Reflective Synopsis

 “Where my reason, imagination or interest were not engaged, I would not or I could not learn." Winston Churchill

Technology permeates our society in a way that has never been experienced before. Our students are immersed in the online world, with almost 80% actively participating in chat rooms, blogs, multimedia, games and social networking from a young age, with no understanding of the dangers their digital footprint can have on their lives. (Brody 2006) They are in essence addicted to the instant communication and satisfaction wrought by digital interactions.

Online learning is not the next big thing, it is the now big thing.” - Donna J. Abernathy

Many teachers still express anxiety when they need to engage students through digital means (Anastasiades&Vitalaki  2011). From what I've learned of pedagogy, it is our responsibility as teachers to understand the world of our students so we may better engage them in the curriculum. Elearning is about using this digital world to RELATE to and ENGAGE with our students so that they may actually WANT to learn. And so we will investigate, vet and implement any tools necessary to generate that third space and create a positive learning environment.

 “Teaching in the Internet age means we must teach tomorrow’s skills today.”  - Jennifer Fleming

The range of ICT tools available is constantly growing. There are thousands of available resources locatable through Scootle alone. To explore others requires time to not only learn the tool, but also to consider how to apply it for learning benefits. This is all time outside of that spent in class too.

“People often tout interactivity as the great benefit offered by eLearning, yet most interactivity does nothing to either engage or instruct.” - Ethan Edwards 

In the first week of this course, we were introduced to works of Dr Judy Wills, who highlighted the importance of stimuli to bypass various brain filters and access reflective thinking. Later, we looked at multimodal learning, which builds on these and includes the concepts of convergence and cognitive overload.

With these aspects in mind, careful consideration of the use of ICT's is essential to effect digital pedagogy. The TPACK framework describes how teachers require a careful mix of content knowledge, personal pedagogies and technological literacy in order to maximize learning goals. One such method we use to categorise our tech literacy is the SAMR model.

“Teachers need to integrate technology seamlessly into the curriculum instead of viewing it as an add-on, an afterthought, or an event.” - Heidi-Hayes Jacobs

In my first post, I made a correlation between the four 'ism' learning theories and the tiered dimensions of learning (Marzano 1997), being acquistion (behaviourism), extension (cognitivism), refining (constructivism) and application (connectivism). I later made a direct link between these learning theories and the SAMR model, and have been using it as a ranking tool of various techs in relation to their improvement on traditional teaching means. However I have been rather vague on how the user benefits from generating content with these tools.

“Think about what your learners need to do with that information after the course is finished and design around that.” - Matthew Guyan

Webpages and powerpoints are primarily Substitution methods for the user to deliver ideas and demonstrated knowledge to an audience. The inclusion of multimedia makes it interesting and possibly engaging for the audience, but is only indicative of declarative knowledge by the presenter.

Devices such as Prezis, Glogsters, timelines, mind maps and images are Augmentations. These cause the user to make connections and correlations between bits of information. extending and building off a central theme.

Wiki's, videos, blogs, Podcasts (including Voki's) and Docx require input from various sources and are a sign of Modification. They are evolving entities, starting out simple and scaffolding as knowledge is focused, collaborated with others and refined into a more suitable form. This takes the form of editting in multimedia or integrating comments in online spaces.

Interactive learning objects, such as games or Google Maps/Earth are not only a demonstration of Redefinition and connectivism from a learners standpoint but also from a design one too. They require a solid understanding of content and design, which works best by observing work outside of your comfort knowledge zone. How can you tell if it works as an education tool if the only people who see it are ones that already share your knowledge?

“eLearning is changing. And, we will see new models, new technologies and designs emerge. So, let’s drop the “e” – or at least give it a new and wider definition.” 

- Elliot Masie

The trick with elearning and digital pedagogy is not thinking "how can it improve the curriculum?", but rather asking "what do we lose without it?". In this digital age, technology is everywhere and we as teachers, educators, role models and authority figures are undeniably required to ensure our students are not only literate in its use, but are able to learn new ICT's as they emerge in the future.

A NOTE ON ETHICS

"Ethical decisions ensure that everyone's best interests are protected. When in doubt, don't."

