EDED20491 Assessment 2 - Analysis of Digital Technologies

“The truth is out there (deep space) or under there (deep sea) if only the seeker is prepared to dive or fly enough” (O’Donnell, 2006, p. 14).  However, the truth is also ‘across’ there if they are prepared to travel.  All of this is what I want my learners to do through using Digital Technologies in the classroom.

I have chosen five tools from across the technologies investigated which I feel are very useful in teaching and these are:  Blogging, Glogster, Podcast, VoiceThread and Text2Map.  I must also investigate how they can support, enhance and transform students’ knowledge in teaching.  Finally, I must consider safe, legal and ethical practise when I use these tools in the classroom.

Firstly, a Blog is a type of website where items are posted in chronological order with newest at the top.  It also combines text, images and links to other media.  It would appeal to a variety of learners because it combines all these technologies in one space.  It is an excellent communication tool and is used worldwide.  

Duffy and Bruns (2006, p.33) put forward the ideas that Blogging enhances learning as it provides a platform with a multitude of technologies and when it is fully utilised this way it appeals to different styles of learning.  It also supports learning by allowing students to comment, collaborate, reflect, review and develop. They also believe that it promotes critical, analytical, creative and associational thinking.  These types of thinking processes all break down learning in different ways to transform an element of truth or knowledge out it.  

From our First Assessment in this course we could see that Blogging works well within Blooms Digital Taxonomy and Engaged Learning Theory as it supports learning through the lower order thinking processes to the higher order thinking.  I would use the Blog as a teacher’s tool of communication to the class. 

Blogging is a social communication tool and everyone can view it, so in an educational setting safe practise is very important.  You can go into settings/permissions to make it private by only allowing certain email addresses to view.  If you choose not to do this then students should limit their personal details in the profile area.  Photos which are used in the Blog should be your own or from a reliable source with Creative Commons like Flickr. Embedded Tools should be checked carefully for content as well as any sources linked with them. 

Now we move onto Podcasting, which can be simple audio or enhanced with pictures or a video podcast.   A simple audio podcast embedded in another ICT Tool such as Blogs, Wiki’s or Web is effective, but it will only appeal to limited type of learners.  An enhanced or video podcast is much more stimulating and will appeal to a larger group of learners. Example of Podcast in Blog

  

Enhanced podcasts for children in primary school would be an excellent opportunity for them to be given a topic where they have to draw a picture, photograph and upload it, and then record a comment about it.  It can become a collaborative effort with teams of children creating story boards for their group’s part of the whole story.  Multiple skills are used here since they can learn how to photograph, upload the photo and work with podcast software.  It can be a literacy lesson and an ICT lesson together, so learning is enhanced and supported by incorporating this tool.  Learning is transformed in the collaboration process and the final product placed on the teacher’s wiki, blog or web page.

Safe practise in podcasts – if external podcasts are used to support a lesson than the content needs to be checked carefully and the question asked - is it from a reliable source?  Also, if there are links to other podcasts are they appropriate? Finally, does the school internet policy cover podcasts?  Careful consideration must be taken.

Another effective digital tool for teaching is Glogster.  The Glogster website (Glogster EDU, 2011) describes how its product can be “created using a very easy to understand, drag and drop interface that is relevant, enjoyable and scalable for students of all ages and learning styles.  A Glog is an interactive visual platform in which users create a ‘poster or web page’ containing multimedia elements including:  text, audio, video, images, graphics, drawings, and data.” A Glog is constructivism in nature and once again is another tool which sits well with Blooms Digital Taxonomy.  

According to Brenda Dyck (2009),“ Glogster goes beyond being just another scrapbbooky" tool -- it introduces students to 3-D communication skills, requiring them to merge the left and right sides of the brain as they seek to communicate and evaluate both information and meaning. The visual, audio, and textual capacity of Glogster not only will appeal to digital learners, it has the potential to support the visual literacy skills that are becoming essential skill sets for 21st century learners.”

Glogster is another platform which provides knowledge and information which appeals to a diverse range of learners.  The Glogster website (Glogster EDU, 2011) describes its benefits as it “provides learners options for demonstrating what they know” and it can “tap into learners’ interests, offer appropriate challenges, and increase motivation. It encourages “creativity, innovation communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making and digital citizenship.”

