Week 5 - YouTube

This week I have embedded the use of a YouTube presentation as a informal formative assessment based on assessing my prep students current understanding of weather symbols. This lesson was the culmination of the students efforts to learn and understand the use of various symbols around them.

It was interesting to note when students heard terminology they understood their ears would perk up and when the students were able to see their symbols which they had created the week before in action on a weather report they we beside themselves. It was inspiring for me to see that one of the students who normally doesn't enjoying giving input was one of the first to remember one of the harder symbols overcast, because of the visual ques he received from the video.

Something I am beginning to appreciate more and more specially with younger children is that you cannot put a value on different and new ways of engaging them. The variety of information available on YouTube is unbelievable. However finding the right use and purpose for the video I believe is the hardest part and also a must.

I can see that by the way the students reacted, if i were to show that clip at the start of the unit they would of been a little engaged but the meaning of the clip would of been missed and thus the learning would have been only very superficial.

Ensuring Student Success - Our Experimentation with Prezi

Visual literacy

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Visual literacy

Week 4 - Picnik

It never ceases to amaze me the variety of software available online. Editing software for me has always been something I have avoided as the time involved in editing and the required level of editing always seems unachievable. However of all things to make this easier, it is a web based program which is free... The age old saying of its not what you know its who you know I think applies specifically to these applications. Picnik is an amazingly easy program to manipulate and more importantly it gets the outcomes required and quickly. Previously my view of editing software and its use as discussed has been timed consuming and a laborious task however after using this program I have thought about the possible benefits within my own classroom. Last week our group gave a presentation of visual literacy and their use within the 21st century classroom. After researching and discovering the multitude of theorists which prescribe visual literacy as a must for the students of today it is easy to see how using software such as picniks can be embedded within the education of visual literacy. Modifying simple things like colour and the saturation can build or change the meaning of a picture, something which I have attempted to investigate with the pictures below. I can see Picnik being a valued resource and something with which students should be scaffolded in to not only allowing them to use the resource at school but more importantly at home.

Week 3 - Power Point and Prezi

This week has been an interesting week, as not only has the learning tool we have had to explore this week been incredibly useful but it has seen me look at Power Point in a different way. Before this course I had used Power Point on a weekly basis after starting this degree I have had the pleasure of working with young males in reading support with which I have used PowerPoint to help them explore topics which motivate them. A specific example has been with a young man who I have helped create a profiling template with which he uses to profile a different wrestler each week as he is madly into W.W.E Wrestling.

Many people fall short with PowerPoint and expect students to be able to use the software without scaffolding learning. I can see from my experience with this young man, that every step must be explored to a certain point before the bug bites and the knowledge that is know about the program takes over and the creative energy starts to flow. I think the biggest sole problem I see with teachers using PowerPoint at the moment is the purpose for its use. This was the first thing that hit me when I was starting the profiling activity. After I explained my idea to the young man he turned to me and said "why?" and I thought to myself well its a good question. I turned to him and said "You are an expert on a topic, which is wrestling, I am someone who wants to know more about wrestling, this PowerPoint is going to show me all the information I need to know".

As soon as I said the word expert he looked at me and smiled as if to say "damn right I am". With that the motivation and need for powerpoint knowledge became unquenchable. I think the moral of this weeks blog is to make sure the purpose of the use of PowerPoint is purposeful without a reason for engaging with the software it's just another "thing" the students do.

Week 2 - Weebly

Over the years I have had the opportunity to work with and edit websites through my previous employment. I've used programs such as Front Page and Publisher but both have been extremely touchy and often resulted frustration. In visiting the weebly I was expecting a similar experience but much to my pleasant surprise I found this web based application extremely easy to use and manipulate

Strengths:
Engagement, ownership of technology and experience
Very easy to create, modify and update
Brings collaborative learning out of the classroom and into the world
Interactive! and enjoyable for students using different forms of media

Weakness:
Would be hard from a classroom management point of view if students were to create a website themselves, keeping them all together without students going ahead or falling behind
Addictive - learning my fall by the way side in replacement with enjoyment



Opportunities:
Collaborative learning furthered, students work with and support teacher can learn in and outs from each other through experimenting
Brings multimodal texts from home to school - improved opportunity for engagement


Threats:
Parental views on students creating content which can be viewed outside the school?
Without clear reason for use, may just be another "good" but not productive thing for students to do on the computer

See my website below, just did some basic experimenting and added some pages
http://elearningbyjustin.weebly.com/index.html

Week 2 - Making a Wiki

My Wiki! Click to Visit

For me, Wikis have always symbolised the meaning of collaboration. Like any collaborative piece of work a wikis ownership boasts no singular person whereas blogs are similar but rely on a hierarchical style of contribution. It is this group mentality of a wiki and the ability to contribute even the smallest piece of information that gives people a great sense of effective contribution.

One of the most successful Wikis out there has been the Wikipedia a wiki which has been developed as an encyclopedia. This wiki alone boasts 14,000,000 pages of shared and contributed information from around the globe and is a shining example of the power of collaborative websites.

Using Wiki Spaces, was incredible easy. I was able to embed gifs and a teachertube.com video in a matter of seconds. The ability to quickly and easily change and update information on the fly gives wikis a valued place within the classroom. I think the biggest difference between a blog and a wiki at the moment for me is the ease of use. To allow your students to use the site and to use it well, the removal of problematic things such as HTML coding I believe is the winning point when we compare a wiki and blog.

According to Geekgirl.com the biggest problem facing many people who build a wiki is they do not have a clear goal for the wiki. Rose states that many of the wikis do not work not because of technical or skill shortages but because the "reason for collaborating via a wiki has not been clearly defined". Thus when considering the use of a wiki at school we must consider this purpose for the use of a wiki. As with most new learning that students face, we will face the question, "Why are we doing this?". So that is my question to my followers! Why do you think a wiki is useful and who would you use it in the classroom?

A Useful Link below showing Wikis currently in use
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wikis