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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

Week 1 Reflections

Week 1 Reflections:

So I apparently I had forgotten to actually publish this blog...its been sitting as a draft for a bit...my bad.


It's time to submit my first blog post for viewing. I'd like to start out by saying that some of the ways I discuss things in this blog may come off as a little cold, but that's just the way I operate. As my knowledge of ICT's, learning theories and overall knowledge of teaching grows, I'm sure I'll warm up a bit. But enough of me, lets get into our first week

The first part of our reflections for the first week are on knowing your learner and the way the brain works. This was observed through three materials, an article on the theory diverse intelligences, a recording of a lecture from Dr July Wills on overcoming the Amygdala and a TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson on how schools, or rather the current method of curriculum based learning is killing the creativity of our students. So let's break these down.

The theory of diverse intelligences is a concept based in neuroplasticity in that the pathing of neurons in the brain can differ greatly individuals, with clearly defined strengths and weaknesses. It also goes on to say that the weaker parts can be trained to improvement, which appears to be cause for some contention. I am somewhat torn on this notion, for reasons which i shall describe later.

 The science supporting the theory is limited, which can be ascertained from the article with such phrases as "The new research doesn't disprove this" or "maybe in some far-off future". However the evidence presented is not easily dismissed and provides a viable alternative to conventional descriptions of the brains neural pathways and how they're formed. This information is critical to us as teachers as if we know how the connections in the brain are formed, we are better suited to manipulate this knowledge to facilitate learning.

Thus we come to Dr Wills lecture on the pathways new information takes as it is interpreted by the brain. The concept of reactive and reflective processing by the brain is truly fascinating and something I shall be looking into a bit further down the track as my own understanding of learning processes grows. The principle is that if information is new or interesting, determined by the RSA, this information then needs to be assessed as threatening or intriguing by the aymgdala. If threatening the brain reacts accordingly with the fight/flight or freeze responses designed for self preservation. If no threat is detected the information is transmitted to the frontal cortex where it can be mulled over and committed to memory, hence reactive or reflective. She then goes on to specify how this can be achieved through use of multi-sensory stimuli presented in a safe and nurturing environment in order to remove the threat aspect and thus create a more efficient work environment.

I'm trying to ascertain whether I could have made that analysis any colder despite the happy and colourful nature of the material I am describing.

This brings me to the TED talk presented by Sir Ken Robinson on whether the current schooling system stifles, strangulates and ultimately murders creativity in our students. This talk is presented as insight with supporting anecdotal evidence from the speakers own experiences but without any hard scientific backing. As such I shall analyse this material anecdotally.  I find it ironic given my deposition to objective analysis that this material moved me the most of the three presented in this section. It is my belief that creativity is heavily suppressed through the schooling system in favour of the more marketable traits of literacy and numeracy.

You wouldn't know this from my dry writing style but I was once quite adapt at writing fictional narratives. Around the age of 7-9, I would spend hours of my time, writing stories, drawing pictures to compliment them, even once writing a song with accompanying music to be played on piano. I then had to take my schooling more seriously, focusing on the mathematics and literary interpretations that made up each and every day.

I don't even remember how to read music anymore, let alone write it. My creativity was crushed rather effectively from an early age and until now it's not been an attribute I particularly miss. However it is something I never considered as a consequence of the learning experience and will be an aspect I will hopefully be mindful of when teaching my own students. And if the theory of diverse intelligences is to believed, it's not something I can not regain.

This week we were also introduced to four learning theories which can be utilised to shape the learning experience. However I believe these theories are not independent of one another and appear to form a tier system, each new level bringing a new level of knowledge and understanding to the learning experience but relying on the strong foundations of those below to hold it up. Furthermore each tier has a redefined role for us as teachers and the ways we interact with our students.

Behaviourism

“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world in which to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant chief, and, yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.”
―John B. Watson in his book Behaviorism (1924)

At the bottom of the pile is Behaviourism. This is a theory based in psychology whereby certain behaviours can be encouraged or discouraged through use of a system of positive or negative reinforcement. As a teaching methodology this translates to a process whereby learning is achieved by leading students through a series of clearly defined steps, each with a defined end result, and providing positive reinforcement for favourable behaviours, which through repetition the reinforcement is gradually revoked as the behaviours become automatic.

