Assessment Two
ITC Reflective Synopsis
A journey into the unknown is always a little scary, but when one has avoided, or more accurately, consciously disassociated themselves from something, then that journey becomes all the more difficult. Looking back at my ITC experience, before I began this course, and it generally consisted of emails, news accession, the odd bit of cyber surfing and a little research. Facebook, blogs, websites, even texting held for me little to no interest. My belief, that technology was transforming learning and education swung more towards the negative rather than positive. My assumption, was that “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001) were using technology for socialisation and amusement purposes more so than for educational objectives and that this had the potential to led to the deterioration of grammatical English. The hybridisation of communication, or “net-speak” (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2005) like that of texting and SMS messages, had a lot to answer for. Ashamed, most certainly, I realise how my ignorance stunted my own growth, but more importantly it could have had a detrimental influence on the learning of my future students.
Group One Technologies: Online Spaces
The technological grouping of blogs, web sites and wikis saw me questioning their differences so that I could understand the place they held within a social and educational context. What I found was that that wikis and blogs were collaborative spaces where others could add content, comments or ideas; web sites, on the other hand, are static and do not allow for the contribution of others (Fasso, 2011). Whilst all three technologies have a place within eLearning I have chosen to focus my reflection on blogging as it is not only a collaborative tool but also utilises the relate, create and donate concepts of Engagement Theory (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999).
Having a space in which to display or publish work is an important concept of Engagement Theory. Blogging provides this through meaningful focus thus enabling students to learn skills and knowledge that transfer to work settings (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999). The promotion of higher order thinking, like Blooms Taxonomy framework, is developed through blogging. When contemplating on my own learning, creating and maintaining a blog allowed me to reflect, imagine and then create the layout of my blog. These required decision making and organisational skills. My written expression of blogging challenged me to compose, interpret and evaluate my newly gained knowledge. Translating these concepts to the teaching areas of secondary English and History, I believe that blogging enables students to interpret, construct and analyse literature and language. Blogging delivers a multi-sensory approach that supports the diversity of learning styles through visual, aural active, reflective and interpersonal ways.
A relatively smooth transition into technology based learning; blogging has some ethical and legal considerations. Copyright or intellectual property is a legally protected act under the Australian Copyright Council (ACC). Effectively there needs to exist an “express” permission before copyrighted material can be consumed (Pearson, 2007).
My blog at http://jacquelinegibson.blogspot.com/ lists, under Week Three Technologies, other negative implications.
Group Two Technologies: Images, Podcasting and Videos
Primarily I explored the technologies of podcasting, Flickr and Picnik. In a multimedia age, visual literacy or the ability to understand, create and communicate, graphically (Thibault & Walbert) is an effective pedagogical learning tool. As a visual literacy, Flickr allows the accession and sharing of photos or images with others; Picnik allows for the online editing of photos. Flickr and Picnik are fun and interactive expressions of visual expression; however, my focus is on the aural literacy of podcasting mainly because it is a communication modality that is already widely used by students, specifically through mobile phones and iPods.
Quite simply, podcasting is a sound file that is uploaded on the net and shared with others. As technology has grown so too has the podcast. Multimedia files like slideshows, hyperlinks and bookmarks can be accessed through podcasts. Learning becomes meaningful and assessment authentic, as podcasting encourages students to share their experiences (Department of Education, 2011).
Podcasting is unique in that it has the capacity to enable learning in students that have learning and or behavioural difficulties. Gaining and holding the attention of some students is often problematic though, as advised by Marcus, it has the power to gain attention, communicate ideas and change behaviour (2005). By having the flexibility to access continuously and at a time that suits the student, podcasting would enable rote or behaviourist learners. Revision and even extra material is easily stored and located.
Finally, “your teaching focus is not about delivering information to your students, but rather for your students to be creating it themselves” (2011). Creativity is linked to higher order thinking (HOT) and as podcasting is a creative genre then it supports the values of HOT.
For further information and a demonstration on podcasting please visit my blog, http://jacquelinegibson.blogspot.com/ on the Podcasting within an educational context page.
