Statements:

Our understanding of what is required for the ICT Integration Project?

As teachers it is essential that we equip our students with the necessary 21st Century
skills to actively participate in an ever increasing competitive, integrated and
technologised world. There is a growing demand for students to engage in tasks that
are problem-based and innovative that encourage students to think creatively and work
collaboratively. Many of these demands and skills can be met through the use of
constructivist, inquiry based projects such as WebQuests, which largely was the
inspiration for our lessons particularly the second lesson (which we presented).
Teachers must possess the necessary technological skills and knowledge in order to
make the integration of technology in the classroom learning practice a successful and
effective process. If teachers lack this skill and knowledge base, the attempted use of
technology within their classroom will only inhibit the learning process, undermine
learning potential and create frustration and angst amongst both themselves and their
students. Thus if teachers are equip with the necessary ICT skills and technology
understandings they may effectively and seamlessly incorporate ICT into their classroom
lessons and learning regime, so that it enhances student learning, knowledge and
understanding. ICT holds the power to bring innovation, invention, excitement and
enjoyment to classroom learning in the school environment and holds the key to
engaging students in meaningful learning processes. It is or these reasons it is so
crucial to bring technology into the lives and learning of students as well as the
pedagogical strategies of the teacher.
The ICT Integration Project is therefore an effective assessment means that pushes us
to engage with ICT and to think creatively and incisively about how and why we would
use ICT in our own classrooms. This project positions us to recognise and appreciate
the extensive range of ways ICT can be manipulated to enhance learning and bring it to
a whole new level in the classroom, catering for diversity and pushing to challenge
students. The ICT Integration Project provides us with the opportunity to discover, trial
and experiment various forms of ICT and think in a practical sense how we might
manipulate it to best suite our teaching needs and more importantly the learning needs
of our students.

Our four (4) ICT resources we intend to use and why. In addition to the internet
and interactive Smartboard
TinyTap (app)
TinyTap is an app available for download on Apple devices including iPads however is
also accessible on your PC. The app is incredibly versatile and allows you to create
highly interactive, aesthetic, creative, enjoyable and fun quizzes, games and lessons.
The possibilities for uses of this app are endless across all learning areas, in particular
Mathematics and English. The app allows you to share the games, quizzes and lessons
you create for free across unlimited number of devices and are free to download by your
students without requiring sign up. There are so many wonderful features of the app
including voice over, sound boards, pre-installed images/backgrounds/objects, picture
puzzles and so much more! We utilised the app as a summative quiz, where students
were required to drag and match planets to facts, drag and order/rearrange the planets,
answer multiple choice and true or false questions (using a buzz-button). The app is a
great way to evaluate what the students have learned from the lesson, particularly as it
gives a percentage grade once students have finished the quiz.
Weebly
We made use of the website, http://www.weebly.com/ as part of our ICT Integration
Project lesson design. This website is a fantastic tool and invaluable for teachers to
learn how utilise most effectively for their classroom learning and pedagogical practice.
The website allows you to make your own website(s) to incorporate into your classroom
lessons for absolutely anything you can imagine, and all for free! You can add text,
images, videos, external hyperlinks, links between pages, buttons and much more.
There is an extensive range of formatting and design tools and properties to play with to
have your website looking fantastic and in optimal function. The website is relatively
easy to get used to, manipulate and use once you become familiar with the various
features and options it has- definitely a learning experience worth undergoing! We
chose to create a separate, smaller class Weebly for our presentation lesson as it
allowed us to have an easy access point for all the resources and links we wished
students to access. Creating the Weebly allowed us to control what information was
accessed and used by students whilst also providing quick access to revisit task

instructions if need be. The Weebly allowed us to have a seamless transition between
the QR code clues students obtained, to the information gathered which was then
transferred into the document format (Google Slides); each of these stages were all
interconnected by hyperlinked URLs.

Google Slides
The use of Google Slides provides a platform for communication and collaboration within
the classroom. Rather than handing out individual comprehension worksheets to each
individual student, the students were instructed to share an iPad and desktop computer
to complete the task. As each pair was only researching one planet the time restrictions
were much less and as a result the teacher is able to include other activities such as a
quiz and interactive diagram into the lesson. The Google Slides engage the students in
the task as they can view what their peers are doing, and therefore may be more likely to
complete the task efficiently and correctly. As the Google Slides are online, it allows the
teacher to present to entire document to the class and discuss each planet, with a small
discussion from the research group to their peers.

Mimio Program (on Interactive Smartboard)

Mimio is a vital tool in allowing this lesson to incorporate physical interaction with the
technology, and in return creates a positive learning environment. Through the use of
MimioStudio and MimioView we were able to create an interactive Solar System
where the students will come forward in their research pairs to the front of the class,
after completing an informative session on the planets and together will rearrange
the planets so they are in the correct order. Instead of giving an action to the objects
such as spinning or bouncing back to the bottom of the screen when they are correct
or incorrect we decided to instead put the question to the class and see if there were
any differentiating views in the classroom, leading into class collaboration. Not only
does this allow the teacher to view the levels of understanding in the classroom but it
also provides an opportunity for assessment.
Other ICT resources we used across our four (4) lessons were;

SketchBook Express (app)

Pixton

bubbl.us

SpiderScribe

Smore

Prezi

FlashCards+ (app)

How our project is underpinned by evidence-based (established) learning

theory e.g. social constructivism, cognitive theory, multiple intelligences.
Our ICT Integration Project is underpinned by the established learning theories of
constructivism and 21st Century Skill learning. Through our lessons we attempted to
ensure that the student learning was an active, constructive process with the learner as
the constructor and creator of their own knowledge and understanding.

By

incorporating elements of Problem Based Learning tasks, investigation and sequential

progressive lessons we hoped for students to link the new information they were actively
obtaining to their prior knowledge in order to construct a greater, deeper and
interconnected understanding of the content being taught. We aimed to formulate
lessons that would push students to construct their new knowledge rather than simply
obtain it, by incorporating WebQuest orientated tasks, research work and information
processing components. We were motivated by the constructivist approach to learning
that learning should be experience and activity based- this is why we created lessons
that heavily focused on kinesthetic, active learning activities rather than those more
literacy/ comprehension based.
We based our lessons deeply upon the foundations and key principles of 21st Century
Skills Learning Theory. Through our lessons we hoped that students might be exposed
to a diverse range of technology processes, tools and types so that they may
experience, develop and master a wide range of skills essential in an increasingly digital
and connected era. As we attempted to incorporate ICT heavily, but naturally, into our
lesson plans our desire was for students to practice these skills in a practical, contextual
way and in ways that may be useful for them in their future endeavours. We attempted
to add fun, flare and innovation to our lessons, demonstrating how technology can
operate at the redefinition level of the S.A.M.R model, and really draw learning beyond
its original restraints and really bring it to life. We also attempted to make our lessons

highly collaborative, with a lot of partner, small group and whole class work and
discussion. Collaboration and collaborative group-work is not only a core element of the
21st Century Skills Learning Theory but undoubtedly an essential skill and process for
students to understand, engage in and become effective at.