Creative classroom techniques, incorporating technology promote a more productive and enriched learning environment. Furthermore, research has shown that creative classroom techniques that incorporate technology promote a more productive and enriched learning environment (Department of Education, 2010). Further research indicates that twenty percent of the current college population began using the Internet by the time they were sixteen years of age. Therefore, it is clear that today, students are coming to class with more skills and most students use technology for their projects. Probably the technology tool used most frequently by students is the World Wide Web. Kearsley and Schniederman (1998) declared that for learners to be truly engaged in learning in an information communication technology learning environment, they need to relate to a real-world, bona fide problem situation that is muddled and ill-structured. this means that they need to generate solutions to problems and then provide a solution back into the real-world, making the learning journey real. According to the department of Education (2010), when ICT is used as a tool for learning it enables the students to proficiently and successfully access digital information to support investigating issues, solving problems and decision making. In addition, it produce creative solutions to support learning and develop new understandings in areas of learning. It also enables students to communicate collaboratively in local and global environments. Lastly, it develops new thinking and learning skills to support learning. This will ensure that students will become life long learners. (Department of Education, 2010)
In addition there are many sites that are perfect to be integrated into the classroom. The fist that was introduced to me was a blog. I realised that blogs can be used in many ways to enhance the learning experience and also as a communication tool with parents. It is a simple and easy tool to use. A blog can be used to share the student's thoughts about a specific topic. This will allow collaborative learning, creative writing, annalistic thoughts and also peer comments. The students will have the opportunity to reflect critically on their learning and to give feedback other students. As outlined by Marzano and Pickering (2006), to create opportunities for students to work in groups toward a common goal can help students feel accepted by their peers. Moreover, a blog can be used by students to collect data on science experiments. The blog can then be used to display information gathered and using graphs and charts to explain relationships of the data. However, students can also use other students' blogs to access information. Although a blog is a very effective and fun way for the students to reflect on learning, it is also important to remember to monitor the students' blogs. Before students start their blogs the teacher should give the students strict procedures and rules to follow for blogging. This will ensure the students know the guidelines to follow when blogging.
The second technological tool I investigated was a wiki. After I gained more knowledge about wikis, I came to the realisation that it is an exceptionally useful tool for getting students more involved in the classroom. It is an easy tool to use and students will find it appealing and fun to use. Furthermore, it also encourages participation, collaboration and interaction. A wiki can be used by students to display and discuss their work with other students. Wiki's are great to organize knowledge and also toconcolidate and refine knowledge, because other students can edit a entry on wiki. It is also excellent for peer feedback and editing which will help students improve their writing skills. Moreover, Snowman et al. (2009, p. 415) stated: "..these now applications may play a key role in the classroom of the future, where knowledge creation will take centre stage as the primary form of emergent intelligence." Therefore, I believe a wiki is a tool that can be used together with other pedagogical approaches to ensure a rich and collaborative learning environment for the students.
The third tool that caught my attention was Prezi's. Prezi is a zooming presentation that took presentation to a new and exciting stage. By using a Prezi you are able to combine concept maps, posters and presentations into one integrated unit. With a Prezi the teacher can show the overall picture but also zoom in to give a more explicit explanation of the topic or word. For instance, it allows the teacher or student to create non-linear presentations where it is possible to zoom in and out of a visual map containing words, links and images. Students can use Prezi's as a collaborative tool to present a given task. It is also great to transform knowledge to develop new understandings. Students will be more engaged when using Prezi, because it is a fun way to be interactive in collaborative tasks.
Although a PowerPoint is not as exciting as a Prezi, it is still a powerful and useful tool to incorporate into a lesson. It is used for presenting information in a dynamic slide show format. PowerPoints and Pretzi's are both excellent tools to use for visual learners. However, it can become a mighty tool for auditory learners with the teacher's explanation.
The fourth tool I want to mention is a Voki. While I created my own Voki, I realised the many possibilities there are in the classroom to use a voki. As I mentioned before, it is a speaking avatar, a digital representation of a person or being. A Voki can add a more personal element to the online classroom. It is a magnificent tool for both visual and auditory learners. it is a tool that will capture the students' attention and assure their participation. However, a Voki is not a tool to use in every lesson. It can be used by the teacher to introduce a new topic. Furthermore, for a student presentation it will be a very effective tool to get the shy students involved or to encourage them to share their opinions and ideas.
The fifth and final tool is a Photo Story. Although there are many tools that can achieve almost the same result, my favourite is Photo Story. It uses still pictures to create a move with audio and text. It is a way students can input their thoughts and opinions into a movie. Moreover, it is especially conductive for the Social Studies classrooms, since different types of primary sources can be used as still images. When students create their own narrative, Photo Story is an extraordinary tool that engages them in the process of writing History. It focuses the students to use primary sources as images and then interpret their meaning through text and audio, making the entire movie a secondary source (Leonard, 2009). A Photo Story is also useful for students to present knowledge to an audience.
As outlined above it is obvious that technology is a very important part of education. However, a vital aspect that should be remembered by the teachers is that ICT is not supposed to replace other learning strategies. ICT should be used in conjunction with pedagogical theories. When ICT is used in the correct ratio in the classroom it will ensure meaningful learning experiences for all the students and as a result create lifelong learners.
References:
Department of Education. Resourcing the curriculum. viewed 26 August 2010 http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/
Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement theory. A framework for technology-
Leonard, S. Photo Story in the Social Studies classroom. Viewed 25 August 2010 http://cnx.org/content.
Snowman, J., Dobozy, E., Scevak, J., Bryer, F., Barlett, B., & Biehler, R. (2009). Psychology.
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