Session 1: TfU & Technology

Reflect on Stone Wiske's paper and one Picture of Practice. Share your reactions to the paper, and make some observations or share new insights you have about the ways in which technology is used within in the Picture of Practice to support the learning of curriculum topics.

Reflection on Stone Wiske’s paper:

I agree with the point that we should not “incorporate technology into (your) curriculum plans whether it really adds much or not”. Yes, technology is just a vehicle that brings us to one where we want to be. The choice and how to use it largely depends on the driver – how well he knows the vehicle – what it can do or it can’t, what it is best for, how skilful the driver is, as well as the path the driver takes to reach the destination.

In the recent run of our workshop “Planning for ICT Integration into Maths Instructional Programme”, we spent a fair bit of time to clarify the notion of “IP supporting ICT” or “ICT supporting IP”, as a number of HODs perceived the workshop being one we try to hard sell incorporation of technology into the instructional programme (as we are from the Educational Technology Division).

I think, it's really whether one is able to see the value of using technology, and to what extent it value-adds (taking into consideration the amount of resources invested in the process) to the learning process. We must also be clear what kind hands-on experience is non-negotiable. For instance, it is very obvious that certain skills must be done through 'conventional' methods - eg. being able to measure lengths and angles, construct geometrical figures using a pair of compasses. These could not be replaced by technology.

As of "new technologies" is one that "is somewhat new to you", I think its definition also depends on how well-verse we are in the use of the tool. When we design learning activities for a pilot project last year, we “discovered” and incorporated some non-computational features of spreadsheet into learning activities for topics like symmetry and tessellation. Another instance is the shared feature in spreadsheet that is seldom used for collaborative activities in class. Many teachers heard about the feature for the first time and found it a refreshing way to facilitate class discussion and collaboration in activities. So, technology breathes “newness” into existing practices, expands its repertoire of use in teaching and learning, can it still be considered “new technology”?


Reflection on “Developing Professional Communities for Education”

The title caught my attention as I hope to draw on some ideas that enable us to apply on the “COP” that we just started a couple of months ago. In fact, our section had experimented initiating a few online “COPs” in the last 2 years. Sadly, none has sustained. The communities were created based on some common ‘interest’ identified and in fact, the invitees were participants from the workshop. However, the ‘interest’ somehow died out very quickly. We wondered, how to draw the people to these online “COPs” such that they will keep coming back. Somehow, we can’t pin-point where the exact problem and what can be done to address it.

If I were to borrow some ideas from the Picture of Practice, a couple of thoughts strike me:

• To start off a learning community, what it wants to accomplish has to be very clear. Not so much as to ‘sustain’ the interaction, which was what we hope we could leverage on. Think about it… we can’t.
• People involved in the community have their role quite clearly defined, or at least for a start, they have a role to play and they know their role well. So, it’s not so much of ad-hoc participation. It seems like it is from this formal interaction that eventually move on to something less formal and structured after the project.
• Another observation is, there exists more than one type of ‘expertise’ in the community. In fact, each group has its own ‘agenda’ but can leverage on the common project.
  

Tapping on some very fundamental questions in the framework, these are some questions that we have to answer when initiating a COP:

• “What makes it worthwhile for people to participate in the COP?”
• “What purpose does it serve?”
• “What are the roles expected of the participants in the COP?”
• “What makes it rich and interesting?”