Prezi

My first prezi

Java exception handling on Prezi

Podcast

Podcasts are an interesting tool, they are audio or video files usually in an mp3/mp4 format, which can be played from the web or downloaded to an mp3/mp4 player and played anytime/anywhere from there.

The main strengths in using podcasts in the educational sense are both as a teaching tool and as a learning tool for students.
As a teaching tool it can be used to deliver assignment tasks verbally as in a real world application or contain class reviews or concept reviews for student reflection.
Experts in the classes associated fields can deliver summaries of their work to engage the students and inspire them to research the field further.
The students can deliver assignments or set work via a podcast, this allows students to deliver their work orally but not take up a large amount of time in the class, as a teacher I can listen/watch the presentation at a later time, then provide advice feedback as required. There may even be an opportunity to pair better students with ones that are struggling in a collaborative effort on another task.
Due to the portable nature of mp3 players, they can be used outside the classroom to record the events of a field trip. With a clearly defined scaffold of learning objectives the students can record their findings, paired with a camera (either separate or on the mp3 player) the collaborative effort can be reported on and posted on the internet for a relate-create-donate exercise.


Below is my PMI for Podcasts

Plus:

• Easy to use (either online or on an mp3 player)
• easy to create and publish
• can be used as a tool for students learning and reflecting
• portable, being able to be copied to any mp3 player
• has video content ability (as an mp4 file format)

Minus:

• audio only podcasts are not good for visual learners
• ensuring content is engaging and pedagogically sound
• Legal issues with copyrighted material
• ethical concerns about posted material from students
• safety of students identity

Interesting:

• Podcasts should not really be used on their own too much, instead they should be a part of an overall ICT framework
• advantages for Sight impared/dyslexic students
• can be used in field trips, for recording events of the trip

http://djmpodcast1.podomatic.com/

above is the link to my first podcast, very simple podcast, only 10 seconds.

Potential of blogs/websites in my teaching context

Potential of blogs in my teaching context

Blogs are a great tool, they can be a blank canvas (empty space) for students to reflect their thoughts, put down or show off ideas and learning, collaborate with other students or enter set work.

as an online space, they cannot be forgotten, left at home or eaten by the dog, so students can refer to blogs anywhere with a computer at any time.

excamples of possible uses for blogs in a teaching context include

• Daily reflection, review on what the student saw as the important aspects of the days class
• project submission - from scaffolded criteria
• using a class blog and getting students to comment online on individual blogs. the blogs can be descriptive questions, thoughtful ideas or broad problems

Below is a sat ananlysis for Blogs.

Strengths	Weaknesses
·        Scaffold support for projects ·        Confidence for anyone to have input ·        Encourages knowledge construction      through HOT ·        Collaboration and peer interaction ·        Linking to academic information	·        Online only, limit use with some learners ·        Not face to face ·        Time consuming  ·        copyright infringement issues ·        ethical use of the space ·        cyber safety of the students
Opportunities	Threats
·        Interact with field professionals ·        Improve student teacher relationship ·        Later reference tool	·        Concept need to be understood ·        Melicious entries ·        Copyright enfringement

potential of websites in my teaching context

Strengths	Weaknesses
·        Repository for lessons/UOW/Cirriculum ·        Homework/Assignment details, links to resourses ·        Link to Blogs etc ·        Parents can see requirements and expectations	·        No feedback online ·        No collaborative learning ·
Opportunities	Threats
·        HOT opportunities with students continuing research	·        Outsiders hacking the site ·        Privacy ·        Data becoming out of date or incorrect ·        Lost linked functionality

And now the thrilling Conclusion to the first weeks of ICT

Coming into the ICT course, I thought this course will be good, as I considered myself a Digital Native having being involved with electronics since I was a kid and having an IT degree and many years experience working in the area. However ICT is not IT and although I knew about the ICT areas we have covered so far, I had never really used them. So I went from a digital native to an ICT digital immigrant.

