Standard 1 (Michael has claimed)
Design and implement engaging and flexible learning experiences for individuals and groups
I feel that designing and implementing engaging and flexible learning experiences is an important step in a student’s ability to retain knowledge. Through presenting information in a way students will remember and are familiar with I can help them not only retain but use their knowledge meaningfully. I have demonstrated this through designing engaging prezi presentations that cater for the different learning styles of my students.
This prezi was used for grade 8 students studying energy in science in term 4. The students found the song particularly engaging and ask for it to be played almost every lesson! The song used gives the students valuable information regarding the terms focus.
I also created an educational science board game to help students understand reproduction. Students responded particularly well to this as reproduction is usually a topic young students don’t exactly feel comfortable talking about. By presenting the information I needed them to know through a game it allowed the students to gain knowledge without the associated laughter and embarrassing feeling.
Insert picture of Board game
When teaching heart rate theory in HPE I incorporated physical activities for my senior class. I presented student with the knowledge they needed to learn before having them apply it straight away. I grouped students and gave each group a different heart rate zone. The group then had to think about how they could reach this zone in three minutes. One person from each group then had to perform that activity and attempt to have their heart rate in the target zone after three minutes. The students responded very positively to this as I had turned a boring theory lesson into a fun physical lesson. Being physical education student I knew that they would find this way of learning particularly engaging.
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Assessment Item 3
Assessment 3
This mini unit intends to develop the student’s awareness of Bullying and risky behaviours such as sex, drugs and alcohol and the negative consequences that may occur with each. Throughout the 4 weeks, students will gain a broad understanding of bullying and several risky behaviours, and select one to expand on for their assessment. The assessment will be a Glogster aimed at increasing awareness of a type of bullying or their selected risky behaviour for young people. Throughout the mini-unit students will develop their digital literacy skills through the use of ICT’s such as Glogster, interactive white boards, online research and bubbl.us online brainstorming, underpinned by the theoretical concepts of the engagement and constructivism learning theories.
Class Profile
A KWL (Know, What, Learn) activity was performed with the grade 9H HPE class along with discussions with my mentor teacher to help determine the answers to the three learning management questions. The students were told what their assessment task is which gave them a base of knowledge to communicate effectively in the activity.
LMQ1: What do my learners already know?
In the first two weeks of the term, Grade 9H were broadly exposed to the different types of bullying, how they operate and how it affects the victims self esteem. They also began brainstorming risky behaviour and know what their assessment task will be.
LMQ 2: Where does my learner need/want to be?
The students need to have a good awareness of the different types of risky behaviors, consequences and the decision-making processes associated with risky behaviours. Also the role of the bully, the victim and the bystander and the best ways to prevent bullying situations they come across. The students also need to achieve various elements from the year 9 HPE ways of working and knowledge and understanding.
III. LMQ3: How does my learner best learn?
Grade 9H have been observed to learn best when using ICT’s. Through the learning style questionnaire we know that the majority of the students are tactile/kinesthetic and visual learners. Based on these observations, engaging activities have been created.
Design rationale
As mentioned the engagement and constructivism learning theories underpin this mini-unit. Kearsley & Shneiderman (1999) present the Engagement theory as a model for learning in technology-based environments that synthesise many elements from past theories of learning. The engagement theory is particularly important to this unit, as the major premise is that students must be engaged in their course work in order for effective learning to occur through three primary means;
It is suggested that following these three methods will result in learning that is creative, meaningful, and authentic (Kearsley & Shneiderman. 1999). In relation to this mini-unit students will work collaboratively to generate ideas and complete various activities. The assignment is an ICT’s project and it has a non-academic focus. That is, it focuses on bullying and risky behaviours. Constructivism is embedded, as the students will be constructing new knowledge each week from their previous knowledge. Each week, the activities students undertake give them an opportunity to elaborate and transform their previous knowledge.
The learning experiences outlined below performed during this mini-unit help the students to transform their acquired knowledge by extending and refining it through various activities (bullying timeline, reflective journal etc). The students are then scaffolded in their thinking to present, create and demonstrate their new knowledge in the form of an interactive Glog. Throughout the mini-unit, the students participate in group work as well as use various online tools (government websites and games etc) to connect to experts to transform learning.
Sequence of learning experiences
Lesson 1
Declarative knowledge
• Recognise various types of bullies e.g Cyber bully (social media), Physical Bully (provokes fights), Gang Bully’s (bully in numbers), Silent Bully (Bully behind peoples back, starting rumors etc)
• Reflect on bullying experiences in their own life and relate their experience to those in the ‘Walk in my shoes DVD’
Procedural knowledge
• Work as a group to construct a “Y-chart” of various bully types.
• Write a reflective journal entry on a bullying experience in their own life
Students will watch a DVD about bullying entitled “walk in my shoes”. The DVD shows bullying from various perspectives. This will give the students the knowledge needed to complete the next phase of the activity. After watching the DVD, split students into small groups of 3-4. Each group will then create a “Y-chart” looks, feels and sounds like, for each type of bully in the video.
1. Cyber bully (social media)
2. Physical Bully (provokes fights)
3. Gang Bully’s (bully in numbers)
4. Silent Bully (Bully behind peoples back, starting rumors etc)
After each group has completed their Y chart for each bully type, have students sit back in their individual seats. Each student must now write a reflective journal entry entitled “What type of bullying have I witnessed, either with myself as the victim, or someone I know.”
Lesson 2
Declarative knowledge
• Identify risky behaviours, namely drugs, drinking, sex and extreme sports and elaborate on possible negative consequences of each
• Understand the dangers involved and possible consequences in various risky behaviours
Procedural knowledge
• Make the right decisions to avoid dangers in the online Don't turn a night out into a nightmare game
Turn the interactive whiteboard on and open the previously created Glogster page found here;
Engage students by presenting this quick video on extreme sports and activities found on the Glog
After watching the video, explain that today’s lesson will be on Risky Behaviours (in particular drinking) Start up a bubbl.us brainstorming document and begin brainstorming Risky behaviour with the students
• Ensure that Drinking, Drugs, Sex, Extreme sports are all on the bubbl.us
• Elaborate on each of the ideas further with the students
• After the bubbl.us has been created, explain that students can access it from the schools computers and use it for their glogster assessment.
Begin the next phase of the class (underage drinking and the consequences) with this video showing the possible consequences of underage drinking.
Explain what happens and pause during the video to read the facts displayed, if needed.
Explain that students will now play a game created by the government to increase awareness of the affects of alcohol.
Don't turn a night out into a nightmare game
Give a demonstration of how to play the game and demonstrate that the decisions you make when drinking have direct consequences with how your night will turn out. Have students then play the game themselves making the decisions that they would make if they were to go out. Then, ask students to play the game making all the safe decisions followed by all the wrong decisions and see how each time plays out.
The point you want to get across to the students is that you can have a good night out without drinking, and if you do drink to excess your night can turn into a nightmare
At the end of the game, a link to a website is displayed
Drinking Guidelines for under 18's
Instruct students to access the site and explain that the information on the page would be very useful for their assessment.
With five minutes to go in the lesson have students log off their computers and face the board at the front. Display the brainstorming bubbl.us that the previous class performed and have the class compare the similarities and differences between their ideas on the bubbl.us and the previous classes thoughts.
Lesson 3
Declarative knowledge
• Identify and recall at least 5 forms of bullying
• Recall the physical and mental habits of various bully’s
Procedural knowledge
• Arrange bully’s in the right order on a timeline of when they will be most likely encountered during a lifetime
• Match recounts of experiences from victims to the type of bully involved
The class will begin with a class brainstorm to find as many types of bullying as possible. For example;
1. Physical Bullying
2. Verbal bullying
3. Indirect bullying
4. Social alienation
5. Intimidation
6. Cyber bullying
7. Organisational Bullying
8. Corporate bullying
9. Client bullying
Students will be split into groups of four.
The aim of this activity is to have students devise a Dipity online timeline from the day they were born to when they retire. The students will have to devise their own timeline of when they believe different types of bullying occurred or will occur in their lifetime. Allow students to find more types of bullying if they wish. (Dipity is an online timeline that allows you to link video, audio, images and text.)
Each student will now be given a worksheet with two columns, the first lists the types of bullying the class previously brainstormed (Physical Bullying, Verbal bullying, Indirect bullying, Social alienation, Intimidation, Cyber bullying, Organisational Bullying, Corporate bullying, Client bullying) and the second column contains recounts of victims who have been bullied in the various ways.
The task is for the students to match the type of bullying to the experience of the victim.
Lesson 4
Declarative knowledge
• How to create and access their own Glogster account
• The basic editing tools available
• Recognise the reasoning for using Glogster as a means of presenting their thoughts and research on risky behaviours for assessment 1
Procedural knowledge
• Create and access their own Glogster account
• Be able to add text, images and animations to their Glog
• Demonstrate basic editing skills when using Glogster
Engage in conversation with students about maintaining an open mind in regards to using new software they may not have encountered before.
Present this video to the students to engage them and give them an idea on what Glogster is:
Explain further what a Glogster is:
• Glogster is a social network that allows users to create free interactive posters, or glogs. The glog, short for graphical blog, is an interactive multimedia image. It looks like a poster, but readers can interact with the content. (Wikipedia, 2011)
Create a PMI analysis with students on using a Glogster as a presentation tool. Type up Plus, Minus and Interesting in a table on a word document at the front on the interactive white board.
Demonstrate how to create a Glogster account, while students follow along. Go through the log in process. Once logged in, demonstrate to the students how to add images, text and animations.
Now its time for students to have their own time to play around with their Glog.
With five minutes to go, ask students for their thoughts on using Glogster, what they found easy/hard and interesting. Finish with a final review of what the Glogster will be used for and how their assessment can be carried out using it.
Lesson 5
Declarative knowledge
• Identify key words needed for effective online research
• Recall information about their research topic to teacher when prompted
Procedural knowledge
• Use effective search terms when researching for Glog page
• Demonstrate effective use of the presentation tools available on Glogster
This lesson, students will continue working on their assessment. The lesson will be held in the library where students have access to computers and books for research. Begin the lesson by asking students how they feel about using Glogster and answer any questions they have after playing around with their own glog, e.g how to add images, videos, etc. Explain that this lesson will be used to research and work on their Glog. However, before allowing students to go off and research on their own it’s important that they know how to research effectively. Have a group discussion about what search terms the students should use when researching online. The point you want to make here is that the students get their information from a reliable sources, such as government websites.
Lessons 6,7 and 8
Declarative knowledge
• Recognise the importance of referencing for their assignment
• Identify what plagiarism is and how to avoid it
Procedural knowledge
• Use effective search terms when researching for Glog page
• Create a PMI analysis for a completed glog
• Demonstrate effective use of the presentation tools available on Glogster
For these last few lessons leading up to the due date for their glog, allow students time to research and work on the presentation of their glog. For each lesson though have an introductory activity that will either engage them for the lesson or help them with their assignment. For lesson 6, explain the importance of referencing and ensure students understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. For lesson 7, have a completed glog made and available for the students to preview if they are having trouble. Perform a PMI analysis on this glog at the beginning of the class. Lesson 8 is the last lesson the students have with you before submitting their assessment. Allow them to use this time to ask you any questions they have and make sure to get around to every student to ensure they will have it completed.
Methods of assessing students learning
• Informal discussion
• Walk around room to observe students are on task
• Informal Q&A session
• Student participation in activities
• Learner demonstrating skill/procedure back to Learning Manager
• Observe engagement and participation in class discussion
References:
Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1998). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Educational Technology, 38(5), 20-23.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glogster - cite_note-1
Atherton, S. (2011) Learning and Teaching; Constructivism in learning. Retrieved March 18, 2011, from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm
This mini unit intends to develop the student’s awareness of Bullying and risky behaviours such as sex, drugs and alcohol and the negative consequences that may occur with each. Throughout the 4 weeks, students will gain a broad understanding of bullying and several risky behaviours, and select one to expand on for their assessment. The assessment will be a Glogster aimed at increasing awareness of a type of bullying or their selected risky behaviour for young people. Throughout the mini-unit students will develop their digital literacy skills through the use of ICT’s such as Glogster, interactive white boards, online research and bubbl.us online brainstorming, underpinned by the theoretical concepts of the engagement and constructivism learning theories.
Class Profile
A KWL (Know, What, Learn) activity was performed with the grade 9H HPE class along with discussions with my mentor teacher to help determine the answers to the three learning management questions. The students were told what their assessment task is which gave them a base of knowledge to communicate effectively in the activity.
LMQ1: What do my learners already know?
In the first two weeks of the term, Grade 9H were broadly exposed to the different types of bullying, how they operate and how it affects the victims self esteem. They also began brainstorming risky behaviour and know what their assessment task will be.
