Synopsis

In most (if not all) facets of life technology is either invading or assisting (depending on predisposition). The young people we, as teachers, are preparing for life, will be better equipped the more technology we expose them to. For this reason it seems virtuous to include ICTs in our pedagogy. More and more in the workplace (and life in general) we are operating digitally #1. So to aide students in having greater success in life, we need to prepare them for the digital aspects of life.

Another reason to include various e-learning techniques is to augment traditional teaching methods to provide deeper understanding (i.e. the content being understood in the higher orders of the BLOOM model #2), more varied demonstration (appealing to learners of a greater variety of intelligences), and methods of teaching content more easily absorbed by learners (faster learning to focus on refining presented content or learning other content).

Obviously the correct ICT needs to be used for applicable content, but less obviously the right ICT needs to be implemented by the right teacher. All teachers are in their own learning journey, developing and refining their pedagogies (including digital pedagogies). So if one ICT suits one teacher in one topic, another teacher may have different proficiencies. That particular ICT might completely fail for them. The same goes for the student cohort. One class may be really respond to online, self guided, learning programs, whereas another cohort may respond much more positively through more teacher interaction and a whiteboard.

Summarising so far: Good ICT use = right teacher + right content + right students + right technology. This is all about efficacy and, to me, builds on the TPACK model #3 (which defines relevant technological teacher knowledge in terms of the overlap of pedagogy, content and technological knowledge) by adding in the concept of implementation (the students being taught).

This efficacy is one thing to consider before implementing a particular digital pedagogy. Another vitally important thing to consider is the safe, legal and ethical use of the technology.

In a couple of my blogs so far, I have discussed to some length the safe, legal and ethical use of particular ICTs and related them to my learning area. For a teacher, the communication of expectations is vital for any learning method. Digital methods are no different in that general regard, though the specific implementation can be radically different. Even between different electronic technologies, huge differences occur. The student knowing what is right and what is wrong is one thing, enforcement is quite another. Monitoring to ensure appropriate behaviour and following up on inappropriate behaviour, ensuring they don’t repeat, is necessary #4. Exactly how to do this obviously depends on the particular technology.

The community perception of a school’s implementation seems vital at this point. We need to not only do the right thing, follow good processes and implement them, but we need to be seen to be doing this. Parents and students need to be able to take away from the interactions with the school that their school environment (physically as well as digitally) is safe. Communication to ensure the student is not just aware, but clearly understands the limits and consequences and the parent is made to feel the school takes this seriously is vital.

One of the benefits of electronic learning techniques is the ability to change where and when learning can take place. Ten years ago there is no way I’d be reading up on the various aspects of dimensions of learning on the bus to a mine at 5am before shift. With digital tools learning can take place pretty well anytime anywhere. The other benefit is that the same material can be accessed in different ways (written, audio, visual) with great ease, appealing to multiple intelligences #6. This has the ability to aide learning in that analysing content in different lights means some concepts that previously may have escaped us or not been fully understood can be assimilated more easily.

The ability for students to collaborate more easily is part of why digital learning is important. Students working on a project together needn't be in the same country anymore. Even the humble email was revolutionary in this regard. Collaboration can now take place any time of the day or night (almost) anywhere. With other digital tools social learning #7 needn't be restricted to the classroom anymore.

So for my own self and style, choosing pedagogies I am comfortable with for learning is vital. Be they digital or not, all pedagogical tools are there to aide me in facilitating learning. The more methods I am familiar with, the greater my gamut of methods, the better for the students. I will do what I feel is best for the students. And as I alluded to earlier, I expect that to grow and change as I discover techniques and refine my understanding of them.

References:

#1 - Digital life (video in materials)

Michael Coghlin discusses importance of exposing students to technology

https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=15527

#2 - Bloom model

https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=15617

#3 - TPACK

https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=15617

#4 - SLE in materials & link old blogs

https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=15620

#5 - Community expectations and image

http://education.qld.gov.au/schools/parent-community-engagement-framework/communication/

#6 - Intelligences

Reading 2-1 p12 People Learn in Different Ways

#7 - Social learning and collaboration

Reading 2-1 p11 Learning Occurs in Cultural and Social Contexts

Reflection 5 Week 6

The last reflection.

