Synopsis- Michael Hoskin s0146617

The 21st century learner is increasingly one who desires to be engaged with the technologies that have been a familiar part of their world for most their short
lives. Prensky (2005) asserts that many students can quickly become disengaged if modern technologies are not integrated into their learning on a regular basis. With this in mind, it is the responsibility of the learning manager to firstly adopt a positive mental attitude toward incorporating some of these technologies into their own professional tool kit, and secondly understand the methodologies of how to successfully implement them into class lessons in order to facilitate higher order thinking.

Over the preceding weeks, this course has provided me with opportunities to explore some of the digital tools available for learning contexts. This has allowed me to experiment and formulate ideas on how to incorporate them into educational settings. I found the most significant reasons for the pedagogical use of any digital tool to be in their power to engage the student and promote constructivism through student collaboration. This is supported by Kearsley and Shneiderman’s (1999) ‘engagement theory’ which presents the notion that technology can facilitate engagement while creating collaborative learning partnerships in order to solve authentic meaningful tasks.

While experimenting with each digital tool to gain personal knowledge, I was regularly questioning how I could use the tool to support and enhance the learning of students from the Prep years through to year seven and beyond. For the purpose of this synopsis however, the range of tools chosen is more aligned with how these specific tools could be utilised in the context of a Prep class. With this in mind however, the tools that I have chosen for my context, can have different learning purposes according to the pedagogical approach taken by different teachers at the each year level. Importantly, the one constant approach teachers need to take and model to their students at all levels must be the safe, legal and ethical operations of e-learning tools.

Many educators will tell you the importance of gaining the attention of their students to begin a lesson. Regardless of the year level, these are the important seconds when you want them to be ‘switched on’ for the purpose of knowledge acquisition. Many forms of digital tools can perform this function, however I found that the multi-modal format of digital videos engage more of the senses of young Prep learners toward the incoming information. In my blog I refer to such digital tools as vodcasts, YouTubes, and movies, which assist in gaining information on a chosen topic and placing the learner’s cognitive processes in Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (1962). Well-designed teacher questioning in reference to the audio-visual will help the students to acquire and construct knowledge as they verbalise and construct their understandings in a social discussion format. From a Vygotskian perspective, Gallimore and Tharp (1990) note that the nature of this type of teacher assistance, including modelling and providing feedback, to be highly supportive to cognitive growth.

It is important to note that the learning is not within the audio-visual tools themselves, but how the learning manager utilises them as a stimulus for learning. At this ‘viewing and listening’ stage the students are at the lower order thinking of Bloom’s taxonomy (Bloom, 1956) where the stimulus merely aids in their understanding of ideas and concepts, as students are only able to recognise, name and make interpretations from the information. Prior to any audio-visual being shown, the learning design framework of the Big6 (Eisenberg, 2001) would be implemented by having a key-driving question behind a lesson such as; how do I know if a small sea animal is dangerous? From here the students can move into the task definition stages of defining and identifying the relevant information. A YouTube on the blue-ringed octopus could be shown, followed by questioning toward the types of information required to answer the question.

The advantage of all of these audio-visual tools is that the teacher has control over when to pause and replay important learning moments. From personal experience with using these tools in class, students are eager to see such moments and this is when they construct mental images to help them recall information. The beauty of audiovisual tools is that they have many applications for different learning purposes throughout the year levels; hence their use can be very effective at enhancing learning regardless of the context.

To support and enhance newly acquired knowledge I found the use of learning objects to be of great pedagogical value for students. They can be used for whole class learning, but are better suited for constructivist learning in small groups and can also be used individually. After some personal trials, I found that they have the ability to consolidate, gain insight, refine and clarify misconceptions about personal knowledge. Their use as a learning tool takes the student from a base knowledge to a more in-depth understanding by integrating student knowledge into actions. The number train for example makes the early years student apply their knowledge of ‘number’ in a fun game, where experimentation will help them to discern meaning into the ‘concept of number’ according to the number line. To perform this, they need to adopt the complex reasoning process of ‘abstracting’ in order to identify the underlying general pattern (Marzano & Pickering, 1997). A task like this takes the student into higher order thinking modes of analysis by examining the information. The number train also uses a behaviourist method of reward to stimulate the student’s thinking processes.

