Interactive Whiteboards!

I had heard of interactive whiteboards being used in classrooms before but I have never had the experience of using one myself. I think there is only one school in Mackay that has access to an interactive whiteboard.

From what I have seen in videos and read, the interactive whiteboard does seem like a very interactive tool that students have enjoyed being involved in.

The features of the interactive whiteboard are nothing like I have ever seen before. The computer understands what is being drawn and can produce simulations for what is going to happen. Things can be edited after being drawn and moved after students have seen the final results.

This tool could be used when teaching students about gravity, movement or even flight and the interactive features allow students to try these out for themselves and actually see what happens.

Greg Kearsley and Ben Shneiderman (1998) say that the virtual classroom environment results in better mastery of course materials, greater student satisfaction and a higher level of student reported learning than traditional classroom experiences.

PRO'S -

• Interactive and engaging
• Big enough for all students to see
• A different way for students to learn
• Students can learn more with hands on learning

CON'S -

• If a class is too big not all students can have a go
• Expensive

USES IN THE CLASSROOM -

• Maths
• Gravity
• Movement
• Flight
• Space

Grace xx

Voicethread!

After watching the video of voicethread, I started getting excited. :) Voicethread seems like a great delivery technology for the classroom and the possibilities for this tool are endless.

Teachers can use this program to comment on students work in the classroom and students can even comment each others work.

With the variety of commenting features, this means that students can participate in whichever way they feel comfortable with. Teachers can also use voicethread to post an image of something students are learning about and have them comment it. For example if a teacher posts an image of the countries of the world, students homework could be to pick a country and comment an unusual fact about this country.

This program could best be used with students from grade 5 and up. Younger students could possibly get involved but parental help will more then likely be required.

In high school, we had to deconstruct images and explain why things had been structured the way they were. Voicethread would have been an engaging way to make this topic a bit more engaging for all the students in the class.

Voicethread emphasises the first principle of the Engagement Theory (Greg Kearsley and Ben Schneiderman, 1998) and incorporates communication, planning, managment and social skills to increase the motivation of students.

PRO'S -

• Fun
• Interactive
• Easy to use
• Accessible
• Engaging for all students

CON'S -

• The more comments there are, the more bandwidth hungry it becomes which means the longer it will take to load. This could be a hassle if all students are participating on the one image

USES IN THE CLASSROOM -

• In class projects
• Homework
• Communication
• Image deconstruction

Grace xx

Using Music On The Web!

At first I was slightly aprehensive towards Incompetech. I have never been a fan of downloading unless it's through iTunes because I don't trust many sites with that sort of thing.

I ended up downloading a piece called 'Kick Shock' which is a dance composition by Kevin McLeod that incorporates synth keys, synth drums, triangle and electronics. It didn't take long to download at all which was great and I really enjoyed it.

You can find it here -

http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html?keywords=Kick+Shock

Incompetech could definatly be uses in media classes or classes where music is a component. When I was in high school, I did film and television as a subject. When preparing short films and animations, we had to use all our own music and produce our own sound effects if we did wish to include them. From a student perspective, this tool would definatly be helpful in situations like that.

Teachers can use Incompetech for preparing presentations for students and students could even work in groups to produce their own music to upload to Incompetech. Greg Keasley and Ben Schneiderman (1998) say that student collaboration increases motivation to learn and technology can facilitate engagement in ways which are difficult to achieve otherwise.

PRO'S -

• Everything under the creative commons liscence
• Free
• All archived to specific dates
• No registration
• Quick downloads

CON'S -

• No way to search for specific things your looking for

USES IN THE CLASSROOM -

• Student media projects
• Uploading students own work
• Classroom presentations

Grace xx

File Storage!

File storage would be a useful tool for many 21st century classrooms. The up to date and easy to use features provide a great alternative to handing in assessment items on paper. File storage would best suit older students, either seniors in high school or university. The need for younger students to use and access this program just isn't really there.

My File -

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=5f01c1a687ba409eaaca48175a79d1c3e04e75f6e8ebb871

File storage can be used for group assessment items that just take to long to email around to everybody. Students can publish one file here where it can be accessed by other group members at any time.

Teachers could also use this program to send information to students. Students would then be able to access the file at home whenever they needed to.

