Week One: Learning Technologies in K-6
In our first session the class was asked to take part in making a mind map on what we thought of when asked what were learning technologies in the K-6 classrooms. We used a kid friendly website https://bubbl.us/ to create the mind maps, I found it easy to understand and fun and creative as you can change colours and sizes of the boxes and font.
The class was then asked to walk around a look at other students mind maps. In doing this we were able to expand on our own knowledge of learning technologies and also help others. It was interesting to see how other people used the webiste and set out their own mind maps.
We also viewed a video on Youtube that spoke about the groth in ICT over the years. It helped us look at what that meant for us as students, educators and as people living in this age. In the few years it spoke about growth it was so confronting to think how schools and teaching have changed since I was in primary school. As a future educator it has shown me how we must be constantly learning and growing with technology to be able to utilise it to the fullest to help engage and teach our students.
The link to that video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?src_vid=FVimSxAQGYQ&annotation_id=annotation_397010&feature=iv&v=cLD-dwDsnPQ.
We also watched another video that gave a brief explanation about what Constuctionism is and where it has stemed from. It is a constructivist view from Jean Piaget, that believes children learn from doing and exploring by themselves. Constructivists believe that if children are left to learn and create on their own they will find new and different ways to think and solve problems, that it boosts confidence and allows them to direct their own learning.
If you wish to know more about this theory here is the video we watched in class: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEHZFd-QWQI&feature=player_embedded.
