Week 5

Zimmertwins Movie

I really enjoyed making the Zimmer Twins movie. The idea is so great yet so easy for students to use. This type of activity integrates ICT, Interpersonal Development, the Arts and Literacy. Students are able to use their own imaginations and be creative. Any year level can really use this program it can just be made more complex the higher the grade level. Grade 6's could be asked to complete a series of stories or different versions of the same story which they could then compare and discuss as a class the different language and forms of communication used. Lower primary classes could create more basic stories which could also be used for various purposes including literacy or the Arts.

Xtranormal.com

Xtranormal is an amazing website that is perhaps not appropriate for the classroom! It's great to see the different types of programs that are available for use to create your own movies. This one was particularly clever as you can make stories involving yourself by putting your head on the body of one of the animations or famous people, such as the Obama example on the home page which was very entertaining. Unfortunately, the content on the website is not appropriate for the classroom otherwise this could have been an amazing resource. However, there are several other similar websites that do cater for the classroom such as Roller Mache.

ABC Roller Mache

Of all the different sites we explored in this week's workshop, Roller Mache was by far my favourite. This website can be used for so many learning purposes including English, ICT, Design, Creativity & Technology and more. This site walks students step-by-step through the process of creating their own animations. It has shows students how to plan by discussing different types of storytelling, character development and showing students how to storyboard. It then walks them through the animation process including how to add sounds and how to edit. This allows students to develop literacy and ICT skills whilst they are being creative and having fun. That's really the best way to get students to learn, when they have no idea they're learning! Roller Mache is available at http://www.abc.net.au/rollercoaster/rollermache/inspire2.htm

Sketch Swap

Another interesting site we visited this week was Sketch Swap. This allows students to draw anything they wish, send the image and then receive a picture back. The picture above is the amazing drawing I received back. Unfortunately, this is probably not a great idea in the classroom due to the fact that anyone can send you an image and there could be extremely inappropriate images being swapped. Might be best for outside of school hours!

Reasonably Clever

http://www.reasonablyclever.com/

Reasonably Clever allows you to create leggo movies online. You can customise your leggo characters changing their hats, hair, bodies, clothes and scenery. These types of programs are great for developing thinking skills, team work skills, design skills, creativity and even literacy. You can have one group of students developing their ICT skills by creating leggo stories online while another group is using real leggo to design their own stories. Students can be asked to storyboard their stories and then those students using real leggo can film their stories with a handheld camera. Once again, a great way to get students learning while they are having fun.

Rebus Storygames

http://www.storygames.com/teachmanpf/readwri.html

I love the idea of using images rather than words. One of the best things I experienced on placement was at a special needs school that used a program called Clicker 5. I have mentioned Clicker 5 in my earlier blogs. On one particular occasion, the teacher was using Clicker 5 to retell a story she had just read to the class. As the students were physically incapable of typing themselves, they worked together as a class with the teacher typing things up on the interactive whiteboard. She retold the story she had read in the same way that Hermit Makes New Friends has been retold above. She was also able to put sound effects in. So when she clicked the mouse, the program would read the story back with sound effects. It was fabulous.

Dvolver

I enjoyed creating this movie through Dvolver but found it quite limited. There were only a few scenarios to choose from which made the movie quite predictable. Unfortunately, once again this is not appropriate for the classroom as there is a lot of a adult content that you can't protect the students from.

