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. 

Week 3

Blogging:

I have enjoyed creating and editing my own blog space, its great to know that I have my own piece of the internet that is mine and mine alone. There are also many potential benefits of blogging for students in schools some of these benefits as well as some negative and interesting aspects of blogging are outlined below:

Plus	Minus	Interesting
·  Modern – keeping students up to date with developing technology as they learn to blog, post links, images, create voki’s and a multitude of other skills learnt in cyberspace. ·  Interactive – students can work together, read and  comment on others work ·  Fun – posting learning onto a blog is more enjoyable than writing a report. ·  Engaging for kinaesthetic and visual and auditory learners ·  Connects students with others around the world as learning goes beyond the classroom walls. ·  Encourages student response to others work ·  Encourages students to share their work with others ·  The teacher is able to track the students learning progress ·  Students learn to reflect on their own learning from an early age and to accept constructive criticism as well as positive feedback ·  Content is chronologically ordered and is easy to upload using ready formatted programs ·  Newest content is at the top of the page to allow the reader to start at the top and read down to where he or she left off last time ·  Teachers can use blogs as a simple tool to post announcements, assignments and notifications to students and their caregivers. ·  Students and teachers can post useful links to other websites to enrich the content being given ·  Students have equal opportunity to record their own thoughts and learning, from the loud student to the quiet student, both have equal writing space and a keyboard as their tool to voice who they are and what they stand for ·  Students and teachers are able to get to know each other in a new non-threatening space ·  Encourages all students to write, even those who may not enjoying writing ·  Close attention must be paid to spelling and grammar as others around the world can read posts ·  Blogging can open up the student teacher relationship ·  Blogging can allow students to communicate and work with professionals and experts on the content they are studying ·  Students are taking ownership of their learning ·  Enhances reading skills ·  Students learn the responsibilities that go along with public publishing (language use, content, copy write)	· Some students may not have internet access · May be confronting for some students to post their learning as there may be the fear of others reacting negatively to it · Danger of internet safety as students connect with people from around the world · Un-supervised blogging could pose potential dangers for young people such as predators and cyber bullying aimed at peers, teachers and others · Posting of copy write material without referencing the source · Blogging to complete an assignment for a grade can restrict students imagination and personal input into blogging · Students may find it hard to write their thoughts and learning	·  Students can explore a new world in a new way ·  Students are able to experience the seemingly  ‘grown up’ world of the internet from a young age with real learning possibilities available to them ·  There are various different applications that support web logging available ·  Private blogs are available so that students and teachers can communicate privately providing and receiving feedback without posting it to a public site ·

My experience so far with this blog as been positive in most ways. As far as a learning blog goes it has been scaffolded well. Each post has been guided by the lecturers to ensure that learning has been achieved. I have needed to engage with these tools in order to reflect on them, and although my skill level was low to start with I have been able to follow the directions to achieve this engagement. I feel that my skills are continually improving and this is due to the scaffolded nature of this task.

I also feel that a blog would be an effective tool to use as a means of sharing personal thoughts and information with friends and family and the wider world. I, myself am not inclined to do this openly but would be willing to sharing thoughts about an event or place on a personal blog. Students would also have this option to create a personal blog to share their learning or thoughts or both. This would have the potential to open the student up for cyber bullying or becoming a victim of a predator. Learning Managers need to ensure that students understand the dangers of sharing too much personal information on the web through personal posts such as blogs.

Wiki:

I have created a wiki space for this course. The link is http://chelle04.wikispaces.com/

I will use this wiki as a learning tool to gain skills using a wiki space. I have uploaded some images, written text and embedded a you tube link to a clip I used in a lesson with a year 2 class.  I found embedding the you tube clip a little hard at first as it did not work the first couple of times I did it, so I read the instructions again and kept trying – eventually I had success and it is now there for the world to view. The images I have uploaded are some photographs that I have taken. I found this task quite simple and was able to upload and resize the images quickly and easily. This task could easily be mastered by a primary school student from about year 3 upwards and what a great tool for sharing images and photographs both taken by the student and found elsewhere. Students could take photographs of the artwork or projects and upload them to share. This would give students a real sense of achievement as their work is now published.

Strengths	Weaknesses
·      Collaborative learning ·      Supportive ·      Fun ·      Easy ·      Interactive	·      Risk of inappropriate content ·      Potential for damaging content to be posted ·      Non-scaffolded spaces will not support learning
Opportunities	Threats
·      Students can work together and share ideas and build knowledge ·      Share knowledge, information, research, ideas ·      Assist peers learning ·      Build relationships online ·      Build online knowledge and confidence	·      Non cooperative members ·      Important information deleted and lost ·      Inappropriate content published

Websites:

I've just created a website using weebly.com it is fantastic. I haven't looked too deeply at the features available yet but so far have found it to be very user friendly. I believe that higher primary students would have no problems understanding and operating this tool. It could be used to share work, excursions, incursions or many other aspects of learning.

