Final Synopsis

Introduction 

Since this is the final posting I will encapsulate all that the last seven weeks of class and online collaboration has taught me. I will take a look back at the technologies that I have encountered and how the ethical, safe and legal use of these can be implemented as more than a learning aid into a ICT rich 21^st century classroom.  I will also move through some of the fundamental frameworks that show the levels of change that ICT can bring to a class such as Blooms Taxonomy and the SAMR model. 

Technology used

Through the learning experiences there has been a plethora of e-learning teaching tools that have been shown to me, with most not being encountered before. Along with the tutorial session and practice with the tools themselves I was able to apply them to my pedagogy to further support my teaching strategies. I have also come to the realization that technology can no longer sit on the back burner but is a pivotal tool in the engagement of our students.

 The platforms and tools that I have covered are;

• ·         Text to Mind map
• ·         Website creation
• ·         Using tech to present information (PowerPoint)
• ·         How images/audio/video files play a part in the classroom 

SAMR & Blooms Taxonomy & De Bono’s thinking hats

The SAMR model would have to be one of the biggest ideas that was introduced to me throughout the past week, it offers a method of seeing how computer technology might impact teaching and learning.  It also shows a progression that adopters of educational technology often follow as they progress through teaching and learning with technology (ted 2014).

Anther scale that before this class was very foreign is Blooms Taxonomy, it is simply a pyramid that shows the different levels of learning forms that a student or teacher can have. With the use of ICT the level of students learning can increase to the higher ends of the scale Bloom, B. (1956).

These two learning methods encompass all the last seven weeks has been about. Giving teachers a pronounced idea of how they can change the way in which the classroom uses ICT to readily engage their students. 

Six Thinking Hats is a time-tested, proven, and practical thinking tool. It provides a framework to help people think clearly and thoroughly by directing their thinking attention in one direction at a time (de Bono Thinking Systems. (2013). —

• ·         white hat facts
• ·         green hat creativity
• ·         yellow hat benefits
• ·         black cautions
• ·         red hat feelings
• ·         and blue hat

Safety first 

These pedagogical advances are not without risks, and by far the biggest risk is increased online presence that this type of ICT based learning brings. This means that teachers need to ensure that students are safe while posting or surfing the internet. There is also the ethical mine field that students/teachers need to be aware of when using information from the internet, such as the heightened risk for plagiarism and copyright infringements.

Some of the measures I would take to ensure safety for my class when using ICT;

• ·         Ensure students understand what plagiarism is and how it can be detected
• ·         Students must understand what cyber bullying is and the consequences attached
• ·         Model ethical, safe and legal ICT
• ·         Show students how to reference and the reasons behind it

These are just a few of the actions that a teacher can take to ensure that the ICT in the classroom is being used for the greater good and no harming a child or their education.

Final Reflection

It all started 7 weeks ago with a person walking into a tutorial that had almost no idea how to incorporate, let alone design, ICT learning for a classroom. Since that point I have found that ICT has to be an integral part of any classroom to deliver what 21s century students need in the way of education. With model such as SAMR the light was really put on how I could use a piece of technology to redefine a lesson or activity and this has led to some high level critical thinking. The fact that SAMR is so simple yet effective makes me feel like it can be adapted to either of my two teaching areas ICT use (math or PE). 

The use of tools such as texttomindmap or wiki spaces goes far beyond the realm of pure information, it is a premium example of being able to engage students in learning. Which leads to the bigger picture of creating a collaborative class, and thus student centred learning. 

Over all, the information I have gained about ICT and how it can redefine a class, clearly has many more benefits than negatives. However it is imperative that technology is used and monitored in the best way possible, keeping in mind the safety of society’s most valuable assets, out students.  

