Prezi

I used my basic powerpoint and worked on a Prezi from there.  The above Prezi was my basic attempt.  I liked the fact that I could zoom in, embed YouTube videos, and move freely across the page.  It is definitely a good teaching application, as well as an excellent tool for the students to use to present their work.

Powerpoint

Creating an interactive Powerpoint presentation was fairly straightforward.  I decided to use the KLA History, as I was being posted to a Year 7 Class.  In the 2013 academic overview, The Mediterranean world - Egypt, was a main focus for Term 2.

I managed to create Hyperlinks, to pages in the powerpoint slide, as well as links to a YouTube video.  There was no embed tool to actually load the video into the powerpoint presentation.  I did not really enjoy working on the Powerpoint as I found it rather linear, it did not give me as many options to be creative as I thought Prezi might.  I also recorded some voice recordings, so instead of having text on the presentation, the user could click on the sound button to hear more about each topic.

However, I found that upon loading it onto the web using Slideshare, the interactivity would then be lost.  I intend to find a better place to upload the presentation where the user would be able to make use of the interactive functions, instead of just being able to click the slides forwards and back.

Powerpoint presentations are easy for students to use.  Even the early years students would be able to use the program with ease.  It can be used to analyse processes, create interaction, and present information with audio, video and textual elements.

I'm excited to try Prezi next for a more global perspective.

Video upload - introducing Italy

Just to be on the safer side, I decided not to use the other video that I had made.  Instead, I re-did it using movie maker using Open Source music.  On the site, there were different types of music one could download for personal use.  Some other sites are here.

http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/free-music-resources.html
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/03/free-royalty-free-music-for-education.html

As a teaching tool, videos can be very effective.  Simply by putting still photos into Movie Maker and adding some text, I created a basic movie that could be rather entertaining for my students.  I used personal stories to introduce geography, history and culture.

Videos can also be created easily by the students.  It allows for organisational thinking, teamwork, higher order thinking, communication and skill development, and it also enhances their presentation and literacy skills.

They could use videos in learning for communication, observation, analysis and reflection.

On the other hand, you need a sound computer with quite a fair bit of memory space to create a video.  I had problems on my laptop as it kept running out of graphic memory.  Also, I had trouble uploading the video directly onto Blogger.   Therefore, I decided to upload it to YouTube, and then embed the video link onto Blogger.  It might have something to do with my internet connection or speed.

Technical glitches like these could be rather time consuming, and it could hinder the students presentation.  However, with practice, they would be able to overcome these problems and uploading, linking and embedding would be second nature to them, facilitating learning with video, images and embracing all of technology.

Audio boo and videos

In line with ideas about travel, geography and Italy, I created a voice recording using my iPhone 4 with the app AudioBoo. It was user friendly and didn't take long.

http://audioboo.fm/boos/1286019-cinque-terre-1

That's the link to the recording.




However, as I attempted to create a video using that recording on Windows Movie Maker, I was unable to upload the recording to the program. You can only save it as a HTML. I would have to re-record on my computer to have that voice recording embedded into the video.

I decided to use a song instead, only a short snippet of it so as to not breach copyright laws. I researched on the Internet and most sites seemed to say that I could use portions of it for educational purposes. Just to be sure, I emailed Wendy to ask, and have not uploaded my video yet.

Images are a bit easier to deal with, I used this website to find one which I could use on my video.

We think that content on the Internet is free for all. It's easy to forget and infringe copyright. Even though I had bought the music, could I still share it with others?

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** I have downloaded the blogger app onto my iPhone and this is my first phone post.

***Update: I couldn't put a hyperlink on my phone, or the flash version of the audioboo.  I had to edit that on my computer.

Exploring Italy

In June 2012, Wayne and I decided to take a month long trip to Italy and Spain.  The blue pins show the places we visited in Italy.  We started in Rome, took the train up to Pisa, headed on to Florence, rented a car to visit the Tuscan towns like Siena and more, headed to relax in hidden beauty of the Cinque Terre, and then, to the romantic town of Venice, the only of it's kind.  The route taken is shown by the purple line in the map below.  

View Italy in a larger map

ITALY 2012, a set on Flickr.

These photos give a quick snippet to my travels in Italy.

Our 21st century way of learning is multimodal.  This paper on the Global Imperative tells us more about multimodal literacy.  It transforms the way we learn into a more pleasurable one.  With the use of images and handy web applications, I can teach my students a bit about the world and geography through the above digital images.  Learning then becomes interactive, and each clickable link creates more opportunity for learning and experiementation.  It allows them to connect to their world outside school, and the media (in this case my personal photographs) evokes an emotional response.

