Images - What do they offer our learners?

Flickr:

I decided to establish an account with Flickr, as it was free and I'm sure I will use it in the future. Setting up this account was very simple. While exploring the website, I had trouble finding and understanding the Creative Commons permissions and copyright notices. It took some research to understand what photos I would be able to freely use, and found that photos under the non-commercial liscenses would be best for me to use. Flickr actually has a search you can do of only these type of images. I found this very useful and time saving.

This is an image I managed to find on Flickr of a chosen topic, and saved it to my desktop. This took only a couple of minutes, and was very easy to do.

Flickr is a simple website suitable for teachers to use to gather photos. It is definitly not suitable for students to freely explore as it is not scanned for inappropriate images, often coming up with photos of a rude or inappropriate nature. This is a major downside to the website. To overcome this, the Learning Manager could create a folder on the schools database, and provide learners with a wide range of photos for them to easily access. Photos of all different sorts would be need to be supplied to encourage creativity and provide for individual likes and needs.

MobaPhoto:

As I always have trouble resizing and editing photos, I chose to download this program. It was free and quick to download, and extremely user friendly!

<- Here is an image of the screen for the resizing of images. This was so simple to do. All it asks you to do is select the images you want to resize, and what you will be doing with the images. It then resizes the images, depending on the intended use. You then choose a location to resave the images. It was so quick, and so simple. I am very impressed! You can also edit your pictures in terms of colour (making the images red, or green ect), rotation, contrast, brightness and crop, ect. This was also very simple to do.

I think that this program could definitly be taught to Primary aged learners, to enhance their ICT skills and abilities to edit and use a range of images.

I honestly cannot see any negative aspects of this tool - it is free, easy to use, and very useful, and you are able to edit many photographs at once. The only slight downside is that resized images are not of the same high-quality.

Key benefit: MobaPhoto can be saved onto a USB stick. So, instead of downloading the program to all needed computers which may not have administartive rights, it can used from a USB stick.

Image Manipulation:

I set up an account with the program Picnik, which is available here . It was easy to do, and simple to use. The site is very engaging, and the directions are clear. Sign up is free. You can choose to either download an image, or use one of their demo ones. I downloaded one from my own collection, to make the experience more personal. Once you have downloaded an images, the instructions and tasks are very clear, with simple instructions of how to use each function. Below is a screen capture of when I was editing my picture.

You can also use the create function to add a range of things to your image: texts, pictures (flowers, tiaras, clothes, different themes, ect), frames and so much more. Doing this was a lot fun, and I think children would really enjoy doing this as well. It was very simple to use.

When you have finished, you save the file following simple directions. You can even upload your edited photo onto your Flickr account following a link on the page. Unfortunately, when it came time for to do this, I had some technical errors with my computer, which ment I lost my image. This is part of using an unpredictable computer.

Exploring the pedagogy use of images, I found there needs to be purpose to providing the children with the image, not just for decoration, or only used to simply "engage" the students. They should be used to enage the learners in higher order thinking skills, and encourage them to interact with an idea/theme, and challenge their way of thinking, ir order to enhance knoweldge and understanding.

What ways have you seen images used in your prac classrooms, or what ways have you used them? Are they able to enhance learning? If so, in what way?

Learning Management System (LMS)

"LMS's offer a single platform that delivers content, manages assessment, provides communication forums and virtual collaboration spaces for students" (Moodle)



Blackboard and Moodle are both types of a LMS, and I have a good amount of experience with using them, though not with creating one.

Blackboard can be a great tool to use in the classroom, being accessed by teachers, students and their families. The teacher can upload homework, what's happening in class, class photos and resources. It is also a great tool to connect home and school life.


The following is a PMI of the use of Blackboard/Moodle:

Plus:
- Contain a lot of infomration, orgainsed in a logical way and easy to find.
- Many people can use the tool at one time.
- Connects home and school life
- Online resources can be stored by the teacher for later use.
- Parents can keep up with what is happening in their child's class if they are really busy during the day.

Minus:
- Privacy might be an issue; although a password and username is needed to get access

Interesting:
- Sometimes there can be too much information uploaded, with students ignoring some, or not getting time to look at it all.


Overall I would love to set up a Bclackboard program (Virtual Classroom) to help engage my learners, share a wide range of resources and enhance the involvment of families in the learning.

What do you think of Blackboard? Is it a valuable ICT learning and teaching tool? Let me know!

Prezi

Before this course, I had never heard of a Previ before so I was curious to find out.
I really enjoyed watching Prezi's made by others that have been shared on the website http://prezi.com/ which is where I made my own. Click here to view it.


PMI of creating and using a Prezi in the Primary classroom:

Plus:
- Very engaging, interesting to watch
- Highlights and focuses key points separately
- Builds on the commonly used PowerPoint tool

Minus:
- I found it quite complicated to use, and would sometimes end up loosing things like photos or words without meaning to.
- Would require a lot of scaffolding before older students able to use individually - time?

