Assignment 2 - ICT and Indigenous Perspectives

The forthcoming National Curriculum favours an emphasis not only on the constructive use of ICT for learning, but also indigenous perspectives. I would like to discuss how I plan to integrate both of these into my practice as an English teacher.

Firstly, a word on the role of culture in society and the shaping of identity. Seana Moran, in 'Vygotsky and Creativity' says that "There is a tendency to relate to environments as if they were fixed or pre-determined, and to see people as 'being in', rather than creating the environment." (2010, p.201) Breaking down these assumptions is what I consider to be one of my fundamental roles as an English teacher. As a Melbourne school teacher, my class will be quite geographically and perhaps conceptually removed from the culture of many indigenous communities. Certainly, wealthier schools are able to go on excursions to learn of other cultures, but what about the rest of us?

Text selection will play a large role in the exploration of culture...

In addition to digital literacy, 21st Century English places a heightened emphasis on visual literacy and there are many digital-visual environments where students can learn about indigenous perspectives; the NGV has their collection online as well as further educational resources, and there are also video clips and websites about indigenous culture readily accessible to anyone.

I was lucky enough to undertake a teaching placement in the Anangu Lands of South Australia. Literacy levels in the school were extremely poor but I quickly realised that the students were really into photos and videos so I set them a task to capture what life was like in their community. See below:



I plan to use this video in my English classes in Melbourne. As a text, it provides a unique starting point for discussing the various aspects of life in this community, as well as analysis of what is valued - from the students' music choices to what they have visually captured. I would look to set my students a similar task to capture still and moving footage of their own lives, cultures and communities and put it together with Movie Maker or a similar program. Just as I would show the Indulkana (Anangu) sudents' video to my Melbourne class, I would send the Melbourne videos back to Indulkana for the teachers there to use as resources. As I am lucky enough to already have contact with an indigenous community school, I would look into creating penpals (emailing or blogs) between the classes. This will provide an engaging reason to practice literacy for the Indulkana students, as well as the Melbourne students (depending on their year level) to develop a wide array of skills depending on what I wanted to develop.

Connery, M. C., John-Steiner, V., & Marjanovic-Shane, A. (Eds.). (2010). Vygotsky and creativity: A cultural-historical approach to play, meaning making, and the arts. New York, NY: Peter Lang. (Book)

Choose Your Own Adventure

I recently heard about an ICT approach that is surprisingly basic in terms of the technology being used, but has the potential to really engage students with learning and I can't wait to put it into practice.

Essentially, Choose Your Own Adventure is an English assessment task (for younger year levels) that uses power point to respond to a class text. After reading the novel/film, students must locate specific turning points within the story and speculate on what might have happened if the protagonist made different choices. Following a brainstorm, students can present their hypotheses in different power point slides, summarising the point in the story and then providing two options to proceed, before hyperlinking the two options to different slides. In this way, students are developing written and oral language (as they present the final power point to their classmates), expanding their ICT technical repertoire and being given a contextualised environment in which to develop skills in prediction and creativity.

Comment on Tess' post

I'm wondering what the opportunities for gaming are in History? When you think of all the historically based computer games that are out there (Where in time/ the world is Carmen Sandiago?, Age of Empires...), I wonder if they are being overlooked as a useful and potentially incredibly engaging tool for teaching history. James Paul Gee says that "video games are largely just problem-solving spaces and if people found them difficult to learn or unengaging, the companies that make them would go out of business." Therefore, the use of these texts (and there must be many more that are specifically designed for educational purposes) could be a rich platform for exploring other cultures and histories, with students seeing the results play out in 'real time'. I am sure it would be possible to incorporate assessment tasks that combine the gaming, or merely to use them as an initial engagement tool or reward for the completion of book work. Variety is the key.

See the comment in context here:

Cyber bullying

The students and my placement school were part of a cyber bullying video coordinated by the government.
Here it is:
http://youtu.be/TtEGAcLBTTA
It's pretty exciting to have a video that is not only mercifully free of 80s synthesizers in the background, but is up to date with online threats posed to students (and how some students are using ICT to pose a threat to others). The power of this video is that it is constructed in a way that is engaging to teenagers (it looks like a TV show), without being sensational or absolutist in the consequences.

I would use this video to discuss the issues it raises with students, but also potentially look at the stylistic features of the video, why it is successful in achieving its aim, and potentially make a video themselves and have them edit the footage with Movie Maker or a similar program.

