Embedded Assessment Task 2

This week in our practical lesson a new technological tool was introduced, in regards to teaching. It however is a seemingly older technology. The website is now over ten years old with new ones are being created every day. It is almost inevitable that they are now utilised for relaying information that is class specific such as lesson or term information or plans, rather than just pure information (google search the answer). 

With the ability to relay information to a class via an online platform, it can open up many opportunities, such as giving students the chance to do the work at their own pace and in their own time. Also giving students a beneficial information source to study from, rather than going between text book, internet and classroom book. Most of the important information can be found on the web site, streamlining and consolidating the studying experience. 

With regards to the user experience of creating a website, I found it a lot easier than first anticipated, giving an excellent and concise user friendly experience. Considering the ease of use a first time user like myself, I managed to do many things with little to no hassle, such as import photo or video, create hyperlinks and imbed audio or learning activities. 

The use of a web site that contains a lesson or terms worth of work cannot replace classroom learning, but rather is an aid for learning in and outside of the classroom. Being able to successfully change a teachers pedagogical views on the use of this tool may be harder due to the increase in workload to create a website, compared to a simple lesson plan, with only in class learning activities. On the subject of the SAMR model, a web site can seriously modify how an assessment task is completed and presented. The use of a web site as a learning tool is mainly augmenting the learning, however the students can possibly submit assessment back to the teacher via this platform. 

Although a web site in many ways is a great tool for relaying information to a class group, it does lack some features such as comments and collaborative posting. I have found that a Wikispace forum allows these features, and has many similarities to a web site. By using both of these platforms together it will create a richer learning experience for more class groups, especially with the modern focus students have on technology in and out of school. The website could be used for purely information and learning links, and the wiki could be used for collaborative work, for groups or entire classes. This is how I am planning to utilise these platforms progressing into my teaching career.

I have completed an example of a website that can be made for free using weebly.com, if you wish to view it feel free to press -----à http://trigonometryforthesquares.weebly.com

De Bono’s thinking hats on mobile phones with the use of WikiSpaces.

Throughout the begging of this course I have found multiple successful ways of incorporating ICT appropriately into a classroom. The WikiSpace forum is defiantly a favorite, and suits the De Bono hats task perfectly. The task also uses the SAMR model and Blooms taxonomy which allow an educator to find how well and the level that they are bringing ICT into a student’s educational experience.  

From my own experience, the inclusion of ICT into the classroom was never as scuffled or as high standard of what the wiki allows. Bing able to utilize these and pass them on to future students by focusing on the top two sections of the SAMR model will give students  potentially a more rounded learning experience than myself. I found that the design of the wiki with the heavy focus on collaboration gave a good sense of teamwork even though the task is designed to be individual. This I believe is the exact purpose for such as task design, being able to let students work at their own speed and performance level, while remaining on the same task, which is a great way to not leave anyone behind or spray to far from the group. This format also gives students the chance to read ideas from others which opens up a sense of peer to peer learning, essential for good learning.

After completing the learning tasks for week two, I found that the SAMR model gives a good base knowledge of levels of ICT that can be introduced into a classroom. However I found the most beneficial part of the week were the tables that incorporated the SAMR model and exact examples of how and why ICT can be used in the classroom.

Pedagogy is simply “the art of teaching”, and by using a learning tool such as a wiki, it shows that the educator has good pedagogical views on how they plan to facilitate collaborative learning while supporting students and understanding how best they learn. As mentioned above I believe that the collaborative nature of this task stands it in good stead to be successful. It also shows that the student not only creates the information (De Bobo’s Hats exercise) but shows the final stage of the Blooms Taxonomy scale, by evaluating the information that was created. This shows a high level of task knowledge and preparation as the higher tiers of all models (Blooms and SAMR) an sometimes be almost unachievable.

De Bono’s thinking Hats are a set of criteria that take a one sided stance on a topic or idea. It can give the user a very free and unencumbered level of freedom to take a stance on a point that they typically may not. With scaffolding the task in this manor the educator gives the students an almost ridicule free opinion platform to express themselves. Being able to incorporate ICT into a classroom I have found this week to be quite easy, however doing it effectively and being able to use models such as Blooms and SAMR while keeping your own strong pedagogical views included can be difficult. By using a task like De Bono’ hats, as mentioned above, a strong base to portray and share their views in an almost judgment free area is a key way to build and attain a student’s attention and trust.

TUTE 1 11/03/2015

 Reflection of week 1 materials.

After watching all three stimulus in week 1, it has become more apparent that technology (ICT) is becoming more and more entwined with education. However the currant education process of sit, listen and learn is now being viewed as a step backwards in the education process. These changes to pedagogical thinking  will effect all future classrooms in ways only now being discovered.

I see the mass introduction of technology into learning space a great way to keep students involved and excited about learning, while also sustaining the importance of individualization and creativity. Sir Ken Robinson, speaks very strongly about how students today a taught out of their creative traits and pushed into more "important" subject areas. With the introduction and reliance of technology foresee that students will have a wider variety of options during schooling life. As Sir Ken in his video also alludes too, children also get taught ( no fully on purpose)  out of their extreme amounts of confidence and become afraid of 'getting something wrong', however I see technology as a great tool to curve the continuing downward shift of students confidence levels.

Dr. Judy Willis also speaks about the boredom most classroom build amongst students.By changing how the classroom is set out and the responses that are given back to students ( as most children are afraid of criticism) that the attention span and enjoyment with increase increase and the diagnosis of disorders such as ADHD will subside.

Looking over all stimulus in week 1, I have come to the early conclusion that the introduction and use of technology in classrooms will increase the awareness and enjoyment of subjects into a classrooms. However some short comings such as broken technology (i.e laptops), system outages and level of knowledge will have to be carefully thought over before a full transition is done to a permanent technology based learning framework.