Miss Davis

What have I learned about e-learning in K-6 Education? Over these short 10 weeks and a 2 week practicum visit, definitely a lot. But in saying that I believe there is still a lot left for me to still discover and learn.

During this semester I came up against a few things, whether they were attitudes I carried, attitudes of others in my class and in the world or just changes. They have all helped me grow and to change my attitude towards ICT learning and e-learning.

I think I was effected the most when I did my own literature circle presentation. I along with Will and Kyle set out to break down the vision for equity in education (this can be found in my blog in week 6 (http://universitylearning.tumblr.com/post/22708410971/week-six). This really opened my eyes to the great inequity we have in schools and how blinded we are by the Governments hand outs, without really looking at where the money id going and what we as a country are actually doing to give ALL students a fair and equal opportunity in life.

This to me referred a lot to how funding is not spent on providing the appropriate equipment to all schools nation wide. I saw in both of my practicum visits IWB in every classroom and computers in almost every school and if not they had a computer hub in the library or in a computer room. I had the luck of having a computer hub at my own primary school as I grew up and know how much I learnt from being able to practice using computers and teaching younger students. It is so saddening to see that there are schools without just computers let alone an IWB, I have seen what a change in class involvement and engagement has when a IWB is used. I think that their should be nation wide funding to allow IWBs and computer hubs to be in every school across Australia.

Interactive Whiteboards (IWB) are such a huge change in teaching. When I was at school I was taught on a  chalk board or if we were lucky a whiteboard. To us a whiteboard was amazing and engaged us, seeing now what students have at their disposal still overwhelms me a little. During this course and the assessment using an IWB has helped me overcome that fear of using one. Having to create an assessment on the IWB definitely boosted my confidence at my ability to use it. Being able to use an IWB appropriately and effectively is my goal now, whilst I was on prac I felt that both times my co-operating teachers did not use the boards well. I feel there needs to be a balance between using the board and over using the board. This was a big turning point for me as I was able to see there can be such a thing of "too much of a good thing".

I was introduced to some amazing videos, websites and technologies whilst undertaking this course and I thank Maria and Glenys for facilitating that for me. Being introduced to the one laptop organisation opened my eyes to how precious and treasured education is for students and the use of a computer and internet. This inspired me to be able to reach my own students in different ways to have them be able to soak up as much information in a memorable and engaging way. (also found in my week 6 blog)

The turning technologies remote system was an eye opener for once again taking something potentially boring or mundane and making it interactive, fun and engaging. Children are growing up with video games, tv, computer games, iPods/iPhones/iPads so it goes to show why a remote or game like console grabs their attention. I thought it was a brilliant way to use an IWB and change up how we test and assess our students.

Learning how to use the QR codes also was a great activity for me and I know it is something that can be used so easily in a classroom to help spice up different subjects that I may find students think are boring. Being able to use technology in all these ways is amazing.

Being exposed to all these ideas, information, opinions and activities has really boosted my confidence in using e-learning technologies in my own classroom on pracs but also into my career. I am a technology pro person and am all for students getting online or using technology to further their researching skills, story telling skills, writing skills and more as long as it coincides with all the other important areas for children's development like sports and creative arts. Technology is such a great tool for us as teachers to have gained, we need to be taken hold of it and using it to help give our students the best chances in life we possibly can.

References

In order of which blog they fit:

Week 2 Roblyer, M (2006). Teaching with instructional software. In M.Roblyer (Ed). Integrating educational technology into teaching. (4th ed.). Merrill. Prentice Hall. Columbus, Ohio. Chapter 3.

Week 3 Davis, A., &McGrail, E. (2011). The influence of classroom blogging on elementary student writing. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 25(4) 415-437.

Week 4 Barrett, H. (2010). Balancing the Two Faces of ePortfolios. Educação, Formação & Tecnologias, 3(1), 6-14. [Online], disponível a partir de: http://eft.educom.pt

Week 5 Higgins, S., Beauchamp, G. & Miller, D. (2007). Reviewing the literature on interactive whiteboards. Learning, Media and Technology, 32(3), 213-225.