LMQ 2: Where does my learner need/want to be?
The students need to have a good awareness of the different types of risky behaviors, consequences and the decision-making processes associated with risky behaviours. Also the role of the bully, the victim and the bystander and the best ways to prevent bullying situations they come across. The students also need to achieve various elements from the year 9 HPE ways of working and knowledge and understanding.
Ways of working students need to achieve
• The students need to reflect on health inequities, and identify the impact of diverse influences on health and well-being, movement capacities and personal development, and the best use of positive influences.
• Select and apply positive, respectful and inclusive personal development skills and strategies.
• Research, analyse and evaluate data, information and evidence
Knowledge and understanding students need to achieve
Health
• Individual, group and community action, that enables people to adopt health promotion strategies, can address inequities and promote healthy and wellbeing, including safety.
Personal development
• Effective communication skills, including reflective listening, considering alternative views, respecting cultural protocols and expressing ideas in a way that is sensitive to others, help people establish and maintain relationships
• Conflict resolution strategies, including negotiation, are used to manage intrapersonal and interpersonal situations
Throughout the mini-unit various effective habits of mind (DoL 5) will also be embedded
• Maintain an open mind
• Be Clear and seek clarity
• Respond appropriately to others feelings and level of knowledge
• Persevere
• Generate new ways of viewing a situation that are outside the boundaries of standard conventions
• Plan appropriately
• Evaluate the effectiveness of your actions
III. LMQ3: How does my learner best learn?
Grade 9H have been observed to learn best when using ICT’s. Through the learning style questionnaire we know that the majority of the students are tactile/kinesthetic and visual learners. Based on these observations, engaging activities have been created.
Design rationale
As mentioned the engagement and constructivism learning theories underpin this mini-unit. Kearsley & Shneiderman (1999) present the Engagement theory as a model for learning in technology-based environments that synthesise many elements from past theories of learning. The engagement theory is particularly important to this unit, as the major premise is that students must be engaged in their course work in order for effective learning to occur through three primary means;
1. An emphasis on collaborative efforts
2. Project-based assignments
3. Non-academic focus.
It is suggested that following these three methods will result in learning that is creative, meaningful, and authentic (Kearsley & Shneiderman. 1999). In relation to this mini-unit students will work collaboratively to generate ideas and complete various activities. The assignment is an ICT’s project and it has a non-academic focus. That is, it focuses on bullying and risky behaviours. Constructivism is embedded, as the students will be constructing new knowledge each week from their previous knowledge. Each week, the activities students undertake give them an opportunity to elaborate and transform their previous knowledge.
The learning experiences outlined below performed during this mini-unit help the students to transform their acquired knowledge by extending and refining it through various activities (bullying timeline, reflective journal etc). The students are then scaffolded in their thinking to present, create and demonstrate their new knowledge in the form of an interactive Glog. Throughout the mini-unit, the students participate in group work as well as use various online tools (government websites and games etc) to connect to experts to transform learning.
Sequence of learning experiences
Lesson 1
Declarative knowledge
• Recognise various types of bullies e.g Cyber bully (social media), Physical Bully (provokes fights), Gang Bully’s (bully in numbers), Silent Bully (Bully behind peoples back, starting rumors etc)
• Reflect on bullying experiences in their own life and relate their experience to those in the ‘Walk in my shoes DVD’
Procedural knowledge
• Work as a group to construct a “Y-chart” of various bully types.
• Write a reflective journal entry on a bullying experience in their own life
Students will watch a DVD about bullying entitled “walk in my shoes”. The DVD shows bullying from various perspectives. This will give the students the knowledge needed to complete the next phase of the activity. After watching the DVD, split students into small groups of 3-4. Each group will then create a “Y-chart” looks, feels and sounds like, for each type of bully in the video.
1. Cyber bully (social media)
2. Physical Bully (provokes fights)
3. Gang Bully’s (bully in numbers)
4. Silent Bully (Bully behind peoples back, starting rumors etc)
After each group has completed their Y chart for each bully type, have students sit back in their individual seats. Each student must now write a reflective journal entry entitled “What type of bullying have I witnessed, either with myself as the victim, or someone I know.”
Lesson 2
Declarative knowledge
• Identify risky behaviours, namely drugs, drinking, sex and extreme sports and elaborate on possible negative consequences of each
• Understand the dangers involved and possible consequences in various risky behaviours
Procedural knowledge
• Make the right decisions to avoid dangers in the online Don't turn a night out into a nightmare game
Turn the interactive whiteboard on and open the previously created Glogster page found here;
Engage students by presenting this quick video on extreme sports and activities found on the Glog
After watching the video, explain that today’s lesson will be on Risky Behaviours (in particular drinking) Start up a bubbl.us brainstorming document and begin brainstorming Risky behaviour with the students
• Ensure that Drinking, Drugs, Sex, Extreme sports are all on the bubbl.us
• Elaborate on each of the ideas further with the students
• After the bubbl.us has been created, explain that students can access it from the schools computers and use it for their glogster assessment.
Begin the next phase of the class (underage drinking and the consequences) with this video showing the possible consequences of underage drinking.
Explain what happens and pause during the video to read the facts displayed, if needed.
Explain that students will now play a game created by the government to increase awareness of the affects of alcohol.
Don't turn a night out into a nightmare game
Give a demonstration of how to play the game and demonstrate that the decisions you make when drinking have direct consequences with how your night will turn out. Have students then play the game themselves making the decisions that they would make if they were to go out. Then, ask students to play the game making all the safe decisions followed by all the wrong decisions and see how each time plays out.
The point you want to get across to the students is that you can have a good night out without drinking, and if you do drink to excess your night can turn into a nightmare
At the end of the game, a link to a website is displayed
Drinking Guidelines for under 18's
Instruct students to access the site and explain that the information on the page would be very useful for their assessment.
With five minutes to go in the lesson have students log off their computers and face the board at the front. Display the brainstorming bubbl.us that the previous class performed and have the class compare the similarities and differences between their ideas on the bubbl.us and the previous classes thoughts.
Lesson 3
Declarative knowledge
• Identify and recall at least 5 forms of bullying
• Recall the physical and mental habits of various bully’s
Procedural knowledge
• Arrange bully’s in the right order on a timeline of when they will be most likely encountered during a lifetime
• Match recounts of experiences from victims to the type of bully involved
The class will begin with a class brainstorm to find as many types of bullying as possible. For example;
1. Physical Bullying
2. Verbal bullying
3. Indirect bullying
4. Social alienation
5. Intimidation
6. Cyber bullying
7. Organisational Bullying
8. Corporate bullying
9. Client bullying
Students will be split into groups of four.
The aim of this activity is to have students devise a Dipity online timeline from the day they were born to when they retire. The students will have to devise their own timeline of when they believe different types of bullying occurred or will occur in their lifetime. Allow students to find more types of bullying if they wish. (Dipity is an online timeline that allows you to link video, audio, images and text.)
Each student will now be given a worksheet with two columns, the first lists the types of bullying the class previously brainstormed (Physical Bullying, Verbal bullying, Indirect bullying, Social alienation, Intimidation, Cyber bullying, Organisational Bullying, Corporate bullying, Client bullying) and the second column contains recounts of victims who have been bullied in the various ways.
The task is for the students to match the type of bullying to the experience of the victim.
Lesson 4
Declarative knowledge
• How to create and access their own Glogster account
• The basic editing tools available
• Recognise the reasoning for using Glogster as a means of presenting their thoughts and research on risky behaviours for assessment 1
Procedural knowledge
• Create and access their own Glogster account
• Be able to add text, images and animations to their Glog
• Demonstrate basic editing skills when using Glogster
Engage in conversation with students about maintaining an open mind in regards to using new software they may not have encountered before.
Present this video to the students to engage them and give them an idea on what Glogster is:
Explain further what a Glogster is:
• Glogster is a social network that allows users to create free interactive posters, or glogs. The glog, short for graphical blog, is an interactive multimedia image. It looks like a poster, but readers can interact with the content. (Wikipedia, 2011)
Create a PMI analysis with students on using a Glogster as a presentation tool. Type up Plus, Minus and Interesting in a table on a word document at the front on the interactive white board.
Demonstrate how to create a Glogster account, while students follow along. Go through the log in process. Once logged in, demonstrate to the students how to add images, text and animations.
Now its time for students to have their own time to play around with their Glog.
With five minutes to go, ask students for their thoughts on using Glogster, what they found easy/hard and interesting. Finish with a final review of what the Glogster will be used for and how their assessment can be carried out using it.
Lesson 5
Declarative knowledge
• Identify key words needed for effective online research
• Recall information about their research topic to teacher when prompted
Procedural knowledge
• Use effective search terms when researching for Glog page
• Demonstrate effective use of the presentation tools available on Glogster
This lesson, students will continue working on their assessment. The lesson will be held in the library where students have access to computers and books for research. Begin the lesson by asking students how they feel about using Glogster and answer any questions they have after playing around with their own glog, e.g how to add images, videos, etc. Explain that this lesson will be used to research and work on their Glog. However, before allowing students to go off and research on their own it’s important that they know how to research effectively. Have a group discussion about what search terms the students should use when researching online. The point you want to make here is that the students get their information from a reliable sources, such as government websites.
Lessons 6,7 and 8
Declarative knowledge
• Recognise the importance of referencing for their assignment
• Identify what plagiarism is and how to avoid it
Procedural knowledge
• Use effective search terms when researching for Glog page
• Create a PMI analysis for a completed glog
• Demonstrate effective use of the presentation tools available on Glogster
For these last few lessons leading up to the due date for their glog, allow students time to research and work on the presentation of their glog. For each lesson though have an introductory activity that will either engage them for the lesson or help them with their assignment. For lesson 6, explain the importance of referencing and ensure students understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. For lesson 7, have a completed glog made and available for the students to preview if they are having trouble. Perform a PMI analysis on this glog at the beginning of the class. Lesson 8 is the last lesson the students have with you before submitting their assessment. Allow them to use this time to ask you any questions they have and make sure to get around to every student to ensure they will have it completed.
Methods of assessing students learning
• Informal discussion
• Walk around room to observe students are on task
• Informal Q&A session
• Student participation in activities
• Learner demonstrating skill/procedure back to Learning Manager
• Observe engagement and participation in class discussion
References:
Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1998). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Educational Technology, 38(5), 20-23.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glogster - cite_note-1
Atherton, S. (2011) Learning and Teaching; Constructivism in learning. Retrieved March 18, 2011, from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm
Sunday, 17 April 2011
Assessment Item 2
Introduction
When choosing a tool to further examine, my main reckoning for my choices was their ability to be integrated easily into a learning context. I wanted to choose a tool that I believe I could not only become proficient in but also would engage my students. If these ICT tools are used well, my students will be more engaged, far less likely to be disruptive and achieve superior results in their studies
Group 1 Technologies – Wiki’s
How they differ?
I chose wiki’s from this group of technologies for two reasons. One, unlike a website which is static and prohibits student contribution, wiki’s are updated and transformed regularly. And two, unlike blogs, which have just one author, wiki’s allow contribution from multiple students, promoting collaborative learning, which is essential to developing their knowledge and learning potential.
How I would apply this ICT to my learning environment to enhance, support and transform students learning.
I can definitely see myself using wiki’s as a teacher. From my experience as a student, group work has always been one of my favourite ways of working. So using wikis as a group would appeal to a large cohort of my students. I would employ wikis at the beginning of a new topic to help students gain a better understanding of the new material. By using the various thinking tools available, the students would contribute their ideas to their assigned wiki and learn from their peers in a collaborative environment. This use of wiki’s will transform the way my students learn by taking the emphasis away from me, the teacher, and placing it on my student’s prior and collected knowledge. The students would feed off each other’s ideas to construct their own knowledge.
The legal, safe and ethical guidelines I would use myself and with my students?
Before my students participate in an online wiki, I would go through the copyright and plagiarism guidelines that they should follow. I would also outline some online etiquette for them as they may not have had a collaborative learning experience like this one before. My emphasis would be placed on making sure that all students received recognition for their work, that is, to not have students editing, deleting or plagiarising other student’s work. Also, placing the wiki in a secure private online environment like myschool, is crucial to the online safety of my students.
How does this ICT facilitate higher order and creative thinking? How would I create effective pedagogical strategies that engage and challenge my learners?
Wikis are owned by my students. This then, gives them and their group a sense of ownership for the content within the wiki. This alone will challenge my students by having them contribute their ideas as a group forcing them to use critical thinking when analysing a topic. The reason being that, if they were too for example, create a PMI analysis by themselves, all of the students may come up with the same ideas, but if they are in a group, if their idea was added by someone else, they would have to find another one. This promotes critical thinking and analysis and is a good example of how ICT’s can promote higher order thinking.
What are the skills associated with the meaningful use of this technology in classrooms?
Students would need a certain degree of digital literacy to participate and benefit from the use of wikis. Basic knowledge of logging in, editing and saving in an online environment is crucial. Most 21st century students would have no issues with this.
Group 2 Technologies - Digital Images
How they differ?
All forms of multimedia should be used to teach students in order to engage and develop their multimedia skills. From the group two technologies, I established that I could make the best use of digital images when teaching. For the reason that, they’re less complex then video and podcasts, and I feel using video and podcasts too much would begin to distract my learners rather then help them learn
How I would apply this ICT to my learning environment to enhance, support and transform students learning.
As a teacher, I feel I could use digital images as a tool to either begin each class, or begin each new topic. I would present an image that I have either found online through flickr, etc, or have manipulated using picnik, to help convey my intended message to the students. I would have the students use a see, think, wonder tool to analyse the image. The purpose of these activities is to engage critical thinking, knowledge, analysis, understanding, evaluation and visual literacy skills development.
The legal, safe and ethical guidelines I would use myself and with my students?
Using images found online means that the students and I would have to abide by the applicable copyright laws associated with those images to ensure that no breaches of copyright occur. I would ensure that the students follow the correct legal guidelines when displaying their images for assessment.
How does this ICT facilitate higher order and creative thinking? How would I create effective pedagogical strategies that engage and challenge my learners?
As read in my blog, digital images are critical to the development of a students visual literacy, and when used in conjunction with online tools and software like picnik, their digital literacy is being developed as well. As a communication tool, digital images can facilitate different ways for students to convey their ideas and assessment. Digital images as mentioned can also be used by the teacher as an observation and analysis tool, facilitating higher order and creative thinking. The pedagogical strategies I would employ to engage and challenge my students are;
• Display an appropriate image at the beginning of a new topic and have students use a see, think, wonder tool to analyse it
• Have students create and manipulate their own image using picnik to convey a message relating to the subject e.g. Community health awareness in HPE
What are the skills associated with the meaningful use of this technology in classrooms?
Students would need a fair level of visual literacy to convey their messages through imagery effectively for assessment. A background in art would help by having the knowledge of what colours convey what moods etc.
Group 3 Technologies - Prezi
How they differ?
I chose Prezi over PowerPoint and glogster for the simple reason that I personally found it the most engaging of the three, and so I feel so would my students. As i mentioned in my blog PowerPoint is a great presentation tool, but I feel its time to move away from this linear sequential model and use a platform that supports our global learners. Glogster is similar to prezi in a lot of ways but I found the learning curve for prezi to be much shorter then glogster.
How I would apply this ICT to my learning environment to enhance, support and transform students learning.
I would use Prezi in the place of PowerPoint to explore topics, I found it much more engaging then PowerPoint and my students would appeal to it more as they have probably only been exposed to PowerPoint in their learning past. As mentioned in my blog, Prezi would appeal to my global learners, thus transforming the way my students learn.
The legal, safe and ethical guidelines I would use myself and with my students?
As prezi uses online resources, copyright and plagiarism guidelines must be followed. In order to not take away the effect of the presentation I would reference all the material at the end of the prezi in a separate box. As displayed below
This is a sample prezi I created in the context of the teacher explaining each term as it came on screen
How does this ICT facilitate higher order and creative thinking? How would I create effective pedagogical strategies that engage and challenge my learners?
Prezi supports the development of visual literacy skills through its ability to embed audio, images and video. As images and video are integrated into the prezi, students would use higher order and creative thinking to analyse the prezi as it progressed. Having students create their own Prezi as an assessment piece would greatly facilitate higher order and creative thinking.
What are the skills associated with the meaningful use of this technology in classrooms?
Anyone can create a prezi, but in order to create a prezi that will engage and support a students learning, the teacher needs to not only have a high level of visual and digital literacy, but most importantly, a very creative mind. I feel as a teacher I will definitely be using Prezi’s to support my students learning.
Group 4 Technologies - Google Documents
How they differ?
From the group four technologies, Google documents stood out to me as the most useful tool for a teacher to have their students use. What separated it from Animations and Simulations, Google Earth, Google Maps, Online Concept Mapping and Zooburst was its usefulness as an assessment tool for students.
How I would apply this ICT to my learning environment to enhance, support and transform students learning.
The biggest use I could see for Google documents was for assessing students. "Google Docs is a free, web-based word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tool that allows you to create and edit documents from anywhere and collaborate with multiple people at the same time." (Google Docs Tutorial, 2010). As a teacher I can access each individual student or groups document and see where they are up to with their assessment. More information on Google documents can be found on my blog. The main reason I like the idea of checking up on students work is that it makes sure that when the due date comes, there should be no student who hasn’t completed their assessment as I will have kept tabs on all their work from day one. In my orientation day for my prac, one teacher was talking about how one of his students hadn’t done anything on his assessment for the whole term and he never realised until after the due date. I feel that if the teacher utilised Google documents effectively he would have been able to see that student was struggling and taken appropriate action.
The legal, safe and ethical guidelines I would use myself and with my students?
As Google documents is also a collaborative learning tool where multiple students can go online and access the same document and make changes, students will need to follow the correct plagiarism and copyright guidelines to ensure their group doesn’t fail for plagiarism. Also being a collaborative document, simple online etiquette as mentioned in wiki’s should be adhered to.
How does this ICT facilitate higher order and creative thinking? How would I create effective pedagogical strategies that engage and challenge my learners?
Google documents facilitates higher order and creative thinking in two ways. One, it is a collaborative group learning environment which inadvertently challenges students to achieve a high grade and come up with different ideas for the group, also promoting creative thinking. And two, as with wiki’s Google documents allows the teacher to apply various thinking tools for the students to use collaboratively to construct their own knowledge, through constructivism.
What are the skills associated with the meaningful use of this technology in classrooms?
Students will need a moderate understanding of online group environments and how they can apply their skills and ideas to assist the group. Basic knowledge of log in, edit, save is essential, but 21st century learners already have a decent knowledge in this area.
References:
Global Education. (2008) PMI Chart. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from
http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go/pid/1825
Google. (2010) Google for educators, Google Docs. Retrieved April 17, 2011, from
http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs.html
Hill, P. (2010) Thoughts on using Prezi as a teaching tool. Retrieved April 17, 2011, from http://prezi.com/rfsnedhqmhqa/thoughts-on-using-prezi-as-a-teaching-tool/
MindTools, Essential skills for an excellent career. (n.d) Plus, Minus, Interesting: Weighing the Pros and Cons of a Decision. Retrieved March 3, 2011, from
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_05.htm
Smart Teaching. (2011) 50 Ways to Use Wikis for a More Collaborative and Interactive Classroom. Retrieved April 17, 2011, from
http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/50-ways-to-use-wikis-for-a-more-collaborative-and-interactive-classroom/
TeachersFirst. (2010) Wiki- Walkthrough. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
Thibault, M., Walbert, D. (2003) Reading images: an introduction to visual literacy
Retrieved April 17, 2011, from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/675
When choosing a tool to further examine, my main reckoning for my choices was their ability to be integrated easily into a learning context. I wanted to choose a tool that I believe I could not only become proficient in but also would engage my students. If these ICT tools are used well, my students will be more engaged, far less likely to be disruptive and achieve superior results in their studies
Group 1 Technologies – Wiki’s
How they differ?
I chose wiki’s from this group of technologies for two reasons. One, unlike a website which is static and prohibits student contribution, wiki’s are updated and transformed regularly. And two, unlike blogs, which have just one author, wiki’s allow contribution from multiple students, promoting collaborative learning, which is essential to developing their knowledge and learning potential.
How I would apply this ICT to my learning environment to enhance, support and transform students learning.
I can definitely see myself using wiki’s as a teacher. From my experience as a student, group work has always been one of my favourite ways of working. So using wikis as a group would appeal to a large cohort of my students. I would employ wikis at the beginning of a new topic to help students gain a better understanding of the new material. By using the various thinking tools available, the students would contribute their ideas to their assigned wiki and learn from their peers in a collaborative environment. This use of wiki’s will transform the way my students learn by taking the emphasis away from me, the teacher, and placing it on my student’s prior and collected knowledge. The students would feed off each other’s ideas to construct their own knowledge.
The legal, safe and ethical guidelines I would use myself and with my students?
Before my students participate in an online wiki, I would go through the copyright and plagiarism guidelines that they should follow. I would also outline some online etiquette for them as they may not have had a collaborative learning experience like this one before. My emphasis would be placed on making sure that all students received recognition for their work, that is, to not have students editing, deleting or plagiarising other student’s work. Also, placing the wiki in a secure private online environment like myschool, is crucial to the online safety of my students.
How does this ICT facilitate higher order and creative thinking? How would I create effective pedagogical strategies that engage and challenge my learners?
Wikis are owned by my students. This then, gives them and their group a sense of ownership for the content within the wiki. This alone will challenge my students by having them contribute their ideas as a group forcing them to use critical thinking when analysing a topic. The reason being that, if they were too for example, create a PMI analysis by themselves, all of the students may come up with the same ideas, but if they are in a group, if their idea was added by someone else, they would have to find another one. This promotes critical thinking and analysis and is a good example of how ICT’s can promote higher order thinking.
What are the skills associated with the meaningful use of this technology in classrooms?
Students would need a certain degree of digital literacy to participate and benefit from the use of wikis. Basic knowledge of logging in, editing and saving in an online environment is crucial. Most 21st century students would have no issues with this.
Group 2 Technologies - Digital Images
How they differ?
All forms of multimedia should be used to teach students in order to engage and develop their multimedia skills. From the group two technologies, I established that I could make the best use of digital images when teaching. For the reason that, they’re less complex then video and podcasts, and I feel using video and podcasts too much would begin to distract my learners rather then help them learn
How I would apply this ICT to my learning environment to enhance, support and transform students learning.
As a teacher, I feel I could use digital images as a tool to either begin each class, or begin each new topic. I would present an image that I have either found online through flickr, etc, or have manipulated using picnik, to help convey my intended message to the students. I would have the students use a see, think, wonder tool to analyse the image. The purpose of these activities is to engage critical thinking, knowledge, analysis, understanding, evaluation and visual literacy skills development.
The legal, safe and ethical guidelines I would use myself and with my students?
Using images found online means that the students and I would have to abide by the applicable copyright laws associated with those images to ensure that no breaches of copyright occur. I would ensure that the students follow the correct legal guidelines when displaying their images for assessment.
How does this ICT facilitate higher order and creative thinking? How would I create effective pedagogical strategies that engage and challenge my learners?
As read in my blog, digital images are critical to the development of a students visual literacy, and when used in conjunction with online tools and software like picnik, their digital literacy is being developed as well. As a communication tool, digital images can facilitate different ways for students to convey their ideas and assessment. Digital images as mentioned can also be used by the teacher as an observation and analysis tool, facilitating higher order and creative thinking. The pedagogical strategies I would employ to engage and challenge my students are;
• Display an appropriate image at the beginning of a new topic and have students use a see, think, wonder tool to analyse it
• Have students create and manipulate their own image using picnik to convey a message relating to the subject e.g. Community health awareness in HPE
What are the skills associated with the meaningful use of this technology in classrooms?
Students would need a fair level of visual literacy to convey their messages through imagery effectively for assessment. A background in art would help by having the knowledge of what colours convey what moods etc.
Group 3 Technologies - Prezi
How they differ?
I chose Prezi over PowerPoint and glogster for the simple reason that I personally found it the most engaging of the three, and so I feel so would my students. As i mentioned in my blog PowerPoint is a great presentation tool, but I feel its time to move away from this linear sequential model and use a platform that supports our global learners. Glogster is similar to prezi in a lot of ways but I found the learning curve for prezi to be much shorter then glogster.
How I would apply this ICT to my learning environment to enhance, support and transform students learning.
I would use Prezi in the place of PowerPoint to explore topics, I found it much more engaging then PowerPoint and my students would appeal to it more as they have probably only been exposed to PowerPoint in their learning past. As mentioned in my blog, Prezi would appeal to my global learners, thus transforming the way my students learn.
The legal, safe and ethical guidelines I would use myself and with my students?
As prezi uses online resources, copyright and plagiarism guidelines must be followed. In order to not take away the effect of the presentation I would reference all the material at the end of the prezi in a separate box. As displayed below
This is a sample prezi I created in the context of the teacher explaining each term as it came on screen
How does this ICT facilitate higher order and creative thinking? How would I create effective pedagogical strategies that engage and challenge my learners?
Prezi supports the development of visual literacy skills through its ability to embed audio, images and video. As images and video are integrated into the prezi, students would use higher order and creative thinking to analyse the prezi as it progressed. Having students create their own Prezi as an assessment piece would greatly facilitate higher order and creative thinking.
What are the skills associated with the meaningful use of this technology in classrooms?
Anyone can create a prezi, but in order to create a prezi that will engage and support a students learning, the teacher needs to not only have a high level of visual and digital literacy, but most importantly, a very creative mind. I feel as a teacher I will definitely be using Prezi’s to support my students learning.
Group 4 Technologies - Google Documents
How they differ?
From the group four technologies, Google documents stood out to me as the most useful tool for a teacher to have their students use. What separated it from Animations and Simulations, Google Earth, Google Maps, Online Concept Mapping and Zooburst was its usefulness as an assessment tool for students.
How I would apply this ICT to my learning environment to enhance, support and transform students learning.
The biggest use I could see for Google documents was for assessing students. "Google Docs is a free, web-based word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tool that allows you to create and edit documents from anywhere and collaborate with multiple people at the same time." (Google Docs Tutorial, 2010). As a teacher I can access each individual student or groups document and see where they are up to with their assessment. More information on Google documents can be found on my blog. The main reason I like the idea of checking up on students work is that it makes sure that when the due date comes, there should be no student who hasn’t completed their assessment as I will have kept tabs on all their work from day one. In my orientation day for my prac, one teacher was talking about how one of his students hadn’t done anything on his assessment for the whole term and he never realised until after the due date. I feel that if the teacher utilised Google documents effectively he would have been able to see that student was struggling and taken appropriate action.
The legal, safe and ethical guidelines I would use myself and with my students?
As Google documents is also a collaborative learning tool where multiple students can go online and access the same document and make changes, students will need to follow the correct plagiarism and copyright guidelines to ensure their group doesn’t fail for plagiarism. Also being a collaborative document, simple online etiquette as mentioned in wiki’s should be adhered to.
How does this ICT facilitate higher order and creative thinking? How would I create effective pedagogical strategies that engage and challenge my learners?
Google documents facilitates higher order and creative thinking in two ways. One, it is a collaborative group learning environment which inadvertently challenges students to achieve a high grade and come up with different ideas for the group, also promoting creative thinking. And two, as with wiki’s Google documents allows the teacher to apply various thinking tools for the students to use collaboratively to construct their own knowledge, through constructivism.
What are the skills associated with the meaningful use of this technology in classrooms?
Students will need a moderate understanding of online group environments and how they can apply their skills and ideas to assist the group. Basic knowledge of log in, edit, save is essential, but 21st century learners already have a decent knowledge in this area.
References:
Global Education. (2008) PMI Chart. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from
http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go/pid/1825
Google. (2010) Google for educators, Google Docs. Retrieved April 17, 2011, from
http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs.html
Hill, P. (2010) Thoughts on using Prezi as a teaching tool. Retrieved April 17, 2011, from http://prezi.com/rfsnedhqmhqa/thoughts-on-using-prezi-as-a-teaching-tool/
MindTools, Essential skills for an excellent career. (n.d) Plus, Minus, Interesting: Weighing the Pros and Cons of a Decision. Retrieved March 3, 2011, from
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_05.htm
Smart Teaching. (2011) 50 Ways to Use Wikis for a More Collaborative and Interactive Classroom. Retrieved April 17, 2011, from
http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/50-ways-to-use-wikis-for-a-more-collaborative-and-interactive-classroom/
TeachersFirst. (2010) Wiki- Walkthrough. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/
Thibault, M., Walbert, D. (2003) Reading images: an introduction to visual literacy
Retrieved April 17, 2011, from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/675
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Group 4 Technologies
Digital Tool: Animations and Simulations
I've had previous experiences with simulators as a student and when i used them, i didn't even realise i was learning which I'm not sure is a good or a bad thing. I think that if i can find suitable and professionally made simulators for students to use i will definitely utilise them for some lessons throughout the term, To keep the students engaged and interested in learning. The site provided about gizmos may prove useful when teaching biology.
Digital Tool: Google Earth
Google Earth was always a cool program i found quite useful. However I never imagined it as being an education tool though. From the looks of things, it is a fantastic resource for teachers and students as it enables students to see images from different parts of the earth with the ability to overlay streets/roads with latitude and longitude. One use for biology outlined was the ability to track routes of chimpanzees in Tanzania's Gombe Forest. It is now possible to overlay what you see with different filters, such as the national geographic filter and geospatial filter.
Digital Tool: Google Maps
Google maps again was a tool i had experience with and never realised its potential as a learning tool for teachers to use. One use I found that would be useful if i were to teach Earth science is the ability to track and see where recent earthquakes have occurred. http://earthquakes.tafoni.net/
Digital Tool: Google Documents for Collaboration
"Google Docs is a free, web-based word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tool that allows you to create and edit documents from anywhere and collaborate with multiple people at the same time." Google Docs Tutorial https://docs.google.com/present/view?skipauth=true&id=ddnctvgt_170cbskvf68
The documents students create are saved and can be accessed online using a computer with an internet connection. It can be used as a collaborative tool perfect for group assignments. Students can work together on the same document, eliminating the need for back and forth emails, students can also work on their documents from both school and at home. Google docs would be a perfect way to assess students as there are no software version requirements and their work can be viewed at any time by the teacher, so the teacher will always know the progress of each student. After a student invites the teacher to their document, they can review, comment and grade their work.
Digital Tool: Online Concept Mapping
Concept mapping is a valuable tool that allows students to create an understanding of a topic themselves. I used bubble.us to create a brainstorming map on some of the uses of Google documents
Bubble.us was by far the easiest and quickest online tool i've ever used, this literally took me 2 minutes to sign up, create and export and upload this image !
Text 2 Mind Map was just a little bit slower then bubble.us however i think that it was more aesthetically pleasing. I find mind maps to be more useful then just normal brainstorming as they allow elaboartion. This was what i ended up with usieng Text 2 Mind Map
Digital Tool: Zooburst for interactive digital storybooks
I read the interactive Zooburst story book on the fortune telling dragon, i can see the benefit in using this at a primary school level, however it would not serve me much purpose as a high school teacher unless i had some students who found it hard to read or concentrate in a literacy class. however i would have to make sure the stories they read have the roper spelling of words, as the dragon story had some inherent spelling errors.
I've had previous experiences with simulators as a student and when i used them, i didn't even realise i was learning which I'm not sure is a good or a bad thing. I think that if i can find suitable and professionally made simulators for students to use i will definitely utilise them for some lessons throughout the term, To keep the students engaged and interested in learning. The site provided about gizmos may prove useful when teaching biology.
Digital Tool: Google Earth
Google Earth was always a cool program i found quite useful. However I never imagined it as being an education tool though. From the looks of things, it is a fantastic resource for teachers and students as it enables students to see images from different parts of the earth with the ability to overlay streets/roads with latitude and longitude. One use for biology outlined was the ability to track routes of chimpanzees in Tanzania's Gombe Forest. It is now possible to overlay what you see with different filters, such as the national geographic filter and geospatial filter.
Digital Tool: Google Maps
Google maps again was a tool i had experience with and never realised its potential as a learning tool for teachers to use. One use I found that would be useful if i were to teach Earth science is the ability to track and see where recent earthquakes have occurred. http://earthquakes.tafoni.net/
Digital Tool: Google Documents for Collaboration
"Google Docs is a free, web-based word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tool that allows you to create and edit documents from anywhere and collaborate with multiple people at the same time." Google Docs Tutorial https://docs.google.com/present/view?skipauth=true&id=ddnctvgt_170cbskvf68
The documents students create are saved and can be accessed online using a computer with an internet connection. It can be used as a collaborative tool perfect for group assignments. Students can work together on the same document, eliminating the need for back and forth emails, students can also work on their documents from both school and at home. Google docs would be a perfect way to assess students as there are no software version requirements and their work can be viewed at any time by the teacher, so the teacher will always know the progress of each student. After a student invites the teacher to their document, they can review, comment and grade their work.
Digital Tool: Online Concept Mapping
Concept mapping is a valuable tool that allows students to create an understanding of a topic themselves. I used bubble.us to create a brainstorming map on some of the uses of Google documents
Bubble.us was by far the easiest and quickest online tool i've ever used, this literally took me 2 minutes to sign up, create and export and upload this image !
Text 2 Mind Map was just a little bit slower then bubble.us however i think that it was more aesthetically pleasing. I find mind maps to be more useful then just normal brainstorming as they allow elaboartion. This was what i ended up with usieng Text 2 Mind Map
Digital Tool: Zooburst for interactive digital storybooks
I read the interactive Zooburst story book on the fortune telling dragon, i can see the benefit in using this at a primary school level, however it would not serve me much purpose as a high school teacher unless i had some students who found it hard to read or concentrate in a literacy class. however i would have to make sure the stories they read have the roper spelling of words, as the dragon story had some inherent spelling errors.
Group 3 Technologies
This week, we examined tools that can be used to present learning and information. They're all capable of interactivity and are multimodal sources. In today’s online world there are numerous tools, technologies and software packages available to present information. The three resources we will examine today are PowerPoint, Prezi, and Glogster.
PowerPoint
I remember when I first used PowerPoint in primary school, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I loved playing with all the slide transitions and sound affects. Today, I believe PowerPoint is still regarded as the most user friendly presentation tool available to support oral presentations. The reason being that it is a platform that supports the embedding of text, linking and interactivity, audio, video and images.
In my teaching practice, PowerPoint can be used to create a narrated stand alone presentation. Allowing my students to easily record and listen to the information being conveyed. The recording of information by student would be much harder if it were just an oral presentation. Other uses of PowerPoint as a teacher include creating drag and drop activities, concept maps and brainstorming for students.
The activities this week were fairly simple and gave me some good ideas about how I could integrate PowerPoint into my assessment pieces and lessons. In conclusion, there are many multimedia authoring tools available that are complex and require significant learning to use. PowerPoint has a very short learning curve and if used effectively can create engaging and informative lessons for students.
Prezi
Unlike PowerPoint which mainly engages sequential learners through its linear presentation. Prezi also engages global learners by giving a global perspective on the materials as well as having the ability to add minute detail. Today’s generation of learners have proven that multimedia is important to learning outcomes. Prezi supports this by having the ability to embed audio, images and video. Through the use of previous activities like Picnik, I could create very engaging prezi's on the subject material for my learners.
Here is a Prezi I created on Aspects of Fitness, which could be used for a Grade 9 or 10 HPE class
Create an interactive online scrapbook - Glogster
Glogster was an interesting tool I never knew existed until undertaking this weeks activities. It’s a program that allows you to build an interactive poster using text, images and video. I can definitely see the benefits in using glogster to develop students visual literacy skills as it encompasses all the aspects needed to do so. Here's what I ended up with after playing with it for about 5 minutes, it doesn't really give any information but it allowed me to see how and what I can use it for.
PowerPoint
I remember when I first used PowerPoint in primary school, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I loved playing with all the slide transitions and sound affects. Today, I believe PowerPoint is still regarded as the most user friendly presentation tool available to support oral presentations. The reason being that it is a platform that supports the embedding of text, linking and interactivity, audio, video and images.
In my teaching practice, PowerPoint can be used to create a narrated stand alone presentation. Allowing my students to easily record and listen to the information being conveyed. The recording of information by student would be much harder if it were just an oral presentation. Other uses of PowerPoint as a teacher include creating drag and drop activities, concept maps and brainstorming for students.
The activities this week were fairly simple and gave me some good ideas about how I could integrate PowerPoint into my assessment pieces and lessons. In conclusion, there are many multimedia authoring tools available that are complex and require significant learning to use. PowerPoint has a very short learning curve and if used effectively can create engaging and informative lessons for students.
Prezi
Unlike PowerPoint which mainly engages sequential learners through its linear presentation. Prezi also engages global learners by giving a global perspective on the materials as well as having the ability to add minute detail. Today’s generation of learners have proven that multimedia is important to learning outcomes. Prezi supports this by having the ability to embed audio, images and video. Through the use of previous activities like Picnik, I could create very engaging prezi's on the subject material for my learners.
Here is a Prezi I created on Aspects of Fitness, which could be used for a Grade 9 or 10 HPE class
Create an interactive online scrapbook - Glogster
Glogster was an interesting tool I never knew existed until undertaking this weeks activities. It’s a program that allows you to build an interactive poster using text, images and video. I can definitely see the benefits in using glogster to develop students visual literacy skills as it encompasses all the aspects needed to do so. Here's what I ended up with after playing with it for about 5 minutes, it doesn't really give any information but it allowed me to see how and what I can use it for.