The Big6 skills of information seeking strategies are integrated into digital learning objects, as the students are required to find information within the sources in order to solve a problem or make a decision (Eisenberg, 2001). The digital pedagogy incorporated into learning objects encapsulates student-centred flexible problem-based learning using authentic contexts. The tasks are scaffolded in ways that facilitate higher order thinking processes, which unconsciously deepen the understanding as students work towards mastering the task. When students in collaboration solve the problems embedded into each learning object, they are engaged and construct their knowledge in a social learning domain. Thoughtful planning is required for implementation into the classroom for each specific context, as the variables can create difficulties (comment- Lynn Camilleri, 2010).

Wikis are a wonderful digital learning tool that has the flexibility to mediate learning through different teaching approaches to suit the context. In a pedagogical sense, they provide opportunities for students to be authors, editors and publishers and are ideal for students to construct their own knowledge through social interaction. When students are placed in this position, their thinking skills move higher up Bloom’s taxonomy (Bloom, 1956) while they formulate new ideas and justify decisions, facilitating deeper understandings.

Marzano et. al. (1997) point out that students are more likely to demonstrate what they have learned when they have transformed information and developed new understandings on a specific topic. To facilitate this in the Prep classroom, a class wiki could be set up and monitored by the teacher or teacher aide having four rotational groups as the collaborative communicators. For example, following some primary information on the topic of the distinguishing features of mammals and fish, the teacher sets up a wiki with a T-graph. Pre written features of mammals and fish are listed for student groups to analyse, discuss and sort (as per my wiki). Each group can edit the features and select examples of mammals and fish species from names or images supplied. More difficult examples of whales, dolphins, seals and whale sharks can be left until the end when they have a better understanding of the distinguishing features. The pedagogical use of this type of wiki would be in the teacher questioning in order to develop new understandings. For example higher order thinking skills such as analysing and evaluating information would be activated through discussions about seals, whales and whale sharks, leading to deeper understanding of the differences.

Through this type of scaffolded task the information is purposely taken apart for the students to become actively involved in the construction of their own knowledge. Using the digital format of the wiki where they have control of the content provides them with the opportunity to share their ideas and make judgements about their knowledge. Students are engaged as they interpret and assess their own ideas and those of their fellow students.

There are many digital tools to present knowledge to an audience. Of these, I feel a movie made by the students would be the most engaging and meaningful. Unfortunately, this would be beyond the skills of most Prep students. However, being put in the position of making my own blog to record my personal e-learning journey, I feel a class blog would be an ideal digital tool to record and present knowledge in the Prep classroom. The ease of adding text, images, movies and hyperlinks makes the task quite simple. After updating the blog with recently learned material, the students (with some guidance and modelling) could present the updated materials from the blog to their peers, presenting further revision of their knowledge. This provides the students with the opportunity to use their knowledge in a meaningful way. The teacher can also enhance their learning by prompting them for other applications of the knowledge that relates to their interests.

The advantage of the class blog is that it is an effective tool for parents to follow their students’ learning at home. A parent and child could view the blog together and talk about it informally, providing a reflective stage for the student. Beyond the Prep years, I can see the advantages of ‘blogging’ for all students. As mentioned in my blog and many others, it provides students with a collaborative forum to voice and share their ideas through a global network and improve their writing and general ICT skills (DET, 2010). The other advantage, which I agreed with Hamish Robb, was that they enable students to think about their learning at their own pace and use their knowledge in more meaningful manner.

Through this course I have developed new technical skills in the process of learning about the digital tools I have utilised. There were some trying times however, and it was in these times of need that I requested the help from my online colleagues. I managed to advance through their help, which helped me to see the value of students working in collaboration on digital tools to construct knowledge. As I still struggle with my personal competence with general ICT skills, I plan to seek professional training to up-skill myself in this area. For it is the attitudes and perceptions of the teacher toward ICT use which ultimately leads to the valuable pedagogical use of digital learning tools. Although I am still learning about these digital tools, I can now look forward with more confidence to my growing use of them in the classroom to meet the educational needs of the 21st century learner.

REFERENCES

Bloom B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Co Inc

Department of Education and Training (2010). Resourcing the curriculum. (Electronic resource) Retrieved from
http://www.det.wa.gov.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/#collaborate

Eisenberg, M. (2001). Big6 Skills Overview. Retrieved from http://www.big6.com/2001/11/19/a-big6%E2%84%A2-skills-overview/

Gallimore, R. & Tharp, R. (1990). Teaching mind in society. In McInerney D.M. & McInerney V.(2006). Educational Psychology:Constructing Learning. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Pearson Education.