Week 6 A Vision for 2020: Achieve Equity in Education. A Contribution to Public Discussion of the 2020 Summit Idea by Save our Schools – the national independent advocacy group. April 2008. This was retrieved from online at www.valuesineducation.org.au/pdf/sos0803.pdf

Week 7 Hunter, J.L. (2012) Connected Learning in an Australian Technology Program: A Case Study. In I. Management Association, USA (Ed), Organisational Learning and Knowledge: Concepts, methodologies, Tools and Applications (pp. 1623-1632).

Week 9 Johnson, L., Smith, R., Willis, H., Levine, A., and Haywood, K., (2011). The 2011 Horizon Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium

This was an activity done in the session using QR Codes.

I found this a great activity to do and found it really fun myself! We had to come up with 5 questions, and an idea of where students would go. I planned mine just to be used in the Kgai buildings near our class.

These are my 5 questions and little directions

Starting in the classroom (Using Kgai as the example)

1. Where is a place filled with information? (take a photo of some information)

2. Is there any where you could find some fish? (take a photo of the environment)

3. Where would you be able to play a game of basketball? (take a photo of the nature around you)

4. What is the closest staircase that can take you upstairs? (take a photo of what kind of staircase it is)

5. Time to go back to the classroom (How long did it take you to get back)

This is the link to the site allowing you to take the codes if you wish or to create yours own: http://goo.gl/nP4BG

This is a direct link to the scan images: http://www.classtools.net/QR/qr_generator.php?fold=25&fname=QmQ5B&diff=0

This is also a direct link to the quiz questions: http://www.classtools.net/QR/teacher.php?fold=25&fname=QmQ5B

www.classtools.net/QR - This the website if you wish to view it more.

These pages held some posts that I commented on.

K. Dale: http://kristinadale.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/week-five-this-weeks-reading-was-lead.html#comment-form

L. Antoniazzi: http://lorrianablog.edublogs.org/2012/05/16/practicum-experience/#comment-3

This weeks lit circle looked at a research study - iPads in the Classroom – New Technologies, Old Issues: Are they worth the effort?

Check out the research paper here: http://www.lib.uts.edu.au.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/drr/30807/012233_ReidiPads.pdf

This study was interesting as I am compelled to know about the use of iPads etc in the classroom. It interests me as I can see how it could be an engaging concept for students as they are such a new and 'In' thing that it would have an instant attraction.

This project spoke about how the iPads were brought into the two schools (a rural and urban) to help improve the storytelling skills for the students. Both the teachers and students were taught how to use the iPads as to make sure teachers would be able to help their students but that the students would have a level of independence whilst taking on the activities, giving it a very constructivist feel to it.

Here are the questions and some of the thoughts that I came up with (and some of the class as well)

1.  With your knowledge of constructivism, in what ways could iPads facilitate and support constructivist pedagogy?

Being given this tool the teacher found that they weren't asked as many questions about the activities as they were develping on their own. It does stop the waste of time that students use up when asking the same questions over and over.

There are millions of apps available allowing so much more now to take place in lessons.

2. With the introduction of such devices as the iPads what do you see to be the consequences for us as teachers both positive and negative?

Positive

Urban - individual work better researchers

Rural - used for sharing with the community (digital stories etc)

Both Schools - found iPads were easier than laptops, creates better researchers, convient and portable, helped with special needs.

Myself - seeing the results in the special needs children allows me to see how helpful this technology can be, allows for independance, allows a wider range of assessments to be done (cameras and voice recorders)

Negative

Rural - can still be difficult if not enough training is available disabling many positives for the class

MYSELF - could become distracted or be too engaged, can take away from other KLA's (Art aren't learning tactile senses), time issues (keeping track of them, that they are charged, have all the apps)

3. The Urban teacher had a student who was basically non- verbal and through this study found that the functionality of some apps provided the child with learning experiences beyond what was previously available in the class. Therefore this teacher was very insistent in noting for the researchers that the iPad and its apps were more useful to this special needs child’s education than the thousands of dollars of specialized equipment already provided to the student. In other words the iPad and the inexpensive apps were thousands of dollars less expensive, and more readily customizable for this student.

