Reflective Synopsis

Retrieved from: http://bayyinah.com/elearning/

Technology has transformed the learning environment drastically in the past few decades. While students still sit in lecture halls and access physical texts and databases from their local or campus libraries, much has changed. In this digital era, technological tools are being implemented more and more in and out of the classroom to learn and teach, and a broad term used to describe this is e-Learning.

Online resources, tools, and handheld devices have changed the way we think, behave, process information and learn. We have access to endless amounts of information and powerful tech tools at our fingertips. This new technology has not only changed how students learn, but also how teachers teach. Technology is a prevalent factor in everyone’s lives, so the importance of using these tools to our advantage in the classroom is a given. It has the power to easily engage and cater to all teaching and learning styles through static images, animations, video, auditory and interactive stimuli. Furthermore, due to the ease of access everywhere, learning is not limited to the classroom. Flipped classrooms are common and learning can now be done through self-guided searches virtually anywhere and anytime, alone or learning collaboratively with others.

Technology can aid the three long-standing theories of learning and teaching of behaviourism (e.g. online quizzes), cognitivism (e.g. online mind-mapping tools, like bubbl.us, to name one), and social constructivism (collaborative and scaffolding learning through blogs, wikis, websites), and a new idea has emerged relating more directly to the online environment called connectivism.

Connectivism is the theory that encapsulates the digital age and its expanse of resources and information. It is not about the knowledge itself, but on knowing how to connect to and find the sources of said knowledge. Open and communal sites, wikis, and databases all hold this information, and discovering where and how to access it opens up an entire world for the learner. This itself is a form of social constructivism; the virtual world stage of more knowledgeable people creating a collaborative and scaffolded learning environment for anyone to build on and discover.

Pedagogy, the methods and science of teaching, is a term educators should be familiar with. And using ICTs in the classroom for this purpose is called digital pedagogy. Merely using technological tools to aid, enhance, and present, however, is not what is fully meant by the term digital pedagogy. Technology should not be used for the sake of it, but should be implemented to transform the learning environment, encouraging students to investigate, create, communicate (Australian Curriculum, n.d.), and tap into those higher order thinking processes using the modern tools at their fingertips. Pedagogy needs to change with the times and reflect the world we live in.

retrieved from: https://sites.google.com/a/richland2.org/svh-tech/pedagogy/samr

Using the SAMR Model (DETA, 2013) developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, which shows how digital media is integrated in the classroom, teachers can use tech at the substitution and augmentation level, or completely transform the activity and experience with at the modification and re-definition levels, facilitating learning in ways not previously possible without the use of ICTs. While there is nothing wrong with simply substituting older methods for ones using modern technology for more ease of use, the higher tiers of SAMR redefine the learning activity and increase the engagement factor among learners.

retrieved from: scottjhovey.blogspot.com

In order to successfully and effectively use technology to transform the learning stage, teachers must be proficient in their field as well as in the use of the ICT tools and be able to utilise them in a way that incorporates the workings of the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) framework by Schulman (1986), with the construct of technology (TPACK). In contrast to the simple view of technology, the TPACK framework emphasises the connections, interactions, affordances, and constraints between and among content, pedagogy, and technology (Mishra, P., Koehler, M.J., 2006). It will be fascinating to incorporate these ICTs into my own pedagogy in my future classrooms, making the teaching and learning area an interactive and innovative one, engaging students and me, the teacher, as well.

The online environment can provide a rich tapestry of ideas and sources, but teachers and students must be aware of the risks involved, such as safety, privacy and copyright issues. According to the Department of Education and Training (DETA, 2012) schools should "develop and implement web publishing procedures to minimise these risks, keeping in mind that the risks associated with publishing information on the Internet are greater than for a school Intranet which is a closed environment. Schools should:

• Develop and implement procedures and guidelines for web publishing at the school level
• Skill staff to manage school-based web publishing
• Guide and supervise students during the course of web publishing
• Develop and implement policies and procedures for the removal or replacement of inappropriately published material"

Mobile devices, with their connectivity, pose a regulatory difficulty for schools, as it is hard to control what a student accesses online. Ethical behaviour must be enforced and encouraged when using these tools in a classroom setting. Despite this, they are a growing technology with a plethora of possibilities for the present and future classroom.

Week 6, Reflection 5

Group 4 Tools


Animations and Simulations

For this task there were lots of tools presented to us which we were to choose from and explore. I had a look at most of them and had some fun playing around with them.