Lets jump straight in!

The course content spoke a lot on mobile technology use in school. Michael Coghlin’s video (See here https://youtu.be/yNQKAIdwWPk) suggests there is a “perception of danger of mobile devices”. The way he says it, he is suggesting this is something to be challenged. He doesn’t go into any detail, just sort of implies the perception of danger is incorrect. I can see his side of the argument – that many students have these powerful, reliable and easy to use computers with many instruments built in. But on the danger question – I disagree with his implication the dangers are benign.

For devices smaller than laptops,

- student can use them and you not see what they are doing.

- has the feel of privacy for the student, so even with great supervision software, students may still feel like they can get away with it.

- harder to glance at the screen and see how they are going

As a teacher, I find these reasons compelling. Tablets, laptops and desktop

computers are much easier to control.

Smartphones are just too small to control students!

If they use their own, its also way too hard to control the content they access.

How can we stop some student looking at pornography or worse if they use their own

internet connection, on their own phone?

Of course I’m not saying all mobile devices are evil, I am saying that their use needs to be regulated and structured in such a way that these CHILDREN in OUR CARE aren’t exposed to inappropriate content or harassment. Copying notes using their camera phone is one example of appropriate use of their own mobile devices. And I suppose there is a factor of trust in the students. If I know certain a certain class well enough and know they are responsible, I MIGHT give them a little more freedom. And if they breach that trust, (producing or accessing inappropriate content)  there needs to be a punishment, such as losing their login or internet accessibility on the school devices or some such.

I can’t say where the line is, and it’s certainly not a hard and fast one. But whatever the situation the devices are used in, as the teacher, I need to think about it and be comfortable with it.

Now in terms of how these technologies could be positively used, if apps are installed to make use of the accelerometer, I could easily see a g-force experiment comparing say a ride in a vehicle with running up and down stairs or a roller coaster or various other modes of transport for physics. I could see the use of gps co-ordinates on the oval to find a “thing” for maths in understanding grids and using co-ordinates. I could see using camera, light detector, temperature and gps co-ordinates for a field sample project in biology. The compass function for orienteering in team building on school camps. See here for a list of sensors on apple products http://ipod.about.com/od/ipodiphonehardwareterms/qt/iphone-sensors.htm

                                 

All that said, as I said before, whatever the situation the devices are used in, as the teacher, I need to think about it and be comfortable with it (and so does my HoD/deputy/principal).

Now, about QR codes. I spoke about them in my first blog here, but I didn’t actually make one. Well now I’ve made one! Scan it and it shout take you to last week’s blog.

I tested it out using my phone on the screen – it will work scanning a picture on the screen – it doesn’t need to be printed. It may not work on CRT monitors due to their flicker – but who still uses those?

I won’t reflect any more on QR codes, my first blog covers it quite well.

I spent my first day in a school yesterday observing. The two standout uses of ICT’s were the interactive whiteboard (first time I’d seen one used) in maths and an internet based maths program for the extension yr 7/8s.

While explaining algebra a couple students were having difficulty with adding/subtracting negative numbers. The teacher wrote some examples to explain the concept and then used the erase function to clear them off the board so as to not confuse the students about what was being taught/what they were required to do. Wiping clear a whiteboard is not much harder than that, but any easier is better. The digital display of the task on the board was helpful, no writing it out for the teacher. The only downside was the ability of the students to see the bottom of the board – a few front seat heads were in the road of a few back row eyes. I did notice the screen was slightly taller than your average whiteboard.

So, the internet based maths program for the extension yr 7/8’s - mathletics. It seemed to be a fairly widely used program. It was apparently the second time the students used the program. The students could challenge other students in the class (or around the world) to get points. There were also self paced tasks to go through to earn more points. The students were really enthusiastic about the software (especially the ability to challenge their friends).

