Clouds

Check this out!! I made it in next to no time using animoto. I then tried uploading it to Mahara and froze my view. However when I went back in to edit and add text I realised I could upload to utube. Fantastic. I had to start a new view in Mahara but it is now loaded there as well. You can only load about 12 photos and text on the free one, but you can pay $3 for a full length video. Lovin animoto...

Animoto

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Another great thing is Brochure maker. This enables students to create an authentic product to donate back to the community and encompasses both literacy, numeracy aspects. Students need to summarise their research to present it in a concise well written format on the brochure.

Digital Storytelling

When exploring Digital Storytelling I came across this excellent video. I intend using this as an example for my students of what they can do in their assignment on Recycling.I will also show them this one to show how special effects can assist kepping our audience engaged.

Reflective Synopsis

My e-learning journal has come a long way in 8 weeks. I used to think I wasn’t too bad with computer technology, having made a few PowerPoint’s in my previous positions and using face book, utube and Wikipedia. How little did I know? ICT’s for Learning Design has been a very long and often arduous journey but it has also been very interesting and at times exciting. I quickly learnt that I still had a lot to learn about what technologies are available to help us provide education for students in a way that keeps them engaged and wanting to learn. When we first had to set up our Blog it seemed weird and I didn’t quite understand what was meant of us. However, once I started engaging in the different tasks it became apparent that our Blog was a way to document and display our learning achievements for others to view and comment on if they liked. My first task was the Voki; we had seen these on Residential school with Scot and also in our online study guides. Definitely more fun to create our own. This technology is the epitome of the Engagement theory allow us and students to Relate (find the topic they want to talk about)-Create (The Voki)-Donate (Publish it to their blog or the web). Students could pick a topic say the “Heart”, research information about it, summarise and put into their own words to put to a Voki to teach to their peers. This would also encompass Bloom’s Taxonomy with needing comprehension skills in summarising and relaying back in their own words. With modern society trying to achieve more student-centred learning and steer away from the traditional chalk and talk modalities, teachers need to arm themselves with more and more entertaining material and techniques to keep students engaged. Schools are traditionally Mode 1 learning, however, nowadays teachers need to focus on Mode 2 learning which is produced in diverse sites, produced in teams, subject to peer review, global, and produced in the context of application. A Wiki is a good example of student-centred mode 2 learning. In my Action Plan for a unit on Recycling in Year 12 Multistrand science I have indicated that the students will use Wikis to formulate plans and techniques to re-engage the community in recycling. The Wikipedia online is a perfect example of this. Mahara is an online storage device that students and teachers can use to store everything they need in relation to school or work. This can be utilised to keep track of certificates and awards, assignments, resumes and even your blog it should be introduced to students as early as possible. There is even the potential with Glogs, wikis and web quests to go almost paperless for projects at school. My Mentor teacher has student email him their drafts of assignments and he emails back. I will definitely be adopting this practice as a teacher and encouraging the use of online assessments rather than paper copies. PowerPoint’s are the form of technology that most teachers will use, they are quite easy to prepare and give the students something more interesting to look at than the textbook. Inserting utube videos into the PowerPoint was new for me but something I have latched onto in my lessons. There is an amazing amount of utube videos already produced on every topic imaginable. This would be a great assessment task for students, providing them with an authentic situation, recording a video on the topic of their choice to publish on utube. Here it will be viewed and commented on by all different people so the incentive produce a worthwhile product is high. This would also be useful to encourage them to produce videos to teach another grade or even the general public, which ties in with the Active Learning theory and Dales Cone, giving the students direct, purposeful experiences. Other technologies we have learnt were Flickr and Piknik, the former being a free website of pictures that can be used without concern of copyright. Piknik is a picture altering site where you can add and enhance pictures for publishing. Costa’s 16 Habits of mind “are dispositions that are skilfully and mindfully employed by characteristically intelligent, successful people when they are confronted with problems, the solutions to which are not immediately apparent.” My post of the Autistic teen is a classic example of the Persisting phase of these habits, which really made me think about how I perceive others and what each individual can achieve given the right avenues and support. Realizing that each student learns in a wide variety of ways, it is necessary for us as teachers to provide for these differences through the persistent use of a variety of teaching strategies that take into account the diverse ways that students learn. We can try to do this by stimulating active participation by all students, providing challenges, and opportunities to collaborate with others. The interactive white board and Gizmos do just that. Gizmos are online learning tools and lesson plans specifically created to help engage students and give them an interactive learning experience, a way of bringing the world to them by way of virtual experiments. These work superbly on the interactive whiteboards. These encompass all of Marzano and Pickering’s Dimensions of learning(1997); the students are positive about learning, they acquire and integrate the knowledge, extend and refine this by analysing and comparing, making decisions and investigating and solving problems and finally seeking to be accurate, persevering and using the necessary resources to get the answers. Devolver and Storybird both allow for engagement and active learning. The students can create either a dialogue or a story to publish to the web. They are both easy to use and a lot of fun. This would also encompass the higher order level of thinking required in Blooms Taxonomy of comprehension, analysis and synthesis. I would use these applications for students to do peer teaching as part of their assessment; they could break down a particular topic and reword it to appeal to a younger age group. This would help both classes, with literacy skills and the Dimensions of Learning. Incompetech is a site for royalty free music and therefore like Flickr is ideal for students to access for assignments. It has a wide range of music and I would use these as a component in my teaching. I have read widely about the benefits of music whilst learning and find that I myself prefer background music on while I am studying so I am keen to implement this. Google earth is a relative treasure trove of possibilities, definitely not what I had expected. It has options unlimited for all areas of teaching and would work exceptionally well with an interactive whiteboard. This would be opportune for discussing current events and tapping into the authentic topics.
Reference List
ACU Adams Centre for Teaching Excellence. (2000). Dales Cone. Retrieved April 13, 2010, from Active Learning Online: http://www.acu.edu/cte/activelearning/classroom_comprehension.htm
Aldred, S. (2009) Effective E-Learning: Authentic learning and assessment. FAHE11001 Managing E-Learning, viewed 5 August 2009, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=641
Bloom B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Co Inc.

