WEEK 1- Learning Technologies (ICT) and 21st Century Education

Reflections on the Lecture

The lecture Greg delivered this week was very interesting. I was a little shocked by some of the issues that arose from the use of modern technology in everyday life (such as identity theft and students looking up teacher's facebook accounts!) However, I could also strongly relate to a lot of the issues and concepts Greg mentioned in his lecture. One of the most fascinating statistics Greg reported was by Gonzalez who stated...

“One of the most persuasive factors is the shrinking half-life of knowledge. The “half-life of knowledge” is the time span from when knowledge is gained to when it becomes obsolete. Half of what is known today was not known 10 years ago. The amount of knowledge in the world has doubled in the past 10 years and is doubling every 18 months according to the American Society of Training and Documentation (ASTD)."

I strongly concur! Before undertaking the primary DipEd, I resorted to undertaking some personal development training in IT. This was mainly due to the fact that I am not all that confident in the use of modern technology and I wanted to have the slight upper hand on students in my classroom. While, I can switch a computer on and use the basic functions in Microsoft Office Word and some other Microsoft products, I am by no means a computer expert. Unfortunately, what I learnt 5 years ago, I have pretty much forgotten and the skills and programs I used (VB basic, Flash, Dreamweaver etc), I have had no need to use them nor have I seen them used at University, work or in the primary classroom. Whilst, on teaching rounds, I ironically, had year 5/6 students show me how to use software on the computers- a dilemma I had tried to earlier avoid! So here I am, back in the University classroom learning how to use technology again!

Reflections on the Workshop

Concept Mapping using Inspiration
In the first five minutes of the workshop I honestly had no idea what was going on! Especially, when Greg Powell showed us the “complicated” ways to export a creation made using the Inspiration software and upload it to our Blog using the paint application! However, I could see how this method would benefit primary school students (with lower primary school children often experimenting with the paint application in their pre-school years) but at the moment I do not feel comfortable using this method due to my beginning ICT skills.
Fortunately, when Greg Powell explained the “simple” export process, within minutes, I found myself using the Inspiration software efficiently. (Note: I am still convinced my grade 5/6 students would have been more effective). I created a concept map on space because I couldn’t think of anything else. By the end of the lesson I was able to import images from Google (as well as use the basic images within the software), create hyperlinks to WebPages (i.e. the space shuttle image is hyperlinked to the NASA webpage), add notes (i.e. include information about space shuttles), label the images with text and change the colour of the text, links and the background.

In sum, I think this software is great and I would definitely like to experiment with this software and implement it in my own classroom. I particularly like how it appeals to Howard Gardiner’s Multiple learning Intelligences providing a very strong visual and linguistic element. I also noticed for those more competent and if I experimented around, there is an option to import sound and videos.
Mind Mapping using Inspiration
The other option, we used today was creating mind maps using the inspiration software. I personally, was not a particular fan of using this software to create mind maps. I found the lines too confusing and I would rather the old- fashioned way of writing down my ideas on a piece of butcher’s paper. However, I would not stop my students from using this as an option. It is a great way of incorporating ICT in the classroom.


Heidi Smith 28/07/2010 ©