Ayushirana@Edutech

I have learn many things in my entire journey of EC&I 833. It has been a wonderful experience for me and I came to know many new terms and concepts that has helped me to enhance my knowledge.

I would like to thanks Dr. Katia and my fellow students for their support and guidance in this entire journey.

I have attached my reflection audio in this blog, kindly acknowledge this and leave your feedback.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HK9tBpqMVkqQ1rJf22y2LGnGpl2jAlXP/view?usp=drive_link

Assessment should be like the conversation which includes engagement and interactions. Whereas, in functionality the assessments are mainly concerned with grades and the numbers rather than the conversation. There are different technological tools that can help to make assessment more interesting and engaging like a conversation.

Here are some ways that will help us to have a conversational assessment approach:

Feedback tools: These are the tools that helps the facilitator to provide the feedback in audio or video form to make the assessment more engaging. It makes the assessment to feel like a dialogue.

Peer review: Different online platforms can be used for peer reviews and it motivates the students to analyze and evaluate each other’s work. This will also help them to have a good conversation with each other and enhance the engagement level of students in the classroom.

Adaptive learning systems: As per this system the difficulty level and nature of the assessment should be adjusted as per  the progress of the learner.

E-portfolios: This help the students to gather their work in chronological order and summarize their learning journey and give a broad reflection of their progress and development in the entire journey.

So these are the different ways that we can use to make the assessment process more interactive and engaging.

By integrating coding in the classroom an educator can enhance the creativity, thinking power and learning abilities of the students. Learning coding in the schools help the students to shape their future in a better way.

Value of Coding for Students:

Coding help the students to face different challenges by breaking them into small parts and then solve them as a result it enhance their problem solving skills and make them more creative. With the help of coding students can innovate their own games, apps and animated creatures and can bring their thoughts into reality and get a source through which their imagination can turn into functionality. They become the creator of technology rather then just users. It also help them to prepare for their future careers in different areas such as health, education and finance.

Do all students benefit?

Although coding provides equal access and benefits but all students are not equally engaged with it. Students who belongs to the underprivileged areas are not having the adequate resources as a result they lack behind. As all the learners have different way of learning so, many learners are not able to adapt the learning style of coding activities.

Should only Techies teach coding?

I think that not only techies but educators can also teach coding in the schools. There are many platforms which help the educators to learn coding as well as to teach the same in the classroom side by side. It is a technique which facilitates the problem solving skills so the technical mastery is not the necessity. There are different resources available for the educators such as tutorials, coding camps which help the educators to boost their confidence of teaching coding.

As an early childhood educator AI is playing a vital role in my day to day life as it helps to increase my efficiency, creativity in my personal life as well as in my professional life. Here i am sharing my perspective on the use of AI and its future potential.

AI helps me a lot to plan my day as an early childhood educator. I can get a variety of ideas to plan the different engaging activities for my kids. Different activities can be planned for different age groups by using AI tools. AI also helps me to create age appropriate content and stories for my kids where I can customized the characters and content of the stories as per my requirement. AI tools also saves a lot of time by helping in drafting mails, newsletter and different documents required in our daily routine of work. AI also acts as a mentor for me as it helps me to solve different classroom problems by providing the deep information about child psychology and different ways of engaging students in the classroom.

As i talk about my personal life, so in that case also AI is helping me a lot. I love to do paintings and other creative things and for that i get plenty of ideas through AI which helps me to improve my skills. It inspires me to look at the new ways of doing the things and help me a lot in my personal growth. The major drawbacks of using AI is that sometimes the information provided by it is not correct so we have to be careful before using it, it also reduce our thinking and creativity power as we are depending on AI for all the ideas and the issue of data privacy is also there.

I can imagine the future of AI as our collaborative partner who will help us to enhance our capabilities and offer the personalized learning experiences to make the learning process simple and accessible for all individuals.

There is a massive evolution in web over a period of time. In the beginning web 1.0 is introduced which allow the users to consume the information only and there were no possibilities for the users to contribute in it. Then web 2.0 allow the users to be interactive through the introduction of blogs, social media and other user generated content which help the learners to work in collaboration through discussions, group projects. Currently we have been shifted to web 3.0 which is also known as intelligent web. The use of technologies such as AI, block chain and machine learning has made this web more predictable, adaptable and personalized and has aligned with Education 3.0 in which the learning concept is student-centered, adaptable and personalized.

