Reflection for EDEL 2002 Ass 1

REFLECTION

To be honest I have actually found myself a little perplexed at times during this unit of study. It has taken me several weeks, listening to collaborate sessions and others’ blogs to see my way around this. I am at a point now, where I see the ‘light’ at the end of the tunnel. I am out of the darkness and into the light. As I heave a sigh of relief (still with a little trepidation)  I can now actually reflect on the learning and discoveries I have made thus far.

With lots of Google searches (thank goodness for Google) I have been able to find my way round using a Blog and adding in ‘bits and pieces’ in the forms of audio, images and video. I feel like I need to explain again how excited I am by the use of Blogs in my classroom. Since starting the course my students have started Blogging. It is exciting as a teacher to see their ideas and explanations come to life. To see how they progress in their learning and how they are starting to expose themselves to their peers. A lot of learning has taken place in a small amount of time for my students and myself.

Blogs are a modern way of learning very real and relevant to how students today should learn. I have actually found that looking at the ideas of others’ blogs and reading posts has enlightened me to some new ways and extended my own learning. Listening to the Blackboard sessions has assisted my learning but I feel that being unable to be a part of it hinders that learning as well. To not be able to add comment to discussion, or ask a question that is not being asked, is at times frustrating. However, with this frustration I am seeing exactly how important social interaction when learning is. I wish I could box up what I have learnt by being unable to participate in collaborate sessions and show this to teachers whose classrooms are forever silent!

There are a plethora of ‘ideas’ out there to use images, audio and video in learning. I find that I need to look for what I require in my own learning and with my students. I had previously used audacity in my class to create a story with groups of students about global warming (connected to some pictures) that we eventually made a movie out of. I find it easy to use and manipulate and as my students got using it they worked just as well with it, (perhaps even a little better than me). This is just an example of how technology supports learning. How this quite simple exploration can transform how we all teach and learn.

I believe that my pedagogy as a teacher is still and will always be forming and expect the more learning I do myself the more it will evolve. I believe that learning online has really impacted how I want to teach. Web 2.0 has definitively changed the way I teach and learn. It has made learning social, interactive and exciting. However, it does not do this just by being there. As teachers we must look at the affordances of the technology we use, the programs and the software we use. It is only by doing this that we can completely and wholly take learning into the 21^st Century.

As I come to the end of this reflection, I start piecing and putting together exactly what I have learnt; exactly what it means to me. Technology supports learning and teaching. Technology does not make you smarter or your students’ ability to think critically develop overnight. The use of technology in the classroom must be integrated correctly and supported sufficiently. We must let ourselves as learners and our students discover information. We must all create, build and share.

 

Images in Learning

Images in learning.

Below I have described the use of images in learning. Their benefits, pedagogical affordances alongside their technical affordances.

A Picture is worth a thousand words and in the year 2014 we need to assist our students to become visually literate citizens. Their world is very visual; they can upload and download images in a second. Their world is digital, with images surrounding them in this digital environment.

 

Visual literacy allows for meaningful interaction with texts of all kinds. It establishes the process of analytical thinking about representation and meaning. It is imperative that teachers help students develop visual literacies in order to survive and communicate in a highly complex world. “The use of visual media in learning and teaching is supported by research demonstrating that learner preferences and styles can more effectively be addressed (Gardner, 1993) and that enhanced learning and retention take place through the use of visual material” (Carney & Levin, 2002). Our students need to be able to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image.

How best do you learn? Is it by listening, doing, watching or experiencing? We all learn differently and see things differently; we explain things differently and imagine things differently. When we use images, videos and audio in the classroom we are giving each student the opportunity to learn their way. When we ask students to write a story, create a song or draw a story board about a picture they are shown, they will all do it differently. The images they use or create will be different and this will give them an opportunity to see things from others’ perspectives. To become open to other ideas and to then think about their own learning; this is the power of images in learning. This is the power of technology in learning!

Images are powerful! Just look at any ‘National Geographic’ front cover.  Images are used in society to persuade, entertain, and involve an audience. When we see an image of a child suffering, or a couple getting married or a child being born we are impacted. To what extent depends on the individual, we learn from images and we have all created images in our lives at one time or another. The 21^st Century learner is all about sharing and social media, images influence their thoughts, judgements and ideas each and every day. Modern technology has made images very real, very powerful and influential to students’ lives.

