How Technology has Changed the way we Learn

My initial thoughts about technology in teaching was that it was taking away from the teacher to learner bond and making the teacher surplus within the classroom; however, completing this blog has shown me that technology is not taking away from the teaching but aiding them. Sharples (2002:93) states that “the role of the teacher is not redundant, it changes”. I now know that my training as a teacher will involve stepping out of my comfort zone and embracing technology and all the benefits it has to offer the teaching and learning experience. Technology is forever changing and we as teachers need to ensure that we stay ahead of the game and change with it, to ensure we and providing our learners with the best possible learning experience (Wang et al, 2008).

I have found myself being contradicted many times whilst completing this blog. I initially stated that I did not see the use of Wordle and that I would not use it within my teaching. However, a few weeks later I found myself relying on Wordle to teach a literacy class and had to eat my words as it were. My experiences of technology have been one of trial and error, I believe that by just having a go and not immediately dismissing each application, this allows the teacher to open a whole new world of teaching and learning and can sometimes make their lives a lot easier!

Technology has allowed for a lot more people to return to education with the introduction of e-learning, thus allowing individuals to gain better employment (Wilkins, 2014). As I previously stated within the blog, Sharples (2002) tells us that teaching has now gone beyond the confines of the classroom, and I like this – I would hate to think that one of my learners was worrying all weekend about something, whilst waiting to speak to me on Monday morning. I would prefer for them to e-mail me and check whether I am available over the weekend to offer guidance. I for one, will be continually using technology in my teaching and embracing the changes that are sure to come in this area in future years; although I still stand by my statement that technology is merely an AIDE to teaching!

Applications that I will use to Support my Teaching

I considered myself to be very familiar with Microsoft Office and various other applications that the internet can offer. However, since attending an ICT class on how ICT can aide teaching and learning, I now admit that I was wrong and did not realise the amount of applications that are available. I have really enjoyed learning about each application and considering ways in which I can use it within my teaching.

The applications I feel I will not use are Kahoot or Nearpod as I prefer Socrative and they ultimately do the same thing and I would prefer to record my voice using an android devise rather than use Audacity.

The ways in which I would incorporate other applications into my teaching include:

Prezi – When discussing legislation and policies and procedures within care, it can become tedious and boring; therefore, I feel Prezi is attractive enough to help the learners stay engaged.

Wordle – I have already used Wordle in a recent literacy lesson, where I asked learners to consider their spelling and wording to make a Wordle.

Hot Potatoes and Socrative - I have already used Socrative in a recent micro-teach lesson and will be using both Socrative and Hot Potatoes in my future teaching as a form of assessment and revision tool.  

Internet Detectives – I would use this website if I had learners who were unfamiliar with the internet are new to further education.

Microsoft Office – I always have, and always will continue to use Microsoft Office within my studies and teaching and may even give the lesser known applications a try.

Benefits of Mobile Technology in Teaching and Learning

Mobile technology is now a familiar part of the classroom, with the role of the teacher having gone beyond the confines of the classroom (Sharples, 2002) and can include the use of IPads, laptops and mobile phones etc. Mobile technology can offer many values towards teaching and learning, which includes:

Students and teachers are able to source other forms of information, not just reading, such as, videos, blogs, images and audio lectures (Leask, 2001).

Teaching and assessment can be tailored to meet student’s individual needs, can offer detailed and immediate feedback and data can then be used to determine the next steps of learning (Maier and Warren, 2000). Within my current placement we work with students with a number of different needs; therefore, it is important to adapt the teaching and assessment to their needs and abilities.

Mobile technology can support disabled learners as it provides a range of materials that are multisensory, offer specialised keyboards and mice, touch screens and communication aides (Gillespie, 2006).

Mobile technology can help to overcome barriers to social inclusion by motivating students in their learning to rehearse and practice their skills, experience learning in different ways and develops partnership working between students, parents/carers and other organisations (Gillespie, 2006). Within my placement students require support from various organisations’ therefore, it is important to use mobile technology to make suitable working relationships.

Mobile technology helps creativity, as studies show when students use ICT they relate better to their own work as they can look at it in more ‘real’ contexts, they are more engaged and have more of a purpose in their work (Passey et al, 2003). Some of the students within my placement have low self-esteem so mobile technology allows students to feel proud of their work and take ownership.

