Assessment 2 - Digital Images Analysis

before

afterr

Using digital images in the classroom and education environment enhances students learning because they are actively engaging with what they are learning. It encourages higher order thinking because it is  self-directed learning - they are either taking photos themselves with a camera and loading them onto a computer to use, or they are choosing pictures from an online search engine e.g. google images or a stock photo website e.g. flickr.

There are many means by which to use digital images in the primary school classroom. Some examples are below:

• When learning about a specific topic they could find picture relevant and use them in classroom discussion or within the construction of an assignment task.
• If learning letters or word types (e.g. noun, verb, adjective) then they could have a task to take or find pictures of objects that start with that letter or that corresponds with that word type.
• If studying the natural environment pictures can be taken on a school yard field trip.
• When creating something e.g. artwork or cooking, or when undertaking a science project, steps can be recorded through digital images.
• Enhancing pictures using online tools such as picnik.com can be an activity that encourages individual creativity.

Below is a SWOT Analysis of using Digital Images in a primary school setting:

 Strengths -
The strengths of using digital images in the classroom is that it encourages higher order thinking by asking students to create. It provides opportunities for students to express their personalities through being creative. It encourages students to interact with technology.



Weaknesses - 
I need to work on my skills to help improve the students

Opportunities - 
Increase engagement of students
Creative potential unlocked

Threats - 

Copyright issues - make sure that the images the kids use can be used legally

Possible damage to school equipment if improperly used or managed

Assessment 2 - Blog Analysis

Now that I have been using a web log or blog, as its commonly known, for a few weeks I have a larger grasp on the advantages and disadvantages of using them. I have actually created one for my upcoming travel adventures. I have chosen blogs out of Technologies Group 1 because I feel this is the easiest and more effective ICT for primary school context because it is self-directed learning through reflection. It also enhances their learning through using creativity to modify the blog to suit their personality. Below is a PMI structured analysis of using blogs in the primary school context.

• encourages creativity
• encourages interaction with technology
• provides relevant environment to improve literacy skills
• promotes higher order thinking - create, evaluate
• supports peer assessment through blog comments
• group work/collaboration occurs with shared blogs
• excellent for visual and kinaesthetic learners
• great for students with the following learning styles - active, intuitive, visual

• difficult to police for inappropriate postings/behaviour
• inappropriate behaviour between students being publicised - bullying, harassment, flirting
• not so excellent for aural learners
• not so great for students with the following learning styles - reflective, sensory, verbal

• blogs can be used within many contexts - topic specific, diary, learning process, creative outlet

Podcast Let Down

Ok, so I tried finding a podcast to post that would be appropriate for a primary school class but this proved very difficult and was unable to find one.


My reflection is that if a podcast is appropriate for my class and I am unable to find one I will make one through resources that have been made available to us.

Week 4 - Photo Fun! :)

Original Image - 

Edited Image - 

This activity could enhance a range of tasks and assignments in a school environment. It also encourages individuality and sense of creativity.




I could see the potential of this activity within the higher order thinking of Blooms Taxonomy, especially within the analyse and create levels.
For example,

Students could take photos of different flowers and then using the photos compare and contrast them analysing similarities and differences.

An assignment could be to design a CD cover or book cover and use photos to enhance that project.

Week 3 - Potential of Wikis and Webpages in Primary Schools

Wikis

What are the STRENGTHS of using Wikis?
Children interact with technology and each other
Enhances learning
Self-directed learning/constructivist
Free to create and use wikis

What are the WEAKNESSES of using Wikis?
Minimal face-to-face connection with other students

What are the OPPORTUNITIES for using Wikis?
Group collaboration activities
Individual reflection
Assignment construction

What are the THREATS for using Wikis?
Appropriate scaffolding and monitoring needs to be undertaken by teacher

Webpages

What are the STRENGTHS of using Webpages?
Children interact with technology
Enhances learning
Self-directed learning/constructivist
Free to create and use webpages
Encourages creativity

What are the WEAKNESSES of using Wikis?
Cost can be involved sometimes
Difficult for group activities (possible but difficult)

What are the OPPORTUNITIES for using Wikis?
Group assignments
Individual assignments
Individual reflection
Assignment construction

What are the THREATS for using Wikis?
Appropriate scaffolding and monitoring needs to be undertaken by teacher

 

Week 3 - Blogs in Schools

Pluses

1. Enhances communication and relationship between students and teachers.
2. Opens up opportunities to make learning relevant through interaction with professionals.
3. Students are motivated to write "authentic, credibly and accurately".
4. Creates meaning in learning through reflecting using own blog and interacting with others' blogs.
5. Students take ownership of their learning.
6. Improved writing skills through practice.
7. The diversity and range of uses for blogs means this is a useful tool.

