Appendix C

Week 5 Activities & Reflections
1.  Powerpoint  

So it’s been around the block a few times as one might say, and became boring to me, personally.  Not in a completely negative way just that in modern times, there is so many ICT tools to play with that are amazingly advanced and exciting that it seems Powerpoint has been left behind.

Basically, Powerpoint is a software package that can be used to present information in a slideshow which generally supports an oral speech.  It can include text, charts, graphs, sound effects, videos and so forth.  The specific aim is to make a powerful impression on the intended audience and it can be useful in the classroom in plenty of different ways and by presenting many different forms of information.  To view a good example of a Powerpoint presentation, click on this link Powerpoint Presentation.

In more recent times, PowerPoint has faced upgrading and now it includes many features including the ability to embed text, linking and interactivity with audio, images, voice recording and video even.  It’s extremely easy to use and just as a prime example for classroom-based use it can be used to create a narrated stand alone presentation with the students voice recorded in the slide, it allows for all students to ‘get rid of those jitter bugs’.  Some more examples include an analysis of a process, to create interaction (choose your own path) story books, create interactive quizzes, concept maps, brain storming and yet again the list goes on.

So for this generation of learners, I believe this tool is fantastic and being the most widely used presentation tool in the world, it also doubles due to the simplicity.

2.  Prezi

Prezi is about ‘helping people understand each other better’ (retrieved from http://prezi.com/about/).  On the website they refer to presentations being 50 or more years old and stating that they are not evolving especially since slides were around in those days and to change all that, Prezi came about.  Prezi is a collection of one’s ideas emerged into an online space where you can see how they relate.  Its aim is to connect audiences and its web-based maps have brought a new beginning to how we navigate through map books.  A person can zoom out to see the big picture or zoom in to see the detail.  It was launched in April 2009 and since then the company has grown massively into 2010 and 2011.

There are 3 basic products that include Prezi Desktop, where you can create, edit and show prezis from your own computer without internet access, Prezi Meeting, where you can work with anyone, anywhere to edit and show prezis with up to 9 other users by generating a link or Prezi for iPad, which is a portable version (application).

So how did I go using Prezi?  I think it's ridiculously awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is because as Teachers we often need to analyse long sections of text with our classes and the ability to zoom in on images or text helps students focus on what the important bits are.  The ability to do this also can help to expand on meanings of particular words and help students associate words with images, diagrams and texts.  Even though I haven't had a chance to make one up myself yet, here I have two perfect examples of Prezis below, enjoy!

Thoughts on using Prezi as a teaching tool on Prezi

Power of storytelling on Prezi

3.  Glogster

Glogster ‘Poster Yourself’ is a social network that allows people to create their own personalised interactive posters, or glogs, for free.  In simple form, it’s a graphical blog that acts as an interactive multimedia image and others say it’s an online scrapbooking tool.  There is not only Glogster available, in fact there is already an Educational Glogster website which has been created that promotes itself as being a collaborative learning platform for teachers, educators and schools.  It features Glogs (the interactive posters), collaborative class projects and a school-level teacher management of students and classes.  It provides a private and safe student environment, engages students in fun and creative activities and supports national educational standards.

There are many benefits of using this online digital tool as an educational resource including some of the following;

-         A fun learning experience

-         A new way to express creativity

-         Private, secure, safe virtual classroom monitored by teachers

-         Drives new interest levels around subjects that may have been seen as ‘boring’ in the past

-         Adds needed audiovisual aspects to traditionally text-orientated subjects

-         Fosters teamwork and collaboration with classmates

-         Increases drive to be independently creative

-         Unlimited shelf life

-         Improves teacher-student relationships

-         Keeps teachers and students up to date with modern technology

I personally believe that Glogster is great and can be used in limitless ways to present ideas and information to my class and for my students to do the same back to me.  Last but not least, Glog’s are also versatile in that you can embed them into a professional blog for example, then it is easily accessible wherever you are.  For the most part I think that I would use Glogs in my teaching context for a student assessment.  For example, pick a topic (Australia) and create an online interactive poster with your findings.  

