Participation Vs. Presentation. How can we ensure all children are engaged with the IWB?

Yes, I am posting again about IWBs but I do feel the need to share with you some points from a discussion we had in class this week!


I think that many teachers, and myself, are guilty of using the IWB as a behavioural management tool rather than a learning technology. Yes! It is an awesome way to keep students on task and motivated, however we shouldn't just be doing everything on the IWB for the sake of keeping children entertained. Many scholars propose that we should use the many learning technologies available in the 21st century to create meaningful learning experiences, and so do I. Here are some suggestions my group and I brainstormed:

DO!

• Have group activities in which one group at a time can use the IWB in an intimate manner, while the others do table or floor activities, the rotate.
• Question students and constantly give them feedback! This will keep them engaged and show them that you are monitoring their behaviour and participation appreciatively.
• Treat children fairly! All children should be able to have a go. This point is an extension of the first - if you have smaller groups using the whiteboard each child will be likely to have an equal turn.
• Practise using the file in your classroom before the class. Check that each slide is presentable from a child's perspective.
• Use the IWB to cater to various learning types. Use the media that is available! For example; sound, text, touch, video... 
• Always have a back up plan! You never know when something might go terribly WRONG!

DON'T!

• Do what you can do on a regular whiteboard, on a magnificent IWB!
• Have long lessons in which every child is dying to have their turn and will not pay attention unless they are able to play on the whiteboard!

Interactive White Boards

I am in the midst of reading Reviewing the Literature on Interactive White Boards (Higgins et al., 2007) at the moment, and I have to say that it has really made me review these magical creations! The reading does not mention TPACK, but seems to be parallel in its themes. The authors write about teachers' use of the learning technology in a 'pedagogically interactive' manner. At the back of my head, I can hear Annie Agnew's voice lecturing myself and fellow student-teachers about the importance of using learning technologies to redefine the learning experience and to use it in a PEDAGOGICALLY INFORMED MANNER! After all, what is the point of using an IWB if you are really only using it as a WB? Learning technologies have so much to offer! They aren't toys or mere classroom management motivators... they are for enhancing the learning experience. Higgins et al. agree with me as they too state, "Good teaching remains good teaching with or without the technology; the technology might enhance the pedagogy only if the teachers and pupils engaged with it and understood its potential in such a way that the technology is not seen as an end in itself but as another pedagogical means to achieve teaching and learning goals."

Reference List:

Higgins, S., Beauchamp G. & Miller, D. (2007). Reviewing the literature
on interactive whiteboards, Learning, Media and Technology, 32:3, 213-225

My introduction to 'e-Portfolios'

This week's reading was about  'Balancing the Two Faces of e-Portfolios'. While my first co-operating teacher tried to explain to me how this works, I remained confused and astonished by how much school has changed since I left!
The Author of this reading, Barret, States,

            "An ePortfolio (electronic portfolio) is an electronic collection of 

evidence that shows your learning journey over time. Portfolios can relate to 

specific academic fields or your lifelong learning. Evidence may include 

writing samples, photos, videos, research projects, observations by mentors 

and peers, and/or reflective thinking."

If you are still confused, like I was, about what e-Portfolios are and their benefits for your career and your students' learning, I suggest you watch these videos.

This video emphasises the value of feedback - from peers, colleagues, tutors, lecturers... anyone who takes a significant place in your career or professional development. It also emphasises the presentation of the e-portfolio as a JOURNEY.

This video, which is very well presented, highlights the e-Portfolio as a method of showcasing your best work, and displaying how you have grown. We can use the e-portfolio as a method of measuring and assessing the progress of teacher and students as an entity. What were their goals? What have they achieved? How did they learn? What can the teacher add to their professional development? How could this be better implemented?


I'd like to reflect on my school days and how I remember portfolios. When I was in year two, my teacher had been assessing us and I didn't even realise! She had given us all these tasks to do - maths work sheets, creative tasks, literacy tasks. They all had one thing in common - a scale at the top which had 'working towards, achieved, working beyond' and a tick along the line somewhere. I was especially proud of my portfolio, and so were my parents. My father noticed how my handwriting had improved, my additions and subtractions were much neater and he even hung up the calendar I'd made. When I was in kindergarten, my teacher would ask a student at a time to her desk to ask a few questions and draw a picture for her. I now realise, she was asking me to reflect on my learning and progress for my portfolio! In retrospect, I really enjoyed taking home my portfolio. It was like taking home a book I had published, or a reward for all my efforts. In retrospect, I've always been adamant that I will recreate this experience for my students.


When e-portfolios surfaced as our topic of discussion this week, I was eager to learn the immediate benefits. As the first video above mentions the environmental benefits, both videos recognise the importance of feedback in education - whether it is your professional development, or the educational progression of our students. The other benefits are accessibility, the emphasis that the publication puts on spelling, grammar and other elements of presentation, and the displaying the linear relationship between the syllabus outcomes, goals, indicators and samples of how these have been achieved in class.


