Pod Casting

Even though I own an i-pod I have never explored Podcasts before. Assuming that you had to pay for everything I didn't give it much attention as why watch something on my i-pod when it is on TV or YouTube for free? (I guess I harbour today's generations attitude about paying for things on the Internet)

Podcasting is essentially where audio files (or video files, changing the name to Vodcast) are uploaded to a podcasting server (like i-tunes) and can be downloaded (often for free) to a computer or mp3 player.

Looking through the huge variety of topics that were available I became quite excited when I saw that I could learn other languages via Podcast. Interested I downloaded Lesson 1 of Learning French however I discovered that I am more of a visual learner than I thought. It was quite difficult for me to grasp these language concepts by only listening - I was craving to have some sort of text in front of me so I could see what letters made up these words and start seeing the patterns of pronunciation.

Bearing this in mind I started searching for something that would be suitable for my Year 1 class. There were some Vodcasts on science experiments but these were either too long and the students would become disengaged or were better off as live experiments conducted by the students. Hooked on phonics also had some Vodcasts but with their black and white graphics and dull voice over I couldn't imagine my students remembering much from the segment. Switching over to Podcasts there were many sites dedicated to stories for children. Scrolling down I came across a story called "In the Dark" by Pinky Dinky Doo. The author's name seem interesting enough so I downloaded the podcast through the i-tunes store (for free!)

"In the Dark" opened with a great catchy theme and very quickly introduced the 'great big fancy word' of the story..."reluctant". A definition of the word was given in children's terms and each time this word was used in was cued by a trumpet fanfare. There are examples of what it is to be brave and also some problem solving skills. If you go to the Pinky Dinky Doo website there are also great activities such as the Great Big Fancy Word Game that help build on things learnt during the story.

This activity would work well for my classrooms it is useful to both upper and lower level learners. For my upper learners they are able to add new words to their vocabulary and follow on activites would require them to use the word of the story in a meaningful way in their writing or their speech. For lower level learners, podcasts help to scaffold the link between oral language and reading. By combining the podcast with something like a quiz from ClassMarker it is possible that all three areas of Oliver's Learning Design Construct are in action. Students can undertake an online quiz after watching the podcast. With guidance the teacher could then scaffold the necessary processes required to create a role play or to undertake a problem solving activity based on the Podcast.

Students can also create their own Pocasts and upload them through a web Url. This could be useful for publshing oral activities on other e-learning places such as wiki's or webquests.

Podcasts and Vodcasts are useful learning tools for twenty-first century learners. In most cases today's students "have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, video games, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age (Prenksy, 2001, p1)". Prenksy also states that for most college grads less than 5000 hours have been spent reading compared to over 10 000 hours on video games and more 20 000 watching TV. This does not mean that reading should become irrelevant for students but in order to install the motivation to learn to read it is important that we provide our students with resources that are engaging and provide stronger links between what they have access to at home and access to at school.

Google Earth

Google Earth is an online, virtual globe. Features of the latest version include the ability to access historical images of places around the world, view the ocean floor and other data provided by marine exerts and tours of the globe audio and voice recordings (Google, 2009).

I was a bit dubious about the program and its accuracy but was soon shocked when I typed in my workplace and it located it. Although the photo was taken three years ago significant detail was given in the picture. I then searched the surrounding areas and again the attention to detail was quite surprising. I looked up a friend's address in America and it was interesting to look at her University Campus as the size and set up is completely different to what we see in Australia. Finally I had a look at Tokyo in Japan. Zooming in on the inner city I added weather and traffic layers and made the buildings 3D. I also added the interesting places layer and photos. The program was really simple to use and provided the address is typed in correctly it will easily find different locations. One concern I did have was the ability for others to see where you live and as such it was a wake-up call about being careful of what information others can find out about you on the Internet, particularly from social networking sites such as Facebook and My Space. Internet safety, identity fraud and ensuring personal security would have to be discussed in the classroom so that students are aware of the possible dangers lurking on the Internet.

In the classroom Google Earth would be a great learning resource to assist students with their learning tasks. As a visual aid it would be great to use when looking at different cultures from around the world as students would be able to see how cities/towns are planned, what resources are available near by and get a feel for how big or small an area these places cover. Tokyo for example has a population of 12 million people however it wasn't until I zoomed out over the Tokyo Metropolis that I could even begin to comprehend what a 12 million people city would look like. In this way Google Earth provides a support for visual learners. The program could also be used to help understand co-ordinates for geography however as this is determined by where the mouse is on the page I'm not sure that I would use it to answer test questions (e.g: give the co-ordinates of Melbourne City, Australia). It would be great however if places could be sought by co-ordinates. On the other hand students could still answer questions and provide short responses about different places by searching for city names.

