Assignment Tasks for Unit 1 Task 2

Task 2 Report
Introduction
The aim of this report is to:

Analyses and evaluates the skills of a digitally literate teacher

Assess my skills against those identified and assess my confidence and how my
own personal use of digital technology could be used in classroom practice

Evaluate the impact of my confidence in using digital literacy and identify how
personal, cultural and organisational barriers can affect digital literacy
development

Analyse the key skillset required by the digitally literate teacher

From looking at the infographic resource given to us as part of the unit (Anatomy of a
Tech-enabled Educator, henceforth cited as Ref[1]) and other writings besides my own
experience, I thinks there are three key areas to look at in assessing the skillset of a
digitally literate teacher:

Attitude
Technological know-how and competence
The extent to which technological know-how and competence actually informs
their teaching and professional practice

In many ways, the most important aspect is attitude, since technologies are constantly
evolving, so the will and ability to continue learning are basic requirements. Most
important is attitude, since this enables development in technologies and skills. This
would cover points from Ref[1]such as Be resilient and unafraid of failure and Be
curious and adventurous when it comes to trying out new technology. With this attitude,
it some skills are missing, they will be learned.
Also fundamental is the application of this technology in the classroom and with other
interaction with students, since without this deployment, the skillset is having little actual
effect. Skills such as the use of social media in collaboration with students and the use of
VLEs to provide engaging content and opportunities for Formative Assessment
(Assessment for Learning) is important for this.
Of course for a teacher, features relating to professional standards are also important,
since having this correct is a necessary requirement of being able to teach at all. This
covers such aspects as security/privacy, safeguarding, keeping professional and private
online connections separate etc.
A knowledge of particular technologies is maybe less important, since these always
change and can be learned. Currently I would say an ability to work with audio and video
to produce engaging content, to research and make use of OER, the effective use of a
VLE and the use computer games and quizzes to engage and check learning are crucial
but these will evolve.

Edward Curran

Assignment Tasks for Unit 1 Task 2

The use in of technology in other ways other ways (for preparing resources, self
development) are may be secondary, since the technology does not directly affect the
student but still enrich student experience ultimately by ensuring resources of time and
energy are employed effectively.
Assess own digital literacy skills against a current digital literacy framework
Analyse the impact of confidence and self-efficacy upon own digital literacy
development
I assessed my skills against the Coralesce Ed-Tech framework, informed by my
understanding of the digitally literate teacher. The results are handed in along with this
assignment. From the assessment, it is clear that I understand and can use a range of
technologies well and are confident with these. I make heavy personal use of technology
and in my teaching role, use it for preparing resources, distributing resources and
collecting work. My primary contact with students via the medium of technology is by use
of email and the VLE.
The assessment threw up the following gaps:

I could make more use of social media, skype etc in delivery/engagement

Better use of IWB, VLE (as defined in College eLearning Framework moving to
stage 2) For examples support student based group discussions through the
effective use of web based tools, use of e-portfolios, more online assessment
polls/quizzes, use of games. Other points were to take opportunities to learn about
new technology from my students and support students to use a variety of mobile
devices in their lessons
I could better organise and present a range of sources of information through the
curation of digital content and design online materials using an authoring
environment or tools. Also deliver offsite learning through confident use of
webinars. Make more use of OERs. Explore ways of using blogging to deliver
content.
There are various ways I could improve my use of technology for professional
collaboration and development: share/collaborate with colleagues/students using
bookmarks/tagging; seek out and share good practice in the use of technology
with colleagues; keep up to date and develop my professional network using
social and collaborative media (e.g. blogs and wikis); having educational social
profile; generate and contribute to online discussions with other professionals in
the same or related subject area; participate in synchronous online CPD
opportunities, e.g. live chats and webinars; lead synchronous online CPD activities
both within and outside my institution

In summary, I understand technology and find it easy to learn new technologies but it is
not always coming through in my practice in the classroom or professional practice.
Assess ways to incorporate own personal technology use into classroom
practice
Looking at my personal use of technology, some possibilities would be:

Use of Skype, Whats App, Line etc etc in communication

I use Whats App and Line a lot in personal communication using smartphones
and possibly this could be extended into classroom practice. However, I find
college email sent and received from smartphones allows this sort of
communication already, with the added benefit of being subject to college

Edward Curran

Assignment Tasks for Unit 1 Task 2

oversight and control. Students send queries about work or other issues or just
inform us they are running late.
One possible way of using the features of Skype and Line would be for bringing in
guest speakers for video conferencing, rather than having them travel to the
college. That might make it possible to get in a wider range of speakers more
frequently. In some circumstance where a teacher is unable to be in college, this
might be a possible option.

Use of Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and blogging

platforms such as Tumblr) for delivery and engagement
Learners often find navigation within the VLE difficult and the interface
uninspiring. Placing resources within Tumblr and Facebook or other social media
platforms might be a possible alternative, with Twitter used to communicate news
of content changes, deadlines etc.
Disadvantages of this might be firstly the need to keep personal and professional
social media separate (as well as the distractions of social media for the
students.) Secondly this seems like a redundant reinvention of the VLE, with its
wealth of facilities. There is possibly some scope for integration eg tweeting
Moodle news/changes/announcements; a Facebook plugin to the VLE (or viceversa)
Anything on this lines would need initial work with class to find out what social
media are actually used for example Facebook is much less popular among
people of our learners age.

Increased use of the Smartphone as a learning and teaching tool

I feel this would be the most fruitful way to incorporate own personal technology
use into classroom practice. I already make some use of the phone in class for
example capturing collaborative paper flip chart work students have done in
groups by photographing with a smartphone, sharing to OneDrive and then
uploading to VLE. As mentioned above, I use it to communicate with students via
email. Learners greatly enjoy using their smartphones as part of the lesson - I
have recently started making use of Kahoot and found it provides scope for
quizzes and polls that engage the class. A number of popular applications like
Prezi also are available as apps. There is even a Moodle app, although I know little
of its capabilities. Smartphones can access search engines and be used as
powerful research tool. As powerful computers in their own right, they can
supplement or even supplant the classroom desktop or laptop.

Critically assess the personal, cultural and organisational barriers to own and
other practitioners digital literacy development and learning technology use
I think the main organisational barrier currently is that many colleges, including ours, see
technology as primarily a management tool with the focus on monitoring compliance,
with such things as gradebooks, assessments which provide data for Standards Assessors
and so forth. This also adds to workload and have a negative impact of student
experience (eg the learner experience with BKSB).
There is predominately a culture of targets, results and compliance checks with penalties
for failure to meet these. These become a priority and other tasks, such as developing
resources less important. Also it means there is little time to experiment and little
inclination to take risk, since failure is frowned on, while the rewards of success are very
uncertain.

Edward Curran

Assignment Tasks for Unit 1 Task 2

A lot of barriers have come down in my professional lifetime. Some prejudices remain
against eg mobile use in classrooms and there is still some understandable nervousness
around the use of social media. However, many policies that prevented technology use
(bars on cloud storage, use of personal devices, barriers to external email, very
restrictive firewalls) have been removed.
I do not recognise that I have any personal barriers to digital literacy development, in
that I enjoy experimenting with technology and feel extremely confident with it.
However, one issue I have to be careful about is that I sometimes think like a developer,
not a teacher. I can focus on the technology rather than the teaching and chase up
something because it interests me, rather than it might be useful in the classroom. As
previously said in this report, I feel I am not making the full use that I could of learning
technology. The main barriers I find are the organisational and cultural ones mentioned
earlier a lack of confidence about taking risks in the current climate. Arising from this, I
feel the need to develop and assess material quickly, using tried and tested ways, so any
advancement in technology is incremental/slow/piecemeal.
Pictorial Digital Development Plan
Please go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=vWQTZ5LynFQ&rel=0&utm_source=Transactional&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaig
n=Transactional-Publish-success
(Sorry, no music)

Edward Curran