Reflective Synopsis

Link to Wiki

Link to Webpage

The first half of this term has been very full on for all the subjects in the GDLT, especially this course. Although I did the required exercises and readings, I did not update my blog until the week this task was due. In a way, I am glad as it demonstrates to me a very valid point – if you are using a blog with your students and don’t update it, what is the point? As with all areas of pedagogy, there needs to be a large focus on time management. This post is a reflective synopsis of the first half of term 1.

Use of e-Learning

e-Learning is so vital in this day and age as culture is rapidly shifting towards a totally computerised society. There are several reasons to promote e-Learning in classes, such as connecting to other information sources/multimodal resources, working over distance, collaborative working, using an information repository or engaging in interactive activities (Fasso, 2012a). According to Prensky (2001), the children coming through the current school cohorts will basically all be digital natives (as am I). This means that they will expect to see, and learn best with ICT embedded in their learning. The reasons listed above can be implemented on any number of new smart devices – computers, laptops, phones, media players and even smart televisions that have become part of everyday life.

According to Queensland Government Department of Education Training and the Arts (2008), the push for ICTs in school is not just about using them, the challenge lies in “shifting from teaching and learning about ICT to teaching and learning with and through ICT” in a way that is “meaningful, engaging and connected” (p. 1).

While technology should be incorporated in digital pedagogy, under the TPACK framework it should be linked to both your pedagogy and content knowledge, and should not be considered a separate entity. If this separation occurs, the ICT loses meaning. Appropriate digital pedagogy needs to be used to embed multimedia and other tools meaningfully. eLearning has strong links with connectivism. It is no longer essential to know everything about a topic, the more important skill is knowing where to find the relevant information (Fasso, 2012b).

Mobile Phone Wiki Engagement

After completing the mobile phone wiki activity, I completed the following analysis on this linked post, as well as this post on Group OneTools – Wikis. I found that Wiki’s provided an excellent environment for group working, and de Bono’s Hats are a good scaffolding to get people thinking away from their comfort zone. The linked blog articles contain my thoughts on the learning styles and pedagogy involved.

Group One Tools

The first group of tools we looked at were online spaces – namely wikis, blogs and websites. The tool I am choosing for this synopsis is websites for teaching. While there is a possibility for websites simply to just be a collection of knowledge with no suitable pedagogy, they can employ many learning styles, depending on implementation. I provide some insight to websites on this blog post.

As mentioned in the above linked post, none of these tools are mutually exclusive. While a website can function well as a repository (Web 1.0), to me it is more like a blank canvas that can incorporate multimedia, interactive tools and link to wiki pages (embedded Web 2.0 features) (Fasso, 2012c). This makes websites a strongly connectivist learning tool when used appropriately. The webpage itself is not a support for learning unless scaffolded (Fasso, 2012c). I will use this page on my site as an example.

While my webpage functions mainly as a repository to accompany real life tutorials (I have put limited information on there so far), there is still scope for pedagogy. Multimedia is used to help explain concepts. Online quizzes and other interactive activities could be added, such as the tools explored in later groups. Links to wiki exercises could encourage collaboration. These features could be added, even though they haven’t been yet. My site also features a blog to summarise what was covered in tutorials, as well as general announcements. Therefore I think that websites can potentially utilise all the advantages listed in the websites, blogs and wikis postings on my blog, and that any learning theory can be applied to websites depending on the interactivity of the content. According to Fasso (2012c), having the ability to embed artefacts built in other sources and collate multiple resources is the strength of the website. There are however issues, see Online Safety.

Group Two Tools

Group two was based around multimedia (pictures, audio and videos). This linked blog post explores all three.

Out of all these tools, I believe that video is the most useful for both learning and teaching, especially in my KLA (music). While it would be logical to assume that audio/music would be useful (which it certainly is), video has much better pedagogical aspects. As the blog covers the advantages of using it as a teaching aid, here I will look at student developed videos. According to Kearney and Shuck (2006, cited in Fasso, 2012d), students typically use videoing in school for “communciation, observation and analysis, and reflection”. Furthering this, Fasso (2012) says that “Outcomes of student video production include affective, metacognitive, higher order thinking, communication and presentation, literacy, organisational and teamwork and moviemaking skill development”.

