Digital Artefact: Top 10 Tools for Yr 4&5 Blended Primary School Class (Task 2.4)

Choosing 10 Top Tools Reflection

For the last few years, I have taught in both 1:1 iPad and Chromebook classes. This has led me to try out a range of different digital tools for different subject areas. I found picking only 10 tools was quite tricky and I really had to think carefully about which tools I would prefer to not go without. I managed to narrow them down to 10 and decided to rank them beginning with my number 1 being Hapara Dashboard. 

When selecting apps for my learning programme, I try to find those that are free - as teachers generally have a limited budget for all materials. The only app that costs money on my list is Hapara Dashboard which the school purchases licenses for, for all Yr4-8 students. The reason for this is that it is a necessity to keep all students safe online as it gives us access to their devices and screens in real time - as well as many other amazing features. 


 Over the years I have been guilty of adding apps into my programme that I haven't looked too much into and have relied on suggestions from other teachers and also students' feedback to inform whether they are useful or not. Student feedback is very important to me, but I have now realised after reading Persico & Pozzi's (2014) take on using learner analytics to inform learning design that I need to look more deeply into all of the affordances these apps have to offer and how they can supplement the design of my learning programmes more purposefully to better meet students' needs. After looking at the apps that other teachers from this course use and how well they know them, it encouraged me to look more deeply into what affordances the apps I use already have to offer and whether I am missing any key or new features that I could utilise better. 

The apps I have chosen for my top 10, I know very well; however there are others I use which are on this site (that I made in response to activity 2.1), that offer far more affordances than I was aware of. For example Kahoot is a site which is not on my top 10 list, but I have discovered that it not only offers free access to quizzes for the whole class to enjoy, it also has a new self study option. I can see this as being a very beneficial feature I could utilise in my learning programme across a number of different curriculum areas. Persico & Pozzi (2014) discuss the rapidly changing nature of education with the influence of digital technology having both positive and negative impacts on student learning and wellbeing. I would like to make sure that my students use technology positively and that I am promoting self regulated learners through its use. Bennett et al. (2018), mentions the idea of involving learners in the design of their learning environments - with the hopes of supporting self directed learners and making learning design more personal. In order to implement technology more effectively,  I will need to reflect on the impact I think these different apps are having on my students' learning more regularly (Persico & Pozzi, 2014) and formally collect student feedback about learning preferences and use of digital technologies through surveys rather than just word of mouth to make more informed judgements for programme alterations and redesign (Lockyer et al., 2013). 

 References:
Bennett, S., Lockyer, L., & Agostinho, S. (2018). Towards sustainable technology-enhanced innovation in higher education: Advancing learning design by understanding and supporting teacher design practice. British Journal of Educational Technology, 49(6), 1014-1026.

 Lockyear, L., Heathcote, E. & Dawson, S. (2013). Informing pedagogical action: Aligning learning analytics with learning design. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(10), 1439-1459.

 Persico, D., & Pozzi, F. (2015). Informing learning design with learning analytics to improve teacher inquiry. British Journal Of Educational Technology, 46(2), 230-248. doi:10.1111/bjet.12207.


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