Minuses

1. Uses higher order thinking - not appropriate for every student
2. In itself, blogs aren't automatically a learning experience, but a space for constructed learning when used properly by the teacher.

Interesting

1. Blogs are useful in scaffolding reflections of own learning.

Assessment 1

1 Down! :)

Learning Design Brief

“Learning with ICT is beneficial only when appropriate learning approaches are taken.” (Fasso, 2011)

“Learning should be authentic, it should be embedded in a real context” (Fasso, 2011)

Every student learns in a different way, which can make the role of a teacher challenging, as they should maximise the learning through their facilitation of the information in different ways.  ICTs are one tool that can enhance the students’ learning, when used appropriately. Wiki is a form of ICTs that I have been involved in using over the past three weeks and this is the conclusion on my personal learning experience in using them. The activities and using ICTs encourages a higher order thinking, a term from Bloom’s taxonomy, a learning framework. Bloom’s Taxonomy is a classification of the six levels of learning starting with the lower levels of remembering, understanding and applying and finishing with the higher order thinking, what was being used within the wiki scaffolds, analysing, evaluating and creating. (website)

Learning Theory in Practice

Behaviourism

Behaviourism’s main foundation is that learning is distinguished by a recognizable difference in behaviour. (Fasso, 2011) Behaviourism played a role in the wiki activities because it challenged me on how to learn, my behaviour in approaching learning has changed, and I now, also, see people through their learning style and own unique blend of multiple intelligences. I previously would have naïvely assumed that everyone learns and has a preference in learning similar to mine.

Cognitivism

Cognitivism is understanding “learning in terms of mental processing”. (Fasso, 2011) Cognitivism views learning as having been achieved when information is retained from sensory register through working memory into long-term memory. This is achieved through “chunking” and schemas. (Fasso, 2011) Cognitivism played a role in the wiki activities through “chunking” theories and using them in the wikis, which aided the retention of the information. It also played a role within collaboration, in the profile wikis we were to contact someone who we believed we would work well with, this was a cogntivist activity because it was mentally processing information about people and mentally retaining that which was valuable.

Constructivism

Constructivism is the viewpoint that “learning is an active, constructive process” (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2011). The student constructs his or her own learning. Information is objective but through previous experience and personal learning style the student constructs that information subjectively causing differences between individual students’ learning. Constructivism was the strongest underlying theory behind the use of the wikis. Constructivism encourages students to use high order thinking which was an important factor with the wikis. The wikis were scaffolded but the students constructed the learning. Through their worldviews and past experiences students shaped the wiki information subjectively, for example, students subjectively chose profiles from the wiki they believed would work well with them, criteria was not provided for this selection but was constructed by the student. Another example of how the activities were constructed was through the mobile phone wiki, the scaffold was de Bono’s hats but the information was collaborated and constructed through the viewpoints of the students.

Online learning spaces and collaborative construction

The approach to the design of the learning activities was constructivist. The activities were scaffolded but the learning was constructed by the students through collaboration with each other and with the wikis. Using wikis for learning, I believe, caters for a specific type of learner rather than diversity. From Felder and Soloman (n.d.) Wikis would suit the learning style of a student whose bias is towards being:

·      An active learner – Wikis are effective when students are actively involved in the learning process, that is, reading and submitting feedback in the de Bono’s hat activity, collaborating with a partner in the learning theory activity and by reading other students’ profiles. Wikis have been online group work, which is the preferred method of learning for active learners.

·      An intuitive learner – Wikis were about “discovering possibilities and relationships” (Felder and Soloman, n.d.). This is exactly how intuitive learners prefer to learn.

(Felder and Soloman, n.d.)

Scaffolding e-Learning spaces for planned learning outcomes

“Learning with ICT is beneficial only when appropriate learning approaches are taken.” (Fasso, 2011)

Scaffolding was the approach used within the wikis to encourage higher order thinking as it encourages students to construct their own learning as explained within the theory of constructivism. “Scaffolding can be seen as a one-way process wherein the scaffolder constructs the scaffold alone and presents it for the use of the novice” (Daniels, 2002,as cited in Verenikina, 2003 p 3). Two examples of scaffolds that were used in the wiki activities were PMI and de Bono’s hats.

“Plus, Minuses, Interesting” (PMI) is a scaffold that aids examination of information. Pluses are the advantages of the views presented by the information, minuses are the threats or issues associated with presented information and the interesting factor is anything else the student deems worth considering in their analysis. (Fasso, 2011)

“De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats” is a scaffold that can be used by one person or by a group to investigate a variety of viewpoints on a topic. Used in conjunction with a wiki different perspectives are culminated creating a balanced examination. (Fasso, 2011) Scaffolding as can be seen in the PMI and de Bono’s Hats ensures students take into consideration other viewpoints, it ensures a holistic and self-directed approach to learning.

