ICT Tools- Group 4: Animations and Simulations, Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Documents for Collaboration, Online Concept Mapping, Online Timelines, Zooburst & MuseumBox

Scenario

Geography lesson on the content of Africa.

Wikis enable LMs to transform the learning into exciting learning experiences through the use of Google Earth by catering to the visual needs of students. This transforms lessons that were previously sheets of place names into a 3D, interactive world where students can take a walk along the streets of Johannesburg or switch to an aerial view of Rustenburg. Google Earth facilitates learning due to enabling LMs to provide students with visual representations of the places being discussed. LMs are able to show students the big picture (the continent) and narrow it down to a street view. Students learning is therefore far more comprehensive than if pen and paper methods had been used. The learning is also supported due to students having the ability to interact with Google Earth and the various view tools available in Google Earth. Some students, such as Global learners would prefer to view Africa from an aerial viewpoint whereas analytical learners would prefer a street view, each of these options are available to students. The learning is also enhanced due to LMs being able to provide students with far more comprehensive teaching on the continent of Africa by providing so many interactive maps for student use.

Animations and Simulations

I love working with animations, they turn the old still image into something far more fun. Animations and simulations go far beyond this though, a good animation/ simulation is learning objects. There are many many different ones out there, taking the content from textbooks and making it more interactive. I dont see any negative to interactivity in learning, even if you use the old excuse of that students get distracted with all of the flash bam buttons, they are still gaining ICT skills. The learning objects that are available on the learning federation are great to use in the classroom. My previous maths assignment was all about using and teaching from learning objects, while we were completing the assignment we found that learning objects contain so much content that one object can be used to teach 6 weeks of maths. Some of them even come in sets therefore scaffolding the students learning. Another benefit with learning objects or animations and simulations, students can complete them in their own time. If the LM creates a class wiki and posts the learning objects students can use them for revision or additional work for either support or extension students. The opportunities for learning are endless.
  
Google Earth

Google earth is another good tool, taking the old flat map or globe and making it far more interactive. Now students dont have to look at a globe and read tiny town names but can rather search for a place and go directly there with google maps. Google maps also allows the user to go zoom right in and see the actual street view of most places in the world. This makes the learning far more relevant to students, their not only looking at a country that off in the middle of nowhere, a place they know next to nothing about. Now students can see that they are looking at a real place, where people just like them live. One negative that i see though that the LM will need to be aware of is that students will be learning and focusing in on details, but will often miss the bigger picture. They may be able to google texas and see the street view but have no clue that it is in america or where in america. LM will need to be sure that students use google earth to not only locate places but also to zoom out and look at the bigger picture.

Google Maps

Google maps is a good tool for personal use but i really had to sit back and think of how it could be used in the classroom. An idea that came to mind is in maths, rather than telling students to complete a problem that is completely irrelevant to their lives, now they can be given real places and real measurements to use in class. An example would be, Bob wants to get from place A to B but also needs to stop off at place 1, 2 and 3. What would be the quickest route and how long is it in km? This would require students to look up real places and look at the routes available in their own town, students could even pull in their parents for route suggestions. The learning would be relevant and fun. This is just one example of its use in the classroom but if combined with the google earth tool great learning experiences could be designed.


Google Documents for Collaboration

This is a good tool for group work, more so for assignments than in class work though. From my experience with it i understand it to be just like a group wiki where multiple people can work in the same space, rather than being the same website like in a wiki its word documents. The setup seems to be more complicated than a wiki with very few additional benefits, as such in my own classroom i would have a preference for wiki based group work as opposed to google documents. This though is a purely personal preference rather than and supported preference statement. The benefits for using this tool in the classroom i see as being the same as a wiki so nothing new really here.

Online Concept Mapping

I really enjoy using the concept mapping tool of bubbl.us. I'm not someone that enjoys concept mapping to begin with but the fact that it is an online tool makes it far more useful. Everytime i try to do a mindmap on paper, it becomes over crowded and unorganized. By having the old mindmap digitized, this removes all of the above mentioned problems. The bubbles are easy to move around and reorganize the different coloured bubbles show how many levels away the new idea is, the fact that it is typed and not handwritten makes the writing much neater too. Personally i am far more likely to use this tool personally and as such incorporate it into my classroom simply because it is a digital tool. I can see the benefits in teaching the use of a tool like this because it helps students organize their own and others thoughts into one image. New ideas are linked to old ones and so forth, therefore facilitating scaffolded learning. Other uses within the classroom would be in group work , rather than students working together to solve a problem individually, students can use a tool like bubbl.us to work out the best method or solution as a group, therefore gaining multiple perspectives.  

