Digital tool: Digital camera

When most people think digital camera and young children they immediately think "catastrophe". But it is rarely the case, particularly if precautions are taken.

Harriet Price noted in her book "the really useful book of ICT in the early years" that staff were concerned that children might: Drop cameras; damage them with sand, water or messy play resources; or not be able to operate the camera. Harriet later reveled that none of these things happened and that a "parent" was the only person who dropped a camera.

Digital cameras are a fantastic way to enhance childrens' self esteem and independence. The children are thrilled and excited taking and looking at their pictures (even if they are lopsided) and it allows them a sense of "ownership" in their work.

As the adage goes "A picture tells a thousand words". Each individual who views a picture sees it from a different perspective. For example a picture of a weed may look like a "pretty flower" to a child but a "weed" to an adult. Images allow the teachers to get a better view of the perspective of their students. In general multimodel learning has been shown to be more effective than traditional, unimodal learning. Adding visual learning can result in significant gains in basic and higher order thinking.

In order to ensure that accidents with digital cameras are kept to a minimum it is best to insist that all students wear a neckband which the camera is tethered to. It is also possible to buy cheaper cameras for children which have "simple" features and large buttons. There are two examples below one is a "cars" digital camera and the other a "crayola" digital video camera.

As with digital sound, digital pictures can be inserted into a variety of ICTs including blogging.

Reference
Price. H. (2009) The really useful book of ICT in the early years. Milton Park, Great Briton: Routledge.

Stanton,D.; Neale,H.; Cobb, S.; Bayon,S.; Ingram,R.; Benford,S.; O Malley,C.; Wilson, J. (2000) Designing Storytelling Technologies to Encourage Collaboration Between Young Children. Paper accepted to CHI-2000, the Hague, the Netherlands,
1-6 April 2000.

Digital tool:Podcasts

Podcasts are a great tool for individual learning, particularly with students who have difficulty focusing. Many of us have seen a person wearing headphones and being engrossed in what they are listening to. For young children, who are easily distracted it is an easy way to keep their mind focused on a task.

There are many benefits of a podcast for both young and older students and they include:

* Less distractions from sounds in and outside the classroom

* The ability to pause and replay an important piece of information

* It allows students to close their eyes and totally focus on the podcast itself.

* It allows students to listen to important podcasts outside school hours.

* Podcasts are a great tool for aural learners.

* Young students can gain information without having to be able to read proficiently.

However the podcast must be engaging and not in a dull or monotonous voice or the student is likely to fall asleep!

There are a large variety of podcasts available from stories (for the younger students), to scientific information, to thoughts and ideas of individuals, to even gardening tips!

The wonderful thing about podcasts is that they are more often than not free.

Apples Itunes has a fantastic selection of podcasts including storybooks for younger students.

Professional Blog Reflective Synopsis

“The Internet? We are not interested in it.”
– Bill Gates, 1993
"640K ought to be enough for anybody".
Bill Gates

Technology is growing at a phenomenal pace and even those people who helped it on its journey had no idea where it would lead. One thing is for certain, it will not be backwards.
Today's students K-12 represent the first generations to grow up with technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, video games, digital music players, video cameras, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age.

While many may see ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) as just another burden to add to an already full teachers agenda, ICT's are more so a tool. However, they are a valuable tool that, when used in conjunction with good pedagogical practices, expose a world of excitement and knowledge for students. It is important to note that as discussed in the blog "Teachers and ICT" that it should not be simply "thrust" upon teachers without discussion and training. The best approach to using technology in the curriculum is to remember that it should firmly start and end with the curriculum.

ICT can be classed as "software" (programs, blogs, Internet, podcasts) and "hardware" (digital cameras, digital voice recorders, educational toys, wii ). While nine ICT or "digital tools" have been mentioned in the previous blogs (another ICT tool) five have been discussed in depth.
These are "blogging", "digital voice recorder", "digital camera", "powerpoint" and "podcast".
Each ICT tool can be used in conjunction with the others, and the students benefit by way of catering to the many learning requirements of the individual students, including Howard Gardners "aural and visual intelligences".
Three of the five 'blogs','digital voice recorder', and 'digital camera' (with a little assistance) can be used by even the most youngest of students. With aid and add-on programs such as an interactive white board the other two 'powerpoint' and 'blogging' can be achieved even by prep students. All five have been chosen due to the ease at which they can be used by all (including the teachers) and the limitless possibilities for fantastic pedagogically based learning experiences.

