In order to be the best teacher I can be I feel it is important to constantly reflect on my ideas. In my post Educational… Gaming I had a negative view of using gaming as a way to increase student learning outcomes. However, after reading Why learning is child’s play by Jason Hill in The Age I have changed my perspective, although I am not completely convinced – yet!
Professor James Paul Gee (author of books such as What Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy) is urging “Australian academic to harness the possibillities of the medium”. In my previous post about gaming I had a narrow view of the benefits of using gaming in education - this is not surprising as according to the Professor “commercial games have only explored about 1 per cent of the possibilities, hav[ing] barely touched upon their potential for creativity and innovation”. Gee also suggests that students should make their own interactive games rather then just playing others, which although the benefits listed seem worthwhile I am not sure how to teach kids to build their own online games.
Overall, sounds good in theory but maybe not in practice.
The above video is the inspiration for one of Allanah King's latest project 'Where are you? which has in turn inspired me!! In her post King is seeking teachers from around the world to send a 20 second clip of their students to her so she can create a similar project, connecting people from around the world! I think this is a brilliant idea that can be used to unite students in a world wide project. Good on ya Allanah
In Matthew’s posting he poses the question – Where might new technologies take us in the future? Maybe to answer this, every school will become the ‘Microsoft’ school and podcasting, digital storytelling and voice threads will become the new paper and pen. I am excited to see what the future holds! In order to find out we must stay in touch with the trends as they evolve. One way to do this as Matthew suggests is to join educator polls such as 25 tools and also to become a part of the online community that exists in the form of the blogosphere.
The video above was shown in last weeks sociology lecture, discussing the effect of globalisation on education. Although I feel the school is doing good things for its students the question has to be asked - is it better to spend $65 million on one school or spread it out over more schools covering a wider student population? Personally, I believe in a fair go education system that sees all students receiving ample access to resources such as technology rather then one school receiving everything. Despite what it is doing for these students, I am concerned that the library has no books and the classrooms no pens and paper. I guess we will not know the benefits of a school like this until we see some hard core results of student improvement.
Building Software Beats Using It by Idit Harel describes what I believe to be one of the most important principles of constructionist learning. That is, the creation process and end product must be shared with an audience for the “full effects… to take root”. I can personally agree with this because during the creation of our digital stories I discovered this is where that sense of achievement and pride comes in. It is this creation and sharing that Papert calls a “public entity” that so powerfully reinforces constructionist learning.
In today’s society it is technology that is expanding the traditional toolbox (pencils, paper, crayons) that offers more opportunities for meaningful learning. Through the use of the “expanded toolbox” students are able to design, construct and interact with their ideas and share them with a wider audience - - ”the very skills… children will need in the 21st century”.
It is all well and good to advocate technologies use in the classroom. But why aren’t all teachers ‘embedding’ them into their teaching. Ofcourse, there is the issue of school funding but im talking about the digital immigrants who have been working in the schooling system for longer then I have been alive…
The term ‘digital immigrants’ according to Marc Prensky in his article Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom are those teachers who have learned about digital technology later in life and haven’t grown up in the digital age. These ‘digital immigrants’ retain their “predigital accents… thinking that virtual relationships… are somehow less real than face-to-face ones”.
It’s not the teachers fault because they are doing the best they can under the pressures they face by parents, society and their own lives. We all have our own working theories that are shaped by our experiences, and if they haven’t experienced it how can we expect them to embrace technology until their attitudes change.
However, I do believe the time for change is now because our students live in a fast paced constantly changing world. Luckily, us prospective teachers are coming through with the skills needed to teach these kids what they need to know’.
This afternoon as I was ‘surfing’ the net (something it seems I do far too much of) I thought of the use of technology in a whole new light thanks to Jeff Utecht in his blog, The Thinking Stick.
The mindmap summarises the main things that I have learnt during the past semester (its important to note that my knowledge about ICT in the classroom is constantly being developed). I have used the program Inspiration.
Although I found Inspiration to be very easy and useful to use, I think Kidspiration is much more child friendly. Kidspiration can be easily integrated across the curriculum, particulary in key learning areas Maths, English and Science. If you click on the highlighted word above you will see many illustrative and practical examples for use within classrooms.
The digital story I created in one of my previous postings discussed the value of Digital Stories. In todays e-learning class we had a movie day where we watched everyones finished products and voted on ‘best story’ and ‘best technical production’. This was a great opportunity to see just how important celebrating student achievement is in the learning process as not only were we the audience but also the creators. And I am happy to report that I won the Oscar for Best Story!
This experience also got me thinking how could I get 25 kids involved in digital storytelling effectively. The article Digital Stories in the Classroom was very useful and included an amazing digital story (Inside/Outside) about the effect cyclone Katrina had on race and culture through the eyes of New Orleanian Maddie Buras.
To pick out a few key points raised in the article:
A good digital story needs to start with a strong question and a powerful narrative. Before touching a computer students need to be given LOTS of time to create a script for their story. This is followed by the music, pictures and video which are to enhance the vocal rather than detract from it.
To engage and motivate the students, peer collaboration and review can be easily adopted. This is where students are to read their script to the class for feedback and advice. I think this could also be done in pairs or small groups to ensure the connectness in the classroom.
Overall, digital storytelling exposes the students to the views and personal history of their peers. To “extend it can pull the concepts from class text out of the books and into the seat next to them, making the issues discussed [such as cycle Katrina] undeniably real”.
Entries (RSS)
