REFLECTION- Week 4

How could your learners use multimedia in the classroom as an approach to learn and share their learning?
Digital Images:
- Use photos as a prompt/ stimulus for narrative or descriptive writing
- graphics for written reports or presentations
- Students can create story boards of events
- photos of field trips
- Photos for evidence of experiments/ step-by-step process
-create movies and put a story behind it
Having a digital camera in the classroom is essential. Students would be much more engaged if they have the ability to use the camera and integrate their photos into their published work. However, permission from parents to take photos of other students must granted.

Podcast:
Podcasts can be created from original material by students and teachers or existing audio files can be downloaded for classroom use. Creating a podcast allows students to share learning experiences. It provides them with a world-wide audience that makes learning meaningful and assessment authentic. Teachers can use the technology to provide additional and revision material to students to download and review at a time that suits them.

Digital Video:
With digital video students can:
-Create, write and compose interviews,
-Learn film editing and film composition skills (imovie, moviemaker)
-Students can use still photos, text overlay and sound to create a meaningful video- this could be a reflection task or a research project.
- Create emotion and feelings through text overlay and still images
- reach students with a variety of learning styles, especially visual learners, and students with a variety of information acquisition styles
- engage students in problem-solving and investigative activities
-help students practice media literacy and critical viewing skills

To sum up multimedia use in my classroom- It would be a definite! The centre for implementing technology in the classroom quotes, “When students are engaged in actively constructing knowledge from a combination of experience, interpretation and structured interactions with peers and teachers, they are more likely to gain an expert understanding of science concepts. Technology tools are one way to expose children to this type of learning.” Reflecting on my prac classroom, the students are always engaged and on task and I believe the reason being is that my mentor teacher is constantly intergrating ICT’s into her planning and lessons.

To sum up my thoughts on using digital video as an ICT tool in my classroom as a future Learning Manager, I used a SWOT anaylsis scaffold.

	STRENGTHS	WEAKNESSESS	OPPORTUNITIES For certain strategies	THREATS
Digital Video	·    Using sight and sound, video is the perfect medium for students who are auditory or visual learners ·    Engaging for students ·    Interactive ·    Can create movies for still pictures ·    Create, write and compose interviews ·    Reach students with a variety of learning styles ·    Engage students in problem-solving and investigative activities ·    help students practice media literacy and critical viewing skills	·    Time consuming ·    Computers/cameras/ video cameras for whole class	·    Can create emotional and touching presentations ·    Higher-order thinking ·    Creativity	·    Ethical and safety issues when working online ·    Students need to be aware of creative common licences

As with all ICT tools Learning Managers need to be concious of legal, safe and ethical standards and guidlines. In regards to the use of digital videos in the classroom Learning Managers should:
- model and teach appropraitate behaviour when filming themselves and others
- Be aware of creative commons licences
- Identify and use resources appropriate for diversity
- Promote safe use of technology resources
- Facilate equitable access to technological resources for all students


Reference
CITEd research center. (2010). Using Multimedia Tools to Help Students Learn Science. Retrieved from http://www.cited.org/index.aspx?page_id=148

Week 4- Learning Activities

Multimedia

Images- I believe the use of digital images encourages critical and creative thinking. Throughout my learning experience at uni, I have used digital images in over half of my assignments- for evidence of work of a study and to display my work.

JISC Digital Media published an article “Practical Ways to Use Digital Images in Teaching and Learning”

- this article was very interesting to read. It has many suggestions in which digital images could be used to enhance learning:

·         To inspire discussion of a topic, looking at multiple aspects and contexts (e.g. general history, social history, industrial history)

·         To stimulate students writing a story/poem about that image - enhancing creative and language skills

·         To encourage critical thinking skills (e.g. describing a photograph from many different viewpoints)

·         To document an event and analyse practice (e.g. taking images via a digital camera of a student show to provide documentation and analysis, field work)

Podcasting- I am going to be completely honest with you. What is a podcast? …Well now I know after doing some research, It’s just a recording of your voice that is published on the internet.

