The first things we looked at were podcasts and videocasts. Both these applications are very useful for use in the classroom. A podcast is a recording of someone or something that it then hosted on a site (your own podcast or someone else’s) and it available to download or listen to at any time. The beautiful thing about podcast is that you can record anything that you want or access lectures, lessons etc from anyone that you want. You can easily subscribe to certain people’s podcasts and download them through i-tunes as soon as they have been uploaded by that person. Videocasts on the other hand are exactly the same thing but in video format where podcasts are just recording (voice). Video and podcast may well in fact be the future of education. I am not saying that there is no future for the traditional classroom with the students and teacher but rather video and podcast can enhance the learning environment. The soon may come when there are video or podcast recording taking place in the classroom every day. If so this can cater for most learning styles within the classroom (The State of Queensland (Department of Education 2002). They can be used to present new information to the students in a different and interesting way. They can be used to ensure that all students are receiving all the information from learning experiences, even if they are away sick. If these ICT's become a regular part of the classroom then each teacher in the school would have their own hosting site which the students could subscribe to and there for not miss anything that takes place, take responsibility for their own learning, if they did not quite understanding something they can access that lesson/information at any other time and they can also be used for students to create their own for learning and assessment purposes (Oliver, 1999). These ICT's also help teachers cater for those students in their class with learning disabilities. For example a student who is visually impaired or in fact blind would greatly benefit from the use of podcasts with the classroom. Every lesson could be recorded and then given to that student to listen to again after the lesson so that the maximum learning can take place. These are also great for teachers to access a lecture from a professional in a field of study that might be the focus of the students’ science unit for example. The teacher could find a video or podcast on specific information and then present that in class to the students. This is a new and exciting way for the students to hear/see this information being presented from someone other than their teacher. I believe that video and podcasts are the new and exciting future to education, although some may not see the benefits of this I definitely do.
The next application that was looked at was picnik. This is a great site for editing and manipulating pictures or images. There are many editing tools that you can use on this site to edit/manipulate your images. It was really fun to play around on this site as I myself love photo manipulation and photography in general. For use within the classroom though I believe that picnik has limited uses. This site would be great for Arts lesson but apart from that I am struggling to think of interesting ways to use this site. Your students could also use it to edit/manipulate images to use on or in their assignments or projects but apart from that I do see it having any other use. This site could be used on an interactive whiteboard to show students how simple it is to manipulate images and this could be used within a SOSE unit on how the media edits/manipulates images to try and get us to buy their product or influence how we feel about a certain issue (Keirsley, 1999). Picnik is a great site to edit or manipulate picture or images but unfortunately its uses within the classroom are limited.
Feedburner was the next site/application/ICT that was used. At first I really had no idea what this could be used for but after playing around for a bit I had a better understanding. In my opinion a feedburner is just acting like a 'back up' site where you can store all your information that you have on other sites such as blogger. When you look at the site from this point of view you can see the uses for the classroom. If a teacher sets up a 'class feedburner' then everything that the class puts on their blogs, wiki's etc can be stored on the feedburner. This can be great if students are saving their assignments on their blog then this information gets backed up on the feedburner site. As my understanding of feedburn, as yet, is as limited as this I am unaware of any other way that a feedburner can be used in the classroom. I would greatly appreciate my blog followers who are more familiar with this application to leave me comments on how this can be used within the classroom and what else it can do but backup information.
The next application we looked at was Windows Movie Maker. This application I love as I have it at home and have been using it a lot lately. Although I do have this application at home the version that I have must be a later version then the one accessed at university as there were more tools to use. I believe that movie maker can be used with the classroom to enhance students learning and getting students engaged in their learning. Movie maker can be used for students in assignment situations. This is much more exciting than a powerpoint and with the creation of their own movie (which can then be hosted on various sites for the world to see) students take the initiative, get involved, and want to engage in learning (Keirsley, 1999). Movie maker can also be used by the teacher to present new information to the students in an interesting and exciting way. By seeing not only themselves but their teacher in a 'movie' will engage the students in learning as movies are what students are already so familiar with (Marzano & Pickering, 1997). Movie maker also caters for most learning styles by being able to use visual and verbal tools (Marzano & Pickering, 1997). Movie Maker can also be used as an everyday classroom activity to capture what is happening in the classroom. Not using the program everyday per say but using other ICT's such as cameras and voice records (Oliver, 1999) to capture what is happening and then this can be put into a movie for the whole class to access. Used this way students are able always have a copy of their progress and work that can be accessed at any time. This would also enable teachers to make observations of work that has already taken place. I really like movie maker and I'm sure with more thought I could think of many more way in which it can be used in the classroom. If you, my followers, have ideas that I have not mentioned please let me know.