In order to best identify which tools and how these can be a benefit the "Dimensions of Learning framework" with its inclusion of Art Costas "Habits of mind" has been used as a determination.

While it is possible for educators to educate without ICT the lessons would no doubt be lesser for it. ICT's are the way of the future and with them the future looks exciting and very educational.

References
Prensky, M (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5.

Digital tool: Microsoft Powerpoint

While at first "powerpoints" may bring up memories of dull, repetitive slides (alot like the old holiday slides some of us were subjected to), "powerpoint" is a far more exciting and interesting tool.
In conjunction with a interactive whiteboard it can even be used by young children.

While the Microsoft Powerpoint is required to make a powerpoint, Microsoft allows anyone to download the viewer for free. Unless a person owns a "mac" system it is more than likely that their computer, whether a PC or a laptop will have a version of powerpoint. Powerpoint can be used with images, sound and video. The slides can be altered in a thousand ways to make them more interesting and they can be linked to Internet sites. The one unfortunate problem with powerpoint is that it can be difficult to "upload" the program onto the Internet.
For the older students or their teachers there are various web sites that can clearly help them understand how to best use the program. One such site is:
http://www.actden.com/pp/

For the younger students, powerpoint has the added benefit of being able to be "altered" to allow only certain tools to be accessed, which allows a teacher to ensure that the students are concentrating only on what they should be.

The powerpoint below is an example of a combination of the powerpoint program, photos using a digital camera, sounds recorder via a digital voice recorder, and music downloaded via the Internet from Itunes.

Teachers and ICT's

Technology is becoming increasingly interactive and distributed, at rapidly declining cost, the means to participate in incredibly complex networks of information, resources, and instruction. Electronic tools have given us an immense array of text, video, sound, and communication resources The primary issue facing these educators, Just what is the most effective way to understand and use these tools?

Schofield and Davidson have noted that "The literature on school is filled with depictions of teachers’ ambivalent, cautious, even resistant responses to proposed reforms-whether pedagogical or technical". Cunningham and Bonk noted that “Educational leaders need reassurance and guidance that as the formats for electronic collaboration proliferate, these will enhance interaction and positively reorganize the learning process".A barrier to this as Cunningham and Bonk noted there is a “lack of pedagogical guidance about integrating (electronic tools)which leads to dilemmas and confusion”.

According to Langwitches Blog, the teachers are not the only people to be confused about the benefits of Etools. Langwitches remarks "How can we educate parents and administrators that blogging, podcasting and skyping, etc. are simply a vehicle to preparing students for many skills and literacy's, including the 3Rs they are accustomed to and familiar with?"

It is important for all the stakeholders to understand that Etools are simply tools, they way in which they are used is what is the most important. It is the difference between a child watching a soap opera on television compared with a documentary, it is the same tool, but vastly different outcomes can occur.

References
Cunningham,D.,& Bonk, C.(1998).Searching for Learner-Centered, Constructivist, and Sociocultural Components of Collaborative Educational Learning Tools. NJ, USA. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.

Schofield, J.& Davidson, A. (2002) Bringing the Internet to School. CA, USA. Jossey-Bass.

Langwitches Blog,(2010). It’s Not About the Tools. It’s About the Skills. Retrieved August 22nd 2010 from: http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/01/09/its-not-about-the-tools-its-about-the-skills/

Digital tool: Digital voice recorder.

DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER

A digital voice recorder (DVR) is a fantastic way of getting the children's thoughts and ideas. Young children may not have the literary skills to “write” their thoughts and ideas but can “dictate” it to a digital recorder, and even later play it back.

A DVR can be used in a multitude of programs including powerpoint (the powerpoint in the powerpoint blog utilised this tool by recording a dogs bark), wiki, podcasts, voki and glogster. It adds a personal touch to presentations as well as to learning. Young children will benefit from DVR as many are very keen to hear their own voice being recorded. It is also benefitial for those students who are shy, it allows them to practice and record a presentation privately if they are uncomfortable about presenting within a group.
Another advantage to both young and older students is that it allows them to "hear" their pronunciations and annunciation, which enables them to correct any errors they may have. Which both old and young are not always aware of.

