Ahoy! Assessment Task 1

In a collaboratorive session with Gemma and Dale we completed Assessment task one; the online quizzes. This consisted of two quizzes that tested our knowledge on e-learning. In the first quiz I received 70%, with 3 questions wrong. In the second test I received 100% with none of the answers wrong. Gemma, Dale and I looked at each question together and discussed what the answer could be, listening to every point and idea. If we had not done this collaboratively, my results definately would not have been as good. 

Navigating with BeFunky

Photo editing is a fun and exciting thing for people of all ages to try. There are many different websites, Apps and software items that can be used to edit images and photographs. One that I have had as an App on my Ipad for some time is BeFunky. It is easy to use and makes normal photos into fun and exciting images. I didn’t even realize that BeFunky was also a webpage that you can use to edit your photos as well. I edited the photo above through the website and found that it actually has more effects and fun things than the App on my Ipad. The website is mostly free to use and is still so simple to use that students would be able to navigate the webpage in order to edit their own photos.

Flying with Flickr

One Hundred and Thirty-Nine - Shutterbug *explored* by Spreading Wings Photography Taken from Flickr

Flickr is a website where many people upload their photos for the world to see. Although it is extremely easy for other people to copy and paste a photo onto their own webpage or blog from Flickr, there are certain measures that need to be undertaken if they do. A simple mention of who uploaded/took the photo can be enough to let other people know that the photo is not yours and you have taken it from somewhere else. I have also found that you can pay the photographer/owner of the image a small fee in order to keep the image on your blog. This photo above is from Flickr and was taken by Spreading Wings Photography. It is an inspiring photo and is one of millions that can be found on the famous website.

Globe Trotting with MobaPhoto

For this weeks adventure I have downloaded a tool called MobaPhoto. This is a type of software that you can use to resize your photos. As I was exploring the software I found you can edit the pictures as well. Here are some photographs that I have taken before being edited with MobaPhoto. I have added the original photo so that the differences can be seen.

A voyage into websites

Creating Websites is an easy task. I have made a couple in the past for my uni subjects as well as during high school for assignments. I believe that websites are a fun and exciting way to capture students’ attention and aid in their learning as they know and understand the internet. One of the websites I created during my time at uni was for SOSE and intended for a year 5 level class, investigating the aboriginal culture. Another website I created was for Technology and was aimed at a level 3 class who had to create a party hat for a party that they were throwing for the class as well as the parents. I used Google sites to create both of these websites because I know that google is a reliable tool and the lecturers would have been able to view all that I had created on these websites.

A Mission to Create a Wiki

I have had a little to do with Wikis in the past, both creating and contributing to them. With this wiki I have chosen an interesting theme called notebook. I havent added other pages or any other information at this stage but I'm sure I will add much more in the future.  

Footsteps in the Sand

Looking back on my journey so far....

So far my Adventures on this blog have been fun and engaging. Although I am a little late on posting for each week, I eventually post each one of my trips into the technological world of ICTs onto my blog. I have stuck with the theme of travelling, as I believe that this is a great symbol for my blog and my adventures through ICT.

Embarking on a Wiki

There are many different arguments over the question of implementing mobile phones into the classroom. After reading the wikispace where the question was posted for the thoughts and views of everyone enrolled into this course, it gave me many different things to think about. Positive and negative points were added onto this page and all views were extremely valid. Each of the responses to the questions were placed under each of De Bono’s thinking hats so the statements were easy to understand. I placed my views under the red hat which is the intuitive hat where the thoughts and feelings of the question are recorded.

My thoughts on whether mobile phones should be implemented into schools:

I feel that there are many advantages and disadvantages to this question. Mobile phones could definitely benefit in the classroom if they are used correctly and monitored to make sure the students are using them for the best of their advantages. Small things that could help students could be the calendar and calculator to apps that could be downloaded onto the newer smart phones like word apps, musical apps, iBooks, maths and many other different types. The keypads on any phones could also benefit the young students for many different reasons from the positioning of the numbers to the letters that correspond with the number on each key. The internet could also be a very good tool for students to use with the different educational games and search engines that can be used.
Although there are advantages there are many disadvantages as well. If the phones are owned by the students (mainly teenagers) there may be many different issues that could arise. During my teenage years at high school, there was an instance where inappropriate photos were sent to nearly the whole senior grade of the school. The internet could also help the students to find illegal photos or even videos on youtube that they would have no restriction to due to the fact that the phone is their own. Texting in class could also be an issue where the students are distracted by their friends and even social networking.

A Quest into De Bono's Thinking Hats

De Bono's Hats are basically the different points of views that are used when looking into a discussion. There are six different hats represented by different colours.

Colour	Representing	Questions
Yellow	Positive points of view	Benefits: What are the good points? Why can this be successful? Why is this a good thing?
Blue	The Process	The Process: Where are we now? What is the next step? Where have we been? What sort of thinking is needed?
White	Objective points of view	Information: What information do I have? What are the facts? What information do I need? What do I want to KNOW?
Black	Negative points of view	Judgement: What is wrong with this? Why will this not work? Is this safe? Can this be done?
Green	Creative points of view	Creativity: What new ideas are possible with this? What is my suggestion for success? Can I create something new?
Red	Intuitive points of view	Feelings: How do I feel about this? What do I like about the idea? What don't I like about the idea?

