Thing 12: Being Critical of Digital Pedagogies

Digital technology has been widely, unreservedly embraced as the future of education, but is it all it’s cracked up to be? The previous posts on this blog have been showcasing the various opportunities that digital technologies provide to the education sector. However, this installment will focus on some of the potential downfalls of technology, as outlined in the “Thing 12” module on canvas.

Firstly, the actual evidence proving that digital technologies improve learning outcomes may not be comprehensive enough to justify the praise it receives. While theoretically the ideas are sound, clear enough research has not yet emerged linking technology to learning.

Secondly, is it often assumed that technology is the defining factor in successful classrooms – and the quality of teaching is overlooked. While it can be helpful, digital technologies need to be used meaningfully and appropriately – and doing so requires good teaching!

There are also concerns that technology can become a distraction to learners. This is something I can relate to personally, and find to be a very valid concern! Thinking back to my experiences in school, I can’t even count the number of times I spent lessons messaging friends, or playing games on my phone. While technology does have the potential to enhance learning, it can create these distractions – which have the opposite effect.

The excitement and stimulation of technology can work well to engage modern learners on a surface level – however, the over-stimulation they are accustomed to can reduce their resilience in persevering through challenging tasks. If students are constantly seeking entertainment, and ‘fun’ learning activities (such as Kahoots), tasks that are difficult and do not provide instant gratification seem less appealing. Aversion to such tasks is a significant issue. It is a reality that time consuming, difficult tasks will be part of education (for example, NCEA essays, study for exams etc.), so students need to be able to cope with them.

Another concern surrounding digital technologies, is that they can disembody the learning process. Overuse of technology can lead to students experiencing the world through a screen, rather than being fully immersed in it; experiencing learning with their mind, body and soul. Think about it as a song by your favourite musician. Yes, watching a video of them singing can be enlightening, but physically standing in front of them at a concert is on a whole other level!

A harsh reality of technology is that it comes at a rather high (monetary) price. Yes, stores will have sales and perhaps even student discounts – but these will not make much of a difference for families barely scraping by financially. Unfortunately, digital devices are inaccessible to so many students; particularly those in our lower decile schools. Strategies to provide equity in technology need to be employed on a wider scale, to ensure that all young learners are able to experience the opportunities that technology can provide.

Lastly, it is no secret that technology can significantly increase the workload placed on teachers. Powerpoints, quizzes and online activities do not create themselves. Yes, they can be beneficial in enhancing student learning, but this comes at the cost of the teachers sacrificing their personal time to create/update them. Messenger services such as emails also make the teacher available to students 24 hours a day. Perhaps it is time for the government to recognise this increase in workload and adjust teaching salaries accordingly?

This digital learning journey has opened my eyes to the opportunities that technology can provide to education, and the different types of programmes/resources that can be utilised. It is important to take the good with the bad, remaining mindful of these concerns while using digital technologies to enhance teaching and learning outcomes. I now feel better equipped to use these technologies confidently, and in a way that will benefit my future students.

Thing 11: Connecting

Personal learning networks; sometimes known as professional learning communities, allow teachers (and other professionals) to stay connected through the use of technology.

Creating your own personal learning network (from a teachers perspective) involves relationship building with a range of professionals in the education sector; for example, other teachers, lecturers, principals etc. Within these networks knowledge is shared, support is offered, and the overall aim is collaboration – to learn from one another. A benefit of investing the time and effort to create these world-wide learning networks is that through digital technologies, you will have access to assistance and support any time you need

An example I have observed of personal learning networks in use, is when my lecturers have organised skype presentations delivered by educators all over the world. E.g. our skype conference with Nate Babcock from the United States in Edprofst 203.

In terms of my own personal learning network..
I have made some strong connections during my university journey, but I also recognise that there is also a lot of room to improve and expand my network.
So far, I have built connections with my classmates, lecturers, teachers/principals/administrators from placements, and a range of different international teachers from my practicum in Tanzania. I also have family members working in the education sector (teachers and lecturers) in Norway, Canada, South Africa and the United States. I am hoping to expand this network during my exchange in Sweden, where I will be introduced to a number of highly regarded educators.
In my experiences so far, I have found these connections to be incredibly helpful. I have learned so much collaborating with my associate teachers while out on practicum, as well as through the lecturers at university. Not to mention using the contact I had in Tanzania who helped me organise a placement over there!