They were doing tasks set for their level first, then were allowed to take the challenge against other students. Unfortunately they were taking challenges at a year 1 level. The teacher access allows a minimum level to be set for the challenges, and the teacher was thinking a year 6 level would be appropriate. I don’t know what a year 6 level on the program looks like – but maybe a year 5 minimum challenge level would be more suitable to keep the students engaged. As with any new pedagogy, there is an element of trial, review and refinement. This will be no different.

Sorry it’s a fairly boring text heavy document. It’s also a couple days late. There have been a few issues at work and fatigue has been an issue.

Welcome to my week 5 blog.

Well, where to start? There was so much content to cover this week. The suggestion of a mind map really did help sort it out a bit in my head. I know there were a few technologies I didn’t include in the map, but I’d like to see ANYONE include EVERYTHING! 

I discussed a couple in particular with a teacher friend of mine to get their views. These were the use of PowerPoint as a “virtual museum” and the mouse mischief software (I made a quick & boring powerpoint presentation here, it's about types of numbers and if you know about types of numbers, skip to the end, there are a couple comics)

Personally, I thought the use of links in powerpoint to take you to different slides was nifty. I can see various applications for this. There is of course the virtual museum situation. This can be an interesting way of displaying content for students to explore on their own time.

After showing this to a history teacher, they discussed showing a map of say Edo (Shogunate Japan) with various links to say workshops, farms, palaces and so on with information on each. For math/science, one option is say in chemistry/geology with a landscape scene with select-able components linking to what they are made of/how they formed. Biology having different selections leading to information on different body parts or systems. And using this as a map for the class lesson, the teacher can ask the students which to click on, keeping them more involved/engaged.

The other I discussed was the use of the mouse mischief software. I showed the demonstration video linked in the coursework. They immediately noticed the hardware requirements (many mice) and said for that reason they wouldn’t use it. However the ability to ask questions and collect data on each student and the entire class simultaneously and immediately (so as to review concepts not fully understood) was very attractive. A class set of mice to set this up is certainly worth pushing for, even with the probability one or two students will break them, consistently.

But even without using PowerPoint in such a fancy way, simply having chapter links in a normal “boring presentation” to skip to where the class got up to last time, is a function worth exploring. Having an entire topic on the one slideshow is unwieldy. If you have links to each section of the content, you (or the student reviewing after hours) can skip straight to where the relevant section.

Now going one step further (specifically for maths), starting with a “boring presentation”, that discussed say Algebra. Algebra (to me) is the language of maths. Any other facet of maths can be included. So if an example in the PowerPoint  uses indicies, the example may have a link to another page in the PowerPoint that has information on indicies, the indicies section might link to a page on multiplication, and multiplication to addition. And there could be another link on the original slide to a page on transposition.

I find that when a student is struggling with algebra, there is one or two key aspect/s they are failing to understand. I was pondering last week on ways to work out each student’s knowledge gap and how to overcome it. This type of PowerPoint presentation could help those students for recognise and overcome it themselves.

Of course this doesn’t really work for higher order modelling and problem solving type skills, but could be really handy for basic knowledge and procedural knowledge.

As for the group 4 technologies discussed in the course content, some I know about, some I use regularly, others I’ve started using through this course others I am unfamiliar with.

Use regularly	Used in this course for the first time	Unfamiliar with
Google Maps	Interactive learning objects	Adobe flash
Docx (well sometimes, not regularly)	Concept Mapping	Timelines
Google Earth	Bubblus
	Prezi

After watching the Prezi how-to video (linked in the coursework), I get the idea it’s a great way to lay down information. It reminds me a lot of CAD software in that is has the zoom function and you can make things as big or as small as you like. I presume the code for it is heavily based of CAD software of yesteryear.

It’s kind of like a continuous version of PowerPoint. You can move on to the next idea without that cut and dry feel of a PowerPoint. Also, it’s really easy to fit in more and more explanation of a particular concept, drilling down without feeling like there’s only so much you can fit on the frame.

The ability to reorder your lesson visually (instead of concepts a/b/c you investigate a/c/b) is appealing to me. But also, once the lesson/topic is taught, the ability to add in new info where it was lacking last time (instead of a/b/c, a1/a2/b/c).

All that said, the downside includes the time to set it up and get familiar with it. I figure this will be less of an issue once I start using it, but as yet it doesn't feel natural to me.

