Information Technology Update – August 9, 2018

ICT in the Classroom

Since the introduction of 1:1 devices for students at the College, the use of ICT in teaching and learning has increased extensively in an incredibly rich and powerful way. It is now at a point in many classrooms where if there are any issues with the devices working or connecting to the internet the planned lesson can be severely impacted. Recently I personally experienced two examples of where ICT enhanced the teaching and learning in my classes and made me reflect on just how far the College has come in the use of ICT since the introduction of 1:1 devices 4 years ago. Recently I was away from school sick with a virus and l but needed to set lessons for my classes. One particular lesson I was really struggling setting was in Year 8 Geography and the topic was on plate tectonics. I had the lesson planned but as the lesson contained new content the boys had not covered before I was struggling on deciding how best to deliver this lesson effectively in my absence. One of the things I do and find valuable for my students is to record video tutorials and upload the tutorials to my College YouTube channel where my students can access them. Providing my students with video tutorial allows them to view them when it is convenient for them as many times as they want. I decided that this was the best way to deliver my lesson on plate tectonics in my absence and so I created the video, which included the content they needed to learn the topic. The video also included my audio explaining the topic along with images to help explain. To record the videos I use an app on the iPad called Explain Everything and one of the great features of this app is the ability to annotate while explaining the concepts. Once the video is complete, I can upload it to my College YouTube channel and then I place a link to the video on Google Classroom. The boys accessed the video in my absence and completed the set task and when I came back to work I was really pleased with the quality of the work the boys had completed which displayed a high level of understanding of the topic.

Another example of how ICT enhanced teaching and learning for me recently was in a Year 8 RE class where I was teaching them about the ancient Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish. This is quite a complex myth but I was able to create a presentation that explained story that include images, videos and text that effectively conveyed the ancient myth to the boys. To assess how well they understood the myth, I asked the boys to retell the Enuma Elish story in their own words in a format of their choice. Some boys chose to retell the myth by writing a mini essay in the Pages word processing app. Other boys chose to create a movie trailer in the iMovie app while other boys decided to retell the story using a comic strip app. All three different formats allowed the boys to display their understanding of Enuma Elish and they uploaded their finished task to Google Classroom where I was able to assess it and give them feedback.

These two examples of the use of ICT in the classroom made me reflect that when used effectively ICT can change the way students learn and what they learn. I am also equally sure that the use of ICT in learning has an ability to engage the students and that powerful learning can leveraged off this engagement.

Mark Holland

Director of ICT