I believe the three items in my portfolio, Lorikeet Lodge Webquest, the Participate in Occupational Health and Safety unit and the online facilitation of the Curriculum Integration Course provide practical evidence of my teaching to support the relevant learning theories and the productive pedagogies discussed in my learning and teaching beliefs. They show clearly how the integral use of ICT's transform what students learn, how they learn and when and where their learning takes place.

The three examples illustrate how my teaching is strongly based in constructivist theory, which allows students to use their pre-existing knowledge to construct and interpret external ideas and experiences then build upon their previous understanding. The student is at the centre of the learning process using enquiry-based methodologies to assimilate new knowledge. Students create their personal interpretation of how things relate to each other and to themselves. In doing so I allow both cognitive and social approaches for learning to take place.

Education Queensland addresses this in the Essential Learnings and Standards (2007)

Students bring to the classroom preconceptions about the world. If new understandings are not linked to these preconceptions, students can fail to grasp the new concepts and information, or they may learn them in a superficial or recitative fashion (aimed, for instance,at completing a test), but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom. Consequently, teaching and learning should build on prior learning, and take account of the personal and cultural experiences of different groups of learners.

My teaching focus is vocational learning which is defined as any activities and experiences that lead to understandings of and/or skills relevant to a range of work environments. Vocational learning has a strong skill base and involves students in meaningful learning in an authentic or simulated workplace. This is situated learning theory, where students are engaged in the problems and practices they will encounter outside school. Students move into the learning practice through activity and social interaction. As their learning takes place through meaningful practice, they move from novice to expert with increased involvement in the vocational area.

Each item shows evidence to support students "many ways of knowing". By meeting my students learning needs, optimum learning can occur. By offering my students choice, they take control of their own learning by clarifying their learning goals. By providing multiple learning experiences using both written and oral communications, audios, videos, interactive opportunities, I am optimising the learning outcomes of my students. In the vocational education area it is important to provide opportunities for self monitoring and reflection as both have been shown to support learning.

In all my classes I strive to use ICT to facilitate quality learning experiences. I design teaching and learning experiences using ICT to be:-

Student-centred - involve students using ICT to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, attitudes and understandings
Active - students are engaged in natural learning situations where they are responsible for the outcomes
Interactive- students are encouraged to interact with the content, peers and teachers
Constructive - students build on prior knowledge to integrate new ideas
Connective - students connect with networks of knowledge and share that knowledge
Collaborative - students work in learning groups, sharing skills and providing a supportive network
Intentional - students actively and wilfully try to achieve personal goals for their own vocational needs
Complex-students are challenged with multiple components and perspectives that have a variety of solutions
Contextural-students work in simulated real world environments
Conversational - students build relationships within the classroom and outside
Reflective - students are required to reflect on their current practice, articulate and justify decisions, strategies and answers and relate it to the learning process
Transformative students use higher order thinking skills to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding, which involves questioning of their values and beliefs in a real world sense. They become changed in a meaningful way.

To expand on my integral use of ICT to support learning, I will use Lorikeet Lodge Webquest. This group based integrated project for my year 12 students, incorporated student ideas in the design of this learning experience. They wanted to hone their job seeking skills and produce a portfolio of items to showcase their skills and abilities to employers at a job interview. They had researched student designed e-portfolios earlier in the year when they were learning xhtml web programming and wanted to create a single webpage to attach their completed assessment tasks. Job interview skills were incorporated into the entire project.

I provided the webquest in a managed blackboard environment so students could access learning materials anywhere, anytime. Activities included in this integrated project use consructivist learning theory to expand upon what had been studied in earlier units. Strategies had been previously modelled and students had been assisted in learning and practicing these strategies with familiar activities. Scaffolding was provided with links to exemplars or online learning modules. In this unit the student is allowed to use their own creative design skills to individualise their hard copy and e-portfolio. They select a job role within a small group of their own choosing.

