My Synopsis

Can the power of technology improve teaching and learning? Each new wave of technology brings a burst of enthusiasm on how it can transform instruction and learning.

Years ago it was television and film. We now know that what was once heralded as paradigm changing has had little impact on education. Today it’s the World Wide Web and the potential this graphical computer network has to radically change education as we know it.

An important objective for incorporating the use of ICT into teaching is to complement and update the mode of teaching in the classrooms to enable the students to develop skills for the 21st century. Secondly, it is hoped that these tools and technologies will transform students from passive learners into investigative learners by maintaining their attendance, attention, curiosity and achievements. A third expectation is for students to have easy access to multiple sources of information anytime and anywhere. A fourth intention is to encourage students to work in teams, to do and think collectively.

At the heart of e-learning is the E-content. Online articles, streaming video, audio segments, images, specially designed websites and unique learning objects. These electronic elements are created to enhance courses and improve learning in the classroom. They have changed the way teachers interact with their students, moving them to a student-centred approach and incorporating real world issues into the lessons to make learning more meaningful. Oliver’s Learning Design Sequence (1999) and Kearsley and Shneiderman’s Engagement Theory (1999) are two of the main frameworks that I have applied in my examination of the technologies covered in this course.

As a teacher I will be able to use ICT tools such as the wiki, blog and offline learning materials to supplement my classroom teaching. I believe these tools will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of class time.

Throughout this course I have learnt of ways to incorporate my students learning with engaging classroom practice that will challenge and stimulate their minds. Wiki, I believe is a great way for students to share their knowledge with me the teacher, so as not to jeopardise any opportunities for interaction between myself and my students. Wiki provides extra opportunities for the students to post and edit their work-lessons, links, handouts, presentations, videos, games and also to collaborate online thus allowing myself as well as my students to provide comments and feedback. I can also use the wiki to share day-to-day information and instructions, including a variety of resources provided by both the students and myself. Replacing the time needed for traditional homework and writing, wiki enables the students to concentrate on exploring and learning new concepts.

Having now learnt how to use some of the media/technologies, I will be able to use them to make teaching easier and more effective.

Videos from Teachertube, audio, interactivities, quizzes, multiple choice questions for self assessment, and assignments and summaries through mind maps are just a few. These materials will be useful in delivering a time consuming component of the lessons effectively. The materials can also be uploaded to the school’s network which can be accessed easily at any time.

Blogs can be used to supplement a wiki collaboration. It can contain visual resources such as slide shows, animations, podcasts and digital storytelling. All of which have been part of this course. Quizzes and puzzles included in a blog will also keep the students up to- date about key dates and events and enable them to have fun as they learn.
Class lectures or summaries can now be delivered through an audio file distributed online or offline in the form of a podcast. This can help students revise and understand new concepts at their own pace and time, both in the school and at home.

A major part of my learning journey has been reading and commenting on other student’s blogs. This in itself has been a major challenge with the enormous amount of comments made by students...
Certainly learning how RSS feeds work has made this task more manageable. To view comments made by me on other student’s sites go to:
http://deb-myassessmentblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/incompetech.html?showComment=1250899135204#c676480690167813616

http://deb-myassessmentblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/picnik-is-wonderful-tool-for.html?showComment=1250908777375#c1187163389542668977

In reflection, this course has made me less of a “digital immigrant” to a not quite yet “native” (Prensky, 2004). The blended approach to the teaching-learning process proved to be successful in catching and maintaining my attention, curiosity and desire to learn more.

References

Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement theory: a framework for technology-based taching and learning. Retrieved 16 August, 2009 from
http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Oliver, R. (1999). Exploring strategies for online teaching and learning. Distance Education. (1999) Vol 20 (2).

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Retrieved 19 August, 2009 from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf


Queensland Studies Authority. (2007). Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) Cross-curriculum priority by the end of Year 7. Retrieved 20 August, 2009 from http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/learning/qcar_ccp_ict_yr7.pdf
Kay

Voice Thread

Dear Readers
I plan to use this great tool for a book discussion in my classroom. This type of learning fits into Kearsley and Shneiderman's (1999)engagement theory. The students work collaboratively to discuss and explore the book. They then have the opportunity to view and review each others work. I can use this learning for assessment in the students English speaking skills.
Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved 20 August, 2009 from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

“The biggest limitation to productive classroom conversations is
that only one person can talk at a time. Those conversations may
leave some students unchallenged or unengaged. Voicethread
conversations allow multiple students to comment at once---and
allow for thinking to be challenged for many students.”
- Bill Ferriter

Retrieved 19 August, 2009 from
http://cdn.voicethread.com/media/misc/Ed.VoiceThread.pdf