Cruising with Connectivism

Travelling with TPACK

 

In our lecture this week we learnt about frameworks and how they can help to teach the students about ICTs. The first one we learnt about was TPACK. TPACK stands for Technological (ICTs), Pedagogical (the how and what of teaching) and Content Knowledge (subject, discipline knowledge).

TPACK caters for all learners and is a 21st century orientated theory. It includes tools that learners are familiar with and strategies that include higher order thinking. This theory was created as a conceptual framework for educational technology so that teachers can integrate technology into their pedagogy.

Touring through Prensky's Ideas.

Prensky’s theories centre on ideas that the students of today are a different generation. Because of the fact that our students grew up with so much technology in their lives they need to have technology in their classrooms to be able to learn to the best of their abilities. I agree with Prensky’s theories and ideas due to the fact that I myself have grown up with some of the technologies that the kids today have. Although the technology I use now is a lot more advanced to the technology I grew up with, I believe I am a lot more comfortable with this technology than say, my mum or my grandmother. In saying this, my mum and grandmother have adapted to the technologies on the market today with both of them owning their own ipad and iphone. It just goes to show that whether a technological immigrant or a technological native nearly all of us in today’s society need technology. This is why Prensky’s writings are so important.

Productive Pedagogies Expedition

This activity showed me a new and exciting way of how to look at things. When growing up it always seemed a hard task to tie ones shoelace but once you learn how to do it, it is an everyday occurrence that you don’t have to think about anymore. After this experience of creating a type of mind map for the pedagogy of tying a shoelace, it is easy to see that things can be widened and explored in real depth. A whole unit could be created simply around tying a shoelace! By bringing in other cultures, the types of shoes out there, where else shoes are found and even why we wear shoes opens up a world of opportunities. So many lessons and units could be created around shoes that could bring in a range of other subjects such as History, Maths, English, SOSE and even science. The possibilities are endless for such a simple daily deed, but this also makes me think; what other simple things do we do every day that could be turned into a whole unit plan? 

Understanding how the crew learns...

These results from the learning styles test show that on this scale I am more towards the reflective; think before doing learner, Intuitive; discovering possibilities and relationships, Visual; learning from what I see and a Global learner; trying to absorb information slowly before suddenly ‘getting it’.

In a traditional classroom of 25 students, it might be hard to support the entire range of learning styles in the classroom. I believe that this could be done if each lesson had a number of different strategies to teach the desired outcomes to each of the learning styles; visual, auditory and kinesthetic. By showing a visual picture for the visual learners to see, allow the students to listen to what you are telling them or have a podcast playing for the auditory learners and also have a lot of hands on activities for the students who are kinesthetic learners it should help the students to absorb information a little easier. If these simple things are done to support the students through their learning styles, a learning manager can then look at the other, more complex learning styles and come up with ways of supporting the whole range of students in their class.

In order to support the variety of different learning styles, a number of different ICTs could be used. As an example, a slide show could be used for all learning types. Each slide can have a picture, diagram or even text for the visual learner to absorb the information to the best of their abilities. Podcasts, songs or even a talking avatar can be added for the auditory learner to hear the information that they need to absorb. For the kinesthetic learners, the slide show can be edited in a number of different ways that can make it a hands on experience so the information needed to get across can be absorbed in a way that kinesthetic learners can remember. A slide show is only one example of what an ICT can be used to help students learn, as there are plenty more out there that are easy to create and simple to use for a student.

Although it is easy for a learning manager to see a learning style in a student and develop ways to help teach the student it could always be a good idea to ask the student their preference of ICTs that they would be interested in using. By creating a simple quiz or questionnaire for the students, a learning manager could learn so much. They could ask the students what types of ICTs they already play with and what they already know about ICTs. This could give the learning manager ideas on what to use and what to introduce to the students if they have or haven’t used an ICT before. The learning manager could then structure their work units on the outcomes of the students’ quizzes or questionnaire.

ICTs can help all students to learn new and interesting things throughout their lives. For the new generation of students being the “technology age” all learning managers will need to have a thorough understanding of most ICTs in order to help their students learn what they need to know in order to be prepared for their future.  

Tour guides!

Gemma has just shown me how to add fish into my blog! It's amazing the things you can learn from other people! Dale has also shown me how to add a gadget that shows interesting quotes and jokes! Can't wait to find other new and exciting things to add into my blog.....

Exploring!

Its fun finding new and interesting websites that will help to bring out your creative side. These are some examples of websites that make using computers fun and artistic!

The image above is created from a website called Spell with Flickr. It is really easy to use, as you type in the word you would like to use and the website brings up the word you want with different lettering. If the letters are clicked on, the letter changes to a different style of lettering.

This image can be created on the website Fodey. It simply asks you to type in the words for each heading and creates this interesting movie scene board.

This image can also be created on the Fodey website. It is easy to use and only requires you to fill out the name of the paper, the name of the article along with a quick article written for this image. This would be an easy task for students to create if they needed newspaper articles for an in class assessment.

The beginning of my journey....

Well I'm enrolled in managing e-learning and ready to start using all of this new age technology that I don't already know. I will also be learning how to embed all of this information into the classroom environment. I will be documenting all of my adventures onto this blog in order to look back for future reference. Wish me luck for this subject!! Tahlia