Reflective Synopsis Blog Posting

This course has provided me the opportunity to explore a range of digital pedagogies and consider their application for enhancing learning experiences in the 21st century. Contemporary students have complex needs that traditional pedagogies are unable to accommodate. As Chloe Towns’ blog argues, information, rather than agriculture and natural resources, has become the most valued commodity on the world stage. To meet this shift, Heath (2001) proposes, current teaching practice needs be a multi-disciplinary approach with a strong focus on 'diverse and distributed sites of knowledge production and equally diverse channels of its communication and distribution’.

Digital pedagogies reinforce this approach, supporting the portability of information in the use of technology such as blogs and podcasts. In line with advancements in technology I am able to enhance what, how and when students learn despite their location. In this way I can provide students with an invaluable set of mode 2 skills for success in tomorrows workplace.

In light of globalisation and the technological revolution ICT’s make schooling more relevant. Collegial discussions conclude that teaching with technology is an effortless solution as most students are already tech-junkies. Elearning, we have argued, is involving them in what they already know and love. In particular Natalie Arthur’s blog explains how this generation have spent their entire lives surrounded by technology to the point that they ‘think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors" Prensky (2001).

Whilst this attitude does not reflect marginalised segments of the community, Sugata Mitra’s Hole in the wall project showed us that regardless of location and socio-economic status, "if you let them and if they want to" kids can learn anything. The key is in being creative with the resources on hand. In my classroom I aim to champion the idea that just one computer with Internet access can provide significant learning opportunities.

Neatly aligned with this view is the premise that students must be “engaged in their work in order for effective learning to occur” Kearsley & Shneiderman (1998). The use of technology in the classroom is one way to facilitate this. Some robust discussion can be found on my blog surrounding application of this theory. The dramatic proliferation of ICT’s gear educators with an expansive toolbox for schooling students of the digital age. Due to the brevity of this report I am unable to draw on the entire list of elearning strategies I have considered through participation in this course. Following, rather, is a succinct summary of specific ideas on how I would apply ICT’s in the classroom

WIKIPedia for learning management. Modern teaching emphasises this type of inquiry learning. Taking a student centred approach is about facilitating learning rather than being the source of all knowledge. I would use this technology to guide students to the source of information and encourage self-directed discovery.

Skype for teleconferencing with real world professionals. Students to conduct an interview with a professional in the field of study. Pre-arrange an appointment and conduct an interview using questions prepared in advance. Information received used for class discussion.

Google Earth for problem solving. Using satellite view, students identify certain urban planning features of a locality, then consider what the area can tell them about the people that live there. Consider the impact of building an additional 50, 000 homes on the area and existing population?

Avatar’s for introductions. Programs like Voki provide access to avatars that are simple to create. Alice’s blog suggests that students could create an avatar to represent themselves. I like this idea and would suggest they create them at the beginning of the year as a get to know you exercise. Although the free software only allows limited characters, Scott posted a useful solution and example on the forum. His suggestion was to ‘record your own voice in the Voki environment as this gives you a whole minute of speech and the avatar will lip sync to your voice’. Voki’s are also a great hook for teachers introducing a topic or lesson plan.

YouTube for online communication. An innovative idea from Sara Cardine that I read about during this course was to use Youtube as a platform for debating. In this instance students record their introductions and opening arguments and then place them on you tube for their opposition to respond to. I like the concept of taking a fresh approach to an established routine, allowing students to explore the potential of the new media.

Email for developing digital literacy. Some examples include students emailing companies requesting information on their products or policies. Or using email to connect with students in other countries using epal to discover and learn about different cultures.

Blogs for encouraging discussion and interactivity. These web logs enable deeper discussion and understanding of content outside of the classroom. A useful tool to accompany a learning cycle alongside a unit of work.

Digital Storytelling for publishing and self-expression. Students are able to create media rich stories using the following:

Audio: enhance both factual projects and artistic presentations with access to royalty free music from websites such as Incompetech.

Flickr: As they say a picture speaks a thousand words. The system is well organised with an effective search engine for searching within categories, students can easily source suitable images to include in their stories.

Powerpoint & SlideShare: Students could use this technology to create a montage of images and sound for publishing a story.

The above examples support a learner centric approach to teaching; however there will be times when direct instruction is required. In this instance I would use a range of ICT’s to create dynamic presentations that will hold students attention.

