Meaningful Involvement of Learners in my Classroom!

An effective way to facilitate the relationship between a teacher and his/her learners would be to establish a set of mutual boundaries and a code of conduct applicable to the classroom. In this way, learners are able to voice their expectations of the class, as well as any worries or concerns. This creates an environment of open communication, which Shannon Foley argues to be an effective practice of student well-being. Foley further argues that it is important to understand the learners’ circumstances and promote “pro-social bonding”. Meditating on the meaningful involvement of learners in my future classroom, I would incorporate activities that enable learners to share their background and culture with the class, thus informing and familiarizing the learners with their peers. I would also incorporate Foley’s idea of a birthday calendar, where learners will be given the opportunity to fill in their birth dates and have it displayed in the classroom, thus personalizing their classroom environment.

After reading the material by Abby Willis, the inevitability dawned on me that all of us PGCE students are bound to receive a restless and distracted class, be it due to the time of day or an inconvenient lesson slot. I found the Willis article incorporated participation, creativity, reflection and cooperation in a rather simplistic way. By trusting one’s learners with a fair amount of responsibility and resisting the urge to take full control, learners are given the opportunity to become actively involved and focus on the task at hand. Therefore, the ability to shift responsibility can become a tool in facilitating a positive outcome in the classroom.

As Foley states in “Effective pedagogy- teaching the whole child”, effective teaching involves the academic, behavioural and social elements that create and encourage a positive classroom environment. Should any obstacles be encountered regarding the above three elements, I as a teacher would like to present myself as approachable, available and accessible to students in need of assistance.

Resources are highly stimulating in the classroom and are defined by Foley as “materials and aids that support the delivery of a lesson or unit.” Resources further allow for the meaningful involvement of learners: assessments can be in the form of posters or models, which will be placed in the classroom and used as a learning tool during the course of a lesson. Lastly, a physical activity can be useful in attaining concentration, structure and cooperation in the classroom, as proven by Willis. I would therefore consider implementing a simple 5 minute physical task at the start of each lesson, in order to stimulate the necessary atmosphere needed for effective learning to take place.

The Standards of Critical Digital Pedagogy

Sam Hamilton highlights a crucial point in arguing that all students need to become critically conscious of the cultural and political oppression employed through educational standards.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) involves thinking critically and creatively about information and communication, as citizens of the global community. Hamilton argues that the current standards of ICT literacy are limiting, particularly in the confinement of teacher–student roles. However, teachers are no longer in a position to control or dictate what kind of knowledge should be internalized. This is made explicit in the documentary “the Independent Project”, whereby a group of learners break away from the standardized education system and engage in self-directed learning. Self-directed learning can be defined as “a process in which individuals take the initiative with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying resources for learning, choosing and implementing learning strategies and evaluating learning methods.”

As illustrated in the documentary, self-directed learning can be highly beneficial as it captures the lost interest of students and allows them to take control of their learning environment. However, a key issue is the notion of access. All the learners who participated in “the independent project” had access to available resources in order to guide their objectives. Hamilton argues that functional, experimental and critical access are an assumed standard of ICT literacy, yet this challenge should not prevent educators from striving for inclusion. As Bernardo Trejos states, it merely presents an opportunity for teaching and learning to grow.

Hamilton brings forth a statement that changes the preconceived perspective regarding digital technology: “…digital technologies become tools to learn with, as opposed to dynamic processes to learn through.” This emphasizes the previous points made by Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel, who state that digital technology is most valuable when used in a playful and creative manner. This is precisely what one sees when watching “the Independent Project”, as the learners take on new innovative strategies to teach themselves and learn from others.

ICT standards, in their rigid and unimaginative form, resist the idea of knowledge as an ever-changing and timeless construct. This conception limits the potential of technology-mediated, self-directed learning. Hamilton’s article argues how new digital tools can allow learners to progress via the adaptation and renewal of old tools, concepts and methods. This readjustment can be seen through the incorporation of critical digital pedagogy into existing ICT literacy. In agreement with Hamilton’s perspective, the above is a challenging objective with the potential to extraordinarily change the common assumptions regarding education and one’s role in the system.

Social Media in the Classroom!

While contemplating the incorporation of social media into the classroom, I decided to investigate the disadvantages. From cyberbullying to identity theft and corporate invasion of privacy, the list seemed rather extensive. Therefore, I would begin with an introductory lesson regarding social media in both my curriculum specialisations – English and Life Orientation. Setting the boundaries on what can be considered appropriate and illustrating how my learners can maintain a safe space from social media sharks, would be my first priority.

In agreement with Nicholas Provenzano, specific media tools can greatly expand learning beyond the classroom setting. Social media is inescapable, especially if your occupation involves teaching in the 21^st century. Twitter has proved itself useful as one receives instant responses from fellow followers, thus I would use twitter to tweet announcements and links that relate to the topics discussed in class.

As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. In my English class, I would combine Instagram, blogging and Twitter as a form of assessment: students would be required to post a photo that relates to a particular theme, blog about the visual and share the accessible links via twitter. Provenzano argues that the action of commenting plays an important role, as it stimulates deeper thinking and communication. I think it would also make for a good class discussion. As an extension, students would need to read the blogs of their peers and bring their comments to class for engagement. This would provide an opportunity for students to practise their ‘social media commenting skills’ concerning sensitive topics. The advantage being that there would be no hardcopy of naïve and inexperienced comments that may create a burden in the future – Without paper, its vapour!

Life Orientation is considered an important subject, as it creates an awareness about and lays a foundation for the environment in which we live. What is social media if not communicating about the influential events around us? Social media can become an educational tool in the Life Orientation classroom, through the use of YouTube videos regarding awkward subjects like infections/diseases and anatomical changes. In order to facilitate learning, students would be encouraged to blog and comment about their responses. The environment is constantly changing, with our finite resources depleting at a rapid rate. In groups, learners can create videos about the ways in which people can intervene. These intervention videos can be posted on social media sites like Facebook, allowing learners to contribute to a worldly cause and learn in the process.

Vicki Davis said it best: “social media is another tool that you can use to make your classroom more engaging, relevant and culturally diverse.”