During our class discussion, concepts raised included:

• Professionalism of the e-Portfolio
• Sensitivity of some children towards showcasing of their own work and viewing others'
• Necessity of organisational skills 
• Using assessment and presentation as a form of student interest
• Encouraging creativity and student belonging through the portfolio

In class, we further discussed the views of Dr. Helen Barrett from whom I have borrowed the image on the right. It is important to use the portfolio to display the 'showcase' face and 'archive of learning' face in harmony. In other words, all class-learning should be documented as it is all a valuable part of the learner's journey. My tutor, Annie Agnew, stated, 'a true e-portfolio should show where a student has started something and progressed towards the end.'


Reference List:
Barret, H. (2010). Balancing the two faces of E-Portfolios. http://eft.educom.pt/index.php/eft/article/viewFile/161/102

iPads for Kindergartens?

Just read a post on the blog, NYC Literacy, about iPads for kindergarteners. It linked me to this video:

iPads for Kindergarteners?

Although this isn't the most academic or scholarly relevant video, it is a good example of arguments and opinions that exist about Apple's iPad as a learning technology. While I believe that iPads can have a significant impact on our students' learning, I also believe that we should not conform to the idea of 'replacing' or 'substituting' our already brilliant ideas with what you can do on the iPad. 


In reference to our Week 10 reading, 'iPads in the Classroom', Reid and Otashewski write that, 'Some research presents the need to focus on making use of the inherent features of handheld devices in educational contexts.' The example of the literacy activity shown on the video, to me, looked like a 'drill' game. Students aren't consolidating or synthesising their learning; they are being drilled. I could be wrong, I could be overlooking a pedagogical concept that foreshadows the app being used; but I can't help but think - isn't this just an electronic flash card? I also can't help but think that the school is using the iPad as a classroom management plan to keep the students motivated and on-task, when in fact the iPad is a learning technology or learning resource. This now leads me to think about the SAMR model. Let us REDEFINE what is being learned, not substitute or even modify. Let's not throw iPads at our students for the reason that they are not absorbing what we teach. Let's use learning technologies to add to the multifaceted learning experiences of our students.


What do you think of this video? Feel free to leave comments!


Reference List:

Reid, D. & Ostashewski, N. (2011). iPads in the Classroom – New Technologies, Old Issues: Are they worth the effort?.  In T. Bastiaens & M. Ebner (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2011 
(pp. 1689-1694). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.

Flexible Learning Tasks

Across my education subjects, there seems to be the same topic of concern recurring. 'How do I cater to my students' learning styles?' 'What if this lesson isn't effective enough for this learning style?' and 'WHY AREN'T THEY ABSORBING THIS? ARGHHH!!!' are all familiar points of discussion.

While blog-surfing today, I have found an incredible amount of blogs, images and databases dedicated to sharing and creating ideas for technology and e-learning in the classroom. I came across this image (right) and topic discussion, which seemed to lead my brain straight to the thought of catering for learning types. The image is from the blog entry 'Digital differentiation' by 'Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners', and I think the title of the blog is quite fitting. 

I recall doing many readings last year about the generation of children that I will soon teach. Name calling them 'the bubble wrap generation' and criticising their addiction to technology and a modernised lifestyle were amongst many slanders of generalisation. However, upon discovering of this image I thought to myself, 'if anything, the technology available offers an opportunity'. Technology infuses the many learning types; it offers flexible learning paths. For example, on one form of hardware, let's say a computer, we can facilitate an experience that offers audio, text and video digital tools to our multiplicity of learners. We can also do this in a creative or uniform manner. We can apply a combination of these, or allow the children to chose their own combination, to create a learning experience that is flexible, successful and enjoyable.

From this blog entry, I found another image which reminded me of a reading from the child development course I took part in last year. I recall reading about Vygotskian theory, the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and scaffolding. When I saw this image, I immediately thought of 'SCAFFOLDING'! Teaching via learning technologies is a great way to scaffold a learning experience or skill being taught. The learning technology can ensure that teachers facilitate and guide the lesson, however, the experience may unfold to become a collaborative or independent task in which the technology is used to increase the knowledge and research that is being uncovered. It also reminded me of 'constructivism', which is a major theme in my current professional experience subject, and also the topic of our week 1 tutorial. While learning via technology has a very robotic and generic connotation, I think that it also has the possibility to become a center for constructive learning. It offers student-based learning and a flexible and diverse experience for students to develop their understanding of concepts. The knowledge constructed during technology based lessons is built by students, not passed on from teachers. Students also have a multitude of ways to represent their conceptual understanding of the content - audio, visual, written, video etc. This is truly fantastic!

Reference List:
Based on Week 1 Tutorial.

Reaction to McGrail & Davis's 'The influence of classroom blogging...'

Though this weeks reading seemed long and tedious, I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. For those of you who are not aware, the reading was a journal article by McGrail and Davis about 'The influence of classroom blogging' (2011). I am going to draw on a standing point in this article, in order to discuss its significance to me.


