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13489 results in Education, history, theory

Page 254 of 675

  • Chapter 19 - Project-, problem-, and inquiry-based learning

  • from Section 4 - Student learning
  • Edited by Michael Henderson, Monash University, Victoria, Geoff Romeo, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney
  • Book:
    Teaching and Digital Technologies
    Published online:
    07 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 September 2015, pp 240-252

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Inquiry-based learning and related approaches such as project- and problem-based learning respond to the increased availability of information in a networked world by emphasising the location and application of information by the learner rather than its transmission from teacher to learner. The role of teacher necessarily shifts toward being a designer and facilitator of projects through which students learn rather than the primary source of knowledge in the classroom. That shift is facilitated by the application of digital technologies to initiate learning activities, access and process information, and present results. It confronts teachers with challenges in relation to the relative emphases on content and process in learning and assessment, and the role of learners in deciding what is learned and how.

    CRITICAL QUESTIONS

  • What are some potential benefits and disbenefits of inquiry-based approaches to education?

  • What similarities and differences are there among various inquiry-based learning pedagogies?

  • What are the theoretical foundations of inquiry-based learning?

  • How can digital technologies be used to facilitate inquiry-based learning?

    • Learners and learning at the centre

    Traditional understandings of education centre on teaching. A typical image is of a teacher delivering content to a class. Over the past 50 years that image may have evolved from a man at a blackboard to a woman with a tablet and smartboard, but despite changes in technology, the essential paradigm remains. Teaching is telling.

  • Chapter 1 - Why focus on big issues and critical questions?

  • Edited by Michael Henderson, Monash University, Victoria, Geoff Romeo, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney
  • Book:
    Teaching and Digital Technologies
    Published online:
    07 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 September 2015, pp 1-8

  • Summary

    Introduction

    The use of digital technologies in education, and more specifically for learning, is complex. Digital technology cannot be simply applied without consequences; effective use requires teachers and leaders to be aware of the underlying big issues and to ask critical questions. This is particularly important with the Australian Curriculum (and state derivatives) mandating the effective integration of digital technologies (ICT as a general capability) for all students Foundation to Year 10 (F–10) and the introduction of digital technologies as a compulsory subject for all students (F–8). Not only do we need to understand what the curriculum is asking of us as teachers, but also the reasons for the curriculum pressure, and the implications for our practice and for student learning.

    Pre-service, graduate, and in-service teachers need to use digital technologies in their practice, but are they being exposed to the debate about if, when and why and given the opportunity to ask probing questions about the efficacy of existing, emerging and new technologies in the classroom?

    It is important to note that this book and its authors, while adopting a critical perspective of digital technologies, contend that such technologies can benefit education. However, rather than focusing on what buttons to press, each chapter aims to empower the reader to understand why they should (or should not) use digital technologies, when it is appropriate (or not) to do so, and what new implications arise.

  • Chapter 10 - Using social media: assumptions, challenges and risks

  • from Section 2 - Technological affordances: what’s so special about digital technologies?
  • Edited by Michael Henderson, Monash University, Victoria, Geoff Romeo, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney
  • Book:
    Teaching and Digital Technologies
    Published online:
    07 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 September 2015, pp 115-126

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Social media (for example, blogs, Twitter, YouTube and social networking) are claimed to provide positive learning opportunities for students. However, there is little consensus and relatively little school-based research that confirms the most effective use of these technologies and their impact. Moreover, the potential of social media for learning is often based on assumptions about student preferences and inherent benefits that need to be critically considered. At the same time, these technologies also generate considerable professional, public and media concern in terms of cyber safety, particularly predatory and harassment behaviour. Teachers need to also consider broader concerns such as identity theft, legal risks, as well as professional ethics. This chapter will (a) define social media and social networking, (b) critically consider some of the assumptions underlying the claims of potentiality, (c) describe a set of conditions for successfully using social media in the classroom, and (d) outline a range of critical issues that teachers need to consider before and during implementation.

    CRITICAL QUESTIONS

  • Can the use of social media in the classroom improve learning?

  • Do teachers have the moral, ethical or pedagogical justii cation for appropriating social networking technologies for the classroom?

  • Are the risks to students and teachers manageable?

  • Chapter 14 - Digital technologies in the curriculum: national and international

  • from Section 3 - Policy: curriculum, values and agendas
  • Edited by Michael Henderson, Monash University, Victoria, Geoff Romeo, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney
  • Book:
    Teaching and Digital Technologies
    Published online:
    07 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 September 2015, pp 169-181

  • Summary

    Introduction

    To fully engage with the teaching of the digital technologies curriculum, it is helpful to undertake a critical examination of Australian national and state computing curricula within a global context. This chapter includes a commentary on 21st-century skills and digital literacy. There is a case study that looks at the way in which the computational thinking concept has grown in international markets with its own agendas and how this is now shaping the Australian computing curriculum. Confusion over terminology and challenges to teachers and curriculum developers are discussed.