Harvey Mackay

As teachers we need to assess ICT's not only on how they can be used, but also how they may be misused in the classroom. Collaborative tools like wiki's need to be carefully monitored for harassment and arguments that escalate. New websites or resources need to be vetted for content to ensure not only is it relevant and accurate, but also does not breach any legal barriers, including school or community guidelines for appropriate content. This becomes a problem when encouraging students to engage in their own research. It is for this reason that referencing is such an important aspect of assessment, as it covers the students legally if they have breached copyright, and helps direct the teacher to understand the students research methodology. 

There are also more insidious repercussions of online interactions that need to be addressed. De-identification of all students on any material to be posted online is a policy I'd like to implement, along with ensuring any school logos on uniforms are photo shopped out of images. Clearly defined rules on what can and cannot be included need to be established early, with a chain of communication available for clarification on any resources students wish to include in their projects.

REFERENCES:

http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/Teens.aspx

Brody, M. (2006). Understanding teens in this age of digital technology. Brown University Child & Adolescent Behavior Letter, 22(12),

Moodle course notes for EDED20491:ICT's in Learning Design, obtained (2015):
https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/course/view.php?id=263

http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/cognitive-load.html

 MacFarlane, M. A. (2007). Misbehavior in Cyberspace. School Administrator, 64(9), 4-8.

C. Fadel, C. Lemke, (2008) Multimodal Learning Through Media:
What the Research Says, Metiri group, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Anastasiades, P. S., & Vitalaki, E. (2011). Promoting Internet Safety in Greek Primary Schools: the Teacher's Role. Journal Of Educational Technology & Society, 14(2), 71-80

Henderson R. (2013) Teaching Literacies in the middle years, Oxford University Press, Normansby Road, VIC.

Marzano R, Pickering D, Arrendondo D, Blackburn G, Brandt R, Moffestt, C, Paynter D, Pollock J, Whisler J (1997) Dimensions of Learning: Teachers manual 2nd ed. McREL, Parker Road, Aurora, Colorado

Marzano R (2007) The Art and Science of Teaching, ASCD, Beauregard st, Alexandria VA 22311 1714 USA

Quotes obtained from:http://elearningindustry.com/inspirational-elearning-quotes-for-elearning-professionals

.

Week 6 Reflection 5

I'l be the first to admit it, these group 4 tools threw me off a little bit. We go from a structured method of guided, scaffolded learning, experimenting with and analysing various tools them BAM!! straight into Connectivist learning to find our own way in the world.

So with so many options available this week I opted to try a mind map, bubbl.us to help collate my thoughts a bit. I've used this tool a couple of times this year already to plan out other assignments, usually to great effect. I find new things much easier to handle when I'm able to break them down and catagorise the components, funny trait for a science teacher to have I know. I mapped out the tools presented, wrote some notes on each one, then stepped back to have a look and decide where to start, as I have done several times before.



It really didn't help me much this time around though. I think I'm becoming a little too cynical of the tools we use. I started out all bright-eyed and bushy tailed, but now that the plethora of available options is known to me, I'm being a bit too picky.

Now I'm aware that I have a very text based approach to my work. Even in these blogs, my multimedia or fun visual aspects have been quite minimalist and that's something I need to work at if I hope to engage my students in the Curriculum properly. Thinking about this and things I'd actually enjoy while working through that Darfur game, it hit me that if I have any hope of engaging my students and showing how fun and exciting science and maths can be, I'd need games. But these are incredibly time consuming to create, and I don't know the first thing. Luckily there is an assortment of readily available interactive, learning games available online, on in particular that sucked me in for the last couple hours has been. PhET

Most of these are Java based, using a Java Network Launching Protocol with the .jnlp file type. Not a problem in itself, these can make your firewall have a mild heart attack if you try to access them. A couple however are available in HTML5 format, which can be used in browser.

These tools are simple, colourful, and like all web based games, inexplicably addictive.