Images can be influential, rewarding and commanding. The great thing is that images can be used in all forms of learning. They can be used in a variety of different ways, for various learning outcomes and for numerous benefits. Students can learn anything from style and composition to mathematical procedures. They can also sort out and organise information.

 Visual organisers can emphasise cause and effect, organise information, sequence an event, compare and contrast information, similarities and differences and more. Students can create maps, stories, parts and components, explain geography and geographical data. They can help students categorise information in any way that suits their needs. As categorising information is a step to thinking critically this is a valuable skills and learning tool to use. Visual organisers are inexpensive and can be used on Ipads, Tablets and Computers. Bubble us!, FreeMind, Inspiration and Kidspiration are just a few software programs that can be used to do this. They all offer editing tools and are easy to use.

Kidspiration is designed specifically for kids. It is easy to use and offers a start up screen, in which students can choose 3 views. These views are, a picture view to mind map, with words and pictures; writer view, where they can organise their thoughts and the maths view in which students can develop and gain conceptual understanding of mathematical skills.

An example of a Venn diagram used with Kidspiration

These creations are easily added into a blog, social media or a wiki.

In using these tools, students are able to see how some ideas are connected. They can work autonomously or in groups to organise information. They can adapt and update their organisers along the way to add ideas from others in the group. Whole class visual organisers can put all the information together and allow students to analyse information; to think about ideas they did not have and to discuss new ideas with others. They learn new concepts and are able to relate it to prior knowledge.

Images are a powerful Social Media tool and students need to understand this. Using images and having students think about images they see promotes and embeds learning that is real. Images have the ability to share information in various ways and this sometimes depends on the learner. This then allows learners to discuss meaning and ideas about images and share and critique their own and others’ ideas. It is a tool that promotes collaboration within the classroom and even wider into the world around them.

Images are easy to share; they can be 2 or 3 dimensional. 21^st century students share images all the time through social media and sharing image as part of learning will only lead to increased motivation and knowledge. Pixlr express is a program that allows students to save, edit and change images. There are a plethora of image editing programs. To save and share images you can use of the very social and online community of Flikr. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, and effectively an online community, the service is widely used by photo researchers and by bloggers to host images that they embed in blogs and social media.

When teaching students about persuasive writing teachers can have students create images to persuade their peers. They can work in groups/pairs and use both visual and written cues to argue their point. This allows students the opportunity to again see other student’s ideas and allows for critical thinking skills to be developed and/or used. Students can apply their knowledge of persuasive writing in a meaningful way more relevant to a 21^st Century learner. Students begin to understand that the images they use to persuade others need to be appropriate for their intended use and need to be strong!

PicMonkey, 5 Card Flikr, Skitch, PicFont, and thinglink can be used to develop students writing skills.  In other literacy areas, images can be used as prompts to promote narrative writing; they can be used to promote critical thinking, a teacher can start a story and then have students write their own ending; telling a story without an ending and asking the children to finish the story is another way to encourage critical thinking skills such as synthesis. The children must take the information from the story and creatively compile it, draw conclusions and come up with their own ending (Anderson & Lapp, 2008). Images can be used in Blogs, Wikis etc promoting the use of social interaction and collaborative learning. When students create an image, alter an image and use an image they capture their visual thinking in a way that conceptualizes problems to given solutions. “Students gain a deeper understanding of a concept when they are encouraged and enabled to create a nonlinguistic representation of that concept” (Guymon, 2014, np). When paired with linguistic -- or text-based -- literacy, visual literacy can multiply students' ability to recall and think about what they have learned.

 

Visual literacy skills such as being able to interpret and analyse images encourage students to think outside the square; something that they will need to become successful global citizens. Five card Flikr is a game that assists students’ promotion of visual literacy skills and the creation of storytelling. Students can choose 5 images and once the 5 images are selected, can use Screenhunter to capture the image. This can then be inserted into a Google Doc or Wiki.. Wiki’s and Google Doc allow many people to be working on the same document at one time creating a very collaborative environment. Students and teachers gain the power of the commenting feature to engage in dialogue. This is quite an easy process to follow and students will find the ability to use what interests and motivates them to create their ideas and stories. This makes learning very real and relevant to each student. They are able to give their own ideas and share their thinking and work.

