Nalila Moses Mwamba & All For Christ Choir - Zambian Gospel Project 2014

Interactive Whiteboards (IWB)

Interactive Whiteboards are defined according to BBC as  an instructional tool that allows computer images to be displayed onto a board using a digital projector or a wipeable board with a white surface used for teaching and presentations. It allows information exchange using physical handwriting or graphics. Whiteboards are powerful tool for teachers to engage classrooms in learning. the facilitators can manipulate the variables on the board by using a finger as a mouse, directly from the screen. Images and other items can be dragged, clicked and copied and notes can be hand written which can be translated later into text and be saved for revision or other purposes.

IWBs are powerful tools in that they add synergy and quislingism, allowing the integration of media content into a lecture supporting cooperative learning. when used effectively, IWBs create a wide range of learning opportunities. In many case IWBs are used as blackboards, limiting their full potential of use in different environments. 

This type of whiteboards are now available mainly in universities and in privileged schools with a very slow adaptation.  Adaptation had been slow due to the fact that some teachers are reluctant to change, or some believe that change is not always with desirable results and thus, IWBs are costly. some suggest that they need certain skills to be able to use it, which require the to go for training. Those with limited resources are however disadvantage of have different methods to engage students.

IWBs were originally developed for use in business to demonstrate patterns, concepts and record meetings. however, they have been found to be useful in variety of fields. For example the following features can be used to engage audience in different environments:  

• Add notes

• Highlight text

• Add  drawings and then save them to be printed out and shared, or added to a practical learning environment

• Show pictures and videos to a lecture theatre. You can label parts or highlight elements of an image

• Demonstrate the content available on a website in a teacher-directed activity

Therefore Interactive whiteboards as a pedagogical tool promote creative teaching and motivates students into absorbing information. Because it allows teachers to accommodate all different learning styles,tactile learners get to touch and move things around the board while making notes and highlighting elements, visual learners benefit from a clear view of what is happening on the board and Audio learners can participate in a class discussion

An interactive whiteboard save cost as it demonstrates how one computer can provide learning stimuli for a whole classroom. This is more cost effective than equipping an entire IT room, or every student with a laptop. This is an extremely flexible tool which can be used in various age groups from youngest primary school children to university graduates.

Interactive Whiteboard in Practice for example: In sport studies, you can video tape a sporting event, then the coach can pause the video at a certain point and demonstrate by drawing on the board what the players should have done.

Digital Pedagogy 5

Learning never stop, is not a destination, but a process or journey. Learning takes place almost everywhere, namely: home and community which is the most viable resource for indigenous learning, like medicinal plants, understanding natural resources and societal structures that made it possible for our four fathers to survive. Moreover, school where most indigenous knowledge is integrated in to academic literature. Technological changes that are occurring around the world have an impact upon education. In times of change, this technologies need to align with school curriculum for effective learning to take place. A learning environment consists of learners, teachers or instructor, teaching strategies and resources for providing knowledge. The figure below shows strategies for engagement.

In a classroom teachers should be available and accessible to their learners to give direction, provide information and instruct a lesson so that progress is made and that learners are learning. Educators should also create an environment of open communication where learners concerns and worries can be heard and be provided them with information they use to help them resolve their issues. It is a teacher's duty to provide learners with fundamental skill like reading and writing to enable them to interpret and analyze information and conduct research.  As teachers we need to show empathy and understand learners circumstances and provide them with tools to which to facilitate positive outcomes and give them encouragement. In school grounds anything can happen either to learners or teachers, therefore it important that school are safe and secure environment for all in it. And if learners are experiencing bullying and harassment, the teacher should intervene as he or she is responsible for the learner in a place of parents. This should also strengthen the school curriculum to enable learners to flourish when engaged to successful and meaningful learning.

