My E Learning Journey - Reflective Synopsis

The students whom fill our schools today, tomorrow and in the near future have made a huge shift in the way we learn over the past ten years.
Today’s students are changing rapidly, and a number of things are influencing these changes such as social, cultural and most importantly the technological shift in the world. (Latham, G. ET al.2006) It is recognised that the students in classrooms today are not the same students as a mere ten years ago. However they are 'subjectively different by virtue of their relationship to new times.’ (Green and Bigum, 1993, cited in Latham, G. et al. 2006) In recognising the shift in our learners of today, we as future educators also have to recognise the new needs and capacities of our students, which demand reconceptualized curricula and pedagogies. (Latham, G. et al. 2006)
In order to engage our students of the 21st century, it is up to us as teachers to engage them in meaningful, rich tasks, where learning is a want not a need. There are a number of ways to engage our students in classrooms, however it is found that the use of technology in schools can in fact reach a level of engagement that is difficult to achieve in other ways. (Kearsley & Schneiderman, 1999) A framework that recognises the importance of technology, as an engagement tool is better known as Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning developed, by Greg Kearsley and Ben Schneiderman.
When using the word engagement, Kierlsey and Schneiderman (1999) understand that children are motivated to learn when using active cognitive processes, such as problem solving, decision- making and evaluating processes.
In conjunction with Kierlsey and Schneiderman’s framework for technology-based teaching and learning is the active learning model. The active learning model adopts the notion that the learning experience is multi-directional and that learning occurs and is shared between all members of a classroom setting, including from teacher to student and from student to teacher. (ACU, 2000)
Both of the models work side by side to enhance student learning.

There are a range of learning technologies and tools that are available over the Internet that can enhance both teacher and student learning.
The main underlying reason to use the following technologies in my classroom would be to engage my students in meaningful and rich tasks.
The first engagement tool that I, as a future educator will be using in my classroom are the Voki avatars. Voki Avatars are a free service, which, allow the creation of personalised speaking avatars, which can be embedded into personal blogs and in email messages. (Oddcast, 2007-2008)
There are a number of uses for vokis, however in an education setting they can be a very useful engagement tool for teachers, to introduce a topic, to show a role-play or to have a bit of fun with the class. By engagement I mean that, all students are motivated to learn because of the meaningful context of the learning environment and activities. (Greg Kearsley & Ben Schneiderman, 1999)
After discovering the avatars in this course, I decided to use them in a lesson to show a role-play. It was amazing to see how well the students in my class responded to the avatars. They were totally engaged with the lesson and they could remember exactly what the avatars had said a week later.
This showed me how beneficial they really are in a classroom setting. Vokis need not only be used by the teacher in a classroom setting, however they can also be extremely beneficial for students learning, in areas such as story retell, visual literacy and also to show students what text to speech looks and sounds like.
The next tool that I am going to discuss is PowerPoint and the endless possibilities that can be achieved by using this technology in a classroom setting.
PowerPoint is a presentation software package that is user friendly and fun to use. PowerPoint’s can be developed for a number of purposes, however the two main purposes that I would use PowerPoint’s in my classroom would be for engagement tools and also for digital portfolios. Firstly, PowerPoint can be used as a teaching tool, to allow educators to incorporate ICT's into their lessons that are easy for the students, however most of all that are easy for the teachers.
The great thing about PowerPoint is that you do not have to be a technological whiz by any means to use it and there are a number of free programs available to help teachers step by step to create their own presentations and also to teach students how to do the same. As a frequent user of PowerPoint I would use the free tutorials that are available, such as ‘actden’ to teach my students how to create their own PowerPoint. Once the students were familiar with the dynamics of PowerPoint, I would get them to set up their own digital portfolio. The digital portfolio would consist of a number of slides that would track the students learning and progress throughout the year. (Kember, 2008) This would give students the opportunity to showcase their learning and achievement with friends and family from both inside and from outside of the school environment. It would also allow the teacher with a set of documents that provide evidence of knowledge. (Kember, 2008)