ZOOBURST
First let's look at ZooBurst. As stated on the website, Zooburst "is a digital storytelling tool that lets anyone create his or her own 3D pop-up books". After signing up for free and navigating around the site and getting started, I found it relatively easy. With the thought of teaching secondary students, Zooburst struck me as being a bit simplistic, juvenile, and not so engaging for the most part fo the ages we will most likely be teaching.

However, as one of my specialisations is LOTE, I can definitely see the benefits and classroom use of this little site. When learning a foreign language, beginning students feel as if they are kids again (not always a great feeling!) when it comes to the language they are able to produce and understand. Even building basic sentences can be a challenge. Zooburst could help students produce language in the form of a story, whether it's one of their own creations or a maybe even an attempted translation of another existing story. It could even be a short biography! Pictures can be uploaded to personalise characters and settings, and with the paid version, sounds and voice are able to be added into the mix.

Coincidentally, a couple of days before I first went to the Zooburst site, my 7 year old daughter wrote a little story she was awfully proud of, so I thought that together we could illustrate that story, called Where Is Kiko?, using Zooburst! She had a lot of fun doing it and I had a blast helping her out. Here is her final product.



Where Is Kiko?

To sum up on this one, as stated, it could be a fun and useful tool for beginners in foreign language classes, and I might definitely try to use it in my future classes for this purpose. But for high school aged students in other subjects, I don't really see it as being that interesting enough or engaging enough for learners. But you never know until you try it!


ONLINE CONCEPT MAPPING

Image retrieved from: www.easierway.ca

Next I had a play with the online concept mapping tool bubbl.us.  Mapping of this nature is a wonderful way to get students to engage those higher order thinking skills and expand on their knowledge of a subject, brainstorming all the components of a topic and their corresponding relationships. Technology nowadays helps us to create these maps in a visually stunning and simple way. Here is my engagement activity for this one, mapping the topic of some of the Group 3 and Group 4 tools and concepts.



And what better way of analyzing this tool than to create a mind map about it.



To close, these tools (even ones I haven't mentioned, such as Google Earth and Google Maps) definitely have a place in aiding learning and getting students to incorporate different methods to present and illustrate their study topics. I would first have to look at the class and examine their preferred learning styles and learning goals to decided which, if any, could be used to enhance the classroom. Variety is good; it caters to many different teaching/learning methods and should be used to maximize student involvement and learning outcomes. Good luck!

Week 5, Reflection 4

Group 3 Tools Overview

Hello all!  This week for the we were asked to look at a couple more tools for possible use in the classrooms to enhance the learning experience for students. They were PowerPoint, Prezi, and Glogster. Let's have a look at the features they offer and also at the positives as well as the shortcomings of each, as well.


PowerPoint


Everyone knows PowerPoint, even if you haven't played around with it or utilised it yourself.  It's a pretty handy little program, which of course is proven by its widespread use and popularity in classrooms, business meetings, and pretty much everywhere a screen and a speaker is present.

PowerPoint is a program used mainly for linear presentations in the form of a slide show. More often than not, that's it, although many nice little features can be added to your slideshow to make it more attractive and fancy. But what not as many people take advantage of is the more interactive capabilities of PowerPoint. By embedding audio, video and hyperlinks, a monotonous substitute for a whiteboard note-taking session can be a lot more engaging for teachers and learners alike. In addition, embedding is possible with PowerPoint Online.

Mine is by no means sleek or that interesting.  But by creating a little virtual room, objects can be placed and hyperlinked to other slides to create a fun little presentation. This could be done by both students and teachers. I have made a very simple point and click vocabulary game for beginners in German with a few words to learn. I didn't do it here, but audio could also be added to aid in pronunciation if desired. Unfortunately I had some online OneDrive issues, so I cannot embed my presentation here.

PowerPoint PMI:

The Positives

• Easy to use
• Handy for presentations
• Can embed multimedia to make it more interactive
• Can be accessed and used offline

The Minuses

• Can be a boring, linear affair
• Isn't usually used for much else other than a substitute for a whiteboard

Interesting

• With PowerPoint Online you can embed in blogs, sites and wikis
• Can be a more interactive experience than I previously thought!

Glogster


I had heard the name Glogster before but I had really no idea what this was until a few weeks ago. I immediately was able to see the plus points this program could lend to the world of education. It is a versatile tool that can be incorporated into any curriculum and can stretch the imagination of teachers and students.  Multimedia capabilities make Glogster a fun program. Images, video, audio, links and all can be incorporated into this collage style of presentation.  Students would enjoy collaborating together and this is something they could do at home as well, in a flipped classroom setting.

