Glogster

My First attempt at a Glogster page.

This has been fun, frustrating, fanciful and, finally finished!

As with all of these tools the navigation is relatively straight forward although much time was lost on producing the small amount of video in the page! This Glogster took me well over two hours to finally develop and I am sure that with a little experience that this could drop dramatically.

This leads me to think about the idea of learning and the idea of scaffolding in teaching. How do I as a teacher structure my lessons, use good pedagogy, for those children that do not have the prior learning / knowledge that others may have. Time is critical in all classroom endeavours and ensuring all are progressing despite prior knowledge is vitally important. As in all types of literacy if a student feels incapable or lacking there is a real chance of rejection and loss of motivation. I have felt these things myself during this course and know that to implement technology in my classroom in an inclusive way I need to be mindful of using good pedagogy in the TPACK model.

Following is a PMI for Glogster.

Positive:

• Increase digital literacy in multi-media
• Increases digital creativity.
• wonderful tool for collaboration.
• perfect tool for constructivist application.
• It's fun.
• Induces technological creativity.
• Safe format and seems well protected.
• Strong applications to declarative and procedural knowledge.
• low cost.
• You can set different projects for different groups to help manage diversity. 

Positive ideas from Joe Laffey Blog

• Develops interactive attitudes, personal reflection, critical thinking, imagination and creativity. 
• Reduces material costs of the classroom (if projects made in other media).
• Increase motivation and creates interest in performing interactive group work.
• suitable for many age groups.

Minuses:

• Time consuming, management of classroom time a risk factor.
• can only be displayed via technology. Posters less able to be displayed in class.
• work may be lost if not saved properly.
• Can seem cluttered and busy, information lost in the framework.
• risk of technology use overcoming learning outcomes

( Laffey, J).

• Consistent learning across groups can be compromised if proper direction is not given to learners.

Interesting:

In all of those projects where traditionally you would write as an essay or develop a paper based project or video based project this seems to bring all of those aspects together. In many ways this is a way of organising declarative knowledge. Marzano & Pickering(1997) suggest ways of storing declarative knowledge by, "descriptive patterns, time sequence patterns, cause and effect patterns, episode patterns, generalisation patterns and concept patterns". For english, science, math, history, geography, literature this tool is ideal.
Glogster allows the ability to be inclusive to different levels of student capability, good pedagogy and lesson planning would allow students to be in their own areas of proximal development and if working in small groups, those groups could be organised so that effective social constructivist learning could take place.
Although a good vehicle for all age groups I think this tool lends itself especially useful to primary teaching. As has been noted in my earlier video blog posting it is a requirement (ACARAv4.2) and (QSA) of students to become ICT literate, this is another tool that can be embedded into classical pedagogies but with the use of technology adding another level of deeper learning.

Safety:

As with all use of technology absolute priority must be given to the appropriate use of material. Appropriate attribution of information and referencing of ideas, images and vision. The ability to manage these creations in a relatively controlled environment is a definite bonus. Protocols and further considerations of cyber safety can be found at Cybersmart. The website has reasonable in built safety features but as always the correct use of student images if used must be considered.

Teaching examples:

I have chosen an example from the (ACARAv4.2) curriculum for year 5 science.

"Important contributions to the advancement of science have been made by people from a range of cultures".

A glogster of famous scientists could be modelled so as to provide an example for the students as to outcomes expectation. A small group exercise could be created and each group to be given a time period / culture to research, ensuring of course adequate teacher content knowledge of these time frames cultures and the scientists involved! 

This exercise can be broken down into several classes, for research, development, creation. The beauty of this approach and using glogster is in the internet and multi media. It produces a much more diverse presentation concept and engages the students. The information is not being only given by the teacher, they would act as facilitator and trouble shooter and guide for the groups. 

