Life Long Learning

21st Century Education- Just some real life reality for us 'soon to be teachers'!

Sir Ken Robinson -How is Technology Transforming Education?

How is Technology Transforming Education?

Teaching Ethical and Legal use of Technology in the Classroom

Safety First

 

Teaching Ethical and Legal use of Technology in the Classroom 

 Mrs.Faust

Airpano x

Airpano- Virtual World Tour

Airpano is a tool I used in a SOSE project for uni, to look at views from 360 degree angles. This would be a very usefull tool to use in the classroom for History and Geography. I love it and the places you can ‘visit’ gives you a real life perspective of them and virtual tours around the world. Students in the class would have a great time exploring!

Here is the link to my favourite place I the world- Paris, France:
'France is one of the most famous countries in Europe, and Paris is probably the most famous city in the world. Paris is rightfully called "the city of light". It is not because of its extensive illumination - otherwise any major city would claim the title - but because the capital of France has been a centre of education, arts and philosophy for many centuries'.
http://www.airpano.ru/files/Paris-France/2-2

Glogster x

Glogster

 

An online scrapbook! How fun is this tool!! I love how you can make so many different varieties of pages and add whatever you like! It is a very interactive and engaging online tool that is a must in the classroom, very fun! At first it can be hard to navigate around the page and learning how to add images and sounds, but once you get the hang of it, it is really quite simple. It’s a really fun online tool that would keep students engaged for hours!

 

This is my favourite online tool by far! For students I the classroom it allows their creative and individual features bloom. As Glogster is very engaging and easy to use it could be used in any year level, providing clear instructions are set. It is a safe online tool and you can change the privacy settings to private for all your students so only you the teacher can see what your students have created. Being able to upload sound files, videos and pictures also incorporating text, makes this tool flexible to embed in most subjects at school. As a glog could be used individually or in a group, this is a great tool for building friendly environments but also allows students to work on their own.

Glogster would be a very useful tool in the classroom for teachers and students, teachers could create glogs to introduce units to their students making them highly engaged, (saves paper too!). I think Glogster is a fantastic online tool and would benefit the classroom teachers and students.

 

Here is my Glogster poster- Paris I love it

Prezi x

Prezi- Ideas Matter

Never before this course had I heard of Prezi ( I know I say that about all the tools, but its true I know how to use Facebook and Microsoft word!). Like all the other online digital tools, you have to join or sign up to make an account to be able to use and experiment with what the site has to offer.

 

Prezi needs Adobe Flash player installed onto your computer for the program to be able to run, which could cause problems for schools who do not have it or at home if parents of students wish to not download Adobe. Prezi would be recommend for students of higher year levels as it is A LOT harder to use than your average powerpoint, like powerpoint you can add photos, videos and audio to your presentation, therefore it would not be an ideal tool to HAVE to have in the classroom. Although Prezi allows you to add minute detail not possible in PowerPoint, they share almost the same features (Prezi of course being online). Prezi could be used in the classroom for presentations as a group or individually. It would be a great tool for assessment pieces or for teacher use to keep track of planning. I made a Prezi presentation on some of the things that I love.

 

And here it is..

 

 

http://prezi.com/uv5xes3bv7_l/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

PowerPoint x

PowerPoint

PowerPoint is the first digital tool I ever used, in school and once in my work place. They are by far one of the easiest tools to learn how to use at just about any age and you can incorporate just about anything into them (voice overs, videos, music, picture and creative writing just to name a few). They can be made to be very engaging and add a ‘real life’ feeling to new learning's. The beauty of PowerPoint is you can follow a template or create your own, there easy step by step templates are fun and easy to use, making it easy for all students to personalise their work.

 

For teachers in the classroom Powerpoint can be used as the ‘hook’, to engage students into a new topic, they can be used throughout the unit of work or just as a creative activity. Teachers are able to create numerous supporting powerpoints for a unit of work, to lighten the load in the classroom, you can add as many slides as you like and alter them as you need. Like many of the digital tools you are able to add images, audio and creative text to powerpoints. As powerpoint generally comes with computers / laptops as you purchase them, it is a readily digital tool with many great features for teachers to use in the classroom and even for their own planning. I made this powerpint for my first ever university assignment, although not all that interesting it is still a large starting point in my studying chapter of life. I took me many hours to complete, and at the time I was VERY impressed with my ability of powerpoint creativity. I converted my powerpoint to a video file so that I could upload it onto my blog page.

