Week 6: Reflective Synopsis

When I first started this course, I had no idea on the ways of digital tools and technology that teachers were currently using or looking to use within their classrooms that have been presented to me within this course.  

(Ericsson, 2012)

The digital tools I investigated over the 5 weeks:

• Wikispaces
• Weebly
• Flickr
• Prezi 
• Zooburst

My favourite digital tool I investigated would have to of been Weebly. Everything was there, from its privacy settings, to creativity of your own webpage with all the functions I would love for my class to use (photo albums, blog posts, forums, discussions, polls, audio and video recordings). Each student could create and manage their own Weebly and be easily marked by the teacher and receive instant feedback from their other peers. 

I loved the idea of the wikispaces and how it was set out, however I personally found the website to be for a higher learning audience tool. I think Wikispaces would be better in upper-primary and secondary schooling. It seems to be a little 'far-fetched' for a lower-primary school aged student to manage. I am also a little unsure on the use of Flickr, as it is a large social network and could breach the safely, ethically and legally guidelines. However, if students are carefully monitored, I believe this would not be an issue.

If tools were every unclear on how they worked or if I wanted to research further into their functions it could be easily found on these digital tools pages themselves or many different tutorials on YouTube. I found these digital tools to be easily mastered. 

SAMR MODEL:

Education Queensland (2013) says, The SAMR model describes four levels of technology integration that increase in complexity and effect, from simple substitution which barely changes the function, to a more complex redefinition where the technology use can provide opportunities to create what would not be possible without that technology. 

Substitution:

-  Students now using the computer to write assignments

-  Students now post to a blog website instead of printing assignments

-  Students now add photography to a website instead of creating a portfolio using a scrap book

- Teachers now use slideshows for presentations that are more interactive

Augmentation:

- Teacher allows students to add speech and thought bubbles for characters in a Zooburst story.

- Students create their own picture book through the use of Flickr's 'photo book' tool.

Modification:

- Students creating their own stories on Zooburst instead of writing in a journal pad.

- Students now use Prezi slideshows to present work such as concept maps, timelines and recipes.

Redefinition:

The students’ engagement and interaction together has transformed by them controlling their own learning. This is possible through the use of comments, forums, blogs, and being able to contact the wider community through the use of the features on these digital tools. These features include: Weebly’s forums, polls and survey functions, Flickr’s the “commons” page, and Zooburst’s ‘Augmented Reality Mode’ tool.

LEARNING THEORIES:

In my first week, I believed that all three learning theories (behaviorism, cognitivisim, and social constructivism) were all equally important, as they should be used for the various ways and thinking that different students use when learning. However, my thoughts on this have changed since using the SAMR model in conjunction with the types of digital tools I have been investigating.

The main idea when using the SAMR model is to bring students interaction within their learning to be fully transformed through the use of ICT tools in the classroom. Social Constructivism theory focuses on how students social interaction together and how they acquire more knowledge through the support of a more knowledgeable other.

Social Constructivism has ended up being my major teaching method focus with these digital tools as the main aim of them is that the students use interaction and collaboration to achieve the end goal of their are learning. An example of this is our first reflection week’s wiki space where we participated in a group forum and discussion on ‘Mobile phones in the classroom’. The learning process of the Social Constructivism process requires students to collaborate and share ideas together in order to finally obtain the new information. As a teacher, participating in these forums by adding questions that require students to go more in depth or give them another view to ponder on what would help them in reaching this goal.

Social Constructivism in conjunction with the Connectivism theory enables myself as a teacher to bring engagement and interaction to the classroom.

Siemens (2004) says, The starting point of Connectivism is the individual. Personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into organizations and institutions, which in turn feed back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to individual. This cycle of knowledge development (personal to network to organization) allows learners to remain current in their field through the connections they have formed. This the Redefinition part of the SAMR model where students learning is fully transformed through the use of technology. Students learning has been transformed as they are in control of their own learning and take the initiative to gather information from other peers and community members. 