    CRITICAL QUESTIONS

  • What has shaped the Australian digital technologies curriculum?

  • How do ICT, 21st-century skills and digital literacy challenge existing curricula and coexist with the digital technologies curriculum?

  • Why is computational thinking used as an organiser for the digital technologies curriculum?

  • What challenges exist to the implementation of the digital technologies curriculum?

    • Introduction of digital technologies into the curriculum

    The introduction of the digital technologies subject into the curriculum has been a significant step in Australian computer education. When computing was first introduced as a subject area in the 1960s, it focused largely on understanding how the technology worked because that was what was needed at the time to make any effective use of the technology. In the 1970s, some educators (for example, Papert, 1980) saw in this new technology the potential for new ways of thinking and understanding the world through the study of programming.

  • Chapter 22 - Digital technologies in early childhood education

  • from Section 4 - Student learning
  • Edited by Michael Henderson, Monash University, Victoria, Geoff Romeo, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney
  • Book:
    Teaching and Digital Technologies
    Published online:
    07 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 September 2015, pp 282-292

  • Summary

    Introduction

    This chapter considers the use of digital technologies in early childhood education, which covers the period from birth to eight years. The use of technologies in early childhood education has been characterised by debate regarding the extent to which technologies should be used with young children. This is because historically early childhood education values hands-on, active play-based learning for children and using digital technologies has not always sat comfortably with this view of learning. Recent research has focused on understanding the concept of digital play so that technologies can be used in early childhood settings in a way that aligns with existing ideas about children’s play-based learning. This chapter begins with an overview of the ‘to use or not to use debate’ regarding digital technologies with young children. It then considers how digital technologies can be integrated in early childhood classrooms and the role of digital technologies in international early childhood curriculum frameworks. Finally, the chapter considers the concept of digital play and how this is likely to influence the use of digital technologies in early childhood education in the coming decade.

    CRITICAL QUESTIONS

  • Do digital technologies provide appropriate play-based learning experiences for young children?

  • How can digital technologies be effectively integrated with the provision of play-based learning environments in early childhood settings?

  • What is digital play?

  • Chapter 11 - Gamification and digital games-based learning in the classroom

  • from Section 2 - Technological affordances: what’s so special about digital technologies?
  • Edited by Michael Henderson, Monash University, Victoria, Geoff Romeo, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney
  • Book:
    Teaching and Digital Technologies
    Published online:
    07 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 September 2015, pp 127-141

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Teachers want their lessons to be enjoyable, immersive, productive and full of learning. In this regard, digital games have everything they want. Successful digital games maintain players’ attention, require them to solve problems, acquire new knowledge and learn new skills. Moreover, despite the considerable amount of learning, emotional investment (including frustration) and often monotonous labour (for example, working back through levels each time you ‘die’), players will not only persist but also call it ‘fun’. It is not surprising then that the idea of incorporating digital games into the classroom has taken hold of teachers for decades. More recently, educators have realised that they can also learn from the success of digital games and use game principles to ‘gamify’ learning activities. However, digital games are not a ‘magic bullet’ for education. Giving students a digital game does not ensure that they will be learning in the classroom; the teacher will still have to resolve behaviour management and motivation issues. This chapter aims to explain how digital games and gamification can be used in education, while also pointing out some related concerns.

    Digital games and gamification

    It is important not to confuse digital games and gamification. They are not synonyms. Gamification is the use of game design (mechanics and dynamics) in what is typically considered non-game environments such as the classroom. Some of the elements we might use when applying gamification to curriculum activities are: levels, badges, points, competition and status. There are many more but, importantly, gamification is more than simply changing the age old ‘gold star’ reward in a classroom to a ‘badge’ or changing the name of lesson to ‘level 1’. Time and ultimately iterative design need to be invested into the mechanics (for example, levels) and the dynamics (for example, when those levels are unlocked). In addition, deeper considerations of game play need to be imbued into the instructional design including notions of ‘permission to fail’ – in games students ‘die’ all the time. Students need to be able to have choices and strategies for success – in games they have immediate feedback on their success or failure and can hypothesise on how to succeed the next time. Another consideration is how to encourage curiosity, imagination and a state of flow (a state of full immersion in a feeling of energised focus).