Here is a small example of the start of a five card Flickr story by a few students in my class. Students had a variety of images to choose from for their writing task. It has been screen captured and inserted into this blog.

 

 

 

 

Hey Mum you left the light on all day.

I wonder how much electricity you wasted?

                                                                                                              My house looks so big from here

 

 

References

Anderson, P. & Lapp, D. (2008). Developing language skills is education. New York, USA :McMillan

 

Carney, R.N., & Levin, J.R. (2002). Pictorial illustrations still improve students' learning from text.

Educational Psychology Review, 14(1), 5-26

Guymon, D. (2014). Using social media to teach visual literacy in the 21^st century classroom. Retrieved from  http://www.edutopia.org /social-media-visual-literacy-classroom-dave-guymon

 

 

Technical features, affordances and pedagogy – analysis of WIKIS

Table 1: Technical features, affordances and pedagogy – analysis of WIKIS

Features of the technology	Affordances (activities and practice)	Affordances (examples of pedagogy and designs)
Numerous users at the same time	Interactive and collaborative/Invite new users	Collaborative construction of knowledge. A very social way of learning (relevant to a constructivist theory of learning) Reflective: as discussion takes place students are having to reflect on previous decisions and work done (their own and others). This develops critical thinking skills/higher order thinking Ideas: Students can nut out ideas together and are able to discuss and comment on each other’s ideas. Students have to reflect on the opinions of others and the ideas of others that they themselves may have not necessarily thought about. Creative: students have the opportunity to create and show learning in a visual way. This style of learning allows for the use of Multiple Intelligences and takes on board the fact that all students learn differently and hence, will create things differently. Students are able to come back to the wiki as learning proceeds and make changes and adjustments to learning. This also enables the teacher to see where a student’s learning is at while also being able to see the workings of the group.  Responsibility: Students have to take responsibility for their work on the wiki it also gives the teacher the opportunity to see how a group has collaborated together.
Editable-add, delete, modify	Editing can take place during collaboration by any member. Users can make changes quickly and easily
Accountability	Changes made can be traces to the user. Authors take responsibility for actions
Discussion	There is a discussion system in which collaborators can discuss ideas.
Upload images and files Embed audio/video/images	Can insert/embed artefacts
Content posted immediately
Flexibility	While wiki structure can be based on hierarchical subject divisions through new page creation and internal and external hyper-linking. These features make wikis highly suitable for educational use
Personalised	The colour choices allow each person to see what has been inserted
Control of users	Wikis can be set up as open or invitation only.
Hyperlink	Linking outside sources to the wiki allows for a wider approach to subject matter.

 

References

Leuf, B. & Cunningham, W. (2001). The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley Professional.

