Synopsis of e-Learning

Hello bloggers,
I would like to leave you with a link to my Wiki site where I have included a powerpoint of my reflective synopsis for this course. I have also attached a summarising table outlining these tools with a focus on the negatives and positives to them in terms of pedagogy. The final post in my wiki is some comments I made to your blogs which I have also reflected on. This course has been informative and most enjoyable. Good luck to you all.

Dorris - Tiffany
'If you think you can't, you can't'.

Wiki Here

Interractive Whiteboards

If within my classroom I am previleged to be provided with an interractive whiteboard, I will certainly be excited and use it daily. I have briefly used this form of technology within a school for disabled children and was most impressed. Within a particular lesson the students had learn't how to use the whiteboard which was guided by the teacher. The interraction was fantastic! Without this form of technology these students would not be able to participate with this form technology learning as the majority of these children are unable to use a mouse and computer.

Below I have listed some useful tips in reference to using Interractive Whiteboards.

Horses for courses
Choosing a whiteboard really depends on the needs of your school. Most whiteboards are either operated by a finger and have a soft surface or by an electromagnetic pen and have a hard surface. Both types have pros and cons so visiting other schools to see which will suit you best is a great idea.

Location, location, location
Consider if large windows require blinds for sunny days and the height of those viewing the board - children and staff. Remember that a board and extra equipment will require as many as six power sockets nearby.
Think about the area around the board. On either side of the board, I have two waist high units, one is for my laptop so I and the children can type onto the board while looking into the class. On the other is my visualiser or document camera. This allows easy access to the board, but is flexible and allows for other approaches

Get to know your new board
The installation company should offer you basic training on the software which operates with your board. Consider whether this software offers the tools and resources to enable you to teach effectively. Look around and see what is available before deciding.Accept that, although initial gliches may happen, they are often easily rectified

It's not a flip chart, so don't pretend it is
Don't be tempted to settle into a routine of creating a series of slides for you to talk about. If you would not have done it with traditional resources, don't do it now. Try to justify the learning aim of each slide

Make sure your lesson is interactive
Think about where it is appropriate to make pages, or slides, interactive. This could involve children coming out to manipulate some text or a diagram, or typing directly into the PC/laptop. A good, whizzy maths game with things flying around and going bang at the beginning of a numeracy lesson, will certainly get your children's attention

Images, images, images
Images are powerful learning tools. The software which runs on your board will allow you to import saved images from your computer or copy and paste images from the web. I try to start every lesson with an image which the children can make some kind of emotional connection (Teachers.TV, 2009).


References
Teachers. TV, 2009, Interractive Whiteboard top tips, Retrieved 18th August, 2009, from; http://www.teachers.tv/ict/whiteboardtips

Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Personal Experience
At CQUniversity for the past three years I have been accustomed to using and interracting with our Blackboard site which is an example of a LMS. Our Blackboard site provides weekly information, lectures, manages our assessment requirements, details our weekly readings, allows for communication forums and is a fantastic opportunity for collaborative learning.

With this great experience in mind I am keen to use this form of technology within my classroom. Using a Learning Management System in the Classroom does not limit students to using the site alone at home; they can use it in a computer equipped classroom by a group of students and teachers.

How can this work in the classroom.
The teacher is able to give some lessons via the LMS that they may have not have been able to cover in class and students who were away can easily catch up on what they may have missed. At any time thge teacher can guide the direction of group converstaions by posting questions to the topic for students to respond to. Students are able to follow the teachers instructions and add their notes and later return to see if other students have added to their opinion.

