Reflective Synopsis

     These last few weeks we have discussed digital learning in quite some detail. This is sometime referred to as E learning. Connectivism, the knowledge of where to go look up facts without necessarily having all the facts in hand (Siemens, 2005 retrieved on 20-04-15 from : http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm), has become an everyday part of life for young learners. E learning takes advantage of this abundance of information. It is no longer possible for students to know everything in there chosen field. They do however have a super computer in there pocket or on there desk that will allow them to retrieve the answer with almost no lag time.
     Connectivism is the art of teaching students how to develop higher order thinking that will allow them to solve there own problems through the use of these specialized and varied digital data sets, and through networking with others. Why ask me when you can Google it?
     The TPACK (TPACK.ORG) identifies the knowledge teachers will need to effectively teach in the digital environment. This frame work can help guide any new teacher to understand what will be expected of them as they attempt to navigate this new landscape. This is necessary to support student learning mostly because this is how students are already learning. Using Bloom's Taxonomy (course web site at :  https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=15617) we can clearly see that there is a difference between simple knowledge and understanding, and high order thinking. By using Connectivism in a digital environment we can support the student in developing there higher order thinking skills. In the digital interactive environment the students can be challenged to first decide what information they need and then figure out the data sets they need to use to find the answers they decided they needed.
   Many of the digital tools we have seen in this blog are very good at allowing the interaction that students need to work on all sides of an issue. Helping them understand its various aspects. General interactive spaces, like Wiki’s and blogs, are great for giving information and then encouraging a conversation that can be as important as, or more important than, the original text.
   Just making information digital does not necessarily add anything to student engagement. To help us understand how to make the best use of digital media we have the SAMR model (Dr. Ruben Puentedura retrieved on 20-04-15 from : https://sites.google.com/a/msad60.org/technology-is-learning/samr-model). This model offers a way of understanding how digital media will impact student engagement. See my earlier post for a definition of SAMR. I intend to use this model to help me teach content in my chemistry class.
    Digital media is particularly important in chemistry. Chemistry molecular models (physical) are hard to find and are expensive to buy. You need several models to make any usable size structure. Enter Chemsketch. CHemsketch is freeware brought to us by ACD/labs (retrieved 10-04-15 from :  http://www.acdlabs.com/resources/freeware/chemsketch/). It allows you to draw and model complex chemistry models digitally without the need for a teacher to spend lots of money. It also allows all the students to create and manipulate those models. Its user friendly and requires minimal system resources. In the SAMR model this is the redefinition of the task. Imagine students creating their own models and sharing them not just with one another, but with people all over the world. This allows students to create 3 dimensional models themselves or import other people’s files. You can now have students create molecules from scratch to demonstrate understanding. Students could share files with other students in other countries to check there understanding.
In biology, it is now possible to step away from plastic replica models by use of interactive white boards and digital programs that can be manipulated in real time by the students during the learning process. All of this functionality is only part of the process. The digital format allows a more multi modal pedagogy that is a more collaborative learning It is more owned, controlled, and managed by the students themselves. This is the goal of current pedagogy theory (course web site retrieved on 20-04-15 from:  https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=15618).
In my future secondary school teaching career I will attempt to use many of the new technologies and digital pedagogical teaching tools that are available. This will be something of a constant learning curve as you will have to stay up to date with the new media as it develops.

Reflection 4 week 5

 this is a test. Presi seems to be a cool power point upgrade. So lets see if it works. You should be able to freely move around the whole project or arrow ahead and follow the prompts. It's not perfect, but I had a play. I'll have to get it right by next week that is for certain because it's part of my L&N task 1. So no cheating or I'll no mine is date stamped.

To be sure you can mouse around it with the scroll wheel to zoom in and out and using the hand to pull it around to what you want to see, or you can arrow ahead with the arrows at the bottom and be guided not unlike a power point. Have fun with my Presi. I try to describe it further but I really cant just have a go. This could really be a useful tool.

PMI to follow
 PMI
 P the positive
-You can fit A LOT of content in there.
- People who are easily bored get to move on but you get to explain to your hearts content for the 10% who may want to know more about a given area of the content.
-It is just so very versatile in it's explanatory power for any subject. It's what a power point should have been but never could be owing to PP's linear aspect. You can make PP less linear but it is hard to get away from the linear feel.

M Minus
-This set up is a time killer. It takes quite some time to set one up and then it takes quite some time to load. I mean expect to take 10 minutes to load the Prezi and its only half done. Imagine how slow it will be when I add Numeracy which will be another whole side probably just as big.

