G.C.

Reactionary post to “Teacher’s ICT Literacy in the Contemporary Primary Classroom”

Charlotte discusses an article by Dakich (2005) that looks at successful use of ICT in primary classrooms. There are four dimensions outlined:

Optional Understanding and application of ICT – this means having up-to-date knowledge of current technologies.

ICT rich pedagogies and learning environments – this means that the role of the teacher is to design, facilitate and scaffold student inquiry and to make informed choices about using and learning with ICT.

ICT for professional learning and engagement – this means teacher sharing and discussing successful uses of ICT

Social ecology of living and learning with ICT – this means that teachers should be aware of the use of technology in the children’s lives that they are teaching.

I found this post by Charlotte to be very useful in terms of its applications in the classroom environment. I agree with these points in terms of how technology and ICT should be thoughtfully used in the classroom setting. Following these steps will ensure that teachers are taking full advance of applications of technology and ensuring that students are learning through technology not simply with technology.

I found that these steps also withhold a constructionist view point in terms of teaching and learning, where the student is the centre of the process of task development and learning experiences and authentic and meaningful. I agree that students should always be creating their own knowledge as therefore learning takes a much more significant place in kids lives.

Reference

Dakich, E (2005). Teacher’s ICT Literacy in the contemporary primary classroom: Transposing the Discourse. Retrieved online September 14^thfrom: www.aare.edu.au/05pap/dak05775.pdf

Comments on a website article titled “How to Use Comic Lie in the Classroom”

This article discusses how Comics  can be used to help analyse, synthesise and absorb content. For early readers comics can simply graphics which can help students practice sequencing through illustrations, while the written component can introduced when readers are ready to connect words with images.

Comics can also help readers with language acquisition problems by providing visual clues to the context of the narrative.

For stronger readers, comics can help develop grammatical sills as students must decode and comprehend puns, metaphors, symbolism and so on.

It is important to note that a simple comic image can represent paragraphs worth of written materials in an enjoyable manner that is also effective in developing literacy skills.

Comics also have the ability to meet the needs of students in a variety of learning styles, such as through adopting Howard Gardner’s views on multiple intelligences.

Teachers can facilitate stronger students participation in assessments and projects through allowing students to represent their thoughts through comics. It can allow students to demonstrate how they have analysed and sythensised their thoughts from a certain subject.

Comic Life can provide disabled students with a means of expressing their knowledge and understanding without the pressure and anxiety related with written text. This can therefore have empowering consequences for students.

This is a reaction to Learning Lama’s Blog on an article titled “Authentic Learning Supported by Technology.”

The Learning Lama discusses this article in relation to how and why technology should be used in the classroom. The main theme that runs through is the use of ‘authentic’ learning experiences. This means providing knowledge and activities that can be used in the real world. There is also the focus on collaboration and the expression of thoughts and ideas to others.

The idea behind this, is that learners will be able to enhance their learning if they are engaged in authentic learning experiences. I strongly agree with the Learning Lama that as teachers we do not simply use technology to excite students, but think beyond this about the reasons and applications for using technology to really enhance learning.

I was especially interesting in this blog and related article as I saw that I directly related to my discussion of assistive technologies and learning experiences for disabled children. I think that disabled children, even more than non-disabled children can benefit from authentic applications of technology. Technology can be a means and an avenue for students to be able to express themselves in ways that before they may not have been able to.

Discussed based on an article by Andrew Downie

It is crucial that people who have disabilities are able to participate actively in the classroom environment. Through the use of assistive technologies this can be met. Here is a brief list of assistive technologies for a range of disabilities:

Vision Impairment and Blindness

1. Closed Circuit television magnifiers (CCTV) – These are mainly intended for incidental reading such as in the library. Many models can be used to aid in handwriting, and some can be linked to the computer.
2. Text/graphic enlargement on computer screens – Both Windows and MAc provide some magnification features. There is also some software available that can magnify up to 36 times the original size.

Hearing Impairment and Deafness

1. FM Systems – The person who is speaking talks into a microphone which is connected to a small FM radio transmitter. The person who has the hearing loss has a small radio receiver tuned to the same frequency as the transmitter.
2. Infrared Systems – As with above, the speaker uses a microphone connected to a transmitter and the listener has a receiver which is connected to a hearing aid or headphones.

Physical Disabilities

1. Keyguards for computer keyboards – this is made from a flat sheet of either plastic or metal. It is fixed above the keys with holes in the surface to allow access to the keys. These prevent the pressing of incorrect keys by people who have poor motor control or tremor of the hands.
2. Predictive Software – as the user enters texts, this software attempts to predict the word which is being written. This software helps increate the speed of text entry for people who much use methods which are intrinsically slow.

Neurological Disability

1. Talking Calculators – These augment the visual display with digitised speech output. They are helpful for a variety of disabilities related to a difficulty in reading.
2. Multimedia Reading Assistance – Software is available which will provide simultaneous display of text on the computer screen and synthetic speech output. Text can even be copied and pasted into the application.

I believe that with the amount of amazing technologies that are currently available to assist disabled learners, that there is no reason why we cannot accept their place in the mainstream classroom.

Reference:

Downie, A. (2006). Selecting and utilising assistive technologies in an e-learning context. Canberra: Department of Education, Science and Training.

According to an article by  Han & Bhattacharya (2009) constructionism is both a theory of learning and a strategy for education. This belief has been developed by Jean Piaget, who believed that meaningful learning isn’t simply transfered from teacher to student, but actively constructed in the mind of the learner. The main idea by constructionism is that students are given ideas, thoughts and information, but they create their own.

