3.

FOCUS AREA, (with

descriptor)

ELABORATION

Establish
challenging
learning goals (Set
learning goals that
provide achievable
challenges for
students of varying
abilities and
characteristics.)

his standard is about knowing the students

abilities and characteristics and then designing
achievable but challenging learning activities to
meet all their different needs (differentiation).
The ICT component is about taking advantage of
ICT to do this so that students can pursue topics
of interest independently, set learning goals for
themselves, control how they learn, choose how
they do tasks, and evaluate their own learning.
One of the advantages of ICT is that it enables
students to explore many things that they are
curious about such as by doing a google search
and looking up websites to find resources of all
types about their chosen topic. This provides a
huge amount of variety of topic and resource
type. ICT is very convenient, making
communication very accessible and fast. A
teacher can guide students use of ICT in many
ways, such as by providing topics to generate
interest and telling students individual websites
or types of website (e.g. government and
educational) from which quality information will
be obtained.
Edmodo can be used to provide a range of
resources from which students can choose, such
as powerpoints and videos of the lesson, online
resources (e.g. podcasts, perhaps). Also, with
adequate instructions on how to use it, this
enables students to work at their own pace.
This could leave more time for the teacher to
interact individually with students when they
need to ask questions. It could also leave more
time for those students capable of extending
themselves to do so and engage in more deep
learning, rather than waiting for the teacher to
finish the lesson first.

Plan, structure and

sequence learning
programs (Plan
lesson sequences
using knowledge of
student learning,
content and effective
teaching strategies.)

This standard is about planning sequences of

lessons, one lesson or unit linking to the
previous, using engaging material and
facilitating deep learning using effective
teaching strategies. The ICT component is
about selecting and sequencing digital resources
and tools to do this.
The constructivist approach to learning requires
teachers to help students construct new
knowledge and experiences onto previously
obtained ones. This requires focussing on
understanding of important ideas, using higher
order thinking, understanding how problematic
knowledge can be, and engaging in in-depth
communication. ICT can help with this by
providing resources of different types such as
videos, animations, articles, and games to
increase student engagement and expose them
to different points of view on a subject.

3.2

Learning sequences need to build one activity or

part of the lesson onto the previous ones and
link different parts of the syllabus, perhaps
linking to other subjects also. Creation of mind
maps in a free online program such as Edraw
Mind Map
(http://www.edrawsoft.com/freemind.php )
could be used in different contexts, such as
linking different mathematics topics as they
come up during the year and linking them to
topics in previous years to help students
understand how to use all mathematics they
learn, how it all fits together e.g. this could
inform students of how Pythagoras theorem
and triangle side ratios might be used on the
same real life problem. As with all these tools,
the teachers specific instructions can be
crucially important to the quality of the learning
achieved ICT resources are just tools to be
used at the teachers discretion.

Use teaching
strategies (Include a
range of teaching
strategies)

To enhance learning of a year 9 science class on

the topic of hearing and sound, students could
compare human vision with that of another
species, and find, say five points of difference
and five points of similarity. They could be
required to find an article or webpage, a video
(e.g. from YouTube), a diagram, and a sound
recording to back up their specific points and
put them into a Prezi. This could be done
independently or collaboratively. This type of
task needs to give students sufficiently specific
goals to establish quality of information and so
that they know what to do while being open
enough to encourage creativity/innovation and
independent thought. Students could post their
completed assignments to Edmodo and grade,
say, three of their classmates, not to assign a
summative grade, but to think carefully about
what constitutes a good treatment of the task.
This would increase their awareness of their own
achievement in the task.

3.3

Select and use

resources
(Demonstrate
knowledge of a range
of resources, including
ICT, that engage
students in their
learning.)
3.4

This standard is about using different teaching

strategies to achieve rounded and deep learning
in children. The ICT component is about using
digital resources to enhance learning, making it
in total deeper, more extensive, more creative,
more relevant to the real world, more
collaborative, and to promote self-awareness of
learning in the student and catering to students
of different tastes, abilities, and backgrounds.

In addition to using a variety of strategies,

teachers also need to draw from and utilise a
range of different resources to ensure students
are benefiting from the most up-to-date and
valuable information.
ICT can be used to find resources or used a
resource in itself. There are a myriad of
resource pools available for teachers of every
subject base. Some of my favourites as a
science teacher include TesAustralia
(http://www.tesaustralia.com/), Scootle

(http://www.scootle.edu.au/ec/p/home) and
twitter (https://twitter.com/). TesAustralia in
particular was useful in providing lesson plans
and activities for my year 11 biology class. The
app store was very useful for my year 8 classes
as they all had iPads to use during class. The
iPad itself is an ICT resource with many science
and maths resources available. Teachers do
need to be aware when selecting resources that
they address the curriculum and are relevant to
the students. However, students will benefit
from the range of engaging and current
resources that are freely available with ICT.
Use effective
classroom
communication
(Demonstrate a range
of verbal and nonverbal communication
strategies to support
student engagement.)

3.5

Classroom communication is extremely

important for a class to function effectively. If
students are having problems it is important
that they can communicate with their teacher to
try and resolve these. Likewise, it is important
that a teacher can communicate clearly to each
student within a class so that they all
understand tasks and expectations.
Communication needs to always be respectful.
Digital ICT, such as email, is really important in
enhancing student's learning as it allows
students to ask questions as they may arise
outside the classroom, rather than waiting for
the next day to ask and possibly forgetting.
Programs such as edmodo are also very
valuable in classroom communication.

3.6

Evaluate and
improve teaching
programs
(Demonstrate broad
knowledge of
strategies that can be
used to evaluate
teaching programs to
improve student
learning.)

This standard is about reflecting on and

evaluating teaching strategies and programs to
determine their effectiveness on student
learning.
In order to evaluative the effectiveness of ICTs
in class, the teacher could create a selfassessment sheet for the students to fill out, or
ask them to do a reflection on how well they
think they achieved, what they were interested
in or enjoyed about the lesson/program etc.

Furthermore, the teacher could create a survey

using SurveyMonkey or a similar online survey
creator to better understand how the students
learnt and engaged with the content. Lastly, the
teacher could assign and conduct a formative
assessment to gauge what students learnt from
interacting with classroom content using ICTs.

3.7

Engage
parents/carers in
the educative
process (Describe a
broad range of
strategies for
involving
parents/carers in the
educative process.)

It is important to continually evaluate and

reflect on lessons/activities/units in order to
improve student learning, interest and
achievement.
Digital resources can be incredibly helpful in
keeping parents informed as to the progress and
development of their child. Emails, websites like
Edmodo which allow parents to 'plug-in', and
online progress reports are all tools that
teachers should utilise to involve parents in the
teaching and learning process, and give them a
sense of awareness of what is happening in
school.