Kearsley, G & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D. J., Arredondo, D. E., Blackburn, G. J., Brandt, R. S., Moffett, C. A., Paynter, D. E., Pollock, J. E., & Whisler, J. S. (1997). Dimensions of Learning: Teacher’s Manual (4th ed.). Colorado, United States of America: McRel

Presnky, M. (2005). Engage me or enrage me: What today's learners demand. [eletronic resource] Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf

Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

Links to comments in Blogs

Lynn Camilleri- http://s0140677.blogspot.com/ - Interactive learning objects
- http://s0140677.blogspot.com/-Reflections on using blogs

Hamish Robb- http://s0173788.blogspot.com/ -A simple swot analysis of blogging

Rachel Martin- http://rachelmartin-e-learning.blogspot.com/ - Just testing cyberspace, a wiki

Sheena Stokes- http://sheenas-e-learningjourney.blogspot.com/ - Digital video, Youtube

Nick Lunn- http://nicklunn.blogspot.com/- Changing opinions


Cameron Gibson- http://cameronelearning.blogspot.com/

Jasmin Camps - http://jasminecamps.blogspot.com/- teacher tv

Webquests

A Webquest is an inquiry-based learning tool where the information that learners work with comes from the web. To put simply it is a web based quest to find out information through the inquiry mode of learning. Because they are inquiry based, they are more aligned to the SOSE kla. The document needs to have hyperlinks to take the learners to areas where information can be found to help answer the different phases of the quest.
Some of the key factors of a webquest are

-it is wrapped around a doable and interesting task that has relevance to the real world
- it requires higher order thinking, not simply summarising. This includes synthesis, analysis, problem-solving, creativity and judgment.
-it makes good use of the web based resources
-it has logical scaffolded steps and learner appropriate content and literacy
- it is assessable against clear criteria

The pedagogical value in a webquest lies in an engaging question and an authentic task. The process of the design is based on investigate, ideate, evaluate and create.
Although i have not made a webquest or taken one, it seems to have the key ingredients for digital learning, being engaging and construction of knowledge through collaboration.

References
Webquest.org retrieved from http://webquest.org/index-create.php

LEARNING OBJECTS

I began looking into some of the digital learning objects and came across one that i have a personal interest in, Edheads Virtual knee surgery. I have been advised that in about 10 years time i will need a new knee joint. Of course i have a personal interest in how they go about this. The best part about this resource is that it is interactive, which places you as 'the doctor'. I found that performing the operation and choosing the correct instruments enabled me, as a learner, to understand the process. If this process was explained to me by a doctor, i would soon be lost. A very basic 'virtual operation' but a great way to learn through electronic interaction.
I can really see this type of learning object being used in the higher year levels, probably in small collaborative groups (2-3 students). In the Prep classroom last year the students used digital learning objects to learn letters and words which begin with those letters. The visuals of the objects assisted the students in making connections with the letters and words, constructing knowledge into their personal schema.
When deciding to use a digital learning object, i would recommend the LM to trial it first before any student use.
The advantage they have as a resource is that students can use them at their own pace, they let you know incorrect responses instantly and in many circumstances they are unable to advance until the correct choice is made. In this way, students build their knowledge and understanding on correct responses without making assumptions that they were correct in their earlier thought processes, when in fact they may have been.

In the article Preparing Teachers To Use Learning Objects (2002), Wiley defines a learning object as "any digital resource that can be reused to support learning". The authors point out that there are myriad reasons for teachers to encourage their students to use computers in conjunction with learning objects.

I managed to find some more for early years. Try number train, and animal search. Check out more learning objects for a variety of year levels and KLA's.

References
The Learning federation retrieved from http://www.thelearningfederation.edu.au/for_teachers/sample_curriculum_content/tm_-_early_years.html

Edheads retrieved from http://edheads.org/

Preparing Teachers To Use Learning Objects (2002)
by T. A. Bratina, D Hayes, and S. L. Blumsack

podcasts and vodcasts

A podacst is a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar programme, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player. People create podcasts on many subjects ranging from movies, to technology, to music and politics. You can listen to podcasts on anything that plays MP3s. At the core a podcast is an audio file that is automatically received from the internet and then synced to your MP3 player. The files are received by subscribing to what's called a podcast feed (RSS feed). Orden (2008) has likened podcasts to magazines, whereby once you have subscribed, you keep receiving the next editions.

You can rewind a podcast. You can play it over and over. You can pause it. You can store it wherever you want. You can delete it when you want. Podcasts give you the control and flexibility, and for these reasons they can be ideal for use in the classroom. It allows the LM to check the value of any podcast and in doing so plan how to best use the information within.

