Week 5 ...... Group 3 & 4 Technologies

            

Group 3 Technologies

              Group 3 Technologies have proven to be a lot of fun. I can see many uses of these tools in my disciplines of History and Geography. All have benefits which puts TPACK into context and they will become a regular tool in my classroom. Playing around with these has been for the most part enjoyable however I did become frustrated with my 2013 version of Microsoft Word not offering the same functions as the instructions when creating the outline in Word (or at least I could not find them). Creating the storyboard using a Word Organisation Chart was simple enough. I was then able to create an outline but had difficulty transferring the information into a PowerPoint. In the end I transferred the information manually. More practice time on this is required and will help me learn to use this tool correctly. I do see the advantage of preparing the hierarchy graphic as a time saving tool, especially for a presentation that would involve more than 6 slides.

Learning to prepare a PowerPoint involves numerous decisions as to how it will appear. An important aspect of its appearance is who the resource is targeted towards. An example I have prepared is a PowerPoint which I will use in Assignment 1, for EDED20458. This exercise introduced new skills to my limited knowledge of Power Points. “YOLO!” (You only live once) is designed for Year 12 Geography Students.  I have converted this to a video and placed this on a glogster for EDED20458 Assignment 1. I have also uploaded it to Youtube, my first experience of putting something onto YouTube. 

PMI of PowerPoint

Plus	Minus	Implications
Can include pictures, graphics, animation, multimedia, links	Pictures must be relative to the audience	Different effects can be used to hold interest, e.g. float pictures in individually instead of having all pictures on slide at transition
Numerous designs to appeal to the audience	Some Students may find designs distracting	Can add to the theme of the presentation.
Variety of transitions from one slide to the next	Too many types of transitions can have an ill effect for the viewer.	Engaging if not too many transition varieties are used.
Slide show can run automatically, but can be stopped if needed to discuss an aspect of a slide	Timing needs to be spot on to avoid manual interference which could distract the presenter and disengage the audience.	Length of slideshow is an important part of the success of the PowerPoint. Too long may disengage students.

 

Prezi as a presentation tool.

The Prezi allows the presentation to be quite dynamic and the sample I made was an effective way to ask the question “What to do”? Approaching the crossroad of their life students are faced with a choice. The Prezi template offered the perfect backdrop to answer this question. As a tool, Prezi would be useful in the classroom as an alternative to a PowerPoint presentation. It feels very modern and I believe it would be a very engaging activity for students to create and use in conjunction with their own oral assessments.          

 PMI for Prezi

Plus	Minus	Implications
Dynamic way to move through a presentation.	Students need to have access to technology at home if they are to complete this activity outside of school.	The zoom feature is incredible and smooth to watch. Gives a sense of flow or movement
Great range of templates available.
Creative modes include sound, 3D and fade-in animation.
Existing PowerPoint can be imported and given a new lease of life.

Group 4 Technologies.

Digital tools such as Google Earth, Google Maps and conceptmapping are tools that even I am familiar with prior to this course. There is great advantage to using these in the classroom to demonstrate to the students various aspects of Geography and History. They are also engaging for the students to use in the process of learning. All of these tools can be applied to Bloom’s Taxonomy. Concept mapping is a great way to get thoughts down either as a group exercise or as an individual brain storm. This example was created on bubbl.us website and is displayed here by another useful tool called snipping tool which allows an image or text to be copied and pasted to where it is required. By clicking on the image below, an enlarged version appears on the screen enabling large amounts of information to take up less display space on the page being viewed.

