mind can easily be used, for example: Striving to success, building confidence, team working skills, to encourage students to improve the abilities they already have in the area of technology. Many of the other pedagogies can be used such as; de Bono's thinking hats to look at what they know about a program/software and its application in a different way; or Dimensions of Learning to teach the students how to create a comfortable and safe learning environment for themselves and their peers when utilising technologies not just at school but outside of school also.