The most appropriate applications to support my teaching

In this final post, I aim to decide which of the applications I have tried will be the most appropriate to continue using to support my teaching. Firstly, I have learned a lot about ICT in education, and I have gained a new appreciation for its use. I feel more confident about using ICT within my teaching, for example I no longer panic about using videos during lessons and I don't feel the need to just use PowerPoint to make presentations. I still believe that ICT will never replace traditional teaching, however it can add to the overall experience in a positive way. There are a number of apps that I will not use, for example Kahoot and Wordle, just because I don't feel they will benefit the subjects that I teach.

            I still lack some confidence in using ICT in teaching, but this could be a result of my gender. In a study of trainee teachers, females rated ICT in teaching as less important than males, who appeared to be more confident with using ICT in their teaching (Kounenou et al, 2015). On the other hand, it could just be down to personal preference. The apps that I will continue to use are Prezi and Hot Potatoes. I like Prezi because of its ability to create fun presentations, and a welcome change from PowerPoint. Prezi has been reviewed favourably by Safar and Ammar (2015), who studied the effects of teaching using Prezi at Kuwait university. Despite obvious cultural bias, this study suggests that Prezi can be effective as a teaching aid for further and higher education. It has also been found that both students and teachers respond positively to using Prezi in the classroom (Virtanen, Myllarniemi, and Wallander, 2013), further supporting my idea to continue using the application.

            Hot Potatoes has also been reviewed favourably in a recent study (Sadeghi and Soleimani, 2015). The study found that students were more motivated to complete electronic tasks rather than paper-based tasks, and also praised how easy it is for both students and teachers to use. Despite this, it was also emphasised that ICT cannot replace the presence of a teacher. I think if I would use Hot Potatoes, it would be as a fun revision session, perhaps in a computer room.

            Overall, for my particular subject, I feel that traditional teaching methods (teacher-talk, discussion and group work) may be more beneficial initially, however I would use ICT applications as revision aids. I have enjoyed sampling the various applications throughout this module and I am looking forward to continue using them to support my teaching.

 

References

Kounenou, K., et al. (2014). Trainee teachers' intention to incorporating ICT use into teaching practice in relation to their psychological characteristics: The case of group-based intervention. Procedia - Social and Behavioural Sciences, 190, p.120-128.

 

Safar, D., and Ammar, H. (2015). Educating with Prezi: A new presentation paradigm for teaching, learning, and leading in the digital age. College student journal, 49(4), p.491-512.

 

 Sadeghi, N., and Soleimani, H. (2015). A description and evaluation of Hot Potatoes web-authoring software in educational setings. Theory and practice in language studies, 5(11), p.2407-2415.

 

 

Virtanen, P., Myllarniemi, J., and Wallander, H. (2013). Diversifying higher education: Facilitating different ways of learning. Campus - Wide information systems, 30(3), p.201-211.

Barriers to the effective use of technology in education

Naturally, there will always be barriers to the effective use of technology in education. The main barrier could be age. Technology has not always been involved within education, and older teachers may be at a disadvantage because they will not be used to using technology within their teaching. Age has been discovered to have an important effect on a person's acceptance of technology in education (Tarhini, Hone and Liu, 2014), identifying age as a potential barrier. For younger learners, technology has been a natural part of their lives, but for mature learners, it may be a barrier to their learning. For example, I have no issues with using virtual learning environments, but an older student may struggle, placing them at a disadvantage with regards to writing and submitting assignments. Despite this, Wang, Wu and Wang (2009) argue that age did not have an effect on intentions of using e-learning systems, however older participants' motivation and self-efficacy was lower, suggesting that the main barrier to technology for older learners is confidence. To overcome this, it could be proposed that extra-curricular courses in ICT for mature learners may be beneficial in education, in order to overcome the barrier of age.

            Gender has also been identified as a potential barrier to the use of technology in education. A recent study found that female teachers found the use of technology to be more challenging than male teachers (Teo, Fan and Du, 2015), although there were no gender differences in their positive attitudes towards using technology in education. It could be implied that women may require additional support in ICT, although this type of intervention may be difficult to create.

            A further possible barrier may be socio-economic status. For example, some learners may not be able to afford a home computer or other devices such as iPads and smartphones. This would immediately place them at a disadvantage throughout education, which could lead to them not performing as well as students who own the appropriate devices to complete assignments at home or on the go. A divide has been found between students of a high and low socio-economic status with regards to digital literacy, suggesting that a barrier to technology in education could be related to socio-economic status (Ritzhaupt et al, 2013). However, this study was conducted in Florida, therefore its results cannot be generalised to the UK education system. A way of overcoming this potential barrier could be to ensure that there are enough digital devices in educational institutions to enable students without computers at home to have access to online learning.

            Other potential barriers could include peer groups, resistance to change, a lack of motivation, and many other individual barriers. Overall, barriers to the effective use of technology in education are many, but as it continues to develop, the barriers could become less prominent.

 

References

Tarhini, A., Hone, K., and Liu, X. (2014). Measuring the moderating effect of gender and age on e-learning acceptance in England: A structural equation modelling approach for an extended technology acceptance model. Journal of educational computing research, 51(2), p.163-184.

 

Teo, T., Xitao, F., and Jianxia, D. (2015). Technology acceptance among pre-service teachers: Does gender matter? Australasian journal of educational technology, 31(3), p.235-251.

 

Ritzhaupt, A.D., et al. (2013). Differences in student information and communication technology literacy based on socio-economic status, ethnicity, and gender: Evidence of a digital divide in Florida schools. Journal of research on technology in education, 45(4), p.291-307.

 

Wang, Y. S., Wu, M. C., and Wang, H. Y. (2009). Investigating the determinants and age

and gender differences in the acceptance of mobile learning. British Journal of

Educational Technology, 40(1), p.92-118.

How technology has changed the way we learn

There is no doubt that technology has changed the way we learn. Whether this change is for the better, I am not entirely sure. It has been proposed that technology has had a positive impact on learning within higher education (Donaldson, 2014). This research discovered that online learning resources were of assistance to lecturers who were wanting to improve their use of technology in their teaching and learning. Results showed that their preferences were for a blended learning approach, suggesting that both traditional lectures and online learning resources were a positive toolkit for learning (Donaldson, 2014). This reinforces the potential positive changes technology has had within education, although reminding us that it cannot entirely replace traditional methods and teaching strategies such as teacher-talk and discussion.

            A positive way in which technology has changed the way we learn could be through the anonymity of students, particularly in higher education. During my degree, every assignment and exam was marked electronically, and results were displayed on Blackboard. This mean that myself, and myself alone, would view my marks. Personally I believe it had a positive influence, because I stopped worrying about how others were learning and I was able to focus on my own work, without worrying what others would think. Some people are open about their grades, but I view them as a very personal aspect of education, particularly when assignments are marked numerically. A recent study by Raes, Vanderhoven and Schellens (2015), uncovered that technology has had a positive effect on peer-assessment in higher education. Anonymity in peer-assessment due to technology led to increased levels of comfort, due to the removal of potentially awkward face-to-face situations. I believe that this is a positive influence to education, although it may have its disadvantages. Why do people prefer to give feedback from behind a computer, rather than to someone's face? Is technology overtaking our ability to offer constructive feedback to our peers?

            Learning could become more personal as a result of technology, which could be a positive or negative change, depending on the individual. This could suggest that students could be given the option of either using methods such as online learning, traditional lessons, or a combination of both. A combination of both has been found to be the most effective for Psychology students (Zacharova, Sokolova and Lemesova, 2015), suggesting a positive change in learning as a result of technology.

 

References

Donaldson, L. (2014). Integrating web 2.0 learning technologies in higher education: The necessity, the barriers and the factors for success. AISHE-J: The All-Ireland journal of teaching and learning in higher education, 6(3), p.1-22.

 

Raes, A., Vanderhoven, E., and Schellens, T. (2015). Increasing anonymity in peer assessment by using classroom response technology within face-to-face higher education. Studies in higher education, 40(1), p.178-193.

 

Zarachova, Z.J., Sokolova, L., and Lemesova, M. (2015). Interactive teaching of psychology: Using design-based research in developing an interactive psychology course. eLearning and software for education, 2, p.186-193.

The value of mobile technology in teaching and learning

 

It could be proposed that the use of mobile technology can be valuable in teaching and learning. Mobile technology can be used in the form of mobile phones, iPads and tablets, laptops, and an increasingly higher number of electronic mobile devices. Although technology is clearly becoming increasingly popular in education, it has been presumed that teachers' motivation is correlated with their readiness of using ICT in their teaching in science and social science (Copriady, 2014). From personal experience, I agree with this, because personally, I sometimes avoid using ICT in my teaching because I feel too scared that it will not work, or that problems might arise. This decreases my motivation to use technology. I also think there may be gender differences in this, although I could be wrong. Having the ability to communicate via technology can aid learning. For example, being able to email students regarding assignments, room changes, lesson changes, and offering support can greatly assist both teachers and students with regards to learning. I always aim to reply to students within 48 hours of receiving an email, and help them as much as I can, and I know that they value this.  

            It has been argued that a teacher-centred approach to teaching does not produce the graduates that our society needs in contemporary society (Njoku & Prince, 2015). This emphasises the importance of technology within classrooms and its impact on future employees. Mobile technology means that teachers and students can access work anywhere. Submitting essays electronically means that I do not have to carry stacks of books around to mark them, I can just use my laptop. It really can make life easier. For example, Turnitin is used for detecting plagiarism and marking electronically, and it has been found to be very valuable for teaching staff whilst marking work from Psychology undergraduates (Buckley & Cowap, 2013). Despite this, several technical difficulties were encountered by staff, suggesting that improvements need to be made. Personally, I have used Turnitin at university to submit assignments, and I have also experienced some rather scary technical difficulties, and I tend to check if something has been submitted correctly about twenty times before I believe that it's true (slight paranoia possibly!). This highlights that technology may never replace the feeling of holding an assignment and marking it in red pen, which I admit is quite fun as a teacher. Marking electronically just isn't the same feeling, although it is much easier.

            An issue of mine as a trainee teacher is mobile phones. They are everywhere, every single student is seen texting, using social media, constantly on their phones. I do not agree with students being permitted to use mobile phones within classrooms, as it is evident that it distracts them from their tasks. The difficulty with the PCET sector is deciding whether it would be acceptable to confiscate mobile phones in class. Despite my negative take on the issue, Walker (2013) found that students in the UK find their mobile devices very useful in learning, and argued that schools need to adopt an encouraging approach for using mobile devices in teaching and learning. For now, I think I'll stick to my coloured pens!

 

References

Buckley, E., & Cowap, L. (2013). An evaluation of the use of Turnitin for electronic submission and marking as a formative feedback tool from an educator's perspective. British journal of educational technology, 44(4), p.562-570.

 

Copriady, J. (2014). Self-motivation as a mediator for teachers' readiness in applying ICT in teaching and learning. Turkish online journal of educational technology, 13(4), p.115-123.

 

Njoku, U., & Prince, C. (2015). Information and communication technologies to raise quality of teaching and learning in higher education institutions. International journal of education & development using information & communication technology, 11(1), p.122-147.

 

Walker, R. (2013). "I don't think I would be where I am right now." Pupil perspectives on using mobile devices for learning. Research in learning technology, 21, p.1-12.

Some Monday night inspiration...

This evening I have been watching a number of Ted Talks, and I just had to choose this one to share in this blog. I have always believed that keeping goals to myself helps them become a lot more achievable, and I am delighted to have found some actual research to support it!

I never told anyone I wanted to go to university, I just worked hard and applied. I never told anyone I planned on teaching, I just applied. This has always seemed to work for me. I'm a private person anyway, and I find it extremely frustrating when someone asks me a personal question. I always knew that I wanted to study a postgraduate teaching course, but I felt that this was no business of other people. For example, people would always ask "What are your plans when you graduate?". Some were genuinely interested, but others were just trying to get their noses into my life, so I would always reply with "I'm going to see how it goes and just focus on getting through my degree, for now." People would seem disappointed with this response. I was so terrified of failing and not being accepted onto my teaching course that I just couldn't tell anyone about it. Perhaps if I had, I wouldn't have succeeded, according to this talk!


