Whether we like it or not, e-learning is
here to stay. As a ‘digital immigrant’, the
concept of e-learning and ICTs in teaching was initially daunting. However for students of today, the ‘digital
natives’, ICTs is what they know, and what they have grown up with. As Prensky has suggested, if we don’t engage
the digital natives, we will enrage them (Prensky, 2005).
Although this idea has been challenged, I think that we need to embrace
technology and use it wisely to enhance learning outcomes for our students. This, in a nutshell, is digital pedagogy –
using ICTs to enable students to connect information from outside the
classroom, use inquiry to develop knowledge and understanding, collaborate all
over the world, support thinking, organising, managing and evaluating
information, and create expressive and reflective products and solutions (Fasso, 2013b).
ICTs are considered so integral in education today, that ICT capabilities are embedded across the Australian Curriculum, and student and
teacher ICT expectations and competencies have been developed. A key component of the student ICT
expectations is the use of ethical, safe and responsible practice when working
with ICTs (Queensland Government, 2012). For
teachers, a number of policies and documents detail how they can demonstrate
and model safe, ethical and legal online practice. This has been explored in detail in a previous
post.
Although ICTs can be found everywhere in
our lives today, as teachers, we need to remember that ICTs on their own do not
lead to enhanced learning. As Wendy
Fasso sums up perfectly, “learning with ICT is beneficial only when appropriate
learning approaches are taken” (Fasso, 2013d). For me, the TPACK framework explains
this clearly, as it shows how the combination of using technology with sound
pedagogical design and content specific knowledge will lead to enhanced
learning. I have explored the TPACK
framework in an earlier post.
When developing any form of effective
learning, it is important to consider the learning theories to understand how
and why students learn. Four main
learning theories, Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Constructivism and Connectivism
all lend themselves e-learning (explored in an earlier post). Even though some of these learning theories
were created before the digital age, they all have ICT applications, and a
range of theories should be used to help inform learning design (Fasso, 2013a).
ICTs also have application for Bloom’s
Revised Taxonomy, especially in the Cognitive Domain. This domain or type of learning includes
knowledge and intellectual skills, ranging from lower order thinking skills (recall
of information), to the highest order thinking skills (creating and designing) (Clark, 2010).
ICTs can be used across the spectrum of the Taxonomy, for example, online
quizzes can be used for recall of information (‘Remembering’ category), online
concept maps can help categorise information (‘Understanding’ category), commenting
on blogs (‘Evaluating’ category), or designing and constructing blogs, wikis
and podcasts (‘Creating’ category) (Churches, 2013).
Similarly, a range of ICT tools should
be used to cater for the learning styles of students. Students are able to determine their
learning preferences through online tests, such as Felder and
Solomon and Gardner’s Multiple
Intelligences - ones I have tried and blogged about earlier. There is no way
that all learning styles can be accommodated at all times, nor would that be
appropriate. It is important to have a
healthy mix of approaches throughout the unit, and in the case of ICTs,
students should be comfortable using a variety of tools. ICTs can meet the needs of all learning
styles, and when used within the TPACK framework, can contribute to improved
learning for collaborative, individual, visual, auditory or interactive work (Fasso, 2013c).
A collaborative ICT activity we participated
in was a wiki activity about the use of mobile phones in classrooms. While I was not overly impressed by the
functionality of the wiki, the fact that it allowed for collaborative and
higher order thinking outweighed the function restrictions (as discussed in an earlier
post). The use of scaffolding with deBono’s six hats
was crucial to the activity. While a
wiki as a tool lends itself to collaborative thinking, without appropriate
scaffolding, effective learning probably won’t result. For me, the scaffolding elicited more
thoughtful responses using a wide array of “hats”, rather than just providing
my initial thoughts on the topic. This
really highlighted the importance of scaffolding for when I use wikis or other
ICT tools in the classroom. While I want
my students to have their own learning journey, scaffolding is needed to guide
them in the right direction, and to think outside the box. This should lead to a richer learning
experience, and exploring other avenues that they may not have taken if the
scaffolding was not there.
We then moved from learner to creator,
and got our hands dirty by developing our own wiki and website, as well as
exploring blogs in more detail. I have
analysed and reflected on each tool in more detail in earlier wikis, website and blogs posts. I
found it hard to choose between the three tools, because each tool contains
qualities that will have relevance to my teaching. But more importantly, each tool
can be used by the students themselves to create, critically think and reflect. These tools
highlighted for me the importance of choosing an ICT tool specific for the task
to enhance learning – that is, the Technology element of the TPACK framework is
equally as important as the Pedagogy and Content elements. However, according to Harris and Hofer
(2009), the primary focus needs to be on the pedagogy and content of the
learning goals and activities, and the technologies that best serve these
learning goals and activities should be selected last. They suggest that this approach allows teachers
to develop their TPACK framework accurately, rather than technocentrically
(which, they believe, is commonly the way teachers integrate educational
technologies into their teaching) (Harris & Hofer, 2009).