I may have a problem

Never the less, once I get a grip on these interactive learning tools I dare say this is something I will have immense pleasure implementing into my teaching. It helps mitigate a major flaw in my personal pedagogies and I may have finally found a device I can confidently say reaches the Redefinition stage of the SAMR model. Obligatory PMI chart, I'm off to try figure out this Flash thing

INTERACTIVE LEARNING OBJECTS (GAMES)
PLUS	MINUS	INTERESTING
·        Fun and Interactive ·        Provides controllable visual stimuli for learning ·        students can practice procedural knowledge on their own	·        Limited collaborative involvement ·        students might get caught up in play and not learn the concepts ·        Incredibly difficult to design/create	·        Useable outside of School time ·        Can be reused again and again for different topics with a little tweeking.

REFERENCING:
moodle course notes for EDED20491 obtained 20/04/2015:
https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=15524

https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/physics

http://fileinfo.com/extension/jnlp

Week 5 Reflection 4

Obligatory Voki introduction.

.

I've come to the conclusion that my previous posts have included too much in the way of text. As our reflections are due soon, and they will be mostly text, I've decided that this week I'm going to use the tools we have investigated to explain themselves. Here's hoping all the links work correctly.

My powerpoint is embedded in my wikispaces found here:
https://wiki-dscience.wikispaces.com/file/detail/powerpoint+on+powerpoints.ppsx#discussion

You can log on as a guest used with the following accounts:

Username		Password
userRBwiki5		passwordRBwiki2
userRBwiki4		passwordRBwiki1
userRBwiki3		passwordRBwiki3

Glogster can be found here or just look at the image for the general idea.




http://rickayb.edu.glogster.com/glog-from-au-apr-06-2015-3922/

















And it was the Prezi I decided to focus on this week. Once again, my analysis of the Prezi is within the prezi itself. Also I only just realised that prezi is a short-hand of presentation.









On a separate note, my usual template for making a SWOT did not mesh well with the Prezi tech. So i came across this tool called Gliffy. It lets you design Venn diagrams, flow charts and all manner of other visual tools. The free version has very limited storage space and no privacy, but this is easily overcome by using the snipping tool on your graphic then just not saving the work.

You can also get just the audio from any YouTube video using
http://www.youtube-mp3.org/
or another similar feature. I just find this one the simplest.



And now Don MacMillan(2009) on avoiding death by powerpoint.

Week 4 Reflections 3

Working through the activities this week has taught me something about forward planning. You really need to have a complete idea of what you are doing before you start attempting to utilise any of these tools. You also need to have a full understanding of the tools functions before beginning. Until now I've been experimenting with a lot of the tools, playing with the features and seeing what I can make with them.
That did not go so well this week, as I made 2 videos of which only one was barely passable, a 8 minute podcast that I tried to do in one sitting and ended up swearing in the middle of and the only original photos I could find were of my old dog.

But that is all part of the learning experience I guess, especially when dealing with new materials you aren't familiar with. And I had no idea how uneducated in multimedia devices I was until beginning these activities.

I've used photo editing software before but that has usually just been to fix contrast, blurriness, red eye...the usual. I never thought that making images with a lower resolution was such a useful tool to have at my disposal, even uploading to this blog the load times were noticeably different. I have two images below that have been modified using the tool paint.net. The first has had a bit of contrast adjusted but mostly it's just been reduced from a 3.8Mb pic to a 160kb one. See if you can tell which is which. Pro tip, I had to delete then reload the images because I couldn't tell which was which at first either.





















This next image had some cropping and fixing up done to it to get a better image out. And once again reduced from a 3.9Mb picture to a 128kb image. Massive reductions all around with very little loss in detail. This will make uploading images to social media a much faster affair. From a teaching perspective this will clearly be a timesaver when making digital learning activities for students.

Science is a very image intensive subject. Many of the concepts make very little sense unless you can see them demonstrated pictorially. Be this in biology, astrology or physics, a picture says a thousand words, and still a thousand less than it would take to accurately describe many scientific phenomenon without pictorial support. Also given that I don't like the sound of my voice, I imagine that still images will be a constant throughout my teaching as my preference for the three tools presented this week.However they still only provided a visual aspect which means in order to benefit from the convergence of multimodal teaching, they are best presented with a lecture.


















