Learning Naturally…building sandcastles

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Sun, sand, buckets and spades. Laughter and creativity. Sandcastles. The best form of child play? 

Idit Harel believes so, in her web article: Sandcastles go digital.

Doctors, psychologists and other specialists all prove that children learn as they play, naturally, whether it be in their social, physical, emotional or mental domain. However, while all this natural learning is occurring, there are “some that more strongly” engage children in the most powerful form of learning Harel knows: constructionist learning.

As previously mentioned in my blog Teaching vs. Learning (written November 10th) Seymour Papert pioneered the Constructionism theory which holds the view that children learn best when they are in the active roles of designer and constructor, much like kids building a sand castle on the beach. However, this theory goes a step further. As Papert says, Constructionism adds “the idea that this happens especially felicitously in a context in which the learner is consciously engaged in constructing a public entity, whether it’s a sand castle on the beach or a theory of the universe.”

This article opened my mind to ‘Seize the Moment of Learning!’. As an adult, pre-service teacher and part-time nanny, I have experienced moments, (e.g. reading a book to children and shopping with children) that invite interaction and conversation of a more in-depth nature, such as why the stars twinkle, why the waves constantly form and crash on the seashore and why random things are they way they are. As a grown-up, such opportunities enable us to connect our knowledge to children’s play and contribute to meaningful learning. Building a sand castle on the beach can turn into a wonderful moment of play and can even be a wide-open learning environment, although it does have limitations.

Realistically, a sandcastle is a temporary learning environment that cannot be returned to again and again or to be reflected on, built upon or added to as waves will inevitably wash the sand away. Harel writes about how the scenario of building a sandcastle with children invites natural and informal conversation between adult and child. Such opportunities are rarely planned and there is no curriculum that says that on a particular day the kids would learn about ocean tides; it all happens in the moment.

As affirmed by Harel and something I agree with, “some of the best learning experiences in my life — as a child and as an adult — have been these unexpected, incidental learning moments.” Continue reading »

All we need is time…and a little guidance [a reaction]

Kathy Shield’s blog entitled No! We Don’t Just Need Training and Support! really highlights the truth in how most of us learn (or at least have tried to)–through independent discovery. Kathy writes about how she met a new teacher who echoed a sentiment she too believed in. This new teacher affirmed Kathy’s view with her desire that students would take a challenging task and ‘figure it out for themselves in a guided environment’. While I somewhat agree with this idea, I do believe that teachers will always be needed to supervise any learning experience taking place in their classroom–the guided environment.

“It is in this spirit of empowerment that Shelley Paul [the new teacher] has developed an online, wiki-based course called 23 Things” with her approach meeting Kathy’s concerns that teachers “don’t need training they just need the time to do it themselves!” and the rather comical statement that  ”the experience shouldn’t have anything to do with a talking head directing your every mouse move like some cosmic puppeteer”.

What exactly does it involve? The framework is based on: Introduction, Discovery, Production, and Reflection and then personalized Feedback. The most important component of Shelley’s approach is feedback which take the form of blog comments. Each student logs their progress throughout the course displayed in their own professional development blog. Along with Kathy, I regard Shelley’s approach and hope to apply it to my future teaching. I really like the idea of assigning each student to work on a development blog to track their individual progress and indicate where and how they are going. I believe it helps the teacher visualise their students’ learning processes and as Shelley comments, puts yourself on a ‘personal path of enlightenment’  through experiences reading about student successes and struggles with their task assignments. This whole process is rewarding as supported by the quote: “Teachers are so fortunate when we learn from our students. And, when we honor their work with personalized feedback, we reap the benefits”.

Kathys puts forward the notion that teachers don’t need more training and support, but rather, time and guidance. Perhaps a controverisal and opposing perception, however, I found Kathy’s blog a valuable to test to what I believe as a future educator.

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Can Technology Drive Change in Professional Development?

Over the past few blogs, I have explored how technology may be integrated into the curriculum to enhance student learning and how technology is effective in educating and engaging students to learn. Upon reading Dave Nagel’s article Can Technology Drive Change in Professional Development?, I was reminded that technology is not just for using to teach our students, but it is also useful for staying up-to-date and consistently reviewing our teaching practices with the overall aim of improving and promoting our professional development.

