Podcasting.....iPod broadcasting

The students today in our classrooms are all 21st century learners. A majority of these learners are media savvy and digital natives (Pesce, 2008). Podcasting is a resource, which can be used to help these learners. Podcasting gives everyone a voice to share their ideas. It can be used by students as they will be able to share their thoughts and opinions across a variety of different subject areas.

Podcasting is a great tool for virtual classrooms. Instructions can be repeated using podcasts and the students can download them to listen to at home. By recording Podcasts in the classroom it will include students who are absent for the day and also give students a chance to reflect on the lesson for the day. It can help students out with their homework or assignments, if they were distracted when something was being explained at school. The students can download the Podcast and listen to it in a place they can concentrate and take the information in.

I had no idea what a Podcast was and now have a bit of an understanding. I have had iTunes on my computer for about 4 years now and have only ever used it for music. I was unaware it could be used for Podcasting. After researching for educational Podcasts on iTunes, I have found, subscribed and viewed a few Podcasts which I have found interesting and would like to share with my students. They include; Early Years Learning Environment by Anthony Barnett (2009) and Teachers Teaching Teachers by Paul Allison and Susan Ettenheim (2009).

The Early Years Learning Environment (Barnett, 2009) Podcast discusses how a behaviour displayed by the students can be seen in many different ways. Close observation of this, can come up with many possible answers as to the reason behind the behaviour. It will show students that things can be seen in many different ways and that sometimes we need to look at the picture a little closer to understand what is going on.

Teachers Teaching Teachers (Allison & Ettenheim, 2009) is a Podcast I found very interesting. This podcast is a discussion of how traditional teachers from all different curriculum areas across the United States, are coping using technology in their classroom. They share their opinions about how they have found using technology and the positive and negative experiences they have had when using it. It shows that we are lifelong learners (Queensland Studies Authority, 2006) and sometimes the teachers need to be the students to learn this new information.

- Natalie

Reference List

Allison, P. & Ettenheim, S. (2009). Teachers Teaching Teachers. Retrieved August 12, 2009, from http://edtechtalk.com/audio/download/3826/Teachers160-2009-07-15.mp3

Barnett, A. (2009). The Early Years Learning Environment. Retrieved August 12, 2009, from http://earlyyearslearningenvironment.blogspot.com/

Pesce, M. (2008). Those Wacky Kids. Retrieved August 12,2009, from http://www.viddler.com/explore/mpesce/videos/14/3.926/

Queensland Studies Authority. (2006). Attributes of a lifelong learner. Retrieved August 12, 2009, from http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/publications/research_qsa_lifelong_learner.pdf

ClassMaker online Quizzes

I have been exploring ClassMaker which is an online quiz service. I think it is a useful resource as a different quiz can be created for each different area covered in the classroom. It will save time for the Learning Manager as the quizzes or tests will not need to be printed out, they are automatically marked and results tallied and recorded (ClassMaker, 2009). With the beauty of technology and ClassMaker this is already done for you and the teacher can see directly which students have had trouble with what question and the topic areas. ClassMaker will give the students opportunities to practice doing quizzes to improve their skills and make the students understand how quizzes work and their purpose.

As I am currently in a year 2 class, I like how the questions can include images to help students out who learn visually. This would be great for students as they can see the questions in a different light and can help to clarify the question. John Dewey’s theory of children “learning through doing” supports the use of these quizzes, as students will be using their knowledge learnt in a different context and can lead to open ended activities used in the classroom.

As this is my first time using ClassMaker online quiz I have decided to use a pre existing maths quiz which is currently used as a hard copy test. I have only chosen a few questions to include, altered the questions and turned the quiz into multiple choice questions. This Quiz I created is for year 2 students for their mid semester reports. It will be completed at the end of semester 1 and will reflect their knowledge of information learnt during the term. This quiz will also have another hands on section which can not be completed online. When using this test in my class, some of the student’s will need extra assistance, as they have trouble reading the questions and answers. So these students would not get an advantage over other students, the teacher will observe the student completing the test and read out the questions to all students. Please have a look and even try it out to see if you are smarter than a 2nd grader!
Username: unistudents16
Password: Noosahub
Follow the links to complete the test

For my next quiz I have decided to create a quiz to check students learning during their current unit of work Material world.