Here it is…

 

 

 

 

 

I found this presentation on slide share and it is amazing-

'The Purpose of Education'

 

The Purpose of Education from Steve Wheeler

Dipity- Online Timeline x

My life on the line

Dipity

Making an online timeline and being able to add events as they happen is fantastic! I found it to be one of the best online tools. It’s simple and easy to use and I find that the best part over all (great for non-savvy techs). I created a timeline on significant events that have happened throughout my life, its nice to look back now and then and remember your own achievements. It was very simple to get the HTML code to place in my blog for others to view.

 

 Dipity would be a great useful and fantastic tool to use in the classroom, as it is easy to use and easy to access. This could be used in the classrooms for students to share with their peers and teachers ‘their life on the line’, and all the significant events that have happened throughout their lives. This would be a good tool for students to show when they have completed tasks towards a project, or to show the progress of a study during SOSE. It would come in handy for history to research a historical even and show it on a timeline. The great thing about dipity in the classroom is it’s easy to share with peers and teachers and you are able to make changes as you create your timeline. Definitely a must for ‘classrooms of the future’.

 

My Life on the 'Line' on Dipity.

Digital Video x

Movie Maker

Videos in the classroom can be used to engage students in all learning areas and instruction can result in significant gains in basic or higher-order learning, if applied appropriately. There are many programs around these days that are “fool proof”, basically anyone can become a small movie producer. Technology has made it easy for students to be able make their own movies for projects, making them fun, interesting and hands on, students can work individually (depending on the schools resources) or in groups. Students would be able to add digital imagery, voice overs and text to their movies utilising many ICT’s.

I made my video using my mobile phone, it is of my dogs playing with their new toy (I could not think of anything else). At first I experimented with iMovie, but I find it hard to use sites that make movies on your computer. I uploaded my video to Facebook and then converted it to save onto my laptop to be able to upload the video to my blog page, a lot of work for a 20 second video. This would not be a readily way of uploading videos for teachers at school, if you pre plan to use the video for a lesson it worked wonders for me and was the easiest way I could find.

 

This is my video, no editing.

 

Audioboo. x

Experimenting  with Audioboo. First I had to create an account with audioboo and do some research into what it actually was, as I had never heard of it before. Creating an account was easy and you simply follow step by step instructions. I had to copy the HTML and embed it into my blog page, as easy as 1, 2, 3.

I could think of many ways Audioboo would benefit the classroom, in engaging students, making work fun, getting to listen to the sound of their own voices and experiment ( who doesn’t like that!?). Audioboo could be used as a prerecording of a topic hook for students to highly engae in the activity. This could be a fun way as a first week of school ‘ice breaker’ each student could record a small ‘about me’ recording, and share around the classroom, allowing students to know each of their fellow peers. Another pro of Audioboo, it could be used to record small oral speeches allowing teachers to listen back on presentations and hear things they may have missed due to class distractions. If you are a ‘tech savvy’ teacher utilising all these ICT tools in the classroom would make a highly motivating, engaging and creative classroom. Audioboo, I would 100% recommend to be used in the classroom.

 

This is my recording (is this really what I sound like?)

listen to ‘audio boo kara’ on Audioboo

Images, Video and Audio Tools x

 

The focus this week is on multimedia. Multimodal learning is about using Digital tools and making the most of them. Using digital tools in the classroom to enhance learning outcomes for all students to achieve and succeed not only in your classroom but for the rest of their schooling journey.  As a component of the Australian curriculum our aim is to enhance learning using these support tools. Undeniably we have evolved into a word where technology is taking over and changing faster than we can keep up. We must keep our skills sharp and continue to gain new ways of using digital tools to engage students, guiding them the BEST we can.

 

This week has been a journey looking at the way things work, Video, Images and Pod casts ( I had NO idea what a pod cast was).  Through understanding these tools, there are many useful ways in which they could be used in the classroom.

 

Using Digital Tools

- Saves paper (we all need to look after the environment!)

- Encourages collaboration (two great minds are better than one)

- Recourses at our fingertips

- Personalise Learning

 

 

 

Resizing and uploading digital photos

 

Original- size: 886KB

Resized- 75% smaller Size: 77KB

 

 

Flickr..