Constructionism support the constructivist viewpoint that the learner is an active builder of knowledge.

So what does this mean in the classroom?

A classroom that teaches through a constructionism point of view provides students with many learner-centered activities and experiences. These learners investigate, create and solve problems. As a teacher it is important to set goal and expectations before students being their individual learning experiences so that learners understand what they are trying to achieve and what is needed to achieve it.

As I see it, teaching students through a constructionism approach guided by e-learning is easy. Through e-learning students are able to be producers and publishers creating anything from videos, podcasts, games, blogs or vodcasts through their personal means of self-expression.

Han, S. & Bhattacharya, K. (2007). Constructionism, Learning by Design and Project-based Learning. In M. Orey (Ed) Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology.

Click on this link to here my podcast:

Podcast – Assistive Technologies

Reference:

Roblyer, M.D. & Doering, A.H (2010) Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching. (5 ed.) Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Reaction to Sabrina’s blog on the 18th of October.

In this blog Sabrina talks about what makes meaninful learning. I was interested in this blog and the article that she discussed as to me, this can be directly related to the learning experiences of disabled learners.

Jonassen (2008) discusses  that there are five main attributes of meaningul learning; Active, Constructive, Intentional, Authentic, and Cooperative. Just as Sabrina comments, meaningful learning with technology is when students learn with the technology not from it. This point highlights why it is so neccessary for us to develop better, more advanced and appropriate assistive technologies that cater for a diversity of learning needs. If we accept that technology can enhance and enable authentic and meaningful learning experiences, then we must make it available for all students.

Reference

Article: Jonassen, D., et al. 2008, Pearson Education. Meaningful Learning with Technology (3rd edn) .Upper Saddle River: New Jersey, pp. 1-12

 

I am interested in discussing assitive technologies and the experiences of disabled people in the classroom environment. I will start by discussing in this blog a journal article from the Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia.

This journal article discusses a research project based in the University of Southampton in the UK where the purpose was to investigate ways to “increase understanding of the many complex issues and interactions introduced by disabled learners’ requirements for accesssible e-learning, compatible assistive technologies and effective learning support” (p.1).

Disabled learnes have profoundly different learning experiences in the same learning situations as able bodied learners and therefore have different requirements to be an effective learner. Review of studies found that there has been very little consideration of the interaction between assistive technologies and e-learning. Not only this, but the value disabled students place on being able to access even the most generic e-learning technology is influenced by the extent to which it enhances their independence, facilitates their learning needs and enables them to use their additional specialist technologies.

The study conducted in this research journal found that whilst many disabled learners at this university had a high level of confidence in their skills when using computers and online learning materials they were already familiar with, they often detered from attempting new technologies. Many disabled students at this university were unable to use podcasts, powerpoints or even PDFs as their disablities were barriers to being able to access and use these resources.

Where does this study take us? There is a need to listen clearly to the specific  and various needs of disabled learners. We need to adapt and develop software and hardware that can be easily accessed by all learners, as well as creating programs to help disabled learners grasp new e-learning technologies.

I will talk further about assistive technologies in following blogs.

Reference:

Disabled Learners’ Experiences of E-Learning

Mike Walk, E A Draffan, Jane Seale. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia. Norfolk: 2009. Vol. 18, Lss. 3; pg. 341, 21 pgs

Reaction to Monocle Chronocle’s blog title “Technology and the Tuckshop”

In this blog Michael cites an article by the Sydney’s Daily Telegraph discussing an new initiative by schools across NSW whereby parents can access the canteen menu online and pre-purchase their child’s lunches.

I see this initiative as being highly beneficial not only as Michael cites so that it eliminates children being bullied for their lunch money, or children losing their orders or losing their money, but also the fact that it will eliminate the need for the teacher to be constantly on top of the lunch orders everyday. They will no longer have to ensure every morning that the lunch orders are taken to the canteen, or that children have forgotten to take their orders or have lost them etc. This way parents will have all the power, taking significant responsibility away from teachers.

I also see chances for canteen workers to be able to start preparing their food significantly earlier in the day, taking away stress on their behalf.

Reference:

McDougall, B. (2009). Cash-free tuckshops. Retrieved from The Daily Telegraph Monday the 5th of October 5th 2009.

I would like to discuss the notion of m-learning, which refers to mobile learning. Rather than using mobile phones as such in the classroom, the idea is that students use PDAs (personal digital assistants). Using PDAs is a way for students to cheaply, easily and quickly access technology resources.

Different schools have been using this equipment in vastly different ways. Students in a school in Chicago use PDAs to track their nutritional intake and how much physical activity they have done in the day. While students in science classes use special probes connected to the handhelds to measure the amount of dissolved oxygen in a pond. English students record their journal entries on their devices. Foreign language students no longer have to lug around heavy dictionaries because they can install them on their handheld devices.

While in another school, students use PDAs for measuring academic achievement and for  personal organisation. Students can then measure their achievement at the beginning of a unit of work, then observe their level of progress of the end of the unit.

The article discusses the easy availability of these devices, discussing their low purchase price making them available to many students. Schools can also purchase last amounts of these and distribute them to students who do who do not have their own.The only problem with these devices is that they can break easily in children’s school bags.

I think that the idea of using mobile phones in the classroom is great for the possibilities that it provides. Especially for Stage 3 students who will be able to really utilise the possibilities available to them. I wonder however, how available such PDAs would be in public schools and whether they would be able to withstand the ruff primary school life without breaking.

Reference:

Handhelds in the classroom.
Brown, M. D. (2001). Handhelds in the classroom. Retrieved 25 Feb, 2008, from http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech083.shtml