Prac Interaction with ICT

My few weeks of prac are coming to a closure, so I thought I’d do a quick post to update on the wonderful resources offered by the school including one to one I-Pads.  Year 6 is the year of fun, inventive, interactive preparation for high school. As the weeks quickly flew by I have learnt so much, listing just a few things below.

1. ICT is an enriched element that has shaped the way of learning for the school.
2. As a one to one I-Pad school, technology plays a massive roll in lesson planning. Enhancing interactive learning experiences.
3. Low ability students struggle to maintain focus with I-Pads, going off topic at several stages.
4. The catch is students are responsible to charge them and if they don’t trouble can strike if no old-fashioned backup is provided.
5. The Power of technology is insane, students enjoy the variety it offers to maintain engagement and variety in the classroom.
6. An apple TV at the front of the classroom, allowing resources to be class ready for display brightens learning engagement.

I have had an amazing experience to interact with all the school offers. Over the three weeks, I have been able to introduce, teach and assess students in a natural disasters science unit. As nervous as it was, I am still alive and have enjoyed all the unit offered. Not only does this help me to grow my skills, knowledge and ability with ICT and unit planning I can confidently assess students.

I hope to re-enter the school at a later stage this year and enhance my learning as a Pre-Service Teacher. I look forward to sharing more professional experiences with you as my studies continue.

Below are a few photos to capture the memories.

Happy Reading,
Meghan 🙂

 

 

 

End of Semester

As the semester comes to a closure, it has been a ride filled with ICT, assessment, time management and practical elements in the classroom. After attending the weekly tutorials I was able to interact with many resources provided in the classroom and for myself. This generated the weekly content into weekly moodle booklets, assessment and course content.

The course took into account the need to interact with this blog. The blog was an interesting challenge to write something that would engage my readers and provide them with knowledge on my interaction of ICT. I found that reading and interacting with other colleagues also provided me with information about the course and their self discovery.

As the course comes to a closure I can confidently say I have built on my skills and knowledge to interact with ICT. The course has provided me with interact ways to include ICT in the classroom, enhancing the way I teach the students. For now however I will complete one more post on my prac and hope to return and fulfill information on the blog with my progress as an educator.

Happy Reading,

Meghan 🙂

Technology in the Classroom

Technology in the classroom has become the bases of how we teach and how teachers transfer knowledge to their students. Students have found themselves interacting with technology on a daily bases in the classroom. This has challenged teachers of the 21st century as they continue to remain trained with knowledge and skills to transform learning. As a pre-service teacher I continue to build my knowledge and skills in ICT use to be able to transfer these skills in the classroom. This will continue to benefit students as I learn ways to transform knowledge rather than replace. The way ICT is used in the classroom is shaped by the skills and knowledge of the teachers ICT and this continues to change as technology becomes our all (Trucano, 2005). I hope to continue to build the skill of ICT in the classroom.

Happy Reading,

Meghan 🙂

Trucano, M. (2005). Teachers, Teaching and ICTs. Infodev.org. Retrieved 3 April 2017, from http://www.infodev.org/articles/teachers-teaching-and-icts 

Professional Experience Preparation

Pre Prac,

With not long until I step into the classroom there are several tasks that must be completed before my first day at the school. After meeting with my mentor I’ve been set the challenge of completing two units within the three weeks. Firstly, a science unit that will take me and the students through new knowledge about natural disasters. This will include research, investigations, creations and generating knew and prior knowledge of science concepts. The unit will require me to consider the content and create innovative ways of interacting with the students. A major consideration is accessing knowledge that will allow me to understand the student’s development and their current prior understanding of the concept at hand. Following on from this unit I must integrate a technology based unit into the students learning. However, firstly need to question if I connect the two units or keep them separate?

The technology unit will incorporate positive benefits of ICT based features to interact with their learning. This will include remembering the importance of enriched lessons with ICT enhancing learning experiences for students. ICT is about enriching rather than the use, it’s the learning of the subject content that counts with the aim to expand students understanding (USQ,2017). High quality ICT in lessons will enrich and amplify the learning area for students to transform their knowledge. Not replacing one unit with another but rather providing high quality resources to students.

As my prac is quickly arising, there is a lot to be completed. However, I must take in everything that is offered from the school within my time. It is an opportunity to grow my practice and develop skills as a Pre-service Teacher.

 

Happy Reading,

Meghan

 

USQ. (2017). Starting to plan Lessons. Retrieved May 5, 2017, from http://usqstudydesk.usq.edu.au/m2/mod/book/view.php?id=706634&chapterid=53339

Learning Experiences

A learning experience is an interaction made within an environment where learning takes place such as a school or classroom setting (Hidden Curriculum, 2014). This was an important element shaping my assignment. Questions were asked to generate my thinking

• What are the students learning?
• What is the main goal of this task?