Technical features, affordances and pedagogy – analysis of BLOGS

Table 1: Technical features, affordances and pedagogy – analysis of BLOGS

Features of the technology	Affordances (activities and practice)	Affordances (examples of pedagogy and designs)
Chronological order	Order information was gathered supporting developmental thinking.	A Blog enables students to answer 'Big' problem questions and share their ideas, thoughts and  research with a wider community. Although it is usually written autonomously it sets a basis for collaboration (a modern 21st Century design to teaching and learning) where by students learn from each other. It can be used in Problem Based Learning and is exremeley relevant in an Inquiry based approach. Research – Students are able to validate and sift throught relevant information and save it to a draft. They learn how to organise their own thoughts and think about what they are learning.     Creativity; Students are provided with opportunities to make their Blog creative and individualised. They can add gadgets, photos, videos, link information  and create a powerful interesting blog. More individualised learning is catered for.   Developing critical thinking skills: Flexibility in the use of a Blog allows learners to save, store and go back to information allowing for reflection, critical thinking and further engagement.   Assessment practices: Teachers can see over time how student thinking develops, assisting in ongoing assessment. Teachers can use assessments based on individual progress of learning and gives teachers the ability to see student understanding. Works with assessment for, as and of learning. Broadens their range of thinking through interaction on a global scale   Adaptability: Its adaptability allows teachers to better meet the needs of each individual learner and the needs of the students. It provides deeper 21st century skills development.     Collaboration: Bloggers can ask questions of their readers and look for alternative ideas to their own.Students are actively and skilfully conceptualising, applying, analysing, synthesising and/or evaluating information gathered. They have the ability to question information and to ask the other person to really think about the information they have given (reflection).   Individual learning: Students can add, delete and create at anytime and anywhere allowing for more students to follow their own learning journey from school, at home or anywhere.   Students must ensure that they do not make their blog ‘too busy’ with the use of widgets. This addition can get them analysing the usefulness of widgets having to think about what is appropriate for their own blog. They may even look at others to see how they have gone about adding widgets opening themselves up to reflect and critique others ideas.
Contain photos, video and audio	Allows for creativity from the learner and extends learning.
Can be text, video or audio	Users can use preferred learning styles to give information to visitors
Can be edited and updated	Allows for reflection and further engagement
Can be accessed anywhere and anytime	Students can access from mobile devices, laptops at anytime. Feedback can be given via these options
Allows users to save drafts	Information can be stored and retrieved later to update and complete.
Allows full coding rather than just plain text so that posts can have hyperlinks to other pages in the main website or to other posts, or to another website or blog, etc	Demonstrate further knowledge and understanding. Link to other information
You can show links to other favourite blogs or websites	Link to further information and collaboration between blogs with peers. Users can link information they find interesting or important allowing for individual learning.
·         Easy for visitors to navigate and find things of interest to them ·         Allows comments on individual posts by visitors (user interactivity)	Asynchronous posts allows for feedback from peers and teacher. Communication from  and with others as well as peer review
·         Has bookmarking facility so visitors can recommend posts to sites like Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Stumpleupon, Digg, etc therefore helping with bringing new visitors ·         Has a sharing facility so visitors can forward posts by email to a friend ·         Has a tag cloud so visitors can see the most popular topics	Collaboration in a variety of ways. Allow visitors to find information. Share with more people (collaboration and knowledge construction)
·         Addition of widgets and gadgets	Allow for creativity and individuality.

 

 

Adding a Gadget or Widget to your Blog

Adding a Gadget or Widget

Adding a gadget or widget into your Blog is as simple as going to the Layout page and clicking, add widget!
There is an array of already laid out gadgets or you can customise your own. On the right hand side of this blog you can see a YouTube widget on affordances of technology that I have added. Just think, five minutes ago I didn’t know how to do this. A step by step instruction can be found at http://www.wikihow.com/Add-a-Widget-to-Blogger

This is a post from EduBlogs (teacher challenges) that describes how widgets are used in class blogs:

How widgets are used on class blogs
Widgets are used for a wide range of purposes including:

• Help students, parents and visitors find information on the blog e.g. Search widget, pages widget, category widget, tag widget
• Track visitors to the blog. Visitor tracking widgets are used to highlight a blog’s global audience. This can be incredibly motivating for students and provides a built in geography lesson. e.g. Flag Counter, Feedjit Live Traffic Feed, ClustrMaps, Revolver Map.
• Student engagement e.g. Quiz widgets, Pet widgets.
• Information to help other classes learn more about your class e.g. date/time widgets, weather widget
• Latest news e.g. Twitter widget. Lots of classes now have their own class twitter account and display their tweets using the Twitter widget. Here is where you’ll find my list of Class Twitter accounts and School Twitter accounts.
• Links to helpful resources, student blogs and other class blogs e.g. Links widget, Pinterest widget
• Help parents, caregivers and other visitors translate your blog e.g. Google Translate widget.
• Events Calendar for important dates e.g. Google Calendar
• Book lists e.g. Shelfari bookshelf and Gooodread bookshelf
• Email notification of new posts e.g. email subscription widget
• Displaying comments or posts recently posted e.g recent comments widget, recent posts widget

 (Waters, 2013)