Reflective Synopsis

I came in to the GDLT program full of optimism at wanting to be a teacher for “little ones” in early primary and have a more positive influence on the world.  I have been in the accounting arena across a number of industries since I felt school in the early 80’s.  I have had a lot of information technology in my working life and even exposure to learning theories through training and professional development.  Life for me has changed dramatically in the last six years.  I am now a single Mum, work from home and have developed a blissful ignorance of technology.  However, starting ICTs has given me a renewed enthusiasm for technology and I am inspired to do some really useful things with it in my teaching.

Learning Theory

 Learning theories set the scene for how we can best gain knowledge.  Every individual learner learns in different ways.  No two learners are the same.  A lot of both physical and emotional actions occurring within a learner at any one given time during the learning process.

I related to Howard Gardner’s theory of MultipleIntelligences and found completing the questionnaire insightful.  Learning is a complex process and we need to be mindful of this fact when we are preparing to teach.

Learning is constructed through our schema and experiences in life, and builds as we go through life.  By learning collaboratively we learn more successfully because we are participating and using other people’s thinking as well as our own. 

I particularly liked Andrew Churches’ paper on Bloom’sDigital Taxonomy and his concept map.  The map demonstrates that we develop our learning by the more we are involved in the process.  The more we do, the more we understand, the more we remember, and  the more our thinking develops.  We move from simple concepts through to more complex process and problem solving. 

Mobile Phones Wiki Reflection

The Mobile Phones Wiki activity had a great scaffolding strategy with de Bono’s Thinking Hats.  This is a great tool to get you thinking on multiple levels in an endeavour to get a balanced and objective look at an issue.  It allows you, and sometimes forces you to consider a lot of different viewpoints which you may not have thought of otherwise.  This was a great collaborative activity as different people offered points, and learning was constructed through having to put on each hat.  I think the outcome was positive and enjoyable.  I gained new knowledge from the activity, as I am sure most people would have.  I was tested by a negative with this online space of only one person being able to edit at one time.  However, by being aware of this I was able to overcome the issue to complete the task.

This is a link to my blog entry on this activity.

Online Spaces – Blogs, Wikis, Websites

These online spaces were all new spaces for me.  Blogs and wikis were not in my vocabulary before ICTs.  I think all the tools have a place in a classroom, but my favourite tool in this group is blogs.  The functionality of blogging is easy enough for young children to use and would be a great way to get children writing.  A blog could be used like a journal to record a field trip to say a museum where images and external links can be added to demonstrate the topic more widely.  The blogs can then be shared with classmates and parents.  A blog would be the digital version of a journal or writing book.

This is a link to my blog entries on blogging, wikis, and websites.

Multimedia – Images, Audio, Podcasting, Videos

I have not had exposure to much multimedia other than digital images.  I find it hard to single out one of the multimedia tools for reflection, as it is important that learners have both visual and auditory senses stimulated during the learning process.  There is an English proverb – a picture paints a thousand words.  Images can support words and audio, as well move a learner beyond those words and audio.  Our experiences and knowledge to this point all influence how we interpret images. 

Young children would be able to use images, and resize them to reduce the space used and uploading time, to support their writing and therefore their learning in a number of online spaces or presentations.  Going back to the museum field trip, children could take digital photos, or use images that are not copyright restricted, and insert them in to their blog to support what they had learned from the trip.  The images could serve as visible links to their writing and demonstration of content knowledge.  Audio would also be support a more indepth experience, although is not a feature able to be put in a blog.

This is a link to my blog entry on resizing images.

Presentations – PowerPoint, Prezi, Glogster

Whilst I have not heard of Prezi or Glogster before, I am very familiar with PowerPoint from my accounting days.  Unfortunately, I have had to view a number of PowerPoint presentations from this time which were not very stimulating or engaging, and therefore I don’t view this tool with much enthusiasm.  The functionality within this program was not used well or to great effect.  The program is a little complicated for very young children.  Young children would be a lot more connected with the use of Mouse Mischief, a tool which allows the use of multiple mice within a single PowerPoint presentation. 