The world of Flickr.. AMAZING. For the first time today I joined flickr, I had hear of it before and many of my friends ‘follow’ others profiles, looking at their photos. One of the most popular repositories of digital images online is Flickr. It had never interested me before today, but the amount of images is unbelievable (you have to see it to believe it). Anyone can upload a photo and tag it with a topic to go web wide (and the best beauty It’s FREE). I have found it to be one of the most enjoyable program on the web for a long time. Members share an incredible amount of amazing work on Flickr. If there is an image you'd like to use, "Request to license" on the photo page to be able to use a photo from the site then copy the HTML code (easy as it sounds, it really is this easy) then paste the code into the HTML section on blogger.

 

As I am a ‘style stealer’ I love fashion blogs and pages. I typed in fashion- Paris fashion week (their style is perfect) and countless pictures, too many to look at appeared before my eyes. Here is one of my favourite picture I found from Flickr..

 

Paris Fashion Week x
 



 

Flickr would be one of my favourite tools to use in the classroom, I would defiantly involve it in any topic I could. As it is simple to use (and safe), it would make searching for pictures a very easy task, with many to choose from. Teachers would be able to search for images related to their lesson and use them as the ‘hook’ for their lessons. As long as teachers are aware that any images uploaded can be viewed by flickr uses, permission to use students in the class would have to be gained. It would be a great tool to share photos of class progress and activities throughout the term at a parent information night.

 

Nelson Mandela

Be The Change You Want to See in the World

 

 

 

-Nelson Mandela

Voki

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=9079553&height=267&width=200

Blogs, Wikis and Weebly x

"The world today relies on information communication technology or ICTs”.

The use of digital technologies is only suitable when there are clear learning benefits for your learners.

 

 

 

Blogs, Wikis and Weebly..

As teachers need to be lifelong learners, this week has certainly proven that statement very true! As I have read many blogs (mostly fashion and beauty blogs I must admit) creating one and keeping it interesting is quite a challenge!  I am no journalist, I cannot make things seem more interesting than what they really are, so for me after finding a more clear understanding of Blogs, Wikis and Weebly, I can most certainly see their effectiveness in the classroom, keeping the students engaged whilst also ensuring students success. In this post I have offered my views and understandings on each of the ICT’s and how they can be a useful resource I the classroom.

 

BLOGS

Blogs are the most interesting and most engaging interactive web page I find, they allow others to comment on your posts, contribute feedback and also share ideas. Since I am only a blog stalker not an illustrator (until this course)I have found it challenging to keep my posts interesting and inspiring. Blog pages have many positive features and allow people to be who they want to be, express their views and feelings and share their journey with a bunch of followers. Although my blog is purely for this course, it has opened my eyes up to a world of on line dear diary’s, for students in the classroom blogs can make a good way to interact with your students, find out more about who they really are as people not just students and allow teachers to truly profile and understand each student in their class to form positive relationships. They could also be used for checking progression of learning and their understandings to provide feedback on how students are learning and what may need to be revisited. Since starting this course I will strive to keep a blog diary throughout my studies to look back on some time down the track.

 

 

STATIC WEBSITES- THE WEEBLY

AHHH!! This is how I feel about ‘the weebly’! How does a website, or online space work? A question im sure we would all love to understand with great meaning. Before reading about static websites and engaging in the weeks activities I had NO idea what this was! But I told myself I can get through creating a blog, this should be a piece of cake right? (did you know you can add a blog to your weebly?). I had the feeling of success when I designed the site, managed to upload a picture and then realised that to publish the site I had to pay? Other than this mishap weebly I could see the benefits of it being a good tool to use in the classroom, having the ability to upload videos and photos, make weekly or daily contributions.

http://377529296636936318.weebly.com ( I couldn’t quite figure out how to change the site address).  

 

 

WIKIS

A Wiki? What have I gotten myself into? Since enrolling in E-Learning, I knew from week one this course was going to be a challenge, I may only be young but I think I’ve found that I have an old soul? I say that because technology and me just cannot seem to be friends, as much as I try for it to just ‘work’ I cannot seem to extend the relationship past Microsoft word and email. Nevertheless I remain to keep an open mind and surprised myself this week, I found that wikis (as challenging as they are!) could be a great teaching tool, engage students and some learning benefits from them. Since I merely only managed to upload a picture and some words, I feel that feeling of complete success, even following the step by step manual this task was a huge hurdle for me and I feel proud! Thank the web for beig ever so changeable, as a wiki is not static, you can change as you please. Wikis have the ability to promote higher order thinking a must in the classroom! My Wiki page (I am working on making it engaging and effective).

http://karablankenhagen.wikispaces.com/

 

 

After engaging in all three interactive web pages, I found that the most useful (and easiest for myself to navigate) is a Blog page. SMAR of blogging.