There are 3 Wikis this conclusion is based on

1. Profile Wiki
2. Learning Theories Wikis
3. Mobile Phone Wiki

The Profile Wiki involved entering your details to a Wiki.

Learning Theories Wiki involved collaborating with other students to analyze a Learning Theory. I partnered with Allan Wood and Stephen Chapman to constructively analyze Multiple Intellenges using a Plus, Minus, Interesting (PMI) strategy.

I have to thank (maybe) Ward Cunningham for creating the first Wiki. Called WikiWikiWeb in 1995, it can still be found at www.c2.com.

Using the Wikis has shown use of all of the main Learning theories, Behavourism, Cognitivism, Constructivism and Connectivism.

Behaviorism has been popularly described “Based on observable changes in behavior. Behaviorism focuses on a new behavioral pattern being repeated until it becomes automatic.” (Schuman, 1996). There are a few behavioral patterns that occurred when I started using wiki’s. Before I used a wiki I guessed which buttons to press, after doing a few entries the behavior of using a wiki was learnt by following the steps outlined in the study guide.

In the Wiki exercises also showed cognitive practices, as new information was absorbed into my existing schemas, the schemas combined the new information with the pre-existing information. The best example of this for me was with the mobile phones Wiki. A lot of the students put forward some very good cases for each of the 6 De Bonos hats, many of these things I had not thought of before, thus altering my perception of the use of mobile phones. However until there is suitable functionality the mobile phones will still remain a novelty outside of the arts related classes.

Cognitivism is “Based on the thought process behind the behavior. Changes in behavior are observed, and used as indicators as to what is happening inside the learner's mind. ” (Schuman, 1996). General use of the different wikis also lead to distributive practicing, this is also a cognitive behavior

The main aim of the use of Wikis in this course is to get us to learn about Constructivism, with the structure of the course to promote constructivist learning through higher order learning. The wikis and reflections are designed to get me to think about the process and content and draw my own conclusions.

Although the Profile Wiki did not initially appear to have any higher order concepts, I did find out about one interesting one. When I entered my name into the wiki of names, the wiki added a “?” beside my name, clicking on the ‘?’ added a page where I could enter my profile. Being an IT person, I thought to myself, “what happened there” and interestingly a function of the wiki is to generate a new page for me to enter my information. I analyzed the higher order functions that were taking place to satisfy my query.

Constructivism is present in more significant ways through the remaining 2 Wikis. The Learning Theories Wiki uses a PMI analysis. PMI is a common Scaffold for higher order thinking exercises using ICT, other common scaffolds include SWOT and Ranking Tools, as used in the mobile phones wiki. To quote a definition of Constructivism:

“Based on the premise that we all construct our own perspective of the world, through individual experiences and schema. Constructivism focuses on preparing the learner to problem solve in ambiguous situations.” (Schuman, 1996)

Scaffolds help to provide the direction for the learner to solve the defined exercise problems.

"Constructivists also believe that much of reality is shared through a process of social negotiation..." (Jonassen)

The Mobile phone wiki was an interesting exercise because of the content and the scaffold, the ranking tool scaffold and the De Bono thinking hats made it a thorough learning exercise. the thought pattern arising from what I initially thought was a simple answer (NO) was surprising, having everyone contribute to the one wiki and the different points of view provokes a lot of thought and higher level learning.

When dealing with any ICT in education, I think there is always going to be at least some Connectivism. I see Connectivism as being an invaluable life skill for professional development. In the associated wikis there are a number of links to relevant information. The linking (connecting) of information is an important facet of the HTML standard and implemented well in connectivist learning.

eLearning is a growing concept, not only is it becoming popular in schools and universities, it is an important part of industry learning. Many larger businesses are using eLearning in preference to central training due to travel constraints and costs to the business. For any self directed elearning there must scaffolding, the scaffolding provides the direction and structure of the learning.

