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;
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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?

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

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

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.

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

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.