Technology in the Classroom

Provocation is an appropriate word for the 2014 EduTECH talk by Professor Stephen Heppell(EduTECH talk by Stephen Heppell on teaching technologies on the cusp). Heppell’s closing statement that every child should have a mobile phone, even from the age of five, was born of his observation of the role of technology in the twenty-first century and his own granddaughter’s positive and creative use of the technology. For a person involved in academia, however, it seemed to ignore studies that question the educational effectiveness of technology and highlight the dangers of unsupervised access for children and young people to the Internet.

This article from The Guardian, Could Steiner schools have a point on children, tablets and tech? reports similar findings to that of recent studies of the educational performance of Australian students: 2016 Naplan results show that literacy and numeracy have flatlined

Even Heppell’s example from the music industry of the influence of technology could be questioned. While many musicians have embraced, if not conceded, that digital downloads and YouTube have denied them an income from their recorded music, the live music “experience” in the twenty-first century is also evolving. On one hand, there is the proliferation of devices at concerts. Take the time to observe the growing number of audience members preferring the small screen view to actually soaking in the performance with their own eyes.An adult example of the Childhood at Risk suggested by Steiner-Waldorf education, when the natural learning of children is replaced by technology.

(Source: https://uniquelytoronto.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/i_mother_earth_august_2014-croppped.jpg?w=830)

The importance of live performance to a musician’s income is also increasing pressure on opening hours and the resulting social and medical problems arising from prolonged alcohol consumption.

This is not to dismiss technology all together but its place in education has to be considered and effective. Of more significance for educators than a growing ownership and use of technology is Heppell’s fundamental question, “What makes for good learning?”

In the preface to Music Learning Today (2014), Bauer says something similar. “The decision on whether or not to utilise technology for learning, and the specific techniques that might be best suited for a particular learning context, should begin with a consideration of the curricular outcomes (music subject matter) (William I. Bauer, 2014. Music Learning Today: Digital Pedagogy for Creating, Performing and Responding. New York: Oxford University Press. Preface, page xii)”.

As Steve Collis, Director of Innovation at Northern Beaches Christian School suggested in video one, the use of technology should support learning. That is not to say that learning only takes place within the classroom. Music teachers, perhaps more than other teachers, know that learning about music is about being immersed in the subject matter and inspired and guided by a range of musicians and mentors in a range of contexts away from school. The music classroom is the context in which students can be challenged as creators, performers and audience members to develop reflective and critical thinking skills. Skills which expand their understanding and engagement with a wider world of imagination, cultural identity and the human condition. Experiences that will, in turn, foster the desired twenty-first century attributes of empathy, inventiveness, connection and storytelling, set out by Virginia Moller from Kamaroi Rudolf Steiner school.

Simply supplying the technology is not enough. The role of the teacher in a technology-rich classroom is as a guide and mentor, rather than as a keeper of information, as Natalie See from Hilltop Public School explained. The challenge for teachers is to need to know how to effectively design, support and evaluate the use of technology to maximise learning (Bauer, 2014, p, xi).

The Place of Music in Twenty-first Century Education

I have just begun a MOOC designed by Dr James Humberstone from the Sydney Con. which looks at the place of technology in music education. I am learning a lot that is relevant to both of my present school roles. It's important to draw out, from examples such as Northern Beaches Christian School, principles and pedagogical approaches that can be applied even when your school infrastructure and funding doesn't run to multiple JamHub studios and 1:1 devices.

What I have seen so far is the implementation of principles and practices set out in more general texts on technology in education, such as, Leading a digital school, Edited by Mal Lee and Michael Gaffney, and obviously the texts cited by Dr Humberstone, such as Music Technology and Education: Amplifying Musicality by Andrew Brown. I am also learning new terminology for old practices such as "setting the benchmarks for productivity and creativity". I'll leave you to work out what that means.

I know that may sound as if I don't think I have much to learn and that is far from the case. I have great admiration for Stephen Harris, the principal at NBCS, with whom I used to work. He has set a benchmark for educational innovation, especially the use of technology, but also in other areas related to learning, some of which have been covered in the opening videos. I am pleased to see what Brad Fuller and Peter Orenstein have done with the opportunities given to them and, so far, satisfied that I am moving - though somewhat more gradually - along the same trajectory regarding the use of technology. It is as important to be affirmed in what you are doing as it is to be challenged to be innovative in the way we meet students' needs.

What I do look forward to discovering, is ways to move into the Re-definition level of the SAMR model. So far, I would argue, the examples shown are really only replacing or augmenting older practices and experiences with technological substitutes. You might have other opinions.

(Image from Cathy Shrock's Guide to Everything)

If the SAMR model is new to you, then you might like to find out more about it here:

SAMR and Twenty-first century learning

In the meantime, I thought that I might brazenly take this opportunity to share something of my own work. This is a link to information about a teaching kit for the Song Cycle, Compassion by Lior and Nigel Westlake.Below is a link to one of many YouTube clips of movements from Compassion.