I recognized the 3 learning concepts introduced in week 2 (Blooms Taxonomy, Engagement Theory & TPACK) are incorporated into the wiki exercises we have performed. This course and its exercises so far has been heavy on the high order thinking concepts and lighter on the low-order learning concepts. Engagement Theory is also a strong feature with the Learning Theories Wiki, however I don’t think anyone will be lining up to get my donated outcomes.

The scaffolding employed in the wikis I have used shows the use of the TPACK learning framework, directing me to my learning outcomes. I must admit that at the start of the wikis I had trouble starting the work, as I was not clear on the procedures to carry out and with the FLEX method I am doing, the directions were a little slow getting through the cognitive part of my brain.

The functionality of the wikis has only been scratched so far in this course; I think the object is to use Wiki as a tool, not the subject of the course. But being a tech person I couldn’t help but be interested in what a wiki can do.

The wikis have simplified syntax, as we have been using, so anyone can author content. The wikis also have a type of version control, I found this would be good to remove malicious entries. Wikis can also get more technical with its linking and searching ability, Semantic wikis (Schaffert, Bischof, Burger, Gruber, Hilzensauer, and Schaffert (2006)) can use annotating to more closely relate pages. In a course more focused on the functionality of wikis, that would be a good unit.

So in a final statement, wikis can be an effective part in an ICT learning environment, designed with good learning frameworks (TPACK, Blooms and engagement theory) in mind and utilizing higher order thinking.

References

Jonasson, D.H. (Undated). Thinking technology: Toward a constructivist design model. [On-line]. Available: http://ouray.cudenver.edu/~slsanfor/cnstdm.txt

Mergel B (May, 1998) Instructional Design & Learning Theory Online, available: http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/mergel/brenda.htm

Schuman, L. (1996). Perspectives on instruction. [On-line]. Available: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec540/Perspectives/Perspectives.html

Schaffert S, Bischof D, Burger T, Gruber A, Hilzensauer W, and Schaffert S (2006)  Learning with Semantic Wikis [On-line]. Available: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.123.2642&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Profile Wiki Reflection

Being an Old IT person I found the creating a profile Wiki fairly standard, I did however note that the design or implementation of the Wiki had a few flaws and was not overly user friendly.
For my students to use something similar could be a value in learning in a few ways. for those who are not fimilar with Wikis/blogging it could open the door to a whole new social outlet with many learning opportunities. It gets students to look at themselves and analyse what type of people they are and also read about who their colleagues are and their personality traits, there could be similar people who have never talked to each other.
Filling out the Wiki scaffold is constructivist and maybe cognitive if the questions are deep and meaningful. There may even be some Connectivism if students link in some other sites for sporting teams etc.
The Wiki is a simplistic learning experience for Logically intelligent people and is step by step follow the procedure exercise so I don't think there is any diversity for such a small task.
Doing this activity for a group of learners is technically a small step, however the information obtained out of it for the learners could be beneficial. Finding out people are similar learners or have similar interests can help form groups for learning and reflection.

Learning Theory Wiki

I teamed up with Allan Wood and later with Stephen Chapman to analyse the Multiple Intelligences theory by Howard Gardner.
I quite enjoyed this, Multiple intelligences is a very valid subject and I related to it well. it explained why I struggle with things when learning in just a text based manner, however when it comes to hands on, I understand it very well. This is why I like IT and Maths, hands on. The different areas of the MI are excellent in showing how different people have different strengths and for students to perform to their best different teaching styles must be implemented.
Potential for my future learners is great with colabrative wikis being a good tool promote improved attitudes cooperation and analysis between students. content like MI would also be a good exercise to help students understand their streingths and weaknesses.
The exercise of creating the wiki and using PMI is primarily constructivism with the way it is constructed, in determining the interesting points and the discussions around this show cognitivism and the availability to reference other web addresses and include diagrams etc, are connectivism traits, however we did not use any of these in this exercise.
The learning design of this exercise does have some diversity due to the cooperative nature of the project. So we could talk about the project in a number of ways and determine what was best to put forward.
The colaborative approach is not ideal for elearning if the colaberating students are not able to get togethor, having said that the use of the Wiki and the PMI method enables students to add points seperately and combine them, enabling colaboration do occur in a successful way.