The teacher I spoke to said they don’t use Prezis in English/history, but know folks in maths that do. I’m keen to see for myself in the placement what folks do in the real world.

The interactive learning objects are the sorts of things I’ve been talking about in earlier blogs to have on the interactive whiteboard during lessons (something for students to stare at when they reach that point and I’m otherwise engaged). The Gizmo site http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm offers lots of neat things for explaining math/science concepts, as does mathsisfun.com, howstuffworks.com and others.

These interactive learning objects present information in the way I understand it already, but would find it difficult to explain. Such resources are specifically designed to explain their associated concept, saving me time re-inventing the wheel trying to find ways to explain them.

Well that’s a few techs discussed today.
The interesting thing is going to be aligning the tech with the learning outcomes. Choosing exactly how to design a topic/lesson using the best selection of these for both myself (my ability/style) matching the student’s needs (current knowledge and learning style). 
What’s best for me might be useless for the students, and what’s best for the students might be too hard for ME (maybe however hard I try to make prezis natural to me it just might not happen). The right combination for the best possible outcome is what I need to be able to find. 

Assessment 3 Reflection 4

Welcome to my week 4 blog.

This week I will be reflecting on audio/video ICTs. I created a little sample video. It’s pretty simple, but a major step for me – in that I’ve never used any video editing software before!!

4 minutes of video = 13MB....I wish I had the resizer functioning! 

The upload is taking far too long, so I'm leaving the video out of this post.

I simply recorded myself talking and placed some picture up to match the time I spoke about things relevant to the particular picture. At the end of my talking, I spliced in a presenter discussing similar concepts.

All the content (except my voice – which sounded about as excited as I could manage in a mining camp, after 12hours down a hole breathing dust!) was sourced from www.mathsisfun.com. The spliced video is also hosted on www.youtube.com, but also presented on www.mathsisfun.com. The content consisted of a description of some methods of addition we use.

The movie I created was using windows movie maker. I chose this because I already had it on my laptop (and didn’t have to download it using my 3g connection!).

Image from http://www.wikispears.com/2014/10/what-is-sim-card-and-other-information.html

I used a website (http://en.savefrom.net/) that turns youtube clips into downloadable files. I also tried to resize my movie using a free resize/format switcher. I could use that particular resizer for the youtube clip I downloaded, but it wouldn’t work for my completed video. I checked the list of file formats the resize would use, but still no good. I am guessing that the issue was the particular (free) software I was using. I also noted there are installable programs that take clips out of youtube for offline saving, but the online one was convenient enough.

I suspect I’ll be saying this all term, but had I more time to spend on this, I’d have done more! I would have recorded an interview (scripted, and probably me with a funny voice) with a cashier asking about how they actually go through the maths to calculate change or something at my desk involving matchsticks, or a ruler as a number line or find or create visual content that goes through the addition rather than just showing a picture of it.

As I alluded to in the video, seeing the methods presented can help people understand how to visualise addition. As such a basic concept, at the very beginning of our understanding of maths, has so many different ways to think about it, invariably so will the more advanced concepts. So this type of presentation may come in handy alot.

These types of instruction videos can be specialised to the class. Say if I created a class set of data and used that data in the examples given, to make them more relevant to the students.

Other techniques Gary spoke about included image resizing. This one I’m not scared of, I have been doing that since I was young.

Another was the podcast. I had a look at instructions on how to, and decided this would not be difficult once the content was first created. I feel confident that, should I want to include podcasts in my pedagogy, I could with a little research. But if there is one thing the foibles of resizing videos has taught me, it’s to test the software well in advance!

Another Gary mentioned was the auto collage. This, along with the wordle tool discussed in another blog post, are two quite powerful tools I can use to come up with visually appealing content for whatever purpose.

How can the main ICT discussed this week be used in my stream?

I think I’ve pretty well discussed the visual/mental pictures related to maths. It takes a pretty esoteric form of maths to have a concept that can’t be pictured (year 12 math C is the first time this happens I believe). So learners really can be helped using visual cues. In science, broadly the same principle holds. There are many concepts that video beats still image by such a margin that not showing video is the same as not teaching. That’s all for teacher generated content.