Oh, and his name is Mushu if anyone was wondering.



Podcasts or audio files are another type of digital tool for introducing an auditory stimuli into the learning environment. As a teaching tool it can be used to record a lesson for review by the students at a latter time if they wish, much like we do with the blackboard collaborate sessions. It is also an effective way of delivering short bursts of information that perhaps require some pronunciation for a better understanding. It does not just have to be speech either. Even as I sit in my home typing this up I can hear a peculiar animal outside, though I'm too slow to record it this time, a short audio recording of a sound can be used as a pre-class appetiser to invoke the students interest and curiosity.

Even the students can present assessment in a podcast form. It provides another medium for them to present their ideas which (from personal experience of trying to make a podcast) demonstrates a substantial time commitment to the content being learned. Further it would be easier to mark, you are able to listen to your students work while doing other things.
However this technology is in itself insufficient to evoke real learning from the students. Personally I find it difficult to focus on auditory information without some form of guiding visual stimuli and as such, cannot see me using this tool very much in my teaching career.



Now just to make a liar of me, I'm going to present my perceptions of digital videos as a teaching tool in podcast form using the Audioboom app on my phone. Hoping this links below

listen to ‘Dig media in teaching’ on audioBoom

I also did a bit of a SWOT analysis for digital videos. I've done a PMI previously, this one is a bit more involved and in depth I find.

Internal
Strengths	Weaknesses
1.      Triggers multiple senses at once 2.      Provides a range of possible stimuli to present to students. 3.      Breaks away from traditional learning paradigms and brings a sense of vibrancy into the classroom.	1.      Depressingly time consuming 2.      Constrained by certain formatting 3.      Not interactive 4.      Time consuming needs to mentioned twice
External
Opportunities	Threats
1.      Students can demonstrate their own perceptions of content. 2.      Opens the floor to more diverse teaching methods, possibly taking students (virtually) out of the class and into the world. 3.      Can be observed repeatedly outside of class time.	1.      Poor formatting can ruin an otherwise well thought out piece. 2.      Depending on the nature of content presented, accessibility by outside world can be a problem.

I found the video creation a great deal more difficult than it possibly needed to be. Still after my first video flunked I needed to come up with another idea to present. I used a great deal of time this week fixing up my lawnmower so with the smell of oil and petrol staining my hands, I've opted to make a short instructional video on the functions of a 2 stroke motor..enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCBXLbiDs74&feature=youtu.be

I made this with the voice recorder on my phone and Windows Movie Maker. For some reason wikipages did not want to accept the video, despite giving me the green tick after upload so i just made it into a YouTube video. Next time I may just make the video with the YouTube editor.

And that's me done, this has been an interesting week, hopefully I can come to better grips with these tools in the future as I can see beneficial uses for all of them.


Referencing:

C. Fadel, C. Lemke, (2008) Multimodal Learning Through Media:
What the Research Says, Metiri group, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Meris Stansbury (2008) Analysis: How multimedia can improve learning, 
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2008/03/26/analysis-how-multimedia-can-improve-learning/?

SWOT template from:
http://www.whatmakesagoodleader.com/swot_analysis_template.html

Week 3 Reflections

As my robot friend has stipulated, this week we had a look at online spaces for use as learning tools, particularly wiki's, blogs and Weebly webpages. We have a weekly dose of blog interaction so there is a developing expertise in those but until now I had never created a webpage or a wiki. So diving in I made a wikispace and a Weebly webpage. While both have similar design aspects their functionality differs greatly.

Even published for public viewing with a birth certificate

A wiki can be a fantastic tool for incorporating student opinions and perceptions into the learning environment. It encourages a scaffolding learning environment where the students can build their own knowledge off one another with their different interpretations of the content. This can be constantly added to as knowledge and understanding grows so the students can effectively create a log of their own learning journey. This is something I would like to incorporate into my lessons, as it shows students real results for their learning ...in a science class. There is very little in interpretation when it comes to mathematics, you tend to either get it or you don't. 

