Week 18: Reflecting on changes in my future oriented teaching
practice.
The purpose of this week’s blog is to critically reflect on how I have positively changed my practice during the postgraduate journey. I will be using the Gibbs’ Reflective cycle when undertaking this reflection.
I want to share with you the changes that have been made in the two classes I am in weekly, namely using Chrome books in varied ways and student-led learning. With both of these changes there has been a shift in the teacher/student roles.
Coggle, which is a mind mapping tool, has recently been introduced. The goal for students is to mind-map collaboratively using different devices.
Now I don’t have a depth of computing experience, so I was both excited and apprehensive when introducing my students to Coggle. It was new to me and I hadn’t had the time to explore it thoroughly myself. However, I jumped in and found sharing the learning process with my students to be enlightening and rewarding. The students, I’m sure, felt empowered as they were showing me how to do things. This was certainly a positive time where servant leadership was evident.
This change is still a work in progress and it is expected to take time to be fully implemented. The initial implementation stage was extremely positive. The early adopters, those technologically advanced students, grasped the concept and were self exploring the many features Coggle offers. These students were also able to well support the few students who were struggling. Again a positive student led leadership experience being exhibited.
The next phase was for the students to be working on a shared Coggle but from different devices. There were some hiccups in this phase. Some students were reluctant to work in pairs, and others were not happy with the way the person they had been paired with was remotely changing information and formatting from their computer.
The purpose of this week’s blog is to critically reflect on how I have positively changed my practice during the postgraduate journey. I will be using the Gibbs’ Reflective cycle when undertaking this reflection.
I want to share with you the changes that have been made in the two classes I am in weekly, namely using Chrome books in varied ways and student-led learning. With both of these changes there has been a shift in the teacher/student roles.
Coggle, which is a mind mapping tool, has recently been introduced. The goal for students is to mind-map collaboratively using different devices.
Now I don’t have a depth of computing experience, so I was both excited and apprehensive when introducing my students to Coggle. It was new to me and I hadn’t had the time to explore it thoroughly myself. However, I jumped in and found sharing the learning process with my students to be enlightening and rewarding. The students, I’m sure, felt empowered as they were showing me how to do things. This was certainly a positive time where servant leadership was evident.
This change is still a work in progress and it is expected to take time to be fully implemented. The initial implementation stage was extremely positive. The early adopters, those technologically advanced students, grasped the concept and were self exploring the many features Coggle offers. These students were also able to well support the few students who were struggling. Again a positive student led leadership experience being exhibited.
The next phase was for the students to be working on a shared Coggle but from different devices. There were some hiccups in this phase. Some students were reluctant to work in pairs, and others were not happy with the way the person they had been paired with was remotely changing information and formatting from their computer.
I realised we needed to relook at the concept of collaboration. I took it for
granted that our pre-discussions on what collaboration looks like and how
it is used with Coggle would be sufficient. My students were accepting of
the theory, but in practice they were not so happy! We are now in the
process of defining collaboration, the skills required as suggested in the
ITL research, and what it means to fully participate with a partner. In
order to be able to further focus on how collaboration is working with my
students, I am going to look into using the rubric in the ITL research, as it
examines whether students are working with others on a learning activity,
and the quality of that collaboration.
In the future I will be aiming for more learning activities where student work is interdependent, and requires all to contribute in order for the team to succeed, and that students are making substantive decisions together.
There were some significant positives in this change experience. Students were definitely more engaged using Coggle, outputs were higher compared to pen and paper and editing was also a lot easier. The students were highly engaged, and at differing times they were either asking to be able to continue with their work or asking when they might be able to get back to working on their Coggle.
In referring to the SAMR model (Puentedura 2010) the use of this technology (Coggle) started at Substitution and is moving into the Augmentation stage, where presentations with hyperlinks and images will be created. Due to the senior school sharing twenty four Chrome books between three classes, there were occasional timetabling issues.
In working with change, I realise how important it is to get the early adopters on board and excited, so they can then bring on the late majorities. It is exciting and rewarding to be implementing different tools with our students, Kahoot has also recently been introduced. The children are engrossed with this, often asking if they can play. At the moment I have a group making quizzes as a follow up to our geometry learning. For forty-five minutes they were totally engaged and focussed and then didn’t
In the future I will be aiming for more learning activities where student work is interdependent, and requires all to contribute in order for the team to succeed, and that students are making substantive decisions together.
There were some significant positives in this change experience. Students were definitely more engaged using Coggle, outputs were higher compared to pen and paper and editing was also a lot easier. The students were highly engaged, and at differing times they were either asking to be able to continue with their work or asking when they might be able to get back to working on their Coggle.
In referring to the SAMR model (Puentedura 2010) the use of this technology (Coggle) started at Substitution and is moving into the Augmentation stage, where presentations with hyperlinks and images will be created. Due to the senior school sharing twenty four Chrome books between three classes, there were occasional timetabling issues.
In working with change, I realise how important it is to get the early adopters on board and excited, so they can then bring on the late majorities. It is exciting and rewarding to be implementing different tools with our students, Kahoot has also recently been introduced. The children are engrossed with this, often asking if they can play. At the moment I have a group making quizzes as a follow up to our geometry learning. For forty-five minutes they were totally engaged and focussed and then didn’t
even want to stop for morning tea! I’m looking forward to exploring and
using more digital tools over time.
As suggested by R Bolstad & J Gilbert (2012) “the role of new technologies in transforming teaching and learning for the 21st century is heavily dependent on educators’ abilities to see the affordances and capacities of ICT in relation to all of the features of 21st century learning”
REFERENCES:
Supporting future-oriented learning & teaching — a New Zealand perspective Report to the Ministry of Education R Bolstad & J Gilbert with S McDowall, A Bull, S Boyd & R Hipkins New Zealand Council for Educational Research
ITL Research. (2012). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. Retrieved from https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research
Puentedura, R. (2010). SAMR and TPCK: Intro to advanced practice. Retrieved from http://hippasus.com/resources/ sweden2010/SAMR_TPCK_IntroToAdvancedPractice.pdf.
Stonehouse, A. and Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2004) Making Links: A Collaborative Approach to Planning and Practice in Early Childhood Services Pademelon Press
As suggested by R Bolstad & J Gilbert (2012) “the role of new technologies in transforming teaching and learning for the 21st century is heavily dependent on educators’ abilities to see the affordances and capacities of ICT in relation to all of the features of 21st century learning”
REFERENCES:
Supporting future-oriented learning & teaching — a New Zealand perspective Report to the Ministry of Education R Bolstad & J Gilbert with S McDowall, A Bull, S Boyd & R Hipkins New Zealand Council for Educational Research
ITL Research. (2012). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. Retrieved from https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research
Puentedura, R. (2010). SAMR and TPCK: Intro to advanced practice. Retrieved from http://hippasus.com/resources/ sweden2010/SAMR_TPCK_IntroToAdvancedPractice.pdf.
Stonehouse, A. and Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2004) Making Links: A Collaborative Approach to Planning and Practice in Early Childhood Services Pademelon Press
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