FINAL BLOG POSTING ASSIGNMENT 2

Reflective Synopsis

Gone are the days when teaching from a text document in a boring classroom was the be all and end all of your school days.  Now the digital technologies in education have arrived and bring a whole new outlook on teaching in the classroom.  Digital tools add fun, creativity, an increase in student engagement and many more exciting aspects to the modern day classroom.

Over the past six weeks, I have experienced the use of many different digital technologies including Websites, Wikis, Blogs, Podcasts, Digital Images, Digital Videos, Glogster, Prezi, Powerpoint, Zooburst, Online Timelines, Online Concept Mapping, Google Documents, Google Maps, Google Earth, Animations and Simulations, as well as many more.  All of which I didn’t even know existed up until now.

Initially I was inquisitive about the massive changes that have occurred in the classroom, even since I was at school, which was not so long ago.  The people who discovered and created these wonderful opportunities for students, teachers and learning, have much to be appreciated for.

When I first started to participate in several of the digital technologies I realised it was going to be a big workload and I couldn’t understand why we had to cover such a large number of different tools.  Much to my aspiration for learning in this area, I completed all of the weekly tasks in a timely manner and blogged about my experiences for each of the tools.  Though I am still extremely nervous about how long it will take me to learn more in depth about these tools before I hit the classroom, at the same time, I can’t hold in my excitement because I can already see the fulfilment that information and computer technology brings to students at school.

I also feel a sense of nervousness and am scared in regards to my own learning, hoping that I will be capable of creating such amazing and inspirational ‘flip charts’ and lesson plans like my mentor teacher does every day.  In spite of all the positive and negative facts that surround digital technologies in the classroom, I have come to realise the most beneficial part is that it caters for all types of learning styles such as visual, audio and kinaesthetic, where a classroom without digital technologies cannot do such a thing in the time constraints that teachers have. 

From the four groups of digital technologies that I explored in this course, I have stubbornly had to put my opinions aside and choose only one tool from each week to elaborate on.  My judgement and selections were based upon a variety that included individual activities and group work.   

Firstly I chose Blogs, as I had already created one and have been using it the most.  This was used for blogging about my thoughts and opinions on my learning journey and more specifically how to apply these tools in my teaching context.  There is more information on blogs if you click on the link to see ‘Appendix A’.  In this blog posting you will be able to view my analysis done by means of a plus, minus and interesting (PMI) as well as further information about blogs.  You are also welcome to visit my blog whenever you like to see the creativity I have designed, the links I have attached to some important websites for teachers and more information about digital technologies.

My emotions changed quickly as I went from being far from enthusiastic about any of the digital tools to now thoroughly enjoying using my blog as you can tell from the amount of work I upload into it and I strongly believe that blogs can be used to enhance students learning by doing something that is educationally progressive, innovative, and beneficial.  It also adds an extra dimension to the subjects being taught in the classroom (Bender, 2003).

With blogs there is such a vast range of opportunities all in one handy location and once published, blogs also offer the opportunity for feedback which scaffolds the students learning process.  As compared to the other tools in this group which were Websites and Wikis, I am of the belief that wiki’s can be dangerous as anyone who has access to your wiki for collaboration purposes can also delete all the work you put into it.  For websites, there was no collaboration whatsoever which defeated the educational purpose for me. 

The second digital tool I have chosen is Digital Videos as students today live in a multimedia world and appreciate variety in their learning environment.  Students take audio visual information and the internet for granted and when learning they find a mixture of text, still images, sound and video clips is more interesting than ‘chalk and talk’, overhead projectors and the odd trip to the computer lab.  It provides opportunities for higher order thinking skills when producing their own digital videos in any context and is simple to produce with many online programs that provide guided instruction.  Please see 'Appendix B' for further information on digital videos and to view my own video which was designed using Windows Movie Maker.  I was delighted to see my finished product and trust that students will use their imagination and connect to the topic being taught in a more productive manner.  

As compared to Digital Images and Podcasts which were also in this group of technologies, I found that Digital Videos were a combination of both and seemed to be easy to create.  The images alone may speak a thousand words but for students who are not visual learners this can create a barrier by not providing enough information for the learner.  Podcasts on the other hand I found extremely interesting and would definitely still be used in my teaching context as with digital videos they are almost one in the same.

