ol1mbobeff's blog

Most of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) I have seen used in schools has been for research or the production of assessment pieces such as a PowerPoint, video or document.  When ICT is approached in this way it restricts creativity and is focused on what ICT can do rather than what users are capable of creating.  Within this course however, I have seen ICT used to communicate, create, learn and teach. I have seen how items such as hyperlinks, callouts and Jing applications can be used to engage a range of learning styles and needs. I have also been impressed by the scope of blogs in schools and designed a class using Animoto to get students to express themselves through music and pictures.  In this reflection I will be looking at some of the ways I’ve used ICT and how I might use it in the future.  I will reflect on some of the challenges I’ve faced as well as my own learning experiences with technology.

During my teaching placement this semester I used less ICT than I thought I would. Despite all the students having access to laptops, the server was slow and the school only had four data projectors, which had to be booked and collected before class.  I found that this influenced my decisions regarding the use of ICT because I was concerned about wasting time and losing momentum on a particular topic.  In one particular class I planned to have the students creating Animoto clips about themselves.  Unfortunately the server was too slow and about twenty minutes was wasted with students trying – and failing – to use the Web 2.0 application.  In response, the students suggested they use Movie Maker or PowerPoint instead; exhibiting flexibility and good problem solving skills.  While this lesson demonstrated one of the limitations of technology in the classroom it also reminded me that ICT should be approached with an open mind and a collaborative style.  The teacher doesn’t always have to be the primary knower in the classroom and ICT can allow students the opportunity to take greater responsibility for their learning.

If ICT had been easily accessible I would certainly have presented notes on PowerPoint or incorporated Jing or Audacity into my lessons.  I spent a lesson writing many notes on a whiteboard at the request of my supervisor.  A better option might have been to write them on a PowerPoint so that I could discuss them with the students as they were writing them down.  While this is not a very original use of PowerPoint presentation, it does give me the opportunity to provide personalised support to students rather than being stuck at the front  of the room with my back to the class. Another idea was to get students to listen to an incomplete story online.  Their task would then be to write an ending and record themselves reading it out loud using Audacity.  This task would have enabled students to improve their reading, writing and speaking skills as well as share their work with others in an innovative way.  Despite these hassles, I was able to incorporate ICT into worksheets, using call out boxes and hyperlinks to give students extra information in a visual manner.  When used in these ways ICT broadens the learning opportunities for students by addressing a variety of learning styles.

In Journal 5, I commented on my disruptive behaviour in an ICT tutorial. I noticed that the classroom context really changed my attitude towards the content.  Within the online program, I have loved the autonomy of my learning; I’ve been able to choose when and where I’ll study; listen to Ted’s commentary while opening the appropriate application; and experiment with each new skill at my leisure.  I think ICT really lends itself to autonomous learning, because computer literacy involves exploration, imagination and multi-tasking.  Students are used to watching You Tube, while playing a game and chatting to friends on Facebook.  Therefore they need to be given the opportunity and responsibility to use ICT in the classroom in a similar fashion. Indeed, ICT supports a constructivist approach to learning; allowing students to take responsibility, to explore and experiment, and to work independently or in collaboration with their peers.

Blogs are an item that have great potential in the constructivist classroom, both as a resource and a learning experience.  As a future English teacher I’ve also been really interested in the writing process involved in creating a blog.  In creating my Edublog I found that I wrote easily and in a stream of consciousness style.  It provided me with an outlet to reflect and analyse, and had the potential to generate discussion with other students in the course.  It does, however, raise important issues about literacy in terms of style, content and expression.  When I copied my journal entries into a word document I was horrified by the number of spelling and grammatical errors I’d made.  I was also conscious that many of my thoughts we’re disconnected and had insufficient explanation. Therefore, if I were to use a blog with a class I would start by investigating appropriate writing conventions with them.  I would encourage students to think about how language represents them and their points of view, and to consider how one might write a blog differently to a standard essay or an email to a friend. This scaffolding would not only better prepare them for their use of blogs, but it would also lead to a more articulate and expressive community of writers.  Combined, these represent a rich and diverse learning experience for students in the classroom.

Throughout this semester I have not only enjoyed working with ICT but have realised the variety of learning opportunities that it presents to students and teachers alike.  Exposure to new applications has enabled me to reconceptualise regular classroom activities and consider new and innovative ways of communicating, creating, learning and teaching. The challenge now is to maintain enthusiasm and momentum, and to begin to explore future possibilities for ICT in my professional practice.

The purpose of this post is to provide a log of the items I wish to submit for this assignment.

In the Journal entries below I have uploaded digital items as I have created them throughout the semester. I have also reflected on the their creation and possible use within the classroom.

Item 1: Edublog (this!)

Item 2: Animoto clip

Item 3: Website

Item 4: Call outs and hyper links in a Word Document – the-werewolf-handout1

Item 5: Audacity clip – mollie-and-music

Item 6: Jing symbols-class1

Jing

A great application. I could use this to show students how to do things on a computer or capture images of sites. For example:

Next year I will be working with Year 9 students who have to use blogs to reflect on their experiences. ICT will be a large component of the course. I think this will be a good way to show students how to use new software – they can watch it at their leisure and as many times as they like. It’s great! I guess I’m thinking it could work a bit like this course has.

Brill!

Seems really easy to use as well. I’ll have to download Jing to my laptop.

I was talking to a fellow teaching candidate the other day who explained that she had used Jing to model a poetry exercise for her students. I thought I would give this a try. I have made a video of me filling out a Symbols Activity. The genius of Jing is that it is easy to use – so the question therefore becomes, what can I use it for rather than is it worth the hassle? I think that is great! If I can use ICT quickly and easily I am much more likely to think creatively about ways to use it in the classroom.

Here’s my Jing with movement…symbols-class2

Blog Note One thing I am still finding annoying about blog is not being able to embed. I started a wikispace for school, and I am able to have video’s like the jing embedded so people can watch it within the screen. Obvioulsy this is not a big problem – it’s more an aesthetic preference I guess. Would be nice to have the option though. Anyway, I guess that might be another consideration for the classroom.  Perhaps I’ll find a wiki is easier to navigate and use with students due to the page functions and embedding options – more eye capturing and I can easily review their progress without linking out of the blog itself…

Having said that I found the overall layout of the blog better and there is is easier to post and navigate in terms of editing.  Maybe that will be more important in terms of student needs than links options. Or maybe it’s just about choice – and I’ll be able to let my students make their own decisions between the two.

Microworlds

I had a play with Microworlds today, only to be reminded that this was the program I played with back in the day of Year 7 – directing a turtle to move around the screen… quite random! Anyway, I enjoyed putting the scene together and including some buttons to allow a little more interaction with my audience. I can see how this program could be used in my English or History classes – to support a script, create a scene from a particular historical period etc, etc. One thing I did notice though was my behaviour. I joined an ICT class for this lesson and found I was distracted and distracting… Because there was no set outcome or goal to achieve in the glass – or there was but it seemed very easy to achieve in the 1 hour time slot – I was a lot more disruptive. It made me realise that I would need to give clear instruction and have challenging goals for the students to achieve if I wanted the to stay on track within the class.

Audacity

I loved making my audacity clip though. I think it is FABULOUS! And would be great for a blog – I could give students instructions verbally as well as written. Students could also comment on texts rather than just write their comments. Great stuff! Obviously there are lots of options with music as well. I guess one problem could be noise – hard to have a whole class making verbal comments at once.  Anyway, I Love my product… have a listen:  mollie-and-music

Well the block has now come and gone. As you can see from the previous two posts, I tried incorporating a bit of ICT into my practice… with mixed success I guess. I was working at a school where every student has a laptop, so there were lots of opportunities for using ICT in the classroom. In some ways I am surprised how little I actually used ICT though. I didn’t create any PowerPoints – for no particular reason. I’m not sure I thought they were an appropriate learning tool for any of the specific classes I was teaching. I did access clips from the internet and loved using email to communicate with my students. They were able to ask me questions, clarify due dates and send me assignments very easily. I also used edublog, call-outs and an online survey as outlined below…

I did have one issue with students using the internet in class instead of taking notes on a short story we were studying… I have read a bit about this and Nettlebeck suggested limiting laptop time in class. I personally felt that it just reflected that I was boring them and that I needed to engage them more effectively. I responded by asking the students to close their laptops in the next lesson, but also planned a more interactive class. This combined reponse seemed to work.

Blog
I got very excited about the prospect of using a blog with my students. I thought it was a great way of communicating with the students – providing extra resources and support for their learning. I hoped that they might also like the idea of being able to comment and interact together in an online community.

As it turned out I think I was more excited that they were. Some of them looked at the site – but I’m not sure any of them were really that interested in using it as a resource. I think it is still a good idea though – but its something that needs to be established at the beginning of the year and in collaboration with the students.

I really like this Year 12 Politics wordpress that a teacher in Victoria has established for his students. It is just such a fantastic resource with so much information that the students can access at school or at home.

Call-outs
I created quite a few word documents using call out boxes. I really liked the visual element they provided to what would otherwise be a normal word document. I am aware that I liked them though. I haven’don’t really know if the students preferred the layout or not. They do require more effort and time though, so I probably need to be mindful of this in the future.  Here is an example of callouts used in a Year 8 handout.  The students worked through a series of questions regarding grammer that they had seen in a short story called The Werewolf.  the-werewolf-handout

Online Survey
I created an online survey for my students to complete at the end of my block. It gave the students a chance to comment on my teaching practices, but was completely anonymous. It worked well because students were able to complete it in class or at home and I feel like they have been more honest with me than they might have been if I’d made them write on a sheet in class. I also taught some girls how to use web application (www.surveymonkey.com) for a class assignment. They were able to send surveys to the whole school via email – and use the results to report on student knowledge of fair trade chocolate. This could be a valuable learning tool in many classroom settings – creating surveys, administering them and analysing the results.