This program could also be uses a communication tool between teachers and parents and even provide a way of communicating for students and teachers in their personal lives outside the classroom. Greg Kearsley and Ben Schneiderman (1998) say that the virtual classroom environment results in a better mastery of course materials, greater student satisfaction and a higher level of student-reported learning then traditional classroom experiences.

PRO'S -

• Easy to use
• Accessible
• Free
• Unlimited uploads
• No software to install

CON'S -

• Not all students have internet access outside the classroom
• Not all students may feel comfortable with files on the internet

USES IN THE CLASSROOM -

• Group assignments
• Communication
• Teacher-Teacher sharing
• Homework delivery

Grace xx

Slideshare!

I had never used Slideshare before today and I think it is a fantastic tool for classrooms. However I did find that uploading my slideshow took a bit longer then I had expected which could be a slight downside, but I'm not sure if this was just my computer or not.

Slideshare would be a useful tool for classroom teachers. The large amount of presentations would save time for teachers preparing presentations for students. This website can also be of help to older students when conducting research for assignments or class projects.

Using Slideshare as a place to put presentations is a good incentive for students to do the best work that they can. Greg Kearsley and Ben Schneiderman (1998) say that when student projuects are placed on the web, it provides them with an incentive to do their best work because not only will it be viewed by their classmates but possibly the world.

I uploaded a presentation of photos a friend and I made last year for a bit of fun. It's a bit dodgy but we had fun making it. Unfortunatly I don't have a microphone feature on my computer so I couldn't add narration. For some reason the embedding code won't apply to blogger so I've just posted the link below.

Mocktail 08 -
http://www.slideshare.net/grace1991/mocktail-08

PRO'S -

• Time saving for teachers
• Generally easy to use
• Variety of presentations, something for everyone

CON'S -

• Takes a long time to upload videos, so this might have to be done outside class time

USES IN THE CLASSROOM -

• Teachers can share presentations
• Teachers can publish presentations for parents to view
• Students can publish slideshows for assessments

Grace xx

WikiPedia!

Wikipedia is a good starting tool for students doing research. Because the credibility of Wikipedia isn't outstanding, the quality of information is questionable. Wikipedia articles have references of where they have got their information from and this is where students should begin. With sourced articles and scholarly authors.

I did a Wikipedia search on my previous topic dinosaurs. I got a large amount of information and pictures including bone structures and previously existing dinosaurs. There was also an extensive reference list. Wikipedia does provide a great source of information but from a teacher and student point of view, I wouldn't feel comfortable in directly quoting from Wikipedia unless I was referencing a picture source.

Dinosaurs on Wikipedia -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaurs

In high school, Wikipedia was actually banned from a few classes for assignments because teachers didnt trust the information on the site. Students did continue to uses Wikipedia as a starting point for topics and pictures and for this purpose it provides a highly effective research tool.

PRO'S -

• References for more information
• Good pictures and thought provoking topics
• Accessible to anyone with no registration required

CON'S -

• Anyone signed up to Wikipedia can edit a site
• Not always scholarly and credible

USES IN THE CLASSROOM -

• Basis point for researching
• Topics for assessment
• Teaches students to pay attention to author credibility

Grace xx

Google Earth!

Google Earth is a highly interactive tool for students of any age. With the technology to even see streets, I had so much fun looking at all the places I used to live. :)

History and geography are subjects that mostly require imagination because there isnt' much to do in the way of involving and engaging students.

With Google Earth, students can fly accross the world with the click of a button. They can see where life changing events like WW1 and WW2 occured and they can visualise what places look like.

Using Google Earth engages the learners that need to see things to understand and learn (thats students like me.) Younger students can use Google Earth to begin using and understanding maps and measurements. By having a lesson on Google Earth, students could then produce theor own maps, or draw the things they have seen on Google Earth. This could be useful in subjects like art or even graphics.

This tool helps students conceptualise, visualise, share and communicate information about they world they are living in and gives them an understanding of reality. Google Earth also provides students with an authentic focus of the real world which provides students with higher levels of satisfaction towards their learning. (Greg Keasley and Ben Schneiderman, 1998)

PRO'S -

• Easy to use
• Fun
• Engaging for everyone

CON'S -

• Students can easily get distracted with the lack of discipline and choose to view what they want

USES IN THE CLASSROOM -

• Learning about maps
• Learning about measurement
• Locations
• Famous Landmarks

Grace xx

Podcasting!