Meaning learning entails that it should promote a robust school culture that promotes positive relationships with learners and teachers. Plan lesson according how students want to see it, in their own language or level of understanding by asking them.teaching strategies need to change so that students don't get use to the teacher's teaching style and to avoid losing their attention. Student should be given with sudden unexpected activities.

Is the classroom the only way of learning?

Classrooms are not the only way of learning, thus may not be conducive enough to all learners to stimulate critical thinking. What is critical thinking? Critical thinking is a self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair minded way and a metaphorical bridge between information and action. It is also noted that critical thinkers  realizes complexities in developing thinking skills and commit themselves to life-long practice towards self-improvements it is often manifested in the skillful manipulation in service of one’s own or one’s group interest. For instance, the independent school project allowed students to run the school themselves for them to discipline themselves. By letting learners choose subjects they comfortable with opens up a space for them to excel because they have interest in it and they enjoy doing it to satisfy their curiosity. 

The independent school project showed that people of different background helps to improve learning by applying different skills to unfold academic problems. Students or learners on their own learn to use their creativity to achieve outstanding results without being pressurized or memorize for a test or exam. The project also showed that students are more comfortable in asking their peers than teachers in a classroom. Therefore, teachers are only required to approve if the method of research was accurate. Moreover, learners are able to learn using different sources, teach by sharing their findings or information with friend or classmates, and create a working atmosphere by criticizing his or her peers, push others out of their comfort and produce best results.

Nonetheless, educational standards limit the conscious to which critical pedagogy aims by making classroom being the major source of learning. Learning takes place in two ways, namely informal and formal. Since we have different ways of learning "education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction" we need to from each other not information coming from one direction which mostly is from the teacher to students. Communication play an important role in sharing ideas with the international community through digital technology to create a positive support loop designed to “support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others". Due to inadequate and unfair distribution of resources it makes communication in and between different global digital communities difficult and problematic. As a result of the incompleteness of digital citizens, it will further excludes those who need it the most and it also leave out both problems with this communication model, as well as possibilities.  In trying to find solutions of the complexities and challenges of getting two digital communities with different “contextual considerations” to communicate, let alone educate one another through digital platforms. Educators have an upper hand to strive for genuine attempts toward inclusion.

Positives and Negatives of Social Media in the Classroom

Social media media have several tools that allows educators to connect with students. This tools includes: Share it, remind, twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Blogging. All these tool serves a specific purpose which would be discussed in details below.

Remind: educators use text (sms) to connect with students beyond classroom using mobile phones to communicate some important information they need to know either a task, project, timetable or a test. The teacher create a group on Remind without anyone having to access someone's contact details. The fact that contact number is not revealed this creates a secure environment for the students. Remind can be used to encourage students and for making jokes after an exhausting class. It also allows users to make attachments like PDF (journals and articles) for students to prepare for a lesson beforehand and to share interesting pictures from a field or related task that was done in class. It also enable educators to inform students about what is happening either at the school or other places. Thus, messages are short and into the point, making learners to enjoy reading them.

Twitter: has been useful in connecting and sharing information with other people. this tool can be used for variety of purposes like homework announcement, sharing of thoughts and ideas and also an easy way for learners to ask questions. It also allows students who cannot communicate for their voice to be heard through writing. This creates an opportunity for students to connect and follow people of their interest and to learn from them beyond classroom.

Instagram: allows students to share pictures and has different filters for altering the photos that you post. Since we have different ways of learning, some students can enjoy learning using pictures as a physical object that is easy to remember.

Share-it: enables students to share documents like music, word, pictures, if in case someone has miss a class can easily access the information from the shared files.

Blogging: this social media is very diverse, it stimulates cognitive learning by allowing learners to comment on someone's ideas. Blogging offers an opportunity to make connections with people from all over the world. Blogging is used in close connection with twitter to connect students outside the classroom. The twitter hashtag is designed to connect public to students through blogging which enables students and other educators to comment. When students see the notification that they have a comment, they curious. then they get to read the comment which stimulates continuous reading and communication.

The negatives of social media: Not all students have access to smart phones, computers and tap. Students can use social media to do wrong things like on line dating. Perpetrators also uses social media to commit fraud and to get their victims. If example, a learner send an email to a teacher and the email ends to a wrong person, this could put the learner in danger. Although there are faulty in the system, social media offers endless opportunity to those who have the resources to do so to acquire knowledge beyond classroom. The system however, should not completely replace traditional ways of doing things like sending letters to parents to enhance communication and connecting with students. Calling can be more useful to those not having smart phone to email and twit. Texting could be useful provided the language is easy to read for the student  and student can actually read and reply (ability to write). 

Does it really matter how the Academy is Carried?

So far there are no principles and instructional governing teaching online and digital pedagogy. Nevertheless, the two articles are of interesting in trying to differentiate the two types of teaching method. I found it of no use to find distinct differences in ways of learning. The history of pedagogy however, reveals that leadership is at its core and is not limited to classroom practice and the institution. As a result, any kind of learning from my perspective can be said is pedagogical as long as it reflect some kind of learning principles and instruction governing it. For example, Power Point presentation should not have long sentences, but key words in a point form and 4 to 5 points per slide. However, online teaching have no dialogue to stimulate thinking and learning. In online teaching, the teacher prepare slide show with voice notes that cannot speak back to the receiver or learner, unless all five senses of learning are used. Some learners will like to have questions regarding the lesson given, but they might be depraved to do so especially if they don't have an email account or any social media network to pose the questions they have. In other ways online teaching in my point of view is bias, in that it favours a certain pattern of learning instead of using what is available to them and the teacher for effective learning. The use of online teaching, i feel that it also undermines the quality and creativeness of teachers because those with no passion and poor skills are likely to escape. Thus, not every teacher pay attention to formal rules and book learning than they merit. However, the good thing about online teaching is that lessons can be played over and over again.

Digital pedagogy on the other hand does not need to be wired, but creates a room for new learning methods and principles. Pedagogy can be described as learning and/ or methods. Its core is merely depended on the substrate for the reaction to occur. What do i mean about that? I mean learning occurs in the presence of a teacher to pose or ask questions to initiate discussion? Since learners are the ones giving answers, the conveyed knowledge is likely to last for a markedly brief time as the learning process will continue beyond the classroom through curiosity or acquiring knowledge from peers. Therefore, the aim of pedagogy is to cultivate knowledge that will assist learners to solve problems for the rest of their lives. This knowledge can be used in a work place or in academic research environment, etc.

Digital pedagogy

Digital pedagogy involves both electronics and non-electronics tools for learning and a class can be digital without Internet and computers. For example not all people have access to computers, but perhaps have access to information from using various sources of physical material like magazines, news papers, books and conversation. Media has played an important role in connecting and distributing knowledge and information. Some authors are concerned however by technology they it influences the level of learning and reading. Computer make it easier to escape spelling errors and gramma. In that way learners tend to ignore the importance of language when writing on paper. Since we have different ways of learning, digital technology may be useful and/or harmful to others at the same time. Individuals have to imagine how to use the tools they have for their own benefit and imagine the alternatives, the what if question " unplug".

However, the use of engine machines like computers allows individuals to have some skills and knowledge on how to use it using instructions or backpack. It also allows effective communication between the messenger and the receiver. But, without digital humanities computing would not be possible because these are the role players in sorting and selecting the correct and high quality information we can search for.

Digital humanities put individuals in an advantageous professional position where they're able to claim and contribute to the school of knowledge through experiments and research and made hacking a descipline. The buzz factor of professionalism is that it has drawn attention to local and international society and undisputed arguments. Concerns being directed on alternative employment and professional jobs. Although to be digital humanist you don't need a computer, humanities seems to be wired by definition, but media facilitates or reveal them.

Any form of learning that enable individuals to imagine things and put them into perspective in a creative and be hands-on can be regarded as digital.