Reflective Synopsis

Reflective Synopsis


Over the last 6 Weeks I have been amazed by how many different types of information communication tools (ICT's) there are out there. More specifically how many there are available for teachers to utilise in their classrooms. We are living in a digital world and thankfully schools have recognised this, embraced it and have incororporated ICT"s into students learning (Education Queensland. 2015). This is referred to as E-learning. ICT's can range from an interactive whiteboard, playing Mathematical games or researching topics online and watching YouTube clips, creating concept maps and students creating their own blogs or webpages.

Below is a short clip of how ICT's have been developed over the years and how they have increased the learning of our students in a classroom.

(Quin 2012)

Don't get me wrong it is excellent that Schools have embraced the use of ICT's however it does come with some implications. It is important that school's ensure their students are keeping safe, ethical and legal whilst using ICT's. ICT's provide students with new and engaging ways to learn and it is vital that they become safe responsible digital citizens (Department of Education and Children Services. 2009. p. 7). ICT's however should not be limited and cut back because of this fear students just need to educated properly and be able to make informed decisions. Cybersmart.gov is a great website that all teachers should encourage there students to discover and learn how to be cybersmart. It has great examples of positive and negative cyber behavior. All Schools will have policies regarding the use of ICT's and students need to be made aware of these and strict consequences need to be enforced if students adhere to these.

For our students to thrive in life after school Bloom's Taxonomy has identified that 'higher order' thinking is necessary for them to develop. Lower level thinking skills are also important and should not be undervalued. It is often a process of introducing student-held knowledge, analysing this knowledge, deriving and strengthening knowledge and theory from this analysis, and then moving towards evaluation of the knowledge and creating as the culmination of learning (CQUuniversity 2015). 


With technology now being such a major influence on the way that teachers teach the  Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPAK) framework has become essential for them to use. Koehler (2011) illustrates that the TPACK framework identifies the knowledge teachers need to teach effectively with technology. Teachers will be more effective in the ways that they teach if they can successfully make creative link between the content (what is being learned), pedagogy (how it is taught) and the technology (appropriate tools). TPACK is one of 2 Frameworks that is used by teachers so next I will be discussing the SAMR (substitute, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition) Framework.

Below is a clip which summarises what the SAMR Model is.

(EducatorsTechnology)

Learning theories used by teachers can be supported by ICT's. The learning theories that I have discussed in this blog are; Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism and Connectivism.

In a quick summary Behaviorism is learning through paractive, positive reinforcement, and re-shaping what they have learned in the process (CQUniversity 2015). 
Cognitivism is the understanding of learning in terms of mental processing. 

Cognitivism explained mental processes in terms of a three stage model. Information is picked up by the senses, and transferred to the sensory memory. If it is not used immediately, it is lost. If it is regarded as important, it is transferred for short-term storage to the short-term memory. With reinforcement and linking to other ideas, information is eventually stored in long-term memory. (CQUniversity. 2015)

Constructivism and Connectivism are both student-focused learning approach. Where Cogniticivsim and Beahviourism are both Instructor focused.

Constructivism is where learners build on their own personal experiences. Learning is an active, contextualised process of constructing knowledge rather than just acquiring it. Learners test these hypotheses through social negotiation. The learner uses past experiences and cultural factors in situations. For example a teacher could get the students to do an assessment piece on creating a blog on a certain topic and instead of them printing it off for the teacher to mark fellow peers can review and comment on each others work.

So far in my journey of learning about ICT's I have discovered there is a range of different ICT's that can be used in the classroom. Digital pedagogy is engaging, interactive and readily available and for the most part easy to use. ICT's can make not so interesting content seem fun and exciting and engage students to learn simply by teaching it with the use of ICT's.

"If we Teach as we taught  yesterday, then we rob our children of tomorrow" - John Dewey


References

CQUniversity (2015). A Brief Overview of Learning Theory. Retrieved from: https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=15608

CQUniverisity (2015). A Thinking Taxonomy (Bloom's Taxonomy) and the SAMR Model. Retrieved from: https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=15617

Cybersmart.gov.au

Department of Education and Children Services (2009). Cyber-Safety Keeping Children Safe in a Connected World. Retreived from: http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/docs/documents/1/CyberSafetyKeepingChildre.pdf

Educators Technology (2013). SAMR in 120 Seconds Retreived from: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/06/samr-model-explained-for-teachers.html

