By Penny.

For whatever reason my video is not uploading…I have sent the video in an e-mail to Matthew and I have it (and my podcast which also did not upload) saved on my USB. Wow, how frustrated I am at the moment.

In my video, I have discussed several trends in educational technology. My discussion was based on a chapter from ‘Educational Technology for Teaching and Learning’ by Lehman et al.

Images made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution.

www.flickr.com/photos/30008272@N00/86339994

www.flickr.com/photos/27315689@N00/749317332

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www.flickr.com/photos/77961177@N00/187357320

Reference:

Lehman, J.D., Newby, T.J., Russel, J.D., and Stepich, D.A. (2000). Educational technology for teaching and learning (3rd ed.). Columbus, Ohio: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Posted by Colleen.

For this blog posting i am looking at webquests and their possibilities in the primary classroom. I found this journal article myself and produced the podcast on my own. Please listen to my podcast (in the houndbite bar) below.

If the embedded houndbite bar doesn’t work, you can also listen to my podcast here!

Webquest Databases:

WebQuest.Org

Primary School Webquests

Sample Webquests:

An Insects Perspective

Tooth Fairy Tales

Apple Trees Throughout the Seasons

Judy Blume

Reference:

Gaskill, M., McNulty, A. & and Brooks, D. (2006). Learning from webquests. Journal of Science and Technology, 15 (2) 133-136.

Image Reference:

Images made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution

Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Available at: Image: Image: ‘Web Refractions‘
www.flickr.com/photos/41864721@N00/289169665

Posted by Elise

After realising that constructiVism and constructioNism were not the same thing, I became slightly confused as to the difference, given the ideas in both sounded so familiar. I read this post by Sarah on her blog and went back to the article – “Constructionism, Learning by Design, and Project Based Learning” – she was writing about and now I understand!

I like this quote from the article:

“In a learning environment guided by constructionism, it is important to set lesson/unit goals and expectations at the outset, so that learners understand what they are trying to achieve and the level of that achievement. Explaining multiple strategies allows the learners various ways of solving the problems that they encounter. Obtaining feedback through presentation and discussion allows the learners to revise their projects/artifacts. Lastly, an involvement with application in the real world allows the learning process to take place in a more meaningful context.”

I can see so easily now, how a constructionist approach is important in teaching with technology, just as teaching with technology can be a crucial part of constructionism. It enables students to learn through making an artefact and having it linked to a real world setting. Learning in this way allows students to see how their learning in school is relevant to their lives both now and in the future. Doing this through the use of technology also makes the creating and learning fun and motivating for our students who are born into a world full of new technology and love to use it.

Image made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution

Image available from here.

Han, S., and Bhattacharya, K. (2001). Constructionism, Learning by Design, and Project Based Learning. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved 3rd June, 2009, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Posted by Colleen.

I found a great webpage (by the non-profit organisation Macinstruct) written by Thacker (2007) which explains the possible (primary) educational uses of the software program ‘Comic Life’. Just last week in my e-learning class we used the ‘Comic Life’ program to create a comic which explained our views of e-learning. I really enjoyed experimenting with this program and hence it prompted me to find literature which dealt with its possible uses in the primary school. I could see children loving using this program, but is it educational?

According to Thacker (2007), comic creating has the ”ability to meet the needs of students with a variety of learning styles” and “address many of Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences”. I believe comic life gives students a range of opportunities for self expression and creativity through the combination of written conversation and images. I had not previously thought about this, but creating comics can allow students to show evidence of reading, writing, comprehension, drawing and organising skills, in one activity. I think that is fantastic!!! In this webpage, Thacker (2007) provides a list of a variety of traditional educational activities which lend themselves nicely to the use of the ‘Comic Life’ program:

• “Timelines (history, events, sequences)
• Historical figures (history of, life of)
• Instructions (step by step, details, illustrations, easy to follow)
• Dialogue punctuation
• Character analysis
• Plot analysis
• Storytelling
• Pre-Writing Tool
• Post-Reading Tool
• Teaching Onomatopoeias “

At the bottom of the webpage Thacker (2007) has included a basic tutorial explaining the basic features of ‘Comic Life’ and how you use it. If you haven’t used it before i would strongly suggest you have a look! Also if you didn’t explore the program much in our e-learning class, i would also suggest you have a look – because there are a lot more features than we dealt with in class! Finally i would like to conclude that this program has “the ability to export your comic into a variety of formats (HTML, images, iPhoto Album, QuickTime or use your .Mac account to create a blog complete with RSS) you can share your work with others no matter where they are.” I think this is fantastic because it can allow students to share their work, which is the final stage of the constructionism view of teaching and learning.

This is just as a side note: Today, in my e-learning class, i had an interesting conversation with my friend Sarita on the use of new software (like ‘Comic Life’). The issue we were discussing was that of how would you convince an older more traditional teacher of the possibilities and educational value of using new technology with students. We were thinking in terms of prac. How could you convince them that these new technologies are worthwhile educationally? Has anyone got any ideas?

Reference:

Thacker, C. (2007). How to use comic life in the classroom. Retrieved June 2, 2009, from http://www.macinstruct.com/node/69

Image Reference:

Images made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution

Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Available at: Image: ‘speech bubble‘
www.flickr.com/photos/23298087@N02/2363694735

Our group made this video on an article we read entitled Designing learning environments that excite serious play by Lloyd P. Reiber, which we presented in class.

Rieber, L.P. (2001). Designing learning environments that excite serious play. Paper presented at the annual
meeting of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, Melbourne, Australia.

By Penny.

I thought I would follow in Colleen’s foot steps and add my views on e-learning that we did in class last week

Although I have a lot of scattered thoughts on e-learning, here in my comic, I have narrowed down a few of my thoughts.

First off, I believe that e-learning involves in depth thinking and happy and enjoyable learning. E-learning should involve discovering new things in this technological world, and using those new discoveries to explore and connect with the world. Taking a leap into this new and always change world on technology is the most vital step towards a successful learning in computers and technology.

By Penny.

Bronwyn’s post entitled ‘Growing Up Digital!’ based on an article by John Seely Brown discusses her thoughts on what it would have been like for those people who didnt grow up in an era where nearly everything is based on a computer. This also made me think of the same thing.

My grandparents, and I’m sure many peoples grandparents or even parents say things like, “back in my day we didn’t have a radio, let alone a computer!” and I wondered what it will be like today, if there were no computers. For one, this blog wouldn’t exist, e-learning as a subject wouldn’t exist, and really a lot of things would disappear. With this, I started to think of how important these technologies have become in society. The article discusses aspects of learning through the use of computers and how students’ marks have imporved dramatically, and basically the seemingly never-ending uses we can find with computers and the internet. Tutoring software, educational games, research, communicating, completely homework, finding the weather in Tokyo and the current news headlines in Nadi (Fiji). Everyone relies on a computer in some way, shape or form.

Computers are absolutely amazing tools, and I really could not even begin to think of how the world would cope if suddenly, for whatever reason, all computers were destroyed and life went back to the simplicity of my grandparents day.

Image made available by Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution

Computers at lunch anyone?

By Penny.

Libby posted a blog describing her experiences and thoughts on the LAMS program that we previously explored and subsequently used to complete an assignment. Her blog prompted me to think about my feelings on the LAMS programs, which I will discuss in this blog.

When LAMS was first introduced in our class, I really was completely confused with how to use it. It took afew explanations, a lot of referals to the sheet handed out and lots of exploring and experimenting for me to finally understand how to use it properly, and even then, I struggled a little. Although I do believe that LAMS is a great program for students to be able to work from home or school, I do think that if it was used a lot during the year, it would become rather boring. I think, for one or two assignments throughout the year, LAMS would definitely create motivation in the students to do the assignment, but if used to regularly it will lose that ‘wow’ factor.

Also, if it took me quite a while to completely understand how to use the LAMS program (unless it was just me) it may take a few introduction lessons and a lot of experimenting for students to completely understand themselves, which takes away some of the precious little time we have in a teaching day to get everything done.

LAMS does, in theory seem like an excellent program, and it is an excellent program. But when it comes to practice, I ponder whether it will be as great as it is on paper…

Image made available by Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution

Lamb picture.

So I started this semester thinking that my views on technology in the classroom would not change. At the beginning, I believed that technology did have a place in the classroom, but its place is limited, that the hype created by parents, the community and any commercial technology giant was overrated. And while I still believe the hype for technology is overrated, I now am open to the idea that e-learning in the classroom has a bigger place than I would have thought.

My skepticism of computers and any sort of technology was mostly due to my ignorance. Before starting this class, all I could really do was the most basic of powerpoint presentations. Now that I have learnt how to use different internet based programs and software and I have some confidence in those areas, I can see the benefits of such programs more clearly. Not only does intergrating technology into lessons provide an element of interactivity and engagement, it also caters for the different types of learners in the classroom. I experienced this first hand in a lesson I did on prac this semester.

Although I am still only a little bit confident with my computer abilities, my confidence has improved. I have opened my mind and gone beyond my comfort zone to try and explore different software and different programs, which, although it took a while, I did experience success. E-learning has benefited me in many ways and I am grateful for this.

I have discovered many new things this semester and I am quite sure that, with everything I have learnt in this subject, it is only the tip of the iceberg for me and my technological experiences.

Image made available by Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution

Image Source.

By Penny.

The chapter I have read, in a text called Learning With Technology: A Constructivist Perspective written by David H. Jonassen, Kyle L. Peck and Brent G. Wilson, touches on the subject of Multimedia in the schools and classrooms. Multimedia have always had a strong presence in the classroom, whether it be video tapes or slide presentations. These days, multimedia has become more advanced, interactive and engaging. Having these technologies in a classroom makes it a lot easier to teach many different topics, including most science and tech topics. By allowing more sources that cater for different students learning, multimedia in the classroom has great advantages.

The chapter in this text has a very strong message about the importance and usefulness of multimedia learning environments. “These learning environments present interesting problems or challenges to students, using the multimedia to provide resources to help the learners solve the problem” (Jonassen et al, 1999, p.92).

Although I have been somewhat of a skeptic when it comes to the urgency and outrageous importance placed on having technology in the classroom, this text explains clearly and simply the importance of having some level of technology in the classroom without going overboard.

Image made available by Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution

Photo from Flickr.

Reference:

Jonassen, D.H., Peck, K.L., & Wilson, B.G. (1999). Learning With Technology: A Constructivist Approach. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc.