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TeachNet Ireland seeks to improve student learning by helping primary and post primary teachers to integrate web-based resources into their instructional practice. Through TeachNet, teachers have access to curriculum resources, curriculum and technical specialists, grants and a supportive network to further develop their skills.
ICT Integration – what does it look like?
As a new school year dawns many teachers will return to their classroom to find some new piece of technology in their room, if they are lucky! This might entail a new interactive whiteboard or a laptop computer + digital projector installed in their room. This scenario should be occurring in many schools, as all primary schools received funding earlier in the year and similar funds have been promised to second level schools. We can only hope that schools organise appropriate teacher professional development to ensure that these tools are used effectively – both from a technology and a pedagogy perspective. By this I mean that teachers should receiving training on how to operate the devices in addition to receiving professional development on how to use the tools to support teaching, learning and assessment. The goal of such professional development should be to integrate ICT into classroom activities in a seamless and effective way.
But what do we mean by “ICT integration”? Is there an agreed definition? Most government ICT plans state that “ICT integration” is a key goal of their plan but few if any ever define what it looks like.
Then today I came across a recent blog post from Dr. Larry Cuban entitled, Confusing Technology Integration with Instructional Reform, and it got me thinking again. The blog refers to a 2005 article by Dr. Judith Harris entitled, Our Agenda for Technology Integration: It’s Time to Choose, where she wonders why most-large-scale technology integration initiatives fail? She offers two reasons: technocentrism and pedagogical dogmatism. I would urge you to read both Cuban’s blog and Judith’s article as they offer an interesting perspective on this issue. But you may have missed some of the comments posted at the end of the blog that caught my attention and I would like to share them with you...
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Google Gadgets for Websites
A common question for who administer websites is that of how to make their site more interactive and increase the functionality of it. Depending on the infrastructure you are using for your site, this can be a relatively easy process or it can be more complex. For instance, if you’re using a powerful Content Management System such as Wordpress, you can make use of plugins and widgets. But if you are using a hosted install of the CMS you may be limited to what plugins you have available to you, or even if you do have full access to the server on which the CMS resides, you may not be confident in installing and configuring extra plugins. However, the sites which are most limited in what they can do in terms of ‘interactivity’ are ’static’ websites which, by their nature, are usually limited to displaying content which is manually inputted by a web editor and which can usually only occur in one place at one time.
One solution for web editors who are seeking to introduce extra functionality to their site might be to take a look in the Google Gadgets directory. Google defines gadgets as ‘miniature web objects that you can copy & paste into your own webpage, for free’. The process of adding a gadget to your website is easy.
Good Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards
In this recent podacast in our International Perspectives series, Michael Hallissy speaks with Sara Hennessy of Cambridge University. Sara works in the education faculty at Cambridge as a Lecturer in Teacher Development and Pedagogical Innovation, and has conducted much research into the use of IWBs in UK classrooms, particularly how children can use IWBs. Sara explains that earlier research focused on the technological features and whilst more recent research focuses on the role of the teacher, the pedagogy in an effective classroom is not so well known as the majority of CPD has been on the IWB features & not on pedagogical approaches to date.
Sara also discusses her latest research paper on ‘dialogic teaching’ and how projection technologies and IWBs can enhance the experience.
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