(Queensland Government, 2005)

A CONTEMPORARY LEARNER:

The above poster is  a campaign by the Queensland Government and Education Queensland to promote the learning methods a contemporary should obtain. These digital tools I investigated embedded some of these methods.

Connected – Students collaborating with friends, experts, resources and learning communities through the use of Flickr ‘Commons’ where students can search photography from world-wide museums and famous organizations such as NASA, by participating in group on-line discussions and forums on a webpage such as wikispaces, or by commenting feedback or questions on peers work on Weebly, Prezi and Zooburst. Globally engaged – Students are able to participate in worldwide events through the use of Prezis and Flickr. Visiting community members can upload a slideshow on Prezi and the teacher can later present to the class on an interactive whiteboard on his behalf. Flickr allows for students to stay in the classroom and discover the world by searching photos from different countries through the use of the 'Maps' function. Authors - students create, critiques and publishers. With the use of a Weebly students are able to create their own webpage to suit their own personality. With all five of the digital tools I investigated allows for the opportunity and encourages students to critiques each others work and publish their own. 

LEGALLY SAFELY ETHICALLY:

Working with ICT in the classroom requires teachers to do so legally, safely, ethically. By having these websites privately set, as well as being accessed and operated by passwords keeps students and their information safe from the outside world. The digital tools I investigated had either one or both of those tools in order to maintain the students’ safety when learning on-line. Sites like that of a wikispace are great as they are educationally centred and children will not stumble upon inappropriate links within the designated classroom wikispaces.

After six weeks of investigating digital tools and posting a blog reflecting on my research and analysis, I have not only changed some of my thoughts towards ICTs but also gathered some new ‘tips’ for teaching contemporary learners in our modern society. 

Over and Out,

Alanna

Week 6: Reflection on Zooburst

This week for my engagement activity I chose to create a Zooburst account, I thought this would the best tool for a primary school teacher.

What is Zooburst?

"Zooburst is a digital storytelling tool that allows teachers and students to easily create their own on-line pop-up books."

Below is the link to a TED presentation talk by Craig Kapp, who is the founder and CEO of the Zooburst website. He discusses his motive, goals and success of his on-line tool within the classroom.

CEO and Founder of Zooburst Craig Kapp - Storytelling in the 3rd Dimension [Youtube Video]

This online learning tool comes with a variety of different features that brings a fresh take on both teacher's reading to the class and the way students create, write and present a story. There are three different accounts, a basic account that is free, and two others that need to be paid. A basic account allows students to create 10 books, access the Zooburst picture gallery or upload their own, customise their books backgrounds, publish book privately or a password required to view, present their stories with the 'Augmented Reality Mode', and leave comments on other stories. However, the paid accounts offer better features for a classroom setting. The Zooburst classroom management package is only offered in the paid accounts. The classroom management offers the following features:

• A virtual classroom space and allows teacher to create usernames and passwords for students,
• set default privacy level for all books within a class page,
• ad-free,
• download copies of students books to play when offline,
• students can access premium features of unlimited books and audio recordings.

The link below is a Zooburst story I created myself for this week's activity:

My Friend the Duck

As a teacher, it is always important to refer to the SAMR model to ensure that students learning can be transformed by the use of an on-line tool.

Substitution: Teacher substitutes a book being read in the classroom to create and present a Zooburst popup book.

Augmentation: Students use Zooburst to add speech and thoughts to characters in a story being presented by the teacher. Teacher reads the book and the students are able to create and analyse what the characters would be saying, thinking or feeling about the situations they are in at that part of the story. 

Modification: Students now use Zooburst to create, write and present their stories to other classmates through the class page set up by the teacher. Teacher then leaves feedback for the student on their story by posting a written comment.

Redefinition: Students collaborate together in pairs to make their own stories and then present to the class using the Zooburst 'Augmented Reality Tool'. Students then leave feedback through the use of the audio comments tool for at least two other peers stories.  This tool has allowed for student-centred learning within the classroom as they need to collaborate together and give each other peer feedback.   


