images

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mamchenkov/113248878/

A phone?

No not just any phone - next week I am teaching a class about office equipment and why and how its used the office. So that's why this photo is an educational resource. I'm still searching to find one that it taken from more of a front on angle but if I don't I'll be taking the camera to work. A image is as close to the actual piece of equipment as I will get in the lesson I am teaching - so a good image is a very important resource.

Cliche but true - a picture can say a thousand words. Verbal explanation is good, and as a teacher being able to verbally explain and teach certain information is a tool that needs to be developed and maintained but verbal explanation isn't always enough. If you want to class to all picture the same thing the easiest way to do it is to show them. For example trying to explain the phone pictured above. It's dark grey, has a number of buttons, the phone is connected to the handset.... It doesn't work. Showing the picture and explaining the functions of the phone is much more effective.

Until this week I thought that flickr.com was just a site for sharing photos but I now know that by clicking on Creative Commons I am able to safely use images from the Attribution Licence section and acknowledging the source of the image without worrying about copyright. This will be a great resource for me as a unviersity student and as a teacher and also for students, as it provides great explanations of the allowed uses for each of the licences.

podcasts

I don't know a single person my age who doesn't have either an ipod, mp3 player or a computer. Podcasts can be listened to on any of these three devices and therefore are an accessible medium for students. They are also effective in helping students learn. In my prac I attend a year 9 English class who are studying Shakespeare. The main difficulties of learning this has been the reading and understanding of the texts. Difficulty with pronounciation has been a major issue. Also although their text has a thesaurus on the side of each page to help with understanding; it is difficult to read both and have the narrative flow. I have found http://www.shakespearecast.com/ which provides podcast downloads of a number of Shakespeare's works. Listening to this would allow students to follow along in their texts. They would then have a greater understanding of the pronounciation and would be easier to check meaning.

I haven't yet created my own podcast but will get onto to.

Week Three.

powerpoints.

Attention lecturers, powerpoint doesn't have to be as boring as you make it.
This is what I learn when I futher explored powerpoint this week.

O week left me with a slight dislike for powerpoints after term one of a particular subject (not lm or poul btw) I can say that I hated powerpoint but after learning a little more about the program I'm now open to a number of possibilities for its use in the classroom without boring my future students to death.

My university experience of power points has basically been a white slide with black writing. A visual aid? More like a visual bore. After my first couple of weeks of prac and also not leaving school too long ago I know that boredom is definately an issue that needs to be combatted in a classroom and using an unformatted, monochrome slide isn't going to achieve this.

Powerpoints aren't meant to be basic slides, the ability to incorporate links, movies, pictures and animations support this. Backgrounds, fonts, layouts and colour can be easily manipulated to create an aesthetically pleasing slide. Powerpoints can be intereactive. Utilising links can create a quiz for students eg. on one slide have a question and multiple answers that are linked - if the answer clicked on is correct a slide with positive feedback comes next, if the answer clicked is wrong a message about why it is wrond and a try again link can be clicked. Interaction!!

Visual learners will receive most benefit from a powerpoint, as it is a visual aid in the classroom. However powerpoints should not be set up and let run without further explanation or reinforcement from the teacher. The teacher's job is to further explain and extend on the notes or media presented on the powerpoint. Therefore the correct use of powerpoints will also benefit auditory learners, because it will allow them to see and hear the information.

As always there is a time and place for powerpoint to be used in the classroom, and that's not everyday for every subject but utilising this form of teaching taking into account the issues mentioned before will have a positive effect on learning. So now we know it's not powerpoint's fault that it is a bad reputation amoung university students, its due to the constant use of it and the lack functionality we see in our lectures and tutes.

Week Two.

blogs.websites.wikis

Last week I focussed just on bubbl.us and didn't incorporate any info or reflections on the use of a blog. So firstly to...

Functionality of a Blog
Blogs can be used in many different contexts. They can be used as a learning and teaching tool. For us as students blogs are a great reflective tool (the point of one assessment). They allow us to follow our thoughts and understandings throughout a particular learning experience. It allows us to look at our learning for a particular space of time or of a particular skill/knowledge.. In eLearning, it is every week.
As a BLM student, learning and teaching are two words which always work together - as when I learn I think about how others learn. So as a teaching tool blogs allow students to reflect (as we are doing). Analytical reflection is a skill that needs to be developed and therefore blogs of a reflective nature would not be suitable for younger students but in my case utilising blogs in at a secondary schooling level could be effective. Although students would need to be capable to use and have adequate access to technology. Blogs also take a level of self discipline and commitment to learning, basically like with most aspects you get out what you put in.
Blogs are a constructivist tool, the reflective use of this tool allows us and our students to work out what they know (prior knowledge) and build on it.

Websites
This week Wendy introduced us to weebly.com a site that allows anyone to create their own website without the need to know how to use a coding system. It simplifies the process with basic step by step instructions. In a classroom situation creating as a teacher creating a website like this allows for the easy spread of information without allowing students the ability to edit and alter the content. Utilising a website would allow for self paced instruction in the classroom. Students can work through set tasks at their own pace, referring back to the website for instruction. It would also help address the issue of students getting distracted using computers. Instead of students getting on the computer and doing their own thing until tasks are given, they would be given one instruction go to www.caseyfaulkner.weebly.com and follow instructions from here.

Wikis
Our class wiki today5 is just one great example. With all the uses a website provides plus the ability for public editing. The uses for this in the classroom are numerous. It also allows for the protecting of certain information, meaning, that if you only want students to work on one particular task, you can hide the rest. As you want them to move onto further tasks you allow these to be seen publically.

Each week my eyes are being opened to eLearning tools I've never even heard of. Sitting in a classroom last week I saw numerous opportunities where learning could have been improved by the incorporation of ICTs. This is the future of learning and I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to it.

Week One.

bubbl.us

This week Wendy introduced us to bubbl.us - a site that allows you to create your own mind map online. A mind map being basically, a visual set out of ideas. This site also allows for sharing of your mind map with "friends" on bubbl.us and if desired, to not only view but also edit. Utilising a program such as bubbl.us is a great improvement on the butchers paper and marker version of mind mapping. Bubbl.us allows for mistakes, no need for ugly cross outs and making use of the friends option also allows for anonymous sharing of ideas, eradicating the fear of embarrassment. It's a new and much improved version of the simple mind map. The idea of mind mapping works well in regards to the theory of Cognitivism. Bubbl.us further provides a better outlet for the organisation of information, which aids in linking information in order to transfer it to long term memory.

So that's a brief overview of bubbl.us, it's features and benefits to learning. Feel free to expand and add anything I've missed!

That's me out for now.
- Casey.



My eLearning bubbl.us mind map so far...

eLearning Intro.

This week was the intro tute for eLearning, so I've decided that this will be my intro blog entry.

First a little inspiration.