ICT and future education

Michaela had a great post with lots of very useful ideas and sites for utilizing ICTs within the classroom. I have found that it is through the use of using others ideas that we can all learn and grow thus imparting solid and practical information to our students. Networking within 21st century has to be one of the greatest tools that we can use not only with other teachers but students, parents and various stakeholders who may be able to assist in the teaching of children heading into an unknown future.

What education will look like in 50 – 100 years no one really knows but one thing that is for certain is that students will need to have the ability to create, preserver and more importantly have the ability to adjust to change and ICT allows for this type of education.

Ken Robinson talks explicitly about this change.

Learning how to use ICT

What I have found over the past few weeks is my own lack of knowledge regarding various ICTs. I would love to see whilst doing a course such as this is time allocated to the actually teaching of different ICTs.  Lets say that the most five common pieces of ICT that are  found in the classroom are:

  • ipads
  • IWB or LED
  • Lap Top
  • Audio
  • Visual

I would like to see the uni course actually encompass a hands on session on each of the five where prac students can learn what is current and how to use each one. How great would that be,  when walking into a classroom and something is wrong with the sound that the prac students knows how to fix it – just a thought. Teachers, teaching and ICTs is a great article on the above topic.

 

ICT in the classroom

As prac draws to a close stand out moments in relation to ICT in the classroom are; networking with students from around the world and the interaction between teacher, staff and students. The changes in the way students communicate highlight the need for more and more ICT to be networked throughout all classrooms and all schools. Teaching and learning are enhanced throughout this communication which brings all students closer together as they learn. Students become in involved in many more ways than ever thought possible, they are not scared of voicing their opinion and drawing attention to areas which are deemed not fair or marginalized.

My school tuck shop Facebook page is one such initiative and is this only a very small area of how ICT can be utilized to transform student learning.

ICT and working in the future

ICT is now entrenched and is apart of our world.  As teachers we must encourage and help to build a students creativity in which they can enter into the work place knowing that they have the skills in which to compete on the world stage.

It is no use saying that there is to much ICT or that it is to hard to teach, or that it is changing to much, or that we do not have the time to keep up with the changes, yet we expect students to keep abreast of the changes, learn new techniques that are associated with a particular ICTs and produce creative, strikingly attractive assessment pieces without any teacher assistance.

Dr Joanne Orlando writes a very interesting article on ICT teaching and learning in the 21st century.

iPads and one to one

Whilst iPads are a wonderful tool in which to help students learn it must be stressed that it is only a tool. Many young students now have iPads in the classroom which these schools are often called Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to school. This then leads to the the question of are young students still given enough time to build not only their fine motor skills but their communication skills with others.

I found a very interesting peer reviewed article on the good and bad of ICT in young children. There are also so many differing opinions on the subject I wonder if there is right or wrong or maybe just used in moderation and with a balanced lifestyle.

In Joshua’s blog he states the amount of time that we all use ICT at yes we are using more and more and that is where I think we need to remember to take a break, breath and smell the roses.

Reference

Radesky, J. S.,Schumacher, J., &  Zuckerman, B. (2015). Mobile and Interactive Media Use by Young Children: The good, the bad and the unknown.Pediatrics, 135(1), Retrieved from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/135/1/1.short

 

 

 

ICT and Multi-Modal Presentations

Yet another wonderful day on prac seeing ICT in the form a Multi-Modal Presentations which happen to come alive in the classroom.

Students using Digital storytelling through making short movies and utilizing Photo Story 3 students embark on the exciting journey of turning a very boring subject into one that is exciting and alive. Students have created their own version of how explorations occurred not only withing Australia but throughout the Asia Region.  When the students engaged on such a deep level their understanding grows.  This type of education using ICT allows for dead things to come alive and when they are alive the student not only engages but remembers. Students can animate, produce short stories and make comics which goes way past the old power point presentation.  Whilst there is nothing wrong with a PP utilizing the many other types of multi-modal presentations allows for creativity and higher order thinking.

In Ashley blog she states that we aren’t supposed to be teaching how to use ICT but I wonder how the students are going to learn if they are not taught!!

Story boarding Apps

Had a wonderful time this week using Story Boarding Apps for low literacy students.  This is where a student takes a picture and writes a caption writing a comic which takes away the stress of having to write large amounts to text in which to communication their ideas.

Students with high literacy skills can also use the app experimenting with language choices and condensing large amount of text into fluent and succinct captions.  This not only enhances their literacy skills but also allows student to understand that their are many ICT apps which also provides a foundation for ICT in other teaching areas such as film and television and photography.

ICT is so much more than an IWB.  This is a great sight which can help you to introduce Story Boarding Apps into your classroom.

Tenielle has posted a great sight for help with ICT in the classroom.

ICT for Disabled Students

This prac has been filled with some exciting times in the world of ICT and how it opens many doors which would have been otherwise closes. A lot of people are talking about IWB or LED screens and IPads but in a special school ICT goes further than that.

I have witnessed ICT at my school, building confidence in disabled students who for the first time were able to use their hand held devices in which to communicate with other people.These students are non verbal and face many frustrating times when trying to communicate but by using Assistive Technology such as the Proloquo2Go: AAC In Your Pocket.This particular device brings joy and a sense of pride to non verbal students. The Proloquo2Go “brings natural sounding text-to-speech voices, up-to-date symbols, powerful automatic conjugations, a default vocabulary of over 7000 items, full expandability and extreme ease of use to the iPhone and iPod touch”(Autism Speaks). ICT is much more than an Ipad or IWB.

References:

Austim Speaks. (2016). Assistive Technology. Retrieved June 6, 2016 from https://www.autismspeaks.org/family-services/resource-library/assistive-technology

ICT and competitions

Today I stumbled across a fantastic competition called Young ICT Explores where will I take you.  This competition is divided into two sections Junior school Year 3 to 6 and Senior school 7 to 12.  I thought that this would be a wonderful opportunity in which to explore ICT at a much deeper level within the classroom.

Students would be exposed to different aspects of ICT, not just learning from it and through it but by actually creating it. By engaging students in this manner they gain an understanding of how important ICT is in today’s society and the many benefits that ICT encompasses. This type of engagement with ICT also allows for students to use higher order thinking in which to create their project. Carl states that “ICT formats enabled traditional representations of information to be presented in a means that was more visually stimulating, and rich in the type of information used to convey message to replace,enhance and transform learning”. Through entering competitions students not only gain an insight into their own level of knowledge but also how other students are thinking and interacting with ICT.

Don’t forget check out the competition of even look for others.

References:                                                                                                                                                 Young Explores ICT. (2016). Information. Retrieved June 6, 2016 from http://www.youngictexplorers.net.au/participants/

ICT on Prac

Today was extremely exciting not only for me but the students as well.  The school I was on prac at received a shipment of new Interactive White Boards (IWB) which just happen to be out of this world. The IWBs are not mounted on the wall they are on stands which move up and down and even lay flat in which students can all stand around the board to do wonderful things there is no more calibration or students cannot reach the screen.  There are multiple functions where up to ten students at any given time can move objects together.

One particular cool function was the Dojo app in which the whole class participates. Each student is given a little icon in which they can change, parents/caregivers can swap stories or give other information. Students can be given individual or group awards there are interactive games, hand writing lessons, math lesson, history, geography and art which just adds up to fun in teaching and learning.

After reading Jessica‘s blog on ICT I felt that the Dojo app for IWB is a wonderful teaching and learning tool.