I could imagine having students in a German class creating an interactive tour through Germany, with images and links to videos, maps and other interesting topics and exploring the history- much like this one here which I found online, a virtual field trip of sorts. (The embed link path wasn't working, so I apologize for the archaic link to the glog below.)
  
Glog about Germany

Due to the fact that you now have to pay to use Glogster (well, there is a 7 day free trial), I opted not to make one myself or sign up just yet.  But I enjoyed looking around the web and playing with some interesting glogs. So let's do a PMI for this as well.

The Positives

• Easy to use, very engaging
• Interactive (multimedia capabilities)
• Adaptable to any subject
• Good for collaborative learning
• Can easily be done at home for homework

The Minuses

• Ease of use might encourage simple drag and drop
• Glogs can quickly become too "busy" and messy (overlapping features), therefore making it difficult to navigate
• One must sign up and pay for an account

Interesting

• Media and video is openly accessible, possible copyright and ownership issues

Prezi


When one thinks of PowerPoint, one thinks of a more linear approach to presenting material. With Prezi, that thought gets turned around, zoomed in and out, flipped around, and pans all around. And that is exactly how you can present with this program. I found it very fun to play around with after watching a few pre-made presentations.

As with the other two tools previously discussed this week, Prezi has a multimedia functionality that makes it engaging and interesting, appealing to all the senses. Video, imagery, and audio can be sleekly designed into your presentation. The standout feature though that separates this program from PowerPoint (which is slightly more user-friendly) is its NON-linear approach and zoom function. Sure you can go in order throughout the canvas, but it can jump around. Individual attention can be given to certain concepts, looking at them in greater detail, presenting them in whichever form the teacher or student feels best suited, be it an image, video clip or audio sample. Although the zoom is an interesting feature, I felt that too much of it was a bit disorientating, and more of a gimmick, a glorified PowerPoint slide transition, if you will.

As for classroom implementation, I think it's obviously suited. It can be made more interesting than your average PowerPoint presentation and like PowerPoint, it could be a wonderful and engaging tool for collaborative learning, teacher AND student presentations, book reports. And with its ability to be embedded into blogs and sites, students could do presentations as homework (provided they have a good internet connection at home).

I made a rather simple Prezi this time around, but I will definitely be looking into how to make it a lot more interesting when I have more time! This Prezintation is describing the Water Cycle in German, which of course could be used in a German class when nature or scientific vocabulary and topics are being discussed.




Prezi in SAMR

Substitution - A usable substitute for a linear whiteboard presentation/lecture.
Augmentation - The multi-focal zoom effects and transitions add new features to the normal presentation, as well as the incorporation of images, audio, and video.
Modification- Students can create presentations or book reports with audio narration and interactive activities
Redefinition- Using online Cloud base, share presentation worldwide and imbed hyperlinks to a wide range of media such as YouTube, Soundcloud, or other media tool.

Week 4, Reflection 3

Tools in ICT  

This week in ICTs for Learning Design we are having a look at a few more technological methods that could be used to enhance the learning environment and make in and out of class activities more engaging for the 21st century learner; images, digital audio (podcasts, etc.) and digital video.

Choosing one to focus on was hard, as all of them can be used so often and effectively to aid in learner engagement. Furthermore, often each of these three things go hand in hand and can be used simultaneously to enrich school tasks and bring out the inherent creativity in students. I'll go over each of them in brief, then cast the spotlight on the area of digital video.

Images

Pictures are everywhere- from hilarious memes, personal family portraits, to the vane and shameless "selfies" that flood social media posts. These days all are pretty much guaranteed to be in digital format, and if not, can easily be digitalized. And the wonderful and sometimes irresponsible result of this? Manipulation! Photos can be resized, doctored (cropping, green screening (also known as 'photoshopping')), text and captions can be added using a variety of software (e.g. Photoshop, Paint, even in built software in mobile phones), and all can be sent through email, posted and attached to messages and entries in blogs, websites, and other social media outlets.

Here is an example of easy manipulation of an image; resizing to make uploads and storage more manageable.  I used the Paint program to shrink the size down considerably and change the file format from a PNG to a JPG. Also note the huge difference in upload time.

Original: 1900x1200 2.25MB Upload time around 30 seconds

After resizing: 320x240  41KB  Upload time around 3 seconds

Images can engage thinking in students, getting them started in their higher order thinking processes, direct them and visually encompassing what they are learning by giving them a physical picture to guide them.Visual aids are an important element for memory and cognitive processes.


