Week 5

DVolver Movie Maker's scenarios are not really suitable for primary school students, it is aimed more for adults. However, while I was using DVolver I could see how it would be useful for developing primary students literacy skills whilst exploring with animation. It could also be used as a great tool for preparing / drafting a class role play.

ZIMMER TWINS is a fun and easy to use animation program that is much more suited for primary kids. It uses storyboarding to build up an animation. This would be a great introduction to animation's INSPIRE - PLAN - CREATE moto.
There are so many options you can play with and this would really encourage kids to draw on their imagination and creativity when storyboarding.

BUILD YOUR WILD SELF was a very funny program that would work perfectly in lower primary and could tie into english, humanities, and science domains of the curriculum. Each students 'Wild profiles' would make a colourful classroom display.

REBUS STORY is a cloze but uses pictures rather than words. A handy activity to break up writing in English while still developing literacy, particularly for those students who are reluctant with writing.

Today we also looked at Xtranormal, a fabulous animation software where the characters can even lip sync!
Ziptales is a great program that is targeted towards Grade 3 & 4 students who are excellent at writing.
catchmentdetox.net.au (ABC Science) is fantastic for challenging students to think about sustainability in the environment.

Finally, Greg got us to play the word game 'Ode to a spell checker' using Microsoft Word. We turned off our computer screens and typed text that Greg read aloud to us. Once finished we turned on our screens and looked at what we had really typed.... I was surprised I didn't have too many mistakes, considering that I am not a whiz at touch typing! I think this kind of activity is a good eye opener for primary students to remember that they still need to learn how to spell because they will not always have access to a spell checker.

Week 4

Using Microsoft Excel we created fun, engaging M&M colour charts. Primary school children can use Excel as a digital tool for exploring the many ways of displaying data in Maths. This strongly helps visualise complex information and helps builds kids confidence.
I can imagine fantastic discussions stemming from this activity. 

http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/
Dust Echoes has a selection of 12 animated dreamtime stories from Central Arnhem Land. I chose to watch Mermaid Story, a Dhuwa story about belonging and the importance of family and our land. I found the combination of music and images so moving. Without any narrative I was able to be taken into the story and feel so much about the song mans journey.




From all the activities in our workshop this week I can see how Learning Objects (LO’s) will kick off other activities to extend learning in the classroom.

In our lecture Greg showed us the huge variety of LO's that are available through The Learning Ferderation website: http://www.thelearningfederation.edu.au/default.asp
I really liked the Democracy game, which looked at creating rules for a fair voting system to elect a school captain. Perfect for Grade 6-ers!

Week 3

Week 3 – The Protection of Students Online

In our lecture this week I found the issue of cyber bullying really upsetting. When I was at school bullying certainly took place, I personally suffered from it, but the nature of cyber bullying was not fully established. Obviously any form of bullying is terrible but in some ways I think cyber bullying is harder to control and potentially more damaging. Bearing this in mind, as a teacher I will endeavor to model the use of appropriate online behavior and inform children about their responsibilities as safe and respectful online users.

There are lots of different ways you can inform people about online safety. Acceptable Use Agreements (AUA’s) are a more formal way and deal with outlining guidelines for everyone: teachers, students and parents. Cybersmart (http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/) is great educational website set up by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). It promotes the Australian Government’s cybersafety program, which aims to show young kids how to safely enjoy the online world. Cybersmart has two Interactive Shared Learning (ISL) activities that are popular in upper primary classrooms today: Cybersmart Detectives focuses on the issue of posting personal information and Cybersmart Hero deals with cyber bullying.

At the beginning of our workshop we investigated the VELS Interdisciplinary Learning strand and its domain of Design, Creativity and Technology.

This domain has three dimensions:

• Investigating and designing (ID)
• Producing (P)
• Analysing and evaluating (AE)

In our “Make the Frog Jump” activity we completed a Design Brief worksheet that is typically used in classrooms to explore the ID/P/AE process. He helps kids to map out thinking which leads to a design strategy. By displaying a whole classroom of Design Brief worksheets the children can read about other design strategies and broaden their own thinking. It was fascinating to see in our own group the range of different approaches to making the frog jump. Greg highlighted that the ID/P/AE process is cyclic and as teachers it is important to celebrate the process of how a child thinks.

Next Greg showed us a fantastic games development software program, Quia. It allows you to easily create online learning activities, for example quizzes, which are fun ways for children to apply their learning of an area recently studied. The online activities could also be a helpful assessment tool for Teachers. Word finds, jumbles, or hangman are useful spelling activities without the kids directly associating it to doing spelling. The activities can be applied to all areas of the curriculum. I created a quiz and cloze.

http://www.quia.com/quiz/2542609.html

http://www.quia.com/cz/350155.html

We had so much doing each other’s quizzes and activities!

I have taken some time to look at the Creative Commons website. It will be a great resource for me as a teacher to find and share licensed material, legally.

Week 2

Week 2 – ePortfolios

This week I learnt about digital portfolios, a.k.a. “ePortfolios”. It is a developing trend in schools to have a digital space that represents a selection of student work. This idea has progressed from the old scrapbook approach and most of the progression is in the process of developing the ePortfolio, I learnt that this process involves four important stages:

1. Collection

2. Selection

3. Reflection

4. Projection

Each of the stages closely involves the student offering them greater opportunity for self-assessment and reflection on their own learning. It is through this process of developing the e-portfolio that students are encouraged to identify their own learning needs and become more responsible for their learning plan. Ultimately they are beginning to establish traits like that of an adult: life-long self-directed learners.

As well as giving the students more responsibly, I can see how ePortfolios also support teaching and assessment by allowing effective 3-way communication between the student, teacher and parents. Greg highlighted how important this shared relationship is as unfortunately too often the student can be shut off, especially come parent-teacher interview time just as the name implies. Using his or her ePortfolio as a tool for discussion seems a far better way to run a parent teacher interview because it promotes an honest network where the student is more involved, after all they are the focus!

During our workshop I found creating our own ePortfolio using MS Publisher so valuable. Powerpoint can also be used but I really liked Publisher. Greg talked to us about how useful our ePortfolio will be when we come to apply for jobs after completing our course. Often in an interview you don’t get the chance to discuss everything you want so a clever way to still get this information across is to print off pages from your ePortfolio. For instance, the interview panel may read the reflections based on your experiences during practicum and hence, gain more insight into you as the teacher. It also shows that you have and recognize the importance of ICT skills.

In the workshop we also used MS Publisher to create a brochure on a holiday destination, I chose to do mine on Paris. It was really fun and at the same time I learn more about Paris. After searching through photos on the Internet and different tourism sites I felt as though I had been on a virtual tour. I can definitely see kids engaged in this creative activity so I will put it in my ICT memory bank, which seems to be growing more and more each week!

Week 1

Week 1 – Introduction to Learning Technologies

In our first lecture Greg talked about how important ICT is to prepare children for the 21st century workforce. By teachers implementing innovative technologies, as additional interdisciplinary learning methods, children will begin to build up a host of skills. Those who leave school without having developed these skills will sadly struggle in any professional world they become faced with.

Personally I am mostly a visual learner, especially when learning new material. I can therefore agree 100% that visually managing and organizing information can help to strengthen problem-solving skills. From working as an Engineer I observed how innovative thinking is highly rewarded because it brings about improved productivity. Competition within industry is centralized around who is the fastest and more proficient in completing the same task. No project operates without networking, whether via email or Intranets it encourages collaborative working environments. ICT is crucial to understanding the 21st century workforce.

During our workshop Greg helped us set up our own blog page and introduced us to Inspiration, a resource that is useful for creating more interesting posts. To tell the truth, I was very lost as the start… so many new things! This is my first time blogging so I’m learning at every step.

Inspiration has a wide range of applications that allow you to create a graphic that you can then export into your post. We started off by making a simple graphic where we each picked a theme and used a variety of images to discuss it visually. Inspiration has a bank of images you can use or you can be more creative and search the web for images. Ideas can also be elaborated by using hyperlinks to relevant web pages. We also played with Paint and learnt how to crop images from the web. Lastly we explored the Inspiration’s mind-mapping tool, expanding a central idea into several branches.

I can see a huge potential for using Inspiration, or programs like it, in my primary school classroom from as early as grade 1. I think mind mapping delves deep into the heart if visual learning and can help children to understand complex concepts by synthesizing fundamental ideas. Using digital tools to draw mind maps could be applied right across the curriculum.

I also like the idea of getting students to have their own blog pages. They can be used to develop personal learning networks with other students, in their own school as well as other schools overseas or interstate, and really broaden their learning environment. They could post questions on areas they are finding difficult or comment on activities they have enjoyed. This was there is an ongoing link to the classroom, whether at home or school. Parents can also access their children’s blogs to see what exactly they are working on and how they are going.

I am looking forward to learning more and more ways of using ICT in the classroom.