Imagine all the possibilities...

Who would have ever thought the things I did to make my photos better could be used in a teaching- learning context.  I can understand the importance of resizing photos now as the 2nd picture here has the properties of 800 pixels width and 599 pixels height and I have resized again once I put it into my blog as it was still too large to fit in its origanal size.  However the resized picture at the top, uploaded quicker, one of the advantages of resizing and also takes up less page space. 

400 x 300

800x599

I then decided to use Picnik to do some manipulation and came up with a sort of before and after photo.  Although not the greatest of qualities it allowed me to see what functions were available and how easily it can be used.  This could be a good lesson for students about the validity of the information found on sites and the images that are presented.   

Manipulated

 

Original 

I think my thoughts about manipulation and distortion are illustrated perfectly in this youtube clip.


My eyes have been opened up to the many creative outlets that are available online for students to use.  Although as the teacher, I must remember it is more then just about having fun and being creative, when implementing them.  It is more about achieving the learning outcome the best possible way.

No rest for the Wiki -ed - Reflection

Once again participating and creating a wiki was all a new concept for me. Not to say I havent used Wikis before though, I have used Wikipedia and Wiki Answers, numerous times and  sometimes they really have been invaluable to me but never had I edited or created one until just recently.  A task I am still getting to grips with because one thing I seem to forget is that anything I put on my wikispace can be edited if I give permission for people to do so. 

While looking at Wiki's analytically I  was going to untake a PMI and thought I might do some research and see what others had to say about Wiki's in a classroom.  What should I come across in this research none other then a WIKI dedicated to wiki's in the classroom, that included a list of the PLUS or Pros and the Minus or Cons.  Probably a much more thorough and comprehensive list then I could have ever come up with alone.  So instead of undertaking the PMI, I decided to compared Blogs and wikis through a SWOT analysis on my wiki here.

Once again Wikis are a great way for student to use the learning theories of connectivism and constructivism.  I think they are a great way of encouraging social interactions and colloboration amongst students.  While they also allow students to respond when they are ready,giving those reflective learners the opportunity to reflect before answering or participating.  Students are actively involved in creating and constructing knowledge when they are using wiki. 

Looking at both the wiki and blogs both generally and  within a classroom setting through the SWOT analysis, for me, I feel that wikis are better suited to group activities and colloboration so would be an effective tool in group projects or assignments.  A great example of one such wiki is the Wikispace, Terry the tennisball.  While I think that blogs are more suited for individual reflection work.  In essence, they could be usd in conjunction with each other to ensure that students have understood the learning outcomes.  Like we have done in our own exercise of using the Wiki and then reflecting in our blog.

To Blog or not to Blog. Reflection of blogs in classrooms.

Starting this course there has been a fairly steep learning curve and I am certainly getting an appreciation for ICT and better understanding of how it could be used within classrooms. I was very sceptical about starting a blog, it had always been something that had never really interested me but now in this course I see it is a beneficial way for me, as the student to put into practice what I have been learning and obviously communicate with the world about my understanding of the topics. 

Looking at this topic (The uses of Blogs in teaching)  analytically, I undertook a SWOT analysis.
STRENTGTHS

• Learner centred
• Students can develop their own portfolios at their own pace.  They can write as much or as little as they like
• Edited only by the "owner"
• Can be updated quickly and easily
• Give those students less likely to interact in class the opportunity to participate
• Supports multi media, including images, videos etc
• Hyperlinking allows students to see that information can be related and its interconnectivity (Connectivism learning theory)
• Gives a sense of satisfaction, which can lead to improved self esteem
• it is Free to use
• great tool for enabling student to analyse, evaluate
• Records past work
• Accessable outside of school hours

WEAKNESSES

• They need to be scaffolded effectively to ensure the right learning outcomes
• Students may be wary of having information about themselves out in the world for people to comment and possibly criticise on
• Require a computer and internet access
• Blogs are based normally only on opinions and beliefs of the writer. 

OPPORTUNITIES

• Blogs could give students the ability to have an outlet for their creativity
• They gives teachers the ability to see how students are progressing and understanding the topic and where they may need to focus their future teaching on
• A great tool to use for assignment construction and reflection

THREATS

• Online safety of students. eg hacking, predators, cyberbullying
• Students are opened to critiscism through  Negative comments which in turn could lead to demotivation

From my analysis, I definitely think there is a place for blogging in classrooms.  The positives certainly out weigh the negatives. Blogging is a great tool in implementing constructivism and connectivism learning theories into a classroom.  Through the use of Blogs, students can have the ability to construct their own meaning and understanding about particular topics and have the ability to have feedback from the world around them.  In my own experience of blogging so far, I  have found that I am better able to construct understanding and meaning sometimes through my colloboration and interaction with other students blogs.   I have found that when somethings haven't made sense for me, reading through other blogs has helped the information to fit into place.  Definitely a valuable tool in a classroom.  Students can help each other through their own expereinces.

Blogging also puts into practice Blooms Taxonomy of creating,  evaluating, analysing, applying and understanding.

http://taspd.edublogs.org/files/2007/04/bloom_taxonomy.jpg

I think it is essential that as a teacher, to be aware of the weaknesses and threats that a Blog and in fact any activity that they may undertake online can involve, and put precautions into place to ensure that they will be protected the best way possible. 

Although my time with blogging has been limited, research has found me some websites that have great ideas of  how to include blogging in a classroom. Teachers first blog ideas is one of them and the other is more concerned with the "How to" of blogging. 

Reflection on this weeks Wiki activity

This weeks task was to participate in a wiki concerning the use of mobile phones in the classroom. Although I sort of knew about wiki's this was my first time in actually participating in the editing side of one.  While using it I thought it was an interesting idea but now reflecting on it, I realised how perfect an example it was of all we have been learning, including the four dimensions of productive pedagogies, Bloom's taxonomy, TPACK and of course learning theories.  I also thought how perfectly technology can be integrated to enhance the learning outcome.   

The focus of the Wiki was to use  De Bono's 6 hats activity in order to think about all the different aspects of the use of mobile phones in classrooms.  I think the activiy really showcased the four  dimensions of productive pedagogy. 

• Intellectual quality enabled,  we the students to use higher order thinking and have a deep understanding of the topic. 
•  Connectedness as it linked a real world problem to us as future teachers. 
•  Recognition of differences by having all students participate (inclusivity and active citizenship) and finally
• supportive classroom environment was included using the scaffolding techniques to help students better understand and directed learning outcomes.

I believe that also through this wiki two of the learning theories were supported, that of constructivism and connectivism.  Constructivism learning theory is all about students being active in their learning and creating understanding for themselves. The characteristics in this activity that I believe showed the constructivism learning theory included:-

•  The collaborative nature of the activity to actively involve students
• the learning was interactive to help students build on what they already know
• students constructing their own understanding and knowledge based on their experience through the activity; and
• the teacher scaffolding the activity with questions to ensure students were reflective in nature

Even this blog reflection is part of constuctivism learning theory, as the teacher is assessing me as a student to ensure I understand.   

The second theory that was covered was that of connectivism.  Connectivism is about networking and colloborating.  We as students were encouraged to look further a field and find resources relating to all we are learning about and for this activity in particular what other people have said about it. In search result it is evident that there is much debate about this topic but an intersting page I came across called Cellphones in the Classroom certainly helped me to start thinking more positively about mobiles in classrooms.   This is one of the characteristics of connectivism, where learning happens in many different ways, so not only through this course but through our interactions with the world around us be it conversations, web searchs or perhaps reading other peoples blogs. 

One of the problems I came across for this activiy though was I came a little later and numerous people had already commented. In one way this was good as reading other peoples ideas helped give either different perspectives or confirm my own thought. On the other hand however, I felt that maybe this could influence  people when it came to putting their own ideas up,  because perhaps everything they wanted to say was already there or they were reluctant to share their own ideas . I felt  it was a good way to collaborate with others about an interesting topic. iI think it could possibly encourage those who are normally hesitant in participating in class a way to participate. ANd for those reflective learners it gives them time to reflect and participate. 

I think in this case both the wiki and the activity used (De Bono's 6 hats) were great tools that could be used in any class.  Wiki's are a great way to have all students contribute, it also allows a permanent text based record of  the way students think as it is visible and could be used in a the future for other activities.  While De Bono's activity is a great way to incorporate the different dimensions of productive pedagogy. 

The TPACK Framework

When I read this task, I thought to myself, basically they want me to pitch to myself (the uninitiated or who may not be an expert in teaching) .So here goes my pitch of TPACK to the uninitiated or those who may not be experts in teaching.

TPACK is a framework that teachers can use to ensure that they are effective teachers, by intergrating technology in their teaching. It is combining multiple types of knowledge to create TPACK. To understand the framework as a whole, I think it important to understand the individual parts. So I will start with content knowledge. Content knowledge (CK) put simply is the content the teacher knows about the subject or “the what to teach”. The facts, concepts, theories, models, frameworks, procedures and analogies. 

Next is the pedagogical knowledge (PK), this has to do with the best way yo teach or “the how to teach”. It includes such things as the planning, class rules, grouping, and teaching strategies, a teacher may use in a classroom. It is also represented by a circle.

