Yes, here we are, at the final frontier – not quite space as
Captain Kirk says, but rather the finale of these blog posts, the crescendo,
the final bang.
Consequently, this reflection will consist of responses to
the uses of technology explored over the last seven weeks, the legal, safety
and ethical behaviour that is imperative when using any form of technology in
the classroom of the 21st century. This considerations are important
in the base learning theories and foundations of the use of digital pedagogies
in the classroom – as e-learning is the way of the future for the classroom and
transformative learning.
The Technology:
The types of pedagogical technology that is available to
teachers is intense, with each piece of technology having their own pro’s and
con’s as to how it can assist in teaching in the classroom as well as engaging
students. These weekly blogs (check here for all the previous ones) have forced
me to consider a plethora of digital pedagogical tools that I had not seen
before. And thus, I was able to learn how to implement them into a classroom
setting to support and transform my teaching and learning style as well as
learning how to use it to engage learners effectively.
The most effective tools that I found within this course
helped to effectively support learning for the students as well as engage, I
mean it has to be engaging for students to even consider paying attention in
the 21st century classroom.
The most effective digital pedagogical integrations for each
category are as follows:
·
Digital Tools – WikiSpaces
·
Digital Platforms – Video
·
Digital Presentations – PowerPoint
·
Digital Learning Objects/Support Tools – Text2MindMap
Throughout the reflective tasks, we were forced to consider
and reflect upon how to apply these digital pedagogies to extraordinarily
different but equally important learning frameworks such as the SAMR Model, de
Bono’s Thinking Hats and Bloom’s Taxonomy.
From the beginning of the course I struggled to grasp the concept and ideas of the SAMR Model and Bloom’s thinking hats as they were concepts I had never come across in my first year of study within education. However, through collaboration with my peers on both the blogs and throughout internal classes – I was eventually (after about the third week) able to fully understand how to analyse my student-centred digital pedagogies to ensure that my lessons were fully engaging with students – as well as ensuring they could evolve and transform.
From the beginning of the course I struggled to grasp the concept and ideas of the SAMR Model and Bloom’s thinking hats as they were concepts I had never come across in my first year of study within education. However, through collaboration with my peers on both the blogs and throughout internal classes – I was eventually (after about the third week) able to fully understand how to analyse my student-centred digital pedagogies to ensure that my lessons were fully engaging with students – as well as ensuring they could evolve and transform.
I have to admit, from the very beginning of this course, I
considered technology to be an extension upon the learning, a presentation tool
a support even. Now however, I realise now that technology plays an incredible
role in the classroom as a transformative learning tool – thus allowing
education in this century to expand into amazing realms and opportunities.
The Business End:
As it has become blatantly clear throughout this course, integrating
technology into the classroom comes with a cost. And the cost in this
particular circumstance is that teachers and students have to demonstrate a
safe, legal and ethical approach when utilising and engaging with digital
tools. In Queensland there are multiple documents, videos and plans which
outline the legal obligation that schools, teachers and students have to adhere
to concerning the safety of students. (See here for the link to the Government
website.) There are also obligations, which have their own documents and
videos, concerning copyright, plagiarism and referencing.
To ensure that my future students are cyber safe and cyber
smart in my areas of English and History, I endeavour to:
·
Guide students through referencing guides as per
the school guidelines to ensure students were aware of how to reference and
what needs to be referenced
·
Aid students in gathering understanding that
what occurs online is permanent – whether this be on Facebook, Twitter or
Snapchat is permanent and it can earn you a reputation that you don’t want (See
example from a teacher who shared an image through Snapchat)
·
Model the correct and legally obliged safe and
ethical use of ICT
·
Inform students of applications such as Turnitin
which analyse for plagiarism and similarities, and advise them to use it when
they submit assessments
·
Ensure that students are fully aware that if
they do not create the idea, they must reference it – and if they don’t there
will be consequences
·
Aid students in understanding privacy on the
internet and how to ensure they can be safe online
·
Use the website CyberSmart, or ones similar for
resources when required (Fasso, 2015)
By ensuring students that are aware of the legal, safe and
ethical notions that are required to interact and utilise technology and its
resources, a teacher, ie: myself and my peers, is able to safely prepare them
for the digital world which is becoming the future.
Sourced from:
Final Thoughts:
After having been immersed fully in technological pedagogies
for the past 8 weeks, I now, thankfully, feel relatively confident in my
ability to utilise the pedagogies to enhance student learning.
Throughout the 7 weeks’ worth of blog posts, we were forced
to expand our knowledge and experience with something new each week. De Bono’s
Hats (De Bono’s Thinking Hats), presented a rehashed, systematic methodology to
consider information in a brand new light (de Bono Thinking Systems, 2013). Wikispaces
allowed us, to gently toe into the world of presentation of educational
sources. The SAMR model, one which we have used for the last 4 weeks, opened my
eyes in particular about how technological pedagogies can be placed on certain
levels of the model and how we can improve it – which in turn improved my
ability to think critically. (TED Ed, 2014) Each week was a new pedagogy and as
such, we had to analyse it to the best of our abilities.
Bloom’s Taxonomy on the other hand was utilised as a way to
classify the forms and levels or learning, which in turn provided an
opportunity to apply and develop digital curation. (Athertib, 2015) I firmly
believe that the learning outcomes produced by the cognitive domain the Taxonomy
are important as it structures how students and sometimes teachers can progress
through each category and grow their knowledge and skill.
The weekly readings also reflected many of the beliefs I
already had about technology but also opening my eyes to new ways to implement
technology into the classroom as well as the various opinions upon its use.
Thus, the opportunities for learning in the classroom utilising
ICT in the classroom ridiculously outweighs the risks and possible downfalls –
no longer are digital pedagogies just a support tool, they are becoming the
future of learning. They are transforming the way we are approaching education
and should be treated like the magnificent pedagogy that they can be.
Sourced from: http://www.reddit.com/r/ImageStabilization/comments/309l5v/looking_for_help_stabilizing_the_words_in_this/
References:
Athertib, J. (2015, May 8). Bloom's Taxonomy. Retrieved from Learning and Teaching: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/bloomtax.htm
de Bono Thinking Systems. (2013). Six Thinking Hats. Retrieved from de Bono Thinking Systems: http://www.debonothinkingsystems.com/
Fasso, W. (2015, April 2). Media - The Focus this Week. Retrieved from Moodle: https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=16631
TED Ed. (2014). SAMR Model. Retrieved from Technology is Learning: https://sites.google.com/a/msad60.org/technology-is-learning/samr-model
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