Considering the statement by this teacher and your own experiences as a pre-service teacher, do you think the focus of special needs funding should be re-directed or would be better spent on new technology such as iPads for improving learning experiences for special needs students? Why or why not?

Would be good as a trial to see what would benefit but i feel they would need more research in helping if it is helping in the special needs area. Allowing for it to work with other equipment. It does help with expenses but that should not determine what equipment is used.

iPads can provide benefits for all students.

This weeks lit group looked at The Horizon Project.

Click here if you would like to read it: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2011-Horizon-Report.pdf

This was an interesting reading showing how much technology has been immersing and effecting how jobs and life has changed. The change in mobile use was interesting to look at and actually relate to myself knowing that the instant ability to check online information does change life.

Looking at this I wondered how teaching could be changed, if teachers may become irrelevant in a way with such advances in technology. I can definitely see some fantastic ways to use technology on iPads and iPods for students class use when it comes to research or small individual work.

The group discussed what an augmented reality (GPS, computer games, Google earth technology) is impacting our society and showed how it is starting to enter and affect the classroom. I thought that this was a benefit for teachers and schools that may not have the funding or funds to allow many excursions or unique experiences for their students. With the technologies coming along that allow you to scan over areas and see what they were like 100 years ago or find out facts about the building/area are great ways to get kids active on excursions and learning rather than just walking around.

Although with this technology comes the teacher's responsibility to explain how to use it and how it works. Misconceptions can confuse students and create the wrong image or idea in a child's mind, a GPS for example could distort a child's view of streets or a place as many are in cartoon form. Students should be taught how to use the equipment and explained why it is shown to them in a certain way if the image or information is not a realistic version.

Learning analytics was another topic that the group brought out of their reading. This allows for individual profiles for students to be created that allow the teacher to see where each student is at and where they need help. I believed this was a good tool as it allows great feedback between the teacher and family about where the child is and allows this to happen for reports and parent teacher meetings but also if a parent is concerned or curious throughout the year. It allows the teacher to structure work to tackle where each student is at allowing those that need to be challenged to be challenged or to help other students reach the outcomes set in the syllabus. There could become a matter with privacy though depending on where and how these profiles are kept, I believe they should not be viewed by the children because although it could create a sense of knowing where they stand amongst the class I imagine that poor child struggling and everyone being able to see that. I know I don't like my downfalls being broadcasted so why would a child?

In the session Maria showed us a technology called Turning Technology. In essence it was a remote that linked into a system allowing for polls to be taken on the IWB. There was enough for the whole class to use it at the same time and when the question was answered the poll showed how many people had also answered allowing the teacher to know when everyone has done so.

We learnt that students could be linked to a remote, I found that this could be very helpful for tests allowing the teacher to have access to instant data but still allowing anonymity to the students whilst taking the quiz.

I noticed whilst on practicum that my classroom was lucky enough to have access to 3 computers within their classroom. This was not including the computer permanently hooked up to the IWB.

While the students had some extra time after lunch on a few separate occasions my teacher had students go up one at a time to the computers to finish an assessment for HSIE. The class had created a board game about what they had learnt about Australia and were writing their questions and answers for the board game on the computer. I noticed that some students wrote particular well and fast on the computers and finished their part quite quickly, which means obviously noticed the students that lacked the functions to type as fast. A few students I noticed were still typing with 1 finger, and when I asked if the could type with two hands replied "that's too hard". 

