I have now embedded a voki into my blog on the right as well as showing it here.
Get a Voki now!
This voki was very easy to make and I can see how it would be a useful teaching tool. Using the Voki site it was a step by step set up for a very useful tool.
Within a classroom this type of tool could be used to engage students and to help communicate ideas. Different types of learners may actually get more out of a topic by having to prepare vokis or avatars as a presentation piece. It would also be a useful way of using a prop or another voice in a classroom as we all know the same teachers voice can become monotonous at times!
I did have a few problems with the coding to get it into the blog though, and I found this youtube video to be of great help.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Wikis
So I started My Wiki over at wikispaces. I felt that this would be the best place for me as I have had experiences researching with wikis there.
I am a bit confused as to what exactly I'm meant to be posting there now for the ICTs course, so I think I'll have a look around before I really post anything else!
Oh joyous confusion.
I am a bit confused as to what exactly I'm meant to be posting there now for the ICTs course, so I think I'll have a look around before I really post anything else!
Oh joyous confusion.
Aggregators not so aggrevating!
The learning activity of aggregators was incredibly useful to me. Without knowing it I had already amassed a fair few numbers of subscribed blogs on my reader but now that I know what I'm doing and where to find it, it all seems too easy!
To have everything on one page, to read as though going through an email inbox is really convient. I also found it quite easy to set up which is always a plus when dealing with technology.
I found the video that Scott placed on moodle to be really informative.
It helped clear up why we need to use these aggregators in the first place. I must admit I was going through everyones blogs to see if I had missed anything new, and in turn getting a bit stressed at the time I was seemingly wasting! As many of you on this course will attest, time is not really a luxury right now!
I do feel that aggregators would be an excellent teaching tool. Blogs themselves have been seen to be useful teaching techniques and with added aggregators I can just imagine the information a student would be able to gather.
I think that as part of my teaching, especially with the later years (10-12), I will definitely use blogs and aggregators as a method of research for them, and for information I find interesting on the subject I am teaching. Think of the paper you will save and then added information you could give your students access to!
Another idea that springs to mind is demonstrating the wide range of information that is available. For example if I were teaching a unit on human biology, in particular the heart, I would encourage my students to do some searching for blogs and new feeds on this subjet. I would tell them to follow it for a month or so and then come together in small groups to collate what they have found. As part of an assessed portion of the course, they could then present to the class this new information. I think that it would be a brilliant way of seeing the different sites and methods that students access on the web, for example http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com or http://medicineworld.org/blogs/heart/heart-watch-blog.html would give the student information from a more medical view point which they could follow compared to http://www.embraceyourheart.com/blog/ or http://www.whomagoo.blogspot.com
which give more social concepts and ideas on the subject.
The use of a tool like this would definately be a way to encourage Engagement Theory, as described by Kearsley and Shneiderman (1999). It would aid students in being more involved in their learning by use of group work with a project base and relating to them as humans (or to humans in general).
Blogs and aggregators would also be a good method of relating Lynchs 8 learning management questions in the classroom. By letting your students blog about what they already know, help them find sources of information for subjects that they want to know and looking at what resources you have at your disposal you have covered LMQ 1, 2 and 4 in one simple task (Smith et al 2003).
One downfall I can see with aggregators is finding sites to subscribe to! I know from personal experience that I must limit my searching online as I tend to get caught in a whirlwind of interesting sties and information and stray away from the subject I'm looking for. This would definately be a shaping issue (DOL 2) that I would address with my students as a common error or pitfall.
References:
Kearsley,G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999) Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based learning and teaching. [http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm]
Smith, R., Lynch, D. & Mienczakowski, J. (2003). "The bachelor of learning management (BLM) and education capability", Change: Transformations in Education, (6)(2): 23--37
To have everything on one page, to read as though going through an email inbox is really convient. I also found it quite easy to set up which is always a plus when dealing with technology.
I found the video that Scott placed on moodle to be really informative.
It helped clear up why we need to use these aggregators in the first place. I must admit I was going through everyones blogs to see if I had missed anything new, and in turn getting a bit stressed at the time I was seemingly wasting! As many of you on this course will attest, time is not really a luxury right now!
I do feel that aggregators would be an excellent teaching tool. Blogs themselves have been seen to be useful teaching techniques and with added aggregators I can just imagine the information a student would be able to gather.
I think that as part of my teaching, especially with the later years (10-12), I will definitely use blogs and aggregators as a method of research for them, and for information I find interesting on the subject I am teaching. Think of the paper you will save and then added information you could give your students access to!
Another idea that springs to mind is demonstrating the wide range of information that is available. For example if I were teaching a unit on human biology, in particular the heart, I would encourage my students to do some searching for blogs and new feeds on this subjet. I would tell them to follow it for a month or so and then come together in small groups to collate what they have found. As part of an assessed portion of the course, they could then present to the class this new information. I think that it would be a brilliant way of seeing the different sites and methods that students access on the web, for example http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com or http://medicineworld.org/blogs/heart/heart-watch-blog.html would give the student information from a more medical view point which they could follow compared to http://www.embraceyourheart.com/blog/ or http://www.whomagoo.blogspot.com
which give more social concepts and ideas on the subject.
The use of a tool like this would definately be a way to encourage Engagement Theory, as described by Kearsley and Shneiderman (1999). It would aid students in being more involved in their learning by use of group work with a project base and relating to them as humans (or to humans in general).
Blogs and aggregators would also be a good method of relating Lynchs 8 learning management questions in the classroom. By letting your students blog about what they already know, help them find sources of information for subjects that they want to know and looking at what resources you have at your disposal you have covered LMQ 1, 2 and 4 in one simple task (Smith et al 2003).
One downfall I can see with aggregators is finding sites to subscribe to! I know from personal experience that I must limit my searching online as I tend to get caught in a whirlwind of interesting sties and information and stray away from the subject I'm looking for. This would definately be a shaping issue (DOL 2) that I would address with my students as a common error or pitfall.
References:
Kearsley,G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999) Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based learning and teaching. [http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm]
Smith, R., Lynch, D. & Mienczakowski, J. (2003). "The bachelor of learning management (BLM) and education capability", Change: Transformations in Education, (6)(2): 23--37
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Where to start?
Well where to start?
This journal is primarily to write down my thoughts, reactions and insights as I travel through the world of a post graduate student. I'm currently studying for my Graduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching and so far the course is fascinating. Lots of hard work! But fascinating. To start with, I'm just going to write down a few ideas and thoughts that have been floating around my head in the last few weeks.
About me.
Just to start though, I thought I'd share a little bit about me.
I am an Aussie, even if my strange mix of an accent doesn't always suggest so. My parents moved my family when I was younger and consequently I spent 13 years in England, so unlike most people on the GDLT course I didn't go to school in Australia, instead I completed all 13 years within the English system (GCSE's and 'A' levels for me). As soon as I finished school I spent 3 months in Fiji on a volunteer conservation expedition before moving back to Australia to start my undergraduate degree in Marine Biology and Aquaculture at JCU in Townsville. I completed my degree in 2007 and began working as an Aquaculturalist on prawn farms around North Queensland. After 2 and 1/2 years, and a location change, I decided my heart wasn't in the job itself but in teaching people about it, and that I really wanted to get back into education, but from the educators point of view! And thats what brings me here.
Anyway, enough of that.
The ideas of ICT use in classroom is one that intrigues me. Ever since the residential school I have been constantly thinking about ways that I would attempt to integrate technology into the classroom within the subject of Science. My own education was aided greatly by the use of technology, and I am a technology junkie, as most Gen Y kids are.
Being dyslexic, I was granted the use of computers in the last 2 years of my schooling in England and I relied on them greatly during my first undergraduate degree too. I do feel that computers (and technology in general) allow students a greater sense of autonomy and ownership of their learning. Just for example, to be able to utilise Google to search for answers instead of feeling stupid for asking a question was something that I leapt on during my time at school.
When I think back over my schooling its really interesting to me to see now how teaching and educating has changed in the few years since I have been out of the classroom. The idea of LMQ's and DOL's are something that I'm sure most of my teachers had never thought of!
Rote learning and teacher centered approaches are all I can really remember from my time at school. Thinking back on it now, I can understand why this is so. The English system runs off one curriculum with one standardised assessment which is carried out across the country. Our teachers would have been informed of what we needed to know and when we needed to know it by, so I can understand that they did not have much leeway as far as content and unit planning was concerned.
Those are just my thoughts on the day. Turning off now as I'm participating in Earth Hour that starts in 8 minutes.
Those of you that aren't aware of what I'm talking about should check it out http://www.earthhour.org/
Those that are.... hope your hour is full of fun!!
This journal is primarily to write down my thoughts, reactions and insights as I travel through the world of a post graduate student. I'm currently studying for my Graduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching and so far the course is fascinating. Lots of hard work! But fascinating. To start with, I'm just going to write down a few ideas and thoughts that have been floating around my head in the last few weeks.
About me.
Just to start though, I thought I'd share a little bit about me.
I am an Aussie, even if my strange mix of an accent doesn't always suggest so. My parents moved my family when I was younger and consequently I spent 13 years in England, so unlike most people on the GDLT course I didn't go to school in Australia, instead I completed all 13 years within the English system (GCSE's and 'A' levels for me). As soon as I finished school I spent 3 months in Fiji on a volunteer conservation expedition before moving back to Australia to start my undergraduate degree in Marine Biology and Aquaculture at JCU in Townsville. I completed my degree in 2007 and began working as an Aquaculturalist on prawn farms around North Queensland. After 2 and 1/2 years, and a location change, I decided my heart wasn't in the job itself but in teaching people about it, and that I really wanted to get back into education, but from the educators point of view! And thats what brings me here.
Anyway, enough of that.
The ideas of ICT use in classroom is one that intrigues me. Ever since the residential school I have been constantly thinking about ways that I would attempt to integrate technology into the classroom within the subject of Science. My own education was aided greatly by the use of technology, and I am a technology junkie, as most Gen Y kids are.
Being dyslexic, I was granted the use of computers in the last 2 years of my schooling in England and I relied on them greatly during my first undergraduate degree too. I do feel that computers (and technology in general) allow students a greater sense of autonomy and ownership of their learning. Just for example, to be able to utilise Google to search for answers instead of feeling stupid for asking a question was something that I leapt on during my time at school.
When I think back over my schooling its really interesting to me to see now how teaching and educating has changed in the few years since I have been out of the classroom. The idea of LMQ's and DOL's are something that I'm sure most of my teachers had never thought of!
Rote learning and teacher centered approaches are all I can really remember from my time at school. Thinking back on it now, I can understand why this is so. The English system runs off one curriculum with one standardised assessment which is carried out across the country. Our teachers would have been informed of what we needed to know and when we needed to know it by, so I can understand that they did not have much leeway as far as content and unit planning was concerned.
Those are just my thoughts on the day. Turning off now as I'm participating in Earth Hour that starts in 8 minutes.
Those of you that aren't aware of what I'm talking about should check it out http://www.earthhour.org/
Those that are.... hope your hour is full of fun!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
