Playing with Picasa 3

I used to use photoshop back in the day to edit photos and have Paint Shop Pro currently installed.  But I have to say thei Picasa is quite user friendly.  Images are automatically (it does check with you first though) resized when you export an edited photo to your hard-drive.  The image of the palm leaves here was originally 6.7MB and picase shrunk it to only 53KB...impressive I reckon.
Isn't Kevin the Cat cute? And say hi to Buttons, my silly labrador.  

And the Winner is....

Wiki, Blog or Weebly?

 

Having looked at blogs, wikis and weeblys, I'm trying to reflect on the types of situations that would be suitable to each.  They are all very similar really and so it is difficult to pin down specific uses for each.

The teacher could certainly use a weebly to create a class page that had links to homework set or  upcoming events and a certainly a page with the learning goals and success criteria would be most useful in communicating these goals to students and to parents.

In trying to think of a situation where the students would themselves use these platforms, there are issues that come to mind.  Such as the time it could take to allow students to learn how to use the site, as not all students will be computer literate and this could highlight huge gaps between learners abilities.  Most notably, will my school allow the students access to such sites as blogger, wiki and weebly.  I have already heard people talking about not being able to access them in their schools.  So really, their use becomes victim to the macro forces at play in any particular school.

Each of these examples have the ability to be used as a collaborative workspaces for students, although certainly wiki has a greater capacity to be used in this context.  There would need to be an emphasise on rules and expectations however, as the ability to delete someone else's work is extremely easy.

When I think of using wiki's in the classroom I immediately think of creative writing activities, such as story innovation.  I think this could work really well for providing sentence starters  or stems and having students add their own endings.  This could also provide opportunity for HOT if students discover their intended sentence has already been used.

If students are brainstorming, surely there are better to do this in person, rather than 'on the screen'? However, if the class were brainstorming with a class from another school, town or even better, country then the technology would be absolutely fantastic (organising logistics for this could get tricky though).

I believe the face to face interaction that the 'in school' class provides is invaluable, and so I find it hard to imagine students collaborating 'online' with their own peers.  However, if this technology is available to them at home, they could upload homework or pictures in their own time.  One teacher (http://mrsroncone.wikispaces.com/Ways+to+use+a+wiki+in+your+classroom) even noticed her students doing their school work willingly (without being asked) at home (shock, horrror).

 As I noted in an earlier blog...http://lovetheclassroom.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/to-wiki-or-not-to-wikithat-is-question.html

 "I'm wondering about the lack of human (face to face) interaction.  A detrimental effect on the ability to 'read' body language and facial expressions. The ability to share with people from all over the world is no doubt a useful and 'barrier breaking' tool.  I believe this will go a long way towards lessening prejudices.  Prejudices often come into play subconsciously and unintentionally.  We often align ourselves with our 'in-group'  and online collaborative work spaces may prevent these unintentional prejudices from surfacing, thus providing a fair and unbiased cooperative learning arena."

 

I have struggled to think of (students') uses for these tools in my context as computer lab time was a very rare occurrence.  However, if I was lucky enough to ever be in a classroom that had its own computers (even only a handful, [stares dreamily into space]) I would certainly utilise the technology of blogs in particular for recounts of specific events.  I would also love to use a wiki or a weebly for a class newspaper, where the students could assume the roles of reporter, photographer and of course, editor.  Parents could log on and check out coming events and read samples of the child's work in regular "featured student" section (similar to student of the week).  Maybe each student could add a 'put-up' on at least two student's pages using the class wiki.

I even had a few ideas (Wiki SAMR also viewable here) while playing with my wiki here: http://lovetheclassroom.wikispaces.com/Student+A

Needless to say the opportunity for building literacy skills (including online ethics and etiquette) are limitless.  I have thoroughly enjoyed learning more about these tools, as previously I was completely unaware how they could be used in a classroom.I think the blog (see SAMR at http://lovetheclassroom.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/the-use-of-blogs.html) and the weebly (http://lovetheclassroom.weebly.com) (http://resourcesdontlastforever.weebly.com)  would have to be favourites for their ease of use.  But (and the jury's in…) wiki is bringing up the rear and could be in with a chance.

