How technology has changed the way we learn...

The year was 1973, Alice Cooper’s Schools Out was a favourite amongst the younger generation, Bob Dylan was Knocking on Heavens Door and the iconic Freebird by Lynyrd Skinner was flying over the airwaves for the first time. It was then that Martin Cooper, a Motorola engineer made the ‘first’ mobile telephone call on a device that weighed in around 1 kg, had 35 minutes talk time for 10 hours of charging and cost a mere £3,995. Who could have predicted the advancement of mobile technology and its impact on the lives of every human being on the planet.

Of course it wasn’t until the arrival of the iPhone in 2007 that the mobile technology boom can be said to have exploded with an impact similar to the first atom bomb tests. Today, mobile technology is as much a part of daily living that there are those who joke that wi-fi should be counted as one of the basic needs alongside food, water and shelter, for how are we to survive without access to the digital domain?

How has this technology impacted the classroom environment and the learning styles of today’s students? Well the days of chalk boards and heavy textbooks are almost extinct, replaced by whiteboards and IT suites, with almost all students having access to the internet at home or via public libraries. But what of the transformation of e-learning (electronic learning), to the more updated m-learning (mobile learning) and what are its advantages?

Well, what educators recognise and cannot dispute is that introducing mobile technology within the learning environment is not only advantages for students within their adult life, it can be argued that it is a vital part of their education as some career paths rely heavily on its use. The use of mobile tech, such as smart phones and tablets provide the students with instant up-to-date access to news, information and statistics at the touch of their fingers, are quicker and much more reliable than referencing out of date, hard copy published text books. It also is easier on the growing development of these young bodies, by not having to cart around a ton of paper in book format from class to class.

A key advantage of mobile learning is that is takes the learning experience outside the classroom and into the wider arena. With wi-fi access available across campuses, studies have shown learning continues especially when students are involved with group or project work. One such study conducted by Matt Britland of Kingston Grammer School, showed just how effective the use of mobile technology can be within

the learning environment.

Teachers’ results showed that:

• ·         91% of teachers saying they would use iPads as part of the teaching resources again
• ·         64% of teachers stating that their students were very engaged whilst using the iPads
• ·         82% Stating that their students were more engaged than usual
• ·         100% of teachers enjoyed using the iPads as part of their teaching resources

And students’ results showed that:

• ·         82% reported a positive learning experience when using the iPads
• ·         77% stated that using the iPads helped with their understanding of the subject
• ·         92% stated they were very engaged or engaged with the lesson
• ·         88% of the students would like to use the iPads more often during lessons

Overall the project was seen as a huge success by both students and teachers as can be seen in the published report found here. So should we presume from this one example that mobile technology is beneficial to modern teaching? Well I’ll leave that decision to you. Hopefully over the next few posts I can highlight the pros and cons of such technology and where future developments may lead us, and you will be able to make a more informed decision.

A Time for Reflection and Re-evaluation...

"Worrying won't stop the bad things from happening, it just stops you from enjoying the good." –Unknown

I came to realise today after many weeks of inner turmoil and struggle that I cannot control everything that is happening within my life and that sometimes you have to give in to the natural forces of nature and stop, slow down and breath for a moment. Take some time to re-evaluate your life. Rather than continuing on, struggling to deliver what I believe to be a less than below par level of work and performance, I must focus on what is important and prioritise in order to attain the best results I am realistically able to produce at this moment in time.

We’ve all experienced difficulties, hardship and stressful events, and they may have had a positive or negative influence on our actions and decisions. At the moment, I have been experiencing a particularly difficult period where I have tried to maintain a certain air of normality and continue on to the best of my efforts. However, as much as I try, I have reached a point where the psychological has influenced the physical and I realise I am not doing myself any favours. The recent experience of my recent micro-teach session has taught me that, a lesson I have duly noted and paid heed to.

We are warned constantly about the dangers of stress, the silent killer, its prolonged effects and how to recognise the symptoms, but how well do we actually listen to what our bodies are actually telling us? Far too often we ignore the obvious signs and flippantly disregard the evidence that all is not well, until a time when suddenly, it’s too late. As a student, parent or employee, we are all prone to succumbing to the hidden pressures of everyday modern living. Throw in an unexpected event and the whole house of cards teeters and may threaten to topple at any moment.

So how do we combat such an prominent adversary? What weapons do we employ to defeat this unrelentless and powerful foe? Well, admitting that it is a problem is a start, sharing and talking about what is happening, perhaps within a professional and structured counselling environment can certainly help to identify positive steps one can take to initiate the changes needed to return life to normal.

