Reflection Synopsis

Digital learning seems to be creating different experiences to those that just included a pen and paper. According to the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, “Digital learning is any type of learning that is facilitated by technology or by instructional practice that makes effective use of technology. Digital learning occurs across all learning areas and domains.” Digital learning; also known as elearning, can include a spectrum of different practices, which include, game based learning, geographical learning, digital content, and much more. Elearning helps the students to connect with their different pedagogies associated with their learning in general. Many e-learning activities are set to support different learners. Each website has visual and verbal instructions, which help students to understand and experiment with the task. Many ICT’s have visual stimuli that help the student’s to stay focus and enjoy their task. Students can also control their learning of an ICT tool, which creates a more positive outcome to the student’s learning.

Education Queensland

Through this synopsis I will be discussing my past weeks contributing and experience e-learning and the legal and ethnic sides to using e-learning in the classroom. Through the weeks I have participated in Blogs, Glogster, Photo Editing and the use of Mobile Devices for learning.

Different wikis, websites, games and applications can be endorsed into the learning environment. “To be well informed and active participants in our changing society, students will need to be self-directed learners, able to identify issues, pose questions, synthesise ideas, determine solutions to problems and develop capabilities and confidence with a range of technologies.” (NSW Education, n.a). Teachers use wikis to help students complete and demonstrate their work, with even attaching a presentation aspect to the students work. Wikis can be designed to accommodate across the curriculum and even add a few different aspects across each curriculum topic in the one wiki.

Once the course started, we were made to reflect using de Bono's hat and state an individual opinion on using mobile phones in the classroom. At first, I had a negative review and just one statement in mind. I did not see how it was possible to use a product that had no boundaries for students. Then I started to think about other possibilities about the use of mobile phones. Upon looking into the use of the devices more, I found that there were legislations and obligations when using the electronic devices and using online environments as stimuli. In fact, I found schools and practices must "Ensure policies, practices and systems are in place that are consistent with ethical and legal obligations;" (Queensland Government, 2007). This source indicated to me that a Learning Manager is responsible in making sure that learners are aware of the safety about using technology in a safe matter. Week 6: Mobile Devices. I found that participating in that week that mobile devices could be quiet effective in the learning process of the students.

Queensland Government

Week 4: Photo Editing I became aware of what teachers can do to teach their students about photo editing. In fact, I wasn't aware that teachers were able to introduce picture-sharing software to the students until I participated in this week. Photos can be used to show students pictures of people and place they have never seen or heard about before, better yet, photos are unlimited to how you work with them, so they can be used across cultures and religions. When using pictures, teachers must be aware that "Obtaining informed parental/guardian permission if details of students, including photographs, are to be published as per the policy for Publishing Student and Staff Information on School Web Sites by filling out the appropriate consent form" (Education Queensland, 2012). 

What was new to me were the Blogs and the Glogster. It wasn't till mid into my course of Education that I was aware of making a website. The software I used to participate in managing a website was Glogster. Glogster opened many opportunities and ideas for teachers to use to create a learning experience for their students, in fact, the website I created, week 5: Glogster , took in the point of view of the student. Websites can range from different cultures and can connect to different curriculum sectors.  

Blogs allowed students to participate in online forums to connect their knowledge and understanding amongst peers. Teachers and students are then covered by policies when using blogs in the classroom, the policy states 

"When publishing information on personal web pages (as provided by the MIS (Managed Internet Service), teachers and students should also consider conflict of interest, breach of legal implications (copyright, intellectual property, privacy), ineffective resource usage, and/or breach of duty of care." (Education Queensland, 2007).  

The blog post I undertook, Week 3: Blogging, indicates how a teacher can use blogging as an activity, also using the de Bono hats. 

  

 The use of the SMAR chart helps students with their high order thinking and helps to create higher opportunity for longer and more informative lessons. This course helped me with understanding how to use different technologies and applications in the classroom and helped me determined if I thought using mobile devices in the classroom were acceptable, and the policies and legislation to help the students and myself be safe when using technology. 