Here is an interesting example of propaganda about the League of Nations.

Questions

1. Who is represented in this cartoon? Who is ‘public sentiment’?
2. What is the cartoon suggesting about the relationship between public sentiment and the League of Nations?
3. What might be the consequences of this relationship on a global scale?

Hi Girls,

I thought I’d try posting some resources for you here – if we find that you can access them, I’ll use this more often.

Regarding Alana’s question: Are Tibet and Taiwan nations (but not states) we stumble across some very interesting debate…

According to the the Taiwan Country Brief prepared by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,

“Australian Government policy towards Taiwan is based on the Joint Communiqué with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) of 21 December 1972. Under the terms of the Joint Communiqué, Australia recognises the Government of the PRC as the sole legal government of China and acknowledges the position of the Chinese Government that Taiwan is a province of the PRC. Accordingly, Australia does not accept that the authorities in Taiwan have the status of a national government and the Australian Government can have no official dealings with Taiwan. All Australian governments since 1972 have adhered to this policy.

Within the framework of our one-China policy, the Australian Government strongly supports the development, on an unofficial basis, of economic and cultural contacts between Australia and Taiwan. Australia supports Taiwan’s participation in international organisations and conferences provided this can be achieved in a manner consistent with the Joint Communiqué. The Government encourages Australian business to pursue trade and investment opportunities involving Taiwan and supports the development, on an unofficial basis, of people-to-people contacts.”

(Read Full Country Brief here)

This raises some interesting questions about state and nationhood. Our definition of states referred to the UN’s 192 member states – but as we see in this brief, some countries around the world do recognise Taiwan.

Ok, I’ll leave it there for now, in case you haven’t been able to access this… Fingers crossed!

Websites….

Hmm I’m not sure. I definitely felt a sense of achievement creating the website and I do like the way you take us through the tutorial – indeed I think it is something I’d like to try to do for my students next year – however, I’m not sure I think the creation of a website (thus far) is offering me any more than what a wiki or blog would. And it took a lot more time. I guess it will give you a bit more creative freedom, but I think more can go wrong with it and more time and expertise is needed than for other applications. I’ve had some troubles in terms of the actual website displaying what I want it to. I have modified the text and picture since uploading it to the LMS, but those changes have not been reflected when I reopen the page – any suggestions? (my not quite right website). I guess I would want to play more, learn more, and feel more ‘expert’ in it before I tried it with students.

I was talking to my supervisor about the use of wiki’s/blogs and he has set up a pageflake, which houses all of the blogs his students write for him. It looked great! And it was a great time management tool as he could assess all of his students work at one time. I thought I’d have a little play with it.

I also taught my first ICT rich class last week. I was getting my students to introduce themselves to me. First they wrote me a letter and then they were meant to create video clips of themselves using animoto.com. Unfortunately the school server was too slow but the girls were great – they made suggestions about other applications we could use instead (movie maker and photo something) and they told me they were keen to try animoto at home with a faster connection. It was great to see them so enthused and to go into the classroom with a new idea for them. I also really got a buzz that they were willing to help me out by suggesting other avenues for creating the video clips. It was a very collaborative class.

Ted, can you let me know if I am on the right track with these journal entries? Thanks for your tute on uploading videos. I’ll give it a go. I was thinking I could upload my animoto clip … Enjoy! I feel very technological linking like this. It is great!

Ciao!

Ok… Edublog. Still liking it but…

I’m not sure about these two interfaces – the ‘site’ page and the ‘doing’ page. It’s confusing and hard to move around. It would be better if it was just one site.  Plus, despite being able to find other people in the course on the ICT page, it is a bit of a hassle. It would be good if I could do that from my own site.

Powerpoint

Like the hyperlink option to make them more interactive and personalised.

I’m going to try ‘keynote’ now.

I’ve been really impressed with this workshop on blogs – it was so easy to follow the instructions and I could even flick between windows and work as Ted was speaking.

I really like the idea of a blog. I’ve been thinking about strategies for improving literacy as an English teacher and I think I would like to get my students to regularly write in a journal. Perhaps instead though, I could get them to write on a blog. I guess the major difference would be that they are writing for an audience, but it could be good for them to start thinking about how one interacts in an online blog and what sort of information one should include.

Great workshop! My next question is, how will I find other online bloggers so we can read and comment together?