Synopsis

We are living in exponential times, where educators are expected to prepare learners for jobs that are yet to be invented. Twenty-first century learners think and process information differently and they are no longer the people who the education system was designed to teach (Prensky, 2001). Learners are living in the digital age, yet they are “powering down” to go to school and it is our responsibility as educators to provide a twenty-first century education that will support these children to be active participants in a digital world. Consequently, I have analysed many digital tools and engaged in discussions about them with my peers through my blog, which I will refer back to throughout my synopsis. Each tool I have explored has been analysed through the lens of various learning theories, e-learning and other pedagogical frameworks and Queensland Education. The purpose of this synopsis is to demonstrate how the combination of digital tools and good pedagogy serves to transform, engage, facilitate, support and enhance learning for all students in the digital age.

Living in the information age we are spoilt for choice in terms of searching for and acquiring knowledge. In fact, with so much information at our finger tips it can become overwhelming just trying to keep-up-to-date. That is why RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a fantastic technology that can assist both teachers and students to access and gain information without overload and confusion. I chose Google Reader to assist me in following the blogs of my peers throughout my blogging task. As I mentioned in my blog, RSS is a great tool for managing time effectively, just imagine trying to monitor twenty-five student’s blogs manually. However, using Google Reader learning managers will be alerted every time one of their learners posts a new blog entry. This will allow for educators to provide students with immediate and appropriate feedback, which supports in building confidence in their ability to complete complex tasks (Mazarno & Pickering, 2006). Furthermore, Google Reader supports teachers to monitor students’ comments on their peers’ blogs. This can help educators not only clear up any misconceptions about a topic, but can also alert them to any cyberbullying that may be happening enabling them to eliminate such behaviour. What is more, students will benefit from using Google Reader as they will be able to follow their classmates’ blogs, viewing the work of their peers to gain alternative perspectives and gain a deeper understanding of the topic. Queensland Education (2000) promotes such collaborative learning as students benefit from opportunities that allow them to internalise information and gain new insights through substantive conversations. Similarly, Vygotski (1978) the founder of social constructivism supports collaborative learning as his theory asserts that humans construct meaning through personal interactions within their social context. In addition, educators and students alike can use RSS feeder to keep informed about websites, blogs or podcasts as new updates become available, making it very useful for accessing and gaining information about topics over a period of time.

Concept Mapping is a great tool to consolidate and refine information that can be used to help learners organise information on just about any topic. As I discussed in my blog titled Concept Mapping, the applications of this tool are numerous as it can be used to brainstorm and elicit prior knowledge about a topic, which can then be referred to throughout the unit, keeping learners on-track and allowing them to modify their map as the unit progresses. Alternatively, it can be used effectively at the end of a unit to demonstrate what information has been gained and how it all fits together. At first, I was not sure how effective concept mapping would be as a digital tool after experiencing difficulties using it initially. However, after further practice using the software and online conversations with my peers I recognised that I had been too quick to judge such a valuable tool. What I failed to realise was concept mapping is underpinned by cognitive theory, which relates to how the brain processes information. This tool assists in organising or chunking information. When learners understand how elements fit together the brain can then view the information as a single item as it builds it onto prior knowledge which is known as schema (Sweller, 1998, cited in Kearsley, 2010). Educators could use this tool effectively in the classroom and the example in my blog outlines how text2mindmap software could be used at the end of a jigsaw activity. This could support students to consolidate and refine their knowledge about a topic by collaboratively building an online concept map and then posting it on a blog, wiki or webpage. This instructional approach is supported by Eisenberg and Berkowitz (2001) Big6 e-learning framework that promotes helping students to work smarter not faster. Through the use of concept mapping students can find, process and use information effectively. When engaging in concept mapping students are employing higher order thinking skills such as analysing, evaluating and synthesising which facilitate learners to operate in the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy thus promoting thinking in learning (Frangenheim, 2007).