Among the group 4 technologies I discovered Museum Box. I found this tool interesting and engaging and a great way for Students to present their learning. I believe all year levels of secondary school could work with this tool. The example of the Bald Eagle on the Museum Box website is a good example of how it can be used by the younger students. I like the use of multimedia that this example shows but must say I was unaware that platypus are found in America and are part of the Bald Eagle food web?? In creating this Museum Box the individual has had an issue with his Black and White de Bono Hats, however guidance by his teacher could easily correct this. The method of presentation does involve applying Bloom’s Taxonomy to arrive at the end product. What a great tool for learning and a bit of fun also. The Roman Dress example displays more levels found within the box and is more in depth showing the capabilities of an older student.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PMI for Museum Box

Plus	Minus	Implications
Multimedia applications can be used	Students need to have access to technology at home if they are to complete this activity outside of school.	Such a variety of information can be presented
Can have many levels so that more information can be presented by older students	The order that the faces of the boxes are read depends on the order they are clicked. This could make information appear random if the author is not controlling the presentation	A topic can be broken down into various sub-topics
Easy for students to plan, use, and present assessment
Engaging for both student and teacher

 

The Five Dimensions of Learning (DoL) framework will be incorporated within my knowledge of technologies to ensure engagement and learning is the outcome. Attitudes and perceptions that I held towards technology have changed. My fear of failure has decreased and I know with practice these tools will be very useful. Teachers require positive attitudes and perceptions towards technology and its uses to develop within the students positive attitudes and perceptions to their learning. Understanding the attitudes and perception of the students is an important first step to planning learning for students. Converting my technology learning into teaching in the classroom will be enhanced using the DoL framework. Technologies will be used for acquiring and integrating knowledge and, extending and refining knowledge. Technologies will be used to extend the learning through the use of knowledge in a meaningful way especially through hands on application of technologies. This extends not only to the knowledge gained from technology but also the safe and appropriate application of knowledge, e.g protocol regarding which websites to access, and not using technology for inappropriate actions such as bullying. Habits of mind is the last aspect of DoL that makes up the framework and is the action that brings all the other learning dimensions together. This aspect will be applied to the learning plan by practicing and applying these technologies again and again to provide the students with skills for use both at school and for life after school. 

 

Resources:

Bald eagle http://creator.museumbox.e2bn.org/mediaCreator/show/8953

Museum Box http://museumbox.e2bn.org/

Prezi http://prezi.com

Roman Dress http://creator.museumbox.e2bn.org/mediaCreator/show/8939

 

 

 

 

Week 4.......Creating a Wiki - Reflection

 

               Wiki’s are new to me. I created my wiki a week or so ago and then thought…..now what? Well, what a difference a couple of days make. I personalised my wiki and then had a bit of a head scratching session wondering what to do with it. I thought for a moment and have decided I would like this tool to come with me on my journey into the classroom and create a bit of an interactive resource. It was also a perfect place to locate my Voki. That in itself was a marathon to work out how to Voki my Wiki. In the end I combined the technical manual and a YouTube video

                                        Source: Barnes, 2010.
                                         
 My voki asks the audience to pose questions relating to SOSE, Geography and History to begin interaction. I added a photo showing basalt rock and also requested an answer to a question which is one of the uses for my wiki.

Students in my classroom will be able to make their own wiki as I have done and better. The uses of wiki as discussed in collaborate session was once again informative and I particularly liked the idea of using the wiki as a research project for homework where all the ideas are collaborated. See, Seek and Wonder would be a great exercise to start the discussion that could lead to their research project. I found through that exercise that I was very focused on what I was actually seeing in the picture and can understand how that could be  a powerful tool in the classroom to engage children in the subject matter.  The SWOT analysis below is to scaffold my analysis.

 

Strengths Collaborate and share ideas Running history with the ability to retrieve lost data Brainstorming Embedded information File storage	Weakness No control as to what is published Keeping up with the changing technology (so that I look like I know what I am doing)
Opportunities Add Multimedia – e.g. videos, podcasts Link to other technology, websites, blogs, glogsters Involve outside world – parents, community, no boundaries Use as a tool for homework/research Projects/collaboration	Threats Lack of available computer access in the classroom/homes. School attitude towards opening the doors to cyber world

 

Using web sites that offer use of images etc. without any implications to copyright is a great way to introduce to the students the ethical and legal expectations of someone else’s intellectual property. Teaching the students to acknowledge all sources is also essential. I also like the idea of using the snip tool to use an image on the wiki with a link to the website. Being able to show the students’ ways of including intellectual property without violating the owner’s rights is going to be useful and demonstrate ways of using information within the legal and ethical constraints that are rightfully in existence.