When these two things are blended togther you get what is called Pedagogical Content knowledge (or PCK) it is represented by the space of where the 2 circles over lap. (Shulman)

Finally is the technological knowledge (TK), it is the knowledge about technologies, and the skills required to operate the technologies.

TPK is the overlap of technological and pedagogical knowledge. Basically put this is the ability as a teacher to choose the best technologies as tools for instruction and support student learning. Understanding there are a range of tools exist for particular task, and the ability to choose the tool based on its fitness. This is "the how we teach with technology tools".

TCK is the overlap of technological and content knowledge . 

The conclusion is TPACK, the blending of three knowledges in the right amounts. It is selecting the appropriate tools (TCK) with the appropriate teaching strategies(TPK) to result in effective teaching.

In my search for better understanding of TPACK I came across this youtube clip that I thought animated how I was thinking about TPACK perfectly.

Productive Pedagogies

When I first read through what was requested in this task, I felt a little daunted and had no idea where to start.  But once I started with my idea about Australian food there was so many aspects that I could have chosen explore and expand upon within a classroom. 

This is what I came up with:-

Not sure if what I have is 100% correct but feel free to let me know if you think I have added things in the wrong place or havent added them in others. 

I noticed once I had completed putting it together that although all 4 dimension of the productive pedagogies where included, that is the Intellectual quality, Connectedness, Supportive Classroom enironment and recognition of differences, not all th aspects within these 4 dimensions were covered. 

The one aspect I couldnt seem to include into any of the tasks was the explicit quality performance criteria.  Perhaps one way to include it would have been to put in, after reading the book and the discussion about Australian food, to discuss with the class, the learning outcomes and the criteria for the quality of the students performance during the tasks.  Then at the beginning of each different task continue to detail the learning outcomes and the students expectations. 

I really valued doing this exercise, I am a visual learner, so having a real life situation paired with the productive pedagogy helped me to visualise how each dimensions fits together and the different aspects of each of the dimensions.  I think that this exercise in itself used some of the strategies within productive pedagogies, including

1. Facilitating deep knowledge through high order thinkining
2. Supporting students in knowing how they learn best
3. planning learning that is problem based and situated in real life contexts
4. Is relevant to students and connects to their background knowledge; and Finally
5. Supports learning that is owned, controlled and managed by students themselves

Reflections on Prensky's Ideas

Whilst reading Prensky's Digital Natives,Digital Immigrants and "Engage me or enrage me" What Today's Learners Demand I was both intrigued and interested regarding his ideas about what he calls the "Digital Natives".

Prensky's basic view is that the current teaching styles of modern day is outdated and is no longer designed to teach students of "today".  Students whose whole lives now involve and some would even say revolve around technology. He ultimately thinks, methodology and content need to be reviewed and updated for the "Digital Natives". 

For the most part, I would have to say I  agree with his views about Digital Natives and immigrants, however there are a few things I find slightly odd and maybe differ on. 

Prensky's view that they "think and process information fundamentally differently" and they at least have "changed thinking patterns" is one of the things I find odd.  Surely throughout time, thinking process and information have continually evolved and transformed to a point where it now seems unrecognisable.

We live in an ever changing society, and due to the radically changing world that we live in, I think the change in thinking and processing information differently is not out of choice but out of necessity.  That is, it has caused students to HAVE to think and process differently or else they will be left behind.  With the explosion of media, multimedia and technology, students today are bombarded with so much information that, I think the process of thinking had to change as the amount of information we received was also changing.  It becomes a sink or swim moment, either keep up with the new world or drown in it.

When it comes to teaching methodologies I do agree with Prensky somewhat, however, I don't think that there can be a clear line drawn between should the digital natives learn the old way or should digital immigrants learn the new way. I think there needs to be a middle ground. Okay, so it might slightly favour the digital natives but I don't think the digital age necessarily enhances everything. Take manual arts for example, I think it is brilliant that teachers can integrate the new age digital technologies such as CAD to design what you are going to make but obviously the old teaching methods will need to come into play for the practical side of things. 

 I definitely believe that there is a place for ICT in classrooms and the idea that games should be integrated into learning, is a fantastic idea. The idea of having a game where students can learn geography and culture etc is one of brilliance. Even from my own experience, I know playing a game where you had to memorise flags and name the country, had me playing it for hours just so I could continue to learn different ones.

In saying all of this, I think there also needs to be some, as Prensky likes to put it "powering down" time.  To some degree I think living in a virtual world can effect students in the real world where they are unable to socialise in situations that they may encounter in everyday life. 

As teachers I think we need to accept the world is changing and so have the students that we will teach. They will be forever evolving into new learners and with that we will need   to focuses on new methodology,  and the content which is delivered.  It may not be a balance of the old and new way but I think a happy medium is really what we as teachers should strive for,.