This except from a speech by Papert in the 1980’s clearly conveys his ideas on educational innovation by the two approaches of Constructionism and Instructionism. “Instructionism is the theory that says, “To get better education, we must improve instruction. And if we’re going to use computers, we’ll make the computers do the instruction.” Whilst “Constructionism” is the view that learning is precedded from constructing knowledge. So thereby knowledge is constructed from being “teacher” over the computer.
This makes me ponder and question “What kind of teacher am I?” Do I follow the constructivist approach or am I more of an Instructionalist in my teaching?
http://www.papert.org/articles/const_inst/const_inst1.html
This article was thought provoking and has made me consider the extensive possibilities open for handheld computers. I never realised they can be transformed by manipulating and adding software, thus allowing them to become personal and professional work tools. “They can be used as calculators, digital cameras, notepads, or scientific sensing devices”.
As a result of the portable nature of handhelds, they can be taken anywhere at anytime for anyone. Think of the endless possibilities these create. This enables a sense of true ownership over each handheld, as they are not fixed to a desk that you disconnect with at the end of everyday, but are devices that you carry with you wherever you go.
“Students can use the devices to gather, store, and retrieve important information — thus developing information literacy, which is at the heart of lifelong learning”.
It’s too good to be true…suddenly hit me…dependency on such devices would inevitably increase and it occurred to me that in the event of a crash or misplacement, you could lose all you’re personal and work related information that was safely stored. This could be prevented if information is backed up onto other handhelds in such cases. Another factor to consider is the potential problem of eye strain and hand cramping as the screens are so tiny and it requires small precise movement from the stylus. Consequently, it is important to assess the impact that these devices could have on schools and what implications they would have on teaching.
I believe that there is great future possibilities open for handhelds for both teachers and students. Given their low cost, it will help students to have access to such technology that may not otherwise be able to afford it. I can’t wait to see where these devices will launch off from here.
https://online.uts.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_5611_1%26url%3D
Download Video: Posted by AllanahK at TeacherTube.com.
This is a great presentation by teacher Allanah King on how students can learn from technology….I’ve learnt a lot from observing and watching how technology can be implemented into classrooms and not just be an adjunct component to the curriculum. There are so many endless opportunities for students to engage and network with other students outside the classroom. This has given me inspiration to endeavor to persue the continual use of technology in teaching. Do watch it!
Image: Taken by me!
Ok! mind boggling! i only managed to sift through a section of this report as I found it dense and a bit above my understanding. However, grassroots videos, collaboration webs, mobile broadband, data mashups, collective intelligence and social operating systems were six different forms they mentioned as key emerging technologies. Many of these technologies I read about I could not relate with as I have had little to no experience on them. Consequently, I feel it would be impractical to implement such technologies into my teaching career as I do not understand their specific purpose. Which further reinforces the report’s claim that states: “The gap between student’s perception of technology and that of the faculty continues to widen”. This leaves me to believe that teacher’s today maybe somewhat threatened by student’s knowledge and perception in the world of information technology. This challenges me to question whether this gap will continue to widen or whether teachers will oneday catch up and become the educators again…rather than the students! im curious to what you think…
http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2008-Horizon-Report.pdf
I seem to like Idit Harel….well if we move beyond her name, (no offence to anyone with that name) she actually is concise and makes some very valid points. A safe website is not necessarily always a “good one”. In terms of getting children motivated, creating, designing and being engaged in their learning.. this is what Harel has conveyed to me as features that make a ”good website”. It also provides children with the opprtunity for self expression, she challenges us to consider the internet not as information technology but as expressive technology.
I found this reading interesting – as I feel i can identify with some of the ideas on teachers who have “classical tools” and methods that achieve good results, yet are constrained by curriculum outcomes to change their style in teaching to become more technologically based. It also argues that employing technology into the classroom is not necessarily a beneficial thing if students learn to cheat and adopt ideas like “slabbing” (student copies and pastes slabs of infomation) and this can generate “mentalsoftness” in the next generation, where we have children who are weak and to careless for thinking. Overall it was a fine journal article….
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