So here is my image manipulation on a photo of my beloved dog “Sammy”. He is my baby and is very, very spoilt. I had a fun time playing around with the wonderful features on Picnik, it’s not my first time using Picnik to edit my photos. I do have to mention I did well this time to stop myself from getting carried away with the many editing features the site has to offer. There are so may tools and features to edit photos I just want to use all of them at once, but alas sometimes they end up turning out a big mess. I guess that is why the saying goes “less is more”.
Picnik can be used in the classroom: -Introduce the many wonders of photo editing to students. -Edit photos for specific purposes e.g. slideshows, school newsletters and classroom displays. -Photos can be saved from Picnik straight to Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket and more. -Edited photos can also be saved directly onto the computer hard drive. -Edit photos for upload and publishing to classroom websites, wikis and blogs.
MobaPhoto is a free program, which helps in the creation of photo galleries for webpages. MobaPhoto is a simple to use program making it user friendly for anyone to use. The program allows digital photos to be resized, cropped and correct red-eyes helping manage digital photos and galleries. This can be done in batches making the process quick, efficient and ready for website upload. The MobaPhoto program being only 1.6MB can be downloaded on USB (Mobatek, 2008) making it portable and possible to manage and upload galleries anywhere on any computer.
Benefits of MobaPhoto in the classroom: • MobaPhoto can be used to manage upload and publish classroom photos and galleries onto the classroom website, blog and or wiki. • The program can be saved onto students USB sticks. The portable application can be taken and used on any computer within the school environment (computer lab, library) and even used on the computer at home. • MobaPhoto can be used to introduce photo editing to student. Allowing students to crop, resize, correct red-eyes, rename and create photo galleries using the application’s tools.
References
Mobatek. (2008). MobaPhoto. Retrieved July 31, 2010, from MobaPhoto the portable toolbox for digital photography: http://mobaphoto.mobatek.net/en/
I had a peak around Flickr, as a guest. I did not want to sign up for an account mainly because I do not have a Yahoo ID (email) and I doubt I would use the program much at the moment apart from this very e-Learning blog posting. But as a guest I was still able to experience the vast collection of images and videos Flickr had to offer, guests can access 80% of the images (National Library of Australia , 2005). Usually when I need images for any reason or a specific purposes I just use Google Images, which anyone can use without an account. I found after comparing my Google and Flickr image searches on Great Danes both produced very similar images. Why Great Danes? Because my beloved dog Sampson (Sammy) is Great Dane breed. I love dogs, especially Shetland Ponies (Great Danes).
Flickr is a popular website for users to share and embed their personal photographs; the website contains more than 4 million images from contributors all over the globe. Flickr is commonly used by bloggers to display images they embed within their blog postings (Wikipedia, 2010). Anybody can add their own images to Flickr, marking them with descriptions and even tags for archiving and retrieving purposes. Of all Flickr’s users, two million of them add a new image to the site every four seconds (National Library of Australia , 2005).
References
National Library of Australia . (2005). Flickr. Retrieved July 29, 2010, from Picture Australia: http://www.pictureaustralia.org/contribute/participants/Flickr.html
Wikipedia. (2010, July 24). Flickr. Retrieved July 29, 2010, from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr
RSS stands for really simple syndication and it was easy enough to set an aggregator in Google Reader, but I think I will just stick to the section in the blogger dashboard. The Reading List within my blog dashboard allows me to see a list of blogs I follow and updates on any recent posts and additions made to those blogs. I have the option to add and manage the blogs within my list, to suit my purpose. To add to the convenience of this Reading List (Blog Dashboard) it is possible to view my followed blog items using Google Reader, simply by clicking on the link View in Google Reader at the bottom right hand corner of the Reading List. I preferred to view blog updates in the Reading List in my blog because it seemed to be easier to follow and comprehend.
SlideShare, just a little program I came across while looking for a solution to upload my PowerPoint (Webquest) to my blog. SlideShare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations (LinkedIn Corporation , 2010). SlideShare is a free online program. If you sign up for an account you can import presentations for a much larger viewing audience (worldwide). Plus if you Sync your SlideShare account with your Facebook and or Linkedin account your uploads will show up on all three networks.
