week 4

Amazing resources out there... I just have to find them!

Today we were introduced to full learning federation interactives website, which will hopefully provide many links to amazing websites to use in the classroom.

ABC resource - dust echoes website. http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/
Good idea to download study guides and videos. I always worry when I find a great website that when I want it next time it won't be available anymore.

Ancient stories, aborginal stories are on this website. Videos of the stories done by aborginal artists, each video also has a study guide which explains the story and his heritage, gives examples of work that can be done within the classroom, as well as worksheets.

I will definately be downloading these resources. They are done very well, amazing detail into the illustrations, stories and study guides. There really is some amazing resources on the internet, it is just making sure I find them and save them before they go. Greg has been very helpful with introducing government sites that have interactive learning section that have obviously had a lot of money spent on them and are definately worth using.

The storyboard activity-
We used Inspiration IE 8.0 again.

• get students to map out the main pictures and ideas in the story.
  
• We used the dush echoes stories in our workshop, however this can do done using any story or event. The children could even do this with their own stories, by taking photos or finding photos on google images to match their stories.
• Students write a sentence to each picture. They can design the storyboard to look however they want.
  
• What is important is the main ideas and themes, getting students to comprehen the story and select the main ideas and main parts to help retell the story. Giving students to freedom to design and create in their own way is also very a special thing that the students learn.
  

My storyboard of the Wagalak Sisters story:

How to make the video into a storyboard in inspiration:

• Get students to watch the video and decide on the main aspects of the story.
• Get students to pause the video on pictures that show this main aspect of the story
• students then use the printscreen function and edit their photo in paint.
  
• saving each picture as a jpeg and export it into inspiration.

This activty is well catered for different ability levels as some students will have very few pics, some will have lots. Some students will write simple short sentences, while others write more indeaapth sentences which give the reader more of an idea what the story is about.
The learning purpose of the activity is to try to get students to use the main aspects of the story.
This is while I like the use of ICT in the classroom, an activity such of this not done on the computers students disengage with quite quickly, however once the task is done on the computer students don't realise the learning purpose and get caught up in the whole production of a piece of work and really put effort into their work.

YouTube in the classroom:
We discussed using Youtube in the classroom. The biggest issue being that within most schools it is blocked. It is totally understandable that the site is blocked, you never know what kind of footage you are opening up when you watch a video. The site is probably also blocked due to amount of download that would be used by a classroom using the site which would definately slow down the schools connection to the internet.

I found a way around this during my first practium. I used a website called save you tube.
http://www.saveyoutube.com/
This site allowed me to copy and paste the url of the video I want to save and then turned it into a video I could save on my usb stick. This was extremely helpful just for the same fact I spoke about earlier, that if you find something that is a really good resource, you don't want to go back later to use it and its no longer there.
I found many pros to saving videos onto my computer or USB stick compared to watching them online.

• don't have to wait for them to download
• if youtube is blocked you can still watch them
• you have them to keep as a resource
• The speed of the video doesn't depend on the internet speed of the day.
  
• you can edit any section you may not want the children to watch.
  

However, we did talk about the ethical and copyright laws that perhaps this isn't the best idea. I always just thought that because the videos were on a website that main purpose was to share the files with everybody all over the world that saving the videos would be fine. I think as long as you use it on your own website or blog, as long as you reference where you got it from it should be fine.

I do like how Craig O'Neil on his blog 'Online Interactivity for Educators: A teachers tour of youtube' believes that you can't let such a popular technology go to waste by not using it. I suppose if you are totally against saving the files, you could ask the techs at the school to provide you with access at certain times, this would solely depend on each school and their internet polices. I find there is always a way around these issues, I know from one of my practiums when the teacher wanted a youtube clip, there are a few backdoors you can you at some schools. One the students actually told us about. I suppose then its your choice if you use that backdoor site, making children aware of these backdoors and that you are using them is another ethical delemma to think about. (www.galazypear.com if anybody was interested - the one major issue with galazy pear is you definately need to stop pop ups, as some adds come up that are probably not the most appropraite to have on a IWB with primary aged students!)