Lang Witches

Reference:

Department of Education and Early Childhood Delveopment. (2014). Teaching with digital technologies. Retrieved from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/support/pages/elearningcurriculum.aspx

Education Queensland. (2012). Risk Management. Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/web/schools/riskman.html

NSW Government. (n.a). Science and Technology: Computer-base learning in schools. [PDF for Digital Edition] Retrieved from  http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/primary/scitech/assets/docs/computer-based%20learning.pdf

 Queensland Government. (2007). Use of Internet and electronic mail policy and principles statement. [PDF for Digital Edition] Retrieved from http://www.psc.qld.gov.au/publications/assets/policies/internet-and-electronic-mail.pdf

Week 6: Mobile Devices

Mobile phones have definitely been the top topic and a must have amongst society today.  It’s all about having the latest and greatest gadget, rather then, the actual use of a phone, to call people. Having mobile phones in an education setting seems interesting to me. For instance, I was always told to have my phone in my bag, turned off and unable to see during high school, and having no phone whatsoever during primary school. So when it comes to having mobile phones in the classroom, I have a new and intrigued approach to the topic. I always have on my mind if a phone can really be used in an educational environment or is it just a hassle because it can prompt bullying or stealing. I researched into this further and found that electronically devices can help the students with learning difficulties and students with a physical disorder. For example, there are apps that help a blind student to understand words and sounds. There are also different apps that help students of all different physical monitoring and physic. These programs help the students with subjects across the curriculum and can be set to their learning ability. In fact, I found most of these apps intriguing and helping me learn how the student learns. The app I chose to use learn with is a PowerPoint making app.  This app allows me to create a PowerPoint on my mobile device; this app is called “Microsoft PowerPoint”. I chose to create the PowerPoint using pictures from an educational app I found for my mobile device: this app is called “Duolingo”. Duolingo helps students to learn new languages across the world; students can choose their language of interest and get daily goals for the amount of time they will chose to use the app. The app was so much help and taught me so much in such a little time frame. 

To begin the learning process of Microsoft PowerPoint and Duolingo in my classroom would introduce the students to the apps and help them understand How to use mobile phone devices correctly. I will then allow the students to experiment with the different apps and electronically device, allowing them to choose their layout and design in Microsoft PowerPoint to allowing them to choose the language they want to learn in Duoligo. This allows the students to understand the framework of the apps in more depth and allows them to be intrigued with the topic because they are choosing their learning.  I will then use Microsoft Powerpoint again with the students, this time giving a short presentation about their language they chose and their learning process about the language. This procedure will ensure the student’s understanding and knowledge about SlideShark and allows them to share their learning journey with their peers. I will proceed by allowing the students to use their PowerPoints to teach their peers the language they have chosen. They can interpret different language features and discuss how the language features and use of words differ from English. The students will complete this lesson by using their mobile devices to pair up and compare their knowledge about the different language and how they choose to format their work on their electronically device for the other students to understand. They will compare their work using verbal comments and suggestions on how they can improve their work. They will then use Imessager on a mobile device, to send their feedback, so they are able to keep using and experimenting with the mobile device. 

Link to Slideshark: http://www.slideshark.com/Landing.aspx?pi=zHdzxb1aczLMDdz0

Week 5: Glogster

Glogster is a new and exciting way to make a webpage or a blog. Working on Glogster, I found it entertaining and creative. The stimulus seemed to captivate me and I found myself working on my product fir a very long time.  Glogster allows students to work on creating a webpage online, using easy tools and methods. This is a website that is safe and secure from predators or intruders, so that they will be unable to see the students work. Many different layouts can be contributed to the page and students can choose different presentations to represent their website. In the classroom Glogster can be used to represent the student’s work or using the site to present the student’s knowledge and understanding. Glogster allows students to use core skills to create a website, however, the students might need a run through first on how the website is used and how they can create their own website. On Glogster, I decided to create a webpage on under the sea. This will be shown at a younger level to show how easy the website is formulated and that it is student friendly to all ages across the school sector. Depending on the age of the student will interpret the need of help and resources for the website, as a student who is quite young would need more help then an older student. Glogster would be used in the classroom for presentation purposes and helps the teacher to understanding the student’s understanding and knowledge.

To begin the learning process of Glogster in my classroom, would introduce the students to the website and help them understand what Glogster is all about. I will then allow the students to experiment with the webpage, allowing them to choose their layout and design, resizing, adding pictures and creating font. This allows the students to understand the framework of Glogster in more depth.  I will then use Glogster again with the students, this time giving the students a topic with a subject they are familiar about, for example, a previous Science, Math or English lesson topic. Allowing this procedure will ensure the student’s understanding and knowledge about Glogster, but it will also show the students that the website can be used to link to other curriculum links. I will then link the student’s work and make the students come together as a team to compare and illiterate their work. They can discuss certain aspects and information provided on their webpage, as well as giving verbal feedback on each other’s work. The students will complete the Glogsters by pairing up and comparing their work, for example, the layout and text. They will compare their work over a video-sharing app, which allows the students to open a link to a video of the other student and allow them to compare their work and share feedback, similar to Skype.  This will allow the students to use another multimedia, besides the Glogster, to share their work and discuss their similarities and differences of their work.