SlideShare allows the user to (SlideShare Inc., 2010): -Share presentations and documents with LinkedIn and Facebook networks. -Upload portfolios, resumes, conference talks, PDFs presentations and more. -Supports many document formats for example ppt, pps, pptx, pdf and doc. -YouTube videos and audio files can also be embedded within the presentation.
Your quite welcomed to have a look for yourself it’s a very handy program, especially for Blogging. SlideShare.net
References
LinkedIn Corporation . (2010). SlideShare Presentations. Retrieved July 26, 2010, from Linked in: http://www.linkedin.com/opensocialInstallation/preview?_ch_panel_id=1&_applicationId=1200
SlideShare Inc. (2010). SlideShare Home Page. Retrieved July 26, 2010, from SlideShare Present Yourself: http://www.slideshare.net/
I completed a Webquest for my SOSE assignment in my first year (2008). A Webquest is basicly an interactive powerpoint so I thought it would be perfect to upload a sneak peak of my Webquest for those interested. The Webquest is about Recycling it was designed for 7-8 year olds.
Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the most frequently used program in the world, many use it because it is versatile, simple and easy to use, making it possible for anyone to create an interactive multimedia presentation (Central Queensland University, 2010). PowerPoints can be used for interactive presentations containing text, art, animation, video and audio clips. If your computer came pre-loaded with Microsoft Office the great thing is that you will most likely have PowerPoint too.
Daniels (1999) states that the PowerPoint presentations allow for students to use the visual differentiations to their own benefit. Each slide allows the student to stay on track and if a printer is accessible printing out the slides as a handout helps to cater for the varied learning styles within the classroom (Daniels, 1999). PowerPoints with audiovisual elements allow students with different learning styles and ESL students to grasp the information required (Daniels, 1999).
PowerPoints could be used in the classroom for: • Enabling students to construct creative presentations for classroom tasks.
• Students develop meaningful technology skills.
• Creating & completing Webquests
• Present information, procedures and or instructions to the class
• Create tutorials, reviews or quizzes for students
• Display students work – Parent teacher night
• PowerPoints can be changed, updated and used again and again for those particular lessons
• Learning Manager can create many activities such as:
o Flash Cards
o Interactive Stories/Reports
o Group or individual Slide Shows
o Photo Stories – Learning Stories – e.g. Science Investigation
o Classroom Slide Show – e.g. Field Trip Story (for parents, peers and other teachers)
PowerPoints can be a Learning Manager’s and a student’s best friend however if they are not used correctly they will not be as effective as they could be.
Here are some PowerPoint Weaknesses (Kaminski, 2003): •It’s easy to get carried away making slides. Making too many sides then are required for the presentation
• PowerPoint can be a time waster. It can become very time consuming tweaking a presentation.
• It is easy to begin a presentation without the plan or ideas first. PowerPoint works best when reinforcing the ideas or information.
• PowerPoint’s can have too many bells and whistles. Making an ugly and confusing presentation
• Too much text with each slide, even incorrect spelling and grammar can become a hindrance
• A presenter can become dependent on the PowerPoint presentation.
It is crucial for a Learning Manager to remember that students can become lost, confused or distracted when a whizz bang PowerPoint presentation is used during a learning experience. So when using a PowerPoint make sure it is used effectively.
Have a look at this Youtube clip "Life After Death By PowerPoint" (McMillan 2007), it paints a clear picture of when PowerPoint goes wrong.
References
Daniels, L 1999, Journal of computing in higher education, Introducing PowerPoint in the classroom: PowerPoint as the first step, vol. 10, pp42-56, http://www.springerlink.com/content/3628423174085807/, viewed 25th July, 2010.
McMillan, D 2007, How not to use powerpoint, YouTube,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cagxPlVqrtM&feature=fvst, viewed 25th July 2010.
