Week 4 Digital Video

This week I have also created a short movie using images from my rugby grand final a couple of years ago.  I found it easiest to upload the video to Youtube first then embed it into this post. Here it is !!




Video is definitely a great tool for learning. It can be used in a number of different ways including for communication, observation and analysis and reflection (Fasso, 2013). I remember using video analysis in Year 12 HPE a few years ago. The sport for the particular term was golf and for one of our assignments the teacher took video footage of each student completing a golf swing. We were then able to slow down and pause footage and for the assignment we had to describe the biomechanics and technical flaws in our swing. This sort of analysis is something that can only be acheived by using video and I think this is particularly useful in a subject like HPE. Video is very engaging and exciting for students and could be used from primary school right through to Year 12 students. One thing that teachers would need to be aware of is privacy of students and parental permission would need to be obtained especially if videos are to be shown to a large audience or uploaded onto the Internet.

Windows Movie Maker is a good program for creating videos as it allows you to use a variety of animations and visual effects. In my video I used only still images but you can also add video recordings and voice over. I actually enjoyed myself using Movie Maker, it was quite easy to use and I feel that it could be of great value to our learners.

References
Fasso, W. (2013). Digital Tool 2: Digital Video. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses EDED 20491 ICTs for Learning Design. http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=115360

Week 4 Resizing and uploading a photo

This week I have experimented with a software called Mobaphoto, a handy tool which enables you to resize photos to an appropriate size for uploading onto a website, blog etc. The image which I have resized below is a photo of my family with the original size of the photo being 4000 x 3000p. Using the Mobaphto software I have resized the photo to a more appropriate size of 640 x 480p.

All of us have come across websites at some stage where massive images take forever to load. It is very frustrating. By resizing images with something such as Mobaphto this can be easily avoided. Images can be a very useful learning tool so it is important that we use them appropriately. Teachers can use images to engage students' thinking, influence feelings, support skill development and also to support critical thinking (Fasso, 2013).

I found Mobaphoto very easy to use; it took me no more than a few minutes to download the program and resize my photos. It was very straight forward to use. I like the fact that the program doesn't automatically replace the high quality original photo and also you can save Mobaphoto onto a USB, allowing you to resize photos even if you aren't using your own personal computer!

References
Fasso, W. (2013). Digital tool 4: Images. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED 20491 ICTs for Learning Design. http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=115358

Week 3 Reflection on Websites

This week I have created a website. It was actually a lot easier than I expected! A link to my site can be found here.

I believe that websites can be used effectively in schools. A website is static in that only the creator of the site can make changes to the site. This is in some ways an advantage over other tools such as Wikis. Websites allow you to put up a whole heap of information without the risk of someone changing it. Some examples of functions of a website include:

• A teacher could put up an entire unit of work on a site which students can then access
• Links to other online resources
• For an assessment task you could get students to create a website instead of writing an essay or other form of assessment
• It is easy to embed images and videos etc.
• Easy to organise information across several pages

The following PMI analyses the main positives and negatives of websites

Positive	Minus	Interesting
·         Nobody else is able to edit your page ·         Easy to navigate and organise information effectively ·         Ability to link to other online resources ·         Ability to embed video, audio, images. ·         Possible to create an online unit of work which students could access	·         Could be time consuming ·         Not as interactive as other ICT's such as Wikis or blogs ·         Not as much feedback from students ·         Anybody can access your page	·         Students could develop their own websites for projects etc.

Websites provide a great opportunity for our learners to express themselves. In the future, I can see students developing websites for assessment rather than more traditional styles of assessment such as essays and reports. In this day and age of technology, I think that websites are much more relevant for our learners. This course is definitely helping me to develop such skills which I can hopefully implement in the future!

Week 3 Reflection on 'Wikis'

This week as part of the Learning Engagement for the course I have created a Wiki. A Wiki is an online space where users and guests can edit, modify, add and remove information with intuitive editing tools (Fasso, 2013). A Wiki is therefore not a secure page that only the creator of the page can edit. Anyone who accesses the page can edit anything on the page. As you can imagine, this could lead to a lot of problems in an education setting if students do not follow appropriate online rules and etiquette. Although, any changes can be undone, it is still an annoyance for those who wish to use a Wiki properly. I think that Wikis are a good way to organise information. For example, in a HPE class you may ask the class; "What are the most important physical aspects in a game of touch football eg. speed, endurance, power. ?? By using a Wiki for this task, students are able to contribute their own ideas to one space used by the entire class. Students are able to develop new ideas by using information which has been provided by other students, therefore I think that Wikis would be most useful for a group project or assignment. The video which I have embedded below is an example of how one teacher has used wikis in her classroom...