This process is used for creating a baseline knowledge for all students, so that higher order instructional methods have something to build off. As this new knowledge is collected, it is treated with behaviourism methods to ensure retention as the learning experience progresses. This method is considered quite archaic by some as it employs the concept of "I teach, you learn" as its definition of the relationship between students and teacher and is very homogenised in its structure. As such it does little in the way of connecting with students, engaging their attention or paying attention to diverse learning requirements of different students.

Cognitivism

"Cognitive psychology tells us that the unaided human mind is vulnerable to many fallacies and illusions because of its reliance on its memory for vivid anecdotes rather than systematic statistics."  -  Steven Pinker

"We are so made, that we can only derive intense enjoyment from a contrast and only very little from a state of things."  - Sigmund Freud

In contrast to the objective approach to behaviourism, cognitivist learning seeks to take advantage of our understanding of mental processing and encourages students to develop a subjective
understanding of subject matter. This is achieved through a three stage process, whereby information is collected by the senses and assessed for relevance before being transferred to short term memory for analysis and interpretation. It should be noted that if relevance is not perceived by the brain then the information is simply discarded.
It is thus the responsibility of the cognitivist teacher to present the information with a variety of stimuli in order to cater for the diverse personalities of the class. The role of the teacher This multi layered technique encourages students to engage with the material and activate higher order reasoning as opposed to the behaviourist memory retention.

For simplicities sake this information is usually presented in small packages, to enable the student to garner a better understanding of each aspect of the subject matter. This is known as Cognitive Load Theory and is in contrast to the other popular cognitive method of Gestalt theory, whereby the information is presented as a whole in order to see the larger picture, the student then able to focus on the aspects they are lacking knowledge.

It should be noted however that this process only allows the information to be developed in the short term memory. It requires the application of behaviourism techniques to relegate the information to long term. Further, without the pre-existing  knowledge provided by behaviourism methodology, it can be quite difficult for the student to establish relevance in their brain, drawing conclusions and making connections. Also due to the subjective nature of the understanding developed by this method, it can be difficult to determine if the student truly understands the concepts correctly. The answer to this is the theory of social constructivism.

Constructivism

"As long as there were people asking each other questions, we have had constructivist classrooms. "
(Brooks, 1999)

This learning theory transcends the traditional teacher/student paradigm by encouraging a more interconnected role in the learning process.  It differs from the previous learning theories in that this does not so much instruct in new information as expand upon and solidify our understanding of pre existing concepts by providing alternative interpretations. This is achieved through a mediated form of social interaction between students and teacher, whereby the teacher controls and molds the flow of conversation but ultimately it is the students who teach one another.

Perhaps the greatest advantage of this method is its ability to tear down false misconceptions without the need to tear down the students self esteem in the process. No one likes being told they're wrong but if through their discussions students hear a better description of their understanding, they are able to correct themselves without losing face. By allowing students to interact and share their knowledge socially, it creates a self mediating process, whereby the students will check their own knowledge and mistakes and refine their understanding as they go.

Connectivism

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” 
― Isaac Asimov

The cutting edge of learning, designed for 21st century learning interactions. Only a new concept, connectivism effectively removes the need for a teacher in the learning process, resigning them to a purely advisory role.

The concept is that learning can be an external process, gathering and deciphering information from external databases of knowledge in order to expand upon our own understanding.  This is the next logical step after constructivism as it allows the student to expand their networks and cater the learning experience to their own goals and desires.

There are associated dangers with this type of learning however.

There are limited safeguards to the knowledge being received. As such it is imperative that the student already has well developed literacy skills (In particular the Four Resources model) so they can sort out the relevant and helpful material from the mountains of toxic garbage. This sort of background is established through a combination of cognitive reasoning process and behavioural methodology.

The student thus not only builds upon the base of pre-existing knowledge, but they begin to establish network connections, revisiting sites, message boards, blogs and other resource centres where the culture and information presented is conducive to their mental development. This is a form of social constructivism, but the mediation role of the teacher is taken on by designated mediators for the individual resource.

References

Smith, T., & Lowrie, T. (2002). What is “pedagogy” anyway? Practically Primary, 7(3), 6–9.

Steven Pinker. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved March 15, 2015, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/stevenpink547593.html

http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1920x1280/a_c/amygdala.jpg

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSVyPhtV9yCZHrfjpixZu6mk15Fa9PQ_2JVNLydxYGrmKiU9I4P

http://www.innovativelearning.com/teaching/behaviorism.html

http:://www.learning-theories.com