Comment on Jo's post

http://downwithqwerty.blogspot.com/2011/09/ict-and-vels.html?showComment=1316413320171#c1307638134333067723

As with any of the texts we use to help us teach, a computer is essentially just a platform. I would argue that it has no inherent value; it only becomes valuable once we begin to react with it. Your point is valid Jo; we shouldn't just be using ICT as a more flashy way of encouraging lower-order thinking. Having said that, I do think there is value in the aesthetics that ICT holds for some students. What some teachers might dismiss as "flashy", for some students, that very "flashiness" might be the platform from which they are able to engage with the material.

Quick update on Animoto

My students have finally presented their animoto tasks. The finished product looked great. Quite a few students couldn't get the program to work for them and used other items such as photo story or a power point, which was also effective.
Importantly, a few remarked that it had been a really fun task and they enjoyed the immediacy of seeing (and learning from) each other's work.

IT and the Victorian Learning Standards

"ICT provides a rich and flexible learner-centred environment in which students can experiment and take risks when developing new understanding."
The need to be literate in ICT is just as important as the more traditional notion of literacy, and the two are not mutually exclusive. My readings and experiences across both university and placement have highlighted many pedagogical approaches and programs to use in the classroom. Some I have previously discussed in this blog, I others I plan to explore in future posts.
I am going to focus specifically on this idea of risk, experimentation and new understandings through some other ideas explored through the VELS website:

"Why use ICT rather than pen and paper?"
(http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/ict/approaches.html#show_hide2)

Benefits include:
* "the immediacy of results (the effects of changes in a thinking strategy are seen almost instantly)"
Based on my experiences in the English classroom, I can see how this would be especially beneficial for students with low literacy levels. When writing compositions, students who either have poor handwriting or learning difficulties surrounding grammar and spelling can be assisted through the use of Microsoft Word or similar. Not only do the spell checkers and backspace allow for easier editing, the finished product will be neat and this allows students to feel a sense of accomplishment and progress (as opposed to a scrunched up piece of scrawl)

* "the ease of modifying work in response to changes of thinking. This encourages flexibility, risk taking and perseverance"
Particularly in the drafting stages of a composition, ICT is useful for its ease of alterations. Not only can I give on comments on students’ work with greater ease, the students themselves can alter their work as new ideas come to them; trialing different beginnings, starting in the middle if they find it easier, and even changing the order of entire paragraphs. For children who already computer literate, speed of typing is faster than writing by hand, and as such, ideas and draft compositions can be typed almost as quickly as thoughts occur.

* "the greater impact of onscreen visuals (using colour, different fonts, symbols and animation) encourages persistence and deeper thinking"

In terms of presenting work, the use of colour, symbols and fonts are all extremely relevant to the English classroom. We talk about 'visual literacy' and this is something that should not be under-estimated. A student's ability to employ appropriate semiotics (such as colour and font) that contribute to the cultural complexity and aesthetics of the finished piece is equally important to understanding the concepts. Additionally, I think the added dimension of onscreen visuals can contribute to initial engagement with a task. Sometimes students just need a ‘hook’ in order to get started on a task. In this way, it can also increase the enjoyment of the work itself.

***
Update:

I have recently come across some literature which supports my observations mentioned in the VELS post above. In regards to the immediacy of results which ICT provides, Sandy Smith (2000), working on Year 8 literacy notes that the boys in particular "liked being able to get their work marked instantly and talk to their friends about what they had just achieved. What did you get?' became the frequent question. It seemed it was 'OK' to achieve a good score on a computer-generated 'game'." (p. 164). This observation is supported by the work of Amy Corso, who notes that the difficulties of writing for the adolescent male "are centered around two profound fears, the fear of expression and the fear of failure." (2006, p.167) As such, the use of ICT provides a powerful incentive for boys in particular to comfortably engage with the material and not be preoccupied with the fear of failure.

* Corso, A. (2006). "That's So Gay!": Rethinking Writing Poetry in an All Male Secondary Classroom. International Journal of Learning, 12 (10), 167-174. Retrieved from EBSCO
*Smith, S. Using computers to improve literacy learning among low- achieving Year 7 boys. [online]. English in Australia; n.129-130 p.163-170; December 2000-February 2001. Availability: ISSN: 0046-208X. [cited 21 Sep 11].