Being involved in a department that is very advanced in modern thinking and being leaders rather than followers I would like to take time to inform you about where the carpentry department is heading by way of introducing even more technology as part of learning;
· E portfolio- This is where our senior staff have introduced the students to record keeping by way of electronics through visual photos taken daily and weekly entries making up there personal portfolio both for evidence and future reference.
· Clickers-These are wireless hand held units which results are known instantly by the facilitator. We are about to set up some question sheets with six multi choice answers.
· Net-books –Recently purchased a class set in order to help carpentry be more independent with the ability to look up information as a group to get the latest rules and regulations as often students don’t need to retain all knowledge but just know where to find it.
· Tool Safety - In conjunction with some I.T students we have set up some power tool safety, maintenance and correct use footage which is to be used in a format suitable for iPhones and iPads along with a computer version. This is very exciting as some of this we can load onto You Tube and it also shows how innovative we are.
Some great initiatives Kevin. It is excellent that the tool safety resources will be in a portable format - is it MP4?
ReplyDeleteWould you say the emphasis is on mastery learning in using these technologies or do they also support other forms of learning? How does the technology enhance cognitive processing of information and the development of knowledge?
I get a little twitchy by innovation if the technology is the driver as opposed to technology being used to support the teaching approaches you want to use. So if coming at the innovation from the pedagogical angle - what were the reasons for choosing these technologies? Also, how will you know if they are effective for learning?
You may be interested in this research about clickers - attrition rates were higher in classes using clickers although the study involved large university classes. See: Exploring the Pedagogical Effectiveness of Clickers
ReplyDeleteMy advice when teachers are exploring technologies for use in the classroom is to look carefully into the research evidence before spending lots of time, $ and energy investing in the technologies.
EDC can guide your dept with the design and development of teaching and learning approaches, including assisting with scoping innovations which will support your student groups.
Kevin what are your plans as a teacher for using more flexible approaches in your classroom? At the moment, you have informed about the dept as a whole but it is not clear how you as a teacher are going to include flexibility in yourclasses with your students. To make it easier perhaps you could describe one lesson or resource or module you use in your classroom, and how this is designed to incorporate the aspects of flexibility covered in this course and the five dimensions of flexible learning by Casey and Wilson (the What is Flexible Learning? reference)- that way you will provide me with a clearer indication of your plan for flexible learning.
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