Digital Audio

For my endeavor into digital audio, I chose to download the AudioBoom app and record my sound file there. It was unbelievably straightforward and easy. After creating an account, one just hits the red record circle and away you go.  Then you publish to your account and voila, you've created a voiced audio file, free to share and post anywhere. Listen below to hear a little bit about the use of digital audio.

listen to ‘ICTs Digital Audio’ on audioBoom

Digital Video

Video is nothing new to the world, and that includes the classroom. Watching an instructional video on VHS or a documentary in primary school was always a memorable event, and that hasn't changed. Now of course, more often than not, the video format is digital. The possibilities are vast.

Using such tools and software like Windows Movie Maker or SooMeta, creation of video is a relatively simple process.  With Windows Movie Maker, one simply adds an image or video file into the program and you're pretty much set. There are a ton of options that you can choose to tweak and personalise your video of how you want it to be. For instance, you can set it to music, add captions, text, titles and so on to the clip. You can add a variety of visual effects (e.g. colour changes, washes, fade in/fade out, etc.) as well. After saving the file, it can be shared or uploaded to sites such as Youtube, a platform for sharing video files, in order to make it public to the world wide audience.

I personally have some prior experience with Movie Maker and YouTube.  Although I don't make 'movies' or 'video' in the actual sense of the word, I use them for one of my hobbies- mixing music.
After I mix and record a set, I select a still image and upload that into Movie Maker.  Then I take the audio file of my set and set that still image to the music, essentially playing the image on repeat for the duration of the audio file.  I sometimes place the artist and title of the track that is playing as a caption, adding effects like scrolling and fading. The end result is a digital 'video' that I then upload and share on my YouTube channel. As I mentioned above, this is a good example of how images, audio and video are all used together to create stimulating media.

Here is one of my mixes on YouTube. If you're interested, feel free to check out the others on my channel as well! (shameless promotion?)

Entertainment and fun are both well and good, but how could digital video by implemented in an educational setting?

Everyone has their own preferred learning style. Obviously for the visual learners, video would be an ideal method of lesson and instruction. From the teacher's side of things, video can be an effective tool for delivering knowledge to learners. Visually engaging, video is a good medium to facilitate memory and cognitive thinking, creating quick and lasting images which aid the learner's ability to retain information. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so a lengthier video must be worth much more then! In addition, some things are much easier to grasp and comprehend when we physically see them demonstrated: processes, experiments, simulations, and even recreations of historical events. Visual stimuli (usually coupled with auditory elements as well) play an important role in recalling new knowledge.

Apart from passively watching a video, having students use their knowledge and creativity to make a video would be an excellent way to demonstrate their understanding of a topic, not to mention a fun way to learn. Using all the multimedia tools, software and programs readily available today, shooting, cutting and editing an attractive video can also be relatively easily done.

Once again referring back to the SAMR model, let's have a look at some possible examples of using digital videos in the classroom at the model's four levels.

Substitution  - Students could watch an online video in class explaining a scientific or mechanical process.  This is really the same as analogue video, merely a different platform, and just replaces what a teacher could verbally do, as well. But this format might simply be more interesting to the modern learner.

Augmentation - Using mobile devices or modern cameras to watch and film digital video, with quick easy access to editing options, watching whenever and wherever (not just in class, but on the go, at home, etc.)

Modification - Students could make and edit a digital video, adding text, music, captions, etc. to highlight key points.

Re-definition -After using all the modern software to create, edit, and execute their own visual presentation, students could upload and share it on sites such as YouTube, reaching a world-wide audience.


All types of multimedia can be an excellent pedagogical tool, inside as well as outside of the classroom.  Educators must, however, be aware of certain legal, privacy, copyright and other ethical matters that modern media carries with it, and use these tools in accordance with their school's rules and legal allowances, ensuring a safe learning environment for teachers and students alike.

Week 3: Reflection 2

The Technological Tools of Pedagogy: The Blog

Source: http://unbounce.com/content-marketing/your-blog-your-rules/

This week we looked more into the tools available in the world of technology that could be used as a means of education, learner engagement, and creative productivity- blogs, wikis, and websites.  In this post I will be taking a close and analytical look at the blog (abbreviated form of web log).

What are blogs, and how are they used?