Discussions could then be held as to the knowledge gained and reflect that into a current context.
I would be using TPACK modelling in that I must have strong subject content knowledge, excellent technical skills to enable the students to move through the research and creation smoothly and high pedagogical skills to scaffold correctly at each stage. I would also be mindful of keeping things on time, create effective and balanced groups of differing zones of proximal development and ensure the outcomes for students involve deeper learning and analysis.

A few good examples from the web:

Bobcats:      http://b-7bobcats.wikispaces.com/09-10

Glogpedia:    http://wamfu.edu.glogster.com/east-asia-2-countries-ii/

References:

Australian Government; (ACARAv4.2)Science as human endeavour year 5. Retrieved April 2013 from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Science/Curriculum/F-10#level=5

Laffey, J (2013) ICT's for Learning Design. retrieved 4th April from http://joelaffey.blogspot.com.au

Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D. J., Arredondo, D. E., Blackburn, G. J., Brandt, R. S., Moffett, C. A., Paynter, D. E., Pollock, J. E., & Whisler, J. S., (1997) Dimensions of Learning, teachers manual (2^nd ed.) Colorado: McRel.

I love Prezzi's!

Prezi

This is a wonderful representation of what we can do with Prezi.

Retrieved from

This has been a very useful process as I have always used powerpoint presentations for my business life and had never come across Prezi. I particularly enjoy the dynamics of the screens, although some of my friends do not like the style at all and find it distractive. It would be interesting to do some correlation between learning styles and preferences. the different templates that are available offer great variation. The ability as in powerpoint to include multimedia is a powerful tool.

In the student application I can see many uses that are very similar to the use of power points. I have given another one here that helps to explain it all.

Retrieved from: Prezi.com

This is my attempt at using a Prezi, 

Podcasts

Podcasts:

The use of podcasts seems limitless and especially from a student perspective. They give access to the entire world of teaching and unlike some of the internet many that I searched were of an excellent quality.

Looking through the itunes store was amazing and I subscribed to a few casts while I was there!

I liked these pieces of information from Macinstruct: and feel they represent wonderful ways I could use podcasts in my classroom.

Podcasts should have a planned presence in your classroom. They should not be included with little or no planning. Consider the pedagogical approach you’ll be taking and match the use of Podcasts to that approach, not the other way around. Careful preparation and planning are necessary to succeed with new tools, and Podcasts are no exception. If you’re expecting to download and play some Podcasts and gain student interest and increase performance, you’ll be disappointed. Planning a Podcast as a resource to enhance your classroom is a better, and more professional, approach. For example, it’s very likely that you’ll want to use just snippets of some Podcasts to highlight concepts and support the curriculum, so you won’t be playing the entire file. You can skip ahead to specific parts and play only those pieces that are pertinent to your class objectives. Compared to the Fast Forward and Rewind of the filmstrip, film projector and VHS days, Podcasts make selective presentation of material exceedingly simple and powerful. However, this requires that you listen to the entire Podcast and select those portions you wish to use. The time invested in this process now will pay off when your lessons are focused and appropriate.

and:

Advantages of Podcasting in Education

Podcasts provide several advantages to teachers, students and parents. The points made above all support the list of advantages below, which is certainly not all inclusive and is growing as Podcasts become more prevalent in our educational systems.

1. Meet the needs of more students with varying learning styles and aptitudes.
2. Provide ‘make up lectures’ to students who were absent.
3. Supplement existing material and resources with a portable and remotely accessible source of information.
4. Audio benefits vision impaired students and non-native speakers.
5. Ability to replay and review information helps to embed lessons in memory.
6. Asynchronous consumption allows for convenient access and multi-tasking (riding the bus, walking, working out, etc…).
7. Flexible curriculum pathways to encourage student participation and facilitate success.
8. Most appropriate presentation of spoken/audio material—e.g. native language, foreign language, speech therapy, music, reading assistance.

The following are some further links to information on the use of podcasts in the classroom:

http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/scutter.pdf

http://www.wtvi.com/teks/05_06_articles/classroom-audio-podcasting.html

References:

Macinstruct (2013)Podcasts in education, referenced (march2013) from http://www.macinstruct.com/node/43

Digital audio recordings.

