Podcasts

Having listened to many of my peers podcasts, I became quite intrigued in exactly what made podcasts so interesting...

Unfortunately, I was unable to create my own podcast on MyPodcast.com but have included a link (below) to Natalie's podcast as I thought her podcast was a great idea!

http://s0173437.podomatic.com/entry/2010-08-21T04_05_26-07_00

I can easily identify how useful and engaging podcasts would be in the classroom environment, particularly from behavioural and academic perspectives. Firstly, a podcast could be used to engage and appeal to those learners who have a tendency to become easily distracted or disruptive. Academically, Langwitches (2010) believes that through podcasting in the classroom basic literacy skills are being addressed and developed, whilst the students are becoming further engaged and motivated to learn through one simple podcast.

I agree with the ideas that Langwitches outlines in his blog. Podcasting is an interesting, engaging and fun tool to use, in the classroom, and beyond!

Reference:
Langwitches. (2010, January 9). It's Not About the Tools. It's About the Skills. Retrieved August 8, 2010, from Langwitches Blog: The Magic of Learning: http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/01/09/its-not-about-the-tools-its-about-the-skills/

An Insight Into Images

Above is one of my images that I took. It can be seen that the original photograph has been edited - something that I have a tendancy to do with most of my photos. I usually change the contrast settings and brightness, as well as resizing if necessary.

I attempted to engage with the MobaPhoto software, but after a few attempts to resize and edit images I soon got bored with what it had to offer me, so I decided to use Paint instead to create the above image. I had to resize the photos to fit on the canvas, which resulted in the pixels being automatically altered.

Images can definitely be used in the classroom. However, in saying this, I believe that much like PowerPoint and Voki, images too, have the potential to become a distraction as the learners get sidetracked by what is directly in front of them, rather than the 'bigger picture'; the overall purpose.

Images can evoke emotions and feelings amongst the learners in relation to a certain topic that may challenge the learners to think outside the box. They can be a useful engagement tool that gives the learners endless opportunites to understand, analysise and evaluate to further develop skills to using knowledge meaningfully, perhaps through the underlying use of the Dimensions of Learning.

Below is an image that could be utilised as a learning resource in the classroom....

http://bestdesignoptions.com/?p=6191

• image could be used as a 'hook' to introduce and engage the students in a new unit about whether, whether cylces etc
• A KWL chart in an initial learning experience could be completed to ensure that the learners are discovering new concepts, ideas.
• A simple brainstorming activity hosted by the teacher to emphasis key words for a particular unit
• A prompt for a story writiing activity
• Used in an assessment piece in which the learners are asked to explain what type of cloud is featured in the image and why etc.
  

How Cool are Vokis!

Exploring Voki's was definitely one of the more time consuming tools to engage with as I found the inner child in me wanting to escape and take over! I really enjoyed discovering how a voki is created and how it functions, testing out all the different looks, backgrounds and of course the text.

I can really see how effective the use of Voki avatar would be in the classroom, as voki.com outlines that the use of Voki's in the classroom context motivates the students to participate, nourish's students creativity, improves message comprehension, effective language learning and personalises the teacher's relationship with the students. Ultimately, this digital tool improves and encourages learning on both an academic and social level.

I created a PMI chart that outlines the good, bad and interesting points about this learning device.

Learning Management Systems

I have been able to engage in two learning management systems throughout my time at universtiy, including Blackboard and Moodle. I know that without Blackboard and Moodle, particularly during my first year, I would have been a mess. I loved the comfort of knowing that everything I needed for each course was right there in one place, ready for me to access whenever I needed it. Both these learning management systems are presented in an organised, easy to operate system and suit my visual learning style perfectly.

To utilise such learning managment systems in a classroom would be quite beneficial, not only for the students, but also for the parents and the teacher. Within the learning management system the teacher can upload:
- content
- interactive activities
- blogs
- discussion forums
- assessment requirements

A learning management system is content driven tool that allows it users to access resources, assessment requirements, and engage in online collaboartion with other users. It would allow the teacher to communicate with the parents on a technological level, making it more convienient for some parents to become involved with their child's learning.