Costa, A. (2010). Describing the 16 habits of mind. Retrieved from http://www.mindfulbydesign.com/about-habits-mind
Dryden, G. V. (1999). The Learning Revolution. Auckland: The Learning Web Ltd.
Heath, G. (2001) Teacher Education and the New Knowledge Environment: RMIT University: Fremantle
Houghton, J. & Sheehan, P. (2000). A primer on the Knowledge Economy. Melbourne. Victoria University
Kearsley, G & Schneiderman, B (1999) Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning viewed July 14 2009, http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm
Marzano, R.J., & Pickering, D.J. (1997). Dimensions of learning: Teacher’s manual (2nd ed). Aurora, Colarado, USA: McREL (Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory)
Comments
http://pennysgdltblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/math-teacher-very-inspriring.html#comments
http://pennysgdltblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/technology-on-web.html#comments
http://pennysgdltblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/circulation-powerpoint_10.html#comments
http://pennysgdltblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/glogs.html#comments
http://newkrisblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/wikimania.html
http://newkrisblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/mind-maps.html
http://missmollenhagen.blogspot.com/2010/04/win-ipod-not.html#comments
http://kyliegupwell.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-epl-and-icts.html?showComment=1272779350888#comment-c695758141666929377

Clouds lesson powerpoint

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Clouds lesson powerpoint

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We were supposed to do a narration to go with this powerpoint but even though I downloaded the Freecorder4 from the web and did everything it said it would not record my voice. I have a feeling my microphone is playing up it worked for my Voki. So I uploaded some free music from Incompetech to go with the powerpoint. This would link into the Active learning theory and engagement theory.

Incompetech Free Music

This website is a treasure trove of royalty free music and tunes. Using music to enhance learning has been researched enormously, however, it is not used in classrooms as much as it should be. Unlimited Lists 8 ways of using music for teaching.
1. Music relaxes the mind and lowers stress levels that inhibit learning. When used effectively, it increases alpha levels in the brain, boosting memory and recall and allowing the brain to access reserve capacities.
2. Music acts directly on the body, specifically on metabolism and heartbeat. Listening to certain types of music can trigger the release of endorphins, producing a tranquil state that leads to faster learning.
3. Music stimulates and awakens, reviving board or sleepy learners and increasing blood and oxygen flow to the brain.
4. Music is mathematical. Certain musical structures stimulate specialized brain circuits, allowing learners to decode complex ideas more easily.
5. Music inspires emotion, creating a clear passage to long-term memory.
6. Music is a stage-changer and can be used effectively to get students into an effective learning state.
7. Music is a universal language, uniquely capable of crossing cultural barriers and training in ethnic traditions and values. It can set a dramatic stage for lessons in history, foreign language, sociology, political studies and geography.
8. Music is a powerful anchor that moors learning in memory.
I used a u tube video on clouds for the end of a lesson on clouds with a fantastic uplifting soundtrack. The students thought it was great, it really settled them down as it was the last lesson on a Friday afternoon and then I had them look out the window and draw which clouds they saw. They seemed to want to interact a lot more after.
I would like to introduce music more into the classroom and will continue to research this as most us listen to background music whilst studying and most students would like to bring their ipods and listen to them however, then they can't hear what is being asked. So there would need to be a happy medium.
References
Dryden, G. V. (1999). The Learning Revolution. Auckland: The Learning Web Ltd.

