Interactive whiteboards(IWB)

What is it and how does it help teachers and students?? Well the interactive whiteboard is a form of digital pedagogy that helps teachers demonstrate all sorts of key subject content to their learner and through its interactive display, engage the students using its touch screen functions.
The application though is a little difficult as it requires practice and patience, but in my humble perspective it can be very useful. Steve Krause’s blog criticised the practicality of an IWB vs the classical use of a normal blackboard or projector system with a desktop computer or both, considering they basically perform the same function. Alternatively, I recently came across IWB in my teaching practices at Stellenbosch University and I found that the interactiveness of whiteboards are a very handy feature, otherwise not provided by the projectors or blackboards. That is the ability to stand away from your desk, to maintain a certain level of eye contact with your students without constantly having to look at the computer screen or the stand hovering over the keyboard in order to change from one slide to the next. The same principle applies to the blackboards, ones back doesn't face the students when presenting a concept diagrammatically, not to mention they are not as messy as blackboards and one does not have to go hunting in the middle of class for a stick of chalk. These two main comparisons promotes IWB as a system of group interaction whereby students collaborate with one another, engage in group discussion and participation. Exemplified in that IWBs provide a means for teachers to write out ideas, answers and make mind maps in the class based on the students feedback, which can be later provided to them via electronic means.  The resulting effect is that students will feel they had an interactive role in their own education, effectively motivating them to maintain a good level of participation in the class.
Although I advocate the use of an IWB as a teacher I have to consider if it can be used as an effective and transformative tool. There are admittedly other tools such as remotes, that challenge the efficacy of whiteboards, that can be used in conjunction with computer-projector based systems to in effect nullify the use of an interactive whiteboard, but this is not the only concern challenging the use of IWB. Concerns that are oriented around the use of IWB as a transformative tool include, teachers focussing more on the technology than on their learners resulting in loss of conceptual understanding of the subject content or the focus placed on mundane activities and the time needed to perform interactive board tasks, where the students need to take turns, rather than something that might not involve the whiteboard but provide a better understanding of the material.
Ultimately the requirements for the effective use of a whiteboard is up to the teachers dedication to developing their classroom pedagogical strategies and willingness to learner and understands the workings of the IWB.

Meaningful involvement

Quintessentially as teachers, it is our responsibility to heighten our student’s well being, and use any and all means at our disposal to prevent degradation of that well being. But what does this mean? Now I’m going to try tying Philosophy of Education, Learner and Learner Support, and digital pedagogy together.
Every student has the right to be in class, to listen and learn but it has to be set up in a way that they want to learn and want to get in involved, in dialog with the teacher, and the other learners (Vygotsky’s social constructivism). This is expressed well in   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MwbVltsHHk which says as teachers, we need to ‘create an environment of open communication’, where teachers not only parrot the info to the students for protecting themselves from questions they cannot answer, but to embrace the questions, take a chance at analysing  problems with the students, find information, evaluate it, and find a solution together, in the context of a safe democratic classroom (pro-social bonding and critical thinking environment).
Teachers must not only partake in the learning aspect but guide it to certain areas of the curriculum that need to be prioritized, thereby promoting balance with academics, social aspects and behaviour of the class. It is all about how we as teachers engage the students. Consider the article ‘Applying Mindfulness to Mundane Classroom Tasks’. The teacher didn’t sit around trying ineffectively to teach or continue coddling the learners, and then blame the lack of attention and learning on the learners. Instead the teacher changes the classroom dynamic completely by engaging the students curiosity (colourful bowls) with water and promoting a sense of responsibility (don’t spill on the floor). Along with the curiosity come questions (why was it there? why is it not there? can we do it again?), therefore with the constant changing, the setup can maintain an atmosphere of dialog, even asking the students questions about what they would like to see in the classroom can stimulate their creativity and feel like a part of the lesson. Abby Wills, in her work with teachers states “I encourage honest, fearless contemplation on what is and is not working in the classroom. This simple exercise can help you discover the mundane moments and tasks in your own classroom that are just waiting for your creativity to transform them into mindfull learning opportunities”.  
Lastly, the creativity teacher’s use does not only extent to the social aspects of the classroom and the material presented but also the mediums one uses to present the material. Teachers are responsible for using different forms of pedagogy to engage their learners, one of the more prominent ones being digital but in that teachers are responsible for teaching learners how to do effective research themselves and prepare them for their future.

