View the mind-map1 that i have created, illustrating all the technologies I have experienced throughout the semsetr and how they could be used in the primary school.

Rebecca has blogged about a posting made by Loren, relating to the same issue. So many of todays’ children in our society, are forunate enough to own and have regular access to many technologies, including laptops.

Loren’s post illustrates how children in developing countries are being provided with their own laptops which is a huge achievement. It is great to see that children less fortunate are able to experience some of the technology that children in Western countries often take for granted. It is enabling them to obtain some of the world’s information and develop some helpful skills for their life long learning.

Like Rebecca I have always dreamed of teaching overseas in a devloping country, being able to give something back to those less fortunate. Having this technology available would make the experience for beneficial for the childrens’ learning. These laptops allow children to play, learn, explore, exchange and much more.

My views on technology in the primary school context have been confirmed after reading Larissa’s posting and subsequently, an article regarding technology in primary schools. I found the content of this article really interesting and thought provoking, as it made me think about what technologies and skills we need to be teaching children today. The article states that technological knowledge and skill that is of high value today, may be deminishing value tomorrow. As future educators this is an extremely valid point.

It is again evident that the technological trends are changing and developing at a dazzling pace, thus lies the importance of children and teachers to stay abreast with such changes. Larissa makes a fantastic point that “it is one thing to include technology in your teaching and learning across a variety of KLA’s, however it is vital that the skills of using that technology are taught for the technology to be used to its full potential”.

emilys-podcast Listen to this to hear about a primary school that has gone virtually paperless!

I just read an article titled, Could computer games help transform the way we learn, in a magazine called VISION. Henry Jenkins, Professor of Education at MIT quotes that ‘Games are the most powerful learning technology of our age’. Young kids today are being named the ‘Gaming generation’ and Facer states that unless formal education catches up then we will miss out on exploiting this most powerful tool.

Before reading this article I was like many others on the topic, skeptical of using games in the classroom and even viewing children’s high involvement with them as anything but beneficial to their learning. I feel this article has changed my views and made me see a very important and obvious point of; why not capitalise on their interests and as teachers use it to benefit and aide their learning. We need to take a new approach and view games as powerful learning tools that can be of great value and benefit to children’s learning. We should be saying: ‘let’s bring them (games) into schools and design  them to meet specific learning goals’.

Another exciting aspect that is currently emerging, sees the technology on which games are being built, being used to enable children to create their own games, stories and drama.    

Since I have designed a LAMS task for the purpose of this subject, I could relate to Patsy-Anne Street’s article on students’ and teachers’ experiences of collaborative learning online. The research paper looks at the use of LAMS as an online learning environment to teach a collaborative unit of work on Vandalisim, in 2 primary schools in Christchurch, NZ. The main findings from the research project are outlined as; there are groups for whom this environment is more effective than others. This is in relation to higher order thinking skills and some students not having the academic readiness to think beyond the lower levels. Also reading and literacy skills determine how effective the LAMS environment is for some students. These factors were all considered in the design process of our personal LAMS creation. We endevoured many of the drawbacks similar to  the research; professional development, confidence and capability, access to computers, a support network and effective teaching practices. However even with these encounters we found using the technology and creating the LAMS task really rewarding. I can definetly see the benefits and value for using this technology in the classroom. Activities such as the one we created can be used as a component in a unit of work, creating motivating and interesting stimulus for students. It is also possible to incorporate any key learning area in the LAMS task, making it an effective and time efficient tool for teachers.

From reading Renee’s post on Using Digital Video in the classroom, it reiterated the importance of using such technologies in today’s classrooms. Students today are constantly bombarded with so many forms of media that they are living in a digital world.

Good teachers should see the benefits of using digital videos and the many diffenet ways they can be incorportaed in to all key learning areas, for example in English, creating digital stories. I can see how this technology would be extremely motivating for students and has the opportunity to dreate an effective and interesting e-learning environment.

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From reading Larissa’s blog that referred to an article on the differences between constructivism and constructionism, i found the concepts in the article quite complex to comprehend. However reading Larissa’s blog and interpretation of it made it much easier to understand.

It is important to acknowledge and comprehend that constructionism (Papert, 1993) is both a theory of learning and a strategy for education. It states that learners don’t just get ideas, they create ideas. Larissa makes really good points when addressing the concept of intergrating ICT in the classroom. In these instances students learn through themselves, each other and through experiences.

I completely agree that students of today, will be our experts of tomorrow. They need to develop the ability to construct their own knowledge. Thus lies the importance for teachers to support tehm through this process.

I have just read a very thought provoking blog posted by Karl Fisch. It poses the question of: is it okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher? I think it is something that every teacher (new or old to the profession) should read and preferably ponder for a relevant period of time. There is a very effective extract that Fisch actually wrote two years ago but didn’t feel it was the right time to post it.

Fisch makes a bold statement that: “if a teacher today is not technologically literate and is unwilling to make to make the effort to learn more, it’s equivalent to a teacher thirty years ago who didn’t know how to read and write.”If we as teachers and future educators don’t consider this statement with a degree of agreement then we really need to re-evaluate what we are doing. I think it is sometime helpful to affirm your focus of teaching- the students! It is all about the kids and to enable them to become successful members of society and contribute to their growing world, we (teachers) need to be computer savvy and technologically literate. Fisch also states that ‘those Kindergartners that started school last year are the class of 2020- we need to keep that 2020 vision.’

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Harel’s article, Sand Castles Go Digital is a wonderful metaphor for the constructionist learning theory. It explains the theory using simple and easy to understand language. This theory and specific article have engaged my thoughts in how teachers can create opportunities so that children get the most from learning when they’re in active roles of designer and constructor.

Just as Papert says, constructionism goes a step further, with children gaining even more when they are consciously engaged in the context of their learning. As a teacher I think this is especially important to note, because this insight into the constructionist theory will benefit me and other teachers in the classroom. I believe it is imperative for teachers to gain knowledge of individual students’ interests, and use these to engage them in meaningful and deep learning experiences.

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