ICT's in Education

Reflections on my E- Journey Learning.

I am very much a kinaesthetic learner so trying to successfully set up a Mahara e-journal, a Blog and a Wiki has been a little difficult. To gain support from my partner I decided to create my Wiki about a hobby that we both share, model railroads. We both sat down together and decided what images to add and the things we wish to talk about. This made the experience a little easier on me as it was a shared hesitation about the steps to take and how it works, but after a few hours of self correction and playing around I am starting to familiarise myself with the required steps. The Blog I found a little easier, and despite this being a part of my assessment, I feel that because it is a personal journal I am not being so scrutinised.

My Wiki

I have really enjoyed writing about something that fascinates and interests me, so I can see that this would be a useful tool in education as long as the subject matter held interest for the students. I feel that it would be necessary to encourage the students to write what they feel rather that what they think the teachers want to hear (for assessment purposes). As stated in Costa’s Habits of Mind, number 13, Taking Responsible Risks. “We hope that students will learn how to take intellectual as well as physical risks. Students who are capable of being different, going against the grain of the common, thinking of new ideas and testing them with peers as well as teachers, are more likely to be successful in this age of innovation and uncertainty.”
By Embedding ICT’s into the KLA’s we can only hope that this creates the best possible way to encourage children to learn scholastically and be producing competent users of technology.
I have been discussing my course with family members, who have all been involved with the education system over the last 50 years and all of them are commenting on the difficulty of using ICT’s. This is just reinforcing the need to teach the use of technology in school so that we can give our students the best possible start to their journey into the workforce. This, of course, requires the teachers to continue to learn and modify the use of technologies.
Sharing the “16 Habits of Mind” with them has been fun for me, and illustrating to them how “Remaining Open to Continuous Learning” is a very important step in embracing the speed in which technology is becoming a part of everyday life. (Costa. 1999, P 12)

My Blog

Setting up my Blog was a relatively painless exercise as I found that Google has made navigating the setup very user friendly. I feel at times that I am technologically challenged so keeping an open mind when dealing with the specifics will be necessary. I am still having trouble getting my head around using ICT’s in visual art but thanks to the suggestion of my fellow class mate, Carolyne Thornton, this website is educating me on how to use technology in art. I know that using ICT’s when I teach SOSE will be a valuable tool. Technology is a tool and a tool stills needs a well trained operator for it to function properly. Many of the teachers that did their degrees before ICT’s became a part of the curriculum will need ongoing training, so I think it would be beneficial for the QSA to implement on- going courses in IT for teachers. On the other hand communicating with other teachers via a wiki would be a great way to share recommendations on what works where in using ICT’s in the classroom.

My Mahara

I have saved discussing my Mahara until last because I have found it the biggest challenge. I realise that many hours are needed to navigate my way around the site in order to get it to work successfully for me. I am finding this a challenge in itself as I am torn between wanting to get to know this technology better and completing all the rest of the course ware for the GDLT.

I am still composing my conclusion for this exercise.