The link to by weebly site is:
http://chelle04.weebly.com/

Week 2

DeBono's Thinking Hats

The 6 thinking hats created by Edward DeBono for the purpose of a thinking framework to scaffold learners thinking and learning. This process is valuable to scaffold thinking and learning and allows different thinking to be applied to different situations. It is a framework to guide rather than restrict thinking. Students can use this framework as a valuable tool to reach a deeper level of thinking and then engage in higher order thinking by thinking about their thinking.
This process was used to scaffold our thinking about the question of mobile phone use in classrooms. This process has worked well with a large variety of thinking coming forward.

This forum is reflective of constructivism. During this process the learner takes an active and self managed role in learning. The learner seeks out knowledge either individually or collaboratively. In order to participate in this forum we were required to seek out information and then share this information with our peers to collaboratively build knowledge.

The forum also reflects the cognitivism theory as this involves mental processing of information. Information is transferred to the long term memory through organising, chunking and connecting this information. Edward DeBono's thinking hats provided scaffolding for information to be organised and grouped. So now this information that we have individually and collaboratively constructed has been organised and stored into our long term memory.

Behaviourism states that the learning is acquired through external stimuli. This stimuli can be in the form of physical rewards, or motiviation to learn more. During e learning the material can often be broken into smaller steps and provide positive or negative feedback along the journey to motivate the learner. I was motivated by the behaviourism theory to participate through the motivation to learn more, knowledge of the outcome of passing my assessment and because I was only required to contribute a smaller section to the forum.

Reading this wiki has been interesting, I participated personally by commenting in the red hat, intuitive section. This hat provides opportunitiy to put forward feelings on the topic. My feelings have both negative and positive perspectives as outlined below.

"Mobile phones are a great device with many features listed above, these features each have endless teaching opportunities for teachers who are willing and able to embrace this technology. Students can learn how to organise themselves and their school task, record events through a photographic diary and many other things".
"Some things I don't like about this idea is the potential for distraction that could come about in classrooms if the use of mobile phones isnt introduced and monitored well. Also there would be a lot of work convincing some parents that their child really is learning while using a mobile phone as there are still parents who don't believe in the child having a mobile phone".


The black hat provides the judgement perspective, the negative aspect of the topic.
"The art of hand writing might become a dying art if mobile phones are used to complete homework, send messages and complete lessons. Will the students of tomorrow be able to write their name?"

Benefits of participating in a wiki like this:
A wiki like this provides opportunities for all students to participate. It is less confrontational as there is no face to face discussions. There is opportunity to participate anonymously. Wiki's like this one help participants to build trust in their peers, as they share their thoughts and learning in a public arena. One element of trust is knowing that your peers will not change or delete your comments, another element is trusting your peers judgement about your personal thoughts and learning.

Issues participating in a wiki like this:
Issues that could arise from a wiki like this would be other participants changing or deleting your comments or posts. In order to participate each member would need to have complete trust in their peers.

Drawbacks of participating in a wiki like this:
I found it hard to comment on this wiki, as I did not want to post information that was incorrect. I did not want to look silly in front of my peers. If using a wiki like this for students they would experience the same feelings of apprenhension.

Wiki's like this one can contribute to student learning by providing the students with the opportunity to share and build on their own and their peers knowledge. It could be a very effective collaborative learning tool if learners are scaffolded effectively. Scaffolding would include how to use a wiki, ethics involved in participating, such as not altering or deleting other persons comments and posts, being sensitive to other learners abilities and perspectives.

By providing specific questions to guide thinking this wiki supported the collection of a range of perspectives from each individual participant. This range was extended by allowing a variety of participants who come from different walks of life and have different views about the same topic. Each participant will be able to provide a unique perspective for each different thinking hat even though each participant is answering the same questions to guide their thinking they will still have a different answer to each other participant.

TPACK
Teaching Pedagogical and Content Knowledge
Content: Actual subject matter that is to be taught.
Pedagody: The process and practice or methods of teaching and learning
Technology: Chalkboards, books, computers, video.

What is TPACK?

• A framework
• Teacher knowledge is required to integrate technology into teaching, simply adding technology to teaching is not enough, teachers need technological knowledge to incorporate technology effectively.
• Teaching is a complex activity and cognitive skill that is dependent on access to highly organised systems of knowledge including knowledge of student thinking and learning and knowledge of the subject matter being taught.
• Recognises that pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge need to be known and work together to make an effective teacher, TPACK provides the framework for combining these two elements, it blends pedagogical and content knowledge.
• The teacher takes the knowledge of subject matter then using their pedagogical knowledge organises, adapts and presents the content knowledge in an accessible way for learners to achieve learning.
• Technologies have now come to the forefront of education and are changing the nature of the traditional classroom.
• Technologies can be used to represent and formulate subject matter and make if morea ccissible to learners.
• Representations, analogies, examples, explanations and demonstrations all make content more accessible to the learner and can all incorporated into learning through the use of technologies.
• Teachers can often be reluctant to embrace the change of technology for many reasons including but not limited to: fear of technology or fear of change, lack or time, lack of support, lack of access, lack of knowledge. However teachers not only need to know how to use today's technology but they also need the skills to embrace future technology.
• In the past teachers could focus on content and pedgogy in their teaching as technology moved slowly and did not change much in their career, this is no longer the case. Now teachers must have up to date knowledge not only of technology but also how to incorporate this into their teaching successfully.
• Technology has often been considered separate to content and pedagogy but the TPACK framework states that this is not so, all three areas must be blended and thoughtfully interwoven for successful teaching today. Technology must not be taught in isolation to pedagogy and content, it must be used in relation to the content or subject matter in a meaningful and authentic context.
• PCK - Pedagogical content knowledge.
• TCK - Technological content knowledge.
• TPK - Technological pedagogical knowledge.
• TPCK - Technological pedagodical content knowledge.
• The complexity of teacher knowledge makes it difficult to represent it in one overarching framework, but TPCK provides a framework for teachers to tease apart some of the key issues and consider how content, pedagogy and technically work together to create a richer learning experience for today's learner.

Week 1

Learning Styles

WOW, a new skill learnt, inserting an image into my blog.

I have just taken a learning style quiz and the results are quite interesting. It has revealed that the best way I learn is Intrapersonal (by myself) I would disagree with this, as I feel I learn more during a lecture or a group study session and certainly not by myself. Although I do need some time by myself to digest what I have heard and read. The next learning style on my chart is logical (number smart), hmmm well I wouldn't consider myself number smart, but I do like things to be in a logical order and organised, so this fits well. This is followed closely by linguistic (word smart), once again I wouldn't consider myself word smart, although upon reflection I agree that you do need strong word knowledge in order to write university assignments. I do enjoy writing and in the past have enjoyed constructing short stories. I have realised through this activity that I do not recognise my strengths enough.

My thoughts
Learning styles within a classrom could contain both advantages and disadvantages depending how they are used and catered for by the learning manager.
An advantage would be that you can connect with the learner and ensure that the content you are teaching reaches the students long term memory by delivering it in their preferred learning style.
A disadvantage is that if the learning manager is focussing their on teaching methods one or two specific learning styles then the other learning styles are neglected. If content is only delivered in a student's preferred learning style then the student misses opportunities to develop the other learning styles.

Mind Maps
We were also asked to look at mind maps and to create a mind map and reflect on it. I have created a mind map about myself. I have learnt how to create the mind map and to save it as a JPG image. Now to learn how to embed it into here.....
(OK so first I have to find where it saved on my computer??)

Bubbl.us:
I found this site very useful and interesting, it is simple to use, so would be a great tool in the classroom for students to create their own mind maps about their projects, thoughts or to reflect on their learning. It allows the user to create colourful mind maps with single or multiple words in each bubble. The mind map can be moved around and edited easily.
I did find it limiting after listening to Tony Buzan discuss mind maps. Bubbl.us did not allow me to put in curved lines to link ideas (well I was unable to accomplish this, I am willing to be proven wrong if anyone would like to show me how). The key words also were in bubbles as opposed to being written on the branches as Buzan suggests.

My thoughts:

Buzan believes that mind maps are an effective and efficient tool for learning and storing knowledge. Mind maps should be colourful, as the brain loves colour and this makes the information easier to remember, have curved lines as opposed to straight lines, as the brain is more intrigued with curved lines and becomes easily bored with straight lines and does not take in the information. Each branch of the mind map should only contain one key word, this gives the creator more freedom when adding sub lines off the main lines and headings, a single word leaves more room to add information. Buzan states that mind maps allow links to be made between information and ideas this is a very effective way to store information in the long term memory of the brain, as the brain thinks by imagination and association.