For student generated content though, one benefit would be easier to mark while cooking dinner! Below is a PMI on student generated audio/video:

Positives:

-          Students using similar techniques to produce content, is definitely a valid way for students to show understanding.

-           If they are a little excited about a different way of doing things and that makes them more motivated, all the better!

-          On marking day, their work is already done, so students get to see other student’s presentation without worrying about their own (like during oral presentations) so they MAY ACTUALLY LISTEN AND LEARN while other students present!

-          By making the presentation beforehand, nerves may be less of an issue resulting in more exciting and engaging student presentations (as opposed to oral/powerpoint)

Negatives:

-          The downsides could well include the time it takes to get students to understand the process/technology involved.

-          The time it takes to set up and review prior to showing it in class

-          The availability of technology resources and support both in schools and at home

Interesting:

-          The students filming their own content may generate the student discussion of schoolwork due to it’s slightly novel nature

The other consideration for student generated content is the safely/legally/ethically implications. The permissions required, the control of the sharing of the content, the use/abuse by students of the material/the storage of the material. Most of these issues involve the students being heard or seen in the content, but also include copyright issues.

Another early one tomorrow.

Goodnight folks! 

Week 3 Reflection 2

Welcome to my week 3 (it goes fast!) blog post.

Today, I will be focusing on websites as an ICT aid to learning.

The use of a teacher generated website allows students to access course materials after hours. A common issue I have found while tutoring highschool students is the “lost piece of paper”. 

Image from http://s264.photobucket.com/user/URBEX23/media/BUXTON%20COLLEGE/BUXTONCOLLEGE064.jpg.html

The key document (whether it be the task sheet, some stimulus, a practice/review task that was particularly handy for that particular student) that ends up in the other subject’s workbook or in the bottom of the schoolbag, mixed with the dirty footy boots or the leaky waterbottle.

Image from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/arts/design/the-cairo-geniza-under-piecemeal-restoration.html?_r=0

Even just using the website as a place to access course materials can be incredibly valuable to those trying to keep the students on track. Other key documents such as assessment dates and the course plan are really helpful tools for parents and tutors. The number of times I’ve come to help a student and had to spend about 30 minutes trying to work out just what they are doing, let alone getting them to revise or improve understanding is quite lamentable, leading to wasted time and increased frustration.

These benefits could really cut across all streams of class, and could be re-usable each time the topic is taught. The hard work can be done before the start of the term and the site can be kept as a reminder to the teacher of the digital tools they used to teach it last time (similar to the lever arch binderfolders I see teachers having masses of). They can, of course, be added to and updated as time goes on.

As I’ve begun building a mock website, the other thing I’ve started to notice is that they can link together other ICT devices. Below is the mind map I created (so the set up didn’t get ahead of me) for the mock website I built. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to build the website. This is the second website I’ve ever built. The first was about 15 years ago, and the tools weren’t user friendly! I used weebly, a web-based website builder and host.

Now how can I apply this to my subject area (maths and science)? As well as the general benefits listed above, I might include links to certain parts of certain math or science websites where students and parents can look up more information on the topic, embed video or audio explaining concepts and so on. 

Maths is fun is one such website I like to use currently. I could really see this working, putting one together before the start of semester for each subject during a topic planning session. Then making sure the students know it’s there. If a particular student is struggling, the teacher might point out the website’s existence to the parent in parent teacher night or via a phonecall (I’m told phone calls are required in state schools if students are failing).

Website mock up – techniques used

In making the mock-up website, I used a few tools. www.Weebly.com is the website I used to make the site. The snipping tool Gary has mentioned a few times does have it’s benefits over screenprint/paint crop technique, although I’m more inclined to stick with the familiar. A word cloud site gave me a neat focus picture for the website, and the voki tool Gary discussed gave the website a fun way to discuss topics of interest. And I added a link to a wiki I only very briefly started playing with (I need to do more on that to get a better understanding of wikis – maybe next week).

