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Assessment 1 Reflective Synopsis

Introduction

Like looking down from the top of the mountain over an enormous hill climb ascended, a sense of achievement is felt when looking at week one to week five of the practical use of digital platforms in my fruitful Pedagogy learning experience. I started with no real substance to my knowledge of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and the journey has been difficult in parts to be sure but I must know the frameworks.
I have a mind like a steel trap. Stuff gets in there and WHAM! it never gets back out again.
Bill Austin

 The Journey so far

The Blogger site broadened my ability and understanding of how to use pedagogical skills as a teacher through presentations. Presentations included the easily accessible youtube clips to demonstrably harder and complex annotations of infogr.am enabling me to launch education content into students minds and hands.

The first lessons were very confronting as I felt an inability to see the finished product of what I could achieve and alas the amount of knowledge (additional readings and just working out the nuts and bolts of the programs) is staggering, to say the least. Step by step, using the grit we hear so much about as pre-service teachers, I saw that the rebirth was beginning, of a new student/teacher paradigm regarding the relationship for learning. A comprehension of what teaching has become and the direction it is going allows me to understand and to see clearer if I take the time to look through the perspective of the contemporary student. It was difficult at the beginning to undo my expectations about teaching which was a priority for this course (Moss et al 2007).

                Students need high order thinking, to achieve their goals and ICT’s can help improve the abilities and skills of the student. After trialling the basic platforms and the field of dreams that have been planted in the weeks that followed, that I am continuing to expand upon, to grow in and out the classroom. I have learnt that I am able to deliver assessments and meet the obligations of the curriculum through the avenue of programs such as Powtoon (see embedded task 3 and 2), screencast-o-matic or prezi. I learnt students can use the platforms to capture and save work while connecting to one another through their mobile devices, receiving real-time updates and reaching the giddy heights of collaborative learning. Technology is reaching a point that if directed correctly by teacher’s students could have a permanent technological learning lifestyle to benefit their careers and future.

The real-life aspect of ICT digital pedagogy that relates to the student's own background knowledge is a wellspring for high order thinking that can be applied in a self-managed responsible style creating pro-active members of society. Interdependence is exploring through problem-based studies in which group activities can meld cultural knowledge and inclusiveness with these social platforms while demonstrations by the teacher (me in the near future) bring the direction to analyse, evaluate, publishing and the construction of new ideas. Interactions between groups in different situations help the learner along with empowering them to build the knowledge themselves (Holkner et al 2008, p 10, Baker 2009 ).

                SAMR and Bloom's taxonomy have directly affected my thinking that I am constantly looking at how each platform and topic can be incorporated into my future classrooms and my personal pedagogy and research supports that the use of ICTs is reliant on the teacher’s capability and intentions Moss et al (2007).

Other areas I would use the ICT to focus on the children’s abilities, support reflection and self-evaluation, peer reviewing, playing, along with distributing knowledge and understanding through the artefacts and tools of the ICT’s (Fisher, Higgins and Loveless 2006, Baker 2009)

As I progressed through my Blogs and topics every activity scaffolded the next. The Blog was a foundation in my case with the embedding and linking process installing confidence and an almost un-phased view of just wanting it in my next blog and so on.

Being push into the deep end of creating a video and putting it on YouTube was a massive step and a reinforcement of the embedding process ensured that my blog received the short video. I was starting to feel that embedding, which truly made me uncomfortable was now getting familiar, I finally started resizing within the HTML script, that felt good.

Honesty coupled with sound ethics surround the ICT platforms, and it is always important to protect private personal information and when teaching students, the social media aspects can be a minefield. Students and teachers alike owe everyone respect when posting or creating anything online whether public or private. I mention private as I only just learnt, private can mean that you need a password and information is only such until a password is obtained. Which brings me to accessibility, what should be allowed to be accessed and by whom (Mason 1986).

I have also had to navigate my way through the treacherous waters of property issues that were most burdensome and prohibited me from displaying many of my beloved finds from the internet in these projects. Finally, as a teacher I am held to account for the accuracy of content, I am a scientist and as such am aware of the constant changing and bickering among the different research, that aside. Students under tutelage or any form of direction from a teacher, either using or demonstrating the technologies must be an example to the students and their communities and therefore I need to adhere to strong ethical practices in these spheres (Mason 1986, Baker 2009).

