facebook or face to face?

Social networks have become more and more popular over the last few years. At the beginning, I was rather sceptical of them and with my great fear of privacy issues I was one of the last in my group to join facebook. And I only joined to say in contact and share photos with my friends in Germany and Australia. I soon began to love this new technology and used it regularly.

thanks to this flickr'r

But in the last 6 months or so I’ve noticed that even primary school children are part of this social website.

This got me thinking. Of course, it was inevitable that children begin to access these sites as they seem to gain in popularity and “everyone” is part of it. This creates an even bigger pressure for children to be “on it”.

I then read the article “Want to be my friend? What you need to know about social technologies”  by Lamb and Johnson and  began to see that there is not much we can do to prevent this from happening.

Instead of restricting our children and students in the use of social networks, we have to educate them on how to use them appropriately, as well as on the dangers that come with their use.

The world has changed and children are growing up immersed in technology. We can’t and shouldn’t stop that, but we do have to ensure that our children and students are aware of the dangers that come with this technology. So don’t be afraid but be aware!

Cyberbullying

As I immersed myself in all this new technology knowledge and ways to use it in the classroom, I started thinking about cyber bullying. I know this topic has been all over the news and teachers and schools are under great pressure to intervene and prevent this from happening.

But how do you do that? The internet is big and we can’t control everything that our students view and write. Of course, what happens on school computers in one thing, and this should be controlled by the school. But how do we as teachers prevent what happens outside of school, on the students home computers?

When I read the article “Top Ten tips for Educators on cyber bullying prevention” I expected to be given 10 straight forward ideas and tips on what to do, basically a recipe to follow in preventing cyber bullying.

But that’s not what I found. Yes, there were ten tips of what to do, but nowhere near as specific as I expected. Instead, I realised that prevention strategies can’t be like a recipe, easy one step instructions to follow as every case is different. The tips provided aid the teachers in creating strategies that fit their own situations.

I was amazed to see that all the articles provided in the literature part of this subject value the use of surveys. They encourage teachers to survey the students to find out what’s going on. I’m not sure why, but this had never occurred to me. Of course it would be the best way to find out what is happening before any interventions can be used.

thanks

Another tip was to promote a positive environment in schools where everyone is accepted and included. If the atmosphere in the school is inclusive and students look out for each other, hopefully the risk of cyber bullying is lower.

I’m still not entirely sure how to deal with this new problem but I hope that in the coming years I will continue to learn and collaborate with others and my knowledge in all parts of education will continue to grow.

Gaming, the new way to learn?

When I started reading Matthew Kearney’s blog on learning through gaming I first thought, “Yeah, right, let’s bring gaming into the classroom, what a great idea. NOT!”  and was not really interested at all. I’ve seen my brothers spend hours at a time locked up in their rooms playing these games, and really, they did that for fun not for learning. It was just a way of spending time, wasn’t it?

thanks to this flickr'r

Even though I wasn’t particularly interested in this topic, I decided to watch the video anyway. After all, I had to react on his post in my blog. So I pressed play.

Almost immediately I changed my mind.

Hey, can children really learn and apply all this knowledge through games? I mean I know, I’ve witnessed my brothers having fun in these games, so maybe, these games can make learning more fun?

I looked at the game more closely. And yes, I do see the benefits of it and no longer think it’s a complete waste of time. However, unfortunately I’m still not particularly interested in playing the game, but I believe now, that during special allocated computer times, these games should be encouraged. I will just have to make sure that I can find a variety of different games so that all my students enjoy learning with them.

I’m open to a new way of learning.

What to teach?

I just came across an interesting post that really got me thinking. This parent addressed teachers asking them to spend their time wisely with the children in their class and to teach them for life, not just for tests.

This brings me back to my last prac. I attended the school during the NAPLAN. I have heard arguments between teachers who believed that they should really focus on the content of the test so that their students could gain the best results possible. Others argued that the students should not be probed into what to write in these tests.

The blog therefore really inspired me. Yes, I agree, teachers are there to provide students with knowledge and skills to enable them to become competent members of our community. And that is exactly what I would like to do and achieve when I become a teacher and it should be our main focus.

But how can we do this? The society is putting more and more pressure on schools and teacher for students to perform well and sites such as Myschool creates even more pressure. Are we not losing site of what is really important in education?

How can we combine these two outcomes?

thanks to this flickr'r

Assisting each other

Our last task for the subject Professional Experience 3 was to review and analyse e-learning resources and then present them to our class mates.

I must say I was quite excited to find out what websites my fellow students have found and if there were as useful as the ones Lydia and I had found. After all, if they did, this would be a great opportunity to add them to my delicious account and safe me from having to search for them later...

So I walked into the classroom and was eager to find out what the others had found.

Kerpoof, electricity, Roy the zebra and gold rush were the sites that I was particularly interested in. They seemed to be very cooperative and engaging, assisting in constructionist learning.

I was absolutely amazed by how many free websites there are and how many of them are actually great.

I have added these straight to my bookmarks so I can use them in my future lessons.

Thanks everyone for doing such a great job and here are Lydia and my resources for you to take a look at.

Sandcastles or crosswords?

Constructionism. Wow, a big word. But what does it mean?

