Digital Technologies – the Missing Link
The Digital Technologies learning area provides us with, (something that was missing in my early years of teaching), a multilayered portal connecting curriculum dots. The ‘now’ DT learning layers use design, abstract, systems, and creative thinking, naturally combined with digital data, to provide curriculum content with a deeper and broader multimodal dimension.
As you fall into the rabbit hole, let me share some links you too might use as digital solutions, to, if not lighten your load, at least make the journey interesting.
These digital solutions are more broadly referred to as Mixed Reality, Real-Time Data Representation and Visualisation (GIS), Simulations, and Gamification all wrapped up as a transdisciplinary Inquiry and used to Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate.
AR or Augmented Reality is part of the Mixed Reality Golden Ticket for motivating and leveling up students. Adding digital information in the form of multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, and olfactory, to the real world in context offers us an interactive opportunity for making a difference. VR and digital simulation tools immerse students in a real-world or carefully crafted world in order for them to research, gather, and present digital evidence required by their Inquiry Big Questions. Gamification adds a layer of FUN to any Inquiry but will improve learning if used as part of a thinking and creating and reporting activity rather than a free time sweetener. This Big Weather inquiry is an illustration of the elements employed in combination.
As a teacher, you will find yourself time-poor, but no doubt up for the challenge of making a difference. Integration is the key to successful time management and ultimately your ability to cope with that beast we call The Curriculum. Any inquiry would benefit from collaboration with partner teachers or colleagues from other departments.
Collaboration is a key to success in the classroom.
A “must-have” for teaching with Digital Technologies, besides having a positive temperament (remember the glass is always half full), is a forever digital portfolio backed up to the cloud. Also remember Google and Microsoft are your friends with their Classrooms, Sites, Sways, forms, docs, spreadsheets, and the rest, all easily accessible as remote or hybrid tools du jour.
Some examples of resources I have stored include:
(These links have worked for me, especially when needing to Level Up those students, not lucky enough to find themselves on the upwardly mobile side of The Great Educational Divide.)
I wish you well in your endeavours, buckle up, enjoy the ride, and remember that the glass is half full!
Robin McKean (Follow me on Twitter @rmckean)
Millennium Kids Green Lab Digital Design
Practically- Digital Design Learning
Practically Digital Design 