Week 2 - Notes

Teaching in Digital Environments 

Before I started any readings and activities to find out my initial / prior thoughts on having an online presence in your teaching context, I answered the following questions: 

• Is it an information repository, or is it to enhance teaching and learning?  Should only be used when it enhances teaching and learning for the students, each circumstance / context should be evaluated before the use of online/technology is used. 
• Is it for blended learning (use of an online presence to enhance teaching and learning?) As above answer, yes it is for blended learning.  
• If it is blended, what proportions of face to face and online learning is optimal for your goals? This would depend on each circumstance and the different learning styles of the student. 
• Is it for a purely online course without a face to face presence? For optimal learning outcome a mix of face to face (when possible) and online would be more effective. 

These questions will determine the role you play as designer for learning. In most e-learning contexts, you will find that you will be considering all of these reasons in combination.

There are many benefits of teaching in digital environments - within the early childhood setting. I would not use digital environments all the time with the students as I think it is important for them to explore other environments while in the early childhood setting. Their home life and future will be full of digital environments but it is also important for them to learn other skills (social, natural, imaginative etc) while in a safe early childhood setting. 

Pedagogy 

Pedagogy is a teachers beliefs, teaching strategies, resources which they use when planning lessons and units of work. It scaffolds their planning and how their classroom will run. Each teacher has a different pedagogy and their pedagogy may change depending on the children, context and knew knowledge and theorists. 

The following word collage outlines what I believe would be the best pedagogy for an Early Childhood setting (with a focus on Kindergarten & Foundation).

Digital Pedagogy 

Expectations for teachers: National Professional Standards for Teachers - ICT Elaborations for Graduate Teacher Standards. 

Expectations for learners: 

Students are prepared for the 21st Century by using ICT's in the classroom and becoming familiar with these tools. They will need to use these tools in today's digital world, therefore through school they need to gain knowledge, skills and understanding of these tools.    

Education Queensland ICT Expectations for Students - these expectations help teachers plan more meaningful lessons by using ICT's.

Links between the Curriculum and Expectations: 

• Inquiring
• Creating
• Communicating 
• Ethics, Issues and ICT
• Operating ICT   

TPACK Framework

TK - Technological Knowledge 

CK - Content Knowledge 

PK - Pedagogical Knowledge 

TCK - Technological Content Knowledge 

PCK - Pedagogical Content Knowledge 

TPK - Technological Pedagogical Knowledge 

TPACK - Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge  

The amount of each knowledge area will differ depending on the lesson, teacher and students. 

Below is my understanding of the TPACK framework so far, I will be adding to this mind map as my understanding grows - 

Blooms Taxonomy

According to Blooms Taxonomy after a learning experience all learners should have learnt new skills (Psychomotor), knowledge (Cognitive) or have new attitudes (Affective) to the lesson. 

There are six categories within the Cognitive Domain - the previous category needs to bee achieved before the next one can take place: 
1. Knowledge
2. Comprehension
3. Application 
4. Analysis 
5. Synthesis 
6. Evaluation 

The Cognitive Domain was then 'revised' in 2001 changing a couple of the categories names from a noun to verbs, this change reflects a more active form of thinking. 
1. Remembering (Knowledge Acquisition);
2. Understanding (Knowledge Acquisition); 
3. Applying (Knowledge Deepening);
4. Analysing (Knowledge Deepening);
5. Evaluating (Knowledge Creation);
6. Creating (Knowledge Creation); 

Affective Domain is the students attitudes (feelings, values, motivation etc) includes the following 5 categories: 
1. Receiving Phenomena 
2. Responding to Phenomena
3. Valuing 
4. Organisation 
5. Internalising Values 

Learners skills is classified under the Psychomotor Domain which include the following categories: 
1. Perception (awareness) 
2. Set (readiness to act) 
3. Guided Response 
4. Mechanism 
5. Complex Overt Response  
6. Adaptation 
7. Origination  

Major focus on the Cognitive Domain through out e-learning but remember that all three domains are as important as one another.

Blooms taxonomy starts with the student at Lower Order Thinking stage and are slowly built upon up through the categories so the student in the end extends their knowledge through Higher Order Thinking. The following quote really helps me understand how the categories build on top of each other. "Before we can understand a concept we have to remember itBefore we can apply the concept we must understand itBefore we analyse it we must be able to apply itBefore we can evaluate its impact we must have analysed itBefore we can create we must have remembered, understood, applied, analysed, and evaluated." 
Andrew Churches (2013) retrieved from: http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+-+Introduction.

Andrew Churches also explains how Blooms taxonomy links in with ICT.
  Linking Blooms with ICT - Andrew Churches 2009

Edward DeBono

Edward DeBono's 6 thinking hats: 
Yellow - Optimistic; why will this work? 
Blue- Process, Overview; whats the big picture? 
Black- Negative; why won't this work? 
White - Facts & Figures, Neutral Opinion; what are the facts? 
Green - Creative; what if we? 
Red- Intuitive; what do I feel about this? 

Working Legally, Safely & Ethically Online 

A very basic ethic is that everything needs to be referenced if it does not belong to you. I think it is also important to make the students aware of the following safety concerns when they are working online or socialising online.  

NetAlert - is a government document that I think is important for teachers etc to read as well as parents who's children regularly access the internet at home. 

Child Safety - Children who use the internet can be exposed to pornography, sexually explicit texts, offensive/ hateful language or texts, violence and encouragement of illegal and dangerous activities.  

Physical Danger - Stranger Danger; the same rules should apply as in a real-ife in person situation. Do not talk to anyone you don't no online, do not meet up with people you meet online by yourself. These conversations are a must with children.  

Harassment & Bullying - includes teasing, rumours, being made fun of, defamation, sending unwanted message, these are no longer just in the school yard but can follow the students home through internet chat rooms, social networking site and text messages etc. 

Privacy - Children need to know that if they supply personal information over the internet that they or their families (depending on whose information it is) can be spammed or used for fraudulent acts. It is important that children are aware that all photos and information placed on the internet are able to be accessed even when deleted, it is in cyber space forever for anyone to see.  

Other links for understanding what is legal, safe and ethical - related to what I need to consider when writing this blog: 
http://education.qld.gov.au/web/schools/riskman.html
http://ppr.det.qld.gov.au/corp/governance/Pages/Intellectual-Property-and-Copyright-Use.aspx
http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/scw/go/pid/946
http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/scw/go/pid/944