Horizon Report Reflection - Redesigning Learning Spaces
Reporting:
When thinking about my schooling life, year after year it was the same setup. Every class I entered from years 4 to 12 had the exact same layout and setup. The placement of desks in rows, facing towards the front of the class, with a teacher up the front. This set up became increasingly more mundane as time went on and I believe that environment had a negative effect on my learning. It seems as though schools and teachers are starting to think about that traditional classroom layout. In particular thinking about how they can change it to be more successful in engaging students and improving their ability to learn in the classroom.
Relating:
Lets talk about the easiest change implemented in classrooms, the change from the traditional rectangular classroom. These modern classroom setups are set out in a way to enhance learning in a specific environment. For example classes which involve collaboration, inquiry and creation. Are likely to adopt a modern classroom layout like the circular formation, this would be particularly useful in an art class. It would allow for students to easily look at the teacher and their peer’s work to gain inspiration as well as promote social interaction. The goal with these new class setups seems to be to promote peer interaction. Though the problem with this could be instead of collaborating with each other to learn, students could mess around instead due to the increased social interaction. These setups should be utilised in the right environment, this layout would hamper a class were individual work is the focus. Although I dislike the traditional classroom layout it definitely still has its place within schools.
Another modification made to learning spaces is the integration of technology in those environments. This has been influenced by the increase of technology in teaching pedagogy. In my experience the main use of technology within schools were laptops. The way they were integrated into the learning space was just to use them at your desk. This has been changed in other learning spaces were a separate space has been carved out for students to learn with or without technology. These new spaces utilise blended learning which mixes learning with technology in various ways. Technology’s further integration into learning spaces can engage and enhance students learning from regular learning situations. This is in stark contrast to how technology was used when I was in school. We solely used technology rather than integrating it into the environment and using it to assist in normal learning. This was probably because the environments didn’t aid the use of technology and the learning done with technology was vastly different.
Reconstructing:
The way students learn is greatly effected by the environment they have to learn in. As an information and technology teacher these are aspects of learning spaces, which I will need to give a great amount of thought. I need to think about how the layout and technology can fit together in order to have a productive learning environment.
Big and small data in our schools, where should we place importance?
Reporting:
There are two different types of data used in education, these are known as ‘big data’ and ‘small data’. In order to help my teaching practice these two different types of data’s collection, analysis and usage needs to be understood. The first method of data collection is ‘big data’ which is large amounts of data that can only be analysed through computers. The other is ‘small data’ which relies on human perception and recording. These two types of data have their own advantages and disadvantages as well as a place in helping teachers with student data.
Relating:
The use of ‘big data’ in education requires the use of devices in order to collect masses of noisy data (Rubin, 2017). The most obvious use of big data is the collection of student results such as assessment marks and their overall grade. It can also be used to catalogue student behaviour, like the way a student conducts themselves in class or whether there absent. Even smaller details like a classroom talk; movement in class and interaction with others can be collected using big data (Rubin, 2017). Being able to combine these pieces allows for us teachers to better know our students. It also helps us make effective corrections to assist with student issues in ways that we wouldn’t be able to with the use small data (Wong 2016). Other than helping improve student achievement it’s a useful tool for improve operations and making administrative decisions within the school.
Although there are clear positives to the use of big data and Im personally a big advocate of its use. One major drawback to its use is the fact that it can only pick up correlations between variables in education and not causality (Strauss, V. 2016). Machines can’t determine the exact cause for why a student acts the way they do or how they achieved their results. Small data collection methods like the discovery of student beliefs provide knowledge in which computer swill never be able to get, like a students attitude towards a specific subject (Strauss, V. 2016).
Reconstructing:
Its clear that both big and small data need to be used to gain an accurate reading on student performance. It can be easy to rely on big data to monitor a large group of students and make what seems like the correct changes. But they will be ill informed, as much as others and I would like to rely on big data can only accurately record and find patterns within those results. Whereas small data is needed in order to truly understand students and why they get they achieve the results they do. Im someone who heavily relies on computers in my own teaching practice to measure the achievement of a student. This is a reminder of how important small data is, the need for teachers to observe students at face value rather then through the results on a computer screen.
References:
Rubin, C.M. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/c-m-rubin/the-global-search-for-edu_b_12983592.html
Sahlberg, P. (2017). Small data for big change: What does it mean for teachers? Retrieved from https://pasisahlberg.com/small-data-for-big-change-what-does-it-mean-for-teachers/
Strauss, V. (2016). "Big Data" was supposed to fix education. It didn't. It's tie for "small data". Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/05/09/big-data-was-supposed-to-fix-education-it-didnt-its-time-for-small-data/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6eae2fd35b76
What area of Digital Citizenship do you think should be a current focus for schools and why?
Reporting:
The term digital citizenship is a difficult one to pin down. It can be defined as the quality of an individual’s action in a digital landscape impacting content and community members (Heick, 2018). It’s vitally important for students to be taught about digital citizenship though there are many different aspects of digital citizenship. The one I feel is most important for schools to focus on is teaching students about their digital footprint. Specifically with regards to social media use and posting online. I also believe the integration of social media in the classroom will greatly assist in this. Incorporating social media in the classroom will guide students on how they should conduct themselves in this particular aspect of digital citizenship.
Relating:
In real life you need to abide by the rules and present yourself in an appropriate way. Students need to be taught that this is the same with the Internet especially when it comes to social media. Although rules and regulations are put in place to minimize poor digital etiquette its important to teach students how to properly conduct themselves online (Digital Citizenship, 2017). It’s almost certain that all students will have a social media, meaning they have an online presence. The concept of the digital footprint needs to be conveyed to students in order for them to start acting safely on the Internet (Hertz, 2018). Students need to be taught that anyone can see what they do online and the real life effects of online activity. This includes your friends, teachers and employers being able to see you Internet activity. Improper conduct online could damage a relationship, lose a job opportunity or lead to even more disastrous results.
I recently scoured my own social media pages and found a few things a rather not have on the Internet. Im not a heavy user of social media and thought prior to looking that I wouldn’t have anything inappropriate on display. I believe the sooner this lesson is taught to students the more likely they are to think before about what they put online. I think an effective way to teach proper online conduct would be to show a positive example of social media use to students. For example having a class twitter, which posts regular class updates (Davis, 2018). Students may also be given responsibility to post the class update with a certain degree of freedom. This would be used to test students understanding of how to post on social media sites.
Reconstructing:
In my own teaching practice I will endeavor to make students aware of their digital footprint. If unchecked I think students without this knowledge can get into serious trouble online. So I will ensure students understand what is inappropriate conduct online, how it can affect themselves and anyone who comes across their online activity. I will also strive to incorporate social media in my own class to further students understanding of these concepts.
References:
Davis, V. (2018). A Guidebook for Social Media in the Classroom | Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/guidebook-social-media-in-classroom-vicki-davis
Digital Citizenship. (2017). Retrieved from http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/nine-elements.html
Heick, T. (2018). Definition Of Digital Citzenship. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/the-definition-of-digital-citzenship/
Hertz, M.B. (2018). Social Media at School: Teaching Safety on the Virtual Playground | Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/social-media-school-teaching-safety-virtual-playground
Reporting:
When thinking about my schooling life, year after year it was the same setup. Every class I entered from years 4 to 12 had the exact same layout and setup. The placement of desks in rows, facing towards the front of the class, with a teacher up the front. This set up became increasingly more mundane as time went on and I believe that environment had a negative effect on my learning. It seems as though schools and teachers are starting to think about that traditional classroom layout. In particular thinking about how they can change it to be more successful in engaging students and improving their ability to learn in the classroom.
Relating:
Lets talk about the easiest change implemented in classrooms, the change from the traditional rectangular classroom. These modern classroom setups are set out in a way to enhance learning in a specific environment. For example classes which involve collaboration, inquiry and creation. Are likely to adopt a modern classroom layout like the circular formation, this would be particularly useful in an art class. It would allow for students to easily look at the teacher and their peer’s work to gain inspiration as well as promote social interaction. The goal with these new class setups seems to be to promote peer interaction. Though the problem with this could be instead of collaborating with each other to learn, students could mess around instead due to the increased social interaction. These setups should be utilised in the right environment, this layout would hamper a class were individual work is the focus. Although I dislike the traditional classroom layout it definitely still has its place within schools.
Another modification made to learning spaces is the integration of technology in those environments. This has been influenced by the increase of technology in teaching pedagogy. In my experience the main use of technology within schools were laptops. The way they were integrated into the learning space was just to use them at your desk. This has been changed in other learning spaces were a separate space has been carved out for students to learn with or without technology. These new spaces utilise blended learning which mixes learning with technology in various ways. Technology’s further integration into learning spaces can engage and enhance students learning from regular learning situations. This is in stark contrast to how technology was used when I was in school. We solely used technology rather than integrating it into the environment and using it to assist in normal learning. This was probably because the environments didn’t aid the use of technology and the learning done with technology was vastly different.
Reconstructing:
The way students learn is greatly effected by the environment they have to learn in. As an information and technology teacher these are aspects of learning spaces, which I will need to give a great amount of thought. I need to think about how the layout and technology can fit together in order to have a productive learning environment.
Big and small data in our schools, where should we place importance?
Reporting:
There are two different types of data used in education, these are known as ‘big data’ and ‘small data’. In order to help my teaching practice these two different types of data’s collection, analysis and usage needs to be understood. The first method of data collection is ‘big data’ which is large amounts of data that can only be analysed through computers. The other is ‘small data’ which relies on human perception and recording. These two types of data have their own advantages and disadvantages as well as a place in helping teachers with student data.
Relating:
The use of ‘big data’ in education requires the use of devices in order to collect masses of noisy data (Rubin, 2017). The most obvious use of big data is the collection of student results such as assessment marks and their overall grade. It can also be used to catalogue student behaviour, like the way a student conducts themselves in class or whether there absent. Even smaller details like a classroom talk; movement in class and interaction with others can be collected using big data (Rubin, 2017). Being able to combine these pieces allows for us teachers to better know our students. It also helps us make effective corrections to assist with student issues in ways that we wouldn’t be able to with the use small data (Wong 2016). Other than helping improve student achievement it’s a useful tool for improve operations and making administrative decisions within the school.
Although there are clear positives to the use of big data and Im personally a big advocate of its use. One major drawback to its use is the fact that it can only pick up correlations between variables in education and not causality (Strauss, V. 2016). Machines can’t determine the exact cause for why a student acts the way they do or how they achieved their results. Small data collection methods like the discovery of student beliefs provide knowledge in which computer swill never be able to get, like a students attitude towards a specific subject (Strauss, V. 2016).
Reconstructing:
Its clear that both big and small data need to be used to gain an accurate reading on student performance. It can be easy to rely on big data to monitor a large group of students and make what seems like the correct changes. But they will be ill informed, as much as others and I would like to rely on big data can only accurately record and find patterns within those results. Whereas small data is needed in order to truly understand students and why they get they achieve the results they do. Im someone who heavily relies on computers in my own teaching practice to measure the achievement of a student. This is a reminder of how important small data is, the need for teachers to observe students at face value rather then through the results on a computer screen.
References:
Rubin, C.M. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/c-m-rubin/the-global-search-for-edu_b_12983592.html
Sahlberg, P. (2017). Small data for big change: What does it mean for teachers? Retrieved from https://pasisahlberg.com/small-data-for-big-change-what-does-it-mean-for-teachers/
Strauss, V. (2016). "Big Data" was supposed to fix education. It didn't. It's tie for "small data". Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/05/09/big-data-was-supposed-to-fix-education-it-didnt-its-time-for-small-data/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6eae2fd35b76
What area of Digital Citizenship do you think should be a current focus for schools and why?
Reporting:
The term digital citizenship is a difficult one to pin down. It can be defined as the quality of an individual’s action in a digital landscape impacting content and community members (Heick, 2018). It’s vitally important for students to be taught about digital citizenship though there are many different aspects of digital citizenship. The one I feel is most important for schools to focus on is teaching students about their digital footprint. Specifically with regards to social media use and posting online. I also believe the integration of social media in the classroom will greatly assist in this. Incorporating social media in the classroom will guide students on how they should conduct themselves in this particular aspect of digital citizenship.
Relating:
In real life you need to abide by the rules and present yourself in an appropriate way. Students need to be taught that this is the same with the Internet especially when it comes to social media. Although rules and regulations are put in place to minimize poor digital etiquette its important to teach students how to properly conduct themselves online (Digital Citizenship, 2017). It’s almost certain that all students will have a social media, meaning they have an online presence. The concept of the digital footprint needs to be conveyed to students in order for them to start acting safely on the Internet (Hertz, 2018). Students need to be taught that anyone can see what they do online and the real life effects of online activity. This includes your friends, teachers and employers being able to see you Internet activity. Improper conduct online could damage a relationship, lose a job opportunity or lead to even more disastrous results.
I recently scoured my own social media pages and found a few things a rather not have on the Internet. Im not a heavy user of social media and thought prior to looking that I wouldn’t have anything inappropriate on display. I believe the sooner this lesson is taught to students the more likely they are to think before about what they put online. I think an effective way to teach proper online conduct would be to show a positive example of social media use to students. For example having a class twitter, which posts regular class updates (Davis, 2018). Students may also be given responsibility to post the class update with a certain degree of freedom. This would be used to test students understanding of how to post on social media sites.
Reconstructing:
In my own teaching practice I will endeavor to make students aware of their digital footprint. If unchecked I think students without this knowledge can get into serious trouble online. So I will ensure students understand what is inappropriate conduct online, how it can affect themselves and anyone who comes across their online activity. I will also strive to incorporate social media in my own class to further students understanding of these concepts.
References:
Davis, V. (2018). A Guidebook for Social Media in the Classroom | Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/guidebook-social-media-in-classroom-vicki-davis
Digital Citizenship. (2017). Retrieved from http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/nine-elements.html
Heick, T. (2018). Definition Of Digital Citzenship. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/the-definition-of-digital-citzenship/
Hertz, M.B. (2018). Social Media at School: Teaching Safety on the Virtual Playground | Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/social-media-school-teaching-safety-virtual-playground