-Natalie

Reference List
ClassMarker. (2009). How to use. Retrieved August 10, 2009, from http://www.classmarker.com/howtouse.php

Dewey, J. (2008). John Dewey’s theory. Retrieved August 10, 2009, from http://dewey.pragmatism.org/

Picnik photo editing

This website is called Picnik where you can change the style of your picture. As you can see from the picture (on the left) I changed the effect to make it look old, changed it into a Polaroid and mixed the colours together to give it a smooth soft effect.

I think this would be a useful resource in the classroom as students can change an image and learn about the different effects that images can have. Reggio Emilia's Theory of using graphic art as tools can be seen in this website, as students will be exploring the different effects and creating a different picture (Brainy Child, 2009).

I found this website easy to use as the steps were simple to follow. This website is free to use, although extra effects and pictures are at cost. As you can not save the pictures to the website you will need to save it to your computer or upload it to your Flickr account.

You can save the picture to your computer by:

1. Press Prt Sc (Print Screen) which copies the page you have on your screen

2. Open a paint document and press Ctrl V(Control) or Right Click and then paste

3. The page will then be in the paint document and you can crop the picture how you like
4. Then save the document

- Natalie

Reference List

Brainy Child. (2009). Reggio Emilia Approach. Retrieved August 7, 2009, from http://www.brainy-child.com/article/reggioemilia.html

Picnik. (2009). Photo editing made fun. Retrieved August 7, 2009, from http://www.picnik.com/app#/home/welcome

Flickr online photo sharing

I had never heard of Flickr before so this was a new opportunity for me. I have had previous experiences with Photobucket which is a similar online photo sharing and storing tool. This made it easy to set up my free account and upload photos. Flickr is great for uploading your photos to share with friends and family members who live locally and internationally. This website is free and when using the photos you don’t have to worry about copyright as you are covered by the Creative Commons Licence.

I was looking through the photos and found this amazing photo taken by Muha. I also had a look at the other photos they have uploaded to share and was left speechless. They are beautiful and different effects have been added to each photo.

When Flickr is used in the classroom the setting needs to be set to private so the rest of the users of the website are not able to access photos uploaded by the class (For confidential and privacy reasons of the school and families). I would not allow students to search using Flickr without close supervision by a Learning Manager. This is because inappropriate pictures may come up even thought the website is used for educational purposes. If the Learning Manager is unable to watch students closely or due to lack of resources, I would create a list of possible choices for the students to use in their work. This reduces the risk of students searching and finding images not relating to the topic and students getting off task.

This is a great tool to use for Visual literacy, as moving and still images can be found on this site. It can hook the students in and link to Visual Arts using Flickrs linked website Picnik. Picnik edits the photo and adds different effects to the photo. But I will tell you more about Picnik in my next blog.

The photos on this website are amazing and they are taken by people from all different countries around the world and they have uploaded them to share with the rest of the Flickr users.

- Natalie

Reference List
Creative Commons.(n.d.). About. Retrieved August 9, 2009, from http://creativecommons.org/

Muha.(2009). Untitled. Retrieved August 9, 2009, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/muha/3777843340/

Photobucket.(2009). Image hosting. Retrieved August 9, 2009, from http://photobucket.com/

Picnik.(2008). Photo editing made fun. Retrieved August 9, 2009, from http://www.picnik.com/

Yahoo 7.(2009). Flickr. Retrieved August 9, 2009, from http://www.flickr.com/

PowerPoints

PowerPoint’s are an easy and organised way to display information to a certain audience. I have seen PowerPoint’s used for presentations at university, TAFE, school, group assignment presentations and in workshops. They have all been displayed in different ways and a variety of animation tools have been added along the way. When designing a PowerPoint extras can be added to each slide including animation tools, music, videos or pictures. When the PowerPoint is being designed these ‘little extras’ can be added to the PowerPoint to cater for all learners, to hook them back into the lesson and just make the presentation interesting rather than blocks of information on each slide for the students to read.

