My Personal Learning Space!

Image was retieved from:
http://www.adobe.com/education/digkids/lessons/index.html

Just wanted to write a quick comment giving kudos to the Adobe online Digital Kids Club. In this site students and the like can participate in lessons which enable them to learn how to become photographers and videographers. Along with lessons there are games and activities that students can play in order to practice their new learnt skills. This online resource can be used by teachers when introducing the concepts of photo-taking and video-shooting. Teachers can also share lessons online for other teachers to use and share.

Students are to use their own digital cameras to take photos, and then edit and enhance their image by using the program Adobe® Photoshop® on either a Mac or PC. This site has simple instructions for students to follow and learn how to best improve and create their own piece of art. This site seems to be very easy to comprehend being both clear and practical. Definately worth checking out! Here is the website if you would like to view it: http://www.adobe.com/education/digkids/lessons/index.html 

 Click here to view this AMAZING video: Second Life

I honestly can only say ‘WOW’. This video describes the online program ‘Second Life’ which is a virtual world in which people can literally work and live. So this brings up the question, could this be encorporated into the Primary Classroom? What do you think? I honestly have no clue. I think that technology has already shown us that its potental is limitless. Therefore I would not be suprised if a virtual world such as this would even end up being the new classroom! Sad to think however, that me being a future teacher could possibly be made redundant before I even get there!

There’s a dark little joke exchanged by educators with a dissident streak: Rip Van Winkle awakens in the 21st century after a hundred-year snooze and is, of course, utterly bewildered by what he sees. Men and women dash about, talking to small metal devices pinned to their ears. Young people sit at home on sofas, moving miniature athletes around on electronic screens. Older folk defy death and disability with metronomes in their chests and with hips made of metal and plastic. Airports, hospitals, shopping malls–every place Rip goes just baffles him. But when he finally walks into a schoolroom, the old man knows exactly where he is. “This is a school,” he declares. “We used to have these back in 1906. Only now the blackboards are green.”

This excerpt was taken from an article published in Time Magazine entitled ‘How to bring our schools out of the 20th Century’ by Claudia Wallis & Sonja Steptoe. I found this to be quite humerous when I first read it, and then sadly true when I pondered on it for a while. Its so sad because this is so true. Everywhere and everything has been touched by technology… well almost everything. The classroom seems to be behind the times, particularly in outter-western Sydney Public Schools. The “blackboard” is still being used, and other than the rare access to computers from time-to-time, not many other forms of technology can be found. So how can we change? this you ask… THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX! Try to encorporate blogs, wikispaces, podcasting, vodcasting and the like into your lessons. This digital generation are speaking a foreign language and we need to be able to communicate to them.

In the commentary on Constructivism Vs. Instructionism by Papert, it is stated that: ‘teaching is important, but learning is much more important’. Papert goes on to define constructionism as: ‘giving children good things to do so that they can learn by doing much better than they could before’. It is believed in this commentary and I agree with it, that technology is very rich in providing students with things to do. By giving students the opportunity to do and learn, the knowledge gained will be better retained and usable as it becomes a part of the way they do things. Papert also states: ‘that this is what we’re trying to do, find ways in which the technology enables children to use knowledge, not just store it in their heads so that twelve years later it’s going to be good for them. Nobody can learn well like that; it’s a terrible way of learning’. Therefore by giving students they opportunity to construct their own learning enables students to use this knowledge daily rather than saving it for a rainy day.

Above is a still image of the introduction to a LAMS Task on Antarctica that Claire and I created for a stage three class. This LAMS Task covers the whole 6-8 week long HSIE Case Study on the continent Antarctica. In this learning unit students are enabled to speak via chat rooms to scientist and other locals who live in Antarctica to ask them any questions that may have arisen within the unit. Students also participate in discussion and more creative activities online to explore the unit. By conducting this unit online, students participate in an almost virtual online type of excursion without even having to leave the classroom.

All resources and programs used within this unit can be found on the internet for free so that no one school can be disadvantaged. The 6-8 week long program has been split up into 8 half hour blocks that can be easily fit into any schools computer room timetable.

The one greatest thing we learnt from this task was that it was very achieveable by teachers to produce a task such as this, and we therefore also believe that something even on this scale can be produced by students in a constructivist classroom.

