We have a
responsibility to fully prepare our students for the realities of the
university and professional worlds into which they will move after K-12
education. Technological fluency is as essential as literacy and numeracy, and
will enhance creativity and inquiry-based learning, which are cornerstones of
our educational philosophy.
As parents,
administrators and teachers, we recognize the importance of technology, now and
in the future. Indeed, the future is here, as forward-thinking schools around
the world have embraced the inclusion of technology as a best- practice in
teaching and learning.
Beyond the
simple reality that technology has, and will continue to, change and drive the
way all things get done, significant research demonstrates that meaningful use
of technology in the learning process has the following beneficial results for
students:
·
Development
of 21st century learning skills, including experience in effective collaboration,
as well as consuming, filtering and creating multimodal content - skills which
will be essential for success in university study and workplaces of the future
·
Increased
student engagement
·
Flexibility
for teachers in addressing different learning styles, including interventions
for students with special educational needs and Additional Language Learners,
as well as extensions for those who benefit from greater challenge
·
Adaptive
learning systems allowing students to build their own learning pathways
·
Provision of
a greater range and variety of assessment strategies for teachers
·
Promotion of
inquiry and critical thinking skills.
GEMS is
committed to providing its students with the skills and attributes they will
need to flourish in an ever-changing, technology-driven, global society. Research shows that student ownership of
devices and content, enabling learners to access tools and materials wherever
and whenever needed, has a significant impact on outcomes. Similarly, effective engagement of parents in
the learning process is key and we have a well-established parental engagement
programme aimed at ensuring that our students are fully supported in their
learning by parents as true partners. The opportunity for students to learn in a safe
and secure Bring Your Own Technology environment, at school, home and elsewhere,
is a natural and essential element of the GEMS commitment to all our students
and their families.
Our aim is to normalize the safe,
appropriate and effective use of digital technologies to enhance learning in
all areas of the curriculum and beyond.
We are teaching our students how
to learn with these tools and to think deeply about how they can build their
own digital ‘learnflows’ to become lifelong, independent, digital learners and
successful digital citizens. This is a
constantly developing programme of digital meta-cognition or ‘learning to learn
digitally.’
As part of
this digital normalization, we have found that there are many great
subject-specific and skill-building mobile apps, such as Hairy Letters (KG
phonics and letter formation for 3-5 years) and Daisy the Dinosaur (for budding
computer programmers 3-8 years). Also, Angry
Birds (Original, Space and Star Wars) may be a surprising inclusion, but such
games can help students to meet objectives in the new UK computing curriculum,
for example, as well as learning about gravity, angles and forces! It is
suitable for all ages.
In line with
our stated aim of developing advanced levels of digital meta-cognition in our
students, however, it is essential that we also consider the growing suite of
non-subject specific mobile applications, which facilitate the learning process
and provide the creative, organizational and collaborative tools which learners
need to meet challenging curriculum objectives.
Below is a list of iOS apps which can help to establish an effective
learnflow and help learners to create rather than simply consume.
Recommended Apps to Facilitate Learning and build Learnflow:
iMovie
Garageband
iBooks
Explain
Everything
Educreations
Book Creator
Touchcast
Comic Touch
2
Toontastic
Popplet
Skype
Blogger
Voicethread
Aurasma
Minecraft
Dropbox
Google Drive
Google Maps
Google Earth
Google
Hangouts
Puffin
Academy
Edmodo
QR Reader
Facebook
Twitter
Google+
Google
Capture
YouTube
Quizlet
Dragon
Dictation
Mad Libs
Away from
tablets such as the ubiquitous iPad, the ever-expanding suite of Google Apps
provides an additional rich resource, empowering students with the creative and
collaborative tools to advance their learning and reach previously unattainable
levels.
Underpinning
all of this modern learning is a commitment to developing successful digital
citizens, ensuring that our students are safe online and able to use technology
effectively and appropriately, making good choices in digital environments and
with their use of devices. Websites such
as http://www.commonsensemedia.org/,
http://www.fosi.org/ and http://thinkyouknow.co.uk/
provide excellent resources for parents, students and teachers and are providing
the basis for high quality digital citizenship programmes in GEMS schools.