McGrail and Davis (2011) quote a number of scholars and sources in their research. They have written, 'blogging brings outside school literacy practices into the classroom... such technology capitalises the strengths of authentic writing, the power of the writing process and the engagement of collaborative writing.' This is a great statement to make about blogging! From what I have seen on my first year of practical teaching, teachers and students seem to use blogging as a method of bringing meaning to learning. I recall while researching for Professional Experience 2: Classroom Management, that students need to see the value of the learning experience if teachers expect them to stay on task and motivated. For example, in my practicum class last year, my class had their own blog in which they made collaborative and individual posts. As you would expect, in class they would write posts together about their learning experiences. Usually for homework, students were expected to contribute to the blog via comments or their own posts. Being year two, and with many students in ESL, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors were the norm. Students would post their comments or posts, and these would immediately be sent to the teacher to either decline or accept. If the comment did not show the next day, there was an error in the spelling and grammar, and the students would realise this. The teacher would encourage students to correct themselves when this would happen, and at times called upon the class to work together towards correct grammar and spelling.


While this journal article mentions much more complex research, it was the statement above that immediately caught my attention. It made me reminisce last year's practical teaching experience, and wish that I had the opportunity to be apart of a class blog during my own primary school years. I look forward to creating my own blog when I have my own class, as it creates a sense of unity and purpose from an educational and social perspective.


Reference List:

McGrail, E. & Davis, A. (2011). The Influence of Classroom Blogging on
Elementary Student Writing. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 25:4, pp. 415-437.

A Reaction to Annie Agnew's recent post

This post is a reaction to 'Learning Technologies' by Annie Agnew.

The post is at first glance about the variety of learning technologies. However, Agnew challenges that these technologies alone are not enough. She states, 'the focus needs to be on the interplay between technologies and pedagogy.' This is concurrent with the 'SAMR Model'. As educators and, I guess you could say, soon to be 'experts in pedagogy' we should aim from the direction of substitution to redefinition. We should strive to deliver quality learning experiences via learning technologies. The NSW Board of Studies syllabus for Science and technology states, 'For the purpose of this syllabus, technology is concerned with the purposeful and creative use of resources in an effort to meet perceived needs or goals. It extends beyond the tools and technical inventions of a society and involves the application of human skills, knowledge, techniques and processes to expressive and practical problem-solving situations in all aspects of human life' (2007, pg. 1). As you can read, it is recommended that technology is used to extend the learning experience.

Agnew also links us to 7 Things You Should Know About Learning Technologies, and recommends that we use this source to consider how the technology we are using works, how it relates to teaching and pedagogy and how it redefines the learning. ELI's 7 things you should know about aims to, 'enhance faculty developmental activities, open a dialogue ... about emerging technologies and their implications [in education] and stay up to date on emerging technologies.'

Learning Technologies

The theme of today's Professional Experience seminar was an introduction to 'learning technologies'. Though I'd always known that learning technologies were in consistent use in most classrooms and that this use has increased over the last few years, I only had some idea of how these learning technologies directly impact the learning experiences of individuals. 

We discussed concepts such as the 'SAMR model'. When my lecturer, Annie Agnew, explained this concept I said to myself, 'Oh!' The theory of this model made complete sense; we, as educators, should not be looking for a quick fix (a substitution) to keep a students on task and stimulated. The educational software and hardware that is available in this day and age can allow teachers to not only modify the learning experiences of their students but redefine what is being learnt and the student's experience.

This image has been reposted from Tech Transformation: The SAMR Model.

As a class, we brainstormed the variety of learning technologies available to students from kindergarten to year six. The list seemed endless and to be honest, many of the items on the list I'd either overlooked or underestimated as a learning technology. We had a chance to brainstorm ourselves using a program or website of our choosing. I chose to use "SimpleMind Free" for Mac to create and post my brainstorm below. 

When completing my brainstorm at home, I decided to include teacher productivity technologies. When I was researching (or 'googling') learning technologies - apps, websites, programs etc. - many of them were designed to assist teachers in their daily routine, lesson planning and assessment of students.

Upon my research for this task I have come across many different apps, websites and programs. Due to my brainstorm being so broad yet unfinished, I have only included a few specific programs. The rest I will post in future discussions as they become relevant to my study.

About my blog

My name is Heidi and I am in my second year of studying a combined degree Primary Education and International Studies (China major). I have been informed that keeping a blog is an insightful and presentable way of representing ideas, reflections and material findings. Although I have begun writing blogs in the past, I usually find that in retrospect my posts are irrelevant and without an audience. This blog is the accompanying assignment of my current Professional Experience subject Integrating Learning Technologies. This blog, with the theme of a 'personal learning space', will have much more direction and meaning than past blogs I have written. My educational findings across this semester will guide me to post about readings, staff and students' posts, posts reflecting on learning experiences and more.