What is the difference between constructivism and constructionism? listen to these two podcasts and their handy example at the end and it may all be clearer.
Constructivism final Constructionism final
In a nutshell:
Constructivism: you are an individual who constructively creates their own undestandings coloured by societal views
Constructionism: you are purely a construction of other people’s beliefs etc.
Plan of action for keeping up to date with ICT while teaching:
- Subscribe to an education specific ICT magazine eg. ICT for Education
- Actively seek to be involved in ICT discussions in the school environment
- If possible conduct teacher training with ICT professionals
Plan of action for using ICT during my practical experience:
- Develop smart board skills/ conduct smart board lessons.
- Encourage students to publish work on the computer using word processing and formatting
- Use computer and/ or online resources to develop creative arts skills eg. Photoshop, doodle software etc.
If I am lacking resources:
- Use online resources that are free to download and can be used in a hard copy format
- Use a rotational system with students to ensure equal opportunities
Ways I will use ICT in my future teaching:
- use every opportunity to publish documents using publishers eg. Microsoft Word, Powerpoint etc.
- conduct creative arts lessons using online and offline resources
- encourage students to develop research skills using computers
- take every opportunity to use new technologies and encourage students to take the role of teacher when faced with unfamiliar technologies
- encourage group activities using various technologies
In his blog “Bee-Bots” the Learning Lama discusses the use of pre built robots in his Kindergarten class. He mentions their function of being programmed to follow certain directions and reach a set destination. While this can be a fantastic learning experience for students and give them valuable skills in programming while ensuring their understanding of directional language, Resnick speaks about another object that may just be one step better. In his podcast Resnick discusses the use of “crickets”, small robotic devices which can be installed into various items built by students. Resnick uses the example of a child making a birthday cake out of craft supplies such as felt etc. then installing this piece of hardware into the candles as a sound sensor. When a person blows on the candles (which are lit up) the sound sensor picks this up and switches off the lights. These crickets can be used with innumerable items and for almost limitless purposes. As Resnick states when students are encouraged to explore, experiment, build, create and design they can learn much more effectively.
Panda Ponderings writes in the blog Homework Using Computer Skills that the application of homework has changed dramatically since they were a child and the use of computers as part of homework is increasing. Panda Ponderings worries that this means parents are unable to assist students with homework as they lack the computer skills. However I disagree with this comment in general.
One of the main reasons computers are becoming prevalent in the education environment is to reflect their prevalence in society. Many educators believe it is important to teach computer skills as they will be necessary for student life outside the school especially when the child enters the workforce . If this is the case then it is also the case that a lot of workplaces are now using computers, including the workplaces of parents. It is not a case of only children being taught how to use computers a lot of parents are too. Parents who are more likely to become overwhelmed are those who do not have access to this technology in their workplace and therefore do not develop the skills necessary to assist their children. If parents are becoming overwhelmed as they lack the skills to assist students there are many computer courses available through community colleges to build their confidence.
Although there are many issues relating to students relying on computers to complete homework eg. access to resources, I believe that educators should not miss out on this valuable teaching tool due to a lack of parent confidence.
As the Learning Lama commented the issue of year nine students recieving laptops from the government in 2009 is a highly debated topic. The Monocle Chronical presents the view that laptops can be beneifical to all students but they do not necessarily need to be taken home. My question is this… what is the point of laptops if they are not going to be transported? If they become stationary units in a school they lose a lot of functionality eg. they cannot be used for homework and unless the work is saved onto a usb device or emailed home for students to access on their own computers, they will be unable to refer to any school work they have completed during the day. Surely this also impacts on the school environment as everyday they would have to hand out every laptop in a systematic fashion and retrieve them to lock up securely at the end of the school day. this seems to create a lot of wasted time and energy.
I am undecided on the issue of laptops for all students as while it can provide resources for some students who do not have access research conducted by Woessmann and Peterson (In Barlow, 2008) suggests that providing extra resources to disadvantaged students does not do enough to create equality or equal opportunities in the education system.
In mobile phones put to good use (same suburb different park, 2009) the authors refer to the horizon report which gives valuable ideas for the use of mobile phones as an educational tool in a learning environments. Same suburb state that “Mobile phones have become much more in recent years than just a phone” and that in fact the extra features many phones carry such as internet accessibility could be very valuable to classroom teachers.
There are a few issues with the practicalities of these ideas however.
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1) If schools were to allow students to use mobile phones at school and even in the classroom the school must take some of the responsibility for these students’ experiences with the technology. Computers used in schools are closely monitored for inappropriate use however as mobile phones are quite often “capable of viewing any content that is on the internet, not only phone-specific information” new security measures must be put in place to assure student safety.
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2) Another issue is that of resources. While some mobile phones are capable of many of the functions mentioned in the horizon report, not all of them are and not all students have the access to these devices. In that case does half of the class miss out on the lesson or the benefits of the technology?
