Reflective Synopsis

E-learning provides people with flexibility in ‘place, pace and time’ with many now able to complete education from home around their personal lives (Clarke, p. 11). Using technology in a learning context is proven to enhance a learner’s intake of knowledge, as well as engaging students to pay more attention and become more interested in their lessons. A study by Oblinger and Oblinger (2005, as cited in Rudestam and Schoenholtz-Read, 2010, p. 87) has defined several characteristics of learners born since 1982; they prefer learning from pictures, sound and video, and enjoy interactive and networked activities more than previous conventional methods. Back, Haynes and Smith (2007, p. 69) believe students perceive online learning to be “a magical alternative to classroom learning that will take less time and be more entertaining than conventional learning.” It is therefore imperative new technologies are utilised within the classroom. There are a great variety of different programs available on the Web and many of them are free to use, especially if for educational purposes. The benefits of new technologies extend to teaching professionals also. Teaching is a field of lifelong learning and there are many online avenues dedicated to collaboration between educators which can be fantastic sources of new information and ideas.

As a future secondary school teacher, the use of ICT within the classroom will be necessary to engage and interest students. In a secondary setting, ICT’s will be used to enhance student learning and provide opportunity for students to find and refine knowledge. As a Humanities teacher, the use of ICT can open a world of learning far beyond the classroom, creating new perspectives and appreciations for the information they are acquiring. Students are more likely to engage with their learning if able to see images, videos and other media forms; things which would really make the historical and geographical work come alive for them. Technologies can be utilised to contact veterans and historians from other countries and Wiki’s can be used for students to share and develop their knowledge on a period of time or place. Podcasts can be sourced to offer students portable information and would be fantastic for auditory learners. Google Earth and Maps can be used to discover the texture and culture of a land far beyond Australia, please refer to Blog entry titled, “Google Maps and Earth”. Google Maps can also be used in a mathematical setting; when teaching navigation. As commented on a classmate’s Blog, “Thinking back to when I studied Navigation in High School, Google Maps would be a really great exercise to break up the monotony of working with a printed map.” (Appendix B). Activities incorporating interactive simulations can be included in class activity to provide a personal connection for students, refer Blog entry titled, “Learning Objects”. The use of these technologies provides learning opportunities for students which wouldn’t exits otherwise. Furthermore, secondary students will be at the Identity vs. Role Confusion state of development. This means ICT’s which offer collaboration and reflective practice, such as Blogging, would be highly beneficial as students attempt to find their sense of self (Snowman et al., p. 66).

Unfortunately, there are limitations to the activities students could do within the classroom as many websites are blocked by Education Queensland filters. For example, Google’s Blogger and Wikispaces are both inaccessible in schools. Other limitations to ICT integration would be time constraints. Setting up computer based presentations can be unreliable and time consuming. During set up time, teachers also have the responsibility of controlling class behaviour and ensuring class time is not wasted. Additionally, teacher’s must spent considerable time creating these mediums as many PowerPoint presentations, Blog entries and Wiki’s would need to be created at home. This can take a large amount of time when exams and assignments need marking and lessons need planning. This being said, the use of ICT within the classroom should be selected carefully to enhance learning, rather than for student amusement.

Firstly the discovery of new information is essential within the classroom. My investigation of ICT’s has determined websites provide the best starting point for students and educative professionals to source new information. Whilst a careful evaluation of sources must be conducted when using websites, this can also be a beneficial practice for secondary students who will be developing skills in critical literacy. During my own schooling years, I used hundreds of websites to acquire information for assessment tasks. Now at university, I have discovered the ease and usefulness of creating your own website. The program, Weebly is free to use and allows users to create personalised websites without confusing HTML language. Please refer to my Blog entry titled, “My Weebly Website” for a preview of my website.