Group 2 Technologies
21st century learners have opened up a whole new world of visual and auditory literacy we are yet to have concrete concepts and theories for. It is critical that students today are visually literate. Multimedia has therefore become the most important tool, teachers can use to enhance students visual literacy skills. Students of today have grown up to become digital natives and so need to have multimedia integrated into their learning. Video uses both images and audio in many cases, and is considered to be a core focus of any eLearning course. The following tools should be used in conjunction with one another.
Tool 4: Digital Images
In a teaching context, the most valuable photographs are the student’s photographs. When using images for learning it is important that I don’t use them gratuitously although used properly they are useful for engaging students with the material. Images can be used on the school network, on the interactive whiteboard, using mobile phones and cameras, also iPods. “Teachers can present learning materials to the student with the purpose of engaging thinking, knowledge, understanding, analysis, evaluation, influencing feelings, or supporting skills development.” (ICT’s Week 4 Resources) The activities this week involved us getting an understanding of how images need to be resized and also how we can edit images to make them more appealing. To resize the images we were given a website called Softpedia. The main point was that images need to be resized in order to be used efficiently.
Activity with Flickr
The activity with flickr involved creating a free account, uploading and image and also displaying an image on this blog following the correct copyright guidelines. Using images is critical to developing a student’s visual literacy.
“Like traditional literacy, visual literacy encompasses more than one level of skill. The first level in reading is simply decoding words and sentences, but reading comprehension is equally (if not more) important. The first level of visual literacy, too, is simple knowledge: basic identification of the subject or elements in a photograph, work of art, or graphic. While accurate observation is important, understanding what we see and comprehending visual relationships are at least as important. These higher-level visual literacy skills require critical thinking, and they are essential to a student’s success in any content area in which information is conveyed through visual formats such as charts and maps.”
An activity I feel I could use before very class, is display a suitable image to the subject content and get students to use a See, Think, Wonder tool to evaluate and critically analyse the image, hopefully preparing them for the lesson ahead.
creative commons -Practice Yoga, Be Healthy! {EXPLORED} by VinothChandler
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vinothchandar/4459777970/
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Image Manipulation Picnik
I found picnik to be the most enjoyable activity we’ve had to do yet! I could spend hours on picnik editing and manipulating images, and I think my students would too. I feel a great assessment piece I could use in HPE that would develop student’s visual literacy skills is to have them create a poster encouraging physical activity in obese individuals, without using text. This would require the students to choose and manipulate their images critically. I would then have the students submit a 500 word summary of why they chose and presented their images in the manner they did. Below is an image of myself playing football last year for Brothers against Boyne Island. I think it looks pretty engaging! :D
Tool 5: Podcasts
A podcast is a video or usually sound file created by someone shared online usually through subscription. They are usually part of a series. However this is not always the case. As a teacher, they can be accessed online as files created for your students. But more importantly, they are also files that your students create and share by uploading online.
As previously mentioned, aural and visual literacy is becoming very important in the 21st Century literacy set. As a teacher, I need to consider the implications of this era of mass communication, and develop new literacies for my students. This then, presents podcasting as not just recorded information. But a tool for developing an aural literacy set of skills needed to communicate effectively in the 21st century world.
Podcasts have become a very useful eLearning tools, so much so, that iTunes has created an application called iTunes U, the U standing for University. So while it would be great to create my own podcast for my students, ready-made podcasts for learning have already been created. However as a teacher it will be more beneficial for my students to have them create their own podcasts rather then just listening to ones I present, this will develop their aural literacy set to a higher level. I attempted to create my own podcast using Podomatic but everytime I tried to "allow" the use of my microphone, the program wouldn't respond when I clicked allow! However here's a podcast on education I found interesting on phonics, vocabulary and spelling instruction. http://theteacherslife.podomatic.com/player/web/2008-09-04T18_04_36-07_00
Tool 6: Digital Video
Digital video can be used in a range of ways for educational purposes in schools. Communication, observation and analysis, and reflection are beneficial outcomes of using digital video in education. As a communication tool, digital video can facilitate student’s communication of ideas and assessment. Digital video is also used as an observation and analysis tool, enhancing students' observations of phenomena, experiments or performances. Finally, it is used as a reflection tool to support student reflections on their own learning.
From the provided readings this week, it was discovered that outcomes of student video production include affective, Meta cognitive, higher order thinking, communication and presentation, literacy, organisational and teamwork and moviemaking skill development. This presents moviemaking as a great tool to enhance multimedia literacy. The activity for this week was to create our own video, I used iMovie as I have the most experience using it. I created a video using still images of a trip my girlfriend Natalie and I went on to Emerald. I then uploaded it to YouTube and set the privacy settings to private so it can only be viewed here ;)
Michael
Tool 4: Digital Images
In a teaching context, the most valuable photographs are the student’s photographs. When using images for learning it is important that I don’t use them gratuitously although used properly they are useful for engaging students with the material. Images can be used on the school network, on the interactive whiteboard, using mobile phones and cameras, also iPods. “Teachers can present learning materials to the student with the purpose of engaging thinking, knowledge, understanding, analysis, evaluation, influencing feelings, or supporting skills development.” (ICT’s Week 4 Resources) The activities this week involved us getting an understanding of how images need to be resized and also how we can edit images to make them more appealing. To resize the images we were given a website called Softpedia. The main point was that images need to be resized in order to be used efficiently.
Activity with Flickr
The activity with flickr involved creating a free account, uploading and image and also displaying an image on this blog following the correct copyright guidelines. Using images is critical to developing a student’s visual literacy.
“Like traditional literacy, visual literacy encompasses more than one level of skill. The first level in reading is simply decoding words and sentences, but reading comprehension is equally (if not more) important. The first level of visual literacy, too, is simple knowledge: basic identification of the subject or elements in a photograph, work of art, or graphic. While accurate observation is important, understanding what we see and comprehending visual relationships are at least as important. These higher-level visual literacy skills require critical thinking, and they are essential to a student’s success in any content area in which information is conveyed through visual formats such as charts and maps.”
An activity I feel I could use before very class, is display a suitable image to the subject content and get students to use a See, Think, Wonder tool to evaluate and critically analyse the image, hopefully preparing them for the lesson ahead.
creative commons -Practice Yoga, Be Healthy! {EXPLORED} by VinothChandler
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vinothchandar/4459777970/
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Image Manipulation Picnik
I found picnik to be the most enjoyable activity we’ve had to do yet! I could spend hours on picnik editing and manipulating images, and I think my students would too. I feel a great assessment piece I could use in HPE that would develop student’s visual literacy skills is to have them create a poster encouraging physical activity in obese individuals, without using text. This would require the students to choose and manipulate their images critically. I would then have the students submit a 500 word summary of why they chose and presented their images in the manner they did. Below is an image of myself playing football last year for Brothers against Boyne Island. I think it looks pretty engaging! :D
Tool 5: Podcasts
A podcast is a video or usually sound file created by someone shared online usually through subscription. They are usually part of a series. However this is not always the case. As a teacher, they can be accessed online as files created for your students. But more importantly, they are also files that your students create and share by uploading online.
As previously mentioned, aural and visual literacy is becoming very important in the 21st Century literacy set. As a teacher, I need to consider the implications of this era of mass communication, and develop new literacies for my students. This then, presents podcasting as not just recorded information. But a tool for developing an aural literacy set of skills needed to communicate effectively in the 21st century world.
Podcasts have become a very useful eLearning tools, so much so, that iTunes has created an application called iTunes U, the U standing for University. So while it would be great to create my own podcast for my students, ready-made podcasts for learning have already been created. However as a teacher it will be more beneficial for my students to have them create their own podcasts rather then just listening to ones I present, this will develop their aural literacy set to a higher level. I attempted to create my own podcast using Podomatic but everytime I tried to "allow" the use of my microphone, the program wouldn't respond when I clicked allow! However here's a podcast on education I found interesting on phonics, vocabulary and spelling instruction. http://theteacherslife.podomatic.com/player/web/2008-09-04T18_04_36-07_00
Tool 6: Digital Video
Digital video can be used in a range of ways for educational purposes in schools. Communication, observation and analysis, and reflection are beneficial outcomes of using digital video in education. As a communication tool, digital video can facilitate student’s communication of ideas and assessment. Digital video is also used as an observation and analysis tool, enhancing students' observations of phenomena, experiments or performances. Finally, it is used as a reflection tool to support student reflections on their own learning.
From the provided readings this week, it was discovered that outcomes of student video production include affective, Meta cognitive, higher order thinking, communication and presentation, literacy, organisational and teamwork and moviemaking skill development. This presents moviemaking as a great tool to enhance multimedia literacy. The activity for this week was to create our own video, I used iMovie as I have the most experience using it. I created a video using still images of a trip my girlfriend Natalie and I went on to Emerald. I then uploaded it to YouTube and set the privacy settings to private so it can only be viewed here ;)
Michael
Monday, 28 March 2011
Group 1 Technologies
This week we explored the uses of more online technologies and tools, in particular Blogs, Websites and Wiki spaces. These will be known as our group 1 technology tools, and have been grouped as you are able to populate them with your own content.
Blogs
Having used blogs for a few weeks now, we were asked to reflect on the uses of blogs in our teaching context.
Using blogs to write up my reflections of each week’s activities has proven to be a very useful tool. By reflecting on the activities in a blog, I have been encouraged to use higher order thinking. As reflecting is a complex process requiring significant skill in analysis, evaluation and synthesis, my learning has extrapolated over the previous 5 weeks! As a teacher I know blogs could become very useful to use not only for myself but also for my students to reflect on their own learning. However for me to ask students to journal in a blog I need to consider ways to scaffold their thinking to reflect the learning they are required to demonstrate. From the way ICT's is constructed, I've discovered that this can be achieved through thinking tools (PMI's, DeBono's etc) and also carefully constructed question sequences.
"By using a thinking routine, you are not only supporting your students in developing the kinds of thinking you are expecting, and scaffolding it for them, but you are providing them with tools that should become second-nature, and therefore genuinely routines for thinking for life." (ICT's reading; Group 1 Technologies, 2011)
Another use for blogs in my teaching is that students could post their assignments on blogs, which would allow their peers to comment and analyse their assignments. A SWOT analysis on the use of blogs I participated in can be found here. SWOT analysis of BLOGS in Teaching
Wiki's
Over the past 3 weeks, I've become more familiar with the concept of the wiki. I can see the potential for them to be used as a learning tool as it promotes collaboration and constructivism. I participated in a SWOT analysis regarding the use of wiki's on Jullienne Morrison's wiki page.
"Key features of a wiki have been identified by wiki.org: (from http://wiki.org )
Open - Should a page be found to be incomplete or poorly organized, any reader can edit it as they see fit.
Incremental - Pages can cite other pages, including pages that have not been written yet.
Organic - The structure and text content of the site are open to editing and evolution.
Universal - The mechanisms of editing and organizing are the same as those of writing so that any writer is automatically an editor and organizer.
Observable - Activity within the site can be watched and reviewed by any other visitor to the site.
Convergent - Duplication can be discouraged or removed by finding and citing similar or related content.
Trust - This is the most important thing in a wiki. Trust the people, trust the process, and enable trust-building. Everyone controls and checks the content. Wiki relies on the assumption that most readers have good intentions.
Fun - Everybody can contribute; nobody has to.
Sharing - of information, knowledge, experience, ideas, views...
Interaction - This enables guest interaction.
Collaboration - A good collaboration tool, both synchronously and asynchronously.
Social Networks - Its power for supporting collaboration is great."
(ICT's reading; Group 1 Technologies, 2011)
I believe that a wiki would be a great eLearning tool in my classroom, especially for Biology. A well constructed wiki space would benefit my students greatly as they could log on and collaborate ideas on a given topic, the wiki could have different pages for different topics and throughout the term, the students will create a great online resource for themselves to utilise for assignments and exam preparation. By using a suitable thinking tool I will promote higher order thinking as well as a broad, collaborative and in depth view of a given topic.
Below is a SWOT analysis found on Juliennes page linked above, and a PMI analsysis on wiki's
Website
Unlike wikis and blogs that are owned by students who can add content and ideas, content on a website is exclusive to the creator. For that reason, the students can be assured that the content is from a reliable source and suitable for use in assignment work, as it has been added by me, the teacher. It was asked that we reflect on using website creation in our own teaching context as well. We used a website called Weebly to create our own educational website and get a feel for how we could use it in our own teaching context. As with the blog and wiki, I participated in a SWOT analysis of using websites in education as a teacher. Found at the bottom of this page. SWOT Analysis of Websites in Education
After participating in the SWOT I believe that as a teacher, creating a website dedicated to my students and my subject would be of great benefit. I could provide links to all the expert knowledge I know, and make it readily available to my students. I could also put up interactive games for students to play to increase their knowledge of the subject matter. I had a play with weebly and created a very basic web page I called Rosey's Corner;
">
As you can see it is very basic but it gave me an idea of how I could present activities for my students, I feel if I dedicated time to creating a fully operational and in depth website, I could transform the way my students learn. However I would not use weebly as a problem I encountered was that I couldn't log back in to edit my website after I logged off. I even tried having my user name and password sent to me and it failed everytime! I've used iWeb for Macintosh before and it is a great way to create very engaging and good looking websites. When I become a teacher I would definitely consider buying a domain name and creating my own website in iWeb for my students to access and gather knowledge and resources from.
