The use of Interactive White Board in Geography

As technology keeps on evolving and continues to increase, it keeps on making life a bit more easier in terms of recreation, luxury and work purposes. The introduction of the Interactive White Board (IWB) in education is one of such technological inventions that make the life of a teacher a bit more easier. That is from my perspective. Goodbye to green and normal white board and say "hello"to the interactive white board.

The IWB in education is a very helpful tool in terms of engaging with content of a specific subject. It allows us as teachers to interact with content in many ways through actions such as creating slide shows which could be shown on a IWB. It allows us to drag items or content on the IWB. Apply or delete certain layers of content. Add sounds or music to the content which is being presented. The IWB also allows us to draw lines, enlarge content and crop content.

In my curriculum subject which is Geography, the IWB is a great asset to have in class. The IWB can be used to display maps of the world on which the teacher can draw lines and give direction. If I had a IWB in my class the I would the IWB for the following as examples:

• Display a map of a city on the IWB and provide examples of exercises on how to calculate certain questions.
• IWB is a great tool for GIS. IWB will allow me to demonstrate the steps of how my learners can create a map on GIS.
• The IWB I can use to display certain physical geography processes and events that takes place such as earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes and tsunami's etc. 

There are many examples of how I can use the IWB for presenting Geography in my class. However, the IWB is a good asset to have, but it should not be there to replace the teacher and avoid interaction between learners and teachers. Learners in class should have the opportunity to work and interact during lessons and not stare for 50min at a IWB. But to me the IWB is good way of making the life of a teacher much more easier.

Involvement and Participation in Education

Involvement and Participation in Education

While I am studying to become a teacher through the PGCE course, is there along the journey a few thoughts and perspectives which I develop in my mind of how a teacher should present class. Each day there are a few things in the PGCE course in which I can familiarize myself if I think back to my school days.

Things like how it feels for a teacher to present class during the time when I was a learner in class. Another thought is how I was as a learner in class and how my thought pattern was back then compared to now. In my school days I was more of a listener than a talker, but  I did participate in activities which was presented in class by my teacher. Mostly activities that interested me.

As I think about it now I came to a question which made me thought. Why was I more of a listener than someone who answers? Was I too shy to answer? Did I struggle to formulate a answer in my head back then? Or did the teacher actually create a environment in which I felt suitable for me to answer a question in class?

If I compare myself from now to the person I was back in school, I will answer more questions in class now as back then. This makes me think. Did my teachers in school actually create a opportunity for me to feel comfortable in to answer more question? I'm not sure, but I think they could have done a bit more to encourage me or my fellow learners in class to answers more questions or at least think more critically.
And this is something that kind of makes me think even more. Would I be different today if they did encourage me more in class to become involved more or participate? And that is something which I am very curious about.

These are a few assumptions that goes through my thought process. One thing I can say now from studying for 3 years in university is that involvement and participation in class is key to learn more and to understand better. The reason why I am saying this is, because it allows us to use the knowledge we have in our minds and challenges us to better ourselves. To be continuously curious about things. Asking or answering questions in class stimulate our thought process and lets us develop more perspectives or thoughts which we never encountered before.

Something that stood out for me while I was reading a article of Wills (2015)
Applying Mindfulness to Mundane Classroom Tasks  (I bet it is something that stood out for a lot of my fellow classmates) was how she created a opportunity for her learners to interact in class through creativity by simply using a bowl of water which is placed on the learners desk. This is a good example of something I wished my teachers would have implemented more in our classroom environments. Not that I am saying that they were bad teachers. I believe they were still excellent teachers and they helped met to get where I am today. The thing which I think they lacked a bit of was to encourage or motivate learners to participate.

If teachers motivate learners to participate or to get involved more they will become more comfortable in the environment of the classroom. This would allow learners to become more confident to interact more in class. It will become a habit and once they develop this habit they will stat improving themselves. They will improve themselves through learning new things through interactions in class. To gain new knowledge, information, opinions and perspectives of others. This is the type of environment which I started to longed for as I continued my study's in university.

So for me as becoming a future teacher, I will definitely create more opportunities for my learners to interact more and to try and develop their level of confidence in order for them to feel more comfortable and learn better in school.  

