Reflective Synopsis

Managing E-Learning has shown me I am classed as a digital immigrant (Prensky, 2001). I have not grown up naturally knowing and learning about ICT’s, but I have to adapt to using them in a classroom. If I do not keep up with technology then I am just going to enrage my students not keep them engaged (Prensky, 2005). To help the digital natives in my classroom it is necessary that I develop my skills in technology and make lessons as interesting as possible. It can be very time consuming but I am enjoying playing with many different options and ideas. When I have created something new I find myself thinking about the possibilities for the students and how much they would love it. I don’t have reservations about using ICT’s  but I need to be confident in what I am teaching if I am going to equip my students to be confident ICT users and communicators in a technological world. Using productive pedagogies is a helpful tool in the classroom as it gives students scope to add to what they think should happen and discuss.  The learning tool of teaching a child how to tie a shoe lace by examining ways of teaching a topic I found interesting.  It can be as simple as you like or can create higher order thinking. It can lift my pedagogy from me telling them what to do, to working in pairs for collaborative thinking on the subject. You could choose a Narrative for explaining how to tie shoelaces or take it to higher order thinking what do students in Japan do?  If my shoe lace is too short what will I do? The next step for me was to use a snipping tool and take a picture of the tool and then pasting it in paint, saving it as a gif, then pasting it into my blog. This was something new for me. While it is fun and exciting using these technologies I still have to teach my students safe practice when using the internet. As a teacher I need to model and teach ethical and legal behaviours in this regard to my students.  When using technology if it is not your work you need to reference whose work it is. The Learning Theories we looked at in week 1 I think all have their place. They help us to realise that learning theory is vital to understanding how our learners learn. Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike and Skinner believe that we learn through Behaviourism which is responding to conditioning, students learn through practice (Mergel, 1998). This is helpful in online quizzes and practices as we have to learn the information to answer the quizzes.  Constructivists theories like Vygoskys, teaches us that we learn through social interactions (Snowman, 2009). However social interaction alone may not incite learning. It is also the theory that supports strategies of scaffolding thinking through SWOT analysis and PMI’s. Using PMI’s thinking about the positives and negatives and possible implications that might arise through using technology. This helps students to bounce around ideas and draw out their thoughts. Through teachers setting up wikis like the ones in week 1 and 2 they can see every student’s thought process. They have a permanent account of the collaborative work of the students. Cognitivism is how we mentally process the information (Mergel, 1998). By participating in the wiki I can take in the information I want and then dismiss the information that I do not want. Hopefully the really important information will stay in my long term memory. But I do think Connectivism relates to the 21^st Century because we seem to collaborate with each other on all different topics (Mergel, 1998). This way we don’t have to have all the answers and we can take less time to research topics.  Sharing information is a good learning process

Reflection on the Wiki

In our second week of the course we were asked to contribute to a wiki about our views of mobile phones in the classroom. The wiki was set up using Edward De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats. I thought this was scaffolded in this way to get us to think about not just one point of view but many.  I was confronted with many different thought processes not just a positive or a negative one.  It was confronting having to put my thoughts out there for everyone to see, but at the same time I could see others perspectives and it challenged the way I was thinking. It raised issues I had not thought of and in doing so was building my knowledge.  Using a framework that gets the students building on their knowledge by higher order thinking connects to Connectivism and how we are learning in the 21^st Century through social interaction.

Tool 1. Creating a Blog

I enjoyed creating a blog as I had not done it before. It seemed to be pretty straight forward and I navigated my way around the site. Each time I would sign in I would find something new I did not know before, like the design, the editing, the colour, following someone else, the html button, view posts, new posts, insert image and publish. It has started me on a journey of networking and connecting with my fellow students.  People can read my blog and be critical or reflective of something I have posted just as I can read and gain insight on what to do with a particular technology if I am unsure. Blogging sits in the Constructivism learning theory where students construct their own meaning through interaction of others. In a classroom students could set up blogs for project work, using ICT’s, History inquiry, Geography inquiry. Students could set up a blog throughout the year to demonstrate their reflection on their learning process of certain new topics.  They could analyse and evaluate their work but most importantly develop higher order thinking of their work. They could work collaboratively in groups by creating and responding to posts.