Online Timelines

Another tool that i had never encountered before, i like this tool, especially all of the different view functions it provides. The map one i can see working well in conjunction with the other two mapping tools mentioned in this post (Google Earth and Google Maps). Say there is a RE lesson and students are learning about Paul, where did Paul travel on his missionary journeys? Students can use the online timelines to map it out and also write descriptions of key point in the journeys for the timeline view. Another lesson where this tool would be excellent in is history. If students research a particular country, they can use the timeline to mark out significant events, the dates and where these events occured on a map. This is an excellent tool for visual learners in particular and will enhance students ICT skills in the process. Personally if i end up teaching the older grades i would like to use a tool like this in my lessons, whether it be in class or as part of an assessment piece/ homework.

Zooburst 

Looked at some of the pre made story books and i admit that i dont much like this tool. This tool as i understand it is just a way to digitalise the old story book. I can see how it can be applied in the classroom, say for creative writing where students need to create illustrations that are reflective of their stories, but looking at the benfits that a digital story book has compared to a traditional one, i believe the traditional method to be better. The traditional storybook will provide the LM with opportunities to teach from the Arts KLA and hace students actually practice using the different art mediums and select which one would suit their story and why. A digital story may teach ICT skills but they are irrelevant to the english learning that is occurring and are just an added bonus. The graphics in this tool are also quite poor compared to some of the others i have looked at so far this week, this would demotivate students when after all of the hard work they are putting into creating the illustrations for their story cannot be supported by the ICT tool they are using.

MuseumBox

The last ICT tool i looked at this week was MuseumBox, this is another tool that i quite liked. I see this tool as being a good way for students to organise their research on a particular topic in one area, this research can than be displayed in a fun and exciting manner. The skills required to create a museum box seems to be quite basic and as such i wouldn't be using this tool in the classroom to teach ICT skills, rather this tool would be used as another presentation or organization option available to students. This tool is also quite versatile so i dont see it pertaining to any particular KLA, rather it can be incorpared into any and all of them.  

ICT Tools- Group 3: Powerpoint, Prezi & Glogster

Scenario

Art lesson on colours

Student understanding of colours and colour mixing can be transformed through the incorporation of interactive PowerPoint’s that allow students to predict what colour the mixing of two others will result in. The learning is facilitated due do the LM having the correct answers on the PowerPoint but still allow the students to interact with the PowerPoint and the slide order. The learning is supported due to there being room for trial and error, rather than being told the correct answers students can attempt the PowerPoint multiple times either individually or collaboratively so as to learn the necessary content. Lastly the learning is enhanced due to the interactivity of the PowerPoint, students work to understand the content at their own pace using the LM provided PowerPoint.

Powerpoint

First tool to explore this week was Powerpoint. I have used powerpoints previously, but not to a great degree. An extension to the old powerpoint was introduced in the reading this week, that is the tool of Mouse Mischief. I had never heard of this tool before but i absolutely love what ive seen so far. I love how it is so interactive, allow mucltiple users to use the same screen in a program as simple as powerpoint. I had never imagined that powerpoint had so many different capabilities to it, all of which i have been blissfully unaware of. Looking back i have seen this tool used once at uni so far and it was actually in a science lecture from a visiting teacher from a local school. We played this quiz game as a class and the powerpoint was completely interactive, i didnt give it as much credit as was due, in retrospect it made the boring revision question quite fun by making classmates compete agianst each other for correct answers. I loved it and as such i dont see how i cant apply this in the classroom to achieve the same results. Hopefully my basic powerpoint knowledge will help me in my explorations of this new tool 'Mouse Mischief'. Ultimately this tool allows LM to make boring lessons such as revision into fun and exciting games. I hope to use this in the future, hopefully next year in my prac at a local school.

Prezi

Second tool for this week was a Prezi, this is still a fairly new tool to me, having seen it being used only a few times and having made only one myself. This one is quite fancy, taking the old presentation method of a powerpoint and making it fun, exciting and ultimately dynamic if used well. I have seen some wonderful presentations where a Prezi was used and it turned a boring presentation into one that actually engaged the audience, with each click something surprising was going to happen and it really made me want to pay attention. I can see how useful a tool like this would be in the classroom if it has the same effect on students as it does on me. If i familiarize myself with the tool i hope to be able to make the absolute most of the tool and create exciting lessons. This tool would also be excellent for the students to use. This tool makes students re think how they word their 'slides', rather than paragraphs like are so common on powerpoints, short and direct statements are far more effective in a Prezi. This would be an opportunity to teach students how to summarise what they need to say in a presentation into one key point and the additional explanations would be verbal. Rather than reading off a powerpoint as is so common, student would have one sentence on a slide and have to talk about it for a minute.