The webquest was designed to:

• Encourage students to be actively engaged in the learning process where they are responsible for the depth and complexity of the skills they develop. The student centred open-ended activities cater for individual learning styles and support different levels of student abilities. Students are encouraged to evaluate their skill development and reflect on the learning process.
• Be constructive by integrating new ideas with prior knowledge, be collaborative by working together in small groups, exploiting each others skills while receiving support from each member of the group
• Encourage an attitude of intentional learning; transform their learning by offering students real life problems with multiple components, different perspectives and different solutions that will effect individuals in complex ways
• Engage higher order thinking modelling critical thought using DeBono's Thinking hats to consider knowledge more broadly so as not to develop over simplified views of the world.
• Be contextual by providing a real life simulated case-based learning environment where the knowledge and skills gained can directly influence the outcome of their future employment.
• Be conversational by providing the opportunity for group collaboration to seek out opinions and ideas to solve problems, to optimize outcomes and for formal presentation. eg.The student's personal goal being a portfolio of exemplary workpieces displayed in hardcopy format as well as an e-portfolio.

An important part of the webquest is not just to teach a block of content but implicitly help students transform their learning and think more productively by combining:

• creative thinking (to generate creative ideas for their group portfolio)
• critical thinking (to evaluate group ideas and come up with a plan)

The tasks for each job role uses the following levels of thinking:

Knowledge: observation and recall of previously learnt knowledge in units of communication, computing packages, occupational health and safety.

Comprehension: read, recall, grasp meaning, translate knowledge, interpret, order, group, discuss, predict consequences in all individual and group activities.

Application: use methods, concepts and theories from previous units of study to solve problems in new situations

Analysis: order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, compare, select, explain, infer in individual and group tasks.

Synthesis: combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, compose, formulate and prepare in all group negotiations.

Evaluation : compare and discriminate between ideas, assess value of group items, compromise, self evaluate and make choices based

The wiki area in Blackboard was used for higher level thinking skills using Edward de Bono's "Six Thinking Hats". Students were required to reflect and self assess their daily individual performance and on completion their group performance.

Students use the planning sheets provided to distribute tasks over the time frame. They fill out daily time sheets and work plans, as these contribute to evidence for how they organise and plan daily work activities. Some of the tasks are very specific and must be completed as stated in the question. Some tasks allow the student scope for their own interpretation and creative flair. Their own contribution to the portfolio is open ended. This may be a stumbling block for some groups and will need input from the teacher to lead discussion.The wiki's in blackboard are used for all groups to share ideas and for the teacher to direct debates. These wiki's are designed by the teacher and depend on the information flow within the class. The role of the teacher is one of a facilitator offering advice when needed.

In essence, I provided an online, student-centred approach to learning, where my students have a greater say in what they learn and a more focussed understanding of the learning process. I catered to their individual needs by providing mulitple learning experiences anywhere, anytime. I used ICT to transform students learning through online collaboration with experts in their field and to transform the learning process from purely educational to real world experience. These collaborations change their beliefs and ideas about the relevant concepts. In the process I recognised the different learning styles of my students and provided mulitple opportunities for students to access learning materials to suit their needs. Because of this, I found my students were highly motivated, showed more interest and retained more information which improved their learning.

During our communications with Mr Shane O'Reilly, owner of O'Reilly's Mountain Retreat, I received an email from one of his managers offering the students in my class the opportunity to work during the vacation period at the retreat. His idea being the students could have the opportunity of the "real" experience. This offer made the experience of the whole unit a transforming experience. Students have an incredible goal; to work their way towards "on the job" experience - an experience at the real "Lorikeet Lodge". I am so grateful to his hospitality and also his offer for students to write to his manager Kim Chesswas with any questions about the business.

Lorikeet Lodge Webquest was made available to the Learning Place to be available for use by other Queensland Teachers. In 2007, the webquest was acknowledged with a "Highly Commended" for outstanding achievement at the Learning Place Online Course Developer Award 2007 presentation. It was evaluated on the following criteria: presentation, technical ease, use of blackboard tools, wider usability, pedagogy, interactions, language and conventions, evaluation and innovation.