Blogs have been around for a couple of decades now, and have in that time evolved from simplistic journals and diaries to very interactive and versatile tools for information, connectivism and functionality.  Modern blogs can contain imbedded media (videos, audio, pictures, links) that give the reader (and writer!) a myriad of options to expose the world wide audience to whatever it is the author is ‘blogging’ about.  Blog topics are as endless as the imagination, ranging from mundane daily accounts of life (like a diary), updating readers on the inner thoughts and actions of the author , to professional news reports, journals, travel information, questionnaires, and much more. 

For this university course, the first thing we were to do was to set up our own blog.  I had never had my own blog before, for whatever reason I didn’t deem it totally necessary for my life.  But setting up this one I was amazed and even enthralled once I saw how easy and exciting it was to personalize it and give it the appearance and layout I wanted.  In a word: easy.  Gone are the days when the average person can only passively observe the web.  With Web 2.0 (What is Web 2.0?), construction of your own web space has been made extremely user-friendly.  For the blog, easy manipulation of provided backgrounds, colour schemes, layouts and fonts make for a simple yet interesting way of personalising your own little domain on the world wide web, done in such a way the average lay-person would get it with next to no difficulty.

What it means for education

Source: http://instructionaltechtalk.com/3-reasons-students-blogging/

Blogs also can serve as an effective education tool for learners.   Through writing, reading and commenting on blogs, learners become engaged in the learning process.  Teachers could have a blog set up with course work and information, and require students to read, reflect and comment.  For more learner centred work, the students themselves could write course appropriate blogs to analyse, reflect, and create their own tools to demonstrate their growing declarative and procedural knowledge of a topic, linking to other sites, wikis, video and tools for user interaction.  It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but in this day and age it might be more appealing to the modern tech-savvy student than perhaps a dull pen-to-paper essay or report.  Learning styles vary, and educators need to use a wide variety of media to engage and build learner enthusiasm and learner centred approaches.  Blogs are one such possibility.

In the future I plan to teach English, German, and French.  Blogs could be a useful tool in the classroom in many ways.  They could provide a scaffold and link to vocabulary activities and games for rote learning or guides to grammar and cultural topics and articles, connecting the learners with a vast international audience. Using the SAMR Model (see earlier related post here), which was developed by Dr Reuben Puentedura and describes the ways technology is used in pedagogical environments, let me explain some possible implementations of how blogs could be used in future teaching.

S (Substitution) – At this level, a blog could be used as a simple substitute for creative writing, essays, reports and reflections as opposed to pen and paper format.

A (Augmentation) – One can improve on the functionality here by having students find topic related blogs (e.g. German culture, food, travel) and interact through the provided tools and links and/or comments.

M (Modification) – Now transforming the normal classroom into a more tech-integrated experience, an example could be to have students analyse a text (e.g. Shakespeare), then share thoughts and opinions through embedded wikis or ‘jigsaw’ activities, providing students with a large online audience and a social constructivist and scaffolded approach.

R (Redefinition) – Using technology in a way that couldn’t have been possible before, students could create blogs, make personal videos, recreate scenes from novels using Upstage or Xtranormal, add interactive tools (e.g. vokis) to guide/pose/answer questions and link multimedia applications to the blog for a varied and eye-catching report.

The Good, the Bad, the Blog

I came up with a PMI (Positive/Minus/Interesting) chart for using blogs as an educational tool.  Let this voki from the distant future continue and explain. Note: His is a slightly abridged version due to text length limits. If you cannot see or hear him, you can click here 

Positive	Minus	Interesting
* Blogs are easy to make and     use - user-friendly  * As the author, you have     control over content  * Versatile with what you can     put on them  * Could be a more engaging     method of learning for     students  * Can use both teacher-centred     AND learner-centred     approaches	* Can be seen as a simple substitute      for writing on paper  *  Readers can only comment on      content, not much real interaction  *  Comments can be monitored and      removed by author or moderator	* Most schools do not allow and      block blog sites at schools  *  Would all learners benefit and find      the use of blogs helpful, engaging,      and interesting?  *  A possible medium for online      harassment and bullying?

 
And I'll leave you with a humorous interpretation of Bloom's Taxonomy according to Seinfeld.
Until next time!

Week 2: Blooms Taxonomy and the SAMR Model

This week we looked at two pedagogical models, the tried and true oldy-but-goody Bloom's Taxonomy, and the SAMR Model, each having their own attributes.

