How a pedagogical lens assists teachers in making choices relating to ICT integration in the classroom.

The use of ICT in the modern classroom is vital in today’s multimedia world. It would be inadequate to teach in a manner that only focuses on traditional learning methods and concepts while participating in a technological age. Teachers should therefore apply a pedagogical lens when deciding on when and how to incorporate ICT in the classroom. Using technology for its own sake could very well be counterproductive as ICT should incorporate technology which embeds curriculum knowledge and pedagogy on a holistic level (Mishra & Koehler, 2008).

Media literacy is necessary to allow students to partake in market based media culture by demonstrating skills necessary to be critical of material they encounter (Kellner and Share, 2006). While most teachers use technology as a way to engage their students, our choice in the types of ICT should reflect both students’ interests while supporting curriculum content to cater to these digital natives (Bennett, Maton and Kervin, 2008). While many resources can be sourced online, some may not reflect the curriculum accurately, requiring teachers to be skilled in developing resources that are reflective of their syllabus. The program ‘Slideshare’ is an online resource that can be very useful for teachers; however many times the information needs to be amended to reflect the curriculum. Students appreciate effort made by teachers who design their own resources over those that adopt technology with outdated material or content that may be incorrect or confusing.

Digital natives socialise, interact and are being entertained by technology on a daily basis. If this is what they enjoy and expect day to day, then teachers should incorporate these tools into their lessons to support and engage students in a Quality Teaching Environment. With Facebook the most popular networking site with students at the moment, other educational networks such as Edmodo emerged to incorporate Facebook’s format and now utilised in many schools.

Incorporating YouTube clips have engaged my students by allowing different perspectives from culture all over the world creating deeper meaning and purpose to their learning (Reeves, 2002). This allows real world connections and has been evident when teaching Business and Geography when incorporating global perspectives. Analysis of media texts and online resources as well as incorporating your own project based learning activities such as WebQuests, Storybird and Prezi’s allow opportunities for students to develop skills in ICT while developing a deeper level of understanding. The use of ICT aligned with the curriculum and assessment where students can participate actively will ultimately provide avenues for authentic learning (Lockwood, 1992).

References

Bennett, S. Maton, K. & Kervin, L. (2008). "The ‘digital natives’ debate: A critical review of the evidence", British Journal of Educational Technology 39 (5): 775–786

Kellner, D. & Share, J. (2007). Critical media literacy is not an option. In J.W. Hunsinger and J. Nolan (Eds.) Learning Inquiry. Springer. Published online: 7 April 2007

Lockwood, F. (1992).  Activities in self-instructional texts. London: Kogan Page