It is a well-known fact that for students to truly thrive and succeed in an academic learning environment, that timely and effective feedback must be acquired. For a student to recognise areas of weakness or misunderstanding, they must be guided and receive feedback. Traditionally, tests or quizzes have been completed with paper and pencils, and have been marked individually by the teacher and handed back after some time. One form of augmentation within this situation may be to implement student quizzes being completed through google forms. This direct tool substitute has a range of functional improvements which include; students have the ability to receive feedback immediately, a teacher can view results immediately and in a form that highlights explicitly the areas of weakness and strength amongst the class in general and it is paperless. This example of augmentation is definitely beneficial within a classroom, as previously stated, the ability to provide or receive feedback within a classroom is so valuable.
Within a classroom, typically students are encouraged to create many reports throughout their schooling journey. An augmentation example in this situation may involve students creating a PowerPoint presentation on a particular topic. This example is augmentation as the technology being introduced has functional improvements, however, does not modify the task at hand. As students engage in a task using this medium, students are given the opportunity to incorporate functions such as; text, images, video’s, audio, etc. PowerPoint offers a more engaging and student appealing way of presenting information to an audience, in contrast to simply writing a report. “90 percent of computer-based presentation visuals in this country are created using PowerPoint.” (Telg & Irani, n.d.) While this fact is referring to America, it’s relevance still holds true in Australia and enabling our students to interact with this medium is a great skill/ability to teach.
Telg, R., & Irani, T. (n.d.). Getting the Most Out of Power Point. Retrieved from Distance Education Faculty Training Program: http://training.ifas.ufl.edu/old/deft/produce/pptart.htm
ICT Positively Impacts the Learning Environment 