Bloom's Taxonomy was thought up in the mid 20th century (1956) and, although it has been slightly modified, remains a useful guide for educators who want to create lessons and units of work that explore beyond the scope of rote learning, challenging students into the deeper, higher order cognitive department.  It moved beyond the at the time go-to learning/teaching method of behaviourism, into broader fields, where learners not only memorize information and certain knowledge, but get a chance to apply, analyze, evaluate and use their complete knowledge and cognition to create new ideas from this learned content; a higher order of thinking.


The SAMR Model, on the other hand, was devised to show effective implementation of technology as a tool of effective pedagogy in the classroom. It shows tech use from low-level substitution and modification to more transformative means and methods, culminating in a use of technology to teach and promote a higher level of application which wasn't possible before without said technology, be it an online application, game, program, or social media tool. 

Bloom's is obviously broader in scope, where SAMR focuses specifically in the realm of tech use.  However, Bloom's can also incorporate this aspect into its model.  I found a handy diagram illustrating the relationship and integration of these two models.

Source: http://drapestak.es/that-time-where-samr-gets-us-in-trouble-2/

Week 2: Reflection 1

This week we all participated in a wiki activity using the de Bono's Hats approach about the issue of mobile phones in the classroom.  Now I was a bit baffled and it took a little bit of minor research to see what exactly these ‘hats’ entailed.  I apparently wasn’t exposed to this in primary as many of you were.  But after a quick Google search light was soon shed on this practice, and I dove in to the wiki. 

Source: peak-ict.wikispaces.com

And speaking of wikis, this was also my first experience with those. Although not altogether the same, I used to post on certain internet discussion forums, and those have a slightly similar way about them, so I it didn’t take long at all to wrap my head around what was going on. 

As for the design of the activity, I thought using a wiki as the platform for the mobile phone discussion was a good one, as well as the de Bono's Hats method.  This method of learning/discussion is a great example of how people can effectively gain insight and understanding not just from the opinions and posts of others, but by ‘putting on’ the different colored hats and thinking about the topic from another angle, self-reflection, understanding, and further analysis can also occur.  It also goes to show that this activity was a good tool of effective pedagogy.  Here’s why:

Source: http://expertbeacon.com/blooms-taxonomy/

By using the de Bono's Hats, we were presented with a topic, forced to analyse the topic from different viewpoints (regardless of our humble opinion), ranging from past, present, future and to the possible and hypothetical.  This is a perfect example of using scaffolded learning to promote those higher order thinking skills, which lie in the higher tiers of the Bloom’s Taxonomy triangle. This is what effective pedagogy aims to achieve in learners.  It goes beyond the scope of just regurgitating facts to thinking about the knowledge, applying it to a real, personal, or hypothetical scenario, analysing the reaction and/or effect, and evaluating the overall outcome or possible outcomes.   So in this way, I thought the design of the activity was very effective in getting students to think more deeply on the topic, exercising those cognitive skills, in an environment where they felt comfortable and safe voicing their opinions, therefore promoting a healthier, safer, more productive learning area.

After reading about different types of learning theories over these past few weeks, things are slowly but surely looking a bit clearer as of late in regards to the incorporation of different learning strategies in activities, and this mobile phone wiki activity was a good example of that.  Coupled with the deBono’s Hats method, the scaffolding was presented to us through the multiple hats (along with some early birds who made the first postings), guiding us through a discussion, engaging and building on, and sometimes disagreeing with the opinions of others.  Working together and learning through discussion and ‘social’ discovery represents the learning theory of Social Constructivism which was apparent in this activity.

The fact that this activity was done using an online medium known as a wiki leads one to believe this is also using a proposed learning theory for the modern era called Connectivism.  We gave our opinions online, but I am sure that many were at the same time using the internet to research more over the topic, finding handy links to add to your posts in order to gain more of an understanding of the topic and to have more of an informed opinion when posting.

Source: http://edtechvoice.com/lesson-1/the-samr-model/

Now wikis aren’t exactly a revelation or a transformative tiered medium, and citing the SAMR model, they are at best a substitute or an augmentation of what could be done without this technology.  However, one might lean toward the augmentation tier, as the online forum provides an immediate vast audience that puts a singular classroom to shame!  Without careful moderation on public wikis, however (as people can delete, alter and edit other people’s posts), it could get quite messy, confusing, and downright dirty in many situations, especially when assuming the online community as a whole is not so trustworthy or mature. Luckily our little activity was done amongst our own cohort, where we are sure we can safely voice our opinions and aren’t in danger of being bullied!

Overall, I enjoyed this activity and thought it was an insightful and effective method for getting us to use those higher order thinking skills about a topic we as future educators have a distinct opinion about. Bravo!