In this lesson, Mark put us into small groups and gave us a topic. In my group was myself, Neelam and Lauren. Our topic was Gamification. We spent the first half of the lesson researching the topic, the different ways it could be used in the classroom and the advantages and disadvantages. I thought it was good that Mark chose our groups for us because even though I have worked with Neelam before, I’ve never worked with Lauren before. Being in a group with her helped me to get to know her a little better and since then we’ve had more conversation than what we used to do. I felt as though this was really good because now I feel as though everyone is comfortable in class with *nearly* everyone.
The problem with this lesson was the starting- the kick off (You really should have brought the boxing gloves this week Mark!). This incident really disrupted the class and even though I wasn’t there when it happened, it was evident something had gone down because some people were missing from class, everyone was down and quiet and things were quite tense.
This links to Bruner’s main study of discovery learning. He argued that teachers should provide the resources and materials and allow students to go and carry out their own research. So, Mark provided us with the computers and library and allowed us to go and found out information in whichever way we pleased. Gould summarises Bruner’s theory saying that it’s not necessary for teachers to provide us with the main content as long as they give resources and guidance throughout the task (Gould, 2012, pg 50). Bates described this type of learning as a ‘learner-centred approach’ as learners are taking responsibility for their own learning (Bates, 2016, pg 55)
The task was to research the topic and create a poster about it on Adobe InDesign. The previous lesson, Mark had shown us how to use InDesign because that’s the same program we used to create our keyrings. Adobe InDesign can also be used to make newspapers, leaflets, flyers, magazines etc. This time, I used Adobe InDesign in a formal setting as I was creating a poster in a classroom as part of the lesson. However, others could use it informal settings for their own personal reasons such as creating a book cover.
When it came to this lesson, Mark left us to our own devices- to try and remember how to use Adobe InDesign from the week before. Some things we wanted to edit, we hadn’t done in the previous lesson. For example, when I wanted to insert a picture, Mark hadn’t shown us how to do that beforehand, so I was left to figuring it out myself. Although it was annoying, I found it quite entertaining trying out all the new stuff and trying to redo what I had done wrong. This links to Bandura’s social learning theory, where you ‘… watch other members… and then imitate their behaviour.’ (Wulfert, 2018). He argues that it is necessary to be able to go out and do it yourself, to learn for yourself, because it allows you to make your own errors. Making errors and restarting allowed for effective development. This applies to this lesson as I watched Mark the week before and applied that learning to this week. Although I didn’t remember a huge amount, I remembered a decent amount that helped in the creativity of my poster.
The advantages to using the MAC computers were that you didn’t have to keep copying and pasting images/saving them as you could just drag them onto the side. The computers also have a large screen, so it was clear to see any things that needed changing. However, I didn’t like using the MAC computers because they are quite slow. On top of that, the mouse works the wrong way, and everything is just confusing!
Using Adobe InDesign also had its advantages and disadvantages. One advantage was that you could make the boxes to specific sizes. Another advantage was that you could print using laser printer. However, it was very frustrating knowing which arrow to use (white or black) and having to create a box but then create another box to move it.
Mark didn’t actually teach us this lesson, rather he left us to our own devices and I thought this was really effective teaching because I had to figure things out myself. This meant that I was more confident with the technology and the software I was using by the end of the day.
I have one last comment- the MAC computers are so dirty I had to wear gloves when using it!!! First, I was using tissues and then Leonie kindly lent me some gloves… so please have the computers cleaned!!!!
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