Project Engage

When it comes to learners learning on their own it’s often considered by teachers to be a bad idea. They often fear that learners will not actually learn, but will resign themselves to procrastination and negative learning practices. This is already occurring in our schools today, with teachers who are unable to engaging and inspiring learners to learn. However learners have proven that they can learn on their own, especially with the Independent project. Yusef Waghid stated that “people are free moral beings who attempt to influence each other’s opinions by engaging in a public dialog”, which I believe to be the key principle that the independent project is trying to utilise.

The independent project utilises the communication between learners that come together, to generate dialog where they can exchange and discuss ideas. The learners do not simple study (memorise) material or facts to build their knowledge, but actually explore the facts, more so than they would in a classroom atmosphere. This is not the fault of the teachers, as they have large groups to inspire and at the same time a set curriculum they have to complete before year end or exams. This often means that learners who require a bit more attention slip through the cracks. The beauty of this program is that it removes the restrictions of the classroom (such as isolation of the learner from the world) and allows the learners an opportunity to inspire each other, learn what interests them, and to learn the same information presented in the classroom in a way that relates to them (like study the probability math associated with poker).

One of the key elements of/contributors to the success of this form of education is the use of internet. The internet provides a global network of learning through communication, social networking, and search engines and provides information to the fingertips of learners studying in these forms of communities/programs. The advantage of the independent project is that it is constrained by the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) literacy standards presented in the classrooms that limits the learners and teacher’s ability to engage with each other using digital technologies, whereas such interactions are encouraged in the Independent project (to expand the knowledge and the community).

The project also provides a sense of independence from the classroom dynamic. The freedom from the classroom teaches learners to teach themselves, to gather information, to test and finding new methods of learning through accessing different resources available to them. Any learners who might be academically strong or weak may partake and help each other, challenge each others attitudes to learning, and ultimately encourage each other’s thirst to learn and partake.

Just Another Resource

Having been to secondary school (no social media) and 3 years at university (with social media) I have a fairly good understanding of both the use of social media as a tool and the lack there of. To be frank it’s helped me out on more than one occasion, although aware of the concerns raised by Vicki Davis, I have to agree with the premise of Social Media Myth.

There are so many dangers associated with social media these days it’s ridiculous we have hacking, predators, sending letters to the wrong person, generating enemies through inaccurate or inappropriate posts and comments online and generating “ammunition” that could be used against you in whichever career you choose (politics, teaching, cooperate….). This begs the questions that Vicki Davis used in her blog “Should we teach letter-writing in the classroom?”, “Should we teach email in the classroom?” and “Should we teach social media in the classroom?”.  It is precisely because of the dangers that I would encourage the use and education about email and social media in the classroom.

Social networking is ever growing (diary sites, blogs, and chat sites) which provides places for teens to stay in touch, communicate about recent events or meet new and interesting people. This turns a single edged knife to a double edged sword, as often students post and young children share personal information like full names, addresses (home and schools) and photos (binge drinking and revealing) that in effect provides a virtual shopping ground for predators. Educating students on the appropriate use of social media will help them to not only recognize these dangers and protect themselves (and their freedom on the internet), but also how to communicate with people in a professional capacity, which is useful throughout their lives.

Teachers and parents are afraid though that the students will become distracted and therefore lose out on their education (Social Media Myth). Personally when one is in varsity there is no time to social network in class besides the odd “Happy birthday!!!!” on Facebook. Teachers are now using social networking to better engage the students in the theme of the subject content, through email/ discussions, asking questions, connecting class rooms, keeping students and parents updated to school events. The networking is not limited to tearcher-students but also provides a format for student-students interaction, like group chats on whatsapp, where students can support each other through inspirational messages or the ever popular “Guys the projects due tomorrow! or Please can you send me your notes?”. Personally I find Google Docs share application a very useful application that allows many students, busy on a project, to access and edit a shared document from anywhere at anytime (especially useful to those groups that find it difficult to get together at a specific time and place). Social media and networking like Twitter, Blogs and Instagram are all useful in that it allows students to share thoughts and ideas, helping each other to understand different concepts and engage in academic and cultural matters.