Using podcasts in the classroom would be enjoyable and interesting for the students when they have the chance to create their own and share them. But- parental permission would be needed. We could just save them to the computer and listen to them without publishing them.

Digital Video- My first experience with movie maker was in the subject, ‘the arts’- here I created a movie about ‘my arts’ journey- I have uploaded it for your enjoyment.

Since I learnt how to use movie maker- I created a movie for my partner, he travels and surfs a lot. I used a collection of still digital images, text overlay, and video to create a movie for him. I have also uploaded that for your enjoyment.

My third attempt at creating a digital video was for the course, Ensuring Student Success. I am in the process of this movie and will add it for your enjoyment once I have completed it… I will keep you posted.

As Kearney and Shuck (2006) suggests digital video is a tool for communication, observation, reflection that enhance met cognitive, higher-order thinking and presentation skills.

This was a great article that encourages video as a powerful tool for learning- http://aaalab.stanford.edu/papers/Designed_Video_for_Learning.pdf

REFLECTION- Week 3

Wow! The sky is really the limit now isn’t it! So many choices, so much variety! How lucky are these kids. I know when I was at primary school I was so scared anytime we were asked to use a computer- if I had to do homework I was scared I couldn’t get it done, mum was always too busy on it! Now that’s all the students want to do, computer this, computer that, can I type it, can I present it on PowerPoint. Imagine when we introduce all these new ICTS to them- websites, wikis, and blogs! They are going to love us!

The readings from this week expressed great ideas on how to use different ICT’s in the classroom. I really enjoyed the prep/year 1 example with the use of emails to the class and Google Earth to learn about a different country, culture and animals- I thought this was fantastic. I remember when I first played around with Google Earth I was amazed. Using it in my classroom would teach the students about maps, space, location and direction.

The learning activities introduced me to a whole new world of learning that is going to be so useful in my classroom! Once I opened up the edit page on wiki spaces ideas just started flowing. If I didn’t have so many other activities and weeks ahead of me, I would have spent so much more time on it- for the time being I was just playing, maybe I might get a chance in future weeks to expand my idea and maybe even implement something similar in my prac. Talking with Cathy in class, we thought we could use wikis in our English presentations about different resources for multimodal and digital texts for a specific year level. Look, my new knowledge is already being put to some much use- I love it! Looking forward to learning about the other tools available!

Week 3- Learning Activities

Creating a wiki- I found that creating a wiki very interesting… check out my wiki. The website site for instructions was scaffold very clearly. I loved the idea of printing the username and password page out- I have so many logins now, I am bound to forget one of them. I am fond of the wiki tool- it can used for some many purposes. For teachers it can be used as a communication tool, for year levels or whole school.

For students it could be used as lesson summaries for homework- you would get the excuse of leaving their book at home. It’s a good way to share everyone’s ideas and a collaboration of notes. Wikis are an enjoyable technology. Students will enjoy the editing process online much more than they would paper. Wikis are a great way to help students learn to collaborate, and they will allow teachers to monitor who's making changes, to what, when.

As a future Learning Manager it will be important to model and inform students of the legal, safe and ethical behaviours when working in wikis. Students must be taught  and modeled how to acknowledge someone’s ideas and images.

Creating a website- along with this week’s activities was creating a website-check mine out, I have two.

http://www.wix.com/danni2812/danni-webquest

http://www.wix.com/raydanielle/danniraytech
One was made for SOSE last year and the other one was made for Technology this year. You can see by looking at the 2nd one, that I gained experience from completing the first one! The best thing about this tool is that it was free- it kept asking for payment though. I have never thought of making a website before I had to for SOSE than I choose on my own will to do it for technology- which I actually did enjoy and thought were tools students could use so they could take control of their own learning. Research tasks were provided and specific sites, activities and open-ended questions were given for students to investigated and research on. This specific website tool, would be very engaging for the students. For one it’s using technology, which we all know students love. With a website you can post work, create an informational site, maintain a database of links for projects and display projects. Of course keeping in mind the safe, legal and ethical requirements which need to be monitored by the Learning Manager if students are using the internet. When dealing with anything that is online, you must make sure you are safe as a Learning Manager, you are modeling safe behavior to your students and encouraging safe behavior with your students and the school.

