This is a podcast on an article i read from the June 14th 2008 Good Weekend magazine from the SMH. Originally it was planned to be audio uploaded to Houndbite.com however that site appears to be down. So, I have recorded my podcast using Photostory and it is streaming through TeacherTube instead.
Due to the changing nature of how we access and use information, the idea of “new literacy”–literacy which goes beyond reading and writing–is something which has been bandied about in educational discourse particularly relating to technology in the classroom. According to Armstrong and Warlick in their article The new literacy, teachers need to help students develop new literacies for a future filled with career paths and technologies which are yet to exist. In the article they put forward four key skills which move beyond the traditional literacies.
In the case of “reading” they argue that is it not enough for students to read information and accept it–students need to evaluate multimedia and assess the value of information. Students will have to improve their writing skills to include not only written texts but also authoring multimedia texts which include images, video, and audio. Thirdly, students need to use information ethically and be aware of IP laws and crediting their information sources. I agree with these three assessments, however I disagree with the authors, who argue that students will need to develop their mathematic skills in order to “read” computer language and binary code. I don’t think these skills will be in demand in the future and the addition of this point seemed a tokenistic gesture to maths literacy. Overall though, I agree that in using technology in the classroom it is essential for teachers to develop the first three skills in students by providing them with meaningful tasks which allow them to best make use of technology to express ideas through their work.
For the Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, Joseph Friedhoff wrote and interesting article titled “Reflecting on the affordances and constraints of technologies and their impact on pedagogical goals”. Although the article primarily dealt with using blogs as a teaching/learning tool in tertiary education courses for preservice teachers, many of the points raised about the value of using blogs in classrooms could also relate to primary school students. According to Friedhoff, tools such as blogs should ideally facilitate collaboration and communication between classmates. Unlike discussion boards, they also mean that an individual’s work is compiled together in chronological order. In a primary classroom, this could be an alternate way for students to record their thoughts like a journal, or in a more formal task relating to a particular KLA.
Having become quite familiar with writing and reading blogs over the last semester, I believe that if the technology were available to students, many stage 3 students would be capable of writing and maintaining a blog of their own, with guidance from their teacher. However unlike Friedhoff I believe that blogs would not be as effective in encouraging collaborative work amongst primary students–a tool better suited to this task would be something like a joint class blog or a wikispace. Therefore I believe that blogs could be useful in the primary classroom as a journal-like tool for students to record responses and reflections in an online medium.
Linda Joseph’s article “Summer excursions” in May/Jun Multimedia and Internet@Schools magazine inspired me to think about how ICT may be effectively integrated with school excursions. Her article describes current typical use of technology on an excursion, for example taking a “guided tour” using an audio CD, as well as the usual internet research visiting the website of the excursion destination to obtain background information, etc. I believe that technology may be used in conjunction with excursions in much more meaningful ways than these, serving as a connecting tool to related the excursion to work done in the classroom.
Joseph suggests using the online mapping tools pre-excursion to allow students to plan their journey. Students could also use technology to record their thoughts and discoveries after an excursion in ways which go beyond a simple recount–for example, creating a digital story which uses pictures and voice-recordings to tell a more personal and meaningful story. In the future, students may even be able to bring hand-held devices on excursions to complete activities an enhance their experience.
Technology should be used in the classroom to enhance learning and promote creative and collaborative responses. When an excursion is planned to fit in with what is already being taught at school, teachers can use technology to support and consolidate experiences and relate them to classroom learning.
Dave Fontaine’s article “Welcome to the Age of the Wikitext!” published in the may/june 2008 issue of Multimedia & Internet@Schools magazine explores the idea of how text books have become outdated in technologically savvy classrooms. He believes that wikispaces and other collaborative software programs may be used effectively as a tool for teachers and students to record, sort, compile and store information on a variety of topics. He argues that with guidance from teachers, students may take a more constructionist, student based approach to their own learning by using wikitexts to create spaces which combine a variety of multimedia from podcasts to text, to animations and vodcasats. Ashley has also written an interesting post on text books in relation to saving the environment, here.
I agree with his view since these types of learning environments, when implemented appropriately, can cater to a wider range of ability levels as well as multiple intelligences. With appropriate guidance and input from teachers, wikitexts may be used very effectively in classrooms since they provide opportunities for students to contribute their collective intelligence and ideas to a document that may be constantly changed, edited and added to.
