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.

Technology and Teaching (Ted Talk)

I recently attended an ICT class and heard about all the profound ways technology can aide teaching. Well, I didn’t buy it! Don’t get me wrong I’m not adverse to technology (I wouldn’t of been able to do my degree without it and I tend to ‘Google’ everything) quite the contrary in fact; however, my belief was that modern technology poses the risk of relinquishing the bond and link between teacher and student and no technology can compensate for teacher to student interaction and learning. Education is more than just looking at a computer screen, as a teacher, it is important to offer face to face interaction (Wright, 2013).

My feelings were altered after watching the below Ted Talk which highlights how technology as a whole isn’t a new thing that has recently been introduced, with the invention of IPads and interactive whiteboards, but has been around for many years, such as steam trains, telephones and even books. This Ted Talk inspires me to look at technology in a different way and that without it, teaching in the modern world would be virtually impossible. Technology can assist with teaching in so many ways, from looking at different forms of learning to different assessment tools.

Although technology is increasingly important within teaching it is vital to understand that technology can only do so much and that the teacher’s presence and support is the most effective tool for helping people learn. Teachers need to ensure they understand that technology is merely an aide and if used correctly can be very beneficial to the learning experience; however, teachers should not solely rely on technology to teach.

 

Reflective Writing and Teaching

Donnelly and Neville (2008) tell us that reflective writing is when an occurrence is reviewed and evaluated and what went well and what could be done differently if the situation arose again, is considered. From doing an undergraduate degree in care I have ate, lived and breathed reflection for three years and finally (in my final year if I’m honest) it clicked as to why reflection is important within care; however, since starting my PGCE I am now posed with the question – why is reflection important in teaching?

The experts tell us that reflection helps us to learn and develop from our experiences (Coles, 2004); with Armitage et al (2007) stating that by reflecting, an individual is able to develop their knowledge and skills, review progress, understand errors, increase familiarity and expertise and ultimately better their practice. For those of us who are particularly new to teaching The Centre for the Study of Higher Education (2002) tells us that reflection allows teachers to see where areas of improvement are needed, which can then increase confidence in the classroom. I believe that for me, reflection is a transferrable skill and what I learnt about it in care can be utilised in my teaching, as it ultimately results in the same thing – me looking at what I am doing and seeing if there is any way I can improve.

So, is reflection the all signing, all dancing tool that will make everyone amazing? Well the answer is no, there are (although few) some negatives to reflecting, such as, it can be very time consuming and in the big bad world of employment, do people really have time to sit down and competently write about their thoughts and feelings? This then poses the risk of people just rushing through a reflection and not really recognising the issues and areas which need improvement. Some reflectors can be too judgemental on themselves, resulting in a knock in confidence and some reflectors may find it hard to fully critique themselves and recognise when they require further support (Coles, 2004).

This shows that nothing is ever perfect but take it from someone who moaned for two years about reflecting – they really are important and beneficial to our own personal development. Reflections can help us see things more clearly, learn from others, build on our strengths, work on our weaknesses, have a clear understanding about our own behaviour and be truly honest with ourselves.

Therefore, upon reflection…reflection is vital when teaching! By completing this blog I have taken part in reflecting on my own experiences, and thoughts regarding technology and have established that my initial thoughts about technology taking away from teaching is incorrect, and that it can be a very useful aide to teaching and learning.

 

What else is out there?

To aide me in constructing my own blog, I searched for other blogs relating to care, teaching and further education. I then stumbled upon The Health Foundation’s (THF) blog, which can be found Here. The blog offers opinions and comments from THF staff and also from individuals who have worked/work in healthcare and allows for comments to be left on each post. The blog presents a number of posts relating to topics, such as, whether a sugar tax would really reduce childhood obesity and the implications of stopping the state grant to study nursing or midwifery. I will certainly use this blog within my current learning and into my future career, to keep up-to-date with the areas effecting/benefiting healthcare. I will also advise my learners to familiarise themselves with this blog to gain an insight into working within healthcare. I would also use this blog to create discussions and debates within my lesson. Debates are beneficial for promoting an element of competition and allowing each learner to be involved (Reece and Walker, 2006)

Using Blogs for the First Time in Teaching

For those individuals who are digital immigrants using a blog can be confusing and time consuming. I previously considered myself to be quite digitally literate; however, when I was first told I needed to do a blog, my initial reaction was one of panic...yes I use Facebook, yes I have dabbled in Twitter and have experience of Excel/Word etc. but as for blogs, it is a completely new and unfamiliar territory to me! So what did I do to make this easier...turned to another digital source and looked at YouTube. There were a number of videos offering guidance to people on how to "blog". This helped me with the initial starting point but I found that just generally playing around with the blogging tool within Google (and nagging my fellow peers) I was able to get a very basic understanding of what I was expected to do...and look I've just written my first blog!!!

Reference List

I use a number of reference throughout the blog so thought it would be convenience to store them all in one place.

Reference List

Armitage, A., Bryant, R., Dunnill, R., Flanagan, K., Hayes, D., Hudson, A., Kent, J., Lawes, S. and Renwick, M. (2007) Teaching and Training in Post-compulsory Education. Maidenhead: Open University Press

Centre for the Study of Higher Education. (2002) Assessing Group Work [online]. Available at: http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning/03/group.html (Accessed on 7.10.15)

Coles, A. (Eds.) (2004) Teaching in Post-Compulsory Education. London: David Fulton Publishers Ltd.

Donnelly, E. and Neville, L. (2008) Communication and Interpersonal Skills. Exeter: Reflect Press Ltd.

Gillespie, H. (2006) Unlocking Learning and Teaching with ICT. Abingdon: Routledge

Harrison, C., Comber, C., Fisher, T., Haw, K., Lewin, C., Luzner, E., McFarlane, A., Mavers, D., Scrimshaw, P., Somekh, B. and Watling, R. (2002) ImpaCT2: The Impact of Information and Communication on Pupil Learning and Attainment Strand 1 Report. London: DFES

Jeffries, D. (2013) Is technology and the internet reducing pupils’ attention spans [online]. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/mar/11/technology-internet-pupil-attention-teaching (Accessed on 7.12.15)

Leask, M. (Eds.) (2001) Issues in Teaching using ICT. London: Routledge Falmer

Maier, P. and Warren, A. (2000) Integrating Technology in Learning and Teaching. London: Kogan Page Limited

Passey, D., Rogers, C., Machell, J., McHugh, G. and Allaway, D. (2003) The Motivational Effect of ICT on Pupils: Emerging Findings. London: DFES

Reece, I. and Walker, S. (2006) Training and Learning: a practical guide (6^th Edition). Sunderland: Business Education Publishers

Sharples, M. (2002) ‘Disruptive devices: mobile technology for conversational learning’, International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Lifelong Learning. 12 (5) pp. 504-520

Teaching Ideas. (2015) Podcasting [online]. Available at: http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/multimedia/podcasting-0 (Accessed on 07.01.16)

Wang, M., Shon, R., Novak, D. and Pan, X. (2008) ‘The Impact of Mobile Learning Behaviours and Performance’, British Journal of Educational Technology. 40 (4) pp. 673-695

Wilkins, K. (2014) How new technologies affect student-teacher relationships [online]. Available at: https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/new-technologies-affect-student-teacher-relationships (Accessed on 7.12.15)

Wright, P. (2013) Why new technologies could never replace great teaching [online]. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/jun/20/technology-not-replace-teaching-learning (Accessed on 3.11.15)