Audio Recordings.

image.

Ease of use?

The use of audio tools is extremely easy. In this aspect of the engagement I looked at Audiboo and using it on my iphone4s which I purchased as I needed better kit for doing this kind of ICT! Any excuse will do really. The only issue was actually getting the file to embed which took 30 mins to work it out! Grrrr. Finally worked with the all else fails aspect of embed! As you can see it is still posted in two ways which I will fix as I learn more.

I will leave it up to Audioboo themselves to explain some of the uses for this type of technology.

"It's fantastic for many things:   

• reporting, 
• storytelling, 
• education, 
• as an online dictaphone, 
• or just to let friends know what you're up to, 
• interviews for your website, 
• wonderful ambient sounds, 
• music you've made,
• even a full-on radio show.

Audioboo works on ios, android and nokia devices or via the web, and soon blackberry and windows 8. Our mission is to be the one platform you use when you want to record audio, share it or save it for the future."

Following is my first recording: 

Video Engagement

Music: flight of the bumble bee: Freeplay Music.

Video In Education.

This is a relatively easy form of processing once you get the hang of it and I believe it will become addictive!  Most senior primary school children would be able to manipulate this platform individually. Again the differences between computer types, mac or window and software types are to be considered.

For the making of this movie I used an apple Macbook and iMovie. It was a little challenging to begin with but with some help from my wife we worked through tutorials to include some basic features. I have learnt that often it is important to have some one capable helping those less able. I will definitely remember this in class. I am very pleased with this very simple offering considering where I started from. Ground zero. Time, as in all these assignments, was a huge factor, there is so much more I want to learn to do but will need to wait.
There are endless possibilities for this medium, both for teacher focus and student focus. It is interesting because the use of video needs to be differentiated into the creation of video and the software available to do this and the use and consumption of video as a teaching medium.

I will use a PMI chart to look further into the use of video in the classroom.

Positives:

• Readily available technology.
• Almost all mobile technology platforms have video options now.
• Low cost.
• High likely-hood of previous student use and familiarity.
• Portable. 
• Deep resource of prepared teaching videos available. e.g. Teacher tube, 100 best sites for video education, ICT how to videos TTV.
• Brilliant way to explore and establish prior knowledge in a subject.
• Teacher can tape own classes and assess pedagogy and behaviours.(Schwartz,D.L.course notes)
• Can be used to assess reading and literacy, a permanent record.
• Assess student class presentations.
• Project work / collaborative learning friendly.
• Field trip recording and documenting.
• Music class analysis and teaching aide.
• Brilliant from the visual learners point of view.
• Video manipulation software readily available.
• Most software relatively easy to navigate.
• Not language / culture specific, can often find relevant material in various languages / styles.

Minuses:

• Students can be passive in watching video in class and disengage.
• during running of video difficult for students to ask questions without disturbing flow of information.
• possibility of equipment malfunction.
• Legal and safety issues of student images and exposure to community.
• Can be time consuming especially for inexperienced.
• Can be individualistic.
• Not so great for a verbal learner.

Interesting:

I feel that the creation of video is the underpinning of the web. Yes, yes, we can argue that all day but it is vision that powers what we enjoy on the web. Video on the web to me is a focused, personal television, we search it out. Its power to communicate, create emotion and develop points of view, to sway our thinking are almost limitless. However we must analyse what we watch, why we watch and be metacognitive of the video process and analyse what the developer gets out of us watching.

Part of the Australian curriculum (ACARAv4.2) investigates the uses of video imagery and how it is used in society. In this very visual world, all aspects of video literacy are essential.
With creative thought video may be useful in almost all KLA's and are a magnificent tool to help younger students develop those ICT and metacognitive literacies.

Here is a video produced by Cybersmart on bullying, brings it home.

