PGI410188-41010064DO/ME (20202) - Tecnologias em Ensino e Aprendizagem

Good morning! 

As I mentioned in the previous forum, students are not blank slates. Thus, they are not passive receivers of knowledge. According to Professor Moran, teachers need to consider what students bring to the learning experience so they engage in the creation and transformation of knowledge. In this sense, students become the center of the learning experience in all its dimensions. In turn, teachers act as facilitators of the interaction between students and their peers, family, and the community. Professor Moran points out that the greatest challenge is for teachers to change their mindsets. Teachers need to show students how much they have learned. Then, teachers must identify what needs to be explored so that learning is individualized. Also, teachers can integrate different subjects and relate the content studied to students’ reality through projects. My favorite part of Professor Moran’s interview concerns teachers dealing with the unexpected, which I could relate to Souza-Neto’s report. I believe that some teachers are afraid of the feeling of not being in control. Following Moran’s advice, teachers will lead a happier and healthier life when they understand that it is impossible to control everything.

Hello!

Reading Stanley's text " Integrating Technology", it is clear that technology must be included in the curriculum due to the benefits it brings to education. He mentions the Edutopia (2008) text, claiming that integration of technology in the curriculum leads learners to: active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback and connection to real world experts. For sure, after Covid pandemic experience, educators have learned that it makes sense and it is not possible to separate DICTs from curriculum anymore.

In my personal experience during this quarantine time, I’ve been involved in education and technology issues as a teacher, as a student and as a mother of two high school students. Integration of education and technology is happening right now, inside my home, then, I consider that it is not an “in the future” issue. Technology can no longer be seen as a plus in the curriculum. In fact, it is the only option to approach the curriculum nowadays. Besides, I do believe it can be a successful and enriching experience! I’ve seen plenty of great teaching and learning experiences going on. When teachers come back to the  physical space of schools, I hope that the good pedagogical practices can continue…

On the other hand, I’m also deeply worried about some public schools (some private, too)  and how they are dealing with this reality. I know that there are school infrastructure barriers, teachers’ beliefs, and teachers and students’ problems and needs leading to poor learning outputs. In this perspective, the damages to education will be high, increasing even more inequality among people in our country. I guess this is going to be our biggest challenge.     

The most interesting takeaway from Stanley and Thornbury's text "Integrating Technology" was the idea that you should consider learners' opinions before incorporating technology into your practice. Another good point is the idea of blended learning and flipped classroom. During the pandemic, we should definitely consider the new methodologies when we plan some activities or lessons.

Considering the documentary, I really liked to see a distinct reality. On one hand, it is sad to see that we have lots to improve. On the other hand, we could see that it is indeed possible to think outside the box and promote a different learning environment for our students. I particularly liked the idea of the project-based approach, because it is very student-centered, and the lessons can be personalized according to our student’s needs. 

Regarding active learning, I had to think about my own practices. I am only teaching online groups now. In addition to the online meetings, I plan asynchronous activities every week for my students. After reading the texts and watching the documentaries, I realized that some/most of my practices are very teacher-centered. Then, as a personal development goal, I want to stop being so controlling about my activity suggestions and let students decide what and how they want to see the content. In short, it was a very pleasant unit because I could reflect on my practices and education in general. Furthermore, I started discussing this matter with some friends who are teachers as well to debate about what we could do to change our practice inside the classroom in order to promote a different learning experience to our students and foster student’s autonomy.

Hello!

I really enjoyed the material on the topic of the week, especially the videos and documentaries, which provide a more practical illustration of the theoretical discussions and educational methodologies. While watching the one about High Tech High, I felt that I would love to go back to school if I could study there . Of course, they showed only the positive aspects of the school, but it is still very impressive. Even more surprising is the fact that it is a public school. Although this seems to be far above our reality, I realized that significant improvements were also applied to Brazilian public schools, such as those reported by Escola Nave (in Recife).

However, one of the main difficulties against these changes is (again) the lack of adequate infrastructure and professionals since many of the innovations are aligned with technological and pedagogical advances. On the other hand, just by tailoring the traditional methods little by little, considering the students’ needs, we could start to see some benefits. Under this perspective, I would like to share a personal experience as a student. During High School, we had this interdisciplinary project about “Modernismo,” in which the Portuguese, History, and Art teachers worked all together on the same topic according to their areas. Despite not having much time and support to develop the project, the teachers were able to effectively apply some of the principles of the Project-Based Approach. In addition to class discussions, students were divided into groups (collaboration), and we had to find a way to present our theme, either through developing a product or through an artistic presentation (involving critical thinking). Later, the work would be presented at an event for the community (communication). 

The entire experience was way different than our customary classes, and I remember being very engaged in the work!

Although the reading on Souza-Neto (2020) has brought up several limitations for implementing technological practices in schools, watching the episode on High Tech High led me to think that we must persist in advancing such implementation. Based on students’ and teachers’ testimonials, I would assume High Tech High is an inspirational place to study/work.

The statements that impacted me the most in the video were: “It will be a shame if we continue to run our schools exactly like we did 100 years ago”, and: “Everything we do has an expiration date”. Regardless of how successful a lesson or activity may be, I would say we must constantly review and redesign the way we mediate the learning process. Something that we once considered “fantastic” might be just “okay” now, or even not an advisable practice anymore. Everything is in constant change: technology, the way we live and communicate and, therefore, it should be expected for educational practices to also evolve over time. And I believe this evolution can be boosted with the incorporation of technological resources.  

Another aspect that I consider relevant was the fact that teachers can dedicate significant time to professional development. They only teach in the morning and have experts in other fields teach students in the afternoon, while they are also able to dedicate time to their own learning. I see this as an essential practice that most teachers are not able to prioritize due to an excessive workload. How can we expect students to innovate if we don’t have the time to reflect, learn and change?

Hello!

As I was reading the texts available and watching the videos of professor Moran, an interesting connection came to my realization: integrating new technologies in the educational context supports teachers to develop methodologies and strategies considered active, and consequently leading students to be autonomous and researchers. Thus, technology provides an easier access to a larger variety of tools and more autonomy as the teacher’s constant presence might not be needed. In this aspect, teachers are the mediators and guiders to help students find their way to their personal developments. Then, I agree with Stanley when he pointed out that “introducing learners to these tools, and showing them when and how to use them, can help them help themselves at a later date.”

As professor Moran claims, active learning should be connected to reflection, and in order to allow that, it is important to engage and motivate students to be researchers. I would say that the technological scenario we are living in provides great opportunities for that. Teachers don’t need to know every aspect related to digital resources or tools, but they should be aware of the constant need they have to explore and discover these possibilities. Also, another reason for that, is what Stanley mentioned in his book:

“Technology should always be part of what a teacher is currently doing with a class, and only be used to promote and extend learning. It shouldn’t be something special, done as a break from regular classroom learning or as a reward for good behaviour.”

This awareness dialogues to what we have previously discussed in our classes and forums, that a meaningful learning requires processes that are connected to students’ realities, needs and objectives.

I really enjoyed reading about PBLL. Here's a working definition:

PBLL can be conceived as a series of language learning tasks that are articulated toward a common goal: the construction of a public product representing a response to a challenging problem or question. 

Source

That made me remember my comment on the last (I think it was the last) forum: this public technologically related product - assuming a CALL perspective - should also be socially situated. The use of technology, in my opinion, should be as genuine as possible. For instance, perhaps writing in a forum is too artificial and it does not seem to have any vantage over just talking about something during class (it actually takes longer and demands a lot more effort). Finally, thinking about this made me come up with the activity that I will work on at my unit.

Hello, 

As I said in the previous forum,  the success of technology integration as a promoter of critical thinking depends in part on the teacher’s ability to explore the relationship between pedagogy and technology. As teachers, we need to develop clear learning objectives and select methods of instruction, feedback, and evaluation and assessment strategies, including follow-up activities. The technology used for teaching and learning should not be considered as delivery vehicles, rather, it should be used as engagers and facilitators of thinking (HOWLAND; JONASSEN; MARRA, 2012, p. 8).

HOWLAND, J. L.; JONASSEN, D.; MARRA, R. (2012). Meaningful learning with technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Hello everyone!

I really enjoyed reading/listening about Metodologias Ativas. I believe it should the aim of every teacher to have a more "learner-centered" class. 

In this news article here, they present many different models in which it is possible to apply Metodologias Ativas. Among the examples, the ones that I liked the most were:

1. Aprendizagem Baseada em Projetos

2. Gamificação na Educação

In both models, it is possible to use technology to enhance learning. 

In my experience during High School, I believe that the school I was in tried to implement some kind of "project-based" approach. We had 3 competencies we were graded for (Conhecimento, Habilidade, and Atitude). In the "Atitude" competence, we usually did some kind of project related to the content we had in class. Also, sometimes teachers would join to make integrated projects. However, most of the time it would be a regular activity or sometimes even a question in a test. Therefore, I believe it was not so well implemented. I believe that for it to work, project-based learning should be carefully planned and developed with the students throughout the course.

Reading about PBLL reminded me of a course I took in Letras Inglês, in which prof. Raquel asked us to conduct a research with each other about beliefs on teaching and learning, and analyze the results. What we didn’t know is that she wanted us to analyze each other so we could then talk about teaching and learning styles. We also had the task to present our results to the class, so we also practiced oral English and the genre academic presentation. I remember us having difficulties in understanding why we were doing that activity in the beginning, but once I understood the objective, I even liked it. There was technology involved because we had to build an online questionnaire, work with spreadsheets to analyze the results, and create a slides presentation. I have the memory of that being a successful PBLL learning experience.

I really liked reading about Project Based Learning. This resource about 10 real world project examples for PBLL is excellent! I definitely want to be able to propose this to students some day.

After watching professor Moran, I found that active methodologies are a fruitful way of teaching and learning. And as he explained, it is not crucial to have sophisticated technology, it is possible to implement active methodologies at public schools as well. Proposing a project with the use of theoretical classes, proposing a deeper reflection of what was learned, linking the entire process. So students may perceive that they are in fact learning.

When I was watching the documentary “Destino Educação: Escolas Inovadoras”, in chapter 5 I really liked when a student said that the regular classes matched with the extra ones because he could apply what he learned in the regular classes into the “technical” classes. And this touched me because that is the point, students may be able to apply what they learn to new projects. 

Finally, I really enjoyed the projects of programming, design and multimedia at Recife’s school. It would be a dream to be able to have contact with this curriculum format during my high school, matching regular classes and “technical classes”.