Link to Glogster: 
http://jessicanoffke.edu.glogster.com/sea-creatures/

Week 4: Photo Editing

Pass the years, pictures have changed the way they are presented and taken. In the past people brought a camera that contained film. These pictures were then developed in a local chemist, which would take a day to develop. Group pictures relied on one member of the group to be isolated from the others to take the picture. Nowadays, people have cameras on their phones and/or have the actual camera device. Instead of a member being isolated from group pictures they now can set a timer, or yet take a ‘selfie’, which is a picture of one taking a photo of them self. Pictures now can be uploaded to a computer and stored, and instead of taking the film in to get developed, people can print their pictures off of computers or upload them to social media to share amongst others. Pictures are used in the classroom to help students, who are visual learners, to understand and gain knowledge about certain tasks and lessons. Students can also use pictures as a framework to show their understanding to their peers or teachers. These pictures could show diagrams or illustrations to show the students way of thinking, if they were to have a vocabulary difficulty. Photography can also be a way for the teacher to record student’s achievements or/and work visually for parents to interpret.  

There are many advantages using photos in the classroom. They can be used as a learning material, as well as a behaviour management tool. Students can accomplish many different behaviour aspects through their life, some positive and some negative. These accomplishes can be recorded using photos and shown to parents or other teachers at a later date. Another positive about photos is the activities students can participate in. With the technology today, people benefit because they are allowed to edit their pictures, Editing allows the participant to make changes to their picture, such as, changing the colour (applying a filter), editing marks or red skin on the photo, changing red eyes and much more.  Students can participate in this activity by taking a photo and applying these changes. Students can share their work on a website created by the teacher for the classroom to have an art gallery in the classroom. This will allow the student to show their work to their peers and describe the changes they made and why they made those changes.  They will show their peers the before and after picture and publish their description and before and after pictures on a website. These activities allows the students to participate in the technical world using pictures and is set so the students aren’t just editing a picture and not understanding why pictures are edited.

The photo edited this week shows how crop, resizing and filtering has been used to re-enhance the photo.  

Week 3: Blogging

Technology is a fast approaching aspect, influencing the life of adults and children of this century. What is vastly becoming popular is blogging or vlogging (video blogging). A blog is a personal diary, which is frequently updated by the author. Blogging has the opportunity for the author to share their ideas and findings to thousands of viewers a day, determining the popularity of the blog. Many different ideas can be conducted into a blog, which includes, different tutorials all the way to different knowledge and understandings of a product or topic. Blogging can also help students in the classroom. Blogging helps support students into sharing ideas and create flexible and extended thinking from the student. Blogs help support the student in their work by engaging the students with the different features the blog has on offer, as well as, sharing interests with the student. Many different materials and activities can be conducted in a blog to help students participate and learn from a blog. Activities include, PMI charts, de Bono’s hats, Collaborative Authoring, Y and T charts, and many more. PMI charts allow the students to list the positives, minuses and interests of a certain topic. This activity allows the students to extend their thinking and collaboratively work on ideas and share similar and/or different points of view about a topic. The PMI chart allows the students to extended their thinking because they will be thinking about how the topic contributes to the rest of the social ladder, and not just the student them self. De Bono’s hats are an activity that allows the students to share their different perspectives by wearing an imaginary hat there are six hats all together. Each hat represents a new way of thinking, for example, Green-Creativity, Black- Negative, Blue-Process, White- Facts, Red- Feelings and Yellow- Benefits. Many students tend to think with only one hat, with de Bono’s hats being conducted into a classroom activity, students can benefit from extended thinking to share ideas and points of view. While used in a blog, students can see and read ideas that the other students have posted to extend their knowledge about the students thinking.  Many activities can collaborate into a blog, which benefits student’s learning and knowledge about a topic or a student.   

