Throughout this course and engaging in
the leaning tasks and activities has cemented my view that technology is
changing the way we learn and teach in an educational setting. Using digital technology
provides us as educator’s fantastic resources to engage students and to enhance
learning experiences for all stakeholders. By developing my own computation
thinking and skills will enable me to do the same for my future students. Engaging
in this course has been of great value to myself and I have enjoyed experimenting
and experiencing the opportunities of utilizing a range different technologies to
enhance my pedagogical options when planning lessons.
In addition, I now realize educators have the opportunity to share and
collaborate to utilize and create exciting engaging lessons and teaching
resources. I have also learnt that to ensure students become innovative,
risk-taking, reflective problem-solvers, there needs to an emphasis on
providing students with the necessary design skills and technological practices
(Mawson, B, 2003).
I now realize the
importance of the skills and process required for utilizing technologies and
computational thinking to create effective digital technologies. It was also
refreshing to learn that you no longer need to be a graphic designer or
computer expert to utilise digital technology or to design digital resources. As
I have learnt that with the amount of online tools available today anyone can
have a go, as there are a whole range of different programs online and these
can be utilised by a layman with no previous design experience (Queness, 2011).
The Australian
Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority Digital Technologies (ACARA) aims
to encourage students to acquire computational thinking and knowledge of
information systems to define, design and implement digital solutions. In this
way, in order to develop my own computational thinking, I have found it beneficial
engaging in the Angry birds game and programs like Code studio, CodeCombat,
Code.org and scratch. Playing around with these sites, like all new technology,
at first was daunting and seemed complex, although with most new technology the
more I played around and experimented, my ability and understanding increased. I can envisage how programs like these are beneficial
when endeavouring to introduce and teach students about code by encouraging them
to interpret
data and create and design using digital platforms. It
has become evident how programs such as these are fantastic resources for
engaging students to learn about computer programing, code and develop computational
thinking. I really look forward to utilizing programs like this with my future students.
If I can work it out I'm confident most students will also. I had direct
experience with the appeal of these games when my seven year old son saw me
playing the angry birds program on Code.org and continued to engage with game independently
for over an hour.
In order to assist student understanding of
the Binary code number system I attempted to come up
with a game you might play with learners called binary cards shootout. This required me to flip over
binary cards while two students compete to verbally call out the number
represented. Although I feel this game needs refinement as my own understanding
of binary code increases.
A learning outcome of the F-2
Australian Curriculum Digital Technologies strand requires students to follow, describe
and represent a sequence of steps and decisions to solve simple problems (ACARA). To help achieve this I have learnt
that an algorithm is a step by step list of instructions for solving a problem. And a program can be an algorithm that has
been encoded into programing language. When engaging with the Khan Academy
site I started by drawing simple shapes. I then experiment with code to
try more complex shapes and designs. At first I thought this is way out of my
league then slowly began to gain some understanding. I am grateful for sites
like these that explain with video tutorials how to work with code and by
spending a lot more time interacting with programs like this not only will
enhance my own understanding but also to assist my future students.
Infographics and
interactive web pages provide teachers a way to present data, learning content
and ideas in a variety ways. I feel of huge benefit is that teachers can tailor
these resources and deliver lessons relevant to their students’ diverse needs
and interests. In addition technology and digital resources such as these can
encourage independent or additional learning. For my first attempt at creating
a digital learning resource I used the site Wix.com to create an interactive
map of Australia with external links to relevant learning content would be a
useful digital resource and be a good place to start creating. By embedding
external links to useful sites and information and making it as
interesting as possible, I can really envisage the benefits of using
digital resources such as these to enhance learning.
I have been
experimenting with developing digital task cards. I feel these are great
interactive learning tools and I only wish I had access to resources like these
when I was at school. At first it seemed difficult and complex, although as I
experimented and interacted with the creation of this resources I slowly became
more familiar and competent with the programs. I now have a vision of how I can
utilize sites like this to create a useful engaging resources, and like most
new things practice will help a lot. I have also found
Technologies such as blogs and wikis are great resources to encourage and
facilitate communication and collaboration. I look forward to utilizing these
resources within my future classrooms as a way of facilitating collaboration and
engaging and enhancing learning.
In conclusion, I have learnt that Technology
education should be a creative, hands-on, problem-solving process which
develops cognitive functioning (Lewis, T. 2009). I realize learners benefit from
being connected to the real world, challenged and allowed freedom to encourage
creativity and promote higher order thinking and there is a lot to consider if I
am to fully utilize the technology available today.
References.
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and
Reporting Authority. (2014). The Australian curriculum. Retrieved from.
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
Lewis, T. (2009). Creativity in
technology education: Providing children with glimpses of their inventive
potential. Retrieved from. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v17n1/lewis.html
Mawson, B. (2003). Beyond 'the design
process': an alternative pedagogy for technology education. International
Journal of Technology and Design Education, 13 (2), 117-128. Retrieved from.
http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/eds/detail/detail?sid=3d5a9d35-f75d-4ecd-b4f5-477ba545c632%40sessionmgr113&vid=0&hid=103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=17020180
Queness, (2011). How
To Design Your Own Infographics. Retrieved from.
http://www.queness.com/post/9942/how-to-design-your-own-infographics
No comments:
Post a Comment