Just some great You Tube Videos I like:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XEN4vtH4Ic&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb6cFn4_YyU&feature=player_embedded

Analysis of eLeaning Technologies

Hi All,

We the past couple of weeks I've been so busy looking at new things and reading about all these resources that are available to use in educations setting that i haven't had time to jump on and blog about them. So here is a quick overview of my thoughts.

BLOGS

Welcome to ones of my postings on my blogs, if you have had a chance to look around you would notice that I'm new to this and was not familiar with a blog. However, over the past couple of weeks I have learnt of this great new tool not only for teaching purposes but also personal reflections. Blogs can support learning through a wide range of critical thinking strategies such as Plus, Minus, Interesting (PMI) analysis, Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis and collaborative authoring which can be published to the blog (Learn Online, n.d.). Evidence of this is shown through-out my blog.  Please refer to a previous SWOT analysis on Blogs

This article on blogging in education is good.

WIKI

We'll start of with my Wiki, I myself haven't done much to mine however I spent a bit of time looking at others and seeing how they can be used. 

Strengths

- Free
- anyone can add and edit the page
 - it is available to anyone anywhere who has access to the internet

Weaknesses

- Information in not always correct and information can get lost

- Anyone can edit it

- Open to spam, vandalism, bullying an unwanted advertising

Opportunities

- Students and Teachers can upload video's and podcasts for everyone to see

Threats

- Anyone can add to the Wiki 

Google Earth

Another free program with endless teaching opportunities, as a class we can literally fly to anyplace on the world and have a look around. 

Plus 

- Can see images of places all over the world and follow the path from were you are to were the place is. 

- Can place markers on important places for future reference

- Great use for setting scenes in teaching.

- Improves navigational skills

- Initiates high order thinking by providing the students with facts to combine with their own ideas to reach a hypothesis

Minus 
- Does take some time to get used to and be familiar with it's functions
- Can give you the sea sickness feeling after flying for to long

Interesting
- Google has brought out some teaching resources to use with Google Earth
- After doing some research there are some other programs similar however do not have the additional teaching resources.

WEEBLY

Next I looked at Weebly, which was seem very similar to a Wiki.

Strengths

- Free website and blog
- if it is the education version the teacher is able to manage the accounts and mediate what is published
- it keeps parents and teacher up to date 
- it is available to anyone anywhere who has access to the internet

Weaknesses

- No feedback section

Opportunities

- Students and Teachers can upload video's and podcasts for everyone to see

Threats

- The information is available to everyone

IRFANVIEW, PICASA, FLICKR & PICNIK

Next we looked at picture editing programs. In the past I have used Irfanview  regularly to crop photos or save/edit screens on my computer. As a photo editing tool I've also used Google's Picasa  to organise my photos and edit red eyes ect. However, no i have been introduced to number of new photo editing tools and ways to incorporate imagery affectively in educational settings. Flickr and Picnik are two I enjoyed playing with. And the major bonus... All these programs are FREE!

This is an example of something it did using Picnik, There are so many opportunities and things to play around with.

All of these programs can be used to present learning materials to engage thinking, influence feelings, or to support skill development. They can also encourage thinking routine similar to See, Think, Wonder, where the students use visual thinking to make thoughtful interpretation of an image (Visual Thinking, n.d)However, it is important that images are used for a purpose and not for the sake of it. Check out my blog on images in education for more on images.

POWERPOINT

We have also looked at using images in powerpoint to create stop motion movies. I've used powerpoint for years but now am looking at is as a new recourse to engage students. There are endless opportunities for students to learn using powerpoint including inactive games and voice recording on presentations. It initiates high order thinking by the endless creativity that can be added to the slides in the design, experimenting and construction of their presentation

Plus 
- User friendly
- already on most computers
- endless teaching opportunities
- presents organised information

Minus 
- it can be quiet time consuming to get all your actions, movies, video, recordings ect. to work in how you want them
- needs a projector and screen to present to a group

Interesting 
- so many ways this program can be and even for the people who use it quiet frequently you always find new ways fore using it.
- Microsoft Mouse Mischeif
- Tuscaloosa City School has come up with some great ways to use powerpoint

PREZI

Prezi is a new one also that I hadn't herd of but had seen in action. You are able to create your own learning web (as i like to call it) and can zoom to all the different spot on it. However, i can see how excessive use of this tool can cause sea sickness...


