Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Introduction to Learning Technologies - The 21st Century learner

"Human communities depend upon a diversity of talent, not a singular conception of ability." Ken Robinson

There were so many gems in this video, but one of the things I'll take away is that teachers and the governing bodies that decide curriculum should not impose their own values of what talents and skills are worthwhile. Whilst using numerous technologies may take me out of my comfort zone, it may allow my students to shine.

In our first week of Technology across the curriculum we learnt that "there are two significant change agents in the current global environment - education and the internet." I signed up to getideas.org to further my understanding of education in the 21st century - Education 3.0.
My comprehension of the current values in education is that "learning is doing." More than ever before students are expected to question authority and to find answers for themselves. The other big change (from my own schooling) is that contemporary "systems integrate 21st century skills throughout the curriculum." I don't remember using computers at all during primary school, with the exception of the game - Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? And I think this activity was optional and to be accessed during free time. In high school we used computers for my "typing" class. This was a whole subject of learning how to type! What a wasted opportunity! I think now more than ever, pre-service teachers like myself will be aware that learning technology skills will be more effectively taught and learnt if they are used in conjunction with meaningful curriculum. A video on the getideas.org site featuring Sugata Mitra proved that "when you have interest, then you have education." And "children will learn to do what they want to do." To me, the work of the teacher keeps growing. It is not enough to understand the curriculum and define your expectations for what you want your students to learn. It is not enough to simply find activities and resources that you think will assist student learning. The teacher has to do all of the above AND most importantly, engage the students so that they will WANT to learn.



Ultranet was the other site that we were encouraged to explore. Whilst I'm not authorised to thoroughly explore the site, and it is now known that it's not immune to technical problems - in theory it sounds like a wonderful resource for teachers. Through Ultranet, teachers will be able to

  • access resources

  • share with peers

  • discover information about each student

In our first workshop we explored Inspiration. I enjoyed using this software - and at first only thought of it as a way for the students to create a profile of themselves. However, upon exploring the Inspiration website, I've discovered numerous ideas of how this software could be meaningfully integrated with the curriculum.
The following is the page I created to show my interests.

INSPIRATION



I must confess that I had never heard of "mindmapping" before the workshop. In school we always brainstormed using butcher's paper. But what a great way of allowing students to get their thoughts down in a more permanent and easily retrievable way.
MINDMAP


Finally this week we were encouraged to familiarise ourselves with VELS. For the most part I find VELS to be extremely helpful - I think it shows the abilities of students to be working towards a higher level, rather than being "below average." It's unfortunate that within our first or second year of teaching it'll probably be replaced by the National Curriculum!

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