I found this vodcast in Animal Planet on itunes. Worm composting would have been ideal to show my prep students last year, as we had one just like this. It could be used before introducing the real thing to help students understand the new information. It could be re-played and paused at salient moments for teacher elaboration of the process, and any literacy opportunities when the typed text is on the screen. The visuals of a vodcast is more engaging for the prep students, although storytelling through podcast can also engage young students.

References

Orden, J. (2008). How to podcast. Retrieved from
http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/what-is-a-podcast.htm
Worm composting retrieved from http://www.discovery.com/radio/xml/planetgreen.xml

Plant eats animal

This YouTube clip of the Venus fly trap was used as a hook to engage students when learning about carnivorous plants. It really works to gain student interest as the students see this natural phenomenon in real time. When the students see this in real action, they are more interested in the science behind how the plant closes on it's prey. As this is a short clip, it can be replayed many times to help students construct their understandings from the teacher's drawings and explanations.It prompts students to ask many questions such as how the plant consumes the animal.

Many students are engaged by short YouTube clips of nature, but they can be overused and sometimes the duration can be too lengthy. When presenting YouTube clips to the class it is wise to take the safety precautions of always downloading them first. They should never be played live as is the nature with the internet that some inappropriate material can end up being shown to your students. There is a great ICT tool which is called KeepVid that you can use to safegaurd yourself against such problems. This is the secure way to save your YouTubes to be replayed in the classroom. All you need to do is copy the URL of the YouTube and paste it on Keepvid and then click download. Once you have done this you have your YouTube ready to go-no waiting for buffering. Keepvid is also free

After reading Sheena's blog, i discovered two other great sources for educational video resources. TeacherTube.com and Teachers.tv are websites which i will be accessing in the future for teaching ideas.
My first imovie



Reflection-
The Making of digital videos can be determined by the year level of your students. In saying this the earlier the students learn how to use the basic functions, the earlier they can produce a basic movie like my first imovie. In the Prep classroom i would be inclined to use it to record their learning journey from term to term. In higher year levels, the students could begin to make their own videos to record their journey or present a culminating activity. Video clips can also be used as stimulus for learners in higher levels. A creative writing exercise can begin with a digital video clip with an unfinished ending. The students can then take their own spin on where the story goes. Prensky (2005) talks about using methods like this in the classroom being more in line with modern approaches to engage students.
As the cost of a digital video camera can exclude its use in many instances, standard digital camera images can be made into a movie format. Sometimes this can have more impact with well-chosen images matched to a suitable soundtrack and text on some or all of the images.



Reference

Frog eaten by Venus fly trap retrieved from http://www.youtube.com
Keepvid retrieved from http://keepvid.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DqO7GieoeP3s

Presnky, M. (2005). Engage me or enrage me: What doday's learners demand. [eletronic resource] Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf

Images

I took this photo of a thorny devil near Uluru some years back. Such a beautiful but strange or scary looking reptile. This image was used in in the prep classroom as we looked at animals and their use of camouflage and features which deter predators.



These two photos depict the highly toxic blue-ringed octopus. One where it can be easily detected, and one not so easily. These can be shown to prep students in order to help them understand how well they can blend in with their surroundings (camouflage), while explaining how dangerous it can be for young inquisitive minds around rock pools. These still images can be used to point out the features in detail providing students with knowledge which they can comprehend and remember. The application of this knowledge could save their life one day.



References

Images retrieved from
http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.underwater.com.au/content/6490/blue_ringed_octopus.jpg&imgrefurl=http:
http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Blue-ringed-octopus.jpg/220px-Blue-ringed-octopus.jpg&imgrefurl

Powerpoint

PowerPoint is a presentation software program that uses a graphical approach to presentations in the form of slide shows. Their main purpose is to communicate effectively with a maximum impact in a small amount of time. In the classroom this equates to informing with clarity and understanding and to persuade the students to take action. If used right, a PowerPoint presentation can:
• Amplify your message
• Accelerate information absorption
• Assist comprehension and hence faster decision making
When used well they can increase the engagement of students. Initially, the LM needs to incorporate the prior knowledge of the learner and appropriate complexity of content and interests of learners. A well-constructed interactive presentation has the ability to deepen student knowledge and understanding by presenting the central ideas to a topic and then linking relatively complex connections to those ideas or concepts. This form of multi-modal learning is becoming more desired for the 21st century learner.
Cisco (2008) notes that research indicates that students make substantial learning gains with the use of visual and verbal multi-modal learning. Students are more engaged in learning activities that incorporate multi-modal designs, and on average out perform students who learn using traditional approaches with single modes.

