1.1 Show planning that identifies learning outcomes to be achieved through the use of educational technologies.
Whilst undergoing a SOSE Inquiry into child labour I planned and implemented a lesson that was based around a Smartboard activity. Essentially, Students used ICT to identify places in the world in which child labour is occurring. From these locations video clips provided information of what was occurring in these countries. This was aimed to engage students with the issue to a greater extent than comprehension activities and the like. Once students had viewed the videos, they then moved around stations in the classroom that provided information, or guides to access the information online that were required to further their inquiry.
Child Labour - Inquiry with ICT
1.4 Use educational technologies for administration or assessment.
English classes were required to create information texts on a topic of their choice that were to be presented in a poster (using Microsoft publisher), a booklet, or a brochure format. This Rubric is to be used to assess the students according to the Tasmanian English-Literacy K-10 Curriculum.
2.3 Support learners to develop information literate practices in their use of educational technologies.
Before researching information for an Information Text assignment, I aimed to provide students with the necessary skills to be able to discern which online sources that would be most appropriate for their task. Students completed a worksheet I created to assess a website’s credibility, accuracy, reasonableness, and objectivity. This task encouraged students to critically analyse online sources.
Evaluation of Online Resources
2.4 Use educational technologies to support learners in communicating their understandings, ideas and interpretations.
Before asking students to write a review of a book we had studied, I created a Smartboard activity to identify structural aspects and language features of a good review. Prior to the activity we had identified what these features were, now we were to dissect a review of a musical that starred one of their peers. The activity required students to higlight (on hardcopy) these features then contribute to the class performance of the task.
Smartboard Review Structure Exercise
3.1 Create learning and teaching resources.
I created a guided inquiry Proforma for students researching child labour. Students were to choose a country from a list and were provided with a list of useful websites to facilitate their inquiry. For some questions students were given a specific website to use to allow them to access information more directly. This was provided to scaffold their learning.
3.3 Contribute to shared resources locally and/or globally.
During my teaching I contributed to locally shared resources by uploading resources to our class page on the school intranet. United Nations Cyber Schoolbus documents assisted students in their Society and History Inquiry. The provision of shared resources allows students and teachers to access known texts and use them from outside the school network after logging in remotely, and for colleagues to share resources across grade/class groups.
5.2 Ensure learners can apply understanding of ethical and legal issues and acceptable use policies.
Numerous members of a Grade 7 Class I was working with had experienced instances of cyberbullying. It should be noted that individuals in the class had been on both sides of this behaviour. Using resources from the Australian Government Cybersmart website My colleague teacher and I sought to increase students awareness of the seriousness of cyberbullying, to encourage them to seek help if experiencing this bullying, and to encourage students to use technology, both at school and at home, in an ethically and legally responsible manner. We aired the ‘Let’s fight it together’ video and then a senior student who had bullied others and been bullied themselves spoke to the group about the harm that can be caused.
5.3 Model good practice using educational technologies.
In my teaching experience I seek to model good practice using educational technologies. When dealing with student submission of electronic work I have asked students to email their work and I have saved these emails to a class specific folder and backed these files up to an external hard drive. I have used a Smartboard to show students this process and too make them aware of the importance of protecting your files in case of loss or damage. I have required students to show their work saved on USB as well as their school drive to further embed this understanding and practice.
