Reflective synopsis

Introduction
E learning is something that can easily be used within the classroom to support learning. It can also sometimes be a hindrance to learning. E learning (when used effectively) can enhance, support and transform learning activities. Learning can be enhance and transformed by using ICT’s to help further children’s learning where the teacher may not think. ICT’s such as TeacherTube, Webquests and the learning federations learning objects. Teachers can use these ICT’s to support those children who need the support in higher order thinking. Teachers can also use these tools for professional development to further their knowledge on certain key learning areas. Other ICT’s that teachers may utilise are mp3’s (for voice recording), digital cameras (for pictures and videos) and iPods for watching videos that may not be able to be accessed on school computers. Webquests and learning federation learning objects have been manipulated by other uses to enable students of all ages and ability levels. For those students who are in the outback there is online learning where the student and teacher communicate online by web chats. These webchats can be with anyone (be careful of who the child webchats with), the greatest way is for students to talk with not only teachers but also quest speakers to enable children to further their learning. For those who are too far out to be able to get internet service they communicate by school of the air, or radio, or some parents teach their children themselves. “Connectedness describes the extent to which the lesson has value and meaning beyond the instructional context, making a connection to the wider social context within which students live” (The State of Queensland: Department of Education, 2002, pg 23). ICT’s are not confined to computer but to voice recorders, video recorders, cameras- digital or phone etc. For those students who are in secondary schooling, in my experience the only ICT used was during computer studies. Other times there was use of powerpoints and over heads was used. I believe that ICT’s all have a use in the classroom, the problem is whether the tool is relevant or how long it would take for the teacher to understand the tool, teach the tool and then have the students use it. As stated before there are many tools that can be suited for each key learning areas way of working. This is shown in the post ‘How technology fits into the curriculum’. Children no matter where they are as long as they have access to technology and ICT’s are able to do or see almost anything. For those who have internet are able to perform activities using online learning objects to learn about topics such as recycling, measurement, saving energy, also looking at an online model of the earth in detail and connecting students to real life contexts that can’t be accessed within the school yard. I can use different tools to engage students, help them work cooperatively, independently and support higher order thinking. Tools such as bubbl.us are a great way to engage students in concept mapping in a new way. Tools such as wordle and tag crowd are effective ways for students to summarise large amounts of information in a short amount of time to enable students to move forward with their learning. Tools that help students work cooperatively are those such as wiki spaces. Those that allow students to think in high order ways are those such as blogger.com and weebly.com.

Body
There are many tools that can assist our learning and concept map tools such as bubbl.us, learning objects (such as those on the learning federation site) and making your own website tools (such as weebly.com) are functional for students use. I have selected these three tools for I believe that I will use them most when finished my degree.
Bubbl.us
I have found that concept mapping on the computer is not such a bad thing as what I have previously stated in my blog. I believe that bubbl.us could be an effective way for teachers to pre-create a concept map and use within the classroom. This tool could also be used to re-create a concept map that may not have been neatly constructed during a previous lesson. It could be used to support learning where students can have access to the one account and add on bubbles to the pre-existing concept map on the computer whenever they are able to. What I have done with this tool so far is trying to create an unsuccessful concept map of how colours are made and create a successful concept map of how technology links to the ways of working in a specific key learning area.

Learning Objects
Learning objects are found on the learning federation site, and are used by teachers and students alike to gain knowledge about topics in engaging ways. Learning objects allow teachers and students to learn about topics such as recycling, where newspapers come from? How to sustain environments? As well as teaching students how to dispose of technology properly. So far I have not used these learning objects in the classroom, nor have I studied the learning federation site itself. Up until this year other pre-service teachers and I have not been given access to the learning federation site. Even now we have not been given full access to the site. I believe that all pre-service teachers and parents should be given partial permission to enter the site. With parents and pre-service teachers having access to these activities, students would be able to benefit from this tool any time they wish, enabling higher order thinking to be accessed even outside school time. Kearsley and Shneidermans ‘Engagement Theory’ suggests that “The fundamental idea underlying engagement theory is that students must be meaningfully engaged in learning activities through interaction with others and worthwhile tasks” (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999). I believe that the learning objects provided on the Learning Federation site are those that are worthwhile tasks for they are teaching our children how to care for the environment.