A teacher can use this tool to have students do book and research reports, presentations, homework and other tasks.  Example of Glogster in Blog

Safe Practise - Glogster can have the teacher as the account manager and they can view/manage students’ Glogsters.  This is probably the safest route to take, however it does cost.  Again, if you choose not to go this way students need to limit their personal details in Glogster. As always any outside materials used by the children must come from a safe, reliable source and ideally one that is from free education material. 

At last we get to the Group 4 Technologies and within this group there are two which are particularly interesting and they are Text2MindMap and VoiceThread.

Text2MindMap is a very simple to use web tool which takes text and converts it into mind maps.  You can take a list of words and enter it in the order you want and it will interpret and draw a map out of it.  The user can then use the tab key to continue to create the structure of the mind map.  Also, you can chose fonts and colours, plus add lines to organise it further and clarify ideas even more.  It also can be converted to a Jpeg which allows you to share it with other web tools. 

Text2MindMap is another type of mind mapping tool and as such it works well for collaboration in class discussions.  The nature of the Mind Map encourages students to forge links (support and enhance learning) between topics as well as forming their own ideas and opinions (transforms knowledge). 

Text2MindMap is a tool which doesn’t appeal to all styles of learners, but definitely appeals to visual learners and logical sequential thinkers.  Example of Text2MindMap in Blog

Safe, legal and ethical practise with this tool is pretty simple and really it is to make sure content have not being copied and published out there in the public arena.

VoiceThread is another tool from the Group 4 Technologies which is easy to use and very effective.  Example of VoiceThread in Blog

The Voice Thread wiki describes its tool as “a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways – using voice (with mic or telephone), text, audio file or video (via a webcam). (VoiceThread, 2011, p 1)” VoiceThreads can be embedded in Wikis, Blogs and web sites. 

The Voice Thread wiki also gives ideas on how this tool can be used in primary teaching for repeating or responding in language, drill and practise or for assessment. Children can explain photos taken during field trips or talk about historical photos or images.  Children can write poetry and post it then comment about it.  In maths children can explain concepts or in science report on an experiment.   All these examples show how learning is supported and enhanced and through the discussion and posting the learning can be transformed.

A final overview of copyright compliance to be considered was taken from the SmartCopying website (Australian Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs [MCEETYA], 2011) and shows four instances where teachers do not need to rely on special provisions and these are linking, embedding, using material created by you or your school and free education material and resources’.   However, artistic works, text works, radio and television programs, films copied from online, sound recordings copied from vinyl, cassettes and cds, digital sound recordings (ITunes and other digital music stores) need special provisions.

In conclusion, there are a lot of digital technologies out there to use and through the work we have completed so far I would use a Blog or Wiki as my main tool of communication and teaching to my primary class.  I would use Glogster to display the students’ projects and I would use enhanced podcasting or Voicethread for them to participate in and collaborate within class.  Text2MindMap would be an excellent tool for electronic whiteboard work or for students to view and collaborate with the teacher. 

My students will dive, fly and travel in their learning via digital technologies in my future classroom.

References

Australian Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA).

(2011). Learning Copyright Compliance Manual for Teachers. Retrieved from

http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/

Duffy, P. & Bruns A. (2006). The Use of Blogs, Wikis and RSS in Education: A Conversation of

.Possibilities. In Proceedings Online Learning and Teaching Conference 2006. Retrieved from

http: //eprints.qut.edu.au

Dyck, B. (2009). Hooked on Glogster: Posters 2.0. Retrieved from

http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/dyck/dyck037.shtml

Glogster EDU. (2011). What is Glogster EDU. Retrieved from http://edu.glogster.com./what-is-

glogster-edu/

Glogster EDU. (2011). Benefits. Retrieved from http://edu.glogster.com/what-is-glogster-edu/

O’Donnell, M. (2006). Blogging as pedagogic practise: artefact and ecology, Asia Pacific Media

Educator, 17 (3), 5-19. Retrieved from http://ro.uow.edu.au/apme/vol1/iss17/3

VoiceThread. (2011). Welcome to the Voicethread 4 Education wiki. Retrieved April 8, 2011 from

http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com/

Example of Timeline on Dipity

Simone's life on Dipity.

Text2MindMap

Please view my PMI on Blogs for Learning using a Text2MindMap under March entries in my Blog.

Plus
It was a very easy tool to use straight away.  I have looked at Bubble.us, but found it to be more frustrating this tool.  I believe students need to see results easily and quickly and this tool is user-friendly and moves the mapping around in a fun way which makes it interactive fun.  Learning would be great for students as they would have to type the information in the order of main category, sub-category and so on.  This makes them break down the information so the small details can be seen which create the big picture.