Compassion Teaching Kit

Teaching ICT

This year I've been putting my ETL323 skill into practice teaching ICT to a 4/5 class. I began by using the Cybersafety course from Google. http://www.google.com/educators/digitalliteracy.html

I found the set-up of the activities better than ACMA Cybersmart. The Google videos, for example, go very quickly but the students do catch on. This works better than the text dialogue boxes on the ACMA site (which have a sound version, which gets very noisy).

However, when the videos stop on YouTube a page comes up which includes some less-than-helpful images that are almost examples of the very things the video has said to avoid. I shall be contacting Google or YouTube (who host the videos) about this. The Google site has presenter aids (images and text) and workbooks. In the end, I took bits and pieces from these that would work with my age group and left out the sections which were for older learners.

I did use the Cybersmart Quiz at the end and issued the successful students with a Cybersafety licence and a letter that reminds of the consequences of breaching the guidelines that they have learnt.

This term, I'm using ideas from the Student Blog Challenge to use with the students setting up their own blogs through kidsblog.

http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org

In future I would finish Cybersafety earlier and enrol my group into the March session of the challenge.

ETL 523 Assignment 2

It is always my aim with these posts to assist those who will do these assignments by sharing the shortcomings of my own. The following is written by the lecturer, Judy O'Connell to all the students in the course. It addresses an aspect of the assignment that I know I have not completed well. I suspected that my search strategies were weak, as I used many resources that came via the Diigo lists to which I subscribe. Sadly, this was an even more important part of the assignment than I realised. I also included a Ted Talk and a blog entry, both by high-profile commentators on social media in education, thinking that variety of media would be a plus. The feedback was that these were not academic enough resources.

Here are Judy's comments:

This assignment was very different from Assignment 1, and required a different set of skills, plus greater research, analysis and synthesis in each of the parts.

Part C required clear identification of your search strategies, beyond just the keywords you used in Google, search engines, or other sources. All students needed to use a range of sources, especially the CSU databases. This is the best resource to demonstrate that you know the difference between keyword, subjects, descriptors. While you may have felt that you had enough information, and wanted to 'get on ' with writing your paper, the point of this is to be sure that you know how to undertake 'thorough' searching. As an information professional you cannot assume that you have enough until you have search every option. A better resource maybe at the end of your next search string!!

Some students did this well, and some students didn't demonstrate good use of CSU databases or similar resources at all. In all that searching for preparation for your assignment, you also needed to keep your eye on the local, national and international scene - they are all important in development of information policy. This meant finding and referring to key information reports, research, or relevant policies. This assignment rarely justified the inclusion of informal sources, such as newspaper articles or blog posts, as it was an Information Policy assignment - which is formal and relies on authoritative sources. If your Annotated Bibliography had many of these sources then it was not satisfactory.

It was interesting to see how many students made use of Google Scholar. This is useful, and particularly useful if you have connected your access to Google Scholar to the National Library and the CSU databases, as well as to any other sources that you may have access to. If you don't know anything about how to connect Google Scholar to databases then visit http://scholar.google.com/scholar_preferences

In addition, you should remember that CSU also has another search point at Search@CSU which you will find on the home page of the library.

Some students simply indicated that they searched in Google. At the very least you should have indicated how you used Advanced search strategies e.g. narrowing by date range.
In future be very much more specific about the details of your search processes.

In developing a policy for a school remember to be mindful of the fact that you are dealing with a learning and teaching environment .i.e. policy can be formative as well as regulatory. Be aware that you can provide a positive focus to support and enhance curriculum programs and school projects. Also, remember that a policy is available for students, teachers and family. Sometimes words may be included that require definition within the policy or in a glossary. As a formal document it needs to be clear, succinct, and accessible to all.

Freedom of Information and the Civil Society ETL 523

As I read in Schauder’s paper about the civil society and the role that libraries play in the free flow of information and ideas I had a number of responses (Schauder, D. (2006). Libraries, ICT policy, and Australian civil society: isues and prospects from national consultations. Paper presented at the VALA 2006: Connecting with users. 13th biennial conference and exhibition 8-10 February 2006 Crown Towers, Melbourne, Australia. Conference proceedings. Retrieved from
http://www.valaconf.org.au/vala2006/papers2006/50 Schauder Final.pdf.

The civil society is certainly to be promoted and the role of libraries in the process needs to be recognised and encouraged. The notion of e-democracy, where citizens are able to vote on any and every issue is both one of Athenian utopianism and science fiction intrigue. The male Athenians could indulge in this practice because they had slaves and the female members of their households to attend to their other affairs. Science fiction and speculative fiction (including Dennis Potter’s Cold Lazarus) have highlighted the danger of instant populist democracy. We see glimpses of this already in the number of polls conducted on subjects as diverse as cricket, cars and politics.

