Placement and Collaboration

 

     This week saw the development of a student lead organisation via Google Groups. This development came about through the inability as university student to gain access to the Learning Place whilst on our practicum. The idea behind the development of the group was to allow the student body to share experiences and resources for our placement and through to our internship in fourth year. At this stage I have had 48 student members join in the first few days and the sharing of ideas and resources has begun. There were many questions from students regarding Google Groups and how they worked which left me thinking that even now we are not educating teachers on the technological tools that are available for use to use in the classroom.

    All these questions from students reminded me of the Digital Natives work by Marc Prensky (2001) where I had previously stated that the education system had changed and that the work of Prensky was dated.  His work may seem dated in relation to the connections of the education system, but it seems through the experience of establishing this Google Group that it is still an issue of the teacher not being aware of the technological changes that are occurring and the effect it has on there students and their positions as teachers. It is part of the TPACK model without the technological knowledge we are still back in the 1980’s and 1990’s when Shulman developed his Pedagogical Content Knowledge model.

     I have used this week to further implement the use of different Google Applications into my university studies. Through the use of Google Documents I am now conducting group assignment work in Science and have been able to commence a trial of using a website from my Professional Experience. The website was received somewhat apprehensively by my supervising teacher who does not use many forms of ICT in the classroom. Even though my supervising teacher does not use much technology she is still open to learn and is now looking at the possibility of me running a Professional Development session for her and several other teachers on website construction and blogging and how to implement them in the classroom.