According to a recent report by the State Educational Technology Directors Association (USA), teacher training needs to move away from  ’one-shot workshops’ and shift towards a model of ongoing sustainable professional development.

Despite being difficult in the past, technology is now making this approach a reality. This is important mainly because poor teacher preparation and lack of support have negative effects on both students and the education system, with the main reason for teacher turn-over being due to lack of support.

According to the report, “on-going professional development that supports the life-long growth of a teacher helps maximize the potential of each teacher and ultimately each student”.

The report, Empowering Teachers: A Professional and Collaborative Approach ’focuses on technology used to facilitate professional development and spotlights innovative approaches to ongoing teacher and administrator development in K-12 schools’.

Mary Ann Wolf, executive director for SETDA states that technology is the key with online learning communities, education portals, coaching and mentoring being some of the “proven methods for providing sustainable professional development for our teachers.”

I think it is so vital that a report like this one has been made because teachers should always be learning and improving their professional practice, due to the ever-changing nature of their students, the world they live in and the technological environment.

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Continue reading »

Words…in a…cloud? {a reaction}

Maree refers to Fingal’s view (2008) that “the challenge with education technology is not in finding a nifty tool that will engage students in the classroom” … but rather … “it is finding a way to integrate that virtual gadget into the curriculum in a way that both engages students and broadens the learning experience”. I agree. I believe that students gain just as much, if not more knowledge and understanding by the way in which the content is taught; not simply the content, but how tools to teach the content are used.

Maree discusses an interesting tool educators are beginning to incorporate in the learning process–Wordle–a tool that creates a “word cloud” through analysis of the  usage and frequency of words. That is, the more times a particular word appears in a text or list, the larger it will be in the Wordle.

I think this tool will highlight the ‘umms’ and ‘ahhs’ and ‘ok’s’ that need to be eliminated from the vocabulary of professional teachers. A form of feedback, I believe Wordle will assist in becoming more literate and improve our communication skills as a whole as it offers the opportunity to reflect on what we say so that we can make changes for improved teaching and subsequent learning outcomes.

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Click here to see the Wordle I created..

Tracking Digital Footprints [a reaction]

Google for research to finish your assignment. Google yourself. Google a famous quote. Google the location of your house. Google your favourite music. Google a recipe. Google a map for directions. Google anything and everything. What an endless and abundant resource!

Entitled Digital Footprints , Maree writes about how the internet makes her professional experiences easily accessible to anyone interested. Maree refers to Richardson’s article Digital Footprints in the Digital Age (2008) that describes this concept. Consequences of the World Wide Web entails digital footprints “..being woven into the fabric of almost every aspect of our lives”.

Its challenging to comprehend that various sorts of information about you–your achievements, interests, photographs, involvement etc–are all available on the internet, through Facebook, Myspace, your Blog, Google and Youtube.

As a pre-service educator, it is imperative that we understand the reality that social Web technologies have a huge influence on ‘connected’ students. We must be aware that they are ‘..creating all sorts of content..”  some good, some not. Plus, students are doing all sorts of things with online tools that we aren’t teaching them anything about and “in the process they are becoming Googleable without us”.

Why are students turning off the light when they enter the classroom? Prensky’s answer is that students are becoming so advanced in creating, publishing and learning on their own, outside the walls of the classroom, that they aren’t learning at an engaging and stimulating level for them to keep the lights on.

Solution? Incorporation of internet and technology into everyday learning. Webquests, podcasts, digital stories, interactive software programs…all are educative experiences that engage students to learn effectively.

I believe that teachers need to address students’ activity and use of the internet, providing wisdom on how to protect themselves in such a vulnerable and exposing environment. We have the responsibility to warn students about the many facets of the World Wide Web as their safety and privacy are at stake in this digital world and need to be considered. Students require constant supervision whilst exploring the vast world of the internet. Too much information can be dangerous to impressionable minds.

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Interactive Software {a reaction}

Emily’s blog on Interactive Software affirmed my views that students learn more effectively when they take an active role in learning, experience things for themselves rather than taking a passive role in learning and simply learning from what they are told. Emily includes reference to the article “Building Software beats using it” which suggests that computers facilitate active learning to occur in the classroom as students interact with what they are hearing and seeing.