Conclusion

This semester of ICT has been so valuable to me. As I wish to work in special needs, ICT is an essential skills to have. There have been so many incredible programs introduced throughout the unit that I never knew existed. During my placement I have also discovered great programs that I perhaps would not have seen the value in before taking this unit. All in all, I think I'll be using ICT in the classroom a great deal in the future. Bye for now!

week 4

THE LEARNING FEDERATION

Having registered with the Learning Federation I was able this week to look over the amazing educational multimedia resources the Federation is able to offer teachers and students. This website offers resources on nearly every curriculum area that is covered from P-12. It offers links to museums, war memorials, National Archives of Australia and art galleries, to name just a few. Nearly anything you can think of is on this website! This tool will be so useful next year when I start my teaching career. There's information on any topic and you can just follow the links to find out about specific areas such as archeology, art, mathematics, social sciences, etc. It will be great to have a resource to go to if there's something in curriculum that I don't know much about and I log onto this website and not only find out about the topic but be given a multimedia resource to teach the topic to my class. It also offers assessment of students work online so teacher's are not burdened with never ending amounts of marking. So the students can go online, learn about a topic, do the activities and be graded by the program. I think teachers can use all the help they can get!!

EXCEL

M&M spreadsheet

In this week's workshop, we grouped the colours of a packet of m&m's and counted how many in each group. We then put them into an excel spreadsheet. I really like excel, I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's really organised...? There are so many wonderful things you can do on excel, not only for maths. While maths is the obvious one with entering data and creating spreadsheets, literacy, ICT and other skills can be used also. Excel can be used to create surveys and analyse the data (literacy and possibly numeracy), create timelines (literacy) and create graphs or pictographs (literacy and numeracy).

There are many other online programs that allow you to create spreadsheets and graphs such as MathGV which allows you create polar graphs, cartesian graphs and dimensional graphs. You can even create artistic graphs that look amazing! Smart Draw offers the same graph building software but also includes mindmaps, timelines, flowcharts and organisation charts, plus much more. There are endless amounts of software out there that can be used successfully in the classroom. I haven't had the experience of seeing students using this type of product on placement yet but I believe it would be quite valuable for older students. These programs are also great time savers as students can spend ages just drawing up the graphs but if the template is there already for them to use, they just add the data and they're away!

Inspiration 8.0I

ABC Dust Echoes - Spear

This week's Dust Echoes activity showed me a great way of testing students comprehension without having to give them boring questions to answer in their literacy books. I am always struggling with new ways of testing students comprehension so that they don't get bored and neither do I! This idea would work with many different programs including concept mapping, mind mapping or even just Word. Kidspiration is another great online resource. It's similar to Inspiration except that it's designed for students up to grade 5. Students can develop their literacy, numeracy, ICT and art skills with this program. It also strengthens students thinking skills by allowing them to create mind and concept maps.

Another way the fantastic Dust Echoes dreamtime stories can be used is to get students to create their own animations based on the particular topic they might be studying at the time. Online software such as FluxTime Studio or Toon Boom Animation allow students to create their own animations and share them with others. Students will love creating their own animations and will be developing their literacy, ICT, thinking and art skills while they do so!

week 3

QUIA GAMES

Hangman

Products such as Quia are amazing assets to have in the classroom. In this week's workshop, we created online quizzes and games. The great thing about Quia is that you can use these products to strengthen students literacy, numeracy and ICT skills while they're having fun! I created a hangman game based on African animals which was fun and educational. There were example games based around the Presidents of the USA, which could quite easily be replicated to create a game based on the Australia Prime Ministers. Students can learn about history and have fun at the same time. Playing games is a much better and more effective method to teach students material as opposed to giving them paper tests or encouraging rote memorisation.

I also used Quia to create an online quiz about the Simpsons. Of course, you can use Quia yourself as a teacher and create the quizzes based on the unit of work your class is completing or you can get the students to create their own. They are developing their literacy skills whilst creating a quiz about things that interest them. They can also share their quiz with other students which not only develops other students literacy skills but also lets students share their interests with their peers.

Quia also has online maths games which I think are fantastic. Most of the schools I have been in this year have had these programs and at least 4 or 5 students are asked to use them during the designated maths time. However, even during free time, I noticed several students playing online maths games. Getting students to learn without them realising they're learning is often very effective. Students just think they're having fun but they're learning at the same time.

