“Many schools are now experimenting with new approaches to teaching and learning. They are doing so because they consider it a valuable way to encourage the development in young people of higher order thinking skills such as synthesising, analysing and evaluating, problem solving abilities, working in groups and other lifelong learning skills. They also recognise the relevance of these skills for life in the information economy.”
Lloyd M.M (2005)
ICTs can be challenging, they can be confusing and they can be fun. The optimal ICTs to use in the classroom are ones that the students will enjoy and will also learn from. With this premise I undertook the activities and experimented with the technologies in each group. All the ICTs that I explored had the potential to be used in the classroom to assist with students learning. They varied from simple, already set up ICTs such as Google Earth, to complicated ICTs that require creativity from the teacher, such as, Powerpoint and Zooming Presentations such as Prezi. The current world is increasingly technology based so to bring ICTs into the classroom is a fantastic way to connect what the students are learning to the real world; making learning relevant increases the interest of students as well the amount retained. ICTs such as digital images, digital videos and powerpoints made by the students encourage creativity in the classroom and ownership of the learning. ICTs can be used:
· As a fun and interesting way to introduce a topic for example exploring a website.
· As a group activity such as collaborating using a wiki or creating a timeline.
· As a way of discovering students’ previous knowledge for example assessing understanding of podcasts.
· As a form assessment for example, creating digital storybooks to illustrate understanding of a topic.
From the first group of ICTs I chose blogs because I deemed its usage as highly supportive of learning. Digital images were my selection from the second group because of its ability to transform a student’s learning. I enjoyed constructing an interactive scrapbook page using Glogster for the third group; it seemed to have potential to enhance the students’ learning. Finally I chose animations and simulations purely because it included both fun and learning, it seemed to have the ability to facilitate learning for different learning styles.
Throughout the ICTs course, and the Graduate Diploma of Learning and Teaching program in general, we have learnt that the ultimate goal for teachers is to facilitate higher order thinking. Higher order thinking stems from Bloom’s revised taxonomy. Bloom’s revised taxonomy is a hierarchy of order of thinking. Higher order thinking incorporates creating, evaluating and analysing. Hopson M. H., Simms R. L. & Knezek G. A. (2002) argue that the aim for teaching students is to prepare them for life as a productive member of society. Technology is a development in the world that has made certain skills, identified by Bloom as high order thinking, essential for success as an adult. Therefore, learning experiences that provide opportunities for higher order thinking need to be recurrent and standard. The students, in order to succeed, do not need only to access information but to transform it into usable and relevant information. (Hopson M. H., Simms R. L. & Knezek G. A., 2002) Throughout this reflective analysis I will explain how the ICTs I selected meet the criteria for higher order thinking.
BLOGS SUPPORT LEARNING
“Weblogs, or blogs, are Web pages often likened to online personal journals.” Ferdig R. E., Trammell K. D. (2004) Using blogs provides students with opportunities to consider and communicate their opinions and grasp of the information. Blogs create an environment where students feel they have ownership over their learning, which engages higher order thinking because it encourages them to analyse and evaluate information and their comprehension of the information, which would lead to the student making connections between what they are learning and its relevancy to the real world. I have found with using my blog that verbalizing my learning, both positive and negative experience has helped me understand not only the content more thoroughly but also understand more about my own learning journey. One example of how blogs could support learning in the classroom is through the students creating a blog of their reflections of class activities, this would be a form of assessment of their literacy skills as well as provide the teacher with an insight into students reflections of their lessons.
DIGITAL IMAGES TRANSFORM LEARNING
In everyday life children connect with digital imagery in many different ways for example, television, video games and surfing the Internet. There are a wide range of digital images available to teachers and students from clip-art, premade digital images, to programs which facilitate the students creativity in generating an image of their own and also through using a digital camera to take photos and using programs such as Picnik to modify the image. (Schiller J & Tillett B, 2004). Digital images and modifying them through Picnik I found to be enjoyable and used my creative skills to produce something that is uniquely mine. In the classroom learning can be transformed through extending from writing sequential steps in cooking lessons to taking digital photos of the steps of the recipe as well as the final product.
INTERACTIVE SCRAPBOOKS ENHANCE LEARNING
Glogster, the interactive scrapbooking online program for which I experimented with for the purposes of evaluation within this reflective paper, is an online interactive poster. Previously in poster design students were limited to text and images, with online scrapbooks students’ options are broader including videos, images, animations, music, sound and text can be included on a poster. (Gandy K. S. & Stobaugh R, 2011) I found Glogster simple to use and it encouraged me to use creativity. This could be used to enhance any school report. I also think that this is not only a great way for children to self-direct their learning but also a different and interesting way for teachers to facilitate learning, for example, instead of a worksheet being handed out, students are required to locate and interact with a Glog that the teacher had previously designed.
ANIMATIONS AND SIMULATIONS FACILITATE LEARNING
Simulations and educational animations are an online or digital attempt at recreating a real life scenario, for example, using Edheads the website I found myself experimenting with provides students with an opportunity to take part in a knee replacement, albeit a very simple reflection of the real life experience. It is self-directed learning because decision-making and problem solving are the responsibility of the learner. (Gibson D, Aldrich C, Prensky M, 2007) I believe this activity would be best used as a class group collaborative exercise encouraging students to interact with each other, debating options and making informed decisions.
Another aspect of ICTs that are addressed in this reflective paper are the legal, ethical and safety considerations for using these technologies in an educational environment. ICTs that are accessed or uploaded online such as wikis, websites, and blogs, increase risk to the students. These implications need to be considered when facilitating the use of ICTs during the lesson and outside the classroom - with reference to addressing personal use and when using these technologies for homework or assessable assignments. Schools will have their own regulations and systems in place for ICT use but students privacy, appropriate behaviour and, respect for others and equipment will all need to be communicated to the student before engaging with ICTs.
References
Ferdig R. E., Trammell K. D. (2004) Content Delivery in the ‘Blogosphere’. Technical Horizons in Education Journal, Retrieved from http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5006872677
Gandy K. S., Stobaugh R. (2011) Avatars, Blabberize, and Cell Phones: ABC'S of the Digital Age. School of Teacher Education Faculty Publications & Presentations. Paper 2. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/tchr_ed_fac_pres/2
Gibson D, Aldrich C, Prensky M, (2007) Games and Simulations in Online Learning, London UK: Idea Group Inc.
Hopson M. H., Simms R. L. & Knezek G. A. (2002) Using a Technology-Enriched Environment to Improve Higher-Order Thinking Skills. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 34(2), 109-119. Retrieved from http://eec.edc.org/cwis_docs/Vivians/Hopson_et_al.pdf
Lloyd M. M. (2005). Towards a definition of the integration of ICT in the classroom. Paper presented at the AARE '05 Education Research - Creative Dissent: Constructive Solutions.
Retrieved from http://eprints.qut.edu.au/3553/
Schiller J & Tillett B, 2004, Using digital images with young children: challenges of integration. Early Child Development and Care, 174(4), 401-414. Retrieved from http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a713640984