 I can’t help but feel a little intrusive in this small community of teachers when commenting on their work. I keep it productive and short at present. I enjoyed seeing their journey, as many people appear to be in the same boat as me. I found it a wonderful resource for checking out how people used the same platforms and different platforms I had no chance to go into due to the seemingly endless choice. I really like bcforict.blogspot.com.au and the application to dissecting a heart. Great idea if not possible to get 20 plus hearts for a science class. I also admired an accounting quiz that Hanim had on his blog, I will be exploring these ideas in the near future.

Conclusion

So far, my journey has included using blogger as a framework, linking and embedding images, using audio file and video files, and using different presentation platforms, yet all this means nothing if I don’t continue the journey by using them again and again. Mental reinforcement which must then be adapted to classroom strategies.

The key idea of ICT’s mixed with Booms Taxonomy and SAMR is that the Australian curriculum is met within the subject taught by Us as teachers. The more interested we are in this technology the more we must offer and this appears to be directly proportionate to how the students relate to the technology (Baker 2009). If we fall short in any aspect of delivery and opportunity then the student suffers. The world has evolved, to be proactive and vigilant in updating our skills to reach out to our children’s potential is paramount (Baker 2009). I have enjoyed learning the platforms and frameworks from the ICT topics and it is a beginning.  I must remember the mind barrier I had to break in this short period of time, it was hard and there are heaps of challenges and many students will be at different levels and as a teacher we must be supportive and inclusive of those students (Baker 2009).

References

Baker, R., A., (2009), Museum & Education Digital Content Exchange: Overview and Report on the Student Trial, Curriculum Corporation, Melbourne.

Fisher, T., Higgins, C & Loveless, A., (2006), Teachers Learning with Digital Technologies: A Review of Research and Projects, Future lab, United Kingdom.

Hedberg, J., & Freebody, K (2007), Towards a Disruptive Pedagogy: Classroom Practices that Combine Interactive Whiteboards with TLF Digital Content, TLF, Melbourne.

Holkner, B, Romeo, G, Henderson, M, Auld, G, Russel, G, Seah, WT & Fernando, A (2008), Exemplar Schools: Using Innovative Learning Technologies, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Australia.

Mason, R., O., Four Ethical issues of the information age, Management Information Systems Quarterly Volume 10 Number1 March 1986 (pp5-12)

Moss, G, Jewitt, C, Levaaic, R, Armstrong, V, Cardini, A & Castle, F (2007), The Interactive Whiteboards, Pedagogy and Pupil Performance Evaluation: An Evaluation of Schools Whiteboard Expansion (SWE) Project: London Challenge, School of Educational Foundations and Policy Studies, Institute of Education, University of London.

Embedded Task 3
My oh my.......On one occasion a student burst into his office. "Professor Stigler, I don't believe I deserve this F you've given me." To which Stigler replied, "I agree, but unfortunately it is the lowest grade the University will allow me to award."

It was very interesting looking at the various presentation tools, I tried using the virtual museums of Christy keeler's blog as well my simple show but did not enjoy. The former was a simplistic set up through the powerpoint program and the later was trying to charge me. I did not feel it was worth the money at this moment in time with so many fantastic free options, though I shall reconsider when I am rich and famous.
I stumbled onto the Powtoon site and was very excited  about its potential.
I could easily see an exercise as a group could be quite the experience for the students and could replace watching a prepared documentary by a TV station. Given some interesting facts and a few lines of inquiry this could be an elevator for the different levels of higher cognitive learning. Students could use the Powtoons to create documentary style virtual museums one section at a time as fun mini- documentaries and have this customised platform be the augmentation area of the SAMR model. I could deliver home work and assignments via the powtoons therefore stepping into the modification of the classic portage of assessments. The redefinition is the possibility of the students embedding it into their own blogs or the teachers for the public or for future reference and association.

I have tried a lot of different platforms this topic and I wanted to get competent at Audacity, but had too many issues with the microphone. I will have to purchase another that is more suitable, I just hope I have worked out the Hz settings with the choice of either 16 bit or 32 bit float. I have not found which is appropriate for my microphone and headset. I have had very little trouble previously with my mike working except the quality is not fantastic. GIMP is quite a helpful tool with resizing images and manipulating them (see below the space nebula scene) but I am content with the Powtoon review which shall be in my tool box front and centre.

Powtoon is a lot of fun but I need to spend time refining my work, time I feel I do not have at this second. I think students would love this application and it could really keep them focused with its cheeky look.  To show you some of the features I made a screencast-o-matic as I felt it would be helpful to use some of what I have learnt to share a little of what I am learning this week.






I found the embedding process easy until you get a warning from the HTML within the Blogger to which you simply hit the FIX option and it seems hunky dory. When Issues arise I like humor........
G: "If we do happen to step on a mine, Sir, what do we do?" EB: "Normal procedure, Lieutenant, is to jump 200 feet in the air and scatter oneself over a wide area." -- Somewhere in No Man's Land, BA4 






I also mucked around with this template below in Powtoon. A fair bit of fun.

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night." -- Charlie Brown, _Peanuts_ [Charles Schulz]


I feel I have come miles since the first week, it really is about that tenacity to keep going that will make or break me. My wife was well ahead of me "computing wise" and has never heard of these programs and wants me to teach her. She loves the idea and so do my tiny little ones, my 4 year is constantly hiding in my office trying to see what I am doing while my son sneaks in when I am not in there to try to be an "ARTIST" with my assignments............to my horror, incredible duress and panic.
I look forward to expanding on this knowledge and hope it helps my mentors and students when I go on my embedded placement shortly.

Embedded Task 2

Welly welly well, I am starting to see the forest through the trees.

I have tried several of the platforms in this Embedded task, and have found some appeal to my sense of “please disregard now”. I have not thrown them out completely but some are frustrating, especially those with less than friendly tutorials handy………… I am thinking of scratch info which is the embedded dance floor image with the two foxes or cats below (press the flag in the top corner to make the animal walk). I also touched on several other image manipulators, these include think link (see below), gap minder ( I need to spend a lot of time in this one), storyboard that, which is a lot of fun (see below), I even had a go at what was where which I was slightly underwhelmed with the amount of photos and ended up bailing out (my head is shaking).

I successfully embedded an image taken from my phone, please see the test for mobile blogger app in the post below, and followed that by making a video on my phone and upload to you tube and embedding that in my blog (see below). Some of these were quite wonderful to conquer as I feel they could supplement my methods of teaching efficiently. The students can either engage with the media that I bring to them or as groups/individuals they could use some of these. Students could start with the simple podcasting or you tube clips progress through the fun storyboard types and build upon the concepts. I believe more importantly; future teachers like myself have a massive advantage in the classroom if we use this technology wisely. Children want to learn but the methods used to teach must engrave into their minds.
I am one who loves books and when thinking of SAMR I can't help but feel that books are the real losers in the battle to reach children's minds. Many of the platforms enhance a child's curiosity but also play into the constant screen life of the future generations.

I made a screen cast and it was quite time consuming, it does not matter though as I will be using screencast-o-matic in the future 100% guaranteed. The embedded version seems to have gaps in the sound. I will invest in a slightly better microphone to avoid more frustration with sound.
It is easy to see the applications of this for the student to benefit, to be able to access either at home or some where after class to go over anything missed due to distraction or lack of time. The student could also present information on such a platform and present meaningful information in way that others can access remotely.
When creating the screencast-o-matic It was necessary have the images on your computer screen already and the recording area over the selected choices (see below).

Once this was done I could flick through the images as I recorded while speaking about the topics I wanted to address. You then hit the record and Vwallah.....You follow the easy instructions to just save, publish and embed. The finished product can be downloaded to your own computer or shared on social media through embedding. The website allows for you to save it under your own account.

The Substitution of the an exercise from a text book for an exercise of creating sceencast to be place on a blog under careful supervision.

For the Augmentation I could use this method to deliver tasks of different themes to the students and update them on new developments.

Modification would be through the students in each group responding by having to create their own part, in which each when watched in the correct order created a miniseries of information about a subject.

Redefinition would entail students using screenocast to educate one another in areas that they did not cover in their tasks. 