Education system has become more flexible, inclusive and accessible as a result Web 3.0 evolution. As it allow the users to find their own path and involve in it so that they can fulfill their individual needs. It also facilitates educators and learners to collaborate with each other at global level by crossing the institutional boundaries. Web 3.0 is beneficial for the students and the learners who have good access to technology and are good in handling digital tools and internet. Education 3.0 environment provides an opportunity to learners and educators to explore a large amount of information and find their learning path by engaging in the resources that are according to their interest and needs. However, the students and the teachers who are not tech-savvy and have limited access to digital tools are the ones who feel left out in this evolution process. Data privacy and security is another drawback of this Web 3.0 technology which impacts the users. Gerstein’s metaphor focus on the transformation of education system and in this process it is important to ensure that this advancement in technology benefits all the students as well as the teachers.

Productivity suites plays a vital role in 21st century education sector. It has been integrated at different levels in education sector from pre-primary to high school. In pre-primary we use these productivity suites to make different worksheets for the students. As a teacher these tools help us to work together on one document while sitting at different locations as per our convenience. Tools such as google docs, google spread sheet help us to prepare results of the student. These tools help us to work together but at our comfort level because we can work wherever and whenever we want as per our schedule. As a students these tools help the students to make their learning more engaging and interactive. Tools such as power point presentation, Prezi present the content in such a manner that attracts the learner attention and engage them in the learning process because as we all know that the students will learn better by observing and viewing the things rather than just listening. These productivity tools play a vital role in developing various skills that are required by the students in 21st century. As we all are familiar with the fact that the present and the future era is all about technology so it is very important that the students should have the knowledge of these tools to have a successful career in future. This learning process need to be upgraded as per the advancement in the technology so that there should not be any gap between their learning phase and working phase in future. However, one should use the productivity suites wisely as over reliance on technology may affect our thinking power and reduce our creativity and efficiency. So, one should know how to use these tools effectively to increase our productivity and should not have any negative effect on us.

As an educator various theories of learning has influenced my teaching journey but the one that underpin my classroom practices is constructivism theory. In the initial stage of my teaching, constructivism theory given by Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky has a major impact on my teaching practices. This theory states that the interest of the learners is built through their active engagement in the classroom activities and practices using new material and ideas. It focus on student centered learning, where students construct their knowledge through experiences rather than simply receiving the information from the teacher. In this theory the main task is to create a classroom environment where students find their answers on their own and discover new things and ideas through various activities and group practices.

As I have gained more experience in teaching field and observed more things, I have recognized the importance of social learning in education field. Gradually, I have started integrating Albert Bandura’s Social learning theory in my classroom practices. As per his theory learning takes place within social context, specifically through imitation, modelling and observation. Students learn more while interacting with their peers, teachers and with other people in their surroundings. After observing these things, I have started incorporating collaborative learning practices in my classroom teaching. I have planned the group activities where they observe that how their friends are performing the activities and imitate their actions and was able to perform activities more effectively and efficiently. During these activities they are also learning social etiquettes, as how to deal with peers and friends in the social structure. By incorporating the elements from various theories, I was able to develop a more flexible and student centered approach that helped me to make the teaching learning process more effective. But, I believe that as I go forward in this field my beliefs will continue to shift both as a learner and as an educator as per the changes that takes place in education sector.

In present scenario the definition of the term ‘educational technology’ has evolved to a large extent which includes the integration of different methodologies, digital tools and philosophies. A contemporary definition of education technology can be refer to as a holistic framework that integrates the digital tools to facilitate learning and will help to improve the educational outcomes.

I have read  the article A short history of educational technology, and it was very interesting to see the changes that took place in the field of education from teaching through blackboards and books to using digital tools and innovations for teaching in modern era. The article focus on the role of radio and television in distance education and then highlights the impact of computer assisted learning and internet in teaching. the motive of the article  is to explain how advancement in technology has reshaped the practices in education.

My understanding and practice of using educational technology has evolved in multiple ways. When I was a student my teachers were using books and blackboards to teach us and gradually these blackboards were transformed into smart boards and the studies became more interesting for us because of these smart boards. Then slowly and gradually the use of computers and technology has increased in the field of education for different purposes. As I became a teacher I can see a drastic change in the field of education because of these digital tools as they have opened the way for deep learning and connections. Technology advancement in education has made the learning process more flexible, interactive and adaptive for the students as well as the teacher. As per my view point educational technology is something more then a tool as it is accessible to everyone and it allows life long learning for all the individual which was not possible earlier.