Lets keep up to date

I’ve enjoyed learning about all the technologies we can use in the classroom. But now that semester two and E-learning is over how will I keep up to date with technological content?

Over the past few years I have signed up to a number of e-newsletters for magazines, clothing brands, radio stations and more. So I thought to myself what better way to stay “in the know” when it comes to new technologies than joining an online community and receiving their e-newsletters.

Professional Learning Communities (or PLC’s) are everywhere on the internet. There are state versions like NSW’s TaLe, national like Australia’s edna and even international like America’s Tapped In.

I could also network and share ideas with other teachers and education professionals through TeacherTube, Twitter, LAMS and more. Or I could even go old school and read magazines and journals dedicated to exploring new and innovative technologies for classroom use.

These are just a few ways to stay connected to E-learning, which I now realise is an important part of teaching and learning in schools.

Alana

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Comic Strips and 2010 action plans

In our last e-learning lesson we used the application ‘comic life’ to create our own comic strip about the ways we would keep up with new and exciting technologies (I said E-newsletters).

Not only did I enjoy making the comic strip but it was also quite easy. I definitely think children would like to make their own (professional looking) strip as well.

So when we wrote our ’2010 Prac. action plans’ I said I would be committed to trying comic strips with the class.

The students would be required to create them either online or using ‘comic life’ software. They could share them on a class blog for others to view.

I suggested that comic strips could be used during a PDHPE lesson where students visually portray:
- Their active lifestyle (healthy eating and exercise) or
- Relationships with other people.

Alana

Here’s my very simple comic strip (it’s my first one and practice makes perfect):

My thoughts on Vanessa’s thoughts – A reactionary post

It was interesting (and visually appealing) to see Vanessa’s thoughts on e-learning in her “Discovery..” post.

The colourful mindmap explores blogging and podcasting, both of which Vanessa believes ‘gives students an international voice’ where they ‘publish work for a wider audience than the classroom’.

I agree with Vanessa and think it’s really important for students to share their work with an audience over the internet, otherwise what is the point in using technology?

Finally, I like how Vanessa believes that ‘e-learning should be integrated across all KLA’s’. I’m sure there would be a variety of ways to incorporate e-learning activities in many subjects such as English, mathematics, HSIE etc.

Alana

thanks to this flickrer

Wiki what?

For technologically illiterate people such as myself videos by Common Craft are really helpful in understanding things like blogs, google documents, podcasting etc and how to use them.

I wanted to learn about wikis so I watched the video below called “Wetpaint Wikis in Plain English”.

Using simple cartoons and a story to follow I learnt that:
- Wetpaint wikis are easy to set up
- It’s a great way to share your passion with other people
- Anybody can add or change information on the wiki
- Your wiki community grows by word of mouth

Thanks Common Craft!

Good Points – A reactionary post

After reading Ali’s post “Technology allows students to do what?” I came across some very good points she made:

- Sometimes we forget that children of today are constantly using technology in their daily lives and therefore have developed skills.

- As a result, students can easily pick up how to make movies, cartoons, podcasts and more.

- So as teachers we should utilise these skills and incorporate them in the classroom!

Instead of worrying that 6 year olds won’t be able to type (which was probably the case 15 years ago), we should be challenging them to do things such as make their own blogs.

Alana

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New technologies and Constructionism

Here’s a vodcast of my thoughts on all the new technologies we can use in teaching and constructionism:

(And yes that is a drawing of a handsome young stickfigure man)

Webquests

During my first practicum as a student teacher i kept hearing the word ‘webquest’ around the staffroom and how much teachers love them. I had never even heard of them before let alone complete one.

I found out that a webquest is ‘an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web’ (Webquest.org).

So this means that students by themselves, in pairs or small groups participate in a lesson which requires them to research information online.

Each webquest has an introduction, task, process, evaluation, conclusion and credits page.

I think some of the benefits of using webquests (as opposed to simply giving students a website URL) include:

- It’s child-friendly (simple format, colourful pictures)
- Teachers can develop their own tasks and questions specific to the learning needs of the students
- Generally keep students on task (requirements are visible to students, no distracting content sometimes found on other websites)

After researching webquests a little more and seeing examples of how other teachers use them, I would definitely consider using them in the future.

Alana

thanks to this flickrer

Podcasting

For someone who understands the IDEA of technologies such as webquests, blogs, podcasting etc, I have never gotten into any of it. All of this is changing and a few weeks ago I made my first podcast! It was only 30 secs long, featured ’7 things you didn’t know about me’ and my friend speaking German, but it was still a podcast.

Just like blogging, it sounds confusing but is pretty simple. So I’ve come to the conclusion that if I can make a podcast children must be able to as well.

Will Richardson is a firm believer in this idea and shares podcasting inspiration in the article “How to Use Podcasts at Your School”.

Richardson reckons that the main motivating factor podcasts have to offer is the possibility for students to create podcasts for not only their class, school or community but also for an unlimited and far-reaching audience. “Podcasting is yet another way for them to be creating and contributing ideas to a larger conversation, and it’s a way of archiving that contribution for future audiences to use”.

There are lots of ways students could use podcasting such as narrating creative stories, sharing ideas they have recently learnt about or their opinions on an excursion.

After experiencing podcasting for myself, I definitely think children would have fun and be motivated to create their own podcasts.

Alana

Thanks to this flickrer

Teaching with blogs

Seeing as I have started blogging to a much wider community through edublogs, I wanted to learn more about the ways teachers can use them in the classroom.

Sarah Fallon explores this through her article, All the World’s a stage: Teaching through Online Journals, where she states ‘blogs aren’t just for techheads and political cranks. They’re opening up classrooms, too’.

Some of the ways Fallon, Will Richardson and Anne Davis suggest educational blogs can be used:

- Post thoughts on each day’s work in the classroom (for ‘parents who want to keep up and to students who need to catch up’) or entire year’s assignments, handouts and extra information.

- If you’re new to blogging should start small, for example, by simply posting homework assignments.

- Create a mentoring program between highschool and primary school students.

- Give students a number of current-event links to blog about and encourage them to choose different subject areas from week to week. Also give students comment starters like, ‘I wonder why…’ or ‘Another thing to consider is…’

Davis, a primary school teacher, said that ‘having an outside audience really made a difference’ to students and that the younger students ‘couldn’t believe that someone else would care what they wrote’. I think that an outside audience would really help students’ self-esteem and encourage them to create blogs that are interesting and thought-provoking.

I found this article very useful as I felt Fallon, Richardson and Davis provided me with new and interesting ways of using blogs in the classroom.

Alana

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Mathletics = fun

Mathletics is a very popular online maths site where students from kindergarten to year 12 complete interactive math activities relevant to their learning. The major attraction in participating in mathletics is the ‘live’ component where students can compete against others not only interstate but from all over the world.

Rachel Boyd’s post “happy world maths day” explored her opinions on the trialling of live mathletics at her school. Boyd, along with her students (5 and 6 year olds) really enjoyed it. Using a slideshare, Boyd made viewing her students’ opinions really simple and interesting (I have never seen a slideshare before).

I agree with Rachel and think that use of mathletics in the classroom is a great motivational tool as it challenges and brings out students’ competitive sides.

Alana

Thanks to this flickrer