Q1 - Pedagogical Lens

Week 3 - How might a pedagogical lens assist teachers in making choices related to ICT integration in the classroom?

It is clear that there is a greater demand for new technologies and social media so it would be beneficial and also important for teachers to accept this and incorporate new technologies as much as possible within their classroom.

It is crucial that teachers in this day and age are able to see education through a pedagogical lens, which incorporates many aspects of ICT. By doing this it will prepare students for the real world and working life outside of school and also give them the confidence and familiarity of working with Information Communication Technologies that they will be sure to be faced with (Taylor, 2011).

Students in today’s society enjoy participating in fun, fast paced, spontaneous learning, which are all aspects of what ICT resources can provide in a classroom (Prensky, 2000). By being aware of this, teachers are able to provide students with the opportunities to engage in lessons that are fun and more meaningful to them. In addition, it allows students to work in a self-directed environment.  With these technologies they can click a button to move on to the next task at their own pace,  rather than being told what to do.

The relationship between curriculum decisions and pedagogy is one that I find quite interesting and rather important. Mishra & Koehler (2006) explain that in order for teachers to be successful they need to consider both content and pedagogy in their teachings. This means the teacher identifies and understands the content and then finds a different way to teach the students in a more accessible way (Mishra & Koehler, 2006).

It was with this in mind that I attempted to put my resource together, I made sure I had a clear understanding of what the content was about and then found a fun and engaging way of passing the information on in an interactive way. The outcome I decided to base my resource on was CCS3.2, which focuses on people, places and groups and how they have changed over time. As it is such a wide topic I thought it would be an appropriate outcome to focus on, as there would be a large range of resources to use.