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

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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.

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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