Reflections on Learning Design Framework

making the framework was a a little difficult, i took the perspective the framework was for me in this course as it is titled "My Learning Design Framework". as I am only in week 2 of the course I still have alot to learn about the subjects involved and I hope it is as the intended question.
Doing Learning Design Frameworks appears to be a great way to design units of work, so through understanding of the subject matter can be learnt. Frameworks also allow for structured methods to ensure many of the multiple intellenges are utilised.
in designing the framework I have referenced the Blooms Revised Taxonomy and Engagement Theory from the course notes. from these topics I attempted to blend them togethor while giving consideration to the Dimensions of Learning.



References

Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains, sourced online March 2011

Engagement Theory:
A framework for technology-based teaching and learning
Greg Kearsley & Ben Shneiderman
Sourced online March 2011



Learning Design Framework

Developing a Learning Design Framework has been a challange for me. After reading alot of the material I re-read the material again in hope of better understanding how I might apply the content into the exercise I have here. I have tried to incorporate sections of many different areas. Blooms Taxonomy, Engagement Theory, Dimensions of Learning.

anyway here is my Learning Design Framework (1.0)

Remembering: (Acquiring Knowledge)

• Identifying and describing the information
• Locating information that does not need to be commited to memory
• naming specific content

Understanding:(Acquiring Knowledge)

• Interpret concepts
• summarise information
• Classify theories

Applying:(Integrating Knowledge)

• Summary reflections - Blogs
• Group discussions

Analysing:(Extending and Refining Knowledge)

• group based comparisons and contrasts
• breaking down and analysing learning theory
• distinguish differences
• using tools such as PMI, SWOT or reflections to extend knowledge
• group based analysis

Evaluating:(Meaningful use of Knowledge)

• making conclusions (in reflections)
• interpreting constructs, units of work
• critiquing analysed theories

Creating:(Habits of Mind)

• ICT frameworks
• Lesson plans

Mobile Phones Wiki Reflections

I must admit from the start, I have never been a fan of people spending alot of time on mobile phones, so this probably skews my reflections.
As a learning experience, looking critically at the use of mobile phones was interesting, the use of De Bono's 6 thinking methods was an experience encouraging the thinking of all the different aspects of a subject and helps to get a thorough analysis of the subject. placing this in a wiki where entries from all the students can be viewed by other students and therefore debated is also a good experience. Mobile phones obviously have a potential for use in classrooms as students would love to use them in class, so the motivation and interest would be high.
the scaffold of the wiki would be a benefit to my students with the structural help that it would provide, because entries can be put in at any time and by any of the students it would encourage students to add opinions, anonymously if preferred to help promote discussion and different ideas. The use of the De Bono's 6 hats would encourage students to look at the subject from different perspectives which may help broaden their perspectives and methods of thinking.
the Constructist approach of adding thoughts to the structure of the wiki helps students expand their perceptions and knowledge. The combined imput from the students adds to the cognitive thought processes by all the students. By all the students adding their thoughts it also shows connectivism in process, with possible links to other published work and many different opinions.
The exercise is of a set structure and appeals to certian types of learners, but there is room to link or include diverse materials to broaden the appeal to other types of learners.
eLearning is always good that it is accessable to all the students and any odd time (as long as there is access to a computer). having the structure of the wiki set with De Bono's 6 hats it gets the cognative processes flowing. in the elearning enviroment it is always good to be able to access other peoples ideas and conclusions to aid your own learning.

Engage or Enrage

What is your belief and understanding of the nature of today's learners? Is there substance to the "engage or enrage" argument?

