Week 3 - Reflection on Websites

Technical Aspects: An Overview

Websites are a powerful platform as they possess the ability to display and present information in an easy to use interface. They can support a variety of embedded content and materials such as text, audio, video, images, links, files and documents. Websites are traditionally a Web 1.0 tool. This means that information and content remains static and restricted until manipulated by the owner or webmaster of a website. This means that there is no possibility for multi-authoring, as outside parties cannot edit, manipulate or contribute content to a website without adequate permissions. However, in recent times, websites are now bridging into Web 2.0 tools as they can now contain interactive elements – forums and discussion boards, quizzes and polls. In the past, writing and embedding HTML code into the fabric of the internet made constructing a website a difficult endeavor. However, online website builders such as Weebly, Web.com, Wix and WebsiteBuilder.com makes creating and developing a website relatively simple and easy with no extensive prior experience necessary to operate or use them. The settings tab in website builders such as Weebly also allows the author to alter the privacy settings by adding members to the website. Websites are also beneficial as they allow the author to design and customize the space in a variety of different ways. For example, the website building service, Weebly, allows authors to customize the background theme and colours of a website, format headers and footers and format spacing and layout.

Application of Websites in a Classroom Context

What learning outcomes can websites support in a classroom?

Websites can be utilized as a powerful tool in a classroom context, supporting a variety of learning outcomes, including:

• The ability to develop students’ competency in using ICT and digital literacy skills
• Develops students’ capacity to complete independent and individual learning activities
• Developing students’ ability to learn through a mode other than face-to-face teaching and communication
• Developing students’ ability to comprehend, analyze and evaluate resources and information
• Fostering students’ creativity and ability to create, locate, arrange and organize information
• Ability for collaboration via forums and discussions with some websites comprising Web 2.0 technologies

What sorts of materials/activities can websites support?

A website can have the potential to revolutionize students’ learning in a classroom with the ability to support a range of materials and resources including:

• Text – relevant information such as textbook notes or passages from readings
• Audio and video – such as YouTube clips to aid student understanding on a particular topic
• Images – photographs, diagrams, mind maps or flow charts
• Links to other related websites
• Links to download important files and documents – handouts, assignment task sheets or criteria sheets

Furthermore, this digital platform can in turn help students to complete activities such as:

• Planning and completing assessment tasks or helping to facilitate exam revision
• Analyzing and evaluating information to complete in-class activities or handouts
• Creating their own online spaces to present, arrange and organize information

How can websites be applied to my pedagogy and used within a classroom?

Within my teaching context, in either an Accounting or English classroom, the integration of the websites as technological tool would significantly change and modify my pedagogy. The SAMR model below shows how I would best utilize the technological tool of websites at each level of the spectrum to enhance students’ learning experiences and outcomes within my classroom.

The SAMR Model:

Level	Description
Substitution	Websites are used only as a substitute for traditional teaching methods – to display basic hard-copy content such as textbook pages or handouts.
Augmentation	Websites are used to support students’ learning as an interactive medium where teachers can share and students can access additional resources – documents, web links and embedded images and videos, which were previously not obtainable without the implementation of ICT.
Modification	Websites are used to enhance students’ learning by allowing teachers to redesign learning experiences through the implementation of ICT to assign tasks to students. With the support of emerging Web 2.0 technologies, this may include assigning discussion and reflection questions or the completion of online quizzes or polls.
Redefinition	Websites are used to transform students’ learning with the ability for teachers to create new tasks previously inconceivable before the emergence of digital website technology. This could be achieved by allowing students’ to arrange, evaluate, arrange and organize information and foster their creative skills by creating their own websites for the completion of an assessment task.

Evidence of Technical Proficiency: Model of a Website

Please find below the link to a website I have created for the context of a Year 11 Accounting class.

11 Accounting Website

Week 2 - The Mobile Phones debate using de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats

What was the purpose of this activity?

The purpose of this activity to introduce pre-service teachers to a powerful technological tool and e-learning approach: a Wiki exercise. A Wiki allows teachers to scaffold a learning activity on a particular topic or scenario. It can be utilised as a fundamental part of a teacher’s digital pedagogy as it can be used to promote higher order thinking in students, creating a platform for critical thinking and the analysis and evaluation of information. In my personal opinion, I believe this purpose was achieved through the completion of this activity, as it effectively introduced and familiarised me with the new tool – a Wiki, showed me how learning activities can be scaffolded within the platform and also through the completion of the learning activity, showed me the learning power and potential of the technology and how it can be used to stimulate interest, engagement and develop fundamental higher order thinking skills within students.

