The question of ‘do you see the increased use of technology by children as a positive step forwards?’ I agree yes I do see it being a positive step forwards in primary education.
Being an ICT specialist on this Primary Education University degree I see technology being used in school as being an important part of the primary school. Children should have the chance to be able to use technology as it is increases children’s motivation as technology gives children a greater willingness to write or to work. Holocher-Ertl (2013) state that motivational aspects are frequently neglected in technology enhanced learning, although experiences from research and practice consistently show that they are one of the most important acceptance and success factors of learning solutions. I have seen this whilst being on SE3; I gave the chance for the children in my year 5 class to write a newspaper article by hand. They weren't exactly overjoyed by this being handwritten, but when I told them they will have the chance to type their work up individually on a laptop in a newspaper format this gave them the incentive to get their work hand written first.
As we are now heading towards a great digital world where most aspects of our life will incorporate some kind of technology, it is an inevitable outcome in our increasingly digital society to use technology within the classroom. Although I agree with the aspect of technology being used in the classroom, I still think the most important issue of using technology is whether or not the children are obtaining the information being taught to them. If using technology helps the children to acquire new learning then why shouldn't it be used?
The benefits which I see technology being in the classroom, is that technology allows us to do things in a more engaging way perhaps making lessons likable for children, it allows us to do new things that we thought were not possible and enthuse children. It is those new things that are the real value that technology provides to it being used within the classroom.
I think a mixture of both technology enhanced lessons and not using technology lessons will create an environment that is conducive to learning.
The challenges which I perceive of this module are being critical about issues of technology and the understanding of the concept of multi literacies.
Bibliography:
Holocher-Ertl, T, Kunzmann, C, Müller, L, Rivera-Pelayo, V, Schmidt, A. (2013). Scaling up Learning for Sustained Impact. Motivational and Affective Aspects in Technology Enhanced Learning: Topics, Results and Research Route. 8095 pp 460- 465
I most definitely think that viewing and accepting new literacies in the classroom, alongside the traditional literacies as moving away from the archaic-technologic Victorian era style teaching practices. It is not a matter of things are changing; things have changed; I see it when I observe the children in my life and how they are true ‘digital natives’ as stated by Pensky (2001:1): ‘Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach’. Is this an inevitable outcome? No, purely because it has happened, if not in our classrooms, it has in others. Additionally, evidence suggests strongly that children’s brains have changed (Pensky,2001).
ReplyDeleteI believe it is virtually impossible in this day and age for any person, not to live their life without some interaction with modern technology. Furthermore, the more interaction and usage a person has, it potentially offers better life chances and possibly a successful career. Therefore, we owe it to our students and as educators to at least teach ICT capability (Potter and Darbyshire, 2005) and in doing so, embrace the opportunity to utilise a penopoly (a wide ranging impressive array) of teaching and learning tools for all literacies.
I see my challenge on this module as; learning as much as possible; so I can be competent, confident and a radical person in this changing weather. I know the bridge I will have to cross is difficult, so my challenge will be to have the focus, dedication and the resilience to achieve my challenge for the benefit of my children in the classroom. The easy option would be to resist change and risk being left behind.
Bibliography
Parker, J. (2010) Teaching Tech-Savvy Kids: Bringing Digital media into the classroom, grades 5-12.
London: SAGE Ltd.
Pensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf Online: Accessed 16/01/2014
Potter, F and Darbyshire, C. (2005) Understanding and Teaching the ICT National Curriculum. Oxon: David Fulton Publishers.
I agree although am a little confused by how children's brains have changed could you explain this? To at least teach ICT is our duty wondering whether we need to think beyond that and perhaps think of it as our duty to try and be a step ahead of the change so that we can teach children to adapt with change rather than be against it.
DeleteBy understanding what is fundamentally going on in children's brains will help a little, to be 'a step ahead of the change'. Let me explain by analogy: You see a target, you pick up a stone up and throw it at the target in order to hit it; the next time, you design a bow and arrow, you see a target, fire an arrow in order to hit the target; the next time, you use a hand gun to hit the target; thereafter, you use a rifle; the next time you use a cannon and so on and on. If at each different event a picture was taken of your brain the picture would be different because your brain has ‘rewired’ (Prensky, 2001) itself with new knowledge and procedures/functions of thought and muscle movement etc. Mark Prensky briefly, but succinctly explains:
Delete‘Based on the latest research in neurobiology, there is no longer any question that stimulation of various kinds actually changes brain structures and affects the way people think, and that these transformations go on throughout life…the brain changes and organizes itself differently based on the inputs it receives…The brain constantly reorganizes itself all our child and adult lives, a phenomenon technically known as neuroplasticity... We now know that brains that undergo different developmental experiences develop differently, and that people who undergo different inputs from the culture that surrounds them think differently. And while we haven’t yet directly observed Digital Natives’ brains to see whether they are physically different (such as musicians’ appear to be) the indirect evidence for this is extremely strong.’
Bibliography
Pensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf Online: Accessed 21/01/2014
I believe the increased use of technology is a good thing but it depends on how we teach and use it and how we make it available to children as to how good it is. The technology we have allows for a more multi-sensory approach to learning and therefore allow for a more inclusive curriculum as children can physically interact with it, for example on my first school experience the school had bought an interactive whiteboard table which allowed for more than one pupil to use at the same time which helped children learn to work together, take turns as well as engage them in all areas of the curriculum.
ReplyDeleteSince technology is a part of our culture and society to not engage with it, resist it and prevent children from accessing it would therefore prevent them from fitting in with society (Johnson and Kress, unknown). Additionally technology can be used to support children’s learning such as using e-books to encourage children to read, interactive games to aid phonics learning or even simply using word to allow children to get their ideas down as they get used to the processes of physically writing them down. Rather than resisting it we should be finding ways to balance the technology and the physically carrying out of activities such as writing, solving maths problems, learning outside the classroom etc. Furthermore in the APP reading assessment AF7 (DfE, 2010) requires child to read a wide repertoire of texts which could be interpreted to mean multimodal texts and technology (UKLA, 2010).
On a personal level the difficulties I will face is in having the confidence to use the technology and resources partially because ICT was not my strongest subject at school. In teaching in general the possible difficulties might include planning the use of such resources and teaching, how cost and time effective they are, how can we judge the appropriateness of the resources, how can we safeguard the children from the dangers that may occur and how can we assess their ability in using multimodal texts and technologies effectively.
Bibliography
Johnson, D & Kress, G, ‘Globalisation, Literacy and Society: redesigning pedagogy and assessment’ Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice Vol 10, (1) pp55-14
Matthewman, S. Blight, A & Davies, C (2004) ‘What does Multimodality mean for English? Creative Tensions in teaching new texts and new Literacies Education’ Communication and Information, Vol 4 (1)
DfE (2010) The National Strategies Assessing Pupil Progress A teachers’ handbook London: DfE
UKLA (2010) Teaching Reading: What the evidence says Leicester: UKLA
I think your post is really interesting to read from an ICT specialists' point of view. As an English specialist it is really good to read about other perspectives in education, and from someone who has a different specialism/ interest to me!
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