PMI for snip tool

Positives:

- Item is cropped automatically – deletes a step from the screen print method

- Easy to copy/paste image once cropped, or save for later use

Minuses:

- Need to use a specific software that may not be included on all computers I use (reliance on a device that isn’t there sometimes)

- I couldn’t see a function to type words in the snip program (some functions of paint unavailable – may need to use paint anyway)

- Not as familiar

Interesting:

- The highlight function means I can put focus on certain bits of the image

Above image is a snip from me learning to use the snip tool.

To formulate the picture below (used on the website as a kind of focus picture) I used a wordle site http://www.wordle.net/.

To create this, I Google searched for lists of trigonometry key words and edited the list to make it list only words close to highschool level. I then pasted the list into the wordle site and played with the settings until I came out with something reasonable. I used the snip tool and saved the picture to my computer.

So that’s some of the content of site. To create the site was far simpler than I ever thought possible. Just register and follow the prompts and click publish. My mock site is http://s0052310.weebly.com/. It’s only fairly basic, as described previously in this post, consisting of mostly links to other content and a contact form. Embedding files is my next step (but not this week!).

“The Professor” I have mentioned, is a voki I included in the site. After I figure out how to embed these into websites (rather than just the link to the Voki site), I would expect to have a number of different topics the professor might talk about. Discussion on what students commonly do wrong, or hints or tips, or math/science jokes (Helium walks into a bar, the barman refuses to serve him and threatens to kick him out, Helium doesn’t react, 314 is a mirror of the word “pie”  PIE314 etc).

I have similar issues with the link I provided on the site to a “task sheet” as I do with the Voki, in that I don’t know how to embed them into the site. It is currently a simple link to another site that has a task sheet. I didn’t really have the time to investigate this further, maybe next week.

As I mentioned, there is a link to a basic wiki that I had a play with. I have set a couple teams and mock tasks and due dates etc but I haven’t really had the time to explore how these wiki sites work or what they can do.

Well I’m getting towards the end of my post. I remember Gary asking for a SWOT on the main ICT discussed. As it is the website, please see below my quick SWOT for the use of websites and an ICT aid to learning.

Strengths	Weaknesses	Opportunities	Threats
Students can access after hours Can contain all handouts etc Links for students for find more information	Not all students have internet at home Time cost for teacher	Tutors/parents can get a grip on the topics covered more easily to assist students’ learning at home	School policy? Department of Education policy? Students not using the tools Teacher knowledge of how to set up a good website Public access to the content?

Thanks for reading. Any comments are very welcome!

Reflection1 Week2

Part one: Safely, Legally, Ethically – Mobile phones

In the class discussions when we discussed mobile phones there was part of me thinking “this is just a thought exercise, we’re not allowed to use mobile phones anyway and we will just have to apply the school’s policy”.

That covers the safely legally, but ethically, is there can be a benefit to the students, we have an obligation to explore that (and weigh up the pros and cons).

After speaking with a practicing teacher about this, they described a history lesson where they used mobile phones, and how they addressed all the issues concerned.

It went like this:

-          - They set up a bunch of QR tags (see here: http://www.qrstuff.com/) linked to questions with links to sources.

-          - There was an in class session where the students learned how to use them, followed by a lunchtime hunt for the tags around the school.

-          - The students would find and scan a tag, look at some of the sources, then formulate an answer, and next lesson show teacher the answers.

-          - There was a trivial prize (in this case $1 novelty erasers) for achievements (most questions/hardest one to find etc).

Permission was sought from a deputy principle, who had to grant permission for the lesson to go ahead.

In the lead up session, the students were run through guidelines as to appropriate use and issued a permit to use their phones for the period of the game (1 lunch break I believe, any misuse resulted in the same consequences as though they misused their phones normally).

And the teacher running the game was on lunch duty in that area.

Image from: http://jonathanfant.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/qr-tags-for-small-buisness.html)

Now what is my take on the legal:

-          Students were run through the guidelines, discharging any legal responsibilities (as far as I can tell – not being a solicitor)

On the Safely:

-          To me, if the students are made aware of the limitations of use, the consequences of misuse and the time limit along with the proper oversight, the safety factor is maintained.

