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