The class Google Drive is the technology that encompasses the learning surrounding

this sequence of lessons, as the Drive “creates a space for content storage” (Dail &

Vasquez, 2018, p27). By using this online storage space, students were able to view

their in-class work outside of school to assist their learning when completing external

tasks. The ability to access this information anywhere allowed students to structure

their questioning or research in a manner that was more efficient for both the student

and their subject. Furthermore, it is through the class Drive that students were able to

access information while in class. Although Symbaloo can traditionally be used as a

teacher focussed ICT tool, in the second lesson, it provided students with an

opportunity to critically analyse sources of information and their validity; while also

realising that not all sources provided by trusted authority figures are credible. In

addition to Symbaloo providing an opportunity to critically assess the teacher’s

recommended sites, the video recorded interview on the iPad provided students with

an opportunity to watch themselves, identify errors – either in information or

presentation – and improve the quality of their work by immediately reshooting.

Although students could access their completed tasks, the BookWriter One app

allowed them to consolidate the information they had learned and apply it in the

context of their own family. Using the images and notes from their interviews, students

were able to connect the content within the context of their own world. Furthermore,

BookWriter One includes an audio recording function. This function could stimulate

students to consider people who are hard-of-seeing, and how they can appropriately

accommodate them so that they could also read their visual essay. The app allows

students to write a relative's migration story, while offering the benefits of the creation

of a multimodal text using visual, verbal and print modes (Dunn & Sweeney, 2018).
Throughout this unit of work, four of the five attributes of the social constructivism

theory have been implemented. This is because the inquiry process can be greatly

improved upon by following the social constructivist principles (Walker & Shore, 2015).

Jean Macnish (2019) lists the attributes of social constructivism as: active,

constructive, authentic, cooperative and intentional. The constructive and authentic

attributes both greatly influenced the structure of the third lesson. Students’ prior

knowledge was integrated into the process of interviewing their relatives that had

migrated, while also providing them with a real-world context of the knowledge they

had obtained. Lesson two was the primary session where the cooperative attribute

was emphasised. Students were able to interact with their peers through the research

and presentation of information, which provided them with a deeper knowledge that

they then took into their independent interviews. Students meet the final attribute,

intentional, when they articulated their goals within the conclusion of the first lesson,

where they wrote out questions that they want answered during the unit of work.

In addition to social constructivism, the Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR)

Model was also implemented throughout the sequence. The GRR model is “an

instructional model that aims to shift the responsibility of cognitive load slowly and

purposefully from teacher to student” (Cimino, 2018, p.40). The progression of the

GRR model is evidenced by the explicit guidance by the teacher in the first lesson,

whereas by the unit’s end, students are able to independently interview, consolidate

and present the required information successfully. With the implementation of these

two learning theories, this sequence of lessons encouraged the students to become

active learners which lead to a deeper contextual understanding of the content.

 References

Cimino, M. (2018). Synthesising the flipped classroom with the gradual release of

responsibility model. Australian Educational Leader, 40(1), 40-42.

Dail, J. S., & Vasquez, A. (2018). Google drive: Facilitating collaboration and

authentic community beyond the classroom. Voices from the Middle, 25(4),

24-28.

Dunn, J., & Sweeney, T. (2018). Writing and iPads in the early years: Perspectives

from within the classroom. British Journal of Educational Technology, 49(5),

859-869. doi:10.1111/bjet.12621

MacNish, J. (2019). Exploring social constructivism. Retrieved from

https://socialconstructivismnda.weebly.com/resources-social-

constructivism.html

Walker, C. L., & Shore, B. M. (2015). Understanding classroom roles in inquiry

education. SAGE Open, 5(4), 215824401560758.

doi:10.1177/2158244015607584