Here's an example of a Pezi i made just paying around

GLOGSTER

Glogster is probably my favorite after Picnik, it's like an interactive scrap booking page that you have quizzes, photos, movies, resources, the list is endless and you can post it to your blog.

Ok so that's my splurge for the day I recommend if anyone is interested jump on and have a look at these different resources. I know by the end of the day it feels like you've got so many different accounts and registrations but at this stage in our GDLT we need to look at whats available, i'm sure theres lots more we don't even know that exist yet.

Thanks

Danielle


References:

Learn Online. (n.d.) Strategies to support Critical Thinking using a Blog or a Wiki. Retrieved from http://weblearn.weebly.com/critical-thinking-ideas.html 

Visual Thinking. (n.d.). See Think Wonder Routine. Retrieved from http://www.pz.harvard.edu/vt/visibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03c_Core_routines/SeeThinkWonder/SeeThinkWonder_Routine.html

Blog Reflection on Images

Ok so we were asked to make a blog reflection on images, well for me when i think of images i think of my camera. It goes everywhere with me (unless i forget it in which case i am realy angry and can get quiet disappointed in myself... harsh i know) to me it’s like my phone and my wallet where ever they go it goes. I guess this is because not only do i like to take photos but i love to look back though old photos that i have taken and reminisce about time i may have forgotten about. I guess when we are looking at images in educational settings there is a similar component. By using images when learning new things it may help to remember about the topic. 

The power of an image is huge not only to jog memory or to reminisce but also in advertising. Like right now i’m thinking of an add on tv for a winery which is advertising their wines and has a picture of an awesome cheese plates (with numerous types of cheers, nice crackers, some grapes, salami, olives, sundried tomatoes... ok so i like cheese platers but getting off topic) and automatically my mouth starts to water. However as said in the Week 4 information provided on the online Moodle site it is important that images are not used without a purpose.

Here are a few points i’ve learnt about images and there use online following this week’s readings

·         It is important for teachers to insure their students are visually literate; they are able to see, to understand, and ultimately to think, create, and communicate graphically

·         To engage thinking

·         Influence feelings

·         Support skill development

·         To illustrate concepts

·         Support critical thinking

·         Use images online to show examples of what is being taught in the class

There are many, many more some which are on a great website that was provided to us as a learning recourse if you are interested jump on and have read.

There are so many opportunities for learning with the use of images. Just thinking about using it in classrooms so many ideas are popping into my head.

One would be to get into correspondence with a class of similar age in the US or somewhere and each class brake the students up into groups of 3 or 4 and each group is given a camera. They are to go out and take photos of either the school buildings, animals or anything then have them put the photos into a presentation and then they are swopped between the class in QLD and the class in the US. The student could to a final report on the differences. This would not only be including a number of KLA’s but also enable to students to make friends from other countries.

I know i may be way off or got slightly carried away but it’s a blog right, i’m allowed to reflect and share my thoughts.

Link to my Wiki

http://daniellehowse.wikispaces.com/

Haven't quiet got the hang of this one yet though.

EDED20491 - Assessment 1 - Learning design brief

Over the past few weeks the study of Information and Communication Technology’s (ICT’s) has been my main focus in regards to my university study. It seems like the one subject that we can get a master of before heading into a teaching environment where we can then put it into practice. We have been introduced to a number of new concepts: some that I had never heard of even though I felt that I was quiet confident on a computer. I have found that the term ICT’s is a lot more than just using computers in education settings to type assignments or to play maths games; it is now and is continually being improved to be one of the major educational tools used in schools worldwide.