I really liked Glogster, a digital version of creating a poster – a digital version of traditional butchers paper projects.  A Glogster would be a great way for young children to demonstrate what they learned on their field trip to the museum by putting in images, audio, video, words, widgets etc.  It is a way to reflect on what they have learned, and they would feel rewarded by being able to have this publicly viewed by parents and classmates.  Glogster is also a tool which can be linked back to a blog, or other online space.  The use of Glogster links the Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy of creating, comparing, discovering, and summarising of the trip with using these ICT tools linking the learning process to the knowledge acquired.

This is a link to my blog entries on Glogster, Prezi, and PowerPoint.

Animations & Simulations

There are so many tools available, and a lot of them are free.  It is really hard to know where to start.  I really like Google Maps and was impressed by the timelines in Dipity.  The Google Maps could be used as a hook to start the process of going on the field trip to the museum by planning a route there.  You could as view where an exhibit came from.

This is a link to my blog entry on Animations &Simulations.

Legal Safe & Ethical Use

We really do have to protect our children.  The web has brought with it a lot of great things including connectivity with things we might otherwise not have ever been exposed.  I think the biggest problem with the web is that with all this “access to everything” we unwillingly have been connected to a lot of darkness such as bullying, harassment, exploitation, abuse, pornography and other morally repugnant things.  There is also the misuse of things which are not our own.  There is a lot of time and money in intellectual property and therefore people protect this with things like copyrights.  We need to be mindful of using only those images, words and sounds which people have allowed to be shared freely.  From a teaching perspective, the Smartcopying website has a number of factsheets which give clear guidance as to what things we should or should not be using.  There is also a list of websites where you can freely obtain information for use in your teaching material.  Material that is free to use is usually published under Creative Commons.

We started off with learning theories and now we have so many tools it is a little daunting at knowing where to start.  But at the same time it is also very exciting.  ICTs are embedded in life in general and therefore they should be in our teaching.  Whilst realistically technology is not always available to all learners generally for economic reasons, it is still possible to be able to utilise some technology in the classroom.  In fact this is expected as evidenced in the policies of Queensland Studies Authority.

Embedding ICTs within our teaching can create the scene for learning as well as setting up children for life after school.  By using these tools constructively, creating enthusiasm for learning and really engaging children, I hope to can create a love for learning and knowledge within these children that will make them want to go and gather as much knowledge as they can.  The use of ICTs can be a very empowering process which would also instil confidence in young learners and their abilities.  And then they will have tools to create a positive path through their lives.

References & Readings.

PowerPoints

PowerPoint is a very powerful presentations software package.  PowerPoint has a multitude of features which could make it difficult to use for younger or less technologically skilled students.  I personally am a bit over PowerPoint as it was used extensively with training in my past accounting roles, and with very little creativity.  Most of these presentations were just a matter of loading you up with words.

Young students would be able to use the basic features of PowerPoint to create presentations.  I found it helpful to use the tutorial suggestions to plan my presentation in Word and then load that document in to PowerPoint to start the actual presentation.  It was easy to put in images, sound and text .  But the phasing in of points on slides, known as transitions, requires a bit more skill.

This is a link to my basic presentation. 

Making a PowerPoint presentation interactive takes a bit more effort than a basic presentation.  The process of creating storyboard in Word, then an outline, and then converting to PowerPoint is a well-structured process and makes the presentation more effective.   I liked the addition of Mouse Mischief which would enable all students to be involved in the presentation.

This would be useful with brainstorming and planning at the start of activities and would allow all students to collaboratively work.  Further through the process they could then break in to smaller groups or work on individual projects for assessment.

Group 4 Tools - Animations & Simulations

There are so many tools available that it is hard to know where to start.  With a lot of the tools free and functionality much the same throughout, it would be very easy to utilise any of these tools to link or scaffold activities when teaching in the classroom.  A lot of the tools are both visual and auditory so this will help with engaging students both when shown these tools, and when they are able to use them to complete their own activities.