Michael
Blogs
Having used blogs for a few weeks now, we were asked to reflect on the uses of blogs in our teaching context.
Using blogs to write up my reflections of each week’s activities has proven to be a very useful tool. By reflecting on the activities in a blog, I have been encouraged to use higher order thinking. As reflecting is a complex process requiring significant skill in analysis, evaluation and synthesis, my learning has extrapolated over the previous 5 weeks! As a teacher I know blogs could become very useful to use not only for myself but also for my students to reflect on their own learning. However for me to ask students to journal in a blog I need to consider ways to scaffold their thinking to reflect the learning they are required to demonstrate. From the way ICT's is constructed, I've discovered that this can be achieved through thinking tools (PMI's, DeBono's etc) and also carefully constructed question sequences.
"By using a thinking routine, you are not only supporting your students in developing the kinds of thinking you are expecting, and scaffolding it for them, but you are providing them with tools that should become second-nature, and therefore genuinely routines for thinking for life." (ICT's reading; Group 1 Technologies, 2011)
Another use for blogs in my teaching is that students could post their assignments on blogs, which would allow their peers to comment and analyse their assignments. A SWOT analysis on the use of blogs I participated in can be found here. SWOT analysis of BLOGS in Teaching
Wiki's
Over the past 3 weeks, I've become more familiar with the concept of the wiki. I can see the potential for them to be used as a learning tool as it promotes collaboration and constructivism. I participated in a SWOT analysis regarding the use of wiki's on Jullienne Morrison's wiki page.
"Key features of a wiki have been identified by wiki.org: (from http://wiki.org )
Open - Should a page be found to be incomplete or poorly organized, any reader can edit it as they see fit.
Incremental - Pages can cite other pages, including pages that have not been written yet.
Organic - The structure and text content of the site are open to editing and evolution.
Universal - The mechanisms of editing and organizing are the same as those of writing so that any writer is automatically an editor and organizer.
Observable - Activity within the site can be watched and reviewed by any other visitor to the site.
Convergent - Duplication can be discouraged or removed by finding and citing similar or related content.
Trust - This is the most important thing in a wiki. Trust the people, trust the process, and enable trust-building. Everyone controls and checks the content. Wiki relies on the assumption that most readers have good intentions.
Fun - Everybody can contribute; nobody has to.
Sharing - of information, knowledge, experience, ideas, views...
Interaction - This enables guest interaction.
Collaboration - A good collaboration tool, both synchronously and asynchronously.
Social Networks - Its power for supporting collaboration is great."
(ICT's reading; Group 1 Technologies, 2011)
I believe that a wiki would be a great eLearning tool in my classroom, especially for Biology. A well constructed wiki space would benefit my students greatly as they could log on and collaborate ideas on a given topic, the wiki could have different pages for different topics and throughout the term, the students will create a great online resource for themselves to utilise for assignments and exam preparation. By using a suitable thinking tool I will promote higher order thinking as well as a broad, collaborative and in depth view of a given topic.
Below is a SWOT analysis found on Juliennes page linked above, and a PMI analsysis on wiki's
Website
Unlike wikis and blogs that are owned by students who can add content and ideas, content on a website is exclusive to the creator. For that reason, the students can be assured that the content is from a reliable source and suitable for use in assignment work, as it has been added by me, the teacher. It was asked that we reflect on using website creation in our own teaching context as well. We used a website called Weebly to create our own educational website and get a feel for how we could use it in our own teaching context. As with the blog and wiki, I participated in a SWOT analysis of using websites in education as a teacher. Found at the bottom of this page. SWOT Analysis of Websites in Education
After participating in the SWOT I believe that as a teacher, creating a website dedicated to my students and my subject would be of great benefit. I could provide links to all the expert knowledge I know, and make it readily available to my students. I could also put up interactive games for students to play to increase their knowledge of the subject matter. I had a play with weebly and created a very basic web page I called Rosey's Corner;
">
As you can see it is very basic but it gave me an idea of how I could present activities for my students, I feel if I dedicated time to creating a fully operational and in depth website, I could transform the way my students learn. However I would not use weebly as a problem I encountered was that I couldn't log back in to edit my website after I logged off. I even tried having my user name and password sent to me and it failed everytime! I've used iWeb for Macintosh before and it is a great way to create very engaging and good looking websites. When I become a teacher I would definitely consider buying a domain name and creating my own website in iWeb for my students to access and gather knowledge and resources from.
Michael
Week 4 Activities
Digital Images
It's been a slow start to these activities, I'm already a week behind and there seems to be a lot to do in week 4. I didn't have any trouble creating a flickr account and and image in picnik as i had previously used them before. Finding an image and checking the copyright laws associated with it was a different story. I found a link posted by Julienne Morrison about how to find and interpret the copyright regulations associated with an image at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~ahrc/resources/ccattribute.html useful.
http://flic.kr/p/51Rk93
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28229962@N02/2635051942/
I had a lot of fun creating an image in picnik and reckon it turned out pretty cool. I can't see exactly how i could use picnik in an educational way yet, but I'm sure I'll realise some uses soon. Maybe it could be used by students to enhance oral presentations?
Digital Images
It's been a slow start to these activities, I'm already a week behind and there seems to be a lot to do in week 4. I didn't have any trouble creating a flickr account and and image in picnik as i had previously used them before. Finding an image and checking the copyright laws associated with it was a different story. I found a link posted by Julienne Morrison about how to find and interpret the copyright regulations associated with an image at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~ahrc/resources/ccattribute.html useful.
http://flic.kr/p/51Rk93
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28229962@N02/2635051942/
I had a lot of fun creating an image in picnik and reckon it turned out pretty cool. I can't see exactly how i could use picnik in an educational way yet, but I'm sure I'll realise some uses soon. Maybe it could be used by students to enhance oral presentations?
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Assessment Task 1: Learning Design Brief
Profile wiki
This task consisted of creating a personal profile and then uploading it into a wiki. The task itself was scaffolded, in that there was a template to follow (Black, 2011) to fill out our profile and a video as to how to upload it to the wiki was made available through moodle (Black, 2011). As this task was our first piece of scaffold for our first assignment it had several learning theories deliberately involved.
The activity had elements of constructivism (Atherton, 2011), in that students knew how to fill out a table but then had to construct the knowledge to be able to upload it to the wiki page. Behaviourism (Atherton, 2011) was inherent in that in order to pass the assignment this activity needed to be completed. In the past when activities were not completed the student would not have passed that course and so through behaviourism, students knew they had to fulfil this activity. This idea will be the same for all three of the wiki postings. Connectivism (Siemens, 2004) was very much evident by the fact that students had to connect with another student to complete the activity.
As a learner I found this activity a decent starting point to ICT’s. However, a few errors were involved in the activity. When choosing a partner for the activity I was only given a group of 6 people. Lucky for me though, one person from the six in my group was sitting right in front of me during the tute and so we partnered up that way. In my undergraduate degree I had several online assignments that involved collaborating with students from all over Australia. Those assignments I found to be very frustrating as there was no face-to-face contact. So through this experience I learned that it is easier to work effectively with someone face to face, as well as through online means. To make this activity more accessible to my students I would modify the group system and have everyone be able to choose someone from the whole class. I would also have the students work with someone they know little about, as it will give them a new perspective.
Learning Theories Wiki
This activity involved creating a Plus, Minus, Interesting (PMI) (MindTools, n.d) analysis collaboratively with our partner from the profile wiki. A learning theory was chosen and a PMI analysis was performed. Dave and I worked on constructivism, as we figured this would be the most use to us in our first assignment. There were many technical issue involved in this activity, and as a computer subject this made it very frustrating for myself as well as all the other students. The main issue was that the wiki page where our PMI was to be uploaded would keep disappearing and reappearing with deleted and missing content. I didn’t have any trouble uploading my analysis to the wiki, but when it came to Dave adding his ideas he was unable to access the wiki for a few days. Not only that, but what Dave uploaded to our wiki disappeared after a day or two. I only had the chance to read Dave’s points once, as they were gone the next day.
This activity had various elements from different learning theories underpinning its design. Connectivism and constructivism were the main underpinning learning theories. Connectivism was innate as research into a particular learning theory had to be undertaken as well as connection with your partner to collaborate on the topic. Students used constructivism to determine what they believed are the positives and negatives on their chosen theory, this theory underpinned the whole PMI analysis. Behaviourism as mentioned before was inherent in the fact the activity had to be completed in order to pass the assessment.
The positives with this activity were that Dave gave a different perspective to mine. This was very valuable as it gave me a fresh perspective on the constructivist theory which I would not have had, had I worked alone on this activity. I also discovered the value in creating a PMI analysis. From this experience I learned that PMI’s are an effective eLearning tool when used collaboratively. However, given the inherent errors in technology if I am to use this sort of activity in my own classroom, I will have to become very familiar with the networking capabilities of my particular school. I could see the value in creating an online wiki like this one in a Biology class where some topics have a lot of material to cover. Through the use of an online wiki, students could pair up and create a discussion on just one topic, add it to a wiki, which would then have a discussion on each of the topics needing to be covered.
Mobile phones wiki
The activity for the mobile phones wiki was to watch a video (Pearson Foundation, 2009) as well as read an article (Hartnell-Young, Heym, 2009) on the use of mobile phones as an eLearning device. This activity at first seemed to be a fairly one-sided argument, that phones should not be used in schools, however after reading the article and watching the video many different perceptions and uses came to light. I believe that as everyone enrolled in this course grew up with mobile phones being seen as a distraction in school, the idea of using them for education just didn’t make sense to us. I would be at 20, the youngest person enrolled in this course and I even had that same opinion. That was until I looked and thought about it further. What lead me to my final view that mobile phones could and should be used as a learning device is surely attributed to the use of DeBono’s six thinking hats (Gallup, 1992).
This activity used various elements from each of the four main learning theories. Through the use of DeBono’s six hats, students constructed their knowledge from previous knowledge but also gathered, processed and formulated new knowledge into useful ideas, giving this activity an underpinning theory of not only constructivism but cognitivism (Culatta, 2011) as well. Connectivism was used as students connected with other students to argue the point as well as searched various other sites for information.
There is no doubt that the use of DeBonos hats is a great resource for teachers to use. This would be a great strategy to use in my classroom when discussing contentious topics between students, as it would create a well-rounded and diverse argument. I know I will be using it during my career, however the problem which arose for this particular activity was missing data. I added my ideas to the wiki after doing all the reading and thinking, only to find that the next day, my name as well as all of my ideas had been taken off the wiki. This didn’t only happen to me but another two colleagues that I know of. If I were to use this strategy in my own practice I would have students back their work up onto a word document before adding it to the wiki.
Conclusion
When using technology for learning, I will make sure that I know the capabilities of my schools network so as to not have students get frustrated when they can’t access a particular resource because too many students are trying at the same time. I’ve learnt that when technology works its great, but when it doesn’t it just causes frustration among students. From my own experience so far I feel that if I can use eLearning as a tool rather then the be all and end all of my teaching practice, it will serve me greater. Issues that face me in the workplace are networking capabilities as well as availability of eLearning resources. Ways to overcome these would be different for each case, but in the event of too many people online at once, I would split my class into groups, and if there were only enough eLearning tools for half the class, then a rotational group activities class would be the best way to teach.
From this experience it is clear to me that eLearning is a powerful tool especially in 21st century classrooms and should be embraced rather then ignored, the more I know about the technology the less likely I am to encounter problems using it. Therefore in my career I will endeavour to learn and gain as much understanding of various eLearning tools as I can.