Central Queensland University. (2010, May 30). Practical Activity: Week 3- PowerPoint, LMS and RSS. Retrieved July 25, 2010, from FAHE11001 - Term 2, 2010 Managing E-Learning: http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=99697
Kaminski, S. H. (2003, January 16th). PowerPoint, however, has notable weaknesses. Retrieved July 25, 2010, from PowerPoint Presentations: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: http://www.shkaminski.com/Classes/Handouts/powerpoint.htm#weaknesses
Finally created my very first website. I decided to create the website for hints and tips for beginning teachers. I am planning on adding more information to my site in the future. Being a student teacher I have been fortunate enough to come across many helpful handy resources to use in the classroom, creating a website seemed to be a smart and great way to share these hints and tips with others.
The World Wide Web is an important tool to present information for others to access. Creating a web page/site for a classroom allows a Learning Manager to cater for your specific audience in this case it may be the student, parents and other teachers, by creating a website it pretty much makes the audience limitless. A Learning Manager enables the teaching and learning material to become interactive when using a website to present various material such as learning tasks, information and assessment packages to students. Websites also allow other information and resources to be included by simply adding hyperlinks for others to click on and open. After brain storming some ideas of how a website might be effectively used in the classroom, I came up with a list of ideas. My research after then kept my list growing; my brainstorming and research lead both lead me to believe that classroom websites would be a valuable tool to incorporate into the classroom. The concept map displays my thinking and additional research.
References Lowe, P. (2006, August 7). Creating Classroom Web Pages. Retrieved July 21, 2010, from Teacher Designed Web Pages As A Classroom Tool : http://my-ecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=5742
Mulder-Slater, A. (2006). Top Ten Reasons to Create a Classroom Web Page. Retrieved July 21, 2010, from KinderArt® Stuff for Teachers: http://www.kinderart.com/teachers/webpage.shtml
Queensland University of Technology. (2010). Advantages of Web Pages. Retrieved July 21, 2010, from Catalyst: Using Technology to Communicate: http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/catalyst/07/07e1.htm
First I thought I would begin this post with a little background information about Wikis. Wikibooks (2010) states that the word Wiki comes from the Hawaiian word “wiki-wiki” which means quick. The very first wiki was created by Ward Cunningham in 1995, He used the word wiki-wiki as a substitute for "quick", his website Wikiwikiweb was created and designed for programmers to share and explore their knowledge and information about software development. Most people are familiar with the popular wiki network Wikipedia (encyclopedia).
This is the link to my experimental Wiki; it was created in Wetpaint http://jungle-animals.wetpaint.com/page/Animal+Profile. I found this online program was user friendly and was self explanatory to create and edit a wiki site. I did however find it a little time consuming and it is only just a simple example (test), but it did give me a good idea on the set up and some of the possible uses of Wikis. I decided to create/design this Wiki to suit the theme/unit my last prac class explored – Prep. Their unit focus was Animals Around the World, looking at different types of animals for example Farm, jungle and Antarctic animals. Wiki’s are an ideal way to communicate, collaborate, add and change learning material with and for student’s, my idea was to use this tool to allow students to learn and contribute to their learning over the course of the unit. Students would do this by working individually or with others to share and explore each other’s ideas, questions, information and answers. I believe “everybody has a voice” would be a great way to describe the use of a Wiki in the classroom.
There are many benefits of using wiki’s in the classroom: • Providing the Learning Manager with a valuable opportunity to communicate with the students on a different level (individually and as a whole group) • Students are able to communicate with the Learning Manager at any time in any place (at home on the weekend) • Students can communicate, contribute and interact with their peers (develop positive rapport and support each other throughout the learning journey). This would also encourage the students to develop a sense of ownership, meaning and value for the task/s. • The opportunity to plan and involving students and even parents in the unit content • Providing the parents with the opportunity to post any queries or comments onto the blog • Wiki’s are a different and engaging way to implement learning experiences and assessment • The use of Wiki’s develops skills such as teamwork, drafting, editing, collaborative writing and negotiation.
If there are Pro’s there is always Con’s: • Public Wiki’s are not checked for accuracy so it is important for students to ensure they check for reliable, truthful and valid information. • The possibility of vandalism, being a public site there is the possibility that someone could post inappropriate content (there is the option to add a posting and editing password but this generally has a fee) (Wikibooks, 2010). • Ensure all students have equal opportunity to access a computer and internet to explore and contribute to the Wiki. • A Learning Manager needs to be able to give up some control (pedagogical issues) of the content and allow students some independence. • It is more than likely that a Learning Manager will need to comply with school policy and receive parental permission to publish student’s work/pictures on the web.
