- Demonstrate in-depth understanding of the central concepts, theories, and current areas of debate in the study of teaching in online environments.
- Identify, discuss and analyse the roles and responsibilities of the teacher in E-learning situations and demonstrate their application in practice.
- Define teaching challenges arising from the use of educational technologies for distance and distributed teaching in their own educational setting and develop, discuss and implement ways of meeting those challenges in that setting.
This paper was one that I elected to do paper in my Literacy post-graduate diploma, and I chose it as it was an area that interested my and I thought it would be a nice change from all the literacy papers I am studying. Although a different topic, this paper has so many links to my other study and has given me a great deal of knowledge and understandings which can be applied to teaching in all areas.
This blog represents my learning journey throughout this paper and contains artefacts that have been added at various times. Artefacts are numbered according to when they were added to my portfolio.
The beginning of my learning journey in this paper started with me considering what perspectives I held regarding teaching and learning. Artefact 1 shows my results after taking the Technological Perspectives Inventory (TPI). This was an interesting experience and made me consider what central beliefs I held towards teaching and learning. Pratt (1998) suggests that our perspectives towards teaching will remain unchanged until they are challenged. My TPI results identified me has having a predominantly nurturing perspective towards teaching and I was not completely happy with this. Modern teaching is steering more and more towards the idea of apprenticeship, so my results triggered me to think about how I could be a teachers with an apprenticeship perspective. Artefact 1 set the tone of the course for me as I now knew what I was hoping to get out of my learning.
LO - Demonstrate in-depth understanding of the central concepts, theories, and current areas of debate in the study of teaching in online environments.
Artefact 2 followed on from my encounter with the TPI and teaching perspectives, I had to consider a recent learning experience I had with my class and think about what my role as teacher was and the values involved. This was a confronting task as I found it difficult to find a task that would be an exemplary example, this was due to the many other requirements put upon me as a teacher, such as curriculum coverage, assessment deadlines and national standards teacher judgements. Gibbs and Poskitt (2010) put it best saying that teaching approaches that meet the needs of students will result in valuable rewards for students, however there are many times when this does not happen because of the requirements for learning that are outside the control of the classroom teacher.
LO- Demonstrate in-depth understanding of the central concepts, theories, and current areas of debate in the study of teaching in online environments.
Artefact 3 is a reflection in which I consider the impact technology has upon my teaching practise. My classroom has changed throughout my career as my knowledge of effective teaching has evolved and my confidence with technology has grown. This reflection drew my attention to why I enjoy using technology in my teaching but that I need to put greater time into considering alternative uses for the technology I have available and using them for a more customised pedagogical purpose (Koehler, Mishra & Cain, 2013).
LO-Define teaching challenges arising from the use of educational technologies for distance and distributed teaching in their own educational setting and develop, discuss and implement ways of meeting those challenges in that setting.
Module two of this paper got me considering the relationship between technology and pedagogy. Artefact 4 was my input into a forum discussion about which concept has the greater influence over the other. There have been moments when I have been so excited about a new application or piece of technology and raced into using with my class without considering if it was effective pedagogical practice. Conceicao (2007) states that technology without theories is meaningless and simply a vessel for the exchange of information. This has made me realise that when I encounter something that excites me I need to take the time to fully consider how I can best utilise it effectively to enhance student learning and achievement.
LO-Demonstrate in-depth understanding of the central concepts, theories, and current areas of debate in the study of teaching in online environments.
LO - Identify, discuss and analyse the roles and responsibilities of the teacher in E-learning situations and demonstrate their application in practice.
Artefact 5 was half way through this paper and shows how I am trying to integrate my new understandings of technology in education into the learning model at my current school. I hope to be able to share my knowledge of effective technology integration and the impact that student engagement has upon learning with my colleagues, but needed to be able to make it fit into the 'Summerland' way of doing things. Re configuring my schools model of negotiated learning was simple and these two new concepts seamlessly fitted in. My adapted model provides a strong visual representation of how Summerland teachers create learning that meets the diverse needs of individual learners and provides students with personal control and choice (McCombs & Vakili, 2005).