Many activities can be conducted while blogging. Students are able to extend their knowledge using blogging as a technical form for their work. De Bono’s hats allows the students to use their different perspectives to share knowledge about a certain topic or idea. Blogging can be used to create an activity using de Bono’s hats to help students with the topic of interest. We begin the de Bono’s hats activity by giving the students a topic, for this example, the topic will be “Students should wear causal clothing to school”.  First, the students will write a blog for all their peers to see about the topic. Students are able to view, however, not comment on the student’s work. The students will be able to determine their layout and/or the website, which their blog will be featured. The teacher will the modify the activity by giving the students the template of de Bono’s thinking hats to contribute and extend their thinking process, for example, the students might have only suggested why they think it is a positive experience to have casual dress as school, which probably consisted of a few sentences. With de Bono’s thinking hats, students will be able to contribute more knowledge and understanding about the topic and understand how big the topic really consists of. Once the students have completed the activity using de Bono’s thinking hats they then post their work. This then will allow the teacher and the student’s peers to have access to their work, which then the peers will contribute ideas and comments to the student’s work. Blogging can be applied to a lot of different activities. The processing of blogging enhances the student’s learning ability and allows them to have the insight to other student’s mind and work. Blogging allows the students to participate in numerous activities, which enhances their knowledge. Blogs allow the student’s to not only contain their work but also the work of their peers, so it allows the students to participate and work together to create and benefit from vast amounts of information.

Link to Blog: 
http://kidblog.org/JessicaNoffkesClass/8cce3c29-ee59-453a-ac76-08b5e30c9e8d/should-we-wear-school-uniforms/

Week 2: Reflection 1

Society is currently surrounded by the ever growing and complex technology surrounding the new innovation of smart phones and mobile phones. Due to marketing purposes, students are influenced in having the new and improved high gadget technology, which include mobile phones. It seems that the trend today is to have the latest in technology and with upgrades to certain technologies, it’s hard for certain people to have the latest and greatest trend in technology. In this week’s forum there is a discussion arising about the use of mobile phones being used in the classroom. Using the De Bono’s thinking hats and Bloom’s Taxonomy, students discussed their thoughts, feelings and research about students having mobile phones in the classroom. Throughout the thinking and research process, I am still on the boarder, when it comes to allowing students to have phones in the classroom. I consider it to be a positive outcome to students learning, enabling them to produce and engage in technological experiences and vesting their knowledge for future engagements. However, there is a low accommodation that allows teachers and/or parents to understand what the students are doing on their phones, which raises the chances of cyber bullying.  

Throughout the reading over the past weeks, it has been discussed the influence technology has on students and how teachers are becoming more technological. It understood that technology benefits a lot of the student’s learning outcomes. Many of the pedagogical principles are interpreted when students are using technology for their work. Teachers have to change how they contribute knowledge to the students because of the use of technology.  Being in different schools, high and low social economics, I have seen how different technology has influenced the student’s learning. I’ve noticed that a school with low technology advantages has had troubles producing the curriculum step by step and are limited in producing lesson plans that help the students engage with technology. This comes to a complete change once I was witnessing a school with high technology influences. They were able to follow curriculum plans and lesson plans flawlessly, while creating technological tools to further the student’s knowledge. Technology is a main and positive tool to use in schools. Technology allows students to show thinking, organising, planning and modeling of their work. They can also find a vast amount of information and research, which then they can use, online tools to organise and evaluate their work.

This week’s activity was to do with the discussion about allowing students to learn by using mobile phones in the classroom. Using De Bono’s thinking hats procedure set the activity for this week’s discussion. De Bono’s thinking hats allows us to imaginatively put on different colour hats to think of different answers to a discussion topic. The colours of the hats determine different responses. At times it was difficult to determine different responses to each of the hats because of the different ways of thinking that had to be contributed. It was also interesting to see the different responses other people had given. It seemed that most of us had the same general idea, however, could contributed different enquiries to the questions. It seemed that the scaffolding used in this activity helped to extend the answers to the question and allowed for higher order thinking. This activity also linked into Bloom’s Taxonomy. Bloom’s Taxonomy allowed the contributors of the activity to comprehend, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluate and share knowledge about the question being asked.  This activity can be linked into the classroom and used by the students. It helps students to use their higher order thinking process, while understanding and connecting to other student’s ideas and knowledge to enhance their learning and further their ideas.

Introduction

FAHE11001: Managing e-Learning

Assessment 1

Student name: Jessica Noffke
Student Number: S0230460
Campus: Bundaberg