I know when I was studying for my undergraduate degree, I relied heaving on contacting my lecturer by e-mail for information and feedback and I intend to do the same for my students, ensuring that I am available outside of the regular 9am-5pm classroom hours.

Barriers to the Effective Use of Technology in Education

There are some barriers that can affect how mobile technology aides teaching and learning, such as:

Some teachers are reluctant to adapt to using technology in their teaching. Alternatively, some teachers rely too heavily on technology and solely use it within their teaching (Gillespie, 2006).

In order for teachers to introduce mobile technology into their classes, they first require access to mobile devices, adequate technological support, basic computer skills and time to learn theses skills (Maier and Warren, 2000).

Inaccuracy and safety of the internet need to be considered. This can be done by ensuring students are aware of the acceptable use policy, certain websites are blocked and students and teachers know how and when to report inappropriate content (Gillespie, 2006).

Having technology in educational settings is a lot of money and a study conducted regarding the impact of ICT on learning and teaching in 2002 by Harrison et al (2002) found that the benefits of ICT on student attainment is yet to be demonstrated and therefore, critics would question whether ICT is worth the cost?

The traditional input from the teacher with regards to tone of voice, expression, body language and classroom control, are void in the virtual classroom. Therefore, teachers need to develop new ways of engaging with students (Sharples, 2002).

My Experience of Technology & Learning

For this post, I asked could we live without technology and how has it changed our lives? So, I looked at my own experiences of technology.  I recently went on a trip to Cardiff and felt such a rush of panic when I realised I had forgotten my mobile phone. What pursued was a haste of frantically grabbing my wife’s phone to contact my parents, continuously saying “I can’t go without my phone, what if my son needs me?” (Again, I must add, my wife had her phone but this still was not good enough for me) and a desperate plea to my parents to bring me the phone before I caught the train. I tell you the sigh of relief I felt when that phone was placed in my longing hand where it belonged was so satisfying. The most worrying part about this tale is that, I think I used the phone once to see how my son was doing, once to ring a friend and twice to take a photo…was that really worth the over the top hyperventilating that had happened earlier that day? Or is that just the world we have now become accustomed to, where contacting others is so easily done and forgetting your phone is just as disastrous as forgetting money or any other such necessity? Anyway, I digress, my point is can anyone really say they could live without technology and that it hasn’t changed the world? When everything we do every single day is dictated by it? When I see my 76 year old grandmother walking around with a mobile phone, my honest answer has to be no.  My mother is a self-confessed digital immigrant or in her words she isn’t “computer savvy” however, she has a smart phone and a tablet and that doesn’t include the non-modern technology she also owns such as, a television, house phone and washing machine, so is she truly being honest with herself that she hasn’t fully embraced technology into her everyday life?

My first recognition of computer software in school was during a graphic design lesson where a huge brown piece of equipment was used to programme the story of Robin Hood, which was in approximately 2001. As seen across.

Fast forward to the present day and my 5 year old son comes home to tell me that he has been using the interactive white board and an IPad…how times change. I have previously discussed under the post   ‘Technology and Teaching (Ted Talk)’ about how I feel technology is taking away from the student to teacher interaction. However, how can I, someone who nearly had a panic attack about forgetting my phone, honestly say that I do not like technology and do not want to use it? It would be very hypocritical of me to say that technology hasn’t tremendously improved everyone’s lives and especially in the world of learning; however, there are also bad points.  In a recent numeracy lesson I delivered, learners were asked to complete basic multiplications and each person asked “why do I need to learn this, I have my phone with a calculator on me all the time?” another question posed, included – “why would I need to find out, when I can just google it?” and isn’t that just a little bit sad? People do not feel the need to learn as everything they need to know is at a touch of a button, has technology as a world made us lazy and ignorant to learn?

