Week One Post

What is technology? 
After reading the article "What is Technology?" by Jose' Anazagaty, I learnt what the term 'technology', in broad sense, refers to the "social relationships dictated by the technical organization and mechanization of activities, for example, the technical organization of work" (Oxford Dictionary of Sociology 2005). This means that technology is determined by these pre-existing social, economic and technical relations. For this reason, "technology cannot be reduced to material artifacts nor can it be defined merely in terms of its functionality or its rationality" (Anazagasty, 2014). Despite its common misconception with simple gadgets, "the social and the cultural aspects of technology are deeply enmeshed in scientific and technological practices" (Anazagasty, 2014). This is important to me as it means that I, a member of society, can play an integral role in the development of technology in the 21st century.

Teaching higher-order thinking
According to Brookhart (2010), higher-order thinking falls into three categories: transfer, critical thinking and problem solving. Transfer refers to thinking that "applies to life outside of school where it is characterised by a series of transfer opportunities" (Brookhart, 2010). The second category, Critical Thinking, refers to "reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do" (Norris & Ennis, 1989). This equips students to make sound decisions and exercising reasoned judgment. The final category, problem solving, enables students to find a solution for a problem that cannot be solved simply by memorising formulas, like math equations, for example.

The Bloom’s Taxonomy is the most widely used framework for teaching thinking. His aim was to promote higher forms of thinking in education, such as analysing and evaluating, rather than just teaching students to remember facts (rote learning). Bloom's Taxonomy (see Table 1), focuses on the Cognitive domain of learning, listing six major skills used to achieve this aim. The Taxonomy was revised a few years later and some changes were made (Table 2).

Australian Curriculum - Technologies 

In the Australian Curriculum Technologies unit students are encouraged to develop the skills necessary to "design, explore and engage with the environment, materials, data systems and equipment in the economy, to make informed, ethical decisions towards creating a sustainable future" (ACARA, 2015). To enforce this the Technologies unit is broken into two distinct subjects:

'Design and technologies' where students use design thinking to discover new solutions for authentic needs (ACARA, 2015). In this process students will consider the impact of current environmental decisions and will re-design products, services and environments to encourage sustainable living.

'Digital Technologies' where students use computational thinking to design and implement digital solutions (ACARA, 2015). In this process students will assess the role of contemporary and emerging digital technologies in creating more sustainable patterns of living including technologies used.

WORD WALL – Verbs from the Australian Curriculum
Verb	Associated Pedagogy
Create	To involve students in ‘creating’, teachers should plan lesson activities that cater for the development of this skill. In a lesson students may be required to make a model to represent data. During this creating process, teachers should assist in the development of student products and oversee project development.
Collaborate And Manage	To implement ‘Collaborate and Manage’, students could participate in group assignments, by means of bringing together ideas, pooling resources, planning and organizing delegated tasks. During this process, the teacher’s role would be to facilitate and support students in their decision making and oversee their progress.
Design	‘Design’ is a fairly broad term and can be implemented in lesson content through a variety of ways. To engage in design, students may design a type of experiment that helps them achieve a desired outcome or could  design a structure showing accurate dimensions etc. During student’s involvement in this, the teacher would give aid to students and give advice where necessary.
Evaluate	In order to Evaluate, students should be encouraged to analyse data and make predictions, observations and discern how useful the data is to the overall investigation. Teachers could pose leading questions to encourage critical thinking and discovery.
Generate	To inspire students to ‘generate’ ideas students can brainstorm and create concept maps. This process will encourage creative thinking and will bring together their ideas relating to the topic. During this activity, teachers can ask leading questions that prompt ideas and correct any misguided thoughts that students may have of the topic.
Implement	To encourage students to use ‘implementation’, a group activity could be designed so that the students are hearing and incorporating the ideas of others in the group. For instance, posters could be made in groups using a variety of magazines and newspapers. Again, teachers would oversee the development of group projects and assist where necessary.
Investigate	To encourage the process of ‘investigation’, students could conduct experiments to record their observations and draw conclusions to the data. During this process teachers may find online resources that support the intended outcome of the investigation.
Produce	To help students ‘produce’, a hands-on activity would be ideal. For example, if students were asked to create a diagram or a model or carry out an experiment, this would allow students to produce a visual representation of data. Teachers would ensure students understand the task and would facilitate and oversee student work.

Word Cloud

In a classroom setting for younger students, it is very important to incorporate visual literacy to encourage learning development. According to Younie et al (2015), "visual literacy has a unique and positive role as a 21st century competency, especially in the development of creative problem solving and innovative thinking". After creating a Word Cloud on Tagxedo, I have seen first-hand how this approach would encourage students to dabble in design, brainstorm and generate ideas (Younie, et al., 2015). They could then consolidate their ideas by displaying them in a word wall.

This resource would not be used as the focus of a lesson, but is a great way to visually support a unit of work. For instance, if students were doing a unit on astronomy, words like stars, constellations, black-holes etc would be brain-stormed and then could be displayed in this Word Cloud format. This process would enable students to "use visual tools for seeking isolated definitions in context" (Younie, et al., 2015). For these reasons, I am convinced that Word Clouds are a supportive resource that should be incorporated in teaching pedagogy.




References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2015). Technologies. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/technologies/rationale

Anazagasty, J. (2014). What is technology? Retrieved from http://cnx.org/contents/ffef104a-8aac-46f1-a8fd-c20a315e6d7a@4.2:22/CIVIS_Project_-_UPRM

Collins, R. (2014). Skills for the 21st century: Teaching higher-order thinking. Curriculum and Leadership Journal (12)14. Retrieved from http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/home,61.html

Younie, S., Leask, M., & Burden, K. (2015). Teaching and learning with ICT in the primary school (2nd e.d.). New York: Routledge.