e-learning experiences

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!

McKenzies’ article, Stuffing technology into the curriculum, argues that technology is being used in the classroom in ways which are redundant and counterproductive. He believes that technology should be used meaningfully as a tool to assist learning, not as a series of exercises that must be done to fulfil departmental criteria. I tend to agree with his view, having seen on practicum last semester a few examples of how ICT (Information and Computer technology) is used in an everyday classroom.

One particular example that was not particularly well integrated was a lesson where students copied and pasted data from the ABS into an excel spreadsheet to create a chart. Of course I think its a great idea that students are taught how to do this! The issue I had with the lesson, though, was that the data the students were using was not related to anything else they were learning about at the time. I think it would have been better if the students could have made a graph relating to their COGS topic of machines, after perhaps collecting some data themselves. This lesson was basically done to tick a box, and I think the students would have found it more useful, relevant and perhaps remembered what they had learnt better if it had been incorporated into their current unit of work.