And the ethically:                                            

-          The strong engagement of the students means they picked up a few facts and were introduced into ways of learning/understanding they may not have considered. It also got students TALKING ABOUT HISTORY!! A task that achieves these goals has great merit!

Part 2: Wikis
Another technology we were asked to reflect upon was the use of wikis. The thing that puts me off wikis is the fact some students will find it hard due to low literacy level, and either may not engage due to fear of ridicule or plainly being unable to.

Image from http://www.deviantart.com/art/Cyber-bullying-179336375

Obviously one must pick their targets, so if a teacher has a group of more able students, I can see no reason not to use this. But the question I am considering is how to implement this in a class of mixed abilities without fear of or actual ridicule based on literacy levels…

One technique would be to set the publishing material to the wiki as an extension only task in class when the higher level students have finished other work. This has the added benefit of allowing the teacher time to help the less advanced students while keeping the others engaged.

The rest of the class might be asked to then view the wiki for homework and add their own views to it if they feel comfortable – or at least submit to the teacher for comment.

Another way might be to have anonymous posting (and a few fake posts supplied by the teacher!)

The issue always rears it’s head about the appropriateness of the content posted by students, I would suggest the only way to get around this is to have comments approved by the teacher prior to their appearing on the wiki. This is obviously a lot of work, and the benefits would have to be weighed against the time cost (I imagine this is similar to many pedagogies!)

Part 3: Good Pedagogies

The general concept of good pedagogies is quite broad. In going through the coursework I started digitally mind-mapping as I went (I’d only ever mind mapped on paper before this course, doing it digitally makes it so much more beneficial to me!)

All of the concepts above speak about the theories of learning. For that to develop into “good pedagogy”, the implementation of all of that theory must result in learning. So the missing link in all the above is the learning environment – all that theory channels through the environment the teacher sets up for the learners, for learning to take place. Good pedagogies give rise to this.

Thinking back on my learning (and my tutoring) in maths, every new concept can be explained by previously understood concepts. In they range of types of numbers (natural, whole, integers, rational, irrational, complex) each more complicated type of number can be explained using the simpler. Multiplication can be described by addition, indexes by multiplication and so on.

To me “good pedagogies” are ones that make this link. In trying to make this link I often rely on prior knowledge that isn’t there, but in understanding the links, I can drill down to find the missing one to help it all fall into place. I suspect doing this for the 100+ students of a secondary teachers workload may be too much. So somehow I will have to find a less one-on-one way to do this.

Image from http://www.mathgamehouse.com/mghsessions/  

There was a quote from the course readings “After all, good pedagogy is good pedagogy.

The principles are all the same - authentic context, problem-based learning, deep understanding and higher order thinking, collaboration for learning, and the creative and inventive solution to the problem that addresses the real-world problem posed.”

This concept struck me as what my issue with ICTs has always been. That there could be a tendency to use ICTs for the sake of using ICTs, be they the best tool or more of hindrance. This is a reason I would shy away from any ICT that doesn’t feel like a natural extension of my teaching. Despite their benefits, if it doesn’t feel natural to me, I suspect I wouldn’t go out on a limb for it, especially as maths and science seems so traditional.

However, looking at my development so far in this course though, what technology in teaching “feels natural” has expanded a bit so far! I’ve gone from a “whiteboard + computer projector” view of classroom technology to getting excited about QR tags! Who knows what I’ll think by the end of next year.

So far, the thing that has turned my opinions of ICTs has been speaking to current teachers (no, I don’t mean you Gary). I know a couple teachers personally and have had a few conversations about these topics. Getting a feel for how they do what they do and why gives me a sense of how it all might work, as I haven’t had my own classroom experience yet I don’t really know. 

There is actually so much more I wanted to reflect upon tonight (KSA/Bloom theory and my misunderstanding of SAMR, some behaviour management thoughts and some different ICT tools to use in lessons to start with), but it’s 9pm (9:30 now I've edited) and I have to be up at 4 for work tomorrow, that that’s all from me this week! Maybe I'll go back in later and review this blog - but I suspect time constraints will dictate otherwise.