- People using this tool have to be able to delay gratification. I don't know if a high school kid is going to wait 10 minutes for a Prezi to load up. We are talking about students who get upset when the page takes more than a few seconds to load. This can only really be mitigated by reducing the size of the Prezi content and therefore limiting one of the big draws to use it. Any attempt to use this in teaching practise will require a balance of these things.

I interesting
-You can put anything directly into a Prezi. Pictures, charts, audio, video. and you can embed the Prezi anywhere rather easily.
- Can it be used in public school closed systems.That is a question I would love to try and answer, but I just don't know enough about these closed systems yet to find out.

Well that is all for this week. Prezi is a great tool I recommend anyone who uses power point give it a go. If someone out there with the access can answer the public school question post a comment and let me know.

WIKI's

I have done it yes sir the holy grail of wiki's. okay it just a test page, but I love the lay out of this one. It is the kind I will use. Instead of adding the audio in some side place you can add it directly to the post you are adding, as well as video or pictures or just about any file type. 

  https://searchforknowledge.wikispaces.com/

This is a much better format for me personally and I think I will use this type of wiki when ever I do my wiki-ing.

I am going to give video in education a pass at this time. It is of limited use (unless its Youtube). Video to be a truly effective teaching tool must be used and created by the students. This is simply too time intensive. Even in a 8 minute video the edit time is so long that it is just not very useful to the average student unless they are actually studying visual arts, or learning the TV business.

       Any project requiring Video would require so much work to make sure all your groups (it would likely need to be group work) have access to the software and hardware and internet necessary to do the job.
    Podcasting is so much eaiser and more useful. It is easier to use and edit and rework if you don't like it. As far as the learning process it has the same benefit as video. Likely all your students have a super computer IN THERE POCKET or on your desk that can do the job quite well. If they don't they all have computers and that is really all that is needed.
     This will likely change as video gets eaiser to produce and edit but its just not there yet.

That will be the end of my posting for this week I have really spent too much time on it already,  but there it is. To be clear there are 3 posts above various Audio visual topics - this one - and the two below.  

Hello I have been asked to make a post about Images. After in depth discussion with several department heads and some faculty and several years of diagnostic studies my findings are 'A picture is worth 1000 words.' 
       Did you know that someone actually had the audacity to suggest that this assessment has been arrived at before? 
           All humour aside pictures can be very effective pedagogy when used in there proper context. Biology is a particularly pectoral subject. A lot of it is route learning, but without the pictures it would really not be possible without actual various dead creatures in the class. 
         To some extent this can be done. However, you are still using the graphic representation to get your point across. You won't understand the circulatory system of any animal (to include human persons) unless you see a circulatory system. Now you will probably get the idea of how the human body blood system functions by seeing how a frogs system functions and making the necessary mental adjustments. So long as you observe enough pictures of human systems to understand the differences. 
       Chemistry is the same way. You will not really understand molecules until you see them. Physical models are very expensive. Software is cheep and everyone has a computer they can make there own molecules. However, its more than just seeing them. If you do not understand how important shape is to an Enzyme and its function in the body you will never understand an Enzyme. There are concepts like chirality that are vitally important that will never be understood if they are not seen. 
       Your hands are Chiral.
 

 Source flicker retrieved 31/03/15 : https://www.flickr.com/photos/nebneb/3693520916

 
 Both left and right have fingers, thumb, palm, and back, but neither can replace the other. Simply put chirality is moleculor 'handedness'. Without creating that mental picture of the hands or showing you pictures of molecules (lots of them) you would not understand what I am talking about.  

      To put it in the SAMR model. Images can be a simple substitution, as in biology, allowing what would not really be possible to teach, economically, now to be taught to everyone (try teaching human anatomy with the real thing, even if you follow all the rules the expense is every great).
        In the example above I am Modifying the discussion. Instead of drawing examples of molecules I am pulling an image everyone understands straight off the creative commons and bringing it right into the class to explain simply what otherwise may be difficult to understand. 
     However, chemistry modelling software (free in some cases) has completely Redesigned the idea of teaching chemistry. (Pause for angelic AHHH) No one has to buy really expensive molecular stick models for class room props. Why would you do that?

  Now I have an interactive white board. 

        Surly it is not that hard to use this software to create a molecule that can be manipulated in real time in the classroom. Molecule designs are commonly traded between researchers, educators, etc.. or downloaded from online. Students can see for free what I cannot show them because it is too small. 
          This sort of software also allows the assignment 'Create a model of a hydrocarbon in common use'. 
Talk about redefining the learning experience.  

Today I will likely be very busy however I thought I would drop by and show some re sized pictures at the request of the course content. I have some pics I took off my Iphone. I am not really sure the original size but the original pictures had 5 gigs of information. 