The podcast I subscribed to is called 'Technology 4 Teachers.' There were many different episodes in this podcast and most of which related to this topic. There were ones about wiki's, twitter, web tools and google. But I ended up downloading '6 criteria for a highly effective website.' I thought that by listening to this podcast, it would be helpful for my future studies and research.

The podcast also talked about a website which I also found very interesting -
http://www.technology4teachers.org/

The podcast discussed how to determine if a website is effective or not and this information could be used as a teacher determining if the information on a website is credible or not. I found this information very helpful and will definatly keep it in mind when researching for my future assignments.

Podcasts aren't as engaging for younger students in the classroom because there isn't anything to watch and this could result in many students getting distracted. However podcasts would be very useful for older students because there are some very informative podcasts to subscribe to and this could be helpful for students in researching for their assignments.
Teachers could use podcasts as a homework activity for older students to prepare them for the classwork the next day.

Podcasts could also be used as a delivery tool by students creating their own podcasts. In high school for our media subject we had to conduct an interview in groups with teachers on why they believe the internet is important in education. We then had to publish our podcast onto our school server where everyone could access it.

This was a great assignment and because we were in groups and knew our assignment was going to be viewed by everyone we definatly tried our best to make our podcast fun and interesting. Greg Kearsly and Ben Shniederman (1998) also say that being in groups increases motivation and the pressure of knowing projects can be viewed by everyone makes the quality of work a higher standard.

PRO'S -

• Informative
• Accessible
• Something for everyone

CON'S -

• Not very engaging for younger students
• Not everyone feels comfortable downloading things
• Hard to navigate your way around iTunes

USES IN THE CLASSROOM -

• Researching
• Homework activities
• Assignments

Grace xx

YouTube!

Youtube is a great tool for classrooms, there are so many videos available for just about any topic and this provides a great resource for teachers.
Because I haven't actually started teaching yet, I'm posting a video about dinosaurs. This is because that is what the prep class I was doing work experience with last year were learning about. The students had great fun with this topic and the class teacher engaged students in many ways.



This video is catchy and the cartoons are a great way to introduce younger students to the topic of dinsaurs. By having a class of younger students watch this clip, the would become engaged quite quickly.
After watching the video, students could participate in a class discussion where the teacher asks questions about the names and the colours of the dinosaurs in the video. Because the chorus of this clip is quite repetetive it ensures that the information students need is effectivly delivered.

Students could also comment on their favourite dinosaur they have seen in the video and then in groups could research some facts about these dinosaurs and then share them with the class.
By researching information in groups, increased motivation is likely to occur providing high quality information for the rest of the class. (Greg Kearsley and Ben Scheiderman, 1998)
I think this would be a very effective delivery tool to start introducing younger students to the topic of dinosaurs.

PRO'S -

• Constantly available to students outside the classroom
• Wide variety of videos
• Educational videos for teachers

CON'S -

• There isn't always the specific video your looking for
• No filtering so younger students have to be watched

USES IN THE CLASSROOM -

• Videos for the classroom
• Note taking for older students
• Research for assignments

Grace xx

Quizzes!

Classmarker is a great tool for classrooms. At first I was a bit aprehensive about what to make a test about, then I decided to make it about the Engagement Theory. :)

Take The Test -
www.classmarker.com
Username - grace1903
Password - elearning

Classmarker Quizzes are a way for students to check their knowledge on topics studied in class as often as teachers set the quizzes. Teachers can set these quizzes so that students can undergo them as many times as they need to.

Online Quizzes are alot different to basic tests with pens and paper and because students answers are placed onto the web, it provides an incentive for them to do their best possible work since this can be viewed by their classmates and possibly the world. (Greg Kearsley and Ben Schneiderman)

Quizzes can also be good for younger students aswell as an introduction to online testing because as time goes on, many exams are going to be done online. The multiple choice option is a great tool and teachers could possibly use this to determine what students do know and are learning so they know where more detailed explanations are required.

The quizzes could also be used to determine what students already know before begginning a new unit of work.

PRO'S -

• No wasting paper (better for the environment)
• Easy to use (good for younger and older students)
• Helpful for teachers due to less marking

CON'S -

• Free text questions could be difficult as some students explain things differently
• Some schools may not have the resources for every student to do their testing online

USES IN THE CLASSROOM-

• Distance education subjects
• IT Classes
• Weekly tests to make sure students are learning what they need to
• Group discussions and tests to determine what students know

Grace xx