After researching and experiencing the endless possibilities of webquests, I am excited to say that I cannot wait to set one up for my future students. However if I were to set up a webquest for a unit of work, I would also have my students set up a personal blog that would be connected to the webquest. Webquests are an authentic learning tool that adopt the active learning and the collaborative learning approaches. Personally I would set up a webquest that would run throughout an entire term and that was to be completed in small groups, of two to three students.
Students would work their way through the webquest, while along the way posting reflective comments, questions and answers onto their personal blog spaces to share with their peers. The use of the small groups together with the personal blog spaces would encourage collaborative learning and enhance student success. Collaborative learning occurs when students work together and alongside each other to learn. Dillenberg and Schneider (1995, cited in Krause, et al. 2007) explain that collaborative learning may occur where learners work in small groups, to achieve a common goal. This is exactly my intent for the use of the webquest and the blog, where the class would be working in small groups to achieve an end product, whilst underneath it all they will be learning collaboratively. The use of the blog would also be great for students to be able access and work on their webquest outside of school, so that learning can occur outside of a formal school setting. The blog would allow students to share and find out new information and to work together, (without the teacher) to find out new knowledge work through the webquest. This would give the students control and ownership over their learning.

Lastly, the final teaching and learning tool that I would like to adopt into my class would be the use of podcasts. A podcast is a digital audio file that can be made available on the Internet, by using an RSS feed. (Orden, 2005-2008)
Podcasts can be a great teaching tool, to introduce students to a new topic by showing them a video, song or play on the computer. However in my class, I would like to use podcasts for students to make their own audio file, such as a video, a story retell or a music clip. The creation of the podcast would create an authentic assessment task, one that the students can take charge of. It would also be a great opportunity for the students to be able to showcase their knowledge over the Internet and to share it outside of the school with friends and family. How exciting for students to design, make and showcase their own learning over the Internet.

Although I have only known about most of these technology tools for a mere six weeks, I now feel like I have grown into a digital native and I have come so far.
I am sure that these are only a few of the available teaching and learning tools out there, however I am now confident to say that as a 21st century teacher,
I feel that I can connect my 21st century students with real, relevant and rousing learning experiences, by incorporating these new exciting technologies into my lesson.




Reference List

Kearsley G & Schneiderman B. 1999. Engagement Theory: A framework for technology- based teaching and learning. Retrieved from: http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm on the 14th August 2009.

Kember, D. 2008. Learning with Digital Portfolios. Retrieved from: http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/pdf/smart-newsletter.pdf on the 17th August 2009.

Krause K, Bochner S, Duchesne, S. 2007. Educational Psychology: learning and teaching. 2nd Edition. Thomson, Melbourne, VIC.

Latham G, Blaise M, Dole S, Faulkner J, Lang J and Malone k. 2006. Learning to Teach: New Practices, New Times. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, VIC.


The Abilene Christian UniversityAdams Center for Teaching Excellence. 2000. Active Learning Online. Retrieved from: http://www.acu.edu/cte/activelearning/whyuseal2.htm on the 27th July 2009.


Orden 2005-2008. How to Podcast. Retrieved from: http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/what-is-a-podcast.htm on the 17th August 2009.

Making Videos in the classroom

It is understood that video can be one of the most powerful forms of communication and also a very powerful learning tool. ( Education Development Centre, 2009) Videos may be used in a classroom setting for viewing purposes, however it is the actual planning and making of a video that is going to be the most beneficial for students. The use of video in the classroom is endless, as are the benefits for using videos within the classroom, such as teaching kids critical thinking skills, literacy, public speaking and also group decision making skills. ( Education Development Centre, 2009)

Not only does the use of video in the classroom enhance students thinking skills, it also helps kids to work collaboratvely together. Collaborative learning is a joint effort either by students working together or the student and teacher working together. (Smith, L & Macgregor, J. 1992) A creation of video amongst a class of students is only going to be effective if the students work together as a team and take on particular roles to create a finished product.

Videos are now a very easy tool to intergrate into the classroom with todays technology. In this instance the teacher does not have to be an expert in making videos as there are a number of free websites available that guide students/ teachers to create their own videos and to upload them onto a website such as YouTube. One of the many free online tutorials that could be used to introduce students on how to make their own video, is called Media College. This website provides students with step by step instructions on how to produce their own professional movie.

Reference List:

Smith & Macgregor et al. 1992. Collaborative Learning: A source book for higher education. USA.