To introduce us into the world if ICT’s we were asked to create a profile wiki. Personally I had never heard of anything like this so the scaffolding that was provided through the online Moodle site was used extensively to create my profile wiki. Scaffolding is used in educational settings by teachers to work with students to build upon previous knowledge regarding a subject. From the foundations of the students initial knowledge scaffolding should be concrete, external and visible (Commonwealth of Australia, 2002). For some of my classmates scaffolding was not needed because they were miles ahead, and knew exactly what to do, where to make their profiles, and how to make it look visually appealing. However, there were a number of students in a similar situation as myself who found the scaffolding very helpful, further developing our initial skills in ICTs. This kind of diversity amongst students is something that will also be evident in educational settings that I may be managing in the future. From this task I have learnt, as a student, and as a future educator that it is important to cater for all knowledge levels. By provide the scaffolding necessary for the students who may struggle with step by step guidance through an activity but also the confidence to complete the task.

I was also introduced to a number of learning theories which I was not familiar with but have now become part of my everyday learning. Constructivism, Cognitivism, Behaviourism and Connectivism are the four learning theories that we have focused on, and although it took me the few weeks of reading and using the Constructivist approach through taking an active role in the learning process, (Lein, n.d.) I now believe I understand them better. Each of these learning theories were used when reflecting on the information or activity that we had learnt or completed within the week. As a group we explored the difference between the learning theories via a wiki on the Moodle site. We were engaged in cognitive learning by actively participating in the wiki, exploring, problem-solving, knowing, memory and thinking in our discussion (Learning Theories, 2008). Behaviourism relates to the positive and negative reinforcement of the learner (Learning Theories, 2008). In a classroom situation we would look at the behaviour of a student and shape their behaviour through the use of positive and negative reinforcement. An example we experienced involved the penalties associated with not completing the requirements of the course. Throughout the learning of these theories we also used the Connectivisim theory. Which is briefly, where we were continually networking amongst our peers and learning outside of ourselves within our wiki’s and blogs (Siemens, 2004).

In addition to the scaffolding for the set up of the profile wiki we were provided with scaffolding for other tasks we were asked to complete. In the first week of the course I completed a Felder and Soloman (n.d.) Learning Style Questionnaire which indicated that I am a sequential learner, and learn more effectively if I follow a number of steps to find a solution. These steps are similar to those found in a scaffold and also in the constructivist learning approach. As a future educator I believe it is important that a similar test is carried out within a classroom at the start of each year to provide me with an understanding of the different learning styles within my class to enable me to teach more effectively.

Previously I mentioned the creation of my profile wiki, in addition to this we were asked to create a blog to share and reflect on the week’s activities. It didn’t take long to understand what blogging was and soon enough it provided us with a new platform in which we could share our thoughts and upload our responses to activities. Having a blog for both personal and educational purposes has come to be very handy tool. Not only are we able to share our thoughts amongst our followers but also read the ideas and reflection from our fellow students and comment on their blogs. This could possibly be a very beneficial tool in education settings because students can interact with each other using the wide world of ICT’s and share information and ideas. Having a blog could also benefit the relationship between a teacher and a student; teachers have the access to the reflections posted by each student which may help to understand their learning style better. A link to constructivism is also evident here in that student are being active in their learning by sharing information and ideas.

Another form of ICT that we focused on was the use of mobile phones for educational purposes. Originally I was against the idea because of the distractions and privacy issue that schools are already struggling with; however, over the course of the week we looked more deeply into the topic and found studies to suggest otherwise. A study by Hartnell-Young and Heym(2009) showed when used in conjunction with outdoor activities and sciences that mobile phones were very effective.

Finally it is important for ICT’s and eLearning to be further integrated into the 21^st century education setting however it is vital that teachers use the appropriate scaffolding to ensure their students are building onto previous knowledge. It is also essential that teachers are aware of the different learning theories and that they show diversity within their classroom.

