Sheree's Diigo Group

Hi All, Have just joined Sheree's Diigo Group and would like to see more of you get on board. So I have add a link to take you right there below...

Web Quest Question

When we all started this web quest a question was posed , this was -

What is the most effective way of sharing this new knowledge and resources about one innovation to bridge the digital divide between those who ‘know’ and those who ‘don’t know’, in particular your colleagues in the course and faculty members?

Here is what I think would be the best way to teach others about a innovation....

The best way to learn a new innovation is to play with it; supported by peers, as we presently do in this unit. This works best because the experts have started for a similar point of understanding (bottom up, not top down). They will fall into the pit-falls of the new innovation, saving the other new learner . This method also saved us a lot of leg work, than if it was a individual venture to learn the array of innovations on offer.

But where I would make changes, is in the review of the innovations; on the day of the presentation is not the right time. I feel you need at least a week to absorb what you have learnt, before pasting judgement. So this is what I propose, that in the week following each presentation, I would give everyone a fifteen minute weekly challenge. In this challenge student would be asked to find in only 15mins: either websites or tools that did the same/similar things/ or is superior to; or example of the innovations use in schools; or any other interesting tidbits of information about it they could find about it.This information could used to add to the wiki page and assist the presenting group.

The reason why I think that this would be good, is that the web is a very big place. You could search for hours and not find any useful information; were as another person might know exactly where to look or may stumble over some fabulous site or resource accidentally, because they put in different keywords into the search engine. The other reason is, it would additional aid the other students' understanding, because they did a little research themselves on the innovation; without the pressure of the full workload. This information could be shared in the first part of the tutorial, as a type of consolidation and review of the innovation. The challenge would not be assessed and would be only for sharing information and building knowledge.

Christina the Technomum signing off for now

Google Docs

Google Doc was one of the tool that was presented while I was out on prac. I have had a look at the group who was presenting it wiki page try to get up to speed with it. So this is what I understand is its function.

Google doc is a place where you can create and share your online documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. You can allow work to be edited or made people of your choosing; relieving you of the back and forward emailing.

As to whether I would use it. All I can only say is that "the jury is still out, but they are leaning to the no side at this point". I feel that I need to spend a little more time and research, and see some more example of its use at the primary level.

Voice Thread

One of this weeks tool was Voicethread. This is tool that allows student to share thought comments or simply have a conversation around a document, image or video. It can be used for collaborative or individual story-telling or for commenting on documents and other resources. Voicethread a free online service. You can either be embedded the thread in blog or web pages or linked, if you like. You can also doodle on the picture as well as the spoken comments.

This tool seems to bring together several tools similar to: twitter,power point,one note; into one place. This I think is great, because it lessens the number of things that you have to upload on the students computer, giving you more bang for your buck, so to speech!

As the girls said there are many way in which you could use voicethread. A quick google gave heap of potential teaching applications. In my search, I also found that Voicethread was place 18th in a list of the top 100 web tools for learning this year, so I'm not the only one to see it worth.

So what is my final rating for Voicethread.... 9/10 .....in the toolbox it goes.

Edmodo

Edmodo is a very useful classroom communication and management tools. It is a private mini blogging tool for teachers and students to share ideas, files, events and assignments. You can also send out reminds to student, which you can send to their favourite social networking page or as a email to home; poll student about any manner of thing. All of which I think is really useful.

I would use this tool for all grades,even the junior grades, as a way to communicate with their parents. Parent could send through and receive a variety of information including: absentee note, any concerns (this would be good for working parents), ask or answer questions about homework, a teacher could also give feed back or praise or otherwise, and final generally let parent know way is happening. And this is on the few I can think of now.

With older student think this is a good way to make student more responsible for their school life and learning;but also assisting and supports them, to do so. They would have fewer excuses for not know or not doing what is required.

I also like the was you can break student and learning area into different folder for better organisation. the grade facility is good too.

On the down side ,as the presenting group indicated one of the area the Edmodo could use a little work is the less than personal interface and the fact that student can't make entries on the calendar is not great either. But Edmodo look like a website that is open to suggestion, so an email might be worth sending.

So will I be using this tool.... yep and I give this is a 81/2 out of 10. And into the tool box it goes.

Glogster

Glogster

Second Life

Hi all, this week we looked at second life. While it was interesting to have a look at; I don't see anyway yet, for it's application in the primary classroom. But that not to say the sometime in the future, second life won't find its way into my classroom. I suppose, as teachers or developers see a demand, at the primary level; a place in second life will be created.

Here are some of the requirements I would second life to have before I would ues it:

• A safe and secure site with in second life would have to be provided


• I could control access


• Child like avitars


• Simplified navigation around site

Once these can be provided, sure I would give it a trail.

On a personal note to the people who lose themselves with in Second Life.... it is not real!!! Go get outside.

Hot Potatoe

This week application was Hot Potatoe. This application was an online worksheet generator.

It is a freeware programme designed to enable those with no programming experience to create interactive web-based exercises. A range of question formats are available:

• multiple-choice
• fill-in-the-gap
• short-answer
• jumbled-sentence
• crossword-puzzle

I didn't think that this wasn't a bad application, but it wasn't a standout. I thought that while it was quite easy to use and quick to produce simple work sheets, but the worksheets weren't very engaging at all, for our digital students. I know that you can upload picture and fiddle around with presentation to help with this, but this makes it as time consuming as generating your own. And anyway most of what Hot potato does can be found at of site.

Here are some free worksheet sites, which I found in 5 min, that do most of the same stuff!

www.suelebeau.com/freetools.htm

www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/

http://school.discovery.com/teachingtools/worksheetgenerator/

http://quiz.4teachers.org/

http://www.worksheets4teachers.com/

http://school.discovery.com/teachingtools/worksheetgenerator/

Next I wasn't keen on the results side of the worksheet. OK it automatically marked the students' work, but you only got a final score or grade. I feel that this doesn't help you identify where the student may have gone wrong (weaknesses) or did well in (strengths). You could use this tool for any formative assessment, because it just doesn't provide you with enough information.



So would I use Hot Potato? I don't think so, there would have to be improvements on the feedback/result side of things, before I would consider using it. Or you are only providing you students with busy work when you have nothing better to offer them!

Game Maker

This is the innovation that I'm presenting. When I first pick it from the list on the board, the only thing that I new about it was, that my son had just started a PEAC course using Game Maker. I thought that this would make learning it easier and to some degree it did. But like anything looking in from the outside only gives you so much information, it is not until you start digging deeper do you really know what you are getting into! And so began my journey into Game Maker....

GM is a application where you can make computer game of varying difficulty, with a drag n drop facility. They say that you don't need to use programing code and yes this is true for the very simple game, but as you progress you will have to learn code. Though I doubt that this would be an issue a primary levels.

Game Maker is like any other tool, it is the learning that you build in and around it, that makes it a good for teaching and learning. In my research, I have found a number of Australian and overseas schools using very successfully;so I'm confident it worthwhile using. I can see myself having a go with it, as a way to engage student in learning, while teaching a number of skills and knowledge, to meet a range of learning outcomes. The only thing that might hold me back would be access to computer and my own ability with the program. But I know now, where I can go for support and with some more time to play and learn this should not be an issue.

Studying Game Maker has been an eye opener for this digital migrant, I will be jumping in on the growing moment to include gaming in the classroom as a learning tool. And I hope that the information that I and Sarah have placed on our wiki page will convince you too.

Twitter

Hi all, I have added yet another technology to my ever growing list -Twitter

I use to think that people who twittered were just twits!! But after the Twitter presentation on Monday and a little further investigation of my own. Where I found a teacher who had been using it in the classroom, for a little while now (I have added a link below). He had some interesting uses for twitter in the classroom. Though I'm still concerned about being able to maintain a controlled environment for students. I now wouldn't rule out using it in a classroom.

I suppose like any tool it's how you use it, that makes it useful or not!

http://www.teachers.tv/ict/twitter

Bitstrips

Hi all, this is my avitar I made on Bitstrips.

So what do I think of Bitstrips? This application is FUN!! It is easy to use and free, which is great.It allow student another way of presenting a narrative and using their literacy skills.

See those character to your right, these are my children Lachie and Eilish. I showed the application to, so they could have a go.