The following PMI table shows the positives and negatives of using a Wiki for learning purposes.

Positive	Minus	Interesting
·         Encourages learner-based learning ·         Allows students to get ideas from their peers ·         When used properly, allows for information to be very well organised ·         Ideal for group work and assignments ·         Allows all students in the class to contribute ideas	·         Anyone can edit information on a page ·         Could cause problems if not used appropriately ·         Can become messy if not set out well	·         Teacher plays the role of 'facilitator' in learning

It is important when setting up a Wiki that as a teacher, you remember that it will be your students, not you who use the page. Therefore you must ensure to set up the page to be user friendly. In Week 2 I enjoyed using the mobile phones wiki, however the information on this page was all over the place and quite difficult to use at times. As a teacher, you would also want to ensure that you establish to your students the expectations of them using a Wiki and set out what is appropriate online behaviour. I definitely think that Wikis do have a place in the 21st century classroom as they encourage learners to think for themselves and allow students a place where they can gain a lot of great information from their peers.

References

Fasso, W. (2013). Digital tool 2: Wikis for Collaborative Learning. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491 ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/pluginfile.php/407928/mod_page/content/8/wikis.html

Week 3 Reflection on 'Blogs'

Hi everybody. Hope you are all continuing to develop new skills when it comes to using ICT's!
This week we have been asked to reflect on our learning about blogs. As with any ICT, blogs have both positives and negatives. I have decided to use a PMI to investigate both the positives and negatives of blog pages in learning and also things which I think are interesting about blogs.

 

Positive	Minus	Interesting
·         Blogs have the potential to reach a very wide audience of learners. ·         You are able to receive instant feedback via others commenting on a post. ·         As teachers, we can create links to other online resources which our students can then use. ·         It is ‘your’ blog. You are in control of what is posted.	·         Blogs are more time consuming than other methods. ·         Anybody can see what you post; people from outside your class can access information you may not want them to.	·         I think it encourages greater communication between a teacher and a student. ·         Blogging is now embedded in the curriculum

 

It is clear to me that blogs will play a pretty major role in children's learning in the coming years. Blogs encourage learner-centred learning and teachers are going to play an important role in facilitating this learning.

Cheers
Lachlan

WEEK 2 REFLECTION

This week we were required to participate in a Wiki regarding the use of mobile phones as an educational tool in schools. De Bono's six thinking hats were used as a framework for this discussion. In this post I will analyse the learning that was facilitated in this activity, connecting this to the learning theories which I discussed in my Week 1 post.

I think that this forum was most reflective of the Social Constructivism learning theory. Constructivists believe, "learners construct their own reality or at least interpret it based upon their perceptions of experiences, so an individual's knowledge is a function of one's prior experiences, mental structures, and beliefs that are used to interpret objects and events."
                                                                                                (Jonasson, 1991, cited in Mergel, 1998)

The ideas of this theory were clearly present in this activty. There were a number of differing opinions on the issue of using mobile phones in classroom. This is a result of each students' past experiences with mobile phones in schools and their own perceptions of the usefulness of mobile phones as a learning tool. Some people may have had very positive experiences while others may not have, therefore resulting in a wide range of responses.

This Wiki was very interactive in nature, a key characteristic of Social Constructivism. In this theory, learning is believed to be founded upon social interaction within a learning community. This was seen clearly in the Wiki activity. By interacting in the discussion, students may have gained new knowledge from fellow students which they would never have gained otherwise. For this reason, I feel that the mobile phones Wiki was a very useful learning experience.

I think that the knowledge that we can draw on from our fellow peers is very important and Wikis are a great forum in which this can occur. The only real negative I can see with a Wiki is that anyone can go in and edit a post which could lead to problems if not used appropriately. However, I still think the knowledge that can be gained outweighs any such negative. Wikis are a very interactive way of learning which is important in this day and age. The way in which this Wiki was set out was very organised (eg. section for the black hat, section for the red hat etc.). This made finding the information that you were looking for quite easy instead of having a whole heap of information all i one place.

I enjoyed this activity as I had never even heard of a Wiki before this course, let alone actually participate in one. I have enjoyed expanding my knowledge of ICT's again this week and would feel comfortable to use a Wiki again in the future.

References

Mergel, B. (1998). Instructional Design and Learning Theory. Retrieved from http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/mergel/brenda.htm#The%20Basics%20of%20Behaviorism