DOL overview
DOL1: Attitudes and perceptions: Helps the students build confidence and feel more comfortable at the task at hand.
DOL2:Acquire and integrate knowledge: it can be used to record thoughts and was as sounds.
DOL3:Extend and refine knowledge: DVR will allow a student to record their thoughts and ideas towards a subject and pursue it from there.
DOL4: The recording can help the student present their message.
DOL5: The DVR allows students to be persistent at a task, think flexibly and even find humour.

References

Price. H. (2009) The really useful book of ICT in the early years. Milton Park, Great Briton: Routledge




Olympus digital voice recorder owned by this blogger.

Digital tool: You tube

You tube is an easy access point to thousands of videos many of them invaluable to the learning environment. However, it often lacks copyrite laws and can have many inappropriate videos, making it not an ideal port of call for any research they may do. You tube is often blocked by schools due to this reason. It serves more as a teacher tool for resources and first step into finding other, more appropriate web sites.

A more appropriate site is Teacher tube where videos (that are perfect for young students) can be found such as the one below.

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=7708&title=Water_Cycle_Song

some videos can even be downloaded.

Higher order thinking and ICT

Student thinking and teacher questioning have traditionally focused on the lowest level of thinking, remembering-memorisation. This has been called simple or lower order thinking because the thinker does not have to apply any strategy to process the remembered information.
However, when we ask students to solve a problem, make a decision, make a generalisation, identify patterns or sequence, or distinguish facts from inferences, they have to remember and apply strategies to process (this) information.

In order to best allow a student to achieve higher order thinking it is wise to employ any and all tools to achieve this goal.

The term "higher order thinking" was coined by Benjamin Bloom, a professor at the University of Chicago. Bloom’s Taxonomy identifies six levels within the cognitive domain of learning which can be thought of as an order of thinking skills.
The six levels of Blooms taxonomy are:
Evaluation - Judging the outcome
Synthesis - Putting together
Analysis - Taking apart
Application - Making use of knowledge
Comprehension - Confirming or understanding
Knowledge - Gathering Information

Many educators have considered Etools as an easy way of helping their students reach "higher order thinking".
References

POPET Pty Ltd.(2010). Higher order thinking. Retrieved August 22nd 2010 from:http://www.popet.com.au/pages/highorderthinking.html




Image from: http://www.techlearning.com/printablearticle/8670

Digital tool: Nintendendo Wii "U draw"

This new program would allow students to practice their fine motor skills while having fun.



Picture:http://www.gearlog.com/images/udraw_bundle_cover_final_jpg_jpgcopy.jpg

Digital tool: Blogs for Learning

Blogging. An odd word, but a very handy tool

A blog, which is a blend of the term “web log” is the electronic version of a personal diary, except that the writer desires people to read it and to make comments.
While the application has been around since 1999 when a small San Francisco based company called Pyra labs launched what is now “blogger.com”. Today Blogger.com is one of the largest and most popular free blog hosting services in the world.

The pedagogical benefits are that it allows the teacher to gain a better insight into their students thought processes.
Through documenting and sharing childrens' learning with themselves and each other and their families, we can:
*make learning visable
* engage children further in the learning process through reflecting on experiences, so clarifying and deepening their understanding
* Stimulate children through learning from each other
*build on childrens' sense of identity and their relationships by revisiting experiences and taking pleasure in their learning
* share our interest in childrens' learning, showing them that their intentions, ideas and views are important to us and their families
* put children and their processes of learning at the centre of our understanding for planning for childrens' next steps.
* encourage the development of shared meanings and experiences between a group of children, their families and other adults and lead into further planning.

A blog is a useful tool for young and older students as:
(1) It requires no programming skills, all the tools and resources are located on the web.
(2) Is about personal expression, creating and using your own voice and not having to worry about censorship. (It is important, however, that the laws of copywrite and defamation still apply). (3) It is a forum for sharing thoughts, ideas, opinions, talents, knowledge, rants, photos, videos or music.

