Friday, June 15, 2012

My final culminating statement



When I began this technological odyssey I would have classed myself as what my tutorial leader Carmel calls a technological native. I had an interactive whiteboard in year three so i obviously knew all there is to know about technology. Ha! My IWB in year three did not teach us music. Before beginning this class i already held a strong a strong belief in the concept of a teach as learner and the need to constantly evolve and change. This is no where more prominent then in the case of technology.  Having taught my second day on prac today i am beginning to see the role technology plays and how my learning of technology has change me as a teacher. I tried to swipe the whiteboard to scroll today (we have a projector not a smartboard in my prac classroom).I feel i have an understanding of how to understand new technologies and how to asses them in a teaching context. Glynis taught us about ethics (amazingly) which is the area of technology i most want to see change in. There is a real need to teach children about ethics and safety and equip them for an online world which they seem to be entering earlier and earlier. I think as teachers we do what we can to protect students we don't let them cross the street alone when they're with us, we make sure they always eat there lunch; so when we know that social networking sites not specifically designed for primary school students are dangerous it is only natural that we facilitate students using a site like edmodo or ning. That is how as teachers we keep our students safe.In terms of ethics i don't feel that it is ever ok to break the law as a teacher; whether it is a highly enforced law or something less so like piracy it is still against the law and in ethics especially  the best way to teach is by leading by example. I don't believe that there is a place for every type of technology in the classrooms (xbox's, playstations and facebook is not welcome) but each new piece of technology deserves to be examined and critiqued to determine its appropriateness for the classroom. As with the ipad there is potential for its use in the classroom but if they benefits do not outweigh the negatives then it is not of great use. Discovery was theme throughout with the driving factor being the desire to provide students with the best materials with which to learn. I struck gold and can't wait for my prac students to try it out! I think its important as teachers to collaborate and share ideas and that is something i will continue to do in the future whether it be through our facebook group, blogs or wikis. By sharing ideas we can find better resources and cut down on the time it takes to find good resources and put that time back into lesson planning and other important aspects of teaching. I'm still not sure if i've done all of this right but i think as with all new technology you just have to try it and i have. However as Glynis always reminds us if technology can replace a teacher then that teacher should not be teaching.

references 
Jigsaw: Assembly for 8 10 year olds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o8auwnJtqE Retrieved 10th June 2012.
Reid, D. & Ostashewski, N. (2011). iPads in the Classroom – New Technologies, Old Issues: Are they worth the effort?. In T. Bastiaens & M. Ebner (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2011 (pp. 1689-1694). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. Retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/p/38089. 
Class readings
NMA flash activity gold rush



Gold...what a rush!



I have kept the resource i reviewed for the earlier assignment in the back of my mind mostly because i found it so fun and effective. When i found i had year 5/6 i was like YES its gold rush time. Sadly they arent studying it till next semester but i took a spare moment to show it to my teacher and she really liked it. SO i want to share it here so more people can share it! Its called The Gold Rush and its a flash interactive activity/game. Ling; a young chinese girl guides us through the game from the informative introduction to the town where you must equip yourself with the supplies necessary to survive a month in the gold-fields of ballarat. Then into the gold-field where you find out if you had enough supplies and how much money you made. It feels so relaxed and fun but its teaching students about the goldrush. It is put out by the national museum of australia so is a reputable source. Enjoy http://www.nma.gov.au/education-kids/classroom_learning/multimedia/interactives/gold-rush

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Activexpression

Today was my first day of prac teaching. I have a year 5/6 class and even though we don't have an IWB the class is still very technological in other aspects. Today i was introduced to a device called Activexpression. Above is a picture of it. It is basically used for testing students. In my class it randomly generates 101 multiple choice questions for the students to answer in 12 minutes. At first i thought it seemed like overcomplicating maths times-tables but the purpose of using the device is not so much about the students enjoying it but more about the data it collect for the teacher. On the teachers computer screen she can see what question each student is that, how many questions have been answering right or wrong and on completion there if even more information avaliable such as average time spent per question for a student as well as the time taken to complete all the questions. It is a really good tool for tracking students progress in key abilities such as addition, subtraction and multiplication. There is more information about this device at http://www.prometheanworld.com/en-us/education/products/learner-response-systems/activexpression2.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Social networking safety

I was reading Claire's Blog today and was again reminded of the importance of social networking safety. We were shown a video in class by Glynis. It highlights the starke realities and dangers of social networking. I think this is scary and its a really serious video but its so important that children understand the risks they take when they dont think through their decisions in cyber space. I am hoping to show this to my year 5/6 students on prac in June. I think Claire put it really well when she said "It is important as we are encouraging students to get stuck into technology and show them great ways to use it, that we are also ensuring that we talk to them about ways they shouldn’t be using it!" Education Victoria has posted a video through FUSE https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/pages/View.aspx?pin=Z7FM3R . This is good for teachers who want to learn how to create a safer alternative to facebook within the school environment, targeted at year 5 and 6 students. It promotes the use of http://uk.ning.com/ but another popular site used is http://www.edmodo.com/ . All in all i think the most important things to take away are that facebook is an adult social networking site students and children need to be extremely vigilant in their use of such an adult space and it isnt necessary. There are many other safer options out there. If teachers can introduce or facilitate a class social networking site this can deter students from seeking another more dangerous site.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Ipad's in the classroom.. a chance worth taking.

Do ipads work in the classroom? Do they increase engagement? Do they aid in learning? I feel these questions are not as important as asking can they. Can ipads increase engagement, can they aid in learning? As Reid and Ostashewski recognise there is a risk of students disengaging in the upper primary years. This disengagement can  in my opinion lead to a full blown detachment through the high school years. If an ipad can help to fight students view of school as an outdated and boring institution then lets use its. Lets tweak it and improve it until we can say its helping to engage students or until we can prove there's no way it can.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Humble book loses shelf life

When reading from Carmel's Learning technologies i decided to share my response to a sydney morning hearld article she posted about the changing nature of technology on english class. English and the study of it in australia is crucial and fundamental to the curriculum. It is the only subject that students are required to do from kindergarten all the way through to year 12, that alone speaks of its value. ''English is not a subject that stands still," and we as teachers can acknowledge this and foster a greater sense of independence and leadership in students that might not choose to lead in a traditional classroom setting. We breakdown barrier by using technology and  enable students to grow and self directed in their learning. This is important across all subjects but especially in english.