Conclusion

Prior to this course I knew scaffolding to be an external arrangement used to assist labourers to build something and I knew that frameworks came in steel, timber or block work. After three weeks of ICT study I have been enlightened that in educational terminology scaffolding exists in teaching and is similar to scaffolding in construction. It is designed to start with a solid foundation and a temporary structure used to support people. Coupled with frameworks, our aim as teachers is to facilitate learning development by following a scaffold of structure towards the curriculum outcome. My skills in scaffolding and framework in ICTs are important and must be applied in a responsible safe manner, while respecting the privacy and safety of everyone involved. I will be challenged to bring different ICT perspectives and ideas to the classroom. The implementations of ICTs should be fun and enjoyable within the appropriate curriculum. The outcome should prepare and shape our students for everyday life and employment. 

References:

Clark, D. (1999). Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains: The Three Types of Learning. Retrieved from            http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html

Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based             teaching             and learning. Retrieved from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Mergel, B. (1998). Instructional Design & Learning Theory: The Basics of Constructivism. Retrieved from             http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/mergel/brenda.htm#The%20Basics%20of            %20Behaviorism

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Retrieved from             http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrant            s%20-%20Part1.pdf

Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Retrieved from             http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Sweller, J. (n.d.). Cognitive load theory. Retrieved from http://tip.psychology.org/sweller.html

Watson, J. (n.d.). Classical Conditioning. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/classical-            conditioning.html

Learning Theories

From my own observations and experiences I can state that technology and communication is evident throughout the world. I spent 2 months travelling through Africa and after seeing the gorillas deep in the Rwandan rainforest I was able to return to the hotel and email my adventure from a 3^rd world country. This statement is backed from my experience of living overseas for six years and travelling to over 30 countries on four continents. Our next generation are digital natives; that is, they represent the first generation to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones and all the other toys and tools of the digital age (Prensky, 2001, p. 1). 

Using a wiki as an online e-Learning strategy supports learning in a positive manner. The students today are all native speakers of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet (Prensky, 2001, p. 1). Students are interested in technology (my observation is backed by the fact there is 1 billion or so members on Facebook worldwide. Baffling is the debate of digital technology in schools and the resistance is head shaking. My parent’s generation resisted the introduction to seat belts in cars while my generation resisted the introduction to wearing helmets on pushbikes when all the while there was evidence that it would be beneficial. Our communities had to be educated and the reasoning justified. Digital pedagogy will be discussed; disagreed upon; justified; but whatever you and I agree on, the one fact is that it will be implemented in schools. Education Queensland (2008, p. 3) identifies digital pedagogy as being “a new way of working and learning with ICT to facilitate quality learning experiences for 21^st Century learns. Digital Pedagogy moves the focus from ICT tools and skills, to a way of working in the digital world”. While I agree with that statement I also see it as an evolutional process and the factor here is that technology has moved at such a fast rate that if then we as educators fail to implement appropriate teachings then we could fall behind. 

Engagement theory ensures students are included and can progress and achieve targets together. I love working in groups, although I’m likely to take the lead since I enjoy contributing my knowledge and learning from others to achieve the goal. Engagement theory is intended to be a conceptual framework for technology-based learning and teaching (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999, p. 1). Engagement theory has three components that are summarised as Relate-Create-Donate and implies that learning activities should occur in groups (collaborative); are project based and have an outside (authentic) focus (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999 p.1). I agree with this framework especially for the senior students because these components appear in the workforce and ideally students should be taught in alignment with what to expect in jobs. Just like engagement theory. Bloom’s theory is also based on the three domains of cognitive (knowledge), affective (attitude) and psychomotor (skills) (Clark, 1999, p. 1). Clark (1999) states “this compilation divides the three domains into subdivision, starting from the simplest behaviour to the most complex.” I cannot separate these frameworks and I support both of them respectively. They have my support because I am predominately a visual / kinaesthetic learner and both of these frameworks touch on physical skills. 

De Bono's Hats

I loved learning about De Bono’s six thinking hats. What an ingenious method to stimulate lower order of thinking up to high order of thinking in the one scaffold. By completing this task definitely stimulated a positive response in my behaviour. This design allows anyone from inexperienced to experienced people to give their viewpoint or opinion. De Bono’s thinking hats touches on all four learning theories. I think Siemens (2004, p. 2) noted that “connectivism presents a model of learning that acknowledges the tectonic shifts in society where learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity.” I have never heard of this type of scaffold and I will be working with this resource to support my teaching field.

