Reflection 4 Week 5

Group 3

These are my attempts at the Group 3 materials. I've gone for a more generic science-y feel for my examples this week, just to shake it up.

• 3D Power Point Click Here

• Click on the computer, light bulb, painting and the rock line.

• Prezi - Soil Formation Click here

• Glogster - Chemical Experiment Click here 

 

Reflection

My major focus for the Group 3 Reflection will be on Glogster but in brief I'll address the 3D PowerPoint and Prezi. I like PowerPoint as a fall back option for lesson presentation, its something familiar and easy to use, but I have never really thought of it as more than a linear tool. Generating the 3D room was fun to do but difficult initially to organise, particularly to get the right mental image of each shape needed to create the effect. I think this could be used in junior high but may not be sophisticated enough for seniors.

Prezi is an interesting tool. I need more practice with this one as I was a tad put off by all the zooming and jumping around. I can see that it is more dynmic than say a Bubbl.us so I'll try to get a bit more time with this one.

I found Glogster to be a good tool to use in place of a static written report. In science classes experiments are always super interesting, they are hands-on and engage the majority of students. The report writing at the end of the experiment is the borrrrring part.

The abilities of the students to perform the practicals can often be overshadowed by poor supplementary reporting.  I know when I was undertaking practical experiments throughout my uni degree, I was always keen for the hands-on experience but dreaded the dry write-up, not to mention the facts never seemed as dynamic when written on paper as they are when you see them live. A glogster write-up could really change the tide on experimental reporting as its a fun and organised way to have students express their hypothesis, methods, results and conclusions using images and or videos they may have take during the experiment. I really think this has transformative potential in the science class. This being said I have created a SAMR reflection and a PMI to support this.

SAMR model

• Substitution: Use a Glogster to write up an experiment as opposed to a written report.
• Augmentation: Use a Glogster to enhance an experimental write up by including images and videos of your experiment.
• Modification: Use a Glogster template to create your own experiment.
• Redefinition: Use a Glogster experiment template as a group to design a theoretical experiment from start to finish (predicting your conclusions) based on your chemistry readings. Use information, videos and photos from the internet to complete your Glogster. Once the teacher approves the experimental design you can go ahead and perform it.

 PMI

PLUS	MINUS	INTERESTING
Visually appealing and interactive	Have to pay for more than a 7 day trial version	Image credits and copyrights could pose issues for students
Organises information	Single user only
Many templates available
Multi-modal learning

 

 

Group 4

• Bubbl.us of plant evolution

 

 

• Scribble Maps - What a great tool! Click here

Reflection

I'm a firm believer in the cognitive power of concept mapping. It helps us organise our thoughts, find links in already known knowledge and to notice gaps between our knowledge. This knowledge linking is a well defined feature of many pedagogies, one such being described in the Dimensions of Learning by Marzano and Pickering 1997.

Scientific principles can seem like a new language and in fact it does have its own metalanguage as discussed by Henderson 2012. An easy to use concept mapping tool could be a good group exercise to do at the beggining of a new topic to share and organise all of the students existing knowledge in a KWL scenario. So, if the concept was photosythesis, I would ask the students to call out some terms, or facts about it then organise it into a Bubbl.us map. This could also generate questions, such as:

 'Ok, now why did I put carbon dioxide in a box next to sunlight as opposed to oxygen? They are both gases so you would think they go together, but in this case carbon dioxide is an ingredient or input (same as sunlight) in photosynthesis and oxygen is the product or output. So I've grouped them in terms of inputs and outputs so we can generate the chemical equation'

The other Group 4 ICT tool I played around with was Scribble maps. I used this to mark out features on a local power station and coal mine which are the dominant employers in the region I will be completing my EPL. I think this is a fantastic tool! I really like how this takes abstract pieces of knowledge such as energy generation and can conceptualise it into a local and very relevant framework which when annotated really frames the subject matter. If I get the chance to look at energy management during my EPL I hope to use this as an example. I've competed a SWOT analysis for such a mapping program and a SAMR model.

SAMR model

• Substitution: Use a Scribble map to placemark energy generators in QLD (include local power stations, coal mines, hydroelectric dams, LNG processing facilities, LPG facilities, wind farms).
• Augmentation: Use a Scribble map to colour co-ordinate all renewable energy production places and the energy sources generating green house gases.
• Modification: Use the pins, circles and text box functions in Scribble maps to describe the different power generators in QLD in brief.
• Redefinition: As a project choose one energy generator you have found in your research and zoom in close on the area on your Scribble map. Describe each part of the plant or mine in detail and using arrows link each part to the next part of the power generation process i.e. link the smoke stacks to the benched areas.

Similarly, you could use this for ecology explorations. Say you were researching sea snail subpopulations along the Capricorn Coast, you could indicate with markers and text where the populations where highest, lowest and other interesting findings. I've packed this all together in a SWOT analysis.

SWOT Analysis

STRENGTHS	WEAKNESS	OPPORTUNITIES	THREATS
Multi-modal learning tool.	Icon overlapping if placed to close once zoomed out.	Ecology studies, looking at habitat fractures, corridors, niches etc.	Need to ensure students still reference information in text boxes.
Incorporates spatial knowledge with subject knowledge.	Can’t click on an object and press the ‘delete’ button. You must use the eraser function which is clunky.	Geography studies, tectonic links e.g. ring of fire (you could actually draw and annotate the ring).	It’s a publicly available document, so it must be presented accurately.
Interactive media.	The map really can only be presented on screen live.	Political geography, city size, population, resources etc, then compare with another in a different country.	Landscapes change over time, the images on Scribble maps may not be the most up-to-date.
Broad applications over my subject areas (biology & geography).		Landscape evaluation, look at places close to the equator and further away, what is dominant? Why?
Creates links and highlights missing information.		I could go on…
Can be local, international, small or large scale.

References:

Henderson, R. (2012). Teaching Literacies: Pedagogies and Diversity in the Middle Years. South Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press
Marzano, R. & Pickering, D. J. (1997). Dimensions of Learning: Teachers Manual. 2nd edn. Alexandria, Virginia USA. Mid-continent Regional Educational Library.

Reflection 3 Week 4

 

Travel Photos Resized with MobaPhoto - for the visual component of this weeks assignment.

For this weeks activity I thought I'd step away from linking my ICT use to Biology and go with Geography. So with that in mind I have used MobaPhoto to resize some of my travel photos from the West Coast of Australia. I definitely wouldn't have had the ability to to this without using the resizing function in MobaPhoto as these are originally high resolution images. This beats what I was doing which was importing the picture into word, resizing, then cut-and-paste into paint to save, what a long-winded approach. This would also help when emailing large image files, in my previous place of work we had a shared network drive that acted as a 'dropbox' for larger files, which was a cumbersome way of doing this, as everyone had access and could view confidential files, accidentally delete or change the file or the location of the file etc. I can see this being useful in the classroom for students to insert images into assignments, be they word docs, or something a bit more tech-happy. It would be good for their storage space and mine, and would avoid any kind of size limit restrictions which could cost time to both teacher and student.

SAMR of Online Image Sharing

• Substitute: Students use online photo sharing as opposed to taking photos, printing and displaying.
• Augmentation: Students use the tools in photosharing platforms to edit images, add labels and concept mapping features.
• Modification: Students create a series of photo-based diagrams to explain geographic principles such as plate tectonics (i.e. find images of mountains, craters, volcanoes etc to show they know the results of moving tectonic plates)
• Redefinition: Students work in groups to add images to a photosharing platform that are relevant to a concept then create a Microsoft Research Auto Collage image and speak to it as a presentation.

As we are entering an increasingly digital age I am always cautious about exactly what I want on the internet about me. I enjoy the social aspects of the web but do not like the idea of people I do not know finding out or using my personal information, particularly photos.I use email to communicate with my friends and IMs, I do not have a facebook or any other kind of social media account. I regularly check my digital foot-print and sometimes am astounded at the amount of my private information is made public such as mobile phone numbers, home phone numbers, my home address and my property history! I contact them immediately of course to get it taken down and try to track down how they happened upon this information in the first place, I usually get the good ol' fob off :)

My Musings...I've always wondered.... if you asked people to provide personal information to various institutions and people such as places of employment, banks, churches, government bodies or even just the random person walking down the street (or hiding behind a keyboard), would they freely do it...

Welcome to social media...

Why not just give these folk (or anyone with a computer) a full-colour brochure of who you are as an individual complete with a timeline, friends names, your favourite activities, workplaces, contact details, your partners name and what they like, quotes, daily thoughts on various topics, lists of attended events, and photos of you in heaps of different situations, why would you freely do it...

This being said I thought I'd have a look the Creative Commons website for this weeks activity. The purpose of Creative Commons is to license material clearly so individuals and businesses alike can confidently upload images and content and have clear agreement as to how it can be used. Content licensed under Creative Commons is ALWAYS free to share, copy and redistribute provided you abide by their four licensing terms:

• Attribution: You must always provide credit to the original author.
• Share-Alike: If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
  
• Non-Commercial: You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
  
• No-Derivatives: You may not distribute modified versions of the work.
  

This appeals to me and my way of viewing intellectual property. Its easy to understand, the author or originator of the work knows that what they upload WILL be shared BUT under restricted circumstances (so there are no surprises) and the individual using the content is clear about how to attribute credit. 

