Week 6 - Final Reflection

This week is the final week of our course and the full time students will be leaving the university and heading out into schools in a few short months.  It's a pertinent time to reflect on what I have learnt about modern technology in the classroom and how it can be utilised.

Surveying all the technological tools and software programs available to classrooms in 2010 via the use of smartboards and the internet, I was reminded of my childhood.  I attended primary school in New Zealand from 1977 until 1985.  There were no computers!  However, our small country school did receive a video camera for a few months, and we used it to record ourselves reading stories and poems at lunchtime.  I'm not sure our teacher even thought to integrate use of the video camera into our curriculum.

Similarly, it would be possible to use the programs, tools and games that we have been introduced to this year as 'extra time' activities for early finishers or for reward systems.  But I think that the best learning value to be had from these technologies will be when they are integrated with the daily curriculum, and not just used as extra stand-alone activities.  Although it may take a bit of initial work to make this happen, I envisage that eventually,  the ultranet, for example, could be populated with activities, games and tools such as those we have been introduced to this year, and used as part of the day-to-day curriculum.  This way there will be an incremental building up of easily accessible resources. 

I personally believe that too much screen time is detrimental for young, developing brains - particularly passive screen time, where children are not required to think. However, I can see that judicial use of learning technologies, integrated with an engaging, inquiring, authentic curriculum that also involves a significant amount of hands-on, creative, and inquiry-based activities and units of work, would be of great benefit to children - particularly in stimulating their interest and motivation, and allowing them some control over the design and outcome of their work.  I look forward to being smart in the classroom with the technologies available to me when I begin teaching in 2012.