Reflective Synopsis

This post I will delve into my discoveries of the inclusion of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) in the classroom, and why it has a very important place in today’s education system. From this discussion you will not only discover how ICT can further prepare students to be more active and successful in today’s society, but also how it can be a great tool for the educator to give and get real time data.

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The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, standard 2.6 states a graduate level teacher must implement ICT into teaching strategies to expand curriculum learning opportunities for students (AITSL, 2013). Therefore, if educators are to be compliant with the Australian Teaching Standards they must incorporate ICT into their lessons. The level teachers engage ICT into their classrooms, in regards to the SAMR model can have a varying effect on students. We have learnt that ICT should be used in the transformative level of modification and redefinition in the SAMR model to truly foster higher order thinking of the students. Merely just substituting a book for a word document, for example, can just as easily cause student disengagement. Substitution and augmentation is where the teacher is driving the students learning, but at the modification and redefinition levels the learning is more students driven – this is at a level where higher order learning occurs. 

       

The NMC Horizon report suggest that growing pressure is being put on teachers to understand how to use ICT tools and also to integrate them that foster more authentic digital learning (Horizon, 2014).

 Advancements of computers and the internet in the twenty-first century are changing the way education can be delivered. Education has moved from the teacher standing at the front of the classroom and delivering the learning material (teacher centred learning) to the current movement of student centred learning where the students interested is sparked by relevant community related questions. The students will then conduct their own research and the teacher role becomes more of a mentoring role, guiding the students while allowing them to have a more of a say in their own learning (Horizon, 2014). With student centred learning it may be expected that schools should be providing ways for students to continue to engage in learning activities, formal and informal, beyond the traditional school day (Horizon, 2014). From the previous examples and the fact that work is underway to develop deeper learning approaches (where ICT excels) it can easily be seen that teachers will need to be competent in ICT to allow students to follow the student centred learning path.

I have included the Digital technologies I enjoyed exploring in class into four categories of digital technology:

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1.      Digital tools – Video

2.      Digital platforms – Weebly, Wikispaces

3.      Presentation tools – Bubbl.us, PowerPoint

4.      Learning support tools - Voki

Now that technologies are making their way into classrooms it is important for teachers and students to be aware of the legal and ethical ramifications of not adhering to the school and government policies. This can easily be done by bringing policies to everyone’s attention and by the teacher also making sure that they demonstrate these procedures while they are conducting all tasks.

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Throughout the last seven weeks I have hopefully discovered the meanings and the links between Digital Pedagogy, Bloom’s Taxonomy and the SAMR model. The SAMR model is a tool that can provide teachers with a way to select self-reflect and refine how they incorporate ICT into their practice and pedagogy. These three tools are critical if the teacher is trying to develop successful digital pedagogy. ICT has the biggest impact on learning outcomes in the more complex areas of Blooms Taxonomy of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Therefore when developing a lesson the teacher needs to understand what level of learning outcomes their students are at in regards to Blooms Taxonomy, and aim for those levels while incorporating ICT’s based on the SAMR model preferably at the transformative level (modification or redefinition). This will insure the best possible learning outcomes for the students.

Digital pedagogy, Blooms Taxonomy and the SAMR model was hard for me to comprehend in the context of my teaching discipline of Industrial Technology and Design. I could not really visualise how I could incorporate ICT into my teaching area but I do believe I can incorporate it into my theory lessons in the future with more personal development and experience.   

Overall, I really enjoyed being exposed to new websites and learning the new skills that go along with operating them. This experience will be of great benefit to me as an educator and more importantly will help improve lesson engagement with my students in their learning material. I believe the best teachers have the option to incorporate all the tools available to them to achieve greater student academic results, therefore, if a teacher wants to continually improve as an educator they need to stay abreast of the latest technologies available to them.    

Works Cited

AITSL. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/standards/list

AITSL. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/search?&fc=CareerStage!graduate&fc=Scope!Iop&t=2&fc=Focus!3.1

Horizon, N. (2014). NMC Horizon Report. Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2014-nmc-horizon-report-k12-EN.pdf