As the multimedia learning principle tells us, ones retention increases with the use of words and pictures, the use of images in technology helps us acquire knowledge with the use of the 3 different memories in our brain.  Sensory, working and long term memory.

I like to use the above pictures to teach, using a see - think - wonder routine for the purpose of teaching with images.  The students could then write a digital story by rearranging or choosing the images they like to learn more about Italy, it's geography and culture.

Exploring Weebly

Today, I created my very first website, http://stephsict.weebly.com/.  It took a bit of playing around with, before I could actually do anything with it, but once I got the hang of it, I realised it was actually quite user friendly.

I decided to go further with the content on my wiki page, and explore the text "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sedak.  I tried putting similar things on the website as I did the wiki, and it seemed to work well.  I managed to upload images, create links, put in a YouTube video.  I could also add pages to the index page, making it easier to navigate.   

I found the many layouts to choose from quite visually appealing, however, it did not give the user full editing abilities.  

In a short period of time, I created 4 pages which were linked to each other. 

1. Index Page
2. Where the Wild Things Are - Introduction
3. Themes
4. Links (Further Reading)

I linked it back to the wiki page, and decided that I could actually create a discussion page, with a table for the students to add their input on the thematic concerns of the story.  

With the website as a static teaching tool, I made it a bit interactive by adding videos, and clickable buttons for navigation.  It allows for a rather linear form of thinking to happen and a step by step learning process.  I also added links for further reading, instead of cutting and pasting the information onto my website.  What was handy was that Weebly gave me the tool of finding images online, and instantly acknowledging the creator at the bottom of the page.  

The following image shows the SWOT analysis of the functionality of a website to support student learning and how students can use one to express their creativity.  

Wikis

Engagement Activity 3: Creating a wiki 

This is the link to my wiki.  http://stgersbach.cquniversityschoolofeducation.wikispaces.net

I followed the online instructions and it seemed to be rather self explanatory   I opted for the CQU wiki instead of a private one, and spent most of today exploring the tools and deciding on the content to put on it.  

In the previous engagement activity, where we had to discuss the use of mobile phones on a group wiki, I thought the wiki layout to be messy and rather unappealing to the eye.  However, looking back, it was easy to gather all the relevant information, and rather than having everyone's different views sorted by person, having it sorted by the scaffolding of de Bono's six thinking hats made it a lot easier to read and comprehend.  You can read my views on the activity here.  The wiki worked for me as it was correctly scaffolded.  However, a wiki which is not scaffolded well, could end up being rather messy and disastrous.  

I used my wiki space to introduce "Wordle" to my viewers.  With hyperlinks, it was easy to credit and source the online references that I used.

Using the scaffold of Bloom's Taxonomy, as seen below, we can see how wikis can be used to support, enhance and facilitate learning.

I had to first create a basic wiki page.  Then evaluate how I can use it to my advantage, and what to put on it as content.   Then, I had to analyse the data before applying it onto my personal wiki.  Before that, I had to make sure that I had a sound understanding of the technology needed and had to keep learning as I went along.  Finally, I used tools to help me remember these steps, and a great example of this tool is the wiki as well as Wordle.

Source:
http://www.mtlsd.org/mellon/teams/ironbrigade/bloomsdigitaltaxonomy.asp

Blogs in education

Week 3 - Engagement Activity 1

Learning to set up a blog, that was the easy bit.  Adding content on the other hand, is a continuous learning experience.  

When I was penning my thoughts and understanding on TPACK down in my blog, I wanted to substatiate it with some illustrations to make the entry more lighthearted.  I searched for a cartoon illustration for a dog on a computer.  Google search gave me plenty of options.  However, I remembered the legal guidelines on copyright, and a lot of the images on the world wide web were copyrighted.  I had the following options.  I could, 

• Email the owners to ask for permission to use their image(s)
• Pay the commercial websites a fee to use the images(s)
• Be creative and draw up my own! 

The third idea, was the most appealing.  I drew up a cartoon illustration on a piece of paper, used my iPhone 4 to snap a quick photo, edited the image very quickly by cropping and simply enhancing the white balance using Picasa, saved the new image, and BAM!, uploaded it on my blog.

A teacher's blog could contain learning content, summaries, reflection, that would be easy for students to access, or rather, a page of information that could be shared with the world.  By modelling legal, safe and ethical guidelines, we are teaching are students not to take the easy road of simply cutting and pasting, which is too easy to do in an online and digital environment.  

Not only that, blogs gives one the opportunity to be creative.  The possibilities are endless.  From embedding YouTube videos, to creating your own video, flow charts, online mind-maps  layouts and colours, to the way the content is introduced and presented.  The open ended blank canvas of a blog allows a student to dig in deep, rekindle their creativity, and promotes higher order learning and thinking. It is also more informal, lighthearted, and usually a lot more enjoyable to read than your textbook.  