I particularly like Google Maps and Dipity, a timelines tool, as they have so many applications and can be used across all the key learning areas.  These tools can demonstrate that distance that some topics have, such as geography and history, and also that there can be a lot of factors that make up a topic, such as the environment and global warming.  I used Google Maps to find where I lived – majestic Pomona. 

I have also used ABC Reading Eggs previously.  I found the ABC Reading Eggs to be great for my 5 year with starting to learn to read.  The website is simple enough for him to navigate around, and he is completely involved as the game based activities which require his input continuously.  Repetition of sounds, letters and words means it is practice, practice, practice, and all within what seems like a game.  There is lots of verbally praise and virtual stickers and avatars are accumulating whilst conducting each lesson.  The further you get through the lessons the more additional activities you can do – a great way to keep them engaged and rewarded.  Visually it is very stimulating as well.  There is lots of colour and cute little animated characters, such as Sam the ant who narrates most of the activities and is used to theme the scenes with the activities.  I am getting my children to learn to read, while my child is getting to play on Mum’s computer.  A win win situation for us both.

Glogster

This is the glogster I created.  The result is a very simplistic outcome, but all I could come up with in my limited timeframe.  I am happy enough to publish this publically.

I found Glogster easy to use and intuitive in the navigation, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing for me.  With more time to play and more exposure to the application then I could master this tool effectively.  I think it is still simple enough that younger children would be able to use this tool well. 

It is a good way to have students to get involved with ICTs and while using a great tool to demonstrate the knowledge they are gaining on a particular topic, and in a platform that can be assessed and shared with other students and school community, and parents.  Glogster could be used individually or as a group project, and can be as interactive as you want to make it by being able to use all types of multimedia.  I think it would be quite rewarding for students too being able to be published on the web for all to see.

I can see me utilising Glogster a lot more.

Prezi

My attempt to create a Prezi didn’t go well on the first few attempts.  I feel the techno-demons were trying to get the better of me with this.  I was able to start up an account, but couldn’t get through the loading a template step to begin.

However, having viewed the tutorial on the prezis in the course material, this seems like a very engaging activity at being able to add a wow factor to a presentation for students.  You could visually demonstrate very well the detail of a topic by being able to zoom in to text and/or images, all within a much larger concept.  It could also demonstrate that the bigger picture may sometimes not tell the whole story, or that the devil can sometimes be in the detail.

I could see this being a very useful activity, if I can get enough time to master the technology.  I love a challenge, so my prezi days are not over yet.

Podcasting - A Reflection

Podcasting is being able to broadcast audio and/or video via the internet either in real time or downloading for later use.  Downloads can occur with a computer, iPad, iPod, mobile phones and similar devices.

Podcasts are not my favourite web tool.  I am a visual learner and therefore my schema doesn’t lend me to audio recordings particularly well.  However, podcasting would certainly be useful in the classroom.  As Prensky points out in his article “Engage Me or Enrage Me”, students of today are very techno savvy and therefore embrace these types of tools to link them to the learning within the classroom.  Using both visual and auditory tools then engages the whole brain so that students can get the most out of the experience.

Podcasts would be good for students to do verbal reviews of books, films, or excursions, report on activities in the classroom, and even speaking a journal.  The audio part of the podcast would be a great way to develop communication confidence in those students who may not be very good with written language.

Digital Audio Recordings

I created a digital audio recording using the sound recorder on my laptop to test the microphone - you can listen through this link to my wiki (go to the bottom on the page). I downloaded Audacity, but didn’t use it as I wasn’t planning to edit the audio file at this time.  The editing of audio files could be limited by planning a script for the audio prior to the commencement of the recording.

Audio recordings would be a great way to enhance the learning experience by involving all the auditory senses as well as any visual stimulation.  Multimedia has been shown to engage the whole brain, as evidenced through Gardiner’s theory on Multiple Intelligences as covered in week 1’s Learning Theories.

Recording audio is a simple process so children in their early years would be able to handle the process.