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If you can, have a look at this Youtube clip: it shows the 2007 Winners of SMART’s World Teachers’ Day Video Contest: St Therese Primary School Mascot.
This is a great example of how the Smartboard can be integrated into a classroom with young students to:
It’s been one year since i was first introduced to Smartboards within a classroom setting. A lack of practical experience meant that my initial training remained theoretical and difficult to implement. This year however, i have had the opportunity to experiment with the Smartboard and related software on my own, and it has made all the difference. I have not only familiarised myself with existing programs and design additional ones in Notebook. Its been a matter of developing competency with one tool before moving on to additional features. I have one year until i’ll be out on my own in the classroom, so that’s one year to learn and grow with the Smartboard. Stay tuned……
…And so begins another year- my final year of study to be exact. Then perhaps it is appropriate for me to pause and glance back at the past six semesters: at all the lectures the textbooks, exams and heated (and the not so heated) discussions that occured in my weekly tutorials.
Like most students, i balance study with work, friends and family. And it seems that i am constantly on the run from one to another: the academic year is a marathon and if i can just get through it, all will be okay. But where has this philosophy got me? How much of each lecture, textbook, exam and tutorial can i recall in great detail?
If i take this pattern of behaviour into the classroom with me, how then can i expect my students to differ? In his argument for technological literacy, Karl Fisch states that:
‘in order to teach it, we have to do it. How can we teach this to kids, how can we model it, if we aren’t literate ourselves…You need to demonstrate continual learning, lifelong learning…’
Now i can see how this philosophy could be applied to my teaching practices. If i want my students to absorb skills and knowledge for the long term, i need to find a way of doing so in my own studies.
And the best way to do this? The saying ‘use it or lose it’ comes to mind. I need to find a way of extracting key skills and knowledge from my learning experiences, and:
Over the next six months, i hope to gain more answers to this question.
Smartboards Revisited »« The School System- its rights and responsibilities
Why do schools exist?
This is my interpretation of the inherent function of schools (whether they are private or public, primary, secondary or teriary). But do schools have the right to select who they should be able to teach. Within the public system, students are given admission to a school within their catchment, or out of region if there are vacancies. But what about private schools? Now i’m the first to admit that i’m biased, having been a privately educated student myself. Yet for the past three years i have worked and trained within public schools, and i am starting to lean the other way.
Have a look at the video link above. Its a segment from A Current Affair- and reports on a student in Queensland having his enrollment challenged because his parents did not disclose a learning difficulty associated with reading. Its now being handled by the anti-distriminatory tribunal.
Now technically, private schools do not have to admit anyone ( or so i believe and correct me if i am wrong). But once they are accepted, what grounds should be considered feasible for the termination of an enrollment. In this particular case, the school argued that the contract was null and void because all pertinent information regarding the child was not disclosed. And perhaps legally this is their right. But what about morally? Does morality have a role in the administration of childrens’ education. Now some may argue that this is idealistic, but then, what are we trying to teach our students? Do we want them to go through life only doing as much as they legally HAVE to do? Do we want them to go above and beyond that? Is it enough just to do what you are legally obligated to do and even then, what duties should we be legally obligated to perform?
Morally, is it acceptable for a school to deny a student admission because of a learning difficulty. Would a reading difficulty (even undisclosed) really be enough to disrupt the functioning of the class to the detriment of the teacher, and other class members. And shouldn’t the average school be well equipped enough to handle such problems. What message does that send to the child in question? Is his problem something that the school cannot, or does not want to fix? Should it be up to them to do that?
On what grounds should the enrolment of a child be terminated? Behaviour? Disability? Can the school prove that they cannot or should not have to accommodate for such a disability?
And would this have happened in the state school system? Could it have? (I’ m still new to the teaching thing and i do actually want to know, not just sprout my personal oppinions.)
If, like a private business, the school does have the right to decide who they do or do not want to serve, should they still have access to government funding which is essentially covered by the general public- even those with learning disabilities?
Teacher- educate thyself »« Freedom of thought: when do generalised standards create a one-mind machine?
Food for thought. What kind of adults do we want our students to develop into? Should they be free-thinking creators who actively determine their reality? Or should they be entities that may dislike, maybe even question their circumstances, but go no further than that one nagging thought? I’ve been both, and i know which one makes a more pleasant reality to exist in.
All this thinking was triggered by a discussion developed by Bill Ferriter in his blog post titled On Middle Grades Education.
He asked ‘has our emphasis on standardised testing created middle schools where instructional practices run completely counter to the developmental needs of the children they serve?’. As he points out, when you are trying to teach to the test (as has become a reality with the unrealisitic insights of some media sources, parents and politicians) it is very difficult to create the experiential learning that research suggests children respond best to.
From my experience both as a student and student-teacher, there is a sense of monotony when you complete task after task simply because it is want the curriculum demands. On the otherhand, i have seen students eyes light up and their backs straighten when you diverge from the department highway onto a side-street that covers their personal interests and learning styles. -Lets face it, a once-size-fits-the-whole-state is an unrealistic way to approach the schooling of a diverse population.
As Ferriter quoted, ‘achieving high academic performance every student requires more than just raising standards or gaining an adequate score on a standardised test. It means empowering students to learn…’. This is exactly what i believe. For our students to become successful, satisfied individuals, they need to have a passion for learning, an interest in questioning and the motivation and sense of self to enact change. As teachers, we should be demonstrating to them the value of learning. We should show them that individuals do have the ability to control outcomes, rather than imbue them with ambivalence and resignation. And i really believe that this is what they feel when we teach in a way that tells them (through actions) to submit and endure for the twelve years of school.
The School System- its rights and responsibilities »« Smartboard
I’m at the end of my second week of prac- one more week to go. One of the suprise interests of this visit has been my interest and growing appreciation for the Smartboard. My school invested heavily in them (one Smartboard for every two classrooms). Even when the actual board isn’t operational i can use the overhead colour projector for presentations. The visual support makes lessons and general demonstrations alot more interesting. Practicing handwriting on the Smartboard is interesting- you can create models/stencils which students trace over on the board. There are still some technical difficulties however. I have had problems making the touch-recognition thing work- which can be frustrating when you are in the middle of a class.
I have had students really exicited to complete maths games as a whole class- they will sit in silence, or offer verbal support when they see it all happening on the Smartboard.
But like any new technology form, there is the anxiety about one’s ability to operate it. Competence comes only through practice ( yet i would avoid using it until i was proficient so i didn’t waste valuable class time.
So many possibilities…. all i need is the training.
Freedom of thought: when do generalised standards create a one-mind machine? »« Online Mindmapping: Mind42
I don’t have any mindmapping software of my own, so today i had a browse of the net, checking out some of the cost-free options. Mind42 is a ‘browser based online mind-mapping application’. When you log in, a record of your past documents shows up, and you can access any of them. Applications allow you to change the colour and font of documents, add hyperlinks and attatchments, and convert text nodes to images.
You can collaborate, so that a number of people, in a number of locations can access and develop the one map.
There is also a clear and simple way of exporting the finished product to blogs or websites.
Below is an example of a a type of mind-map that can be made using Mind42.
Downes, S. (2004). Educational Blogging. Educause Review, 39(5). 14-26
I studied the aforementioned article, and posted a sound recording about my findings (you can access it below).
To record my thoughts, i used Garage band, and the experience demonstrated to me how useful this application is for school students. Children could record information and post it on their blog so that instead of providing only text, they offer variety. It is also more personal to hear an individual’s voice than to read their words. Garage band can also be used to review the pitch, pace, tone and general modulation of a child’s voice- they can hear how they’re going and make improvements based on what they’ve heard.
Using i-movie 2008, i was able to create a short clip about what teaching means to me. I have also posted it on teacher tube. This learning experience proved to me that i-movie is a fun and simple way for students to create and share ideas with the world around them. There is the added motivation of seeing their world formally published on the internet. It’s also a great way to show students how to combine images with dialogue and to convey the symbolism of particular images. As Shirley noted, there are technical effects (such as the black and white image option) and these featres can add meaning and contribute to the mood and atmosphere of a video clip. Students can hear their voices recorded, and this gives them feedback about tone, pitch and pace.
In a previous posting, I discussed Dina’s argument that:
‘technology has to teach the student something of value on its own before we can justify asking a teacher to pour energy and resources into it.’
I also considered some of the deficiencies associated with ICT that weighed on a teachers mind when they considered whether or not to include a computer-based element to a lesson.
But then I considered Emma’s argument that ‘there are immense educational possibilities’ for ICT and that ‘rather than finding the floors in ICTs within education, instead list the immense benefits.’
This gave me cause to ask: why is it that there is such a great divide in education based ICT experiences? For starters there are the issues of training, funding and access to resources- these all strongly determine the possibilities of integrating computers into the classroom.
But what about schools (and students and teachers), that are theoretically granted equal opportunities? Much, I believe, is determined by the teacher’s philosophy on how children learn. Their beliefs guide what they look for in the way of ICT resources and how they would include it in the general lesson structure. Resnick (1998) notes that ‘most applications of computers in education…take traditional activities and simply reimplement them on the computer…activities themselves are not changed in fundamental ways.’ So if the learning style promoted is passive consumption, then students aren’t really gaining anything new from the situation, regardless of how elaborate or aesthetically pleasing the technological resource is.
For a constructivist teacher on the other hand, learning is viewed as an active process and technology is a universal material for students to create and express the meaning ascertained from their personal encounters (Resnick, 2002). When directed from this perspective, ICT experiences have the potential to ‘engage students, to teach them, to stimulate their understanding…to help them assume responsibility for their own future learning’ (Resnick, 2004).
Based on these arguments, the conclusion I have reached is that the potential of technology to reap educational benefits is strictly guided by the beliefs held by the instructing teacher about how students learn effectively.
References:
Resnick, M. (1998). Technologies for lifelong kindergarten. Educational Technology and Research, 46(4)
Resnick, N. (2002). Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age. In The Global Information Technology Report: Readiness for the Networked World, edited by G. Kirkman. Oxford University Press.
Resnick, M. (2004). No thanks. I prefer playful learning. Associazione Civita Report on Edutainment.
Retrieved from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
http://llk.media.mit.edu/papers/edutainment.pdf
What teaching means to me »« Forum? Conduit? Construction Tool?
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