An example of how higher order thinking can be included with video in the music KLA could be composing a piece to go with an excerpt of video, or vice versa. This can be seen as a strongly constructivist approach to learning, as a lot of arts are. In addition to this, it lifts students into the higher orders of Bloom's Taxonomy. According to Saraniero (2012), applied constructivism can include music students using “knowledge and skills such as rhythm, note recognition, melody, and harmonics correctly in order to reach their higher-order goals, such as expressing meaning through composing music”. Another example would be recording a video of the students’ band playing and analysing it through a scaffolded activity such as de Bono’s hats. This could promote cognitivist thinking by self-analysis of what is actually going through their mind whilst performing, and learning of self-help techniques outlined in the Dimensions of Learning.

To me it is interesting that when creating a video, it is a constructivist task, yet finding and watching a video is more of a connectivist task. While I think that videos are an excellent tool for learning, they should be used as an aid and not an alternative to face-to-face pedagogy. The Khan Academy has many free educational videos that attempt to do away with traditional pedagogy. The advantage of this is being able to pause, rewind and review the videos.

An alternative to video is podcasting, which allows distribution via an RSS reader. Read this post about blogs to see my ideas on RSS.

Group Three Tools

Group three tools were all presentation style tools – PowerPoint, Prezi and Glogster. The tool I would like to investigate further is Prezi, which I have already done a SWOT analysis for on my Group Three Blog Post.

The term thrown around a lot for Prezi during classes is ‘Wow Factor’. It really does look fantastic, and I believe is a much richer option for exploring information then PowerPoint. Here is a link to the very simple one I made for my blog. I am taking a fairly cognitivist approach in saying that I believe the physical factor of zooming sub-consciously implies delving deeper into a concept, then stepping back to see the big picture. This professional example Prezi shows and talks about this fact. While the delivery of the content itself is primarily behaviourist in nature, multimedia can be incorporated. I have also heard rumours about being able to have users input answers to questions, but haven’t been able to find this yet myself, which would make constructivist activities possible. As Prezi is more engaging then PowerPoint, I believe it has the potential to make my classes more enjoyable and I am looking forward to using it. According to Fasso (2012e), Prezi is useful for when students are giving presentations as it allows them to justify, illustrate and explain without adding details that get in the way of the big picture. By exploring canvases freely, students could engage in non-linear constructivist exercises.

Group Four Tools

With group four tools, we were free to explore two tools of our choosing; the tools I choose to look at were bubbl.us mind maps and Dipity timelines. Here is a link to my review of my group four tools. The reason I chose these two tools is that firstly I had already worked with bubbl.us and secondly, they are both tools based around creating graphic organisers – one static and the other interactive. The tool I want to explore in my synopsis is Dipity.

I had never heard of Dipity before, and this honestly surprises me. It is such a powerful tool for organising a spectrum of information, even across a very broad or narrow time frame. The example I created here explores just a short period of history, yet collates so much information from different sources and modes in just three topics. By taking an activity that is strictly behaviourist (reading a history book) and making it interactive - suddenly the eras are broken into topics, you can graphically see how long each era lasted, there is a video of an example from that era and a link to further information should they wish to take the behaviourist approach. There are obvious advantages to using Dipity over hand-drawn timelines, notably more information can be typed then written due to physical limitations of drawing on paper, as small or large a section of the time line as wished can be viewed and multimedia/external sources can be linked directly to the topic. 

Online Safety

Before closing, it is important to note that online safety needs to be both taught and modelled in schools - view a blog posting containing my views on the matter here. While I feel that online safety is such an important issue, it would take so much more space than I have available to write all that really needs to be said about the matter. My blog posting linked above contains what I consider the major elements and links to other sites.

References

Fasso, W. (2012a). eLearning design. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=254722

Fasso, W. (2012b). Learning theory and eLearning. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=254715

Fasso, W. (2012c). What are the roles of ICT in education. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=254727

Fasso, W. (2012d). Group 2 technologies. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=254732

Fasso, W. (2012e). Group 3 tools. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=254738

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Queensland Government Department of Education Training and the Arts. (2008). Smart classrooms bytes: eLearning for smart classrooms. Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/documents/strategy/pdf/scbyte-elearning.pdf

Saraniero, P. (2012). Constructivism: Actively building arts education. Retrieved from http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/how-to/from-theory-to-practice/constructivism.aspx

Online Safety, Ethics and 'Netiquette'

As with any skill to be taught, it is crucial that teachers explicitly educate on and model online safety and ethics. Areas that students need to be educated on include:

• Identity theft - don't give out your details
• Copyright/plagiarism - if you use something made by somebody else, acknowledge it. If it is copyrighted, don't use it
• Online stranger danger - to avoid children falling victim to sexual predation
• Contact with illicit content - anything from pornography to people writing defamatory responses to their blogs
• Mis/mal-information - only use information from veritable sources
• Online bullying - especially social networks and text messages
• Location tracking - finding people using social network data

The Australian Government has an excellent site - Cybersmart - that has many resources and tips to stay safe online, for adults and children.

