Sunday, March 29, 2015

Assignment 1 - Reflection 3 Week 4

This week's blog is on Multimedia in the Classroom. 

Outside school, students are exposed to digital technologies on a grand scale. Most have mobile phones, are connected to social media, use a digital camera or most recently, upload movies and TV series from Netflix.



Rock Concerts by Conscious Consumerism
Image sourced from: Facebook


Students feel comfortable learning from these platforms as it is a part of their everyday lives.  It seems only natural to further develop upon their prior knowledge in these areas to create pedagogical applications of new modes of communication within classroom contexts (Walsh 2009, p. 5).

A report conducted by the Metiri Group, claims that when the average student is engaged in higher-order thinking using multimedia in interactive situations, on average, that student’s percentage ranking on higher-order or transfer skills increases by 32 percentile points over what the student would have accomplished with traditional learning (www.eschoolnews.com).



I have designed this week's blog around the theme of Rock Art at Kakadu National Park. It can be related to a unit of work on Austalian Studies in my key learning area of English, investigating the past, present and future of Australia.
It incorporates the use of images and techniques involved to resize them ensuring that that optimal online usuage through MobaPhoto.  We also visit Flickr and some of it's functionality. Podcasting is also a useful tool in the classroom for using audio files and MovieMaker has been used to draw in elements of both images and sound to create a digital image. Images, audio and the digital video produced for this blog, can also be viewed at :

To make my images of Rock Art at Kakadu easy to download on the internet, I first uploaded my photo's to Mobaphoto.  Mobaphoto is free tool that allows you to organise your digital photo collection.  MobaPhoto allows you to batch, resize and rename your photo's.  It also has some basic editing tools such as red eye reduction and crop.  It can also be run from a USB flash drive (www.wiki.appvisor.org).  Perhaps the most useful tool of MobaPhoto is it's ability to resize images in different formats for web publication.


Image sourced from: www.mobaphoto.en.softtonic.com

I uploaded my 14 pictures after resizing them in Mobaphoto for optimal online usage. My images sizes were typically reduced in size by about a third e.g. the original size of one image filed started out at 150kb and and after Mobaphoto was down to 55kb in size.

After resizing my images in MobaPhoto, I could then store and organise them in Flickr.  Flickr is a free image hosting and video hosting website that allows users to share and embed personal photographs.  It is widely used to host images that researchers and bloggers embed in blogs and other social media (www.wikipedia.org). 


I have outlined some PMI's in the diagram below relating to Flickr.


PLUS
MINUS
INTERESTING
  • Storage limit of 200MB for Photo's and 1GB for video.
  • Access to edit photo's in Aviary.
  • Interactive 'photopage' that contains photo data, comments and facilities for embedding images on external websites.
  • Excellent range of images available to share.
  • Creating batches allows you to collectively add tags to the photo's in the album, instead of individually.
  • Geotagging functionality.
  • Can be slow to load when searching for generalised topics eg Kakadu National Park.
  • Accessibilty outside of school may not available to all students.
  • Issues with definition when embedding, as opposed to attaching a photo.
  • For a fee, you can also access extra's like creating wall art, photobooks and extra storage.
  • Users can give images titles, descriptions and tags. If licensing permits other users can also tag photo's, making images interactive
  • Integrating technology to allow facilitating a real experience.
  • Creative Commons allows free access to licensing your images.
  • Ability to easily share photo's via mail and social media, with code embedding functions.

In Flickr, I created an album called Kakadu Indigenous Art.  To assist in Flickr functionality, I then created a batch to collectively add tags to the photo's in the album, instead of individually.  Tags were added as single words but I was able to use "quotation marks" when I wanted to keep words together eg "Kakadu National Park" instead of 3 separate tags of Kakadu, National, Park. I then Geotagged the photo's at the two different locations in Kadadu that the photo's were taken - Ubirr and Nourlangie. I also added an 'All rights reserved' to my photostream.

The link below will take you to the images that I have uploaded onto Flickr.



Another feature of Flickr is the Creative Commons. This is a free tool that allows users to select a level of copyright that they wish to adopt for their images. Researchers or bloggers can open an image and view the level of restrictions relating to how they can use the files.  You can click on the licensing icon and you are navigated to another page that clearly outlines the use and intent of the image. Users can also perform an 'Advanced Search' pertaining to the level of licensing you require.  


