Building ICT Knowledge

This week I focused on improving my professional relationships and professional values. I attended the Qsite Gold Coast chapter PD session at Clover Hill State School. This allowed an opportunity to network and hear ICT ideas that practising teachers are implementing. The keynote speaker Associate Professor Glen Finger explained the TPACK model. Of significance for me was Finger’s statement; “The key to distinguishing the knowledge base of teaching lies at the intersection of content and pedagogy in the teacher’s capacity to transform content knowledge into forms that are pedagogically powerful.” The presentation was followed by various elective sessions. I explored Elluminate Online Video-Presentation/ Conferences and creating digital document libraries in the classroom, both of which were valuable.       

 This week I also undertook my first steps in implementing a class blog into my practicum teaching and learning. This was another opportunity to ensure I uphold Professional Values also. I met with my teacher and discussed the initial ideas of which she was very supportive and then sent enquiries to the deputy principal about school IT policies and procedures for implementing the IT into the learning.

This week’s course reading gave great insight into current trends and predictions in ICT and education and would be a useful tool for any practising teaching.

The 2010 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition, “examines emerging technologies for their potential impact on and use in teaching, learning, and creative expression” in the school systems. The 2010 report discussed the major trends of ICT that we are expected to see influence education from 2010 through to 2015. I strongly agree with the predicted trends and have identified them being modelled in practicum experiences. Some of the reports predictions include; “Technology continues to profoundly affect the way we work, collaborate, communicate, and succeed” and that “technology is increasingly a means for empowering students, a method for communication and socializing, and aubiquitous, transparent part of their lives”. The report also predicted an issue raised in other course readings about a change in the learning environments and the possibilities of “non-formal avenues of education such as online learning mentoring and independent study”. The report has anticipated cloud computing and collaborative environment technologies are going to strengthen in the next 12 months followed closely by game based learning and mobiles in classrooms in the next 2-3years. Personally I disagree with some of the predictions and think game based learning curriculums and the use of mobile phones in the classroom may be emerging in the next 2-3 years but it will still take some time to develop in the majority of Australian classrooms due to 'fear of the unknown'.       

References

Johnson, L., Smith, R., Levine, A., and Haywood, K., (2010). 2010 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition. Retrieved from: http://www.zagami.info/4001EPS/Readings/Entries/2011/3/20_Week_4.html