  • Chapter 17 - Making learning visible through digital forms of assessment

  • from Section 4 - Student learning
  • Edited by Michael Henderson, Monash University, Victoria, Geoff Romeo, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney
  • Book:
    Teaching and Digital Technologies
    Published online:
    07 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 September 2015, pp 214-228

  • Summary

    Introduction

    For most of us, when we start as a student in a new course or class, the most important information we want to know is on what we will be assessed and how this will be achieved. This interest in assessment starts from a relatively young age, with concerns about ‘what is in the test’. Most teachers, when planning for a new course or class, start by thinking about what they are required, or want, to assess, and how they will go about doing that. It could be argued that assessment drives pedagogy and the curriculum of schooling. Therefore, if schooling is to meet the needs of students (by engaging them) and meet the needs of the community of today and the future (by being relevant), then assessment practices should align with the curriculum to meet these needs. This chapter addresses this concern by initially discussing the nature of assessment and alignment with the curriculum, with particular reference to the problems concerning validity and reliability of assessments. This is followed by a discussion of the ways in which digital technologies could be used to address these problems. Finally, a range of digital forms of assessment is presented, along with a discussion of the potential of learning analytics and tips for getting started with e-assessment.

  • Chapter 21 - Digital literacy in theory, policy and practice: old concerns, new opportunities

  • from Section 4 - Student learning
  • Edited by Michael Henderson, Monash University, Victoria, Geoff Romeo, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney
  • Book:
    Teaching and Digital Technologies
    Published online:
    07 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 September 2015, pp 266-281

  • Summary

    Introduction

    The increasing ubiquity and use of digital technologies across social and cultural life is a key challenge for educators engaged in helping students develop a range of literacies useful for school and beyond. Many young people’s experience of communication and participation is now shaped by almost constant engagements with digital technologies and media, as well as with global digital cultures. This increasing access and use has given many young people the opportunity to engage deeply with global media cultures via popular music, television and film franchises, the worldwide computer games industry, or countless other subcultures that connect fans and interested others from around the world via the internet. ‘Digital literacy’ is often the term associated with the ability to traverse these, and other, online and offline worlds; the notion has long been synonymous with the idea that digital technologies now mediate perhaps a majority of our social interactions. These forms of engagement with the world have important implications for educators and school systems which have historically recognised only a very narrow set of legitimate literacies.

    CRITICAL QUESTIONS

  • What is the relationship between new technologies and literacy?

  • What concepts and tools can educators use to understand the role digital literacies might play in formal education and in young people’s out-of-school lives?

  • Chapter 18 - Learning with digital technologies

  • from Section 4 - Student learning
  • Edited by Michael Henderson, Monash University, Victoria, Geoff Romeo, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney
  • Book:
    Teaching and Digital Technologies
    Published online:
    07 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 September 2015, pp 229-239

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Understanding how digital technologies might be used to support learning depends upon first understanding the nature of learning. Ideas about what can be learned, what should be learned, and how people learn are important as foundations for thinking about theories of learning and how they relate to digital technologies. Over the past seventy years digital technologies have seen major increases in storage capacity, computational power, and accessibility. During that same period there have been parallel developments in our understanding of learning. Although newer digital technologies have supplanted the old, newer approaches to learning with digital technologies are better viewed as complementary rather than complete replacements.

    CRITICAL QUESTIONS

  • What do you understand by learning?

  • What theories of learning are there and how are they related?

  • How can theories of learning be applied to learning with digital technologies?

    • The nature of learning

    Before we can consider the relationship between learning and digital technologies we need to clarify what we understand by learning. A simple definition of learning from the perspective of educational psychology would refer to a change in behaviour that results from the interaction of an organism with its environment.

    The behavioural change might be manifested immediately, as when even a simple organism responds to something in its environment by moving toward or away from a light source. Such responses can be considered to be learning at its simplest.

  • Chapter 3 - Learning, teaching, technology: confusing, complicated and contested!

  • from Section 1 - Being critical of our assumptions: learners, learning and digital technologies
  • Edited by Michael Henderson, Monash University, Victoria, Geoff Romeo, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney
  • Book:
    Teaching and Digital Technologies
    Published online:
    07 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 September 2015, pp 22-34

  • Summary

    Introduction

    After decades of ‘computers in education’, there is still considerable dissonance at all levels and across many countries about the worth of digital technologies for learning and teaching. As a consequence, much tokenistic use occurs and doubts about the efficacy of computers to enhance teaching and learning linger. Further, despite advances in our understanding of how people learn and what effective teaching looks like, there is a widespread reluctance to move away from hackneyed and inappropriate instructional methods and practices. Why is this so? Surely we can be confident that our research and accumulated wisdom provides an appropriate pedagogy for 21st-century learners. Unfortunately, like many things related to the human condition, and education in particular, it is not as straightforward as many like to think; in fact, quite the opposite – it is confusing, complicated and contested.