A blog created by the students of technology shows their capability of the digital age.  The students are today probably would not have any difficulty creating a blog.  Focus can be placed on content.  Blogs encourages personal reflection and analysis, as well as being based on Vygotsky's social development theory, where students learn by experiences and social interactions.  A blog is shared with anyone with an internet connection, and it also enables readers to leave comments, encouraging discussions and collaborative activity.  

Ferdig & Trammell (2004)  discuss four benefits of student blogging.  

1. Blogs helps students become "experts" in the subject matter through online research,
2. Increases students interest and ownership in learning, 
3. It gives students more chances to participate and 
4. It provides opportunities for diverse perspectives both in and out of the classroom.  

That being said, there are a few inevitable disadvantages of using blogs in teaching.  Emails today, are seen as "too slow".  Text messages through smart phone is the new way of connecting with each other.  With this need for instant replies, a blog might not be effective in that way as one is unable to get comments and views instantly.  The time gap in the conversation could be anything from a few seconds to many years.  The style of writing in a blog is also a lot less formal than that of an essay.  It could lead to short forms and slangs being used too often, and students forgetting to use appropriate language and syntax.  

This is a terrific slideshow displaying the advantages and disadvantages of a blog.  

11 advantages of using a blog for teaching from Frank Calberg Services

To sum things up, a blog can involve many different types of intelligences (Howard Gardner, 1975). Creating a blog would benefit a wide range of learners.  From kinaesthetic, linguistic, logical, intrapersonal and visual learners, a blog encompasses all these.  As individuals differ from one another in their ability to understand complex ideas, we need to adapt to our environement, engage in different forms of learning to engage our Digital Natives (Prensky, 2001) of today.  

Reflection on Wiki

Participating in the wiki activity was not as daunting as I thought it would be. (Which reminds me I still have to sort my wiki page out..) Having been rather tied down last week, I plunged into the activity in week 3 instead, and it was a bit of a blessing in disguise as there were already a lot of discussions and thoughts penned down on the wiki page. It gave me the opportunity to read my peers' ideas and thoughts through, and then adding on to the discussion.  

Having a forum allows us to engage in discussion virtually, which blurs the physical boundaries of distance.  It is a great example of ICTs for Learning Design.  The wiki is reflective of the learning theories of constructivism and connectivism, as well as cognitivism and behaviorism, in the following order of relevance   

Social Constructivism

Social constructivism is the case where learners construct their own reality based on their own experiences.  Vygotsky tells us that the role teachers and society plays on students developement is a large one, and that learning precedes development.  That is the basis of the social development theory, and social constructivsim is founded on social interactions in the learning community.  All of us students, were able to interact and learn from each other in the wiki exercise.  

Connectivism

Connectivism is the learning theory for the digital age of computers and the internet.  Knowledge becomes endless with the amount of research one can do on Google.  It is more important to identify how and where to find this knowledge - I had to Google "mobile phones in education" to get research information for the WHITE part of de Bono's thinking hats.  It is the creation of a learning network to be able to navigate and solve problems for the future.  Connectivism is about the networked student, creating ones own personal learning network.  The wiki forum connected us students in the ICTs for learning design class, helped with sharing of opinions and finding expert opinions.  

Cognitivism

The thinking routine, de Bono's six thinking hats, is an example of congitivism.  It is where by learning is a part of mental processing.  Thinking tools like de Bono's six thinking hats, reflexs externally what goes on in the brain.  

Behavorism

Learning how to use the wiki as part of the course, is an example of behaviorism   It is where rote learning takes place, and where by learning is characterized by observable change in behaviour.  Using a wiki, with enough practice, will soon become a routine skill. Practice will enable one to be confident with the new forms of technology that we are constantly introduced to as learning is a response to conditioning.  ICTs involve practice, positive reinforcement and reshaping what we have previously learnt.  

In conclusion, the activity presented all four types of learning theories and it covers many areas of learning and teaching.  I find a wiki easy to use now, and it is easy to consolidate more ideas from more participants, as compared to a blog, where you would have to find the links to visit the different sites.  Of course, a blog is more visually appealing, (which also depends on the creator of the site) and the wiki seemed to have a rather messy layout, although easy to navigate.  It was a good learning experience, and I managed to gather everyone's thoughts on mobile phones in education very easily and quickly.  It definitely is a good learning tool.  

TPACK : the way I understand it.

“Reproduced by permission of the publisher, © 2012 by tpack.org” 

They are big words put together, 'Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge'.  Too much jargon for a simple layman understanding.  It is simply the effective way to teach with technology.  

