Throughout the Managing eLearning course, I have felt daunted, satisfied and exhilarated. I have discovered the world of ICT’s and gained an understanding that technology can assist in the classroom without you having to spend hours on the computer. Throughout this synopsis, I will talk about the importance and benefits of digital technology, as well as going into detail about four digital tools that I will use throughout my teaching career.
‘Outside school, students constantly interact with technologies such as iPods, mobile phones, the internet and social networking sites, so it is little wonder there's an expectation that these technologies will also support their learning in the classroom.’ (Sydney Morning Herald, 2010) Through Queensland’s Smart Classroom project, schools are being fitted out with technologies such as interactive whiteboards, digital media projectors and cameras to ensure that primary school students are being equipped with the skills needed for the digital age. As a Learning Manager, it is important to have an understanding of new technologies while ensuring that you are implementing them within the classroom so that you are providing your students with as much digital knowledge as possible.
To ensure students are using the digital equipment to its full potential, most technologies within the classroom are the same as those at home, with the main difference that, in schools, their educational potential is being explored. It is clear to everyone that digital technology is the way of the world so, The Federal Government’s $2.2 billion Digital Education Revolution initiative, aims to ‘prepare students for further education and training, jobs of the future and to live and work in a digital world.’ (Sydney Morning Herald, 2010)
Concept maps are a pedagogical way of consolidating and refining information. As cited on Critical Thinking Strategies, 2003, ‘concept mapping is a technique that allows students to understand the relationships between ideas by creating a visual map of the connections.’ Visually, they allow students to see the connections between subject matter, while organising that information into a logical structure. Graphic organisers or representations such as a concept maps, often ‘helps students to understand and use the process of classifying.’ (Marzano & Pickering, 1997) Concept maps are effective teaching tools that are fun and interactive for students and can be used in all of the Key Learning Areas. They are an innovative and engaging tool for providing information, so an understanding of how to create a concept map digitally and by hand, will support the learning of students.
Sticking Post-it notes on the whiteboard and using a marker to link the information, is a good way of introducing concept maps to students and the class as a whole can contribute to the process and discover how the tool effectively portrays information. Post-its allow you to be able to move concepts around easily which will help the students to understand about the hierarchical organisation of concept mapping. Another way of creating concept maps - and can be seen on my blog, is using technology to create a concept map. I had never created a concept map before so I used Bubbl.us and discovered how much fun the process was. After comparing my concept map against others’, I decided that mine could do with some improving and realised that making concept maps digitally is highly engaging, easy and interactive. Within a classroom context, students as individuals can create their own concept maps digitally on Bubbl.us or another concept map program, or as a class on the digital media projector. As Tony Buzan, 2007 states, ‘mind maps help organise information’, so the creation of this tool will essentially help students to store and organise information throughout their schooling for later use. He also states that, ‘mind maps are a way of representing associated thoughts with symbols rather than with extraneous words... The mind forms associations almost instantaneously, and "mapping" allows you to write your ideas quicker than expressing them using only words or phrases’. This shows that concept maps are a great way of expressing information to all students, especially kinaesthetic learners.
After exploring and creating my own webpage on Weebly, I have grasped the concept of how this ICT tool can enhance the knowledge of myself, students and their parents. Virtual classrooms are a ‘computer accessible, online learning environment intended to fulfill many of the learning facilitation roles of a physical classroom.’ (Sydney Morning Herald, 2010) The advantages of having a class website include accessibility, cost, documentation and resources. Sending home notices, newsletters and permission slips each week cost the school money and eat away at the year levels school resources. With a class webpage, teachers can digitally attach any notices that need to be read by parents and by doing this, ensuring that students no longer get blamed for losing their notes in their bags. Webpage’s are accessible all day and every day which means that this tool caters for the child and their parent’s busy days as they can go onto the webpage in their own time. Every family leads a different lifestyle so the advantage of a webpage is that students and parents are able to go online whenever they have the opportunity, such as while they are at school or work, in the afternoon or evening and in the morning.