These are just some of my personal experiences that shape the strong belief I have in the importance of personal learning networks – a few of many. My aim will be to continue building this little network I have going. To achieve this, I intend to use digital technologies such as twitter, blogs, webinars and LinkedIn. I am looking forward to discovering new technologies along the journey, continuing to grow and learn from my network.

Thing 10: Insights into Learning

Seeking feedback from students is an extremely valuable way to maintain an ever-improving, self-reflective practice. As a teacher, it is important to know which aspects of your practice work well, and which don’t – and what better way to source this information than from the students themselves!

It is especially import to seek student feedback when considering how education has changed since we (teachers) were in school ourselves (discussed in detail in “thing 2”). What we find to be an incredibly engaging activity may fall flat with our students – because our experiences with school and learning are significantly different to theirs today.

Receiving feedback from our students can help us to improve the quality of our teaching, to make it as relevant and meaningful as we can (to each specific group/class of learners). With digital technologies, we have access to a myriad of different feedback gathering tools. These are especially effective as they can be made anonymous – which means students are more likely to give their honest thoughts.

To practice using this type of technology I have created a Padlet page, giving readers the opportunity to leave me some feedback regarding previous blog posts. Link Below:

https://padlet.com/schermbruckermeg/1p2ywocuv6va

Thing 9: Collaboration

Collaboration is commonly confused with cooperation. Wesley Freyer outlines the difference between these two terms, some of the key differences are as follows:

Collaborative learning is viewed as a social act, where the students are learning through their interactions and talking to each other. Whereas cooperative learning sees students working in teams, given a certain part of the task to work on – sharing their knowledge with the group. Collaboration has less teacher imposed constraints in terms of the task – the teacher does not necessarily have a planned outcome for the students research as they would typically have in cooperative learning.

In Dylan William’s video on collaborative learning, he discusses the importance of group goals and personal accountability. If both of these things are present, then learning is significantly increased (by approximately double, according to Williams). Collaborative learning also blurs the lines between teachers and learners. Students are encouraged to tap into a teacher role and share their knowledge.

Digital technologies can provide effective means of collaboration. I have researched how Twitter can be used as a tool for teachers to develop collaborative classrooms. “Twitter offers a number of affordances that can potentially support collaborative learning” (Carpenter, 2014, p. 1).

Twitter can be used by both teachers and students as a means of sharing resources, communicating thoughts/opinions, and collaborating outside of the classroom. That last point I find to be particularly valuable – Twitter (as well as other digital resources) can be an absolute game-changer in education. By allowing the students to collaborate outside of class, the opportunities available for learning increase significantly. Using these digital tools, collaboration is no longer limited to the timetabled sessions at school, so they are definitely something I would like to incorporate into my teaching one day.

References

Carpenter, J. (2014). Twitter’s capacity to support collaborative learning. International Journal Of Social Media And Interactive Learning Environments, 2(2), 103. doi: 10.1504/ijsmile.2014.063384

Thing 7: Using Audio/Video

I am a firm believer in incorporating audio/video resources into classrooms. In my teaching experiences, they have proven invaluable in engaging even the most distracted students.

The following video could be incorporated into the biomechanics unit of a physical education class. “The Human Bones Song” presents information about the skeletal system in a more memorable and engaging way.

To use this video in my teaching, I would take a flipped classroom approach and have the students first view it at home prior to class. Obviously they will not watch one video and magically retain all of the information, however this would give them the opportunity to come to class prepared with any questions they may have.

Thing 5: Web 2.0 and Beyond

Incorporating digital technologies into classroom contexts goes further than simply substituting traditional activities for technological ones. Web 2.0 pedagogy seeks to transform learning experiences. A helpful way to understand this is through Dr Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR model.

The ‘S’ stands for substitution. The traditional pen and paper is substituted for a digital counterpart (e.g. laptop, tablet etc.), but there is no change to the function.

The ‘A’ stands for augmentation. Technology is still a direct substitute; however, this time there is functional improvement. For example, instead of drawing a graph on paper, students could utilise digital software. The functional improvement this offers is that the graph would be exactly to scale – removing any discrepancies that may occur in hand-drawing.

The ‘M’ stands for modification. In this stage, technology is used to notably redesign the activities of the lesson. This occurs in such a way that it would be difficult to complete the task without technology.

The ‘R’ stands for redefinition. Digital technologies allow teachers to create completely new activities that would have been impossible without the use of technology.

The ‘Padagogy Wheel’ (URL below) is a Web 2.0 Tool that I would like to use in my teaching. I recognise the benefits that digital technologies can bring to the classroom, however I am not experienced enough in using them to know which specific websites/apps/programmes are the best to use. The Padagogy Wheel is a tool that helps you to select specific digital tools to target your desired learning intentions – the perfect thing to help me with this concern!

Padagogy Wheel URL https://designingoutcomes.com/english-speaking-world-v5-0/

Thing 4: Flipped and Blended Learning

A flipped classroom approach essentially sees the students study the content and concepts at home, so class time can be used to engage with this knowledge on a deeper level. This allows the teacher to slip into more of a facilitation role, guiding them into higher level thinking during the contact time available in class.

Traditionally, content is covered in class, and the more complex, application aspects are assigned as homework. By flipping this, we are able to be present to help our students through the most challenging part of the learning.
During my last practicum, the bio-mechanics unit was taught in more of a traditional manner. Student were taught the key content (bones, muscles, movements) during class, and were expected to apply these concepts to their individual skill as homework.
I think a flipped classroom approach would have been beneficial here, as the concepts taught in class were straightforward enough for the students to pick up on their own. However, a lot of them encountered difficulty during the application stage of the task. Flipped learning would create an opportunity for the students to engage in this application stage with a teacher present to guide them when needed. This would help to minimise confusion and ultimately improve learning outcomes.

While I definitely see value in flipped learning, one thing I am wary about is how heavily it relies on students to be responsible for their own learning. What happens if students come to class without having studied the key concepts prior? Progress could be slowed down for everybody if the teacher has to spend time covering these as opposed to facilitating the activities that require higher order thinking.

In blended learning, a combination of both classroom and online activities are used to engage students. This approach nurtures individual learning styles, by providing a range of different ways to engage with the activities.
Another major benefit of blended learning is that it allows the teacher to move at the pace of each individual, rather than an average based on the entire class. The latter risks either students getting left behind (if the pace is too fast for them), or students becoming bored and disengaging (if the pace is too slow).

A way that I could use blended learning in P.E. would be to create online modules to supplement class activities. This would allow students to work at a pace that is comfortable to them, keeping them engaged and learning actively. For example, if a learner was struggling to understand a certain concept they could refer back to their online module and work from that instead of the face-to-face activities.

Thing 3: Copyright Matters

Path to Nowhere by Ollierb

Creator: Ollierb
Title: Path to Nowhere
Published: July 1, 2014

Source:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ollierb/14551604904/in/photolist-oaSMaJ-eiMTUR-nQNfTo-ckkg5q-p78TWu-bQxWzR-4XHP1r-bfYaZz-nr1hdo-qPAekf-29QBvEr-aWqfFp-ahyXTs-aa8Xrj-281LiUb-8nrp9J-ogXFa9-eUmLox-24dH6yX-L31P4B-ikxgA-eiMUtg-d9y94w-pYxRVR-ddexuh-pGod53-qXjtKY-9gqBhp-QzEVNR-aeMdhy-r77kCL-ryQbe5-eUmLhg-fdBFfV-ahyXGQ-p3DHre-24K3cjt-dYMWqQ-dizkvh-drLx83-dYMXVA-Rra4TK-nNsz9L-8bfqWx-dGtNQA-dJjsNf-eVewQ9-dgZFVp-4Vp2g7-eMUQiN

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Link to Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/legalcode