Gizmos, Interactive whiteboards

Gizmos is another website that is fully interactive to keep students engaged and exploring learning. It enhances their learning and focuses on the 'Ah-Hah!" moment when something in the students mind clicks and it all finally makes sense. This is crucial in learning but especially so in the subjects of science and maths where rules, theories and experiments are needed to be understood to analyse and eventually come up with the answers. Gizmos help teachers provide examples and interactive experiments in a safe environment using technology. I believe I will use these whenever possible and especially where there is opportunity to access a interactive whiteboard. The Gizmo website research paper states that it powers inquiry and understanding and 'students become active learners who participate in building their own understanding." This also fulfills some of Marzano's Dimensions of Learning. Dimensions 2, 3, 4 and even some of 5 are needed when using Gizmos effectively. These all come to life on the interactive whiteboard which can be used just like a computer, but touch screen and totally user friendly. There is only one interactive whiteboard in the library at the school I am doing my practical placement. It is generally used by the lower grades although I will endeavor to get down there when there isn't a class and try to upskill enough to utilize it in one of my lessons along with the Gizmo so the students can actually do the problems and simulations on the board itself. This will help keep the students engaged and fulfill Dimensions 1 and 5 with creative thinking and critical thinking.
References:

Marzano, R.J., & Pickering, D.J. (1997). Dimensions of learning: Teacher’s manual (2nd ed). Aurora, Colarado, USA: McREL (Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory).

Utube video I could utilise as a teaching aid in Biology

This is a utube video on Meiosis. The next section the Yr 11 Biology students are studying is Meiosis and Mitosis. This video could be used at the start of the lesson as a 'Hook' to engage the students in the topic. Also the fact that it is another students assessment item would help appeal to them and maybe even give them ideas as to what they themselves could do for their assignment.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is the worlds biggest WIKI. This has both its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are that it is full of information on every subject you can think of and some great links to extra resources. The disadvantages are that being a wiki anybody can edit the information and therefore it is not always accurate. Teachers realise this and students are not allowed to use wikipedia as a reference for their assignments. They may access it to get information, but must find other websites or texts to verify the information is correct. I did look up Biology as directed in our study guide and came up with some great websites that link to authentic resources. Students could use wikipedia in this way, as a sourcing document to ensure accurate referencing. Wikipedia is also a great way of explaining how and why to use wikis for research and assignments.

Google Earth

Wow.. I didn't realise how interactive Google Earth was. This would have been a fantastic resource to use while the Volcano was erupting. This is very engaging and would keep students entertained for ages. I think the idea of a virtual fieldtrip would be very informative and the students could learn a lot. Google Earth allows students to choose an area or Building and even zoom right down to the 3D view where they can see buildings in 3D, plus if the building hasn't already been drawn and uploaded in 3 D they have the opportunity to do it themselves which would be great for maths, graphics or art.

Storybird

Storybird is so interesting. This site has many possibilities. Although the storybook I created would be more for the younger child. There is the potential to enhance learning via engagement and reciprocal teaching. One possibility could be to get older students to analyse all the pictures available to them under one theme, ask them to create a story to go with the pictures that will teach a younger student something of use. This would also encompass the higher order level of thinking required in Blooms Taxonomy of comprehension, analysis and synthesis.
So even though at first I was only thinking of this as a technology for younger grades, once I started thinking laterally the options are endless.

Walk through the Jungle on Storybird

Dvolver

More technology thanks Kristine. These are great fun. I think these would be great for students to create dialogues for almost every subject. They could use them to explain experiments, maths, plays, question answer. Then add backgrounds and music to keep them interested.

Autistic Teen Finds Inner Voice

I know this is not just Information Technology but I am doing my assignment for Supportive Learning Environments on Diversity and have come across this amazing video on a teenage girl with Autism and just had to share it with everybody. It really makes you think and consider how you interpret and treat people with Autism and related conditions. This is a great example of Persisting in the Habits of Mind, this girl, her parents and tutors persisted for 11yrs till eventually they had a breakthrough in the form of ICT's. The computer presented an avenue to be able to communicate with the world. This is teaching and learning all in one. Everybody can now learn what is going on in the life of a severely autistic teen, and hopefully get more insights into how best to treat the symptoms to help these students lead a better life.

birds

birds
Originally uploaded by milobabe10

This is a photo of Baldwin Swamp I created in Piknik

Authentic Learning Environments
Kearsley and Shneiderman (1998) assert that for learners to be truly engaged in their learning in an Information Communication Communication (ICT) learning environment they need to RELATE to a real-world, authentic problem scenario that is messy and ill-structured.