Glogster is the third digital tool I have chosen from the technologies in the following week.  It is a fun learning experience for students and a new way to express creativity.  It can be private and secure and with teachers monitoring, it allows a safe virtual classroom to exist.  Similar to the previously mentioned tools, it brings new interest levels and increased engagement by students as it is no longer seen as a boring poster by adding audio visual aspects to the traditionally text-orientated subjects.  It also promotes collaboration and team work with classmates and has an unlimited shelf-life.

When discussed alongside other technologies such as Prezi and Powerpoint, it stands out due to the ease of extracting information from.  I felt that even though Prezi was an amazing tool, I would have had difficulty in designing my own as it is complex and has many features.  At times when watching other presentations from Prezi I felt sea sick from the zooming options.  As for Powerpoint I still believe it’s a bit outdated and even though still widely used in classrooms all around the world, I personally believe that students need to progress and learn more about the future and new technologies available to them.  To view more information about this set of tools please see ‘Appendix C’.

The last group of digital technologies consisted of many tools and I found it difficult to pick only one.  I feel that Animations and Simulations would have been my favourite, though I did not feel as though I had enough time to create my own and provide an example to show that I could use that specific tool.  Because of this, I have decided to go with Online Concept Mapping.

Online concept mapping is an easy tool which organises information in a nice and attractive manner.  It can be colourful, shapely and include all sorts of different designs depending on how creative you want to be.  This tool can be used in the classroom for many activities such as brainstorming, problem solving, unit plans, organising work for diverse ability students and yet again limitless ideas.  When compared to the rest of the tools in this group, I have found them all quite difficult to fault.  For more information on this topic please see 'Appendix D'.

With all digital technologies being used in the classroom, I thoroughly agree that as long as it has precise deliberation and intentional focus on the needs to understand pedagogy, the use of any digital tool provides true opportunities for inspirational and meaningful learning (Bender, 2003).

As with many things that people do in society these days, there are always legal, safe and ethical guidelines in which we must obey.  As for digital technologies in the classroom it can be the students and teachers who are both equally responsible to adhere to these guidelines.  As a teacher it is our duty of care to consistently monitor the content to make sure it is appropriate, receive permission from authors and owners to use photographs, videos and so forth.  As well as setting up log in and password details, avoiding plagiarism and making sure that our students are aware of their work on the internet being global.  Please see 'Appendix E' for a table summary of legal, safe and ethical issues in the classroom.

All in all, I now have a greater understanding for why this course had to cover such a large range of tools.  It seems as though it gets better each time but this does not mean that one tool is not good or useless in a way, because they are all useful in a teaching context.  The effectiveness of digital technologies whether they are online or offline, are there to help students further increase their knowledge and understanding of the way in which everything works.  As time goes by, I look forward to investigating more tools and hopefully create and design amazing pedagogy for my students.

References
Bender, T. (2003). Discussion based online teaching to enhance student learning, Theory practise and assessment.  Retrieved 14 April 2011, from: http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=lang_en&id=xszRJUVqWIcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=enhance+student+learning+experience&ots=C3zxLz9sPG&sig=oA15PqdKJ66OE9nCttNpszhi3NQ#v=onepage&q=enhance%20student%20learning%20experience&f=false

Appendix E


Wright, I. (2011). Legal, ethical and safe ICT practices.  Retrieved 15 April 2011, from http://mrwrights.blogspot.com/2011/04/teaching-internet-safety-in-classroom.html#more


There are many websites which provide excellent examples to help teachers with the legal, safe and ethical guidelines such as the following list I have provided.
- CyberSmart
- SmartCopying
- CreativeCommons

Below there is a fantastic example of using digital technology and teaching your students about internet safety.  Enjoy! 

9 interesting ways_to_teach_internet_safety_in

View more presentations from MrWright

Appendix D

Week 6 Activities & Reflections

1.  Animations & Simulations 

Animations and simulations are something I have known about for a while but never had the opportunity to learn much about.  Being for a classroom context where the students all have different learning styles, this comes in handy as it offers substantial advantages over general print based texts.  They offer a virtual experience where some things for the classroom are impossible due to cost or location and they are made possible due to the tools accessible through the internet.  However, like most of the digital tools I have discussed already, they take a lot of time, effort, creativity and imagination to design them just how you want them and for the exact purpose of your class.
Interactive learning objects that are readily available on the internet are Education Queensland’s ‘Learning Place’ or the ‘Learning Federation’ just to name a couple.  Most of these come with a subscription fee or some sort of cost additive.  However, if your school can afford to do this, they are definitely well worth the exploration as students become completely engaged in the topic you will be teaching.