You Tube

You Tube is a website where anyone can upload and share videos. These can be videos that individuals have made or even television segments that have been uploaded by television stations and production companies. You Tube has become a regular haunt for most of today's generation as they can watch interviews with celebrities, view fan tributes, see hilarious skits, crazy stunts and view clips on things that interest them.

Since You Tube is so popular with today's children it would make since for us to incorporate it into our classrooms. There are plenty of clips on You Tube and its spin off Teacher Tube that can be used for educational purposes. For littlies there are numerous clips from shows like Sesame Street, Word World and Play School. For older students there are news reports, documentaries and short films. You Tube is appealing as it offers a more engaging way of communicating concepts to students. If the right clips are selected there can be the balance between education and fun. What I mean by that is that often movies are seen as time fillers or if thy are used in an educational context the gains are limited as most times the film is followed by a basic question and answers sheet.

The clip that I have chosen is Part 1 of the Coral Seas episode from The Blue Planet series by BBC, narrated by David Attenborough. The clip details how most of sea life depends on the coral reefs. Attenborough discusses how coral is formed and the life of polyps. At ten minutes in length, this is the longest I would want any clip to run for in my class; if the clip is too long students can tune out. This segment of the show would be the basis of investigation into the sustainability of the reef. Students would act as environmental researchers to explore threats to coral reefs and what can cause coral to die. Students would then develop scenarios of what would happen if we had no reefs. Students would finally use this information to develop an awareness brochure and ad campaign.

Quizzes

Quizzes can be a great form of diagnostic testing for teachers to see how their students learning is progressing or to find out what their students already know. ClassMarker is an electronic testing resource for teachers. Teachers are able to design an online test and enrol their class into the virtual classroom so students can complete the test. From here teachers are then able to view students results. Teachers can choose from different styles of questions such as multiple choice, multiple response, free text, punctuation and essay.

I created a test called "In the Dark" which would be used in conjunction with the "In the Dark" podcast. I chose a variety of questions including free text. I like the idea of the question style as it eliminates the chance element that is present in other question options like multiple choice. One problem I did find with the free text question however was that you have to enter in a variety of correct answers. Unless students match one of the responses the teacher has entered word for word they will get the question wrong. I did find that if you labelled the question as an essay than you could mark the students' responses manually.

I can see how this technology could be used in the classroom however as I said earlier I would only use this for diagnostic testing and unless students were writing an essay response I do not believe that this technology would contribute to higher order thinking.
Picture
Writing Exams - by ccarlstead

Image Manipulation

There are two different types of image manipulation. One is where photos are simply corrected or re-sized using a computer. The second is where the picture is edited in order to create "an illusion or deception (Wikipedia, 2009)".

I used the Picnik software to edit my photo. There were many things that could be adjusted however I kept the changes to my photo quite simple. When editing my picture I changed the photo from landscape to portrait and added a sepia tint. If you upgrade your subscription there are even more ways that pictures can be added to.

Picnik is a user friendly way to edit pictures and generally suits the purpose of resizing images so they are more suitable to be used in other applications.However there are more complex programs available. Adobe PhotoShop is a very popular image manipulation software package and one only has to look on Youtube to see the multitude of tutorials showing you how to make the most of its tools. Programs like Adobe Photoshop are used for simple image editing however they are more often used to adjust the content of the picture. Here are two examples.
This photo was published on the internet shortly after the September 11 Bombings. The photo was quickly dismissed as fake and if you take a second look you can see why.
- The plane is coming in from the wrong direction.
- The plane does not appear to be moving as you would expect
- The shadows indicate the photo was taken pointing north, however the North Tower had no observation deck.

In 2004 Keira Knightley's publicity posters for the movie King Arthur were edited for American audiences but left untouched in England. What does that say about different societies views on body image?

As a teaching tool I think it would be very thought provoking to use this second type of image manipulation with students. Students could analyse the impact that image manipulation has on the beauty industry and even create their own "touched up" pictures. It would be very interesting to uncover the make-believe world that the advertising industry creates for us.

Powerpoint

I first remember using a PowerPoint presentation in Grade 6 or 7. We had to do a group presentation on another culture (we chose Mexico and made nachos for everyone!) and we got marked on our PowerPoint. Now I will admit that I am someone who is easily distracted and I can remember even back then spending ages changing colours, inserting pictures, making things move, adding noises..oh and of course the content we actually got marked on...however we never really received much guidance on what made for a stand out PowerPoint presentation. In fact it wasn't really until University that the contents of a PowerPoint Presentation was discussed.