I also like Craig O'Neals idea of getting children to produce their own videos to upload onto youtube. There is no point ignoring youtube, it one of the most popular websites, we need to use and embrace this website. "I think that taking advantage of the excitement this kind of technology brings to our children is a worthwhile endeavor. Children love to produce, and teaching them the skills to make good productions takes advantage of their interest and provides them with a wealth of skills." (Craig O'Neal, http://www.edutopia.org/teachers-tour-you-tube)

M&Ms activity:

http://www.m-ms.com.au/about/products/milkchocolate.html The M&Ms website has the graph shown to the left. Which represents the different colours showed in each pack of M&M's. This could be used as an engaging way to start a lesson of graphing.
To get the children excited and interesting in learning about graphing and different types of graphs (eg. pictograph like the m&m graph shown, bar graph and pie charts) it is a great idea to make the data interesting and relevant to the children.

I remember doing a very similar exercise in maths in Year 7, with a bag of jelly babies. Clearly this lesson worked as years on I still remember this lesson. We were working on probabilty of getting a certain colour. Similar could be done with the m&m's.
M&M's did bring up an issue with a member of our classroom who wasn't keen on purchasing the product as the M&M company does not use free trade chocolate. This is understandable that people would have these points of views and it is something as teachers we will have to gauge with our familes, the class and the school we work within. Socioeconomic status is another issue, if family do not have the spare money to buy such products. If this was the case, as a teacher I think you would buy it either with your own money or take it from one of the school budgets. If chocolate/lollies are banded within the school, Greg gave another good example. Try using starts or confetti from the $2 shop.

With this specific task of graphing the colours of the M&M's in your packet, there is a resource Greg gave us from www.AtoZTeacherStuff.com Which is a M&M's Candy Colour Chart.

Excel --> making tables and charts:

My Graph done in the workshop:
I haven't included the steps of how to make a table or chart in my blog as I am able to produce these without instructions.

To make graphs look fancy and effectively make the graph look better and assist in showing your figures. Use of specific colours and pictures in the background:

• after making the graph/chart - go to format data point.
  
• from this box, you can change the fill, add a picture or a colour to each section.

Different graphs can be shown to the students at this stage, so they can see the difference between effective and ineffective graphs.
Extension work once graphs are complete, students can decorate their information, by using the Internet to add pictures of M&M's to their graph. Practising their searching, copy and paste skills.
More extension for the entire class could be to collaborate all the data they obtained from their own packets. Discuss total number of M&M's, averages of colours and then similar to the M&Ms website work out an average percentage of how your pack colours are distributed. This could then follow onto a probability lesson similar to the lesson I did in Year 7 with jelly babies.

week 3

Games and ICT-

I know from my experiences in the classroom that games on the computer really engage children. When I was planning integrated studies and used simply interactive computer games I would start unsure if they would get into the game and enjoy it. I often have to remind myself they aren't to keep me entertained but the children. As often the children would want longer playing these interactive games no matter how simple they were.

I used a great resource on practicum for healthy eating that had interactive games. http://www.nutritionexplorations.org/kids/activities-main.asp

Children making games:

http://www.quia.com/

30 day trail available.

Students can create their own quiz. At the end of an inquiry unit the students could create a quiz as a form of assessment. Students could create a quiz on the class book they are reading, as a way to introduce and get to know each other at the start of the year, they could make this quiz basically on any topic.

Quizzes the students create will last one month, unless you actually pay for the program.

It is important to tell students not to focus on making it the best you can. Just get something down for a start, to learn how to use the program. Then they can go back and alter the answers and questions when they have mastered the program.

Quiz I made during workshop: http://www.quia.com/quiz/2514013.html

Hangman games:

An aspect I didn't even think about, that with hangman you need to be careful, as students from war torn countries may find these type images and ideas as disturbing. That is a major bonus on website as they use other images but game play is the same as normal hangman. They use other. other images like balloons and stars.

My Hangman game: http://www.quia.com/hm/668230.html

Rags to riches, is like who wants to be a millionaire?