Michael Rose
GDLT Secondary HPE/Biology
References:
Gallup, G. (1992) Teach your child how to think. Retrieved 8 March, 2011, from http://www.kurwongbss.eq.edu.au/thinking/Hats/hats.htm
Hartnell-Young, E & Heym, N. (2009). Mobile phones and student learning in secondary schools: Curriculum Leadership, an electronic journal for leaders in education, 7 (26). Retrieved March 8, 2011, from http://cmslive.curriculum.edu.au/leader/default.asp?id=28526&issueID=11897
MindTools, Essential skills for an excellent career. (n.d) Plus, Minus, Interesting: Weighing the Pros and Cons of a Decision. Retrieved March 3, 2011, from
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_05.htm
Pearson Foundation. (2009, Apr 21). Text2teach: The Bridgeit Solution in the Philippines [Video file]. Retrieved March 8, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQGXR16dZic
Black, A. (2011). Week 0 Activities, My Profile. Rockhampton, QLD, Australia: Retrieved March 1, 2011, from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for learning design
Atherton, J. (2011) Learning and Teaching; Behaviourism. Retrieved March 18, 2011, from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/behaviour.htm
Siemens, G. (2004) Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age: Elearn Space. Retrieved March 7, 2011, from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
Atherton, S. (2011) Learning and Teaching; Constructivism in learning. Retrieved March 18, 2011, from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm
Culatta, R. (2011) Innovative Learning: Cognitivism. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from http://www.innovativelearning.com/educational_psychology/cognitivism/index.htm
This task consisted of creating a personal profile and then uploading it into a wiki. The task itself was scaffolded, in that there was a template to follow (Black, 2011) to fill out our profile and a video as to how to upload it to the wiki was made available through moodle (Black, 2011). As this task was our first piece of scaffold for our first assignment it had several learning theories deliberately involved.
The activity had elements of constructivism (Atherton, 2011), in that students knew how to fill out a table but then had to construct the knowledge to be able to upload it to the wiki page. Behaviourism (Atherton, 2011) was inherent in that in order to pass the assignment this activity needed to be completed. In the past when activities were not completed the student would not have passed that course and so through behaviourism, students knew they had to fulfil this activity. This idea will be the same for all three of the wiki postings. Connectivism (Siemens, 2004) was very much evident by the fact that students had to connect with another student to complete the activity.
As a learner I found this activity a decent starting point to ICT’s. However, a few errors were involved in the activity. When choosing a partner for the activity I was only given a group of 6 people. Lucky for me though, one person from the six in my group was sitting right in front of me during the tute and so we partnered up that way. In my undergraduate degree I had several online assignments that involved collaborating with students from all over Australia. Those assignments I found to be very frustrating as there was no face-to-face contact. So through this experience I learned that it is easier to work effectively with someone face to face, as well as through online means. To make this activity more accessible to my students I would modify the group system and have everyone be able to choose someone from the whole class. I would also have the students work with someone they know little about, as it will give them a new perspective.
Learning Theories Wiki
This activity involved creating a Plus, Minus, Interesting (PMI) (MindTools, n.d) analysis collaboratively with our partner from the profile wiki. A learning theory was chosen and a PMI analysis was performed. Dave and I worked on constructivism, as we figured this would be the most use to us in our first assignment. There were many technical issue involved in this activity, and as a computer subject this made it very frustrating for myself as well as all the other students. The main issue was that the wiki page where our PMI was to be uploaded would keep disappearing and reappearing with deleted and missing content. I didn’t have any trouble uploading my analysis to the wiki, but when it came to Dave adding his ideas he was unable to access the wiki for a few days. Not only that, but what Dave uploaded to our wiki disappeared after a day or two. I only had the chance to read Dave’s points once, as they were gone the next day.
This activity had various elements from different learning theories underpinning its design. Connectivism and constructivism were the main underpinning learning theories. Connectivism was innate as research into a particular learning theory had to be undertaken as well as connection with your partner to collaborate on the topic. Students used constructivism to determine what they believed are the positives and negatives on their chosen theory, this theory underpinned the whole PMI analysis. Behaviourism as mentioned before was inherent in the fact the activity had to be completed in order to pass the assessment.
The positives with this activity were that Dave gave a different perspective to mine. This was very valuable as it gave me a fresh perspective on the constructivist theory which I would not have had, had I worked alone on this activity. I also discovered the value in creating a PMI analysis. From this experience I learned that PMI’s are an effective eLearning tool when used collaboratively. However, given the inherent errors in technology if I am to use this sort of activity in my own classroom, I will have to become very familiar with the networking capabilities of my particular school. I could see the value in creating an online wiki like this one in a Biology class where some topics have a lot of material to cover. Through the use of an online wiki, students could pair up and create a discussion on just one topic, add it to a wiki, which would then have a discussion on each of the topics needing to be covered.
Mobile phones wiki
The activity for the mobile phones wiki was to watch a video (Pearson Foundation, 2009) as well as read an article (Hartnell-Young, Heym, 2009) on the use of mobile phones as an eLearning device. This activity at first seemed to be a fairly one-sided argument, that phones should not be used in schools, however after reading the article and watching the video many different perceptions and uses came to light. I believe that as everyone enrolled in this course grew up with mobile phones being seen as a distraction in school, the idea of using them for education just didn’t make sense to us. I would be at 20, the youngest person enrolled in this course and I even had that same opinion. That was until I looked and thought about it further. What lead me to my final view that mobile phones could and should be used as a learning device is surely attributed to the use of DeBono’s six thinking hats (Gallup, 1992).
This activity used various elements from each of the four main learning theories. Through the use of DeBono’s six hats, students constructed their knowledge from previous knowledge but also gathered, processed and formulated new knowledge into useful ideas, giving this activity an underpinning theory of not only constructivism but cognitivism (Culatta, 2011) as well. Connectivism was used as students connected with other students to argue the point as well as searched various other sites for information.
There is no doubt that the use of DeBonos hats is a great resource for teachers to use. This would be a great strategy to use in my classroom when discussing contentious topics between students, as it would create a well-rounded and diverse argument. I know I will be using it during my career, however the problem which arose for this particular activity was missing data. I added my ideas to the wiki after doing all the reading and thinking, only to find that the next day, my name as well as all of my ideas had been taken off the wiki. This didn’t only happen to me but another two colleagues that I know of. If I were to use this strategy in my own practice I would have students back their work up onto a word document before adding it to the wiki.
Conclusion
When using technology for learning, I will make sure that I know the capabilities of my schools network so as to not have students get frustrated when they can’t access a particular resource because too many students are trying at the same time. I’ve learnt that when technology works its great, but when it doesn’t it just causes frustration among students. From my own experience so far I feel that if I can use eLearning as a tool rather then the be all and end all of my teaching practice, it will serve me greater. Issues that face me in the workplace are networking capabilities as well as availability of eLearning resources. Ways to overcome these would be different for each case, but in the event of too many people online at once, I would split my class into groups, and if there were only enough eLearning tools for half the class, then a rotational group activities class would be the best way to teach.
From this experience it is clear to me that eLearning is a powerful tool especially in 21st century classrooms and should be embraced rather then ignored, the more I know about the technology the less likely I am to encounter problems using it. Therefore in my career I will endeavour to learn and gain as much understanding of various eLearning tools as I can.
Michael Rose
GDLT Secondary HPE/Biology
References:
Gallup, G. (1992) Teach your child how to think. Retrieved 8 March, 2011, from http://www.kurwongbss.eq.edu.au/thinking/Hats/hats.htm
Hartnell-Young, E & Heym, N. (2009). Mobile phones and student learning in secondary schools: Curriculum Leadership, an electronic journal for leaders in education, 7 (26). Retrieved March 8, 2011, from http://cmslive.curriculum.edu.au/leader/default.asp?id=28526&issueID=11897
MindTools, Essential skills for an excellent career. (n.d) Plus, Minus, Interesting: Weighing the Pros and Cons of a Decision. Retrieved March 3, 2011, from
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_05.htm
Pearson Foundation. (2009, Apr 21). Text2teach: The Bridgeit Solution in the Philippines [Video file]. Retrieved March 8, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQGXR16dZic
Black, A. (2011). Week 0 Activities, My Profile. Rockhampton, QLD, Australia: Retrieved March 1, 2011, from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for learning design
Atherton, J. (2011) Learning and Teaching; Behaviourism. Retrieved March 18, 2011, from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/behaviour.htm
Siemens, G. (2004) Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age: Elearn Space. Retrieved March 7, 2011, from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
Atherton, S. (2011) Learning and Teaching; Constructivism in learning. Retrieved March 18, 2011, from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm
Culatta, R. (2011) Innovative Learning: Cognitivism. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from http://www.innovativelearning.com/educational_psychology/cognitivism/index.htm
Monday, 14 March 2011
Mobile Phones Wiki
Using DeBono's Six thinking hats to create a wiki on the use of mobile phones in schools was very productive. Had we of just used a PMI like we did for our learning theory there would have been no where near as much creativity and constructive thinking done on the matter. The six hats ensures you look at the issue of mobile phones in school from unique angles. I found that some students had better contribution then others under one hat and then less under another. This would be attributed to the fact that each students has a different learning style and so a different way of thinking as well. I found i contributed greatest towards the Green, yellow and red hats. Creativity, Benefits and feelings respectively. However being a wiki i think someone went in and deleted my name from everything which i was fairly upset about :/ might have been an accident though, but it does show one downfall of using a wiki, you don't get recognition for your ideas!
This would be a great strategy to use in my classroom when discussing contentious topics between students as it would create a well rounded and diverse argument. Students could be divided into six groups of there choice depending on which hat appeals to them in the hope that all six hats would be filled.
The learning theory of constructivism was very apparent during this activity. Each students constructed there thoughts from there own knowledge and experiences which is why the wiki ended up being such an extensive collaboration. Cognitivism was evident in that information was taken in through the particular resources we were given, processed and then our ideas were formulated. Behaviourism did not play a key role for this activity however connectivism did. Connectivism would have been used by many students in that they would have searched for more information then what was given.
The design of this activity through the use of DeBono's six thinking hats supported a diverse range of students, it catered for many different thinking preferences and learning preferences, as a video link as well as an article was made available. From this both visual and audible learners were catered for. The kinesthetic learners would have actually constructed their own knowledge from their experiences using mobile phones, and would have related their experiences with what they thought could used in a classroom environment. (bit abstract, finding it hard to convey my thoughts on this one). The design of this activity can supports elearning through the combination of DeBono's hats and a wiki. It supports learning through the use of different critical thinking styles and promotes the student to use higher order thinking.
Michael
This would be a great strategy to use in my classroom when discussing contentious topics between students as it would create a well rounded and diverse argument. Students could be divided into six groups of there choice depending on which hat appeals to them in the hope that all six hats would be filled.
The learning theory of constructivism was very apparent during this activity. Each students constructed there thoughts from there own knowledge and experiences which is why the wiki ended up being such an extensive collaboration. Cognitivism was evident in that information was taken in through the particular resources we were given, processed and then our ideas were formulated. Behaviourism did not play a key role for this activity however connectivism did. Connectivism would have been used by many students in that they would have searched for more information then what was given.
The design of this activity through the use of DeBono's six thinking hats supported a diverse range of students, it catered for many different thinking preferences and learning preferences, as a video link as well as an article was made available. From this both visual and audible learners were catered for. The kinesthetic learners would have actually constructed their own knowledge from their experiences using mobile phones, and would have related their experiences with what they thought could used in a classroom environment. (bit abstract, finding it hard to convey my thoughts on this one). The design of this activity can supports elearning through the combination of DeBono's hats and a wiki. It supports learning through the use of different critical thinking styles and promotes the student to use higher order thinking.
Michael
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Reflection on learning theories wiki
I found the learning theories activity very helpful as it gave me different perspectives on each of the theories. Also as other students had written there explanation in their own words it made it easier for me to understand them. I think this strategy of having several subjects which need to be covered and having them covered by the students working in pairs and collaborating at the end could be a very useful tool for me to use in teaching. Especially in biology where there is a lot of material to cover. This activity had elements of constructivism and connectivism throughout. Constructivism was evident in that our PMI was written by comparing our prior knowledge with the new knowledge we were acquiring and deciding whether it was a plus or minus. As we had to research other materials in order to gain a better understanding of our selected learning theory we were using the connectivism theory of learning.
This activity again supports a diverse range of students geographically, but maybe not technologically as a lot of our digital immigrants may have had trouble navigating web pages and uploading their findings to the wiki correctly. This strategy supports learning through connectivism and would be a good strategy to use in our 21st century secondary schools as most students are familiar with the internet and the use of this technology.
This activity again supports a diverse range of students geographically, but maybe not technologically as a lot of our digital immigrants may have had trouble navigating web pages and uploading their findings to the wiki correctly. This strategy supports learning through connectivism and would be a good strategy to use in our 21st century secondary schools as most students are familiar with the internet and the use of this technology.
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Learning Theories Wiki- Constructivism
Dave and I chose to perform a PMI analysis on constructivism, these were my personal findings:
Plus (all the positives)
* Each student has a unique perspective when learning a new concept.
* Students can expand on knowledge already possessed.
* Constructivism causes students to question themselves and their strategies.
* Students ideas gain in complexity as they will continuously reflect on their learning.
* Students construct their own knowledge on what appeals to them and their career choice.
* The pursuit of students questions and interests is valued
* Learning is interactive and relies heavily on elearning.