As a future Learning Manager I am aware what copyright, fair use and copyright infringement are and the expectations the school and students have on them. Smartcopying is a website that provides information fact sheets about all the issues that students, teachers and parents need to be aware of when students are working online.

When students are working with websites I have created for them or if they are creating websites, students need to be aware of copyright, creative common licences, cyber bulling and harsh material online.

As a future Learning Manager:

• I would make student access limited and password protected. 
• If I were to scan/copy materials, I could only use 10% of materials, this is protected by Statutory Text and Artistic Licence- and acknowledge where the information is from
• If I were to upload students original work on a blog, wiki or online, I would have asked their permission, had their parents sign a consent form stating I am able to. As always stating that the work is not my own, and using a creative commons license on their work.

Would I use weebly regularly in my classroom? Yes! The privacy setting it offers could come in use! If designing a unit with specific assessment for certain dates- you could hide this from students until it was time for students to view it. But how could you monitor this?

To sum up my thoughts on using websites as a tool in my classroom as a future Learning Manager I used a SWOT anaylsis scaffold.

	STRENGTHS	WEAKNESSESS	OPPORTUNITIES For certain strategies	THREATS
Websites	·    Very informative ·    Easily to navigate around ·    Can use hyperlinks to other websites ·    Variety of different sites to create a page (weebly.com, wix.com) ·    Private function for teachers ·    Students can have their own accounts ·    You can create free accounts- free access	·    Not very interactive ·    Once published you cannot keep maintaining it (can’t add to it)	·    Students can create their own ·    Can be used so students can monitor own learning ·    Students have instant access to a wide range of online available resources ·    Can be self-directed	·    Ethical issues online- harsh content online

 

REFLECTION- Week 2

It is now week 2- I must say I have learnt a lot, and it has been useful for learning in other course and on my prac. From week 1 I learnt how to link a URL website to my blog- this has been a useful tool as I have been able to create a powerpoint for my lessons at school and create a link to a website which takes me directly to the site rather than having to ask my mentor teacher to sign into the internet for me all the time.

I have now used and added to two wikis. I was a little confused at first about where to find the second wiki but soon realised it was on the same link as the first wiki.  I strongly believe they are a useful tool for a future Learning Manager. They are a great way of communicating- as teachers they can share ideas, websites, news, meeting times, lesson plans and as a reflection tool about how a particular lesson went. As for students they could use wikis in the same way we are- a collaborative learning environment. I am learning about all the other learning theories by reading all the other campuses and groups notes- this is going to be so helpful for assessment task 1. Students could do this in the same way- although they would need explicit scaffolding through this process and an explanation as how their peers learning and research is going to help them.

Week 2- Learning Activities

Legal Safe and Ethical Practice- This reading was very informative and I will be able to take a lot from this. The 10% rule is great to know, although I have always believed referencing and acknowledging someone else orignal work was ethical and the safeway. After reading the scenario about scanning students work to blogs- I thought this would have copyright issues, however I found out that there would not be any copyright issues as it is students ‘original’ work.

E-Learning design- Learning through online presence to enhance teaching and learning for student is first an engaging tool and secondly highly education for students to keep up-to-date with the every changing digital world we live in. Learning online can connect students to a world of knowledge in which they can either collaboratively or independently research- this informs the connectivism theory learnt earlier. Students can learn through a variety of multi-modal resources which is a hot topic of the new curriculum.

