Assignment 1: Reflective Synopsis

“If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.” Dewey, J. 1944.

This quote by John Dewey is just as relevant now as it was in 1944. Even though there have been dramatic changes in education, technology and society since the middle of the last century, there has been a need to look to the future and consider that as times change, so should our ability to provide educational settings and learning experiences that enable our students to develop the skills that are needed for whatever century they are living in. The skills needed to thrive in the 21st Century are different from those of the 20th Century, but there will always be the need for schools to evolve and adopt new instructional approaches no matter the century.
Most of the digital tools and online spaces that are being used for educational purposes have been retasked from their original purpose. In order to ensure that new technologies are being used to transform learning experiences and not just using a new tool to achieve the same outcome, it is necessary to analyse the affordances of these tools and consider how they can redefine the learning task. The DiAL-e Framework  as referred to in The Affordances of Blogs post was identified as a useful tool to assist in this process. By identifying the features of an online space and how these can be practically used, this framework scaffolds the process of making the links between practical features and pedagogical practices to modify and redefine learning, with greater opportunity to develop higher order thinking skills as identified in Blooms' Taxonomy. The benefit of revisiting affordance analysis tasks results in a broadening of the range of learning experiences.
Not only is it necessary to consider personal pedagogy when choosing the most appropriate technology to achieve learning outcomes, it is necessary to realise the new pedagogy is being informed due to technological advances. The understanding of digital pedagogy will enable the classroom to become an interactive environment where the teacher is the facilitator and the students are able to collaborate within and beyond the classroom to become creators of knowledge rather than just consumers of knowledge. As Mishra and Koehler ( 2007, p. 7) state, 'Technological pedagogical knowledge is an understanding of how teaching and learning changes when particular technologies are used.' Our personal digital pedagogy should take into account that the learning outcomes should inform the decision as to which tools and online spaces are utilised in our classrooms and that these tools will change with the purpose of these tasks.
To this end, blogs, images and video were explored to consider the pedagogical and technical features and benefits for 21st Century classrooms. These tools enable students to engage in collaborative and creative processes that are essential abilities of contemporary learners, utilising constructivist approaches to become global learners.
It is essential that as educators we embrace the opportunities that evolving technology affords us and our students. 'The need to know the capital of Florida died when my phone learned the answer. Rather, the students of tomorrow need to be able to think creatively: they will need to learn on their own, adapt to new challenges and innovate on-the-fly (Chivetta, A.).

Daniels, M. (2011). 10 Inspirational quotes for edtech friendly teachers, retrieved 23rd April 2014 from
http://www.knewton.com/blog/teacher-tools/10-inspirational-quotes-for-edtech-friendly-teachers/

Mishra, P. & Koehler, M. (2007). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK): Confronting the
wicked problems of teaching with technology. Retrieved 8th April 2014 from
www.aace.org/conf/site/mishra_invited.doc

Chivetta, A. Retrieved 23rd April from The State of EdTech, http://thestateofedtech.com/ed-tech-quotes/