Podcast transcript
Gold Coast husband and wife talk all things digital
Narration: ‘They may teach at different schools and be responsible for different age levels, but for two Gold Coast teachers it’s all about ICT.
‘The husband and wife duo are crazy about the use of technology in the classroom and the benefits it has for teaching and learning.’
Stuart MacKenzie, Year 6 teacher, Worongary State School: ‘ICT is an integral part of our classroom. It’s built in everything.
We start in the morning, the interactive whiteboard comes on and the kids come in and start their roll straight away. We then go straight into our Nintendo DS and the kids do brain training, and try to improve their Mental Maths.
Then we work through their day. Our Maths is all scanned into the interactive whiteboard program as well. So the kids have the option to work with their text books, we can also work in small groups with the ICT as well.’
Lisa MacKenzie, Year 1 teacher, Clover Hill State School: ‘Basically for me it means that I can bring the whole world into my classroom. We can walk along the beach in Gallipoli or we can even go and view a hurricane as it is happening.
‘We are doing weather this term so we’ve gone through, we’ve look at natural disasters, watched earthquakes happen.
‘So it’s all that learning that beforehand we would have used a book to do- we would have talked about what it would look like, could look like. Now we can bring that all straight into the classroom.’
Why is ICT so important in today’s classrooms?
Stuart MacKenzie: ‘The kids can so much more. When I went to school it was an encyclopaedia on the desk – you’re reading something that was probably published three of four years ago so the information is out-of-date. These days the kids can go straight onto the internet.
‘It’s really opened up the room to as many learning styles as you can get. You’ve got applications for kids that enjoying touching and playing with things.
‘Some kids just enjoy doing the writing and so they can just sit there are do the writing and stuff as well. But they also enjoy participating in the interactivity as well. Some kids enjoy just listening and they can do things that way – we’ve got the MP3 players and the iPods.
‘It just opens up a new world. It allows for a student-centred learning model.’
What’s it like living in your house?
Lisa MacKenzie: ‘Our house is very technical. I guess no body is ever surprised that our two children are automatically … Blair talks about designing his own website, he’s our four-year-old. Our 17-month-old already knows how to use the iPod and has started doing learning games and things for babies.
‘There are laptops everywhere. Digital devices. Our kids have had cameras since they could hold them. For us everything is technical.
Does your relationship help with your lesson planning?
Stuart MacKenzie: ‘Planning we really work with each other. We even do collaborative stuff and have done it through eLearn before.
‘Lisa’s class is studying the weather at the moment so they ring us when ever there’s rain and ask ‘what’s the rain gauge up there in Worongary’. The classes really work well together.
‘I work passionately. I tend to just grab things and think ‘this will be awesome’ and we just get in to it. Whereas, Lisa goes through and she’s really methodical in her planning. That’s why we work really well together.
‘I can come up with really good ideas and she’ll think about how it will actually work and whether it will work. I think of myself as the child and she’s the adult, and that’s how we work together.’
What do the students think?
Michaela, Year 1 student, Clover Hill State School: ‘We use computers for some work, like our Sun Safety pictures and Water Safety pictures. With our cameras we do birds-eye view pictures.’
Paul, Year 6, Worongary State School: ‘I remember last year we didn’t have much technology or as good a teacher as Mr Mac and I was a little bit down in my maths. But since we’ve brought in the Nintendo DS’ and had brain training, I’ve learnt from that and got better and better each day.’
What positive learning outcomes do you attribute to the use of ICT?
Stuart MacKenzie: ‘I’ve actually got a child and he was a bit of a behaviour issue coming in to this year level. He was running at about a C to a D-level.
‘With the interactive classroom he’s really blossomed. He’s become quite a worker. He’s moved up to a high B-level now – it’s really great to see the results.
‘A lot of the kids are working hard pulling their results up with the interactivity of the classroom and they also do all their homework online as well.’
Lisa MacKenzie: ‘We had one of our students come in on a Level 5 reading and across the year he’s been involved in all sorts of things. He’s been involved in Intrepica, Mathletics as well, and he’s been using a lot of the Smart Phonics sites.
‘His reading has now jumped up to a Level 27 – that was his last test.
‘Everything combined and the addition of all these different sites I don’t think it hurting in any way shape or form.’