In a modern technological world, where technology
underpins most aspects of daily living, it is essential that students exiting
the formal educational setting, are equipped with skills of digital literacy.
This digital competency will be effectively used to achieve goals in
educational, work and leisure settings and will promote inclusion and participation
in society (European Commission, as cited in 2.2 Defining Digital Literacy, p5).
Teachers have a great responsibility in preparing students
to be civic minded and responsible citizens for their communities. Therefore
while it is important to have digital competency, it is just as important to
have knowledge and understanding of subject matters to participate in society.
Effectively combining knowledge and understanding with digital competency is an
essential part of the learning process.
During the last few weeks of learning and using
digital pedagogies, I have often felt challenged and underequipped. However, in
contrast, I also recognise now that I have a new ‘tool kit’ that provides the
creative teaching tools I need to engage learners. Moreover this set of tools
and variety of teaching resources, will fit both myself and my students with
knowledge and skills that can be used far beyond the formal educational arena.
There are several key themes that I have identified in weekly reflections that
will now be discussed.
Learning and knowledge can be promoted through
scaffolding techniques such as the use of the bloom’s tonometry and SAMR models
where teachers model and scaffold student learning and knowledge so that they
can achieve a higher order of thinking. This can be achieved by using a variety
of technologies and providing step by step instructions on the low levels of
the SAMR to develop student’s new skills and greater understanding of subject
matter. For instance, in week 5, I suggested that for History class, the
teacher could initially model converting a word document to a PowerPoint
presentation. With various websites to access information on the topic, each
website and piece of information scaffolds previous learning. Collaborating
with fellow students, to complete and presentation the final task further
scaffolds learning. To make learning more engaging student s could also
interview with the Quick voice app and use images to produce a movie
Moviemaker. The strategy promotes a level of skills needed for students to
develop a better understanding of the technology that they can use to produce a
higher quality task.
Different technologies allow students to be more
creative in their own individual way. Using a variety of technologies is
effective in engaging students and promoting participation, because it
addresses the learning diversity in each classroom.
Technology allows students to take responsibility for
their own learning. Students can choose to use information from ‘their’ own
choice of locations (within reason), have the ability to adapt their work to
personal choice with the use of their chosen technologies. While “students need
to know and practice responsibility for their academic learning”, it is the
role of the teacher to facilitate student acknowledgment of this obligation
(Purje, 2014. p16).
Access to a variety of technology resources promotes
an enhanced understanding of curriculum content. Exposure to a variety of
perspectives, explanations and views from other student’s online, websites,
YouTube etc. promotes a global holistic understanding of topics. Lessons contain
desired curriculum content but employ a variety of different ways to learn.
As for my own personal experience, I found that while
I learnt skills from using the many technology resources, I learnt so much more
from sharing with fellow students, which could be integrated into class
learning and teaching. I definitely benefited from others knowledge,
suggestions, explanations and views, as would students from fellow students and
their exposure to online or technical content.
When starting this course, I thought that I had a good
knowledge of what would be required in the way of digital learning, but I soon
discovered that there was a lot more involved and a lot I didn’t know or had
experience with. I have found that although I am not comfortable with
wikispaces, I can see how this may benefit my students with feedback from
others.
With the majority of student having access to ICT,
24hours/7 days a week, it makes sense that this should be utilised as much as
possible in the classroom. However, I acknowledge that for students to have
access to safe, ethical and legal use of technology, clear instruction should
be given with class rules, induction, and tuition. To protect each user’s
privacy and safety, a school password control system should be in place for all
accounts (National Copyright Unit, 2015). It is vital that no images of
students or staff should be publicly made available without prior permission of
subjects.
Photocopying or scanning should be limited to 10 % of
the total content and YouTube videos cannot be download (National Copyright
Unit, 2015). Moreover, checks should be made on the legal use of online music
and whether these can be used for educational purposes (National Copyright Unit,
2015).
This course has changed my perceptions of how teachers
should and can teach. Previously, I believed that my role as teacher involved
being up the front of the classroom, with maybe using the whiteboard, internet
and Microsoft word. I now realise the importance of engaging students through
challenging them to think out of the box. Moreover, not only can I see the
benefits for students to improve their learning but also areas where I can
improve my own knowledge and skills.
However, I now realise that to be an effective
teacher, I need to facilitate learning, to incorporate technologies into my
students’ learning journey; and to allow them to take responsibility for their
own learning. I believe how, after my own interactions with learning different
technologies, that the use of ICT in the classroom will both improve student
engagement and participation, and enhance learning. It is only during these
last few weeks, when I have been exposed to and used different technologies,
that I can now more open to their use and possibilities.
References
Digital Futures in Teacher Education. (2015). 2.2 Defining Digital Literacy. Retrieved
from www.digitalfutures.org
National Copyright Unit. (2015). Teachers and students using wiki or blog. Retrieved from www.smartcopying.edu.au
Purje, R. (2014). Responsibility
Theory: Who’s got the power? South Korea. Paradigm Print Media.
