BOOKS
Helen Beetham & Rhona Sharpe; RETHINKING PEDAGOGY for a DIGITAL AGE, DESIGNING and DELIVERING E-LEARNING; 2007, Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon.
Helena Gillespie; UNLOCKING LEARNING and TEACHING with ICT - identifying and overcoming barriers; 2007, Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon.
WEBSITES
www.becta.org.uk/research
www.teachhub.com/how-technology-changed-learning
edtechreview.in/e-learning/352-internet-has-changed-education
Monday 8 December 2014
BARRIERS TO THE EFFECTIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION
The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and Local Education Authorities (LEAs) have become increasingly involved in the process of procuring what schools need to deliver ICT effectively. This has led to a conflict between larger organisations being able to offer economics of scale and schools' autonomy and wish to choose their own ways of providing ICT which best fits their own circumstances. (Gillespie. H. 2007)
In relation to funding ICT, questions were being asked about whether the money spent on ICT is justified by the improvement in pupil attainment? A study, to tackle the issue of how to measure the impact of ICT on teaching and learning, examining both methodologies and data on ICT in schools, was the ImpaCT2 (Harrison, Comber, et al, 2002), the results were that there were clearly differences in attainment associated with the greater use of IC t, this was present in more than a third of all comparisons made between pupils' expected and actual scores in National Tests or GCSE's, these were not large differences. In none of the comparisons was there a statistically significant advantage to the groups with lower use of ICT. (Gillespie. H. 2007)
An ICT sceptic might say that because the improvements in attainment are slight, therefore money being spent on ICT is not having a positive impact on the learning of most pupils. To look at the other side of the argument, with supporters of ICT, they may argue that investment in ICT over a number of years might see more extensive benefits than those indicated in ImpaCT2.
(Gillespie. H. 2007)
In 2003, Becta, the government's lead agency for ICT in education, has been gathering data on the ICT barriers currently perceived by teachers. This data was collected through a questionnaire, available online and also on Becta's stands at the BETT show and Education show.
170 individuals completed the questionnaire, many of them citing more than one barrier, the total number of suggestions was 226. The number of survey responses for each item were :- Lack of confidence - 48; Lack of access to quality resources - 47; Lack of time - 37; Lack of personal access - 11; Age - 4.
As this was only an initial survey, and being a relatively small sample means it cannot be representative of the views of the teaching population as a whole. (www.becta.org.uk)
There will surely always be barriers to the effective use of technology in education because there are always people afraid of change.
In relation to funding ICT, questions were being asked about whether the money spent on ICT is justified by the improvement in pupil attainment? A study, to tackle the issue of how to measure the impact of ICT on teaching and learning, examining both methodologies and data on ICT in schools, was the ImpaCT2 (Harrison, Comber, et al, 2002), the results were that there were clearly differences in attainment associated with the greater use of IC t, this was present in more than a third of all comparisons made between pupils' expected and actual scores in National Tests or GCSE's, these were not large differences. In none of the comparisons was there a statistically significant advantage to the groups with lower use of ICT. (Gillespie. H. 2007)
An ICT sceptic might say that because the improvements in attainment are slight, therefore money being spent on ICT is not having a positive impact on the learning of most pupils. To look at the other side of the argument, with supporters of ICT, they may argue that investment in ICT over a number of years might see more extensive benefits than those indicated in ImpaCT2.
(Gillespie. H. 2007)
In 2003, Becta, the government's lead agency for ICT in education, has been gathering data on the ICT barriers currently perceived by teachers. This data was collected through a questionnaire, available online and also on Becta's stands at the BETT show and Education show.
170 individuals completed the questionnaire, many of them citing more than one barrier, the total number of suggestions was 226. The number of survey responses for each item were :- Lack of confidence - 48; Lack of access to quality resources - 47; Lack of time - 37; Lack of personal access - 11; Age - 4.
As this was only an initial survey, and being a relatively small sample means it cannot be representative of the views of the teaching population as a whole. (www.becta.org.uk)
There will surely always be barriers to the effective use of technology in education because there are always people afraid of change.
HOW TECHNOLOGY HAS CHANGED THE WAY WE LEARN
The internet first began as a discovery to view and share some private files over an organisation, it's now used for almost everything, including education. It has resulted in many changes in education. (edtechreview.in/e-learning)
The 21st century has shown us, through technology, just how differently things are being taught at educational establishments. Using new tools is becoming part of everyday life, attempting to make learning more interactive and fun.
Starting with textbooks, these are no longer just limited to text and pictures, today's textbooks often have web-based sites that include assessments, animations, videos and other material to support the learning of new subjects.
A powerful way of student learning is through interactive gaming, new program's and web-based tools are teaching students now, where once there were chalkboards.
Voice recognition software has greatly improved in the last few years, and is far more accessible. Children with special needs and limited English proficiency are now able to effectively communicate in language based contexts. (teachhub.com)
Technology enables the ability to extend classroom community by using web-based platforms. Teachers and students alike can use these platforms to discuss homework, post assignments and interact with peers, as they work ob projects.
Even though libraries are still used by students, it is web-based research that enables students to get instant information on their subject.
"When I was in high school in the 1980's, the audience was the teacher. When I started teaching high school in 1988, the audience was the teacher and peers. In the 21st century, it's the WORLD. Blogging, Twitter, Facebook and other online platforms changed our notion of audience".
(Dr. Katherine McKnight; teachhub.com)
The 21st century has shown us, through technology, just how differently things are being taught at educational establishments. Using new tools is becoming part of everyday life, attempting to make learning more interactive and fun.
Starting with textbooks, these are no longer just limited to text and pictures, today's textbooks often have web-based sites that include assessments, animations, videos and other material to support the learning of new subjects.
A powerful way of student learning is through interactive gaming, new program's and web-based tools are teaching students now, where once there were chalkboards.
Voice recognition software has greatly improved in the last few years, and is far more accessible. Children with special needs and limited English proficiency are now able to effectively communicate in language based contexts. (teachhub.com)
Technology enables the ability to extend classroom community by using web-based platforms. Teachers and students alike can use these platforms to discuss homework, post assignments and interact with peers, as they work ob projects.
Even though libraries are still used by students, it is web-based research that enables students to get instant information on their subject.
"When I was in high school in the 1980's, the audience was the teacher. When I started teaching high school in 1988, the audience was the teacher and peers. In the 21st century, it's the WORLD. Blogging, Twitter, Facebook and other online platforms changed our notion of audience".
(Dr. Katherine McKnight; teachhub.com)
Sunday 7 December 2014
THE VALUE OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING AND LEARNING.
Developments in mobile learning could have a significant impact on learning and teaching practices. Mobile learning is decided upon by pilots and trials where technologies are being tested in many different learning contexts. These trials are showing that mobile learning has considerable teaching potential and also that many of the technical limitations are being overcome. Mobile learning is now gradually moving from small-scale, short-term trials to larger, more sustained and blended deployment, but within institutional constraints such as budgetary and human resources, institutional practices, procedures and priorities. (Kukulska-Hulme & Traxler, 2005). Mobile and wireless technologies support designs for learning are personalised, situated and authentic. It is more difficult to design intentionally for learning that will be spontaneous and informal, however mobile and wireless technologies do have affordances that support these types of learning. (Kukulska-Hulme & Traxler, 2005).
Personalised learning :- At Bletchley Park in England, researchers, (Mulholland et al. 2005), decided to use mobile technology to encourage follow-up activities to visitors to Bletchley Park museum. As the visitors look around the museum, they can express any of their interests in particular exhibits by sending text messages containing suggested keywords, using their mobile phones. This information is then used to create a personalised web site for each visitor to use when they get home, they can explore information about their chosen exhibits as well as semantic connections between them.
Authentic and Situated learning :- In a higher education context in the Netherlands, the Manolo project (2006) has amassed a great deal of experience in mobile fieldwork in subjects such as archaeology, biodiversity and vegetation science. Archaeology students used PDAs with GPS for field surveys. This allowed the students not only to collect field data in electronic form but also allowed them to be more involved in the processing and interpreting of the data, something which was not previously possible. The PDAs mobile phone function allowed the students to communicate with their group leader in the field and the texting and email functions for other types of support.
A project which took place at Deptford, (Sutch, 2005), called Mudlarking in Deptford, was aimed at schoolchildren using PDAs to take part in, and to co-produce, a guided tour of the riverbed at Deptford Creek. These handheld devices with GPS capabilities delivered location sensitive information when a child walked into node areas shown on a map. The children were also able to create multimedia content during their tour and alert others to that content. This project aimed o engage young learners in responding creatively to an environment that exacts physical experience with the history of the area.
Another example of the value of mobile technology in teaching and learning comes from the Savannah project, (Facer et al. 2005), a mobile game was devised for use by groups of children moving around in the school playing fields, the aim was to develop the children's conceptual understanding of animal behaviour in the wild. The 'learning experience' involved the use of GPSs linked.to PDAs through which the children 'see', 'hear' and 'smell' the world of the Savannah as they moved around the playing fields, pretending to be a pride of lions. There was also a designated area indoors where they could reflect on how well they did in the game, develop their strategies and access resources to support their understanding. (Kukulska-Hulme & Traxler, 2005)
After reading these studies I think my views on technology in the learning/teaching place may have changed slightly, I say slightly because I am still afraid of the unknown! Basically, how much fun learning must have been during these studies, for both student and teacher.
Personalised learning :- At Bletchley Park in England, researchers, (Mulholland et al. 2005), decided to use mobile technology to encourage follow-up activities to visitors to Bletchley Park museum. As the visitors look around the museum, they can express any of their interests in particular exhibits by sending text messages containing suggested keywords, using their mobile phones. This information is then used to create a personalised web site for each visitor to use when they get home, they can explore information about their chosen exhibits as well as semantic connections between them.
Authentic and Situated learning :- In a higher education context in the Netherlands, the Manolo project (2006) has amassed a great deal of experience in mobile fieldwork in subjects such as archaeology, biodiversity and vegetation science. Archaeology students used PDAs with GPS for field surveys. This allowed the students not only to collect field data in electronic form but also allowed them to be more involved in the processing and interpreting of the data, something which was not previously possible. The PDAs mobile phone function allowed the students to communicate with their group leader in the field and the texting and email functions for other types of support.
A project which took place at Deptford, (Sutch, 2005), called Mudlarking in Deptford, was aimed at schoolchildren using PDAs to take part in, and to co-produce, a guided tour of the riverbed at Deptford Creek. These handheld devices with GPS capabilities delivered location sensitive information when a child walked into node areas shown on a map. The children were also able to create multimedia content during their tour and alert others to that content. This project aimed o engage young learners in responding creatively to an environment that exacts physical experience with the history of the area.
Another example of the value of mobile technology in teaching and learning comes from the Savannah project, (Facer et al. 2005), a mobile game was devised for use by groups of children moving around in the school playing fields, the aim was to develop the children's conceptual understanding of animal behaviour in the wild. The 'learning experience' involved the use of GPSs linked.to PDAs through which the children 'see', 'hear' and 'smell' the world of the Savannah as they moved around the playing fields, pretending to be a pride of lions. There was also a designated area indoors where they could reflect on how well they did in the game, develop their strategies and access resources to support their understanding. (Kukulska-Hulme & Traxler, 2005)
After reading these studies I think my views on technology in the learning/teaching place may have changed slightly, I say slightly because I am still afraid of the unknown! Basically, how much fun learning must have been during these studies, for both student and teacher.
Friday 5 December 2014
Evaluating how applications in this module would work with my students!
Bearing in mind that the students I work with missed out drastically on their schooling, they are at different levels of learning, therefore the carousel form of teaching is needed, this is quite challenging but as the class is not of large numbers it works very well. To most of the students, mainly females, computers were a great worry, we have started introducing work on the computers, such as using 'Skillswise' to get them to carry out tasks including a quiz which suits their learning level. This they really enjoy and it is something they can do at home, even with their children. We have used Wordle whilst working on homophones in their English classes and the reflective Bubbl.us proved to be helpful when they were writing stories and letters.
Tuesday 25 November 2014
MY MOBILE TECHNOLOGY EXPERIENCE
I have to say my dealings with a Smartphone have been much more enjoyable experiences than those I have experienced with computers.
My day begins when the alarm on my phone rouses me from my sleep, time to get up, prepare breakfast and see my son off for his school day. When breakfast is done its time to do a weather check, please phone give us good news! We don't mind the coats but not the umbrellas for the day ahead.
Before leaving the house, to get to your destination, not only can you do a traffic check, to get information about any problems which may hinder your journey, you can also set your phones SatNav for any journeys that you may not have taken before, this makes for an easier, stress free car journey.
While on the go and not much time to spare, you can use your voice activator on your phone, extremely useful if you have to speak to someone urgently. This can be used while driving if you have to get a message to someone, its hands free, therefore shows that you are safety conscious.
I very often find myself sitting, often for the odd hour or so, in my car waiting for my son to finish at football training or after school sports/activities. This waiting time is ideal for me to do my grocery shopping online, track any orders awaiting delivery and now, of course, studying my Blog!
My favourite experience with mobile technology has to be my phone being able to remind me to do things, being of a certain age and getting forgetful, this function has saved me pounds in post-it notes! I can ask to be reminded when things need to come out of the oven, instead of scaring my neighbours with my smoke alarm.
This function is extremely useful if I think of something to do with my students, I can be reminded closer to lesson.
My day begins when the alarm on my phone rouses me from my sleep, time to get up, prepare breakfast and see my son off for his school day. When breakfast is done its time to do a weather check, please phone give us good news! We don't mind the coats but not the umbrellas for the day ahead.
Before leaving the house, to get to your destination, not only can you do a traffic check, to get information about any problems which may hinder your journey, you can also set your phones SatNav for any journeys that you may not have taken before, this makes for an easier, stress free car journey.
While on the go and not much time to spare, you can use your voice activator on your phone, extremely useful if you have to speak to someone urgently. This can be used while driving if you have to get a message to someone, its hands free, therefore shows that you are safety conscious.
I very often find myself sitting, often for the odd hour or so, in my car waiting for my son to finish at football training or after school sports/activities. This waiting time is ideal for me to do my grocery shopping online, track any orders awaiting delivery and now, of course, studying my Blog!
My favourite experience with mobile technology has to be my phone being able to remind me to do things, being of a certain age and getting forgetful, this function has saved me pounds in post-it notes! I can ask to be reminded when things need to come out of the oven, instead of scaring my neighbours with my smoke alarm.
This function is extremely useful if I think of something to do with my students, I can be reminded closer to lesson.
Wednesday 19 November 2014
Totally inspirational
Working as I do, with students that have missed out on schooling, for many different reasons, whether it was due to illness, bad teaching or simply from a family that did not care if their child went off to school each morning, I found this video very inspiring because it showed that when you have people who give a whole lot of thought for people who have missed chances in life, a whole lot can be done. When they hit a barrier with the premises that they had chosen, it had to be used for retail purposes, they made a shop at the front and classroom at the back! It was making things fun, which in my opinion and experience, can get a lot more out of your students. It took a little time for students to take on board what was set up for them but what a journey of enjoyment and learning. Without such inspirational people these children would have gone through the system and been forgotten. I would be more than happy to be surrounded by such people in my life.
Tuesday 18 November 2014
Microsoft and Me.
As you will probably have noticed by now I am not a huge fan of anything to do with ICT.
When asked to write about my experience with Microsoft my immediate reaction was - 'here goes, not much to write about, again', but when I thought long and hard about it, even I had some experience in which to talk about.
While studying for my degree, from 2007-2013, I was introduced to computers. Never before had I shown any interest or felt the need to have any interest in computers, suddenly I felt as if I was spending most of my life in front of them! A few weeks previously I had enrolled on a computer course at my sons school, it was called 'Computers for the terrified', it was literally showing us the very basics of computing, from how to turn on the computer and to search online. I was a total novice but with my starting date for my studying pending, I knew I had to struggle on.
I was eventually introduced to Microsoft Word, I was really surprised at what I did learn along the way:-
1. Opening new documents so that I could write out my assignments.
2. Getting around any existing documents, learning to select certain text within a document.
3. Learning how to make text bigger or smaller, being able to change the font in a document. Making selected text bold, set it to italics and being able to underline. Along with this I got to grips with copying and pasting both text and images.
4. Being able to save my work and being able to go back to it, in order to make any necessary changes.
5. Being able to download my documents onto a memory stick.
6. Sending emails with or without attachments.
All the above may seem like small steps to others, to me they were gargantuan.
I can now say that Microsoft plays a big part in my home life, this is due to Skype. Without the use of Skype I would not be able to speak so freely to my sister in Barbados, keeping her up to date on everything that happens in the family.
While deep in thought about my list of achievements to do with Microsoft, my son reminded me that Skype/Microsoft had just bought the franchise of the game Minecraft, I have often taken up the offer of joining my son on this game, so there was also an experience to do with Microsoft, an enjoyable one at last.
When asked to write about my experience with Microsoft my immediate reaction was - 'here goes, not much to write about, again', but when I thought long and hard about it, even I had some experience in which to talk about.
While studying for my degree, from 2007-2013, I was introduced to computers. Never before had I shown any interest or felt the need to have any interest in computers, suddenly I felt as if I was spending most of my life in front of them! A few weeks previously I had enrolled on a computer course at my sons school, it was called 'Computers for the terrified', it was literally showing us the very basics of computing, from how to turn on the computer and to search online. I was a total novice but with my starting date for my studying pending, I knew I had to struggle on.
I was eventually introduced to Microsoft Word, I was really surprised at what I did learn along the way:-
1. Opening new documents so that I could write out my assignments.
2. Getting around any existing documents, learning to select certain text within a document.
3. Learning how to make text bigger or smaller, being able to change the font in a document. Making selected text bold, set it to italics and being able to underline. Along with this I got to grips with copying and pasting both text and images.
4. Being able to save my work and being able to go back to it, in order to make any necessary changes.
5. Being able to download my documents onto a memory stick.
6. Sending emails with or without attachments.
All the above may seem like small steps to others, to me they were gargantuan.
I can now say that Microsoft plays a big part in my home life, this is due to Skype. Without the use of Skype I would not be able to speak so freely to my sister in Barbados, keeping her up to date on everything that happens in the family.
While deep in thought about my list of achievements to do with Microsoft, my son reminded me that Skype/Microsoft had just bought the franchise of the game Minecraft, I have often taken up the offer of joining my son on this game, so there was also an experience to do with Microsoft, an enjoyable one at last.
Wednesday 22 October 2014
Wednesday 15 October 2014
Oh the joys of the Internet!!
Practise makes perfect, or so they say. After spending almost all weekend on the computer I am still having traumas.
Due to spending almost all weekend on the computer I found no time to go and food shop, but hey I did it online! Goods arrived and everything I ordered was there, got so excited that I also did a bit of Christmas shopping on there too. This may well become a regular occurrence, I was so proud of myself, I did not get into a strop once.
Due to spending almost all weekend on the computer I found no time to go and food shop, but hey I did it online! Goods arrived and everything I ordered was there, got so excited that I also did a bit of Christmas shopping on there too. This may well become a regular occurrence, I was so proud of myself, I did not get into a strop once.
Wednesday 8 October 2014
Blogging, here I come! I dont usually find myself lost for words but today I have had to take in lots of information in ICT lesson, anyone who knows me and my past history (or lack of) will probably be laughing their socks off. Who knows I might shock you all, if all goes well I might think about changing the title of my blog!
This afternoon holds great excitement - Literacy and Numeracy tests.
This afternoon holds great excitement - Literacy and Numeracy tests.
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