Learning Theories
This form of discussion through collaborative learning succinctly alligns with the learning theory of connectivism. Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired. The ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital. The ability to recognize when new information alters the landscape based on decisions made yesterday is also critical. (Siemens, 2004)

Principles of connectivism:

• Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
• Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
• Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
• Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
• Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision. (Siemens, 2004)

References

Siemens, G, 2002, Connectivism, A learning theory for the digital age: Retrieved 18th August, 2009, from: http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Provide content and activities via the LMS
Give students access in the classroom
Use the LMS assignment facility to see who has not finished exercises
Use the LMS for assessment
Does it work?
Used for two short intensive courses for public servants
To be used for courses in 2008/2009
Issues
Requires well designed, computer equipped classrooms
Requires good LMS (Moodle used)
Assumes computer skills for students and teachers
Will drive a demand for remote e-learning

e.Portfolio

A portfolio is a systemic and organized collection of work and assessments that documents a person’s efforts, progress and achievements. They can be used for education, career, and personal goals. They can be both formative or developmental and summative in nature.

The Classroom Context
Within the classroom context integgrating a portfolio based tool can have many uses from students developing their own unit of work, students and teacher adding to their portfolio as information and data is collected, collating evidence and also for reflection purposes. As students are developing their portfolio (which could also be developed over the course of a term or year) it allows them to reflect not only at the end of the unit but during the development of the topic. The portfolio can show the teacher whether the students have grasped the concepts

As a pre-service teacher
The professional portfolio in my opinion would be very effective when I come to the time of looking for my first teaching job. The Professional portfolio can map my journey of learning and provide a comprehensive description of my professional life and achievements. It can be a reflective, purposeful, analytic, and developmental way to demondtrate my abilities. it can also be used to summarise the sort of teacher I believe I am. I look forward to starting my new portfolio and believe by incorporating such ICT's, I am displaying enthusiasm and capabilities with modern technology.

RSS = Really Simple Syndication

What is RSS?
RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It is a way to easily distribute a list of headlines, update notices, and sometimes content to a wide number of people. It is used by computer programs that organize those headlines and notices for easy reading.

What problem does RSS solve?
Most people are interested in many websites whose content changes on an unpredictable schedule. Examples of such websites are news sites, community and religious organization information pages, product information pages, medical websites, and weblogs. Repeatedly checking each website to see if there is any new content can be very tedious.

What information does RSS provide?
RSS provides very basic information to do its notification. It is made up of a list of items presented in order from newest to oldest. Each item usually consists of a simple title describing the item along with a more complete description and a link to a web page with the actual information being described. Sometimes this description is the full information you want to read

Tying it all together
Here is a diagram showing how the websites, the RSS feed XML files, and your personal computer are connected:

The diagram shows a web browser being used to read first Web Site 1 over the Internet and then Web Site 2. It also shows the RSS feed XML files for both websites being monitored simultaneously by an RSS Feed Aggregator. (Software Garden Inc., 2004).

How could this tool be used in the classroom?

As a Learning Manager I feel that this tool would be best used for managing and controlling information that the students are working on.With an aggregator, we can "subscribe" to favourite sites, including blogs, wikis, news sites, etc. and be notified when students have added new information to those sites via the RSS. .I prefer to use Google Reader as an RSS/Aggregator because it is easy to setup and use and gives me access to many other useful tools from my access point to ... calendar, iGoogle, documents, maps, photos, and much more. This tool as it seems may just lighten the load for teachers who are wanting to observe the students and know when and how they are interracting and contributing to the given topic. At the click of a button the teacher can identify who had contributed and whether they have been doing the recommended readings.

References:

Software Garden Inc, 2004, What is a RSS?, Retrieved 15th August 2009, from; http://rss.softwaregarden.com/aboutrss.html

Oliver's Learning Design Framework-Situated Learning

In 1999 Prof. Ron Oliver, a researcher in ICT learning, came up with a learning design framework for ICT learning environments that is still being used to develop high quality courses for the VET sector and education. (CQUniversity,blackboard, 2009).


Situated learning encourages learners to construct their own meaning from knowledge and information in the learning process and places an emphasis on interaction and socialisation
among learners. The application of this approach to learning suggests the
need for a revised framework to reflect the processes involved in flexible
and technology-based learning. (Refer to diagram). In such a setting, the critical elements
now appear as the content, the learning activities and the learning supports (figure 1). While these three elements still reflect aspects of the separate stakeholders, they emphasise more the activities of each in the learning process.

These elements provide a strong framework for
instructional design, and highlight the importance of planning specific roles for learners, the teacher and the technology in the learning
environment.

Further reading
For more information I have attached a link to this framework. This reading is very informative:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0158791990200205

References
Oliver, R. (1999). Exploring strategies for online teaching and learning. Distance Education, 20(2), 240-254.

Learning through Webquests.

What is a WebQuest? A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented online tool for learning. This means it is a classroom-based lesson in which most or all of the information that students explore and evaluate comes from the World Wide Web.

Beyond that, WebQuests:

• can be as short as a single class period or as long as a month-long unit;
• usually (though not always) involve group work, with division of labor among students who take on specific roles or perspectives;
• are built around resources that are preselected by the teacher. Students spend their time USING information, not LOOKING for it. (Educational Broadcasting, 2004),

While WebQuests can be applied to a wide range of topics, they aren't equally appropriate for everything. You wouldn't use a WebQuest to teach the times table. In other words, don't use WebQuests to teach factual pieces of information.
The best use of the WebQuest format is for topics that are less well-defined -- tasks that invite creativity and problems with several possible solutions. For example a technology unit may require the students to conduct an investigation. With a Webquest students are able to explore the topic, map out the required processes and USE the information to solve and reflect on the investigation.

With a technology unit based around a Webquest, collaborative learning skills should be encouraged and modelled by the teacher. With this in mind Johnson and Johnson (2000) have selected some critical aspects of what a successful cooperative learning environment should look like. They include:

• Positive interdependence
• Promotive Interraction
• Individual and group accountability
• Interpersonal and small group skills
• Group Processing

Webquests encourage these attributes and challenge the thinking patterns of our learners. I have looked at several webquests constructed and guided by teachers and they have clearly shown how effective this form of learning opportunity can be for our students. I also feel that organisation and planning is a must for this tool to be effective. It would be easy for the children to become confused if the steps are not explicit. Organisation for this type of learning experience will vary depending on the availability of resources. I believe it is how these resources (even if limited) are utilised that inform the success for the students' outcomes. Below I have provided a link to some video's that show how student outcomes can be met by using a WebQuest in the classroom: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/webquests/index_sub4.html

WebQuests and Constructivism:

Constructivist authentic learning environments are defined as those learning
environments whose design is consistent with the principles of the more recent constructivist tradition on how people learn. As Herrington and Oliver (2000) point out, such learning environments typically provide authentic contexts and activities,access to expert performances, and support multiple roles and perspectives. In addition, such environments also support collaborative construction of knowledge and promote reflection and articulation. Finally, such environments may include coaching and scaffolding by the teacher and provide for authentic assessment of learning within tasks. With this in mind, using a constructivist approach to frame our planning, for example a WebQuest, the principles of constructivism are adhered to. Within a Webquest students are creating multiple perspectives and and at the same time collaboratively creating authentic learning experiences.

These authentic experiences succinctly line up with the 'Learning Engagement Theory' which has a group, project and authentic focus. This theory refers to learning environments and how our students need to relate to real-world, authentic problem-solving and then donate the solution back into the real world. This donating approach forms a rich task for students in which they can be engaged in authentic and real-life situations. (Kearsley and Shneiderman, 1998).

The constructivist view of learning has its foundations in Piaget (1975) who believed that learning is not transmitted passively, but attained through well-defined stages by active participation of a learner. Vygotsky(1980), presented similar ideas but focused on the importance of socio-cultural activity in learning in addition to introducing flexible stages of development. (Zualkernan, 2006).

References:

Educational Broadcasting, 2004, Concept to classroom; What is a Web Quest? retrieved 17th August, 2009, from; http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/webquests/index.html

Dodge, B, 2001, International Society for Technology in Education, 5 rules for writing a great webquest. Retrieved 17th August, 2009, from; http://edWeb.sdsu.edu/Webquest

Central Queensland University. Course studyguide: Engagement Theory: Retrieved 10th August, 2009, from; http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/course/view.php?id=134

Zualkernan, I. A. (2006). A framework and a methodology for developing authentic constructivist e-Learning environments. Educational Technology & Society: Retrieved 17th August, 2009, from: http://www.ifets.info/journals/9_2/16.pdf

Wiki's are not difficult!

A Wiki is a collaboratively-edited website which many people also view as a publishing tool. The distinguishing feature of wikis is that they typically allow all users to edit any page, with full freedom to edit, change and delete the work of previous authors. Wiki's can be utilised for most grade levels and incorporated into any KLA. Here are some idea's;

• Study guides made by student groups for themselves and peers: each group prepares the guide for one aspect of the unit or responsibility rotates: one unit guide per semester.
• Vocabulary lists and examples of the words in use, contributed by students (ongoing throughout the year).
• The wiki as the organizational aspect of your class. Wiki all assignments, projects, collaboration, rubrics, etc.
• Products of research projects, especially collaborative group projects: They can include computer files, images, videos, etc. Creating an organizational structure for the content is an important part if the project.
• An annotated collection of EXAMPLES from the non-school world for anything: Illustrations can be included for visual representations.
• Students can construct their own class calendar of learning events for the term/year.
• Articles by students who miss school for family trips, written about their travels on the class wiki, relating what they see to concepts learned before they left.
• Have students post KWL entries and continue adding questions that occur to them as the unit progresses. As other students add their “answers,” the wiki will evolve into a student-created guide to the topic. (What is a Wiki, 2009).

Wiki's as Active Learning and the Learning Pyramid:

According to Dale's Cone (learning effectiveness), collaborative discussions make up 50% of our learning retention. This is a considerable jump as apposed to the 5% of information we retain within a lecture. It also shows that audio and visual activities have a retention rate of 20%. Through the implementation of a class Wiki, students participate not only within an on-line approach to learning but construct and control their own learning. Although the Wiki needs to be monitored and guided by the teacher, learning experiences through the use of a Wiki can capture the 'hands-on' approach to learning.

Wiki's and Mazlow's Hierarchy of Needs:
As I stated above Wiki's create opportunities for hands-on learning. I believe as a pre-service teacher that all students enjoy hands-on activities. If we look at Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs diagram self-esteem components such as achievement and recognition is the second highest level of effective learning. As student contribute to their class/individual wiki they can develop a sense of belonging as Maslow describes, can then anchor these attributes and result in the raising of self-esteem and satisfaction. Although self-esteem can be developed from the home setting and community I feel that all students, regardless of background, need to develop a sense of self-worth and I have found the Wiki to be most educational and a very flexible tool for developing such individual needs.




References:

Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. Retrieved 16th August, 2009, from; http://www.psyctherapy.com/Enrolled/L3IndividualsMotivation.htm

What is a Wiki? Retrieved 16th August, 2009, from; http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WhatIsaWiki

Using 'Ning' in the classroom

Hello fellow bloggers: I have firstly put in a link to a U-Tube video which displays the uses of Ning and how it works as a social networking tool.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGb83rrs7WQ

So what is Ning?
Ning is a platform for creating your own social network. With Ning, your social network can be for anything and anyone. You start by naming your social network and choosing a combination of features (photos, videos, forums, events, etc.) from an ever-growing list of options. You can then customize your social network's appearance and launch it! People who join your social network will automatically have a customizable profile page and will be able to message and friend each other.
Concerns for Ning within the classroom context:
My concern with Ning is the security issues that may arise, although I have not completed my research on this tool I believe that passwords would need to be very explicit and we need to consider how do we give our students access to our private Ning site and prevent them from accessing the inapproapriate Ning sites too? If we allow www.ning.com to pass through our Internet filter we might have more problems than we imagined. Are school systems prepared for this? An educator posted a message saying that he had approached his ITC technicians for access to Ning, and they allowed him access to just one page of one network, the rest remained blocked.

So I hope this is achievable as I feel this is a really good tool for KLA's such as Literacy and The Arts. Students could retell a story from the point of view of a different character. This could then be shared by the class as they add to their ning page. Another great tool for collaborative learning.

References:
http://help.ning.com/cgi-bin/ning.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2695

Picnik Photo Enhancer (due to the university being unable to sign in to Picnik I was unable to apply a example of what Picnik can do.)

What is Picnik?
Picnik is an easy to use online image editor. It allows you to edit images uploaded from your computer, from an online source or even directly from your webcam. It is integrated with several other online services, for example flickr. Photo editing is a lot of fun and can be used by families, businesses, schools etc.
Picnik makes your photos fabulous with easy to use yet powerful editing tools. Tweak to your heart’s content, then get creative with oodles of effects, fonts, shapes, and frames. It's fast, easy, and fun. Here are some examples of what you can do with Picnik:

1. Fix and manipulate your photos in just one click
2. Use advanced controls to fine-tune your results
3. Crop, resize, and rotate in real-time
4. Tons of special effects, from artsy to fun
5. Astoundingly fast, right in your browser
6. Awesome fonts and top-quality type tool
7. Basketfuls of shapes from hand-picked designers
8. Works on Mac, Windows, and Linux
9. No download required, nothing to install

In investigating the use of Picnik for educational purposes I discovered a web site that describes a way in which it can be used for a primary school lesson. An educator posting on a web page called Open Source described her use of Picnik with sixth grade students by having them upload images and drawings into the program and edit them to make such items as CD covers. This demonstrates a real life example of the integration of Picnik into a learning environment.
This information was retrieved from
John Johnston . OpenSourceCPD. (No year listed)
http://www.opensourcecpd.org.uk/index.php?n=CpdOpportunities.Picnik

Below is an example of a similiar photo manipulation tool called Photoshop. This application could just as easily be used for educational purposes. This kind of activity would also be useful for building relationships within the classroom as the students bring in their photos to enhance they can construct re-counts or reports of the photo through the strand of literacy and then share with their peers.

Insert of photo TBA..

My Video

This is a very small example of a movie which I made at university. As I was shown this process Iwas surprised to see just how easy and quick it was. We had a basic digital camera and a small sound recorder which I believe can be bought for about $40. I then was shown how to link the visual and sound recordings together to make my movie. The whole process took about 30 minutes. Initially I had the presumption that movie making would be time consuming and complicated for primary students. Since making my own movie and conducting research on schools which provide opportunities for students to make movies, I decided I wanted to see what KLA's this technology would be effective in terms of student success and engagement.

I have found that making movies with students is a highly motivating activity and it can access all curriculum areas. I am assuming that the majority of my students would be have a interest in movies so a unit of work involving movie-making would value student’s existing knowledge of film genres and styles, and involve students in a range of literacy processes.

I then thought that it would assist in developing social skills as collaborative learning would be a strong focus due to time and resource availability. Connectedness to the real world is also a benefit as students can transfer their new knowledge and skills of movie-making to many areas of their lives. It can be a small, quick project or a longer, more complex activity and uses resources already existing in most schools.

Making short, simple movies as a cross-curricula activity can benefit from the following intended outcomes:
• Engages and motivates middle years students and supports multiliteracies
• Supports collaboration and strengthens professional links across schools
• Uses higher order thinking skills and actively involves multiple intelligences
• Develops ICT skills and film production skills for both students and teachers
• Helps students develop their understanding of curriculum units across many KLA’s, making sense of the world and students place within it
• Encourages the skills needed to analyze the media and foster appreciation of the art of movie making.

It also gives students the opportunity to see their creativity and skills develop from inspiration to performance.

I am questioning however, whether many teachers are savvy with this technology? Whether they are brave enough to embark on a totally different approach to learning opportunities? also Do teachers realise just how easy, with particular planning of course, it is to make a movie?