  

Generated from Fodley.com

Weebly's

Positive	Negative	Interesting
·         Simple design process ·         Can be wielded with aesthetics in mind ·         Can imbed a variety of different devices including videos, links, and other HTML code ·         Once set needs very little maintenance	·         Minimal student contribution, arguably teacher-centered learning ·         Requires tremendous time and energy from the teacher to create ·         Set design templates that need to be adhered to	·         Can include blogs, to engage students in the learning

I've decided to focus this blog post primarily on the functionality of static webpages (primarily Weebly) within the teaching context of mathematics. This WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) webpage design platform is simple, compact and most importantly, free!! It has an intuitive interface where you can simply click and drag most elements into the page, change colours and fonts with clearly labelled toolbars and buttons. On the SAMR scale, this tech falls readily into modification as the customisability of the space allows for a large scale of learning activities to be included within its composition. Youtube, slideshows of images,  even maps, vlogs and pdf's can be added to the mix to add some zing to the content presented and keep the reader engaged. And in case this wasn't enough, there are options to include blogs or forums within the page to enable students to contribute their own ideas. There are however a number of limitations on the design of a Weebly page that can limit its functionality in a learning environment.

The Blockades to an effective Pedagogy

The first thing I noticed about the Weebly is that is has very limited formatting. There are a number of usable templates which define the shape of the page and there is a defined place for each element within the page that needs to be adhered to. And even though HTML can be embedded, I was unable to make a Voki work, as I'm sure there are countless other programs that would not interface well.
These limitations do irk me a little, the do provide a definite guide to what can and cannot be included. For a structured man like me, this is actually somewhat of a relief as these limiting factors work to keep me on track and focus on the site design, less it becomes a maelstrom of useless clickable gadgets.

While a website such as this can include a blog comment section or a poll, the majority of the content is very teaching focused. Interactive in certain components but for the most part the students are simply reviewing the information you have already provided to them, and are not given the opportunity to contribute to their own learning in this sense.

Which brings me to the biggest issue with using a webpage in learning. It requires a ridiculous amount of time, planning and effort on the teachers behalf for it to be an effective tool in the class environment. As the interactive components of the webpage are somewhat limited this means that you need to develop other means to ensure you maintain the students attention.

How to implement them

For the most part, I would like to use this tool as an out of classroom learning exercise, something the students can access after class to broaden their knowledge on a topic, or include homework assignments within its structure.

My idea is to have a page for each topic, such as geometry. I would have a number of tabs, each covering different aspects of this topic like, volumes, angle relationships, measurement of non straight edges, etc. Each of these tabs have a detailed description of the subject matter, along with diagrams to assist students in the process, activities (Problems) for them to attempt and a list of further resources I have personally vetted for them to follow if they are still struggling.

The advantage here is that several of these are taught at differing year levels which means that it gives some of the more advanced students a chance to explore content which is above their year level, but not necessarily above their comprehension. It also works in the reverse, allowing students who may not be grasping the concepts a chance to revisit stuff they have already touched on and establish new connections to promote better understanding.

A link to my created Weebly is provided here:
http://s0268099.weebly.com

Captured via snipping tool, content my own

I've thoroughly enjoyed exploring the use of a Weebly site, so much so that I'm using it for another subjects assignment. It is always such a treat when skills developed in one learning area are so readily transferable to another.

Also my wikispaces...space if anyone is interested. There is minimal content there atm however

https://wiki-dscience.wikispaces.com
code 3TD4HPF

References:

Website created from:
http://www.weebly.com/weebly/userHome.php

CQU Australia (2015), ICTs for Learning Design: Study Guide. Retrieved from  March, 2015
https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=15519

Reflections Week 2

Week 2 Reflections:

Hello everyone and welcome to another installment of...this blog. Riveting stuff I know but the topics of this week have been rather interesting to learn. We had a bit of a look at good pedagogical practices, several teaching frameworks to help us along the way and an introduction to wikis with a very useful activity involving coloured hats. So without further delay I'd like to discuss a little question that's been nagging at me.

