Teacher+Page

= __Teachers Page__ =

Understandings of the project

Our joint understanding of the project is to design and create an interactive, engaging and motivating learning experience that will engage students in ICT to develop their understandings of a key concept or idea. Together we have decided to base our project around the concept of healthy eating in schools. We feel that this is a key concept that children should be exploring and is a current concern in our society. We understand that the project requires the planning of numerous learning experiences that will take students on a journey of discovery and inquiry. Our understanding of ICT integration has told us that we need to develop a learning experience that uses technology to enhance the concept rather than to teach the concept. We understand that in order to plan an effective project, we need to develop a strong pedagogical stance and teach strong content within the project. In keeping with the TPACK Framework, our technology will then be used to enhance this content, making our project engaging and motivating for students. We understand that the project needs careful planning, ongoing editing and critical reflection on behalf of both team members. We understand that the project requires an application our of understandings of different learning theories such as the social constructivist theory and the multiple intelligences theory. We are aware of the need to develop a project that will demonstrate our understandings of ICT and the learning theories behind ICT. We will endeavour to develop a project that will demonstrate all of the learning that we have experienced from the unit and will act as a strong resource for our future teaching experiences.

Social constructivism and our project

Social constructivism is a learning theory that suggests that teachers need to provide students with the necessary tools needed for their own development. The theory emphasises the importance of the social context for cognitive development hence its name, social constructivism. Social constructivism suggests that teachers need to create a context for learning where students are motivated and engaged in learning experiences that will facilitate their own learning. The theory suggests that learning is a social, collaborative activity that should be connected to students own, real life experiences. The project that we have developed aims to accommodate for the principals of social constructivism. Our project is centred on the concept of healthy eating. To abide by the principals of social constructivism, we have endeavoured to connect the concept to the student’s own experiences, by exploring healthy eating in the school community. This will allow students make the real life connections that are so important in the social constructivist learning style. We have chosen to use technologies that are present and common in student’s everyday lives. By using technologies such as facebook, mobile phones, handheld video recorders and websites, our students are able to draw real life connections between their learning and their own lives. The tasks that we have designed require students to work collaboratively to construct their own ideas and understandings about healthy eating within the school community. We feel that we have designed the project so that the teacher acts as a facilitator allowing students to work within a real life context, constructing their own ideas and opinions about the concept. We have endeavoured to apply the principals of social constructivism throughout the project to maximise their experiences that students will gain from the project.

Our use of ICT Throughout our unit we have strived to employ technologies that enhance students learning and engage them in creating their own understandings as per the social constructivist theory. We have tried to use a large range of mind tools into which students must supply the information while many of the programs simply represent it. The mind tools we have used such as edistorm, twiddla and blogs provide students with new and engaging ways of representing information and understandings. Throughout the unit we have also chosen to include video cameras and mobile phones, we chose to use these as these are examples of technologies outside of the computer and the internet, but that can be used in conjunction with mind tools. Throughout the wiki space we have discussed our use of mobile phones and justified our use of them as they are tools that students will either already be using or no doubt will be using in the future, we feel it is important for students to learn how to use mobile phones and video cameras in the correct ways. Facebook has also been used in one of our lessons. We feel that this is an incredibly important technology that students should learn to use appropriately as it is currently dominating society as a means of communicating, but it is very important that students know how to use the program safely and understand the risks. We have also included the use of the internet throughout many of the lessons to help students discover vast amounts of information, we have used the internet in the form of websites, pictures and video clips to meet the needs many different learning styles. Finally we have used the interactive whiteboard in a number of lessons throughout the unit, we feel that the interactive whiteboard is very useful and can help engage students. In two lessons we have students displaying their technological creation to the class and navigating through facebook pages, we feel that not only is the interactive whiteboard a good tool to play educational games but also to demonstrate how to use other technologies and present students creations.

 Alternative technologies For teachers or parents who may be reluctant to use mobiles phones or facebook, we would like to note some alternatives to these technologies. Replacing mobile phones with cameras still provides students with the same educational experience. Instead of calling their partner students can take photos of the menus and upload them onto a computer back in class. In this case it may be better for all students to leave the class and take photos, and the winner will be the student who uploads their photos onto their computer first. In the case of facebook, an alternative could be that students create a website for their school canteen. It would be essentially the same as a facebook fan page; it will have the same elements. As mentioned in the parents page, we have chosen to use mobile phones and facebook to teach students how to use these technologies appropriately, however we understand in some circumstances the use of these technologies may not be possible and alternatives must be provided.

Below is our project management plan, click on the image to enlarge it.



 Click on these mind maps to link to a larger image.

This is our forward planner for the seven lessons in the unit.

Reference list