I have previously mentioned that I have worked as a sign developer for National Parks, in that role I had to stay at the fore-front of copyright legislation and attributions as the signs I was producing had material from so many sources. Images always had to have accreditation in a specific format (anything less was illegal). Interestingly enough even though individuals drafted the text solo, because it went through so many levels of consultation one clear author was no longer evident so the Department was the only entity able to be credited with the intellectual property.

Due to my disposition with internet security I made the conscious choice not to use a file/photo/video sharing website such as Flickr for this weeks task. I was thinking that you could generate an interesting discussion in the classroom relating to intellectual property, copyright, permissions, ownership and plagiarism. This could be applied the the geography classroom by generating discussion about how students would react if they found out one of their favourite photographs that they captured on holiday and painstakingly edited to perfection, was suddenly splashed all over the front of a travel magazine with no mention of them? You could back this up with a PMI relating to uploading images on-line, I'd imagine you would see positives such as 'socially appropriate, sharing with friends, showcasing events or photography skills'. Minus' such as 'can attract unwanted attention, people can modify the image for negative purposes, once its online its very hard to un-ring that bell'. I wonder if under the interesting heading you could ask the students to check the terms and conditions of their chosen social media platform and identify who actually owns the rights to the images they upload. A lot of the time they will find that the fine print gives the platform company a pretty wide scope of things they could do if they so desired, though this rarely seems to occur.

This article is two years old and a lot may have changed since but it outlines in plain-english who owns what on social media accounts, click here to have a look.

This could also form a conversation in the science classroom whereby intellectual property is held in very high esteem. The scientific community is very protective of individual ideas, hypothesis, contributions to theories, experiments, notions and pretty much any kind of texts, which is understandable considering the amount of dedication it can take to prepare these things.

 An emphasis could be made about plagiarism in higher education institutes for students intending to go to University.

Pug Voki with my voice - for the audio component of this weeks assignment.

Multi-modal discussion 

To cater for the vast array of diversity in students learning types, multi-modal teaching methods should always be used. Students learn in a variety of ways that are generally categorised into:

1.  Visual - Picture
2. Auditory - Listening
3. Kinesthetic - Movement

Multi-modal teaching implements activities and teaching strategies that incorporate all three. This is an umbrella approach to differentiated learning, which is important as students can furthermore be diverse in the learning styles from subject to subject, for example for biology you could be very much a visual learner, using diagrams and observing patterns but for English you may be a auditory learner, gaining more information from listening to the teacher, or through song etc. Multi-modal teaching supports the individual student learning style as well as re-enforcing the information by repeating the message across different modes. If a teacher is receptive to this, they may also encourage assignments to be presented in a variety of modes, for example, if you are a Kinesthetic learner in a science class and struggled writing up reports from experiments, perhaps you could perform another experiment on video displaying the skills you have learnt and explaining the scientific concepts verbally.

I found this list in Meris Standsbury's (2008) article to be rather helpful when justifying why ICT's are useful learning tools:

* Multimedia Principle: Retention is improved through words and pictures rather than through words alone.

* Spatial Contiguity Principle: Students learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near each other, rather than far from each other on the page or screen.

* Temporal Contiguity Principle: Students learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively.

* Coherence Principle: Students learn better when extraneous words, pictures, and sounds are excluded rather than included.

* Modality Principle: Students learn better from animation and narration than from animation and on-screen text.

* Individual Differences Principle: Design effects are higher for low-knowledge learners than for high-knowledge learners. Also, design effects are higher for high-spatial learners than for low-spatial learners.

* Direct Manipulation Principle: As the complexity of the materials increases, the impact of direct manipulation (animation, pacing) of the learning materials on the transfer of knowledge also increases.

Therefore, students engaged in learning that incorporates multimodal designs, on average, outperform students who learn using traditional approaches with single modes, the report says.

I think you could probably add to that list: ICTs are relevant and embedded into students social and emotional lives, and students learn best when the learning is relevant to them, so use ICT's as a common reference point. I will reference the points in this list to justify the use of ICTs when I am on-ground in the classroom, as most teachers I have spoken to thus far seem to share the opinion that ICTs are nice for ICTs sake, but they don't specifically serve a purpose that cant be achieved with traditional means.

Movie of some of my travel photos using Windows Movie Maker - for the video component of this weeks assignment.

 

Now here's the kicker - to make this move I used images that I own so the photo credit is mine (c) but the song is not. Audio credit:

Coghill, J.,Collins, J., Fanning, B., Haug, I., Middleton, D. (2000). Waiting for the sun. [Recorded by Powderfinger] on Odyssey Number Five [CD]. Brisbane Qld. Grudge/Universal.





References

Henderson, R. (2012). Teaching Literacies: Pedagogies and Diversity in the Middle Years. South Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press
Meris, S. (2008). Analysis: How multimedia can improve learning. Retrieved from  http://www.eschoolnews.com/2008/03/26/analysis-how-multimedia-can-improve-learning/

Reflection 2 Week 3

Reflection 2 Week 3

My teaching areas are Biology and Geography so I'm going with the Marine Studies theme this week, it was one of my favourite learning areas as a high school student which will probably emerge as a favourable teaching area too!

The Ocean Explorer - Fodey

 Marine Life - Wordle

Jelly Fish - GIF

Just for fun :)

Fish - Voki

 

Website Links

http://s0139202test.weebly.com/ - Weebly Website Link

https://s0139203test.wikispaces.com/ - Wiki Space Link

http://johannabacken.wix.com/assignment1eded20458 - Wix Website, an assignment for another subject, still in draft.

Evaluation of a website, Weebly and Wix.

 Personally, I prefer a website like Weebly or Wix as opposed to a Wiki-space. I can see the benefits of a Wiki-space but I find it difficult to navigate, of course practise makes perfect but it doesn't full-fill my aesthetic needs. I enjoy being able to customise the look-and-feel of something to make it more visually appealing and engaging. I have a background in writing and creating interpretive signs for Queensland's National Parks and now all I think about when I see a product like this is the Look-and-Feel! What I mean by this is:

• What is the product about?
• what key messages do you want to get across?
• Be conscious of the message sent by your colour palate
• Only use images and media if they enhance your message
• Try not to have bulky slabs of text
• Do NOT be afraid of free and open space, it is your visual buddy!

These sort of aesthetically appealing things are not catered for very well with a Wiki-space. My Wix website is an example of me trying to customise the look-and-feel of a page to showcase the importance of Literacy and Numeracy when travelling (drawing upon my subject areas Geography and Biology) to appeal to a senior high audience. This being said, the collaborative functions such as project creation and random group allocations are good, solid methods and forums to get the job done. When I have a more structured way of approaching a Wiki-space such as the second assignment, I hope to develop more of an affinity for this ICT tool.

 

So, that's my thoughts on a Wiki-space, I guess I'm more pro-website at this stage of the course, with that in mind I have summarised this technical themed rhetoric by creating a PMI for a Wiki-space and a SWOT for a Wix.

 

 

 Wiki-space PMI Table

PLUS	MINUS	INTERESTING
Ability to create discussion forums which encourages participation from all students	Limited scope to change format/layout/styles	Project Generator – I’d like to look more into this, it seems like an interesting and productive function
Students can add their own interesting topics, comments, links, images etc	Difficult to navigate	Randomised Team Allocating Button
The teacher can monitor student participation using the Assessments function	Lacking in aesthetics/ presentation
Ability to pick and choose participants
Ability to make page private

 

Wix SWOT Table

STRENGTHS	WEAKNESS	OPPORTUNITIES	THREATS
Very easy to use – intuitive set-up and functionality. Best platform I’ve found yet.	No HTML option – cannot include anything with source code like Vokis’	You can create multiple pages under the same account for free – opportunity to use this for other assignments	It’s published on line for all to see and comment upon (if you choose to include a comments section)
Many base styles to start from	Undo function goes back multiple steps		Issues with plagiarism of teacher and student content
Large free image library	If a text box overlaps a linked word, the link won’t work on the live site
Extensive selection of Apps

 

Relationship with my teaching areas - I'll stick with the biology theme in this post

Biology is quite linear in its content delivery, there is not a lot of scope for interpretation of the subject content as its a science, with this being said I think that a static web page like a Wix site would be a good way to clearly structure and scaffold difficult concepts that require higher order thinking. Biology leanings are tiered over the years of schooling become more and more in depth over time, having a very clearly organised progression of information such as that achieved with a website will help students create their own mental images of the topic, link it it with existing information and build up a solid knowledge-base. Inserting youtube clips of concepts like Respiration and DNA Replication is a great way to enhance the text on the site. I think I would use a Wix site or similar as a point in space to disseminate information from, rather than using a power point, which would contain embedded videos, avatars with key messages, and links to other information. The collaborative activity could come out of this with a link to a Wordle to start brainstorming or a link to a Bubbl.us page to generate a more specific concept map showing relationships.

Just for fun I'll pop in a quick correlation between the SAMR Model and Blogs:

Substitution: Use of a Blog in Place of a hard copy Journal or a Diary.
Augmentation: Use a Blog to chronologically organise Journal or Diary entries
Modification: Use  a Blog to share ideas and resources and get feedback from other students about subject content
Redefinition: Use a Blog to present assignments with visual, auditory and other digital enhancements as opposed to static paper based submissions.

Reference List

Puentedura, R. (2014). The SAMR Model: Enhancing technology integration. Retrieved from http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/