There are many avenues of learning as well as different type of learners; e.g. visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic to name a few. “Behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism are the three broad learning theories most often utilized in the creation of instructional environments” Siemens (2004). There are visible elements of the three learning theories that can be associated with the profile wiki activity. These learning theories were my first introduction and my response was mostly positive. Learning works for me when I can break content down into steps and I tend to draw on my own experiences first as in constructivism. "Learners construct their own reality or at least interpret it based upon their perceptions of experiences, so an individual's knowledge is a function of one's prior experiences, mental structures, and beliefs that are used to interpret objects and events" (Jonasson, 1991, as cited in Mergel, 1998, p. 8). Sweller (n.d) suggests that the cognitive theory is more associated with memory and recalling of material. In the hope that students would be able to recall particulars only after a few times of reading their profiles, cognitive theory would challenge the students to recall information rather than the convenience of the information being readily available. Recalling short-term information seems to be a challenge amongst us all for example how many times do we forget people’s names after first being introduced for the first time? Perhaps elements of the wiki and eventually the wiki itself could be eliminated from the activity to encourage memory and recalling skills. 

Profile Wiki

The online profile wiki was an activity that seemed to be a digital icebreaker instead of the traditional face-to-face meeting to ask about personal details. The advantage of a wiki is that the 50 odd students around Australia can look up the individual profiles anytime day or night for information. This activity is already being completed around the world through social networks such as Facebook. I chose my partner Stephen, who has since withdrawn from the course, based on location mostly because we both prefer to communicate face-to-face. In a teaching environment this strategy would be familiar to most students and minimal introduction would be required. When I wanted to know something about Stephen I just looked at his profile and there was all the information I required with a click of a mouse. The only information I recalled freely was leisure activities we had in common. I think this is a great wiki to encourage cognitive development in students by having them recall information about their colleagues or remembering how to establish or edit wikis. Teachers could slowly take away certain particulars on the wiki to invoke recall. Cognitive load theory is concerned with techniques for reducing working memory load in order to facilitate the changes in long-term memory (Sweller, n.d., para. 4).

Watson (n.d., para. 2) believed that all individual differences in behaviour were due to the different experiences of learning. Since I had never created a wiki nor worked in pairs to submit an activity to a wiki and then report on the wiki, I was frustrated in the beginning and developed a negative response from my experience. Curiosity got the better of me so I searched the forums to see other people’s responses and discovered that some enjoyed the experience while others did not and I wondered why? My experience improved using the PMI. The experience was stimulating and I rather enjoyed breaking down my reading into clearly defined steps. I have struggled with summarising text and the PMI is a great tool in assisting the analysis of readings. 

Engage me or Enrage me

Prensky listed three kinds of students and as I was reading through them I giggled to myself and shook my head with a slight smirk. I can put myself into two of his categories and it’s not the first one. I was a student who went through the motions. I did feel that what I was being taught had little or no relevance to my life and I pushed through high school just to get my HSC, just to have that piece of paper. Coupled with Prenskys type three student I often tuned out and thought English and Maths was totally irrelevant to my life. I simply didn’t understand why I was at school and I became challenging and disruptive in class. Mind you I excelled at and enjoyed HPE and the teacher had my full attention because that’s what I was interested in.

I like Kip Leland (from LA’s Virtual Academy) comment, “Today’s kids are not ADD, they’re EoE.” I agree with the quote because I don’t believe every disrupted kid has a disorder. It’s too easy to just jump in and categorise either ADD or ADHD. I get that they are bored in class and the only reaction is to be disruptive because that is entertaining. I suppose the answer is to teach with more technology involved because that’s what the kids know today; the days of chalk are gone. What frightens me though is the thought of teaching through video games, then they go home and play more computer games. Where’s the lateral stretching of their small minds if life revolves around technology 10 hours a day.

How will I engage the kids? I have absolutely no idea. It’s something I must become more knowledge about before I can go ahead and start teaching effectively. 

Multiple Intelligence

There is intelligence in all but I found a flaw in the brilliant mind of the apple mac. It won't let me cut and paste the rainbow colour results of my multiple intelligence wheel to my blog. Perhaps because I scored big points in the kinaesthetic (body smart) and naturalistic (nature smart) components and the Mac knows those results mean I'm a nature loving ants in my pants can't (hates) to sit still which means less time using the Apple indoors.....and it's annoyed by that. Or more realistically I'm just computer stupid, still. 

I flick, sorry clicked through a few blogs and reviewed their wheels and found that some shared my learning ability of visual and doing activities over visual etc. 

I feel this multiple intelligence test gives results that can be used to create appropriate learning designs for the classroom. We each have the ability to absorb information, for me, that is a fact. The varying components are in the individual alone and which mode of learning, the rate at which we retain and recall information. In our schools we will encounter learners of various abilities. I would use this information, as I would other theory's, to first establish the type of learners then devise teachings to compliment them.

They say teachers have to cater for each individual and it is an ongoing challenge. Can we not just figure out what type of intelligences we have in the class and design our teachings between two or three different intelligences instead of 25 individual people? 

Learning Styles Results

        ACT              X                                    REF

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

      SEN                  X                                INT

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

      VIS          X                                        VRB

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

      SEQ                  X                                GLO

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

     

1.             What is your learning style? What sorts of learning experiences would suit you best with your learning style? Prior to doing the above test I already knew that I learn best by applying knowledge actively and the sooner I applied the newly learnt knowledge the quicker I “got it”. During my undergrad most of my classes had practical components that helped me understand the theory. For example we learnt how to test and interpret the cardiovascular fitness of athletes on a treadmill. Once I did the test myself it helped me understand the theory behind it much clearer as well as showing everyone in the class just how unfit I was. This test showed me that there are other learning styles which I never knew about. This is great because there’s room for flexible teaching styles to cater for all learning styles.

2.              In a traditional classroom of 25 students, how would you support the range of learning styles each lesson? Keep in mind this question is answered from my simple raw teaching knowledge to date which is minimal. Whether it is possible or not in a classroom environment will left to be debated amongst us, the bloggers. Because I’m a visual learner I’m already bias with that style of learning so that would be my number one preference coupled with the other learning styles and strategies which I’m about to learn about myself. My disciplines are HPE and Biology. For me science is easy to connect to the real world and I would deliver the curriculum with many practicable hands on activities set up to “let's try it out and see how it works”.

3.              With your current knowledge of ICT, how could your design and digital pedagogy support your learners better? Most of life today revolves around some form of digital technology and it’s definitely something that needs to be built into the classrooms today. From my undergrad days (almost 7 years ago) there were many excellent online and interactive learning tools available that were lifelike and very thorough. In fact I found learning science online and with interactive computer programs easy and enjoyable. I wouldn’t hesitate to design online teachings to support learners.

4.              What sorts of profiling questions would you be asking about your learners to ensure you cater for everyone's preferences? I was skipping through Richard M. Felder webpage “learning and teaching styles in college science education” and read that there are as little as five questions to ask to determine a student's learning style. I would create questions to get responses for visual or verbal preferences, if they prefer to work in groups or alone and so on.

5.              How does ICT support differences in learning styles? At a click of a button ICT can be visually or verbally interactive. Activities/quizzes/questions can be given and results/answers can be viewed immediately. Students can use ICT’s in pairs or they can work alone. I believe ICT can support differences in learning styles greater than just having a teacher present in front of a class. 

The sacrifices we need to make

With a glass of wine and the bottle not far away I was sitting on the deck with my bestie discussing a career change with many avenues talked about some good some rude and some beyond my capabilities (nothing is beyond anyone’s capable mind it was more of willingness/laziness). The decision was education but which one primary or secondary?? The analysing begins the primary kids are probably easier to tease but with my background it makes sense to tease the secondary students instead.

A bit about me I'm single love walks along the beach, oh dear this isn’t rsvp is it??? I'm getting my blogs mixed up again. I'm Cairns born and lived 4 years in Florida where I earned a degree in exercise science in 2004. I moved to London for two years to holiday and occasionally work but now I'm back in Cairns dodging cyclones, floods and jellyfish to have a crack at teaching.

Residential school was great and now I'm not sleeping at night for the thought of not being able to complete all weekly tasks in a week. Schedules and Sacrifices need to be made and stuck to pass GDLT, you agree? It's daunting going back to school for most and I have great expectations to get at least one HD, hot date.

All the best everyone.