Glogster SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

-         Highly interactive so students will be interested

-         Free tool

-         If registered you can save and publish your blog, provide comments/feedback

-         Easy to learn, use & edit

-         Provides plenty of examples and different design options

-         Can upload video clips from Teacher Tube, School Tube etc.

-         View options to have it seen as public or private

-         Promotes creativity and individuality

-         Students able to express feeling and opinions on topic

Weaknesses:

-         Need to be online to view

-         Upload time

-         Must register

-         Age restrictions (13 years & up)

-         Need to save frequently

-         Some glogs are not excepted in schools due to content (inappropriate images)

Opportunities:

-         Class options available

-         To create and publish projects

-         The ease of use with text, images, sound and videos

-         Assessment can be authentic

-         Students can collaborate but commenting on peer work

-         Students are able to view different internet options available

Threats:

-         Inappropriate use of material

-         Schools can have youtube or glogs blocked

-         Online chat not private

-         Cyber bullying / Cyber stalking and so forth can occur

-         Publicly shared

My Glog 


A Glog I can definately use in my classroom..

Appendix B

Week 4 Activities & Reflections

Digital Tool 4 - Digital Images

Digital Tool 5 - Podcasts

Digital Tool 6 - Digital Videos

This week was an entirely new range of technologies in which we created more accounts for and explored the good and bad qualities of these products which could potentially be used in the classroom.

Mobaphoto is a free program that provides simple editing functions for photo’s when creating photo galleries in websites for example.  It is user friendly and allows re-sizing, cropping, red-eye correction and a few other simple tools as well as being able to do this to photo’s in batches.  Meaning you can do more than just one photo at a time so the process is quick, efficient and ready to be uploaded as soon as possible.  It also allows you to save the images without saving over the top of the original image.  The other benefit is that the program is small enough to be downloaded onto a USB stick, so you can manage your photo’s from any computer, anywhere.  

For the most part the general gist of it is to limit the download time when uploading digital images to use on your blog, wiki, website or so on. I only had a quick play around and decided it wasn't for me. Just a personal thing where I know there are better programs out there.  Therefore I can't see myself using it in the near future, however, I do realise the importance of download time. 

Saving download time and download data (if your internet is on a plan basis) is extremely important, especially if you’re on a budget.  In summary of this topic, the purpose of shrinking image size is a very important tool to be able to know and use.  In addition to Mobaphoto, there is many other programs out there which do the same thing or better, so keep an eye out! 

Benefits

-          Manage, upload and publish photo’s for the classroom on a group web blog, wiki and so on

-          Portable program (USB size) for use in computers at school or at home

-          Introduced photo editing to students

Disadvantages

-          Not many editing functions available

-          Need internet to download the program

-          Can accidentally save over original image

Flickr

The idea of this program is to be able to search a huge database of digital images and digital movies for use on my blog, wiki and website. I enjoyed having a quick play around with this program and believe when I get more time it will definitely come of use in my teaching context for the future.  It is time consuming sifting through the database, but on the other hand, it is very rewarding when you find an awesome image or video related to education and it’s exactly what you’ve been looking for the whole time.  I personally will definitely be spending some more time on Flickr in the near future.  So students, you better watch out for some pretty cool pop ups on my blog soon.

Benefits

-          Access to a database of others images and videos

-          Vast ranges of images and video’s on offer

-          Can still be accessed by guests who do not have Yahoo accounts

-          Popularity creates more opportunity for uses to share and embed their personal photo’s and video’s

-          Users can protect images (only certain people can view)

-          Can organise images by folders and in chronological order

          Able to edit titles, tags and create photo sets

-          Interaction with visitors and other users – by comments

-          View as slideshow

-          Provides a safe archive or backup for your original photo’s

-          The photo service – others can recognise your photography skills

-          Numerous third-party tools and software to work with your images

Disadvantages

-          Need a Yahoo ID account to log in

-          Time consuming to sift through database of millions

-          Users can upload ‘compromising’ or ‘promiscuous’ photo’s = inappropriate

-          Storage limits unless you upgrade and pay for a pro flickr account

-          No batch tool

-          To view titles or captions you have to hover over each image

-          Images are all set to a small size

-          Navigation is a little technical

-          Uploading speed is slow

 