Education Development Centre, 2009. An Introduction to Making Videos. Retrieved from: http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/activities/multimedia/video.asp on the 15th August, 2009.

Voice Thread

I'm just discovering the voice thread website and i think that it is another great tool to enhance your pictures, videos and powerpoint presentations. As a future teacher this website would be good to set up as a class, so that students could share there pictures (taken in class) with each other and also with family members, friends etc. I like the application where students would be able to describe their photo using the record option. I think that this is a great tool. These are a couple of the photos that i uploaded and added text to.

Presentation with a new layer...MP3

Our Class Podcast

View more presentations from alice4567.

This is my second attempt at embedding my powerpoint from slideshare, only this time it is better (hopefully) as i have added a mp3. media file to explain to the students what is happening in each slide.

I think that this application is a great idea, not only to add another layer to the presentation but also to target different learning styles and needs wihtin the class. For example i have an esl student in my class, who can understand a conversation, but not written text. This will be a great benefit to him and i am interested to see how the other students in the class respond. I hope it works becasue i did have a lot of trouble trying to sync the audio to the slides. Anyway only one way to find out i guess.

My Slideshare Powerpoint presentation

Our Class Podcast

View more presentations from alice4567.

I have just uploaded this PowerPoint presentation to my slideshare account, which i will be using as a part of my lesson next week. Now i dont have to worry about saving my presentation to my usb, instead i will just access my document via my slideshare account. Much easier!!!

Slideshare

I really like the idea of slideshare and i think that it is fantastic that you can upload your powerpoints to one place on the internet that can be accessed from anywhere. The best part is no matter what software you use to create your powerpoint the website will play it. Now you don't have to worry about converting it to the same program as on the computer such as PowerPoint 2003.

The website doesn't only allow you to upload you powerpoint presentations, however it also allows Word documents and Adobe PDF Portfolios to be uploaded and shared publicly or privately. (Slideshare, 2009)

I think that this is a great tool for anyone who is frequently creating powerpoints at home and sharing them elsewhere, as part of a presentation etc. As a teacher this tool would be great as you could upload you powerpoints to one place and have them there as ready references for ever!!!

Reference List:

Slideshare, 2009. Retrieved from: http://www.slideshare.net/ on the 17th August, 2009.

MediaFire

I love the idea of this website and i am so excited that i don't have to stress about where to put my documents anymore. MediaFire is a great website that allows you to upload your files and keep them in a safe domain that can be accessed at any computer. (MediaFire, 2006) Before i used to keep all of my files on my usb stick, however there has always been a worry that my usb may crash or even worse i may lose it. Now that i have uploaded my files from my documents to the mediafire website, i can feel happy to know that i can never lose them and i can access them from anywhere which is great.

I will definately be using this site to upload my files and also to keep my digital photos in a safe place. I am so excited about this and i can't wait to share it with my friends.

I have just uploaded my first file onto mediafire and i am about to go and do the rest (could take me a while) this is the url for my shared file: http://www.mediafire.com/?f2xadc4eswa hope it works.

Reference List:

MediaFire, 2006. Retrieved from: www.mediafire.com on the 17th August, 2009.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an online free-content encylopdia. The Wikipedia encyclopedia is written by people all over the world, and anyone who has the knowledge on a topic can add/change or delete the information in the article. (Wikipedia, 2008) Talk about shared knowledge and collaborative learning, this is both of these things in a very large and open space.

I used the wikipedia to do a search on poetry (next terms unit of work) and i came up with a range of resources and useful knowledge that not only will help my students but that will also help me when developing my learning experiences. The article on poetry had a number of fantastic descriptions about all of the different forms of poetry and also some very useful links, that provide examples of different poems. I will definately be using the wikipedia encycolpedia both inside and outside of the classroom.

When using wikipedia inside the classroom, i would implement it a number of different ways. For an introduction into poetry i might use the projector screen and look at the different types of poems while, asking the students to re-write the descriptions into their english books. I might also like to use wikipedia in my rotations and have one group looking up the different kinds of poems and finding examples, to then ask them to write there own poem in that particular style.

