Week 5 Reflection - Glogster

This week, I am reflecting on a glogster or glog for short. The most basic way to describe glogster is an interactive online scrapbook. It is also known as an online poster.

Why should classrooms move away from regular scrapbooks and posters, and move towards glogster?

Glogster is an interactive modern tool that can grasp the interest of a child and engage a whole classroom. On a glogster page you can write descriptive blogs, change the colour background or add a picture like setting. You can upload images, videos and music and embed links into your poster. Glogster is giving teachers and students another dimension to explore by adding videos and music to a poster or scrapbook. Regular scrapbooks and posters only contributed to a visual learning style, but glogster is providing a visual and aural learning style, this will give students a better chance of understanding and engaging with the topic.   

Below I have uploaded a basic glogster page of my own, to give you an understanding of the capabilities of glogster.

In a PMI Chart I will discuss the implications of glogster.

Plus	Minus	Interesting
·         Creating Visual and Aural Learning ·         Classroom engagement ·         Students working with a modern tool ·         Could use glogster as an assessment item. ·         Students improving problem solving skills through modern technology ·         Teachers can setup a                glogster education                page to protect                         students on the Internet.	·         Needs Internet access ·         Teachers need to understand glogster to implement it to the class.	·         Anyone can use glogster. ·         You can embed glogster onto blogs and wikis.

   

Glogster is a great web 2.0 tool for classrooms. It is a fun exercise, and is giving students and teachers another way to express creativity and increasing the knowledge data base.

 How could teachers use glogster in the classroom?

Teachers could use glogster as an assessment task. The task could be that the students have to create their own glog page and present their pages in an oral setting. I think presenting a glog in an oral is a positive move, because then the whole class can engage and interact with the music and videos and this will improve student’s communication skills and provide knowledge content in a fun atmosphere. Teachers themselves could create a glog and present it to the class to help explain a topic in the classroom. I have uploaded a YouTube clip below to help explain positives of glogs in the classroom.

As I am studying to be a manual arts teacher, the glog below clearly shows what I could present to my class. I have made a ‘Safety in the Workshop’ glog that I could display before the class even started. This glog would remind students of the safety requirements in the workshop and working with machinery. Another way I could use a glog in my class, is to get every student to create a glog page once a week and at the end of term, every student would have created an online scrapbook to hand in for assessment.

Glogster is an interactive web 2.0 tool ready to transform classrooms.   

               

Week 4 Reflection "Podcasts and Digital Audio"

This week I am reflecting on podcasting and digital audio. Podcasting is simply a sound file that is uploaded online. Podcasts are created by a group of people or an individual and the content is displayed by video or audio, in a live or downloaded setting. I have uploaded below, a YouTube clip, to show how podcasting could be integrated into a classroom environment. Also below is a tool called the ‘Voki’.  A voki is also a digital audio tool that could deliver knowledge and content to a class, in an enjoyable environment. You can pick the character of the voki and control what the voki says, which would be fantastic for any classroom for education.

Below is a PMI Chart of the implications of podcasting and digital audio in the classroom.

Plus	Minus	Interesting
·      Classroom engagement. ·      Students learning  with modern technology. ·      Improving communication skills. ·      Creating Aural and Visual Learning ·      Group interaction ·      Gaining new ideas for learning through other podcasts. ·      Could use podcasts as an assessment item.	·      No internet access ·      Anyone on the web can access it. ·      Students using inappropriate language on podcasts	·      You can listen to a podcast anywhere. ·      Anyone can make a podcast for the world to listen too.

I believe podcasting and digital audio would be an asset to learning. This tool is giving students and teachers the chance to create original knowledge. Students for example, could research a topic and create a podcast about the topic, which would be viewed by anyone on the web. Students or teachers could also listen to another podcast to gain knowledge and skills. As I have been researching podcasts and digital audio this week, I have understood that these digital tools would be fantastic for Visual and Aural learning.  

I am studying to become a manual arts teacher. I could use podcasts in my classroom, as an assessment task or have the students listen to the podcasts to grasp the concept of what I am trying to teach them. For example; if I was teaching students about metal arc welding, we could listen to a step-by-step podcast to grasp the concept of welding, before the students undertake a new skill in the workshop. I could also present podcasting as an assessment; in the form that the students would podcast a step by step casting of the job they have just produced for the term.  

As you can see, podcasting is a tool for modern schooling.

