Week Two Reflections

In Week One I should have investigated the definition of ICT's and what they actually incorporate. 
To state the obvious ICT stands for Informations and Communications Technology.  ICT is the name given to any digital device. This includes but is not limited to computers. Scanners, hand-held devices, mobile phones, cameras, digital voice recorders, iPods, MP3 players, GPS devices and digital microscopes are all ICT.
Looking at the above line of different types of ICT's I realize my knowledge of the range of ICT's is really limited.  Off the top of my head when I hear of students' engaging in ICT I think of computers (Microsoft Word, PowerPoint), Overhead projectors, and the Interactive Whiteboard.   It would be interesting to know and find out what type of learning sequences can be taught using a MP3 Player or a voice recorder. 


The direction in which you can take using ICT is just amazing.  Students can use ICT to access, integrate, manage and evaluate information.  They are able to collaborate across local, national and international boarders.  The Lecturer, last week, stated an activity where she created a '"friend" who lived over in Africa and was the class pen-pal.   The students used Google Maps to locate this friend and also investigated the different cultures.   This activity opened up a whole range of activities and also could incorporate different ICT's.

Within the  UNESCO ICT Competency standards for teachers internationally there is a section on the skills required of Teachers regarding ICT.  It states that "Teachers must know basic hardware and software
operations, as well as productivity applications software, a web browser, communications software, presentation software, and management applications".  This is only a small part of the standards and I can see that I have a lot to learn.  I need to gain a basic knowledge of hardware operations and management applications. There are a few other ICT Competency standards that I need to address but the above standard is the one I need to work on the most.




THEORY:

In the readings this week we looked at Teaching in Digital Environments.   This linked us back to Productive Pedagogies  and their 4 Dimensions (Intellectual Quality, Connectedness, Supportive Classroom Environment and Recognition of Difference).   Keeping in mind ICT, Education Queensland identifies Digital pedagogy as being "a new way of working and learning with ICT to facilitate quality learning experiences for 21st Century learners. Digital Pedagogy moves the focus from ICT tools and skills, to a way of working in the digital world". (p.3) 


Interesting:  Messages and News is delivered in a wide range of different ways given today's 21st Century technology.  Not sure where I would go with the actual lesson sequence but the idea is there.  Students can create a Fake Iphone Text to create a message i.e. the Message is dependent on the context they're writing in.