I then used Mobaphoto v 1.42 to re size the photos to an optimal size for posting. So here is one of my little girls at the park and a selfie.


Now that these are a smaller size they uploaded very fast. before the images took a very long time to upload, but also I did not have to crop the image to make it smaller. Which means I would loose some of the image. Rather the entire image was re sized to fit into the blog with a much smaller memory size (that is with less overall pixels). So there you have it resizing is really quite easy with just one little piece of software. 

So following the course I went to flickr (what no e can these people spell) And I got a few images from the creative commons library. Remember the creative commons photos can  be used by everyone. In other words you won't get sued.

<-- This one I refer to as "Are YOU ...talking to ME" and here the other photo we have here I present to you titled "I am not amused"
 

All silliness aside Flickr and its creative commons can have a great impact on your ability to use images in a teaching context. 
        Sometimes words alone just won't cut it. Flickr has a huge archive of pictures that you can use without repercussion and place directly into your teaching content. Weather your teaching about owls or space shuttles there are plenty of images there to help you get your point across. There use can greatly augment you digital media. Even if you can't see the gangster in the owl. 
                                      You can still Get your photos on
By using multiple methods of transmission for your pedagogy you greatly increase your students ability to learn. By the creative use of images teachers can greatly enhance their students ability to retain knowledge for the long term. 


Okay in my personal opinion this player is a bit of junk. It is slow and clunky, but worse it autoplays. Want to slow down a website just add autoplay audio. You will turn off 2/3rd's of your audience who will leave simply because of how long your page takes to load. There has to be a better way.  

edited note: two days after I made this post I found out that my internet provider has been having trouble giving me a steady connection. This player loaded this very simple test audio eaisly. That having been said it still auto plays. My original thought about auto play has not been changed.  

Reflection 2 week 3

    This week we are all about new and interesting tools. I examine the Voki in detail in this post. This was an interesting tool. Lets use the PMI format to analyse its usefulness.

P (accentuate the positive -there is a song in there somewhere)

It is an easy tool to use not withstanding some patients is required. Even for the less than computer savvy like myself can get reasonable results. I set up three very short ones in less that 10 minutes. You could use a Voki as a novel way to introduce a lesson. Like my friend Skeletor here.


While there is a pay option. It is free to use this way if you like. It cost me nothing to design this Voki from there many avatars and embed it directly into the site.

 It makes the content a bit more interesting or just provides that good mental reset in the middle of the lesson.

  Another big plus is that students who won't read a subject matter might engage if it's explained to them in this way. So a student having a problem learning the idea could have you online ready to explain it again, or in a slightly different manner, at a moments notice. 

M (the opposite of P)

1--> If you were to do an entire lesson plan or even a chunk with a voki it would be a bit of text and that means time. You will notice that I talked for some, not for the shy, and for the last one I typed and allowed a British guy to talk it out for me (see the links below). You have to spell (no pun intended but that was pretty good) that all out pretty clearly when you type it. Then you have to select the voice that will say it the easiest and most like the way you want it said. Emphasis is easily lost and not easily restored. There is some trial and error involved to make it work for any typed script. Punctuation (not correct English punctuation) is necessary to get the correct stops in the spoken word.
      -->By way of contrast, the word spoken into a mic requires only a script I worked out ahead of time. As it records the speaking voice exactly.

2--> Internet policy of the school you are working at will be a problem. To make decent use of this you would have to put your lesson or at least part of it online. Can all your students access your content online? If they can't your students are viewing it in class because there really is nowhere else for them to view it.

3--> Believe it or not everyone is NOT in agreement about your sense of humour. There is not accounting for taste. Some, a minor few, even think humour can be too dry. -->Don't know what I mean you probably have not yet clicked on the below links.
 P.S. Don't let the Draco run behavioural management. Just saying.

4--> One big negative that I did not find out until I did way too much work with it, is that you cannot have more than one Voki per page. If you make several (like I did) and try to embed them in the same page (like I did), they all become the same voki. It may be possible to add different Voki to the same page in different posts. I'll try that next time. You can add them like this:

 http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=11211541&height=267&width=200

 http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=11211509&height=267&width=200

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=11211694&height=267&width=200


But they take way to long to load this way. If the Voki are not embedded on the page who is going to a second page and then wait for it to load. Only the grader--I hope--you are clicking and waiting right?
    Give it a try and consider that these voki's are all really short. Also notice that I spoke into a mic for some but typed the mad scientist (AHH Ha you aren't clicking. If you were you would know who that was.

     Oh you did see him...Never mind.) 