    This chapter explores the possible reasons for the conflicting ideas and confusion, how the research about technology in education should be considered, and the notion that well-informed professional judgement is the key to making high quality decisions about learning and teaching with technology. The chapter also discusses the notion that making a distinction between learning and teaching and learning and teaching with technology is a contradiction that further adds to the confusion and nurtures reluctance to change. Learning and teaching and digital technologies are now inextricably linked. So are we better served by doing away with ‘learning and teaching’ and ‘learning and teaching with technology’ as contrasts and just considering the notion of contemporary learning and teaching and what that means for students, teachers, schools and systems?

  • Chapter 20 - Numeracy and technology

  • from Section 4 - Student learning
  • Edited by Michael Henderson, Monash University, Victoria, Geoff Romeo, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney
  • Book:
    Teaching and Digital Technologies
    Published online:
    07 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 September 2015, pp 253-265

  • Summary

    Introduction

    This chapter focuses on the concept of numeracy, how it is dealt with in the Australian Curriculum, and what role technology might play in developing numeracy. Numeracy, along with literacy, ICT capability, critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability, ethical understanding, and intercultural understanding, is listed as a general capability (GC) in the Australian Curriculum. This means that numeracy (and the other six GCs) should be developed in all learning areas as an integrated concept. The GCs are obviously interrelated, complement the content learning areas, and ‘… assist students to live and work successfully in the 21st century’ (ACARA, 2014).

    Current thinking dictates that education should be about learning how to learn and applying that learning to solving problems, not just about regurgitating facts on an exam paper. This may seem confusing, especially when there is a vehement call from some sections of society for a return to the basics, more direct instruction, and a greater emphasis on numeracy and literacy. As a teacher, you can help to reconcile this tension by looking closely at the structure of the Australian Curriculum and understanding what it is trying to achieve, especially in relation to general capabilities.

    So what is numeracy? Why is it listed as a general capability? And what role, if any, do digital technologies play in developing numeracy?

  • Chapter 12 - Mobile learning: what is it and what are its possibilities?

  • from Section 2 - Technological affordances: what’s so special about digital technologies?
  • Edited by Michael Henderson, Monash University, Victoria, Geoff Romeo, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney
  • Book:
    Teaching and Digital Technologies
    Published online:
    07 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 September 2015, pp 142-154

  • Summary

    Introduction

    There are now more internet-connected mobile devices in the world than desktop and laptop computers (The Economist, 2012), with mobile internet traffic already constituting more than 25 per cent of global traffic (Meeker, 2014). In the developed world, multiple device ownership is increasingly common, and among those devices there are likely to be one or more smart devices, like smartphones or tablets. Mobile devices can be used for much more than making calls or sending messages. For many people, they have become a preferred way to access information, build knowledge and share understanding. Indeed, nowadays we hear more and more about mobile learning, or m-learning. But what exactly is m-learning? What are its benefits, how can it be implemented, and what might its drawbacks be? This chapter addresses these questions.

    CRITICAL QUESTIONS

  • What is m-learning and how is it different from other kinds of learning?

  • What are the potential benefits of m-learning?

  • How can m-learning be implemented inside and outside the classroom?

  • What drawbacks of m-learning need to be considered?

    • What is m-learning and how is it different from other kinds of learning?

    A useful rule of thumb for differentiating portable from truly mobile devices is that the former are typically used at Point A, powered down and moved, then opened up again at Point B, while the latter can be used at Point A, Point B and everywhere in between without stopping (Puentedura, 2012 ). Mobile phones - ranging from feature phones to smartphones, which run on mobile operating systems and are largely app-driven - are of course included in the mobile category, as are tablets, but laptops are generally excluded. The mobile category also includes gradually disappearing older devices like PDAs (personal digital assistants) and MP3 players, as well as emerging devices like i tness bands, smartwatches and smart glasses.

  • Chapter 23 - National and international frameworks for teacher competency

  • from Section 5 - Professional learning
  • Edited by Michael Henderson, Monash University, Victoria, Geoff Romeo, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney
  • Book:
    Teaching and Digital Technologies
    Published online:
    07 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 September 2015, pp 295-306

  • Summary

    Introduction

    There are a number of extant standards frameworks that describe national and international expectations in terms of teacher competency with digital technologies. They come from differing sources: some are theoretical and drawn from systematic research while others are systemic policy guidelines or mandatory requirements. They appear to be either millstones or milestones. The millstone is political and can cynically be seen to be part of the ‘quality’ agenda adopted by systems (Dinham, 2013; Pyne, 2012b). The milestone is aspirational and can be seen positively as marking out both personal learning goals and system transformation. This chapter will introduce and critique selected frameworks.