References Wikibooks. (2010, May 12). Change Issues in Curriculum and Instruction/Wikis in the Classroom. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from Wikibooks- Open books for an open world: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Change_Issues_in_Curriculum_and_Instruction/Wikis_in_the_Classroom
After examining the TPACK framework, Learning Engagement Theory, and the Big Six Framework, I have chosen to use the Big Six Framework. Throughout this blog I will explore a range of learning technologies and evaluate their effectiveness with respect to this conceptual framework. The Big6 framework is used in thousands of schools; it is practical and can be used whenever someone needs to use information. The framework uses a systematic approach to enable a person to find, use, apply and evaluate information for a set task. The Big6 incorporates information search, skills and technology tools in order to work through the 6 step process. I believe it would be effective in the classroom for many reasons some of which are: 1. Each individual learner will travel along at their own pace during the learning process. The Big6 allows the learner to complete each stage in a time frame suitable to them and stages can be completed in any order they choose. The Framework is very structured leading the students in a step-by-step process throughout the task. 2. The Big6 can be used as a set of life skills. The skills developed whilst using this framework can be applied in any situation e.g. School, home and work. The Big 6 can be used when information is needed to solve a problem, make a decision, or complete a task. 3. The Big6 also integrates a diverse selection of computer and information technology skills e.g. When students are using the web to search for information they are using Big6 No. 3 - Location and Access. 4. The Big6 framework can be directly integrated into classroom curriculum and activities.
Choosing from the two programs Bubbl.us and text2mindmap to create a concept map was easy for me; I found both programs very user friendly but that may be because I am a Digital Native (Prensky 2001). I didn’t even have to read the user guides provided, so I made my decision based on presentation (what mapping appealed to me visually). My choice may have been influenced by the fact that I am very much a visual learner. How could I use this in my classroom? Concept mapping help students organise information, they help students recognise and use patterns in information. Mind Mapping can aid students in figuring out what is important and link relationships among the pieces of information. This process is said to facilitate students in understanding, using and retaining the information (Marzano & Pickering, 1997). The free concept mapping programs which are available via the internet would make it possible for students to use this organisation strategy anywhere at any time. They could use this tool at home or in school to help them quickly and easily break up any new or even old steps, processes and information with homework, projects or assignments. Online concept maps can be done on paper but getting the students to use the computer program may just interest and entice them that little bit more being digital natives and all. Making these programs available to students in class will provide them with the opportunity to practice and use these skills anytime they feel they need to. Student knowledge of these mapping programs can also provide the students with the chance to use them at home and include their parents in organising their learning.
References Marzano, R. J., & Pickering, D. J. (1997). Dimensions of Learning (2nd Edition ed.). Aurora, Colorado: McRel.
Prensky, M 2001, On the horizon, Digital natives digital immigrants, University press.
There are many positive and negative aspects to blogging that could be useful in the classroom. Blogging can be an innovative way to communicate with students. Some of the positives of blogging in the classroom are: 1: It connects all students with others all around the world at any point in time. 2: Students can learn from one another via their blogs. The students can participate in collaborative learning opportunities. 3: Blogging can engage learners in the learning experiences, because they are dealing with digital technology (digital natives). 4: It can assist students in identifying the relevance of the learning content and create responsibility, value and ownership for students.
I am a student of CQU currently studying a Bachelor of Learning Management (Early Childhood). This is my third year of study. The purpose of this blog is to meet the requirements of my current uni course Managing E-Learning. I am excited about what new and useful tools this course will introduce to me. I believe i could call myself a 'Digital Native' and technologically savvy but i am certain there is much more for me to learn. I have never created a blog before but i guess Facebook and emails can be classed as blogging, i have also created a webquest. I have used this technology throughout my life and more so now to complete my studies. It can seem at times that technology can have a mind of its own (Google: Did you mean: _ _ _ _ _?), but it is said that it's not the computer it's the user. I can't wait to find and learn more about the wide range of educational technologies during this course.