When I posted this map to Wiki it was no problem and the way the home page was set up it did not run over any other text.  

Minus
Since it is such a simple tool it is limited in its technical capabilities, but for basic mindmapping it's great.  Also, to load it into the blog I had to move it into Picnik to reduce the size to try to make it fit into the Blog and as you can see I still struggled with size.


Interesting

Prezi

I didn't create a Prezi as I found the software not easy to use.  I wanted to use their option of taking a Powerpoint presentation and loading it into Prezi.  I downloaded software for 30 day trial and waited 30 minutes through this process.  I then went to download my Powerpoint which I know exists in my Picture File, but it wasn't there from Prezi point of view.  This was disappointing since it should be easy for a teacher to re-work a Powerpoint into another presentation tool.

I then went to create a Prezi and found the software frustrating even though I had watched the tutorials online.  I know I would be able to work with it, but time is of the essence and for a teacher or student frustration is not the best learning method.

I have a 30 day trial and hopefully I will be able to have another go at it.

When I trialled Glogster it was sooooo easy - Prezi needs to be more user friendly.

PMI on Prezi

Great looking and interesting. Prezi is like an active mind mapping tool and because of this it is powerful.  Since it can make main points larger and move towards you and minor points smaller and further away, it visually backs up the idea you are putting out there.

Minus
This tool needs to be more user friendly and unfortunately trial runs out after 30days which means to me you have to pay for it.

Interesting

The potential for teachers to reuse Powerpoint slides and convert to a Prezi presentation is a great option.

Powerpoint Presentation

http://simonebenoit.wikispaces.com/file/view/My+First+PowerPoint+Presentation.ppsx

My first PowerPoint presentation - this is absolutely true - I have never done one of these before.

Simone learning how to VoiceThread

(Photo from Flickr 2011)
I really enjoyed the VoiceThread - what a wonderful tool!   Unfortunately, I used my 3 tries for free and would have to subscribe/pay to produce something more professional, however this example shows I can use the tool and know how to embed it into my Blog. 


PMI on VoiceThread
Plus - Can be used for collaboration, reflection, creation.  It would appeal to a variety of learners as it combines visual, audio and interaction with the author pointing to items.  This has would be great for students to use to explain a great variety of projects - they love hearing their voices.  It would be interesting to have the students record their ideas with some scripting, but then to add their own ideas at the end - what intrinsic learning could be heard through these last comments?

Minus -  Excellent tool, but it costs educators to use. It is also a public tool so care must be taken for students safety so their identify should not be revealed. 

Interesting - It can be embedded into Google Earth Maps - think of the potential there. Supposedly, there is a icon on Voice Thread that allows you to dial a mobile number and the person on the other end can leave a comment.

Glogster

SWOT Analysis on Glogster

Strengths - Fun, colourful, user friendly, allows for text, audio, video, images, graphics, drawings, data - appeals to all styles of learners.  Students would enjoy creating presentations on this great ICT Tool.
Weaknesses - Planning is required by the teaching to achieve successful learning through this tool, so it doesn't just turn into a personal poster page.
Opportunities - Students can use it as a collaboration tool and once Glogs are created can be embedded in a Blog, Wiki or web page, so parents, friends and possibly other schools can see.
Threats - Since it is a communication tool teachers must safeguard students and administer the main classroom account and have the students create their accounts without any personal contact details.

My First Movie

Watch out Steven Spielberg - Simone Benoit is an upcoming director/producer/writer....................

SWOT analysis of Movie Making:
Strengths - This ICT is unlimited in its strengths as it is a very powerful tool.  Bloom's Taxonomy and Learning Engagement would be covered in one swoop within this technology if students have to research,write, produce, collaborate - everything to make the movie.

Weaknesses-If students make a movie the teacher would have to be careful that they all understood the technology, so you don't end up with a few who can actually drive this vehicle.  Collaboration would have to be done in small groups.

Opportunities-This tool can be used to make simple movies, but also would allow for more complex movie making.

Threats - Students and Teachers would have to be very careful with referencing and copyright.

PMI on Podcasting

PLUS for Podcasting - it is another interesting ICT Tool to use to maintain interest for children in learning.  Children could work in groups and record their ideas for a lesson which can be shared with everyone.  They love to hear their own voices - record a story with everyone reading their part.  Younger children can be recorded reading at beginning of term and re-recorded at end of term to gauge their level achieved.  

