This is my end of semetser mindmap as promised! It is created on Inspiration8- a mapping tool used on Mac computers.
It is user friendly for teachers and children. For more information on how to install or for the variety of options it guarantees see here.
I really enjoyed celebrating everyone’s digital stories in my E-learning class. Everyone put in a lot of effort and the emotion in some of the stories allowed the viewer to gain an insight into that particular persons life, views and challenges. As hard as I think it would be to implement into a classroom of as many as 30 students, I think it would be a shame if the opportunity was lost.
 Image: 'Neverending story' www.flickr.com/photos/24183489@N00/252757784
 Hannah quotes Gary Van Deurse and Ify Mora in saying that the experience is within a “larger social system.” Sharing work with a global network is essential so children can get excited, see the relevance, develop relations and celebrate their work more so.
My first experience of implementing digital stories in the classroom would be between groups of three following an excursion. I would try and provide the groups with a camera for each group. Therefore the photos would be personal and students could share their knowledge of the excursion.
I agree with Hannah and Matthew that teacher’s should have positive attitudes towards learning design websites. I think they can offer great learning opportunities and they allow teacher’s to develop skills in this technological world!
However my experience with LAMS was frustrating because I kept thinking of the lost potential the learning actvities had. My practicum allowed me to see the wonderful ideas of an IWB and I think 20 slides on an IWB instead of a LAMS task would be more beneficial to pre-service teachers. I believe the IWB has all the benefits of learning designs but more.
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I would have completely agreed with Hannah’s statement that teachers who oppose these new experiences are ignorant, before my practicum, but at the moment I am thinking- I don’t blame them!
I would like to reflect on a video in Amanda’s blog about a Microsoft school spending 65 million dollars to upgrade their technology for only 500 students. That amount of money should definately be shared between other schools in the area seeing as it is a low-socioeconomic area. Opportunities for technology seem endless- schools need to be critically aware whether the technology will enhance learning outcomes or not.
Spending 65 million dollars on one school for 500 students seems the school went overboard and to me half the money was probably spent unnecessarily. They should be trying to achieve a balance between the schools in order to create equality in education. Cases like this cause conflict in society.
On the other hand, having Microsoft build a school like that in a low-socioeconomic part of philadelphia seemed to excite the locals and possibly provide motivation and increased ambition for the 500 students selected. If the school changed the lives of the majority of the ‘learners’ for the better then maybe that difference is too strong to argue against. This school is definately debatable.
Digital story telling is a fantastic way for children to express themselves individually through voice and photos. There is a wide range of software available for the creations. I would recommend photo story 3 I used GarageBand and iMovie but both are only available on Mac computers. Lascia believes the “best stories are at once both personal and universal.” She gives a wonderful rationale for digital storytelling but I am still wary about implementing them in my own classroom.
Making the digital stories is a great experience and being able to celebrate everyone’s finished products was amazing, however for me many problems arose. Here are some of my tips and some options to consider before thinking about implementing them in a classroom.
Additional tips can be seen here.
WOW! I just read one of New Zealand teacher Allanah King’s latest posts about her version of http://wherethehellismatt.com. I remember seeing the video on a morning show a few months back. It was such an inspiring video where he dances with people from all around the world. He uses short clips from each country and then puts them together to make a movie.
Allanah King has taken the idea and incorporated it into the classroom!  She is obviously very confident on computers, very dedicated to her students and very motivated as a learner! Great work Allanah!
I have recently completed a Learning Activity and Management System (LAM’s) on Bike Safety. I found this task to be very complicated, time consuming and neither child or ‘teacher’ friendly. Matthew presents some similar views in his blog posting called learning designs. I found that the layout and the sidebar tool were too limiting and it didn’t allow teacher’s to express their creativity. You virtually had to use microsoft PowerPoint to make it colourful and creative. I would not create another LAM’s task again. In saying this, I the last thing I want to happen is for children to miss out on a great online opportuntity.