Finally, I am looking forward to discovering some of those incredible websites which I didn’t know existed and using those technologies in my Wiki and my blog. 

References:

Barnes, M. (2010, June 24). How to teach students to embed voki onto wikis and blogs. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEEql8ndd3E&feature=player_embedded

 

Week 3......Creating a Blog - Reflection

Creating a Blog

As week 3 comes to a close I reflect on my learning in regards to creating a Blog. The word cloud above was created from the text in Week 3 Learning Material. Gauging from the word cloud students are the focus when learning how to blog. The thinking and information used are important to learning about the uses of this tool. From this learning material I have learnt that a blog is a website, usually established and maintained by an individual who regularly updates it by way of commentary, graphics or videos. Blogs are a Read-Write tool and like a Wiki, they are owned by their creators, such as the students in the classroom. As a teaching tool, they will allow interaction between students as I would encourage fellow classmates to comment on the postings as well as comments added by myself. It also allows the world to join in on the class depending on the school’s attitude to allow access to the Blogs.

I am still learning what the full capabilities of a Blog are. I read in the Week 3 Learning Material that Blogs can be used for online diaries, they can link to other blogs, and Web pages etc. that relate to the topic. These are some of the things I will achieve as time goes on. For now, this link to David Warlick’s Blog, “Are they students or learners” is an example of a Blog that uses a table to insightfully distinguish between being a student and a learner. I am proud to note I have embedded a YouTube video in my first week of Blogging and now I have created a link to another Blog as well as link to the YouTube video.  

This form of technology is learner-centred and as the teacher I would act as a facilitator to the information, not the informant. I know from my experience when creating a Blog that there are a variety of templates available to use and each can appeal to different learners for different reasons. For me this learning experience is a journey into technology hence the choice of background. In a teaching context learners will choose the template that appeals to how they relate to the task of establishing their Blog and their individual personalities. 

According to Stephen Downs’s article in education, there are five predominant uses of blogs.

·         Used by teachers to create or replace class Web page (if one exists) and then uses blog to inform students of class rules, timetable, assignment topics and due dates, readings and activities.

·         Teachers can link inter-related web sites for their course to the blog.

·         Blogs can be used to facilitate and organise class discussions. This could be used to encourage participation by some students who may not put their hands up in front of their peers. Participation may also be a compulsory component and be part of their final marks.

·         Group blogs can be organised for class seminars and reading summaries.

·         Students can write a blog as part of their assessment.

According to Downs, (2004), blogs are easy to use due to the way updating occurs without having to concern yourself with page formats and HTML syntax. As a tool, a blog is a cost-efficient system that supports collaborative and individual learning. For this ‘digital generation’ blogs are also relative to the use of technology outside the formal classroom. With this in mind, in my disciplines of History and Geography I feel a blog will be a valuable tool for the learners to get creative with the enormous amounts of information about a variety of topics available on web. I also feel it would be an interesting way for them to present a topic which would show progression in their learning. One way to ensure feedback is given is by dividing the class into groups where group members comment on blogs of their group by questioning why they have published information in their blog.

