Alternate Teaching Tools

This week we were asked to investigate different mediums into which we could use to present classwork to our students. Of course, we have already done some small work with Web 2.0 sites (Blogger and Wiki are classified as Web 2.0 because they can be made open to public alterations and postings), so I had a look into what it would be like to create a site using a Web 1.0 tool (website).

  http://sineofmaddness.weebly.com/

Above is a very simple start to what potentially could be built into a worth while site. This could be used as a good tutorial or example site. Students do not have the privileges to edit or change the content. Therefore, this would encourage more in class and face-to-face conversation when completing a task they find complicated.

 

On my site as you can see above, I have used a math pun to hopefully capture more student interest followed by a small blurb which will entice them further. The background image is just helps to make reference to what your mind goes through, and for us, usually needing a coffee just to keep our own thoughts in order.

 

I believe that using a website as an educational tool could be a highly beneficial asset in the classroom. With the ability to include links to other useful sites, include images and videos, and of course text. It also allows for easy access for students at home who need assistance with the task at hand, just needs to go online and log onto the site.

The Moble Phones Debate Using de Bono's Six Thinking Hats

There is nothing funnier than watching a student sit in a classroom calmly staring at the ground for several minutes on end. Personally I have never noticed anything that makes looking in that direction as much of an emotional rollercoaster as some students experience.
This raises the question:

Should mobile phones be used/allowed in the classroom?

I was asked to participate in a group activity using de Bono's Six thinking hats. These six hats are:

• Judgement
• Process
• Creativity
• Feelings
• Benefits
• Information

Using this style of scaffolding, it was easy to quickly consolidate information from a range of perspectives on this topic. I believe that it is so important to make sure the information that we gather and use, is not based on a biased towards phones. Mobile phones are continually been upgraded and made more powerful, making them a valuable tool that can used to enhance the teaching of students.

The Wiki page we used was set up in a such a useful and effective way for easy collection of information. Personally, I am still unsure wether or not I like the website as an education tool, but it definitely has the potential to offer more access to more students., but can also limit the personal aspect of a group discussion on topics as mobiles phones. While participating seeing the names of students I know, made wanting to be involved something exciting due to the fact we could have a friendly discussion where we expressed our opinions without getting hot headed at one another.

Using a scaffolding system like this can be highly effective for the teaching of students because it offers a safe place to put forward an opinion. This needs to be backed with a classroom discussion to delve deeper into the topic and provide the a high level of retention so students can remember what was discussed down the track, creating greater learning outcomes.

The Modern Classroom

The world we are apart of today, is not the same world that in service teachers learnt in. We live in a time where globalisation is a part of every day life, and the collective knowledge of the human race is at out finger tips (even if you can't trust everything you read of Wikipedia).

Traditional education is slowly being superseded by a new era of technology based learning styles. I graduated in 2012, where for the school I was apart of ICT was a class and not a huge part of the normal classroom. I remember carrying around two or three textbooks everyday because we were to "old" to receive laptops and be able effectively use them in the classroom.

Before going into huge depth, its important to understand that there is shortcomings to the technology that we use in the classroom. Some shortcomings can be such things as:

• Broken laptop
• Network failure
• Kids may not have access at home
• Can cause “busy” work
• Doesn’t always offer the same information retention as when writing into a notebook

These were some of the points that we discussed in the lecture and were the most obvious to us as pre-service teachers while we had been on our teaching practicals last year. These shortcomings though are caused by not knowing when you have used ICT's to much.

I believe that by the end of this course I will be able to successfully structure a class using ICT's to create successful educational outcomes using e-Learning. I see it as a part of the world we are growing into, and having generation Z as the target audience for these new teachings pedagogies, Education will become something new, and exciting.