Digital Tool 1 'A Blog'

E Learning Blog Reflection Week 3

I have chosen a ‘Blog’ as my digital tool for this week’s reflection. A blog in my view is very similar to a Facebook page. In a blog the user can edit their work, add images, videos and links, etc. Blog’s are a similar digital tool to Facebook, as users have their own profile  page, you have to subscribe to the pages and the subscribers can only comment on the users work.  

I am doing this degree to become an Industrial Design and Technology Teacher. I asked myself the question, how could blogs be incorporated and relate to my classes?

I believe blogs could be an asset to a manual arts classroom. As a teacher I would have the ability to upload YouTube clips, images of a job, procedures of how to complete a job and the tools needed to successfully carry out jobs. Blogs allows students to interact and gain an understanding of what I am talking about. This would improve the student’s communication barrier and knowledge content about the tasks set. Students could also create their own blogs as an assessment task and blog the procedure of a job from start to finish. For example a wood lathe; by using this concept of a ‘Blog’, students with no hands on experience could clearly see how a wood lathe worked, all the components of a wood lathe and the finished job after it has been produced.. 

I have included a link below, to a similar blog, which could be utilised in the classroom to explain the concept of a wood lathe to students.  

http://mini-wood-lathe.blogspot.com.au/

PMI CHART

The PMI Chart as set out below allows us to evaluate a blog.

Positives ·         Students and staff can interact with blogs 24/7 ·         The user is the only person that can edit a blog ·         Improve communication skills between students and teachers on jobs ·         Students and staff can add comments to the content for further knowledge

Negatives ·         Needs internet access ·         Blogs can be viewed by the world ·         Students outside of school may not have internet access to access a blog

Implications ·         Students improve technology skills ·         Further knowledge of a topic via a blog

 

As evident from the above table, a blog would be an asset in any classroom, if it’s used in the right way and context. It’s a great learning and demonstration tool and another strategy to keep the students involved and active in the concept of learning. 

Mobile Phone Wiki

E Learning Blog Reflection Week 2

Group 3 of the mobile phone wiki, discussed ’Should mobile phones be used in the classroom?’ Amongst the six de Bono’s thinking hats there was group discussion. After reading my group's forum it is clear that the two learning theories, connectivism and constructivism have been utilised.  A relationship was demonstrated between mobile phones, their applications and internet usage and whether it has a positive or negative effect on the classroom dynamics. By making a contribution in this wiki, the concept of ‘connectivism’ is in play. Connectivism is described as the process of learning through the internet and computers (A Brief Overview of Learning Theory, 2013). By contributing and researching information to the wiki we have actively utilised the concept of ‘connectivism’. The second learning theory touched upon was ‘constructivism’.  By actively contributing to the content of the wiki, the group have utilised the learning theory of social constructivism. Social constructivism is gaining knowledge in a social atmosphere, with social interactions and experiences (A Brief Overview of Learning Theory, 2013). This has been executed by discussing a topic over a wiki where the group can interact and express our own opinions. Through exploration into the theory behind these two learning concepts it is clear that they both could potentially play a big part in the future of education.

This wiki has allowed me to learn and develop my knowledge regarding the six thinking hats. It was also great to listen and view what my peers opinions were on this subject. I believe technology, in particular the use of mobile phones in the classroom, has a big role to play in the future of education. Due to the creation of the Smart Phone and its many advanced technical capabilities, teachers have the ability to add another dynamic to the classroom.   

Participating in a wiki that focused on the six thinking hat scaffold allowed the group to debate the topic raised and explore the solutions. Debating topics in groups, leads to student interaction and involvement, which generates new ideas and communication skills that can benefit the students involved. The scaffold (the six thinking hats) used in this wiki was comprehensive, easy to read and understand. The negative aspects that I noticed about the design of this wiki was that if we all expressed similar views in certain thinking hats discussion would be limited. In some cases, there was repetition of opinions. This could consequence in some students not participating in the activity.   

This resource is a great learning tool and would positively contribute and benefit students and teachers in the classroom. This resource would improve the student’s communication and social skills, problem solving and group dynamics. Utilising modern technology engages students as utilising listening as well as consolidating learning by a physical skill, which is using the computer. The six thinking hats wiki was effective as a learning tool, easy to use and allowed knowledge and skill acquisition.

Participation in this wiki was challenging but exciting.

James Sherry           

 

Reference

A Brief Overview of Learning Theory. (2013). Central Queensland University. Retrieved from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=88322