SPECIAL EDUCATION ICT

In my final placement working in a special needs school, ICT has been very important. Many students are unable to communicate verbally and therefore ICT is often their only method of communication. Products such as DynaVox allow students to use technology to communicate their feelings, needs and answers to questions in class, at home or in the community. While it often takes quite a while for these students to convey their messages, if it were not for this technology, these students would have great difficulty communicating.

Even for the students who can communicate verbally, ICT plays a huge part in the special education classroom. Programs such as Galaxy Kids is used nearly everyday for students who are autistic or have concentration problems. Galaxy Kids offers a learning to read multimedia program which allows students to click on their reading level and hear the story read to them before they then read the story themselves. Students can also click on different pictures and are taken to new pages where they can do an online comprehension activity based on what they have just read. While this product is great for all schools, it is especially valuable for special needs as it is incredibly interactive and can keep students attention for long periods of time which can be challenging when it's just the teacher at the front of the room reading a book.

Special needs students also respond quite well to sensory stimuli so ICT is brilliant at providing this. There was one girl in a class I was volunteering in earlier in the year who was obsessed with popping bubble wrap. She constantly had to have it in her hand and be popping it. The teacher downloaded this great program called virtual bubble wrap which the student used on the interactive whiteboard. Her face just lit up and it kept her entertained for quite a while which was unusual for this particular student.

FROG JUMP ACTIVITY

TECHNOLOGY DESIGN PROCESS

ACTIVITY
Design a frog that jumps using the materials provided:

cardboard card
picture of a frog
rubber band
sticky tape
glue-stick
scissors

What design process are you going to use?
Once completed test your frog to see that it jumps.
Then design a poster explaining the Design Process in specific detail showing all the stages/steps you went through in the making of the Jumping Frog.

This week's workshop activity in which we had to design a frog jump was great in highlighting that not everything needs to be ICT all the time. Getting kids to physically create is also a very important part of education and integrating physical design and ICT together can be fantastic. This was a very tricky one for me and my partner as we had no idea how to get the frog to jump! It required thinking outside of the box and was a lot of fun. This type of activity is a great engagement activity for the beginning of an ICT, literacy or even science lesson. This activity can be followed up by students going online and outlining their design process in a poster or even through procedural writing. Activities such as this promote higher order thinking and can be used to begin a variety of lessons.

Week 2

MICROSOFT PUBLISHER

I found this weeks workshop really useful. Firstly, the use of Publisher to create brochures was fantastic! I realise that many students probably know how to use Publisher with their eyes closed but I had really never used it before. When I was on placement, I was planning an integrated unit of work on safety for the grade 1 students and I wanted to get them to create a safety brochure that they could use to tell other younger students about how to be safe in your home, the road and the water. I had absolutely no idea how to go about creating a brochure on the computer. My mind flashed back to my high school days when I'm sure we had to create a brochure on the computer for an ICT class. I couldn't remember for the life of me what program we used. I tried word but it didn't really give me a proper format. In the end, I got the kids to type up their safety sentences, cut them out and paste them onto coloured cardboard which I had folded into three for them. I just wish I'd known about Publisher before I had conducted that lesson. Of course, in the end it didn't matter because the kids absolutely loved making the brochures with coloured paper and drawing their own pictures, etc. However, next time I think I'll give Publisher a try!!

Of course, Publisher can be a problem if you have a mac, which I do! So I found several other publishing programs that work on a mac including Swift Publisher (which is easy to use and can be used for professional or home activities such as newsletter, brochures, cards etc), Quark (which is for professional use but can be used by someone who is tech savvy or perhaps for design in high school classes) and Ragtime (which again can be used for professional or home purposes). These are just a few of the different types of publishing software out there that students can use to develop their literacy, art, numeracy and ICT skills.

Eportfolio

The discussion this week in the workshop about designing our eportfolio, applying for jobs and going for interviews was very daunting! After a very stressful and busy year completing my teaching diploma, the last thing I want to do is write 10 page job applications times 100! However, I realise that the education of children is so very important and it is incredibly essential that schools employ teachers who are dedicated, prepared and passionate. All the information we were given this week was invaluable and I feel that the process of going for jobs was made less ambiguous and uncertain.