References

Commonwealth of Australia. (2002). Scaffolding Learning. Retrieved, March 15, 2011 from http://www.myread.org/scaffolding.htm

Felder, R., & Soloman, B. (n.d.). Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire. Retrieved, March 2, 2011 from http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

Hartnell-Young, E., & Heym, N. (2009). Mobile Phones and student learning in Secondary Schools. Retrieved, March 9, 2011 from http://cmslive.curriculum.edu.au/leader/default.asp?id=28526&issueID=11897

Lein, K. (n.d.). Constructivist Approach. Retrieved, March 2, 2011 from http://elearningpedagogy.com/constructivist.html

Learning Theories. (2008). Cognitivism. Retrieved, March 2, 2011 from http://www.learning-theories.com/cognitivism.html

Learning Theories. (2008). Behaviourism. Retrieved, March2, 2011 from http://www.learning-theories.com/behaviorism.html

Siemens, G. (2004). Constructivism: A learning Theory for the Digital Age. Retrieved, March 2, 2011 from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

The Potential of Blogs in a Teaching Context

SWOT Analysis

Strengths - Provides and online learning space that can be referred to anywhere there is a computer with access to the internet - Enables feedback to be given on the posts by anyone - Allows the sharing of information - Uses ICT's to facilitate learning - Promotes creativity - Allows reflection	Weaknesses - It displays personal information to anyone if settings are not changed - Avenue for cyber bullying - No face to face interaction - Doesn't help with literacy skills such as handwriting and spelling - Open for misinterpretation - Reliant on technology - It's a public space
Opportunities - Further use of ICT's to facilitate learning - Having all students to have a blog to share their ideas and opinions - Better teacher student relationships because of the personality shown through a blog that may not be shown within a classroom setting	Threats - Privacy - Competition from other blogging programs - Unfamiliarly amongst parents - The unknown of what others blog about and whether it is appropriate for a blog - Some schools do not allow their students to access blogging sits

Reflection – Mobile Phones

Reflection on own learning

The activity for week 2 was to look into the use of mobile phone in education. Initially I looked at this and though about all the trouble that schools go to, to enforce mobile phone policies because of the class distractions they cause and also the privacy issue in regards to camera phones. However, once I got into a bit of the reading I started to see the advantages of mobile phones being used in education but still was unsure about the insecurity of it all and the possible problems that arise not to mention the expenses. We used De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats to generate different views on this topic and I believed it was very successful. I have used De Bono’s Hats before and think they are a great learning tool.

Reflection on potential

This approach brought out lots of different views on the topic and provided a great involvement within the group. This approach also provided anonymity which enabled students to post without revelling who they were  and enabled a great group discussion

Constructivism 

The students were active in the discussion sharing what they had learnt and learning from what others had posted.

Cognitivism 

This activity enabled the students to sort through their ideas and the information they were given from the readings and put them into the 6 categorises of the hats.

Behaviourism 

Not sure on this one? There was no feedback from the lecturer although there was from other students in a way that if someone posted something similar to them they do have that shared opinion which provided positive reinforcement (May be totally off track with this).

Connectivism 

There was a diversity of opinions within the sections of De Bono’s Hats which shows connectivism, also the students were looking at alternative information sources for their discussion not just the ones that were provided.

Diversity

I don’t believe this activity supports a diverse range of students because it was a clear cut activity

eLearning and Digital Pedagogy

I believe the De Bono’s Thinking Hats are a great way of engaging students to explore different ways of thinking, by having it set out as a discussions students could add their thoughts and also looks at other students ideas to gain further understanding and different ideas.

Note: Each week I am learning more about the different Learning Theories and am realising that my original statements/definitions were either incorrect or need tweaking/adding to.

Engagement Theory & Blooms Taxonomy

Ok so, I spent quiet a bit of time on this topic research and asking questions then research and ready some more however, i think i have done what i think is what was asked.