Here is a page called Smartcopying - The Official Guide To Copyright Issues for Australian Schools and TAFE. It would be a good idea to go through this site with students to show them exactly what they can and can't copy. At the very least, it should be used as a reference, so that if students ask if they can use something they found online, you can explain why or why not.

These laws can be difficult to understand, as I know through experience, and if in doubt I will generally just not use the material. If I can't find an appropriate image, I will use something else in it's place, or make my own image (such as the screenshots on my Glog).

It should also be noted that there is implied copyright for anything that someone has created, even if there is not an expressed notice of copyright - including anything that students post themselves. 

Thousands of free images can be found easily by searching Google with broad terms such as:

• Free images
• Free clip-art
• Free pictures for education

I learnt about the following page, Pics4Learning, in class. It contains thousands of free images split into topics that teachers can use.

Remember we need to keep children safe.

From Pics4Learning.

Group Four Tools

For group four, we were required to use two tools of our own choosing. The tools I used were bubbl.us for creating mind maps and Dipity for creating interactive timelines.

Mind Maps

View my mind maps post - (click here)

Mind maps are a kind of graphic organiser that allows you to visually depict the relationship between related areas of a topic. They are incredibly useful for brainstorming, visual note taking and organising information. Here is a PMI for mind maps.

Plus

• Quick and easy to create
• Intuitively easy to understand
• Breaks down information gradually for easy analysis
• Draws visual connections between topics
• Organises data into a parent/sibling relationship
• Encourages organisation
• Scaffolded format
• Easily distributable

Minus

• Can become overwhelming if there is too much data to follow
• Link between bubbles may not be outwardly apparent

Interesting

• Promotes connecting prior knowledge (constructivism) but also thinking about thought process (cognitivism)

Online Timeline

View the post containing my example online timeline - (click here)

Dipity is a web app that allows you to create online timelines, which are useful for a number of purposes. It allows for much greater pedagogy then standard hand-written timelines due to its ability to include multimedia, links to external sources and integration with Youtube videos. I found it was actually very enjoyable exploring information set out in a Dipity timeline, and liked that it was so engaging.

Here is a PMI for the online timeline:

Plus

• Very engaging to the user
• Intuitive layout
• Good multimedia integration
• Visual depiction of a chronology

Minus

• SLOW! I think the server might have been having problems when I used this service, because it would take minutes to load, and sometimes say unavailable. If this was happening regularly I would not be using the service.

Interesting

• A very large or small time-frame can be covered
• Activities can be linked for topics
• So many potential uses

Some uses of this program could include:

• Timeline of art, music, etc. development
• Timeline of a technology's evolution
• Personal major events
• Interactive calendar of upcoming events

Group Four Tools - Dipity Timeline

History of Jazz on Dipity.

Here is a simple timeline I made with just a few topics to show how Dipity might be used.

Group Four Tools - Mindmap

Here are two mind-maps I created for my literacy and numeracy assignment, regarding how the General Capabilities in the Australian Curriculum relate to music (even though there currently are no arts in the AC).

Group Three Tools – Presentations

This group of technologies are all about creating effective presentations. Technologies investigated were:

• Microsoft PowerPoint – for creating slideshow based presentations with rich capabilities for multimedia and interactivity
• Prezi – for creating online presentations that zoom around a single large canvas
• Glogster – for creating online scrap book pages that use a lot of multimedia

This group of tools are definitely the group that I have used the least (the only one of these tools I had even heard of was PowerPoint which I have used a fair bit). I will analyse each of these technologies below.

PowerPoint

While I have used PowerPoint quite a lot through high school, it has changed a lot in the new version. It is much easier to use and allows much greater scope for multimedia and interactivity. Here is a PMI based on PowerPoint.