Glogster

The last tool for this week is Glogster, this is a tool that i had absolutely never even heard of, let alone used. I had a look on the website at some of the examples that were listed there and they were amazing. I havnt explored the tool as much as i have all of the others i have encountered so far so i cant give such a detailed analuysis on it but from the little that i have seen i like it. One possible way that i can see myself using it is as a summary of a unit that is being implemented. I can create that Glog by linking all of the website i use in class, some student work examples that show noted difficulties, videos i come across and any other great resources i or the students find. These Glogs could than be saved at some location that i can either access again later or share with other teachers. Another possible use is to create a Glog for each student where i upload photos, work samples and any other important information onto it. This can than be used as a digital portfolio that the parents would be allowed to access using a password. This would allow parents to keep up to date on what their student is doing in school without coming in for continual interviews. This would establish those lines of communication between a LM and parents that are so often lacking.

Heres a sample of a Glog i started just to fiddle around with the available tools on the site.

Click Here

I uploaded a video, playes with the background and wall colours/ patters, item layering etc. The tools were self explanatory and allow for a professional poster to be made. I particularly liked the premade graphics and how they matched.

ICT Tools- Group 2: Images, Podcasts & Digital Video

Scenario

Science lesson in gases, liquids and solids

Digital videos assist in transforming student learning due to students having the ability to provide students with the visuals of the new science terminology they are learning about. New concepts such as how the movement of molecules in a liquid and solid differ are difficult for a LM to explain. Digital videos provide LMs with a way to show students animations found on the internet assist in simplifying the science. Digital videos facilitate student understanding due to being able to condense multiple real world examples into a five minute video. Rather than the LM needing to provide multiple demonstrations to students and wasting time and materials with the setup and clean up, digital videos present the important aspects without any time wasting. Learning is also supported due to any demonstrations being presented through the use of digital videos can be replayed. This will allow students re-watch sections that they may struggle with to ensure the learning is taking place. Lastly the use of digital videos enhances the learning due to providing the LM with demonstrations and teaching content that they would otherwise be unable to deliver to students because of either time or resource restraints.

Images

This week i delved into the ICT tools of images, podcasts and digital videos. The first one i will look at and discuss is that of images.

Being a visual learner i have always felt that incorporating images and other visual aids into the learning is vital. As such i have some previous experience in knowing where to find good clip art and stock images that can be used as classroom resources. From my personal work with digital drawings i have also come across the suggested site of Flickr. A similar website which i use myself regularly is Photobucket. I took a picture from Photobucket as hown below:

Using thi image i played with the manipulation tools available in Photobucket, here is a sample of what i came up with:

 

There are definite uses for a ICT tool like this in the classroom, one of which would be critical literacy, a topic that is explored in upper high school. How does photo manipulation affect the message the picture is sending? Another possible application would be with self portraits. Students could be asked to either use their own photo or other ones that they take and using the photo manipulations tools alter the image in such a way as to portray how they see themselves. For example a student might see themselves as being an excellent athlete so they use their face on the body of another famous athlete. This will allow students numerous opportunities to engage and explore the ICT tools that are so important to today's society. An  example of this would be my personal work with photobucket. Having familiarized myself with the site prior to uni and developed the skills to adequately use it, these skills have been of great help in multiple situations so far. I remember in a visual arts course i did last year, we had to fiddle with photo manipulation tools and now again in this course. It just shows that ICT skills once gained, regardless of how random ther are, they are an invaluable resource. In a primary school context i see this tool being used more for enhancing students ICT skills by letting them fiddle with the functions that the tool provides. One possible use that comes to mind is if students were to write a newspaper article and would need an image, the program allows for students to convert an image to black and white. Although basic it will open students up to a whole new world digital tools that they would most likely not have encountered before.

Podcasts

The second tool that i looked at this week was podcasts. I had very little experience with podcasts prior to this week, as such i needed a definition to clear it up. This is the definition provided in this weeks readings;

A podcast is simply a sound file. But it is a sound file that is shared with others, usually by subscription. Clearly, podcasts can be accessed online, created by others across the web. They can be accessed online as files that you create for your students. But importantly, they are also files that your students create and share by uploading online.

To have abit of a look as to what exactly a podcast is, i downloaded one off iTunes. Heres the one i used:

Animal Riddle Rhymes

I loved this one, i can see myself using podcasts like this in the classroom all of the time, whether it be to help with students listening skills of comprehension (?) skills. Its a fun activity that can also be incorporated after lunch times to calm the students down before work time again. Podcasts like this would also be useful in the learning itself if the LM were to create their own, this would be extremely useful for auditory learners. Explanations on tasks can be uploaded onto the class wiki/ weebly/ blog for students to listen to if they need assistance with assignments. In particular the LM can predict problems that may arise and make a FAQs page where a number of audio clips are uploaded, therefore minimizing the need to repeat explanations to every student as they reach a point of difficulty.