If I was to do a similar variety of activities on a SMART board, I would add drawing activites, labelling activities, allow children to record their voices, allow children to upload phtos of them riding their bikes and then use the pictures over a range of KLA’s for example Math’s- grouping in multiplication using the wheels and the spokes.
They’re not called SMARTboards for nothing!
Papert wrote a really interesting article on his book: “the gears of my childhood” detailing his love for gears as a child and how this has helped him to assimilate his knowledge of gears with other learning opportunities he has encountered. I believe this following quote from Papert captures the essesnce of my ideas on SMARTboards. Talking about computer technology he says:
“Its essence is its universality, its power to simulate. Because it can take on a thousand forms and can serve a thousand functions, it can appeal to a thousand tastes. This book is the result of my own attempts over the past decade to turn computers into instruments flexible enough so that many children can each create for themselves something like what the gears were for me.”
There are three ways students can learn- visually, kinesthetically and orally. I personally learn things the best when they are relevant and I am doing something- manipulating, discovering, fixing…
Papert delivered a speech called Constructionism vs Instructionism which are “two approaches to educational innovation.” He says there must be an important distinction between how children learn and how we teach. The girl in Papert’s speech was doing fun and interesting math’s without realising it. The activity was creatively linked to the Visual Arts Syllabus- it made me realise how effective it can be to link KLA’s.
His views on teaching mathematics are that it needs to be relevant to ‘real life’ and needs to be exciting. I compared this to IWb use and my own learning experiences in school and realised that teaching is very challenging. Much time and effort is need to make every lesson really effective. This has just reinforced my thoughts that IWb’s are great tools because they allow teachers to save their work and use it for another year. The time they would have taken to plan that exact same lesson the following year can be spent improving other lessons.
Setting clear expectations and developing clear instructions is a vital step to teaching. I believe the voice is the most powerful tool to use. IWb’s, however, can make the voice increasingly effective by recording it on the SMARTboard and having a video telling instructions or alternatively pre-recorded drawings with the voice. Possibilites are endless!
After viewing a video called Interactive Whiteboards- Boon or Boondoggle?, it enabled me to reflect on how effective it is as a teaching tool and also confirmed the idea that reflection is critical in teaching. The video debates whether interactive whiteboards are worth the investments in schools and some very interesting points are made for and against the arguement.
One main point in which I took out was that “it’s not about the technology, it’s about the teaching.” For IWb’s to be an effective resource, teacher’s need to use them effectively otherwise they are probably not worth the time. One point that the video didn’t mention in which i deem relevant is the importance of not relying on IWb’s to teach the whole lesson- manipulative objects such as counters and scales are essential to help children with the discovery process.
I have seen amazing lesson’s taught in the classroom using the IWb, however it was being used by a teacher that does conferences weekly. You may never know what happens in some classrooms in the way that IWb’s are being used. It is vital that teacher’s reflect on their lessons and collaborate with other teacher’s in the field to share ideas or attend courses.
I haven’t blogged for the past 3 weeks as I have been on prac! I was very lucky to be placed with a teacher who was an expert using IWb’s. ‘Mrs W’ even trained and held conferences for teachers who were keen to learn new skills.
Every single lesson I did in the classroom involved the IWb. Honestly, I would feel lost if I couldn’t use one to teach! They are very effective, visual learning tools in which you can store all the lessons on a USB and use them again and again. This is great because you can use it as a tool for assessment and it’s also very time economical.
The opportunities for creativity are endless and the boards are definately child friendly. I learnt to record my voice for ‘what am I” questions and have the words appear at the rate I was talking. I learnt how to take videos of children doing drama activities and I also linked to websites for additional activities.
I was very grateful to be asked to take part in a conference to show some of the lessons I planned. Unfortunately I was unavailable on the day and was unable to participate.
After my practicum, I felt I was quite a whiz at IWb’s but after observing various activities on an interactive resources website, I realised I have a long way to go!
I looked specifically at activities on teaching fractions. The activities can be made relatively easily or even bought online. I think it is a very useful website in terms of variety and the use of visual effects for increased undertanding, however I believe the activities must be chosen with care making sure it is relevant a particular class.
