Part III- MUED Tech

James stayed away from us to avoid infecting us (and also to get better lol). Good to get the Carona virus over and done with!

(And look at that! all my pictures are now on the LEFT of my blog?? Why the "F" would that be the case I wonder?)

How good is Technology in the Classroom??

Look. If you know how to use it effectively, GO FOR IT. The reason why I am trying to learn how to do this stuff efficiently is so I can be a 'woke' high school teacher like James.

The vids that were posted today were very cool and I liked how they talked about how simple it can be to add technology into your lessons. They also talk about the impact of screens on children aged 0-6. Dr Wendy Brookes talks about how the link between sight and aural senses can be established through watching Television shows which include music.

However!!! A lot of the time, people who make the animations or children's shows etc aren't musicians and don't think about how music impacts their young audience. If the visual aspect of a show does not link to sound, this may impact a child's ability to link the two senses later in life. I think, as an educator I will be careful of this as not to confuse my students.

Which would be better for showing what a String Quartet looks/sounds like?

A) Outdated book

B) Boring compression work Sheet

C) Using my big teacher voice and talk about it for 30 mins

OR

D) Show them a quick Youtube video which utilises EDUTAINMENT to SHOW the students what a string quartet looks and sounds like.

Nice work! The answer is D (you haven't learnt much in this course if you didn't come to this answer...)

Dimitri Christakis- What does he know?

Well, quite a lot. Mice and what telly does to their behaviour. Also how quick transitions between scenes and loud noises, flashing light effects may not be so great for little baby eyeballs. This TedTalk is quite good at explaining what its all about! https://youtu.be/BoT7qH_uVNo

I ONLY JUST DISCOVERED THE LECTURE RECORDING/SLIDES EEK

Notes from James' talk about Critical thinking

• Have we thought critically about technology in our classroom?

• We need to have nuanced/balanced perspective on how technology influences the classroom

• There IS an age limit for kids on social media (you need to be 13)

• Algorithms on social media feed you what you LIKE to see. To think critically, we need to do research outside social media and the general media. Look on GOOGLE SCHOLAR

There are two sides to the argument of Technology and children

Side one: Childhood at risk (Christakis)

Side two: Childhood empowerment/growth

My Reflection on the matter!

Technology (when used properly) can assist in significant grown and empowerment of a child in the classroom. It must be used carefully in the pre-school and infant stage so as not to impact how a child learns or processes information about the world.

SWELLER!! What a legend

Redundancy deficit - you CANNOT teach by reading off a slide because students will be reading and listening at the same time. These two processes will cancel each other out and students will not benefit. You need to se diagrams to ENHANCE what you're saying.

Whats on the screen should complete what you are trying to tell your students.

Life Hacks with James Humberstone!

If you MUST use a power point to enhance your lesson, put the important things on the left! Scaffold it in the F shape to hack your students eye tracking instincts (lol)