Plus

• Industry standard for presentation, meaning lots of help is available
• Can incorporate online and offline multimedia
• Can be automated to act as a stand-alone presentation
• Can be reused when reteaching that class at a later time
• Many built in templates
• Easily shared and viewed offline
• Can be used for interactive activities such as flash cards or quizzes
• Easy for students to develop their own

Minus

• Tend to get cluttered with overuse of multimedia
• Exuberant animation can make difficult to read
• Tendency with many, especially those not used to presenting, to just read the slides
• Generally reduces information to a summary, and if not presented well might not provide enough information

Interesting

• Can be used as any of the four learning styles (eg. Using as a quiz, linear learning, non-linear learning, embedding content, linking to external content)
• Slides can be exported to make a Prezi

I find that PowerPoint is most effective as a presentation tool when information is summarised in the slides, but the presenter elaborates further on what the topic is about. This is the format most of my class/lecture experiences with PowerPoint have involved. Having made this type of presentation numerous times, I made a simple quiz using the instructions in the study notes. This was very simple to do, and although I haven’t uploaded it onto one of my online spaces like my other group three tools, it is a feature I will use again.

Prezi

Link to the post containing my Prezi - (Click here)

Prezi is another presentation tool that differs to most other presentation software in that it has a single canvas that you can zoom into different parts of rather than changing slides. This can promote both linear and non-linear learning as if you pre-designate locations for the program to zoom into, you can design the learning path but your Prezis can also be freely navigated (if you allow this option). Here is a SWOT analysis of my experience with Prezi.

Strengths Impressive transition between facts Embedded multimedia Relatively easy to setup Easy to use Can be embedded most places online Can be viewed on iPad Can be downloaded for offline viewing	Weaknesses Not as much interactive potential as PowerPoint File size can get very large While templates are good, hard (or maybe impossible) to edit/customize
Opportunities Freely exploring large canvases full of information 'Prezi podcasts' - see below Allows greater breakdown of facts then PowerPoint by physically zooming in Zooming sub consciously indicates further analysis	Threats Students could get lost in a large canvas and potentially miss information All the moving about has the potential to make one feel dizzy after a while

While I feel in most situations PowerPoint will be more practical, I can't help but feel drawn to Prezi within my pedagogy because it just looks so fantastic, as well as it is my personal opinion that zooming in to further details helps to promote higher order thinking and analysis. It would also be an effective tool for students to present their findings in a task or assignment to the class. I mentioned in the SWOT analysis above that I think Prezi would be excellent with podcasts - by playing the Prezi full screen and recording with Camtasia Studio, as well as recording a voice-over, it would make a very effective online lecture that could be distributed periodically.

Glogster

 Link to my first Glog - (click here)

A Glog is a presentation made in the web app Glogster to present information and multimedia as an online and interactive scrapbook page. Initially I thought that it was a bit gimmicky and immature, but later realised the potential of the program. Some examples of effective ways to use the program would be:

• Create a Glog of a prominent figure being studied with interactive facts and pictures of them
• Facts surrounding a concept
• Stimulus sheets

The main problems I find with Glogs are:

• Design is not completely intuitive
• Can become very cluttered very quickly
• Animated elements make it look more cluttered and messy

Group Three Tools - Glogster

Here is the first Glogster I have ever made, based on music software I use almost every day.

Group Three Tools - Prezi

ICT's Are Fun!!! on Prezi

Here is the first Prezi I ever made. It was quick and easy using a template, and allowed me to get a polished result very quickly!

Group Two Tools – Multimedia

The tools used in group two are all to do with including multimedia in your online spaces. This includes images, audio, digital video and podcasts.

When it comes to including multimedia in your blog, website or wiki, discretion has to be used for the item to be effective. Listed here are some advantages and disadvantages to multimedia:

Advantages

• Conveys information that could be hard to describe with text alone
• Caters to a wide range of learning styles
• Promotes interest and breaks monotony of reading
• Can help people with learning disabilities
• Have access to things that might not be readily accessible in that location (eg. Watching a symphony orchestra play on Youtube).

Disadvantages

• Can be distracting, especially with overuse
• Can require a lot of bandwidth
• Lack of interactivity (with these particular examples)

Images

Embedding pictures in text is an excellent way to break up the monotony of endless reading. Pictures can be used to very quickly illustrate a point. In my KLA (music) this has a lot of potential – an image of sheet music, how to hold an instrument, correct posture, significant musicians, etc.

