Week 1

ICT and Pedagogies.

It’s sometimes hard to imagine running a classroom that differs from the one I both loved and loathed in my own primary school years, but how arrogant of me to think that the way I was taught was the best way. Perhaps it was the best way with consideration to technology limitations at the time. Despite the fact that I was only exposed to one hour a week for which to explore the wonders of the library computer lab, I cannot ignore that I was (or so it would seem) denied the opportunity to truly engage with information and communication technologies, and still receive the same ‘content transmission’ and more from my teachers.

It seems that years ago, technology led us to a road where almost any device could be used as a learning tool. The fact remains that schools never took advantage of these tools, for fear of breaking down the system that was education. That leaves me and many other teachers with an ocean of old and new information, and a second ocean of ways for students to interact with it. Constructivism, constructivism, constructivism. You can’t say it enough if you are planning to one day teach middle years students.

Week one’s tutorial addressed a vast amount of devices that provided valuable, interactive and engaging learning opportunities for students. Imagine running a classroom of truly engaged, empowered children at any one time. As our trusty convenor (Dr. Zagami) made us very aware of on Monday the 28th, the path to this haven isn’t as complicated as we may think. Give the kids what they want; bin the textbooks, and load the video games.

Ok, no, it isn’t as simple as that, but it’s a good start. I’m vowing to find a thousand better ways to teach children and in so doing create self-sufficient learners for life, and it won’t involve textbooks, worksheets, or any other tool for direct information transmission. Let’s face it... it doesn’t matter what cartoon from google images we paste onto spelling homework, it’s still boring.