Thesis Reflection - Digital Technology in Education

In reference to one of my previous posts, Thesis Reflection - Digital Technology and Games dated March 19, 2017, where I researched the benefits and disadvantages of digital technology. I did further research on currently existing technology that is being used in education.

There are several technologies that one can use in class as mentioned by Bevin Kateri (2017) a teacher and writer from Virginia, but in the list below I filtered those who fit best in teaching students from 11 – 18 years.

A brief list of today’s educational Technologies that can be used in class are:

• Interactive websites where teachers can access and create games for their lessons such as quiz. An example of such sites would be Kahoot (2017) which as mentioned will let you create a quiz. Jumble, discussion and a survey which it might come in useful for my research later on.

• Apps which also include educational games such as the one’s mentioned above are also a learning method using technology

• Educational Video Sites such as Discovery Education claims to offer several videos for a wide range of students which include exercises and interactivity in order not to leave students staring at the screen for a long time (Discovery Education, 2017).

• Online Organisation like Symbaloo (2017) which helps teachers organise their favourite websites on their desktop in a form of tile for easy access and organisation. Also, it is used on student’s desktops to help those who struggle with reading to navigate with ease which in my case of study might be irrelevant since the youngest age is 11 years.

• Interactive Whiteboards helps the teacher and students to manipulate and interact with items projected on the board. Some of the companies which sell interactive whiteboards also offer resources for teachers. Teachers also have the ability to prepare their own lesson plans.

• Online behaviour System like Class Dojo (2017) are apps which teachers can use to award points to students that they think are worthy of having. The points can be awarded on several bases including behaviour not only academic. Again, Class Dojo can be too childish for the age I am aiming but it’s always good to know about such things since one can always tweak or improve aspects which already work and have a huge success into one owns work.

As it is true that these technologies and methods exist and work, from my own experience as a student I never encountered such thing during a lesson apart from interactive whiteboard and projectors which is not mentioned in the list. So, one of the main problems that we might have here in Malta, could be: that such tools are not being provided to teachers, teachers could not be trained on how to use such technology, and or technology is too expensive for the budget of the school.

Further research is needed to check why certain methods are not being implemented at school, or better, at schools that I attended. Also, I will consider other schools technological teaching methods so that maybe I will find and get feedback on some of the technologies mentioned above, or even better discover new ones. This is important since I can analyse if and why certain methods where successful and learn from them.

References

Class Dojo, 2017. Class Dojo. [Online] Available at: https://www.classdojo.com/en-gb/?redirect=true [Accessed 18 January 2017].

Discovery Education, 2017. Discovery Education. [Online] Available at: http://www.discoveryeducation.com/ [Accessed 18 January 2017].

Kahoot, 2017. Get Kahoot. [Online] Available at: https://getkahoot.com/ [Accessed 18 January 2017].

Kateri, B., 2017. ECE Technology: 10 Trending Tools for Teachers. [Online] Available at: http://www.earlychildhoodteacher.org/blog/ece-technology-10-trending-tools-for-teachers/ [Accessed 18 January 2017].

Symbaloo, 2017. Symbaloo. [Online] Available at: http://www.symbaloo.com/home/mix/13eOcMZU9A [Accessed 18 January 2017].