Weeby.com
Weeby.com is a tool that is used for anyone to make a website. It can support students learning in the way that they can establish their own website. Or the students could use a website making tool such as this in an assignment that requires them to create a business and advertise it. So far I have not used weeby.com that much as I have had no real life use for it. I do believe that it can contribute to the learning of the students if given a real life example. Such tasks as these are mainly student centred with little to no input from the teacher other than guidance on ethical and safe use of the internet. “Student direction means that students influence the specific activities or tasks they will do in a lesson, or how they will undertake them. Such activities are likely to be student-centred ones such as group work, or individual research or investigative projects” (The State of Queensland: Department of Education, 2002, pg9).

References
Kersley, G & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning.
URL: http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

The State of Queensland (Department of Education). (2002). A guide to... Productive Pedagogies: Classroom reflection manual. The State of Queensland (Department of Education).

Flickr/ Windows Movie Maker/ How technology fits into the curriculum

Flickr is an online photo sharing site. This site enables you to use photos legally, although you would most likely have to give credit to the person whose photo it is. This site also enables you to upload your own photos as I have done in a previous year. Although this site requires uses to acknowledge where the photo came from it does not necessarily allow safe use of the pictures. The pictures on this site can be accessed by anyone originally and so it would be inadvisable to put pictures on students on this website.

Windows movie maker is an engaging tool for students to use as they can create just about anything using movie maker. Movie maker can be used by taking a lot of pictures and creating a clay animation film, or taking video from a digital camera and editing it into a video for a particular audience. I used windows movie maker in a class the other week. The students had to film a documentary about their robot that went around a make shift Antarctica and saw a range of endangered animals. What the students enjoyed the most was making the props, programming the robot and filming the documentary. The greatest part of the whole experience is that it was all the students’ work (I filmed while they read their parts).

Free Studio

Free studio software is a way for people to convert from one type of software to another. This is not advised to be used in schools. This software can be download and used on a teachers own laptop. This type of software is also suited to Youtube download, which is not usually suited for school use.

Powerpoint and Podcasts

Powerpoint is an ICT tool that is regularly used within school today. When I was in school Powerpoints were used as a quick and easy way of presenting a speech. I believe that this has not changed. I believe that teachers use this tool as quick solution for students to present their tasks. I believe that students are capable of using a wider range of ICT’s to present their assignments such as blogs, wikis, websites, a video created in windows movie maker and concept maps.


Podcasting is a way for students to share their work with others around the world. Podcasting allows students to share their voice or their films. Audio and video files are not the safest files to upload to the internet when it comes to the safety of children. In the best interest of the child I would not upload video files with children's faces or any identifiable information about the children. This information also applies to audio files. Other than this, teachers must make sure it is acceptable with their principles to allow students to post their files online.

Professor Koala talks about Vokis

Get a Voki now!





Vokis are a way for students to communicate with someone on the internet in a protected way. Vokis can be used in most contexts, whether it be to lecture students, send a visual message to students or to have students communicate with the outside world in a protective way. Voki's also support engagement theories, in the way that they are stimulating to watch and listen to.

This is a comment made by me on another students voki: http://kirstikasberger.blogspot.com/2010/07/playing-with-vokis.html#comments

Concept Maps

Bubbl.us is a creative way to create concept maps for class or other reasons. In my personal experience I found it hard to create a concept map of colours. I used red, blue and yellow (the primary colours) and tried to add connections in where the colours create new ones when mixed. I found that I had trouble connecting bubbles together. This was my result:

Picture was created in: http://www.bubbl.us/




www.wordle.net/

alone animals applied attempts becoming behaviourism classical cognitive conditioned constraints dominated educational effrontery eventually experimentation follow gagne generalised happens implies learning mainly operant organism particularly pavlov people presented produce programmes psychology purposes real realm relaxes relevant reservations response russia salivation single skill skinner slips stimulus substantial substrate unconditioned unintended whatever

created at TagCrowd.com

Wordle and tag crowd are an effective way to summarise points of a paragraph. These ICT's can be a positive ICT to use in the way that you can summarise a paragraph or whole article within a minute and less by just coping and pasting into the box on the site. The negative site to these ICT's is that it is in a way a cheat's way of summarising a paragraph and when using these tools students are not summarising themselves, the computer is. Students need to be able to know how to summarise for they will not always have access to computers. In conclusion, though these ICT's are an easy to use and quick to use.