Experimenting with such tools in the fast paced realm of technology has alerted me to the necessity of continuous acquisition. As Scott advised, ‘21st century teachers need to be committed to keeping up with educational technology’ in order to maintain relevance with their learners. The exposure to contemporary principles in engagement theory and the nuances of the knowledge economy has fast tracked my understanding of elearning. This course has signaled the start of a lifelong learning journey in the development of digital pedagogies for learning design in the knowledge economy.


References:
Heath, G, (2001). Teacher Education and the New Knowledge Environment, retrieved from http://www.aare.edu.au/01pap/hea01582.htm

Kearsley G, & Shneiderman B, (1998). Engagement Theory A framework for technology-based teaching and learning, retrieved from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Prensky, (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, retrieved from www.marcprensky.com/.../Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

A Voki to introduce unit on Biodiversity

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Digital storytelling not a bore

Professor Peter Sullivan from Monash University, (2010) has said that "mathematics had to be made relevant to young people in terms of their future careers, with many finding it boring, repetitive and not requiring them to think very hard- it has to be more interesting"
retrieved from http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/division-over-math-curriculum/story-e6freo8c-1111117752638

This week we have looked at digital storytelling a pedagogic approach to jazz up boring parts of the curriculum.Following is a rough draft of a lesson plan:
Students in lower primary could be asked to create digital story based on the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Initially, the caterpillar in the story is small. Provide each group of students eight caterpillars of various sizes showing the inches of one of the caterpillars. Have the students work together to measure the caterpillars and then match the caterpillar to the correct index card. Walk around the room and check each groups responses. When finished have groups of students place take a digital photo of materials from this activity. Import JPEG images into a photo editing program. Create a PowerPoint, incorporating digital photos. On slideshare add your voice recording with each image. Add music if you want to. Save as a wmv movie. Upload to the net, download to your iPod or MP4 player.
Any thoughts? Suggestions?

Image and Reference: http://www.teachingheart.net/veryhungrycaterpillar.html

Message Stick

Hi All
(I am back on board after a week or so of taking care of a sick child), I have just watched David Vadiveloo on Message Stick, bringing his Community Prophets project to the remote North Qld community of Aurukun. My first thoughts were that after completing our teaching training many of us will spend some time teaching in remote or rural schools. And although not all these schools will be indigenous, the techniques used in this clip could be applied to any classroom with disengaged students. David emphasised the primary point that a story comes from within you whilst explaining that the technology and equipment was secondary, a tool only for the telling. In this way he was celebrating the students individual voices and culture. David described the story telling process by acting out with the students the key elements of a narrative structure, appealing to their kinaesthetic learning needs. He scaffolded learning by beginning with simple animation to show how moving image worked. Brainstorming activities were conducted to generate and establish ideas. Responses to student input included continuous positive reinforcement helping build confidence and pride in their work. An added benefit of the projects was the positive results in reducing behavioural problems. A very useful pedagogical approach for teachers struggling with engaging their students.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/messagestick/stories/s2496801.htm.

Incorporating Audio

Access to royalty free music is a handy resource to have at your disposal when creating media rich learning experiences. I have just downloaded a piece of music to my hard drive from the Incompetech website and found it a fuss-free experience.



Image : http://thelinuxcauldron.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/audio_icon.jpg

Slide-casting

Here's my powerpoint come slide-cast developed on this website.

Hpe lunchbox

View more presentations from nellis2010.

I found this process to be quite involved and time consuming, but aren't all things when you are just learning? I am sure the process is really quite straightforward once you have mastered it, particularly the audio software.
So the voice recording that I have added has problems, in that it needs to be edited to play only in the first slide rather then across the whole presentation. I aim to spend some more time with this program and learn how to solve this and any other useful applications.
I can see its pedagogical use in customizing presentations with its ability to enrich presentations with audio.

WIKIPedia

Add WIKIPedia to your bookmarks. Forget the cumbersome printed encyclopedia and click into a wealth of information. How handy is this to have at your fingertips when lesson planning? But more importantly encourage your students in self directed problem solving and guide them to the source of information. Rest assured that tight controls monitor accuracy of information.