Education Queensland (2015). Information and Communication Technology. Retrieved from: http://education.qld.gov.au/schools/about/ict.html 

Koehler, M (2015). What is TPACK? Retreived from: http://tpack.org/

Quin, G (2012). The Development of ICT's. Retreived from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbQ0rpy5DJQ

Reflection 5 Week 6

Group 4 Tools

Concept Mapping - bubbl.us

This week I decide to have a play with the Online Concept Mapping tool bubbl.us. bubbl.us allows you to create visually outline information. I jumped in the deep end and decided I'd just give it a go without reading any instructions. So I opened a new web page and typed in bubbl.us A screen came up with a bubble saying ' Start Brainstorming'. It was so simple and easy to follow I clicked start brainstorming and it took me into the concept map. I decided to do a transaction table for a Year 10 Business class as this is one of my teaching areas and I found it relevant.

Below it the concept map that I made without reading any form of instructions or looking too much into the different editing tools.

I then created another concept map for the Positive, Minus and Interesting (PMI) Model. I then played around with the different settings and I enjoyed the whole idea.

I could really see myself using this type of tool in the classroom. It is such a fun and orderly way to brainstorm. Instead of having students brainstorm on paper, scribbling everywhere in handwriting you can hardly read and lines running all over the page making it hard to read. They can now use bubbl.us which even makes it exciting to brainstorm.

Below is a video showing how easy it is to use bubbl.us

I found alot of positives and only a few minor minuses. Overall I could see bubbl,us being used in not only a business classroom but practically any classroom.

SAMR Model for bubbl.us

I enjoyed the last week of this blog and will be a little disappointed to end my blog :)

Reflection 4 Week 5

Group 3 Tools - PowerPoint, Prezi and Glogster - tools that can be used to present/mashup/collate learning and information. They are normally interactive and mulitmodal (text, audio, images and videos) sources.

I have chosen to look at the PowerPoint in depth this week. I personally would use a PowerPoint the most out of the other Group 3 Tools. I firstly will analyse a Powerpoint and then finish it off with a SAMR Model on a PowerPoint.

A PowerPoint is regarded as a presentation tool that is used by both students and teachers as a visual device used to support an oral presentation. I love using PowerPoint I find it a visually attractive way to present 'boring' but vital information. It is a great platform which supports the embedding of text, linking and interactivity, audio, video and images. So PowerPoint is not just about text on a slide it's also a great way to present images and video clips and so on. This week I have created several different PowerPoint presentations and have inserted screen shots into this weeks reflection for you to view.

Below is a screen shot of the use of text and diagrams (bar chart, line chart, pie graph and a smart art hierarchy) in a PowerPoint Presentation.

PowerPoint is also great for those students that learn both visually and auditory as they can visually see the information on the slides and also hear the teacher talking about it.

PowerPoint can also be used by students to record an audio to play along side a text/image slide show. You can also embed audio and music into your slideshow for effect. PowerPoint has many different tools that can be used. Like timing your slides to change and play automatically on a timing system. Below is a screen shot of how you can achieve this.

You can also make a PowerPoint presentation interactive. I know it sounds extreme but it is doable. You can hyperlink images on your PowerPoint Presentation. For example you could have images of different animals on a slide show and when you click on each one it could play the noise the animal makes and link to a website that has information on that kind of animal. Below is a image of how you can make your PowerPoint interactive.

I personally would use PowerPoint presentations in my classroom. I find them easy, quick and effective to use and they don't take very long to create or present. It is an easy way to not only present the information to students but they can then all save and revisit the slideshow at anytime. They can print the slides to use as a hard copy and can also edit it very easily. I love the fact that you can simply use it as a tool with a verbal presentation with images and texts or you can vamp it up and make it quite a complex and technical tool.

PMI
Positive - PowerPoint is easy to use, theres no downloading time as its a program on your computer, layouts are endless, can embed images, vidoes and audio. They can be used at a very basic level or can be vamped up to look very technical. They are easily accessible with the Microsoft Office Packages most computers have. A PowerPoint can be as short or as long as you like.

Minus - It is technology something unexpected can always happen. You will need either a computer or a projector to display your slides to an audience.

Interesting - The can be automatically timed so you can hit start and the whole PowerPoint will play as you have timed it. The slides can be printed out as handouts. You can add notes to each slide that don't actually show up on the slide but rather underneath for the presenter to view.