 And so, in conclusion

On the whole, I still need to think more about situations where the students' use of ICT is going to 'add' to their learning or perhaps redefine  it.  These three examples of ICT, need to be used to help students learn in a way they could not do before and not merely as an engagement tool.  A recent comment from a peer, noted that many students are already so familiar with ICT (digital natives) that it may 'not actually engage' them.   Of course, not ALL students will be digital natives either, so that will take time to address.

Having said all of this, it cannot be ignored that the future is ICT and it becomes increasingly important that students are taught the variety of skills that are 'digital literacy'.

 

Image retrieved from http://blog.accusoft.com/posts/2013/july/who-makes-your-decisions-part-2.html

People with no kids don't know

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFQfylQ2Jgg

This made me smile this morning.

To Wiki or not to Wiki...That is the question!

Wikis - Useful or not? 

When and where would I use them?

I am trying to reflect on wikis and their use in the classroom.  The jury is still out...in fact I'm wondering whether they haven't just left town??

Here is a link to my wiki playground.  I hope the link works. I wonder if this is where the generic username comes in??

http://lovetheclassroom.wikispaces.com/Student+A

The student A was part of an idea where each student has a page to themselves and can link to it to answer questions etc.  My reflection mainly sits on the above page (including SAMR of use in my context).

Some other points of reflection during my looking at other peoples wikis whilst playing with my own, are as follows...

I'm not sure if its due to my lack of understanding, but the wiki seems hard to customise without knowledge of html coding.

 I have only been able to change background colours for now using the one theme available.

Ability to collaborate on a wiki, but as they are ongoing...how old are they? This thought was from a site I stumbled on where teachers were able to add their own thoughts and ideas to an ongoing wiki.  Unfortunately I cannot for the life of me, remember the address to this one. :(

 

Some ideas for the use of a wiki in a classroom...

Using a project for a collaborative team exercise where students can retell a story, describe characters (scan in their own drawings? This could also note the adjectives that led them to their mental image of the character). 

A planning page for a puppet show or play to retell the story.

A page to upload or link to the video of their play/show.

Parent/grandparents could be directed to this page to view the finished project.

A comments page for parents etc to provide feedback to the students.

 

Reflecting some more...

Online collaborative spaces may sit very well with the social constructivist theory.  There is much food for thought in this subject though.

 I'm wondering about the lack of human (face to face) interaction.  A detrimental effect on the ability to 'read' body language and facial expressions.

The ability to share with people from all over the world is no doubt a useful and 'barrier breaking' tool.  I believe this will go a long way towards lessening prejudices.  Prejudices often come into play subconsciously and unintentionally.  We often align ourselves with our 'in-group'  and online collaborative work spaces may prevent these unintentional prejudices from surfacing, thus providing a fair and unbiased cooperative learning arena.

 The ability to spell and write coherently could jeopardise collaboration.

Some students are far more adept at verbal communication and in fact could be turned off by the written aspect.

Not all 'net' connections are created equal and the ability to share could be the victim of speed.

 

Perhaps once I have played with other tools and created accounts with them, I will see more of the ways in which a wiki could be used in a classroom.  Watch this space...

Interesting reading about use of wikis in a classroom: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com.au/2006/08/how-i-use-wikis-what-do-you-do.html and http://mrsroncone.wikispaces.com/Ways+to+use+a+wiki+in+your+classroom

 

Just reading about an idea (http://mrsroncone.wikispaces.com/Ways+to+use+a+wiki+in+your+classroom) where the teacher has a wiki page for each KLA...does she mean a separate wiki or literally a page?  Can you have subpages in a wiki.  or pages that aren't viewable to all and sundry.  Also she talks about secret passwords...is that like the generic ones we set up for this assignment?

 

A example of wiki use: http://terrythetennisball.wikispaces.com/

 

Ok that's me done for today as online tute is later.  I'm not stopping, just swapping subjects.

No rest for the wicked!!

The use of Blogs

I have been using and reflecting on the use of blogs, wikis and weeblys over the last few days.

I will post a consolidated reflection later in the week. But here are some thoughts on the Blog scenario to start with.