Once students and teaching professionals have discovered new knowledge, it follows then to arrange the knowledge into a logical format. This process is truly enhanced by programs “Text2MindMap” and “Bubbl.us” which allow users to create concept maps. Within a secondary classroom students are frequently exposed to vast amounts of information as well as being required to source additional information. Graphic organisers such as concept maps would be greatly beneficial to students. Not only do these programs enhance both student and teacher learning, they also help to shape and refine knowledge, as people organise the information sequentially or into groups. My experience with the two programs can be viewed on my Blog entries titled, “Text2MindMap” and “Bubbl.us” respectively. This manipulation of information would allow students to “solve problems, gain understanding and discover new meanings (Education Queensland, 2002, p. 1).

Technology can be used to consolidate and refine knowledge very effectively. For this purpose, I found personal blogs the most useful within the learning context. My blog can be viewed at mell-p@blogspot.com and has proven to be a highly reflective tool, refer to Blog entry titled, “First impressions...”. Blogs can only be edited by the creator; however allow visitors to the blog to place comments and questions. A Blog is therefore fantastic for refining knowledge, as students would be receiving feedback, altering their information, and updating their blog – creating a smooth circle of knowledge refinement. As stated by Rudestam and Schoenholtz-Read, Blogging;

leads to the ability to categorize learning and relate to the experience of
the individual, encouraging the learning to contextualise and personalise the
learning activities in ways that strengthen learning and build confidence
(Handbook of Online Learning, 2010, p.103).

Blogging can be used as a reflective journal, kept by students or teachers then reviewed upon. The Blog would become a personal database of information, consolidating knowledge effectively. Please refer to Appendix B for a preview of Comments which were made during this project.

Of utmost importance is the transformation of knowledge to create new understandings. For this purpose I found a Wiki to be of best effectiveness. Please refer to Blog entry titled, “Our Group’s Wiki”. Wikis are a community type of technology, where members with a similar interest can join and actively participate in the information provided. With respect to the creation of new understandings, a Wiki’s power as a collaborative tool proves its worth. People from all over the world, with different backgrounds, memories and ways of thinking can work together to collaborate and create a database of highly relevant information. This type of communication will definitely enhance a learner’s attitudes and perceptions, thus creating new understandings. Rudestam and Schoenholtz (2010, p. 105) suggest Wiki’s encourage a different attitude to information, believing students will see printed text as ‘fixed and authoritive’ whereas Wiki’s create the perception of information as ‘fluid and flexible’. These attitudes deserve great consideration especially in secondary schooling situation as students frequently become bored with outdated textbooks.

As a teacher, the presentation of knowledge will be a frequent and daily task. My experimentation has found both PowerPoint and Prezi are the simplest and most effective tools when presenting to an audience. Please refer to my Blog entries titled, “Interactive PowerPoint” and “Hey! Prezi”. Firstly, PowerPoint presentations can enhance student interest as images, text, videos and sound can be embedded within the layout, please refer to Blog entries titled, “MovieMaker” and “Digital Images”. A PowerPoint currently is the most easily accessible program, standard for Microsoft Office suites. PowerPoint’s do not require access to the internet and can be created very quickly. Prezi on the other hand requires the internet and is free to use. Prezi creates presentations using text and images which literally zoom from each object to the next. The program can be fun and students would relate very well if this program was used to accompany a teacher’s lecturing. Further to this, I more strongly believe the integration of a range of technologies into the presentation of knowledge would achieve the most positive results. For example, a PowerPoint or Prezi could be shown to a class initially, and then a Podcast lecture could be assigned for homework. Students could then Blog their ideas and experiences so far with the knowledge, before undertaking a class assignment to produce an ‘expert’ Wiki page. In short, I feel the opportunities for presenting knowledge are greatly enhanced by the incorporation of many technological devices within the pedagogy.

With the fast paced and ever developing nature of 21st century technology, educative professionals would be doing disservice to their students by not incorporating the web based tools which are available into their pedagogy. Blogs, Wikis, Websites, Podcasts and presentation programs such as Prezi and PowerPoint are often free and very easy to use. Students of today’s climate will respond enthusiastically and will be more engaged if their teacher is using a variety of technological tools to support their learning journey. The Web 2.0 provides people with opportunity to collaborate and refine their knowledge, see and seek different perspectives and view images and videos not available from libraries or the television. I myself have explored a selection of free programs available to enhance student learning and also further develop my professional knowledge and will without a doubt incorporate the use of ICT’s in future lesson preparation and professional development.