Zooburst would be a successful tool in the classroom for the development of students engagement, creativity and collaboration. As a teacher, you are able to create a classroom page, where you can add students, the class gallery of students own books they have published and a class roster which has links to each students page to view their books. This class page tool would allow myself as a teacher to access easily students work to give instant feedback.

Zooburst is a tool that can be used safely, legally and ethically by the use of the privacy setting and having it being able to be pre-set so students could never accidentally load a presentation to the outside community. Pages can also be password protected which would be useful for a class page.

Zooburst would be a great tool in the classroom, however to access some of these functions requires payment. For a school this can be an issue due to budgets and funding not always being available. This also includes the Augmented Reality Mode tool that requires webcams. Although webcams are common feature on iPads and laptops, they are sold separately for computers, which means a school would also need to be webcams.

I found Zooburst to be confusing and complicated to use and would most likely not use this as a tool for my students learning or assessments. I would use it however as a teacher to enhance my students engagement when conducting modelled and shared reading within the classroom setting.

That's my thoughts for this week!
Over and Out,
Alanna

Week 5: Reflection (Presenting with Prezi)

This week for my engagement activity I created a Prezi account. 

"Prezi is a virtual whiteboard that transforms presentations from monologues into conversations: enabling people to see, understand, and remember ideas." - Prezi

When investigating the Prezi this week, I decided to use the tool to present my own thoughts on how this digital tool would enhance learning through the use of the SAMR model. 

Please click on the link below to view my Prezi.

Presentation: Prezis by Miss Alanna Jensen

Although Prezi shares some basic features with Microsoft PowerPoint, such as, Having the structure of titles, sub-headings and paragraphs, and being able to add images, background music and voice overs. Prezi allows students to create with a variety of different formats and templates. Students are now able to create pie charts, recipes, timelines, and concept maps all through the use of one digital tool. Students are able to enhance their creativity and learning through Prezi.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n7dP_NRZL4)

PowerPoint presentations are no longer needed to be done in the classroom or on a home computer. Students are able to access their work via their mobile phones or tablets with the use of the Prezi app. This digital tool has free registration, however is also available by paying a subscription fee to download onto a computer for offline use. Which would be great for students who are unable to access an internet connection. Prezi would be the perfect tool for this generation of mobile learners. With all of these features, students are able to present their Prezis to the wider community.

There are downsides to using Prezi within a classroom setting. Firstly, in order to upload a Prezi's for private viewing you must subscribe and pay a fee to obtain this setting. By not being able to access private settings brings huge issues to the students working legally, safely and ethically online. By schools needing to pay for each account to be private at roughly $60.00 could be impossible with their budget. However, students would be able to present their Prezi's to a world-wide audience for feedback and communication, but legally, safely and ethically this is not appropriate in schools.

I personally found the Prezi tool to be enjoyable and would allow me as a teacher to enhance my students engagement in the classroom and develop their learning and knowledge.

Over and Out,

Alanna.

Week 4: Reflection - Videos, Imagining the use of Images in Learning, Podcasts and Audio

VIDEOS:
For an activity this week we were to create our own video using images and audio. I created this video with the help of the MacBook program iMovie.

IMAGES:
Images are a tool used in eLearning as students will create images in the classroom or online and access images via the internet to be used in schoolwork. (Fasso, 2014) 

This week I created a Flickr account to investigate how this tool would be useful within a learning environment. I was able to find some ideas where this tool would be able to improve students learning and engagement in certain subject fields.

An Art Portfolio is usually created by a student to show their artwork they have created and to describe what each artwork is, how the artwork was created and what the artwork portrays or means to the student. Students usually take photos of their artwork, upload them to a computer then print the photos to cut and glue into a scrapbook where they will write those description with pen and pencil creatively. Flickr would allow the students to easily take photos and upload from a computer straight onto the website instead of printing and gluing into scrapbooks. By uploading straight onto the internet students will be cutting down on the costs of printing paper, and the time spent on cutting and gluing, as well as the mess created when carrying out that activity. Students would be able to add a caption and description to their uploaded photos on Flickr. This basic caption and description tool will also decrease the time spent on creating fancy writing and making colouring boarders etc. in a scrapbook. Using Flickr as an Art Portfolio would be an example of Substitution. We are simply asking the students to substitute the use of paper and pencils to the use of a webpage.

