de-VICES: how many are enough?
Where am I now?
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flickr photo by eSeL.at https://flickr.com/photos/eselat/5891486456 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license[/caption]While writing my posts for Course 4, I had a feeling of déjà vu! So I went back to the Course 1 posts as it’s where the déjà vu comes from.
What has changed for me? My use of technology was mainly teacher-centered. In my post TIOM Try It On Monday, I explained that I used my IWB as a TV screen, the SMART Notebook software for interactive game and “Plickers”. Since then I have introduced my students to “Quizzlet” that they play on the IWB and to “Kahoot”. That’s for the teacher part. I like those tools as the students are still very excited about it. At first I thought it was because it was new but the excitement and the engagement are still there!
No, what has really changed is my way of thinking: it's me, technology and the students.
I've realised also that if children have access to multiple devices, they don't automatically know how to use them. And I needed to teach them some of the features of softwares/apps. And obviously, I needed to teach myself first!!
As I wrote in my earlier posts, my Grade 5 students are working on a genius hour project. They are using SWAY to document, share and reflect. I’ve worked closely with Tanya Irene, my ICT facilitator. We used SWAY together. Then Tanya spent two lessons with my Grade 5 discovering and learning about SWAY. She created two amazing lessons (of 40mn each) where my students explained in French how to work with SWAY.
During their first lesson working on their project, the result was spectacular! For once, my students and I didn’t talk about technology but about their task.
For once, I was very pleased with how technology was used in my classroom.
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My Grade 5 messing around with SWAY. Image by M. Brutel[/caption]Finding the balance
I read this article a long time ago and I always tried to keep it in mind. This post from More verbs fewer nouns blog describes two mistakes teachers make when teaching with technology.
Spending too much time teaching the technology takes the focus off of the curricular goals originally intended for the technology-based activity. Or, worse, this destroys the intrinsic motivation students might have for a project when it is introduced.
The other mistake is the opposite: not teaching any technology skills at all. For example, a teacher might want students to create presentations or to make a multimedia project to show others what they had learned from the research they have done in class. But the teacher doesn’t show the students how to use the presentation or multimedia software and simply expects them to figure it out on their own (without checking to see if they do have those skills or not). Sometimes this is because the teacher assumes the students already know how to use the programs, or because the teacher isn’t sure how to teach them herself.
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flickr photo by TZA https://flickr.com/photos/tza/2972414778 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license[/caption]The induction lessons about SWAY really helped me understand how I should get started to avoid distraction with technology. I remembered how difficult my final project for course 1 was just because I didn’t spend enough time with my grade 3 to explain how the tech tool worked. For me it was pretty straightforward but not for the children. My students were avoiding work when they were stuck as describing in 23 things about classroom laptops
de-VICES: what number is a good number?
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Image by M. Brutel[/caption]What has changed also is that I used to rush to try a tech tool. Now I start with the learning and the question “what do I want my students to learn” instead of the device and software and “I want to use an ipad/a fizzbook/adobe voice/imovie….”
In our school, devices are given to class which means that when my students need to work on a device, they have to bring it from their classroom. At the beginning of my Coetail journey, it helped me to understand the difference between integration and implementation.
The down side of this system is some precious minutes wasted of the 40mn lesson: at the beginning of the lesson when they had to go back to class because they forgot to pick up a device and at the end of the class to bring the device back.
Hi Magali
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts.
The use of blogging for reflection on one's learning is something I've been thinking about, and you give a wonderful of example of exactly this. I'll link your post in to my next blog. (It's not yet published, so I'll put the link as an extra comment.)
Finding the balance between learning to use technology and using technology to transform learning is a tricky one. Some units lend themselves more to technology exploration than others!
I've found sometimes learning the technology component has taken longer than expected, leaving little time for the curriculum content.
I've also worked with groups where we've been given a tool that none of us were familiar with and expected to create a product. As we didn't have time to figure out how to use the technology first, we were disappointed with what we produced.
TPACK is good for checking that a balance has been reached. I've talked about the technology side of using the Green Screen in https://www.coetail.com/joyw/wp-admin/post.php?post=809&action=edit. My following post looks at it in the context of content and pedagogy using TPACK as a guide.
I think often teachers learn to use a tool and create a product with the students, but don't give students the time to play and develop the skills to use the technology themselves. Having the students explore a tool and then explain to others how it works sounds perfect, especially if it also develops language skills.
I think we need to remember that spending time on technology skills comes in useful, even if some of the curricular time is taken with it. I had a lovely experience of a Grade 1 student suggesting an app we could use for a particular situation; a tool they'd spent time learning how to use earlier in the year. Having the experience of using various devices and apps is all part of the learning process they need to go through so they can select the right tool for the right occasion - an essential skill in today's technology rich world!
In the Art and Science of teaching, https://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107001/chapters/What-will-I-do-to-help-students-practice-and-deepen-their-understanding-of-new-knowledge%C2%A2.aspx, Robert Marzano talks about helping students deepen understanding of new knowledge. It sounds like your students have not only been introduced to SWAY, but will have plenty of opportunity to use it, deepening their procedural knowledge in the process.
Thanks again for sharing your reflections.
I feel like it's rare for me to teach a tool now. I do teach a lot about design and creative commons and citing properly. I never have a tech only lesson...it must be tied to my curriculum and skills. And it's nothing special...it's just what we do.
ReplyDeleteHello Joy,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments and for the resources.
And yes, I think finding the balance between learning to use technology and using technology to learn is really tricky, especially with the youngest students. Although they learn quickly, there’re a lot of things that are new for them. And I completely agree with you, we need to spend time to teach them.
Thank you.
I'm guessing Middle school students learn some skills faster than Early Years students. We do embed the technology in curriculum, but sometimes the time needed for the students to become comfortable using it reduces the time available for development of the content - unless the focus is on the content and the teacher controls the tech.
ReplyDeleteHi Megali
ReplyDeleteI've linked this post as an example in https://www.coetail.com/joyw/2016/05/14/blogging-part-1-the-evolutionary-environment/
Hope that's ok.
Joy
I couldn’t agree more with you Joy!
ReplyDeleteI really think that with Early years and primary students, we need to give them a bit more time to be comfortable with the tech tools.
Hello Joy,
ReplyDeleteYour post is great! Thank you for linking mine!
Magali