During practicum experiences this year, I have observed the way my co-operating teacher awarded students with ‘computer time’. If a child was working well consistently, they would be allowed 10 minutes to play on the computer in the games room. While this is an effective incentive for hard-work, I do believe that any time spent on the computer should go beyond 10 minutes to play a game. Rather abrupt I think. Computers are educational tools to promote student-centred discovery learning and can be used to continue, test and sum-up the learning experience.

This reminds me of our LAMS learning sequence assignment which involved us creating a variety of activities within a chosen theme. Incorporating LAMS into a lesson is beneficial as students are empowered to create their own tests, quizzes and other learning experiences which calls upon their retained knowledge and understandings while practising their computer skills.

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Educational Gaming—From Edutainment to Bona Fide 21st-Century Teaching Tool

Having read Ntiedo Etuk’s article Educational Gaming—From Edutainment to Bona Fide 21st-Century Teaching Tool , I have learnt that games can be educational if the learning context is established and students are aware of teacher expectations.

I totally agree with Etuk’s view that “…as educators, parents, or friends, if we are going to get today’s youngsters to listen to us, we have to understand where they’re coming from and what they’re doing”.

Etuk recounts how back in 1984, a teacher, Jan Davidson, created a software program, Math Blaster. Subsequent programs were created and were successful for their ability to present educational subjects in a new and exciting ways.

Since Jan Davidson’s creative innovation, technology and students who use it have ‘evolved considerably’. So too have educational games. Entrepreneur-developers believe that “today’s products must be anchored in more specific pedagogical design principles”. I agree with their belief that to ‘stand the test of time’, today’s games must go beyond entertaining students, but actually teach them… a missing requirement from previous attempts of the genre.

Furthermore, I believe that educational games have the potential to teach children the life principles of perseverance, practice, logic, solving problems and researching for solutions.

Does every lesson have to involve edutainment? I believe not. Edutainment loses its shine when it is played frequently. Go by the old principle of variety in lessons–a key in enhancing the learning process and keeping the kids guessing and interested.

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Digital videos in the classroom? {a reaction}

Freya’s comments regarding the views of Helen Haffenberg and Marianne Handler are interesting. It got me thinking on whether I agree with their claim that the video is the ideal format for the culminating product of a project-based learning experience.

I do believe students benefit from watching videos as their senses are engaged, plus, the youth of this world are growing up desiring instant gratification and are very visually tuned. Therefore, it makes sense to include a video in the teaching of a learning unit to cater to students’ enjoyment and interest. In addition, culminating activities enable students to sum up all they have obtained from their learning experiences and creating a video is a great way to develop their computer skills while testing their knowledge of the content explored. Creative expression is an interactive method for students to demonstrate their unique ideas and interpretations of what they learnt throughout the sequence of lessons.

Like Freya, I agree that students so visually stimulated and developed will enjoy using software such as iMovie, however, it is essential that teacher supervision and scaffolding is provided.

Teaching vs. Learning

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Connecting Learning Across the World [a reaction]

Matthew’s blog ‘Connecting Learning Across the World’ has got me thinking about the many possibilities that are made accessible through the use of the internet.

Matthew writes about his recent attendance at Bernard Garcin’s presentation of the collaborative project he has been doing with 30 schools around the world. Online technology supports their language learning. With foundations in email, the students have progressed to “more sophisticated web-based tools”. Students are given projects to complete, exploring a variety of themes. For example, students were given the task of comparing and contrasting their country’s energy consumption while other students were given the task of describing a tour of their city.

What makes this fairly straightforward task challenging is that all students have to complete their task in a foreign language; not their own. Matthew goes on to explain one of Garcin’s interesting techniques–the use of ‘online pools / surveys’ to ‘initiate interest and spark debate amongst students’.

I really like this interactive idea and I will definitely aim to incorporate this style of task when I teach in the future as it is relevant to students’ worlds and interests and has the capacity to cross KLA’s and promote student-centred discovery learning.

Here is a link to see other inspiring projects…

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