Designing my eportfolio was another daunting task I was not looking forward to. However, a friend of mine put me onto an amazing website called scrapblog. Through this website I have begun creating an amazing eportfolio. This program allows you to add pictures, stickers, themes (ie school), photos and different backgrounds. My portfolio is starting to look amazing and I have thoroughly enjoyed creating it. Nonetheless, while technology does have the advantage of making things look amazing, it can take a lot of patience and a lot of time. Like the WebQuest we created for Integrated, this eportfolio has taken many many hours of work. Adding pictures, moving images, adding text, straightening things up and moving them around all takes a great deal of time. Like most things in life, there are advantages and disadvantages to using ICT. In this case, I do believe it was worth it as the end result speaks for itself!

Week 1

INTRODUCTION TO ICT in EDUCATION

My high school education was ending just as the internet was being introduced in a serious way in the world and in education. I remember in grade 10 onwards we had 'computer' classes where we learnt how to use the internet but it was SO painfully slow it wasn't really that appealing at the time. We had always had computers at my house so I could always use one but the internet was a whole new revolution. I feel like I'm one of those people who's stuck inbetween pre and post ICT in education. I know how to use computers quite well but I found it difficult on placement to find ways to use it in the classroom for some reason. I use computers every single day. I spend long periods of time every day with my laptop on facebook, emailing or skyping with people. Yet when it comes to using computers in education, I found it quite difficult on my first placement. I think the main challenge is how slow the computers are in schools and I have little patience for webpages taking 5 minutes to load and feel that this can be a total waste of time for students. I conducted one class on weather in which students were to use the internet to find a weather report. It took them forever and the computers were so slow, I just ended up feeling like it was a waste of an hour.

However, this semester ICT and Integrated have shown me how brilliantly ICT can be used in the classroom. I am absolutely loving creating the WebQuest for Integrated and am 100% sure that I will use this in the classroom when I start teaching. I realise also that getting students to use ICT during class needs to be structured more and shouldn't just simply involve students looking something up on google or typing up their stories.

INSPIRATION 8.0I

Mind Map

The creation of the Mind Map through the Inspiration program was fantastic! Mind maps allow for creative and critical thinking to develop. I used the Mind Map to further develop some ideas for my WebQuest which is on the Millennium Development Goals. I jotted down some notes for each of the 8 goals and found a few different areas I can base my activities on for the WebQuest. I could definitely use this in the classroom, perhaps as a whole class on an interactive whiteboard. Students could brainstorm and call out different ideas about the main topic and each branch's sub topic, further and further developing ideas. There are of course, many other programs that can be used for mindmapping, including imindmap which allows you to put the software on your mobile phone so you can mind map whenever the urge comes over you!

Concept Map

I enjoyed creating the concept map on my travel experiences. Students can use concept maps as a beginning point in story writing, research papers, etc. Younger students could even create concept maps as an activity for reading comprehension. Another concept map software program I came across was Cmaps which can be used to construct, share and critically analyse concept maps. There are fantastic programs out there for use in the classroom and I'm understanding more and more the importance of integrating ICT into the classroom on a daily basis.

ICT and Special Education

As I plan on working in Special Needs education, ICT is so important. I have been volunteering this year at a special needs school and found that they use great amounts of ICT, particularly through the interactive whiteboard. Therefore, I am keen to learn as much as I can during this semester in ICT!

Early in the year when I was volunteering at a special needs school, I came across a fantastic program called Clicker 5. Clicker 5 is an online reading and writing tool that students of all different abilities can use to strengthen literacy skills. At the school I was volunteering at, the teacher was using the program to document a recent school camp her class had been on. As the students were physically unable to create this program themselves, they did it as a whole class. They added photos, comments and sound effects. The program would then read the text out loud to them as it turned the pages. The students absolutely loved it and I felt it really helped them communicate their camp experiences.