I listened to the podcast from Antony Funnell almost a month ago before the session had begun so it’s not so fresh in my mind but there were a lot of things which I learnt from it. What I found to really resonate with my own beliefs is that not all “educational apps” are designed to benefit the educational process.
We’ve got access to hardware which is getting more an more powerful to the point that it’s the software which really adds the value but if it doesn’t improve on the existing method, is it needed? What really needs to change is the way questions are asked. This relates to the talk from Punya Mishra where he used the example of Netherlands students doing tests with the internet available to them. The questions of today shouldn’t be what, where and when, but how, why and research based.
I look forward to being able to ask these questions in class as a science teacher whilst still being able to talk about the history of where science technologies have come from. Rather than just pointing at a board and repeating the elements, now you can use a smart board and show the elements, watch a video, promote more engaging questions and so on.
Funnell,A(2012) 21st century education.retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/21st-century-education/4197700#transcript
Mr Danic 
Hi Matt, yes I agree that questions in todays classrooms need to change. It will be interesting going forward using a smart board teaching- as you mentioned it will be able to extend beyond just student-teacher communication but open the realm up of using technology as a major tool. What other technology do you think will applicable in a science classroom? Regards, Nicola
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Hi Nicola, thanks for the comment. I think that the power of video and photos in the classroom to explain and document processes is very helpful technology. It would be interesting to be able to make a mini webseries of classes were students can follow along during an experiment and a pre recorded response from the teacher can play to explain if it’s a good or bad idea and try again. This could also free up time to help students that require more time and attention. I only just came up with this idea though so not too sure how well it would work but would be interesting to try.
Regards, Mat
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Yeah, I totally agree with open-book testing. I really feel like learning information is redundant in the information age. However, I do wonder how that can work with say maths or physics where learning processes and information is still critical to doing it well.
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Great point. We already give formula sheets so I don’t know how better it could be catered for besides saying, ‘Hey kids, don’t forget to put your questions into wolframalpha if you get stuck…’ Maybe making the questions more wordy to help them spot the information in text? I know with the students that I’ve tutored in Maths, reading the question seems to be their major problems.
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