Kia ora readers,
Today I am sharing my first DCTL Assignment with you. I have chosen to write a blog post as this is a digital tool and form of communication I enjoy using and think I can best express myself and my ideas for this assignment. I have really enjoyed the learning thus far from Week 1-7 and have gained lots of ideas for my own practice and new ways of thinking about digital teaching and collaborative learning. Thank you for taking the time to read through my assignment. I hope you will find it interesting and informative.
Assignment 1 - Create a digital artifact in which you reflect on your education-related practice against sustainability, contemporary pedagogies, and digital and collaborative learning approaches.
Digital and collaborative teaching and learning is an integral part of education in the 21st century. As educators, we are preparing our students for their futures in an ever changing world of online tools, new advancements in technologies and job descriptions that have yet to exist. Education 4.0 (Jisc, 2019) encourages us to rethink the 'norm' for learners and challenges us to see what is possible when using digital technologies within our practice. The best way that we can prepare our learners for their future environment is to allow them space to learn, collaborate and engage within the digital sphere in a meaningful and purposeful way. This means that everyone within the educational sector needs to be competent with their understanding of a digital practice and effective ways to encourage collaboration and innovation within their role. Whether this is a classroom teacher, principal or administrator, we can use tools such as the ITL Design Rubrics (Innovative Teaching and Learning Research, 2012) to support our understanding. Teachers play a small, but integral role in shaping the way a student can learn, but our education systems, curriculum and physical school settings play a larger role in the way we can collectively support the desired outcomes for our 21st century learners.
Contemporary thinking in education has continued to change and evolve, particularly in the last few years with worldwide changes to work and education due to the global pandemic. With an increase in the availability of digital technologies at the fingertips of our learners, the learning theories that have been used within education systems globally have begun to expand. Tried and true theories such as Vygotsky's Zones of Proximal Development (1978) and Jean Piaget's theory of Stages of Development (1952) where learners process knowledge based on a variety of learning experiences have inspired new ways of thinking which are linked to the established theories of learning we have seen for many years. New theories such as generativism, connectivism, collaborativist learning, dialogic education and mobile learning theory (academyEX, 2023) have begun to shift the way learning is now ascertained, giving a focus to opportunities for students to work together, find knowledge and participate in formal and informal learning experiences within their educational settings.
Piaget, J. (1952).
It is important that pedagogies within teaching stay relevant to the current needs of our learners; it only makes sense that education is not static or stagnant. We have diverse learners in our classrooms who need to be prepared for a workforce and society which is currently growing and developing. School systems, buildings, curriculum and practices are moving towards a more future-focussed experience with the idea of 'lifelong learning' at the forefront. While learning theories such as constructivism, constructionism, experiential learning, behaviourism and cognitivism are important, we can use them as a backbone to our newer models of learning. Learning theories will always be a product of their age and as our world evolves, so too must the theories and pedagogies we use. Learning previously required a lot of recall from memory, learning now is all about retrieval of information. This can come from a variety of external sources; digital tools, search engines, formal and informal learning experiences... the lines have blurred. Resources are now widely available and our current contemporary thinking in education needs to be based on the way in which we can teach students to utilise digital tools to support this new idea of what learning is.
Knowledge acquisition has changed with the introduction of the internet (academyEX, 2023) and we are responding to this by expanding our understanding of established theories of learning to better suit the 21st century learners in our classrooms. Within this shift we see the idea of teaching online, or 'blended learning' environments coming to a forefront. The MindLab Blended Learning Model offers three ways for a learning environment to effectively mix online and in person learning to benefit the students.
'Sequential Blended Learning' offers digital learning opportunities offsite and 'unplugged' learning opportunities onsite. If done correctly, this can be referred to as 'flipped learning' where knowledge is disseminated to the learner prior to even entering the classroom via the online resources, which allows the role of the teacher to change when the students are face to face. Having done the 'heavy lifting' or 'preloading' of the concepts at home, the teacher is able to facilitate and work alongside students in their tasks on a more one to one basis, and be more specific with the dialogue and support given to the student based on their understanding of the concept already. This is in contrast to a more traditional method where the teacher stands at the front, offers learning in a more lecture style and then sets a task for the students to work through their understanding. The key to this learning model is the authenticity of a flipped classroom or a flipped learning environment and a knowledgeable teacher with a strong understanding of the flipped pedagogy to ensure that the deep, authentic learning is still happening in this new environment.