Ethics and Safety in the Web/ Theories and frameworks

There are many ethical and safety issues when using the web. Everyone has to abide by safety regulations on the internet. Copy right regulations as well as child safety regulations. I have found that copy right regulation is one of the hardest regulations to abide by. This regulation is hard to abide by because a lot of people do not know that it exists. Or to what extension that copy right laws expand on the internet. Child safety laws are easier to abide by. They are easier to abide by for the reason that there are simple ways to abide by them. Firstly always stay truthful to who you are. The second I find when working with young children and the internet is to find secure sights for the children to work on. The learning place has a code that sorts activities into different categories, one such category is a child safe category. Another way to ensure child safety is to ensure that online activities are authorised by the Queensland education government, or by the principle of your school.

Weebly.com

Weebly.com is a website maker where students can access this site and make their own website. Students can choose their own background and the knowledge that they put in it (as long as they reference), but it is a way for students to own their own space where they can use the site for whatever purpose they wish.

Blogs

Strenghts
Blogs can be used to record student's ideas, thoughts and feelings. Blogs can be used in class as learning journals or for students to talk about particular topics.

Weaknesses
Blogs have a limited range of uses. However, many students could access the same account with the same username and password. Blogs are an effective tool when used for reflecting on others work.

Opportunities
I believe that teachers should take the opportunity to have their students use blogs as a learning journal. Blogs could increase the student's technology capabilities, reflecting practices and overall journaling skills.

Threats
Not all students will have access to the internet all the time and so time will have to be given to these students for them to be able to access the site.

My learning about Blogs
Participating in this course for the second time has allowed me a great chance of interacting with many different ICT's that could possibly be used within the classroom. I personally find that blogs are an effective way for students to share their ideas about topics.

Google Maps

'Google maps' is an effective tool for schools for children can map their own school trips or other relevant activities in or out of class.

Plus
Students are able to map out trips, find a friend's house or their school and be able to get directions from one place to another including time it takes and distance travelled.
Minus
The map doesn't include every little part of the world.
Interesting
I used 'Google maps' to find my way from Bundaberg to Canberra on a trip this year. It was very useful in the way that I was able to tell how long it would take me to get there, which roads I could take and where other towns were so that I was able to fuel up.
Theory
Google Maps can be used by students for individual or group work. Cognitive theory would apply if the student was using 'Google maps' by themselves. Social Constructivism theory would apply if students were working together in groups.


View Larger Map

References:

Map is from http://maps.google.com.au/

The Learning Place/ LMS/ RSS

The learning place is engaging way for students to interact with different online learning objects or activities. The online learning place houses a range of activity or learning objects, these are suited to the different key learning areas. Although the online learning place is a useful tool for accessing activities for different learning areas easily, the online learning place itself is hard to access for those who are not teachers or in an actual school. Therefore I suggest that it is a useful tool for those that have access to school computers but not for parents, children or pre-service teachers that are not in a school.

Learning Management Systems
Learning Management Systems are those that are used for administration purposes (mainly in schools) such as blackboard, Moodle and Intelladon (which is used in some high schools). The LMS is a resourceful tool for teachers and students alike to share information about subjects or courses or assignments in my case. Every LMS is different to the rest. For instance, Moodle is significantly different to blackboard in the way that blackboard was organised by importance of overall subject i.e. Announcements, course information (course profile), study materials (study guide and topics), web links, resources etc. Moodle is organised as topics with generalised headings such as course profile and study guide on a side panel. LMS's are successful tools to help with student's online learning. When our university changed its LMS from blackboard to Moodle, I found it hard to adapt to and use the new LMS. Even today I still have trouble using Moodle as it is a vastly different LMS from blackboard.

RSS
I have not fully mastered the use of the RSS Feeder. Though I do believe I understand it a bit more this year. I found that the RSS Feeder is a kind of updates list for blogs and wiki's (kind of like the updates on facebook or myspace). Now that I have made the connection, it seems like a useful and relevant tool for teachers to use while seeing what updates their students have made. As well, students are able to see what their peers have updated. In conclusion, the RSS Feeder is an exceptional tool for teacher and student use.

Wiki's

Wiki's are different to blogs, in the way that many people can access one Wiki site to edit it and add to it. I myself am not very confident with using Wiki's. The reason for this is that when participating in an activity in class everyone was editing the same page at the same time. When the page was saved those that saved first were overwritten by those who saved after. Though it is less likely to happen if students were in smaller groups and editing different pages it still has a chance of happening to students. The positive side to wiki's is that you are able to undo changes that have been made. All in all, I believe that Wiki's are not the best way for students to complete their assignments. This is because the students are able to delete others work without permission and those who do not have access to the internet all the time and so are at a disadvantage.