I aim to create a webpage each year for my students, possibly on the Learning Place website, that focuses on supporting my students and their learning abilities. On the Weebly website that I have already created, I wish to create a page for each year level and store as many technology resources on it as I can that support student learning. By doing this I will be supporting my own professional learning and expanding my knowledge, while finding resources that will benefit the learning of my future students. My class website will contain a yearly, monthly, weekly and term calendar that will ensure that parents and students are aware of what is coming up throughout the year, as well as information about what is happening within the classroom each week. It is essential as a Learning Manager to ensure that any information about the students is private, so by creating a webpage on the Learning Place website, I will be ensuring that only members of the class and their parents are able to access the site. To support the students’ learning, online resources such as interactive learning games and worksheets will be on the webpage, and to ensure that the students are completing their homework tasks, I will be able to check on the page that shows viewer statistics. As a learning manager, it is important to ensure that while you stay technologically educated,and implement it as much as possible, you do not replace the one on one interaction with students. A website is an interactive tool and resource to have within the classroom, but nothing can replace the teacher itself.
Google Earth is a digital tool that can be used for a number of Key Learning Areas such Mathematics, Science and SOSE. The tool is free to download and has a variety of features that will enable a learning manager to enhance their own professional knowledge and that of their students. When introducing Google Earth to students, teachers will need to allow time for their students to explore the program as they have the entire planet in front of them to explore. To engage the students in the learning content, a teacher could use this tool to take the students on a digital adventure around the world or to a particular destination.
Google Earth is continually upgrading technologically, and these upgrades ensure that the program can provide teachers and students with an endless amount of learning experiences. With the program enlarged onto the whiteboard from a projector, teachers and students can now - as cited on Google Earth, visit cities from the past such as Ancient Rome and compare them to how they have changed over time or view photo-realistic buildings from all over the world. By zooming into landmark buildings, they can look at them in 3D, the time slider allows you to watch the sunrise and sunset from anywhere, Google Earth now allows you to explore stars, constellations, planets and galaxies and finally, fly under the surface of oceans and explore underwater terrain.
Geographically, students are able to explore their local environment or anywhere in the world which will be helpful in the SOSE and Science KLA’s. The tool shows shipwrecks, weather conditions and is connected to NASA and National Geographic. Pedagogically, Google Earth contains resources for teachers and students that will enable them to gather endless quantities of information through exploration.
The Voki Avatar program is a tool that can be used to engage students or hook them into a topic. The internet program creates a digital representation of a person and can be used by either teachers or students. Pedagogically, Voki Avatars can ‘be used to aid in instructing those who are more audio/visual learners. Voki is also a great way to get shy students involved or to share comments with students in other countries.’ (Voki Avatars in Education, 2010) As Moodle shows, Avatars can be used on an online classroom to introduce a topic as well as within the classroom, and with a large variety of characters to choose from, learning managers can use them for all different lessons.
I would use Voki Avatars within my classroom to hook the students into the lesson as I believe that as the world becomes more technologically advanced, children often get bored with listening to the teacher talk. The use of an avatar will get the message across through the use of ICT’s, while providing the class with a humorous hook and ensuring the classroom climate is relaxed and attentive. Voki Avatars will be used on my class webpage as they ‘add a more "human" element to the online class website or blog.’ (Voki Avatars in Education, 2010) Having avatars on the class website will support the learning of younger students that have difficult reading and as the students know they can listen to an avatar rather than read a page full of instructions, students will be more likely to go onto the website voluntarily.
In conclusion, it can be seen that using technology within the classroom will not only save time, but is innovative, interactive and engaging. The use of ICT’s within the classroom will prepare our students with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in their working careers, in a world that will continue to become more technologically advanced. The digital resources and tools available to teachers will keep students interested while supporting the professional learning of those students and teachers.
References
Brainstorming made simple . (n.d.). Retrieved August 15, 2010, from Bubbl.us : http://bubbl.us/
Cambourne, K. (2010, January 19). Technology in the classroom. Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Critical Thinking Stratagies: Concpet Mapping . (2003). Retrieved August 24, 2010, from Collaborative for Teaching Excellence : http://cord.org/txcollabnursing/onsite_conceptmap.htm
Marzano, R., & Pickering, D. (2006). Dimensions of learning teacher’s manual (2ed.).Heatherton, Australia: Hawker Brownlow.
Mind Maps . (2007, January). Retrieved August 15, 2010, from Mind Maps and Mind Mapping: http://members.optusnet.com.au/charles57/Creative/Mindmap/index.html
Voki Avatars in Education. (2010). Retrieved August 23, 2010, from Squidoo: http://www.squidoo.com/voki