Then of course there’s medication, quick and effective methods of pharmaceutically altering the destructive chemical imbalances within the brain and body to restore homeostasis within. Not always popular, but certainly an option. Then there are things like adopting the Mindfulness approach where one attempts to achieve a mental state by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.

For the moment I have to reflect, adapt and initiate some changes. I am committed to finishing this course, there is no question of that and yet I must acknowledge that there may be a few tough challenges ahead. I must not however, see it as any sort of weakness or defeat on my part. Having the belief in oneself to overcome life’s difficulties is after all one of humanities greatest achievements and in itself can be a powerful weapon to be wielded in the battle against stress and its causes.

Maybe I'll just sit on the beach and think about things for a while and ponder...

The Micro-teach Session - Pleasure or Pain?

It is the eve before my second scheduled micro-teaching session as part of my new course and I find myself pondering on how I'm going to be feeling 24 hours from now. If my present condition is anything to go by, I think I'm in for an unsettling time, yet for the 100th time I ask myself why am feeling this way? Is it my chosen topic? No, I'm pretty happy with that and feel that my knowledge and understanding are at a sufficient level. Is it the learner group? Again no. This is once again being delivered to my fellow PCET partners in crime, to whom I'm sure will be gentle with me (although I may be wrong).

I think if truth be known, the only thing I am worried about is me, my own ability and self confidence levels which I am very much aware are not up to the normal everyday scratch at the moment. However, the effect it is having, is impacting on my ability to produce a certain standard of work which is slightly worrying, at least from my perspective. I have tried to justify these feelings on the fact that we are unable to use standard ICT tools for our sessions, no power point or any other type of presentation gizmo, but if I'm honest that has very little to do with it at all.

Today I witnessed three exemplary micro-teach sessions from three members of the group, delivered with such enthusiasm and confidence, and I don't think I'm wrong in saying it, with a certain amount of enjoyment and pleasure, which was clearly evident in their demeanor. I can only hope to draw upon their enthusiasm and hopefully use it to inspire my own motivation and deliver something as interesting and enjoyable, rather than the painful expectations I have at the moment.

I do take solace in recognising the purpose behind these micro-teach sessions, is for us to learn through experience, experiment with alternative teaching strategies and learning techniques and as such to make mistakes in an safe environment. So just like going to get vaccinated, I need to focus, take a deep breath and after a brief moment of pain, I can relax and enjoy the rest of the show with a lollipop.

Using Blogs as a Teaching Resource - A review...

As part of my new blogging experience I’ve been asked to review other blogs that I may find useful during my current educational learning experience. One such blog that I have encountered is entitled eLearning Industry, which boasts as being the largest online community of professionals involved in the eLearning industry. I must admit that at first glance I was impressed at the large collection of eLearning articles, concepts and resources available written by expert authors within their field.

I found particular interest in the recent article on The Impact of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs In eLearning as I felt it could be related to the increased use of IT within the teaching sphere and how it can relate to both blended and flipped learning approaches to be used with our students. Maslow (1987) believed that individuals are all motivated by intrinsic factors, regardless of economic status or cultural background, where as human beings we seek to fulfill the more basic needs before moving to the next.

It has been argued that Maslow’s Hierarchy can help with student motivation; it fuels our student’s desire to achieve their goals and ambitions. The article argued how Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can be natural fit for eLearning relating it to each of the needs as highlighted within the differing levels of the pyramid. The article was informative and interesting, full of useful links and valid arguments.

This was but one article, several others make for just as informative reading, such as articles on Blended Learning Techniques and a list of highly informative Ted Talks for educational learning. I would recommend this blog as a potential bookmark in any trainee teaching student's online library list. Of course I appreciate and respect that there are many other educational blogs available within the bloggersphere, as such I hope that I have simply raised awareness of how useful such sites can be.

Reference:

Maslow, A. H., 1987. Motivation and Personality. 3rd ed. New York: Harper Collins.

Tools for the Modern Teacher...

One of the things I have been contemplating whilst walking this educational journey, is how much effort goes into preparing a lesson(s) in order to ensure effective and efficient learning takes place amongst your students. Not surprisingly, teaching strategies, tools, applications and gizmos are now available in abundance in comparison to the days when using different coloured chalk was as dynamic and exciting as the teacher could get. Here are a few of the applications I’ve been introduced to that you may find useful.

 

Hot Potatoes,  is a freeware application that includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. It is straight forward and quite easy to use, and something that gives you a few alternative options for review, assessment and feedback gathering exercises.

