Week 1 Engagement Activities

Engagement Activity 1 Learning Styles
1.1: According to Felder and Solomon my learning style is predominantly visual, things that would benefit me in the classroom are visual aides such as video clips, diagrams, maps, graphs, pictures and charts.
1.2: To support different learning styles in the classroom I would present the same information through different modes, provide resources that cater to the learning styles and ask the students how helpful they found the materials and if they have any suggestions. Structuring different working environment, i.e. group work, working with computers.
1.3: I currently do not hold a wide range of knowledge in regard to using ITC in the classroom and how it could support my pedagogical practices. During my first lecture Wendy demonstrated just how innovative the SmartBoard is! Learning more about the features of this board is an ultimate goal for me. Using this Blogging tool is also showing me how beneficial it could be to use it interactively in the classroom, providing a different platform for ideas and information to be shared. Also jump starting my ITC education is using Twitter for the first time! At first I was sceptical as to how it enhanced my learning but now that I have seen my own and my classmates 'tweets' be created and responded to each other I understand that it is an amazing tool to share ideas and build on ideas.
1.4: Profiling is a major part in creating effective lesson plans, to gain a clear understanding of what students are in my classroom I would use various profiling strategies. Directly asking students about how they prefer to be taught is a very effective strategy. I would possibly take questions from the Felder and Solomon quiz to ask my students, but at a very basic level I would be asking what they feel they respond to best in the classroom, graphs, charts, videos, working on the task with their hands, constructing models, etc.
1.5: ICT supports differences and learning styles through the extensive range that is on offer, in one presentation you could be presenting a visual clip that vocally teaches students to construct a model out of materials they have in front of them! Targeting multiple learning styles with one activity extends the barriers of learning in the classroom.
Engagement Activity 2 Multiple Intelligences
2.1: I took the Multiple Intelligences test at www.bgfl.org and my results indicated that I learnt mainly through visual and musical. I had an inkling this would be the case. The code for my results is jcn45w93584v.
2.2: In a broad sense if I was to get my students to take this quiz I would cater to their learning needs, making sure within my unit plan I structured activities and learning opportunities that targeted my students learning needs.
Engagement Activity 3 Reflection on Prensky's ideas
3.1: Prensky has extensive ideas on how to best teach 'modern day' students, accessing their capabilities and fast paced ways of learning. His understanding and research into the topic is useful to teachers because it gives us an insight into the ways these minds work. Growing up in a completely different era where information is only a mouse click away or where they are constantly being engaged and then becoming bored of new things. I myself find it amazing seeing my little brother as an infant, he could be amazed with one toy for hours on end and now looking at my nieces and nephews rip through a wild assortment of toys becoming increasingly bored as each new item is presented to them. My nephew at 6 years old owns an iPad, feeling a little jealous of him I went out and purchased my own. This purchase was not without needing guidance on how to set it up and download 'aps' from him. At only 21 the difference in technological comprehension between myself and the younger generation is astounding. Prensky outlines the idea of digital natives and immigrants, being born with technology verse being inducted into a technological world. He even goes as far as to ascertain that these different generations are 'wired' differently. Natives being bought up with the ability to network constantly, gain access immediately, multi task and have everything around them work faster. I would consider myself in limbo between both these stages, I was certainly bought up with technology but I was not completely immersed in in throughout my whole childhood. Trying to think about the ways in which my students see and want information presented to them will be a continual challenge for me in the classroom, forgoing my own preferred style of learning, step-by-step learning supported with a text that I can read at my own pace and taking hand written notes, as opposed to what my digital native students would prefer, focused more on the end goal ass opposed to process, having information presented in a rapid format through various ITC mediums and creating learning environments that are engaging for their minds. Although Prensky has some innovative ideas in regard to technology related intelligences his ideas are very generalized and do not account for many students who have not been in contact with ICT. It is however a good starting point for a teacher to try and understand what is happening in their classroom.
3.2: Today's learners are becoming increasingly disengaged in the classroom, in my two short years of being inside the classroom I have seen countless looks of boredom and disengagement. It is purely due to the fact that lessons are not created to incite passion with the students. The lessons follow the old format that no longer work, I have only seen a handful of classes that worked brilliantly and within these classes the students were kept engaged by presenting the same information in a wide variety of formats and changing the format frequently and systematically so the students attention did not waver. Another great distraction in the classroom is the use of personal technology, students hiding mobile phones in pencil cases or laps and their school issued laptops being used for games. This shows me that the teacher can not think they are fulfilling the needs of their students purely by letting them use a laptop in class, the lessons have to be built on engaging ICT where the lesson would not be the same without it!
3.3:  Prensky's Engage or Enrage argument is very straight forward, with students becoming more technologically dependant within the classroom often the curriculum is boring and hard to understand which then leads to frustration in the classroom and ultimately no learning is taking place. The general idea of this theory is substantial in the fact students are changing and if the curriculum and the way its being taught does not shift then our education system is failing the students who need more from it. The way he depicts such a broad and definite model of change though is stereotypical, within a classroom there needs to be give and take. Not every activity can be displayed in a new whizz bang ICT feature, at some stage a textbook will need to be read and students will need to comprehend. Its all about give and take.