I turned to a technological invention that has dramatically changed my life, for the answer – Google. Jeffries (2013) reported that we and especially young people now live in a hyper-stimulating world where we feel that finding out an answer is tedious when we can get instant answers with a few clicks of a button. This has resulted in us having shorter attention spans and being easily distracted which can have detrimental effects during general chalk and talk lessons. There is a risk that teaching is a dying art form with future learning being all online; however, it is the role of the teacher to embrace technological advances and consider how to best use these in the classroom. It is also their role to look at other ways of forming bonds with students and encouraging interaction, even if there is a computer screen between the 2 of them (Wilkins, 2014).

It is in my opinion that technology has certainly improved everyone’s lives for the better and within learning it has opened up a whole new world for students to explore and discover. However, I think it is important to note that teachers should not solely rely on technology to teach and that too many PowerPoints, for example can kill a lesson (I talk from experience). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – technology should be an aide to teaching; and if done correctly can have a very positive effect on how students learn, develop and interact with the teacher.

Mobile Technology Applications

Whether you like/ don't like stepping out of your comfort zone when it comes to technology, there are millions of tools to make teaching more innovative, creative and more easily accessible. In a recent ICT lecture I had the pleasure of making myself familiar with some of these tools.

Audacity/Podcasts

 Podcasts are a digital audio file that can be downloaded and stored and can be beneficial in teaching, as it allows both students and teachers to share their lessons, ideas and experience to a large audience; develops literacy and communication skills, enable listeners with disabilities to listen easier, enables flip learning to take place and can be used for revision or interviews (teaching ideas, 2015).

Within an ICT lesson, we used Audacity to make a podcast. The application enables students to record their voices for interviews or podcasts etc and then edit the effects and sounds of the recording. I found audacity a very overly complicated piece of equipment, I can see it has it’s uses; however, I do not really understand why it needed to be so complicated, especially when most android phones have a voice recording application. I would use audacity to record my lessons to ensure that absent students were up to date and to ask my students to conduct interviews/debates about various aspects of care; however, I feel I could do this using an android device a lot quicker and easier.

During the ICT lesson, myself and my peer recorded an interview about our experiences with the applications we had used to far; however, as the file could not be transferred to MP4 (I’m sure it probably can be but I couldn’t figure out how to do it) I was unable to upload the interview to my blog.

Pro’s – Can alter sounds/effects etc, good for sharing a message to a larger audience.

Con’s – an external microphone is required, can be overly complicated, have difficulty transferring to MP4 to upload into a blog.

Audacity can be found here here.

Hot Potatoes

Contrary to the name, this has nothing to do with potatoes but is, in fact a tool that offers six applications that enables you to quickly and easily complete quiz' and crosswords. I actually really liked this tool as I thought it offered a different and creative way of assessing students and does all the hard work for you. I would certainly use this application in my teaching as within care, students are expected to learn a number of different terms and I feel the quiz tool would be a more fun way for them to learn. I would also use this application within my literacy lessons as it can be a more enjoyable to get students to think about their spelling and grammar.

Pro’s - easy to use, various options, quite self-explanatory, free

Con’s - you need to download the software

Hot potatoes can be found at here.

Wordle

The Wordle tool allows users to take a collection of different words and make a design, which Wordle describes as - 'beautiful word clouds'. I've made a Wordle relating to words used in care (see below).

 f I'm being completely honest, yes they are attractive, but do I really see a use for them in my teaching? - my answer is, no. I feel like they are just a bunch of words that don't really have any use or meaning - just my opinion!

During the ICT lesson, it was suggested that the Wordle’s could possibly be used as a form of revision, and I can see how they would be useful for some learners; however, they are not for me personally, I would not use them,  apart from if I wanted a piece of work to look particularly eye catching.  

Pro’s – eye catching, easy to use, free

Con’s – Question whether there is much use for it within my placement

Wordle can be found here.

I have since edited this post to update that I had a literacy lesson where Wordle was used. As it was the season to be merry, I decided to add a creative and Christmas twist to my lesson, by asking students to think and correctly spell words that they feel relate to Christmas and making a Wordle, which they then printed (so yes, I have eaten my words and can confirm that I would use Wordle in a lesson).


Prezi

Prezi is a presentation software that is very attractive, with different backgrounds and styles. I liked Prezi instantly, I thought it was really eye catching and pleasant and liked the fact that it gave another option to PowerPoint, as it is so well used (death by PowerPoint is a very real term). For anyone who has done an undergraduate degree and sat through 20+ PowerPoint presentations, you too would welcome a change.