In a teaching context there would be advantages to using a blog over doing a written assignment that is in hardcopy form.  Brainstorming for an assessment piece is a learning strategy that would complement a blog. As an individual exercise, brainstorming on a blog would allow the student to put their ideas down about a topic and then to go back and view comments which may also help direct the student in their learning. Group assignment work can go ahead at all times because even if someone is away accessing their work is still available through the blog. Using a blog as place for an assignment has the benefit of being accessible across time and space and through the web. Comments, changes, annotations and suggestions are easily made by another student or the teacher. Tracking the activity allows the viewer to witness how thoughts scaffold the construction of the task. By using web links and multimedia the learner benefits from the valuable material available and a variety of learning styles are addressed. As blogs are usually set up in reverse-chronological order, previous information can be found by backtracking the blog. Blogs have the RSS option which notifies the owner of any changes made. Scaffolding tools such as tables, diagrams and concept maps can be incorporated in the blog.

                In regards to a Blog there are pluses and minuses as well as implications to its use. A PMI chart is a good tool to gather information that assesses the plus, minus and implications of a topic as exemplified below in Table 1. The value I gain from each weeks activities builds my confidence and I am making connections as to applications of this technology in the classroom.

Table 1. PMI Chart for using Blogs

Plus	Minus	Implications
Up to date learning tool		Incorporates multimedia forms ie. Web pages, blogs videos etc
A changeable source of information on what interests you		Blogging can be informal learning in an alternative way
You are the author of your own blog		Must have clear learning benefits for the learner
Learner centred teaching	Access to computers may not be available to all students at all times	Engagement is important along with learning through digital technologies is important
Collaborative learning, sharing information, communication	Harsh or unkind comments by other students	Students must be using the tools, not just the teacher showing how to use the tools
Flexibility
Multipurpose
Post announcements	Students have to read the announcements
Post work, common interests	Students must read the work assigned to them
Linking to other websites that scaffold the learning

Source: Authors own based on elearncqu, Downs, (2004), Three Vignettes – What does e-learning look like (2013).

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References:

Downs, S. (2004), Educational Blogging, EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 14-26, 2004, Retrieved http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/educational-blogging
 
Fasso, W. 2013, March 13, Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design, httpps://my.cqu.au/user/s0190818.

My Blackberry is Not Working,  (2010, Dec. 20)The one Ronnie, Preview, BBC One, Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI&feature=player_embedded

Warlick, D. (2010, Oct. 8), Are they students or learners? Retrieved March 16, 2013, from Blog http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=2762
 
Blog Overview, Retrieved 16 March, 2013, http://elearncqu.wikispaces.com/1.+Blog+overview

Project Drafting, Retrieved 16 March, 2013, http://elearncqu.wikispaces.com/Project+drafting 

PMI Charts, Retrieved 16 March, 2013,http://elearncqu.wikispaces.com/PMI+Charts 

Three Vignettes, Retrieved 16 March, 2013,  http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/pluginfile.php/407928/mod_page/content/9/vignettes.html

Week 2 ......Hat's off to Bloom!!!

 

To begin my journey through week 2 requires a map to show everyone where I live in Goondiwindi, and where Toowoomba is 3 hours away as indicated by the yellow line. It will all make sense at the end so read on please........

Source: Google Maps 2013

 

 

 

 

Week 2 - The week that was.....

Reflection on TPACK Concept

TPACK is an acronym for Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge. The TPACK framework is based on combining ICT with sound pedagogical strategies to achieve specific learning outcomes. Teachers make decisions on how to deliver learning content to students. For this they need excellent ability in the use of technology, they need to be experts in the knowledge of their content and the way they teach the content needs specific pedagogies that combine to support the learning of the students (Study guide, EDED20491: ICTs for learning Design, 2013). It is the students’ use of technology guided by the teacher to support learning.

 

Reflection De Bono Hats/Mobile Phone

This week has been an interesting learning curve as I change‘hats’ to consider the question about mobile phone use in the classroom. The exercise not only highlighted how I have conflicting views on using this technology but it also highlighted a strategy that has become second nature to my husband, a primary school teacher, who now naturally uses these thinking strategies to help me see another point of view to a situation. Damn those hats and his ability to win arguments!

From the readings, another important point on the use of mobile phones is that regardless of what technologies are employed in the classroom, they do not replace effective pedagogy and any use of these technologies must incorporate a combination of framework - TPACK, and thinking skills – Bloom’s Taxonomy. When these elements combine with ICT and digital tools learning is the outcome. As stated by Punya Mishra and Matthew J. Koehler (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge) learning is achieved by placing the emphasis on doing and the learner by not playing a passive role has ownership of their learning.

The Learning Theories reflective in this forum include constructivism, cognitivism, and connectivism. Constructivism is evident in the way that all respondents have their own beliefs based on their perception of mobile phone use in the classroom. Scaffolding has occurred as I weigh up the PMIs of different comments and I can see a similar wiki used in the classroom contributing to their learning especially through other scaffolding exercises such as SWOT. This collaborative learning would begin a discourse and give opportunity for people to substantiate their reasons and explain why they have made the comments they did. Cognitivism is reflected in this forum as the 3 stages of the cognitivism process model are in action as each participant uses sensory memory, working memory and long term memory to respond to the questions posed under each of De Bono’s six hats. Connectivism has occurred, as this is the digital age and as participants we have engaged in this exercise although, as what Marc Prensky refers to as a digital immigrant I feel a bit of a phony.

The wiki design requires learner participation which has been engaging and informative so has extended my learning. The learning theories mentioned come from what I believe was required to participate in the exercise. Behaviourism is not evident as there were no reshaping, positive reinforcement or step by step instruction however higher order thinking was needed to apply the different types of thinking with the change of hat. This exercise did make me think about why I responded the way I did. I enjoyed participating in this activity.

Expressing your opinion can at times be controversial if your views differ from many of the participants. However, some good points were made and ideas voiced that made me rethink some of my own views. For this topic I do not think it would cause too many issues but other topics in the hands of school children may cause friction among the group. I do believe in my future role as a teacher and with many more wiki experiences behind me I would use these sharing exercises as part of the students learning experience. I would be careful as to what topics we discussed using this forum.

As the journey continues.....

Technology such as this blog or the wiki activity used to model various hats are very foreign to me.This has been made even more difficult with the problems I have experienced since the beginning of March with internet connection. My cognitive domains found in Bloom's Taxonomy have been running in overdrive as I asked myself, "Why did I choose to return to internet provider 'X'?" Knowing and remembering what happened the last time I purchased their product. I faced very few options as according to the "Other" provider I was with, I am located in a "black-spot" which became very obvious when internet connection with them stopped working altogether. Understanding that due to my location it does take a little longer for Express Post to arrive, I was delighted when the wireless device arrived four days after ordering it on the phone. Keen to reconnect with De Bono and Bloom, I Applied the previous skills and knowledge to activate the wireless device. There was no signal!!! Analysing the situation led to numerous phone calls on the initial day and continued technical consultation over the following four days. All was in vain. Evaluating the situation led me to a six hour return trip to "my nearest X Store" as advised by the technical consultant on the end of the phone. When asked if I needed assistance by a very helpful staff member of "X Store",*Karen (*not her real name), I set about unpacking my TPACK in the hope that I would use sound pedigogical strategies and choose the appropriate content knowledge and processes, for effective learning to be the outcome. *Karen who spent over an hour on the phone with the technical consultants obviously is a quick learner, or my pedigogical strategies were impressive. The problem was to remain a problem and this is where the learner taught the pre-service teacher by Creating a solution that would be sufficient in the intrim. *Karen devised a plan that saw me walk out of "X store with an internet device that should work until the real problem is fixed. Forty-eight hours was the expected timeframe to rectify the problem. Less than twenty-four hours later I receive a text message from "X" saying they are working hard to fix the technical issue with my order. If I am not connected within FIVE days they will contact me with an update. It is about now that I would like to throw something at them however, I don't think that is part of Bloom's Taxonomy and I am not a kinesetic learner, so I will just put on my Bright Red De Bono hat and get over it!!!!

Post Script: I was finally reconnected to the internet 19 days after receiving the wireless device.