Digitial stories seem to be a new way of writing a narrative. Instead of putting pen to paper, students can create a movie using programs such as imovie and movie maker to create a story. Students use creative commons pictures and photos they may have taken to illustrate the movie whilst they narrate.

In a commentry on Digital Stories in the Classroom the writer states that ‘like all tools, it takes some practice and thought to use effectively’. The writer goes on to quote Van Deurse by stating ‘A good Digital Story, comes from a strong question and a powerful narrative. Before students even touch a computer they need to have given significant time and thinking to what their story is about. It is very easy to become distracted by all the visual options. It is important that the music, pictures and video serve to enhance a well written personal narrative’.

Below is an example of a digital story that I have created in class. The question I try to answer is slightly personal being ‘Why do I want to be a Primary School Teacher?’. Have a look and let me know what you think about it.  

 To view the video please click HERE- edublogs and I are having difficulty with uploading.

This image was retrieved from: http://informationarchitects.jp/webtrends2007/

 I came across an article entitled WILD ABOUT WIKIS by David Jakes and in this article Jakes explores the social software of wikis. Jakes states that ‘wikis enable anyone and everyone to create content online using easily understandable tools’. Jakes also states that the most famous wiki is wikipedia.

Jakes answers a number of questions about wikis, these being:

1. How do wikis work?
2. What are the educational benefits of wikis?
3. Are they free?
4. What wiki tools are available?
5. How much support is reuired to maintain a wiki?
6. What are potential concerns about using wikis?

For someone like myself who has no real experience with using and even making wikis, this article is quite interesting and informative as it outlines the various issues for and against their use. As this article leans more towards their use in the Primary Classroom, Jakes has mentioned quite a few “facts” that should be noted. One being that wikis provide students with the opportunity for “colaborative construction”, however he also mentions that teachers should pay careful attention in group work to ensure that the whole group is contributing and not just one. A positive to the use of wikis would be their forums. Students can raise issues and talk with students outside of their school (and even their Country) discussing and researching various topics.

Claire and I created this comic using the MAC program Comic Life. In this comic, Claire and I express what we believe are some of our views on E-Learning in the classroom.

I have posted this comic for two reasons. The first being that I wanted to show anyone who reads this what are some of my beliefs on E-Learning, and the second is to show you a very effective but simple way of expressing information that students can use within the classroom. The program Comic Life is very easy to use, and is a creative way for students to publish their work and address specific issues. It is also a good tool for teachers to use if they want to offload a lot of information onto students. By using Comic Life, students may be more engaged and find more enjoyment from those mundane tasks.

Download Video: Posted by khokanson at TeacherTube.com.

What an inspiring video. It’s hard to see the importance of e-learning in the classroom from time to time as learning is still relevant without technology. However I found this video to outline a truth in which I haven’t really thought about. Todays students will seeing a very different world to what I saw only ten or so years ago. Their future will see many more things than what I will see. Therefore as teachers we need to prepare students for this future which changes so often and so quickly, that we do not even know what we are preparing them for. Hence, we need to equip students with all that we can so that they are prepared for each and every opportunity, each and every job, each and evey problem and each and every outcome. Sean quotes the video by stating: “As teachers we will be preparing students for a technological world which is rapidly changing. We are preparing students for jobs which do not exist, using technologies which have not yet been developed.”

 Now that I have caught your attention with this clever title, I would like to introduce you to the THREE X’s. For those who do not know what they are, the three X’s stand for: eXploring, eXpressing, and eXchanging ideas by using new digital media. This concept has been explored by Idit Harel which can be found at Skills for the Millennium. These three X’s act as learning tools in this “technological driven world”.

I found this article to be quite interesting as not only does it explain what each concept means and how it is applicable, it also gives various activities and games where students can test out these skills. For example, for the term eXploring, Harel explains children’s natural abilty and desire to explore. He then goes on to state how the internet itself can become an open space for students to eXplore and discover. A link to ROMP is then attached which teachers can log onto for students to use. In this site students eXplore a “wide range of sites linked to specific researched words’.

I found this to be a very interesting read with an abundance of useful resources that can be used within the classroom. The three X’s are clever tools which can be used in both technology and non-technology activities (technology meaning computers and the like).