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