Dr. Idit Harel talks about constructionism and refers to it as children learning by creating. She compares a child’s learning process with the building of a sand castle.

Is that not a bit far fetched?

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Not at all, I quiet agree, children learn best when they are actively engaged in an activity. And what better way is there for them to learn than through play, exploring and creating as they investigate their surroundings? Young children are very inquisitive and thirsty for knowledge and strict regulated learning activities can drown the child’s eagerness to find out more.

It is great that these researchers have focused on interactive learning websites that involve the children themselves, getting them to create their own stories and adventures as they master the challenges. With this website, the children are in charge of their own learning and are able to venture further than with some other, non constructionism based sites.

I was very excited when I discovered this website but would love to see one that is related to the Australian curriculum to make it a little easier to integrate it into my teaching.

Great interatctive learnig sites

Today during class, everyone presented the learning resources they had found and analysed and I was absolutely amazed by how many free websites there are out there on the internet. And to my surprise, they weren’t bad either.

My fellow students were able to find a large variety of online resources related to the KLA’s in stage 1-3.

Some of them were really good on were based on the constructivist theory as the programs allowed the students to create their own work rather than just teaching them.  Kerboom.com is a great example for one of those websites.

This is a really important aspect as students learn more if they are actively creating (Jonassen et al. 2008).

As we looked at the individual sites, I realised how important the bookmark “Delicious” can be, especially if we can all have access to each other’s bookmarks.

This way we can all work together in the search for great learning aids and tools and use them in our challenge of becoming great teachers.

thanks

Cutting the cake

I just read Miss Coulson’s blog about digital stories, and I was glad to see that I was not the only one that was confused and intimidated by this task. Similar to Lydia, I too used searching for photos as a way to get started but not having to interact with the technology side of the task.

How on earth was I supposed to do this?

When we started in class, we were using Macs, and most people seem to have Macs at home too. But not me.

So I was faced with the challenge of figuring out how to do it on a PC. Luckily we had been informed about the program photostory in class.

I downloaded it and felt brave.

I gave it a go and was amazed to see that even an unexperienced person like me was able to quickly put together a digital story.

Amazing!

Well here it is enjoy and forgive me for the few mistakes in it as I’m still learning.

M²?

When I sat down to do my Maths assignment yesterday, I was sure that my computer knowledge was at least good enough for this. All I had to do was create a worksheet. How hard could that be?

How wrong I was.

Everything went well to start off with, I had all my questions ain mind and just had to find a nice picture. So far so good.

Yes, maths sheet is finished, now all I have to do is write the answers down.

Oh no, area calculation. I need to put a little 2 over the m to create square metres. How on earth do you do that?

I looked around on my keyboard to see if I could find some clues.

Nothing.

thanks to this flickr'r

I asked matt who was unfortunate enough to walk in at that moment.

Again, nothing.

Oh no, this is really frustrating, who would be able to help me?

Well, why not just google it?

Wow, within seconds I got 40 results all telling me how to do it and the different techniques for the varieties of keyboards. So now I know, all I need to do is press Alt Gr and 0178 and pop, there is my little 2.

Thank goodness we have no evolved to web 2 where people can ask questions and share their knowledge.

My maths assignment was saved!

Teaching right around the world

Today we had a video lecture during class. Carmel joined our lesson and gave a speech about the use of digital stories in the classroom.

The experience got me thinking. Her appearance in the class definately added  to the lesson.

Could I use this in my own lessons?

I intend to teach my students German. How exciting would it be, if we could have a video conference with a German class who are learning English? Wouldn't it be the best way to use your language skills by speaking to a native speaker?

I'm fortunate enough to know some primary school teachers in Germany and I'm really looking forward to trying this new way of teaching  out.

A video conference could be like virtual travel overseas, providing students to use their language skills first hand. Especially in Australia, as you can't just get in your car and drive to another country just for lunch.

I'm looking forward to it!

thanks to this flickrer

The flying classroom

When I began to read the article "Digital Video Goes To School" by Hoffenberg and Handler I was intrigued by the idea but also felt somehow reserved. Is the use of videos in the classroom really beneficial to the students?
As I continued to read, I changed my mind. "Wow, you can use video technology for all these ideas and benefits?"
I mean,yes, I know, children have always enjoyed sharing their ideas and work with their families and friends, even from other classes.
So far this has been a bit tricky.
I had only just prepared my script for my digital story and reflected on one of my own learning experiences.I remembered creating a dinosaur world with my classmates and I also remember how very proud I was when they went on exhibition and the entire school came to see them.
So what if the audience could have been extended?
If we had made a documentary on our project and filmed it, we would have been able to share the entire weeks work with other classes from all over the world.
This wonderful learning experience could have been shared with other teachers and students. The video could be used to share teaching and learning ideas with other teachers, helping each other to create the best learning environments possible.
And just imagine how cool that would have been for us students!
So why not be brave and explore the new?

   thanks

                                             

The more I'm learning about the use of technology in classrooms, the more I get scared. But I also get very excited about the possibilities open to us.
I hope I will be able to extend on my knowledge further throughout my entire teaching career, proving my students with some inspiring and innovative learning experiences.
I want my students to love learning, and I think the use of technology may make this a possible task.
Now it's just up to me to be on top of the new ideas and not to be too scared to try something new.