One of the engagement activities for this task was resizing an image with MobaPhoto. This software was incredibly easy to use, quick and very effective. I blue-toothed a photo of my dog (why my dog you ask? Because I love my dog) off my phone to my laptop and resized it with MobaPhoto. The whole process would have taken less than 2 minutes. The photo can be seen on my wiki, but I will also include it below:

There was an optional activity involving image manipulation. I did not complete this activity as I have had a lot of past experience using Adobe Photoshop and Fireworks. Here is a couple of photos I edited when I was in grade 8 to trick my friends into thinking I had caught a much bigger fish than actually happened. Both photos show the original and edited size. 

While I think this skill is useful, and many programs create beautiful light, filters and effects, I do not think it is directly applicable to my KLA.

Audio

As a music major, audio is obviously directly related to my KLA. On one page of my website, you can see how it directly applies to teaching music where I give audio examples of the differences between the concepts I am trying to explain. Rather than use the freeware programs listed, I have a couple of very expensive DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) programs that can be used to produce studio quality sound and music. These programs include Digidesign/Avid Protools and Ableton Live. Teaching the use of these programs is an excellent use of digital pedagogy in music as they are industry standard programs.

One application that I often use audio recording for is when I am driving. I really hate when you are driving and have a really good idea about something but have no way to write it down and subsequently forget. Now when I am in my car, my phone can start recording when I give a voice command, allowing me to record my voice and only have to press stop. I have since now taken that idea and any time I have a good musical idea, I record myself singing or playing it so I can write it down when I get the chance.

On my placement, the grade 9 class I am working with is studying film music. Rather than record my voice, I recorded this short example (and others) of film score I have composed to get their creativity flowing by asking scaffolded questions as to how, why and when in a film they might apply it.

(The study notes say that audio cannot be uploaded to a blog, this is not true. It can be embedded with custom HTML code).

Video

As far as I am concerned, video is the most versatile of the multimedia formats listed here. While there are situations where a picture or audio clip will suffice or be more appropriate, a video can be used for many of the same and more instances.

In music education, video is excellent for:

• Watching software tutorials
• Online lessons, showing musical concepts
• Watching live professional performance to understand performance techniques
• Follow along score with notation or karaoke style lyrics (see below)

Here is an example of a follow along score from Youtube:

Some of the disadvantages of using video include:

• Large amount of data download
• People sometimes try to add too much (can be distracting)

Podcasts

Podcasting is an extension to either audio or video, in that it is an audio or visual recording released episodically. This provides many opportunities for learning, both when following or creating podcasts. Podcasts give access to expert knowledge and peer review, making podcasts an excellent constructivist learning tool. The main difference between podcasts and any other video or audio file is that you can subscribe to podcasts as an RSS feed (see my post about blogs for my views on RSS). The word itself is a portmanteau between iPod and broadcast. Considering that this is the purpose they were designed for, podcasts are usually tailored to be listened to on iPod like devices.

Some examples of how this could be used when creating podcasts would be:

• Recording a band or individual practice session every week to monitor progress (music)
• Create a series of short episodes about the unit of work
• Creating a series of episodes based on a novel

Some examples of how using podcasts can be effective:

• Following a series about the topic
• Reviewing other classes/classmates
• Listening to recordings of the lesson/lecture

Many sites/repositories have excellent educational podcasts available as resources. These sites include:

• iTunes U
• ABC EdPod
• And many others that can be found by simply Googleing educational podcasts

Group One Tools (Blogs, Wikis and Websites) – Looking at Websites

Websites are an extremely useful way to provide information to other people. For any web based space to be effective, it needs to adhere to certain design principles. These include not cluttering the page, logical page layout, clear easy to read text, and ease of navigation. Having written many websites using just Notepad and the HTML and JavaScript mark-up and scripting languages, I can appreciate how frustrating this can be. The internet has come a long way however, and web apps such as Weebly make this task very simple and enjoyable.

This task involved creating a website in Weebly and publishing it to the web. My website can be found here. I mentioned in the posting about the use of blogs that the group one tools are not necessarily mutually exclusive. My website actually includes a blog. I actually use this website in my role as a music tutor at university. The information is easily accessible by students if they need to look something up, and the blog summarises what material we covered in tutes and general announcements. As the free version of Weebly does not include support for embedding audio, I created another free site using Google Sites where I uploaded all my audio files, then used a custom HTML Flash widget to make them play on Weebly. This can also be used on blogs.