They loved it, but in particular Lachie; who wouldn't be see dead writing a story. But this really engaged him, making several strips. It engaged him enough that he told his teacher about it, hoping the she would use it in class. He also spent a lot of time looking at other people strips as well; which I thought was good. That would be one of the Art outcomes(view works of other artists) taken care of. He in particular liked the political strips best, laughing at the Obama cartoons.

So would I use it in class? You bet I would! I can see me utilising this across a number of learning area, not only English,the possibilities are endless. Here's few of the top of my head:

• student could create a strip about bullying or other issues like this
• retell a stories or events
• design new characters
• practise utilising dialogue/ direct speech
• tell a joke
• review each other work
• even a life cycle could be done this way

I'm sure that more ideas will spring to mind, but these are a good start.

So my final thought is that, this application will certainly be added to my teaching tool box and is a keeper.

Scratch- Ingrid and Kendall's Presentation

Scratch wasn't the easiest application to use;but after a little more time playing about with it, I'm sure I could get it to work. I can see were you could were you could use it to create sprite, for game maker the technology; which I'm presenting later in the semester. Or just use the resources already provide i.e sound file, animated sprites etc

I can see how student would find it engaging and the colour coding of the action in the creation, would assist student with the animation sequnces. Scratch would have good cross learning area application also.

So I'm not ruling out its use,but I would have to be good at it before letting a class have a go!

Technologies Seen Out on Prac

I have completed my first practicum; it took a bit longer, as I got sick in the last week. I was lucky enough to be placed at Orange Grove PS, which was only ten mins for home. This school has a 1:1 ratio for Apple Mac laptops (year 4 and up). I believe this has only been introduce recently and that the school is part of a pilot, for the education dept.

I have included a link to Apple, in which you can see some of my students at work( this was taken last year) .The teacher you see talking in the video is not my prac teach. Paul was teaching next door, though my class and his, did work on some join projects while I was there. He is the teacher in charge of IT - http://www.apple.com/au/education/profiles/ and simply click on OGPS profile.

I was placed in the grade 5,6,7 class ,with Miss Anderton (Miss A to the student). A great teacher and class of students!!!

I found most of the student were very knowledgeable about the laptops, they thought nothing about whipping up a PowerPoint or searching the web or creating a movie( most of the work was just fabulous). This was great, because I could plan lesson that could utilise the laptop, not having to book a computer lab or mobile lab (COW- computers on wheels). The laptop treated as a treat, like at most schools, they had moved to a everyday tool equal to a pen or blackboard.

My class also had a electronic white board. It was a Polyvision board, which use the Webster operating system. This wasn't compatible with the smart board, so I could use it with the lessons we had done. This was a shame, but I did utilise it as a projector and a sound system. This was also how it was use in the class the majority of the time. When you did use it, as it was intended, the write function usability was no way as good as Smart Board and was very limited. It also had a tendency to move out of alignment, when the student slammed a door or even sat done to boisterously. I would recommend this type of board to a school looking a purchasing an electronic whiteboard.

The school also had a website, this was used to present news, student work, P&C news/info and much more- http://www.ogps.wa.edu.au/ .Each class has its own page, on which they can enter what they wish.

I had a great time and would like to thank both the students, teachers and other staff for making my time so enjoyable. Thanks OGPS

Jing - Caris and Gemma

Well what do I think of Jing? It's hard to say at the moment, as I like time to play with a software, so I can make an informed decision. I felt in our tute there wasn't sufficient time to play with it. Though I liked the screen capture facility; and can see where I could use it for mine and Sarah's Gamemaker presentation; to capture shots of the screen, for step by step instructions for our fellow students.

As for its use in school, I would have to feel really confident with all its applications, before I would use it in a class situation. I have concerns that the size of the files, would slow any up/down loads. So for now I remain undecided as to its value, as a tool in the classroom, until I have a proper opportunity to play with it.

I do plan to investigate it further by looking at the tutorials on youtube and on the jing website. Here are some links for you to investigate for yourself below:
http://www.youtube.com/ - type in Jing in search engine to find a range of videos

http://www.jingproject.com/

See my first attemp with Jing below->