Story writing and story boards could also be easily created using a Flickr account. Story board is designed like a comic, students usually draw a picture then give a few sentence description of what is happening in each box. This could also be used as a basic story writing tool. Students would be able to create their own picture book through the use of the Flickr's photo books tool. It also allows students to create a cover and title page. Story boards and Picture Books would be an example of Augmentation as the students tasks are changed to be completed through the use of technology only.

Flickr "Explore" allows students to search for various images that have been uploaded to the website. The "Explore" has different links to find certain images, such as Recent Photos, The Commons, Getty Collection, and Galleries. The Commons page would be a useful tool in history or instead of organising excursions to museums. This page has links to other flickr pages such as The Australian War Museum, The Australian Maritime Museum, and the Royal Australian Historical Society accounts. Other flickr accounts such as the Library of Congress, The Royal Library of Denmark, The National Media Museum and NASA. The use of "The Commons" on Flickr would be an example of Redefinition as the technology has created a new task that was previously unthinkable due to students needing to travel and visit other cities to explore this information.

(http://www.flickr.com/map/)

The image above is a screenshot of the Flickr "Maps" webpage. The webpage has a large map of the world, in the image above I have zoomed into the area of Iceland to show the exact pinpoint of where this picture was taken. The picture that was taken in this area shows the architect and scenery of the town Husavik, Iceland. From this image student's are able to develop an understanding of Iceland and would be great in subjects such as geography and history where students can use these images in their assignments when learning about different countries. 

(Queensland Government, 2005)

The image above was released by the Queensland Government and Education Queensland to help teachers understand they way a contemporary student is to learn effectively in this modern day. There are three major points that I found Flickr to assist children in effectively learning, mobile, connected and globally engaged. Flickr allows the modern day student to learn effectively by being able to access the account on either a school or home computer, laptop, tablet or mobile phone. Students are connected as they collaborate with school friends, experts, resources and learning communities. Resources, experts and communities would be the Flickr accounts of the museum, libraries and others such as NASA on "The Commons" webpage. Students are also globally engaged through the use of Flickr "Explore" to find photos from various countries and cities to help participate in the present events happening all over the world.

Although Flickr seems to have some great reasoning for being a wonderful tool in the classroom, I personally wouldn't employ the use of this webpage in my own teaching.
The disadvantages I found personally with Flickr were:

1. Students lose exploring their own creativity as they are no longer creating their own pages with creative writing and drawing their own pictures.
2. The layout I found to be messy and un-organised in the sorting of photos.
3. The privacy of photographs can be changed to be private, however the Flickr is part of the Yahoo! company and is a largely used social network. Students could stumble upon inappropriate images or accidentally upload their images for the public to find. This could also be photos of students that become accessible by the general public.
4. Issues with using and coping images due to copyright laws.

PODCASTS and AUDIO:
This week we were encouraged to create a podcast or audio tool account. I chose to create an AudioBoo account. Here is an example of an AudioBoo podcast and I have given a simple explanation on how to create an account.

https://audioboo.fm/boos/2007729-triailing-audioboo

Over and Out,
Alanna.

Week 3: Reflection (Wikis, Blogs and the wonders of Weebly)

WIKIS:

Below is a the link to a youtube video I found to be very useful in describing what a wikispace is, how a wikispace works and a list of great examples of activities that can be used through the use of a wikispace within the classroom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiGYfBkowe4


BLOGS:











(http://supportblogging.com/educationalblogging/)


WEEBLY:

This week one of our tasks was to create a Weebly page. Weebly allows you to use a website for many purposes. For example, websites such as youtube and flickr can only be used for one type of artefact. Youtube being for videos and Flickr is used for images only. However, websites like Weebly allows for various different webpages to be accessed from one site through the use of linking.
(W. Fasso, 2014) 

An example of linking is to add a youtube video required for your students to your Weebly homepage or powerpoints, word documents and pictures being downloaded directly onto the Weebly page instead of having students making various websites accounts for SlideShare and Flickr. All learning would be controlled by one webpage. Weebly, and many sites like it, would be able to allow students to easily maintain and keep online research on a webpage for a teacher to monitor. This technology can allow access to various links and artefacts including youtube, blogs, forums, surveys, photo galleries, polls and maps.