I believe that students should be learning how to type with two hands, and if possible to touch type without looking at the keyboard. With the way children are growing alongside technology and how the workforce is changing with these advances and changes I believe that to be a significant task to teach students to help benefit their schooling experiences in high school and university but also in their future careers as many careers now rely on computer and ICT skills.

Whilst on prac I noticed that students were quite capable using not only computer but also the IWB. On my first day of observation I was able to watch students in my class interact with the IWB but in a minimum capacity.

Unfortunately my teacher as mentioned in my previous post did not use the IWB as much as I thought was possible. In the morning the class would use the IWB to mark there name by dragging a smiley face to their name. As I watched the students I noticed that some found it hard to drag with their finger so would use a tool my co-op teacher created. She used a tennis ball in a sock as she found that some students didn't connect properly with the board. I found this as well when trying to do a handwriting activity. The students were able to manipulate the size and position by rotating the shape and were quite competent.

This information helped me feel comfortable using the IWB when I was to do a maths lesson using the IWB for Mathletics. The lesson was done with small groups taking turns, each group I had used the mathletics activity to help with their data understanding.

I was able to see how competent students were with not only typing in a keyboard to answer the questions but also to use the online keyboard as well. I also asked students to show working out on the board with the pens, which they also were very competent at undertaking as well as drawing lines to connect as well.

This week’s lit circle had me thinking, it was all about the duty of care schools have for students using and having access to cyberspace.  We spoke about how the world children and our students are growing up in is becoming a lot less physical, leaving the meat space as it were be.

The group asked these questions:

What are the educational benefits for students whilst tuned into cyberspace? These were some of the responses myself and the class came up with

Gives the freedom to research and learn on their own

Access to more resources that the students may be limited to in class

Allows a range of resources to target different level abilities

Gives intellectual freedom

Improves and gains skills of using the Internet and computers

Helps teach children how to be safe and smart online

Creates good researchers out of our students

Is allowing access to information n remote areas/countries, bringing the outside world in

a. Does the use of filters destroy freedom or create a safer cyberspace?

I believe it creates a safer cyberspace, as students are still able to find information they need. But I do believe there should be different levels concerning years and ages.

PDHPE - struggles as their lessons are generally blocked causing issues in research and educational.

b. Did you encounter any situations during your primary and high school education where you felt filtering software disadvantaged your own learning?

All the sites that were blocked whilst I was at school were blocked for a good reason, they were usually Facebook or MySpace or some other social media website.

There was a comment that at school another person in the class struggled finding information relating to PDHPE lessons about sexual health.

Should there be legislation put in place to protect students from outsiders accessing cookies and other data?

Maybe there should be but only affecting to schools and school emails. I don’t think there should be anything about schools is in charge of duty of care of students in their own homes or at public places as it is the place of parents in those places. 

We also spoke about SOPA – Stop Online Privacy Act and PIP – Protection Intellectual Property, and how that will affect us in a teaching capacity. This would minimize the amount students are able to access on the Internet for projects and research.

During discussion in class I learnt a lot about how values and ethics affect us as teachers and what we do out of the classroom can still effect us. We are influenced by so many things in this society that we need to make sure what we regard in our own personal life matches up with that of what we need to do in our classrooms. We need to make sure as teachers that we are creating a safe and nurturing environment for all of our students, no favoring, no discrimination and with purpose.

My last prac was very different to my first. My first school was amazing and I absolutely loved working there. They had a great behavioural management system set up as they had many students in foster care or going though the DOCS system. These students weren't necessarily problem children but there were a few who were quite aggressive towards students and teachers. They were also implemented for all students and all teachers knew what they were. It was so well organised and I really enjoyed the experience.

This prac was completely different. I felt that there was little to no behaviour management within the school as it was seen as being well behaved. I feel all schools should have systems set up as some students in my class had large tempers and if antagonised could become quite confrontational and violent. I had year 3 again and found it reassuring that I would be able to make classes that would actually teach them.