What defines good pedagogy? This is a question that every new teacher is sure to ask at some point and the answers are just as complex as you imagined. However the more I read about pedagogy, I find the same recurring principles that can make the difference between positive learning outcomes and negative ones. These principles start with KNOWING your students, and I mean really know them, not just names but who they are as people. This allows you to create content which is relevant to their interests and primary Discourse (I've been reading about literacy, I really like the term Discourse), thus engaging the students interest in learning. Finally as they are invested this allows you as the teacher to challenge them more and encourage higher order thinking skills, thus maximising the learning experience. Sounds easy right?

Anything can sound simple if you deconstruct it to base principles. But we are talking about teenagers here, and a teenagers identity can flip with the change of a hat (De Bono's joke) as they are at a point in their lives where they are still figuring out who they are in relation to the world. Thus the knowing of our students is an incredibly complex task, one that needs to be kept on top of lest we lose their interest. Without this principle, the rest of the good pedagogy process becomes extremely difficult.

As such, I've been thinking of teaching practices I might employ to stay on top of this and I think I'd like to have a short constructivism session at the beginning of every lesson. Whether this is a KWL on the new material being presented, communal homework submission or just a general Q&A, I think this will allow me to gauge the mood of the class before I even begin and have an inkling as to how the lesson will go before I start. It will also enable me to hopefully pick up any changes in students personalities so I can better plan my lessons. If nothing else it encourages class participation from the get go and will hopefully carry them through the inevitable lecture component I just know I won't be able to avoid. Thoughts? While you mull that over, I'm going to give my lecture on the teaching frameworks we have learnt this week.

This week we were introduced to a couple of teaching frameworks, the Blooms Taxonomy and the SAMR framework. These are two very useful devices for teachers to create suitable assessment and learning activities for the classroom. So let's take a look at them

retrieved
https://wglink.pbworks.com/f/Bloom's%20Revised%20Triangle%20Color.jpg

First we were introduced to Blooms taxonomy, otherwise known as the taxonomy of educational objectives. Devised by Benjamin Bloom and published in 1956, this taxonomy is a means of homogenising the learning experience by classifying and giving specific meaning to educational goals and what students learn from teachers instruction. It also allows for a contrast between each educational institutions courses against the national curriculum and as such is used by many teachers as a measure of devising relevant assessment. Based off the three domains of educational learning, familiar to many from their report cards as Knowledge, Skills and Attitude, the taxonomy provides a breakdown on each of these, establishing another tier system of learning, the bottom categories needing to be mastered before the top tiers can be effectively accessed. An example of the cognitive (Knowledge) domain is demonstrated above as a tier pyramid.


After this we look at the SAMR model for technological innovation. A bit simpler in its application, this model refers to ICT's and how their implementation by teachers enhances the learning experience. In this technology driven world it is assumed that using technology features in the classroom allow for a wider variety of teaching resources to be developed to aid in the learning experience.

retrieved
http://www.schrockguide.net/uploads/3/9/2/2/392267/5805548.jpg?579

This model gives an overview of just how much of an effect they have. Starting from the basic substitution and augmentation where using tech provides very little in the way of actual functional improvement beyond perhaps storage, formatting and accessibility regardless of geographical location, many of the tasks that fall in this category can be just as easily done with pen and paper. These levels are known as enhancement. Beyond this we have the realms of transformative, starting in modification, whereby there is significant redesign of the task in the form of technology, allowing simple features that other methods would struggle to apply. Redefinition, the final frontier of technological application is where a task or activity would NOT be possible without the relevant tech. 

I'm beginning to notice a pattern in pedagogical concepts and their love of tiered framework. This makes sense on reflection as it is the goal of teachers to design good pedagogy that encourages higher order thinking, which by its definition needs to build on lower order thinking. As such correlations between the two frameworks explored this week can be made, and as fortune would have it, is an almost direct link.

retrieved http://www.schrockguide.net/uploads/3/9/2/2/392267/8080832.jpg?841

Substitution and remembering are simple rote learning exercises much like behaviourism learning theory explored last week. Here you are simply copy/pasting onto a different format, maybe learning a little about the tech but ultimately just fluffing around. This covers projectors displaying the information so you save time writing on the board, while time efficient, does nothing for the students.