When I was at Queensland University of Technology there was a compulsory subject called Learning Networks. It could have been really (and I mean REALLY) boring because the course focused on making sure we were all equipped to use ICT's (and that we actually knew what an ICT was) ...however I am starting to ramble. The point is, our student cohort was saved from going brain dead from boredom by our lecturer Michael Ryan. He used to have the most well prepared PowerPoints. PowerPoints that gave just enough information so it was relevent to what he was talking about, but not so much information that meant we could skip a lecture (smart lecturer!). His PowerPoint's always had awesome links and I am sure that he never posted the full presentation on the web because there were always extra slides at the lecture.

So what did Michael Ryan's lectures show me about the use of PowerPoint as a teaching tool?

• Less is more - don't crowd each slide with text, pictures and garish colours - "too much sensory input can lead to cognitive overload" (http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=53243)
• Don't rely on rely on the PowerPoint to do the teaching - why should your students make an effort to listen if you have made no effort to engage them?
• Let your PowerPoint be a stimulus for learning - provide students with links to other sites that will have interesting information,YouTube, games or quizzes are just some examples
  

As a teaching tool PowerPoints can be really powerful (pardon the pun). Once you discover how to present your content so that it is both relevant and engaging the world is at your feet.
A study by CISCO systems shows that where visuals are added to texts (written and aural) there can be "significant gains in basic or higher order learning" (http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=53243).
The Metri Group, drawn from the work of Richard Mayer, Roxanne Moreno and others created a report that outlined the learning principles for Multimedia.Two are especially relevant to PowerPoint presentations.
Multimedia Principle - Retention is improved through words and pictures rather than through words alone Modality Principle - Students learn better from animation and narration than from animation and on-screen text.
(Quoted directly from http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=53243)

Watching PowerPoint in the classroom with Jim Jingle and Special Sue I was certain that Andrew O'Keefe had got his own web page. While the script was a little corny (and I could not help imagining game show music in the background) I have to admit that the site did engage me however the information may be more beneficial to those who have never used PowerPoint before.

I would definitely use PowerPoint in my classroom. For older students I would provide them with handouts so they can take notes as we go along. With younger students information would be much simpler and explicit and also the presentation would be shorter.

As a student centred technology PowerPoint is still valuable. An effective PowerPoint presentation requires the student to use a range of higher order thinking skills including problem solving and deciding what information should be placed on the slides, experimentation with layout and the creation and design of the presentation. They should also make time to reflect and evaluate the effectiveness of their Presentation.

Flickr

...or more truthfully, the site where I can look at pictures of places I would love to visit as well as other interesting (but maybe not always relevant to this assignment) stuff.

At first it took me a little while to get my head around what I could use from Flickr. I had heard of the site before and knew that I could access pictures could be used freely on the web however all of the pictures I found where fully copyrighted. After much searching I discovered a tag down the bottom of the page that allowed you to search within the creative commons and ta-dah! I now have my own travel album and I haven't had to hop on a single aeroplane.

The pictures that I selected are all able to be published and reproduced as long as the orginal work is attributed to its owner (this can be found at the bottom of this post).

Having decided that the pictures I selected would form a make believe photo album I opened the pictures in Picnik (which is next to be discussed) and gave the photos the polaroid frame treatment.

Flickr is an online photo library that aims to "help people make their content available to the people who matter to them" and "enable new ways of organising photos and video" (Flickr, 2009). As I mentioned earlier photos that are fully copyrighted are also on the site. It is important that we abide by copyright laws and also provide our students with an understanding of the legal issues of using other people's work. Here it would be useful to use a YouTube clip that explores the differences between copyright and creative commons.

As a teaching tool Flickr provides a photo bank for teachers to access free of copyright hassles. Pictures can be used to help support learning, or branching off from my travel photos idea could possibly be used as stimulus to learn more about another culture.
Flickr also provides students with a wealth of pictures that can be used for different tasks. In terms of presenting pictures within a task that will be posted on the web, students may find (as I did) that they are more inclined to create something of a high stadard as they are aware that their work will be seen by their peers (Kearsley & Shneiderman).

Photos
Night View Eiffel Tower, Paris, France by eustaquio santimanos
Gelativa Brivido by amstrks
Santorini Greece by billandcathy
St. Basil's Catherdral by itsray