My students were beautiful and I miss them, there were even two boys who called me Madame Davis :) It definitely makes prac easier when your class likes you and are happy to listen to you teach. I undertook lessons such as

-      Mathematics

-      Art

-      Spelling

-      Writing

In these classes I used the IWB as well as text books that they have. I created a spelling game that was really beneficial in learning their words. The students had 2 out of 4 lists to learn each week ranging from 1 being the easiest and 4 being the most challenging. At the start of each week I would play my game. I would pick 20 out of the 40 words and allow the students to read them and look at them on the IWB. We would then say them together out loud as list 3 and 4 had more challenging words for students who only did list 1 and 2. They were to sit at their desk and write the words on a piece of paper. When they finished writing they were to put their hand up and the first table would get points if they were first to have their hands up. The students actually enjoyed the lessons and looked forward to them and in doing it I got to see how they improved and how it benefited their spelling test on the Friday morning.

Katie wrote this on here blog: “The current education system is said to be ‘broken’. A reason for this may be a result of teachers starting with the wrong goal for students when teaching.  Teachers are always looking for the outcomes, what children need to learn and know and what content they need to teach. Everything that they teach becomes defined by that and results in the elimination of an individual understanding of each student.

I learnt from my studies in this degree that as teachers we need to question what experience we what our students to have. We need to engage them in learning and provide them with learning experiences for students that will result in them feeling the need to learn and know information.  It is therefore important to teach and learn from your students and pay attention to them.”

I think is a great perspective and opinion on our current education system. It is so true that we just look at the end goal and lose the fact that our students are individual learners and have their own passions and interests. If we aren’t feeding to our students needs and interests what are we actually teaching them? How can we expect our younger generations to have positive memories of school if everything is assessment based? We need to remember that engaging children will help students relate and take in their lessons and actually understand what they are learning.

If you wish to see what else Katie is doing on her blog click on the link below

This week’s session looked at Connected Learning during the lit circle. Here is the reading if you wish to look through it: http://www.igi-global.com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/gateway/chapter/full-text-pdf/58173

The program is implemented into every NSW primary school allowing them all to connect online. I feel that is such a great leap in technology and communication for schools. This one tool allows for students across NSW to talk, observe and learn from one another.

During their presentation they asked 3 questions:

-          What is connected learning and why is it important?

-          Did you see these technologies while on prac? Would you feel comfortable using these technologies

-          What are the skills necessary for teachers to be kept up to date with the changing technology? How do you think teachers of the older generation will adapt to this changing technology?

Connected learning is the use of video conferencing and the Interactive Whiteboards to teach and connect schools across the country/world. This is an important tool because resources and abilities to travels around the state or globally in a primary aged school are quite low. This allows students in different situations to learn from each other and share information and experiences.

Whilst on prac my class did have a IWB but was not used for this. I think that after the assignment we are undertaking with the IWB in class I will be more confident in using an IWB but not so sure about the video calling. In Science and Technology we did a video conferencing with teachers at a school. I found it very useful and fantastic as it fits peoples busy schedules and crazy lives.

I think with such a change in technology and how constant it is happening the school needs to be actively involved in professional development for their staff. Also having training sessions for students and casual staff to keep them educated and trained in the technologies being implemented to classrooms across NSW. Whilst on prac I saw how older generations are just as able to adapt to changes as young teachers and even saw that some younger generations don’t want to change. I think everyone just needs to have a good attitude about continuous learning and have the drive to update their knowledge and sue of these technologies.

This week was my groups literature group. We were looking at the reading A Vision for 2020: Achieve Equity in Education. This paper really got me thinking about how different each school is and how hard it must be to try to keep a constant and fair system across each.

Each school has its own specialities whether it be ESL learning, special needs, gifted and talented, handicap able, sporting or technological but aren’t necessarily all funded evenly or supported evenly. This problem is then put on the students at schools who are not able to support their needs. Also unfortunately the area schools are in affect the needs they have for their student body and can’t always be met by government funding, which would usually then be supplied by school fees but are also not met by parents and families due to different circumstances.