Learning theories/frameworks: Where does this activity fit in?

This activity falls under elements of both the SAMR model and the Blooms Taxonomy learning frameworks. In the SAMR model, the activity would fall under the modification domain. The characteristics of the Wiki design which lead me to adopt this viewpoint are the platform’s ability to go beyond mere substitution of activities and completely resign the nature of the activity to one that can be carried out with limited guidance, solely online with an interactive collaborative community of users. In contrast, within the Blooms Taxonomy model, this activity would use the evaluative domain. The characteristic of the Wiki design which lead me to adopt this viewpoint is the nature of the embedded task itself; its requirement for students to form a judgement and perspective for each different colour hat or domain.

What are the benefits in participating in a Wiki?

• Ability to stimulate discussion and collaboration amongst students
• Ability to develop higher order thinking skills in students
• Ability to present a range of different views and perspectives
• Ability to act as an effective tool to collect and collate information
• Ability to hold a vast amount of information
• Ability to support a variety of different learning approaches – individual/group work
• Platform is flexible and versatile – can support a range of different activities

What are the issues or drawbacks of participating in a Wiki?

• Unable to cope with a large quantity of users at one time
• Possible loss of information
• Possible issues associated with accessibility – different browsers or operating systems
•  Possibility issues associated with authenticity and originality of responses
•  Limited tools available for the formatting and layout of information
• Students may experience a degree of uncertainty in the formation of responses due to the lack of traditional face-to-face support during learning activities

How could this type of activity benefit students and contribute to learning outcomes?

This technological tool – the Wiki can be used to benefit students and contribute to learning outcomes in a variety of ways. If used successfully, it has the potential to boost student engagement, interest and participation. It can also be utilised across a wide range of educational settings and disciplinary areas. For example, it could be utilised in a Year 11 Accounting/Business classroom context to allow students to present and discuss their responses to a particular scenario. Comparatively, it could also be used in a Year 10 English classroom context to promote the discussion of theory questions from a set text.

What is the purpose and value of the scaffolding provided and how did the scaffold support the collection of a range of perspectives?

The purpose of the scaffold (de Bono’s thinking hats) was to help facilitate critical thinking in a range of different viewpoints and perspectives. If successful, the value of the scaffolding is the development of students’ critical and higher order thinking skills, particularly that of evaluation as they are facilitated to make judgements and form a perspective for each of the different thinking hats. The scaffold was effective in supporting the collection of a range of perspectives through its creation of the six thinking hats and collection of ideas in a range of different domains (Black hat: judgement; Blue hat: the process; Green hat: creativity; Red Hat: feelings; Yellow hat: benefits and White hat: information).

Week 2 - Learning Theory: Frameworks and Taxonomies

Week 2 - Pedagogy in Practice

Pedagogy	What does it “look like” in practice?	What does it NOT look like in practice?
Facilitating deep knowledge through higher order thinking	Designing scenarios and activities that make learning more meaningful by supporting students to engage in higher order thinking; analysis, evaluation and creation of information.	Simply presenting students with a broad basis of information (limited explanation or without context), leaving limited space for critical thinking (Yes/No or True/False questions) or not providing enough time for students to critically reflect on and justify information and merely advocating for the recall and recitation of information.
Facilitating collaborative learning in which conversations are important	Allowing students the opportunity to work collaboratively in groups so all students can benefit from group discussion to help solve problems or complete activities.	Expecting students to always complete activities silently and independently and allowing no arena for discussion or collaboration.
Supporting students in knowing how they learn best	Recognising that students may learn in completely different ways and ensuring that all these different ways are effectively supported in the classroom context.	Using the same learning format or style each and every lesson with no consideration for the diversity of students in the classroom.
Planning learning that is problem-based, and situated in real life contexts	Providing learning experiences that are relevant to students by relating them to real-life scenarios or contexts.	Designing learning experiences that provide students with no context or base of relevancy for information and how it may be useful in the real world.
Is relevant to students, and connects to their background knowledge	Using background knowledge (interests, locality, etc.) of students in order to make the learning experience more relevant to them.	Using standard “one size fits all approaches” with no consideration of the background knowledge of students.
Supports learning that is owned, controlled and managed by students themselves	Allowing the students the element of choice for the type and structure of activities in the classroom.	Exercising all authority over everything that happens within the classroom.
Is socially supportive, engaging, and values cultural knowledges	Celebrating student diversity and difference and promoting a safe and supportive learning environment for all students.	Turning a blind eye to unacceptable occurrences in the classroom (harassment, bullying, etc.)
Is supportive of the development of active citizenship, and strong group identity	Supporting the development of real-world social skills and fostering a strong group identity by promoting a positive sense of acceptance and belonging for all students within the classroom.	Carrying an air of indifference with no consideration of the responsibilities of teachers to support positive student development and identity.

