In the 21st 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
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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