Below is a PMI for the advantages and disadvantages that a website offers:

Plus:

• Can display a large amount of information that can be navigated in sections
• Information cannot be changed by outside sources
• Hyperlinks can connect students with expert knowledge, other resources and activities
• Embedded multimedia can provide examples

Minus:

• A basic knowledge of HTML may be necessary to embed some features
• No scope for collaboration
• As with online resources, cannot be accessed without an active internet connection
• Copyright and privacy issues involving uploaded content

Interesting:

• Online calendars can provide good ways for students to keep track of assessment
• Many classes have their own website about their members

Classroom Uses:

• Providing downloadable homework tasks
• Compiling information
• Showing examples
• Collating links to Youtube and other resources

Group One Tools (Blogs, Wikis and Websites) – Looking at Wikis

According to Wikipedia, a wiki is “a website whose users can add, modify, or delete its content via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a rich-text editor”. Furthering the definition they have given, the site also mentions that wikis are often edited collaboratively, and applications wikis are frequently used for include community websites, intranets and note taking.

For this task we were required to make our own wiki (mine can be found here). The thing I find great about wikis is how quick and easy they are to publish. I believe they are most useful for collaborative learning, such as the Mobile Phone Wiki mentioned in a previous post. Many of the positive and negative aspects of using a wiki are explored in depth in the above mentioned post. To summarise:

Pros

• Promotes connectivist/constructivist learning styles
• Easily editable/WYSIWYG GUI
• Collaborative
• Can be used to create an online virtual classroom
• Can be accessed and edited externally

Cons

• As with any online or computer activity, potential for students to go off topic
• Data can be deleted by anybody
• Students could potentially add copyrighted information
• Some students might be inclined to sit back and watch other people do the work

Uses for wikis:

• Collaboration of expert knowledge (eg. Wikipedia, various videogame wikis, etc.)
• Project planning
• Online note taking
• Group discussion
• Solving problems in groups worldwide
• Ongoing class glossary or resource list

Group One Tools (Blogs, Wikis and Websites) – Looking at Blogs

The tools explored in this topic are blogs, wikis and websites. While these three entities are separate and distinct, I do not think they are necessarily mutually exclusive. I have had prior experience with all of these tools before, so thusly found this section of work quite basic. I will examine my experiences, thoughts and analysis of each tool in the relevant posts.

If I were to put it in my own words, I would say that basically a blog is an online collection of articles (or posts) in decrementing chronological order, that are intended to be read by others. A post can have embedded multimedia elements, as well as link to other parts of the blog or external websites. As opposed to a static website, it is intended to be updated at regular intervals to add new content.

From my own experience, I know that blogs are used for a variety of purposes, such as:

• Weekly review of movies, tv shows, restaurants etc.
• Current news events
• Sharing life stories
• Online journal for projects/research
• Comedy
• Cooking/Sharing recipes
• Tutorial summaries

Basically any topic that involves keeping a journal or can be regularly updated is an appropriate use of a blog.

The RSS protocol is used to show changes to websites that are updated frequently, such as news sites and blogs. This would allow students to receive notifications when the teacher updates the blog. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I have had a lot of experience in IT and would find it a reasonably simple task to write a software program for computer or smart phone that would give a notification that the site has been updated and show the new post, without the possibility of students adding other pages to the reader and potentially losing the information among myriads of other posts from other sources.

Below is a PMI analysis of blogs and blogging (tailored for educational use).

Plus:

•  Allows delivery and summary of content that can be used outside of the classroom
• Compatibility with the RSS protocol allows quick and easy notification of updates
• Comments can provide feedback
• Students can use them as a journal, real or fictional, for assessment
•  By writing the content themselves it is possible students will be more interested in the topic
•  Easy to navigate due to chronological ordering
• Anything coded in html can be embedded
• Integration with multimedia allows for greater learning opportunities

Minus:

• Most drawbacks arise from most systems (such as Blogger) being public access
• Public access allows anybody to read posts
• If comments are not disabled, allows anybody to post defamatory or derogatory comments
• If comments are disabled, genuine feedback cannot be given

Interesting:

• Smart phone integration means posts can be read (or even edited) on the go
• Allows quick and easy integration with the digital era

Mobile Phone Wiki: Collaboratively Learning Using de Bono’s Hats

This is a review of the activity where we had to collaborate in a wiki about using mobile phones in the classroom. The wiki was pre-scaffolded to force us into thinking using de Bono’s Hats.