Image: flickrcc
This is an interesting article I found outlining a case study undertaken in order to observe video game-making with children in an educational context. Of particular interest to me was the section outlining the constructionist viewpoint, in which 10 year old students were asked to make video games to teach fractions to younger students. One of the interesting outcomes of the study was the clear gender differences in designing the maths games, such as a violent feedback for wrong answers from the male authors. However, it was noted that these typical gender differences disappeared when students instead authored science games.
Gender differences aside, according to Kafai both boys and girls participating in the study enjoyed making the games. She argues that making video games offers students rich opportunities to develop programming skills and develop rich game worlds and characters. I believe that this experience would be valuable in the classroom when integrated with other KLAs such as maths and science as they were in the study. However, I also believe undertaking such a task would involve many other factors, such as ensuring students were already sufficiently technologically fluent, as well as the teacher facilitating the lessons was well organised and had an in depth knowledge of the programs used to author the games.
Jared wrote an interesting post on a topic that has aroused much controversy in terms of e-learning–the value of video games in an educational context. The arguments for video games having a place in education are of a constructionist nature, and, as Jared states, has the potential to enhance childrens’ planning and critical thinking skills. I think that video games may have a place in the classroom provided they are integrated in a meaningful way. Tokenistic use of education is never good, and I’m sure that if a teacher wanted to have students author their own games they would need to have a sound justification for this.
According to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, a recent survey undertaken has indicated that almost all Australian families with children have a computer, nine out of ten of which also have access to the internet. This is not surprising to me, since having been out on prac thus being able to speak with primary school students, I noticed that many of them are very experienced with email and programs such as myspace and msnmessenger. Even more impressive was the fact that the year 2/3 class I had last year were able to write, save and show powerpoint presentations to their classmates as well as email copies of the task to their teacher.
The study stated that the amount of time spent using the internet by students increased as they got older, which was not surprising. Parental attitudes towards children’s internet usage was mostly expressed in terms of educational value, with some citing communication with friends–I personally believe communicating with friends is a big one for upper primary aged children, a few of which asked me for my email address while I was on prac! I think the almost blanket access to the internet of primary school aged children has many implications for the classroom, since by the time I am teaching my own class it will be assumed all students will have access at home as well as school. This opens up a wide range of possibilities for setting online homework or online submission of assignments.
Digital narratives are something we will be making over the last few weeks of our e-learning course this semester. I came across this article on digital story telling which asserts that in order to make sense of the information children are bombarded with on a daily basis, it is important that teachers provide students with activities–like digital storytelling–in order to develop their analytical skills. The article suggests using digital story telling in lessons by moving beyond students creating their own narrative and towards using non-fictional events and presenting them from a different perspective–for example, writing a digital story in the first person which describes the feelings of someone who experienced something at a given historical event. I like the idea of using digital narratives in this way since it integrates the technology in a meaningful and relevant way, by integrating the story telling with a number of KLAs, in this example HSIE and English.
The article emphasises the idea that students are actually engaging with information in a more personal and meaningful way, rather than presenting cold, hard facts. I particularly like the way the author concluded the article: We want students to be able to artfully use the digital media in ways that dance ideas together into illuminated understandings — digital storytelling is a powerful process that taps into these skills.
So do I!
Providing schools with the equipment they need in order to incorporate effective e-learning into the classroom is a hot topic for the Australian Federal and State governments, according to this SMH article from early last month. In my experience during prac over the last two years, I have been to two public schools and the disparity between the availability of technology between the two could not have been more apparent. From what I have seen in the classroom, the comment Bob Lipscombe makes in the article that “the use of computers for all age groups is now embedded in the delivery of courses from maths to literacy, science and human society” is a flawed generalisation that does not apply to many schools which do not have the resources to use technology in this way.
I do agree however, with Alexander Roche who argues that technology in the classroom is only beneficial if used in a meaningful way. Part of the struggle for teachers in implementing technology in the classroom is finding time and justification for including new techniques and learning methods in classrooms that are already bursting with crowded curriculum. However I do believe that in time and with carefully thought out and implemented strategies, technology may be used in the classroom in an integrated and beneficial way… I have one idea for using technology in the classroom integrated with one KLA which I will speak about in my next posting!