Greg mentioned a great resource he used to have which was a who wants to be a millionaire PowerPoint that he often used. (Reminder to myself to try and find this on the net).

Surveys - sample activities on the website to show different types you can create.

Would I recommend using this resource?
Obviously to teach students how to use aspects of this site and how to enter the information they need, you would have to teach as a whole class, similar to how we were shown during the workshop. I believe once the students have been taught how to use the site, it could be something that students could do as small task within other learning perhaps as an extension activity.

The hangman game I like as this could work great with spelling words or unit specific vocabulary.

The only aspect of the site I do not like is that the quizzes only last one month. I will have to continue to search the Internet to hopefully find a site that allows quizzes to stay a little longer. As a teacher making a resource, you would have to copy and paste all your questions and answers into a word document for the use in another year.

Incorporating ICT and VELS domain Design, Creativity and Technology:

Design Briefs:

Greg mentioned he would run Design Brief activities once a week to encourage students to use their higher order thinking. Greg uses examples like the jumping frog exercise we did in the workshop as well as different Origami tasks.

I really like the idea of doing a design brief activity weekly. I found many of my students on my practicum (grade 5/6 students) could not easily use their own creativity to come up with an answer to a program. It was as if they were concern that they would get the wrong answer. This is why I really like the design brief idea, as there is no one answer. Students can create their own answer and justify their reasoning for this answer.

It is amazing that schools don't do more of this, as doing design briefs fits in perfectly with the Design, Creativity and Technology Domain. More examples of different design briefs are on the VELS website (http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/support/units/units.html#dct). The design briefs could easily be integrated into the unit of work the students are currently working on, or on a totally different topic of interest to engage the class. I hope as a teacher I make time to fit such activities in as they can be very engaging and help the student express their ideas, question the way things work and assist them with their evaluating skills. The hands on aspect of such activities are another major feature I like.

Jumping Frog Example:

Child had to use ALL resources.

Encourages higher order thinking, students must write down their design briefs and evaluate them.

There are no rules, its up to the children to decide how their frog will jump.

Encourage children to start using the right terms, use as part of a unit of work.

Extension activities: for children who finish early, you could have larger frogs and larger bits of cardboard, children can see if their idea transfer to a larger setting.

Our Frog:
Including ideas for the use of ICT's students could use to present their design briefs.

I believe by using cameras/flip cameras/video footage gives the students work more meaning and hopefully encourage students to put more effort into their work as they want to showcase their best possible design. Examples of work such as our frog jump would be hard to keep to refer to later in the school year, or show on an student eportfolio or show as examples to parents. Having students document their work on computers is a great way to keep evidence of work they have done and validate the activities they are doing.

Greg believes that children will improve with their analysis and evaluate sections of their design briefs the more they do it.

Include the following in a design brief:

Investigation/Design

Produce
Problem to be solved
Resources
Analyse/Evaluate

Week 2

To eportfolio or not?

The big question on every bodies mind as we make our way through this year heading towards time to start applying for jobs. Do we eportfolio or not? After these workshop, I now realise there are two different types of eportfolio I can talk about.

1. My personal portfolio.......
I must admit I am slightly to very sceptical about the idea of doing a portfolio on the computer. Without seeing some amazing work on accessible programs, I don't see why we can't just do a hard copy of our portfolio. I must admit when talking to a friend of mine who did a teaching degree a few years back, she liked the sound of an eportfolio and said that she would actually prefer that to her hard copy, which is hard to upgrade and modify as her teaching career continues. I agree with her that the idea of being able to edit and adjust it as the years go on does seem like a good idea. But i just feel like I haven't seen a program that supports the format of an eportfolio that works well enough for my liking.

I am sure if your undergrad degree was computers or technological design or something similar then you would be able to make an amazing eportfolio, but for somebody like myself, who loves spending time on my computer but doesn't necessarily have the know how or the access to any programs that are out of the ordinary. I would simply become annoyed at my eportfolio and get a little bit perfectionist on my work. I would constantly be thinking there was something better out there to produce it on.