 

Substitution

Blogs can be used for many different outcomes, social, personal, learning, sharing information and I find this to be one of the best tools I would use in my classroom. Blogs can be used to keep a running record of student’s understandings and a way to interact with each and every student, allow for feedback and can be used to set goals for your students. This can allow students to take control of their own learning and feel part of the design of their outcomes.

 

Augmentation

Blogs can allow all students to feel a sense of achievement, blogs can cater for all different stages of learners as it has many different uses and the more you understand and engage in blogs there more effective you can make them. Blogs can enhance students’ comprehension skills and allow for different ways of analysing learning's.

 

Modification

A blog could be used as a class journal, or individual student use. Blogs allow students to engage in each other’s work, provide feedback and enhance peer review learning, the beauty of a blog is they can be accessed from home and at school, any time of the day. One of the many beauties of technology in today’s society.

 

Redefinition

As a cohort of a year level, all teachers could welcome the idea of a blog page for each student in their class, tis would allow a year level to feed of each other and mind meaning for learning from other students. Blogs can provide a way for socialising and sustaining peer relationships, and also more individual relationships with teachers and students. As blog pages are worldwide it is only the beginning for student’s success, which is our main goal as future teachers, to open their eyes to all the useful resources that we have available today.

 

Mobile Phones in the Classroom?

“If you never change your mind, why have one?”
― Edward De Bono

Should mobile phones be used in the classroom? A question we often think about, the good and the bad have to be looked at in the world we live in today. By using Edward De Bono’s thinking hats, this allows us to look at the issue in different ways.

I spent some time researching mobile phone usage in the classroom, the result of a debate show what many people think and the findings are interesting,  73 % of people who have commented believe that yes they should be allowed in the classroom, while only 27% believe they belong safe and sound at home. I vote NO! but here are some thoughts of others (if your like myself, others opinions can be very convincing on helping you decide the pros and cons)-

Yes, of course! I think cell phones should be allowed in school because if you forget something at home you could call your parents to bring it to school. Like when you forget your homework. Also when you're staying at school and you forget to tell your parents that you're staying at school, and/or you want to go somewhere after school to hang out with your friends.

Posted by: Anonymous

 

Cell phones could increase cheating. If a student decides to bring his or her cell phone to school, there is a possibility that they would use it in class while no one knows. Then, once they get used to doing that, they will start texting while they take a test. This can cause a big increase in cheating.

Posted by: Anonymous

 

Cell phones can be used to search. Schools often don't have enough computers to go around, so why shouldn't kids with cell phones be able to use theirs? It would let others use the technology available, so that there is enough to go around. Cell phones are technology of this century, with new responsibilities. Kids should learn how to harness this new method of learning to power our species forward.

Posted by: Anonymous

 

Cell Phones can be Deadly. “Ring ring.” Cell phones are an unstoppable force and they should not be used in the classroom. What can we do? Well, there are many things we can do when a cell phone is found on a student. The phone will be confiscated and a phone home will be required. The child doesn't need a cell phone, the school has one in almost every room. Cell phones even interfered with a test. One kid in Texas took a picture of a test and printed them out and sold them. Suite101.com says that phones can detonate real bombs. If there's anyone who can defend against that do so because I would like to see you try. Cell phones have now gone from a call home to cheating on tests too putting kids life in danger.

Posted by: Anonymous

For more responses visit: http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-cell-phones-be-allowed-in-school

 

De Bono's Hats collaborative ‍activity -

The Good

Mobile phones have many apps that can be downloaded that can be used for learning and could be a great learning support tool if they are used and managed correctly. They would bring a new form of ICT's into the classroom that can enhance each and every students learning outcomes.  As I have grown up in the society of ICT's I find them useful for many things, but the classroom is a no go zone for the mobile phone. I have always believed that because I was influenced by my teaches strongly that the phone was to be left at home I have that opinion embedded in my head, however mobile phones now days have many benefits for learning and can contribute many great learning goals if used correctly.