The opening of the “Charter for Knowledge Societies” of the IAMCR could be read as a manifesto for Wikileaks. Does that make free access to information a positive or a negative principle to pursue? What are the implications for privacy? Why are the “conversations” of political leaders more in the public interest to disclose interesting than those of industrial leaders, who arguably have more influence on our lives? Is it because, as Browne (Browne, M. 1997, “The field of information policy: 1. Fundamental concepts”, Journal of information science, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 261-275) suggests governments continue to operate with a plethora of overlapping and disorganized policies, while companies and corporations have managed to have their interests protected by copyright and other laws. The recent iinet case in Australia ¬– as with the French (p. 62) and American (p. 68) cases referred to by Dearnley and Feather (2001. Information policy. In The wired world: an introduction to the theory and practice of the information society (pp. 60-93). London: Library Association) – demonstrates that these large companies may have met their match in the world wide web. Or is it because Freedom of Information has created the “right to know” and the technology has created an immediacy of access (legal or illegal) to such a vast amount of information that governments aren’t yet sure of the security implications of the information and certainly don’t have the time to assess it all. Given what Dearnley and Feather (2001, p. 67) say about freedom of information legislation in the USA, one wonders how that government can make the threats that is has allegedly made about the actions of Wikileaks.

The third point is that leaving the provision of knowledge “to the market” can lead to a continuing or new digital divide. This is part of the political debate in Australia at the moment over broadband.

The implication is that libraries have a significant role to play in providing access to a range of information that promotes the public good through the seeking and imparting of information. Libraries will no longer just be repositories or terminals of information, they will be the place where information is generated and from which it is disseminated. They also have an important role to play in the monitoring, critiquing and advocating of information.

Will Richardson

Will Richardson
Change Agent
Published Online: October 11, 2010
Published in Print: October 12, 2010, as Change Agent
http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01richardson.h04.html?cmp=clp-edweek


I found Will Richardson’s interview very challenging. I have, as I said above, used digital technology as a tool. I have eschewed social networking for employment and philosophical reasons and I have only a small and disorganized online profile. This is because most of my writing continues to be aimed at the print medium. My blog is largely anonymous and concerned with University studies.

I can see Richardson’s point but I need to ask how one fits in creating this online presence and joining learning or professional networks with the expanding demands that digital communications have placed upon our time.

I find it very frustrating that I cannot find suitable resources on the web for different ages and subjects that I teach or support but by the time I have exhausted that search I don’t feel that I have the time to create what is required. Even with Moodle these tend to end up “works-in-progress” rather than finished products.

I also see that Richardson supports teaching hypertext. There was a time when it was suggested that all students should learn a computer language as their second language, just as there was (and in some places, continues to be) an insistence on students learning or attempting to learn touch typing. Just as knowing Basic, Pascal and even machine language is no longer central to being able to use a computer, I wonder whether hypertext will also become superfluous to the effective use of computers for creative purposes.

Apart from universal applications such as email, desktop publishing, marking spreadsheets and school databases, teachers are most likely to become competent if nor masters at specialist software related to their domain: art, photography, CAD, music and so on. Such programs provide web accessibility, which makes them useful for students to share, compare and evaluate the work of others and, in turn, to display their own work. However, their main working environment is based on individual machines.

Finally, schools face or have created their own series of obstacles to e-learning, as any teacher who has tried to log on a Year 3 or 4 class to the school intranet, let alone allow them access to the wide world of the internet knows that we are a long way from reproducing the social experience of Web 2.0 outside school or making digital learning a seamless part of the school day.

Web 2.0

Roll on the NBN. I’ve just viewed the YouTube clip Web 2.0 The Machine is Us/ing Us, which stopped to reload every fifteen to thirty seconds or so. I was a bit overwhelmed by the html xml section, concerned that I may have to know these terms. Then I realized that the message was exactly the opposite. Now, I don’t need to know a programming language to create with a computer. It’s a bit like the old Word .rtf versus .doc or even the difference between DOS and the Mac GUI interface. As Apple said in their Macintosh ads at the time, the PC had been sent to school to think like a human. No special accolades for Apple here. They have long bought, borrowed or stolen some of the best ideas and marketed them effectively. However, there is an interesting corollary in Web 2.0, which I learnt from the clip. It is that, indeed, computers are learning from us and from the links we forge between different material.

I also appreciated the reminder that Web 2.0 isn’t just about blogs and wikis. Using Diigo to prepare, annotate and share web pages for my students is Web 2.0 in practice. I have always thought of the computer as a tool rather than a recreation source or a form of social media. If it allows me to do something more efficiently, effectively, or both, then it is worth using. If it adds time to a task or requires more understanding on my part or that of my students then it is possibly not the better alternative. This may just have to do with my limited knowledge, my age, learning style or possibly the limited time I have to play around with things and the capacity of the web to use up all the time that you can give it.