Socrative, is a very useful and versatile application for evaluating and assessing how much your students know or can recall. A cloud based application, where a virtual classroom is created and accessed by students via invite code. I felt that this application was an excellent for getting instant feedback, as data is available in real time by the teacher. The variety in questionnaires and quizzes you can create online is good and allows for flexibility on the part of the teacher, who can amend and keep things relevant to the current discussion or topic. The instant feedback is very usefully for highlighting areas and/or specific individuals that may need additional help or attention.

Kahoot, is a very similar cloud application to Socrative, yet I felt that its lack of question type options and flexibility in design make this a more simplified version of Socrative. Can be useful for use with younger students, but I will probably be giving this one a wide berth.

Wordle is fun, exciting and very simple and easy to use. It is basically an online toy for generating “word clouds” from any text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and colour schemes. A fun way of providing key information to your students.

How you can deliver your Presentations... If you want to that is...

I would imagine that we've all been there, head nodding, eyes straining to stay open and mind wandering a million miles away from where it should be. Whether it be in a formal business, workplace session or sitting through a family presentation of their latest holiday snaps, some presentations can literally sap the life force out of you. So how as teachers do we prevent the same thing from happening with our students? Yes, it is important that we get the information across to them as how else are they going to learn. The trick is obviously to keep your presentations interesting and even entertaining, make them fun, interactive and vary how you do them.

I've recently been introduced to a few new options for giving presentations, and so I thought I would share my thoughts on some of them and how effective I feel they may be within the classroom. I do acknowledge that not everybody will agree with me and some have their own preferences, however, I would encourage people to try some of them just to have a go and make your own assessment.

OK, we all know about Power Point, as mentioned in my previous post, this is an application I have extensively used to great effectiveness for many years. I do like its versatility and ease of use. However, it can be misused, too many slides, over-cluttered slides, too much information, shockingly bad templates and backgrounds and over-exaggerated transitions can all attribute to the dreaded death by power point scenario. So what else is out there?

Prezi, is a fun and quirky application for presenting your information. It uses a different style of transition between your key points and when incorporated into a particular background, can make the presentation visually interesting. I liked it and will probably use it again. I’ve included my first attempt at a Prezi presentation here. Let me know what you think.

Nearpod is amazing, fun, interactive and very useful for getting instant feedback from the class. And what is more you can use it with existing power point presentations, as well as creating your own. I particularly like the instant feedback you can get from your students, highlighting areas of concern or assessment needed and that learning has actually taken place. Downside, the fact that your students will need a device to access the online ‘classroom’ to participate. This is dependent on equipment and connections status, so bear this in mind.

What does it mean to be Digitally Competent...?

I’ve been giving some thought to the concept of whether I consider myself to be digitally competent. Do I believe I have the necessary IT skills to be able to call myself truly digitally literate?

There has been much said since Prensky (2001) introduced the term ‘digital native’ to the World claiming that today’s generation of human beings require a digitally rich media learning environment to continually stimulate them, due to their continual exposure to digital technology within their lives. This is in direct opposition to individuals such as myself who would be classed as a ‘digital immigrant’ as I have been introduced to this new digital technology and had to adapt to its presence in my distinctly analogue world. Similarly, a ‘native’ is deemed to be more adept at using digital technology than an 'immigrant'; but is this true? 

A competence is defined as “a demonstrated ability to apply knowledge, skills and attitudes for achieving observable results” (CEN, 2013). This is a holistic concept directly related to workplace activities and incorporating complex human behaviours which are  expressed as embedded attitudes. Can you really say based on this definition that most young people today are digitally competent? I think not...well, with the exception of a few, such as the young teenager who recently held TalkTalk to ransom after his single handed take down of their digital network.

Jones-Kavalier and Flannigan (2008) defined digital literacy as "an individual’s ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment"; where digital means any information represented in numeric form in use by a computer, tablet or in fact any modern mobile device, and literacy includes the ability to read and interpret such media. To reproduce data and images through digital manipulation and to evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from these digital environments.

So from these descriptions, do I qualify? Do I meet the grade? Am I able to confidently call myself a digitally competent person of the 21^st century? Yes, I believe so. I am confident of my IT skills and achieved knowledge levels gained within the arena of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Suffice to say I can use digital resources to create, utilise, educate, inform and demonstrate as well as being able to continually develop my understanding of computers and IT skills to a standard where I can fix 99% of problems I encounter.

Interestingly, the European e-Competence Framework (e-CF) version 3.0 provides a reference of competences in relation to ICT within the workplace, using a common language for the competences, skills and capability levels of a variety of roles, that can be understood throughout Europe. If your interested, check out those skills competencies they believe are relevant for anyone involved with Education and Training Provision (click here). 

Would you meet the grade?

