Practitioners

Teachers who don’t use ICT properly in the classroom won’t benefit from it themselves. Going back to personal experiences my old primary school teachers in Berlin wouldn’t use any source of technology therefor it was really boring and no one was engaged. On the other hand a lot of the practitioners in Great Britain haven’t got the skills to use ICT in the classroom properly. If the teacher’s used it properly it would benefit them as well  ‘there is recognition of the potential or actual contribution of resources to which ICT enables an easier access for the development of more ‘authentic’ teaching practices.’ (François Larose, 2009)  If the teacher is well trained with ICT it will bring the best out of them and also the pupils by enhancing their learning. It also gets the pupils to take lead in the class instead of the teachers.  If the practitioners uses the ICT in the right way it will benefit the pupil as so;

‘ICT changes the characteristics of problems and learning tasks, and hence play an important task as mediator of cognitive development’ (Syed Noor- Ul- Amin)

(Syed Noor-Ul-Amin). An Effective use of ICT for Education and Learning by Drawing on Worldwide Knowledge, Research, and Experience. Available: http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/waoe/amins.pdf. Last accessed 13th of Dec 2016.

François Larose. (09 Jul 2009). The impact of pre‐service field training sessions on the probability of future teachers using ICT in school.Available: http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/waoe/amins.pdf. Last accessed 13th of Dec 2016

Podcasts and Vodcasts

Podcasts and vodcasts can be very beneficial in education for students and teachers if they are used in an effective way. It may depend on the age of the students in which one of these you may use and how. “More schools are opting to use podcasting in their classroom as it stimulates learning through creative means and open lines of communication. A closer look at podcasting reveals the following benefits: Ease of Accessibility, Archive of lessons, Learning on the go, Updates and creative learning.”(Professional Learning Board 2016) As you can see this is a benefit for teachers and learners as the pupils can access the information at any time without asking the teacher, therefore there is less pressure on the teacher and they can let the students to learn more independently .Also while listening and creating to the podcasts it develops news skills for the students benefit.

Professional Learning Board . (2016). What are the Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom?. Available: https://k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com/tlb/what-are-the-benefits-of-podcasting-in-the-classroom/. Last accessed 04/12/16.

Multimodal and Multimedia

In education students learn in different ways which is why multimedia and multimodality is so important to be included in lessons. There are many different ways to use these which can be very beneficial to the learning. For example using multimedia technology such as an interactive white board can include many different modes to include in a session. The whiteboard can show multimodal video clips, images, voice audio‘s, writings in different colour and so on which engage the students.  This is a quote that supports the statement above “As such, multimedia can be used to develop a more inclusive and engaging curriculum, appealing to visual, aural and kinaesthetic learners, thereby counteracting some differences in student performance” (Birch & Burnett, 2009; St Hill, 2000).  By looking at the video bellow its also clear of the benefits of multimedia and multimodality in education.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbEiBNQMg9U


Birch et al. (2010). The Impact of Multiple Representations of Content using Multimedia on Learning Outcomes. Available: http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Apr_10/article01.htm. Last accessed 28/11/16.

Fredwell,D. (2012). Mulitmedia in education . Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbEiBNQMg9U. Last accessed 28/11/16.

Mobile Technology

It is possible to imagine classrooms without teachers and pupils completely dependent on technology, just as it is possible to imagine supermarkets without staff!  Pupils are becoming more and more technology centred and so is teaching. It is also possible to imagine a world without classrooms at all where the pupils can simply access all learning materials through online technology whilst sitting at home.  Technology can be used anywhere at anytime. Many teachers are afraid of being replaced by technology as a way of cutting costs.  In Quillen’s article (2012), he refers to the Eagle County School district where foreign language teachers were replaced by online teaching.  Generally teachers weren’t happy with this decision saying that ‘replacing face to face instructors with a digital option… would not be as rich or as meaningful’ (Ian Quillen, 2012)

Ian Quillen. (December 1st, 2012). Can Technology Replace Teachers?. Quality debated as districts tap tech over teachers. 1 (1), p4.

Personal Experience with Technology

In my experience of early years of education I didn't use as much ICT as children do these days in the classroom while being taught. For what I can remember in primary school the main technology used to help learning were mainly things like calculators, overhead projectors, TV and video players and sometimes we would use the PC's to create a poster on paint or a typed letter. After completing a week of work experience in a primary school I have realized how much has changed.” Very few educators would disagree with the notion that technology has dramatically changed the teaching and learning process.”(McKnight,K.2012) This quote also supports my point and shows that education evolves around technology a lot more than it did. For example I realized during my week of work experience that the children were doing a lot of their work on ipads and also macbooks. They would use different apps and games to complete tasks and solve problems, which was very interesting and would make the work enjoyable. “Early research shows that tablets in the classroom have the potential to significantly enhance learning. UK-based researchers examined schools using tablets and found a range of learning benefits, including increases in student motivation, collaboration between students and teachers, and collaboration among students themselves.” (Tynan-Wood,C.2016) This also shows the other benefits of having the ipad’s in the class room and how effective they can be to help the teacher and the student.

 

Tynan-Wood,C. (2016). iPads in the classroom: the promise and the problems. Available: http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/ipad-technology-in-the-classroom/. Last accessed 18/10/2016.

 

McKnight. (2012). Top 12 Ways Technology Changed Learning . Available: http://www.teachhub.com/how-technology-changed-learning. Last accessed 18/10/2016.