The Bad and the Ugly.

Mobile phone usage in the classroom would be a big distraction to students in the classroom, mainly with the students of older grades using this as a more 'social' device then a leaning tool. Although learning could be enhanced with the usage of mobile phones in the classroom is there really such a need for them? Many rules would need to be placed to ensure the phones are being used appropriately, leading to more enforcement for teachers to 'worry' about, possible something more to have to monitor that is not necessary. Mobile phones in the classroom a more a want not a need.

 

 

Built on Vygotsky’s Social Constructivism theory, learning from interactions supports the activity deeply as students use their own findings and construct their own opinions as well as evaluating  others ideas and opinions. This task also allows students to engage in the Connectivism theory by allowing students to find information that may be useful for them themselves for other tasks. By using the six thinking hats and evaluating each hat, ‘if the hat fits, why not use it?’, I found that this idea could work and possible very well, as it is very engaging and hands on to keep interest in the topic.

Sir Ken Robinson- My Inspiration

“The fact is that given the challenges we face, education doesn't need to be reformed -- it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardize education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.”

― Ken Robinson, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

Dr. Judy Willis- How the Brain Learns Best

Watching the Edutopia video was surprisingly interesting (if you can listen to monotone lecturing for an hour), at first with the 'big' scientific terms being used I could feel myself getting fidgety and un engaged, I had to force myself to focus, although it has helped me understand how the brain works when it comes to taking in new information. Habits unfortunately cannot just 'be broken' in a matter of hours after watching a video, but now I can make connection as to why my brain shuts of if I am stressed, un interested or board.  Strangely enough I started to make connection with the video and soon after, the not so 'big' terms became more familiar and I found myself understanding the information. Stress and uncertainty has a large impact on students learning, this is a very important aspect to understand when teaching children new information, stress can cause the brain to block the neurons from reaching the thinking part of the brain, therefore this information is only being seen or heard and therefore not transferring to learning's that stick. Stimulating the thinking section of the brain allows the students to engage in the activity and their ability to learn. By supporting a stable and familiar environment, which can help prevent stress, you are then allowing the most important information into the front cortex of the brain.

"Students learn best by connecting new, related information to their stored patters of knowledge"- Dr. Judy Willis.

CAUSES OF STRESS IN SCHOOL:
- Fear of being wrong
- Embarrassed to read aloud
- Frustration & Boredom

HOW CAN WE PREVENT STRESS?
Prevention is always better than finding a solution. Personalising content for students in the classroom can make lessons more fun and engaging, frequent feedback is a valuable way positively reinforcing your learners and asking questions to gain knowledge of students understandings, allow yourself to become familiar with each individual student, to allow successful planning to suit each and every learner to ensure 'no student left behind'.

WHAT GETS INTO THE BRAIN AND HOW?

   Neuroscience is a complex field. Some further information

  from the experts to help you understand the brain activity.

What you see here are four neuro images of four different brains. The main thing to notice is the metabolic activity, the most brain activity is in the neuro image on the bottom right, where it says, "Thinking about words." And that's where the activity is in the prefrontal cortex. That's the front of the brain. All the brains are facing to your left, and these are side views. The only place in the brain where conscious activity goes on, decision-making, memory storage, in terms of conscious memories, the only place where that happens significantly is in this prefrontal cortex. The lit up areas in the other brains, hearing words, seeing words, speaking words, those are all below consciousness. Those are simple responses. But in the thinking about words there's actual cognition, thinking, active mentation, thinking about things going on. And that's why it's so important to realize that there are pathways from the time there's information in the environment- environmental sounds, sights, touches- to get that information into this thinking conscious part of the brain. - Dr. Judy Willis

I Suggest anyone who has not watch the video to watch it, the information is valuable to help you understand many students in your classrooms.

 

From Me x

Dear Diary- It's all about me?

Hi there, my name is Kara and I am in my first year of study at CQU, completing a Bachelor of Learning Management (primary education). I am 20 years of age, I have two boys, Calvin (mini foxy) & Bossy (staffy), they keep me very busy all of the time. I read blogs most days but creating one and being a "blogger" is hard!, but stay posted as I'm sure there will be a lot to share.

xo