References:

CEN (2013) European e-Competence Framework (e-CF). version 3.0 [online]: available: Here

Jones-Kavalier, B. and Flannigan, S. L. (2008). Connecting the digital dots: Literacy of the 21st century. Teacher Librarian, 35(3), 13-16.

Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1 . On the Horizon 2001 9:5 , 1-6 

A reflection on the use of Microsoft Word

We were asked today to write about our experiences with Microsoft Office. Where do I start? Office is probably the most recognised piece of PC software on the planet and one I was introduced to back in 1995. Coming from a background of using a Unix based system and using word processing programs such as ‘emacs’ and other linux based programs, to which I had become quite adept at using, I did find the transition to Office quite smooth. The following are some of my views on Microsoft's Office. 

Probably, the most recognised application within the Office package. This versatile and what I consider to be, very easy to use word processing tool has been my primary application for almost everything I write on the computer. We have become very close friends over the years and as such, had some good and bad times together. Yes there have been times when I have ranted and raved at it sitting there staring at a blank sheet on the screen wondering where the last 5 hours of work has disappeared to. Similarly I have hugged the screen when worked I had thought lost into the ethereal abyss of nothingness, has been miraculously been saved as if by magic and handed back to me on a silver platter. 

Anyone who uses spreadsheets will probably agree that Excel is the most user friendly application for entering, storing, sorting, calculating and doing a multitude of other tasks with all types of information. Over the years I have used Excel to great effectiveness, from simple budgeting to simple database storage of information, transferring raw data into readable graphical formats, for use in hard copy reports and digital presentations. I personally like Excel a lot, its ease of use makes it the 2^nd most popular tool that I have within the Office package. I especially like its ability to search and filter through vast amounts of date, sifting out what is relevant for your specific purposes. I make no apologies for my fondness of Excel,  a staunch powerhouse of an application who does exactly what it says on the tin.

For anyone who has been involved with sales, marketing, education or pretty much any type of administrative role, Powerpoint will be a familiar feature within your lives. I can remember the days of having to produced slides from 35mm film for presentations, spending hours editing and updating. Then came Powerpoint, easy to use, fancy transistions, easily updateable and full of graphical enhancements to make your presentations fun and exciting. I can recall being wowed by the display of moving graphics and slides which for many of us today find tedious and painstakingly boring to get through. I an excellent tool within the Office package, but can be overused to the extent you begin to hate it.

Access is Office’s application primarily used to create desktop databases. It is an effective tool for quickly creating browser-based database applications, which can be tailored for personal, business and educational use, storing any data in in a secure SQL database.

I have used Access to create simple databases, for tracking customer usage of products, mailing lists even to monitor complaints. However it is not one of the easiest of tools to use, yet if being honest I haven’t had reason to for many years and so things may have changed since I used it last. It’s not something that I envisage using much as I feel that I can achieve most of what I need within Excel using spreadsheets, but I can see its advantage for other purposes.

Finally, the last I am going to discuss, Outlook. Where do I start? I can honestly say this is the one tool that I have never got on with, in fact I will even go so far to say that I actually loathe it. Despite its many updates in functionality and format, I can not get on with it. I really dislike the way it displays messages, folders and even the navigation within it frustrates me. Personally I think Outlook is very user unfriendly and whenever I can, I avoid having anything to do with Outlook unless absolutely necessary.

An Introduction - Welcome One and All...

This is something of a strange experience, I'm usually someone who knows what to say and how to say it. However, I'm finding myself in a bit of a quandary at the moment when it comes to writing this, maybe due to the fact that it's part of a current assignment that I'm having to do for my PGCE/PCET course that I'm doing at the moment.

I suppose I should start by introducing myself, I'm Tony, a recent graduate of University of Wales Trinity Saint David in Swansea, which is in Wales, UK. I successfully achieved a first class honors degree in Psychology and Counselling, a feat to which I was very proud, considering my age.

I have since decided to continue on with my education and am currently doing a postgraduate PCET course which will allow me to teach within my chosen field. This blog will form part of my assessment criteria for the ICT module, yet I hope that it is something that I continue with as I progress with my new career.

It's purpose is to record some reflective insight into what I have learned and found useful in my studies and hopefully share with anyone who is interested in my personal development. I will endeavor to discuss things of interest and areas that I feel may be useful for others. I envisage that there will be some difficulties, moments of despair and sometimes even panic as I progress with my journey. But I hope that anyone who reads this will be able to empathise and understand what I'm trying to convey to the reader.

I welcome any constructive feedback and comments, tips on what educational tools and strategies others have found useful and I will share valuable information that I have discovered along the way.

I look forward to this adventure with some slight anticipation, and I thank you for joining me into the unknown future.