Have a peek at Prezi

I must admit, exploring Prezi was actually quite fun, after I got the hang of it that is...
It took me a while to figure out what each function did, but after failing a few times and becoming frustrated (as we do!!) I eventually understood just how effective this digital tool is.

From a classroom perspective, this learning device could be so beneficial for both the teacher and the students. Just like PowerPoint, it enables the audience (i.e the learners) to become stimulated and engaged through the use of the interactive functions both tools have.

It would be a great tool to use in the classroom as it would allow the learners to build on their prior knowledge of a certain topic, concept and/or idea. A prezi presentation will also assist in how the learners, particularly the visual learners in the class, view the relationship between two elements through just simply editing the direction, zooming in and out etc.

Like all digital tools in the classroom, many students will become quite distracted with the 'awesomeness' of such an exciting program... I know I did!

Here is the link to my very first Prezi:
http://prezi.com/yhiwulpgnewf/have-a-peek-at-prezi/

Powerful PowerPoint

Above is an example of a PowerPoint presentation created my group and I in a course last year....

I have been exposed to Powerpoint for years now. Having done the business subjects throughout highschool, I was taught to became a so called 'expert' with this particular tool. I loved learning the basic steps, then exploring what else could be done to further enhance my presentation.

Engaging with PowerPoint once more in this course reminded me of how much I enjoyed the engaging with this tool when I was a student, which leads me to believe that it is such a powerful digital learning device to be utilised in the classroom...

PowerPoint can be used in the classroom in the following ways:

• In an introductory lesson as the 'hook' to engage the students in information about a new topic.
  - Having recently completed an assignment in SOSE, I used a powerpoint presentation as the hook for my first learning experience. The powerpoint was just images and music, there was no text. I then encouraged the learnings to say how they felt viewing these images - it was emotive.

• Can be used as an assessment tool in which the students create their own powerpoint presentations and present them to their peers. This will allow the students to experience, first hand, the purpose of PowerPoint and why it is used to stimulate its audience.

• To inform students of a set of instructions for a certain activity, homework tasks etc

Below is my PMI chart that outlines the effectiveness of PowerPoints in the classroom:

The Weird and Wonderful World of Wiki

My Wiki: http://hannahs-e-learning-journey.wikispaces.com/

When creating my WIKI using Wikispaces I had my doubts.. doubts about many things such as: the overall purpose of my wiki, my creativity and its uses in education...

Dont get me wrong, I love the intent of a wiki but honestly I am struggling with trying to see the benefits. I am the type of person that likes to focus on a clear, set and easy to understand layout. That is why I love my blog so much because I feel that I have a sense of ownership to a certain extent. Where as, with my wiki I feel that with limited themes, fonts and openess to anyone editing what I write etc, I can't seem to make it 'feel' like my own.

However, in saying all of this, from an educational perspective I can definitely see the positives. When reading about wiki's in the course content on Moodle the key features stood out to me, particularly these three -

Fun; everyone can contribute - but nobody has to,
Sharing; of informaton, knowledge, experience, ideas and views, and

Collaboration; a good collaboration tool.

Then I had a light bulb moment...

Isn't our aim in the classroom to make each learning experience a fun task in which the students can share and collaborate with eachother. So, whether it be a wiki or a blog or hey, why not both, they each provide such interesting and insightful opportunities for children to learn from an academic and social perspective. In essence, a wiki and a blog are quite similar and genearlly in regards to which one I may choose to utilise in the future will largely depend on the students I have in my class, as well as what works best at the time. For example, because a wiki is very communcations based, I could have the students communicate with eachother - through a wiki - about a certain topic or issue which will result in each of them increasing their confidence with techonology and with eachother, as some students will be very confident and motivated, particularly if they aren't in normal classroom interactions..

As a lifelong learner, overcoming this obstacle about my feelings towards wiki is just a minor hiccup in my technological journey but I am sure I will get there eventually..

How does everyone else feel about wiki?