I feel if you are going to do an eportfolio, it really needs to be striking to gain the principles attention. I have spoken with a few principles and teachers who sit on the interview panel and the majority of those who I have spoken too, said they often look at the portfolios while the teacher is jotting down notes to the interview questions. One principle said don't put a lot of words, because they won't read it. Its better to be visual as they will flick through the portfolio and not spend a lot of time reading everything you have put into the portfolio.
That's why I think the hard copy is better, as the board can self direct themselves through the portfolio. When it is in eportfolio format, if the staff aren't comfortable with computers or if the program you use isn't a well known program then the staff may miss important sections or just not bother looking past the first page.

My queries about eportfolios especially those connected to a website, is how to show them off. Bring your own laptop and you wont have access to the schools Internet. I also don't think you can expect the staff to be able to look at it, if you supply the staff with a USB stick or CD as most of the interviews are done away from one of the staff members work space. They may not look at it till after you leave.
I believe my dislike for eportfolios has sprung from a friend who is doing the same course at a different uni, she has been using the 'iwebfolio' program with much frustration. I have attempted to help this friend and too became very frustrated. The program cost money and always changes the formatting and sometimes just won't let you do certain things. The uni themselves have now admitted the program is not very good and probably won't use it next year. I also tried to look up other online programs such a pebble pad and a few others, but i find it hard to decide whether or not to pay for them, without a trail period. Especially after seeing how poor iwebfolio is.

Although I may seem very against the eportfolio, if I do find a program that is easy to use and has the qualities to make a great eportfolio. As well as a file that can be viewed on a computer that is not connected to the Internet then I would definatly consider it. A definite positive of using an eportfolio is showing your interest and creativity of how you would incorporate technologies into your classroom. I believe you could also show examples of work created a lot easier than you could in a hard copy portfolio.

2. Students eportfolios.
Unlike my own personal eportfolio, I highly recommend doing student eportfolios. I really like the idea of them, having a file that they continue to add onto throughout there years at school. Something the teachers can use to show parents at parent teacher interviews, a piece of work that the children has at the end of the year with all their accomplishments and especailly due to the fact that its a file on the computer, something they can keep for years to come and look back on.

A lot of the great work my students did throughout my first placement was done and corrected but not much happens after this stage. Especially being grade 5 and 6, not a lot of the work was displayed in the classroom. I therefor find that sometimes students don't put their best work into everything, as they know once today is over it doesn't matter what your piece of work looked like. I would think that a student eportfolios would help motivate the students to create their best work so that they can use it in their eportfolios.
Examples of work students can put in their own eportfolios: scan their work, photographs of their work, video tapes of them showing/explaining their work, video of the students telling stories or videos of the process they did to create their piece of work etc.
I believe the student eportfolio is a great way in incorporate technology into the classroom.

Microsoft Publisher:

Is no longer on the cheap student version of Office. This now makes the program less accessible for students, as majority of the students wouldn't have used the program unless they had used it previously at school. Many students would no longer have access to this program on their home computers. It is however on school computers.

I really think this is a shame that Publisher has been removed from the basic version of Office. It is a great program for children to improve on their basic computer skills without the annoying automatic formatting that happens with Microsoft Word. Publisher gives students the freedom to make a range of documents from templates or create something from a blank page. The main aspect I like is that a student with not great computer skills can still make a impressive looking piece of work which will improve their confidence with computers.

Creating a brochure in publisher:

When taking this lesson in the classroom - introduce the topic showing a range of examples of real brochures. Talk about them and their effectiveness.

• how are they set up?
• which ones do you like?
• what don't you like about some of the brochures?
• which ones are effective at selling their product?
• are they best with lots of pictures? or lots of writing?
• etc.

This task can be integrated into what the students are currently learning about, from kitchen science, to toys, to current world issues.
This task can also be used to introduce using publisher with freedom such as the free choice we had in the workshop, given a broad topic (ie, a destination I would like to go) which therefore enabled all students to be engaged as it was their choice which country or place they used.

By using publisher to create a brochure, children have the chance to practice the following skills in an engaging format:

• cutting
• pasting
• comprehension and summarising information
• typing and mouse skills, etc
  

My Brochure: