Synopsis

Hargreaves (2011) states that teachers will often ‘tinker’ with ideas and programs in order to creatively find and then test the solution that will work the best for themselves and their pupils. The progression of information communication technology (ICT) is the way of the future and will often provide the solution for a teachers ‘tinkering’. However to incorporate ICT successfully into learning teachers must know their content (Hargreaves, 2001).

Today’s students are the first generation to grow up entirely surrounded by technology such as computers, mobile phones, video games, digital music, and all the other tools and toys of the digital age. Today’s students think and process information differently to previous generations so as teachers we much meet the needs of these students (Prensky, 2011).

Prensky (2011) states that today’s students can be known as digital natives because they have grown up with this digital information age. Previous generations who have now engaged with some or all of the digital technology could be known as digital immigrants because these generations have come into the knowledge but were not raised with it. Digital immigrants are trying to teach digital natives and the languages are at times entirely different.

In order to bridge this gap in languages teachers must recognise that today’s learners are different and that digital technology is the answer to bridging the gap (Prensky, 2011). Today’s teachers incorporating digital technology into lessons and learning in an informative enjoyable way that enhances and supports learning appears to be the most positive way to reach the digital natives of today’s society. There are many different digital technologies available to teachers, some are outlined below.

Tool Group 1 – Web spaces

This tool group is all about online spaces.

Wiki’s support student’s of all abilities and interests as they can be tailor made by the students themselves. Students can use wiki’s to create their own study guides to learn and revise content, vocabulary lists (with meanings students have researched themselves), display results of scientific investigations and new knowledge learnt to inform others, diary of excursions and incursions and new knowledge and experiences gained as well as many other areas. Because students design and create these spaces themselves they experience the ownership and pride in knowing that others are learning from their experiences and learning. By sharing their learning and discoveries with others students are enhancing their learning experiences. Creating online diaries, essays, displays and many other texts students are transforming their learning from simple book work to the world at large and providing a media through which they can share their learning with the friends and family simply by providing the URL to access their wiki.

Tool Group 2 - Technologies

This group of tools is all about online multimedia video and audio tools.
The range of uses for images is endless, inhibited only by the learning manager’s imagination. Images engage, enhance, teach, communicate and embellish many aspects of our lives. They can be used to tell a story or to enhance the written text of a story, be it fiction or fact. Images are often used as a tool to engage students, for example an image of a war veteran can evoke a deep discussion about the different aspects of war, and one image can lead to discussions about politics, medical, rations, fighting, suffering, bravery and more.

Images often need to be cropped or resized to be used effectively. This is an entire learning area for students within the ICT realm as they learn what it means to resize an image, how to do it and why it needs to be done. Learning managers can ask students to bring images from home to resize and display as a means of engaging students. Students would need parental permission to bring the images and to make a copy to ensure the original remains untouched. There are also ethical and privacy issues involved in using images from home, this is not to say it should not be done, but the learning manager needs to be familiar with these issues and ensure the images are displayed in a way that is acceptable to all involved.

Tool Group 3 – Presentation tools

This group of tools are all presentation tools.

Each of the presentation tools in this group has many positive characteristics. Each one can bring a different perspective to presenting within the classroom. The tools include power point, prezi, glogster, animations and simulations, google earth and maps, timelines, concept mapping, zooburst, and museum box. Each has visual characteristics and many have audio capabilities. When selecting the appropriate presentation within the classroom it is important for the learning manager to look at the context of the presentation, who is the audiences, what is the content to be presented? Once these questions are answered a suitable tool can be selected.

If a lower aged class then power point is likely to be the most acceptable tool as it is a basic program yet offers the chance for higher learners to extend themselves by adding various transitions, editing options and embedding links or audio. Interactive power points can be used to enhance learning, programs such as mouse chief can be downloaded allowing up to 25 students to have their own mouse and interact with the presentation from their desks.

Higher grades would benefit from engaging with tools such as prezi and glogster. Prezi offers students the opportunity to group their ideas and link smaller ideas to larger concepts. These concepts can then be presented in a professional presentation that allows the viewer to zoom into various ideas. Prezi is an easy to use program that offers step by step tutorials for students to follow. This tool would enhance the learning of those students who need extending as well as support those lower learners by giving them access to technology to showcase their individual learning.

Glogster offers the means to present a scrap book style presentation with images and text. It is not as extensive in its capabilities as prezi. If the purpose of the presentation is to create a poster style product glogster is the best option. However if the student is required to present knowledge and information gained through the study of a topic then prezi would accommodate this requirement in the best way.

Using these tools will transform learning for all students of all abilities by opening up an entirely new medium to display their learning. Students could present their final assessments in anyone of these programs to add a professional look to their assignments.

Tool Group 4 – Technologies

Google Earth and google maps

Students engage quickly in google earth as they can see things from their classroom that they normally would not experience. I would recommend that the learning manager allow students some time when first engaging with these tools to explore their own neighbourhood as this is a temptation to difficult to resist for many of us. While students are exploring their neighbourhood they will be learning how to navigate this tool, the many features available and setting themselves up for higher learning experiences. Students can also overlay map coordinates over their neighbourhood and explore the different skills used in mapping in a familiar area before moving into wider areas and other countries.

Google maps can be used to locate areas, work out the best way to get there, how long it would take, if provisions are necessary and many other valuable learning experiences.

Google documents is a useful site for educators, students and business persons. It allows the user to create and edit public documents. Students can collaboratively work on a document, the learning manager is able to view the contributions and which students is making them. This site could be used for numerous assignments and collaborative projects. Students can also refine their editing skills by editing their peers contributions.

In conclusion the list of technology applications that are available and suitable to integrate into the classroom to enhance, support and transform learning is endless and limited only by the learning manager’s imagination. Florida (2002) states that the function of this creative class is to “create meaningful new forms” in their work, this class fully engage in the creative process and often use ICT to do so. When using this ICT the learning manager must be completely aware of and comply with safe and ethical practices for themselves and their students, ensuring their safety and privacy of all parties is protected. It could be said that learning managers of today are obligated to devote a part of their time and learning to engaging with and becoming familiar with these technologies and the various guidelines associated with them in order to most effectively teach the students of the new creative class that is arising today.

REFERENCES

Florida, R. (2002). The creative class. And how its transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life. NEW YORK: Basic books.

Hargreaves, D. (2001). Creative Professionalism. The role of teachers in the knowledge society. LONDON: The Mezzanine Elizabeth House.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon. 9(5), 1-6.

Week 5

Power Point
A presentation tool that can be used to support a verbal presentation given by an individual or group. It can also be used as a back drop for a drama or presentation and contain images, text, links or videos. Power point can also be used as a presentation on its own with the facility to record voices or videos onto the presentation.

Prezi
A prezi can be described as a zooming presentation tool. It allows for ideas to be linked together and for smaller concepts to be embedded inside the larger concepts. The viewer can zoom in or out as they follow the presentation and link the ideas in their own mind. The prezi also allows the viewer to back track in order to fully grasp a concept. This tool would be effective for students to use to present the knowledge they have gained after studying a particular topic. Students could start with their introduction then link to all the information and ideas and finally bring the presentation to a close with a conclusion that links to the main ideas presented.

Glogster:
Described as an online scrapbooking tool this is a great way for students to scrapbook their work. Images, text and links can all be embedded into the glog. The finished product can also be downloaded. Glogster is a progam that could be very useful for visual arts to be incorporated into ICT as students create a presentation that is visually appealing using ICT. Glogster could display personal events as well as classroom or community events. It could also be used to create advertising fliers for community or school events.

Google earth and google maps:
These two online tools are a lot of fun to explore and use. I have used these tools many times to view places I have lived or would like to go and also to find directions when I would like to go somewhere. I travelled with my family to Perth, WA in 2008 and we used google maps several times throughout the journey to track and plan our progress. We were able to decided the shortest route for our journey and to discover land marks and tourist places along the way that we might like to stop at.

My own children have spent a lot of time looking at google maps, discovering their own home, school and friends homes on the computer is very exciting for children. The learning that follows is fun and interesting and students because students are highly engaged.

ICT Tool Group 4

Google earth and maps

These two online tools are explored by many students in their own free time as they explore their own neighbourhood, find their homes and popular places they frequent. This tool could be incorporated with geography lessons as students learn directions, map coordinates and various features of maps. It could also enhance a history lesson as students compare areas today with the way they looked in the past. Students could also use these tools to plot an imagined or real trip, deciding the best route, what to take, where to stop along the way.

The amount of online tools is very extensive, one could spend hours and hours exploring them all. A learning manager could find a tool to support and enhance learning in every subject area on almost every topic covered. The possibilities are only limited by the imagination.

Google Documents

This is an online tool available for use by anyone on the internet. It is a part of the google site and allows the user to load, edit, store and share documents with other users. Students have access to their documents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, this eliminates the need for portable storage devices and the risk of losing these devices. The learning manager can also access these documents for marking at any time. Students can access their documents on any computer anywhere as long as they have internet access. Multiple students can access and edit the same document simultaenously allowing for collaborative work with learners nearby or far away. It eliminates the need for students to be waiting on their team members to contribute their section to a group assessment and then forward it on. Team members can organise a time to be online together and work on the same document together meaning that time is not wasted by any member waiting on others.
The settings and features on google docs allows the user to choose who views and edits their document. Other features allow the learning manager to see exactly who is contributing to the document a very helpful feature to determine who is not working collaboratively or may be struggling. Student's editing skills are also improved as their edit their own and their peers work collaboratively.

Interactive learning objects

There are many of these objects, I only had time to look at a few, they look fun and engaging for learners. However the learning manager would need to ensure that these objects are used to enhance and support scaffolded learning, and not simply as a time filler for learners. These objects could also be used as part of a reward system for learners who have completed their work, or showed exceptional behaviour. The learner would be 'playing' and enjoying this time, but also learning.

ICT Tool Group 3

Digital Tools - Presentation

Powerpoint
This is a simple, effective and popular presentation tool, students from year 1 can engage with this program and achieve positive results. The program provides means to display images and texts and the scope to add various transitions, sound, links and many other tools to the presentation. Power points can also be created relatively quickly should the need arise.

Prezi
The world of prezi is endless, this program steps up from power point and creates a highly professional presentation that links all concepts and ideas together. The program provides many features for students to engage in. Presentations allow for zooming in to see single concepts then zooming out to see the bigger picture and where each concept fits in. They can be used to create information presentation, narrations, sales pitches and many other texts.

Glogster
Glogster is another great presentation tool. It is more like a scrapbooking tool than power point or prezi. This could be used for students to present one idea or event. It allows for images and text to be used in a bright and fun way. I enjoyed engaging with this tool, unfotunately I did not save my glog, and one wrong click of the button meant that it has disappeared for ever, a sad moment, but a valuable lesson learned about saving work that can be passed on to students.

 Digital Tools - Google earth and google maps

Students engage quickly in google earth as they can see things from their classroom that they normally would not experience. I would recommend that the learning manager allow students some time when first engaging with these tools to explore their own neighbourhood as this is a temptation to difficult to resist for many of us. While students are exploring their neighbourhood they will be learning how to navigate this tool, the many features available and setting themselves up for higher learning experiences.

Google maps can be used to locate areas, work out the best way to get there, how long it would take, if provisions are necessary and many other valuable learning experiences.

Week 4

I am one of the many FaceBook addicts, and love interacting with others on this social site, I am also conscious of the dangers of sites such as these and seek to keep my privacy as much as possible from those who I don't consider 'safe'.

This week we are asked to engage with images, creating resources, uploading artefacts and discovering sources online. My mind is almost overwhelmed with this task. I love learning and engaging with technology, but feel out of my depth wtih many elements of this area and am struggling this week, but a positive mind shall prevail and I shall endeavour to engage with and learn in this area.

Resizing images
I am having a lot of trouble engaging in this activity, I have always just uploaded photos and cropped images till they 'fit' in the space. I realise that this is an area where I need some learning, but actually engaging in the learning is almost painful. Its not that I am not interested in images because I certainly am, I think I need a friend who is competent in this skill to walk me through it, so I am off to search for such a friend.

Podcasts
I have had a small introduction to podcasts during study via distance education at a previous university. This experience was limited to downloading podcasts from the university website and saving them onto my iPod in order to listen to lectures. I found this to be very helpful as I could listen to the lectures more than once and rewind or pause them as needed. I could also listen at times convenient to me, such as when walking or driving. The university's sole purpose for these podcasts were to convey important information to me as a student. The purpose of these podcasts for me was to gain information in order to learn and pass my courses and assessment.

Digital Videos

YouTube is a site I am slowly warming up to, and find that when the right subject comes up I can spend hours searching and viewing clips from this site. I often find my children on this site and this is not always pleasing as there are so many questionable clips available for viewing, I have come to the conclusion that my children do not enter the YouTube sight without adult supervision to guide their searches and viewing. I also realise that YouTube contains many educational clips that can be used in the classroom to enhance learning for students and have used this site several times in the past to introduce and enhance lessons with classes.

Movie maker is a great program for students to use to edit the vidoes they have created. It is engaging as students are using their own work and producing it to a higher standard. Higher order thinking is involved in this activity as students seek to problem solve and enhance their work.

ICT Tool Group 1

Digital technologies:
This group of tools are online spaces that are content free, meaning that the user can add their own information, links, images and vidoes. These spaces are suitable for students when there is are clear learning outcomes established so that the space has an intent and purpose to aim for. Learning is generated through online digital technologies that cannot occur in any other way, such as the use of onine interaction. These tools are about the students using  and learning through the tools, not just about the teacher presenting information in a new way to students.