I enjoyed learning about the Group 3 Tools this week and enjoyed discovering new things about PowerPoint. I look forward to reflecting on the Group 4 tools next week,


References

http://fctl.ucf.edu/TeachingAndLearningResources/Technology/PowerPoint/index.php

Reflection 3 Week 4

This week we will be discussing the digital tools of images, videos and audio.

There are two main ways of using these digital tools. Either in your physical classroom or online in a virtual classroom. When considering what digital tools to use it is vital that the images, videos or audio relate to the topic you are teaching. We will look at all 3 tools and I will look extensively at videos. You also need to consider the copyright attached and whether you may need permission to use it.

“There are multiple purposes for image use online. Teachers can present learning materials to the student with the purpose of engaging thinking (knowledge, understanding, analysis, evaluation); influencing feelings, or supporting skills development.” (course material)

The use of images can be very useful for student in a Geography classroom for example. An image of a
map and a country flag would be a lot more practical then trying to explain it to a class.

 

Before using images the following precautions should be taken:

 

Keeping Safe, Ethical and Legal
Student Safety	School Ethics & liability
Ensure all students have signed permission from parents to cover any images taken	Only publishing images with everyone’s  permission
Take images from angles that make students identity hidden	Provide camera’s for students to use
Always delete images from the camera ones finished	Having a strict policy of the use of students images
Do not publish any images that you think maybe misinterpreted by someone	Educating the students on the legal ethics behind such images

Another great digital tool is Audio.

Audio can be in the form of a podcast which is a audio file that can easily be shared and listened to by
many. You simply record an audio file with a microphonethen you can transfer it on USB ipod and 
mp3 players for students to access. Itunes is great program to use along with many other different free 
downloaded audio programs. These files can also be loaded into online classrooms like moodle for
students to listen to

Video Files is also a great resource to use in the classroom. The best types of files to use are WMV,
AVI and MP4. and the best web browsers to use are Google Chrome and FireFox. Video Files can be
used by students for Assessment in Secondary Classrooms in the following way.
 

Subject	Type of Assessment
English	Speeches and Plays
Drama	Dance, Plays and Drama Acts
P E	Record Sporting Games
Science	Record Experiments
Business/Law	Record Presentations

Video files can also be used by students to present their Assessment. I have uploaded a short video for 
as an example.

I believe that the use of videos in the classroom is a great idea. It breaks up the students lessons and
allows them to refocus on their work whilst adding a bit of fun into the classroom. Dictating
information for students to learn is just plain boring. For not only the students but also for you as the
teacher. Letting the students watch a short 4 to 8 minute video on the topic instead will engage them alot
more. Therefore the students may take this information on board instead of just in one ear and out the
other. Also allowing students to perform their assessment pieces for marking instead of infront of the 
peers might also help those students that get extremely nervous infront of large groups of people. This
would also be great so not only teachers but the students can also replay their assessment pieces to
review them.

When using any of these digital tools it is important that the main focus is still on the desired learning
outcomes and that the tools are always relevant to the course work. 

I really enjoyed exploring the different types of digital tools this week, And can't wait to see what's in
store next week.

HAPPY EASTER!!


References

ICT Course Material 2015
https://www.crossed-flag-pins.com/animated-flag-gif/flags-South-Africa.html
http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/africa.html
http://askubuntu.com/tags/mp3-player/info
YouTube

Reflection 2 Week 3

This week we focused on 3 different web 2.0 online spaces - blogs, wikis and websites.

The differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 can be found below.

Below is a short clip which gives a basic and quick explanation on how wiki's work.

So wiki's are simply just an online space where users can add, edit, modify and remove information. Wiki's are great, if they are used correctly. It is important that users respect each other and that there are rules attached to your wiki or users to follow. A downfall of using a wiki is that although it can be edited. Students can readily edit, delete and type over other students ideas and work. Also only 1 user can edit a wiki and if 2 students are currently editing or posting to a wiki only 1 students work will be uploaded. 

This week we also revisited the different thinking strategies that help scaffold learning. The two most popular thinking strategies is the PMI (positive, minus, interesting) and the SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). I will be using the PMI strategy to analyse a Wiki.

I would definitely use Wiki's in my classroom for students to share their ideas. It is a great way to get students to interact with one and another over certain topics. It allows them to freely express their ideas and allow them to comment and express their different opinions on topics. Certain type of students would find it easier to express their ideas online rather then in an actual classroom environment. Teachers would have to carefully monitor these online virtual classrooms but I certainly think if used in the correct way students would benefit from them.