References

TED Ed. (2014). SAMR Model. Retrieved from Technology is Learning: https://sites.google.com/a/msad60.org/technology-is-learning/samr-model

de Bono Thinking Systems. (2013). Six Thinking Hats. Retrieved from de Bono Thinking Systems: http://www.debonothinkingsystems.com/

Bloom, B. (1956) Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains, Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#cognitive 

Reflection 6

Introduction

Over the past 7 weeks I have begun to hone my skills on the online learning platform. Although there remains a solid in classroom experience the shift to e-learning has begun and with the technological advances sees no sign of slowing down. With the ability now to collaborate and cooperate with peers outside our normal tutorial, group orientated learning has evolved, leading to a revamped set of advantages and disadvantages.  

Advantages

As mentioned there are many advantages to group work and Maryellen Weimer (2013) mentions, students within groups have the ability to;

• learn content, as in master the material
• learn content at those deeper levels we equate with understanding
• learn how groups function productively
• learn why groups make better decisions than individuals
• learn how to work with others

However, Weimer (2013) goes on to mention that if students are just put into groups without the potential for learning, most will begin to have a negative connotation to group work in the future. There must also be so direction from the teacher as to how the dynamics of the group should run. For example assigning a leader or assigning tasks for students.

The past seven weeks, have all been about online group work rather than face to face. This type of group work opens up another realm of advantages that are specific to the e-learning platform;

·         Out of class contact with group

·         The ability to re-read ideas from another group member

·         The recorded document for each group member (Blogger postings)

For example, being able to read other students blog trigged me to refer to a course reading that I forgot to include. Moving from the sheer lack of memory on my part, being able to read over other students’ blogs and get a different view point lead me to better my postings, by having to justify and elaborate on my ideas.

Disadvantages

Although there are many advantages to group learning there are also some very distinct disadvantages that are potentially only specific to online learning.

·         Technology failure (e.g power outage, network failure, device issues)

·         Having to wait for a reply or explanation from another group member

·         The loss of tenor or potential misinterpretation

In my personal experience I found these issues to not affect me to dramatically, however they have to potential to create havoc amongst a group, especially the dispanding of a group is plagiarism or online arguments take place. The nature of how we as a class group has used this e-learning platform has been a mixture of collaborative and cooperative learning. 

Collaborative or Cooperative? 

Morrison (2012) in her article has defined cooperative and collaborative learning as; 

·         cooperate: the process of working together to the same end, versus 

·         collaborate: to work jointly on an activity to produce or create something

She goes on to state that collaborative learning requires the higher order thinking skills such as that on the higher ends of Blooms taxonomy scale. From the beginning of our blog postings our group has considerably performed better and that can be accredited to the way in which we collaborated throughout the journey, although the comments were almost impossible to monitor, but I will get to that further on. The key to the success for this platform was also how the lecturers and introduced blogger to the class. Morrison (2012) insists that to have valuable and educationally rich collaborative learning online the teacher must establish and introduce the online medium towards the forefront of a lesson or in our case, the term.

My Major gripe

This task I believe only had one major flaw, and that is all to do with the technology rather than how, when or why we posted our blogs. The comments system (of blogger) I believe left a lot to be desired and really took away from the overall experience. Being left a comment by another student and having no notification that it had arrived often broke down the fluency of the collaboration trying to take place.

Conclusion

Finally, the last seven weeks of this course have opened my eyes to a whole new way of group work that can be implemented I to my future classroom. The tools that we have used and experienced and the explanation and investigation that other students have made about them, shows myself as an educator that there is more to teaching than textbooks and notepads. The way in which we have received feedback from our peers is also another key learning experience I will take away, as I have found the peer evaluation will lead to improved results and effort. This is simply due to the fact that even though we are collaborating we are also competing to be the best, and with the open and online nature of the blogger forum we have been able to do this with almost no limits.

References

Morrison, D. (2012) Online Groups- Cooperative or Collaborative? Retrieved fromhttps://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/online-groups-cooperative-or-collaborative/

Weimer, M. (2013) Five Things Students Can Learn from Group Work, Retrieved fromhttp://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/five-things-students-can-learn-through-group-work/