Google Earth

Google earth as a digital story telling tool! I love it! I had never thought of it in this context before viewing Joe Woods presentation. Here is are some further great ideas I came across for using it in the classroom.
Image courtesy http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Technology/images/google-earth.jpg

Teacher Tube Resource

I have been considering working on a unit in HPE focusing on building self-esteem and optimism in students. Below is a link to a clip from Teacher Tube to use in one of the learning experiences. It contains some famous faces as role models and I would hope the students find it inspiring and motivating.

Manipilating files

Having problems loading the online file altering program Picnik today, I instead experimented with Adobe photoshop which I had installed on my computer already. I would recommend it as a tool for adapting image files for the web or print.
I think that it is essential to have a handle on some type of file altering technology due to the ever present concern of file size in the digital environment. Incorporating images into your pedagogy is useful in order to stimulate your students and add a richer level to content.
Here is an image I played around with, then reduced it to 75dpi resolution which is suitable for web and only takes up a small 68k in file space.

Visual Communication

As they say a picture speaks a thousand words. Having discovered the wealth of images in the online photo sharing system Flickr I am excited about the potential. Importantly, copyright issues are covered and images can be used freely for education purposes. There are literally millions of photos, many of very high quality. The system is well organised for easy management of your own images plus an effective search engine for searching within categories of other files.

Image courtesy Flickr

The power of powerpoint

This week we have been guided through some information on powerpoint. I can see how it is an essential tool for any teacher. However, in my professional life prior to this course I have not had the need to use this program and as such this was somewhat of an introduction.

I have created the following slides for a primary lesson in HPE. I have tried to include moving text, graphics and sound into my presentation to cater for student individual differences and align with engagement theory. I have also incorporated a real life task for the assessment in following the Relate, Create, Donate approach.

The end result is fine but I can see there is much room for improvement. I tended to rely on stock options within the program package would like to learn how to embed custom animation, external video and sound files. I aim to spend more time getting acquainted with this program and learn how to put together a really entertaining show that enhances my learning objectives.
image courtesy: mmadams90.wordpress.com

Using Avatars

Get a Voki now!


This is the avatar I created in Voki. What a great tool for introducing a lesson or theme to students.

The avatars are fun to create and provide an interesting hook for engaging students from the start.

Due to the simplicity of the process, students could be guided to create their own avatars also.

ICT a student-centric approach

Appropriate use of ICT's has the ability to reform traditional education practices into a student-centric model.

Technology based media compels the students to be involved and to make meanings between the classroom activities and the real world.

In this way pupils are engaging in 'Direct Purposeful Experience' which as Dale's Cone shows, is the most effective learning method.

How lucky we new teachers are to be coming into this profession at such an exciting time! The possibilities in the classroom are awesome.

Beyond School

I enjoyed reading through Clay Burrell's blog at http://beyond-school.org/ and think it works as a platform for giving students a richer sense of the content being taught in class and poses some further ideas for them to 'chew on'.

I dont know Clay's s in-school teaching style, however it seems this medium allows for a more open, discussional pedagogy and allows student a deeper understanding of their teacher. Important to note that it is probably not compulsory reading so students opting to view the blog approach the content more readily as they are doing so by choice.

I think blogs can be an excellent tool for building trust with students via the less stuctured, conversational approach it supports. It encourages students to unpack and furher ideas found in the classroom. It also provides a space for students to get a more three dimensional view of their teacher.

Marzano Vs Costa & Kallick

Both Marzano and Costa & Kallick's descriptions of the Habits of Mind (HoM) form the basis of learning design approaches to current pre-service teacher training. The question being asked is
'What behaviors are indicative of the efficient, effective problem solver? (www.mindfulbydesign.com)

Marzano and Costa & Kallick's answers differ in the following way's:
Costa and Kallick summarise their findings into a collection of 16 thinking dispositions (inc. persistence, precision & meta cognition), whilst Mazarno encapsulates his ideas into 3 categories; critical thinking, creative thinking & self-regulated thinking.

Both frameworks share a common vision of harnessing ones intellectual behaviors to become the most effective humans that one can be. Parallel to this idea is the development of the continuous learner, applications for the classroom are obvious but such strategies should also be extended to the students wider world outside the classroom.

DoL + 8LMQs

Marzano's Dimensions of Learning (DoL) provides the perfect companion to the 8LMQs. The DoL's, based on extensive research on how the mind works, gear the pre-service teacher with the appropriate tools for fleshing out learning plan design as seen in the 8LMQs.

Particular application can be found in reference to LMQ3 How does my learner best learn?
In this instance we can apply DoL 1 (Attitudes and Perceptions) & 5 (Habits of Mind) to implicate that a learner need be in a safe, positive and enjoyable space for effective learning to occur.

Further, DoLs 2(Acquire and Integrate), 3(Extend and Refine), & 4(Use Knowledge Meaningfully) give substance to the Learning Management Question 5; What will constitute the learning journey?

Using these two proven models in conjunction with one another ensures that teachers have the best tools to connect their learners and the attributes of a successful learner in a combined holistic approach.

8 LMQ Framework

Best learning outcomes for all students can be catered for by answering the 8 questions in Smith & Lynch's 8 Learning Management Questions. The design is set out in the following framework:
-Profiling Phase LMQ 1-3
-Strategizing Phase LMQ 4-6
-Ascertainment Phase LMQ 7-8
The advantages of this approach can be found in its clear and concise structure for creating learning experiences. The framework has a learner orientation and emphasises the individual in the learning process.

Teacher vs Learner centered instruction

From what I remember of my primary years in schooling a teacher centered approach was prevalent.
I don't ever recall the students being asked to contribute to the planning or direct the shape of the lessons in any way. In particular my years 5 & 6 teacher was very close to retirement age at the time he took my classes and I assume he relied on 'old school' practices.
It is reassuring to note the emphasis placed on student- centeredness in current teacher training courses.

Engagement Theory

The premise of Engagement Theory (Greg Kearsley & Ben Shneiderman) is that students must be engaged in their work in order for effective learning to occur. The use of technology in the classroom is one of the most obvious ways to facilitate this. Attractive technologies to consider include the use of podcasts, mobile phones, internet, skype, googlemaps, email and wordprocessing to support pedagogies.
Furthermore, according to Kearsley and Shneiderman (1998), applying these digital pedagogies to 'authentic" or real life problems will provide the platform for very best learning outcomes.

Social Capital and Family Values

It has been said that education starts at home. However we are currently witnessing the demise in social capital through the break down in family values or over worked double income families. The resulting limited time modern parents have to spend with their children or the total lack of parental interest/involvement altogether is an ever present challenge in the classroom. Evidently these current changes in society are placing demands on 21st century teachers as they are being increasingly relied on to fill this gap.

Preparing Students for the Knowledge Economy

A key responsibility of 21c teachers is to prepare students for the world outside the classroom. The shift toward the emphasis on a knowledge based economy will be central to this task.
John Houghton and Peter Sheehan expand on this idea in their paper A Primer on the Knowledge Economy, suggesting that we

'are living through a period of profound change and
transformation of the shape of society and its underlying economic
base ... The nature of production, trade, employment and work in
the coming decades will be very different from what it is today'.

Technology is now integral to the majority of jobs our students will be employed in after their schooling journey and this is applicable amongst all levels and industries of employment from manufacturing to commerce. It is imperative therefore, that we are able to assist students in gaining these new level skills, the ability to adapt quickly to change and provide an understanding of the new workplace. In this way we can best help prepare them for success in tomorrows workplace.

As a final point, it it reassuring to consider that part of this job will be easy in the context that today's students are already technology junkies. Teaching them technology is engaging them in what they love and research shows that best learning outcomes are achieved when students are engaged.

Welcome

Hello and Welcome,
I am a pre-service student enrolled in a full time postgraduate teacher training degree. I am hoping to enter the teaching profession in 2011. I decided on this career path for a number of reasons including a love of learning, a love of children and a better work/life balance.
I am currently based on the coast with my husband and 2 year old daughter. We have settled here after many years of traveling around Australia and have lived in many towns and cities from Melbourne to Alice Springs to Darwin.
I have a boisterous kelpie, a rainforest and a veggie garden in my backyard.
This blog forms part of my assessment for this course but on a wider scale I would like to include you on the journey of a pre-service teacher in the 21st century. Throughout this blog I will investigate modern learning approaches for students in the digital age. I will consider new communication technologies and their place in the 21 century classroom. Included will be insights from professional conversations with mentors and other pre-service teachers as we grapple with the concept of efficiency and enhancement in the modern learning environment.
I look forward to sharing the outcomes with you all.
Regards
Naomi