Wordle and Tagcrowd were the next sites looked at in the tute. I am reflecting on these two sites together as I don't see how they are any different. This may be because I just need to explore them a bit more, so if anyone know how they can be used differently please let me know. With these site you can type in any words or information that you want and they then produce images of these words all scrambled and in different fonts and or sizes. The words that are bigger in the image produced are the words that appear most often in the text. I can see this site will have limited uses within the classroom but that may be due to the fact that I have little knowledge of the site. First of all I can see this being used by students to find the main point/idea in information. They can take a text that they are studying and enter it into this site and when the image is produced the words that appear most often, therefore the main points or ideas in the text, would appear in the largest font. This could make it easier for students to interpret or comprehend the information they are using. This site can also be used by students to express how they are feeling in some situations or what they are confused about in new information that is being presented. Students could create these images and then present them to their teachers. Therefore the teacher would know how they are feeling or what else needs to be re-touched on in their learning. The only other use I can see in this site (but probably not the last) is the use for spelling (idea from Dean Pickup). Dean stated that these sites are being used within his placement classroom for students to learn their spelling words. Each week they type in their spelling words, the ones they got wrong more often, and this image is then printed out and the students can see the ones they got wrong more predominantly. (Dean if I have gotten this wrong please inform me of how this is exactly used) Other then what has been stated above I cannot see anymore uses for this within the classroom.
Last but not least we looked at Voki's. These on the other hand, I believe, are a great application that can be utilised by teachers. Voki's create a new and very exciting way of presenting information to students on any subject at all. The teacher can create their own character to use in the classroom and could create a character for each subject. After the character has been created the teacher then chooses the voice of the character (or your own voice can be recorded) and then what he/she wants the character to say. I can just see this application being used in every facet of teaching and learning. It can be used to present new information, to co-teach with the classroom teachers, and even for students to use to present information that they have discovered or to present their assignments (Keirsley, 1999). Students can also create their own character which gives them the opportunity to express themselves through that character (Oliver, 1999). This is also great for those students who may have a speech impairment. They can create their character, chose a voice and get the character to say what every they want it to say, therefore expressing themselves, showing their understanding, and being able to ask questions. I believe that I am just scraping the surface of how voki's can be used in the classroom to enhance the teaching and learning taking place. I would love to hear everyone else’s ideas of how this application can be used.
The above applications are a great way of getting the students to work collaboratively (constructivism) McInerney & McInerney, 2002. They are also a great way to integrate the Dimensions of Learning into the classroom (Marzano & Pickering, 1997). ICT's can easily enhancing learning and teachings as the students are already familiar with ICT’s and this is what they are interested in so why not use them in the classroom. The Dimensions of Learning (Marzano & Pickering, 1997) are a fantastic framework for planning and implementing learning in the classroom. ICT's are a great way for create positive 'attitudes and perceptions' (Marzano & Pickering, 1997, p.13) in your classroom to enable students to 'acquire and integrate knowledge' (Marzano & Pickering, 1997, p. 43) and to 'extend and refine their knowledge' (Marzano & Pickering, 1997, p. 113). By using ICT's it creates an interesting classroom that students want to be engaged in.
My Curious Dangerous Mind
References:
- Blooms (2007)
- Oliver, R. (1999). Exploring strategies for online teaching and learning. Distance Education 20(2), p.240-254
- Ten Principles to Active Learning (http://www.idecorp.com/teacher/documents/dowling_002.pdf)
- Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved August 4, 2009. from: http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm
- McInerney, D., & McInerney, V. (2002). Educational psychology: Constructing learning. Frenchs Forest, NSW, Australia: Pearson Education.
- Marzano, R. J, & Pickering, D. J. (1997). Dimensions of Learning: Teachers Manual. Aurora, Colorado, United States of America: Mid-continent Educational Laboratory.
- The State of Queensland (Department of Education). (2002). Productive Pedagogies: Classroom reflection manual. Retrieved July 8, 2009, from: http://education.qld.gov.au/public_media/reports curriculum-framework/productive-pedagogies/
No comments:
Post a Comment