Reference List

Bach, S., Haynes, P., & Lewis Smith, J. (2007). Online learning and teaching in higher education. New York, New York: Open University Press.

Clarke, A. (2008). E-learning skills (2nd ed.). New York, New York: Palgrave Macmillan

Education Queensland. (2002). Productive pedagogies: classroom reflective manual. Brisbane, QLD: Queensland Government.

Snowman, J., Dobozy, E., Scevak., Bryer., Bartlett., & Biehler. (2009). Psychology applied to teaching. Milton, QLD: John Wiley & Sons Australia.

Rudestam, K. E., & Schoenholtz-Read, J. (2010). Handbook of online learning (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.


Appendix A – Blog Entries

a) Google Maps and Earth
b) Learning Objects
c) My Weebly Website
d) Text2MindMap
e) Bubbl.us
f) First impressions...
g) Our Group’s Wiki
h) Interactive PowerPoint
i) Hey! Prezi
j) MovieMaker
k) Digital Images

Appendix B – Comments

• The following are the comments which have appeared on my own Blog.

http://mell-p.blogspot.com/2010/08/google-maps-and-earth.html#comments
“Wow thats amazing and creepy. That would be a great way to engage students in a history classroom.” Tarnah

http://mell-p.blogspot.com/2010/07/interactive-powerpoint.html#comments
“Mel, had the same problem myself with sending it from Word to Powerpoint. Most schools will probably have 2007. The only answer I could come up with was to save the document first and open it in Powerpoint instead of trying to send it through as the course instructions stated. I can see your point about it being an easier way to plan rather than using dot points in Powerpoint.” Maria

http://mell-p.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-weebly-website.html#comments
Hey Mel!
“I'm not sure if you've noticed dearest but your Prezi on your Weebly has not uploaded properly. Maybe a problem with embedding the html info? It only takes one character to be missing or out of place for it to not work.
btw the site is awesome! =]
Em x” Emma

“Thank you Emma! I have had a look at my Weebly and discovered you are only able to embed documents if you upgrade to a Pro account. At this stage I don't feel the need to pay anything extra, however in the future when I become a fully qualified teacher (and earn some money lol) i would consider the upgrade. I also know that Education Queensland and the Cath-Ed provide space for teachers to create websites so I would most likely choose that as an option.” Mel

http://mell-p.blogspot.com/2010/07/first-impressions.html#comments
“Your blog looks great. It is going to be very useful following your blog. We can talk each other through the program and help each other out.” Tarnah

“Thank you Tarnah, yes i agree having our own Blogs will be useful. This assessment task is very relevant and fantastic for getting us to use the Blog in the practical types of ways we will in future like our students to use them.” Mel

• The following are the comments which I have posted to my peers’ Blogs.

http://tarnah.blogspot.com/2010/08/voki.html
“Tarnah! Your creepy Voki woman is watching me everywhere I move!!!! I don't trust her - note the cobwebs in the corner and the glaring clock :S
On a serious note, i agree, Voki's are a great way of using animation. Students would love these and it would be fantastic to encourage their use in orals and assessment tasks.” Mel

http://tarnah.blogspot.com/2010/08/google-maps-and-google-earth.html
“Thinking back to when i studied Navigation in High School, Google Maps would be a really great exercise to break up the monotony of working with a printed map.” Mel

http://rikkymurphy.blogspot.com/2010/08/wikis.html
“Hey Rikky, I agree wiki's are great for group tasks - they are really collaborative and can become group information databases :)” Mel

http://hannahgreer00.blogspot.com/2010/08/interactive-learning-objectives.html#comments
“I agree some teachers and students could become distracted when using interactive web technologies, however also agree these tools can be used to a highly effective degree” Mel

http://peteblog-redsox.blogspot.com/2010/08/digital-videos.html
“Hi Pete, i'm not going to try and understand what "logarithmic differentiation" is but i agree YouTube is fantastic for teaching purposes. In Biology last term, we watched a video of cell separation and the visual detail was great - really helped to support the theory we had learned.” Mel