Kay

Using Music on the Web

Dear Readers
Given time, you could really have a lot of fun with this. One idea I tried out with two learning support students of mine:
I downloaded a piece of hip hop music and then we combined the words of a ten times multiplication table to the beat of the music to learn the ten times tables. This has really worked as the students have now taught the rest of the class their little ditty. The basic principles of Kearsley & Shneiderman's (1999) Engagement Theory is that students Relate-Create-Donate. This can be seen here when the students have worked together to create the ditty (their project) and have then taught it to the rest of the class.
Kearsley G., & Shneiderman B. (1999). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Beth Butler (2008) asserts that music engages children and allows them to learn concepts that sometimes are difficult without the beat or without the rhythm of a song. It allows children to remember important facts, whether they are in history, science, math or language arts. Imagine the feeling of success a child experiences once he has mastered his ABCs thanks to that little song placed to the melody of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. You have seen the delight on many faces of toddlers and preschoolers who master that twenty-six letter song!
Butler, B. (2008). Music in our Classrooms Help Children Learn. Retrieved 18 August, 2009 from
http://www.content4reprint.com/culture-and-society/education/k-12/music-in-our-classrooms-help-children-learn.htm


Kay

File Storage - Media File

Dear Readers
What a great storage system. The uses are unlimited for the teaching profession.
Storing documents on the network offers the following advantages over local drive storage:
Network files are accessible from multiple locations, including off-campus.
Network-based files are protected from short-term loss through regular enterprise backup.
Files are more secure, in that they are protected from data loss due to hardware failure or computer theft.
Documents can be easily shared among organizational units or work groups.
This has been put to the test with the recent 'skype conversation' that Scot conducted with some of his students. We were all able to listen to the conversation as Scot uploaded it to media file to make it accessable to us all. I have to be honest and say that it took me quite a bit of time to work out how to be able to listen to it.

Kay

Retrieved 17 August, 2009 from http://blog.pcuniverse.com/?view=plink&id=131
http://www.mediafire.com/?mrjnjym5kqo

SlideShare

Year 3and 4 Tour Of The Moura Mine 2007

View more presentations from kaybutler.

Dear Readers
Once the presentations are embedded into your blog or wiki, they allow you to utilize most of the functions that is alloted in a presentation program. Also, teachers can utilize this with all of their presentations they use in the classroom. You can even email them to students if they missed a class in which you gave a presentation.. Students and colleagues alike can follow along with a slideshare presentation as well. If teachers embed their slideshare presentation to a blog or wiki, students can follow along on their laptops. This may assist students who have trouble following slides or if students wish to use the presentation as a study guide later in the unit.

Kay

WIKIPedia

Dear Readers
A common unit theme in the classroom is ‘Spinning in Space’. By using Wikipedia to determine the terminology, I then have the option of searching for more authoritative sources to gain information for my learners. While on my exploration of the wiki site I came across some of Wikipedia's sister projects. One sister project which I thought would be a worthwhile tool to incorporate into the classroom is Wikibooks. This wikimedia community is just like an online library with over 30 000 books created and edited by the online community (Wikibooks, 2009). Within this you can access a variety of books within different subject areas with my favourite being Wikijunior books for children. The books within this area are written by an online community of writers and teachers while being child friendly and reliable (Wikibooks, 2009).
Within a unit of work such as 'Spinning in Space' students could use Wikipedia to establish some ground knowledge. Once this has been established the LM can incorporate the use of the Wikijunior books to enhance learner knowledge and assist them within their learning journey. This could also be used as a means to spark brainstorming between the learners on the subject. The use of the Wikipedia Encyclopedia and wiki book could be incorporated into learning design under Olivers resource framework (2003).

Australian University Teachers Committee. (2003). Learning Design. Retrieved August 17, 2009, from http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/project/learn_design.htm
Wikibooks. (2009).
Wikibooks. Retrieved August 17, 2009, from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page
Wikibooks. (2009).
Wikijunior. Retrieved August 17, 2009, from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior
Wikipedia. (2009).
Wikipedia. Retreived August 17, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_is_wikipedia
Kay

WebQuest

Dear Readers
I had no idea that webquests were so involved. Creating a good webquest would be very time consuming as it would require a teacher to do a lot of planning. If that was the case then it would need to cover as many KLA's as possible to make it all worthwhile. Initially students would be excited about a webquest and the trick would be to keep them engaged for the duration of the assignment (not always an easy task).
I see this type of learning fitting in with Siemens (2004) Connectivism: a learning theory for the Digital Age.
Siemens asserts that connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing.

He further goes on to say that 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, G. (2004) Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age
Retrieved 17 August, 2009 from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
Kay