This is the post about ICT & The VELS, you have been warned.
Looking at the 3 main domains that the VELS attribute to ICT, i am a bit baffled. they seem a little wrong.
1. ICT for visual thinking, i get that, using the tools of ICT to create a visual representation of what is buzzing about in their minds.
2. ICT for creating, i get that too, using ICT to create a visual representation to problems and ideas that are in their heads or posed to them.
3. And finally ICT for communicating, thats straight forward as well, using ICT to create a visual representation to communicate the ideas in their blossoming craniums.
i feel that they are a little samey. i'm sure VELS would distinguish them by saying one is developing an understanding, one is capturing an understanding, and the last one is communicate an understanding. the problem i have is that it would all happen at once. I totally agree that ICT allows students to engage with material in such a way that is learner oriented and allows them the opportunities to make mistakes, i've seen it in my classes. VELS just seems a little wishywashy on the matter.
I currently have my year 10 students creating a presentation using a program of their choice (many are using Prezi, some stubborn oldies are using PowerPoint) to produce a short showcase of a particular country, focusing on a specific poverty issue that concerns that particular country. moving about the classroom, watching the students experiment with the programs trying to CREATE a VISUAL MESSAGE that is COMMUNICABLE is fascinating. What i may see as a jumble of ideas with no apparent rhyme or reason, is perfectly ordered and coherent to my student. Its just the way the mind works. Its dynamic and fluid. Organized chaos. Then they run through their presentation for me, and things are a little clearer, but sometimes a little clunky, but to them the message is there, but isn't that often the nature of communication? especially when its not the persons most comfortable form (i.e verbal conversational?) but in something that can be quiet foreign (visual technological?).
VELS is right that "ICT provides a rich and flexible learner-centred environment in which students can experiment and take risks when developing new understanding", but i think they way it is structuring itself is doing justice to the dynamic medium. The 3 domains feel as though they are more focused on:
1. ICT for visual knowledge organization
2. ICT for data processing and development of program nous
3. ICT for delivering a speech
The domains don't do justice to the medium and or the students that use it. it should be based around risk taking, pushing the boundaries, experimenting and failing. but i don't know, just after reading the VELS, what was there didn't seem right, but my thoughts have always be more than a little clunky.
J
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