The tools in group 1 include blogging, wikis and webpages.

Wikis also provide a great tool for parents to see what their children are learning at school and for teachers, parents and students to connect in a non-threatening equal environment.

Web log (blog):
This is an online space maintained by an individual, others can comment on posts but cannot edit or change posts. Blogs often contain regular entries that include but are not limited to commentary, descriptions, events, graphies, videos. These entries are displayed in reverse order meaning that the most recent posts are at the top of the page, this is done for ease of access for the reader, who can open the blog at any time and read the most recent posts first. Blogs are often primarily textual in nature but do allow videos, images and links to be added to the posts.

Within the school context a blog can be used to exchange ideas, share discoveries and new information. However it is important that the Learning Manager scaffolds the learning using framewords such as Debono's thinking hats to ensure that students reach a higher level of thinking and are achieving learning outcomes through the use of blogs.


Wiki:

Wikis are a great tool for learning and have many potential uses including: study guides created by students, vocab lists, results of collaborative learning, science experiments, mathematical procedures, excursions and non-excursions, history of local area and many others. The only limit is the teacher’s creativity and imagination. 3

Websites:

Websites are a space set up by one or more persons for other to view in order to share information, images and videos. I can see a great use for this in the classroom for teachers to share student work and communicate their achievements with parents and the world. Students would love seeing their work published on the internet for others to view.
The teacher would need to be sensitive to safety using this program. Student identity and in some cases the location would need to be protected. While a website is great for sharing it does not have the features of a wiki do that allow collaborative learning. A website is constructed and managed by one or a few persons and visitors to the site may simply read and view the content but not participate in any other way so it has limitations. On the other hand it may be a positive feature as student work that has been displayed cannot be changed or deleted by a third party.

ICT Tool Group 2

Tool 4 - Digital Images

The ability to read images is as important as the ability to read text. An image can tell a 1000 words, this old saying rings true, examine an advertisement in the newspaper, magazine or on television. The creator can evoke emotions within you without saying a single word! Teachers can use this to enhance a students learning in postive ways. Students could use a digital camera to record an excursion and examine the images later. These photographs will evoke emotion in the student and put them right back at the excursion triggering all the memories of things learnt and felt, putting a new dimension onto the learning experience and enabling the learning to continue long after the excursion has been completed. This rings true for all of us, as we look through family albums filled with photographs that represent memories of an event or time in our lives. As we view that favourite photograph of a family member all those memories come flooding back along with the advice and knowledge passed on by that member.

Digital images can be found on personal cameras, personal computers and the world wide web. There are numerous sites where one can download and copy images from. When doing this learners must be taught to acknowledge the source of the image, this is as important as acknowleding the author of words that are used in ones own work. The most popular site I have seen students download images from is google images. Another site I have recently engaged with is flickr, a bank of images uploaded by people all over the world about numerous topics. Many of these images are available for your own use and have no copywrite on them. I feel that as teachers we should encourage and even insist that our students acknowledge the source of their gathered data, this ensures that they are working in a real world context within the legal boundaries of the real world.

Tool 5 - Podcasts

I have also looked at podcasts on the ABC radio's website. These are useful if you do not hear an entire program or for those programs that you found interesting and would like to listen to again, once again the purpose of these podcasts is to convey information. The programs are recorded as podcasts in order to cater for those persons who were unable to hear part or all of the program during the time it was aired, and for those who would like to listen again.
http://www.abc.net.au/local/sites/conversations/
Here is a link to some recent conversations on the radio that can be downloaded and listened to in mp3 format, a podcast without images.

An example of podcasting in education can be found at MR Langhorst's 8th grade web classroom http://www.liberty.k12.mo.us/~elanghorst/blog
This site contains information about blogs as well as podcasts and several links to podcasts used by the students in this class. They have enhanced their website by displaying images that show students engaged and learning in a relaxed and happy environment. These images show the viewer that this has been a pleasant and positive learning experience for these students. The availability of these podcasts on the web means that students can listen to the podcasts again and again at times and places that are convenient to them. An excellent example of how to successfully use podcasts to enhance learning for students.

Tool 6 - Digital Video

Digital video opens up a world of imagination for students to explore. Using digital editing programs students can produce professional results under the guidance of their learning manager. Videos could be used to document excursions, learning and discoveries or as a diary of learning. Creating and editing a digital video is a great collaborative learning scenario as students work in groups to decided what to record, then the parts that will be kept or cut, and also the effects to be added such as fading, still shots, music, dialogue and many more.