Blog SAMR

Substitution	Blogs are used instead of traditional diaries or journals to document learning.
Augmentation	They could be used by students to evidence an assessment task by embedding links to word documents, spreadsheets, powerpoints etc.
Modification	When used to document evidence of an assessment task (or draft), the teacher and peers could provide feedback via the comments section, allowing the student to then write a reflective entry and blog the final assessment piece.   Using a link to a teachers email address, parents could make comments to email  the teacher who is then able to use this further formative assessment evidence and which could shed light on any difficulties the student is having.
Redefinition	Students could write a story where the comments from students in other schools (states, even countries) dictate the direction of the next chapter using polls.

Blog PMI

 

Plus	Minus	Interesting
May be engaging for students.   Encourages and reinforces literacy skills and practices, such as grammar and creative writing.   Could be used to evidence assessment tasks and provide opportunity for feedback.   Ability to use embedded objects or media suits a variety of learning styles.   Available for anybody in the world to view.   Fairly customisable and easy to use.	Need to have regular use of a computer for students to update blogs at school.   Students may not like the 'writing' component.   Elements are not easy to have 'anywhere' on the page. Need to rely on the templates available.   Readability could be limited by a student's level of grammar etc.    Available for anybody in the world to view.   Have to monitor what each student is posting. (time consuming)	Are parents clued in to blogs and their potential?   Do parents need to give permission for the children to keep a blog?   Templates are adjustable with knowledge of HTML coding.   Re-reading their own work before publishing could be used as editing practice and would reinforce literacy skills.   Is global 'viewability'  going to be a problem? Need to educate about amount of information given in a blog.  Could get tricky!   Any there any blogging sites that can only be seen by those with permission?

I want to look into the 'edublog' that I've heard about on my surfing travels.  As I think that one is only viewable by permission.  I received a link to a child's class journal, but was unable to see anything.  So I'm guessing that this platform ensures privacy.  Which of course is a major consideration for the classroom teacher and indeed parent.

Wikis in Plain English

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY&feature=player_embedded



Wow...I knew it could do this...but somehow this video just makes it all the more understandable by using layman's speech.

Wiki Reflection

Activity Design:

The question of mobile phones provided an engaging hook, as most, if not all, students could relate to the question through their personal experience and knowledge.

The overall design of the mobile phone wiki was very confusing to me as I’m not overly familiar with wikis.  The concept makes sense, but I feel it would be better used for small groups of students.  Having so many perspectives can be a really useful way to instigate a bouncing of ideas and allows for some higher order thinking as students analyse and evaluate the opinions and ideas presented.  However, the sheer amount of input means that there is a great deal of reading involved and this could turn students off from the task.  I felt I had to skim as I was conscious of time constraints, thus feeling like I may have missed some important information and ideas.

I felt that the wiki looked confusing with so many pages of similar titles and whilst I wanted to add comments it was difficult to do so, as I wasn’t sure whether I had to log in, or sign in as a guest because the initial entering information for each hat could be done without signing in.  There was an assumption about our prior knowledge which I feel was not good pedagogy.  Some students become turned off if they are made to feel ‘silly’.  Of course as adult learners we need to equip ourselves with the knowledge necessary to take part, but as this was the first task, some of us may have been unaware of what we would need to know in order to participate.

Students had been asked to keep responses to 40 words but this was overlooked and as such, made the comments too long and in some cases comments combined elements from other hats.  Perhaps clearer instructions regarding this aspect could have been given.

The Theory

This type of activity builds on Vygotsky’s Social Constructivism theory where learning is founded upon interactions.  The activity clearly supports this notion as students form their own opinions and evaluate the opinions of others.  Although, if a student is the first to ‘add’ to the wiki, they are not really using others’ ideas to construct their own.  Maybe having a small group of students express an opinion and comment again after reading peers’ work would support a reflective socially constructed knowledge and learning. The collaborative and cooperative nature of the task also supports the connectivism approach by enabling students to find out whose knowledge may be able to help them with future tasks.

Value of Scaffolding and Learning Outcomes

The use of de Bono Thinking Hats was an extremely good way to illicit high order thinking as students are required to think deeply about the issue of mobile phones in the classroom.  It can be easier to think about each aspect (good, bad etc) separately in order to come to a concise opinion.

For my own learning, I found the yellow hat particularly hard to use.  I had such strong feelings (Red and Black) that it was hard to ‘switch’ hats in order to come up with a positive comment.  However, because I found it difficult, I was more likely to be using higher order thinking skills.  I had to think deeper, so in the respect of ensuring HOT skills the hats certainly provided this opportunity.