I am a little disappointed in myself as there is so much in this subject and I have missed out on being able to even master one item that was in the topic. I am at a loss as to how anyone could smash through these in a week or nine. I am constantly just trying to find the ones that will immediately help me and I chose the ones that I mesh with and give me a form of vision for my own pedagogy. Every link was a discovery to be made and I will try to return to them and I have so many of these websites in my favourites list on my web browser.
These tools can seem exceptionally daunting but once you have a go , a majority really are quite easy to get the basic functions up and running. Really anyone can do it with encouragement. We just must be responsible of what content is created and alluded to and that all rights reserved are given to the owners of the knowledge used as I discussed in the screen-cast-o-matic.

Here is the online concept mapping websites added onto wise mapping. I also threw in the What is there? application It is still trying to accumulate images and as such does not have many.




I want to understand this but for the moment This completely weird scratch.mit will have to do.




Here is my mobile video that I sent to you tube then embedded here.




Please run cursor over the thinglink below for mineral names.

Testing Storyboard


I think this is starting to happen. Here is storyboard I made to test the platform , I liked it a lot....not the story ...the website. Very user friendly. Enjoy.



Made with Storyboard That

Testing my blogger mobile app

a few mineral specimens.

Embedded Task 1

Weebly editor toolbox.

Wow wee. What an avalanche of knowledge has hit me in the past three weeks, it is akin to drinking from a fire hose.

In Week 1, we explored the world of blogs by creating a platform through
Blogger, Weebly and Wikispaces. The blog was a sanctuary of thoughts, struggles and research recorded in reflections on the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that we are in the process of mastering. Surprisingly, I learnt Blogger and Weebly were very user friendly. 
Wikispaces I did not enjoy as much (personal preference) and was more attracted to the former two which is where my focus will be even though I used blogger more for the simple reason it is specifically design to blog. Each platform has its own unique abilities and challenges.

Week 3 of our ICT course reflected on the importance of incorporating higher cognitive learning into our classrooms using an understanding of the previous weeks lessons on  digital pedagogy and understanding the current needs of todays students. The focus was presented as a balanced incorporation of SAMR model with Blooms taxonomy into the ICT teaching strategies of the classroom.

Blogs, Blooms Taxonomy and SAMR

The blog is now the structural platform for this course and I am able to clearly visualise the practical implications and the importance of the mastering of such a tool in a classroom. I was only recently made aware of the ICT platforms, though I had actually seen a promethean activpanel being used for the last 3 months at my  daughters Early Learning Centre.

Developing strategies to utilise the ICT's available today directly relate to Blooms taxonomy

Image Source

The learner today needs and wants the ability to understand the technologies that are available in the ICT platforms. I am convinced the way I learnt at school, the teacher talks and student listens is being left behind, like the horse and cart.

 Although the platforms I have been using are user friendly I have struggled at times especially with the embedding. I learnt embedding is able to be applied to anything with an embed code be it youtube, infographics, google docs, TED Talks, volcano and PDF documents. Very handy and valuable to students for their learning and keeping them interested. Here are a couple more examples.

Townsville. Home of the Supreme teacher.

Create your own infographics

 It is getting easier but I know I need to continue using it regularly to not forget how it is done. I also had to repeat the table creation for week 3 several times in Google Drive as it is not directly part of blogger. Learning these tools has built confidence in the technologies and sets the mind ablaze with possibilities. The applications are simple and easily able to be passed on to others as Wendy has show in the tutorials.
I found that the SAMR model can be clothed by blogger, it substitutes blackboards and paper hand outs. Blogger is like a market square to which any produce cart of value could be parked on. The Blog can be used as an online, real time website for communication. While the modification aspect is met by the ability to use Blogger for peer connection on the super highway of networks, and hyperlinking that allows for the student to feel like a citizen of the digital world being opened up to them via this fantastic tool. Finally the redefinition is in the refining of this repository of banked knowledge that over time becomes history of the learning experience and a hub for the hive of minds that can access and communicate to one another guiding and adding to it as a record of the academic journey undertaken

Higher cognitive learning is organically weaved into the top three levels of Blooms taxonomy and in combination with blogging and SAMR enables the teacher and students to create and present dynamic interactive, next generation lessons that can be revisited and tracked through its digital footprint. I really enjoy this subject and look forward to really playing with these applications in the future.

Higher Order Learning Table

I am trying to embed this table and repeat as an image.

First a link to strategy table.

This is an experiment, testing the embed. Enjoy