Being Cybersmart

Today we learnt about a very useful government initiative called Cyber(smart:). Cyber(smart:) is a website which houses a wide range of cyber safety information and teaching resources for primary and secondary schools. The website provides activities, resources and practical advice to help young kids, kids, teens and parents safely enjoy the online world.  The website covers very important issues including cyber bullying and sexting. The website also has policies and procedures which can be implemented in schools for recommended approaches to encouraging cybersafe behaviour throughout schools.  I believe this is such a vital website in today’s day and age.  The never ending forms of social mediums online means it has become vitally important that we educate young children on the dangers of using the internet, sharing too much information and also how what they put online can have detrimental effects which can be permanent. You can access the cyber(smart:) website here.

TPAK Model

Today I read a really interesting article titled “Too Cool for School? No Way! Written by Punya Mishra and Matthew J Koehler. This article explains how modern day technology and gadgets and phenomena such as Facebook, iphones, flickr, blogs, smartboard, Google earth etc can be repurposed to be educational. This article explains how as educators if we want to use technolgy to teach we require knowledge known as TPACK- Technological pedagogical and content knowledge. The TPAK model in very simple terms is the idea that teachers must combine content, pedagogy and technology for teaching to be effective when integrating technology into the teaching equation. Some of the key quotes for me in the article were:

·      “ As individuals we see a new technology and can appreciate its coolness but as educators we wonder how these tools can be used for teaching. The fact that a technology is innovative and popular does not make it an educational technology (2009, p. 15)”.

·      “Teachers need to develop a willingness to play with technologies and an openness to building new experiences for students so that fun, cool tools can be educational (2009, p. 17)”.

Overall I found this article to be of great interest. I find it fascinating how rapidly technology is evolving and I constantly wonder how teaching changes and continues to change as these technologies evolve. The main point that I took from this article was that these cool gadgets can be repurposed to be both cool and educational at the same time as long as the teacher ensures they keep up to date with the content that they are teaching, pedagogy and pedagogical issues and keep up to date with the never ending advances in technology.


Mishra, P. & Koehler, M. J. (2009). Too cool for school?  No way! Learning & Leading With Technology, 36(7), 14-18.

Martinez, E.( 2008) Technology 2008 [ photograph]. Retrieved from ttp://www.flickr.com/photos/91612584@N00/2946280569

Aha Moment

This week I had a small aha moment in my Kindergarten Class. Whilst in class this week, we did a lesson with Letterland which involved the students using the smartboard to learn all about the letter I- also know as Impy Ink. As I sat watching the students enjoying their interactive and fun lesson with beautiful music, colourful animations and interactive fun games with the smartboard I had three aha moments. Firstly I thought back to my own experience of letterland whilst I was in Kindy. I remember learning about Annie Apple and I remember doing exactly the same thing as the children, which was to find the objects in the picture, which start with the letter your learning about. In my experience I had to find Annie Apple on a large laminated cardboard card. Now sitting infront of me, these children were learning all about Impy Ink through a large screen, which sang to them and let them interact with them. For example when one of the children found the Iguana, the iguana would do a little dance, which the children throughly enjoyed. When I pointed to the apple in my letterland poster, there was no song or dance for me. I was amazed at how technology had changed the learning experience- that learning is now more fun as it is more interactive and the children are able to immerse themselves more into “ letterland” e.g. through the sights and sounds. I also had another ahah moment as a result of this lesson and this was that teaching would be somewhat easier for teachers now than it would have been for teachers back when I was in kindy. E.g. everything now is in the one place. For example the teacher does not have to play the letterland songs through a tape player as my kindy teacher did, now it is included in the software and can be played directly through the smartboard. One final Aha moment was watching the children interact with the whiteboard and their ease and competence with technology. I was truly astounded at their confidence in their ability to be able to get up the front of the class and press this and that to play songs and activities. It really is amazing at how children are so competent with technology at such a young age.

Image Source: Cassidy, K. (2006). Using the Smartboard [photograph]. Sourced from http://www.flickr.com/photos/57634636@N00/4484071751

First Day of Prac- Some interesting thoughts.

Today was my first day of Prac and as expected I had the same nerves as I packed my bag to get ready to return to the classroom. I was nervous, not knowing what to expect, worrying whether the teacher would be nice and if the students would be pleased to have someone new in their classroom. I was also excited as I was going to be teaching kindergarten and so far I have only had year 5 before.


As we have been learning so much about technology in Professional Experience I was quick to search out the classroom for technology available. In the classroom there was a smartboard and 1 computer, so I am currently thinking of ideas I will be able to use them in my future lesson with KA. Throughout the day the smartboard was used, firstly to do an interactive exercise with using letterland. This involved the children listening about Red Rover Robot and then taking turns coming up to the board to find the R sounding objects on the smart board. This was a fun activity for the children as the R sounding objects would do a little dance once they had been spotted- which the children really enjoyed. 


An interesting conversation I overheard in the staffroom was listening to another teacher complain about her disdain for computer lessons as so many things happen that makes it impossible for a lesson to be completed. Some of her complaints were problems with login and computers not working. It was really interesting listening to her discussion and I did agree with her on some points. I do think computers need to be better utilised in schools but to do this they need to made easier to access e.g. working computers and simple login processes. She also made the point she would prefer if there was a proper computer teacher that the students were sent of to do computing with. Her reasoning was that the computer teacher would be professionally trained who would now how to fix problems and also would be able to properly monitor the computers to ensure they were all working constantly thus avoiding the earlier problems. These were intersting thoughts that I thought were worth noting. I dont really know if i agree with her, i think there could be advantages to having a proper computer teacher but i do also think that the class teacher should use computers with their students.

Overall I had a great first day, however I am a little concerned about how I am going to do an ICT related lesson with my students.