Teaching:

I feel a wonderful class objective would be to create videos about a single subject, perhaps climate change, and then suggest differing or possibly many points of view. Examples of differing styles could be shown. The exercise could be scaffolded in a way that asked small groups to act on a given bias / point of view towards the topic. Researching the web for ideas and examples and insights and then to bring it together and create a video using all the tools available. We could choose to be scientific, emotive, reflective, for, against, balanced etc. Higher order thinking could then be used as the groups analyse what they felt during each creation and debate the effectiveness of each of their tasks and how they may improve their efforts. 

This exercise could be a wonderful TPACK experience involving technology use embedded within curricular content and with good pedagogy may activate many levels of bloom's taxonomy. I can see how students with very differing intelligences (Gardener) could all bring their gifts to bear. The model provided by Daniel L. Schwartz & Kevin Hartman in course notes would be invaluable in this process.

Here is a LINK to a Teacher Channel video. I am a visual kinesthetic learner, and to see and learn and then role play is invaluable. I could read how to do it all day but not truly understand. For my students I know that I must bring diversity into my class for all learning types. Video will be an excellent tool for some of my students.

References: 

Australian Government (ACARAv4.2)English:Expressing and developing ideas, Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/English/Rationale

Engagement Activity 1 to 3, Images & photo upload.

I have chosen a few photos to upload to the blog as part of exercises 1 - 3.

I was unable to use mobaphoto as it only supports windows. To me this really highlights the need in e-learning to have software that is usable across all platforms as discussed in The Global imperative (2005). I then discovered that I was already manipulating photo size as a part of normal part of iPhoto export and preview process. The upload process itself to both my wiki and blog was very easy and I expect very junior primary school children could master it very quickly.

I had a good look at FLickr and the rules of the site and I found there to be more restrictions than I would have expected. More photos than I expected were restricted for download and at times you are asked to buy images. Flickr Zoo was a wonderful release into easily accessible photos and brought a rainbow into my day!
This aspect of internet use could actually be used as an introduction to the process of copyright on the web and the exploration and discussion of copyright in the classroom

This photo was one taken on Fraser by myself and adapted with befunky.

It was a wonderful website to use and very intuitive with a very broad range of techniques and styles that could be used if time permitted. I will definitely be returning to this website with some of my own photos soon.

IMAGES AND TEACHING.

There would almost be no limit to the ways in which we can use images in our day to day pedagogy and there is an enormous range of tools out there that can be used to create meaningful and engaging activities for our students. 

This website suggests many ways that an image can be used in the classroom and the teaching environment. I have as yet not even begun to look at the many photo sites mentioned in the tutorial but will return to edit as I have time.

References

The Global Imperative (2005) the report of the 21st Century Literacy Summit. Retrieved from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/Global_Imperative.pdf

WEBSITE REFLECTION

Image from website cartoons.

My website can be found here: http://cqu66michael.weebly.com

In this blog we are to reflect on the functionality of a website,

how it can be used in the teaching context and how a static website can be used to support student learning and also how students can use one to express their creativity. We are again encouraged to use an analysis tool and I will be choosing the PMI method again.

Positives:

Ability to use as a central point of classroom communication.

Stable platform. 

Easy to control use / editing of page.

Strong tool for dissemination of information.

Cheap to set up and easily updated. (lizzy blog)

Minuses:

Lack of flexibility.

Requires more skills than other open space type media.

Takes time to edit.

If design inadequate difficult to use. (lizzy blog)

Interesting:

Students can create websites as a part of art design, business, science. It is a fact of business life now that web based marketing and sales is vitally important to many business ventures. It provides relevance and world view. Students could produce websites for local businesses.

Using a website as a locale / hub for generalised class base information such as class rules, internet etiquete, referencing styles, project web links, links to curriculum, calendar events, exam dates, assignment schedules etc.

Parents may be able to be involved by using site to look at curriculum and teaching strategies that can be followed up at home.

Web can be used in the support of special needs students by providing pages or links specific to their needs that can be displayed in a generic supportive inclusive sense.

