Since beginning my study in the Bachelor of Learning Management Early Childhood it somehow blew me away with all the talk of technology. I was constantly asking myself ‘What and why?’ What does technologies have to do with teaching children? I am now to realise that after only a few weeks in that teaching children will now revolve a great deal around technology and not as much around the old way of pen to paper, teacher to black board and textbook to textbook, as we are slowly but quickly evolving to now be in line with the current technology within the 21st Century. As now being known as a Learning Manager and not a teacher only says to me that technology is and will be a major priority while teaching children of all ages. With introducing new technology experiences into students everyday learning will not only broaden there knowledge but also open doors up for new learning styles and experiences while attending school and allowing everyone to become more interactive within the classroom. As children these days rely so much on different types of technology whether it be mobile phones, i pods or the internet to name a few. Therefore by introducing more technology learning tools into their daily curriculum will encourage them to become more involved in topics and show more interests as they enjoy these technology experiences while at home therefore will now also at school.
Firstly when it comes to new technology experiences I have never had an interest in Blogs before but now see the benefits of using them within teaching. As Blogs open up the doors for many things within schooling from firstly student, teacher and peer interaction through Blogs whereby extra information on subjects and homework solutions can be posted to help out those students who would prefer or require some extra help while at home. As demonstrate in Week 3: Applying Digital Pedagogies 1 Natallie shows a prime example of how well Blogs can work for students who want to better their studies and do some more work while at home. Therefore allowing the teacher to post new example questions, sample tests ect, to help all students in many different subjects. Another great way to use a Blog within the schooling system would be to have parent teacher blogs whereby teachers can post any important information from notes, newsletters, updates and classroom learning progress ect and parents can read this and reply if need be or post any concerns or issues they may be having. This is a great way for parents to become more involved in their children’s learning as they will have a better understand of what they are learning and doing while at school. Blogs will be the way of future connections with learning while at home and keeping up to date with what is happening at school therefore becoming a great communication tool among students, teachers and parents.
With introducing Interactive WhiteBoards into schools has now allowed teachers to really open up their own learning knowledge and expand it onto the students, as these boards allow you as there Learning Manager to show and do so many more creative things then just writing with white chalk on the blackboard. Interactive WhiteBoards allow all children within the classroom to become more interactive while learning as students are able to use the wand also and do different activities displayed on the board. Also teachers can now upload the internet, PowerPoint presentations, graphs ect straight from their computers onto the board without having to get out the projectors whereby allowing more time for learning and less time for setting up. With working in childcare I get to talk to many school age children’s parents and teachers therefore have ask them their thoughts on the new Interactive WhiteBoards and so far all are very impressed at what can be thought through the board and what as a teacher can be shown to the students to learn. The only down fall some teachers have had is that they have not yet had enough training therefore not being able to use the boards to their full potential, but have said that once they know all the ins and outs then there classroom will be full of new learning experiences for the students to benefit from. Therefore I believe that the Interactive WhiteBoards will not only be a great new learning tool for students but also a new way to encourage student interaction within the classroom. So by getting more students involved will allow the Learning Manager to find the different learning styles among the student to then be able to extend on these thereby allowing all students to learn to the best of their ability as every student learns differently.
I found that PowerPoint’s, Google Earth and Voki’s will also become a effective learning tool for students to use as they all allow students to use their imaginations and become creative while designing a presentation, finding different places around the world or even getting important messages across. With PowerPoint presentation students of all ages would be able to have a go and use this program to design a presentation on a topic which can then be uploaded onto the Interactive WhiteBoards for the whole class to watch. I found that when back in school the only time PowerPoint was used was if you did a computer subject, but now because computers are becoming more of a part of students learning they will be learning PowerPoint at a younger age therefore being able to implement it and use it for assignments. When it comes to Google Earth this is a great tool for learning about geography as now teachers can bring this information up onto the Interactive WhiteBoards for the whole class to see and be able to study different countries around the world and learn about them more clearly instead of having your own Atlas and having to find it all yourself. With allowing the students to see how much you can do with Google Earth will allow them to become more interested in what is being thought, instead of following along to what the teacher is telling you to find. Therefore Google Earth will be a fantastic tool while learning about the world. Lastly Voki’s, I had never seen one of these before but have found them to be a very creative way to get a message across and students of all ages will be able to use these for whatever reason as they are so simple and quick to design. They may put them into a PowerPoint presentation for example to get their message on a topic across by inserting some creativity into their presentation. I have found these three tools to be very interesting when it comes to putting them into place within a learning curriculum, as students of all ages will benefit from them all and will be able to implement them and use them in their learning. By opening up students imaginations can lead to many new things when it comes to learning therefore by allowing students to demonstrate this through new learning tool programmes will show the Learning Manager what each and every student is truly capable of.
When it comes to me now becoming a Learning Manager in the 21st Century allows me to look deeper into many new technology experiences out there and firstly implement them into my learning style thereby then being able to implement them into the students learning knowledge. By allowing new technology experiences into the classroom I believe will make a better more happy classroom as all students within the class will find that they are particularly interested in certain ways of learning therefore allowing me the Learning Manager to finds these styles and implement them all into a daily learning curriculum to help all students in the class learn to the best of their ability. So by having these new technologies introduced into the student’s daily curriculum will help them be better equipped and better learners with more knowledge for their future development.
