Cyber Seniors!

I am one of those grandchildren that have to constantly help my grandparents with technology. Computers were bad enough, but then they had to go and get tablets. My grandparents are not the type of people who take change or learning new things well. But they feel like they need to “keep up” with the changing world. My grandmother was telling me the other day that she wanted to get Facebook so that she could keep up with everything that the family is doing. If she does, I think I’ll need to take a couple of days off of work just to teach her how to sign on let alone do anything once she’s on there.

I saw an interview on Sunrise a while ago and found it here. It’s about teaching the older generation about technology, and found it quite interesting and amusing, everyone should check it out!

It did get me thinking though – is there really any escape from technology now? My grandparents used to be the escape because you weren’t allowed to be on any devices because it was “rude” but now they are on their devices!

I found a blog post by Sherryn called “Can we ever escape technology?” and I wonder that now too. Is it possible to escape technology? Check out Sherryn’s blog and the video of the interview that I shared and let mw know what you think.

Until next time,

Keep smiling!

 

Teachers & ICT

Hello fellow EDC3100 students! I am currently doing the assignment 1 excel sheet and ready to rip my hair out. How about all of you? In any case, the questions have really got me thinking about how teachers facilitate the use of ICT within the classroom context. The questions are asking how the teacher does this, and how the teacher does that… But in my lesson plan, it is really just the students who are using ICT, and the teacher is just there guiding and observing. Is anyone else finding that with their lesson plans that they have found for assignment 1?

So anyway, in my head, I think that this is how it should be. The students using ICT to enhance their learning, and the teacher providing information about how to use it when needed, but allowing this students to use it freely to develop their own skills, and come to their own understanding on the topic that they are working on in class.

Lucy says in her blog that “The role of a teacher is inspiring and challenging”. I also believe this to be true. The teacher should inspire students to do the best that they can, and challenge them to enhance their learning, by many different ways, but especially by the use of ICT. This will challenge them, but also get the best out of them, which is essentially the teacher’s job whilst in the classroom.

Let me know what you think about how teachers should use ICT in the classroom.

Until next time,

Keep smiling!

Helpful EC site!

I was searching the internet this morning looking for some research on ICT in the early years, so that when the time comes, I know a little bit about how to integrate ICT into lessons. I found a really interesting and useful site.

It talks about not only ICT for the students, mentioning possible resources that can be used by the students, but also ICT for the teachers own use. It has a whole section on how to professionally develop our ICT skills as early childhood educators.

For the early childhood education students that are following my blog, I thought that coming up to assignment time, this site may be useful to further our knowledge on ICT in early years classrooms.

You can find the site here. Hopefully it is a helpful resource for you.

Until next time,

Keep smiling!

 

Technology… Good or evil?

In this week of our learning path for our course, it started off by asking the question, is technology making us anti-social?

This question is very hard for me to answer. I can see both points of view in this argument.

Yes

To answer yes, technology is making us anti-social, I think this because when you are in a public place, I think it is rude when people do not look up from their devices to greet or speak to you. I work in retail and when customers do this, when they need your assistance but will not stop using their phone or use their manners, I consider this rude. I think they could show some respect and be polite to people who are trying to help them. In saying this however, I do understand that some people who have ASD, technology can be an escape from having to deal with social interactions.
On a whole however, I believe that some people have lost sight on how to interact socially and respectfully and that technology has a huge part in this.

No

To answer no to this question (is technology making us anti-social?) I think that it helps us communicate with people easily and effectively. Having my family spread out among four different countries around the world, technology has been there to help communicate with someone who is on the other side of the world as if they were right next to you. Nobody can deny that technology has made many advances in different ways that you can communicate. It has moved forward in leaps and bounds.

To sum up, I think that if used correctly, technology can definitely make us more social, as it has made it easier to communicate to people not only locally, but all around the world. If used correctly and responsibly.

Two other students have made blogs for both sides of the argument. Have a look at Chloe’s and Jodie’s blogs to see their thoughts on this topic.

What do you think?

Until next time,

Keep smiling!

 

Optimum Learning Styles

Continuing on from my previous post, there are many different learning styles that suit individual students; what might suit one student won’t necessarily suit another.

In a module that I was reading for this ICT course, I read the quote, “A student learns most effectively when they are taught in the preferred learning style” (Howard-Jones 2014). The main different types of learning styles are visual, auditory and kinaesthetic.

 

Visual

Auditory

Kinaesthetic

The setting where learning experiences are created for students need to take place where students are comfortable and are given the tools to learn the most effectively.

Technology provides the tools for student’s learning to be enhanced, and provides the students with a setting where every learning type can grow in their educational journey.

ICT helps with auditory learners and visual learners by sounds and images on a variety of different devices, and kinaesthetic learners by using their fine motor skills with educational games and programs on these devices.

With the setting around the students being calming and encouraging of new ideas, and the use of technology within the classroom, the enhancement of effective learning can be afforded to students.

Essentially this post was to try and figure out techniques to find the “best” way (from my previous post) for students to learn. If educators use what they know about different learning types, I think that it may be possible to meet the students half way with making them feel comfortable in their surrounding environment.

Hopefully this follow on post was successful and made sense with how to include technology to help the different learning styles in students.

Until next time,

Keep smiling!

How do you teach “best”?

“That is why ‘what works’ is not the right question in education. Everything works somewhere, and nothing works everywhere.” – Dylan Wiliam

This quote was in one of the modules that I was reading for this course and it stuck with me. It made me think – you can’t plan in education for what you think will work best, as you won’t know what works best until you try it. This is the same as with learning styles of students, you won’t know how each individual student learns until you have tried to teach them and you have evidence that they have successfully learned the content that you were trying to portray.