The information below has been taken from the Creative Commons website and it outlines the licensing terms of use.  




This image below was sourced in Flickr and was also taken at Kakadu National Park. The licensing of this image stated that users are free to share and adapt this image as long as there was an attribution and that you must distribute your contributions under the same license if you remixed, transformed or built upon the original.

Ubirr, Kakadu NP by Michael Whitehead
Image source: Flickr

As I did not make any amendments to the image and it was not used commerically, I must only ensure my attribution is intact. The use of this image includes:
  • credit the creator
  • a title of their work;
  • the URL where the work is hosted;
  • Indicated the type of licence it is available under and provided a link to the licence (so that other's can find out the licence terms) and;
  • Kept intact any copyright notice associated with the work
 (www.creativecommons.org.au)


A podcast is audio file that is placed in a publically accessible website and that can be downloaded (Howell 2012, p. 153).  Podcasts are a great tool for information, primarily because you can access them on the move.  I like to listen to podcasts whilst out walking the dog or in the car.  A friend of mine listens to podcasts whilst working on the tractor.  If I ever made it to the gym, I believe they'd be trending there too.  The beauty of podcasts is that you can listen to them anywhere, at any time.

Podcasting in the classroom is a valuable tool that a multiple of tasks can be assigned to e.g. Interviews, reviews, presentations and as an alternative to reading print-based texts. Podcasting improves digital fluency and the end product can be engaging and motivating for students.


Podcast by derrickwa
Sourced from Flickr

In the theme of Rock Art, I have embedded an ABC Interview with Professor Brad Pillans from the ANU, on the topic of protecting the Rock Art at the Barrup Peninsula in the Pilbara, WA.  Pillan and his team claim that the Rock Art is not only the largest and diverse but perhaps the oldest.  He discusses the rates of erosion and the progression of styles of the art over time.  He hopes findings will allow the area to be listed as World Heritage.

Pilbara rock art the grandaddy of them all - ABC North West WA - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Continuing in the theme of Rock Art at Kakadu, I have created a brief podcast.  It was created by using the Sound Recorder function on my computer and audioBoom, which is a free download.  You can listen here Kakadu Rock Art.






Assigning tasks that incorporate video production in the classroom can provide many desirable outcomes.  Some of these include the development of skills in the areas of affective, metacognitive, higher ordered thinking, communication and presentation, literacy, organisational, teamwork and movie making (www.moodle.cqu.edu.au)

To create my own digital video, I synchronised my Flickr images with my sound file on audioBoom on Rock Art in Kakadu.  This was processed via MovieMaker and it was relatively issue free.







There are many avenues from this unit that scaffolding learning could place and lead to an evaluation piece.  Below is a learner-based example of how this theme, Rock Art in Kakadu can be used in the classroom using Multimedia.  The example below links the SAMR model with a unit of work to include different platforms of multimedia.  It clearly demonstrates the inquiry cycle and is learner-centred.




Multimedia in the classroom not only enhances how students learn in the classroom but can also transform education and desired outcomes.  Simple traditional classroom tasks of reading and writing still occur but with the intergration of multimedia, can take on the form of listening, viewing, responding, talking, designing and producing in an online environment. The use of images, audio and digital video optimises the learning design as it appeals to student's schema's.

There are many benefits for using multimedia in the classroom including engagement, accessibility and flexibility.  Student's are exposed to and use technology outside of the school and are comfortable do so.  It only makes sense to integrate and improve technology in the classroom to allow for authentic experiences and interactions to be used in the real world.  Improving technology in the classroom allows for real life teaching and learning experiences.

I have embedded a small vodcast to include in my blog by Sir Ken Robinson on Talks on Teaching.  He recognises the importance of technology in the classroom and the opportunities technologies present to engage students. Robinson (2010) also mentions that technology offers "highly customised forms of teaching and learning".