Group Three Technologies: PowerPoint, Glogster and Prezi
The group three technologies are interactive technologies that support multimodal features. Having dabbled with all three technologies I have come to conclusion that PowerPoint is my preferred modality. But first I’d like to briefly touch on Prezi and Glogster. As a zooming presentation tool, Prezi would appeal to global learners or those who grasp a concept before understanding the connections within it. As a mixture of learning styles, for me Prezi held little appeal. The zooming in and out certainly highlighted a point or argument, but it also gave me a headache. Of course this is only one person, in one instance, but what I learnt was that I needed to be open to the reaction some of the ITC tools may have on students and their learning. Students with learning difficulties and/or epilepsy etc, may have problems with zooming tools. Glogster is an online scrapbooking site. Interestingly, I thought Glogster would be my favourite especially after seeing what it could do. What I found was that Glogster was very time consuming. In a secondary classroom, students often do not have the allotted time to research, apply, analyse and evaluate a topic before creating a scrapbook. Glogster, for me, is collating tool that displays student work after completion.
PowerPoint is a technology that most teachers are familiar with and will use. PowerPoint presentations are made of individual slides that are formatted with text and images. With the ability to insert YouTube videos, save as a movie or jpeg file, incorporate animation and 3D effects, today’s PowerPoint connects on a multimodal level.
As a pedagogical learning scaffold, PowerPoint provides a voice for everyone. Whether a visual, aural, sequential or reflective learner PowerPoint’s multiple mode of delivery supports diversity of learning. This knowledge transfers to secondary English where students can write a critique of a book and explain what they believed was its strengths or weakness etc. As part of an online book club, it is filmed, transferred to a PowerPoint presentation and uploaded onto YouTube. Whist sifting through the hundreds upon hundreds of YouTube, TeacherTube, StudentTube and other video sites, I found that there were very little videos relevant to secondary book clubs or even book reviews. This exposed a “hole in the market” and ties in neatly with PowerPoint’s application as an authentic work skill.
Using De Bono’s hats as an evaluative tool, the negatives of PowerPoint include the condensing of complex issues into bulleted point form where not enough detailed information is accessed visually. Further information is found on my blog page, PowerPoint your way through teaching, http://jacquelinegibson.blogspot.com/p/powerpoint-your-way-through-teaching.html.
Group Four Technologies: Google Earth, Dipity
Group four technologies introduced me to concepts and ways of learning that I would never have thought possible. Within this group I investigated Google Earth, Dipity and Zooburts. By now I was feeling a little more comfortable with ITCs and our prescribed technologies, that was, until I started using Google Earth. A dynamic and multi-functional tool, Google Earth has so many applications that it is easy to become disorientated. Technically a geographical tool, I used it to create an historical tour of Australia. Students are at liberty to explore the landscape, building and streetscape whilst following the circuit. At each destination, questions are posed relating to either historical events or people. This in turn prompts a researching quest and one that links into the curricula’s of geography, society and indigenous studies.
After a lot of time on Google Earth I decided to see what Dipity had to offer. A timeline tool, Dipity integrates video, audio, images, text, links and even social sites. Dipity aids in the collation of student research which aids in the building of a cohesive and multidimensional project. What really provoked my interest in Dipity was that is tells a story through a combination of technological modalities. It also surprised me at how easy it was to create and to upload my timeline onto my blog. As a teaching and learning tool, Dipity has the capacity to build on student schema as they have an opportunity to revise and reflect on topics whilst creating their timeline.
Conclusion
A shift in the way contemporary students communicate has prompted the re-examination of effective learning. ELearning or electronic learning is transforming and opening new pathways within education. My own eLearning journey has taken me on a ride that was daunting, exciting and for the most part, frustrating. Thankfully, it was worth it. The exploration of digital technologies revealed how my own learning was scaffolded and how, as a learner, I was engaged in that learning. I feel confident that through effective ITC use students will investigate, create and communicate ideas and information.
Reference List
Department of Education (2011). Resourcing the Curriculum, Retrieved April 10, 2011, from http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/podcasts/
Kearsley, G., Shneiderman, B. (1999, May 4). Engagement Theory: A Framework for Technology – Based Teaching and Learning, 1-6.
Marcus, S., (2005). The New Literacies: What is Basic Education Now? Retrieved April 12, 2011, from http://www/archive.nmc.org/summit/New_Literacies.pdf
O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler, J. (2005). Media and society (3rd ed.). South Melbourne, Vic, Australia: Oxford University Press
Pearson, M., (2007). The Journalist’s Guide to Media Law: Dealing with Legal and Ethical Issues (3rd ed.). Crows Nest, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon, 1(5), 1-6.
Thibault, M., Walbert, D. Reading Images: An Introduction to Visual Literacies. Retrieved April 12, 2011, from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/675
Moodle
Fasso, W. (2011). Group One Tools: Online Spaces. Retrieved April, 2011, from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design.
Fasso, W. (2011). Group Two Technologies: Podcasting. Retrieved April, 2011, from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design.