Overall i think that wikipedia is a great idea and that it is a very useful tool for anyone who wants to find out new or more information on a topic. However i don't think that it is only a useful tool for students to find out new information, however i think that it would be great to get the students to add there own knowledge to the site once it is gained i.e at the end of the unit of work. How exciting would it be for our students to learn a new body of knowledge about a topic and to be able to display that knowledge for anyone to view over the internet.

I will be using wikipedia in my unit of work for next term and i will keep you posted on how the students respond and how useful it is as a teaching tool for myself.

Reference: Wikipedia, 2008. retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About on the 17th August, 2009.

Webquests

I have just looked through both of the webquest examples on the Moodle Pilot and i think that they are both very well planned and that they are engaging. Personally i prefer Tom March's design and i like the way that the students are to work in teams with the same roles, as opposed to the other model where the students are to work in small groups, however each student has a different role.

I think that webquests are a fantastic learning/teaching tool to use in a classroom, for both the students and the teacher. Webquests allow the teacher to setup the learning and the students to facilitate that learning. Webquests do require a lot of preperation on the teachers part, however once it is up and running the students are able to work through it as a group without much teacher input needed.

Webquests would work well in schools, however due to lack of resources it may be hard to implement them into an everyday classroom. The only way i can really see a webquest project working is if the teacher sets up a whole class rotation, where small groups can be working at the computers at a time.

Overall i really enjoyed looking through the two webquests and i would love to see one in action in a classroom.

ITunes and Podcasts

I have never really used itunes before and i had never ever heard of a podcast before, that is until now. I just downloaded two great podcasts into my library, that would be great tools for my poetry unit next term. I enjoyed listening and wacthing the podcasts and i think that my class will be really excited when they see them. I can't wait to try them out with my class and i will let you know how they go.

Google Earth

I have just downloaded google earht onto my computer. Although i have only just downloaded this onto my computer , i have used google earth before.

Google earth is a great application for both personal and educational purposes. It allows you to fly anywhere in the world from your pc. You are able to view satellite imagery and maps of the world. Google earth allows you to explore deep goegraphical content and you are able to save your visited places and share them with others.( Google Earth, 2009)

I think that Google Earth would be a great use in schools, to teach students geography, coordinates and also map reading skills. I would like to see this tool used within primary schools, however i think that it would be most effective in the upper primary and high school sectors.

Overall i think that Google Earth is a worthwhile tool to introduce into the classroom, instead of just using maps and globes you can introuduce the use of itcs into the lesson in an easy and meaningful way, were students can learn in context.
Geoerge Siemens(2004) recognises the importance for children to learn in context and he says that a crucial element of this is that the students 'have the ability to see connections between fields, ideas and concepts.' By using tools such as google earth within an educationn setting, the children are able to make visual connections with the world around them, one that they can apply knowledge to a picture.

I think that google earth should be used in schools as it would be beneficial for the learning manager in engaging the students, but most importantly for the students to be able to make the necessary connections with their knowledge.

Reference List:
Google Earth (2009)Retrieved from : http://earth.google.com/ on the 14th August, 2009.

G. Siemens (2004) Connectivism:A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. Retreived from: http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm on the 14th August, 2009.

Class Marker Quizzes

I have just joined up on Class Marker and now i know how my teachers made my math tests at school very clever. I made a quiz about a lesson that i taught last week. We will be revisiting the lesson next week and i will put the quiz on the overhead projector to revise students of the knowledge they learnt last week. The url for my quiz is : http://www.classmarker.com/quiz/?test_id=58048 have a look. I'm going to try the quiz this week and i'll let you know how the students respond.

I think that this is a great website for teachers to create informal tests that the students can take at home to improve their understanding and knoweldge.

Class Marker Quizzes

The Water Song Video

I just found this great video about the water cycle on Teacher Tube. I think that this website is a fantastic resource for teachers. I am going to show this video to my class and they are learning about water and where water comes from. I think that this video would be great for the engage stage of the unit.

The Water Song

Water Cycle Song

Water Cycle Song

Water Cycle Song

Shared via AddThis

Picnik

Wow!!! I am so excited, i have always wondered how people edit their pictures and add so many effects to them. Although i have always wondered about this i have never bothered to find out how. But now i know how, using this great free site Picnik. I have just spent all morning playing with my photos and editing them using this site.

