The world we live in

We should obtain a constructivist approach when it comes to technology. The learning environments should support multiple perspectives or interpretations of reality, knowledge construction, context-rich, experience-based activities. “Children (and grown-ups) learn best when they actively engage in playful exploration in which, try ideas out and tinker with notions — their own and those of others.”
I want to be a teacher that is confident in all that I do and will be willing to learn and try new ideas. We are heading towards an ongoing battle what the students’ will need to know. What one day may be deemed important and then two years later it may be out of date.

We must have an open mind and enjoy teaching! I have learnt a lot this year and I will definitely be using it through all my years.

This clip highlights the importance of technology and why we need it. My favourite fact from the movie stated that “The top 10 most in-demand jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004?” This just shows how important it is to prepare students’ for these non-existant jobs! Please watch this and let me know what you think.

I was playing around and I came across ‘Toondoo’. Toondoo is a cartoon strip creator that you can create your own, or view other people’s creation. This is a great website for students as they can go WILD with creativity!

I thought I would create own to show you what they could look like. The cartoon shows the advancement of technology where we are at a time where children are teaching adults.

www.toondoo.com

My Digital Story

My digital story highlights what kind of teacher I would like to be and the experiences i've already encountered.

WebQuests provide an authentic, technology-rich environment for problem-solving, information processing, and collaboration! In a world where students are increasingly cynical and unmotivated, WebQuests provide an engaging, challenging learning environment.

According to Annette Lamb and Berhane Teclehaimanot, WebQuests inspire students to “see richer thematic relationships, to contribute to the real world of learning, and to reflect on their own metacognitive processes.”

I have recently realised the benefits of using a WebQuest. I wasn’t very confident in using computers, so this project was proved to be challenging and exciting. Rebecca and I chose to look at Howard Gardner’s’ Multiple Intelligence theory as we both agreed it was vital for all teachers to be aware of.

It was also great to read other WebQuests and see the creativity of their tasks. One WebQuest I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend reading is Bridie’s and Victoria’s. Their WebQuest, ‘Discover with Me’, looked at an internet based collaboration program between Ireland and Australia.

Click to view WebQuest

Created on ‘Inspiration’

Lamb, Annette & Teclehaimanot, Berhane (2005). A Decade of WebQuests: A Retrospective. In M. Orey, J. McClendon, & R. M. Branch, (Eds.). Educational media and technology yearbook (Vol 30). Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.

Microsoft Paint became a useful tool to fostered students’ creativity in ‘Creative Art’. My cooperating teacher believed that students’ should explore various mediums and materials in art education, and using the computer was one of them. With this experience, children were using Paint to create their own pictures and explore the software in their own time. I found that this digital drawing tool provided an appropriate canvas for children to express themselves and their ideas.

Their interactions with the different drawing tools and their reaction to their finished product indicated they enjoyed the experience. The teacher also recommended a website, ‘Art Education Page for K12′, that teachers use to aid the integration of technology with art education. I found this very useful for both prac and the university subject, Creative Art Education.

 This artwork was created on Microsoft paint.

I was recently reading Victorias blog when her current post caught my eye. Teaching with an online medium was the topic and I was immediately intrigued. The article, ‘Lessons learned teaching online’ by George Siemens, was a summary of lessons that provided a greater insight to my recent postings.

I found that teaching online is very much like, and very much unlike, classroom teaching. The tips he provided summarised the lessons he’s learnt and shows that the critical aspects of learning brain-compatible classroom, learning styles, multiple intelligence, and emotional intelligence don’t vary from online or classroom.

Like Victoria, I too liked the tip about online lessons and that shouldn’t create the feeling of isolation from the teacher or peers, but should be used in a way that it facilitates ‘connectedness’. I felt that this was very important since many students’ usually use the computer individually.

I also liked the ‘Centering Point’ tip. He believes that a classroom is the centering point for traditional students since this is where they go to ask questions, find out where they are in relation to the course objectives, get feedback on work, or generally get clarification on virtually any subject. He then refers to the use of online mediums where he believes that a similar centering point needs to be created. A blog is a perfect example where students’ and teachers can communicate to each other.

The highest objective of education is to improve the quality of life for students and to create a better society. The goal in teaching online is to retain the best of classrooms and improve the worst. As educators this is why we should be aware of and learn from online mediums, as well as encouraging our students to do the same.

“It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. If so, concept mapping can greatly enrich teacher and student efforts to communicate in our predominantly text-based world”. In total agreement with the article, ‘COMPUTER-BASED CONCEPT MAPPING’ by Anderson-Inman, Lynne, Horney, Mark, I believe that every child should understand and create a concept map in an ‘electronic environment’.

I was introduced to ‘Inspiration’, a concept mapping tool, earlier this year. I found the software useful in facilitating visual thinking. Why do it on a piece of paper when I found that using the computer can be more accessible and less frustrating. In the same way that word processing has revolutionised writing, and writing instruction, computer-based concept mapping is revolutionised this important form of visual expression and literacy enhancement.

On prac I found that a lot of students were using this software. The teacher used it as a strategy monitor change in students’ understanding and if they were able to grasp the information.

One limitation the teacher spoke to me about was the difficulty in giving feedback to students. As I observed their maps, I too found it difficult to read unless the student or ‘creator’ could go through it with you. The authors of the article agree with the limitation I found. They say a major problem is “how to evaluate students’ learning or how to give feedback to students on the accuracy of their maps’ concepts and conceptual relationships”.  However, I realised the same problem would occur if students used paper and pencil.

In short, concept mapping in an electronic environment has become a manageable way to integrate the power of the concept mapping process into the curriculum. “As a tool for visualising and communicating, concept mapping helps teachers and students to make the structure of their knowledge more explicit. This process of knowledge construction and knowledge representation is greatly facilitated when additions, deletions and modifications can be made easily and quickly”.

This table demonstrates the roles of the cognitive tools. I found this useful when planning lessons on prac as it helped me decide on the best program to support the lesson content and studnet knoweldge. It was taken from ‘Cognitve Tools’ by Brent Robertson, Laura Elliot and Donna Washington.