When creating a blog it is important that:
(a) you consider who is the target audience
(b) the blog is well written and easy to understand
(c) concise and contain no spelling or grammatical errors.
(d) it should be visually appealing.

References

Wikipedia. (2010). Blog. Retrieved August 23rd, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

Rich. J. (2009). Blogging for fame and fortune.Canada: Entrepreneur press
Price. H. (2009) The really useful book of ICT in the early years. Milton Park, Great Briton: Routledge.

Digital tool: Glogster

Glogster, a neat way of joining a variety of applications (image, video, sound) to create a great looking page that the students can design themselves.

http://deeney.edu.glogster.com/gloggyonrubbish/

DOL overview
DOl1: Attitudes and perceptions-The design engages the student and makes them feel comfortable with the exercise. The ease at which students can use glogster gives them a sense of being able to complete the task.
DOL2: Acquire and Intergrate knowledge-each area of the glogster leads the students to new information. Videos can help them acquire important information
DOL4: Extend and refine knowledge-The students can use what they have learnt to create their own glogster.
DOL5: Habits of mind-The ease of the program, the exciting result, and the skills they have gained are resulted from the students successfully engaging good habits of mind. The finished product can also help other students with in DOL.

Digital tool: Concept mapping

This is an example of concept mapping:

There are various tools on the Internet than can be used to create a concept map. The one above was created using bubbl.us. It is so simple to use and yet so invaluable, better still it is free to use. There are various reasons why a concept map is a valuable tool for the classroom, and it is not limited to simply a "pretty" display for the students to use.

Time is valuable, not only to the teachers, but the students as well. With sometimes a maximum of four hours a day to complete a variety of subjects (not counting disruptions) using that time to stumble through several programs to create a concept map that lacks even half of the looks of the one above, is a definite waste of time.

The main reason that concept maps work so well is they are a physical representation of our own brains layout- its schema. With little knowledge of concept maps a person can easily understand the links between each bubble. "Chunking" information is the best way for our brains to use the least amount of power for the desired result of being able to "pull" information out of our head. Each person does this subconsciously whether it be for a test eg name the bones in the human hand, to ordering a pie eg pie+sauce = yummy, be sure to not forget to ask for sauce.

Week 1 part 2

Week 1

Netiquette.
http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/netiquetteonlineculture/l/bl_netiquette_quiz.htm
A very handy web page as it certainly demystifies the language and sub text often associated with posts and blogs. I have used blogs and postings for at least 5 years and it took me that long to get the gist of it, having various sites to go to makes it much easier (and less embarrassing) to post on blogs etc. While I am familiar with the majority of Netiquette, it was handy to brush up on, and add to, my knowledge.

Knowing your learner
I have placed this title in large bold writing to show the extreme importance of this subject.
We all know that we are individuals with different beliefs, likes and different learning styles, yet some teachers are determined to ignore this fact and teach their students the same dull, boring and often monotonous way!!
What shocked me when I first began my Learning management degree was that the idea of teaching students to their strengths was over 30 years old. Thirty years and many people still haven't grasped how important and how easy it would make their job, if they did cater to their students learning styles.

They have been many learning theories over the years, some have added to those before them, some oppose those before them. The three I will talk about here is Constructivism, Cognitivism and Behavourist.
(1) Behavourist (Behavourism). Gestalt and Pavlov were the main contributors. As the name implies is about the learners behaviour and the psychology behind that behaviour.
(2) Cognitivism also deals with the psychology behind behaviour, but delves deeper into the brain and its cognitive functions such as the memory system.
(3) Constructivism (and later social constructivism) deals with how the brain deals with information and constructs meaning. Piaget was a main contributor and he believed that we all construct, interpret and make sense of the world by our past experiences. A book can be a classic example of this two people reading the same book will have very different interpretations of that book, even from what the author intended.

Week 5

Wordle.net



Good for literacy, language, science.

http://www.cast/- check it out
. book builder.

Check out "free studio".

Making video
powerpoint slides, cameras, still cameras-movie maker, claymation,
video experiements and slow down.
check out:
glogstar
KTi2008.wikispaces.com
nasdlflextech.wikispaces.com