e-Learning Weekly

We need to focus on implementing current technologies into education immediately. If you wait for the future it never comes. We know that the importance of computer technologies in learning will increase. Lets incorporate what we know now and develop our skills. I believe this was a major message of Seymour Papert, when he spoke to a Japanese conference in the 1980’s and said:

“Nobody knows how computers will be used in 10 or 20 or 30 year’s time. What we do know is that they’ll be everywhere, as much as pencils. Everybody will have them all the time….And with everybody having computers all the time….. There will be new ways of learning.”

It has been almost 30 years since this speech, and we still don’t have a computer for each student in each classroom. Computer technology is playing a huge role in our working and personal lives, but is only slowly being introduced into educating our children. I feel not a lot has changed. A lot of talk about the future and technologies, but little action.

Papert suggested 2 ways to implement computers in learning:

1            Instructionism               Educating by instruction. (Old School Teaching)

2            Constructionism            Educating by construction/building/doing. (Learning)

It is this area of constructionism that computers offer so many new opportunities. Students can bring many real life examples and problems into the classroom to work on. With this tool students can easilly acquire, apply and transfer their learning, which is the ultimate goal of education.

An esteemed colleague of mine Jordfish, led me to this free Mind Mapping website http://www.bubbl.us/

I have successfully used these in my lessons, and the students have responded favourably.

As outlined below i find there are many benefits to Mind Maps

Counter to what you may read elsewhere, Australian teachers are doing a good job at using technology in the classroom. Dr Geoff Romeo expressed this in his keynote address to the Australian Computers in Education Conference:

“I think we can be especially proud of the fact that computers in education in Australia is, and always has been, more about teaching and learning, rather than technology.”

This is a very important point. When the media, an easily influenced Government and naïve members of the public all want to flood our schools with computers and technology, how will it be used? Will it improve the education of our students? Our children?

We hope the answer is ‘YES’.

Romeo paints a picture of two schools with large technological resources. One school has a strict regime of computer scheduled classes which are monitored for efficiency, proficiency and compliance. The curriculum is very rigid and restricted as they aim to achieve results.

The second school also has a wealth of technology, but the students are offered freedom and choice in their learning. The technology is used to broaden the curriculum and promote learning. Students can access an unlimited range of sources of information and express themselves in a variety of forms.

This is the right direction for Australian teachers.