After finishing today's Lecture I was thinking about 'authentic learning' and how it truly does work wonders within a school environment. I was relating it to my workplace and how well the students learn when the responsibility is put on them as learners. After the lecture I was researching a Psychologist by the name of Andrew Fuller as I have attended one of his professional development sessions. I related his information to the lecture today. The points he made below fitted hand-in-hand with 'integration of technology'.
- Students should work in pairs when using technology, this way they are still having human interaction and bouncing ideas off each other.
- Technology shouldn't be used as a teacher, it should be used to assist with the learning process.
I believe these points that he made will give me the strategies to ensure I have a good balance of explicit teaching and teaching with the integration of technology. When I do integrate technology I will know how to do it well and effectively by learning off my University peers and teachers in my workplace.
I work in a primary school and recently there has been a major technology upgrade. The school has went to a 'Apple' platform. We have resources ranging from iPad touches, iPads and Macbook Airs. This change has been a whole learning experience for both the staff and students. The main reason that this technology upgrade occured was to move away from worksheet based learning and move into 'authentic learning'. By doing so it has given the teachers and students the opportunity to explore technology within the classroom.
I was talking to some teachers in my workplace and Murdoch University students about 'Schooling' today and how it has changed in many aspects. I felt that there was a mixture of positive and negative opinions. The older teachers and students were happy with how learning occurred previously and felt that students still succeeded in school, whereas, the younger generation thought that it was great to see education moving with the times and giving all learners the opportunity to learn in a variety of ways.
The teachers are also getting technology support from a company called 'Winthrop Australia'. The company has teachers that come out to schools to give classroom teachers ideas for integrating technology within their classrooms. They assist the teacher and the students to use different resources. So far the students have created some awesome resources. Some of the things that I've seen them create are iMovies, interactive stories, games, websites, blogs, advertisement posters etc. The tasks have all been 'authentic' with many elements of learning within the one task. It has taken a period of time to have a finished product which is also another major part of 'authentic learning'. Check out 'Winthrop Australia's' website to find out more information at: http://www.winaust.com.au/index.html.
I can't wait to move onto next weeks topic that is covering '21st Century Learning' as the school I work in has made an inviting work space for the students to use. It is called the 'Learning Hub'. In the space children are encouraged to learn 'authentically' and 'independently' with guidance from the classroom teacher.
I'll be posting pictures of the 'learning hub' next week which will give you an idea of what it's like to be 'learning and teaching in the 21st century'.
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