I think Picnik was a really enjoyable and creative tool that would be excellent for educational purposes (more for high school students then primary) and if you are the type of person who loves to create! Picnik is a webpage which allows you to edit any photo you have saved onto your computer. It allows you to change colours, make effects, and add texts, touch ups, stickers, frames and other cool creative things to just one photo!
Learners are to attain a photo, and represent it in as many ways as possible using Picnik (premium) as the editing tool. Learners could then justify their editing to each photo and discuss how what they did represents the chosen ‘spin’ on each copy of the photo. This would be a fun, creative activity that I’m sure all learners would highly enjoy participating in.
Vokis are an interesting and a really fun tool when engaging students. Vokis may be used as a hook to start off a topic of discussion that students are un aware about. Technologies such as Vokis are an excellent way to facilitate engagement which is usually difficult to accomplish any other way. Vokis are an authentic and new technique for teaching and learning. (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999)
Sometimes starting a new topic can be daunting for both teachers and students, the topic introduced must be presented in a way which engages the learners and makes them motivated to learn due to the meaningful nature of the work environment and the activities. (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999) For the Voki I created I used the topic Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The KLA for this topic is SOSE. Though this topic is important and a necessity to learn. Students may be put off from learning this topic; this is why teachers need to create a new and exciting tool to introduce this topic as positive and stimulating as possible rather then an overwhelming learning experience.
Kearsley, G & Shneiderman, B. (1999), Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning, http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm (17/08/10)
YouTube is a popular technology that I have been familiar with for many years now. YouTube is one of the ten most popular web sites on the internet. (Fieldman, 2007) YouTube is a web video sharing site founded in late 2005. YouTube is a venue for sharing videos amongst friends, family and can shown to millions of people around the globe; people who subscribe to YouTube can also comment on any video and receive information showing videos that may be of interest to them. (Ziff, 2009) I think YouTube is an excellent technology to bring into the classroom environment for there are millions of excellent educational videos that can hook and engage learners.
From experience in high school I know that I would love to have used YouTube as an educational tool for assignments across most subjects. Though due to the issues of internet safety YouTube was banned at my school and not only my school but all schools across Australia. An article from The Australian explains how all schools have banned YouTube because “The website was considered unsafe because it was impossible to determine what sort of video material might be accessed by students” says Queensland Education and Training Minister Rod Welford (2007). Also a spokesman for the state's Department of Education and Training says, “There's no educational value to it and the content of the material on the site.” (2007)
I personally think that there are inappropriate videos on YouTube but it is a different matter to say that there “is no educational value to it.” I believe that there are many educational uses for YouTube when used appropriately. For example I chose an appropriate YouTube clip for the topic Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. This clip will be used as a friendly and fun clip to engage learners into this strand of SOSE and should result in a positive learning outcome for all students. There are many other eductional videos I have found when looking through YouTube for example: Maths- Learning your times tables or English- examples of shakespeare. YouTube should not be recognised as a negative site and portrayed as completely harmful to all students because behind all the negative media you hear of a couple of mischievous boys looking up rude or racial things on YouTube (as stated by Andrew Colley, 2007) there are videos on YouTube that are decent for the educational environment. I am not saying it is acceptable for students to be exposed to such crude videos but YouTube videos should be acceptable under certain curcumstances for students to gain appropriate learning opportunities with appropriate teacher supervision.
Have a look at this cool little hook for Reduce Reuse and Recycle.
Reference: Colley, A. (2007), States still hold out on YouTube, http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,21330109-15306,00.html (22/08/10)
Fieldman, B. (2007), What is it and why us it? http://www.surfnetkids.com/safety/youtube_what_is_it_and_why_use_it-19026.htm (22/08/10)
Ziff, D (2009), YouTube http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=YouTube&i=57119,00.asp (22/08/10)
When I first heard of RSS I had absolutely no idea what this term meant whilst learning the meaning overtime I realized that RSS aggregators are a very useful tool. RSS actually stands for Really Simple Syndication. The RSS feed is a useful format for delivering web content which regularly changes. RSS allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest information from the sites and blogs you are most interested in. (Lorna, 2009) By allowing you to be updated with new information from you favourite sites it prevents you from frantically checking websites to see if there is any new information; because the RSS aggregator (e.g. Google reader) will show you what new information has been displayed on your favourite sites. (Software garden inc. 2004)
RSS aggregators can be an excellent format not only for students but for teachers as well. RSS aggregators can be taught to students so that when it comes to assignment work they can save their favourite sites to an RSS aggregator (such as Google reader) and when it comes to finding information for their assignments all students will be well equipped with new information from sites relevant to their task.
Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson describe RSS feeds as, “A great way to provide constantly updated content for young people. Although your students might not read the newspaper each morning, they can still get a great dose of timely information through RSS feeds. Unlike bookmarks that involve wading through the content of individual websites, aggregators provide students with access to the latest information.” (2008)
An RSS feed is also useful for teachers who spend their time on the internet discovering new information from their favourite teacher sources. An RSS feed will allow teachers to save time that they desperately need when teachers already have a lot of things to organise for the classroom.
References:
Lamb, A & Johnson, L. (2008), RSS feeds in the Classroom, http://eduscapes.com/sessions/rss/ (22/08/10)
Lorna, W. (2009) What is RSS? (Really Simple Syndication)? http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-rss.htm (22/08/10)
Software Garden inc. (2004), What is RSS? http://rss.softwaregarden.com/aboutrss.html (22/08/10)
PowerPoint is one of the technologies I am very comfortable and familiar with. Throughout my learning journey through primary school and high school PowerPoint played a major role when delivering information to us as students. PowerPoint is a useful technological software that lets you generate a creative presentation on whatever you like! PowerPoint is a practical tool when giving oral speeches on whatever topic the students are encountering at that specific time. Teachers can also use this PowerPoint to engage students into specific learning experiences. Although PowerPoint is very useful software which can be used for numerous learning experiences; I find that PowerPoint can sometimes be difficult to use and does not have all the features that new technologies contain these days.
Mahara
A Mahara is an entirely featured electronic ePortfolio, resume builder, blogging system and social networking system. Mahara helps build reflective and personalized learning. Unlike Moodle, which is a teacher led course system; Mahara allows the user to be in control of their own learning. Mahara allows you to manage your own files which (e.g. images, documents, videos, blogs). This is a useful format for this allows learners to take control and reflect on their own learning.
Wikis are an incredible tool especially when teaching students who these days thrive off technology. Wiki is a remarkable web page used to store interesting information of any person’s choice! Wiki can be used by anyone with access to the Internet and can be changed and edited by anyone in the world. (Leuf & Cunningham, 2001)
Here is a link to a Wiki that I created. http://3rstrategy.wetpaint.com/
Wiki can definitely be a useful tool in the classroom. Each learner can access a Wiki page the learning manager has created and complete certain tasks, assignments, cool games and much more. Wiki is a fun and excellent way to learn online which parents can also view to gain an understanding of what their child is currently learning. As a future learning manager I would suggest using Wikis in the classroom to engage each learner.
I created a concept map (mind map) on topic 1 of this course. To help create this concept map i used a website and a handy tool called bubbl.us. I believe that using a concept map in a classroom would be beneficial to all learning styles. A concept map allows you to create a topic and form various ideas around each category; this allows the learner to successfully grasp an understanding of each topic. As learners in this generation are technologically literate bubble.us allows students to use technology whilst completing a learning activity which is a great way to engage your learner. Bubbl.us is an easy to use tool which can be saved and progressively completed throughout the year. Beneath is the concept map i completed as an example:
