Week One

Welcome to Naomi Wright's blog for ICT and Pedagogy, course 4001EDN.

Todays lecture/tutorial was daunting, an advanced course, how will I do this??? As the session progressed my confidence returned as I recognised and understood some of the areas being discussed. Topics that were introduced and discussed today included: Flipped classroom, how tools can be used educationally, ICT certificate, Wii and Xbox Kinect for education, smart tables, moshi monsters, LMS (Learning Managment Systems) e.g. Bb blackboard at Griffith, open content (sharing resources), mobile learning, simschool.org, club penguin and The Learning Place.

I am looking forward to experiencing the concept of the Flipped classroom. Throughout the last two years we have been learning the concepts of constuctivist teaching. At University we experience the majority of our learning in a lecture based, teacher focused setting. It will be fantastic to have our learning student centered. Experiencing, investigating and researching ICT, Educational and Digital Technologies will assist in developing my skills needed for the classroom.

The example of using World WarCraft to teach a unit of work is a brilliant idea. I have three boys that are very excitable and focussed when playing their games, wether it be Xbox, Wii, Playstation, iPods or their iPad. When it comes to school work their enthusiasm drops and their attention is short lived. All three of my boys have learning difficulties. I can see how utilising a resource such as World WarCraft in the classroom would benefit in their learning as they would be using critical thinking skills, building confidence as they can take risks and be excited to be a part of this world. In traditional teaching methods I find that my children are not willing to participate and take risks. They are afraid of being put down, not living up to expectations and what their peers think of them.

The discussion and presentation on The Learning Place was of a lot of interest to me today. I have experienced this site from a student perspective with my son who is currently in year seven. His teachers have put the class homework, English, Mathematics and Science work for the term on the class Learning Place site. The teachers have included drop boxes, step by step instruction and interactive games for the students to continue with learning at home as well as in the classroom. I am excited about being able to use The Learning Place from a teacher perspective. Having access to many resouces, ideas and being able to communicate and collaborate with other teachers/professionals will be invaluable.

In todays tutorial we set up our Gmail account. My address is naomicwright@gmail.com.

Week one has definately given me a lot to think about!