Week 1 - Thoughts and Responses

Meet Generation Z: Forget Everything You Learned About Milllennials

The Generation Z presentation has significantly changed my preconceived ideas about students and technology in classrooms. Generation Z is group both heavily reliant and overly attached to technology; they are born with technological devices ‘joined at the hip,’ some might even say. I certainly encountered this while on professional practice in a secondary school. On the bus on the way there, there were students on mobile phones and tablets or listening to IPods. Even in the classroom, I found that laptops had virtually replaced pen and paper. I had always thought this pervasiveness of technology for today’s students presented more detrimental effects than beneficial ones, particularly with issues associated with authenticity and originality. However, the presentation transformed my rationale for e-learning and helped me to realise the tremendous advantages of incorporating technology as pedagogical tools into the classroom. In a world with technology at the forefront, students today already possess an inept proficiency and familiarity with this phenomenon. Therefore, as a teacher, utilising e-learning will help me to deliver a far more enriching and engaging learning experience to all students in my future classroom.  

Big Thinkers: The Science of Learning

The Big Thinkers: The Science of Learning presentation has really opened my eyes to a very significant issue in the classroom; boredom. The key ideas that I captured from this presentation are as follows:

• The capacity for boredom in the classroom lies in the way (teaching styles and approaches) that students are being taught
• The brain goes into a state of stress when it is bored, and as a result has trouble focusing and comprehending information
• Teachers should stimulate students’ curiosity in a classroom through the use of visual aids – different coloured markers, a hat or other prop
• Create and maintain a safe learning environment for all students in all domains (physically and emotionally)
• Develop students’ 21^st century tools and skills that they will inevitably need in the real world (judgement, critical analysis, evaluation and problem solving) (Edutopia, 2011)

The premise of e-learning is revolutionary in the realm of boredom. By utilising and incorporating new digital technologies into one’s pedagogy; teachers have the capacity to make learning experiences more interactive and engaging and to create a classroom environment devoid of boredom, where students’ curiosities are constantly aroused. This power is not limited in any way in scope and can be applied in a range of different discipline areas and contexts. For example, technology can be employed in a Year 11 Accounting classroom to enhance learning by providing excellent resources to demonstrate learning theory such as videos and applications to support the input of data and automation of the accounting process (MYOB, QuickBooks). Comparatively, technology can also be incorporated to improve student learning in a Year 10 English classroom by providing tools and resources which can make learning more engaging and interactive help students grasp important literary concepts (Quiz let, Prezi, Wiki spaces) and provide an area for debate and discussion (Blogger). However, with the implementation of technology is the possibility for many implication or shortcomings in a traditional classroom setting. These may include the possibility for student distraction and disengagement, issues associated with flat batteries, power outages or damaged devices, issues associated with network authentication, storage or outages and issues associated with safe and ethical use of devices. 

Creativity and 21^st Century Learners

The Creativity and 21^st Century Learners presentation has revealed to me the rigidness of our education system on the premise of creativity. One of the key messages that the speaker, Ken Robinson delivers is the fact that “every education system…has the same hierarchy of subjects[;]…at the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and at the bottom are the arts” (Robinson, 2007). I indeed found this to be true, thinking back over my experiences at high school. Even though I did very did in a creative subject, visual art; it was always rated, in terms of subject achievement indicators, very poorly and below all other subjects, even though I performed comparatively the same or better. This is a premise that continues to emerge in education. As Robinson points out, we live in a world where we are effectively “educating people out of their creative capacities” (Robinson, 2007). The emergence of digital technologies gives us the power to change this. Many new technologies now have a focus on fostering creativity and promoting originality. For example, these may include digital tools such as Abode Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash Professional, Apple GarageBand and Sony Creative Software Acid.

References

Edutopia (2011). Big thinkers: Judy Willis on the science of learning. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/big-thinkers-judy-willis-neuroscience-learning-video

Robinson, K. (2007). Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY