Reflective Synopsis

Even though I first bought a computer in 1996 and became familiar with the internet, I was really ‘green’ to all these technologies that we have explored in ICT for Learning Design up to the present date.  I did not know what a Wiki was, never read or made a blog, did have contact with Google Doc’s but did not know much about them, and never made a presentation or knew all the presentation tools that I do now.  It has been a steady learning curve for me in the IT world.  I was also introduced for the first time to pedagogy and other concepts, but I expected that on this course.  What I did not expect was to become part of the new breed of teachers offering ICT learning to students.  I do not believe I have achieved that goal yet, but I have a taste of the knowledge I need.

An area of our course I did have difficulty with was Bloom. One should not blame what we were kindly provided with, but the provision of this verb wheel completely bamboozled me: -

Picture 1.  Bloom’s taxonomy verb wheel.  As shown in week two learning materials. Source: http://teachonline.asu.edu/2012/10/aligning-assessments-with-learning-objectives/

What would have helped more was the inverted pyramid that was shown (almost out of the observable range) in the top right hand corner of the link to Bloom’s taxonomy in week two’s learning materials.

Picture 2.  Bloom’s taxonomy.  Most important top to least important learning bottom. Source: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/learning/id/bloom_taxonomy.jpg

I found Bloom’s taxonomy a very hard thing to get my head around at first.  I must have reached my “buffer” in retention because I did not get the concept in week two and was bluffing in my reflective assessment for that week.  What really threw me was the other learning taxonomies also included on the web-page linked from the learning materials -- it just confused and overwhelmed me.  Bloom’s importance became clear when another subject in our course taught Bloom’s taxonomy and here I had a head start.  

We are trying to escape the learning theory Behaviourism (aka Objectivism) and move to the higher order thinking of being "Learning Managers" scaffolding what students learn.  To reflect on my own personal journey, being over the mid-life age mark, I am unable to recite almost all the mathematical formulas I learned at school and could not even do this fifteen years ago, at one occasion in my thirties, when asked if I knew the formula for the radius of a circle -- as a joke that I could not do it.  I am to be a biology teacher, however, I cannot remember thirteen years back to when I last learned the anatomy of the cell.  Obviously we forget things and therefore there is some merit in connectivism: like it or not, I am now a connectivist as I have to look these things up.  I do believe in Behaviourism for some aspects of learning, like for the anatomy of the cell, but think that Vygotski’s theory of social constructivist is the best for the majority of learning.  The “More Knowledgeable Other” and “Zone of Proximal Development” seem to make so much sense to me.  I would have had to change my attitudes when at primary school because I think I would have felt embarrassed breaking into groups and learning off my peers, as is the suggested way of constructivist theory.

Figure 3.  Movie: Piaget & Vygotsky in 90 seconds. Sourced from Youtube video, 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY-SXM8f0gU

Having admitted to being constructivist, the use of the web 2.0 tools would serve me well as a teacher.  We have learned about Wiki and Google Doc’s, which serve this purpose.  I am yet to narrow down how I am going to exactly use these tools in the teaching environment: biology seems to have so much behaviourist learning.  Geography, my other teaching area, would make better use of these tools due to the more Social-Studies-nature of the subject.  I was not initially a fan of Wiki, as were my peers, but I am seeing their value in ICT teaching.

Legally safely and ethically has been continually outlined in tutorials as an important topic.  This was first covered in week 2 of the ICT course.  I am not entirely sure if I have been working legally.  For example, the images I have copied from other web-pages are shown, even in this blog, open to the public.  I am of the understanding that if I use another’s clip art or picture, for education purposes, the web-site I show it on should be password protected to allow only the students to view it.  Further clarification will be needed.  I intend to become a collector of images so that I can use my own images for presentations.  I knew a journalist who took a photo of anything and everything she thought was interesting to have an image library, I know now why.  

Ensuring professional reputation was another legally, safely, and ethically issue constantly brought up in class.  I am generally fearful of my teaching career lest an inappropriate image of me might be taken or my facebook account, for example, is hacked.  I am teaching secondary, so this is a real possibility.

	*Steep but achievable learning curve*

All-in-all it has been an interesting journey and good learning for me.  The learning curve has been steep, but not impossible.  I will have to consolidate this learning with future practice.