This paper really had me think about what is being done for our students in low economic and Indigenous families. It was scary to see how although we have national standards nothing has been done to reach them since 1999, what is going on to stop this, educating our children is so vital to our economy and country.

Contrasting us against Finland’s system definitely helped put some numbers against what we are doing poorly in. It also got the room thinking. Someone said “Doesn’t the government give out money to schools? Why don’t they use it to build computer labs etc?” I was happy this was said because there is such a perception that schools can control all the money they are given. I was supported by my teacher when I said that unfortunately schools can only use that money for certain things that the government has said they can use it for and it just never seems to be for the things schools actually need these days.

We questioned what could be done to lower gaps between high and low economic students, how the government could help reach the national standards and what we need to be doing to match Finland in our classrooms. There was great discussion but it mainly came back to the need to have funding given over to schools to manage so that they can be buying the necessary resources.

Here is the reading if you would like to check it out: http://www.valuesineducation.org.au/pdf/sos0804.pdf

We then went on to look at The Digital Divide

We were asked” What do you feel this means?” and these were some of the things the class came up with:

Ideas Access to ICT Integrating into life - is everywhere Digital/Non digital Attitudes Virtual world/Real world Skill set: teachers, students

We then looked into the International Divide

http://one.laptop.org/ ß This website gave me such an insight to the differences globally to education.

We looked at how this organisation is trying to provide students and children in remote rural areas with laptops to be able to access the internet and schooling. This is to help empower them to grow up and hopefully move out of poverty.

It is being done in some of the most remote parts of the world like Madagascar, Ghana, India, Peru and Haiti just to name a few. We have 4,400 laptops alone here in Australia!

It is modelled and created to be able to withstand the most rural and remote areas and withstand the elements (rain, sand, drought) and do not use electricity from a wall. They are hand cranked devices that the children power themselves.

We then looked at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2_CjRbZ5EI

This is another project called Hole in the Wall in which they literally put a computer in a wall and just left it to see what children would do. It allowed for self learning as they were given it without any information or guidance from adults, it was a form of informal learning.

There are many other divides lie:

*Economic Divide

*Gender Divide

- the effect of gaming for genders

*Teacher skill set divide

- the teachers that aren’t ready to embrace the technology

- don’t do online what you can do offline: good learning doesn’t NEED technology it should just be a tool that enhances

*Access and connectivity divide

This week’s literature circle consisted of looking at IWB: Interactive White Boards. I have been lucky enough since going on prac to have two classrooms that have their own IWB and use them quite frequently allowing me access to the technology as it was definitely not in classrooms when I was in primary school.

These were a couple of the questions that were brought to us by the group:

What were your intial thoughts when first introduced to IWB’s?

My initial though was a little bit daunting and scary. I hadn’t ever used or seen an IWB before prac so having a class that is so used to using it and their teacher being competent at using it for lessons was a little scary. I feared looking foolish in front of my class and possibly ruining the program somehow. I was intrigued though and could see so much potential in the use of the technology.

Have you seen any instances where the IWB has not been used to its full potential? what were the factors that contributed to this outcome? If not, do you agree that IWBs are only beneficial when both teachers and students have the skills and see it as a way to achieve a learning goal?

I was lucky to have an IWB in my classroom on my first prac. During prac my teacher would use it for handwriting, to enlarge text when reading with a group or showing images as stimulus’ for writing or art but very rarely had the students come out to use the board or use it for any other lessons than the ones I listed. Even that small use wasn’t used to the potential I definitely think that some Maths or Science and Technology even HSIE lessons could’ve been much more engaging if the board was used well.

But I definitely agree that both teachers and students need the skills to get the most benefit out of the technology. If a teacher lacks the skills to build engaging and exciting activities the board loses its most beneficial part.

This group has helped me understand the importance of knowing how to use a IWB and I hope that through the next assessment and after reading this i’ll be able to create great lessons for my classes and my prac classes from now on.