Monday, 23 March 2015

Week 2 - Reflection and Readings

The second week of Design and Digital Technologies was very full on as we focused more on physically designing a product. Throughout the practical, Wendy modelled exactly how she would conduct this design component in a classroom to children. We created jewellery using recycled plastic bottles with a few different types of props, chains for necklaces and bracelets, hooks for earrings from candles to mould the plastic into different shapes. I enjoyed this task as I am interested in jewellery and have never had an experience to make my very own, especially from using recycled goods. This lesson was very resourceful because it not only got us thinking about a new design concept, but got us thinking about the pedagogy behind it as well. My lecturer modeled how she would run the lesson as though we were in primary school. This was a very valuable activity because from watching her actions and listening to what she was saying made me realize that during a classroom setting similar to this, it is important to be specific and detailed in even the smallest activities to be explicit for safety and understanding when conducting a step-by-step activity with the class.


This was my finished result.
As you can see, my beaded necklace needs improvement. 



What I was trying to achieve.


This is an example of Recycled water bottles which have been cut, coloured and turned into beads.


In one of the readings I examined claims that the school subject technology education, introduces children to the world of problem solving and invention. Core foundation underpinnings of the subject are explored, including its hands-on nature, its open-endedness, and its encouragement of generative cognitive processes. (Theodore Lewis,(2009)
The last two to three decades have seen technology education emerge as a subject in its own right in many countries around the world, with the traditional areas of crafts and skill development being broadened to include aspects of design and notions of technological literacy for all. (Alister Jones, Media V.B, 2011).

The second reading included the development of technology education over the last 20–25 years. The purpose of this reading is to reflect on how far the field has come and where it might go to, including what questions need to be considered in its ongoing development.
Mawson's critique of the linear use of the design cycle and his proposed pedagogy link to my reflection on creativity in technology and design because over the years, curriculum has been influenced by the political and cultural context at the time, has implications for teaching, learning and assessment, and the research agenda. (McCormick 1997). This is in contrast to the education community, where the learning of specific concepts has been and remains a central concern.

High Order Thinking
A main goal of educators today is to teach students the skills they need to be critical thinkers. Rather than remembering facts and ideas, children need to engage in higher levels of thinking to reach their fullest potential.  In today's society, practicing Higher Order Thinking skills outside of school will give students the tools that they need to understand, infer, connect, categorize, synthesize, evaluate, and apply the information they know to find solutions to new and existing problems. This includes being able to transfer what they have learnt into new situations. Critical thinking requires a student to consider the possibilities involved, reasoning, questioning and investigating. (Collins, 2014). Student's with deeper conceptual knowledge will be better able to access that information for use in new contexts. This may be the most important benefit of high-order thinking. Knowledge obtained through higher-order thinking processes is more easily transferable, so that students with a deep conceptual understanding of an idea will be much more likely to be able to apply that knowledge to solve new problems.

Reference - Collins. R., (2014). Skills for the 21st Century: teaching higher-order thinking. Curriculum Leadership Journal 12(14) 1-10. 

Week 1 - Reflection and Readings

Today was the first day of Design and Digital Technologies. After the first day of this course I am finding it very different to what I was expecting. My initial thoughts of this class were that it would be almost completely on computers. Although, in the first tutorial I was presented with a hands on activity which I was not expecting. The activity focused on the analysis of a designed product. We were divided into groups and were each given a bra. We then had a dice which had different processes on which were aesthetics, function, manufacture and materials, target audience, ethics and sustainability cultural and environmental. This activity was a great way to get everybody involved and benefit my learning within this course as it added more understanding and related to the Australian Curriculum - Technologies.
Previously to my first tutorial I briefly went through this week's activities in Moodle including the Assessment Task Description for Assessment Task 1 and was exceptionally surprised as this is all new topics which I am unfamiliar with. During the class I had to stay focused to keep up with all the instructions of creating a blog and wiki spaces, as well as listening carefully about all the new concepts we are leaning.  This week we focused on the Australian Curriculum including the rational, aims and structure when comparing design and digital technology subjects. This approach will be very useful in my future classroom as I will help my learners identify themselves as innovators and creative designers. However after learning the first concepts I can see myself becoming even more interested and enjoying this course as the weeks go by.

Technology can be defined as any tool that can be used to help promote human learning, including calculators, tablets, video cameras, digital cameras and of course, the computer. These are all innovations that have helped countless people during regular daily activities, but they can also have a profound impact on classroom learning. By incorporating Wiki spaces for my assignment, I have the ability to share my thoughts and responses with my peers which results in useful feedback about our groups works chosen topic.

The Design Technologies curriculum focuses on five contexts: Engineering principles and systems, Food and fibre production, Food specialisations and Materials and technologies specialisations.

Overall, integrating technology into the classroom helps prepare our students for the elaborate world they will face going forward. There are specific benefits to using technology in the classroom such as:
- It can keep students focused for longer periods of time.
- It makes students more excited to learn.
- It enables students to learn at their own pace.
- It prepares students for the future.

Monday, 9 March 2015

Welcome to my blog.
This is my blog for EDCU12039