Re-sizing Activity: My Adventures

Week 3: Embedded Task 2

Social Media is quite popular in today’s society and in particular with today’s youth. They use it on a daily basis to post thoughts, see what others are up to and keep in contact with one another.

With young people having such an interest in social media, many of which are still in school. It has become apparent that in order to engage students in learning incorporating social media into the classroom can be a valuable resource as well as providing new learning experiences for students.

Including blogging in the classroom provides a new tool for students to use in developing their knowledge whilst also including something that they have an interest for (Social Media).

Technical Aspects of Blogs

•          Easily Accessible – current technology makes accessing a blog much easier. They can be accessed over a wide range of devices (e.g. computers, tablets and phones) and when on the go.
•          Personalize – the layout and colors of the blog can be personalized by the creator to reflect themselves or the reason the blog was created if not for personal use.
•          Viewing Blogs and Keeping up to Date – like most social media you are able to view others blogs and make comments on their postings. With blogs being in chronological order it makes it easier keep up to date with the latest postings rather than having to scroll down a page to find it.
•          Posting – blogs allow the user to post their personal thoughts or ideas/perspectives on a certain topic online for others to see.
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Learning Outcomes of using Blogs

•          Collaborative Discussion – blogs can allow students to enhance their knowledge by allowing them to share their ideas and have people comment and make suggestions gives them the opportunity to work with others gaining a more rounded view of a topic with others adding in their ideas.
•          New Form of Communication – learning how to use blogs gives students another platform on which they can communicate with others.
•          Individual Learning – provides another tool for which students can use to learn in their own individual style.
•          Inspire Writing – the use of blogs can inspire students to write more and allow there to enhance their writing skills.

Blogs in My Classroom

I had to really brainstorm about integrating blogs into Manual Arts. Have the students keep a blog of the work we do in the workshop each week provides them the skills to document their work and new learning experience/skills they encounter. Also for those of the students that are looking at going on to become an apprentice when the leave school it gives them the skills of documentation that they will need whilst an apprentice to prove that they are competent in a certain skill and eventually become a tradesman. A blog could also be used instead of their workshop portfolios, keeping them digitally means that students can keep track of their projects progress by documenting and uploading images of their project each week which also eliminates portfolios going missing and if their project does go missing the images are there as evidence of them having done the work. This also makes it easier for the teacher to track the students’ progress.

SAMR

Substitution - Teacher creates a blog outlining the workshop project for the term with plans linked to the blog. Teacher then shows class during a theory lesson and starts a class discussion about the project. Students take notes as needed.

Augmentation - Teacher uploads theory work that ties in with workshop project each week. students are to read through the theory work at their own pace and at the end  there will be questions for the students about tool, machinery and joints associated with the project.

Modification - Students are to create their own blog. They are to use this blog to update progress on their project each week as well as upload a photo of the project each week. 

Redefinition - Students are to access the teachers blog and choose one topic from a list of topics. They are then to go and research their topic and write a reflection to their blog about topic.

Embedded Task 1: De Bono's Thinking Hats

After working through the course activities so far my knowledge and understanding of the importance of ICTs in the classroom and how much they can benefit student learning has greatly shifted and it’s only been two weeks.

The Wiki activity De Bono’s Hats that I completed this week is set up quite brilliantly in terms of providing a lot of positive learning experiences and outcomes for students. This type of activity allows students to voice their personal opinion on a topic but it also engages them to think from other points of view giving a broader understanding of the topic. Blooms Cognitive Taxonomy relates to this wiki activity directly by getting students to analyse and evaluate the perspectives of the topic relating the mindset that each hat represented. The activity allows students to develop an open minded view towards learning topics, this helps them to get a better understanding of what each hat represents and the perspective they offer.

This activity also allows students to share their ideas and opinions with each of their peers. This also allows them see the views of their peers which also offers new perspectives on each topic. The drawback from this is that students may feel nervous when contributing to the wikis because of what their peers will think. Another drawback from this is that to get out of doing the work they may just copy one of their peers. But I believe the pros outweigh the cons in this case.

De Bono’s thinking hats is a valuable tool to educate students as it can be used to engage a higher order thinking process to see a topic from multiple perspectives.  I think using Wikis in the educating of students is a valuable learning experience for the students as well as a good teaching practice for teachers.

Week 1 Blog Posting

Learning Preferences and the Brain

The video clip of Judy Willis was quite interesting. Watching the video identified a few of the ideas that she was stating are important for teachers to make note of and apply them to their own learning environments.

I can definitely relate to topic when Judy talks about boredom being a stressful state. When I was in school English class was a boring place to be. It didn't interest me, it wasn't engaging and sometimes i didn't it which stressed me a little cause it took me longer to understand it then everyone else and because of this more often than not I would find myself day dreaming or staring out a window.

 I thought that using signals and colored markers to imply significance was a brilliant idea for focusing the students attention. I think students are more likely to respond to a signal or color rather then a teacher standing at the front of the class and just saying pay attention.

I quite enjoy video games and I was actually really surprised when Judy connected video games to a teaching strategy because I never thought that strategies for beating video would carry over to student learning. Providing harder challenges  as a reward for hard work is a great strategy to be used in parallel with other teaching strategies designed to engage the students attention.

Creativity and 21st Century Learners

Sir Ken Robinson gave a presentation in which he talked about Creativity and how it is valued in schools and in the eduction of its students. He states that Creativity is as important as literacy. He also goes on to talk about the hierarchy of subjects in school with Creative Arts being at the bottom.

I really enjoyed listening to this presentation as I agree with what he is stating. Creativity is diminished in schools, in my experiences Math & English were considered the most important subjects at school followed by Sciences and so on with Drama, Art and Music being the least important because they did not help in getting a practical job. I think Creative Arts are just as important as any other part of education after all it is creativity which inspires us to do great things. Another great point that Ken states is that if you are not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original, I thought this is an important lesson for all students to learn because students are often afraid of being wrong because of what their peers will think of them.

The video An Introduction to Technology Integration goes through the benefits of using ICT's in the classroom. I think the best pionts made in this video are:
- Technology is a tool that can enhance student learning
- It gives students the oppotunity to learn new skills
- Can be used to enhance normal teaching practices
But really the main message is if technology can enhance student learning use it, because it not only benefits the students but also makes you a better teacher.

History & Manual Arts

History as i know can put student into that bored and restless state in which very little learning occurs. By incorporating ICT's into the classroom it can enhance the students engagement and interaction with the class.

Earlier this week I was wondering how could I use ICT's in a manual arts workshop and then someone gave me the idea of using QR codes in the classroom which I thought was brilliant. With most students these days having smart phones and safety in the workshop being a priority. Having QR codes around the workshop linked to safety demonstrations on safely operating machinery in a safe manner. So if a student was not sure how to operate a piece of machinery correctly all they would have to do is scan the code and they would be taken to the safety demonstration on their phone.

Sum Up

Technology can enhance student learning. Students learn more by doing than they ever will by being lectured. By intergrating technology with normal teaching practices you open up all new kinds of learning experiences for students. It allows students to be creative with their own learning.

The main message I got from this week is that if technology can enhance student learning why not use it.