Technology is everywhere and inescapable, so why try? Why not embrace it, benefit from it, increase
your students engagement and learning by using it? Information Communication Technology (ICT) is
now ever present in today’s society, and therefore classrooms. We explored a range of different types of
technological tools in this course. I
found that technology is an excellent tool to use in the classroom to engage
students and to help them learn.
Having to explore these technologies made me realise just
how many things my students and I can do with technology. I thought of ideas
that I couldn’t have done before or hadn’t thought of before because I didn’t
know about, or hadn’t used the platform that would allow me to do it, or hadn’t
had to thoroughly think about how my students or myself could use technologies
to engage and increase learning in a classroom.
The tools that I explored had a range of uses and a range of features
that they included or could be included to them. Most technologies had the function of being
able to upload videos, images, sound and text which are important features of
technologies. I loved all that you could
do with these technologies and that the possibilities were endless. However, there are so many uses not being utilised
I believe due to teachers not knowing about all technologies available and only
using certain technologies for a basic purposes, not realise all the possibilities
that they allows us. I will definitely
be using technology more in my classrooms and trying to learn about as many new
tools and their purposes. I first need
to ensure that my students and I are using safe, ethical and legal practices by
talking to the students about what is appropriate to have online. Technology is a fantastic tool to use in the
classroom and it needs to be utilised more and in more varieties of ways.
I would use most of the tools, if not all, again in my teaching
practice, depending on what I want to achieve.
One of the tools I liked the most was the Prezi, mainly for its zooming
feature as this can be a real problem in classrooms, not being able to see the
image or text clearly, and an alternate presentation tool. It was great that there were several
different tools that could be used as a collection of work samples for
students, teachers and parents to see with the ability to make the presentation
private. These tools included Prezi,
PowerPoint, Glogster, websites and even ZooBurst. Most of these being online also allow them to
be accessed from anywhere and stored online.
I found the Glogs fiddly; however, I think they are great tool to create
simply an online, digital form of an assignment as there are numerous templates
making it easy for students to use. GoAnimate
is another fantastic tool. I believe
that it would bring such confidence to students as the end result looks so
impressive and well done and it is a quite simple program with so many features
to decide from. It is a great tool for
teachers to show to students to engage them or to teach them information, for
students to create to make them interested in learning, to create as a marked
assessment and more. The possibilities
are endless. I did not know that
PowerPoint had so many uses; I will now definitely be exploring these and using
it more. The endless benefits and
functions of these tools are many.
The SAMR model “aims to support teachers to design, develop and
integrate learning technologies to support high levels of learning achievement” (Department of Education and Training, 2015). There are four stages of the model that
increases when technology is utilised more to benefit learning. Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR model is as
followed “Substitution: Technology
acts as a direct tool substitute, with no functional change. Augmentation: Technology acts as a direct tool substitute, with functional improvement. Modification: Technology allows for significant task redesign. Redefinition: Technology allows for the creation of new tasks, previously
inconceivable” (Department of Education and
Training, 2015). The SAMR model
can be used in many different ways. It
can be gradually built up as a task or certain sections of it can be used at
different times in the classroom. It is
a way for teachers to look at their learning experiences and make them more
beneficial for students by using technology.
Using the SAMR model in my weekly blogs pushed me to come up with better
ideas and made me think about where in the model I previously worked from. It is a model that I will use in the future
to better help me plan.
Teaching seems to be moving away from behaviourism, where
students are taught explicitly from the teacher one topic at a time until it
has been adequately understood, to social and cognitive constructivism (Moodle,
2015). Social constructivism is present
and supported through using online tools specifically tools such as wikis and
blogs as it allows students to learn from each other and to work collaboratively
with one another, and it is not just their peers that they can connect to but
people from all over the world (Moodle, 2015).
In cognitive constructivism “students
learn by discovery and experience” when “the teacher facilitates
the learning of the individual by providing an environment in which active
assimilation and accommodation can occur” (Moodle, 2015). Technology helps this by students having
access to knowledge in countless places that they can find and explore themselves. Technology helps to teach students in
alternate ways that help their learning.
There are excellent benefits that come with using technology
in the classroom effectively, with countless ways that technology can be used
and explored. Technology is here to stay,
and teachers need to embrace it wholeheartedly.
Reference List
Department of Education and
Training,. (2015). The SAMR model: engage in deep learning and authentic contexts. Classroomconnections.eq.edu.au.
Retrieved 28 August 2015, from https://classroomconnections.eq.edu.au/topics/pages/2013/issue-7/samr-learning- technologies.aspx
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