The implications of wikis and ICTs for my own learning design have been encouraging. The engagement theory has underpinned the whole of my learning journey thus far – “students have to be meaningfully engaged in learning activities through interaction with others and worthwhile tasks”. (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999) The engagement theory is based on Relate-Create-Donate. Engagement theory focuses on collaborated constructed contributions. Effective learning comes not only through teacher-given information but also through interaction with others including students, and through autonomous, purposeful and relevant activities.

Bibliography

Webpages

Atherton J S (2011) Learning and Teaching; Bloom's taxonomy. Retrieved March 2011 from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/bloomtax.htm

Felder R. M. & Soloman B.A. (n.d.) Learning Styles and Strategies. Retrieved March, 2011 from http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm

Kearsley G. & Shneiderman B. (1999) Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning, Retrieved March 2011 from http://home.sprynet.com/%7Egkearsley/engage.htm

Learning Theories Knowledgebase (2011). Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved March, 2011 from http://www.learning-theories.com/

Verenikina, I. (2003). Understanding scaffolding and the ZPD in educational research. Retrieved March, 2011, from https://www.aare.edu.au/03pap/ver03682.pdf

Moodle

Fasso, W. (2011). Active Learning, Learning Diversity and the Theory. Retrieved March, 2011, from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design

Fasso, W. (2011). Effective e-Learning Design. Retrieved March, 2011, from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design

Learning Theories Wiki

This activity saw me partnering up with someone who resides in Bundaberg so the use of ICTs was important in fulfilling this task as meeting up for a collaborative session unfeasible and impractical. What was valuable to my own learning was connecting with this other student and sharing viewpoints. This allowed me to see the same text from a different angle, which increased my understanding. The way my partner and I approached this task was through the perspective of our differing specialisations, which contextualised the information making the learning relevant to the real world. The way this was not used to its full potential, again on my part, was in not reading other group’s contributions. I believe that I will in the future when I perceive that their information is relevant to my learning.

This activity, especially using the PMI format, can help students convey their ideas, move their opinions from inside their head into an open forum. Forcing students to look at a certain topic from the three viewpoints will help the students deepen their understanding especially when working in a pair or group scenario because other students will perceive different aspects as pluses, minuses and interesting points.

This activity was constructivist in that it was reliant on the student to construct their own learning through following the PMI scaffold and through collaborating with their partner effectively. It is also cognitivist in nature because the PMI scaffold allows students to process information into a digestible format for which they can recall the learned knowledge later when required. Through this activity students have gained access to a database of summated, useful and specific information on topics of significance to their learning thus introducing them to a manner in which to gather and be connected to information.

The approach to be taken is open to different perspectives – diversity in students would be advantageous in increasing others’ learning as concepts and approaches not considered by one student would be the focal point of the information for another thus creating a melting point of points of views, collaborated and summated for effective learning.

Once completed this online database would be effective in supporting learning through providing the students with a place to go for quick digestible information in assistance to their learning process.

Profile Wiki Task

Admittedly, I didn’t use the wikis to their full potential. The value of this activity to me was significant in answering the questions. Some of them I had not asked myself so self-discovery to an extent was the value that I obtained out of the profile wikis. In a classroom this activity, I believe, would be more effective offline as a handout based activity and would work in a group setting or in an overall classroom situation.

This would be a great task to build the relate segment of the engagement theory. It would be an ideal activity when forming groups or, with a new class, having students get to know people in their group or class. It would reveal diversity in friendship groups. It would also be an interesting way to gather prior knowledge of a topic, assess learning, or to introduce a new topic.

Students constructed their own learning in this activity because it was dependant upon them to complete the activity, that is, answer the questions and read the other students’ responses. Thus not only learning about other people, learning from others’ experiences and knowledge base but also learning about themselves to an extent.

Through discovering different aspects about their fellow classmates students can evaluate who will be beneficial to their learning in the future.

The main point of this activity was connecting students with others in order to share knowledge and to provide a source of information and support for future learning. Knowledge is not only available in academic ICTs or resources but also in other people, their viewpoints and their experiences. For example, when I was finding it difficult to grasp terms in this course I sought other students’ understanding and through their simple explanations I found understanding for myself.   

This activity supports a diverse range of students; in fact, it would work better with a range of diversity within the classroom because this activity is based on developing connections among students due to their similarities and differences. Learning is more effective between people when there is diversity because different people see differently, learn differently and learn at a different pace.

If monitored closely and assessed appropriately it would support group activities through online engagement. Through technology this could work as an initial task to develop connection within students in the same group or class. This would also be effective in subject introduction or assessment. Students would need to be encouraged through different forms of assessment to use this activity to its full potential. For example, to ensure students have looked at other students, and not just their friends, activities for informal assessment could be devised requiring students to compare the participants under certain criteria.