Picnik is a free website for people to access their photos from virtually anywhere on the web (facebook, myspace, photobucket ect. ) and edit them, by adding a range of fantastic effects. (Wikipedia, 2005)

I think that picnik is a great tool for both personal uses at home and also for professional uses at work. Photos can be used as engagement tools in the classroom, for posters and also for our visual leaners. Visual learners prefer using images, pictures, colors, and maps to organize information and communicate with others. (Learning Styles, 2003) This is a great way to engage students into a lesson, whether the students in your class are visual learners or not, i think that any student working with this online editing service would be engaged and interested because they can personalise any photo for a specific purpose. When i am suggesting that this type of program should be implemented into schools, i am not referring to an everyday classroom, however i think it would be very successful in a high school visual art/photography class.

Reference List:

Wikipedia (2005) Picnik. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picnik

Learning Styles (2003) http://www.learning-styles-online.com/style/visual-spatial/

Flikr

I have just discovered flikr and i think it is a great concept. I like the idea of the private spaces, where photos can only be viewed by family and friends for personal photos and videos. I also like the concpet of the public domain, but i think that people need to be aware of what they put on there and also what they may view. I think that flikr would be a good resource for teachers, however personally if i was to use it in my classroom, i would make sure that the students were only allowed in a private domain, so that there was no chance of exposure to the public photos/videos out there.

As a personal use i would love to set up my own private albumn of photos, that i could share with my friends and in particular with my family whom live interstate.

Overall i think that flikr is a great source for photos, and as an alternative for what ic currently use, which is google images, i will definately be using flikr as an alternative.

I'm not sure if this site is allowed in education queensland schools, but if anyone has seen flikr in use in a classroom, i would love to hear in what context and how sucessful it was.

Thanks Alice

2009 08 01 trieste 09

2009 08 01 trieste 09
Originally uploaded by marcoo®

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Interactive Whiteboards

After reading the article about interactive whiteboards, i think that we would all agree that they are a fantastic tool to use within the classroom. I think that interactive whiteboards would provide maximum engagament for any lesson and esepcially for your visual learners. However, in saying this i also think that like anything they would only be effective if used in a meangingful way for students. I dont think that this tool should be the be all and end all of every lesson, however when used in a meaningful context, i think they would be very beneficial.

Interactive whiteboards allow teachers to show students any thing which can be presented on a computer's desktop (educational software, web sites, and others).In addition, interactive whiteboards allow teachers to record their instruction and post the material for review by students at a later time. This can be a very effective instructional strategy for students who benefit from repetition, who need to see the material presented again, for students who are absent from school, for struggling learners, and for review for examinations. (Wikipedia 8/07)

There are a number of ways that interactive whiteboards could be used in the classroom, to support a number of lessons, such as the use of embedded resources such as maps to teach geography in a visual way, digital storytelling and to turn any worksheet into a virtual picture that can be highlighted, circled for english purposes etc.

I have not seen the use of an interactive whiteboard in action in a classroom yet, but if anyone has i would love to hear how it was used and whether or not it was an effective teaching tool.

Thanks Alice

References:

Wikipedia August, 2007.

PowerPoint

I just completed the tutorial on PowerPoint. I found the steps very basic and a little bit repetitive. I think this would be a great tool for the teacher to actually use with the students, because it works through step by step and it is very basic. I only heard the other day that we are meant to be teaching PowerPoint to students in year 1 now!!! This amazed me as i only recall learning about PowerPoint in year 6. I think that PowerPoint presentations are a great tool for students to use in schools. Both of my prac classes have used PowerPoint presentations as a digital portfolio tool, where everything they have learnt has been recorded from term 1 right through to term 4. I love this idea and think that PowerPoint is an easy, user friendly way to incorporate into any classroom. My year 2's are always updating their digital portfolio, and i have viewed them as a successful tool for the teacher, the student and the parents to track what the students have learnt throughout the year.

