Week 2 Reflection

This week has been yet another incredibly busy week for me and now that it is almost over I think we should take a look at what was covered. I have to say, I am learning so much more than I ever thought was possible in such a short amount of time, but I am absolutely loving it!

DeBono's Hats- Mobile phone Wiki

 

Source: Gorseland.net

This week, as part of our engagement activities we were asked to participate in a Wiki on mobile phones. With the assistance of DeBono's hats we shared our ideas and opinions and responded to the question: "what do you think about mobile phones in the classroom?”
After partaking in this activity I was thinking to myself, what better way to share my experiences then to reflect on it using Debono's hats again? As you can see in the mind map below I have presented my thoughts on the Wiki activity.



The activity allowed me to think in more complex ways as I had to evaluate and discuss my ideas from a number of different viewpoints. This was definitely a benefit for me as it created higher order thinking. As well as this, when I was reading the individual responses I learnt a number of things that I wouldn't have thought of myself. To view my responses (they are written in blue text) Follow this link

There were however a number of drawbacks that I noted with this activity. Firstly, there were quite a large number of students that had to participate in this Wiki activity so by the time it got to the end of the week, the idea's boxes got quite full and most of my ideas had already been taken. Although there were still a number of things I could talk about, it didn't allow me to discuss all of my ideas. As well as this, because there was such a large number of students, there were double ups in responses. This could suggest that we weren't working as a unit and reading each others ideas, rather we were just putting our own ideas down.

The forum that has been used is an excellent example of both social constructivism and connectivism. As this network is founded upon social interaction, students in my own classroom would be able to move beyond what they already know with the help and support of others. It is also reflective of connectivism as they are learning with computers and the internet.

In a classroom environment I believe that using Wiki would be an excellent way to encourage students to work together and engage in a number of activities. It would allow me as a teacher to collect ideas so I could further develop and enhance their learning and understanding. By collaborating both Wiki and Debono's hats a work environment for students would be created that would both challenge their thinking and reward their hard work. The Debono's hat scaffold supported the collection of a range of perspectives not only from each individual but as group. Once a range of ideas had been added it could be elaborated on more or added to by various individuals.

This Wiki activity has helped me look at mobile phones in the classroom from a number of different perspectives. It was great to not only hear my opinion about the issue, but what others thought as well. I have gained a new set of skills from this engagement activity and this will allow me to bring yet another interactive tool into the classroom.

General Reflection on week 2

Transcript: This week in our learning materials we covered a number of things from digital pedagogies to the TPACK framework, Blooms Taxonomy and working legally, safely and ethically online. It was a lot of information but will prove to be very useful when we enter the working environment.


So what is pedagogy? Simply, pedagogy is the art of teaching. Productive pedagogy strategies include:

· Allowing collaborative learning.

· Knowing how students as individuals learn best.
· Create higher order thinking among students.

· Ensure relevance with learning (real-life context).

· Is both socially supportive and engaging.

 

In order to achieve a number of these things, digital pedagogy has been introduced (i.e. that is achieving learning outcomes through the assistance of ICT). It is important to note that now, this is a professional requirement of all teachers. The poster provided on the left is one that gets sent out to Education Queensland teachers to help show the importance of digital pedagogies. This poster was provided to us in our week 2 tutorial.
 
Based on the ideas and frameworks presented to us in the readings, I have developed my own pedagogical approach. I want the way I teach to be authentic and support higher order thinking which means I will have to adopt real world contexts into my learning materials. I want it to be interesting for the students and in order to achieve this I want it to be collaborative, interactive and hands on. Through the use of different ICT tools I believe this is possible.


After we understood the basis of pedagogies we were then introduced to the TPACK framework. TPACK stands for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. TPACK ensures students have the best opportunities to learn. This is achieved through the use of appropriate and accurate ICT tools in the classroom and being able to effectively teach subject matter to a class. All of this will take place when the teacher understands content knowledge such as the facts and procedures. You can't simply have one without the other, it is about finding a balance and that is what TPACK aims to achieve.
I found a great little YouTube video that helped me understand the concept of TPACK better. You can view it below.


One of the most critical things I have taken out of this video, is that the learning experience of students can potentially be comprised if the teacher has limited pedagogical knowledge as well as limited technological knowledge.

We were then introduced to Blooms Taxonomy. Blooms Taxonomy (created in 1956), was developed to help achieve higher order thinking. Although the revised version is different (as you can see in the figure below thanks to nwlink.com), they still share the same common goal. That is: not to disregard lower level thinking, but to build from that.

 

Each category can be explained further and you can view this through the Blooms Taxonomy link

Finally, we were introduced to the concept of working legally, safely and ethically online. I found this particularly important as it gave me a great insight into the policies within Education Queensland.
Child safety is by far the most important thing to consider when working online. Children face all kinds of risks from being exposed to material that is pornographic, sexually explicit, offensive, hateful, violent or encourages activities that may be dangerous/ illegal. There are a number of websites already set up that provide information which ensures child safety. Such websites include NetSafe Kids, which provides information and resources on how to protect young people on the internet. As well as this there are privacy issues when using the internet (i.e. providing personal information may result in spam, viruses or unwanted material). It is important to note however, that the number of reported incidents on cyber safety issues in Queensland have almost halved from 2011 to 2012.

Have a great weekend and I look forward to reading more blogs in week 3!

Hannah

 

 

References:

Presenter Media [animation]. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.presentermedia.com/index.php?id=120&target=category&start=20&maincat=animsp#listing_of_items

 

Fasso, W. (2013). Learning Material. Retrieved from CQUniversity FAHE11001 Moodle page, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=145976

NetSafe Kids. (2003). Protecting Children from Pornography and Sexual Predators on the Internet. Retrieved from: http://www.nap.edu/netsafekids/

Big Dog and Little Dog's Performance Juxtaposition. (1999). Blooms Taxonomy of Learning Domains. Retrieved from: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#cognitive

Claire Kilbane. (2012, Jan5). TPACK explained by Claire Kilbane [Video file].Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZysRechYY4