To me, e-learning is about using technology as a tool to enhance learning flexibly, creatively and engagingly throughout pedagogical practices. During my time throughout this course, I have learnt that e-learning involves selecting the most appropriate tool for the learning environment, year level, and student, to achieve the best possible learning outcomes for all students. Education Queensland (2008) explains that, “The strategy is about engaging digital generation, improving individualised learning opportunities, sparking innovation in learning, enhancing teachers’ digital pedagogy and getting the best from schools’ ICT investment”. The TPACK (Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge) framework allows opportunities for this to happen (Refer to Blog: Week2Activity 2). The framework emphasizes the connections, interactions, affordances, and constraints between content, pedagogy, and technology. As the climate of classrooms integrate with the 21st century, rather than treating these forms as separate bodies of knowledge, the TPACK model emphasises the importance of using all three forms of knowledge together (Mishra and Koehler, 2006).
ICT’s used as a learning tool in conjunction with pedagogy and content, enables students to efficiently access digital information to assist with investigating issues, solving problems and decision making. These technologies assist students to produce creative solutions to support learning, communicate, share and work collaboratively in local or global environments. Importantly, they encourage students to understand the legal, ethical and safety implications of using ICT’s, and their responsibilities as users (Department of Education, 2012). Throughout my e-learning journey, I have encountered many tools that will assist me as a future learning manager. However for further explanation, I have specifically chosen these tools: Wiki, Moviemaker, PowerPoint and Bubbl.us, as they incorporate the above content.
Wiki activities-
Through my e-learning journey I have found that wiki’s can provide opportunities for a wide range of learners. The wiki activities presented throughout this course have used some elements from all of the learning theories; however, constructivism has been a large focus. Constructivism as an approach allows learners to build knowledge from their own experiences in the world, rather than having it supplied by the teacher (McInerney and McInerney, 1998). West and West (nd) state, “Although wikis hold great promise for online learning, without planning, design, and effective facilitation, a wiki is no more than an empty web page”.In the wiki’s we were presented with appropriate scaffolding, such as De Bono’s six thinking hats; providing guided practice, with clear sense of the goal or outcome (McInerney and McInerney, 1998). This allowed the e-learning class to effectively collaborate online to complete the set task.
Although there are great features of a wiki, this tool can also fail. When participating in the wiki activities, this was the case. Refer to my blog: wiki reflection for further information on the highlights and lowlights of a wiki.
Working legally, safely and ethically-
Most students are familiar with and are active users of technology. While it does facilitate learning, it can be a dangerous tool if improperly used. Knowing when to draw the line, with some forms of technology, according to your own personal comfort levels and ethics is a constant struggle for teachers. As a future teacher, I need to know how to set the boundaries, and provide students the intellectual and emotional tools to make the right decisions (Dunn, 2011). This e-learning course has allowed me to become aware of the safety, legal and ethical policies that I need to abide by, and ensure my students do the same (refer to blog: Legal, Safe and Ethical). These procedures include, ensuring the student has been given permission before using their copyright work, unless the use of the works is permitted under a statutory education license or copyright exception (The State of Queensland, 2012). Ensure the students attribute images, videos and information when using them in school projects or research. In addition, provide students with the knowledge of using reputable sources when researching materials.
I have chosen a wiki as my group 1 tool in favour of its many elements that relate to the safe, ethical and legal policies addressed above. This tool incorporates many features, as explained further in my blog post: WIKI reflection; SWOT, including uploading images and videos. Consequently, students need to be aware of the policies related, for example providing attribution. A wiki is structured so that only members of the site can view its content, unless provided with an invitation or opened to the public by the members. This helps ensure protection against predators when uploading student work, images of students, and videos etc.
Collaborative Construction of Knowledge-
It is understood by many that meaningful learning can’t be accomplished only through activities such as reading and listening (West and West, nd). West and West (nd) state that, “According to constructivist theory, meaning is gained through active learning, social interaction, and the construction of knowledge”. Social constructivists stress the importance of collaborative learning (McInerney and McInerney, 1998). When working with computers in a social interactive setting, “cognitions of the various users build on each other in a “self-scaffolding’ way” (McInerney and McInerney, 1998). A wiki can provide the tools and the collaborative work space that enable contextual teaching and learning. When working with technology, there are many tools that allow students to collaboratively construct knowledge online; a wiki allows for this to happen. West and West (nd) state, “A wiki can be defined as a collaborative web space where anyone can add content and anyone can edit content that has already been published” (Richardson, 2006, p. 8). When set up with appropriate scaffolding, a wiki allows students to collaborate on assignments and set tasks, at school or at home. It also allows students to collaboratively work nationally and globally with students from other schools. As a future learning manager, I must know how to frame wiki activities allowing them to lead to meaningful learning (West and West, nd).