Thanks Alice

Voki's

I have just made my first voki and i think they are a fantastic tool, both inside the school and outside of the school. Vokis are a great tool that allow you to create pesonalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog profile, in email messages and even in powerpoint presentations. Vokis are a fun, easy tool that anyone can use to incorporate into a classroom setting. Personally i would use vokis for students to insert into their powerpoint presentations, as a fun, engaging tool. I would also see the benefit of using a voki for a retelling excercise, where even the shyest of students amongst the class can feel comfortable with using their voice embedded into a voki. I have only just begun finding my way through the voki site, however i hope to gain some more experience with these and hopefully become an expert on ways to embed them into my lessons (i'm sure there would be heaps) I also think they could be a good engagement tool for the teacher to use, to introduce a new unit of work to the class.Overall i think these are a great tool, and i will definately be using them in my class.

Authentic Assessment

Wikis

Hi,

I have had some experience with wikis and I have a slight idea of how they work, basically someone sets up a url to a wiki about a certain topic, there is information about the topic on the page, however this information does not need to be scholorally information and anyone(depending on the privacy settings) can add, alter or change the information??!!

Anyway thats my understanding of it. I think that a wiki in a school setting would be a great idea and if set up properly the students would love to interact with it. Of course the topic would have to have relvance to the unit of work and the inital set up would have to be done at school, however once set up , I think this is a great way to encourage students to research a topic and add their findings to a public space on the net such as this, where their thoughts are being shared and acknowledged by anyone. This type of ownership gives students the ability to showcase their knowledge and to further enhace and build upon others knowledge.

What an easy, free and non-time consuming tool for teachers to use to encourage their students to research and share ideas outside of school.

Thanks Alice

RSS Feeder maybe technology isn't so hard after all!!!

I was sitting in our lecture last week as everyone was talking about this thing called rss??? I sat there quietly and thought to myself what is rss and why do we need it.

I now feel a whole lot better about this rss 'thing' because i know what it stands for and I actually now realise that it is really useful.

Used to monitor other peoples blogs, it means that I don't have to endlessly search through my followers pages to see if anything new has been posted. Instead I can just visit my reader (which is google reader) and the job is done for me. It is then up to me to choose what i would like to or like not view.

How much easier and less time consuming is that!!! I am beginning realise that all of these technology tools aren't so scary after all and people have done the hard work for us! Yay

Thanks Alice

A totally new world! Exciting? Scary? Overwhelming???

Wow!!! This whole blog thing is a little bit scary and confronting to me, but I am actually kind of getting the hang of it. Being brought up with computers i have always thought i was pretty good at them, that is until now!!! I never knew that half of the things we have learnt about so far even existed, such as blogs, the word netiquette and moodle. I'm reassuring myself that there is another world out there and by the end of this course i will be apart of that other world.. Lets hope so anyway. Well i'm going to do some more exploring i will try to add to peoples blogs and i hope people will add to mine :)

Bye for now xo

Moodle, Blogs, Netitquette? Scary, Confusing, Exciting??!!

Wow, this is my first post so i sure do hope this works ( i tried to add one before but it didn't seem to appear) anyway enough on my difficulties...I am sure there will be many more to come! Which is what my first post is going to be about. Before this course i thought i was pretty up to date with technology (how wrong my thinkings have been) I have always grown up with technology and computers, first of all it was msn, then i moved to myspace now all i use is facebook. However now i have to retrain myself into something new and confusing called a blog (i think) Since been apart of this course for this very short time, my eyes have opened up to a whole new world that is out there that i have to say i have never heard of and i am shocked by this. The word netiquette, blogs and this new way of learning called moodle??!! I sit writing this shocked at how i have already been left behind in this technologically savy world in which we live. I think to myslef how lucky we are to be apart of this course to get us all up to speed, but then i ask myself 'what happens next year and the year after and in ten years time when were on our own and blogs are a thing of the past, and there is a totally new way of working/learning online???' Maybe i'm thinking way to into it or maybe i'm freaking myself out but I am really excited to learn more about this and to get myself up there in the world of technology!

I'm hoping it's not just me who feels this way, and excited that we can all help each other through this new learning journey.

I'm excited to hear how you all feel about moodle, blogs and this totally new world.

I'll try to comment on peoples blogs if i can keep up and i hope to hear from you guys as well.
Thanks and sorry about the blabbering its just so easy to do on this thing. Ok shutup now Alice hahaha Speak soon!