Over the past 6 weeks, we have been introduced to a plethora of digital technologies and encouraged to research; use and reflect on these tools, using our knowledge of e-learning; legal, ethical and safe practices and how students learn best. I found quite a lot of the digital tools that we were introduced to interesting for teaching, especially in regards to a new direction for assignments, student creativity and student engagement in learning. The main thing that I found when doing the weekly blog posts on the digital technologies was that I was intrigued by these technologies and wanted to take my learning in that area further.
With my own use of these tools, and the extra work that I did using some of the technologies, I could envision how e-learning would put a positive spin on education and encourage students to dig deeper into the curriculum they are learning by researching and discovering new ways to learn and receive information. As stated very nicely by Malik Burnett in the video above: “[It’s] not so much how much knowledge you can hold in your head, but, how much knowledge you can put your hands on and access at any given point in time” (Turcsany. T, 2011).
My understanding of that video is that e-learning is essential in the growth of students minds, as students, employers and employees can learn on the go, in their own time and with their own motivation. This will make learning and retaining information easier as lecture-based or teacher-focused learning has been proven to show fewer results in students learning than student-focused learning and the use of e-learning to encourage the students to research further and motivate themselves to learn. The video below is from the Australian Institute of Teaching and Student Learning (AITSL) website and introduces the use of e-learning in classrooms and how it motivates students to learn and be more involved in their education.
http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/illustrations-of-practice/detail?id=IOP00156
(AITSL, 2014)
Although the positives are quite extensive for e-learning there are also negatives. In particular, the online educational learning tasks and tools like blogs, wikis, and forums – where the teacher needs to keep a close eye on student activity inside and outside of class to make sure cyber safety is taking place as well as making sure the online spaces are not being tainted with inappropriate sources such as pornographic images; links to viruses or unsuitable websites, etc.
The Australian Government has created A Cyber Safety section on their website which features links to multiple pages all pertaining to keeping the internet safe for students and to keep teachers, students and parents up to date and aware of the dangers of the internet and preventative measures to take to lower the risk of cyber bullying; stranger danger and more (Australian Government, 2014).
The Australian Government has also created a web site called Cyber (Smart :) and featured on this website is an interactive online game called #gameon, which is aimed at upper primary and lower secondary students to raise awareness of the consequences following poor online decisions. Personally, after seeing this interactive, online, educational learning method, I as a teacher would be inclined to have all of my students (lower or upper secondary students) play this game before using any e-learning tools and practices, so that they all know the consequences of their actions on and offline, and so they understand that there are rules in place if they decide to misuse the online and digital tools (Commonwealth of Australia, 2015).
As teachers we need to be well educated with cyber safety, the content we teach and multiple ways to teach it. There is nothing worse than a teacher who only has one method: “I talk, you write”. Because of this, we have also been learning about different models to enhance the way we teach and what we need to know as teachers to be able to teach the students productively. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) is a model which I am particularly fond of as it shows what a teacher is required to be able to do to use e-learning practices in a classroom successfully and the image below demonstrates that knowledge perfectly.
(image source: http://matchsz.inf.elte.hu/CIEL/TPACK.jpg)
The last 6 weeks learning about e-learning and using different digital technologies has been amazing. Now onto AT2!
Goodbye :)
References:
AITSL (2012) 21st Century Education, retrieved from: https://youtu.be/nA1Aqp0sPQo
AITSL (2014) Engaging Through ICT, retrieved from: http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/illustrations-of-practice/detail?id=IOP00201
AITSL (2014) Individualised Student Learning, retrieved from: http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers/illustrations-of-practice/detail?id=IOP00156
Australian Government (2014) Cybersafety in Schools, retrieved from: https://www.education.gov.au/cybersafety-schools
Commonwealth of Australia (2015) Cyber (smart :), retrieved from: http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/Schools.aspx
Turcsany, T (2011) Apple Education Learning with iPoad Us, retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24R1QJAXL4s&feature=youtu.be
Zhang, D & Nunamaker, J (2003) Powering E-Learning in The New Millennium: An Overview of E-Learning and Enabling Technology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands
Appendix - extra information for your interest