Tool 2. Movie maker 2.6

I first made a movie on Movie Maker which I had on my computer. Then I could not embed it in my blog. I read that you could not put a movie in your blog. So I decided to download 2.6 as I thought it may be different icons to use. It is a better version than Movie Maker. Movie Maker 2.6 and had a storyboard and was more professional. Where Movie Maker was a bit like Powerpoint. Both are fun to use. I need to keep playing around with them. I created my wiki and uploaded my movie onto my wiki thinking I could put a link to my blog. I finally did it but I still do not think it was right. When I go onto my wiki I have to press download and then it comes up. I tried again and this time I used the add movie icon on my blog and it worked.  I put in 2 different pieces of music and a voice over.  I need to work at it but that is the fun of using technology. Using Moviemaker 2.6 you just grab what images you want then up load them. It is fast as yu can upload as many photos as you like at one time. Then you can drag the photos you want down onto the movie line. You can add music and do a voice over if you want to. You can add animations and words to your movie strip. The types of activities that Moviemaker 2.6 could support is anything with pictures. Students could make a travel movie if they were learning about another country. They could create an album about their life so far they could give to Mum or Dad for the end of year project in year 7. Using technology that interests students you are connecting to their world. You could introduce students to Powerpoint, Moviemaker, Voicethread or Slideshare and then they could choose which one to use.

Tool 3. Basic Powerpoint

Power points are an interesting tool to use. I enjoyed working with this and creating a little presentation on making a Power point. You can insert pictures or clip art. You can add text, make it large or small, use lots of colour, have pictures and text move in different transitions and have different effects such as opening like a checkerboard. I find Power point to be an effective tool, but I am still trying to get the music right and I found through Slideshare that I could up load it to my blog but I do not know how to get it to play.  It is one presentation tool which is very visual for the learner and used as a backdrop for oral presentations. Power points are used extensively in schools by teachers and students. They are an effective way to display information but sometimes they can be disengaging as there is not much interaction going on, only by the presenter. I found Voice Thread to be very engaging although I have not used it a lot. It is a tool for having conversations around media, images, videos, documents and presentations. Voice Thread can capture and hold a group of people’s attention participants can add info while the presentation is on and this can be more engaging. The voice Thread on my blog shows more buttons you can use for interaction.

Tool 4. Concept Mapping

Creating Concept maps is a great way of getting down ideas and moving them around.  I created a concept web for Global Science to do with the Food Web or food chain of certain animals. I used Microsoft Word and the Smart Art Graphic Organiser. It was beneficial as it showed me where to start and then I could add on with information as I found it. There were many different ways to create a template.  Another tool found useful was Bubbl.us. This I downloaded to my computer.  It seems more flexible than Smart Art as you could start with one bubble and create your own concept map the way you wanted to, by stretching out the attachments to the bubbles and move them around to where you wanted them to go. This would be helpful for students when researching a new concept. It gives them a place to start and then they can add on to their ideas. This could be excellent for a Narrative. You could have the Story Title in the middle then use the bubbles around for ideas, for example who is going to be in the story or where they went and so on. You could use it for using a method of making a cake by adding the ingredients around the outside. Then by numbering 1 to 10 how to go about making it.

In conclusion the ICT tools I have explored during this course so far have helped me broaden my knowledge bank and skills in technology. I want to continue learning in this area.  I can appreciate their usefulness and that they can support my pedagogy and content knowledge when trying to engage students in the classroom in many subject areas. It is important to model safe and ethical practice and to scaffold the learning in my classroom so my students and I can feel a great sense of accomplishment.

References

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. Retrieved from    

            http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf   

Prensky, M. (2005). Engage me or enrage me. What today’s learners demand.

           Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf

Mergel, B. (1998). Instructional design and learning theory. Retrieved from
           http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/mergel/brenda.htm

#The%20Ba sics%20of%20Behaviorism

Snowman, J., Dobozy, E., Scevak, J., Bryer, F., Bartlett, B., & Biehler, R. (2009).
            Psychology applied to teaching. Milton, QLD: John Wiley & Sons

           Australia.

Bubbl.us

I created a concept map in Bubbl.us. We did a concept map in Global science looking at plants and how they grow.  You can place a topic in the middle and then use words to trigger your memory on different bubbles. I could add lots more. These are just a few. You can add as many different bubbles as you like and move them around or stretch them out. You can change colour. You can also add a smaller bubble to add on to the big ones. I am going to enjoy using this tool much more.
https://bubbl.us/

Uploaded my video from my Wiki

I uploaded my video from my wiki finally. So excited. I still need to get better but I just wantd to show I could put in music and do a voice over as well. I did a biger one before this one but it was too big. It say only up to 20mb and this one was 17mb.

