Digital Reflective Artefact

Assignment 2 - Item 1c

With this course being a beginning course for a masters program, I have on occasion felt somewhat disadvantaged in what I am able to contribute to the discussions. However, I will attempt to reflect on what I have read from the course readings and the little experience I do have from practicums in the schools.

Exploring software for educational use:
I believe a key factor in choosing a piece of software for educational purposes should be whether or not it is going to “enhance student thinking and performance” as stated by (McKenzie, 2000, para.16).

Schools can spend all the money they have in the budget on purchasing software that they think might be of use to the students. However if there is no link to learning then it is of no use other than learning how to use that particular piece of software. The purchase or implementation of software applications need to be driven by a desire to enhance and increase productivity of student learning. Where educators see a gap in resources or the need for a link to engage or provide students with opportunities to relevant tasks, is when a software application should be considered. Software programs that are interactive tend to stimulate learning and help the student engage with the content.

These programs often have the advantage over traditional methods of being able to cater for different learning areas such as kinaesthetic, visual, and auditory learners. These programs should also provide opportunities for scaffolding in other curriculum areas so that students are able to transfer that learning.

ICT integration:
ICT integration takes place at grass roots level, in the classroom. Whether or not that takes place depends on the individual teacher and their experience, or lack there of in the use of technology. “We need to fundamentally reorganize school classrooms. Instead of a centralized-control model (with a teacher delivering information to a roomful of students), we should take a more entrepreneurial approach to learning. Students can become more active and independent learners, with the teacher serving as consultant,” as stated by (Resnick, 2002, p. 36).

Teachers that do not have a lot of experience with ICT should perhaps let go of the reins a little and allow the students some freedom to use ICT as a tool for empowering learning. There are endless possibilities when technology is engaged successfully in the learning process. Resnick puts forward the concept of amalgamating the curriculum into themes or projects and through that drawing in all the curriculum areas. This would have many advantages for each year level as they could all be working on the same project with the same outcome at the end, but how they each get there would depend on the teacher and the class. The integration of ICT into a concept such as this is a natural progression as students research information, engage in simulations, draw up data spread sheets and plot graphic representation of that data, produce presentations and text documents and the list would continue.

The integration of ICT should not be mandated and forced onto unwilling teachers but should become a natural process and sometimes left up to the student’s initiative as to where that leads.

These are two key concepts that I have been reflecting on and think they form an important part of how the use of ICT should or can be implemented in the classroom setting. It would seem far too often that these decisions are taken away from the teacher and implemented at a higher level with the teacher expected to conform or get the students to conform to the new program as was the case with the ‘Blue Sky High School’ mentioned in ‘The Software Trap’

Reference:
McKenzie, J. (2000, March). The software trap. Retrieved June 4, 2007, from http://fno.org/mar2000/softwaretrap.html .Resnick, M. (2002). Rethinking learning in the digital age. Retrieved June 4, 2007, from http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cr/pdf/gitrr2002_ch03.pdf .