However, I had to explore and generate my own questions to be able to find the learning experience students would cover throughout the unit. The final part of the assessment looked at the Why of the learning experience. This provided opportunity to take a further into the unit, curriculum and activities taught being taught. I discovered that one of the most important elements of the task, would be their final assessment. Students were asked to complete a few activities to showcase their learning. This took place within the final couple of weeks of the unit. The students are exposed to critical authentic learning experiences that take them through successful strategic ways of show casing their new knowledge to the class.

The course interaction has made me understand the power ICT plays in the curriculum and how to implement strategies into my own future classroom learning experiences.

Happy Reading,

Meghan

Hidden curriculum (2014). In S. Abbott (Ed.), The glossary of education reform. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/hidden-curriculum

How will I successfully measure the integration of ICT into my own teaching?

This week took into account the design of ICT enriched learning opportunities to enhance the design of a unit, working towards assessment. Furthermore, this week provides clarification on aligning the unit curriculum, assessment and pedagogy together into a classroom.

Particular questions are asked when creating a unit plan (USQ, 2017).

• Does the criteria match my overall objectives?
• Does it contain only one criteria per objective?
• What will make this unit of work exciting and engaging?
• Does the unit draw on literature and analyse the unit against ICT frameworks?

ICT in the classroom is about the transformation of learning, enhancing old fashioned teaching methods through its use to engage students in their learning. As the week progresses I revisited the RAT framework to clarify my own understanding. The framework incorporates, replacement, amplification and transformation within the classroom through ICT (USQ, 2017). To accommodate for the RAT framework in a unit, students are provided opportunities for enriched learning to transform particular objectives and evaluate ICT with the framework.

Alternatively after reading the model there were several considerations to take into account when incorporating ICT into the classroom. This in particular being an improvement required to continually make ICT effective in the classroom. In helping the students make the most of ICT based learning experiences, I need to describe the activity effectively. ICT has helped students become engaged and enhance their skills, knowledge and ability to learn required tools for the future. In particular the integration of technology into literacy classrooms reshapes old fashioned pedagogical practices aligning to the continually changing curriculum (Durrant & Green, 2000).

Students are provided opportunities to enhance their learning and engage with ICT’s through a number of classroom resources.  I hope I have enlightened you on the importance of ICT in the classroom, changing education of today.

Happy Reading,

Meghan 🙂

Durrant, C. & Green, B. (2000). Literacy and the new technologies in school education: Meeting the l(IT)eracy challenge? Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 23(2), 89–108.

USQ. (2017). EDC3100- Enhancing your ICT enriched learning experiences. Retrieved 3             April, 2017 from    http://usqstudydesk.usq.edu.au/m2/mod/book/view.php?id=706603&chapterid=53236

 

 

 

 

The ‘How’ Pedagogy for teaching and as learning

Pedagogy is the art and science of teaching, however it is not all about the teaching (Smith, 2012).  This particular research suggested that those like Paulo Freire have a philosophy on pedagogy of the oppressed or critical pedagogy reconnecting care and education to social aspects of teachers preferred pedagogies for the classroom.

This information and the week’s module made me consider looking at my own preferred pedagogical practices to bring to the classroom, unit planning and teaching. There were numerous teaching methods that could be implement into ICT as a pedagogical practice. In particular activating prior knowledge, demonstrations and providing feedback were just a few that stood out to me. These three practices can help a student to grow their own knowledge and skills in the particular chosen curriculum areas taught.

As a pre- serviced teacher I ask those who are also in the education sector the following question.

What are your own personal pedagogical practices you will bring to the classroom?

I hope to connect with my readers and hear your own personal comments.

Happy Reading,

Meghan 🙂

Smith, M.K. (2012). What is Pedagogy?. Retrieved 30 March, 2017 from http://infed.org/mobi/what-is-pedagogy/

Constructing and Transforming Knowledge

Constructing and Transforming Knowledge

After just a short four weeks introducing, modelling and discovering ICT interaction in the classroom and throughout this course, I have been continually adding to my bank of knowledge on the course content. This week I read an interesting article on introducing different types of knowledge into the classroom.

Research has shown that there is two different types of knowledge (McCormick, 1997) suggesting this knowledge consists of static knowledge and dynamic knowledge. Static knowledge is about the learnings of concepts, procedures and facts, also known as constructing knowledge. However, dynamic knowledge or transforming knowledge is student learning to apply skills and process transform their understanding.

As a Pre-serviced teacher the two forms of knowledge are vital in the classroom. In a unit plan transforming and constructing knowledge will be utilised and put into place to develop student learning (McCormick, 1997). Students will start to develop constructing knowledge and move towards developing transforming knowledge.

After deconstructing the reading on different types of knowledge, backwards design was introduced following three steps in ensuring students understand concepts, procedures and facts. Backwards design has helped me to understand the importance of constructing knowledge in designing unit plans to follow a process making sure the desired learning outcomes are achieved. To ensure the learning objects are met, firstly it is vital to identify the result required, secondly determine the acceptable evidence and follow by planning the learning experiences and instructions for the unit (USQ, 2017). However backwards design also includes transformed knowledge with hands on experiments and the use of data from a range of sources. The ability to learn and apply skills takes into account both styles of knowledge to developing facts and skills for students (USQ, 2017).

As the assignment due date is quickly approaching both constructing and transformed knowledge play a big part in the backwards planning to building my unit plan for the assessment.

Happy Reading,

Meghan 🙂

McCormick, R. (1997). Conceptual and Procedural Knowledge. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 7(1-2), 141–159. doi:10.1023/A:1008819912213

University of Southern Queensland, (2017). Constructing and Transforming Knowledge. Retrieved 20, 2017, from http://usqstudydesk.usq.edu.au/m2/mod/book/view.php?id=706551&chapterid=53061

My Somewhere

My Somewhere

Throughout this course, I have experienced different means of ICT interact in my tutorial learning activities, assignments and professional experience. I have had the opportunity to engage and enhance my learning through ICT interaction while continually learning specific content to help develop my own personal pedagogy.

One of the course readings introduced me to my somewhere, to which has three elements one context, two curriculum and learning objectives and finally my learners. The reading asked me to create my own three elements of desired design to add to my bank of knowledge.

1. Context: A small country school, of smaller numbers between 18-23 students allowing for more one on one attention. While I have found myself to love play in the classroom, the ideal class year would be a year 1-2 classroom full of colourful words, letters, shapes and much more.
2.  Curriculum and learning objectives: The Australian Curriculum is the main focus in the classroom to teach all learning areas. This would also integrate ICT resources to all elements of learning for the students. While I have an interest in HPE and The Arts, I would seek to utilise all student interest in developing their knowledge for the ever changing ICT world.
3. My learners: Each student is valued in the classroom, with a willing attitude to learn while expanding their existing knowledge. The students all bring their culture to a classroom of bright, enthusiastic and talented young students.

Happy Reading,

Meghan 🙂

My Interaction and Efficiency of ICT

What does ICT really mean?

After reading through a peers post I became informed on the topic of ICT and that it is more then turning on a computer. The peer’s post explains that ICT is within the efficiency of how we utilise technology within the classroom. Melissa wrote about the efficiency of how technology has changed the way we interact through day to day tasks. She compliments her leanings of ICT by introducing Natasha’s Blog into her own thoughts, feelings and perspectives.

She also implements into her discovery of ICT through a peers Blog, Natasha’s post generates Melissa’s own prospective on ICT and its efficiency to generate her own thoughts on the matter.

Click on the peers names hyperlinked above for more information on their Blogs.

However on this topic, both blog posts have generated my own thoughts, feeling and current or future use of technology. I believe that technology has changed and continues to shape the way we as pre serviced teachers will teach our students. Technology will continue to uplift the environment we teach in, to help visual, kinaesthetic and auditory learners. In doing this the curriculum has been modified over the years to include a focus on further learning for adult skill development in ICT and technology essential for post school (MCEETYA, 2008).

While I have grown up in a technology based world, I have turned to not understanding what life was or is without technology. However, it is the ever changing technology that has developed our way of life for the better. This implicates the barriers I as a young educator will face, limiting motivation and creativity in the classroom (USQ, 2017). Creativity is the drive towards motivation for students to engage and continually develop their growing minds. Research has shown that many teachers chose not to use ICT due to their lack of knowledge and skills (Bingimlas, 2009). This draws back on my own knowledge and skills to further them through ICT engagement in particular this course.

As I continue to engage in the course and with other peers, I hope to expand my knowledge on integrating ICT into the classroom.

Thanks for reading,

Meghan 🙂

Bingimlas, K. A. (2009). Barriers to the successful integration of ICT in teaching and learning  environments: A review of the literature. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science &  Technology Education, 5(3), 235–245.

University of Southern Queensland. (2017). Why is learning how to use digital technologies        important?. Retrieved March 10, 2017, from                http://usqstudydesk.usq.edu.au/m2/mod/book/view.php?id=706488

Minister Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (Australia) [MCEETYA]. (2008). Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians. Retrieved from http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf