My Lit-circle reading

In Week 9 my lit-circle conducted a class discussion about the 2011 Horizon report. It is a collective representation of technologies that have emerged, are emerging and will emerge eventually. It also includes the challenges of these technologies, and trends amongst the educators who use these technologies in their classrooms.


As a class, we talked about which of the technologies listed in the report we personally thought would be of most influence. The students in my discussion listed electronic books as the least influential, and mobile technologies like tablets and smart phones of most influence. We also discussed the use of 'augmented reality' and game-based learning as being influential and already in-use, and noted how the increasing use of this is foreseeable.


I also think that mobile technologies are the most useful and influential to the 21st century classroom. I think the reason why my fellow class members over looked the 'gesture based technologies' is because they were thinking about the classrooms in which they have completed their practicum experience. Gesture-based learning, particularly on tablet and smart phone devices with the appropriate applications, is particularly influential for special-needs class. For example, autistic students can used gesture-based learning technologies to represent their emotions and communicate their understandings of what is being learnt.

Another discussion point was the 'key-trends' section of the article. One point in this section that we focused on was the first key trend, "The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators in sense-making, coaching, and credentialing." (p. 3). Students discussed how this trend in emotion might surface amongst educators. I have to admit, I often feel intimidated by the same idea. Students have the world at their fingertips... 'why do they need me?' As discussed in my previous blogs Constructivism incorporates the ideas of pedagogy and content. That is, creating a learning environment with intellectual integrity. The TPACK model integrates technology into this notion. My point is, we can use the technology available to scaffold an environmental learning space in which children construct their own knowledge and meaning of their classroom content. They can watch online videos, online articles, create digital artworks, create songs, create videos, write factual and fictional texts - the list goes on. It is my opinion that teachers should not feel threatened by the influx of knowledge available; it is a resource and allows appropriate zone of proximal development (Vygotsky).

Reference:

The Horizon Report 2011 Edition. Retrieved from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2011-Horizon-Report.pdf.