Using PowerPoint would be an effective tool to use in my classroom as I would use a variety of animations to make sure all learners are able to understand the information. Video clips can also be added into the presentation to show examples or explain it in further detail. PowerPoint’s cater for the learners with multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1983) and also the digital learners who are becoming more common in classrooms today.

I have not yet created a PowerPoint to be used in the classroom, however earlier in the year I assisted my Mentor Teacher in creating a PowerPoint for Mothers Day. It included taking photos of the children in the class and asking them what they loved about their mother. This was then compiled into a PowerPoint with the child’s photo and their comments about their mother on the same slide. Relaxing music was added to the PowerPoint to create an impact upon the Mothers. It was important that the music was not too loud or overpowering so conversation could still continue. The children also were included in the PowerPoint process and they got to choose which animation tool would start off their slide (Words and picture bouncing on screen or moving on slowly). This would be displayed on the Mothers Day afternoon in the classroom for the mothers to view.

This is one I created to show an example of what it looked like. The PowerPoint was very successful and from comments made by Mothers they said they felt very ‘valued’ and ‘special’.

During my research I found a very useful resource which I have added to my collection about tips to use when creating a PowerPoint, it is called PowerPoint Tips and Tricks. I suggest you go and have a look when creating your next PowerPoint Presentation.

I should also add that the PowerPoint music was created by the Senior School Concert band. All legal issues were covered!

- Natalie

Reference List
A Bit Better. (n.d.) PowerPoint Tips & Tricks. Retrieved August 8, 2009, from http://www.bitbetter.com/powertips.htm

Gardner, H. (1983). Multiple Intelligences. Retrieved August 8, 2009, from http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm

Voki Avatars

This voki was created at www.voki.com

Today I was talking with my Mentor teacher about strategies to use to engage the students into the lesson. I showed her the Voki website as I had been exploring it for this course. She was amazed by this website and found it to be a very useful and an effective tool. It would work great with younger children who are struggling to follow along with lessons and have trouble reading the information. I have decided to use Voki Avatars in my lesson next week to hook the students into their English lesson. Most students in the class have trouble with their grammar, punctuation, spelling and making their work make sense. Voki Avatars will help students with this, as their Voki will be reading out whatever is typed in.

Voki Avatars can be used in the classroom for students when they are presenting information to the class and it will give them confidence if they are too shy to talk in front of a large group of people. The delivery content of teaching in the classroom today can include more technology and tools as these resources are available to use (Aldred, 2007). These 21st century learners need to be challenged when they are in the classroom with new and exciting tools to engage them. This can be done through the use of these Voki Avatars and other useful and effective ICT’s (Waterhouse, 2005). As these resources are available we need to use them in our classroom.

- Natalie

Reference List
Aldred. (2007). Personal learning space model. Retrieved August 3, 2009, from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=641

Voki. (2008). What is Voki. Retrieved August 3, 2009, from http://www.voki.com/

Waterhouse. (2005). 21st Century Learners. Retrieved August 3, 2009, from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=641

E.Portfolio

Setting up my E. Portfolio using Mahara was easier then I thought it would be. As our e.Portfolio are for our 2nd Task this gives me the opportunity to fiddle around with the site and see how everything works. I have learnt how to edit my profile and look at other students profiles, although have not yet uploaded any documents or put my resume on my profile.

I am a little confused at the moment. Does anyone know who can access our Mahara account? Because I don’t want to upload my resume with all my personal details and information onto it if everyone on the Mahara website can access it. I am also concerned, as after the tutorial last week with Jacqui and Linda , they informed us that we should not be putting personal information or certain photos on websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Is Mahara a safe website to use or can the Government access this site also?

It is a great idea to save certain files to your Portfolio just in case your computer crashes and these can be set to private so only you have access to them. Also with the Mahara blogs, these can also be private until you wish to post them and make them public (Mahara, 2006). These blogs could be used in the classroom as diaries for the students to use for certain tasks or each student can set up a blog with a different website and integrate the blogs into Mahara through RSS (Mahara, 2006). Mahara can be a tool used for communication between schools or teachers in the school to share resources.

-Natalie

Reference List
Mahara. (2006). About E-Portfolios. Retrieved August 3, 2009, from http://mahara.org/about/eportfolios