They need to, in small teams, RELATE to the problem task, CREATE solutions to this problem and then DONATE the solution back into the real world. While this theoretical perspective has strong links to pedagogical approaches like Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and Authentic Learning environments, it is the DONATE aspect that sets it apart from the other approaches.
In creating an Action plan for our Assignment 3 for ICTs in Learning Design, I realised the next topic for yr 12 Multistrand science at my placement was going to be recycling and I had just read an article titled "The evidence that we are living unsustainably" on the educational qld website. I thought that this would help give an authentic real-world spin on the upcoming unit. My next idea came from listening to a friend complain about the amount of rubbish that is thrown into the recycling bins and how it ruins a whole load of recycleable goods when this happens. My idea then was that I would approach the Mayor re speaking to the students and coming up with an authentic task for them to complete in teams for assessment. Re-engage the community in recycling, educate them as to why it is important, what will potentially happen if they don't and impassion them to want to do the right thing for the environment and our future. The action plan came together immediately incorporating a wide range of ICT's. Webquests, Glogs, wikis for collaboration, utube to display finished products etc. Hopefully this will HOOK the students in, keep them engaged in the task, enable them to relate to the topic, create a fantastic product and donate it to the community and the rest of the world. I will keep you posted.
References
Kearsley, G & Schneiderman, B (1999) Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning viewed July 14 2009, http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

The wonders of Glogs

The Glog website is just facinating and the possibilities for this resource are endless especially for primary and I think yr 8&9. For teachers a glog is "a creative, dynamic, and innovative digital outlet that captures learner's excitement for online creations, keeps learners engaged in course content, and makes teaching and learning more fun.
A private and safe platform, monitored directly by teachers. Teachers control all the activities of their learners.
A valuable teaching tool that integrates diverse core subjects including math, science, history, art, photography, music and more for individual learner portfolios, unique alternative assessments, and differentiated instructional activities.
For Learners:
A fun, imaginative, and powerful learning experience which fosters independent creative self expression, positive learner-teacher relationships, and teamwork on collaborative class projects.
A vibrant, multi-sensory learning experience which integrates learner’s knowledge and skills into traditionally text-oriented subjects and motivates learner’s desire to explore topics in which they may previously have been less interested."
Reference: http://edu.glogster.com/

Technology on the web...

I feel I must comment on the overwhelming amount of resources and products available on the web. I think I must have signed up for almost every bit of technology around....First Mahara, then Blogs, Voki, Glogs, Slideshare, Wikis, Flickr, Utube, windows live... the list goes on I really hope I don't forget all the passwords.

Circulation powerpoint

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Circulation powerpoint

View more presentations from Andrew & Darrens Tree Service.

Above is a copy of my powerpoint on Circulation. I have developed this as a workup lesson to more practical lessons in dissection. It took me 2 days to research and put all the extra bits in like entrances, exits, movies and music. Please check it out on the forum too as it seems to work better there as an attachment. I am disappointed that music gets taken out in slideshare. Ok I have redone it. It took out my utube videos too but I have worked out how to get them back with it, if not in the correct sequence... Boy what a hassle. I have also signed up for Flickr and uploaded some photos of various things from my life. I really enjoyed the information about the interactive whiteboards and can't wait to see if the classroom I will be in has one. My daughter said her class last year had one and it was 'the best'! She said it was really fun and you could do lots of things with it and research just like the internet. I think Flickr is a good idea in that there are heaps of photos that students and teachers can use without worrying about copyright. I am concerned though how easy it is to get a half naked picture come up and the disgusting comments that follow them. I wonder whether the schools have better filters on their computers?

How to understand Mahara and our e-portfolio...

Mahara was a little confusing to set up initially but its potential for life long learning for both students and teachers is huge. You can store your resumes and all your certificates on there to have easy access to them when applying for jobs. Also it can be used as a storage and reference site for teacher portfolios, storing resources, lesson plans, favourite websites, documents sourced from schools etc. For students it can be similar in that could scan their report cards and school photos, assignments etc into Mahara for safe keeping and also for reference of applying for jobs or university. You can keep up to date with RSS feeds of your favourite news station or journal, and all this can be kept private, allowing you to choose you views it and for how long.

