Part A

Task 1- e-portfolio

Week 5- Models and frameworks of digital technologies

Information and computer technologies are increasingly used by the educators for teaching purposes. there are two models which are used for integrating technologies in classroom teaching and these are SAMR and Digital Blooms. SAMR stands for substitutions, augmentation, modification and redefinition (Hamilton et al., 2016). Till date, technologies have been used at the personal level at the augmentation level only. For instance, power point presentations are being used for depicting any topic and for giving visual and audio lessons to the students. In the case of Bloom digital taxonomy, it can be said that there is use till description level. ICT tools are used for the purpose of describing, analysing and evaluating. For instance, discussion forums are made for evaluating a topic and mind maps are created for creating a better understanding of any topic. Surveying and validation are done for better analysis of data and this depicts the use of technology in learning.

Week 6- Digital Technologies in the Classroom

One of the digital technologies for classroom teaching is Webquest which is an inquiry-based activity. It provides a variety of learning resources to the learners and it may take the form of tasks like the problem to be solved, product to be designed, work to be made or a position to be taken. educators can make use of this tool for addressing curriculum outcomes (Abu-Tineh et al., 2019). A concept map was asked to be made and it was made with the help of mind Meister. It is easy to use as the readings suggested that while choosing the right technology for educating it is important to consider the level of children. All the types of technologies cannot be used for all the children rather, it has to be linked to their course curriculum, their age level and has to be aligned with the rubric.  

Week 9-Lesson Planning and Digital Technologies

TIP model has been used for rewriting the lesson plan. According to this model, there are three phases and the first phase is teaching need analysis. The second is integration into lesson planning and the third phase is post instruction analysis and revisions. The lesson plan was rewritten by analyzing the steps of this model and then integrating this to develop a new lesson plan.

This method of planning has helped in thinking differently when using technology in class for a topic. It allows the educators to first establish the need of integrating technology into the lesson plan. It depicts the benefits and value addition in the topic with the use of technological tool. Secondly, the topic is assessed to incorporate different technology in different subtopics for creating a better experience of learning for the children. This model has helped in making the technology more interactive and engaging for the students.

Week 10- Assessment and Digital Technologies

The educators were required to develop formative and summative assessments for students. There are many choices of technology for supporting the assessment plans. There are technological tools which are used for assessing the learners like discussion forums for formative assessment. There are other online mediums for assessing student learning like online exams and document submission in the form of reports, essays etc.

It was planned that students will be given formative assessment of discussion forums so as to allow them engage in discussion with others. The educators are able to understand the prevailing knowledge level in the classroom regarding a topic. They are able to understand who has developed a better understanding of the topic by overviewing the discussion going on between the team mates. Further, summative assessment can be done through online exams which are beneficial as these are fast and can be given to students in remote locations.

Week 11- Ethical and Legal Issues

A concept map is created using Mind Meister as it is a great tool for illustrating the big picture of any topic.

The above concept map is created by using MindMeister software. It is a great tool for showing a big picture of the entire topic. the chosen topic was cyberbullying and, in this concept, map it is clearly shown the concept of cyberbullying in digital technology use. There are important impacts of this issue on the students, teachers and schools. There are preventive measures which are important for the schools to take in order to protect the students from getting harmed through cyberbullying acts. There are ethical dilemmas which were discovered in this map as there are concerns over data ownership, boundary dilemmas, personal or professional device use and the issue of upskilling of teachers for adopting new technological tools. Cyberbullying can be checked by taking proactive measures like identifying the perpetrator.

Week 12- New and Emerging Digital Technologies

Climate change topic is chosen to be given to the students. Google expedition website is used for depicting the impact of climate change on the environment and the living beings. It is helpful in explaining the basic concept of greenhouse heating and how the environment is heating up due to the constant use of fossil fuels. The use of this technological tools requires some ICT capabilities in the educators for instance, they must be equipped with the knowledge of using this tool and incorporating this into the lesson plan effectively. The lesson plan includes this tool as an activity for the students. They are made to learn about the climate change through this tool. They shall be asked to share their experiences of fossil fuel burning and their thoughts on climatic change. In this way, this tool can be effectively integrated into the lesson plan.

Task 2

How should we incorporate the use of digital technologies in our classrooms?

Technological innovations have penetrated every aspect of human lives and this is inclusive of education and classroom teaching. There are numerous technologies which are used by the educators and students to enhance their learning capabilities and their understanding of a topic. In this course, there were several instances, when it was noted that the use of digital technologies has immense potential for classroom teaching. The present world is of information age and hence, digital technologies have to be part of the classroom teaching. This will help in preparing the students for their future and in adapting to their fast-changing environment.

Digital technology can be incorporated in classrooms by replacing traditional paper books and reading materials with online and digital materials. Both teachers and students can have digital devices for learning and teaching. This will help in becoming less dependent on paper which is derived from plants and trees. Devices like tabs, laptops and others can be used for teaching and learning purposes. They educators incorporate technologies through various means and are able to impart quality lessons to students even if they are present in remote locations.

Digital technology can be used by the teachers for demonstrating lessons in the classroom. PowerPoint presentations are increasingly used for teaching different topics. However, other forms of media can also be used for teaching students about various topics. It makes the classroom teaching more effective as the students are able to learn by grasping topic through various media. These are more interactive and interesting for the students to learn in contrast to the traditional form of classroom teaching.

Digital technology solutions are used for collaborating and working in groups. Students when working in groups can work on the same document through digital support. They can be located anywhere still with the help of cloud technology they can edit and prepare their document. Such support helps in increasing coordination and collaboration within a team.

There are digital libraries through which the students can grab knowledge. There are various online databases which provide quick access to students to gain information. They can have access to various academic and research papers and this inclusive of scholarly articles, journals, e-books and multimedia content which helps in learning and understanding (Fomenko, 2020).

Online platforms are increasingly used by the educators for connecting with the students. These learning management systems and educational platforms help in providing a centralised location for educators to share their resources with the students. Such platforms are able to host multimedia content, assignments, interactive modules and digital textbooks.

Educators also make use of digital field trips for letting the students experience a new place. There are apps and technologies like Google Streetview which allow the users to virtually explore forests, national and international landmarks and parks from the comfort of classroom. Such a virtual experience helps the children learn about the location or subject beyond the walls of their classroom (Khine, 2019).

There are open educational resources which are freely available educational materials which are accessible online. The educational instructors are able to utilise these resources for finding lesson plans, videos, textbooks and other relevant resources which are aligned with their curriculum. Thus, the use of digital technologies has immense potential for the pedagogical learning. Educators have been using it in various forms for increasing the learning efficiency in students. The various tools of technologies are helpful for the educators in making the classroom more interactive and enjoyable for the students through which they are able to grasp the key concepts easily.

Part B

Weekly responses

Week 5- Which of these models is the most useful for you at your stage in your teaching career and why? How could you apply it?

SAMR is the most useful model for me at this stage of teaching career where I have gained two years of teaching experience. I have found that this model is simple to understand and this shows how one can augment or redefine the topic using technological tool. It has been noted that the use of this model is beneficial when incorporated into the lesson plan development. It allows the educators to plan for the integration of new technologies into the lesson plan and make the lesson more impactful for the learners. It is helpful for the learners to learn easily from the technological tools which is used by the educators (Romrell et al., 2014). 

This model can be applied by using each step depicted in model. It is useful for the educators in making the lessons more interactive and appropriate to the age level of the learners. The phase of the model clearly describes how the educators can select amongst the various options of technological tools for making their lesson plans better for the learners. It is first required to find the needs of using technological tools and this depicts that with its use the lessons can be made more interactive and impart deep meaning to the learners. The next step is the process of integrating the technology into the plan. This ensures that there is effective integration into the lesson plan of the new technology.

Week 6- What do you think will be the greatest difficulty for you when it comes to integrating digital technologies into your classroom?

One of the greatest difficulties which is thought to occur when integrating digital technologies into the classroom is the digital literacy level of the educators in adapting to this change (Hajhashemi et al. 2016). The educators have to be upskilled for adopting new technological tools in their teaching strategies. They have to be imparted with skills which are required for them to make their lesson plans more technology friendly. Further, the skills can be imparted by the schools or they can take it from outside sources. However, it is complicated for the educators to adopt this new technology if they have never used or has not gained any idea about its use. The use of new digital technology like Google expedition is difficult for instance, for the educators to integrate into their lesson plan. This is because not all educators are ready to switch to new method of teaching or integrating new digital technologies into their existing methods of teaching. It is difficult for the educators to incorporate these new technologies into their lesson plan as they are not aware of the processes of integrating or they do not have the skills to do it.

Therefore, it is important for the new educators to develop this skill and be ready to adopt the new teaching technology in classroom teaching. It is necessary to incorporate digital technologies in classroom teaching because this era is of technology and teachers have to take new skills in order to become more equipped and impart lessons effectively to knowledge-age learners.

Week 9. Where do you think you are situated in the TPACK diagram? Which areas do you need to be building on?

In the TPACK framework there is integration of three types of knowledge and these are technological, content and pedagogical (Martin, 2015). They have to be aware of these knowledge areas when integrating any new technology into their lesson plan. It is important for the educators to have all these knowledge areas so that they are able to design a lesson plan effectively. In my case, I believe that I have good content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge but lack to some extent in technological knowledge. It is found that there are many technological tools which are available for making the classrooms more interactive and for imparting better learning experience to the learners (Shafie et al., 2019). However, it is difficult to have knowledge about all these and be effective in using the right technology for a topic. There is a need to upskill in this context so that technological are easily understood by me. I have to work on this area by understanding the various features of new educational technological tools like google Expeditions etc. Therefore, with these knowledge areas I would be better able to design new lesson plans and assessment for imparting improved lessons to the learners and for effectively evaluating their responses and understanding of the imparted knowledge. I also need to equip myself with the level of technological understanding in the given set of learners so that age-appropriate technology is chosen and better lessons are imparted.

10. What do you think is the biggest challenge for you when you are designing an assessment task that uses technology?

The biggest challenge in designing an assessment task using technology is that new technology has to be understood by the students. they have to be first acquainted with the new technology and detailed about the assessment. They have to be given knowledge and skills of using the technology for giving their assessment. It is one of the biggest challenge, when an assessment is designed using a new technology in contrast to the earlier modes of assessment which used to be mostly written or oral presentations. The students have to be made aware of the new technology so that they do not feel anxious or fear from the assignment. For instance, when discussion forums are first used for understanding the prevailing knowledge about a topic in the classroom, it is seen that many students have questions and concerns of how they will be assessed. another common challenge related to the understanding of new technology-based assessment for students is that of referencing. In an assessment which is submitted through online platforms they are required to reference their papers; however, many students face challenging in understanding the process of referencing their work and quoting the researches. Therefore, the biggest challenge in designing an assessment task using technology is that they have to be upskilled in using the new technology for showing their understanding to the educators in an effective manner.

Week 11- Choose one 'dilemma' from either reading, and briefly explain what you think needs to be done to address it.

One of the ethical dilemmas which is described in the prescribed reading of Buchanan (2019) is that related to privacy and surveillance by the schools on the students. it is noted that schools have large volumes of data of students including their biometrics and health records. This poses a privacy security threats as it becomes increasingly important for the schools to ensure safety and security of the data stored by them. There are instances where the students are put on surveillance by the schools and therefore, this raises an ethical dilemma of excessive monitoring and controlling of the students by the schools with the aid of technology.

The schools have to be limited in their use of technology regarding students’ movements and whereabouts and their health records. Furthermore, they have to remain accountable to students and their parents about the types of data collected and stored by them. Schools are required to invest in security of their IT infrastructure so that they can ensure that sensitive and confidential information of the students is not leaked to any other person or is not used by some malignant individual. Surveillance of students while in the campus or outside the campus of school raises ethical concerns. As the schools cannot be given liberty to monitor every movement of students. For instance, for monitoring the fitness of students they are given wearable technologies and these can be misused by the individuals for harming the students. Hence, the use of technologies by the schools for providing benefit to the students is also risky as the data can be misused.

Week 12 'Lesson 7' in the second reading states: "ICT cannot be used all the time, in all situations." When do you think you should use technology in your own classroom?

Technology cannot be used all the time as the teachers or educators cannot be replaced in any instance. The use of technology should be only limited as an assistive and augmenting tool and not for replacing the human element in teaching. The teachers are the inspirational force in a student’s life and the use of technology in imparting lessons and limiting the teacher-student interaction is not recommended.

Technology has to be used in addition to the existing lesson plan and should be integrated into the lesson plan instead of replacing the teachers. The extensive use of ICT in classroom teaching is therefore, should be limited. Further, the use of ICT cannot be done for monitoring the students all the time as their privacy has to be respected by the educational institutions. It is important to consider the ethical dilemmas faced by the extensive use of technology through the use of cameras and wearable devices which constantly monitor the movement of students while in or outside the campus. This raises ethical issues and these have to be considered by the authorities that excessive use of ICT is harmful for the mental health and wellbeing of the students as well. ICT cannot be used all the time as technology use has its negative impact on the students as well. There are issues like cyberbullying and privacy threats which can harm the students and compromise their confidential data (Dhirani et al.,2023). Hence, there should be judicious use of ICT in classroom teaching.

Part C

This assessment has been informative for me as I have learned many key concepts about classroom teaching technologies. I have been able to learn about many new technological tools like MindMeister and Google expeditions which are useful in making the lessons plans more interactive. It helps in making the teaching more effective and helps in making the classroom more engaging for the students. however, there were issues like cyberbullying, privacy and security threats which have been found to occur due to inappropriate and excessive use of ICT in teaching. Therefore, there has to be effective use of technology in imparting lessons to the learners.

Improvement in teaching strategies with the help of technologies like concept map and Google expeditions.

Climate change topic from google expedition is used for improving the lesson plan.

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