Digital Videos

The last tool that i explored this week was digital videos. I didnt choose to include a definition here because the ICT tool of a digital video seemed quite obvious to me as to what it exactly is. Heres a free video i downloaded off iTunes:

 

Digital video use is faily common in most classrooms nowdays, with Youtube being as big as it is, even teachers who struggle with ICT feel comfortable enough to set up the projector with a video. The fact that there are so many videos on Youtube covering absolutely every topic, it is very easy for learners to incorporate them into the learning. Whether it be math, english, art or science, there will be inspirational or instructional videos to be be used. As a future teacher i hope to incorporate videos into my lessons, the knowledge they can present is invaluable. The video i uploaded is just a random one but it shows how even the most ICT illiterate student can hold a camera and film something as simple as them and their friends out and about having fun. Making a video requires very little ICT skills and the little that is necessary is very easy to learn, easily in reach of a primary school student. Applications of this in the classroom could be a photostory as was completed by myself in my first year for one of my arts courses. This cut out the old traditional method of a visual diary and made it digital. Personally i preferred the method because videos could be included as well as audio and photos. 

Overall i see possible uses for all three of the above mentioned technologies. Digital videos are extremely useful for the LM in teaching, images are useful in learning and podcasts are wonderful for  entertainment purposes in the classroom. They have many, many more uses but these are just some of the applications that i can see myself using in a classroom.

ICT Tools- Group 1: Wiki, Blog & Website

The first ICT tool i looked at was a blog. The question that arises from this is, what exactly is a blog?


A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art, photographs, sketches, videos, music, audio, which are part of a wider network of social media.

Having been using a blog for the past few weeks for this course i can see a few benefits of how it could be of benefit within the classroom context. Mainly i would view a blog as being used as a reflective tool for the LM, an online professional diary of sorts. This would allow the LM to access it anywhere where there was a computer and internet access, at home or at school. The comments section would also be useful in that the LMs work colleges could post suggestions to problems that the LM has encountered in the classroom from their own knowledge, research or experience.

The second tool that was looked at was that of a wiki. Firstly what is a wiki?

A wiki is an online space where users and guests can edit, modify, add, remove information with intuitive editing tools.

An excellent example of this can be found when looking at the E-Learning wiki found here. A wiki is an excellent tool for completing collaborative online tasks. A wiki draws in all of the benefits that comes with ICTs and their usefulness in the classroom as well as the benefits of collaborative learning. Students are able to complete LM set tasks at their own pace and in their own time if they aren't able to complete the work in class, this allows for students to not fall behind while keeping the parents informed of what is going on in the classroom and the learning that is occurring.

Overall the wiki was an excellent tool due to all of the many tools taht it allowed me to experiment with. I was able to upload a wide variety of media that i can see being of great use within a classroom context. The

Lastly the third tool that was looked at this week was a website, or in this case a weebly. A description of what a weebly is pasted below as found on wikipedia.


A weebly is an online, free widget-based web site creator. It uses a widget-style format, allowing users to create pages with only a few clicks by dragging and dropping different page elements (images, text, or interactive content, etc.) onto a page and filling in the content.

Weeblys have always been a favorite tool of mine to use, its user friendliness and usefulness makes it an excellent website, both for personal and educational use. From my personal explorations on the website i found that a weebly seems to be the step up from first a blog and secondly a wiki. A blog is a personal tool that allows others to only comment on the posted content but not contribute or alter it in any way, a wiki on the other hand allow for endless collaborative learning to occur  but with limitations on content organization and media types. Alternatively a weebly caters for all of the limitations within a wiki,allow for far more options and no limitations on upload of media types.

Wiki and Weebly Links + Legal, Safe and Ethical Use of ICTs

Link to my Wiki: http://cbe-learning.wikispaces.com/
Link to my Weebly: http://cbe-learning.weebly.com/

Legal, Safe and Ethic Use of ICTs

Ethical and safe practices are an integral part of technology use within the classroom. A safe classroom is one where student’s privacy are protected and they feel safe being there. In the circumstances where I would be using for example a class wiki, all student photos would need parental consent before being uploaded and even than the site will be password protected. Due care will also be taken in instances where students are asked to upload images or videos. Students will be taught to only take images from sites such as Flickr and Photobucket where there aren’t any copyright issues. This is something that in just as important for teachers to know as students and parents.