Using a concept map

I made this concept map for global science for one of my expert group topics.
The concept map helps me to view and remember from one point to another.

Uploading a video

I have made a powerpoint as well. I made it on making a powerpoint. I added pictures, clip art, text, different fonts, size, transitions and music. It is enjoyable doing these things. I think it is a great tool to use in the classroom. The children can experience different ways of doing things. They can make it personal to them. They will be like me with some skills and then they will learn new skills like adding music. I think it will keep the students engaged in a topic as they can research the web for information and for pictures. It is very time consuming. You look around and a couple of hours have gone by. The good thing about a powerpoint is that you can come back to it later. It doesn't have to be finished straight away. This can be an ongoing learning process over the term for assessment maybe. I have tried to put it in my blog but I cannot. I am going to try and put it in my wiki and try to link it. I am not sure how to go about this. Everything I try does not work. I know I can click on a link and it will take me to a video or a you tube video or a website but I am not sure how to link my Powerpoint. Maybe someone can help me with this. I will see how I go.

Powerpoint for slideshare from lynbourke

I finally found through Slideshare that I could upload my powerpoint then embed it into my blog. It only shows the slides I made. I want to know how to show the slides moving.

Uploading and reducing photos

This was the original photo I cropped



This photo I played around with on paint and filled it in.

This photo I reduced in size
and uploaded them all into this blog.

I made a video today and posted on to my wiki. I have spent lots of time trying to do it right. I then copied the url link and posted it in my blog but it still is not right. The video came up right but not the way it is supposed to so I have deleted it. Maybe someone can help me with it. I will have to invite some members to view my wiki.  I made a short video on my 50th birthday with family. I added some different music and I did a voice over for a part of it. I am enjoying doing these things but frustrated at not knowing other things.


https://lynseconswiki.wikispaces.com/

Using Voicethread

This video shows you how to navigate around the page of voicethread. But I will have to keep playing to understand it all. I have put my picture up to create an identity and added a voice over commenting on a baby with all food over his face. The video is very interesting. I think students will have lots of fun with this tool.
Go to voicethread.psu.ed

Reflection on my learning about Blogs using a SWOT

I finally uploaded this picture. I spent an hour on it thinking I had not snipped it correctly but I finally found the upload button on my blog ( a little picure of a picture). My how simple it is when you know how. Now I will be able to upload my other picture from weeks ago.

I enjoyed doing this swot analysis on blogging. Blogs are organised sequentially as well which is something I left out. This help you to remember what you wrote when. I am a bit like Stephen Downs in that I think they are pretty wonderful as well. I get a little closer to understanding it better each day.

Productive Pedagogies

The Template from the Productive Pedagogies I did back in week 2

This is  a good learning tool to use in the classroom I think as it gives everyone a chance to contribute to their learning. It also gives higher order thinking to those that need some extension thinking. You could manipulate it and chop and change ideas if you wanted to. You could make it as simple as you like or as difficult as you like.

Go to www.weebly.com

I created a Weebly today. I called it "Lyn's Learning Page." I have just started looking at uploading pictures and text but not much else. Will have to do some more soon. The Weebly seems to have alot more things you can do. You just click and drag if you want to make a picture or some text or a paragraph with a picture. In Multi media you can click on Photo gallery, slide show, file, audio player, embedded document, flash google maps youtube video. In the Basic functions there is a title paragraph you can click and drag down into your page, contact form, multible columns, You could create a PMI, HTML for codes. I am looking forward to playing with it. In Revenue ther is a google adsonse, product block, small product, regular and large product. I was thinking about making it a travel page. Will see how I go. It would be great for a classroom as the students could do a SOSE Inquiry on ir or a Science inquiry, It would be great for an assignment on anything really.
A teacher could have a topic set up and then add to it as she goes along.

I was on the DETE site the other day and was looking up some information for science and when I went into the Science window I found that DETE had made a 'Wordle' with all the Science strand names, like Biology, Chemisty, Earth & Space, Physics and other words relating to Science. It looked very effective. I then went and had a look at the other KLA's to see if they had done the same and they had all made wordle's using words relative to the subject.

