In the most influential edublog posting of 2007 (titiled: ‘Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?’ ), Fisch mentions: “I think there’s a general feeling among teachers (not all teachers, but many) that it’s okay to be technologically illiterate.” Hmm … my guess is that other professions possibly have a similar attitude & this situation is possibly just a symptom of the ‘digital revolution’ we’re living in right now. No doubt it will change over time. Fisch does acknowledge that teachers are primarily pedagogical experts and usually very busy creating learning opportunities for their students. Perhaps a more pertinent questions therefore is: To what extent can technology support students’ learning? What creative (unique?) opportunities are available for students to use technology to mediate the important social & reflective processes involved in authentic learning? Perhaps it is less a matter of being technologically literate and more an issue of ‘awareness’ of how technology might influence the learning process itself
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Assoc. Prof. Sandy Schuck and I have had some input into 3 recent mass media items discussing technology in schools. Sandy was involved in a SMH article and amongst other valuable comments, mentioned two popular but in some ways contrasting current uses of technology in classrooms: the use of student-generated video and e-whiteboards. She also was involved in a discussion about laptops in schools on 2BL radio.
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I was involved in an article from last weekend’s Australian that discussed the influence of technology on schools. I mentioned the potential role of technology to support teacher learning and the wonderful opportunities available to extend the ‘professional development circle’ beyond traditional boundaries through online communities such as EdNa, Tapped In & the LAMS community and also less formal spaces such as TeacherTube, teacher podcasts and blogospheres. Teachers’ contributions to spaces like Merlot and TRE (UK) (especially contributions rated highly by peers!) may help develop professional identities & possibly carry ‘status’ when applying for jobs or promotions.
I recently attended a presentation from French teacher, Bernard Garcin. He has been running a collaborative project with 30 schools around the world. They use online technologies to support their students’ language learning. They started with email but have slowly graduated to more sophisticated web-based tools. The students are given projects to do, covering a range of themes. For example, two groups were asked to compare and contrast their countries’ energy consumption levels; another group was asked to describe a tour around their home city. All students must write in a foreign language in their correspondence (ie. they are not allowed to use their native language!) One interesting technique he talked about was the use of ‘online pools / surveys’ to initiate interest and spark debate amongst students. On a practical level, Bernard said that because of time zones, theyneed a min. of 4 schools to make the projects work and approx. 10 was an ideal number of participant schools.
Footnote: A number of similar collaborative projects with a creative and language arts theme can be found here.
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We are having an online debate this week in our class about Traditional V New Literacies. This debate was initiated by a short commentary piece from Harel (2003). She highlights the importance of new literacies in her article, particularly communicating using new media. So how important is reading and writing in this digial culture? Feel free to leave a comment on the relevant picture below…
The notion of virtual excursions, as discussed by Jen in her most informative posting, is an interesting one and Worthington et al. (ND.) provide an adequate introduction. They talk about the opportunities for students to ‘connect’ with people through these ‘e-trips’ and the importance of student preparation before the trip and reporting on their learning afterwards. I was disappointed with the video examples and indeed, the shallow nature of the students’ engagement with their ‘excursion’ sites. (Indeed, in both examples, the kids seem to be just ‘finding information’ – really a glorified research lesson! There seems to be v. little problem-solving going on!) Dr. Janette Griffin from UTS has done a lot of work on informal learning settings and has held seminars on student learning in museums. Indeed, she devised a well known ‘SMILE’ model to help teachers scaffold students learning experiences at museums. This model is based around 5 guidelines for integrating school and museum learning (eg. planning and preparing students for concepts to be investigated during the visit); 6 guidelines for providing conditions for self-directed learning (eg. encourage students to generate questions and use their museum visit to stimulate interest in finding out more about the topic); and 4 guidelines for facilitating strategies appropriate to the setting (eg. allow a period of orientation at the site). I often wonder how these guidelines could be applied to virtual excursions. Ref. Worthington, V. & Ellefson, N. (ND.) Electronic field trips: Theoretical rationale. Last accessed March 3, 2008 here.
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In a further addition to Laura’s reflection on webquests in the classroom, I was recently alerted to an interesting alternative strategy: Webdilemmas They typically focus on a contentious issue that might be suitable for a debate. However, in some aspects they ‘go further’ than a debate as they use the ‘think-pair-share’ strategy to help students think carefully about BOTH sides of an issue before any class-based discussion / debate.
Reference: Parkes, R. (2005). ‘A WebDilemma: Intellectual engagement on the internet’. In Independent Education, vol. 35 n1 pp 34-36. Accessed Feb. 22 2008 from: http://athene.riv.csu.edu.au/~rparkes/webdilemmas/
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