Take a Step Toward Technology, By Amy K L Borrell at http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=6763
This article discusses some great ways for teachers to begin to implement technology into the classroom. The author found that “technology provides solutions for enlivening and enriching learning, but how to best use these components is a skill that must be learned” (para 3). The author talks about the importance for a teacher to gain a familiarity with technology by starting off with the use of computers in simple day to day tasks such as sending emails or recording grades. Other points the author pointed out in the article are to seek out training whenever possible and try to find a buddy who is more tech-savvy than yourself to help you when you need it.
One of the positives of the use of technology in the classroom talked about in the article are to “open the lines of communication between home and school by encouraging parents to contact you through e-mail” (para 10). Another advantage is educational programs tend to guide and allow children to work at their own pace. This means different types of learners can excel in their own individual way with scaffolded tasks. The author also discusses the fact that some children are very enthusiastic when it comes to technology so teachers should take advantage of this natural entthusiasm by involving the students in their e-learning and allowing them to help them and their fellow students.
After reading an interview with Seymour Papert at http://www.edutopia.org/seymour-papert-project-based-learning about his ideas on the current education system and the importance of a learning environment where children collaborate around meaningful projects it inspired me to think about education in a different way. I think Papert has some really interesting views on education and planning for the future that should be paid attention too. Papert discusses the way technology can aid in creating a more collaborative, student-centred environment by giving children opportunities to learn in ways that are meaningful and relevant to them.
So much of our education system and what we teach is irrelevant. We, as teachers, need to find ways to learn with the learners in a nurturing, stimulating environment. Technology is a useful tool to implement these things into everyday learning by allowing access to so many resources to encourage individual learning styles.
Levin, H. (2003). Making history come alive: Students interview Holocaust survivors and publish their stories. Learning and Leading with Technology 31(3), 22-27.
This article tells the story of a high school in San Francisco creating an oral history of the holocaust through digital story telling. The author explains the whole technical process of the project in detail allowing the reader to comprehend the work that went into the project. Howard Levin conceived the idea for students to create these digital oral histories when inspired by work he did on a project interviewing survivors of the Shoah. Although Howard was impressed by the scope of the project he was “frustarated with the lack of public access to the interviews” (pg 23, para 4). By designing this course and creating the website so the interviews could be viewed online not only were the students benefitting but the broader public aswell.
Designing this task for students meant that rather than being taught history they were discovering it for themselves. By creating their own questions it personalised the whole process and they got to learn about such an important part of our history from people who’d experienced it first-hand. Engaging students in this task meant that they were “crossing the boundary from ‘learner’ to ‘contributor’” (pg 26, para 2) and making something meaningful, to themselves and the general public. In this case without the use of technology the work wouldn’t have been nearly as meaningful and relevant as it wouldn’t have been possible to share it with a world-wide audience.
The article points out some of the most important points to consider before embarking on the project as choosing a relevant, interesting topic; setting aside sufficient time and keeping the technology as simple as possible so as not to create extra problems. Integrating a project like this into students’ learning takes alot of preparation and thought but can have great implications for the students and people who get to share their work. Giving children an opportinity to complete a project like this from start to finish will increase their self-confidence and their confidence with the use of different types of technologies.
One of the students asked one of the interviewees, Freda, why she thought it was important to share their stories and she replied that when her generation dies it will be a battle for historians to keep these stories alive. She believed it’s crucial that people understand that this atrocity (the holocaust) actually happened to real people and may be part of the human condition. By understanding ourselves more through interviews like these we may be able to change the human consciousness (pg 27). Allowing children to create and share amazing and important stories in this way is a great way to promote self-directed learning and increase technology skills.
You can check out the final results of these interviews at http://www.tellingstories.org.
Andrews, R. (2007).Don’t Tell Your Parents: Schools Embrace MySpace
This is another article on the growing acceptance and use of social networks (specifically ELGG) in schools. The particular school’s learning technologies manager, Stan Stenier, states that “education is meant to be an environment for student-centred and collaborative learning” and believes that social networks facilitate this theory by encouraging communication between students and teachers alike. It is also a tool for students to express their academic identity and gain a deeper more thoughtful learning experience.
I believe social technologies can enhance learning experiences in the classroom by encouraging more collaborative and personal learning through open communication and reflection with other students. This helps move away from the more traditional teacher lead style of learning and education that goes on in schools and creates a better sense of understanding and achievement for children. Young people want to feel a part of something, whether it be a sporting team, a music group or a classroom. Teachers should attempt to create a sense of team and belonging through the use of reflection and recognition via social technologies.
Lamb, A. & Johnson, L. (2006). Want to be my friend? What you need to know about social technologies. Teacher Librarian, 34(1), 55-57.
This article, as the title suggests, discusses the growing popularity of social technologies amongst youths and some of the positives and negatives this entails. The author describes social technologies as “computer-mediated communication environments that connect people for co-operation, collaboration and information sharing.” There are literally thousands of websites that facilitate online communication about anything and everything and the author lists some of the most well known ones such as www.myspace.com and www.facebook.com that are very socially focused or www.flickr.com and www.youtube.com which focus more on digital sharing of photos and videos etc. There also exists many more educational social forums and blogging websites where people can publish their thoughts or works to a world wide audience and recieve feedback and criticisms from other people with similar interests such as www.livejournal.com.