I set up my Wiki a couple of weeks ago and just got back to it today. So I changed the background design and colour and posted a welcome message and invited some people to join my wiki. Will wait for a reply. I added my wiki address to the uni site with our blog addresses. Navigating the site was easy, maybe because I have made a blog and been working on that for some time. I think a wiki will be a good tool to use in the classroom as the students can make it their own and conribute to it at school or at home. They can view other peoples wikis and add or edit information if they want to. It would be great for doing many things but one thing would be learning about a different country. You could find lots of information and any pictures to post. It would be an informative tool to save.

I have been trying to put a picture I copied onto my blog. I used the snipping tool and copied a picture and saved it in paint but now I cannot put it onto my blog. I will keep trying.

Making a Fodey

Contributing to a wiki this week on "Should we have mobile phones in the classroom?" was a collaborative way to find out other peoples viewpoints and to give my viewpoint was a great way to have a discussion.
I think it would be good to have students in the classroom participate in a wiki and it would give everyone in the class a voice and have a say on a certain topoic.

http://www.fodey.com/

Engagement Activity 4: Blog reflection on wiki activity

I think all 4 learning theories were used in the Mobile Phones wiki because The  Behaviourist learning theory has its place where we are given information to learn and we learn it. There is no thought process that goes into it. There is no thinking outside of the square. It is like Edward De Bono's 6 Thinking Hats, we have previouse knowledge of this way of thinking and we do not have to learn it. The 6 thinking hats  is a process in which to gather information.
Cognitivism is how we mentally process information. Our sensory memory takes in information and we transfer that information to our working memory and the rest will disappear. We take in what information we want in chunks and store it in our long term memory, so for this wiki we have memory of information to use for our discussion.
Learning through Constructivism is learning through our own experiences by observing and participating in life we build our own knowledge (John Dewey). The wiki was set up with a question "Should mobile phones be used in the classroom" and I think we all have had life experiences and understanding of what that could mean for students.
The teacher has set up a great learning space for us to reflect and show our knowledge on a subject.
It is through Connectivism that we all work collaboratively through the wiki to share different opinions, ideas and knowledge. We have different experiences. We can agree or disagree. There is no right or wrong answer and there are many different ways of seeing the question through Edward De Bono's 6 Thinking Hats we can answer the question either through a positive, negative, critical, creative, intuitive, objective or a process approach.

Retrieved from Moodle www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802 papers/mergel/brenda.htm

I had mainly a positive approach to the question, but there were some negative concerns that I  put up as well.  This way of learning was beneficial as I could see that people  have many varied ideas to the question. The issues will be when someone disagrees with someone else but that will be good healthy discussion. The drawbacks are that sometimes we do not like what people have to say and it can be very personal so when our opinions are out there for everyone to see it can be very confronting.  I think it would contribute to the  learning of my students because it would take them out of their comfort zone and give everyone a chance to have a say. The scaffolding worked well. It was clear and you could see how people participated and was easy to follow.

Making a Wordle

Wordle was fun playing around with. I think this would be a great site for students to play around with for headings or pages of assignments. It has many different functions to play with to get the picture you want like fonts, size, upper-case, lower case, colour, vertical, horizontal, certain languages and many more things to choose from to create it. If you choose one way of doing it you can just redo it and redo it till you get the one you want.

Blooms Taxonomy

There are 3 types of learning

1. Cognitive - brain
2. Affective - what affects us likes feelings
3. Psychomotor - physical

Another way of saying these 3 is knowledge, skills and attitude.

I have been trying to embed a picture of Blooms Taxonomy onto my blog but have not been successful yet. When I can I will but for now Blooms Taxonomy is broken up into 6 categories and these are the Cognitive areas

1. Creating
2. Evaluating
3. Analysing
4. Applying
5. Understanding
6. Remembering

The affective Domain is made up of:

1. Receiving Phenomena
2. Responding to Phenomena
3. Valuing
4. Organising
5. Internalizing Values

The Psychomotor Domain is made up of:

1. Perception
2. Set
3. Guided Response
4. Mechanism
5. Complex Overt Response
6. Adaptation
7. Organision

Retrieved from Moodle

Week 2 Productive Pedagogies

TPACK is The Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge framework.
As a teacher I need to have a good knowledge of subject matter.  Understanding the deep knowledge of a subject and knowledge of the Curriculum Development. It is important to find out what students know about a topic first. Then they might be more likely to get hooked onto new ideas.
Practice and Theory together seems to be a good way of being most productive in the classroom. Training in inquiry can assist teachers in how to look at the world from many different perspectives and to encourage students to see the bigger picture (Shulman, 1992).