As I am so familiar with PowerPoint it was difficult to adapt to the way Prezi works and it's features, such as, how to move slides around, add new slides etc. However, I will definitely be using it in future.

Pro’s:

- There is limited space to write and therefore, forces you to limit the amount of information     you put on the slide
- The general designs are interesting and appealing
- It is internet based so is easily accessible anywhere

Con's:

- It does take some getting used to, the best thing to do is just play around with it
- The moving in and out to each slide can make you feel dizzy.

A Prezi I completed on interview skills can be seen here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Socrative

In our ICT class, we were introduced to Socrative, which I fell in love with instantly. I liked how professional it looked and its ease of use. Socrative enables the user to complete questionnaires which can be either printed or done online. Students can then sign in to the questionnaire which allows the teacher to see their progress and instantly assess which students understand the topic. I used this application in a recent micro-teach to print out a quiz to assess my students and found it very easy to use.

Pro’s  - Easy to use, looks professional, can be completed online or printed, show results instantly for assessment

Con’s – I can’t actually think of any!

The link for Socrative is here.

An example of a Socrative questionnaire I used in a recent micro-teach can be seen here - Socrative quiz.pdf

Kahoot

Kahoot is again a tool for compiling questionnaires and linking the students online to gain instant results for assessment; However, I feel this application is better suited to younger students as it appeared to be quite childish and the answers to the questions were limited to only ‘true or false’ answers. I do not feel I would use this application in my teaching as it is quite patronising for older learners and Socrative does the same thing but in a more professional manner.

Pro’s – Easy to use, shows results instantly for assessment

Con’s – looks childish and unprofessional

The link for Kahoot is here.

NearPod

The NearPod application has the same concept as Socrative and Kahoot and allows for students and teachers to engage interactively and allow for instant answers and assessment. NearPod allows the teachers to keep a library of their lessons and document results.

Pro’s  - Easy to use, looks professional, can be completed online or printed, show results instantly for assessment

Con’s – I can’t actually think of any!

Link for NearPod is here.

Internet Detectives

Internet Detectives is a website that provides advice on staying safe on the internet and has a series of quizzes to assess the readers understanding. The tool is good for individuals with little or no experience of the internet; however, I found it to be quite tedious and time consuming. Having said that I would probably use this application at the beginning of a course to ensure students are fully aware of the risks that can arise when on the internet.

Pro’s – Useful for people who are new to the internet or for people wanting to refresh, easy to use, written in simple terminology

Con’s – Can be tedious

Internet Detectives link is here.

Microsoft Applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint & Outlook)

I never really become familiar with Microsoft applications until the final year of comprehensive school when my food technology project was fazing from hand written to typed work using word, and then began my love of all things Microsoft. Once I began working as a typist, I found I was faster typing then writing and I liked how letters could be defaulted, how different writing styles could be used and notes could be added. I was then introduced to Excel, which is like marmite – you either love it or hate it, well I love it. I use Excel in my personal life to sort my finances, in my work to calculate my mileage and in university to correlate my assignment due dates and marks. I can honestly say that I use Word or Excel every day and believe I will also do so in my teaching career from writing assignment briefs in Word to sorting student marks in Excel. I considered myself to be pretty clued up with Word; however, following an ICT lesson I found that Word will compile my reference list for me (I cannot believe I did three years in university without knowing this!) I will most certainly be using this tool in future assignments and in any referencing I have to do in my future career. From previous job roles, I also have a lot of experience of using Outlook and was always proud that I could put voting tabs into my e-mail. I do not use Outlook in my personal life but still find it a fantastic tool for sending group invites and sharing diaries.

I conducted some research regarding Microsoft applications and was surprised how many there were that I had not heard of, including Access, Exchange and Infopath (Microsoft, 2015).

I am someone who really likes PowerPoint, I like the familiarity of it and how quickly and easily I can use it. In a recent ICT lesson we learnt to create a master slide so the font and headings etc were the same on each slide and play with the designs and layouts. I can guarantee that I will be using PowerPoint in my future teaching; although, I think I need to be aware that I do not use it too much as it can become repetitive and boring for students.