Synopsis

In the 21^st century technology has permeated our lives in ways that would have been unfathomable just a few decades ago. Students in contemporary learning environment have been raised within this world of technology, making them digital natives (Prensky,2010). The way they communicate, think, interact and socialise is through technology. Our society is structured heavily on the need to be technologically capable and literate now and in the future. Students need to be given the opportunity to actualise their learning potential through the application of ICTs in contemporary classrooms. This allows for students to interact and collaborate to assist in meaningful learning as well as instil the idea of connectedness and becoming global citizens.  Through this course, it has become clear that through effective digital pedagogies education can be transformed to cater to the needs of students and offer an enriching learning environment. It is also imperative that teachers instil and model for students how to exhibit safe, legal and ethical digital behaviours.

Digital pedagogies enable students to use ICTs for accessing and evaluating information, developing global perspectives,  collaborate,   foster higher order thing and deep knowledge through inquiry, organise and express ideas through many digital avenues, and evaluate their own thinking. Two Pedagogical frameworks that assist with these objectives in the classroom are those of SAMR (Hogan, 2011) and Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom,1956).  These frameworks have been central to the learning process in this course. Bloom’s Taxonomy placed an emphasis on higher order thinking and synthesising ideas. With complex and nuanced learning objectives regarding high order and critical thinking Blooms Taxonomy is essential in inquiring how ICTs can enhance the learning experience.  Blooms Taxonomy was applied weekly through our engagement with blogs and wikis. We were forced to constantly articulate, synthesise and evaluate our thought processes.  

The SAMR model is an essential pedagogy for enhancing learning through ICTs. It has been very beneficial to research how different mediums such as images, audio and video can be used by students to curate and express ideas. These technologies are essential in the initial stages of the SAMR model. The most critical stages of the model are the final two. The ‘modification’ and ‘redefinition’ stages are critical frameworks to consider when incorporating and selecting relevant ICTs, as they allow educators to constantly consider means of expanding an activity to enhance learning and become more student centred. When an activity is student centred the pupil is able to control and engage with their personal learning. When the SAMR model is executed, students are able to evolve their original ideas and perspectives and collaborate to extend their initial learning. This was proven when examining the use of various presentation methods in weeks five and six. A student could use the technology of ‘Dipity’ to easily create digital artefacts conveying information through many digital avenues. This activity can then be furthered by using blogs and wikis to allow students to engage with each other allowing them to critique and comment on the work of their peers. This can then be furthered by students updating their new perspectives and sharing them with a global community through the internet. This framework informs how teachers can design classroom experiences that cater for diverse learning needs of students and allow them connect, engage and be facilitated to take charge of their own learning.

Collaboration is a pervasive theme in digital pedagogy as it allows students to interact intellectually on a deeper level and instils the value of being able to expand learning beyond the four walls of the physical classroom. The ‘de Bono’s Thinking Hats activity’ set the tone for engaging with a vast range of perspectives and allowing collaboration to enhance learning. This has also been true of the blogging, wiki and social media activities like ‘scoop it’ as it demonstrates how enriching collaboration is to the learning process. It is essential that students learn the value of engaging with alternate perspectives. This not only allows empathy and higher order thinking but helps them view themselves as part of a global community that has the capacity to create and disperse important ideas. It is not only essential for students to collaborate. Educators need to be able to engage with technology to collaborate with their peers for their own personal and professional development. By consistently engaging with technologies and digital pedagogies educators can help meet the demand of using cutting edge ICTs in the classroom.

Another need when considering ICTs in the classroom is to consider how to create emotionally and physically safe learning environments. The internet is an incredible tool but it can be dangerous as students can be vulnerable. It is possible to create safe environments by monitoring what students access and giving students safe websites to use. It is also essential create safe spaces such as wikis or chats for students to interact and collaborate. The onus is on educators to teach students how to interact respectfully whilst using technologies. Students must also be made aware of how to be legally and ethically conscious when using technologies. This can range from using sites with integrity to ensuring they are not passing off intellectual property as their own. This has been consistently modelled through group activities in this course as students are accountable for interacting responsible and demonstrating safe, legal and ethical behaviour regarding ICTs.

It is essential for teachers to effectively engage with and use ICTs within the classroom. Graduate teachers are expected to meet the following standards: 

2.6 -  Implement teaching strategies for using ICT to expand curriculum learning opportunities for students

3.4 - Demonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning.

 4.5 -  Demonstrate an understanding of the relevant issues and the strategies available to support the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICT in learning and teaching.

(ATLSL, 2014)

In conclusion, this synopsis has aimed to identify and synthesise the values and key ideas that have been presented thus far in EDSE12024. For teachers to do the best by their pupils it is essential to engage with digital pedagogies and use ICTs to their full potential within the classroom. It is also imperative to impart the value of collaboration, being global citizens, student centred learning and model how to practice safe, legal and ethical behaviours when interacting with technology.

References

AITSL. (2014). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/standards/list

Bloom, B. (1956) Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains, Retrieved from

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#cognitive

Hogan, L. (2011) SAMR- A Model for Instructional Technology Use- VIDEO, Retrieved from     https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=519&v=PRo9cfp2baA’

Prensky, M. (2010). Teaching digital natives. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin

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Week 7 Reflection

Greetings,

From the beginning of this course there was a clear emphasis on collaboration. The most exciting aspect of the online learning experience is this seemingly infinite opportunity to engage with new ideas and perspectives. With quite a broad learning structure students were enabled to explore different content and direct their own learning. This both allowed individuals to cater to their interests as well as expand their horizons. I would think of it as a group foraging experience as students were able to go off on different tangents, collect information and report back each week on their blogs. The topics were straightforward but the avenues that individuals explored were vast. This experience created a pool of knowledge that was filled with alternative perspectives. It also gave students the means of expressing their ideas through different forms of media like images, text, videos and interactive websites.

 With the course wiki, it was very easy to access the blogs of each student in the course. By using blogging and wiki technology it was possible to collaborate on a deeper level with student work. The technology allowed for individuals to comment and critique ideas in a safe environment dedicated to learning. This allowed for students to truly engage with content and delve deeper into the ideas they contributed. In terms of commenting I believe I may have refrained more than others as I enjoyed the ability to watch ideas organically grow, develop and change through the process of this course. The empowering thing was that I always had the opportunity comment and respond to content at whim.  It was interesting week to week noticing students take structures like the SAMR model and continually add depth and relevance to its value in creating effective resources. This was a great way to incorporate new perspectives an paradigms that I may have overlooked into my own work. This was a wonderful experience as there were very few limitations on my ability to contact and collaborate with students. If I desired clarification or discussion it was at my finger tips and never limited by location.

A particularly useful activity at the beginning of the course was the ‘De bonno’s thinking hats’ activity as it set the tone for students to voice their opinion, think from different perspectives and collaborate with others. This tone continued through the length of the course. Discussions were able to overlap from blogs/ wikis, to student’s social media and into the physical classroom. I feel that this added a new level of depth to the classroom experience as learning was taking place outside of a physical space and was not limited by scheduling. I feel that overall the combination of an online and classroom environment enriched the learning and collaboration potential of this course. It further demonstrates the imperative of incorporating these technologies in a contemporary classroom.