Bubbl.us, an online concept mapping and brainstorming tool that allows online collaboration, was chosen as the group 4 tool. This collaborative mind mapping tool is an interactive tool that can be used to conduct a brainstorming session with students (Refer to blog: Bubbl.us PMI). Students working on assignments or tasks collaboratively, can use Bubbl.us to expand, compare and share ideas for the task (Georgia State University, 2003). When used in the classroom appropriately, the teacher can allow students to collaborate online as a class. Using a chosen learning topic, the learning manager can put Bubbl.us on the interactive whiteboard, and ask students to collaborate their ideas through brainstorming. The students will become instantly engaged as they can create and edit the concept map as much as they like. Once the concept map is made, the creator can share the map with group members and allow them to add ideas.
Importance of Pedagogy-
Throughout my time at Uni I have learnt that pedagogy is the way of teaching; the interaction between the learner and the teacher. However, as we move forward into the 21stCentury, the use of technology is becoming more significant. Digital pedagogy is a way of working and learning with ICT’s to facilitate quality learning. The four tools I have chosen Wiki; MovieMaker, PowerPoint and Bubbl.us, can all be integrated appropriately with pedagogy when scaffolded correctly. However, two particular tools stood out in this area; PowerPoint and MovieMaker.
PowerPoint was chosen as the group 3 tool as it is a form of digital pedagogy. It holds the quality of being a focus for a class, where the teacher can present ideas to the class. Presenting a PowerPoint in front of the class can sometimes seem like you are trying to sell your students a product. However, teaching your students how to use this tool can become very beneficial (Concordia University, 2012) (Refer toblog: PowerPoint PMI). When used as a presentation tool by either the student or the teacher, PowerPoint allows integration of many learning styles to engage the learner. PowerPoint includes functions that work easily with hearing (text on page and audio), incorporates visual aspects (images and video), and also actively engages student participation (class discussion and sorting items).
When used appropriately with pedagogy, the group 2 tool MovieMaker is an impressive tool that I will use continually as a future learning manager (Refer to blog: Movie maker). Digital moviemaking for example, MovieMaker, can generally be defined as the use of a range of media such as images; sound, text, video, etc, to communicate and express understanding (Hofer and Owings-Swan, 2005). Hofer and Owings-Swan (2005) states that, “Digital moviemaking provides a unique opportunity to connect powerful, yet accessible, technology integration with core content and pedagogical practice within specific academic disciplines”. The easy access to the utilities and features that MovieMaker offers, present an abundance of opportunities to design activities that allow for a student-centered approach, are inquiry-based, and are tied to the unique goals related to each disciplinary area (Hofer and Owings-Swan, 2005).
Conclusion-
During my time at University, it has become most evident that today’s students are growing up in a world very different from many of their teachers. Today, students are showered with various forms of technology that communicate an extraordinary amount and breadth of information (Hofer and Owings-Swan, 2005). Students of the 21st Century tend to thrive in this fast-paced, multi-tasking, multi-sensory world (Hofer and Owings-Swan, 2005). The challenge put forward to me as a future learning manager, is to explore ways to tap into this new mindset, so that my students are engaged as learners in the classroom. E-learning has given me the opportunities to explore different forms of technology and the appropriate ways to use them. Using tools such as: Wiki, MovieMaker, PowerPoint and Bubbl.u, allows students to collaboratively construct knowledge, and learn through the help of technology in a safe and legal environment.
Concordia University. (2012). Pedagogy and powerpoint. Retrieved from http://teaching.concordia.ca/resources/teaching-with-new-technologies/pedagogy-and-powerpoint/
Department of Education. (2012). ICT in learning. Retrieved from http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/
Dunn, J. (2011). Edudemic: a teacher’s guide to keeping students safe online. Retrieved from http://edudemic.com/2011/10/student-online-safety-guide/
Georgia State University. (2003). Enabling student collaboration for learning. Retrieved from http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwltc/howto/enablestudentcollab.htm
Hofer, M., & Owings-Swan, K. (2005). Digital moviemaking—the harmonization of technology, pedagogy and content. Retrieved from http://drofilm1.edublogs.org/files/2009/06/article-1-harmonization.pdf
McInerney,D., McInerney,V. (1998). Education psychology: Constructing learning. (2nd Edition). French Forest, NSW; Person Education Australia
The State of Queensland. (2012). Managing consent to use student/volunteer copyright materials and /or to record, use or disclose student personal information. Retrieved from http://ppr.det.qld.gov.au/corp/governance/Pages/managing-consent-to-use-student-volunteer-copyright-materials.aspx
Toth, M. (nd). Using bubbl.us to create collaborative concept maps.Retrieved from http://alicechristie.org/classes/547_548/bubbl.pdf
West, J., M, West. (nd). Using wikis for online collaboration. Retrieved from http://www.e-reading.org.ua/bookreader.php/141435/West_-_Using_Wikis_for_Online_Collaboration.pdf
