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.