Image Titled:  Education for all

Courtesy of:  Designldg - Flickr

Picnik

I didn't actually use this program as I am privileged to have Adobe Photoshop CS4 on my laptop. Therefore, on Adobe Photoshop I can comment on the ability to manipulate digital images which is in fact incredible. The program itself is very in-depth and would take a while to learn how to use all of the different functions. So far I only have a basic knowledge and understanding of several features but it is definitely an amazing and handy tool to have access to.  In the past I have experienced ‘photoshopping’ wedding photo’s to make them look glamorous or old fashioned – exactly what the customer’s idealistic target of what they are after.  It can be basic and it can be advanced, depending on the preferred outcome.  In a classroom context, I imagine the use of Photoshop could be used to enhance colours, create interesting and funny features in photo’s, make certain objects stand out, blank out objects, and the list goes on as the possibilities are endless.  Simply put, it’s amazing what you can do with a simple photo.

Podomatic

The idea of this program is to be able to search and upload podcasts for educational purposes and in fact whilst doing my second Literacy Assignment I came across this Poetry Podcasts for Kids.  I had no idea there was so much useful educational resources in these forms of ICT's available for teachers.  

There are many positive aspects of this digital tool and I will definitely be utilising it in the best way possible when I’m in a classroom.  Student’s no longer have to sit and listen to the one (monotone) voice of the same teacher for a whole year, every class, every day, every week, every term, every semester.  In summary, another fantastic tool with yet again endless opportunities in the classroom context.

Windows Movie Maker

The idea of this program is to be able to create your own digital video with samples of photo’s, movie clips, music and a story all put together.  My first thought was that this was going to be impossible because I have never done anything like this before.  Then in class a fellow student led me to her blog Jannine Peff to view the movie she had spent all weekend making and it was awesome for a first time user!  Soooo after tedious editing and picking at this and that, finding some old photos of mine from when I was traveling in France and downloading music for the theme songs, and creating this master piece, i can now officially say I've made a movie.  Hope you like the final product because I'm so totally proud of myself and this took me hours to complete.  

LIGHTS.....CAMERA.......ACTION!!!!!!

 

The use of digital movies in the classroom is another fantastic tool.  If I can do it the students can do it too!  It can be used to make a learning resource such as a documentary about the school, a movie from a school camp and a range of videos relating to a current topic to study in class, and as per usual, the list goes on with endless opportunities.  To name a few more for example; to prepare educational segments on safety issues, assist with learning other languages, interviews, record students role play, school performances, frame rapid change science experiments or sporting events as well as compiling still images over a period of time to produce time lapse movies such as the one my students are working on in class now.  It can be specifically altered to suit the needs of visual learners and in fact is a great tool for students to interact with.

Plus

-          It can be used anywhere (USB, Internet)

-          There are heaps of educational videos online to download

-          You can create videos about any subject matter  

-          It can save teachers preparation time

-          It can be used for self-paced learning

-          It covers multiple sensor’s (audio & visual)

-          The programs are simple and easy to use

-          It is familiar to most students and has a popular format

Minus

-          It can be potentially dehumanising

-          It is not always interactive

-          There is no immediate feedback for students or teachers

-          Students can’t ask questions if they don’t understand (interrupting video play)

-          There is no indication to the teacher of students’ understanding, without assessment

-          Students may skip essential parts

-          There is a need to ensure content specific and relevant

-          Terminology can differ between countries

-          It has a large file size (email/download)

-          Buffering speeds can take time

-          Students can be at risk of spending too long in front of screen

-          Can’t replace hands-on skills teaching of certain subjects (for kinaesthetic learners)

Interesting

-          It can be as interesting as you make it

-          See the 'Khan Academy' for some interesting ideas

Whilst researching this tool I also came across this one GoAnimate, which is a website where you can make your own animated (cartoon like) videos.   

I also believe that digital videos in the classroom can turn the teaching and learning around by allowing the students to take control.  It is a very powerful tool by forcing the creators (students) to perform their own knowledge, not just recall it.  For another example of utilising this tool in the classroom see Digital Storytelling.

