The shift from the old industrial economy to the new knowledge economy over the last decade has seen the need for advanced changes in education, particularly teaching and learning strategies. The idea of a teacher-directed classroom is no longer considered appropriate to engage learners and help them reach their learning goals. The old "chalk and talk" method has now been replaced with new pedagogical approach focussing on a student-centered paradigm where ICTs have been identified as essential in ensuring this. In a world where ICTs are a basic necessity for most facets of life, why not begin preparing children for later life, in teaching them the needs and uses of these pieces of technology. It is also possible that some students are already using these technologies outside of the school, so why not incorporate them in the classroom to help make them more receptive to the tasks involved in their learning journey. Marzano and Pickering (1997) suggest that students need to have develop positive attitudes towards classroom tasks and that this can be achieved by use a variety of ways to engage students' in these tasks by using a a bit of variety when planning and implementing learning experiences. This can be achieved by using ICTs in the teaching and learning process.
Active Learning, described by Dale’s Cone and Learning Pyramid suggests that students are most receptive when engaging in active learning, which involves students to be actively involved in the learning journey. The use of ICTs can ensure, especially when thinking under the Learning Engagement theory which requires students to RELATE to a problem task, CREATE solutions to the problem and then DONATE the solution back into the real world. This theory can easily be re-produced through the use of ICTs (Kearsley and Snheiderman, 1998).
Research from Kearsley and Shneiderman (1998) about Learning Engagement Theory suggests that students need to be truly engaged in purposeful, authentic and problematic learning activities involving the collaboration with their peers. Implementing digital pedagogies into the learning framework will further extend the students' interest in the subject matter.
My own personal schooling, like many of my peers, was during a time when many of these new technologies such as laptop computers and the internet were being introduced into the school, but at an infrequent rate. My own exposure to them was only by necessity of school work until I began University and realized that their need was far-more reaching than just for educational purposes and that I needed to have a reasonable knowledge about these technologies to succeed in life. Up until two months ago, I began to consider myself as computer-literate, but once I began studying in this course my eyes were opened to a whole new world of ICTs. Sure, I'd heard of YouTube and used it sometimes and I thought myself to be pretty handy with powerpoint, but never did I think I could do some of the things I can do now. And the thought of being able to transfer this knowledge into my teaching is a really exciting prospect. Even in my EPL at present I am beginning to think of ways to implement ICTs into my learning experience as if it has become a force of habit. Whilst there are some disadvantages involved with using ICTs such as breakdowns and inappropriate uses(pornography, etc), as a whole I think ICTs are invaluable in regards to planning and implementing learning experiences.
As for their vast advantages, ICTs help shift from the teacher-centric paradigm to a more student-centric paradigm and help in an increase in student engagement. They too have been proven to help increase the learning capacities of ASD students. Ashman and Elkins (2005) suggest that as ASD students have a difficulty in absorbing and understanding verbal instruction, visual aids can help ASD students in this respect by being able to follow instructions based on visual cues presented within the ICT. For example, using a powerpoint to explain the requirements for an assessment will better serve and ASD student rather than verbally explaining it to them. It has also been suggested that students suffering from ASD are highly acute and competent visual learners so the use of some sort of ICT is essential for their integration into mainstream schooling (Ashman and Elkins, 2005).
Another advantage of ICTs is their adaptiveness and various uses within each other. For example a wiki can display powerpoints which are made visible one the web via slideshare, whose photos were obtained from Flikr and edited by Piknik. Videos can be filmed on a camera, transferred to a computer, uploaded onto YouTube then featured in a powerpoint presentation. The possibilities are endless and so are the possibilities in their variety of uses across education. It is important to remember however, that for these digital pedagogies to be effective,tachers must also be sufficiently trained in these new technologies to ensure their effectiveness. Teachers today can apply for their ICT Pedagogical licence which verifys that teachers with this qualification are able to teach with these technologies within the classroom. I think this is a good idea as many teachers today are those from the industrial economy and many do not have the necessary knowledge to implement many of these ICTs in education.
This brings me to pre-service teacher training, particularly here at CQ University. I think the inclusion of this course in this degree is essential and I feel that a course much like this one should be included in all degrees/courses as ICTs influence stretches across further facets of life rather than just education and feel that some of the knowledge learnt would be valuable to people in other professions such as business. For example, a voki could be used in a business meeting presentation and Google Earth for engineering purposes. As for pre-service teachers such as myself, I feel that this course have given me the confidence to be more creative with my learning experiences, something I want to be able to proud myself on amongst my peers.
Finally I would like to thank Scot Aldred for all the time ad effort he has put into putting this course together. I would also like to thank him for all the time he spent replying to all of our questions so far throughout the term. Without you Scot I think all of our technological savviness we all now possess, would be non-existent. My interest in ICTs has increased ten-fold and can't wait to be able to use all this amazing stuff with my own classes in the future.
References:
Ashman, A. & Elkins, J. (2005). Educating children with diverse abilities, 3rd Ed. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Smith, R., Lynch, D. & Meinczakowski, . (2003). "The bachelor of learning management (BLM) in education capability", Change: Tranformations in Education, (6) (2): 23-37. Retrieved April 28, 2010 from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=44465
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