Firstly to have a quick brief on the Engagement Theory (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999)

• Emerged following time spent teaching student in electronic and distance educaiton
• Students must be engaged in learning activities through interaction with others in order to learn
• Uses technology to enhance the learning of students
• Uses the constructivist learning theory because when working with distance education student they have a variety of experiences that the student may have already had a large amount of knowledge about
• Incorporates activities that occur in a group context, are project-based and have an outside focus.

Secondly Blooms Taxonomy (http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#cognitive)

•          It identified different levels of complexity from simply to complex
•          3 domains of education
•  Cognitive (knowledge)
• Affective (attitude)
• Psychomotor (Skills)
•          Multiple layers of learning

Ok from here we were asked to put them together to be used when working through a unit of work (well i think anyways, that is how i interpreted it). This is what i came up with...(the blue is from Blooms Taxonomy and the Purple is from the Engagement Theory)

• Determine what type of class we are teaching, fully internal/distance education/electronic
• Engage the students in a class discussion regards to upcoming lesson
•  Can the student recall data or information on the topic
• Uses the constructivist learning theory because when working with distance education students they have a variety of experiences that the student may have already had a large amount of knowledge about.
• Does the student understand the meaning of the problem, get them to read it back to you in their own words
• Use the internet to research more about the meaning
• Can the student use the concept in a new situation.
• Can the student determine the organisational structure of an object by separating the material or concepts into component parts.
• Incorporates activities that occur in a group context, are project-based and have an outside focus.
• Can the student put parts together to form a whole, creating a new structure
• Cant the student explain, justify and make judgment about the value of ideas or materials.

Reflection – Learning Theories

Reflection on own learning
We were to get in pairs for this activity and do a PMI for a chosen learning theory. For me to understand a concept I feel I need to have a set definition for what I am learning. I struggled with the Learning Theories topic as I could not find one distinct definition for each theory. However, after reading some literature and having a look at the contribution from other classmates in the wiki forum I came up with;

Behaviourism – is a strategy where teachers reinforce positive behaviours until the positive behavior changes the students attitude and the positive behaviour becomes automatic.

Cognitivism – if the teacher can understand the mental processing of the student then they can work toward understanding them and enabling them to learn

Constructivism – that a student’s knowledge is based upon their experiences, no two learners are the same

Connectivism – learning through the resources available on computers and the internet.

Reflection on potential
My students could benefit from this in the same way I did, working in pairs you get to see the difference in opinions and work together to get an answer. Also by looking at what other groups did to learn about the other topics that the student did not focus on.
Constructivism
This was used in the pairs because no one learner is the same different opinions were shared.
Cognitivism
no
Behaviorism
no
Connectivism
I learnt about the learning theories through resources that were available on the wiki, the course information and using the World Wide Web. 
Diversity
Yes, because we were given the opportunity to pick our partners and our topic
eLearning and digital pedagogy
It encourages discussion and provides different opinions within the class to be shared 

Reflection – Profile Wikis

Reflecting on own learning
Well this was another new thing that I had never heard about, I’d heard of Wikipedia but never a wiki... So it took a while to navigate around the page and figure out what it was i needed to do. It will help me as a learner to find people with similar interests in my class to work with. In terms of scaffolding as i learner i found it easy to follow the steps provided on the Moodle site to create my wiki. I believe it is very important to have the scaffolding for learners to be able to follow a set of instructions when starting something new. However, this maybe just specific to my learning style as a sequential learner as discovered by completing the Felder and Solomon online questionnaire. 
Reflection on potential
This could support the learning of my students in the same way it has support me in my learning. I could be at task set in the early stages of the class coming together, this would enable them to form groups amongst themselves to work within.
Constructivism
I guess it does in that we are sharing out experiences.
Congnitivism
Only unless the student added something to their profile which may demonstrate the mental processing of the students.
Behaviorism
no
Connectivism
Yes by using the template that was given to complete (which i had trouble within putting into my profile wiki).
Diversity
Yes, it have us the option of using the template or just writing the information we wanted published. 
eLearning and Pedagogy
By enabeling students to fill out their information for other students to look at and decide whether they would work well together in a group situation.