Interesting:
- Some students may find the Prezi distracting, as often fast and regular movements are used.


If anyone knows how to embed my Prezi onto my blog, I would love to hear how!

Overall. I didn't enjoy creating my prezi, although this may be due to my lack of experience with it. Hopefully I will be able to spend more time exploring this tool, so that I am able to better enhance my ICT skills.

What experiences did you have with Prezi? Is it something that you'd use? Why/why not?

The Power of PowerPoint

PowerPoint is probably the ICT tool that I have had the most experience in, as I was introduced to it in late Primary School, and have been using it ever since.

Before I share ways in which I have and currently use, I will first complete a SWOT analysis.

Strengths

- Most computers already have the program

- Really simple to use, and tutorial sessions can be followed

- Creative and individuallity is encouraged

- Many students may have access to PowerPoint at home

- Can be student and/or teacher directed

- Accommodates more learning styles that traditional 'chalk and talk'

Weaknessess

- If used inappropriately, could confuse and overload learners

- For learners to begin using, needs much scaffolding

Opportunities

- A range of options to present information: text, image, video, voice over (Provides learners with many options)

- Cna be used as an aid in teaching, or be created by students as part of their learning journey

Threats

- I found that while growing up, PowerPoint tended to be overused in the classroom, and often the only tool provided to present information. This may be as it is so simple to use, and most computers already have the program. A variety of tools need to be used to ensure students are engaged.
- Also, I find that sometimes PowerPoint can be overloaded with information and words, that it is too busy, and not easily read/understood, thus learners are not gaining understanding. PowerPoint needs to be clear, concise, containing key information and good balance of words and images.

The following are some of my ideas of how PowerPoint can be used by my students, and by me as a Learning Manager:

• Presentations for parents about what will be happening throughout the term/year
• As a hook to engage learners at the beginning of a lesson, containing key terms, images
• I have created a PowerPoint presentation to help my class with their counting to 20. I used PowerPoint so I could animate it, making it so that not all numbers are shown at once, and with a click of the mouse can be flown in.
• Students can use PowerPoint to create presentations that are a summative task of a unit, continous learning journey constantly being added to, or as a way of informing an audience about a chosen topic.

Do you have any other weaknesses of using PowerPoint in the classroom?

Also, what other ways have you seen it used, or have you used it yourself?

In relation to the Big6, PowerPoint could be used in stage 4 (Use of information) and stage 5(Synthesis) where students actually have to do something with the information, and engage, extract, organize and present it in some form. What do you think?

Even though I have been using PowerPoint for a while now, I am still always learning more about it. I never knew that you could create images from the PowerPoint slides, which can then be used for student collage, posters or animation. This was also very easy to do. What a great tool!

Exploration of a Wiki

I found that when initially creating my wiki, I felt lost, and unsure of what to do and where t0 start. I think that this is because there are no guidelines on what to create our wiki's about. I find that I am the type of learner who needs directions, guidelines and boundaries in order to learn effectively and confidently. This tool forced me to go out of my comfort zone, which is why it is has taken me a while to blog about it.

You can access my wiki here Feel free to edit it.

The set up of my wiki was rather easy, apart from a few technical issues. The instructions are clear, although I think having a little previous experience with website and blog creation was helpful.

A wiki is a "piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser" http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki
It is a space online where you are able to create a page which can be edited by yourself as well as guests. Information is able to be added and modified and can include links, movies and notes. Interaction and collaboration are key components. A wiki is different to a blog, as in a blog, the creator is only one who can add/edit the page, whereas in a wiki, others can come along and edit/change/modify the page, not just comment on it.

Before thinking about how I could use a wiki in the classroom, I have created a SWOT analysis to determine the effectiveness and limitations of a Wiki, trying to specifically focusing on my current context - the Prep environment.

Strengths

• Encourages collaboration and peer support
• Creativity is used in the creation of the Wiki space
• Enables more than one point of view to be considered

Weaknesses

• Learners with low ICT and literacy skills may struggle - although an opportunity to develop these skills :)
• Hard word can be deleted
• Is a Wiki too complicated for an early learner?

Opportunities

• Collaborative learning on a particular issue/topic
• Time saving - students receive different sections to research, then share findings on wiki

Threats

• Information shared by one person can be deleted by another - upsetting people who have worked hard to create something
• Rude, inappropriate modifications can occur - identifies the need for teaching of netiquette

After completing this SWOT analysis, I found that it was very difficult to imagine this tool in the early childhood environment, unless it was used by the learning manager for their own learning.
I cannot see any ways of using this tool to enhance the learning of this range of learners. Please comment with some ideas you might have to expand the use of this tool for me. I can see how it would be a great tool in the older years (5 - 7) as long as netiquette is taught, and learners understand the purpose and use of a Wiki.