Different technologies can be used for specific purposes like the utube videos on grammar done through the web 2.0. It helped me to understand the way technology, content and pedagogy together can be good teaching.
Moodle

I have been engaging with these readings and activities but I am finding it hard to do what I want to do with them like embedding the table on shoe laces onto my blog and embedding a copy of the Blooms Taxonomy table. It would be good if some could help in this area.

Out of the mouth of babes

This was sent to me through facebook. It reminds me of my grandaughter. 2 year olds showing us oldies how to do things digitally. I love it! I am just glad I want to learn.

Legal, Safe and Ethical Practice

There is a 10% rule or 1 chapter of a work may be copied for educational use.  The written work I do should be my own, not anyone elses. If anyone who owns an image or material and has requested it to remain their own work should not be copied.  As a teacher I need to model and teach ethical and legal behaviours in this regard to my students.
All material I am using should be referenced if it is not my own work.
http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=12575

Schools should implement guidelines for web publishing. They need to skill staff on web publishing. As a teacher I need to supervise students and make sure they are doing the right thing when using the internet.
Teachers should be skilled up on removing inappropriately published material. Teachers should be able to help parents with different programs to help keep their children safe when at home doing homework on the internet, like NetSafeKids (Queensland Government, 2002).

It is my job as a teacher to make students aware of child safety in areas of cyber bullying. Students need to be aware of speaking appropriatley and not sending rumours or sending unwanted messages.
http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/

I have embedded my voki, finally (fantastic).  I think this is a great tool to use when you know how to, for children to use when doing an assignment of their own. They can use the voki to speak what they have written and it is very interactive. It is also fun and you can make it your own, nobody elses.

Activity 3.

I have made 2 voki's but have not been successful in embedding them in my blog. I have tried to do what is on the Voki site and then I have tried to do it the way Kat Howat posted but I am still missing something. I got one of my vokies to speak from a recording I did on Connectivism and this is what I recorded.

A video on Connectivism on the Moodle site shows us how it is a way of learning information as we don't know everything. People can participate in different activities using different systems such as ICT's so people learn through contact. Siemens (2005) states we can get lots of feedback from many sources and it is a quicker way of gaining knowledge than doing it by yourself.

The article on connectivism was interesting. The little video was a great way to explain what Connectivism is. Having teachers there to guide us through the course is wonderful because they have lots of knowledge and I cannot do it all  by myself. Realising that people have lots of different opinions and lots of different ways of doing things is exciting. Through ICT's we are learning many ways to access knowledge and different ways to display the knowledge we find.

http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=12563

Activity 2

Students of today have spent their entire life surrounded by computers, video games, the internet and digital music. I really like the name of Digital Natives. I am not a Digital native but am fascinated by the connection we have with the world around us.
I do learn differently from my kids but I am open to new things.
 Reading Prensky's (2001) artice I found out I am what you call a Digitial Immigrant. I do not agree however, that students cannot learn successfully while watching TV or listeing to music because I cannot. I know they can because all people learn in a different way and that is one way. Sometimes I can concentrate better with some background noise and sometimes I cannot. I have seen that way of learning from my own children.
I am interested in coming up with ways to help my students learn but I think we can learn together. Coming up with ideas that are relative to their connection to their world is important to them. Children need to be engaged or they will not participate.

http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Activity 1.

I researched different learning styles by Felder and Solomon and discovered my learning style is more of an Active learner than a reflective one. I retain and understand information best by doing something active or by discussing or applying it or explaining it to others. I would rather try something out and see how it works and work in a group. When I am physical I learn better. I am a Sensing learner more than an Intuitive learner. I like to learn the facts where intuitive learners often prefer discovering possibilities and relationships. I like solving problems by well established methods and like memorizing facts and doing hands on work. I am more practical and like learning things that connect to the real world. I am more of a Visual learner and remember what I see through diagrams, pictures, films and demonstrations. I seem to be a Global learner more that a sequential one. I dont always get the information straight away then if comes to me. I can solve a problem but not always know how to explain myself.

Http:// www.engr.nesu.edu/learningstyles/submit.php

My First Blog

I already had a google acc set up so I made my new blog. I was unsure if what I was doing was correct but had a go anyway. I set up 2 with the same name then decided to make a new one so this is it. It was not as hard as I thought it would be.
I am looking forward to becoming more confident as I work. It feels a little strange writing down what I am doing. It is great to have fellow students on line to help me out if I am not sure of something.
My hope is to be able to contribute eventually.