Through the use of Weebly students would now be able to submit their creative writing assignments, short stories and reflective journals on the webpage for the m to easily edit and access their results or feedback from the teacher. This is a prime example of the SAMR model’s level of Substitution as no functional change has been established, however a convenience has been created for both the students and teacher.

Augmentation is the second level of the SAMR model. Students creating a picture gallery of their own personal artwork from class can create their own portfolio for assessment. This allows students to take a photo of their artwork, directly save onto the computer and then upload onto the picture gallery for their portfolio. By using a picture gallery on Weebly students no longer need to print pictures, cut and paste into scrapbooks and hand in large folders or artwork to teachers for marking. Weebly picture gallery would also encourage students to create artwork through online resources or even basic paint on any windows computer.

The level of Modification from the SAMR model would be achieved in the classroom through activities such as, students uploading an audio or video file of them presenting a summary or reflection of what they have learnt on a certain topic. Another activity of the modification level would be to have the students upload a PowerPoint presentation slideshow with background music, images and information regarding a certain topic or a story as assessment. Both these activities are redesigned from the original task of using paper and pen or speaking in front of a class. There has been a significant transformation in the classroom and student’s learning through the collaboration of technologies.

An example of the SAMR model’s Redefinition would be the use of polls, forums, and surveys on the Weebly page to be answered by other teachers, classmates, school peers from various year levels and parents. This allows students to create their own questions and topics for these activities, and discussion with other peers to create a new level of understanding and learning within the classroom. 

The picture below is a screenshot of my own Weebly page I created this week for the course activity. Here, I was able to add a link to my blogger page. This allows for students to easily maintain all their webpages, such as blogs and wikispaces, on one site for a teacher to access and monitor for assessment. I think this is a great tool in keeping the marking of assessment simple and time smart instead of looking for many different pages for each student.














(http://theclassroomofmissjensen.weebly.com/)

Creativity is also required by students for the design and layout of their Weebly page. Students get to design their own page name, choose a layout and colour scheme for the page, and decide what resource and artefacts they wish to upload to the page. This helps to bring the individualism and personality of a student to life, making the webpage unique to each student. A Weebly page becomes their own personal learning space, which can help in productivity and engagement for the student. They are in full control. This would follow the SAMR model's Augmentation, as this tool has allowed for a significant task redesign through having one page with all their learning instead of a book cluttered with information. 

Another huge plus for the Weebly page is that the access to the pages can be locked through the use of a password. This would be an example of the SAMR models' Redefinition. By creating passwords on each page the general public would not be able to gain access, allowing myself as the teacher to model cyber-safety and emphasis its importance to students. Students would also be able to access the Weebly page away from school to use for assignments, discussions with peers and nightly homework. It also allows myself as the teacher to be able to easily mark these assessment tasks and monitor the webpages away from the classroom with immediate feedback and results.

The downside to this weeks group tool was that I could not find any downside to the Weebly wesbsite. I can't wait to use such a wonderful tool in my very own classroom in the year to come!

Week 2: Reflection

This week we were asked as a collective to engage in an online activity using a wiki website. The wiki was an online discussion board with the topic of ‘Mobile Phones in the Classroom’. This wiki was designed on the activity of De Bono’s hats. De Bono’s hats clearly uses the learning theories of social constructivism. Social Constructivism considers the social interactions a student has within a learning or expert community. A major part of the process of learning in constructivism is modelling and scaffolding. Modelling and scaffolding is achieved by the support of the teacher or other learners. Collaboration and ‘bouncing’ around ideas with other students, as well as using a suitable tool are part of this learning process. 

