Tommy’s Blog

I just recorded a blog on Powerpoint and how well it is utilized in a classroom setting. It would be great to get some feedback and hear everyones opinion.

Wouldn’t it be great to have the opportunity to give students a computer for every lesson of the day. The article David Jonassen  is a very good piece of writing. It gives heaps of examples of how students can use computers as these wonderful mind-tools. The way these mind-tools facilitate learning seem incredible and probably do work.  However it seems very hard to be able to utilise them as much as David Jonassen. Students, do not have a great deal of opportunity to use computers alot. The use of System Modelling tools and Databases seem like and excellent idea for teachers to use though. I believe the more a teracher uses a computer in a lesson preparation the more a class will be engaged. If a class can see tha you have put effort into a lesson and didn’t just ”turn up”, they may be more engaged in the class. Therefore, teachers need to become as literate as possible with their computer skills because as computers and ICT become more and more part of a school community, it will be neccessary for teachers to have resources such as these mind tools whic can facilitate learning. Jonassen’s article is extremely relevant but access is needed in order to utilise his ideas fully. 

The page The Six C’s of Motivation is a very intersting read because it actually links back to a subject we already participated in this year – Psychology and Adolscent Learning. Ames (1992), Lepper and Hodell (1989) suggest some strategies to increase students’ classroom motivation and derived out of these strategies are the six C’s of motivation – choice, challenge, control, collaboration, constructing meaning, and consequences. This is something that I saw first hand on my practicum. Student’ who exceled and wanted to do well in school demonstrated characteristics of six of these motivations. if they felt value, were challenged, they involved in their own learning,were able to output ideas with others, were able to construct a meaning in class, and knew consequences of bad and good behaviour they were usually the most talented and successful students. Students on the other end of the success scale showed less or no signs of these six c’s of motivation. This is something as teachers we need to be aware of. we need to recognise that every student is different and that they need to be motivated in different ways. No-one will ever learn somehting if they are not motivated. Teachers need to find ways to motivate every single student – not just the higher-achieving ones.

I read the book chapter ‘What is Meaningful Learning?’  Jonassen, D., et al. 2008, Meaningful Learning with Technology, 3rd edn, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, pp.1-12. It seems that technology only helps learning when it is taught in an appropriate way by the teacher. For example, when the technology becomes new and updated it seemes that teacjhers still try to teach the same way they were but with the use of technolgy. Teachers need to use the technology in a way that will be insightful and meaningful to the students. Teachers cannot be blamed for their lack of experience with technology. It must be hard to be born in the 1950′s and teach in today’s society. Teachers can be blamed for their laziness and lack of effort to adapt. My mother is a teacher and she says in the last 20 years that teaching in classrooms has changed dramatically. The kids have changed, so she has adapted her teaching style to fit with these changes. There are many teachers who refuse to change the way they teach because the way they teach is easy and care on ‘the road to retirement’. This is a problem with the schooling system – Teachers who don’t care. While I was on prac I sat in a staffroom with teachers where all  but two teachers don’t care about the students anymore. This could have easily rubbed off on me. Some teachers would question why i was even bothering trying to build a rapport with some troubled kids. And the teacher wonder why thee kids don’t behave in their classroom.

I just finished a post by Kristy who described her prac experience. She demonstrated how her kids were and more enthused (and it seemed better behaved) during a computer lesson. She also commented on a newspaper article she read. Supposedly the article delivers the question – Are computers helping our teaching or are we merely cheating. I had an experience similar to this question on prac as too did Kristy. I was teaching year 10 drug safety, and was trying to get students to read and analyze an article called “Anna’s Story”. They seemed unintersted and bored. The next lesson we were in the computer labs and it seemed that they were really enjoying the lesson and getting much out of it. However, it felt like I wasn’t teaching anymore because I simply gave them a task and they went and did it. I’m not sure if this is how you are suppose to feel or it just me.

I just read Tom A’s Blog about YouTube and its effectiveness as a classroom resource. I totally agree with what Tom says, he writes that students will stay focused on what is in front of them and will love the visual cues etc. However, it is important not to totally rely on YouTube as a teaching resource a few reasons are as follows.

- The instability of the site – It can crash at any time, so plan B’s are extremely important when using this medium.

- Insecurity of the site – Anyone can put anything on the site and it may not be appropriate in a classroom environment.

- Pixels – YouTube runs on a low quality of pixels, when projecting this on a screen it will not portray the same image as seeing on the computer screes (it may be blurred)

- laziness – it is important that teachers are prepared for the class and no all the sites they have to go to rather than just searching on the spot. Also it would be easy to use this all the time and not utilise the teachers own teaching skill.

All in all You Tube is an excellent teaching resource but precautions need to be taken.

Kids are global citizens now. This statement jumped right out of th page when I read the aricle How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century from TIME Magazine. This statement reinforces how much technology enables students to access information as it happens. Kids want to know about the world, because it is their community. This is something teachers need to start incorporating into their classrooms. Relating information on how it is represented within the world is such an important thing. It is going to autimatically engage an audience, if the infromation affects someone they are going to absorb and analyze it in the future.

Instead of teaching students abstract concepts and ideas that ase out of date and irellevant they need to start teaching information that directly realtes to them. ICT can help this cause. This is what the article from TIME magazine is focusing – Moving out of the 20th century. Teaching resources and pedagogies have not really changed dramatically, however everything else has. Government funding for public schools should be on a broader scale and focus on advancing education systems into the 21st century.

Ihave just read ben’s blog on his thoughts of the article about indigenous education and learning with the use of ICT. I really like his point about how ICT can enhance communication with students not only within a classroom but at homw also. This is something I believe in very much so, learning shouldn’t finish when a student leaves a classroom, they should be trying to enhance their knowledge of the subject through differnt types of mediums. ICT allows teachers to coorespond with students and parents all the time, rather than just once a semester at a parent-teacher interview. Parents should be very much involved in the students learning, having contact with parents is a crucial part of education.

The article by Seymour Papert is a very intriguing piece of writing. The way Paper sets the scene by comparing education to stagecoach is great. He asks the reader to imagine applying the physics of a jet engine and using it on a stage coach. He makes evidently clear that this would definitely not work because a jet engine is too powerful for a stagecoach. He relates this to the education system of today. Teachers and schools are much like stage-coaches, with technology being the jet engine. Older teachers are finding it hard to implement the use of ICT technology within a classroom environment. Whether this is due to lack of resource, training or experience it is extremely evident that this is real and happening today.

Two ways in which he thinks the “education Stagecoach” can be improved is by 1. improving existing school practices, including the teaching of the current content, and 2. introducing very elementary forms of ‘computer literacy’ or ‘technological fluency’ . If this was implemented, it would make it easier for students and teachers to excel in ICT. Teachers need more training and resources in order to make ICT useful in schools. ICT is the future so it absolutely neccsary to teach it in depth to people who will run the future – students.

I have just read a blog posted by Tom (Not me haha) on which he was commenting on an article by Robert Parkes called A Web Dilemma. Tom makes an interesting point saying he wished he read the article before he went out on his pracricum so he could have made a more useful ICT lesson. I love the fact that he wants students to think for themselves. This is something I tried to impliment into my practicum. I designed a research assignment for students to research “party drugs and their effects on the community”. I made all these great questions, but found most of the time students would go to Wikipedia and just copy and paste it. Even though we discussed the information after the assignment was finished, it just seemed like it was a little too weasy for them with such websites as wikipedia and the use of copy paste. I would love to know of a way to limit this copy and paste process to make a more thought provoking assignment.