* Technology can become very handy for the constructivist teacher, students will use it to find their own answers (as technology is the way of the future this is a very significant positive).
Minus (all the negatives)
* Some students will learn a particular concept better then others because they already have relevant thoughts to construct their ideas from.
* Students may just disregard new ideas and concepts because they disagree with what they already know.
* Some students may rather be told what needs to be learnt rather than construct it themselves.
* Not all students have the capacity to learn this way.
* Teachers need to come up with new ways of assessing students.
* As constructivism relies heavily on group involvement, a few students interpretations may dominate, meaning disserting students must conform to their opinions.
Interesting
* A students understanding can change when using active learning techniques.
* A students current knowledge can help them gain new knowledge.
* The teacher becomes a facilitator of learning.
* Biggest job for teachers is to ASK GOOD QUESTIONS.
* The teachers role is interactive and they are there to negotiate.
* It’s a life view.
Elearning compliments constructivism very well, as elearning is the way of the future, maybe a connectivism/constructivist approach will be primarily used.
Michael Rose
GDLT
Plus (all the positives)
* Each student has a unique perspective when learning a new concept.
* Students can expand on knowledge already possessed.
* Constructivism causes students to question themselves and their strategies.
* Students ideas gain in complexity as they will continuously reflect on their learning.
* Students construct their own knowledge on what appeals to them and their career choice.
* The pursuit of students questions and interests is valued
* Learning is interactive and relies heavily on elearning.
* Technology can become very handy for the constructivist teacher, students will use it to find their own answers (as technology is the way of the future this is a very significant positive).
Minus (all the negatives)
* Some students will learn a particular concept better then others because they already have relevant thoughts to construct their ideas from.
* Students may just disregard new ideas and concepts because they disagree with what they already know.
* Some students may rather be told what needs to be learnt rather than construct it themselves.
* Not all students have the capacity to learn this way.
* Teachers need to come up with new ways of assessing students.
* As constructivism relies heavily on group involvement, a few students interpretations may dominate, meaning disserting students must conform to their opinions.
Interesting
* A students understanding can change when using active learning techniques.
* A students current knowledge can help them gain new knowledge.
* The teacher becomes a facilitator of learning.
* Biggest job for teachers is to ASK GOOD QUESTIONS.
* The teachers role is interactive and they are there to negotiate.
* It’s a life view.
Elearning compliments constructivism very well, as elearning is the way of the future, maybe a connectivism/constructivist approach will be primarily used.
Michael Rose
GDLT
Profile Wiki
Thankfully i had no trouble uploading my profile to the wiki compared to many others. I did this fairly early on and then buddied up with David Jones who was sitting right in front of me when i yelled out his name in our ICT tute to see if he was in the room! David an I agreed to complete a PMI on constructivism since this would help us most with our first assessment. I had mine uploaded Tuesday afternoon and Dave put his up Wednesday.
I think the value in this activity to me as a learner is that it is god to work with someone whom you didn't know before starting, and by doing so you can gain some valuable knowledge and different perspective on a given topic. This sort of activity could be used on my "future" students by setting them up with paired or group activities where their groups/pairs will be assigned and deliberately different to who they would usually work with. Hopefully my students will see the benefit in learning with someone who they don't know very well.
This activity has some small elements of constructivism in that i knew how to fill out a table on my own life and so i had to construct the knowledge as to how to upload and implement that table into a wiki. This activity didn't have many elements of behaviorism and cognitivism but it did have elements of connectivism through searching for other students who would be compatible with my own learning style. This activity supports a diverse range of students as its available to flex as well as internal students, however not all students especially digital immigrants may find it appealing. The design of this activity as an elearning strategy can support learning by allowing students the freedom to choose a partner of their own choice, and it was also a good introduction to how to use a wiki.
I think the value in this activity to me as a learner is that it is god to work with someone whom you didn't know before starting, and by doing so you can gain some valuable knowledge and different perspective on a given topic. This sort of activity could be used on my "future" students by setting them up with paired or group activities where their groups/pairs will be assigned and deliberately different to who they would usually work with. Hopefully my students will see the benefit in learning with someone who they don't know very well.
This activity has some small elements of constructivism in that i knew how to fill out a table on my own life and so i had to construct the knowledge as to how to upload and implement that table into a wiki. This activity didn't have many elements of behaviorism and cognitivism but it did have elements of connectivism through searching for other students who would be compatible with my own learning style. This activity supports a diverse range of students as its available to flex as well as internal students, however not all students especially digital immigrants may find it appealing. The design of this activity as an elearning strategy can support learning by allowing students the freedom to choose a partner of their own choice, and it was also a good introduction to how to use a wiki.
Multiple Intelligences Test
Well i've finally gotten round to doing the Birmingham Grid for Learning Multiple Intelligences test. and i must say that i agree with my results. As a lot of others have said the test results rely heavily on the day you do the test but i have to disagree, unless your bipolar your outlook on life and how you do things shouldn't change dramatically day after day :P Don't worry, i'm only joking.... But i feel that my results would be pretty much the same no matter what day i took the test.
Strengths
My results showed that i am heavily body and people smart which i definitely agree with. I've played sport all my life and work as a Personal Trainer and so i know my own body pretty well. I also watch a lot of the mentalist and tend to not look at what poeple are doing but why they are doing it and i pay attention to the small details. This i feel will help me when I'm working as a teacher to find students motives for learning and also why/if they are disrupting the class. The test also found that i am Musical, Visual and Nature smart. I play the drums and guitar and my father was a renowned song writer for Slim Dusty so this is particularly true for me. The nature smart part came as a bit of a surprise but considering i majored in biology and about 90% of the material was on plants, its not really a surprise. I am a visual learner and so it was no surprise that i am visually smart.
Weaknesses
My weaknesses were Intrapersonal, Linguistic and Logical smarts. I would have to say that i disagree with not being intrapersonal smart even though my score was still above 15. Depending on the definition of intrapersonal smart that is, i feel that i am self motivated and know what and have good control over my own mind. I agree with not being logical/Math smart as math was never a strong point for me, especially Long division, i never understood it all through primary school! My linguistic smarts was low compared to Visual, body, music and nature but not low enough to be considered a real weakness. I've always prided myself on my spelling ability (hope there's no mistakes in this :/) and so i do agree with my result in that intelligence.
I think this intelligence test is the best one I've done in terms of visual demonstration and accuracy. i will definitely be using it at some point on my students during my teaching career, to help them reailse their own strengths and weaknesses, and in turn aid there learning ability.
Michael Rose
Sunday, 27 February 2011
1st Blog - My learning Styles
What is your learning style? What sorts of learning experiences would suit you best with your learning style?
Results from Felder and Solomons Learning style questionnaire
After completing Felder and Solomon's learning style questionnaire I have discovered that i am primarily an active, intuitive, visual and global learner.
As an active learner i would do best in a class that allows time for discussion or problem-solving activities. If my class does not reflect this then I should try to compensate when studying. Studying in a group where members take turns explaining different topics and do activities together would benefit me greatly. Also, as an active learner i will always retain information better if i can find a way to do something with it.
As an intuitive learner I find interpretations or theories that link the facts together useful, if the lecture or teacher does not provide them then i will try to find the connections myself. As an intutive klearner though i may bhe prone to careless mistakes on tests because i am impatient with details and don't like repetition. To improve this i should take time to read the entire question before I start answering and be sure to check my results.
I am heavily on the visual learner side of things, and so I should try to find diagrams, sketches, schematics, photographs, flow charts, or any other visual representation of my course materials that are predominantly verbal. This will prove difficult as most courses at UNI are heavily verbal and involve a lot of reading. Felder states that visual learners should ask their lecturer if any videotapes or CD-ROM displays of the course material are available. A helpful tip for visual learners is to prepare a concept map by listing key
points, enclosing them in boxes or circles, and drawing lines with arrows between the concepts to show connections. Also colour-coding my notes with a highlighter so that everything relating to one topic is the same colour may be very helpful.
As a global learner i need to know the big picture of a subject before mastering the details of it. I find it difficult if my teacher plunges directly into new topics without bothering to
explain how they relate to what I already know. This was particularly true during my grade 11 maths B class at high school. Now that i know i am a global learner before I begin to study a section or a chapter in my textbook, I'll skim through the entire chapter to get
an overview. I should also try relating the subject to things I already know.
In a traditional classroom of 25 students, how would you support the range of learning styles each lesson?
In a class of 25 students there is bound to be a diverse range of learning styles. To support the students in this class i would have them complete a learning styles questionnaire so i could gain a better understanding of the spread of learning styles in the class. Once i knew the proportion of students who learned a particular way i would tailor each lesson to suit all students. I would use lots of graphs and charts for my visual learners and explain everything about the class first off to give a better overview for my global learners. I would verbally explain and use worksheets and individual activities for my intuitive and verbal learners. I would teach in a sequential manner and relate the topics to the real world to appeal to my sequential and sensing learners.
With your current knowledge of ICT, how could your design and digital pedagogy support your learners better?
By providing access to a broad range of resources relating to the topic which appeal to all learning styles. I would try to find videos, power points, charts, sound clips and articles for the current topic so all the students can learn in there own unique way.
What sorts of profiling questions would you be asking about your learners to ensure you cater for everyone's preferences?
1. Would you prefer to hear from someone how to do an activity or do the activity while hearing an explanation?
2. Do you understand a concept better after reading all the material? or after being given a short overview of the whole concept?
3. Do you like to see how particular concepts and theories relate to the real world? or just to the particular subject matter?
How does ICT support differences in learning styles?
ICT supports different learning styles because it allows access to all different kinds of resources online. From video clips and journal articles, to charts and sound clips. Catering for all learning styles.
Results from Felder and Solomons Learning style questionnaire
After completing Felder and Solomon's learning style questionnaire I have discovered that i am primarily an active, intuitive, visual and global learner.
As an active learner i would do best in a class that allows time for discussion or problem-solving activities. If my class does not reflect this then I should try to compensate when studying. Studying in a group where members take turns explaining different topics and do activities together would benefit me greatly. Also, as an active learner i will always retain information better if i can find a way to do something with it.
As an intuitive learner I find interpretations or theories that link the facts together useful, if the lecture or teacher does not provide them then i will try to find the connections myself. As an intutive klearner though i may bhe prone to careless mistakes on tests because i am impatient with details and don't like repetition. To improve this i should take time to read the entire question before I start answering and be sure to check my results.
I am heavily on the visual learner side of things, and so I should try to find diagrams, sketches, schematics, photographs, flow charts, or any other visual representation of my course materials that are predominantly verbal. This will prove difficult as most courses at UNI are heavily verbal and involve a lot of reading. Felder states that visual learners should ask their lecturer if any videotapes or CD-ROM displays of the course material are available. A helpful tip for visual learners is to prepare a concept map by listing key
points, enclosing them in boxes or circles, and drawing lines with arrows between the concepts to show connections. Also colour-coding my notes with a highlighter so that everything relating to one topic is the same colour may be very helpful.
As a global learner i need to know the big picture of a subject before mastering the details of it. I find it difficult if my teacher plunges directly into new topics without bothering to
explain how they relate to what I already know. This was particularly true during my grade 11 maths B class at high school. Now that i know i am a global learner before I begin to study a section or a chapter in my textbook, I'll skim through the entire chapter to get
an overview. I should also try relating the subject to things I already know.
In a traditional classroom of 25 students, how would you support the range of learning styles each lesson?
In a class of 25 students there is bound to be a diverse range of learning styles. To support the students in this class i would have them complete a learning styles questionnaire so i could gain a better understanding of the spread of learning styles in the class. Once i knew the proportion of students who learned a particular way i would tailor each lesson to suit all students. I would use lots of graphs and charts for my visual learners and explain everything about the class first off to give a better overview for my global learners. I would verbally explain and use worksheets and individual activities for my intuitive and verbal learners. I would teach in a sequential manner and relate the topics to the real world to appeal to my sequential and sensing learners.
With your current knowledge of ICT, how could your design and digital pedagogy support your learners better?
By providing access to a broad range of resources relating to the topic which appeal to all learning styles. I would try to find videos, power points, charts, sound clips and articles for the current topic so all the students can learn in there own unique way.
What sorts of profiling questions would you be asking about your learners to ensure you cater for everyone's preferences?
1. Would you prefer to hear from someone how to do an activity or do the activity while hearing an explanation?
2. Do you understand a concept better after reading all the material? or after being given a short overview of the whole concept?
3. Do you like to see how particular concepts and theories relate to the real world? or just to the particular subject matter?
How does ICT support differences in learning styles?
ICT supports different learning styles because it allows access to all different kinds of resources online. From video clips and journal articles, to charts and sound clips. Catering for all learning styles.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)