Some of my examples of my positive use of ICT whilst on my placement:

I used both Photoshop and Illustrator in the making of my exercise handouts for the teaching of this software. I also used the snipping tool to create the screen grabs and screen shots. This was new to me as I have only worked with macs for years however for my placement I had to familiarise myself and work with the Windows OS, which took a little getting used to.

I was able to introduce the some new ICT into the module I was teaching such as requiring the students to hand their work in digitally on a flash drive. Until last year you had to print it all out, as I had had to, and stick it in sketchbook. This both cost a lot and seemed counterintuitive to the concept of working digitally. This also made it easier to mark as the work could be seen as it was designed plus everything including all their additional workings could be easily submitted and taken in to account as well as not being effected by the issues of bad printing.

I suggested they use PowerPoint as a means to hand in a series of images in a specific running order that could be viewed easily for assessment. They weren’t required to submit it in a formal PowerPoint style presentation but as they were not very computer literate at this point it seemed like an acceptable option. I intend to continue to investigate some other ways they could submit their digital work. Obviously they could use applications such as Pinterest etc. but as this was the first significant experiment with using this digital method I didn’t want to overload them with demands to get their heads around programs they don’t know or haven’t heard of and can be resistant to. I felt a softly softly approach would be better to get them on board.

When I do a similar program with the first year next term, as they are a little younger and more confident I think I will be able to be a little more adventurous with the ICT. As it was the group this term though initially slightly resistant and out of their comfort zone initially they all did well with some particular surprises. The conclusion I came to, was that they were very capable they just needed to be introduced to the software and encouraged in a certain way.

Another positive use was the fact that this past term I was unable to interact with Moodle as I should be able to next term. As such I couldn’t provide digital copies of the handouts to the students as I wished to so as a workaround I used Wetransfer.com to send the files to the students. This was great as unlike Dropbox there is no registering, It is very quick and in the free version you can send up to 10GB each time. This meant I didn’t have to compress the files and when I needed to could easily send large Photoshop files that had numerous layers for specific exercises.

In addition to this I set up a specific email account just for this lesson where the pupils could communicate with me as required. I feel the introduction of these ICT methods proved invaluable.

How technology has changed the way we learn:

Technology, like education, is in a constant state of flux and always has, does and will continue to change the way we learn. Equally the way we learn and what we learn will also continue to inform technology.  On a personal level technology has transformed the way I learn and engage with education. For example when I was 25 I made the decision to go to university, at this point I didn’t know I was really dyslexic I just generally avoided writing anything with a pen and thought I was bad at spelling. The letter that I wrote by hand to apply to the university took me around three weeks to complete. This included showing it to people and editing it numerous times to make it sound as less mental as possible. It wasn’t a long letter and a normal person probably could have knocked it out in about an hour. After being assessed and getting statemented the following year, which allowed me to discover the particular flavour of dyslexia I have and how it impacts my ability to write and consequently how I can overcome this (use a keyboard to type not a pen). The result was that a year after writing that letter I was able to write, using a laptop, a 3000 word synopsis of the history of stained glass off the top of my head in two hours as some additional notes for a module. This probably doesn’t seem a lot by other people’s standards but for me it was totally life changing. I discovered I actually enjoyed writing as apposed to the experience it had always previously been using a pen where my prose always broke down to “the cat sat on the mat” it was liberating suddenly being able being able to see my thoughts and ideas written down as they were and not bastardised.  In addition to this I learnt to record lectures, more often than not using my phone. I used MindView (mind mapping software) to organise myself and read and write text reading software.  Another significant way technology has changed the way we/I learn is of course the Internet. Nearly everything I’ve learnt in the past 5 years has been through this medium. I can’t underestimate how much I’ve learnt this way I find it highly successful. I "would rather  learn over the internet and get more individual attention from instructors in online courses" (Pallof and Pratt, 1999). I find them   much more effective for me than traditional classroom learning. it includes among other things; using Photoshop, Illustrator, SketchUp, Rhino, Word, rejigging my mac, taking it apart, servicing it, replacing components, similarly completely taking apart and repairing at least 10 different types of mobile including iPhone 3G/3GS/4/4S. Completely taking apart my MTB's and rebuilding them, Taking apart a motorbike engine and parts of my truck, various vacuum cleaners, cooking, propagating plants, learning guitar and saxophone. It’s endless really and definitely represents the most amazing change to the landscape. All around the world it enables people to learn things they could never have dreamed of only a short time ago.  I do slightly live in fear that this may not always be an option and that a time may come when I look back at this sweet spot where so much was available to so many people but in the end everyone just wanted to watch films and buy stuff and we blew it. It definitely makes me think I need to make an effort to contribute to it and not just rely on the efforts of others. I digress.

Palloff, R. and Pratt, K. (1999). Building learning communities in cyberspace. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.