TPACK Framework- How will what I have learnt about TPACK benefit me as a future Learning Manager?

Well first I did the reading that was provided to use on moodle and clicked on the link- did it sink in, NO! So I did my own independent research.

I found a website (http://www.tpck.org/) which clarified TPACK for me. TPACK is based on the learning construct of Professor Lee Shulman who believes that pedagogical and content knowledge should not be seen separately, rather used to design learning that is adapted and organised accordingly to the context to ensure that learning content and pedagogy is more suitable and accessible for  all students (Koehler, n.d.). Together it is represented as Pedogogical Content Knowledge (PCK). Technology provides an additional element to PCK that also works as an integrated component of the learning design process- Technologically Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK).

I believe technology, when integrated with interactive digital content, teacher training and community involvement, has a positive impact on student learning and performance. As a prac student, technology is a major learning tool used about 95% of a learning day- either students on computers or the teacher using the interactive whiteboard or PowerPoint. The students are always engaged and interested to participate in the lessons.

Bloom’s Taxonomy- I really enjoyed reading this article. It was interesting to find the 3 kinds of learning.

• Cognitive: mental skills (Knowledge)
• Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (Attitude)
• Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (Skills)

This was particularly interesting because during my prac this week my mentor teacher approached me and asked if I had heard of Blooms Taxonomy. It just happened to be that I had just read about it. I knew and heard of its existence prior but this reading broadened my understanding. She explained that next week she will show me how she uses it in her classroom for her extension students as it helps deepen their understanding and improve their critical thinking skills- I am looking forward to adding to this post after next week’s prac visit after seeing Bloom’s Taxonomy used in the classroom.

REFLECTION- Week 1

Connectivism

After selecting a partner/group to work with (Karie and Cathy) we decided to add to the wiki separately after completing the reading and viewing the video individually. This is because the week was nearly over and Karie is doing the course by flex. In one aspect I regret doing it like this, as I was totally confused after completing the reading by myself with no one to talk about it with. But after I watched the video and did some more research it all came together. This again supports my learning style of being a visual/sensory learner.

After reading George Siemens article about Connectivism: a learning theory for the digital age, my thoughts was along the line of; is this a new theory overriding old theorist?

At first I didn't really understand the full intention of the theory.  I thought it had something to do with the way in which people are able to connect via the Internet to help their learning. This was partially correct from the limited understanding of the information I read.

The video explores the understanding that students need to monitor their own learning. Students should not be supplied with text books. Their learning is made possible through various tools of technology where they make new connections with peers to learn. What is taught to the students is how to validate and access the information they find to ensure its credibility. The students than post their findings to a social bookmarking site where the students share URLs on the specific topics. The student makes a virtually text book for their peers and futures students to learn from.

From watching the video too re-reading Siemens article, it finally clicked- I like it and it’s logical. We are living in the new era, a digital society where technology is “rewiring our brains”. I like the idea that students can engage with others around the world, bringing together different sources of information about the same topic. Through this idea the students are responsible for their own knowledge and learning. The teacher is there to teach the student the how's (how to build the network, how to ask the questions, how to search correctly) but the student is the main director of their learning. This method of teaching will develop better study habits and increase communication skills.

Just like we were provided with the resources to go do independent research to find the knowledge we need to know to pass on to our peers. This new knowledge can be viewed by future learners of this course. This way of learning is useful- It is happening in my prac classroom. The students have a set roster for presenting their homework speaking task- each student has a different topic to present and independently research. Their peers have to take notes and answer questions about what is being presented.

During this week’s activities I learnt new tools on the internet/computer. I learnt how to do screen captures through paint. I screen captured my results of my learning style and multiple intelligences test so I could add it to my blog and reflect back to it. I copied the screen to a word document so I could crop the screen and then copy and pasted it to paint and saved it as picture file (as I was not sure if I could crop a picture in paint). In my blog I than uploaded my picture. I really had no idea I could do that. In many other courses I was wondering how to do it, because I really could have used this tool.

