Introduction
E-Learning is the process in which new skills and knowledge are developed through the means of engagement with electronic learning tools designed to deliver instruction. Using e-learning in 21st century classrooms are paramount to adhere to the engagement needed for engaging the learners. Learners in the 21st century are described by Prenski (2001) as "digital natives" who have grown up in the world of technology and therefor expect it to be included in learning experiences. The concept of digital pedagogy exists to serve the function of engagement in learning through the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools in context to assist them in developing the skills and knowledge needed for a technologically driven world (Henderson et al, 2008). Similarly, there has been a paradigm shift in what constitutes effective teaching as Learning Managers are now legally bound to adhere to the national standards which insist on using ICTs when the learning engagement demands it (UNESCO, 2008). In this reflective synopsis I will analyse digital tools to be used in learning environments suited to the humanities disciplines. I will look at Wikis, blogs, images, PowerPoint and creating and accessing websites in the following paragraphs.
Wiki activities
With a very unsteady and annoying start to my engagement with wikis, I have reevaluated my position on the uses of wikis for a learning context. My original post found here was quite negative as I described my technological failings and problems while attempting to collaborate in the wiki discussion on mobile phone use in the classroom. As I got off to a bad start with wikis, I have been quite cynical of their uses ever since but I have realised that my position, formed from my experience became a bias that not everyone will experience. My next post on wikis displayed my thoughts a week after my initial experiences which was enhanced by the reading of other Managing E-Learning student's blogs. Since then, my opinions on using wikis have developed again to be a little more inclusive of wikis. Wikis when used as online butchers paper (like the wiki on the use of mobile phones in classrooms that I contributed to found here) can create opportunities for students to be part of the classroom learning experiences if their circumstances prevent them from being in a physical classroom. Using the De Bono's thinking hats exercise to analyse mobile phones could be an excellent learning activity for students when analysing an historical inquiry question or discovering a theme in a play or novel for an English class. Of course that due to wikis function they are very easily edited by any user so a Learning Manager would have to create the wiki and facilitate the group by observation and control in order for productive learning to occur. The legal requirement for children working safely on the Internet as described in the child protection act and Learning Managers must consider the risks of cyberbullying and other forms of harm that can students can partake in if not carefully blocked and monitored.
Tool 1- Blogs
The TPAC framework that I had previously blogged on, acknowledges that subject area experts know
their content, and teachers of this content have specific pedagogies
(ways of teaching) that they use to support student learning. This theory can be linked with Siemens's (2004) theory of connectivism where Learning Managers are the supervisors of the learning helping locate information under a guided hand. Students using Blogs within the TPAC learning framework, can become an engaging and useful way to add technology into the learning context making lessons easier for students to engage in. In replace of hard copy submission of assignments blogs could be set up via a schools blackboard site where a history student could blog on the their research process and progress, inquiry questions, hypothesis, etc, that would allow for the Learning Manager and other students to guide the learning by adding comments and constructive feedback. Another recommendation that I would suggest in using blogs in the schooling context, that after a field trip or school excursion the students could write a blog that would outline the main aspects of the experience as a type of formative assessment and collective learning experience for the student. Included is a previous blog posting on this matter. As Downs (2004) describes blogs are more than an online journal, they are a form of "personal publishing". This definition strongly supports the use of blogs from an educational standpoint whereas blogs are a great medium that helps students develop literacy elements that are apart of ACARAs general capabilities. The Queensland Government's educational website 'Learning Place' can provide a safe environment for the students to set up their blogs devoid of outside disruption and unwanted public viewing of student's personal work as most schools would have access to this site it should not be much of an issue to set up a task such as this. Learning Managers will be responsible for the setting up of a private blogging space for students to work in secure environments ensuring safe ethical guidelines are adhered to.
Tool 2 - Images
Before learning about the correct way to upload images in this course, I would just copy and paste what I needed (With a reference of course). Using these blogs have helped develop my skills that has enhanced my understanding on how to use Images in a correct, safe and ethically sound way. Personally, I love images and my experiences using them in a classroom have and can, have a powerful effect. As Snowman et al (2009, p. 123) indicates, many students of the millennial generation are visual learners and adding visuals as part of a lesson, as I have demonstrated in a previous post, can greatly enhance student engagement as well as learning. I am a little "old school" in my understanding of literacy but after I read A global imperative, I now have more of an "open" view of a multimodal form of literacy. This has massive implications for a future History/English teacher as literacy will be considered to include multimedia and ICTs throughout much of the students learning experiences. For a History class, using images helps students visualise the past, aiding in the reality of that a civilisation, artifact, painting etc, did in fact exist. Blooms taxonomy's creative and critical thinking skills are helpful when designing lessons that encourage the students to incorporate visuals into PowerPoints, blogs and other multimedia and digital tools used in their assessment tasks. Students can creatively add images to multimodal presentations to add an effective visual element that will enhance the students learning and the learning of others. To ensure that plagiarism does not happen, correct referencing of images will be taught and modeled (As is a huge focus especially in history) as an example for students to follow.
Before learning about the correct way to upload images in this course, I would just copy and paste what I needed (With a reference of course). Using these blogs have helped develop my skills that has enhanced my understanding on how to use Images in a correct, safe and ethically sound way. Personally, I love images and my experiences using them in a classroom have and can, have a powerful effect. As Snowman et al (2009, p. 123) indicates, many students of the millennial generation are visual learners and adding visuals as part of a lesson, as I have demonstrated in a previous post, can greatly enhance student engagement as well as learning. I am a little "old school" in my understanding of literacy but after I read A global imperative, I now have more of an "open" view of a multimodal form of literacy. This has massive implications for a future History/English teacher as literacy will be considered to include multimedia and ICTs throughout much of the students learning experiences. For a History class, using images helps students visualise the past, aiding in the reality of that a civilisation, artifact, painting etc, did in fact exist. Blooms taxonomy's creative and critical thinking skills are helpful when designing lessons that encourage the students to incorporate visuals into PowerPoints, blogs and other multimedia and digital tools used in their assessment tasks. Students can creatively add images to multimodal presentations to add an effective visual element that will enhance the students learning and the learning of others. To ensure that plagiarism does not happen, correct referencing of images will be taught and modeled (As is a huge focus especially in history) as an example for students to follow.
Tool 3 - PowerPoint
Due to a lack of time, I have not been able to explore and experiment with PowerPoint as I would have liked to. I am finding that time is a huge factor when attempting to learn new technology skills and techniques needed to get the most out of these tools. I was quite apprehensive about this course before starting it knowing that the time needed to learn new skills in ICTs and further develop the skills I already had, would become problematic during the first half of this course. In regard to PowerPoint, I was able to build on the previous knowledge I had (and use) to develop some of the activities that I would be using in future classes. As stated in a previous blog on PowerPoint, I have had a lot of trouble "getting my head around" some aspects of this course but once I spent some time with it, I have developed some skills I didn't even know it could do. Understanding how to maximise the uses of PowerPoint will be essential if I want students to be able to use them constructively. And there is so much that can be done with PowerPoint (much more than I had initially thought) embedding of YouTube or other clips, Uploading images, creating slideshows and even creating movable PowerPoints as demonstrated in my blog. Because History assessments ask the students for multimodal presentations in at least one of their units through out the year, students who use PowerPoint can design theirs in a variety of different ways that would suit learner differentiation. Recording an audio using audacity and embedding it into the PowerPoint instead of giving a live oral presentation could cater for someone who is sick, nervous or cannot perform a live oral for any other reason. In my experience, this seems to be the most commonly used ICT used in classrooms and for the most part it does a fairly good job. There lies the legal requirement of referencing everything that is used and embedded in the PowerPoint as a must as it is frequently told to the students of classes that I teach and assist in.
Tool 4 -Websites
Unfortunately I have not had much of an opportunity to delve into the finer points of making a website and utilising and experimenting with what it can do. But now I know I can create a website, I am excited! Now having a starting point, I can endeavor to build upon my newly learnt knowledge for the purposes of assisting students in classroom work if the opportunity arises that the creation of a website will be needed for student's work. Also included is a link to my blog posting on creating a web site and some issues I had with it. Most websites run on the WYSIWYG editor - 'What You See Is What You Get" so creating websites can be done by anyone with a little time to develop skills. Using websites is a great idea for assessment especially with the creative capabilities available for them to create an interesting assessment by embedding video, uploading images and hyper-linking websites that may be relevant to the assessment including online referencing etc. Students, after making their own video can embed it into their website which would add a personal element to their creative approach as well as extra engagement. I have blogged briefly about making video here. Static websites are used frequently so students can benefit from the use of static websites to enhance their learning in all subjects as long as the searching is on task and relevant to the subject.
I have created a Weebly that as you will see is far from complete (due to time restraints).
Unfortunately I have not had much of an opportunity to delve into the finer points of making a website and utilising and experimenting with what it can do. But now I know I can create a website, I am excited! Now having a starting point, I can endeavor to build upon my newly learnt knowledge for the purposes of assisting students in classroom work if the opportunity arises that the creation of a website will be needed for student's work. Also included is a link to my blog posting on creating a web site and some issues I had with it. Most websites run on the WYSIWYG editor - 'What You See Is What You Get" so creating websites can be done by anyone with a little time to develop skills. Using websites is a great idea for assessment especially with the creative capabilities available for them to create an interesting assessment by embedding video, uploading images and hyper-linking websites that may be relevant to the assessment including online referencing etc. Students, after making their own video can embed it into their website which would add a personal element to their creative approach as well as extra engagement. I have blogged briefly about making video here. Static websites are used frequently so students can benefit from the use of static websites to enhance their learning in all subjects as long as the searching is on task and relevant to the subject.
I have created a Weebly that as you will see is far from complete (due to time restraints).
Conclusion
Because human beings need to communicate to one another, and learners of the 21st century can do so in a multitude of ways, integrating technology into the classroom can assure that a greater amount of learner needs are being met (Ashman & Elkins, 2009, p. 184). I have changed my opinion and opened my mind to a lot more to the uses of ITCs in the classrooms since beginning this course. whereas before I had come from a somewhat ignorant view, not really sure how to use them so not really bothering (aside from the basics), into a position where I have reflected on the uses of ICT (as well as experienced some for the first time myself) and come to an understanding that to engage students in quality learning experiences, ICTs will need to be incorporated to achieve better learning outcomes. As a pre-service Learning Manager, it is my responsibility to approach lessons in a way that will continue to achieve effective learning in each student as this can be greatly assisted with the uses of technology.
References
A global imperative: The report of the 21st century literacy summit. (2005). The New Media Consortium. Accessed through moodle on the 15 August 2012 http://www.nmc.org/pdf/Global_Imperative.pdf
Ashman, A., & Elkins, J. (2009). Education for inclusion and diversity (3rd ed.). Pearson Education Australia, Frenches Forest, NSW.
Australian Government. (2011). Australian Curriculum And Reporting Authority, Viewed on August 8 2012 at http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/general_capabilities.html
Blackboard Inc. Retrieved from http://help.blackboard.com/student/Content/_student/student_tools_blogs.htm
Downes, S, (2004), 'Educational blogging', EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 14–26.
accessed 14th August 2012 from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/educational-blogging
Henderson, M., Fernando, A., Holkner, B., Auld, G., Russell, G., Seah, W., & Romeo, G. (2008). Exemplar Schools: Digistories of using innovative learning technologies. Melbourne: Monash University. Retrieved August 13, 2012, from http://newmediaresearch.educ.monash.edu.au/exemplar/Digistory5/ds5pg1.php
Prenski, M. (2001). ‘Digital Natives Digital Immigrants’ from On the Horizon University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, viewed August 13 2012 at http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/prensky%20-%20digital%20natives,%20digital%20immigrants%20-%20part1.pdf
Queensland Government. (2012). Department of Education, Training and Employment, accessed from http://ppr.det.qld.gov.au/education/community/Pages/Information-Sharing-Under-Child-Protection-Act-1999.aspx
Queensland Government. (2012). Learning place, accessed from http://education.qld.gov.au/learningplace/
Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. elearnspace retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
Snowman, J., Dobozy, E., Scevak, J., Bryer, F., & Bartlett, B. (2009). Psychology applied to teaching. Milton, QLD: John Wiley & Sons.
UNESCO. (2008). Accessed 13th August 2012 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001562/156207e.pdf