LO - Identify, discuss and analyse the roles and responsibilities of the teacher in E-learning situations and demonstrate their application in practice.
Artefact 6 is the planner that I designed as part of our second assignment, incorporating the TEC-VARIETY framework (Bonk & Khoo, 2014). This was a unit I had already taught and thought was quite strong already so I wanted to see if the TEC-VARIETY framework could really enhance student engagement and make my unit plan a much more powerful learning opportunity for my students. There were aspects from TEC-VARIETY that I was already following but the concepts of relevance, yield and tension had to be added and I think enhanced my unit. The next time I plan a unit I would prefer to start with the TEC-VARIETY when designing learning experiences as it would put student motivation as the primary guiding factor, and as Bonk and Khoo (2014) state, learners with enhanced motivation are more likely to be successful.
LO - Identify, discuss and analyse the roles and responsibilities of the teacher in E-learning situations and demonstrate their application in practice.
It takes a lot to admit when you have made a mistake but Artefact 7 is that, me putting it out into the world that I gave something a go and it was not successful. This wasn't as difficult to do as I thought it would be, perhaps because I knew I was sharing my story in a safe environment and that I was not the only one sharing such an experience. Everyday we expect students to take risks and it would be just as difficult for them. Students are individuals and because of their differences it can be challenging engaging them in a learning task, but having I believe technology has become a powerful way to achieve this. Technology cannot teach but it has the ability to facilitate learning that is less prescriptive rather more; social, autonomous, interactive, authentic and meaningful (Howland, Jonassen & Marra, 2012). These are all factors which have shown to increase student engagement.
LO - Demonstrate in-depth understanding of the central concepts, theories, and current areas of debate in the study of teaching in online environments.
LO - Identify, discuss and analyse the roles and responsibilities of the teacher in E-learning situations and demonstrate their application in practice.
Artefact 8 came about from watching a documentary on the education system in New Zealand. There were a few statements that stood out to me that were related to my learning in this paper. I am teaching children in their early schooling years and I therefore need to give them an accurate impression of what school and learning is like. Such actions as having them use iPads for drill and skill games is creating the mindset of how technology is best used. Rather, I should have them using technology in manners that will foster creative thinking and innovation, skills which will set them up for their future learning.
LO- Demonstrate in-depth understanding of the central concepts, theories, and current areas of debate in the study of teaching in online environments.
Through a discussion in our online forum a list of recommendations for student engagement was established and then we were asked to rank the recommendations, this is artefact 9. This task took me longer than I thought and if I took the time to look at it again I would most likely rank the recommendations differently. My top idea was that student engagement depends mostly upon learning being purposeful. When students know the purpose of their learning they actively and willfully work towards their goal. Student goals need to be individualised and therefore are putting students at the center of the learning process. Zepke and Leach (2010) made ten proposals for student engagement, self belief was one of these and is suggested to be the key to student motivation. If a student has goals that they have set then they will believe they can achieve them and have high motivation to achieve.
LO - Define teaching challenges arising from the use of educational technologies for distance and distributed teaching in their own educational setting and develop, discuss and implement ways of meeting those challenges in that setting.
My final artefact is my reflection upon the knowledge and understanding I have acquired throughout this paper. Writing this reflection was enjoyable for many reasons; it signaled the nearing of the end of the semester and was an opportunity to consider how my thinking has changed regarding technology use in the classroom. I have enjoyed this paper and enjoyed the challenge that assignments have posed, this is because the learning was meaningful and authentic. Howland, Jonassen and Marra (2012) state that for learning to be meaningful students must be engaged in meaningful tasks.
LO - Identify, discuss and analyse the roles and responsibilities of the teacher in E-learning situations and demonstrate their application in practice.
LO - Define teaching challenges arising from the use of educational technologies for distance and distributed teaching in their own educational setting and develop, discuss and implement ways of meeting those challenges in that setting.