I can definitely say this week I have learnt a lot. It’s only the first week and first set of tasks/activities so I am really looking forward to what lies ahead.

Week 1 Learning Activities

If your score on a scale is 1-3, you are fairly well balanced on the two dimensions of that scale.

If your score on a scale is 5-7, you have a moderate preference for one dimension of the scale and will learn more easily in a teaching environment which favors that dimension.

If your score on a scale is 9-11, you have a very strong preference for one dimension of the scale. You may have real difficulty learning in an environment which does not support that preference.

From this information it suggest I was more of an active and sensory learner as I liked group work and I am patient with details and good a memorising facts and doing hands-on (laboratory) work.

From my learning experiences this is correct in some belief. I prefer hands-on learning than sitting down listening to lecture slides. However, I do prefer to have individual assignment tasks than group tasks- only because it is so hard for group meeting times.

This activity was interesting, I have completed a few learning style tests, and most of them have come back saying I am a sensory learner.

For learners in a class some suggestions for each learning style:
Active learners- Allow the students to discuss, apply and explain the knolwedge they have just learnt. Students learn best in groups.
Reflective learners- Allow the students to reflect on what they have learnt- in a reflective journal or a blogg. Students learn best when working alone.
Sensing Learners- Engage students in hands-on activities. Students like learning facts and discovering possiblities.
Intutiive Learners- Students are very innovative and like to work fast.
Visual Learners- Learn best through pictures, graphs, images, diagrams
Verbal Learners- Learn best through reading words and writing
Sequential Learners- Allow students to gain an understanding of the knowledge by step by step instruction
Global Learners- Students learn best by absorbing the knowledge in random order and seeing connections with prior knolwedge.

To gain knowledge of  student learning styles in my class, the following questions could be used:
Do you prefer to build and make something or write the procedure to make or build it?
Do you prefer to work alone or in a group?
Do ever think about what you have learnt?
Do you enjoy reading and writing?
When you complete a puzzle, do you look at the picture on the box or try to complete it without knowing the picutre?

Multiple Intelligences

I completed the multiple intelligence test. It declared I was logical (number smart) than visual/spatial (picture smart). When thinkin about my learners, I need to consider each learners needs and how best they learn. As Gardner states, all learners learn in different ways.

21st Century Learners
I loved this article! It is so true. Since I have been on prac, I have noticed that the students are way more engaged when they are using the computer, when the teacher uses the interactive whiteboard for questions and tasks, when the students get a go on the interactive whiteboard, when the students use the internet for math challenges. But when the students are asked to open their Maths book to page.... There goes the chatter, the disturbances, the "Miss, can I go the toliet." They don't want to be there.
When the students are involved in the technology and equipment they enjoy, they are going to learn by teaching us how to use it as tool to teach the rest of the class and the future!

Welcome to my Blog

Hi, my name is Danielle Ray. I am currently a 2^nd year BLM (Primary) student at CQU- Gladstone. I am really looking forward to engaging and learning in this course Managing E-Learning. I would say I am not that technology/ computer savvy, but hopefully by the end of this course I can ‘I am,’ loud and proud! Firstly by saying I have got this far, I am feeling pretty successful. When I opened the course profile and I read ‘blog’ and ‘wiki’ my enthusiasm dropped. In first semester this year I complete Technology Curriculum and Pedagogy where we were asked to use ‘a technology’ to enhance the learning of a design challenge we completed in class. Terry, our lecturer at the time mentioned blogs- I and the rest of the class had no idea what they were and wanted to forget he even mentioned them, so we chose a different pathway I had already done, a web quest. After the first lecture of Managing E-Learning with Ali and viewing peers blogs they had already started, I am regretting not doing a blog in Technology. They seem to be a very interesting tool that could be easily used to enhance student learning in the classroom. I am really looking forward to learning other engaging tools and technologies in this course.