2. The Government’s Investment in e-Learning
“….teacher access to a laptop for their individual professional use would
lead to gains in confidence and expertise in the use of ICTs, to efficiencies
in administration, would contribute to teacher collaboration and support
the preparation of high quality lesson resources. It was also anticipated
that teacher would use their laptop in the classroom for teaching and
learning.” http://bit.ly/Sd1644
2002 – TELA scheme introduced
SNUP
10. The New Basic Skills – Digital Fluencies
Solution Fluency:
Creative thinking and real time problem solving
by defining the problem and designing appropriate
solutions.
Information Fluency:
a) access digital information
b) effectively assess and interpret digital
information
Collaboration Fluency:
Teamworking proficiency with virtual and real partners
Creativity Fluency:
Adding meaning through design, art, and storytelling
Media Fluency:
a) Look at any media and interpret critically
b) Create and publish original digital products
matching appropriate media to intended
message
11. Digital Citizenship – A Community Partnership
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22209818
The Government has invested millions into ICT/elearning over the last decadeIt has been putting infrastructure in place to enable us to use technologies to enhance the teaching and learning for our studentsHas teacher pedagogy kept up/ adapted to this investmentHow do we grow capacity for elearning in our schoolsHow do we maintain capacityHow do we keep moving forward and not suffer from the boom and bust cycle of elearning that initiative such as the ICTPD project Or through the loss of key elearning exponents within individual schools
These are our clients of today, the near future and beyond, how ready are you for them?Each of us can point to pockets of success in schoolHow can we make this success more ubiquitous?How can we ensure that the knowledge of our star performers remains in school, long after they have gone
These are our clients of today, the near future and beyond, how ready are you for them?Each of us can point to pockets of success in schoolHow can we make this success more ubiquitous?How can we ensure that the knowledge of our star performers remains in school, long after they have gone
These are our clients of today, the near future and beyond, how ready are you for them?Each of us can point to pockets of success in schoolHow can we make this success more ubiquitous?How can we ensure that the knowledge of our star performers remains in school, long after they have gone
Games tell us muchReward structure, clear objectives, with many paths to obtain the goals, multi threaded, multimedia, collaborativeNo instructions, discovery learning by trial and errorEducation needs to harness the potential for learning that games can offerSim City exampleWhy does a seven year old soak up the intricacies of industrial economics in game form, when the same subject would send him screaming for the exits in a classrooom?“novels may activate our imagination and music may conjure up powerful emotions, but games force you to decide, to choose, to priorotise.”Game learning cycle:Probe, hypothesise, re-probe, re-thinkReflects scientific thinkingOur children are growing up in a non-linear, light and sound based culture. Are our classrooms reflecting this change?
Neuroplasticity research that the brain is not immutable and fixed, but dynamic and self healingNew neural pathways are created as a result of intensive inputs and constant stimulationOur children have spent 1000s of screen hours honing enhanced digital skills such as parallel processing, graphics awareness and random access all sophisticated and valuable thinking skills and we largely ignore or do not cater for these skills in educationPrensky calculates that by the time they are 21 the average student will have spent10 000 hours on video gamesSent 250 000 emails, textsWatched 20 000 hours of TVThey are visual, multi media centric learners
Study by Heather Kirkorian“Kids who are interacting with the screen get better much faster, make fewer mistakes and learn faster”The more interaction the better. Kids not getting smarter, just acquiring the skills and knowledge faster and with a greater degree of accuracyThis knowledge is crucial for teachers, they should reflect on their pedagogies to see how their actions are impacting upon their studentsIs the delivery to slow, to linear, not interactive enough to engage and keep engaged their students?This is great news for time poor teachers, interactivity enables students to get through work faster, but we need to change our pedagogies in order to take advantage of thisThe digital divide – is it a myth?In UK only 9% of students do not have access to computers at home or at school. The debate over screen time is over, students aspire to this way of learning, interacting and communicating and are finding ways to engage with it at all times
If they approach text differently from us, how much information are they missing by us not knowing how they attack information on a page?If we put too much emphasis on text and they rely on images first, we are already talking past each other
WE need to give our students time, the work we get them to do needs to be student led/centricIt needs to be open ended and it needs to allow them to explore and express themselves digitiallyWe need to design situations, scenarios where the students get stuck, where they can collaborate with virtual and physical peers to solve problems that have real meaning to themWe need to teach them to dive deep, not to skip lightlyWe need to respect their need for information from multiple sourcesWe need to teach them skills Just in TimeWe need to facilitate their learning and not lead the learning in a pre-determined linear way
We need to recognise that the Internet its collaborative, multimdeia, social networking opportunities has won the competition for the attention of our studentsTo keep re-gurgitating the same old stuff will further alienate us from themWe need to bring the tools and resources of the internet, the social media, the collaboration opportinities into the classroom and harness these tools to the learning we want the students to attain
We need to recognise that the Internet its collaborative, multimdeia, social networking opportunities has won the competition for the attention of our studentsTo keep re-gurgitating the same old stuff will further alienate us from themWe need to bring the tools and resources of the internet, the social media, the collaboration opportinities into the classroom and harness these tools to the learning we want the students to attain
We need to recognise that the Internet its collaborative, multimdeia, social networking opportunities has won the competition for the attention of our studentsTo keep re-gurgitating the same old stuff will further alienate us from themWe need to bring the tools and resources of the internet, the social media, the collaboration opportinities into the classroom and harness these tools to the learning we want the students to attain