The technical knowledge of today’s learners is far more advanced than previous generations. More recently the revolution of social media in the realms of face book and twitter has changed the way people interact with each other again. Learners generally are very comfortable with the use of technology and this goes down the scale to learners that have very little knowledge of technology, they may not have a computer at home. So when thinking of ways to improve learning techniques, the whole understanding or the learners technical literacy needs to be taken into account.

Engage or enrage..

This is a very interesting subject. According to Prensky here are 3 types of students.

      The students who are truly self-motivated

These students are great learners. The use of technology can enhance their education and needs to be implemented.

      The students who go through the motions

They learn because they are good kids that are incouraged to learn and see the benefit in it. These students would benefit greatly from being engaged more. They are willing to learn and if they are engaged more could excel.

      The students who “tune us out.”

Students who tune out are of great concern and if they can be engaged could greatly enhance their education. If they are very negative to education, it may be hard to get through to them no matter what is done.

Prensky is really pushing the development of gaming to engage the students that tune out, there are issues on a number of levels with this theory.

Students that tune out may not like gaming and this would also not engage these students.

I come from a background of gaming, I owned a gaming retail store before starting this course. There are a lot of games that come out most are not very successful and there are a lot of development houses that have gone broke. Games that are successful commonly engage the user in a fantasy world where they are a hero, for a game to be a successful educator to these students it needs to compete with the likes of Halo, COD and WOW. Millions and millions of dollars went in to the development of these games and the subject matter is much easier than education.

In my opinion good teachers that are flexable to the needs of their students will beat an educational game anyday.

1. How would you use this information to inform your learning design?

The highest points are logical and spatial smart. This is true so a learning design for myself would involve logical and spatial elements. Just don’t put anything to music, not a strength at all (true again).

Learning styles

Results for: Darren Mortensen

      ACT          X                                        REF

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

      SEN          X                                        INT

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

      VIS          X                                        VRB

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

      SEQ                      X                            GLO

           11  9   7   5   3   1   1   3   5   7   9   11

                              <-- -->

1. What is your learning style? What sorts of learning experiences would suit you best with your learning style?

According to the results I am and Active, Sensing, visual learner with a fairly balanced sequential and global attributes. I am definitely active, I always try things out, I find it the best way to learn. As a sensing learner, I agree that I like real world application examples to better understand concepts. Visual also ties in my previous strengths, when I can see and do procedures that have real world applications I find this the easiest way to learn.. By the definition, I thought I may have been more of a global learner from reading the brief however I do appear to be more balanced..

So overall I do like diagrams (especially functional diagrams) that help map out learning processes and it always helps me to try out solutions.

2. In a traditional classroom of 25 students, how would you support the range of learning styles each lesson?

The Ideal solution is to create lesson plans that incorporate concepts that support all learning styles, examples could include

      the use of Diagrams with text describing the concepts in the diagram.

      When introducing new material outline the steps to be covered in the subject as well as the overall concept of what is going to be taught. Include in this any real world applications for the subject.

      Include both group and individual activities.

      Include props where it may be possible to illustrate new concepts

      Challenge the learners to come up with alternate solutions

3. With your current knowledge of ICT, how could your design and digital pedagogy support your learners better?

Technology has the ability to present information in so many different ways, this is the strength of using technology in a learning environment. The design of learning could include links to different references, each highlights the subject to the benefit of the different learning styles. The use of PC’s and IWB’s are ideal for this method.

4. What sorts of profiling questions would you be asking about your learners to ensure you cater for everyone's preferences?

Questions would be asked to determine their learning preferences, so as a teacher you know your learners preferences. Questions would be similar to the ones asked at the start of this activity would be ideal.

Eg.

      Do you first like to talk about a new subject or think about it?

      Do you like maps or written directions?

      Do you like to work alone or in groups?

      Would you prefer diagrams or expanations of new material?

      Do you like to just try things out or think about them first?

5. How does ICT support differences in learning styles?

Through the use of technology information can be displayed in so many ways. Pictures, animation, text etc…