Week 3 - Assessment Relfection 2 (Weebly Websites)

A website, when created and utilised correctly, can become an important, engaging and strategic tool and pedagogy to assist with scaffolding and teaching of lessons. My focus areas are English and History and even though I have only briefly begun to explore its full potential, I believe that websites such as those developed on Weebly would be of great advantage to my future students during all lessons.

Weebly websites are very well created and open a multitude of opportunities to integrate digital pedagogies into the modern classroom – without too much of a worry about students not participating or possible ‘re-edits’ not suitable for the classroom. Weebly websites have one author and one author alone, the person who created the page and has a log in. This ensures that there is security for the website as no-one else is able to access it and it all cuts off any edits that students may wish to make for their own enjoyment. There is an option however for a forum to be placed on the website, this would allow for students to comment on questions or discussions but not open the door to cause mischief. Whilst I was exploring the site, I was extremely pleased to find the site easy to use for creating a website of your choice. The interface is extremely user friendly and with a few pointers, I was able to create new pages, embed videos and photos and create text boxes and polls – which shows that there is little to no experience necessary, all you need is basic computing skills.

These websites would be able to cater to a multitude of learning outcomes as the possibilities for its use are endless. Students would be able to consistently engage with online activities and texts which would allow learning outcomes to be reached frequently as it would take away the ‘boring book and worksheet’ element and allow students to complete activities with their own technological flair. However saying this, if a student/s wished to complete the activity or readings on paper – I would have no quarrel because sometimes a paper copy is better than an electronic one.

Technology, more specifically this website would be incredibly useful in integrating the SAMR model into the classroom and allowing it to prosper as a more permanent tool. Substitution would occur through the use of the website to make notes and comments, in an active forum, about the current text/s being studied in the classroom – perhaps even just placing in their ideas from that day’s lesson. Augmentation would occur in the way of embedding either a video clip or a downloadable file of the text/s being studied – allowing for easier access and use. Modification would occur in the way of the use of polls or questionnaires, these allow for a class debate or quiz to occur at any moment in time, it would also allow the responses to anonymous, making it easier for some students. And finally redefinition, the full use of the site to its entire capacity. This site would allow students to connect with the lesson at all points of the day and with tools mentioned before (polls, forums, embedded videos, etcetera) which allows for a more modern approach to my particular subject areas – even in particular Shakespeare.

This link here, will take you to my practice website for this exercise, which focuses upon Shakespeare and demonstrates some of the basic tools that are and can be installed onto a website page to enhance student’s learning and to further integrate digital pedagogies in the classroom.

Week 2 - Assessment Reflection 1 (De Bono's Hats)

Once again, the never-ending debate is raised once again, should mobile phones be allowed and integrated into the classroom as part of digital pedagogy? Can they actually help student’s learning and education? Should the strict rules that once ruled supreme be scratched to make way for the new age of digital pedagogies? These are all extremely important questions raised by the recent activity upon De Bono’s hats with the core idea of mobile phones in classrooms.
Personally, I believe that mobile phones should be utilised in the classroom as a digital pedagogy but not to the extent that many people believe. It should be used only when necessary and for education purposes only. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you see it, society is changing constantly, pushing more emphasis onto using technology in the classroom. And whilst I may not 100% approve with the move, it is clear to me that education as a whole needs to prepare to integrate mobile phones into the classroom, whether they are ready or not.

By using the wiki activity I found that I was able to organise my thoughts and present them in an easy to read and organised document. The questions, under the headings of the hats, prompted for both higher and lower order thinking about the topic of mobile phones. The fact that I could also read other student’s take on the issue, prompted me to take more time with my answers and tweak them to state exactly what I thought.

The wiki, whilst also prompting me to use higher order thinking more frequently, pushed me, and as I noticed many others, to cycle through the Blooms Tax model instead of just stating the obvious with some information that we had located or already had floating around. I even noticed also that whilst I was engaging with the questions towards the end of the activity, I had begun to consider different ways to integrate mobile phones into my own classrooms – aligning with another extremely helpful model, the SAMR model.

The wiki, whilst currently being used as part of my studies for this class, prompted me to also begin considering uses for it in my own classroom. The wiki is wonderfully structured and with its constant availability to update and tweak pages when required, demonstrated how effective this type of technology could be. And after some investigation, I found that there were many sites just like this one that were also available as an application on phones. This wiki however demonstrated to be the most ‘people’ friendly, bar the editing process when multiple people where editing at the same time. (There was a point where I lost some of my work – something which prompted the idea of each student having their own page to edit and add ideas to each week.) 

In conclusion, this activity has allowed me to broaden my mind on the idea of mobile phones in the classroom by using the hats themselves and allowing access to read other student’s responses. This wiki and activity in turn have demonstrated how friendly and beneficial technology can be when used correctly. It also allowed me to reflect upon how I would use technology in the classroom, whether it be mobile phones or wiki pages.

Week 1 Post - Generation Z, Modern Classrooms and Creativity in Schools

Generation Z Slideshow:

The Generation Z slideshow, whilst short and compelling, reasserted my conceptions about the students that I will eventually teach. Having already interacted with Generation Z students in my first professional practice, the statistics about how often students used technology as well as the fact that they would use social media as resources for homework and assessment, did not surprise me very much.
However, I was intrigued by the notion that e-learning or digital pedagogies should be integrated into the classroom at a 100% rate.
This slideshow, overall, solidified my preconceptions about the reliance Generation Z students have on technology but it opened my eyes to the limitless opportunities I have to implement technology into the classroom, allowing the students to obtain their highest learning potential.

Big Thinkers Video:

This, of the three presentations, was the one that spoke the clearest to me, with the most predominate ideas being ensuring the classroom is constantly engaging but not overpowering, making sure the classroom is a safe, calm environment and teaching students tools to use in the real world IE: Analytical problem solving.
All of these ideas are directly what I wish to use as my form of pedagogies in the classroom and how/what I wish for my students to learn.
These ideas in particular are what I believe to be extremely important in keeping the focus of Generation Z. I believe the best way to get students to learn is through ensuring they have a emotionally and physically safe environment, creating a real world attachment to the work and constantly engaging students through means such as colour coding information and creating surprises in the classroom.
I believe that if I can successfully encompass these main ideas and some of the others mentioned by Willis into my classroom and pedagogies - whilst placing the most emphasis on having a safe environment, I can create the best opportunities for students to learn in this technology heavy world.

Ted - Creativity and the 21st Century

Whilst not the presentation I felt to be the most influential, Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk raises some very valid points which rotate specifically relating towards how the academic hierarchy has not changed even with the increase of technology and the fact that society has been for too long educated out of creativity.
The academic hierarchy as it is now and as it has been for a long time in every education system, has placed Maths and Languages at the top and those with Arts or creativity at the bottom.
For a long time, students who were interested or invested in these subjects were often told that their interests or skills would not amount to any sort of job and career for the future.

E-learning however is beginning to change this, by allowing students access to technology on a constant basis and ensuring it stays relevant in society, due to the fact that this technology is allowing students to look to jobs in which they can spread their wings and make the most of their creativity.