Minus- Podcasting by itself would limit the type of learners it would appeal to, so video or photos added would engage a variety of learning styles.  If downloading Podcasts from the internet it is important to thoroughly check content. 

Interesting - There are a lot of podcasts by experts out their, so this tool can be of great support to a teacher who is time limited - download to an IPOD and listen to them to get the creative ideas flowing.  It would also be an excellent tool to use for students to use to explain assignments as they are viewing it online or explain an outline sheet for an assignment. 

Upload Image from Flickr to Picnik then to Blog

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5066/5566095827_873f0776ef_m.jpg

I uploaded a picture from Flickr into Picnik then resized it and made the file smaller.  I then embedded  the link and photo into my Blog.  Picnik place their logo on the image because I am not a subscribed user.


Picnik - this is a great working tool for teachers/students to use for image uploading if they have a blog or wiki or any other ICT Tool which requires photos.  Also, if they require photos to be manipulated - it's all here.  


Flickr and Creative Commons - this is great - amazing photos available to use carefully by noting the different protocols available under the licenses.

Assessment task 1 - Learning design brief

Microsoft Office 2011

Assessment Task 1 – Learning Design Brief

What have I learned and how can I apply this to my future learners?  In my conclusion for my blog I need to reflect upon the ICT (Information and Communications Technology) tools we have used in this course and review how they can cover elements of learning theories and thinking routines to develop intrinsic learning.   Also, I need to review whether some of these tools are more suited for individual learning or collaboratively and if I believe there are any obstacles with their use. Finally, I need to understand where to place or use these tools in the suggested framework which is Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy/Learning Engagement Planning Framework.

The ICT tools we used were great! Week 0 saw us create a blog, plus create a profile to be added to a wiki.  In our readings and online activities we have clicked on hyperlinks which took us to website readings or video links.  We also met Voki’s Angela and Rachael and clicked on Jeff’s Avatar to introduce us to topics – fun and interesting.  We learned how to add photos, videos, URL addresses to our blogs and as we became braver we could go into our settings of our blog and change the look of our page.  It was assumed by our teacher that we had basic computer skills (base knowledge) and that by creating, using and adding to these tools the scaffolding was in place for us to increase our ICT knowledge. 

Now that we have been introduced to the ICT tools we will be using and begin to read about learning theories we can better understand how to use these tools to support learning in our classrooms.  Smith (2011) states in the introduction and overview of this course in Week 1, ” Each week is divided into two sections.  One is theoretical, in which your academic and pedagogical knowledge is built.  The second section is practical, where you are asked to select digital technologies and explore them”.  Already, from this one statement we can see the scaffolding of learning starting at the bottom of the framework (Lower Order Thinking Skills).

So now that we have some base knowledge we need to explore this further.  We are introduced to readings and online activities about learning styles and theories.  We also participate further in the profile wiki to select a partner.   The scaffolding of this learning lets us discover our learning styles, but makes us ponder the question how will I cater to class of 25 students of diverse learning needs? We have to choose the right ICT tool to find out these needs as well as cater to them.  I also have to consider does this tool cover elements of Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Constructivism and Connectivism?  If we have these together we can support the diverse needs of our learners.  

The profile wiki would be an excellent tool to use in understanding your students learning needs as an individual and the group as a whole.  Also, by everyone being able to view each other’s profiles it supports collaboration and trust.  Smith (2011) states in the Welcome notes in Week 1, “The wiki activities are designed to model ways to scaffold online “spaces” to draw out a range of thinking perspectives.  They are designed to support networking, since you will be working with the same cohort across the year....”.  This wiki supports both individual and group learning and moves us through understanding and applying of the lower-order thinking in the framework.

Blogging the reflections of the learning journey is another great ICT tool.  It lets an individual to share their feelings, but also allows the group to participate in this and support each other in the blogs. Trust can be built from this for everyone participating in the course.  The blog entries also act as a form of assessment for a teacher to gauge the level of learning achieved by the student.  Smith (2011) states, “The purpose of this blog is a reflective journal.  So as you experience activities, and digest and analyse your readings, this is a place to share your reflections with others.”  Blogging is a great activity to be used throughout your teaching framework as it reflects the learning journey of your student.  

