Introduction to 21st Century Learning Pedagogy

As background to this part of the blog, and to help you to get an idea of WHY educators in the 21st Century need to begin to explore and apply technology in the classroom, watching this video is very thought provoking for all of us involved in the education of young people today: Teaching 21st Century Skills.

On Thursday 16th of July 2015, fifty or so teachers - from primary, intermediate and secondary schools in the wider Auckland area - met at the NewMarket campus for the first time. There we were, the July 2015 intake for the Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice (Digital and Collaborative Learning) Programme. The gist of the four hour lab was both an orientation and the opportunity for some hands on practical ICT-facilitated activities that could be used in those classrooms or 'learning hubs' with our students.

It was a fantastic experience working with other innovative, tech-savvy and forward thinking educators. I enjoyed working collaboratively within a group of six teachers in sharing our understanding, enthusiasm and skills to meet the challenge of creating our own video - within just sixty minutes, from planning to creating and then uploading - on to an online environment.

Above is a screenshot of the video we created together, using an iPhone app, some play-dough, felt pens, and a whole load of collaboration. For all but one of us in the group, it was our very first attempt to make a stop motion video. 

Whilst it was a short film in the end, I think we all got a sense of pride in what we achieved together - and were no doubt excited at the prospect of how we could share this new ICT facilitated activity with our own students and colleagues!

Here are some of the free-to-use/trial apps we found out about online that some of the groups were using to create their videos when collaborating:

Pixlr is a free web-based photo editor that allows you to turn your computer desktop, or mobile or internet browser into taking and editing photos on your device. You can "apply quick fixes, overlays, filters, and stickers to make any photo beautiful".

"Do you have presentation envy? Fed up with 'Death by PowerPoint'?! Then you need Keynote... Apple presentation software." For a video of how this app works, take a look here.  

Videoscribe allows you to create your own moving whiteboard videos for use in the classroom - a far more exciting, animated view of lessons can be created to engage students and colleagues alike.

"iMovie makes it easy to browse and share the HD video you shoot on your iOS tablet device. Turn your favourite clips into blockbuster movies or Hollywood-style trailers. And watch your mini-masterpieces anywhere with iMovie Theater. A few taps, a few swipes and you’re ready for your big premiere."

And if you have a look at what students have done with 'older' technologies and interactive software here - you can see that, potentially, and with a bit of enthusiasm and risk taking around ICT use in schools - anything is possible!