'Alternating Blended Learning' offers digital learning onsite in a more discreet environment while balancing traditional 'unplugged' classroom learning also. This repeats and works well with a station rotation to balance the activities. An example of this may look like the students working on a reading tasks which sees the reading a book and working through some comprehension questions unplugged in their Literacy workbooks. Upon completion of this, or when the teacher is seeing another group, students could then be doing a Literacy based activity on their device such as a spelling or word work programme. The ease of a station rotation makes this style of learning manageable for the students as well as the teacher so long as the expectations for each station are clear and the amount of work required in total is achieving the balance within the alternating activities. This is a model that I have seen work really successfully within my six years of teaching, and a style of learning which works well in my classroom.
'Integrated Blended Learning' allows for digital learning onsite and offsite as well as unplugged learning onsite and offsite. A large part of this model encourages digital tools to be used within a regular classroom setting. With the change to education during the global pandemic in 2020 and onwards, this style of learning was very prevalent. There were many situations in which students were sometimes in onsite in the classroom and other times when they were working remotely. Having the opportunity to complete learning tasks which are 'unplugged' as well as digital both at home and at school really cater for a balance in this blended learning model. A critique would be around how teachers are able to manage and ensure that the unplugged work being completed at home meets the standards expected as I believe unplugged work at school is easier to monitor and manage as the teacher is there to provide direct feedback, feedforward and other supports the students may need such as scaffolding.
In my practice, I aim to have a balance of digital and 'unplugged' learning. With my students, I try to ensure that the unplugged learning is impactful and purposeful, just as much as the digital tools and lessons in integrate. While there are many teachers and adults who believe pen and paper is the best way, in the old style of rote learning, I try to make sure that our unplugged learning includes many elements of the newer theories of learning. An example of this could be literacy circles; where students read the same novel and engage in dialogic education; allowing learners to participate in dialogues, discussing what they have read, having supported learning conversations and understanding how to work together and share their ideas to enhance their own understanding of the book.
A large part of teaching in Aotearoa, New Zealand is related to culturally responsive pedagogy. Throughout collaborative teaching and learning, it is important that teachers are allowing students to build knowledge together and support each other in ways which are applicable to them. Kotahitanga, 'oneness' explained to us by Trevor Moeke helps us to understand that we need each other to achieve greater things (2007), and this is a culturally significant practice for our Māori learners. One of the takeaways from the Sustainability unit for me was the importance of culturally sustaining pedagogies. The video from More Than Green (2016) states we need to see the value of culture within our social and physical environments and that things that are new should not be built or constructed on nothing, but be contextualized in cultural framework. This is a huge concept and as someone who is new to learning about tikanga and Te Ao Māori, I am no expert.
I have many wonderings and questions about the best way to sustain culture and know that my journey as a learner needs to be lifelong, in order to best support my students culturally, sustainably and with the opportunities that will allow them to have authentic learning experiences. My next steps lie within the topic of Sustainability and how I can create 'learning that lasts' for each student who comes into my classroom. My hope is with my strong understanding of contemporary thinking around education and the role of digital and collaborative teaching and learning, I can use that as a starting point as I aim to better understand and implement sustainable practices more widely and confidently.
References:
academyEX. (retrieved 2023). Learning Theories [video]. DCTL. https://app.academyex.com/courses/digital-and-collaborative-teaching-and-learning-micro-credential/dctl-feb-2023-sf/step/2.6
ITL Research. (2012). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. https://fcl.eun.org/documents/10180/14691/5.3x+-+21cld+learning+activity+rubrics+2012.pdf
Jisc (2019, Apr 17). Education 4.0 – transforming the future of education (through advanced technology) [video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVWHp8FsV1w&t=1s
Moeke, Trevor. (2007). Kotahitanga: the maori word for oneness. [video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upe36hTrrII
More Than Green (2016). MTG: What's cultural sustainability? [video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyIrvEZ2vXY
Piaget, Jean. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children. New York: International Universities Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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