Use of technology - Is it really useful?

Using technology in the classroom is certainly engaging - this means that learners that may be hard to reach through more traditional teaching methods suddenly become more motivated and can produce some great work. A major issue teaching level 3 is that learners want to receive the qualification, but lack motivation on a daily basis. Technology used well can be effectively for a range of learners: 1) Help through QR codes can mean teachers are able to progress faster 2) Independent learning and stretch & challenge can be addressed well with twitter, Paper.li etc to extend learning 3) Some learning tasks for the whole class can be interesting with the use of technology However there are obvious issues. Some students may feel left out if they do not have the relevant technology. This can be avoided by encouraging group work, where at least one person has a smart phone. Access to computer rooms in most colleges is difficult, so reliance on mobile devices are high. Using mobiles will have additional issues with changing classroom rules and monitoring whether mobiles are being used to enhance rather than hinder learning (it is a major source of distraction). Wifi also needs to be widely available if students are expected to use the internet on their phones). Using technology too much can take away the novelty of the experience and it can become 'run of the mill'. Careful planning is required to ensure that the disadvantages of technology is minimised.

Lecture on the 'pains of imprisonment'

Raising aspirations psychology lecture went very well. Full house!

Push technology - paper.li

Paper.li Psychology & mental health page

Prezi

Systematic de-sensitisation

Box.com

Tweeting

https://twitter.com/PsyMoffat Largely a twitter account for psychology students can be used to keep students informed of how psychological research is received by the public and how it can influence policy in terms of newspaper articles. In addition information about new research can also be shared that can extend the students learning. Students can also be asked as a plenary each day to write a tweet, and the best one gets posted onto my account The addition benefits of twitter is that through push technology, any students that follow my account can have information pushed to them when I have made additional posts. Potential issues include misuse. As this generally will be accessed outside of the classroom students sometimes forget the rules of appropriate behaviour and engage in making comments that would be considered inappropriate in class. Students without smart phones and have limited access to the internet may feel excluded, and students who have chosen not to have a twitter account may be reluctant to join and engage - if this is the case it is likely that even with encouragement they will not access updates regularly. Push updates could help to minimise this.

Benefits of podcasts/vodcasts

Podcasts/vodcasts are being used with the current trend of 'flipped learning'. Within this idea, student are directed to the podcast to gain a degree of understanding of the topic that will be covered in future sessions. In the actual physical session the teacher will set activities/tasks linked to the learning that they have already completed outside of the classroom. This allows more specialised activities in class time and in-depth learning. Students are also encouraged to ask questions that result from their 'flipped learning'. Students could also be encouraged to take turns to create a podcast that summarises the learning that took place in a session. They can then access this anywhere to engage in some minor revision.