WIKI WIKI WOO..........

Photo: LINK

MY WIKI LINK
please feel free to have a look at the wiki and leave a comment.

In this blog we are to create a new posting reflecting on the learning potential of a wiki, considering the technical affordances of the wiki (the things it can do), and how these can be used by the teacher and the students to support, facilitate and transform learning.  Using A SWOT analysis or PMI.

I feel as though I am being asked to comment on the aspects of the dynamics of flight and how to build a plane after being pushed off a cliff with three bits of wood and some bailing twine. This is however a constuctivist world now and I will reach into my proximal learning zone and use some connectivism to survive it.

I have not tried a PMI strategy before so will try it this time,

POSITIVES:

It is wiki wiki = Hawaiin for fast. link

Ease of use: a wiki is very easy to produce and to edit.

wonderful tool for group work, collaboration, brainstorming.

Can be structured by teacher to scaffold learning experiences.

Allow students to contribute without classroom pressure.

Can create side comment pages to further focus / filter information.

Can provide links so creates a form of connectivism for other students.
Class activity can be monitored using running history.
A place that children can be engaged and relatively self directed.
Further positives / uses from course wiki

MINUSES:

Can not create a real time dialogue.

Student content can be overwritten / lost / so requires monitoring and history checking so can be time consuming for teacher to control.

If two people contributing at once information can be lost.

Can be opinion based.

Project needs to be time sensitive otherwise relevancy may be lost to earlier contributors.

Possibility of early posts controlling thought processes of others.

Has some risk for privacy and confidentiality, bullying, it is a public space, rules needed and to be enforced. Further to this I asked my 15 and 17 year old daughters about Wiki use in their school and they were dead against them citing technical and personal privacy issues, to quote, "no way do I want to put my personal thoughts and work where anyone can read them!" Interesting.

INTERESTING:

Perhaps use as a tool for student feedback.

Great way to assess prior knowledge on a subject before teaching it, brainstorming, building bridges, KWL strategies. (QSA, 2009)

A place for students to pool resources for, research, exams or projects. A place that they can create and manage, with some oversight / scaffolding, themselves. (Cool cat teacher link)

Students may be able to creatively write a story, novel, factual text as a collaborative. (source)

What is fantastic is the web itself and the plethora of options, ideas and opinions out there that can be used to apply wiki's. I think with a clear idea of what content and outcomes are to be achieved i.e. good pedagogy,  and with some creativity wiki's are a very versatile tool. 

As a discussion regarding the uses by the teacher and the students to support, facilitate and transform learning we need go no further than to review the positives and the interesting. Wiki's are a beautiful tool to help create collaborative learning in the constructivist learning model and is well supported in the  connectivism model of supported learning. Students can be collaborative and fully participant in the learning journey. If scaffolded and reviewed well it can create true ownership and stimulate creativity. This is a link to education Tasmania and gives wonderful overview of scaffolding and ICT's. It is the bringing together of all ideas from the TPACK framework discussed earlier. Great scaffolding ideas can be found at our course wikispaces site and include; ranking tools, PMI, SWOT, Compare / contrast, collaborative authoring, Six hats and project drafting to name a few.

This of course means, as stated in minuses, that clear boundaries must be established and rules of ethical and legal behaviour will be adhered to at all times. This is a Link to a good website for a discussion and further links for internet safe and ethical practice. This issue in itself though is an excellent learning for the real world environment and establishes opportunities for web use discussion and research. Part of early usage of wiki's could be a creating a scaffolded student wiki exercise for example a KWL in researching ethics and correct referencing in the web based format and building a wiki of class ethics. See course notes for further info.
I have researched into web etiquette and this can be found in my wiki.

Earlier thoughts on Wiki's can be found in one of my previous blog reflections.

References:

Queensland Studies Authority, (2010) Teaching reading and viewing, Comprehension strategies and activities for years 1-9.  Retrieved from http:// http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/p_10/engl_teach_read_view_comprehension.pdf