Reflective
Synopsis
In the modern workplace and society in general, the use of information
and communication technology (ICT) has crossed the point in which it would
almost be impossible now to function and communicate efficiently without it. It
can be argued that globalization and technological change are
placing greater demands on education and skill development to keep up with the
shift in the nature of jobs available to young Australians (Robinson, 2006). As a
result of this and the rapid and continuing advances in ICT, The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians
(MCEETYA, 2008) has identified the need for young people to be highly skilled
in the use of ICT. From this it
is clear that there is a need for educators to teach and promote digital literacy
to not only enhance students learning and improve engagement, but to create
lifelong learners who will ultimately become active and informed members of society (Acara, 2013).
The generation that we are teaching now are
different to those before them and this has some pedagogical implications. Research
has shown that an adolescents brains has evolved to process more information at
faster speeds, as well as handle larger mental challenges cognitively. However attention
spans are shorter and keeping their attention can be difficult. The differences
between the generations is enormous social, emotional and learning styles
differ greatly. For example these days it is common for students to frequently
seek education and knowledge research online, with a large amount often
resorting to social media as a research tool. The power of collaboration in
modern classrooms is immense and valued greatly as a teaching style. ICT is well positioned to cater to all
learners and styles. Because in a traditional classroom, providing sufficient
resources to present information in a variety of styles is often difficult, ICT
can be used to facilitate learning and engage students, providing much needed
resources which is vital in modern day classrooms, now more than ever.
For educators ICT is an effective way to communicate and engage students
on a platform that is relevant and current to them. Once ICT is embraced the
teacher must create a safe and productive learning environment for students
that incorporates digitally rich learning experiences and enhances or extends
their ICT capabilities (AITSL, 2015). Teachers will need to employ a range of pedagogical strategies to
achieve these improved learning outcomes. For example developing a digital
pedagogy to facilitate, transform and ultimately improve learning outcomes in a
flexible and innovative way through the use of ICT.
There are
many digital tools that an educator can use to allow ICT to reach its full potential and transform the nature of
collaborative learning. This can be facilitated by using instructional
strategies enhanced by technology to
engage, enrich and extend learning in a pedagogically sound, flexible and
innovative way. An example of this is Wiki classrooms which is multi-author, social writing platform
that can be used to share information, knowledge, experience, ideas/views,
create assignments, share resources, make announcements and foster discussion. This
outstanding tool permits social interaction and allows for the pedagogy of
connectedness, by permitting learners to collaborate with peers, an opportunity
for peer tutoring in the classroom and online, both locally or globally.
Moreover it permits the teacher to follow and model legal and ethical codes
such as copyright laws, to create a safe private network for students to
participate and achieve in many great leaning opportunities.
The use of ICT to educate learners and develop digital literacy provides
many opportunities to foster a student’s creativity, as well as in regards to
blooms taxonomy, to facilitate deep knowledge through developing higher order
thinking skills such as analyzing, evaluation and synthesis (Robinson, 2006. & Willis, 2011). This might look like building on prior knowledge or supporting
learners in their capacity to apply
social and ethical protocols
whilst consulting multiple resources to make informed decisions about the
information’s usefulness and validity to a given task. Furthermore it permits
important opportunities for student centered learning
by supporting learning that is owned, controlled and managed by students
themselves.
The SAMR model is a useful framework in which
educators can assess their learning plans to determine whether they have
effectively embedded these digital pedagogical tools to transform the learning
and support ones understanding of the ways in which
ICT and e-learning have become integral to learning. This model helps the
teacher where appropriate, ensure that ICT is used as a transformative tool
rather than just supporting or enhancing their lessons. For example potentially
allowing students to develop critical thinking in regards to problem based
learning that has relevance and meaning to the student, posed by the educator. Moreover
it extends a teachers understanding of the types of thinking they can support
by influencing their ways of questioning and designing education to facilitate
this learning.
It can be seen that the outcomes for students through the use of ICT are
beneficial and abundant. The benefits include effective higher order thinking,
communication, organisational, teamwork and skills development. Teachers can no
longer be regarded as the sole source of learning and the values of genuine
learner-centeredness, authenticity, collaboration and flexibility are now
possible to achieve in a variety of ways. Learners are now able to be responsible
for their own learning and the role of the teacher has now become one of
facilitator rather than expert and education must change to meet the needs of today’s
generation.
References
Acara.edu.au,
(2013). Educational goals | ACARA. Retrieved 5 May 2015, from http://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/national_report_on_schooling_2009/national_policy_context/educational_goals.html
AITSL. (2015) (1st ed.).
Retrieved from
http://acce.edu.au/sites/acce.edu.au/files/TTF%20-%20Graduate%20Teacher%20Standards%20-%20ICT%20Elaborations%20-%20200411.pdf
Robinson, K.
(2006). Transcript of "How schools kill creativity". Ted.com.
Retrieved 5 May 2015, from
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity/transcript?language=en
Willis. (2011). Big
Thinkers: Judy Willis on the Science of Learning.
