This week in week 3’s learning paths the idea of mindtools has been introduced. While reading the Moodle book in this weeks learning paths it made me curious to learn more about mindtools. Through further research I gained the new knowledge that mindtools are cognitive tools that are utilised to inspire and encourage learning and higher order thinking in students. By using mindtools teachers and students both benefit in a positive way. This is because digital technologies encourage a learning environment where more problem solving and active learning is occurring in the classroom.
The benefits of mindtools are that students learn with the digital technologies rather than from it. This is because the activities the students are engaged in through the use of the mindtools provide the students with the opportunity to be responsible for their own learning. Consequently mindtools encourage students to be self-reliant in their thinking and problem solving (THE Journal, 2005). Some examples of mindtools include digital stories, concept maps, spreadsheets, databases and visualisation tools such as PowerPoints (teacherjohn68, 2010).
One of the questions asked this week is ‘how can ICT and Pedagogy be used?’ Mindtools are a good example of how ICT and Pedagogy can be used to encourage problem solving and higher order thinking. Mindtools allow the students to see their own work visually and this helps to stimulate the children’s cognitive skills as they think of more questions to ask that help to further their learning. These questions become educational tools that continue to stimulate their engagement and enthusiasm in learning (THE Journal, 2005). Upon my research I also came across a couple of really great websites that provide examples of digital storytelling which is a type of mindtool. These two websites provide examples of how to use digital storytelling with young children and can be accessed from here and here.
After writing this post I was reading through the blog posts on ERRYFERRYBLOG’S blog when I came across a post titled ‘Am I a “creative and productive user of technology”in my learning?” in this post it is stated that when ERRYFERRY has been on professional experience in the past and been in a circumstance when delivering information is tedious and boring that they usually tried to find a “fun” YouTube clip that could help the information be more appealing to learn. I think that this is a good example of how ICT and Pedagogy can be used. This example demonstrates that ICTs can be used in education to make learning more fun and help students to stay focused on learning.
References
Brainstorm [Image]. (2011). Retrieved from http://philmckinney.com/archives/2013/05
/brainstorming-for-fun-and-profit-5-tips-for-teams.html/hires-2-2
teacherjohn68. (2010). Mindtools for Learning. Retrieved March 14, 2016, from
https://sites.google.com/site/mindtoolsforlearning/visualization
THE Journal. (2005). Using Mindtools in Education. Retrieved March 14, 2016, from
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