Cisco. (2008). Multimodal learning through media: What the research says.
Retrieved August 14, from http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/Multimodal-Learning-Through-Media.pdf

Weebly

http://e-learninghoss.weebly.com/

A website is different to wikis and blogs. A website is a collection of web pages maintained by a single person or organisation. The host of the website can change the content and layout of the site; add hyperlinks and tools which make them live and interactive. They can be set up businesses for consumers to find information and even purchase goods and services. They can also be used for accessing information.

Their value in the classroom begins with the search, whereby students need to use their constructivist minds to navigate specific sites in order to find relevant information. This skill alone is quickly embedded into a learner’s schema, which allows for the next stage of knowledge construction to take place when they refine and evaluate the worthiness of information.

The weebly website that I created was a fairly easy program to navigate, add an image and some text. I’m sure other material could also be added, which I don’t have the patience for at the moment. However, this seems like a good learning tool that even I could guide students through to create their own website. Given time, I would like to pursue the possibilities of this tool for the classroom. I understand that a web quest is also a website that is interactive. This type of website is designed for learning and I certainly see myself using these in the future.

I can see an increase in the use of websites for educational purposes in the future as classrooms become more technologically driven. Hence it will be important for me to possess the skills to be able to show students how to be critical users when accessing appropriate sites for their education. The major problem involved with websites is that there are many inappropriate sites available on the world wide web and government departments, parents and teachers need to be in positions to filter and scrutinise the material which a child can access.

WIKIS

My wiki

http://michaelhoskin.wikispaces.com/

A wiki is an online webpage where users and guests can use editing tools to, modify, add, and remove information. Individuals who wish to contribute to the topic or change the information if they have a differing view do this. The difference between wikis and blogs is that with a blog, you decide on the content and structure alone, and nobody else is able to edit, or add to it, only comment. A wiki allows everyday users to create and edit any page in your wiki including adding hyperlinks to create new pages. This makes a wiki website ideal for the upload of examples of student work, or activities they are to complete. It also encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by the less technical minded.

It does have its drawbacks though, as a reader of an article cannot be certain that it has not been compromised by the insertion of false information or the removal of essential information. As the content is subject to ‘open editing’, a user who visits a Wiki to learn about a subject, or to confirm some matter of fact, does not know is who has used the wiki before them and subsequently needs to exercise great care when relying on the ‘easily changeable’ information within. However, many Wiki sites have a feature called ‘user authentication’, which means only certain people can access the Wiki. This makes it ideal for an educational setting as it can prevent outside users from adding inappropriate information. When measures like this are put in place to protect the students’ security and wellbeing, I believe Wikis have the potential to be a worthwhile educational tool, although I found them not as simple to add information to as a blog- maybe I just need more practice.

In the classroom, a great way for a Wiki to be put into effect could be through a class story. Students could build on to the story over a period of time, with every student having their personal slant and input into its direction. Other ways they can be used is to formulate discussion or debate about how and why people see things differently. Students can be encouraged to use the habits of mind of maintaining an open mind and thinking flexibly in order to develop lateral thinking and the bigger picture. ’50 ways to use a Wiki’ seems to have many other uses that I will investigate in the future. Again as a teacher I would like to have a reasonable grasp on all the functions of a wiki before introducing it to the classroom.

Reference

Smart teaching.org retrieved from http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/50-ways-to-use-wikis-for-a-more-collaborative-and-interactive-classroom/

The big 6

After browsing through the frameworks offered for learning design, I selected ‘the big 6’ to be most suitable for my digital learning design. Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz to solve information problems developed this process model. It is an information problem-solving strategy, whereby they claim that most problems could be solved via a six-stage process of essential life skills. These skills systematically ask the questions in order to find, use, apply and evaluate information.
I found it interesting that Linda Jarvin, Ph.D. of the PACE Center, Yale University. conducted some research on the value of 'the big 6'to find that thousands of students who were taught informative nonfiction using the Big6 approach with a combination of analytical, creative, and practical activities, outperformed students who were taught two alternative approaches.
The model is not only designed for classroom use, it can also be transposed into personal settings and into work settings, which is where i see the value.

References
Eisenberg, M. & Berkowitz, B. (2010). The big 6. Retrieved from http://www.big6.com/