Week 6 - Education and Technology

Education and technology

To me as a pre-service teacher and technology enthusiast the developments of computer technology as it relates to classroom education in Australia is an interesting proposition. Robertson (2011) sought to discover what educational improvements come about when university students are asked to blog regularly on a given topic.  Given this is a task that myself and the ALC215 cohort have had to undertake ourselves, it is interesting to reflect on its effectiveness at improving learning outcomes and increasing student engagement. Robertson (2011) uses the platform of his article to argue some methods that could be introduced to increase the effectiveness of this kind of assessment. While his findings certainly found some benefit of improving self directed learning - particularly for first year university students - he concedes that further research would be beneficial, and I would certainly agree. 

Having said that, while its not exclusively blogging I feel that information and communication technologies (often referred to as ICT) are beginning to play a much larger role in Australian primary and secondary school classrooms. Having graduated from high school in 2001 I can say from experience that technology was not particularly prevalent in the school environment. In contrast, I can attest to the prevalence of technology now in 2013 from my volunteer and placement work in two schools in the Outer Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. I have observed Grade 3/4 students be exposed to web-based communication platforms such as “Kid Blog”, which allow students to experiment with blogs in a safe classroom environment. There is also use of other web-based platforms such as “Kerpoof”, which presents students with a platform that allows them to create short animated films presented in an almost video game-like fashion. While educational games have certainly had a place in the PC market for some time, I have been surprised to see them used more and more. Even titles such as the hugely popular and successful “Minecraft” are used in classrooms regularly to stimulate creativity and even for specific lessons.

Source: Google Images

The use of technology is almost reflected in many Australian secondary schools as well. At a high school where I recently completed a placement every student was required to have an iPad or laptop to access subject materials and participate in learning activities across the entire school curriculum. This was certainly a shock for somebody like me who grew up primarily with traditional textbook learning. There are even entire academic resources dedicated to teaching student teachers how to best take advantage of these new developments. It is good to see how through programs like Kid Blog that young students are being prepared for continued ICT usage throughout life so that by the time they reach University level they already understand and utilize technology very effectively. I certainly feel that this is a positive change to Australian education.

References

Robertson, J 2011, ‘The educational affordances of blogs for self-directed learning’, Computers & Education, 57, pp.1628-1644.