TPACK

The third (recommended) activity is to post a reflection about your understanding of TPACK and digital learning design.

TPACK, otherwise known as the Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge framework. My understanding of the TPACK framework is that it is all about using technology appropriately to support the learning. If you can use complex flash programs to support the  learning, than do it. If you can only manage to use a program like excel, use that instead. Realize your strengths and weaknesses and work with them. I see this reflected in the classrooms today, new and young teachers are technologically savvy and can provide amazing lessons with ICT incorporated at every turn, but cant teach the content as comprehensively as their older peers. On the other hand, older teachers when they try to do the same with ICT fall down at every turn due to not having the same knowledge as their younger peers but can still comprehensively teach the content without these ICTs. In summary, realize your strengths, use them. Also acknowledge your weaknesses and improve on them. Be open to new technologies in the classroom but first become personally confident in using them before you incorporate them into the learning.

Wiki Activities

The four learning theories that have been focused on so far in this course are:

Behaviourism: Behaviourism, sometimes refereed to as "objectivism" has its roots in behavioural psychology. Its underlying premise is that learning is characterised by an observable change in behaviour. It treats the mind as a "black box" (Mergel, 1998), where learning then is a response to conditioning.Students learn through practice, positive reinforcement, and re-shaping what they have learned through the process. They are led through a series of steps in programmed instruction, with a pre-defined end result at each stage. Teachers reinforce target behaviours as they occur, and this reinforcement is gradually withdrawn as the behaviour becomes internalised and automatic.
Constructivism (Social Constructivism): Constructivists believe that learners construct their own reality or at least interpret it based upon their perceptions of experiences, so an individual's knowledge is a function of one's prior experiences, mental structures, and beliefs that are used to interpret objects and events.

Cognitivism (Cognitive Constructivism): Cognitivists sought to understand learning in terms of mental processing. This area of learning theory sought to explain some of the anomalies that emerged from the work of Skinner and believed that by understanding how the brain worked, a better understanding of learning would result. 
Connectivism: Connectivism was proposed by George Siemens as the learning theory for the digital age. It identifies the networked nature of learning with computers and the internet. Siemens stated that it is no longer possible to know everything, that it is more important to identify how and where to find knowledge than it is to know. In other words, the pipeline and its connections is more important than what is in the pipeline.

Looking at these definitions i would describe the mobile phones wiki activity as being most reflective of the constructivist approach to learning. We used the framework of the six thinking hats to organize our own individual knowledge under specific categories. Each opinion is equally valued and the fact that we each have different prior knowledge and experiences that shape our opinions on the topic is excellent. This vast array of knowledge allows for multiple perspectives which is of great benefit to all group members. The characteristics that led me to this belief is that a vast array of opinions is preferred to one definitive answer. This array of opinions was jointly constructed by the whole group rather than one individual.

Reflect on your own personal participation in the wiki. What are the benefits, issues, drawbacks of participating in a wiki like this? How would it contribute to the learning of your students? How did the scaffold support the collection of a range of perspectives?  

So ive participated in both the mobile phones wiki and the ones with the quiz questions. I can understand the benefits of both but ultimately i also see the negatives. The mobile phones one was good in the way that the thinking was structured through the thinking hats, this allowed students to consider perspectives that had the strategy not been used, wouldn't have been put into the wiki. The thinking hats also organized the thinking so that the note taking was orderly and relevant. The negatives on the other hand was that i believe 19 people per group is too large for one wiki table, this numbers aspect was something that i hadn't considered before and therefore would have done the same thing in a real classroom, creating a class wiki. The main points were recorded by the fast finishers, the lazier workers don't read what their peers have written and repeat the points, the slower workers aren't given the same opportunity to contribute to the same degree as their faster working classmates etc. Ultimately i would use the wiki activity in my own classroom but on a far smaller scale, probably with groups of 5 or so.

The quiz activity had its benefits and negatives as well. The benefits was that is was a form of revision which is always good but also the questions were written in the same way as they would be in the actual quizzes, forewarning students as to the level of knowledge they will need as well as being able to carefully analyze a question and the wording to understand exactly what it is asking for. A negative is that because the question pages were available to everyone to see, when you completed them you could look at the other completed ones and their reasoning for their selected answer and be swayed accordingly. A better alternative to this is that i believe is that either the question pages each only be allowed to be viewed by a select number of students or that there are more revision questions, different ones for each group and therefore requiring each group to answer their own questions using the knowledge between them and than finally revealing all the questions to everyone and the LM providing a solution sheet where students can compare the LM reasoning and question answers to their own and their classmates.