I do not see the need to relay information that is readily available, so for an overview of de Bono’s Hats, the following page provides an excellent explanation and related resources – http://www.kurwongbss.eq.edu.au/thinking/Hats/hats.htm

Before analysing the implementation of this task, I would like to list some of the key features:

• Group discussion (about 20 people)
• Scaffolded to force us to think in multiple ways and get outside our comfort zone
• Develop ideas based on other people’s response
• Facilitates higher order thinking

I consider this activity to be constructivist by nature, in that it requires you to build on what it is you already know, express that and expand your prior knowledge. I also feel that the fact that considering it took place in a wiki to be completed as a group makes it connectivist, as it directly connects us with our peers through technology, allowing us to work together. As proposed by Siemens (n.d., cited in Fasso, 2012) connectivism can be thought of as the “learning theory for the digital age” as it deals with the networked nature of computers and using this fact as a learning tool.

I personally think this was a very good exercise to undertake. I was originally very two minded about the mobile phone issue, and while I still am, working in this format forced me to consolidate my reasoning and give me a much better understanding of why I think what I do. Although the content itself is irrelevant for this particular task, I think this is crucial in getting students to participate – understanding what it is they are thinking. This to me means that de Bono's hats also uses elements of cognitivism to draw links between the areas of understanding.

I believe that all the learning style aspects of this task are very well geared to achieve high standards of cognitive learning. The constructivist/connectivist approach results in group work where a large range of answers can be contributed, and the de Bono’s Hat scaffolding encourages areas of thinking that would probably not otherwise be explored.

While I feel that this was a very good and relevant way of scaffolding a task that I can see myself potentially using with my own students, I did have issues with it. Below is a SWOT analysis of how I feel about this exercise.

Strengths Working as a group broadens range of answers Easy to take part in Forcing participants to think away from their bias	Weaknesses Later participants have less to write about Can be difficult to think originally with so many other ideas Potential for deleting other people’s work Not easy to follow if people don’t colour code, allowing ease of tracking Participants might be inclined to just let others do the work
Opportunities          Expanding current knowledge by reading other people’s views          Elaborating on other people’s views in ways not previously thought of          Participation worldwide Editing over a broad timeframe, allowing learning growth	Threats          Deleting people’s work (maliciously or accidentally)          Simply pasting information from elsewhere online          Students without internet not being able to take part Potentially nothing at all to talk about for later participants, thusly no higher order thinking

References


Fasso, W. (2012). Learning theory and eLearning. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=254715

Reflecting on Week 1

To start this post, I will say that I feel this week has been near overwhelming in the amount of new information that I have mentally processed. To this stage, I am still uncertain of how formal this blog is supposed to be. I may come back and reiterate at a later stage if I don't find my work appropriate. As far as the course goes, I am quite surprised after reading through the content that it is so oriented on Learning Theories and Frameworks. I understand the correlation, but it still surprised me. In saying that, I have found all the content very interesting and this has definitely helped to ease the workload.

I find this process of enjoyment easing learning a fascinating concept. Whilst viewing the optional Prenksy reading (in relation to a computer game being developed to assist in the learning of CAD software) prescribed in the course material, I was forced to think of my own experiences as a learner and realised how vastly applicable this concept is. After completing the reading, it is starkly obvious to me that engaging in an activity that disguises cognitive load in the form of entertainment is going to help your learning, but doing it by using technology (which is a primary 'language' of so called 'digital natives') it promotes a strong learning environment that has been (hopefully) successful in achieving the task.

I also took both the Multiple Theories test and the Learning Styles test and the results really did not surprise me. I know how I learn best and the areas I excel in.

As far as learning theories go, I found the readings a little confusing. I think this is mainly due to the text saying three learning theories will be investigated, then immediately below that four headings are listed. At first glance I thought this meant that those four headings were all part of one learning theory (similar to the way the Multiple Intelligences are broken down). After completing the readings and activities however, I think I understand much more clearly. Also, with the activities, the hands on experience of using the small games on the linked site gave me a much better understanding on the separation of the grey areas between the listed theories. This furthered my interest in the Prensky test.

In closing, I feel I have learned a lot of the previous week, and I believe this post will be a valuable record for myself (or others reading this blog) of my experience.

Please feel free to comment.
Tyson

First Post

This is just a post to make sure my blog is actually working!