Week 6 - Digital technologies in the classroom

Week 6 Question.

What do you think will be the greatest difficulty for you when it comes to integrating digital technologies into your classroom? 

Response.

If my children’s (current) experiences with public education are anything to go by then the biggest obstacle to integrating digital technologies into the classroom will be having access to a reliable internet connection and reliable to laptops or iPads.  As stated by Eady and Lockyer, (2013) teachers will not use technology if it does not work properly (p. 88).  This is view also expressed by Littlejohn and Hunter (2016, p.63), with Howard and Mozejko (2016) who advise that if teachers are taking up classroom time troubleshooting digital technology issues the students can become disruptive (p. 313). I have mentioned this issue in my earlier responses to readings in this subject.

An issue with digital technology teachers will have to deal with that has not been in the readings thus far (as far as I can remember) is that not all students will have had access to digital technologies at home.  There is much talk about whether or not children are digital natives, but little about those who have parents who do not engage with the technology, or parents who are not financial enough to justify purchasing a computer for their home, when they struggle to feed their children.  I have seen this.  I agree with Eady and Lockyer (2013) that school needs to be the place where this inequity is addressed (p. 73), and our public schools are where the issue is mostly likely to arise, and unfortunately this will continue to be a problem if schools do not have access to reliable digital technology.

e-portfolio task

The concept map below was made by using Canva.  I literally used this app because I discovered Canva Pro is free for CSU students.  I had a little trouble pasting it into the eportfolio, but after some mucking around (do I save it as a pdf or a jpeg) I worked out how to make it work.  I'm very familiar with the concept of mind or concept maps and have used them quite a lot in my studies.  A quick Google of fifteen concept mapping applications and I was almost done. Canva was pretty easy for me to use, apart from the 'saving as' issue, and that is what I look for when choosing an application.  I am a very demanding end user of technology, if I can not work out how to use it quickly, and if it does not work the way I do, I do not want it.