   The typed one was the hardest of the four because the new speaker does not necessarily pause when I do. That means you have to listen to it and then revise it quite a bit until the sound desired is achieved. Generous use of commas, to stop the phrasing, and create space in the spoken word is sometimes necessary for clarity. 

I (Interesting, or for the brave, Curiouser and Curiouser)
    This could be a great tool to use only if you have the time to do it right. It could, very cheaply (time and money wise), be used to break up a program, or in short bits, to break up your larger chunk of lesson plan. Once these individual bits are made, possibly with different characters, you would have a reusable chunk that could be reused several times, or reviewed by students multiple times to help drive the point home when they are not in class.

   Science, particularly the low level Science taught in high school, has a lot of route learning in it. There are lots of names that have not changed in 400 years (read Chemistry 101)that students just have to learn. So repeating the lesson, whenever a student wants say at home in his pajamas off a static web page or teacher blog, can help develop that new vocabulary. As such the Voki would be great to use in your wiki space as an introduction to the six hats exercise. Instead of boring text the Voki could explain it in 3 minutes of engaging conversation. In a Blog, well I'm using them now in my blog to get my point across and keep you engaged in my blog so that you might get to the bottom of it. 
     Now in the case of a static web page they would be very useful. Particularly in this teaching field of student apathy. Anything that will keep them engaged and interested for just a little longer. If the science geek Voki makes them laugh about
Phenoxymethylpenicillin then your students will be more likely to remember that name. Lets face it chemistry can be dull and student engagement is very important. On a static web page they can leave without ever engaging the topic just because it was dull or not interactive enough. The Voki adds that little bit of interaction that can make the difference in a space that is so competitive for the attention of the students.Then there is always those students who could read it in there own space, at there own time, at there own pace and regardless of the interactive student to student wiki or the static web page if someone does not say it in words that student will just not get it because they are not visual learners. They learn best from the spoken word giving your web space that face to face interaction the student might need for that Ahh ha moment.


    All in all a good gadget watch the net spaces weather wiki, blog, or static web page for the Voki. It could be very useful to most web spaces.  Who knows in a very short time there may be a public outcry to have Voki added to all online spell correct dictionaries. Kind of like there is for the word online now.


                                                     

REFLECTION 1, WEEK 2
         This weeks reflection is all about De bono's six thinking hats. To help me I have invited a person we all know and love but were wondering what he looked like without the mask on. Here he is for a brief (2 minute) overview of the six hats and the unmasking.
 
 by Ian Leaver retrieved March 2015 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbheGvB590U

Thank you Anonymous. Now that we have an understanding of the six hats. Lets consider them and how well they function in practise.

 

 image by Karen Whistler retrieved on March 2015 : http://www.karenwhistler.com/six-thinking-hats/

By analysing a position from each prospective you get a better overall understanding of the pros and cons of they idea. 

During our exercise this was done by the entire class as a wiki. Everyone gave a prospective from each point of view on an idea relevant to teachers (cell phones in class). In the class there are opinion on both sides for and against. This allows everyone to put there ideas in one place and then the fun really starts.

      Now that all the ideas are in one place and digital. You can collate, prioritize, and orGANize the ideas presented. Because many people were involved many different kinds of thinking were presented. Not merely different ideas being presented. People who are simply utterly practical get to present there best ideas next to people who will always think emotionally first. Allowing a true hearing of all the ideas. 

    There are problems with the media that we used however, that would really need to be worked out if this system were to be used for distilling real ideas and not just teaching. 

1.     People can have there ideas erased! That is right people who did not like the look of a certain idea could simply go online after you posted it and just delete it. For this idea to work everyone needs there own space and at the same time to be posting visually next to the last guy.
2.  People were requested not to be anonymous. It is bad to make people feel that they must use there own name on a public forum that will exist forever. What if years later there ideas change and they hate those ideas then? What if a future employer does not like those ideas? As long as there is fear of reprisal you will never get an honest exchange.
3.  It would take a lot of time post event. Even if you just cut and past without any real priority. It would be a time consuming process for a teacher, or helper students, to assemble the ideas onto a second media for presentation in some organised fashion. Surly in the modern age we can come up with better software to support this excellent model of critical thinking online. This software would have a individual hat export and compile function.  

This learning platform would be an excellent teaching style for student to student learning. It provides a high volume of student exchange. It could be very successful getting students involved with topics they care about. (why not ask them who developed an online spell checker that does not recognize the word online. Hint they were over 20. Just saying.) 

  That's all for this week,

                   See you next time,
 

(retrieved march 2015 : http://timirwin.blogspot.com.au/2008/11/same-bat-time-same-bat-channel.html