Wow Very interesting....

Glogs!!

Wow yet another new thing learned!! Thanks Carolyne. You are a wealth of knowledge (and time obviously)...
First Blogs, then Voki's, WIKI's now GLOGS all the things I had never used but will now endevour to use in my teaching career to 'hook' students and also keep them engaged throughout their learning. The students can create an interactive poster online and submit to the teacher for marking. I signed up as a teacher as it has way more features and you can create a class. You also have control over all the students' Glogs and can formatively and summatively mark them. They can submit them privately to the teacher who can then mark and post a private or public mark and comment on the poster... How cool is that. I did a sample science one with embeded video, moving art and text boxes. This is so much more environmentally friendly and easier for students as they don't have to get parents to go buy cardboard and then cart it to school hoping it doesn't get wet or scrunched. Also they can keep it forever unlike our old posters that fade and crumple. Oh the possibilities.

Porker, an intro for a lesson on the heart

I would use this voki to introduce a lesson on the heart. It would be my hook and also help students relate to the upcoming topic more as we would be discussing the different hearts of fish, reptiles and mammals.

Autism and Inclusion

My assignment for supportive learning environments is on Diversity and the form of diversity I have chosen is Autism. This website is great for information and I think even after I have started teaching I will continue to refer back to here. Autism or (ASD) is very common nowadays, with 1 in every 160 kids being diagnosed with some form of Autism. This is extremely scary.

MY WIKI

I have finally worked out how to do a wiki... I was in the wrong spot..I tried Webpaint but it wouldn't work..Now have done it in Wikispaces. Please feel free to check it out. I decided to start one on Biology as that will be one of my KLA's and hopefully I will be able to use it with my students. Wiki's are a multimodal tool that can include written text, pictures, photographs, audio and video or any combination of all these. Students can use these as part of an assignment to gather all information in one place, especially valuable if they need to work as groups. For example if they were studying the Ecosystem. Each student could be given a particular area to research. They can post their information to the WIKI, look at and comment on each others findings, and then work as a group to make the whole project come together for assessment. This would encompass Mode 2 learning by being produced in teams, subject to peer review and student-centred. The teacher could have access to the Wiki to check on progress and offer any hints or good websites. It would also link into Costa's 'Habits of Mind' with persisting, managing impulsivity, and thinking flexibly.
References

Houghton, J. & Sheehan, P. (2000). A primer on the Knowledge Economy. Melbourne: Victoria University
Heath , G.(2001) Teacher Education and the New Knowledge Environment. Fremantle: RMIT University

Engagement Theory and how we can apply this to formulating our lessons

Greg Kearsley & Ben Shneiderman wrote a paper on Engagement Theory. They proposed that "By engaged learning, we mean that all student activities involve active cognitive processes such as creating, problem-solving, reasoning, decision-making, and evaluation. In addition, students are intrinsically motivated to learn due to the meaningful nature of the learning environment and activities.

Engagement theory is based upon the idea of creating successful collaborative teams that work on ambitious projects that are meaningful to someone outside the classroom. These three components, summarized by Relate-Create-Donate, imply that learning activities:
occur in a group context (i.e., collaborative teams)
are project-based
have an outside (authentic) focus"

The use of a Voki will fulfill some of the components needed especially if students then embed them onto their own Blog. I was even thinking they could have a Biology Blog for our class and upload all assessment items to it utilising our ICT ideas. They would be creating.. Say if we were doing anatomy and dissecting a frog or something similar. They could create a voki of a frog and have it give the introduction. Then research info on what they need to do for the experiment. Also find pictures of the instrumentation they will need and the parts of the body they are exploring. They could then film a student performing the experiment (maybe?) and put that in the Blog and lastly write up their results and findings and post them
References:

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

Ok Now I get it!!

Jeepers I seem to be one thing after another but anyway... I finally get it.. After reading a few of the others students blogs I now understand what we have to do..I think..
Obviously I am a tad behind in my journalling since some have started after Res school! As you can see I managed to master the VOKI...love them and will definately be working out ways to utilize them in my classwork. I like Tina's idea of using them as an option for students when giving oral reports for those who get stagefright or selfconscious. My daughter, who is 11 has made one for herself too so it is great my children are learning alongside me. I think this will also be a great way of getting students engaged!!! My problem at the moment is that every time I come up with a great idea it is probably more suited to primary age students and I will be in secondary so I need to think a little older.
I came across a great quote in our ICT readings.
"When we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings." Wendell Berry

Math teacher very inspriring