With ICT, you can’t know how each individual student will go when using these devices alongside their learning within classrooms. “Everything works somewhere, and nothing works everywhere”. To me, when interpreting this in considering students in the classroom, you will have students that can learn successfully no matter what setting they are in and with whatever resources they are accessible to. On the other hand, some students will struggle and will need extra support to stay above water.

What is best in teaching one student, may not be best in teaching another student.

To demonstrate – this photo shows the “right way” and the “wrong way” to use chopsticks. Both would probably work however, but one is seen to be right and one is seen to be wrong.

  ICT will give you the best opportunity in teaching diverse needs within the classroom, as there are so many different devices, and ways that you can use the devices. One student may use devices with will help them with their hearing impairments, while another student may use a device so that they have something to move onto once they have finished all of their work.

Pretty much, what is “best” isn’t always “best” and I personally think that as educators, we all need to know that we need to be open to changing our views and updating our skills to help our students to our optimum ability, and ICT will help us to do that.

Let me know what your thoughts are on this subject in the comments below.

Until next time,

Keep smiling!

Blogs… Useful?

The use of blogs for student learning has become a large part of educational settings. Schools use journals and process logs as ways for students to reflect on their work, and on the new knowledge that they have learned and developed along the way.

Blogs are an excellent resource in doing this. It allows students to write up what they have experienced, while developing new skills in using technology and networking with other students and other people not only locally, but around the world.

Blogs help students get what is in their head, out into the world.

Networking is an important skill to learn at a young age, so that when they are my age, in university, it isn’t so daunting talking to people that they do not know online, and trying to find people that are working in the same profession as them.

If I had of had the same opportunities as the students who are currently in school, I think that I would be much more confident in myself in learning new technology skills, and using resources such as blogs. This course is definitely teaching me how to use blogs, and the importance in using a blog for reflection, finding new ideas, and networking with other students in the same course.

How does everyone else feel about blogs? Yay or nay? Educational or a waste of time? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Until next time,

Keep smiling!

When your link doesn’t hyperlink…

In our course, we were given a problem about an aspect of technology to try and solve. The problem that I chose was about a student whose link wasn’t working in his/her introduction forum. They tried to put in two links –  to their blog, and to a cartoon, but when you clicked them, they didn’t go to either site.

I think this problem has happened to everyone at one point in time, I know it has happened to me. It can be very frustrating to the point where you just want to do this to your computer –>

But don’t fret! The issue here that I can see is that she/he may have copied and pasted the two URLs into the forum, but not created hyperlinks when doing so. In order to make this happen, this student should have copied the link, then highlighted it and clicked the option at the top of the forum page which allows them to make a hyperlink. This would have ensured that both hyperlinks were active and able to be used.

To better explain this, I created a conceptual map using gliffy – (Hopefully the gliffy has been hyperlinked and I won’t have the same issue as this student did!!)

If this problem has ever happened to you, then hopefully this blog post has helped you to figure out how to hyperlink. If it hasn’t helped, then here is a link to another student’s blog that I found which covers the same problem.

Until next time,

Keep smiling!

Wombat Stew

Being an education student, you often think about the lessons that you have done, and how you could improve them. Often if they were successful, you don’t necessarily think about ways that they could be improved. However, now that I am learning about ICT I have considered ways that even some of my best lessons could be enhanced by the use of technology.

With early childhood, you have to rely on the students playing and therefore exploring through their interests. One lesson that I did with kindy started out as something, but then was transformed into something else was a lesson on “Wombat Stew”. We read the book together in the classroom, and then we decided to go outside and make our own wombat stew in a barrel using water, twigs, rocks, pine cones and other things that we found around the backyard. Once we had begun this activity, one of the students asked why some things were floating and other things were sinking. This turned the lesson into a science lesson, talking about why things sink/float. The students were so interested that we started putting other things in the mini pool in the yard to see if it would float or sink.

Using ICT in this instance would have enriched their learning even more. An example that could have happened could have been using the interactive whiteboard to make a list of what floated when we were playing and what didn’t. We could have also searched the internet for videos on YouTube on boats, and why they are heavy but do not sink – which was a question that one of the students asked.

The use of ICT would have been a welcome addition to this lesson had the kindy had the resources to make this happen.

The ideas though a helpful, and if there is ever a time that I can repeat this learning experience and have access to these tools, it will definitely be beneficial for the students to use these ICT devices and programs.

Has anyone had any other examples of lessons that would have been improved with the use of ICT integrated into their learning experiences? Let me know in the comments below.

 

Until next time,

Keep smiling!

When ICT is too scary!

While I was reading some of our course material this morning, I came across a section that talked about ‘Block Learning’. This got me thinking about how in a lot of aspects for me when it comes to ICT, I have pre conceptual thoughts already made; schemas made about how to use certain programs, or the purpose of using those programs.
For example, I don’t often use programs that I don’t know how to use. I think to myself that it is too difficult to learn how to use it, and that I should just stick with what I know. Recently I got a new laptop and I only thought I really needed a few Microsoft programs and that was all. While “playing” around with my laptop though, I found programs that are helpful with studying, and helpful in organising my life and keeping me on top of all of the things that I need to do. If I had of just stuck to the things that I know, I wouldn’t be using my laptop to its optimum capacity.

 Is there an ICT that any of you have stayed away from because you thought it was too difficult or not necessary for your lifestyle, then found that it was really great and can’t imagine not using it? Let me know in the comments! It may be something that I thought to be too hard as well and should have been using it all this time!

 

Until next time,

Keep smiling!