    CRITICAL QUESTIONS

  • What is the purpose of the national and international frameworks that describe and map teacher competency with digital technologies?

  • Do they adequately describe the characteristics of a teacher with a high level of digital competency?

  • Are they useful in guiding individuals towards digital competency?

    • If there is a singular obsession of the late 20th and early 21st centuries in industrialised nations, it is the unprecedented need to categorise people in terms of competence or skill. Measurement, high-stakes testing, and standardisation will come to be recognised as symptoms of the pathological condition of regulatory reification. For example, we subject children to national and international tests divorced from the context of their lives and then use the results of these tests for national and international comparisons as if mathematics or reading were now Olympic events and the playing field was level (Dinham, 2013; McDonald, 2012; Pyne, 2012a).

  • Chapter 25 - Digital technology integration

  • from Section 5 - Professional learning
  • Edited by Michael Henderson, Monash University, Victoria, Geoff Romeo, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney
  • Book:
    Teaching and Digital Technologies
    Published online:
    07 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 September 2015, pp 318-331

  • Summary

    Introduction

    This chapter challenges you to examine the often uncritical debates about the use of digital technologies in classrooms. Many of the articles written about digital technology tend to do so in unrealistic terms, providing ‘state of the art’ examples that suggest educational technology has the potential to completely transform schools for the better. For some time, discussions about educational uses of digital technologies have highlighted the potential benefits of emerging hardware and software for teachers who choose to adopt these tools as part of their classroom practice. Teachers, predominantly from developed western nations, have been seduced to take up these technologies through advertising campaigns sponsored by digital hardware and software companies, influenced by aspirational statements made by political parties and compelled to achieve standards set by teacher registration organisations. These occasions have reinforced the assumption that digital technologies have the capacity to enhance society generally and teaching and learning more specifically.

    In contrast, Neil Selwyn’s (2010) critique of schools and schooling in the digital age summarises the tenor of both popular and academic perceptions of digital educational technology, stating that ‘many general discussions of the digital age tend to be informed by a notion that the development of digital technology represents a distinctively new and improved set of social arrangements in relation to preceding “pre-digital” times’ (p. 7). While commenting on the differences in pre- and post-digital social arrangements, Selwyn provides a particular insight, highlighting Woolgar’s (2002) inherent ‘implication that something new, different, and (usually) better is happening’ (p. 3). This ‘pervasive sense of leaving the past behind’ (Murdock, 2004, p. 20) is evident in the work of many researchers in the field of educational technology who are ‘driven by an underlying belief that digital technologies are – in some way – capable of improving education’ (Selwyn, 2011, p. 713). As such, a great deal of effort has been invested in researching the learning potential of new or emerging technologies with many of these research studies focusing on ‘state of the art’ or high-level uses of digital technologies in classrooms (for example, Becker, 2001; Cuban, 2001, 2004; Donald, 2002; Ertmer, 1999; Hattie, 2009; Mumtaz, 2000; Parisot, 1995; Somekh, 2008; Straub, 2009).

  • Chapter 7 - Computational thinking: philosophy and practice

  • from Section 2 - Technological affordances: what’s so special about digital technologies?
  • Edited by Michael Henderson, Monash University, Victoria, Geoff Romeo, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney
  • Book:
    Teaching and Digital Technologies
    Published online:
    07 February 2021
    Print publication:
    25 September 2015, pp 73-88

  • Summary

    Introduction

    Computational thinking is at the core of the digital technologies curriculum. But what is it? This chapter will uncover some of the hype around this term, and show how it is considered by some to be important for future economic prosperity. A key idea about technological transformation is that continued computer innovation needs to bring together three very important ingredients: software, hardware and liveware. The software comprises the programs – the lines of instruction codes – that tell a computer what to do. The hardware includes the physical microchips, cases, CD-ROMs and other machinery of which a specific computer is constructed. Liveware is us – the people that interact with computers, program them to accomplish tasks, stand in front of the automatic teller machine (ATM). If any part of the equation is left out, the system will fail to work properly.

    If all these ingredients work well together, then computer systems and humans can achieve amazing things – things that are not practically possible otherwise. The challenge is to make this creative synthesis clear and understandable to students. This chapter will explore some ‘unplugged’ activities to expose the possibilities, and then show how students can make the transition into ‘person-plus’, that is, knowing when and how to employ computers to enhance their problem solving capacity.

Page 254 of 675