According to the above diagram, it is quite explanatory that TPACK is the point of knowledge which combines technology, pedagogy and content.  To teach effectively, as teaching with technology is a wicked problem, teachers have to come up with creative solutions and design a total package which is :

               Novel
               Effective and
              Whole,

in order to solve that "wicked problem".  (For a deeper understanding and more in depth explanation, we can refer to the SITE keynote presentation by Matt Koehler and Punya Mishra.)   

Technology is always changing, and when presented with a 'NEW' way of learning and teaching that would be able to hold the students interest, for example using the iPhone technology, or introducing learning through a computer game, the CONTENT would then be of more interest to the student, simply due to the way it is presented (pedagogy).  Teachers simply have to keep up with the times.  As the saying goes, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, teachers can't use their old wayward and boring tricks to teach the children of the digital age.  

Learning Styles : Felder and Soloman Model

The above are my results from completing a 44-question questionnaire.

The results show that I have an active, intuitive and visual learning style.  It also shows that I am balanced in the sequential and global learning style areas.

I learn best by

• doing and trying to see how it works,
• discovering possibilities and relationships,
• using diagrams, sketches, photos, concept maps and colour codes.

Everyone would end up having varied results for their learning style.  As our learning would be at either end of the following specturms, or well balanced in between

• Seeing and hearing,
• Reflecting and acting,
• Memorising and visualising, and 
• Drawing analogies and building math models

In order for learning to be effective for all students, we need varied teaching methods.  One could lecture, demonstrate or discuss a particular subject; the focus could be on principles or application.  In that way, the learner is allowed for reception and processing of information in their best learning style.    

Further Readings: 

LEARNING STYLES AND STRATEGIES: Felder & Soloman

Multiple Intelligence - Birmingham Grid for Learning

I participated in the online quiz  and the above grid shows my results.  According to the diagram, I am a kinaesthetic learner first, followed by a linguistic learner, then interpersonal and intrapersonal.

The definitions of the types of 'smarts' as from the website is as below:

Kinaesthetic - I enjoy sports and am good at swimming, athletics, gymnastics and other sports.
(This is true of me.)

Linguistic - I enjoy reading, writing and talking about things.  (This is also true.)

Interpersonal - I like to mix with other people and belong to lots of clubs.  I like team games and am good at sharing.  (This is true however I do not belong to a lot of clubs.)

Intrapersonal - I know about myself and my strengths and weaknesses.  I probably keep a diary.  (This is half true as I do not keep a diary.)



Personally, I find that this might not be the best way of finding out a person's special intelligence as our answers picked could be conformed by what we already know about ourselves.  I find that I am a rather visual / spatial person even though the scores on this test show me a low.  I use a lot of body movements when talking and explaining, enjoy visual displays, colours, mind maps slides etc.

However, the quiz picked me as "Body Smart" which is my best way of learning.  I learn best by doing and working my way through things.  I am a kinaesthetic learner and knowing that has helped me achieve many of my life goals.

Ideas on Learning Theory - My Reflection

Information communication technology for learning design.  The course title itself is a mouthful.  As Mishra & Koehler (2006) said, "teaching with technology is a wicked problem".  

Living in the 21st century, we have to grow with the never ending advances in technology, and step into the Digital Age; strive, as "digital immigrants" to teach our first generation "digital natives".  We did not grow up with the new technology of computers and smart phones, therefore, we have to modify our teaching to suit the different thought processes and brain structures today's students have.   

The students of today, likewise us as teachers, have to embrace the ideas of connectivism:

• use the web for ideas
• search and share!
• network using blogger, wikis

We have to become not only the networked student, but the networked teacher.  Create connections, and with that, our personal learning network.  In this way, we can lead the example for the students to be able to navigate and solve problems for the future.  

Now, this does not mean that the other three learning theories should be wiped out.  The following theories as shown below are also essential for wholesome learning.  

Source: text2mindmap.com/x72XDE

Also this course (ICTs for Learning Design) focuses on connectivism, where we find expects and expert opinions from our personal learning network that we have created, we are also expected to learn by experience as Vygotsky developed in his theory of social constructivism.  We do online quizzes, readings and make social interactions.  We engage in learning using metal processes like MINDMAPPING as seen above (Cognitivism Theory), and we also use our mind as a "Black Box", internalising the information presented, conditioning our mind till learning and content becomes automatic (Behaviourism Theory).  

We seek to learn and teach with a wide range of tools, styles and outcomes.  As we need to rethink the principles in which we are educating our children, we have to be creative, in order for the children not to lose their creativity, and to rekindle the artist figure within them that they were born with.