SlideShare with Audio File

As you can see from the previous blog, the PowerPoint presentation was not very engaging for the students .This was because I removed the caption on each slide to accompany the photo. I have now turned the caption into an audio file and the full presentation can be seen below.

When adding the narration audio file to my presentation it was a difficult process to follow and understand. Although as the hours passed and learning from my mistakes made I finally added the MP3 file to my presentation. I think this is one of the more difficult technologies to understand, as many files have to be transferred over to be added to the SlideShare presentation.

This can be used in the classroom for students who are doing presentations. If students are scared to talk in front of their peers, they can start off by putting their voice on the presentation. This can be done until the student has the self confidence to do so. I believe students should not be forced to do things they don’t want to do. This can have an impact upon their attitudes and perceptions (Marzano & Pickering, 1997) towards the topic and in future situations.

Here is the finished product! Please post any comments with feedback about what you think about my SlideShare presentation

Thank you

Water walk with audio

View more presentations from nrichardson09.

- Natalie

Reference List

Marzano, R., & Pickering, D., Arredondo, D., Blackburn, G., Brandt, R., Moffett, C., et al. (1997). Dimensions of Learning Teacher’s Manual. Colorado, USA: Hawker Brownlow Education.

SlideShare

SlideShare is a free program which allows you to upload slideshow presentations (PowerPoint) for users to view publicly. When you create your free account you can see the presentations SlideShare users have uploaded (SlideShare, 2009).

I have uploaded a PowerPoint I used in the classroom last term. It was created with the help from the students to recap the activity and show photos of their water walk. We took photos during the water walk of where we located water in the school. To support learning, the students then got the opportunity to type a sentence to go along with the picture (can be seen in next blog). If students were not sure about what to type I applied Blooms Taxonomy (1999) of higher order thinking and asked the students questions. This made them aware of what they could write and supported them with the process.

This is what we created

Water Walk

View more presentations from nrichardson09.

In my next blog I am going to attempt to add an audio file to the PowerPoint of the students’ comments about each photo.

- Natalie

Reference List
Bloom, T. (1999). Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains. Retrieved August 14, 2009, from http://www.nwlink.com/~Donclark/hrd/bloom.html

SlideShare. (2009). Quick tour of SlideShare. Retrieved August 14, 2009, from http://www.slideshare.net/

File Storage using MediaFire

Last week I completed recommended updates on my laptop. The updates were completed and my computer turned off. But then when I turned my computer back on a few hours later it said the updates failed and my laptop could not start up correctly. By this stage I was getting very worried as I had not backed up my files to a storage tool like Google Documents, Mahara or MediaFire. When my laptop was getting fixed they said they couldn’t fix it but could retrieve my documents and they saved them to a mobile external disk. This has taught me a valuable lesson to BACK UP YOUR FILES!

I have now created my free account using MediaFire and found it very easy to understand and set up. It is a great tool for keeping your files safe in the same place. This includes your files and photos being in the same file storage account.

This is a document I uploaded to share publicly. It is a template I modified to use when observing my mentor teacher in a lesson. I have been using it throughout the term and find it easy to follow and understand.

http://www.mediafire.com/?tnzmwzjhwbm

I’m sure many of us have had similar circumstances happen where we have come close to losing all our hard work by a simple mistake or technical error. This technology can be used in these circumstances to:
- Share resources with colleagues, students and the school community
- Extra back up for all documents
- Complete work from a different computer
- Keeps files safe and secure
- Sharing files amongst peers for group work
- Organises files into sub folders for images and documents
(MediaFire, 2009)

- Natalie

Reference List

MediaFire. (2009). What is MediaFire? Retrieved August 15, 2009, from http://www.mediafire.com/about.php

WIKIPedia

I remember using encyclopaedias for many of my primary school projects. There was an encyclopaedia for each letter of the alphabet and it would take so long to find the information I was looking for. But today we have computers and can use WIKIPedia to find the information. WIKIPedia is a free online encyclopaedia which is available and can be edited by anyone who has internet access (Wikipedia, 2009).

As I did not have the internet when I was completing my primary schooling and most of these students will, it can help them in research they carry out. When students are researching a topic using a computer, they can compare WIKIPedia articles to other articles gathered from different search engines. By doing this they will be seeing how the information may be different, as different people have different opinions. Students can then work in groups and share what they have gathered on a certain topic. Students will also be able to look at the history icon to see how quickly the information can change and be updated.

As anyone can edit these WIKIPedia articles it needs to be made sure that the articles the students are searching for will be safe and appropriate for them to read and use in their work. When learning managers are using WIKIPedia, the class can start a new article based on a topic they are studying in the classroom. As students find research they can edit the information on the article inside and outside of the classroom. I used WIKIPedia and searched around for information on 1960 school days. The students have an interest in what school was like in the past and I have been trying to find information to assist to their learning needs. When searching I found the results to be very broad and some irrelevant to what I was searching. I modified what I was searching for and found a useful site to show the students.