The learning theories wiki was interesting because it was a base to post thoughts and collaborate on a reading about learning.  The thinking frameworks used in this wiki were PMI Scaffold and Expert Jigsaw Strategy.  Again, this would be a great collaboration tool in the classroom for groups to post their ideas from individual work as well as group work.   Smith (2011) states, “by using scaffold such as PMI, you ask your students to transform knowledge.  This means that they are unable to merely copy and paste somebody else’s ideas onto the wiki, they have to transform them.  This is the transformative power of ICT.  An important lesson in your building repertoire of skills.” This thinking strategy and ICT Tool move us from the lower thinking into the higher thinking of the framework. 

The mobile phone wiki introduced us to another thinking routine - Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats.  This strategy scaffolds learning to the highest level in the framework – intrinsic learning.  Smith (2011) explains it completely:

The first is to participate in the mobile phones wiki, using a thinking routine called de Bono's Six Thinking Hats. This is a very useful routine for both individual and group work that scaffolds a way to examine a range of perspectives on a contentious issue.

Each colour hat represents a different perspective. By gathering the ideas of a group of people within the wiki, you are presented with a huge set of perspectives that is capable of informing your decision-making and judgment in the construction of a balanced argument. When examined, this activity is about analysis and evaluation. And when you combine all of the perspectives to make a decision, you are engaging in a synthesis of information. Right at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy. (EDED20491, 2011, p. 1, Resources, Activities Week 2)

Finally, in drawing this altogether it is important for a teacher to have clear framework in place, and to know what ICT tool to use when and where in their framework and understand clearly how it relates to the learning theories.   Collaboration is a very important throughout the framework as it engages students and and creates successful learning. The thinking strategies used must continue to scaffold the learning upwards towards intrinsic learning.  If all of these elements are in place successful teaching along with meaningful, creative and engaged learning occurs.

References

Smith, G (2011, February 28).  Introduction and overview of this course.  Retrieved from

CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491, ICT ‘s for Learning Design, http://e-courses.cqu.edu.au

Smith, G (2011, February 28).  Week 1 Email.  Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491,

                ICT’s for Learning Design, http://e-courses.cqu.edu.au

Smith, G (2011, February 28).  Week 1 Email.  Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491,

                ICT’s for Learning Design, http://e-courses.cqu.ed.au

Smith, G (2011, March 10). Welcome to Week 2. Review of last Week.  Retrieved from CQUniversity

e-courses, EDED20491, ICT’s for Learning Design, http//e-courses.cqu.edu.au

Smith, G (2011, March 10). Activities Week2. Activities Index.  Retrieved from CQUniversity

e-courses,EDED20491, ICT’s for Learning Design,http//e-courses.cqu.edu.au

Weebly Web, Wiki, Blog

Weebly Web page - I like this web page and feel it would be a great tool for a teacher to use for students to visit and gain access to for course instructions or view online videos, links and the list goes on.  As the teacher would be the webmaster he/she can add their own content and be in control. Professional looking and allows for a lot more settings and functions. 


Wiki - Great basic tool to use.  I liked learning how to set it up and feel this would be a great ICT for the students to access to work on group assignments.  It would allow a teacher to set up a number of wiki's for different groups or different assignments. Limited in settings and functions. 

Blog- Now that I am confident in using my blog I would recommend for students to set one up and use it as a reflection tool just as we have in this course. It allows for more individual creativity.  Since I have used this tool quite a bit so far I would like to explore it further.  My PMI analysis shows I feel more strongly about this ICT.

Moving forward.....Simone

PMI on Blogs for Learning using Text2MindMap and Picnik

I used Text2MindMap to create this PMI for Blogs - great tool and easy to use, however when you try to upload to the Blog there was a struggle make it fit and maintain quality.  I tried resizing in Picnik, but struggled to get the right look.  This is probably more due to operator error than a problem with Picnik.

SWOT Analysis on Website for teaching

Strengths:  Content and structure can be decided, no one else can edit or add to it, you can share, network, upload, download, publish.  Content can be text, video, audio, images, etc.
Weaknesses:  Students cannot contribute to content
Opportunity:  It can be taken to the world wide web
Threats:  Everyone can access it, so extra pre-cautions would have to be taken in what you are publishing.

SWOT Analysis Learning Potential of a Wiki

Strengths:  Collaborative Learning, allows editing, modifying, information can be added or removed, knowledge sharing base, owned by students, builds trust, fun
Weaknesses:  When used as a learning tool consideration must be taken for the way the learning will occur and be scaffolded correctly.  If not set up carefully information can be edited incorrectly or lost.
Opportunities:  It can be a powerful tool to be used in learning frameworks.
Threats:  Trust is important

Learning Design Framework