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.