Scaffolding was a major part of the de Bono’s hats wiki activity, as it supports the contributions of all students’ viewpoints and used a virtual tool in order to discuss the topic.  Using this virtual tool of a wiki space allowed us as students to collaborate our ideas online without having to get together and organise a list of pros and cons. It was also easier to add or delete ideas without cluttering or messing up the discussion, which can happen when using pen and paper. By collaborating ideas together, I learnt some very different viewpoints on the topic of ‘Mobile Phones in the Classroom’ from my fellow peers, who had well justified answers.  

De Bono’s hats as an online wiki activity was successful in our learning for a few reasons. The De Bono’s hats activity highly benefited our knowledge by the use of the learning technique of scaffolding. This activity supported complex reasoning processes by the questions asked for each topic of the hats (i.e. positive, negative and creative), bringing forward various justified answers and arguments for each of those topics. All participating students supported the activity with their contributions to the topic in building their other peers viewpoints. Another purpose for the online wiki activity is for our teachers to be able to visibly find the reasoning behind each student’s thoughts on the topic of ‘Mobile Phones in the Classroom’.

I found the wiki website to be well set out, easy to follow and a great learning tool in students being able to learn from each other and develop their own knowledge. There is only one downside I have realised about using a wiki website as an activity, it is very easy to edit and delete information. This would not be appropriate in a classroom scenario where the children could not be trusted or could easily accidentally delete their own or other peers discussion points.  Overall, I quite enjoyed the learning experience of an online wiki-activity and could definitely be used as a possible activity in my teaching career.

Week 1: Reflection & Overview

Hello to all my fellow GDLT peers and welcome to my blogspot. Let me firstly give you a quick background on who I am and what I have been up to lately. I recently graduated from the Bachelor of Music degree here at the Rockhampton campus last year. This required a lot of time and commitment in being able to succeed, which means I will be use to the demand which this course needs. This means I am not use to the assignment writing and heavy reading. Blogs however like every other young female, they are my forte!

Last year I had the privilege of being a private music tutor around the Central Queensland regions, teaching saxophone and clarinet one-on-one with both high school and primary age students. This was a great learning experience for me and revealed to me how differently each student learns and interacts within a learning environment. Technology was a huge help with my students in helping them to learn and made their lessons enjoyable. I can see from this weeks learning theories that I used these different methods on students depending on their personalities, the way they engaged and how was the best way they learnt and retained information.

There are three learning theories, Behaviourism, Cognitivism, and Social Constructivism, as well as the theory of Connectivism, which is regarded as way on how to support learning. 

Behaviourism is when a behaviour is observably changed from the outcome of learning. The methods for this style of learning is practice, positive reinforcement and re-shaping what they had previously learnt throughout the process. Cognitivism is derived from understanding how the brain processes information and stores it. By presenting the information to the student in small portions through a step-by-step process. Social Constructivism focuses on the social interactions of the student in the learning environment. A big part of this learning is students collaborating ideas together to fully understand and retain their new information. Connectivism, according to Siemens, is the importance of identifying how and where to find knowledge rather than knowing that information. 

I can honestly say that I believe all four learning theories are relevant for students in reaching their full potential. Behaviourism is appropriate for students who take time and practice in understanding knowledge or the way that musicians, dancers and sports persons need to physically show the knowledge they have been learning in order to be successful in those fields. Cognitivism is important for students in subject areas that need them to retain a lot of information that is built upon each other. When studying Psychology courses at university I found concept mapping tools to be a huge help in retaining information about the different body parts and even the process of how the brain stores information. This learning method would be suitable for most science subjects and for students who like structure and organisation when studying. Social Constructivism is always a great way to get students to communicate, engage and open their mind to different ideas or views through class discussions. Connectivism is bringing our everyday use of modern technology into the classroom. With assignments and researching it is important for students to know how to successfully find the knowledge required of them through the use of the internet. However, is this leaving our next generation to be lazy in knowing basic information and always needing to rely on technology. Could using technology instead of communicating in person be creating a socially awkward generation. I am sure in the weeks to come that this course will unfold the truth about how technology can really help education to move forward with the best possible learning outcomes for all students in this modern age.