Reflections - Mobile Phone Wiki

AMENDED POST - upon reflection (and assistance from fellow students) of the activity I have been made aware that the post to the blog was to not be the actual task but to be a reflection of the task.


I have an overall negative assessment of this activity. The reading was informative and interesting, although would have thought Australian-specific research, if available would have been more useful. In my opinion the wiki was ineffective as there were numerous posts by other students that were similar thus creating a lot of reading for other wiki users. This caused uneasiness and a reluctancy in posting something myself - the reason that I did not post my opinions on the wiki was because they were already covered by other students. There are a few alternatives to improve this activity:

• De Bono's hats are divided up amongst students providing them with a singular perspective to consider when reading the mobile phone text
• A like/dislike/comment system not dissimilar to facebook or even forums. That way if another student agrees with a statement they can still contribute to the wiki. If they disagree or have something to add to the statement then there will be facilities to do that also. This provides for a more user friendly wiki and encourages participation from all students

The task was constructivist in nature - the students were to construct their own learning through posting on the wiki in the format of De Bono's hats. They also were to construct their own learning by working collaboratively with other students to develop thorough ideas. This was ineffective as it appears that people posted without reading prior postings and, therefore, collaboration was not achieved to the extent it possibly could have.

Behaviourism played a major role, i believe, in the activity. Some people posted, some people didn't, some people posted the same as other people. Behaviourism, as I understand it, is behaviour affecting ability and process of learning which in turn affects behavioural changes. Previous experience, personality and self-confidence has affected the participation, and type of participation, in this activity. For example, I did not post - I did have views and have completed the activity - because my views were seemingly very similar to those already posted and, therefore, did not see the advantage of posting something that was already clearly expressed by one of my classmates.

This task was proven to be connectivism through the use of wikis, blogs for reflection and moodle for initial reading download. Using ITCs effectively, I have learnt, that this engages the student and enhance connection between the student and their learning.

Disappointingly, this activity did not cater for a range of students. It reminded me a little of high school group work - the popular, smart or extraverted students would be the voice to the rest of the group which is perfectly fine as long as the other students are being encouraged to participate in other ways. Another way to look at it is in a classroom situation where an ineffective learning environment has been created the student who keeps calling out is constantly called upon for their opinion due to his dominant personality. People with different personalities are left feeling that their view is unimportant. That is why I suggested that the task be broken down into smaller groups, this is where a smaller voice can be heard.

Overall, this task could have been a lot better structured had a few key changes been made. I enjoyed working with De Bono's hats. They were interesting and effective in looking at different perspectives, and therefore learning different viewpoints, of the one topic.

Learning Activity 2 - Multiple Intelligences

I know they are not in numerical order but where's the fun in that! (So much for me being a sequential learner! haha)

I would design learning experiences that include group based and individual based activities. I would encourage the student in their mathematical/logic activities and would not do many learning activities that are music or visual focussed.

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/

Learning Activity 3 - 21st Century Learners

What is your belief and understanding of the nature of today's learners? Is there substance to the "engage or enrage" argument?

I think that the amount and kind of technology that young people already know can be refined at school and that the more important issue in terms of the influence on the engagement of students is the pedagogy of the teacher (which includes the way they use ICTs in their classroom). Using ICTs they are familar with can be positive rather than constantly trying to up the ante with new and exciting.

Learning Activity 1 - Learning Style

Learning Styles Results

Active - 3

Sensory - 3

Verbal - 1

Sequential - 7

Activities:

http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

1. What is your learning style? What sorts of learning experiences would suit you best with your learning style?

My learning style is very focussed on a sequential style and also leaning towards active, sensory and verbal. That means that the learning experience that would cater to my learning style would be a group task that involved solving a mathematical problem.

1. In a traditional classroom of 25 students, how would you support the range of learning styles each lesson?

I would support a range of learning styles by using ICTs and varying my strategies in my approach to teaching for example having group activities as well as individual work, teaching facts as well as abstract concepts.

1. With your current knowledge of ICT, how could your design and digital pedagogy support your learners better?

Using different ICTs, such as powerpoints, videos, computer work and interactive whiteboards, would aid in all the different learning styles. With my current knowledge I can recognise that the use of ICTs would enhance the learning of the visual learner, the sequential learner and the verbal learner.

1. What sorts of profiling questions would you be asking about your learners to ensure you cater for everyone's preferences?

Are they paying attention to me explaining tasks?
Do they enjoy pictures, videos and powerpoint presentations?
Do they enjoy using their hands - playing, arts, manual arts?
Do they prefer group work or individual activities?
When are they most productive?
What do they like to do in their spare time?

1. How does ICT support differences in learning styles?

ICT contributes through enhancing variety and stimulating student's engagement. It incorporates different aspects of learning for different children.