To
choose one tool, I anticipate that blogs will be the most useful in my
teaching. I really like that students
can document their learning journey and reflections in their ‘own’ space, and
have the added benefit of teachers and fellow students commenting on and adding
value to their work as they post it. In
Year 9 Home Economics, students could use a blog for their research, planning,
analysis, and reflection for a new food group they explore every week. However, because blog posts go online
instantly, students will need to ensure their blog posts (and comments on other
student’s blogs) follow ethical, legal and safe guidelines. They need to ensure there is no inappropriate
or abusive language generally or towards another person, no illegal content, and
that they have not infringed copyright laws.
A blog (and comments on other blogs) are regarded as the thoughts and
opinions of the author signed in, so therefore, students need to ensure they
keep their password secure so that others cannot log in with their name.
Blogs,
wikis and websites are beneficial because they allow for multimodal
learning. Images, video and audio can be
embedded in these tools, but are also are powerful learning tools on their
own. As I have detailed in earlier posts,
images can be very
effective in the teaching areas of Home Economics and Science, and audio has really
been enhanced with the introduction of podcasts. However, I feel videos have the teaching
advantage over these two tools because of its ability to accommodate both
visual and auditory learners (as discussed in an earlier post). With the wide availability of ‘smart phones’
and iPods, videos are now even easier to create and share, making them more
accessible to more students. Although
the video does not go ‘live’ until the student shares or uploads the video,
students need to be aware of ethical guidelines while creating their
video. This includes not using inappropriate
language or concepts, not using illegal content, ensuring permission has been
sought from people filmed in the video, and complying with copyright laws. These considerations are also applicable for
images and audio.
Other
tools that are powerful on their own or embedded within a blog, wiki or website
are PowerPoint, Prezi and Glogster.
Having worked in a field where training sessions were ‘death by PowerPoint’,
it was refreshing to learn new and interactive ways to include PowerPoint in
the classroom (refer to PowerPoint post). However, to be interactive and engaging, PowerPoint
needs to be used on its own or within a wiki, because once it’s embedded into a
Prezi or blog (as a video), it becomes a non-interactive slide viewer. Prezi is more interactive, but I found it
quite hard to navigate (as discussed in my Prezi post). Glogster, however, was both user-friendly and
web-friendly, and I think it will have many uses in my teaching (refer to my Glogster
post). I can see that students
will also enjoy constructing glogs themselves to enhance learning. For example, Year 8 science students could
create a glog on volcanos, embedding videos of erupting volcanoes, audio from
an expert or “survivor”, images of igneous rocks, and links to websites. I think that by creating their assessment
piece using a multimodal, interactive tool like Glogster, students may be more
engaged than with a traditional science project, potentially leading to
enhanced learning outcomes.
Animations
and simulations are also interactive tools that can be used in the
classroom. While I enjoyed creating an
animation in GoAnimate, I think for my teaching of secondary aged students,
simulations will be more relevant. The
tools I explored (and analysed further in an earlier post) were in
the area of Science, because simulations can be instrumental when students are
trying to understand and apply concepts they cannot see (eg creating molecules). ExploreLearning Gizmos is a
fabulous educational science simulation tool that has the added benefit of
being in line with the Australian Curriculum.
However, an anticipated negative of the tool is it’s potential high subscription
cost.
Overall,
there is a plethora of ICT tools available for educational use. The key is to ensure they are used within the
TPACK framework so that they are intertwined with pedagogy and content
knowledge to enhance learning, and are used appropriately to complement the
range of thinking skills as per Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. A mix of ICT tools is beneficial to appeal to
all learning styles of students, however, regardless of the tool used, students
(and teachers) need to be aware of and follow ethical, safe and legal guidelines. For enhanced learning using the ICT tools,
teachers should establish appropriate scaffolding. Without scaffolding, students may enjoy using
the tool, however, the intended learning may not result. From here, my next e-learning
stage will be to design a unit of work - to put into practice the TPACK framework,
use ICT to achieve higher order thinking skills as per Bloom’s Revised
Taxonomy, consider learning theories and their ICT applications, and
accommodate multiple learning styles when choosing ICT tools throughout the
unit. As we begin our first EPL
placement, I am looking forward to putting the ICT tools I have explored into
practice, and to plan (and implement) a ‘real’ unit of work with ‘real’
students using sound digital pedagogy.
References
Churches, Andrew. (2013). Bloom's - Introduction from http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+-+Introduction
Clark, Donald. (2010).
Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains. from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#cognitive
Fasso, Wendy. (2013a). A
Brief Overview of Learning Theory.
Retrieved 3 March 2013, from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491: ICTs for
Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=115326
Fasso, Wendy. (2013b).
Digital Pedagogy. Retrieved 2 April
2013, from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491: ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=115235
Fasso, Wendy. (2013c). Know
Your Learner. Retrieved 2 April 2013,
from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491: ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=115325
Fasso, Wendy. (2013d).
Teaching in Digital Environments. 1 April 2013, from CQUniversity e-courses,
EDED20491: ICTs for Learning Design http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=115334
Prensky, Marc. (2005).
"Engage Me or Enrage Me" What Today's Learners Demand. Educause Review. from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf
