Although it has only been five years since I finished school, a lot has changed since then. Technology is becoming more accessible both inside and outside the classroom, and student’s lives are reflecting this change. They are able to access information instantaneously and want to be kept entertained. ICTs are an important part of their lives; therefore they should be an important part of their education. Thankfully my learning journey has incorporated the use of ICTs to a great degree, and I have been able to transfer my previous knowledge and usage of ICTs to create a pedagogy that caters for the current generation of high school students. To go with my previous knowledge is the ICT knowledge and tools I have acquired through my learning journey in the ICTs for Learning Design Course.
One technology I would love to integrate into my classroom is Dartfish. Dartfish is a motion analysis software who “technologies and know-how are widely recognized for exclusive televised broadcast footage and breakthrough training applications for sports, education, healthcare and more,” (dartfish.com). This technology allows students who are visual learners to understand and improve instantly with real-time assessment of their skills that they can see – rather than being told flaws in their movements, they can see them and correct them straight away. This ICT will create a great deal of student engagement, because they are able to see exactly what they are doing, also it gives them the opportunity to film and use the technology themselves, and can be used for assessment – perhaps comparing and breaking down their technique compared to a professional athlete, to demonstrate the difference between and autonomous and cognitive performance. The faculty I am doing prac with at the moment uses Dartfish from grade 8 to 12 PE, and they have commented to me how much it engages students who are amazed that their performance can be broken down and they have commented to staff how much better it makes their performance and enjoyment of physical education because they can improve by watching their performance and what they need to improve to become better.
Another tool that can be incorporated into the classroom for visual learners is the use of YouTube. Although it may take a lot of sifting through the millions of videos to find useful videos to enhance the learning experience, there are a lot of quality videos on there that can be utilised in the classroom. Whether it is a ‘how-to’ video or a short, documentary style video or even an entertaining video to introduce a topic or catch the learners attention, chances are YouTube will have it. In my blog I discussed how YouTube videos can be incorporated into the classroom. I embedded a video that my students could find beneficial to their current practical area and the beauty of this and many other videos on YouTube is that you can have professionals in the classroom delivering information to students in areas you may not necessarily be an expert in, increasing information available to students and hopefully increasing their desire to learn. Students can access YouTube at home and find resources on it that will improve their learning. It is an anywhere, anytime tool that can support information you give them or give them extra information to what they already know.
Voki avatars are another way to generate engagement of learners, especially those who are visual or auditory learners. It is also a brilliant way to communicate with students of which English is a second language. Having worked at North Rockhampton State High as a teacher aide and currently doing a practical placement Glenmore High, using Vokis is a great way to communicate with ESL students as both schools have high populations of Vietnamese and Brazilian students, respectively. I have often observed Vietnamese and Brazilian students sitting in classes with very little understanding of what they have to do and very little interest in the class – using a Voki speaking Portuguese or Vietnamese could counter this language barrier, and is a great way to engage every student, no matter their cultural background. In a multi-cultural society this type of technology could make vast improvement to student outcomes and could become an integral part of my pedagogy.
One new ICT this course has shown me is Mahara. Although I am still finding my way around it a bit, it does have potential to be a great resource to use both for professional development and for learning in the classroom. I commented on my blog on the 6th of April my first impressions of Mahara. I think, in terms of classroom use, it will engage students due to its similarity to social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. A Mahara view could be used as a kind of digital resource folder, or of greater benefit in the classroom, a view could be a compilation of all the assessment, resources and anything else students need to complete assignments. Rather than countless photocopies that a lot of students inevitably lose, all the information needed for a unit of work could be stored on Mahara in digital form. Students could easily access the information needed from the Mahara page and subsequently upload their work back onto Mahara. This gives them the opportunity to view their peers’ work and offer peer assessment, which is a great way for students to own their learning. With the popularity of Facebook and MySpace amongst adolescents, Mahara has the potential, in my opinion, to become an educational social networking website which would engage students in learning, be a more streamlined way of accessing and gaining resources from their teachers and allow them to collaborate with peers in an online community to help each other and learn in a peer to peer digital environment. A lot of what Kearsley and Schneiderman talk about in terms of collaboration and project-oriented learning is a great theoretical perspective on how Mahara can be utilised in the classroom.
My experience in the classroom so far has shown me that teachers are beginning to embrace ICTs as the most effective tool for getting through to Generation Z. Scot has commented that ‘21st century teachers need to be committed to keeping up with educational technology,’ and this statement speaks volumes on how to engage learners in the classroom and on a personal level, to become a lifelong learner and embrace technology and be open to new ideas and perspectives on how to implement ICTs in the classroom and incorporate them into my pedagogy.
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