Research
shows that effective parental engagement in the learning process has a
significant, positive impact on outcomes for students. Accordingly, GEMS has a well-established
parental engagement programme and our schools run regular workshops to help parents
support their children more effectively, including through the use of
technology. Schools also provide a range
of online support, such as the excellent GEMS Royal Dubai School English
Language Learning Blog: http://www.rdsell.blogspot.ae/ where parents can find information
about the apps they need to work effectively with their children at home. The children bring their own devices to
school and have ownership of the content as well as the hardware, which has
also been shown to improve outcomes.
Gamification
of learning can be very powerful, when used intelligently as part of a personalised,
child-centred learning programme. It is,
of course, also very important that we teach our children to achieve a healthy balance
in their lives, not just in terms of technology use, but also in engagement with
other key activities such as music, art, physical exercise and real life
personal interaction. Studies suggest
that a maximum of two to three hours’ screen time per day is a sensible
guideline and, within a well-balanced curriculum, and with effective parental
engagement, this sort of level can be achieved quite naturally as part of
students’ daily routines and overall approach to life. Results of research into the impact of
technology on children’s learning, development and well-being are mixed and,
given the nature of rapid technological innovation, attempts at longitudinal
studies have proven difficult to construct.
GEMS teachers continue to conduct their own research into the impact of
technology on children, such as this study of iPads in the early years, which
was carried out in a GEMS school: http://www.merga.net.au/documents/Spencer_MERGA36-2013.pdf. Given that there are so many unknowns, it
would appear sensible to recognize that, “Digital media are here to stay and
are going to be widely used by young children.
The important issue is how to maximize the positive consequences of
these new media so that they enrich rather than hinder children’s play
experiences.” (Johnson & Christie,
2010).
(Full
reference: Johnson, J. & Christie, J. (2010) Play and Digital Media. Computers in the Schools, 23, 134-147)
As well as
reviewing all apps and other software to ensure that the content and structure
are in line with established theories of learning, the GEMS strategy is to
ensure a balanced approach to technology use, providing children with the
independent learning skills to make good choices and establish a balanced,
healthy lifestyle, filled with rich and varied learning experiences.
Parents,
again, can play a significant role in helping to achieve this balance, by
modelling good behaviour in the home. It
is all too easy for busy, working parents to spend too much time at home
checking work emails, as well as catching up on social media and consuming
digital content on mobile devices as part of their daily relaxation
routines. We should, however, think
carefully about how such behaviour impacts the attitudes and actions of our
children, who see their parents ‘tied’ to their devices almost 24/7. For example, it is important that children
see their parents reading books for pleasure and talking about what they are
reading. Two important things tend to
happen when children see their parents reading: first, they want to know what
the book is about and, second, they are very likely to want to share their own
books. This doesn’t only apply to younger students, but also teenagers who are
required to grapple with advanced literature such as Dickens, Twain, Vonnegut
and Shakespeare. Reading the same the
books that our children are studying, or even books by the same authors or in
the same genres, can lead to a natural engagement with the material at home,
which is likely to greatly enhance students’ interest, understanding and
achievement. It must be incredibly
difficult for a teenage student to commit to hours of study of a complex text
when they see their parents sitting on Facebook! For parents who are not native language
speakers in relation to their child’s curriculum, translations are almost always
available and modelling reading as an enjoyable pursuit is vital, whatever the
language.
As part of
the GEMS ‘Talk, Share, Encourage’ programme, we recommend that parents engage with
their children’s digital learning, but also ensure that they spend time talking
to their children, reading with them, sharing ideas, questions and new
learning, whilst encouraging and praising success and sustained effort. It is also, of course, essential that parents
encourage risk-taking, constantly reinforcing the idea that perceived failures
are actually valuable learning opportunities and helping them to find new
strategies to succeed. This leads to
improved levels of resilience and independent learning skills, both crucial attributes
in today’s world.