Relating this to the law of attraction, I completely understand that telling someone about your goals can make you feel as though they are already accomplished. Just as believing you already have something attracts that thing into your life, telling someone your goals can have a similar effect. I know that a lot of people will disagree with it for various reasons, and it's all about personal opinions, but for me, I think it works in certain cases, however sometimes it's not possible to hide goals. It's definitely not possible for me to hide that my goal for this blog is to apply ICT to teaching!

Back to the point, I am considering showing talks such as this to my Welsh Baccalaureate students, particularly during their Personal Effectiveness skills work. They would benefit from some inspiration and definitely need a few lessons on positive thinking! So here is the talk, which is a delightful 3 minutes and 15 seconds!



What do you think?

Learning with Videos!

In my recent teaching practice, I have been using a number of videos from YouTube to aid teaching and learning. Students seem to really enjoy watching videos, and I find that it really breaks up lessons that are heavy in information. They can be useful for starters and plenaries, as it is often difficult to grasp students' attention! During the ICT module I completed recently at University, we looked at making videos to assist teaching. Making the videos was really fun, editing photos and adding music. However, I couldn't help thinking how time-consuming it would be to make videos, when there are thousands online showing the same topics. Despite this, I would definitely use Photo Story if there was a certain topic that I could not find a video on. Here is the video I made, it's nothing educational, just a few pictures from graduation day, to work out how to use Photostory!

I really like Photostory and I will use it in the future for topics that rely heavily on information, to make them seem more interesting! For now, I find loads of educational videos on YouTube to show my students. For example, in a recent Psychology lesson with year 13, I showed them the following video of the strange situation study, for them to gain an insight into the study's methodology, and it worked well because students could directly see what happened, rather than simply reading it from a textbook.

Videos in lessons are definitely helpful, in my opinion, and from personal experience. I try to include at least one video in every lesson, because I think it definitely aids understanding!

Learning with games and quizzes!

In this post I'm going to discuss some interesting apps for making games and quizzes! Before we get into this, my Prezi went well on Wednesday! The students seemed to like it and followed it well! So a thumbs up for Prezi from me and my students! The first app I want to blog about is Hot Potatoes. Although I think the name is ridiculous, it's actually really cool! The features of this download are JCloze, JQuiz, JCross, JMatch and JMix (these names are also ridiculous). JQuiz is really good for making quizzes and the questions can be multiple-choice or short answer, which is ideal for a good variety of questions. JCloze can be used to create blank-filling exercises, which I think would be great for Psychology because there are a lot of key words and terms to learn and these can easily be confused. JCross is for creating crosswords, JMatch is to create a matching exercise and JMix is a jumbled sentence exercise. I have had a play around with this software and overall I think it's fantastic! My only issue with using it is the lack of computers in the classrooms that I normally teach in! If I was to use it, I would have to book a computer room, but I think this would be worth it if students could complete these exercises, I am definitely considering it as an end-of-term treat! My next victim of discussion is Socrative. This, I love! It allows for live activity so it's really easy to monitor students' progress to see if any individuals are having any difficulties. And although it's difficult for me to get computers, Socrative also allows you to create quizzes and print them, so I could actually use it without having to book computers! Students love worksheets so these quizzes will be very beneficial to my teaching. I think this is my favourite software for creating quizzes! Finally, Kahoot! I don't like it. It looks quite childish and I think my students would feel like they're back at primary school if I asked them to use it. The entire design is just unsuitable for further education, in my opinion. I much prefer Socrative because it's much easier to use and a lot more age-appropriate. I would not use Kahoot in my teaching due to its appearance and mainly because I prefer Socrative for a number of reasons! So after looking through them and having a play around, I am going to plan a lesson of activities for my lovely students at the end of term using Hot Potatoes and Socrative! I think they'll love it, plus it'll be a great way for me to see if they've actually learned anything from my lessons!