Augmentation, while still very simple, requires some limited understanding of the tool being used and the material being manipulated. This area covers manipulating the formatting and presentation of the material, applying your knowledge of the students so as to better engage them in the learning experience, and as such, applying a cognitivist learning method. Examples of this include power points, implementing videos or fun images to keep students interested.

The Modification phase of the SAMR model definitely requires analysis of the tool to make it function. The nature of the design of ICT's in the Modification tier means that their use is in application of knowledge. The example given in the video of the spreadsheet is an example of constructivism also, scaffolding and building on fellow students work to generate the suitable result. This also means there is a notion of evaluation at hand as the data entered needs to be assessed for relevance and consistency with the task or the program will not perform correctly (You ever divided by zero somewhere in a 2000+ point data spread...the whole thing bricks). Naturally examples of this included blogs or wikis that the students can engage in, communal activities like concept maps that can be modified and altered.

Finally Redefinition, being completely reliant on technology makes this the very definition of connectivism. As a teacher, using this technology means designing and evaluating things like an interactive webpage, games or online classrooms. I think pedagogies designed around this allows students to continue their own study outside of school time, perhaps due to the activities being homework assigned but I see it having very limited use inside of class time as connectivism effectively removes the teacher from the equation, and I just think that in class time can be better spent. Just my two cents on that one..

De Bonos thinking hats

No learning experience is complete without some form of interactive activity with which we can apply our knowledge and trigger higher order thinking. This week we participated in a wiki space utilizing the de Bono thinking hats concept in an effort to tackle the contentious issue of mobile phones in the classroom.

retrieved http://www.xasa.co.za/resources/Tools/images/6Hat.gif

T


he concept itself, takes our understanding of a topic, makes us smash it into pieces then forces us into a higher tier of the bloom cognitive model by making us reassess our knowledge through six modes of thought process, demonstrated pictorially by six coloured hats. (see above) The method encourages lateral thinking in the student by getting them to analyse the topic through different methods, usually by asking a set of questions designed to encourage each particular thought process. This broadens the mindset and can often reveal aspects of the topic you never thought possible. For example with this mobile phone issue, I have always been a firm believer that mobile phones can lead to nothing but trouble in the class, overshadowing whatever so called advantage they can bring to the learning experience. But now I have the notion that it will probably happen anyway and I now gripe about what control measures need to be in place before it can be implemented. These thoughts had never occurred to me before.

We were given this task in the form of a wiki which we all contribute to, and thus build a database of knowledge we can relate back to. From this there were countless examples of those "so called" advantages such as using the GPS feature mentioned by Johanna or using it for scheduling, timetable changes (Leanne mentioned this) or if the parents desperately need to contact the student.  These out of the box suggestions haven't swayed me to think mobiles in class are appropriate but they have widened my perspective of how they can still be utilized outside of the classroom to the benefit of the students. As such the wiki built upon the hats concept and allowed for even further stretching of thoughts, not only thinking about the topic from individual hats but expanding upon this with other peoples hats.

The overall process jumps up the Blooms taxonomy, going from an application activity to an analysis one.  The hats concept is a perfect example of cognitivism at work, making students adopt the hats themselves and apply their own thoughts makes them automatically relate it back to themselves, and thus are already on the road to engagement in the activity. Most people will favour one thought process naturally so getting them to adopt others triggers high order thinking and empathy processes that they normally would not consider.

The wiki itself however, while a good demonstration of social connectivism, can be at best described as a Augmentation SAMR process. This only due to the need use different coloured text in order to distinguish your own work, and that the many pages are conveniently located. Otherwise this activity could very easily be done on paper with coloured pens. However the obvious improvement this technology makes to the De Bonos hat concept shows that even the lower order forms of tech can make a dramatic improvement to the learning experience if implemented correctly.

References:

R. Henderson (2013) Teaching Literacies in the middle years. (pp 139-140) South Melbourne, Victoria, Oxford University Press

Krathwohl D.R.(2002)A revision of Bloom's taxonomy: An overview

THEORY INTO PRACTICEVol  41 Issue 4 pg212

Lisa Hogan (2011) SAMR - A Model for Instructional Technology Use. Youtube video