PGCE

Katie and I have worked together in delivering a PGCE course this year and throughout the programme we have encouraged our trainees to use technology to enhance their teaching and their students’ learning. They are encouraged to share tech resources with other participants and Katie and I have made every effort to model good practice in the use of technology in our delivery.

In module 1 of the PGCE Katie demonstrated how to use an online stickies boards called Padlet to facilitate class discussion activities. She also demonstrated how she uses a student reponse system called Socrative to create whole class quizzes that students can access using PCs and mobile devices. These were two of the e learning tools that Katie learned to use during her first project and which she now used confidently and flexibly in her day to day teaching.

In Module 2, Assessment and Guidance, trainees are required, as part of their assignment, to give a presentation about an assessment tool they use which demonstrates their use of technology. Many chose to explore the use of Socrative, others discussed sites such as Dropbox, Google Forms, Yakapaka, Lino It, and Class Marker.

To stretch the trainees further I encouraged them to use a presentation tool or style other than a regular Powerpoint presentation. I modelled various types of presentation format during the sessions, including Emaze, Prezi, and Screencastomatic  as alternatives to Powerpoint, and  used Pecha Kucha and recorded presentations to demonstrate using Powerpoint in a new way.

Here is a video about Pecha Kucha that I recommended on the course

By modelling the use of digital technology extensively on the PGCE programme we hope that trainee teachers will appreciate the benefits that such tools offer and will view them as an essential way in which they can communicate quickly and easily with their learners in a truly collaborative learning environment.