The use of technology is essential in the contemporary classroom if students are to be highly skilled in the use of ICT to share, use, develop and process information in this digital age ( (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs [MCEETYA], 2008)). As young people are becoming increasingly dependent on technologies to communicate, gather information, and extend social experiences (Spires, 2008, p.497) it is essential that our education system evolves to meet these new demands. Schools must incorporate ICT as critical teaching and learning tools.
The use of technology can be the catalyst that changes a teacher’s educational philosophy from instructivist to constructivist, moving to student centred learning activities that are increasingly more complex in nature and can change the way learners and educators operate, learn and interact (Way & Webb, 2007; Digital Education Advisory Group [DEAG], 2013). Teachers can provide flexible options for the diverse range of students and adopt strategies that promote more authentic learning that can be shared with peers and others beyond the classroom.
With this change in approach comes the need for teachers to develop their own technological knowledge in order to ensure that the integration of technology is meaningful and adds value to the learning. The TPACK framework (Koehler & Mishra, 2009) can assist teachers in understanding the relationship between the three core components of teaching with technology: content, pedagogy and technology.
To ensure the use of technology will add value to learning, it is important that one does not focus on the actual technology itself or the problems associated with learning how to use the technology (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 71). Rather, teachers need to focus on how the technology will add value to the learning. The process of consciously identifying the affordances of learning tasks and the e-learning tools used to facilitate learning is an important one that may not be widely understood by many teaching professionals. It is imperative that teachers understand the educational affordances of the tools they select to ensure that the identified cognitive requirements of the task can be met (Bower, 2008, p.9). Temporal affordance combined with access control affordance is of particular interest in the classroom setting as students are able to extend their learning beyond the classroom and receive feedback at any time from teachers and peers. The internet and digital technologies provide almost instant access to information, enabling students to research, analyse data and connect with other learners (DEAG, 2013, p. 10 ) at any time and place.
Whilst the use of technology can provide the tools with which to create multimodal products to demonstrate and share learning, increasing use of instructional software is being harnessed to support teaching and learning in the classroom. Five broad instructional software functions highlight the use of technology to provide opportunities for drill and practice, personalised tutorials, simulation, instruction and problem solving (Roblyer & Doering, 2013, p. 92). These various software functions can keep students engaged and motivated and can be used to reinforce concepts and learning introduced in class. This type of software is particularly useful for students with special learning needs, especially if combined with assistive technologies.
As technologies evolve, teachers and students will need to adapt to new ways of doing things. The Australian Curriculum highlights the importance of students developing ICT general capabilities in all areas of schooling in order to transform the ways they think and learn and to give them greater control over how, where and when they learn (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2010).
References:
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (2010)
Bower, M. (2008) Affordance analysis - matching learning tasks with learning technologies. Educational Media International, 45:1, 3-15, DOI: 10.1080/09523980701847115
Digital Education Advisory Group [DEAG] (2013). Beyond the classroom: A new digital education for young Australians in the 21st century. Retrieved from http://apo.org.au/files/Resource/deag_beyond_the_classroom_2013.pdf
Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60-70.
Spires, H. (2008). Having Our Say: Middle Grade Student Perspectives on School, Technologies, and Academic Engagement. Journal of research on technology in education, 40(4), 497 -515 DOI:10.1080/15391523.2008.10782518
Way, J. & Webb, C. (2007). A framework for analysing ICT adoption in Australian primary schools. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. 23(4), 78-82.
Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs [MCEETYA] (2008) Melbourne Declaration on educational goals for young Australians.
Retrieved from http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf
Roblyer, M., & Doering, A. (2013). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching: International Edition, 6th Edition, Pearson.
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