Digital Movies
In Reading Helen Hofferberg and Mariaane Handlers article on “Digital Video goes to school” i realised that the use of digital media is a powerful way to motivate students, energize teaching and link to community. We live in a visual world we see it in our homes we are immersed in television and it is through this visual medium that children learn a great deal. Therefore it is only natural that children should embrace video in their learning. Students find video motivational and more importantly they demonstrate higher order thinking skills when producing digital video clips.
Equipment and financial costs can no longer be an excuse for limiting student’s opportunities to expand, create big ideas. It is as simple as having video editing software and a camera. As teachers we need to remember that the chance to create and use video provides one more tool to expand the learning environment.
As children work in this medium they begin to realize the relationship pictures have to the message that they are trying to convey. In the process of creating this video children are practicing many skills, these include;
• The technical skills involved in making a video
• Visual Literacy
• The higher order thinking skills of analyzing and synthesizing.
Helping children become visually literate is a major concern in today’s society. We have taught them about reading and grammar now it is time to teach them about video.
Uncategorized | Comment (1)Interactive Whiteboards
So i came across Kevs blog on interactive whiteboards i am quite impressed with these interactive whiteboards these whiteboards allow teachers to extend beyond the usual chalk and talk. Last year when i heard about these whiteboards i was a little worried as i was unsure of where they left the teacher and what role will they play in the classroom. But i was fortunate to see one of these whiteboards on prac and i am impressed, they take learning to a complelty new level, Kev states that children demand interactivity and if we use these whiteboards to their full potential they can engage and motivate students to learn. Whole class room learning can take place, and demonstrations can be shown. I was amazed that websites can be linked to these programs through the whiteboard, and immediately my idea of what does the teacher do was abolished i realised that the teacher still faciliates but the children become alot more motivated and they create rather than passivly do.
I agree with Kev on the basis of no you do not need an interactive whiteboard to teach, in reality there is nothing wrong with a black board students still learn. But my personal belief is that there is more an interactive white board can do, children get really excited when their name is called to move something on the whiteboard to another place, this motivation is such an important factor when we teach, if children are interested they want to learn.
As a teacher i found that it was great it was so much easier to explain things i could link to pages, i could demonstrate and i could show children multiple perspectives and yes majority of it can be achieved via a blackboard, but kids want interactivity and this whole approach makes learning fun, and thats what we want children to see learning is fun.
Kev states that he is worried that teachers may become lazy, i don’t see this, you still have to prepare if anything it encourages teachers to up their standards, children want to be challenged and there is so much that you can achieve with these whiteboards that teachers will have to up their standards to reach the full potential of these whiteboards and meet the childrens standards.
In regards to the want or need debate, i unlike Kev see it is a need, if we want to motivate children, if we want to encourage interactivity, if we want to see new ways of doing things then yes an interactive whiteboard is a need. I don’t believe traditional methods will be lost by the introduction of these whiteboards, and i don’t believe we will ever find an era that will show computers teaching and teachers just monitoring.
Uncategorized | Comment (1)My digital story
This is my digital story, my first ever one!!!
Uncategorized | Comment (1)Snap, crackle and pop!!!!
I stumbled across Alissa’s little post on Torment Technology it got me thinking about technology..It is great, fun, entertaining and creative. However like all things it does go wrong and when it goes wrong “snap, crackle, pop” its all gone!
And there are never any guarenttes with anything, her post got me thinking if that could happen to one person imagine what could happen to a whole class, and how disruptive that could be?
“I will leave you with this thought, if technology is something we are persuing to catch up with, yet we are the designers of our own creations, why then are we struggling to keep up with it?” Such an intersting and thought provoking question, and i thought about it and the only real reason that i came up with was technology is always moving new things are being created, better things and as we master one thing a new thing comes out which expands on the previous, it all seems like a little race. But when technology does work i believe it can be pretty amazing.
Uncategorized | Comment (0)I want to learn!
Engage meI came across an interesting post by Lauren, she found a you tube video. This video has the students voice on what they percieve learning to hold. Their main arguement was Engagement and they way they were engaged, and this was through technology. This video was an awakening of the way students learn, it also opened the doors for questioning the society that we will be teaching in.
The video showed stastics of teachers who use technology and those who don’t and to be honest i wasn’t shocked to see such high figures that don’t use technology, and the children are suffering. This only retierates the idea of incorporating technology into the classroom, the children want to learn, they want to create and they want to be challeneged however without incorporating technology into the classroom we aren’t exactly meeting their needs.
Lauren states an interesting point she sheds light on the idea that student teachers are being taught technology at university but what happens to those teachers who aren’t brought up with technology? Does that mean that those children miss out? It is amazing to see how much technology is being used in and out of school, we need to equip our students to meet the everyday needs of society both technically and academically, and technology has the answer to this.
On prac every child had a computer and all work was done on the computer via the smartboard and i have never seen students so enthuastic to learn. They loved the interaction, they loved the freedom of creating things, i saw so many student games that were made by them and it blew me away. Children want to learn there is no question there, we as teachers need to meet their needs.
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Emerging technology
I just read an article from the Horizon Report, which talked about emerging technologies. The first was Grassroots video, with this virtually anyone can capture, edit and share short video clips using just their mobile phones: as we know it is very common to find news clips, tutorials and informative videos alongside information. What used to be difficult and expensive now has become something that anyone can do inexpensively. The benefits of this mean that not only can these clips help children or anyone with the site that they are on, it means that they can access this help just at the click of the button, instead of emailing or waiting for the teacher to explain. Whilst we have always had this, the emerging inexpensive nature now means that more can be uploaded and anyone can do it, which allows children to share their work with a wider audience.
The second was collaboration webs, Horizon states that the newest tools for collaboration are small, flexible and free and require no installation. All that needs to be done is opening web browsers and they are able to edit group documents, hold online meetings, swap information and data, and collaborate without even leaving their seats. This allows children to collaborate with each other and share their views; it also allows children to share their work.
Horizon also talks about the endless possibilities of mobile phones, phones are being made rapidly with more access to the internet portably than ever. This means that any information is at our fingertips no matter where we go.
The final is Collective Intelligence, Horizon states that in the coming years we will see educational applications for both explicit collective intelligence- evidenced through things such as Wikipedia, and in community tagging.
If we look at what we were with such traditional teaching methods to the society that we are living in to the society that will be, it isn’t hard to notice just how much of a technology based society we are becoming, all these tools will allow us to share information more freely and makes it open for anyone to use, the extent which collaboration is being used through the internet only allows children and people collaborate more easily and instantly. And the internet at our finger tips no matter where we go, that is information on the go.
This article only proves that we are never going back so as a society we should embrace the wonders of technology.
Taken from: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2008-Horizon-Report.pdf
Uncategorized | Comment (0)Webquests
What happens when students who are used to completing knowledge acquisition tasks turn to the Web as a source for information? Something like this question arose in 1994 as San Diego State University’s Department of Education became networked to the World Wide Web. The poor websites of the time led to the copy and paste memory.
This is what brought to Web quests
Now what is a web quest? A web quest is a scaffolded learning structure that uses links to essential resources on the internet, that motivates students investigations of an open ended question, individual expertise and participation in a group process. Web quests inspire children students to reflect on their met acognitive processes. March points out what makes a webquest and these include a scaffolding structure that encourages student motivation and facilitates advanced thinking. A great webquest should ultimately not give the answer but allow children multiple ways of children gaining the answer but it should allow students to reflect on the answer. Webquests should also provide open ended questioning this allows students to develop their higher order thinking and allows them to understand not only the answer but also the question. Webquests also provide collaboration a true learning source here children can work together and bounce off each others ideas and also learn from each other. The true power of these web quests is motivation, this independent yet some what guided learning allows children to explore the task and explore their answers freely, this analyzing of information not only means that children are applying their knowledge but they are refining their research skills.
Webquests break the form of “teacher centered learning” and drive the process to what every teacher aims to have in their classroom and that is a ‘learning centered environment” when a teacher can successfully create a classroom that allows children to freely explore and interact with the information, it is then that true learning will take place. Webquests are powerful in creating thinking because the answer can not just be copy and pasted a true webquest prompts children to use higher order thinking skills and apply them to the question.
One of the main components of webquests is scaffolding webquests provide students with
activities that help students develop the right mindset, engage students with the problem, divide activities into manageable tasks, and direct students’ attention to essential aspects of the learning goals.
Uncategorized | Comment (1)Liverpools top goals
ok so this has nothing to do with e-learning but i came across this great video with all of liverpools goals in the 07/08 season of football, so in preparation for the final tonight i thought i would post it, even though liverpool aren’t there 
check out the goal at around 3mins and 9 seconds brilliant foot work!
An inspirational video
Seeing Allanah Kings report got me thinking today, technology is moving so fast and it is the way of the future unquestionably. And this is a great thing it allows for so much more collaboration, problem solving and reflection all at the touch at the finger tips, but what about those that are “stuck” behind, they are missing so much. Now I believe we shouldn’t abandon the pen and paper but we shouldn’t ignore the changing future. That is why seeing Allanah King’s video was so inspirational I am not very technological minded I do enjoy experimenting and whilst I am from that generation that has used computers unfortunately my school and prac school did not encourage it all that much. So it was so refreshing to see this teacher take courses and get comfortable with using the technology before she taught it. And the benefits she speaks about are mind blowing. From blogging children are in control of writing and taking photos and contributing to the class blog, now every class has a class blog and children are encouraged to contribute to each others blogs by commenting, it is a way to celebrate learning and share facts and lessons with others. Allanah King also contributes to the blog in the form of notices to parents this shows the wider community that the blog does have. Parents are also able to view what the children have been doing through out the day. The wider communication does not stop there they have links a site counter which allows children to see a map which shows who is looking at their blog and where they are globally. This means that their work is viewable to the world and anyone can comment making what they learn so much more valuable and these comments become a source of inspiration. They also have a clock linked to their blog which allows students to see what the time is in their collaborating schools in New York and Wales, it just goes to show that information and communication are all at the click of a button again something pen and paper can not provide.
The class also has a delicious account which allows children to save websites and come back to them with a click, this serves as an archive where children can return and share information from sites that they have found.
Another area that is discovered is podcasts, this improves literacy and focusing on learning, whilst each week 3 students act as the class monitors but sometimes they do class podcasts.
Allanah King states that technology is difficult but the trick is to master it yourself and then teach it to the children and once the children understand it there is such a buzz in the classroom. Just in watching this short video I am so intrigued and inspired to want to be able to learn more, because the benefits are obvious, they are taking over traditional forms of learning. Now nothing beats a good book and by no means should we abandon traditional forms but let’s not fall behind with this new exciting beneficial way to learn.
Creating from Scratch
The MIT Media Lab is now allowing children to do what only expert programmers could do, and that is turning children from media consumers into media producers. In Stephanie Sshorow’s article “Creating from Scratch” We see the benefits of this program. It allows children to create their own interactive stories, games and music and this can all be put on the Web, a perfect way to celebrate achievement, provide feedback and inspiration.
This is a major jump in technology and may be hard for people to use but Scratch opens the gates for everyone and makes it quite easy to use by simply snapping together graphical blocks. Scratch is highly collaborative that allows one to come back and modify their work, as their knowledge increases so does their work. Children can go and modify and extend one another’s projects, and also learning from one another in the process. The array of different projects allows us to see that children can simply explore anything that captures their imaginations.
The benefits of using such a program are obvious, as children work on their products, they learn to think creatively and solve problems systematically- skills that are critical in the 21st Century believes Resnick.
Students are able to design goals for their projects and problem solve, they collaborate, co-operate and co teach. Scratch gives children to the power to drive their own learning and be masters of their own creations. Students are able to work at their own pace and modify when needed and this is when true learning does occur. This isn’t ultimately about the final product it gets students to think about the process whilst always being able to come back to the project, this is one advantage that Technology has that pen and paper can’t really compete with.
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