Julie Park’s Blog

‘A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops’. -Henry Adams

As we go into the world of teaching, I hope that we can use the technologies that we have come to learn and love. 

After all you never know who is going to be in your classroom, the next Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, Prime Minister, school teacher, software designer or programer.  Therefore we must cater for all our students, engaging them wherever possible making our classrooms as student centred as possible.

I was reading Izza’s blog about Computers as Mindtools, I found it very interesting what she wrote so I decided to read the article also, Computers as Mindtools for engaged learners in critical thinking. 

I found the idea very thought provoking, this being that thought of students being reflective critical thinkers.  Therefore rather than using this the power of computer technologies to disparate information, they should be used in all subject areas as TOOLS for engaging learners in reflective, critical thinking about the ideas they are studying.  As Izza also said, we need to aim to make the classroom a place where the students are engaged and this is through a constructionist view instead of an instructionist view.  The students are able to  be actively involved in their learning.

This is Australia’s award winning education magazine,published by ACER, Teacher: The National Education Magazine.  This particular edition, August 2008, has some very thought provoking articles on ICT.  In fact the most amazing aspect of this particular addition is that the first 25 pages are all associated with technology. 

The titles of the articles include:

- Innovation and Information: ICT in the Asia Pacific;

- Google: Friend of foe?;

- Interactive whiteboards, Hurdles to uptake;

- e-learning: Light up your classroom;

- Information technology, gender imbalance and what to do about it;

- 20BC teachers; 21C students. 

So why have I bothered to list all of these headings, well in the hope that you find one of interest and seek out this magazine.  As you can see by the large array of articles contained in just one magazine that there is such a huge focus on ICT within the classroom and beyond such as homework, assignments and technology used for social purposes.  That we as the educators of the future generation need to equip ourselves that we can empower student learning. 

Reference: Holden S, 2008, ‘Teacher; The national education magazine’, Issue no. 193 – August, ACER: Australia.

Understanding how to set up and publish a wiki, blog, discussion board is only the mechanics.  All these need to be the appropriate tool and they need to operate appropriately.  Using these collaborative Web 2.0 tools effectively comes from knowing for the benefits of each tool.  Their function and what their outcome is, must be decided before you distinguish between which information too you are going to use with your students. 

Discussion boards are used for conversation, a way of building ideas by sharing, assembling and reacting to concepts.  If the purpose of the activity is to construct new knowledge by reflecting and reacting then a discussion board could be the answer.

Blogging is about communication and publishing.  It is about delivering a message, in order to affect that audience in some way and receive response from that audience. 

Wikis should be used when there is a formal message with a purpose that needs to be conveyed to a group. 

‘It’s not about technology.  It’s not about grammar.  It’s about information, and using information to accomplish our goals.’

Warlick, D, 2007, ‘Classroom blogging; A teacher’s guide to blogs, wikis, & other tools that are shaping a new information landscape’, 2^nd edn, The Landmark Project; North Carolina, USA. 

ImageSource:www.shanballyns.ie/2007%202008%20images/Interactive%20Whiteboards2.jpg

Up until the start of this year all I knew about was whiteboards.  I stepped into a school and there were these Interactive Whiteboards (IWB), completely foreign to me.  Now I cant get enough of them!!! I just think that they are the best thing invented for a classroom.

In my area of PDHPE there are so many uses for Interactive Whiteboards.  Such as, when study anatomy a body can be in the centre and then the muscles, bones, organs can be places around the body.  Students are required to come to the board and drag them into the correct place.  Another example would be during driver education.  Dragging the correct response to the correct location, such as how many standard drinks can a certain age group/license class have  Or judging the gap at an intersection, whether it is safe to drive through or not.  Or during a nutrition unit, students could be required to select a variety of foods and place them in the Healthy Food pyramid.  

I had a look on wikipedia for more information about IWB, here is the link, Interactive Whiteboard.  Of particular interest was the “Impacts of interactive whiteboards on pedagogy”.  The research review by the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency reported the following benefits for students:

The list is endless for the possibilities of the use of IWB and only limited by the imagination.   

Having read Matthew Kearney’s blog, Use of Video Medium, I was truly amazed at the number of ways a teacher can use video as a teaching strategy.  
Particularly in my KLA, PDHPE, video is widely used.  I remember when I was in year 8 (about 11 years ago) we were required to make a video. It was a role play for First Aid.  Looking back now I would love to view that video again, as I remember how much fun we had filming it.  It would have also been more beneficial to view our classmates later, and not just once in class time.  

Asking students or making it an option of presentation, allows the students to be creative, to think outside the box and show talents that may not otherwise be identified.  

By using video as part of teaching, students are able to connect to the relevant videos that are being used and are able to have a meaningful learning experience.  

I believe that the use of video throughout teaching has a number of benefits that are positive for the students.  Allowing them to have variety, choice, freedom and a creative license.  

This TeacherTube clip is indicating how blogging can be used in PDHPE (my KLA). Although the video isn’t of highest quality, it does have a good reason why this teacher uses blogs for his class. This is so that the students don’t just throw away their notes after the unit is complete but instead they have a resource that they can later refer to.

While I am trying to work out why this embedding hasn’t worked it can also be viewed at this
TeacherTube Link

I viewed the YouTube segment on Annie’s blog page. The future is getting closer.  

This absolutely blew my mind as to the future of technology.  Every new aspect of the product they demonstrated, I just couldn’t get over what they were doing with it.  However a little pricey ($5000-$10000).  Maybe in a couple of years these products will be old news and the price will drop considerably, then I might consider purchasing one to play around with my photos “on the coffee table”!

View below for the YouTube clip.

Image Source: http://thinkbeta.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/born.jpg

(Not the best English in the picture but maybe this is a sign of the digital generation and their reliance on spell check!)

The article on Educause by Oblinger and Oblinger Is It Age or IT: First Steps Toward Understanding the Net Generation, gives a good insight into the “Net Generation”.  

This article is really worth a read, it goes into a lot of detail about the types of characteristics that the Net generation posses.  Be it how they learn, interact or operate.  

An amazing percentage of teenagers keep in touch using instant messenger…..70%.  ’Perhaps because home computers and the Internet have become almost as prevalent as the telephone, instant messaging is a common communication and socialising mechanism.  81% stay in touch with friends and relatives via email.  I was really amazed that this number was so high.  

This article also goes into a few of the implications of this generation.  An astounding figure from Prensky estimates that by the time individuals reach age 21, they will have spent twice as much hours playing video games as reading.  They are comfortable in an image rich rather than a text only environment.  
I know from my experience I would much rather go on the Internet than read a book.  However this is quiet uncommon amongst my friends.  But those who are younger than us have started reading books on the Internet.  As the search for the latest version of a book that has yet to be released in Australia etc.  
As teachers we need to be aware that this generation are orientated towards inductive discovery or making observations, formulating hypotheses, and figuring out the rules.  They crave interactivity.  

The Net Gen often prefer to learn and work in teams.  Therefore this should be a consideration when planning a lesson.  This is due to their social nature that aligns them with their preference to work in teams or interact peer to peer.  

These are just a number of examples of how teachers need to adapt their lessons to the dynamic world that we live in, with an increased emphasis of ICT due to the Net generation.  
 

Gen Y Drives Workplace Change Podcast

Well here is my first EVER podcast!  I made it with Garageband.  I found it quite user friendly with the aid of the online tutorial from Apple.  

However I had added in pictures also and a cover picture so that it was more aesthetically pleasing but in the AAC format it was unable to save and then be imported into my blog
Any clues on this would be greatly appreciated.

Hope you appreciate the effort and my excitement for my future podcasting!!