These are just some of the resources that I have started collecting:

- Story Starters

- Maths Dictionary

- Acrostic Poems

- My Place 

- Reading

- Adventure Story

- SOSE

2.  Google Earth

Whilst I originally downloaded Google Earth back in 2006 to show my family the houses I lived in France in 2005, it was astonishing to everyone then and yet it still amazes me every time I use it.  More recently, a fellow student of mine from America visited her college and parents house back in The States on my laptop just to show me how different Australian houses are compared to theirs.

I could compare it to travelling only this time it’s online instead of physically ‘being elsewhere’. 

Google Earth is described as being a virtual globe, map and geographical information program from which the images are obtained via satellites, aerial photography, and other sources.

Google Earth for Educators is a phenomenal resource for teachers.  It encompasses classroom lesson plans and ideas, tutorials and tips, as well as communication between other teachers that are or have previously used it and a showcase of students work.

For use in the classroom there are plenty of examples given online such as a few of the following.

Biology: Track routes of chimpanzees in Tanzania's Gombe Forest. See the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee blog here.

Ecology: Create a short quiz about anything like this one.

Environmental Science: Have students check Alaska's global warming problems. See how the Sierra Club used Google Earth to depict this problem here.

Geology: Find images, links, and descriptions, with information about thousands of volcanoes around the globe, thanks to organizations like the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program.

Global Awareness: Study the Crisis in Darfur with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's unprecedented project.

History: Explore Tutankhamun's Tomb.

Humanities: Have your students scout film shoot locations like this teacher did with The Golden Compass.

Literature: Bring class or contemporary tales to life with Google LitTrips.

Math: Explore distance, velocity, and wave properties of tsunamis.
There are many more ideas on how Google Earth can be used for all subjects across the board.  So why don't you go check it out for yourself at Google Earth for Educators.

3.  Online Concept Mapping

A concept map is a diagram showing the relationships between different items.  Generally it is used as a graphical tool for organising and representing knowledge (Wikipedia, 2011).  The items or concepts can be grouped and displayed in bubbles, circles, boxes and so forth with lines or arrows representing the connection between them.  It is a strong visual tool which is commonly used for many different things.  

The concept map I designed encompasses the digital technologies I have learnt this far in ICT's for Learning Design.  
  

In my teaching context I could use concept maps for just about anything.  Some examples include;

-         assigning a topic to students and their homework is to brainstorm some ideas about their thoughts on that topic

-         creating a food chain web

-         create a map to show connections between letters, sounds and words that start with each letter

-         For maths it could be used for summarising a unit so students are able to see the big picture

-         To categorise or group different types of things (animals-mammals, amphibians)

-         Create a family tree

Concept Map SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

-         Is a great tool for the classroom

-         Explores knowledge and shares information

-         Students can work collaboratively or individually

-         Can be used in ranges from simple to advanced

-         Can be used as assessment (understanding concepts & relationships)

-         Free to use

Weaknesses:

-         Requires some training

-         Some programs are not interactive

Opportunities:

-         Can be used for one or several concepts

-         Plenty of different types of mapping tools available

-         Organisation tool uses

Threats:

-         Can become boring if over used in the classroom

4.  Zooburst

Zooburst is one of the latest digital technology tools available to the public through their website at Zooburst.  It creates interactive, third-dimensional (3D) pop-up books.  The 3D books can be viewed in augmented reality mode (if you have a webcam) or like a video online.  A printing option is also available and the online book can be rotated for viewing purposes or even from different angles by holding down the left clicker on your mouse.  Currently some already made examples can be viewed when you sign up for free or you can start by making your own digital storytelling book.  On the website there are also simple step guidelines on how to create your own project which would be perfect for your students. 

In the classroom context this could be a very useful tool.  I am imagining in English, the students can put together their own personal story about an experience.  As with many of the other digital tools mentioned over the past couple of weeks, this tool has endless opportunities in which to create contextual books for use in any subject at school.  I personally believe that I might actually use this in my teaching career and that it caters for all students to put their personal work into a work of art!