The potential of self-learning

The potential of self-learning

Have you ever wanted to learn something which you found interesting or you are curious about, but you seem to find yourself not having enough time to learn that something, because of busy schedules, long working days, accelerated societies and even a mountain of projects that you need to complete?

This thought pop's up daily in my life and I will stop for a moment and would think about it for a while. Trying to figure how society would actually be if we had to learn on our own meaning that if we had no schools or education institutions to provide learning practices. I must say that it would have been difficult in the past, because of the difficulty of trying to get uphold of information or at least the process of getting information took a bit longer compared to the 21st century where gaining access to information are quite simple and easy. Just Google it :-).

The idea which I am trying to create in this blog is that what if we could have the opportunity to learn something we actually want to learn and learn that through self-learning? I believe here lies great potential.

First of we need to consider that to gain information today in the modern world is way more easier than the past. Due to the technological advance society we live in. So for us to gain information we can just simply click on a button and then we would receive information in an instance.

This gives us the opportunity to learn something, because we can get quick access to information, but the problem we have today is that we learn things at educational institutions or at schools which does not interest most of us or even stimulate creativity in our minds. After watching the documentary about the "The Independent project" there was a quote which one kid said that in the education institutions they learn student about the world yet they keep them isolated from the world.

To me that quote is true. How can we actually be expected to be learned, but we are continuously being forced by other things such as to sit in a classroom in which a lesson is presented which is a lesson that has no value for us in terms of our interests and the life we want to live. "The Independent Project" to me is a good example of how we as students can actually educate ourselves, because we know ourselves better and we understand ourselves even if some institutions say that we only discover ourselves once we reach a higher grade in school or once we are working.

I believe that self-learning has great potential, because you can then actually learn something you want to learn and once you learn stuff you want to know you start to create a responsibility. You then want to know more of what you are interested, so you try to find more ways or sources to gain information. This process I believe helps us to discover ourselves and provide us the direction in the type of job we want to work in one day.

 

Teaching through Social Media

Teaching through Social Media

The Social Media is taking storm in the modern world we live in now. It is only recently that I discovered this year that the social media can actually be used as a tool to teach in class. As Professor FWM Knoetze ( all credit to you Prof.) presented to our PGCE group of 2016 about using twitter and blogger as a method to teach. I was immediately intrigued and amazed that the social media could actually be used to present a lesson. Not that I have not discovered online lessons on the social media, but that apps such as Twitter and Facebook can actually be used in a class environment. To teach and learn students.

This made me very curious on what type of social media tools I could use to present in class in my specified curriculum subject studies which is geography and life orientation. After reading the articles of both Provenzano and Davis in which their articles resolve around the use of social media in the classroom, it gave me some certain ideas on how I can actually use the social media to present a lesson. If you think about it today the social media are easy to be accessed by students in class while a teacher or lecturer is presenting even when they don't know of it. So why not make use of their easy access to the social media in class to present a lesson with relevance to your specified subject you present to learners?

In the article of Provezano there were mentioning of various methods of use of social media teachers use as a tool in their classes. One particular social media app that were mentioned that stood out for me was called "Remind". This app sounded very good to me as it is a one way communication system. This app allows teachers to send reminders or information regarding their work to their learners. However only the teacher can send messages and his/her's students cannot reply on the app, but only receive information.

Geography and Life Orientation is my curriculum study field and the subjects that I would like to teach and present. By using the social media as a tool to teach in class and present my lesson, it could potentially enhance the learning experience of my learners one day. In the field of geography technology already plays a major role in the development of the field. Examples of technological components or software that is being used in Geography is QGIS, GPS or GIS etc. Some of the social media tools in which I will use in Geography would be Facebook. Facebook allows us to see where people live and this is a good way for us to explore the different environments and residences where students live. By using Facebook I could get an indication where the learners in my classroom live and maybe present a lesson according to the environment in which they live.

For Life Orientation I could ask my learners in class to create a video that consists about the importance of being healthy or to present a presentation about health risk issues and to post it on Youtube and present it to my class. These are only a few ideas I just came up with as I red the articles, but I am very interested to search and explore many ways of using the social media as a tool to present my lessons. 

Being Digital pedagogical

Being Digital pedagogical

The thing that comes to my mind after I have read both articles of "Decoding digital pedagogy pt.1 Beyond the LMS" published by Sean Michael Morris and "Decoding digital pedagogy, pt.2: (un)mapping the terrain" published by Jesse Stommel is that digital pedagogy is more than just being creative when teachers present a lesson, but that it is something that is developed over the years of being a teacher. It is developed through the process of years of teaching, doing research on teaching methods, ways of learning students, new technological innovations and use and taking every possible factor in consideration in terms of the student diversity. 

Sean Michael Morris summarizes that "pedagogy concerns itself with the instantaneous, momentary, vital exchange that takes place for learning to happen".That vital exchange is what teachers thrive upon on years of teaching. To be able to create a 'vital exchange' through the use of digital pedagogy. From what I understand under the sub-heading of 'Digital pioneers' in Sean Michael Morris's article is that teachers that are Digital pedagogue find ways of breaking barriers or looking past limitations to create that 'vital exchange' that needs to occur. 

One of the most important aspects of being a Digital pedagogue is that you are continuously learning through the process. Finding new ways to create innovation and inspiration. To create that vital exchange that needs to take place in a learning atmosphere. From my own perspective is that the new generation of learners today in class wants to learn something new which they can't learn by themselves when they are surfing on the internet. That is one of the challenges today which I believe teachers face. If a student can learn something on his own through the internet that what is the purpose for him to go the school? 

That is where the teachers have to come in and be Digital pedagogue...........being Digital Pedagogical. The way I see it is that in order for us to learn better from the education industry is that we must keep on exploring and finding new ways. Some teachers today still makes use of the LMS system which is getting them nowhere. The LMS system (Learning Management System) in the past created a learning industry which kept several teachers stuck in the same mindset of the principals of the LMS system. Which eventually led to the problem some teachers face today when they teach. They keep on presenting class in the same way.

That is why Digital Pedagogy will play a important role in the learning society or education industry. We need to be able to think outside of the box and not just stick with what we know. There is whole world out there with many possibilities and many things that still needs to be discovered. Even if that is new ways of presenting class. It is something that could make a massive difference in society.

Creativity is key

Creativity is key

After reading the article "Digital pedagogy unplugged" and trying to interpret the article to my understanding (with much effort........was a bit difficult)  one phrase popped into my mind that creativity is key when it comes to using digital pedagogy. (I may not be entirely sure if I truly understand what the article tried to portray), but from what I understand it tried to establish that digital pedagogy is only useful when it is being used as instructional technology which learners can actually learn something from and not lead them to boredom. An example would be a teacher making use of an projector and a laptop to present his or her lesson to the class.

However according to the article (from which I understand) digital pedagogy that is being used by teachers can be effective in instructional technology or it can lead to non-instructional technology. To clarify this is when a teacher makes use of technology such as a computer and a projector to present his or her lesson and the outcome is successful which means the class has learnt something it is successful instructional technology, but when a teacher makes use of the same technology , but the learners in his or her class has not learnt anything the outcome was unsuccessful and then it is classified as non-instructional technology. This means that it if a teacher makes use of "fancy" technology to present his or her lesson, it is not to say that the teacher is successful in presenting the lesson. The learners in his or her class may have learnt nothing form the lesson.

The title of the article "Digital pedagogy unplugged" also portrays that digital pedagogy does not only have to consist out of computers, projectors, televisions and radios, but that it could also consist of books, white boards, green boards and paper. Thus the effectiveness of digital pedagogy lies in the creativity that it is being used from. An example out of the article of such a case is when Brad Pasanak (which is a teacher and teaches British literacy from the 18th century) made use of highlighters to highlight the word 'pride' and 'prejudice' out of a book which his class was busy reading at the time and once he presented it to the class to do the same it enhanced the learning experience of his students in class.

Creativity is key is what comes to my mind after reading the article ( again I am not sure I interpreted the article right...........but worth a shot :-)  ). So when making use of digital pedagogy as a method to presenting a lesson it can either be effective or not and that could only be distinguished if you pursue creativity in your lesson to enhance the learning experience of your learners in class and avoid boredom of bashing your head to a projector screen and looking at a hundreds of bullet points.

So I end of by saying.........stop being lazy and become creative.