 

Editing Blog Difficulties

I should have thought that this would be inevitable but kept thinking that it won't happen to me. Never again will I assume a problem free process especially when it involved technology. As you can guess by now I have encountered my first major drama with my blog postings.

A whole weekends worth of work is gone and I've tried to recover it many of times, but it's long gone. Hence now I am never posting anything ever again until it's finished and ready to be published straight away!!

Not happy jan! :( :( :( :(

Appendix A

Week 3 Activities & Reflections...

Digital Tool 1: Blogs for Learning
Digital Tool 2: Wikis for Collaborative Learning
Digital Tool 3: Websites for Learning

Thinking this week had yet again an overload of activities to complete, I have just set up all the accounts and now comes the time consuming part of changing the design to suit me best, adding content and completing all of the readings for my analysis.

To view my blog click here - My Blog

A blog is a part of a website, for instance mine is part of blogspot.com, in which an individual (myself) maintains by regularly entering blog postings, entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other materials such as videos, images and links to further resources.  The entries are displayed in chronological order from the newest post first to the oldest post last.  By adding content, blogs can become very interactive as visitors may leave comments and suggestions as well as messages to the creator.  Most blog postings are commentary about recent news in your town or country or as personal online journal entries.  My blog has entries that encompass my learning journey through my university graduate diploma. 

Reflection
Blogs such as George Siemens are created for educational purposes in which the author presents professional knowledge and links to important events, conferences, and so forth. So my belief is that as long as the purpose of your blog is purely for sharing educational content, such as a mixture of links, commentary, personal thoughts and essays then it's well worth the effort. According to Stephen Downes (2004) it gives students a chance to communicate with others all around the world, and hopefully receive feedback to enhance our knowledge base and learn from. Please take the time to view Stephen Downes website about blogs and also Will Richardson's blog.

PMI ABOUT BLOGS

Plus:
- Motivation
- Writing skills
- Reading skills
- Higher order thinking skills 
- Collaboration/social interaction
- Network & Relationship building
- Community building
- Effective means of communication (for individuals, pairs, groups and so on)
- Support tool to promote reflective analysis
- Not boring (students can customize the design)
- Archive and publish students work
- Learn with far-flung collaborators
- Flexibility
- Manage the knowledge that members of the school community create
- Chronological order of blogs by the date posted
- Can be utilised as a personal journal
- Can link to heaps of new and useful teacher resources on the internet
- Students engage in the content provided and of other authors
- Allows ideas to be based on merit, rather than origin
- Allows readers to hear the day-to-day thoughts of anyone
- Allows students to have the same writing space to voice their opinion that supports all learning styles
- Provides a space for sharing opinions and learning from one another
- Gives students a voice, feeling of ownership and recognition from a large audience

Minus
- Some students will use blogging as a means for personal comments and observations
- How do you know what’s real and what’s not real on the internet?
- Conflict of interest between students
- Libelous content such as calling teachers or students ‘inappropriate names’ or personal threats
- Students may divulge information about the school and face legal action such as posting copyrighted or protected information
- Loss of student interest due to particular topics to blog about (topics chosen by teacher instead of student)
- Blogging can interact with the more restrictive domains of the educational system

Interesting
- Web blogs are not for everyone
- Blogging posts need to be monitored and by whom?
- There needs to be extremely clear direction, objectives and scaffolding provided throughout the journey
- Some blog sites are blocked in schools

In a teaching context
Blogs can be used to replace the standard class web page and teachers can post class timetables, classroom rules, assignment notifications, suggested readings and summaries of the readings, exercises, links to internet items that relate to their course and organised class discussions. As the information and communication technology grows from day to day, it is our job as teachers to support this learning environment evolving and structure the students learning in using the same processes.

We as future teachers will need to know how to write for a public audience, how to cite and link and why, how to use the comment tool in pedagogical ways, how to read web materials more efficiently as well as explore other ways to consider pedagogical uses of blogs. Blogging requires us to teach students to critically engage media, more to the point we as students need instruction on how to become efficient navigators in these digital spaces (EduBlog, 2007).

Reference:
EduBlog (2007). Rationale for Educational Blogging. Retrieved 12 April 2011, from 
http://anne.teachesme.com/2007/01/17/rationale-for-educational-blogging/

________________________________________________________________________

After creating my first wiki, in which my original thoughts were that it would be quite sophisticated, have undoubtedly been way over-estimated. I feel like I conquered this task with great compassion and am privileged to share with you what I have designed this far.
To view my wiki please click here - My Wiki

Even though plenty of students have collaborated on the wiki topic at this stage, we have not had sufficient time to indulge in the effective use as collaboratively learning on our own wiki's (well my wiki anyway). A fellow student of mine that creatively designed a wiki with me and has used her wiki collaboratively for educational purposes if you would like to view is Julienne Morrison. In this situation, the design of a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats (SWOT) Analysis has been utilised perfectly as students interact and voice their opinions on the wiki topic by editing Julienne's Wiki.

This analytical tool encourages critical thinking about several aspects of a topic and below you will see a summary of our student SWOT Analysis.

Strengths
- Collaborative learning
- Interactive fun
- Scaffolding effectively pays off
- Continuous evolution of news
- Gain trust of fellow students or followers
- Increased engagement from students
- Development of social skills
- Quality brainstorming
- Wide range of input from many different aspects
- Allows integration of technology
- Unlimited teaching and learning experiences
- Higher order thinking/ Critical reflection/ Analysis
- Easy to use

Weaknesses
- All content can be accidentally or purposely deleted
- Requires trust of all followers
- Technology not robust
- Some wikispaces are banned in schools
- Lots of fiddling in the edit mode to get the desired appearance

Opportunities
- Integrated learning
- Shared knowledge, experiences and opinions
- Relationship building
- Creativity development
- High order thinking skills development

Threats
- Trust hardship
- Acceptance for changes (improvements and non-improvements)
- Continuous monitoring
- Possible breach of copyright

So as you can see, the work of several students in collaboratively working in wiki's is effective and we get to typically share the workload and get a better and bigger view of the subject.  The main purpose for the creation of my wiki is so that students can share teaching resources and communicate in this space their views on different aspects of teaching.

Lastly this week was the creation of a master website. Mine might look very plain so far but let me assure you that if you tried to design one yourself, you would either have too much time on your hands or it would depict something similar to mine.

To view my website click here - My Website

I have discovered that websites are intense. There is a lot to work with and it's very time consuming. Not to say that it won't pay off in the long run, but for now, it looks a little dull and the following SWOT analysis will hopefully provide you with a brief overview on the use of websites.

Strengths
- Users are able to connect with a worldwide audience
- Ideal for linking several other websites, activities, blogs, games, information and so on
- Stable and well established

Weaknesses
- No interactive or collaborative learning shown

Opportunities
- Users come to terms with the recognition of published work and therefore must take responsibility to present accurate research
- If well designed, can be a great source of information
- Word of mouth can get around and expand your website globally

Threats
- Dangers of misinformation
- Suitability check for accurately published websites and links

I believe that students must be able to embrace and then engage in these eLearning opportunities. If they fail to do so, they will not learn and as the times change quickly, so does my thoughts and opinions on the above mentioned topics as I begin to realise how important these tools are and putting together the pieces to view the bigger picture is of the main aspect that I have right now.

Conclusion... (Assessment Item 1) Part 4 of 4

The feeling of realisation comes to mind at the completion of weeks one to three in ICT’s for learning design.  Although I have successfully participated and completed all of the required activities, I feel as though I could have done much better and thus I am on my learning journey.  I have learnt that there is a mandatory need for scaffolding in everything we do as students, from profile wiki’s to learning theories and even mobile phones as a learning tool in the classroom.  These experiences have enabled me to realise how I can put them into practice in my classroom in future years.

The disruptions and delays from technical faults, massive amounts of readings and my work commitments most certainly made me work harder to firstly read then comprehend and then reflect on each activity.  As you would know if you have read my blog that even though I grew up in a computer literate generation, most of these tools such as wiki’s and blog’s are a first time thing for me to experience and I’m glad that I had a bunch of awesome students to share this with.  Group work and collaboration such as what we participated in provides opportunities for co-operative learning, group discussions and deliberations which are highly beneficial in enhancing learning outcomes for students according to Lowe, Murray, Li and Lindsay (2008).

The ICT’s course has covered student profiling, the creation and usage of wiki’s, the creation and usage of a blog, learning theories such as behaviourism, connectivism, constructivism and multiple intelligence, De Bono’s 6 thinking hats, eLearning and mobile phones in classrooms by means of reading, extensive research, videos, scaffolding and learning activities that are all a part of the learning engagement theory (Kearsley and Shneiderman,1999).

In the first week, the activity was to be completed as an individual.  By the second week it was as pairs and in the third as a whole group.  I believe that this step by step, building block process incorporated bloom’s taxonomy to its full extent including knowledge, higher order thinking, creating, and evaluating (Bloom, 1956).

The profile wiki was a simple introduction to the world of ICT’s, scaffolding and learning theories, especially constructivism.  For someone like me who has not been exposed to learning or teaching experiences in quite some time, my brain overloaded fast.  To start with, a simple questionnaire about yourself was completed and uploaded onto the wiki for all students to view, which allowed us to connect with each other.  According to Siemens (2005) the connectivism approach explores networking and the ways in which learning and knowledge come from a diversity of opinions and that maintaining connections allows for continuous learning to occur.

     

The learning theories wiki which I participated in with my partner, Catherine, allowed us to share the workload, however I think the excessive amounts of readings and activities that had to be completed in this week was to the extreme and overwhelming for all students.  As discussed through the course content in this week’s activities, the variety of learning styles, multiple intelligences, 21^st century learners and learners from previous generations, every student has a different way in which they successfully engage in learning and it’s up to us as teachers to produce quality pedagogy to support them. 

The theory of behaviourism discussed by Mergel (1998), refers to learning as it is characterised by an observable change in behaviour.  I think a prime example of this, is in fact this course where as students realise this is a marked assessment item and there doesn’t seem to be enough clear instructions and scaffolding provided for us to do so and in return, we start behaving badly and this may reflect in our poor assignment submission.  (Let’s hope it does not reflect too much on mine though).

The mobile phones wiki was scaffolded using De Bono’s 6 thinking hats (De Bono, 1992) which guided the students thinking processes and allowed them to analyse their opinions and evaluate the overall topic.  I found this week to be understandable considerably compared to the previous wiki’s.  It worked well in the way of thinking from all sides of the box and by collaborating and exchanging ideas with other students, allowing us to learn in a constructivist’s way (Vygotsky, 1962).  In addition the way we were thinking gave an in-depth understanding of the issues surrounding mobile phones in the classroom.  

From this I now have the knowledge of the strong importance to provide simple instructions and quality scaffolding to my students in order to maximise their learning outcomes and success.  In ways of supporting diverse abilities, the tools provided in eLearning do this.  Therefore, hopefully I would see an increased number of my students actively participating in class.  As for the learning theories, I strongly believe that a combination of all the previously mentioned learning styles would create the most effective learning base for students and the resources available from ICT’s are never ending for any age student and any subject area.  The consistent reflection of our learning allows the knowledge to effectively sink in and become part of our long term memory (Sweller, 1988).  I will always have a backup plan for when technology fails me and I believe that as teachers, we must learn from our mistakes and our student’s reflections and make changes to accommodate these in the best way possible.

References

Bloom, B. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives. Handbook 1: The cognitive domain.

De Bono, E. (1992). Six thinking hats for schools (Books 1-4) resource book. Cheltenham, Vic.: Hawker Brownlow.

Kearsley, G., and Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement theory: A framework for technology based teaching and learning. Retrieved from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Lowe, D., Murray, S., Li, D., & Lindsay, E. (2008). Project Report: Remotely Accessible Laboratories – Enhancing Learning Outcomes. Australian Learning & Teaching Council, 13.

Mergel, B. (1998). Instructional Design & Learning Theory. May 2008.

Retrieved from http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/mergel/brenda.htm#The%20 Basics%20of%20Behaviorism

Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. December 12, 2004. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm.

Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive Load Theory. Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning, Cognitive Science, 12, 257-285.

Retrieved from http://tip.psychology.org/sweller.html

Vygotsky, L. (1962). Social Development Theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Retrieved from http://tip.psychology.org/vygotsky.html