The future of ICT in my Teaching

When I started this course I would class myself as fairly computer illiterate! I much preferred the old school approach to teaching and would pick a book over a website any day. However after my experiences in teaching and in learning more about what programs and websites are out there I am beginning to come around! At first YouTube and prezi was the extent of my ICT and they were mainly used as prompts or to explain a topic or idea. Now I have found some exciting new tools that can really involve the students in their learning. I found new programs such as Webspiration classroom where students can work collaboratively on visual representations of information, with live chat and the ability to see changes instantly so group work is made easy. They can even get feedback from teachers as they work. This allows so much freedom for students to explore inquiry based subjects and to control their own learning. This fits in with Zygotsky's theories of reciprical learning and peer to peer teaching by creating environments that allow students to learn from each other. This helps students to learn from each other's strengths and model work for each other. This also challenges students to work within their ZPD with a more knowledgable other.  

There are many other programs I have found that can be used to engage students and give them a different way to explore information and present knowledge.  One of them is Animoto where students can make videos by uploading images and video clips and adding text and music, and Animoto does the rest. It allows students to create something amazing and integrate their understanding into something creative. Other programs and websites have activities to scaffold students and allow them to learn progressivly and see instantly their improvment. This means that both students who are having difficulties and those who need extension can work at their level and their pace. This is something that is difficult to do in regular classrooms, in English students need lots of assisstance and scaffolding and it is not always easy to diffirentiate to all learning levels, however ICT provides the tools to do this.

 I think that ICT can really add something more than just a engaging side note to other work, it can really give student’s a deeper understanding of topics and ideas. I will definitely keep exploring ICT as there is always new programs and websites and technologies. I don’t think I will ever be done exploring ICT and even though I may not be the greatest with technology I will continue to try new things.