Vodcast sourced from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUatQQYha3w


REFERENCES


Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2013). Pilbara Rock Art the Grandaddy of them all.  Retrieved on 31st March, 2015 from http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2013/04/18/3739790.htm

Creative Commons (2015).  Attribution-ShareAlike. Retrieved on 30th March, 2015 from https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Creative Commons (2015).  How can I share CC content? Retrieved on 31st March, 2015 from http://creativecommons.org.au/content/attributingccmaterials.pdf

Digital Video in Education from CQUniversity e-courses EDED20491 - ICT's for Learning Design.  Retrieved on 31st March, 2015 from https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=15642

E-School News - Daily Tech News and Innovation (2008).  How Multimedia can improve learning. Retrieved on 29th March, 2015 from http://www.eschoolnews.com/2008/03/26/analysis-how-multimedia-can-improve-learning/

Facebook (2015) Rock Concert Image.  Retrieved on 31st March, 2015 from https://www.facebook.com/ConsciousConsumerism?fref=photo

Howell, J. (2012). Teaching with ICT: Digital Pedagogies for Collaboration and Creativity (1st edition), South Melbourne Vic: Oxford University Press.

Walsh, M (2009). Pedagogical Potentials of Multimodal Literacy. Retrieved on 29th March, 2015 at http://www.acu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/195676/Chapter_3_Multimodal_Literacy_M_Walsh.pdf

Whitehead, M. (2010). Ubirr, Kakadu NP - Image.  Retrieved via Flickr.com on 31st March, 2015 from https://www.flickr.com/photos/mwhitehead/4380732013/in/photolist-7F7p1i-a3tNdF-8hz5xo-8hvP88-8hvNyr-8hyXXL-8hvGp2-8hvERe-8vXsn1-8hz5qd-8hvMQg-8hz3KW-8hz3q9-8hvM3x-8hz36Q-8hyYyw-8vUu5R-8vUeiH-2cBUzA-8vXA2C-8hvMXB-8vXsyq-8vXppo-8vUjzr-2cBVbG-8vXdu7-8vXhvG-8vUmHF-2cxhWi-2cBMYd-2cBQch-2cxjyT-2cxhLM-2cBMNy-2cxhfz-2cxgYR-2cxgQe-2cBLYf-2cxgsc-iqY2nF-8vXkQh-8vXeG1-5GsBgW-oHUQ5t-6VYady-8vUsWR-6VUaPt-8vXqRf-ayVF35-8vXFGu

Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia (2015). Flickr. Retrieved on 30th March, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr

Wiki AppVisor (2015).  Mobaphoto. Retrieved on 1st April, 2015 from Mobaphoto http://wiki.appvisor.org/MobaPhoto\


Thursday, March 26, 2015

Assignment 1 - Reflection 2: Week 3

This week I have chosen to base my reflection of using Blogs in the Classroom. I have chosen to integrate a Weebly website and Wiki activity to scaffold learning activities and to further enhance my own experience and digital fluency.



Blogs (short for 'web logs') are usually constructed for educational, professional and personal purposes. In the classroom, blogs can encourage students to write reflections on learnings and expand on their digital fluency. Blogging is an individualised activity that only the author can edit. Visitors can leave comments in an interactive format and is an important element of many blogs (Howell 2012, p. 141) Blogs allow the students to add their own customised assignments via presentation (wallpaper, fonts etc) embed pictures, files, videos and other links to construct a concise reflection.













Image source
www.flickr.com




Blogs are displayed chronologically and teachers can use blogs to scaffold material in a sequential fashion. Students can therefore use this scaffolding process to analyse, evaluate and synthese their pieces of work. Blogging allows teachers to embed activities like PMI's, SWOT analysis, ranking tools, identifying perspectives to encourage critical thinking (www.moodle.cqu.edu.au).

The SAMR model is a effective tool when looking at how activities designed to improve digital fluency, can be assimiliated into teaching. The diagram below incorporates the SAMR model and the classroom activity. I have adapted this framework so that blogs could be identified as a key learning experience with each stage of the SAMR model. It is appropriate for my key learning area: business.






I have chosen to adapt the traditional version of The Stock Market Game to include Blogging. The Stock Market Game is a familiar game that aims at teaching basic investing principles, current economic events, how the economy works and money management skills (http://www.moneyinstructor.com/ls/msimulation.asp). 

It is a real life simulation of a real life situation that is engaging and learner-based as students are required to take responsibilty for directing their own work and outcomes.
The affiliated website I have created can be found at:


http://www.s0012252.weebly.com


The static website is designed to scaffold students through the learning activities of unit. The features of the website include:
  • Voki to introduce the game and expected outcomes. 
  • YouTube video embedded outlining 'how to read a stock table'. Students are asked to place this video in their personal blogs, therefore facilitating students to link and retrieve essential information in the learning journey.
  • The Instructions tab to clearly define how to play the game and what reflections they are to report on in their blog. This function allows for students to organise and categorise the information they require to complete the task.
  • An information tab which contains the companies that we will be using in our simulation. Students are directed to select and refine the companies on offer.
  • tab where market updates will embedded, so that students have a centralised data record of stock movements. It also is an example of how files can be embedded into a website.
  • Wiki link that takes them to a ranking activity that requires students to conduct research on their companies, therefore analysing and evaluating their knowledge.  This page also includes a 'Fodey' character, placed to keep students interested.
Below is an analysis of Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that I have identified related to the activity and functionality of the Weebly website.

Strengths
Weaknesses

  • Students have access to information wherever there is Internet access.
  • It is learner-based
  • Fun and engaging


  • Students may get competitive with each other and treat the activity as a contest.
  • End date to this activity, it gives students an avenue to make poor investment decisions: rapid trading and taking large risks.
Opportunities
Threats

  • Allows students to further extend on their knowledge base
  • Allows students to research related topics
  • Gives students the opportunity to think differently and perform new tasks
  • Keeps students interested in current economic events
  • Keeps students interested in scaffolding their learning experience with technology

  • Relies on outside sources (Market Updates) for data
  • Students may not have a solid foundation of some of the technology to be used especially in blog activities.



The Stock Market Game is a suitable activity for Business students and is perhaps, a familiar one. I have used Blogging as the central activity for students to scaffold their knowledge in the facets of the Stock Market and digital fluency. The tools that I have integrated in the overall activity, are learner-centred and gives students the opportunity for higher ordered thinking through research, thinking tools and collaboration. The design of the activity explores the sequencing of the SAMR model to completely transform the original Stock Market Game.


REFERENCES


Blogs for Learning from CQUniversity e-courses EDED20491 ICT's for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au

Fodey (2015).  Retrieved on 26th March, 2015 from http://www.fodey.com/generators/animated/ninja.asp

Howell, J. (2012). Teaching with ICT: Digital Pedagogies for Collaboration and Creativity (1st edition), South Melbourne Vic: Oxford University Press.


The Money Instuctor (2009). The Stock Market Game. Retrieved on 24th March, 2015 from http://www.moneyinstructor.com/ls/msimulation.asp



REFERENCES FROM WEBSITE


The Australian (2015). The Australian: Business Review. Retrieved on 24th March, 2015 from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business

Blogger (2015). Retrieved on 22nd March, 2015 from http://www.blogger.com


CommSec(2015). Retrieved on 22nd March, 2015 from https://www.commsec.com.au/market-news/the-markets.html

For Dummies (2015). How to read a stock table: Definition of Terms. Retrieved on 23rd March from http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-read-a-stock-table.html

Fodey (2015). Retrieved on 25th March, 2105 from http://www.fodey.com/generators/animated/wizard.asp

Voki (2015). Create a speaking character and add a voice. Retrieved on 25th March, 2015 from http://www.voki.com/create.php

Wikispaces (2015). Retrieved on 23rd March, 2015 from https://www.wikispaces.com/

YouTube (2009). How to read a stock table. Retrieved on 23rd March, 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW93AyN8u5A

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Assignment 1 - Reflection 1 Week 2

What is pedagogy?





de Bono's Hat Theory - Wiki activity


A wiki is an online tool that can be an efficient ICT in the educational setting. It is a platform that can prove to be a useful mechanism to both teachers and student's. For a teacher, it gauges prior knowledge, promotes research and higher thinking to ascertain and evaluate a competency. It is pedagogically sound and in line with learning theories. From the perspective of a student, it is an opportunity to share and collaborate ideas, opinions, research and experiences.


This week I participated in a Wiki that linked de Bono's Hat Theory to mobile phone use in the classroom. It was an interesting task as it was required participants to reflect on different perspectives of one issue, which in turn steered away from a natural, instinctive and standard approach. As a group activity it offered other student's responses, which was interesting in itself as many cohorts brought up issues that weren't initially obvious to me.

To a degree, there were elements of all the Learning Theories in this activity: Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Constructivism and Connectivism. However, Constructivism and Connectivism theories are perhaps the most interesting for discussion at this junction.






The Constructivism approach in this instance, considered that the teacher as a facilitator.  Students were given a a problem, guidelines were set and student's considered and researched their own answers before sharing them on the Wiki. The task was completed when new information was constructed from prior knowledge - an understanding of de Bono's hat needed to be understood and used as a foundation to prior to undertaking issues relating to mobiles phones in the classroom. Using this foundation, students considered their own stance on the issues from different perspectives and saved them in the Wiki for others to view and comment. Not only are students defining their own ideas from 8 perspectives but they are learning from the responses of other participants.


This activity also displayed elements of Connectivism through the use of the online technology - Wiki. The Wiki was an integral to the activity as it gave student's the opportunity to research their answers first. If this technology was unavailable and this activity took place in the classroom face to face, I believe that it would not have been as successful or interesting. It would've been quite one sided and teacher-based with the teacher heavily prompting answers creating a passive learning environment.

Overall I thought this was a meaningful activity that worked well. Although there were minor attributes of Behaviourism and Cognitivism, this task gave me an opportunity to investigate the mechanics of Constructivism and Connectivism.  I particularly enjoyed collaborating with cohorts to create a document that engaged many ideas and opinions on the use of mobile phones in the classroom.



PMI on Wiki Activity
Plus
Minus
Interesting

Engaging



Student’s can participate anywhere ie not in the classroom.

Information can be lost if more than one person is posting at the same time

Can visually look dishevelled at the end of the task

Have the same goal as cohorts but producing a variety of ideas and opinions.

I thought Wiki was short for Wikipedia!



This activity also gave me an opportunity to make connections to my own learning experiences thus far.  It built on prior knowledge to gain a new approach via evaluating different sources (the 6 different perspectives of de Bono's Hat theory).  The reflective blog collaborates prior knowledge and new found knowledge to produce an evaluation piece.  


Bloom's taxonomy and the SAMR model


Bloom's taxonomy and the SAMR model pertain to thinking theories and can be adapted to classroom activities.  Bloom's Taxonomy was designed to promote higher forms of thinking in education.  In the classroom, activities involving analyzing and evaluating concepts, processes, procedure, and principles, rather than just remembering facts (rote learning) are implemented (www.nwlink.com).

The SAMR model was conceived to integrate technology and considers the impacts that technology can have if implemented in a sequential fashion.  It suggests following it's four steps of substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition (www.moodle.cqu.edu.au).

The steps involved in both taxonomies can be classified moving up from passive for the lower level (teacher-based) and active pertaining to higher order thinking or participation (student-based learning).  Both theories acknowledge that there are different steps involved in seeking higher ordered thinking.




To be honest, I found this activity challenging. I attempted several diagrams to show the intricate links of both theories and the more detailed it got, the more confusing it looked, which was in proportion to how I was feeling - confused!  In the end, I  reverted back to a simplistic approach outlining the four stages of the SAMR model and elements of Bloom's cognitive domain. I added an example of an educational activity that could be conducted to further clarify the steps of moving from lower level thinking to higher order.

REFERENCES


Howell, J. (2012). Teaching with ICT: Digital Pedagogies for Collaboration and Creativity (1st edition), South Melbourne Vic: Oxford University Press.

What is pedagogy? from CQUniversity e-courses EDED20491 ICT's for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au


Clark, D. (2015). Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains.  Retrieved on 14 March, 2015 http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/media.html.

The SAMR model from CQUniversity e-courses EDED20491 ICT's for Learning design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au

Education Queensland (2008). eLearning for smart classrooms Smart Classrooms Bytes 2008. Retrieved on 16 March 2015 from
http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/documents/strategy/pdf/scbyte-elearning.pdf