Until next week :)

References

http://archive.oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/excerpts/web2-architectures/chapter-3.html

https://nidoit.wikispaces.com/Web+sites,+Wikis,+Blogs

Reflection 1 Week 2 Part B

Mobile Phones have become apart of I think nearly everyone's life. I know I use mine nearly hourly to send and receive messages and emails, make phone calls, record information, take and store photos, use facebook, skype friends and family, play games and access apps. I do not leave the house without it and I honestly think I would struggle without using it. I'm sure there are alot of people, like myself who's mobile phone is like an added body part. So this this weeks reading made me wonder - "would we be able to cope without our mobile phones?".

In this blog reflection I will be talking about the mobile phone usage in classrooms referring to "De Bonos Thinking Hats". I have attached a short clip on De Bonos Thinking Hats for those who are not familar. 

The 6 Thinking Hats is a great way for students to think about the 6 different ways of thinking and for them to get creative with their answers. The diagram below gives a guide on what each hat represents.

Personal my favorite is the yellow sunshine hat. The Yellow hat is for positive views and all the benefits a situation can bring.  

While completing this activity I started of with the opinion that No of course mobile phones should not be used in a classroom. That students would use them in all the wrong ways like to communicate with each other and to facebook and use the internet for non school purposes. But after participating in the activities and reading others opinions my view started to shift. Personally I don't think I would implement them in a classroom I was teaching in but I can see how useful they would be to students. For example students using them for class schedule and assignment reminders and emailing.

The learning theories I experienced this week using the online Wiki were Social Constructivism and Connectivism. Social Constructivism was the online Wiki space as it combined everyones ideas into the one space and the Connectivism was the technology used to access the Wiki. 

I thoroughly enjoyed participating in this weeks online activity. I had never used an online Wiki before and found it very interesting to use. I would consider using an online Wiki in a classroom environment as I believe that students would enjoy the experience. I think it would have to be carefully and closely monitored by the teacher however to ensure that the students are using the Wiki for correct purposes.  I love the way that everyone can share their different ideas and they are easily accessible by everyone.

Unitl next week. 

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwu1YlveU_4

http://johnkapeleris.com/blog/?p=418

Reflection 1 Week 2 Part A

This week is all about digital pedagogy. Pedagogy is just the art of teaching - more simply the strategies that you use to teach what you want to teach your learners. Therefore digital pedagogy is becoming important and vital in our classrooms as we turn to technology to teach our students.

TPACK framework is one of the most important frameworks for teaching, learning and research.

It is necessary that teachers understand that to be a great teacher they need to learn how to teach using the TPACK framework. A teacher may only have excellent content knowledge which means they will have trouble teaching the content to the students. This is why it is vital that teaches have all 3 types of knowledge combined to ensure the optimum teaching with ICT's.

ICT's can be used for a wide range of things in the classroom to educate students. ICT's can be used by students to access, integrate, manage and evaluate information, They use ICT's to participate and learn via collaboration across local, national and international boarders.

Expectations of teachers have changed over the years and in today's world technology and the use of ICT's in the classroom play a major role in how and what we teach in the classroom. It is important as new teachers we understand how to embed them successfully in our lessons to benefit our students learning. 

Another model that is considered in this course is the SAMR model - Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition. 

It is important that the technology decisions you are making and using are appropriate for the pedagogy and the content being taught. 

The levels of Bloom's Taxonomy can be found in the image below.

Bloom's Cognitive Domain is the main focus in this course however it is vital that we acknowledge that all parts are equal. Bloom's Taxonomy states that students need to use higher order thinking for them to strive in today's complex world.

Finally this week we touched on the importance of being fully aware of the legal, safe and ethical operations online. The 10% rule, as in 10% of work may be copied for educational use. Referencing all materials that are used are expected unless they belong to you. These following links are very helpful in understanding the legal, safe and ethical operations.

http://education.qld.gov.au/web/schools/riskman.html

http://ppr.det.qld.gov.au/corp/governance/Pages/Intellectual-Property-and-Copyright-Use.aspx
http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/scw/go/pid/946
http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/scw/go/pid/944

References
Class notes 2015
SAMR model - http://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html
TPACK image - http://www.matt-koehler.com/tpack/tpack-explained/