Some suggestions on using a Wiki in the learning environment (mainly focusing on older year levels) are:

• Glossary: Get your class to create a glossary of terms they use and learn about in new units, adding definitions and images.
• Create exploratory projects: If you're teaching a new subject, ask your students to collect and share information in the wiki so that you can learn together.
• Peer review: Allow students to draft their papers in a wiki, then ask other students to comment it.
• School tour: Get your class to take photos of your school and write about their favourite spots on the wiki, then share it with the rest of your school and local community
• Teacher collaboration: Work with other teachers to create lesson plans and track students' success. As a lifelong learner, this key idea would be vital in the develop of my skills and knowledge, and be a great tool for professional development with colleagues.

Ideas have been retrieved from http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/50-ways-to-use-wikis-for-a-more-collaborative-and-interactive-classroom/

In relation to learning theory, a wiki can easily be used in all of the six stages of the Big6 model, as it is so versatile.

I wanted to add an image of my wiki here using the Prnt Scrn button, although do not know how to add it to my post. Does anyone know how to do this?
Also, I wanted to play around with adding to other peers wikis, although couldn't find one to edit as they are protected. Can someone please allow me to edit their wiki so I am able to explore its potential?

Thanks
Teagan

A Weebly Website

At first glance, I considered a website to be pretty much the same as a blog and wiki, although after exploration I found that a website is in actual fact different, with differing features and uses.
The difference between this website and the blogs and wikis you have explored is that YOU decide on the content and structure alone, and nobody else is able to edit, or add to it.

I used Weebly to create my website, and found the tutorial that went with it very helpful. Without it I would have struggled to get started.

To analyse the ICT tool of a website, I will use a PMI framework.

Plus:

• Website design has a lot of freedom, and encourages creativity and independence.
• Students are able to work on the website for a long period of time, and go back and edit it, thus making it a working document.
• A great sharing tool.
• Websites can be viewed by families, peers, and people from the wider community.
• Teachers can create websites containing the current unit, helping to engage learners.

Minus:

• Website design needs to be scaffolded to be used effectively, which takes much time.
• Requires much ICT skills - although creates a great opportunity for students to develop these skills.

Interesting:

• Copyright is a major issue with the use of internet, so students need to be explicitly taught how to legally use and reference material that is not their own.
• Netiquette also needs to explicitly taught to ensure students are design websites with appropriate material.
• Creating a website is time consuming.

In my current context of a Prep environment, I think a website would be a great tool to demonstrate the content and materials used in the current unit of work. As a whole class, a website could be created to demonstrate to families what has been happening at school, and also allow learners to access this work at home, thus creating a home-school link. This could be in the form of a online classroom, or blackboard.

My prac class is currently doing a unit on weather. A website could be created on this topic, and upload onto it could be videos of different types of weather, key vocabulary words, interactive learning objects and games, and photographs of the activities completed at school. This would be a fantastic tool to enhance the learning, and value what the students are doing. Parents would also enjoy viewing this.

In relation to learning theory, the creation of a website could be used in the 5th stage of Synthesis, where students need to organise from multiple sources, and present the information.

Overall, I would love to use the creation of websites in my future learning environments.

I have given examples of how I would use a website in my current prac class....How would you use it in yours? I would love to hear some more ideas.

Concept Map: A tool for organising your thinking

After completing a concept map from both the programs (bubbl.us and Text 2 Mind Map) I have found that I much prefer the Text 2 Mind Map. This is because it allows you to get all of your thoughts down first, before beginning to play with the colours and locations of the concept map bubbles, which was the case when I was using the bubbl.us program.

Below is my finished concept map from Text 2 Mind Map.

I know it is small and hard to read, but my skills are yet to enable me to make it bigger! Hopefully I will be able to come back and edit it in the near future.

I have analysed this digital tool in relation to its use and effectiveness within the classroom using the P.M.I framework.

Plus:

• Engaging
• An effective way of organising information
• Easily edited/added to without needing to rub out pencil or add another piece of paper for more room
• A great tool for visual learners

Minus:

• Not all students are digitally active, and not able to type at an average rate. Thus it may take some students a lot of time to get their ideas down.

Interesting:

• Students may spend a lot of time designing their mind maps, looking at the colours and fonts. This may become a priority over the actual process of getting information down.

Overall, I feel that concept mapping online is an engaging tool for students to use when organising their information, although it would definitely need to be taught and modelled by the teacher before learner's can use it.

In the classroom, you could use this learning tool in a variety of ways. One way would be to provide each of the year 6 learners with a short reading on different components of a topic. The students then need to summaries the key ideas they gathered from the readings using a concept map. Students can upload their concept maps onto their blogs (if have one), or print them out to collaborate their information with their peers.

What are some other ways you could use a conept may online in your learning environment?