Week 2 - Teaching in Digital Environments

Week 2 – Teaching in Digital Environments

http://ncltitpack.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/UnPACK+your+Discipline+TPACK

Welcome to Week 2!!

Time is flying and before you know it we will be finished!

This week has been very productive as I have learnt a lot more knowledge about how, why and where ICT’s come into play within the school environment. Coming straight out of a Sports Science undergraduate degree the educational language has hit me hard and I've had to re-read a number of articles and watch YouTube clips to help make things clearer.

There have been heaps of good points brought up on the wiki with relation to using mobiles phones within the school environment. Before I start my discussion and reflections take the time to check out the YouTube clip below which relates to mobiles phones as a learning tool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXt_de2-HBE

When we take into consideration the 4 main learning theories (Behaviourism, constructivism, cognitivism, & connectivism) it’s not hard to notice that with the use mobile phone within a classroom environment these theories can be utilised. Let’s break it down and see.

Behaviourism can be identified as behaviour caused by an external stimuli.¹ It is where a learner is essentially passive and will respond to an environmental stimuli.¹ When using mobile phones in a classroom a student can become engaged in what other students around them are doing and use that as a way of learning and understanding which can produce a response, either positive or negative. This however does not promote high-level thinking and teacher aren’t always in control of the technology.²

The use of mobile phones can also relate the learning theories cognitivism and constructivism. Mobile phones are able to connect to the internet and can therefore allow leaners to acquire and store information as well as analyse and apply it.² The last theory is connectivism. This relates to students using mobile phones to stay connected and communicate. It allows for transformation of information. Unfortunately one problem is that not all students have mobile phones.

To me mobile phones in the classroom cause a number of problems. All mobile phones are different and work in different ways. This would be hard for teachers to utilise the technology in the classroom as they probably wouldn’t have an understanding of how all the different phones work etc. This can lead problems such as student not all being able to use the same app which can disadvantage some students. They are also a great distraction; limit face to face learning can increase bullying as well as bad grammar and finally can cause issues at home when families are unable to afford phones for their children. In a way I think it is possible but would need a good structured program. Overall it’s not necessarily about the technology but more about the digital pedagogy. If teachers are giving the opportunity to use these technologies to help students learn then they should go for it. Us teacher are supposed to create the most effective learning environment possible. To do this, teachers much decide on the content and then make a decision on the types of technologies which can be effectively utilised. This relates to the TPACK model below.

http://azalinafarahauziz.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/t-p-a-c-k-vs-c-l-a-s-s-r-o-o-m/

The wiki discussion is a great way to understand others points of view as well as share relevant evidence. It was also good to identify other advantages and disadvantages that I didn’t think about. Unfortunately I’m not a fan of the idea of people editing my contribution to the discussion. I would much rather a blog where you can comment and have discussions that way due to the fact that everyone should be able to right their point of view without someone editing it without consent. This however is just my point of view. 

Technologies such as mobiles phone can be related to the learning domains in Bloom’s taxonomy. The 3 domains consist of cognitive (mental skills), affective (attitudes) and psychomotor (physical skills).³ Technologies like that mobile phone can sometimes help students learn dependant on their learning style. When looking at this link- http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#cognitive  it’s not hard to identify how a mobile phone is able to contribute to each category.

Still trying to get my head around it all but most of it seems to be interconnected. Stay tuned for week 3's blog which will be based on digital technologies.

References –

¹ Learning-Theories.com. Knowledge base and webliography- Behaviorism. Retrieved March 6^th 2013 from http://www.learning-theories.com/behaviorism.html

²Edudemic. (2012). A Simple Guide to 4 Complex Learning Theories. Retrieved March 6^th 2013 from  http://edudemic.com/2012/12/a-simple-guide-to-4-complex-learning-theories/

³ Big Dog & Little Dog’s Performance Juxtaposition. (1995). Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains. Retrieved March 6^th 2013 from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#cognitive