Janelle’s Blog

I could not believe it when I read Sue Water’s blog recently about schools that are charging their students to use the internet. Apparently this has become the largest barrier for teachers who want to incorporate technology into their lessons – some students simply can not afford it.
I am both shocked about this revelation and scared. I believe that so many schools are struggling to fit everything into such ’small’ budgets, and that it is therefore likely that many schools may follow suit. The schools that I feel are most at risk are the ones with high concentrations of teachers and staff who do not value or support technology in education. It is therefore essential that all future teachers realise the advantages that technology (and the internet) can have on education, so that when they are involved in such decisions they will be able to support allocating funds towards technology.
I also believe that all key stakeholders to education should put their money where their mouth is and financially support the provision of wireless broadband internet in schools. This is especially important when all experts seem to agree that technology is the most important basic skill that this new generation of children will be required to master in for the future of this nation.

Image made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Available here.

Would you learn to make a cake better by:
a) Reading a recipe
b) Watching Huey’s Cooking Adventures
c) Helping your mum make a cake

Think about it. Check your answer, are you sure you want to lock it in?
Did you pick (c)? I wonder how many people picked (c)? I did.
We learn best when we are actually involved in the process, in a meaningful way. This is the basic idea underlying the constructive learning theory. Freya comments on the article ‘Building software beats using it’ by Idit Harel, expanding on how children can ‘build’ in the classroom using new technologies. I agree completely with Harel and Freya, but I am a little skeptical how it will work in practice. This is because I have seen very little use of computers in schools (during my prac experiences). Teachers appear to be so stretched already trying to include all outcomes into the planned curriculum. I believe that people need to put more thought and resources into creating units of work that teachers can pick up and use, that use technologies in the ways outlined by Harel. In my opinion if teachers had access to step by step instructions on how to actually teach this then they probably would actually teach it.

Image created by Janelle Rigby.

Teachers  are being encouraged to learn different tools that they will be expected to use in the classroom in the near future. Teachers can not deny children the rich learning experiences which come through using these technologies. New media is beginning to be used in flexible ways in schools. For example, the use a genre of video called digital storytelling is becoming widely popular. Through this medium students (and teachers) are able to create powerfull stories as voice, music and images combine. Matthew blogs about this and directs attention towards a site where prospective teachers have published their own digital stories. I myself have recently experienced creating a digital story and would encourage teachers to think about how they can incorporate this media into their classrooms. Obviously a task like this can not be completed in one afternoon with no prior planning. A task like this would likely span over weeks, but would be meaningful to students and well worth the effort. Suprisingly (for me) however is that these digital stories are very simple to create. Once an idea for a story is found, the process is both educational and enjoyable. I used Photo Story 3 and a very old microphone to create my digital story book: Here is my story, enjoy.

Eliza read an article in which Papert discusses the way technology can aid collaborative learning and help create a student centred environment where children learn in meaningful and relevant ways. Eliza argues in her blog that much of our current curriculum is irrelevant and as teachers we need to find ways to learn with the learners in a nurturing and stimulating environment.

I disagree with Eliza that most of the current curriculum is irrelevant. I believe that the curriculum allows for so much variety in teaching and that what is irrelevant (or perhaps outdated) is the way in which we teach the curriculum.

I agree that teachers need to find ways to learn alongside learners in a stimulating environment.

I believe that if teachers actively sought to increase their technological skills and worked hard to incorporate them creatively into their teaching methods, then both the winners will be the students. And I believe as teachers our priority be focusing on the needs of our students.

Image made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Available here.