- Natalie

Reference List
Wikipedia. (2009). Wikipedia about. Retrieved August 14, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

YouTube and TeacherTube

I have been using YouTube for many years now for research on a range of different topics. Now I have another resource to add which is TeacherTube. TeacherTube is linked with YouTube, however is a tool which can be used to download videos and is used for educational purposes.

When using TeacherTube it is a safe venue, where the videos are instructional and safe to use in the classroom. On TeacherTube the clip can be downloaded straight away by clicking the blue Download this video button (TeacherTube, 2009).



I have chosen this video as the students are currently rehearsing for their Showcase Performance at the end of the term. All the year 2 students have been learning about Patchwork of Memories and this will be their focus for their performance. The year 2 class I am currently in are doing Michael Jackson’s Thriller to resemble the rock era. To help students learn how to dance and act like Zombies I have found this Michael Jackson film clip to show the students. One of the boys in the class will be Michael Jackson and this clip will help him to learn how to move and dance. Only parts of the clip were shown to the students, it started at 5:25 and finished at 6:28 on the clip. I did not want to show the students the entire clip because it might scare them as they are only in year 2 and I only wanted to show them the dance and zombies moves.

I found it difficult to find a YouTube clip which allowed you to embed the clip. Finally I found one which allowed me to do so. I hope you enjoy watching the clip!

- Natalie

Reference List
TeacherTube. (2009). Teach the world. Retrieved August 12, 2009, from http://teachertube.com/

YouTube. (2009). YouTube Broadcast yourself. Retrieved August 12, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/

WebQuests

Wow…..that was a lot of information to process. Although most of it was refreshing my memory, as this is one technology where I actually knew what it was before I read all about it! I have had some experience with WebQuests for our SOSE course in my first year, as we had to design a WebQuest for a year level to complete. I found this very exciting to use as you could use a variety of tools, to engage the students in the task and give them roles to play along with.

WebQuests can be shared amongst school, as the WebQuest includes all the information which the students need for it to be completed. One of the issues which can occur when using WebQuests in the classroom is lack of resources. Most schools have an allocated time in the computer room each week, however 1 hour a week is not enough for students to complete a large WebQuest. This is when it would be beneficial for students to work in small groups through the WebQuest. Each student can complete a different part of the WebQuest and when students do not have access to computers they can be teaching and completing the tasks with the other members of the group.

As I have talked about in my other Blogs we are teaching the 21st century learners who are media savvy and digital natives (Pesce, 2008). For teachers using WebQuests they need to be Futures Orientated (Knight & Rowan, 2001) and teach the information in a way the students are familiar with and can relate to. WebQuests are a great tool for this as they can be done online and students can be creative in the tasks they complete. When creating a WebQuest the linking websites needs to be safe for the students to access and the information be relevant to what the WebQuest is about. Students will being applying their knowledge learnt to solve the problem the WebQuest intends.

When we were creating our WebQuest for SOSE, I was unsure how to publish it on the internet. I have leant how to publish WebQuests and this information has been every helpful, easy to follow and understand.

- Natalie

Reference List

Knight, A., & Rowan, L. (2001). Researching Futures Oriented Pedagogies. Retrieved August 12, 2009, from http://www.e-contentmanagement.com/books/133/researching-futures-oriented-pedagogies

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

Google Earth

Well, I have just been on a trip around the world! You are probably wondering how I travelled the world so quickly. Well the truth is I didn’t leave the country or even my computer to do this. It was through using Google Earth. Google Earth a tool which can be downloaded to your computer and allows you to search different countries around the world via satellite images and maps.

Google Earth can be used for educational purposes in our classroom. These may include:

• - Locating major cities: It will allow students to learn where they are located in that country and where the country is in the world
• - Learning about Satellites and how they are used
• - Travel through the ocean with Google Earth Ocean Floor. It includes quizzes about the ocean animals and images of animals located in that area of the ocean
• - The Layers on Google Earth shows students geographical points including buildings and roads
• - Learn about the stars, planets, solar systems and galaxy using Google Sky
• - Maps can be printed out from Google Earth and used for Geography as a mapping tool
• - Distance between Australia and other countries around the world. It can also show how far different states are away from where the students live. This is what I used in my class early in the term, as one of the students has gone to live is Scotland for a year. The students were unaware where Scotland was, so I showed them using Google Earth. I found this tool to be more effective then using a 2 Dimensional map.

When using Google Earth the activities can be altered according to the year level and ability of the students.

By allowing the students to use this tool hands on they will be actively involved in the learning taking place and this refers back to Dale’s Cone (ACU, 2000). If Learning Managers create these ‘Direct purposeful experiences’ (ACU, 2000) for our students they will be more beneficial and effective. This is where Google Earth can come into the classroom.

Well I must be off now. I am about to become an astronaut and explore the galaxy!

- Natalie

Reference List
ACU. (2000). Why choose active learning? Retrieved August 13, 2009, from http://www.acu.edu/cte/activelearning/whyuseal2.htm

Google. (2009). Google Earth. Retrieved August 13, 2009, from http://earth.google.com/