The article discusses the fears held by many in society that some of these social networks are replacing real face to face interactions between people. This may be true in some cases but I believe from my experience that these social websites actually enhance children’s social awareness and communication skills. Social technologies support the creation of new relationships and re-establishment of old ones. Children are able to meet people with similar ideas and interests and keep in touch with people separated by distance. Children want to share, they want to feel like they are a part of something and social networks can facilitate this by giving them a better sense of identity.
Although there are many positives to social technologies the author also talks about some of the negatives that are involved, especially concerning youths. Social technologies increasing children’s sense of self and self-confidence can also work in the opposite direction due to cyber-bullies and negative or misinformation. For this reason children must be taught to make responsible and ethical decisions when partaking in social networking. It’s also vital that children are shown how to “deal with uncomfortable online situations”. As the author found having an open line of discussion about social networking experiences with children will create a more conducive environment to safe and positive online interactions and learning.
I believe the article makes valid arguments for both the positive and negative sides of young people’s use of social technologies and lists a variety of these websites to discover. The advantages are there and therefore make it worth utilising in children’s learning. Social technologies can foster a better sense of identity, confidence, self-reflection and social awareness while creating new and stronger relationships at the same time. The broader an audience a child can communicate and debate with, the broader their knowledge will be turning them into more complete, whole people. Communication helps a child grow and as long as it’s supervised sufficiently social technologies are an important and effective way of supporting this growth.
After reading Emily’s Post on a youtube clip she viewed on integrating technology into the classroom it made me think about the positive effects it can have on a child’s self-worth. Having access to a whole other world of information and a whole other world of people and their ideas can have a huge impact on children. Being able to have their own thoughts expressed to a worldwide audience and having the opportunity to communicate with other kids from completely different cultures to their own opens up so many windows of possibilities. The more a child’s eyes can be opened up to new and different things the more they are going to learn and the more they are going to be accepting of themselves and others.
Ideally new things will be discovered through real life experiences but this is not always possible for all children. Where this isn’t possible the internet is a great resource for discovering and understanding things about the world that are different from their own immediate environment.
A child’s knowledge is their strength!
Just been checking out another website called ’sketchcast’ which allows the user to express themselves in an innovative way by creating a live sketch using drawings, words or voices to get a message across. A novel idea that could be used as an alternative to just writing down thoughts and ideas in personal blog spaces, online journals or any number of forums of public opinion.
Finding different ways to express yourself is always positive and can be utilised in children’s learning. This website could be used in relation to any number of KLA’s to challenge children to be creative and discover new ways to present ideas and thoughts. Probably need a little time to experiment and learn how to use the tools efficiently but definitely worthy of implementing into a class of fairly competent computer users.
Have a look at http://sketchcast.com/
After reading Emily’s post on an article found in the Sydney Morning Herald it made me reflect on the teaching of technologies in schools. I had a fairly negative attitude toward e-learning before undertaking it as a subject this semester. Still definitely have my reservations about how crucial it is and how it should be taught in the classroom but it definitely has it’s place.
I don’t believe that children should have to pass tests or be assessed in the subject of computers but I do think that they should be given opportunities to learn and discover what computers, the internet and other technologies are capable of. Through my studies in this subject I have discovered that there are some amazing benefits to being able to understand and navigate your way around different programs and the internet. The majority of websites are crap and so are many programs, but there are some really great ones that can open up new windows of opportunity to create, learn and communicate that may have otherwise never been available.
It’s essential, but difficult, to find some kind of balance between open-mindedness and critical awareness when implementing technology into learning.
I have been playing around on a website called ‘Toondoo’ at www.toondoo.com.
I think this is a fantastic website to use with children. It’s quite easy to use and there are 100’s of different tools that can be utilised to create your own comics or comic strips. This is a great website for improving children’s language and creative writing skills aswell as their computer skills.
There are endless possibilities of topics that could be explored through the use of this website and lesson plans could be created to fit into any of the KLA’s. Children are able to save their comics, create whole comic books and then share them with their friends or the world!
I believe that encouraging creativity is a vital role for a teacher and this website has great possibilities for that. It’s both engaging and educational and I believe it would be enjoyed by all different types of learners. For the less artistic children it provides an alternative avenue that can be explored to uncover their creativity. Using this website rather than the standard drawing and painting art activities that not all children enjoy or excel in could have a positive effect on children’s self-efficacy. Worth a thought!
Harel, I. (2003). Sand castles go digital. Retrieved August 4, 2006 at:
http://www.mamamedia.com/areas/grownups/new/21_learning/sand_castles.html
This article (if you can call it that) is essentially an advertisement for the mamamedia website. I feel the mamamedia website is ok. Colourful and got the right idea for trying to engage children in learning on the net but I don’t believe it’s executed paticularly well. Sometimes hard to navigate and pages are often unavailable. I think this brings up one of the critical problems when implementing the use of the internet in learning which is the lack of quality websites available. For every one useful website there are about 10,000 useless ones so it is imperative that e-learning is guided and scaffolded sufficiantly and efficiantly. Without proper guidance the internet becomes just a time-wasting tool.
The ‘three x’s’ idea to explore, express and exchange and Papert’s theory of constructionism are positive thoughts to utilise when encouraging learning via the net for children. More on Papert’s ‘constructionism’ can be found at www.papert.org.
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