Reflection 6

From the very first lesson I attended for this subject, I became very excited and eager to learn what possibilities in ICT are available to improve student’s educational outcomes. Unfortunately it wasn’t long before I started to feel a little overwhelmed and had a feeling as if I was starting to fall behind in all my areas of my study, not just in this one.

When I reflect on this thought, I think a contributing factor was that I would have my tutorial late one afternoon than two days later I would have to submit the weekly assignment on the new technology I had just learnt in the previous lesson. Now I am not complaining about this because this is my journey and if I want to be successful in education then I must be competent in ICT. My school education finished twenty years ago (where I can’t really recall doing too much with computers) so I found myself concentrating more on the operation of these new technologies than the actual theory content of the lesson. I also struggled with the fact that I could not find too many examples of how I could use these new technologies in my teaching discipline of Industrial Technology and Design. As I worked through these difficulties I clearly understood the importance of ICT in schools and why a successful teacher must not only be able to operate new ICT technologies but also must understand and adapt to whatever technology may be available to them in the future.

Now I have that little rant out of the way I will discuss what I found really helpful through this course so far. Firstly, I am normally a quiet person in amongst people I am not familiar with, so I found the collaboration aspect of the class really helpful with breaking the ice with the other students. Secondly, I found that collaborating with the other students really took the stress and anxiety out of the development and planning stage of an assessment, as it cemented and further pin pointed the desired outcome. This would in turn give me a better chance of understanding and passing the assessment material. Other benefits from involving ICT in class include helping to better engage students in the lesson, and also equip students with the skills to work online.

Overall, I really enjoyed being exposed to new websites and learning the new skills that go along with operating them. This experience will be of great benefit to me as an educator and more importantly will help improve lesson engagement with my students in their learning material. I believe the best teachers have the option to incorporate all the tools available to them to achieve greater student academic results, therefore, if a teacher wants to continually improve as an educator they need to stay abreast of the latest technologies available to them. 

Embedded Assessment Task 5

This week we looked at a range of diverse technologies that can be incorporated into a classroom. We were also asked to study the NMC Horizon Study Report which is a - comprehensive research venture established in 2002 that identifies and describes key trends, significant challenges, and emerging technologies likely to have a large impact over the coming five years in education around the globe.

I found it a little difficult to choose what programs I could use in my teaching area of ITD, but I decided that the following concepts I may be able to use in class:

·         Online concept mapping

·         Collaborative authoring

·         Mapping

I have chosen to explore the online concept mapping site of Bubbl.us, as at this stage, I believe I would use this program more often during class than the others presented.

            The conceptmap that I developed is based around different types of timber that can be used in our school workshop. Students would be asked to investigate what timber can be sourced locally/internationally, which timber is native to Australia and whether or not they are hard or softwoods? Students can further explore what timbers are readily available and what may be nearly extinct and whether or not any local timbers could be supplied/harvested by the school?

I believe these types of strategies would cover all of de Bono’s thinking hats and would also cover each of SAMAR’s criteria. This strategy would also fall into the Elements of creative classroom framework categories from NMC HorizonReport > 2014 K-12 Edition pictured below: 

Strategising this way would help each student meet the Australian Curriculum General Capabilities in ICT.

Embedded Assessment Task 4

This week we looked at different types of media platforms that will help improve the presentation of learning materials to students. Platforms that we were asked to investigate included PowerPoint, Prezi, Glogster and Thinglink. Each of these programs have great features, but for me the main difference was that it only was PowerPoint that never had an ongoing fee and it also does not require an internet connection for the program to operate. It’s for those reasons I have chosen the PowerPoint to explore at a more in-depth level.

I have never previously used PowerPoint, other than reading off them in courses and quickly checking out some of their features. Needless to say it was not long before I had encountered problems with PowerPoint as well. The PowerPoint presentation on my computer looked and sounded nothing like the file I embedded onto platforms like “OneDrive” and “Authorstream”. These platforms did not have the same options for PowerPoint as my computer had, therefore when I embedded my file on these platforms it would completely change the format of my document and change the way it operates. Although I have only had roughly 1½ days experience on PowerPoint I was pleased with what I could construct on my computer but unable to replicate on my blog. There is obviously ways to do this well, as by the proof of what other students have done on their Blogs.

Upon discovering this information I would say that web based programs like Prezi, Glogster and ThinkLink would be easier to use when doing web based tasks. However PowerPoint may be easier to use when you don’t need an internet connection as you only require a memory stick and a computer?

Designing PowerPoints so they spark interest in your students is a key ingredient to getting your message across as this week’s reading of: Audience and Purpose suggests. The reading stated some basic facts about how you can strategise your message to better improve the delivery of the content you are trying to get across to your students. It was really the very first paragraph of this reading that resonated with me. I have included it below:

 
                               

Designing PowerPoints to spark interest in your students is a key ingredient to getting your message across, as this week’s reading of Audience and Purpose suggests. The reading stated some basic facts about how you can strategise your message to better improve the delivery of the content you are trying to get across to your students. It was really the very first paragraph of this reading that resonated with me. I have included it below:

When you communicate, your purpose is not what you want to do; instead, it is what you want your audience to do as a result of reading what you wrote or listening to what you said. Thus, it involves the audience. To communicate effectively (that is, to achieve your purpose), you must adapt to your audience. Therefore, you must know your audience.

I tried to follow the above instructions in my attached PowerPoint on workshop safety. I used current movie figures to quickly spark interest and to reiterate that we all think we are superheroes, but we all still can get hurt. I believe this PowerPoint can be generated so that I could provide further web links which would provide further exploring options and tests for the students that would be individually driven and paced? I believe this strategy would then fall under the red (feelings) and blue (control) hats of de Bono and would also cover each of SAMAR’s criteria. Strategising this way would help each student meet the Australian Curriculum General Capabilities in ICT.

Multimodal Education

Audio File:

Assessment Embedded Task 3:

According to Suzanne M. Miller and Mary B. McVee education needs to be embodied with the digital world if students are to feel that their education is meaningful and useful to their lives. Incorporating the digital world into the classroom is using technologies that improve the educational outcomes of students. These include images, audio files and videos. Below are some examples of how each of these types of media can enhance learning and meaning for the students:

Images:

·         Images can be used to spark interest in learning material

·         Engaged deeper thinking through evaluation and analysis e.g. See, Think Wonder tool

Audio:

·         Learn on the go

·         Instant updates

·         Keep knowledge in the one archive

·         Easy to recall information in the future

Video:

·         Help students retain what they learn

·         Help students better express their deepest understanding of core classroom content

·         Promotes creativity

·         Engages students in their learning

All of these types of media can be modified by the educator to help better facilitate the needs of individual classrooms. Students may also be allowed to individualise certain aspects of some media to help with their engagement.

Using the SAMAR model I can incorporate images into my teaching discipline of Industrial Technology Design as follows:

How to use and/or examination of Vernier Calipers

  Substitution –, an image could be included into paper instructions to help clarify and explain the correct measurement technique.

Augmentation – image and instructions to be completed online.

Modification – Students to self-record displaying competence in undertaking task at their own pace.

Redefinition –Recording to be uploaded by student and checked by teacher at their own pace.