I would be very keen to implement a learning opportunity such a movie-making within my classroom and who knows maybe it could lead to the children participating within a short film festival! How exciting and collaborative would that be! As stated above Higher order thinking skills are a strong attribute in this sort of technology project and this has been examined below.

Critical and Creative Thinking - Bloom's Taxonomy
What are critical thinking and creative thinking?
Critical thinking involves logical thinking and reasoning including skills such as comparison, classification, sequencing, cause/effect, patterning, webbing, analogies, deductive and inductive reasoning, forecasting, planning, hyphothesizing, and critquing. Creative thinking involves creating something new or original. It involves the skills of flexibility, originality, fluency, elaboration, brainstorming, modification, imagery, associative thinking, attribute listing, metaphorical thinking, forced relationships. The aim of creative thinking is to stimulate curiosity and promote divergence.

How are the domains of learning reflected in technology-rich projects? Domain Attributes: interpersonal relations, emotions, attitudes, appreciations, and values accept attempts challenges, defends, disputes, joins, judges, contributes, praises, questions, shares, supports, volunteers

Here you will find some teaching resources, strategies, ideas and examples, as well as solving any small technical problems that arose for a school who implemented movie-making. Mark Richardson collated these resources on the Macintosh School’s Network web site, (http://wmr-msn.williamstownps.vic.edu.au/ictcurricideas/dvpd/dvpd.htm).

Resources:

Teacher Tap:Professional Development Resources for Teachers and Librarians: Retrieved 11August 2009 from: http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic69.htm

Theories Of Instructional Design

I found this slideshare relevant to our journey of E-Learning.


Reference:
http://www.slideshare.net/share/blogspot/999750

Theories Of Instructional Design

View more documents from Jordan .

Activate your students' minds',

What is EDHeads?
Edheads is an animation/simulation application which provides free educational activities for your classroom.
Edheads helps students learn through educational games and activities designed to meet state and national standards. Edheads partners with various school systems in the United States, which help them research, design and test activities every step of the way!
Not only do teachers and students appreciate the free activities, Edheads has been recognized by almost every major award on the Web for their excellent educational content!

So how can Edheads be incorporated into the classroom planning?
Here is an example of the Edheads tool being used for the planning of a science or Technology lesson for year 5 students.

TechnologicalDesign
Students can revise an existing design used to solve a problem based on peer review. Following this students then explain how the solution to one problem may create other problems.

Scientific Inquiry
Students can evaluate observations and measurements made by other people and identify reasons for any discrepancies. Then using their evidence and observations to explain and communicate the results of their investigations. Following this students could explain why the results of an experiment are sometimes different

Reflection:
I recently completed a unit on weather for my students on prac. Throughout this unit I included a guest speaker (weatherman) and provided a kit for the students to analyse how clouds are formed. This was a lot of fun1 Following this the students then wrote a report for their local paper to advise of their new information on the formation of clouds.

However, after investigating the tool 'EdHeads' I am wishing I knew about this tool before this unit of work. What a great tool for analysing and predicting the weather. Here, I would have wanted the children to use their evidence from their cloud data tool to explain their findings by creating their own Edhead design. This is a great rich task in completing a unit and i know the children would have had a lot of fun so they would be engaged throughout the whole unit.

Below I have posted the URL for an Edhead activity...However, a child's imagination and peer collaboration, in my mind, is where this tool really has an advantage.

http://www.edheads.org/activities/weather/frame_loader.htm

References:
http://www.edheads.org/activities/weather/frame_loader.htm

Demonstration of Voice Thread Tool

Hi Bloggers
Take a look at this video demonstration of Voice Thread. The second URL is fantastic! It shows 17 strategies of encorporating voicethread into the classroom. These are really worth a look, so enjoy and share!


http://voicethread.com/share/409/

http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_245f2nkv3g3


References
Barrett.T. (2009),ICT In my classroom. Retrieved 3 August 2009 from:
http://tbarrett.edublogs.org/