Websites are a great tool that can help learners transform information to develop new understandings, particularly when they engage in creating their own websites which can now be done simply by visiting Weebly. Websites provide a wealth of information and entertainment, they are easy to access and now they are just as easy to create. However, as I mentioned in my blog it is necessary for educators to teach their students’ skills in information literacy, critical literacy and digital literacy to empower them to access and evaluate online sources for themselves as these skills are integral to participating in a digital world (Education Queensland, 2008). Website creation is a useful tool that can be used across all KLAs and it provides a great medium for providing learners with an authentic assessment task that would be suitable for all learning preferences as it would allow students to present their learning in their own way. Collaborative website creation supports many of the principles of Engagement Theory (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1998) as referred to in my blog titled E-Learning Frameworks because it promotes the three major elements of Relate-Create-Donate. Kearsley and Shneiderman suggest that by engaging students in these meaningful activities learners will be more self-directed and motivated. Similarly, the productive pedagogies supports classroom instruction that promotes higher order thinking, substantive conversation, a problem based curriculum and connectedness to the world (Queensland Education, 2002b). In addition, Weebly can be used like a virtual classroom that students could access outside of school hours which could provide learners with additional learning activities, inform parents about what their children are learning and notify them of any up-coming events. However, educators need to be selective of the information and images posted on student generated websites because of the risks of operating in a public domain. Consequently, these issues create teaching opportunities for students to learn about cybersafety helping to raise the learners’ awareness about online “stranger danger”. Further, one of the requirements for delivering effective digital pedagogy, is that educators need to teach students how to learn and work legally, ethically and safely while online (Queensland Education, 2008).

Digital video is an excellent tool learners can use to present knowledge to an audience. According to Prensky (2001) students in the knowledge economy are very different from those of the past as their digital capabilities support them to learn effectively in multimodal environments similar to those found on YouTube, TeacherTube and Teacher.tv. However, as I mentioned in my blog titled Digital Video – You Tube and subsequent conversations with my peers, it is essential that these clips are never played live. As an alternative to viewing, using MovieMaker in education has many advantages and applications as outlined in my blog titled Creating Digital Video. MovieMaker provides easy to use free software that enables users to drop and drag still images or video footage into the program, and enhance it with text and music to produce a digital video. Some of the instructional uses presented by Kearney and Schuck (2004) for digital video are: communication, observation and analysis and reflection. However, it can be challenging for educators to maintain the rigour of the content (Schuck & Kearney, 2004). Learning managers can assist students by getting them to plan using a storyboard, scaffolding them through a serious of questions their video can answer, or using a criteria sheet or checklist. Recently, I developed a SOSE inquiry unit for a Year Seven class that included an assessment task which required the learners to produce a digital video that informed, entertained and persuaded their audience using the subject matter of an environmental issue (further details can be viewed on my blog). The task required higher order thinking, teamwork and was based on Kearsley and Shneiderman’s (1999) Engagement Theory, as the students worked collaboratively to solve problems and create solutions and then used digital video to present their knowledge to the rest of the school. By creating digital video students will inadvertently practice using habits of mind such as persistence, thinking and communicating with clarity and precision and creating, imagining and innovating (Costa & Kallick, 2000). What is more, Kearney and Schuck (2004) suggest that even reluctant learners remain engaged and motivated when using digital video this is because students do not view it as “normal work”. In a time when educators are finding it difficult to engage their students it makes sense to keep learners in the game of learning by incorporating good pedagogical practices with innovative tools such as digital video.

Throughout this learning journey I have explored Google Reader and how RSS can help students access and gain information, used text2mindmap to consolidate and refine information and discovered how concept mapping helps learners organise and chunk information. I demonstrated how Weebly is a great tool for assisting students to transform information to develop new understandings through the lens of Engagement Theory and illustrated how learners can relate, create and donate by using MovieMaker to present knowledge to an audience. All of these tools can assist in providing learners with a twenty-first century education, but what is most important is the pedagogy that is combined with them that will develop lifelong learners, who are higher order thinkers, with positive habits of mind that can work collaboratively to solve the problems of the future.


References

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