Final Blog Entry
My key learning area (KLA) is Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) and my focus audience is secondary school students. Learning
about and teaching students ICT is my
passion so it is fairly obvious that I will take the position of that it is
important to take advantages of all of the affordances that modern technology
offers teachers in order to improve teaching outcomes.
The two particular areas that technology is valuable for in
the classroom is motivating students and supporting the needs of learners (Roblyer & Doering, 2012). Of course within NSW classrooms in both high
school and primary schools ICT skills are mandated through syllabuses (Board of Studies NSW, 2012.).
The main thing I have taken away from this subject is to
remind myself that lessons that happen to use technology shouldn’t start with technology
(Roblyer & Doering, 2012). They need to start with
learning outcomes and sound pedagogy, the technology is there to support those
two things. This may sound obvious but actually is more difficult than it
sounds to ICT teachers. ICT teachers are interested in technology and often
have a technological component as a learning outcome so it is easy to forget
about learning outcomes and simply look at the technology for technologies
sake.
My studies of in teaching over the last couple of years have
led me to realise that from a pedagogical viewpoint I find Vygostski and his
social constructivist approach very influential. Vygotski maintains that learning
is a social process and that communications between peers is a critical factor
in the learning process (Marsh, 2010). Fortunately for me, the social aspect of
learning has been highlighted by both my teachers here at CSU and embedded
within the relevant syllabuses for ICT. An example of this is within the
Software Design and Development (SDD) curriculum, where under key competencies
it explicitly states that “Planning and organising activities and working with
others and in teams are integral to the development of software and are
addressed in Preliminary and HSC courses”
(Board of Studies NSW, 2010, p. 13). Technology can really help
supply tools that can help enable teamwork and collaboration, some of these
tools include; project management tools, Wikis, various social media tools and Google
Docs which allows multiple people to simultaneously edit the same document even
if they are in different physical locations (Carpenter & Springgay, 2010).
I feel that one of the big appeals of using ICT in learning is that students are keen to use the technology because on the whole they have previously had a pleasurable experience interacting with it. There is plenty of literature to suggest that computers and games (Howard, 2006; Oldfield & Slessor, 2010). Zang (2008) discusses the importance of looking at what motivates people to use ICT in the learning process.
I feel that one of the big appeals of using ICT in learning is that students are keen to use the technology because on the whole they have previously had a pleasurable experience interacting with it. There is plenty of literature to suggest that computers and games (Howard, 2006; Oldfield & Slessor, 2010). Zang (2008) discusses the importance of looking at what motivates people to use ICT in the learning process.
Finally, I think the key features that make ICT in the
classroom compelling are;
·
Dynamic, ICT is a fast changing field and this
makes it attractive to many (although scary to a few students).
·
Fun, students generally associate ICT with fun.
The key is to relate the fun to the planned learning outcomes.
·
ICT facilitates communications and allows for
the creating and sharing of information in a variety of formats.
References
Board of Studies.
(2012). information-and-digital-technology-syllabus.pdf. Retrieved May 11,
2015, from
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/information-and-digital-technology-syllabus.pdf
Brand, J. (2006,
November). Games are good for learning : not just because they are fun.
Retrieved May 11, 2015, from
http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/documentSummary;res=AEIPT;dn=155943
Carpenter, B. S., &
Springgay, S. (2010). Technology and Collaboration. Journal of Curriculum
and Pedagogy, 7(2), 1–5.
Howard, C. (2006).
Learning, study and review methods 101: A fun way to learn and study complex
theoretical content. In 23rd Annual Ascilite Conference (Lina Markauskaite,
Peter Goodyear and Peter Reimann 3 December 2006 to 6 December 2006) (pp.
351–361). Sydney University Press. Retrieved from
https://ascilite.org.au/conferences/sydney06/proceeding/pdf_papers/p103.pdf
Marsh, C. (2010). Becoming
a teacher. Pearson Higher Education AU. Retrieved from
http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=WwbiBAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=marsh+becoming+a+teacher&ots=Ayr1Z0zggY&sig=jjsBz8h0Sb_l1Qn9dxKzqyXUg_w
Oldfield, J. D., &
Slessor, A. (2010). Shades of Grey: Playing games in the classroom to enhance
student learning. Retrieved from
http://unitec.researchbank.ac.nz/handle/10652/1668
Roblyer, R., &
Doering, A. (2014). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching:
International Edition (6th ed.). Pearson.
Zhang, P. (2008). Motivational Affordances: Reasons for ICT design and
use. Communications of the ACM: technical opinion, 145-147.