Digital Pedagogy vs Online Teaching

Recently online teaching has become a very large field on the World Wide Web, but how does it relate to the digital pedagogy. Both use digital tools to convey information to the learners but pedagogy is not synonymous with teaching. Teaching is pedagogy in the sense that when a teacher explains content on a subject to a learner in a format that invokes a learning response/interest in them which allows the learners to retain the knowledge and employ it in their daily lives. Teaching online can be pedagogical but extensive investigation, practice and research need to be employed to develop study material that will facilitate learning, especially when the classroom atmosphere is not present. The lack of which would result in a program that students will become complacent and disinterested in. The Learning Management System (LMS), is a prime example of a poorly constructed online learning system according to Sean Michael Morris.

LMS is a software system used by educational institutes to manage record, distribute educational material for online courses, administration and assess student’s progress towards training goals. Proving very popular in the business context by providing a format that allows it to train employees in a fast and inexpensive manner (to increase productivity and grow the business).

Sean Michael Morris argued that the LMS is a premature system that didn’t challenge the internet and was made with the least innovative classroom practice, augmented by the perception that one can easily upload the materials (assignments, lecture notes, video and audio)onto a network and online learning will occur. This is not pedagogical, as it does not provide a meaningful or sustained learning environment. The lack of these two aspects and proper classroom interactions negatively impacts the development of learner to a state of meta-cognitive reflection (defined by Swartz and Perkins as “becoming aware of your thought processes in order to then control them when appropriate”).

 This is where the digital pedagogue surpasses the limitations of LMS in this regard, as it still provides an atmosphere for communication and dialog not attained by most online teaching methods (Jesse Stommel said “it’s a way of engaging the world not the world itself”). These exceptions to the format that allows online teaching as Sugata Mitra (a professional educator) demonstrated with the “granny cloud” program (so called by the learners) in India, where teachers use media to educate impoverished community school. Digital pedagogy is not something that can be copied pasted and instantly have the same effect; it is a momentary, meaningful exchange between teachers, teachers-students and between students in order for learning to happen.

Digital Pedagogy in Schools

Starting the PGCE program this year has introduced me to many new concepts. One of the instrumental concepts is pedagogy, which is a method of teaching in the classroom.

Based on the text (http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/5/3/000106/000106.html) people have the preconceived notion that “digital pedagogy” is strictly associated with the use of computers but this is not the case. Digital pedagogy is a method of teaching that uses modern technologies or techniques to educate learners, an example of which is the digital humanities. The digital humanities is an area of teaching that incorporates both the humanities (study of culture through academic subjects) and the use of digital media (not always), as an additional tool in teaching methods, to invoke alternative or alien perspectives on a particular concept (Edu-hacking). 

I believe that hybrid pedagogical perspective on teaching is well suited to modern education purposes in our society, considering the influx of technology into our lives. Digital tools should used in moderation. Jerome McGann described computers as interpretive machines that are a means to carry out his current and future projects but not as the creator of the research ideas. It is a tool that allows the classroom to remain up to date on current events and developments in the subject at that point in time but not to distract leaners or cause them to become "lazy". There are a number of other issues being debated such as of how computers affect learner’s literacy and cognitive development.

Sean Latham explained that “The digital text seemingly makes reading too easy, allowing one to search out specific terms without the labour required to place them in their proper context", after he found that his students weren’t actually reading the prescribed book in the proper context but rather referring to the digital notes they were given and using search engines. Therefore application needs to be put in place that prevents this abuse of technology and stimulate the students to engage in class with each other. Brad Pasaneks applied a method of instructing the students to read the material first and during the class before making the digital notes available in class which stimulated the students to answer and discuss the content. The non-digital tools should continue to be utilized as many concepts require a translation of the subject language into a format the students can relate to and form their own opinions on. The non-digital tools bring a social dynamic that allows students to put forward their opinions for discussion and generally stimulate each other’s learning potential through public dialogue.