My Final Blog.

In the past six weeks, I feel I have come a long way in E-Learning. It is still not my favourite subject, nor will it ever be, but I am grateful for all the knowledge I have gained about ICT’s and the different digital technologies. In this synopsis I hope to share with you my understandings of the different tools we have been learning about in class.


The first tool I would like to touch on is ‘Space tools’. Space tools can range from blogs, wikis, the CQU Moodle site and websites. Space tools can be used in student learning. Students could use websites to for doing projects instead presenting it on the old A3 piece of cardboard. Also the teachers could create a classroom wiki and use it to discuss class assignments or have debates. An example of a wiki that I have participated in for E-Learning can be found by clicking on this link.http://fahe11001noosa2.wikispaces.com/Mobile+Phones+Wiki Websites are my favourite space tool. They are a great learning tool and the creator gets to control all of the content. Websites are also a way for students to find and research information as well as display information for school projects or assignments. When using other people’s websites the information displayed is not always going to be correct, which can lead to students getting the wrong information for their school work. Also the content on websites other than your own cannot be controlled. Internet use should always be supervised, especially when students are researching online. I wouldn’t recommend children younger than grade four using websites for research. Students need to have an understanding of the internet before diving in by themselves. If you would please refer to my blog about websites now, you will find some examples of how I would incorporate websites into student learning. You will also find a link to my own website which I made for E-Learning.http://erinreneesblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/space-tools-websites.html
The next set of tools I would like to discuss is ‘Multimedia Tools’. Multimedia tools can be in the form of vokis, avatars, the use of windows movie maker, YouTube, podcasts and Flickr. You can use multimedia tools to document different things in the classroom; for example science experiments. You can then use the footage and play it back to the students to aid discussions and to help the students to write reports or recounts. You can also send the footage to the student’s parents using photo story or moviemaker, so they can see what their child is learning at school. Multimedia tools are a hands on way to make sure children have an understanding of what they are learning. During this course I have created both a voki and an avatar and I have also made a demonstrative video using movie maker. I have found multimedia tools to be the most fun of all the other tools we have explored in E-learning. Movie maker was so simple to use and very easy to navigate. Children in prep could easily work their way around this programme with a minimal amount of teacher assistance. Vokis and Avatars are also very easy to create. The only problem I had with my avatar was the mouth movements not quite syncing up with the voice.  This I’m sure is a problem that can be easily fixed by just moving my webcam or myself into a better position. I think multimedia tools are the best for engaging children on new subjects. You could create an avatar of a historical figure and use that to introduce a related topic to the class. Students could even use avatars as a visual aid is presentations to the class. I have included the link to my demonstrative video I made using movie maker.http://erinreneesblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/my-movie.html

Presentation tools are the third set of digital technologies I would like to examine. Presentation tools can be used by both students and teachers who want to make and share presentations. Presentations can be uploaded to blogs, wikis and websites (Department of education and early childhood development, 2010). In my exploration of presentation tools I took a look at PowerPoint and Prezzie. I ran into some trouble when trying to access Prezzie, both my old and new lap tops would not allow me to access the site for some reason. I changed my security settings and eventually turned off all my computer security to no avail. I did however have success with power point! I found PowerPoint a little harder to navigate around then I did with movie maker. I think PowerPoint would be best suited for year five and older, not only because of the difficulty but because I don’t think anyone younger would have a use for it. From my memory of school, year five is when your assignments start to get a bit more complex and you do more presentations in front of your peers, so visual aids such as PowerPoint become very useful. Presentation tools should also be utilised by teachers. Introducing new subjects or just using presentation tools to aid explanations help keep the students engaged. All of the lecturers at university rely on PowerPoint presentations. This is very helpful to me as a student because it supplies me with notes to print off when I get home, but it also helps the lecturers keep on track and provides them with notes so they can remember what they are talking about. Always remember when making a PowerPoint you should not put all of your information into it and read off it. PowerPoint is a visual AID, which means it helps you to remember what you’re talking about when you’re making a presentation.

The last digital technology I’m going to discuss in this synopsis is ‘Other Tools’. Other tools can be Skype, forums, the game ‘Angry Birds’, the Google suite, animations, webcams, Bee Bots and Talking points. In class we got to play with and explore most of these tools. I’m going to talk about one we didn’t get to explore, but one I have had a lot of experience with- Skype. Skype is a computer application that lets you make free internet video and voice calls to anywhere in the world. Skype is free and most computers these days come with it already installed. Skype came in very handy for me when I was living overseas, I honestly don’t know how my mum would’ve got on without it! I have heard of Skype being used in classrooms, with students as young as prep. I have heard of a teacher using Skype to get her students to interact with a classroom of students the same year level in a different country. The teacher arranged Skype chats with a school in Africa, which was a topic her students were learning about. The students would talk with the students from Africa and ask questions and learn about their culture and way of life. This assisted the students in their individual class projects on Africa by letting the children interact with the students from Africa face to face via Skype. Skype is also used in distance education. I completed year ten by distance education and I don’t know what I would’ve done without the Skype chats with my teachers. Sometimes you need to be taught something face to face for it to sink in properly and Skype helped with that.

The safe and legal practices for all of these tools are basically the same. The same copyright laws that apply in day to day life apply online. When students are working online constant supervision is imperative. Most school computers do have certain content and websites blocked, but that doesn’t mean children are 100% protected from some of the unsavoury content the internet has to offer.  When you create your own website, you may wish to upload pictures on to it. It is important that you copyright your own pictures. If you are using any content (including pictures) it is very important to get the owner’s permission first and to make sure that after you have you give them credit by either referencing them or putting their name under the photo. Flickr is a great source for free images and it also explain the copyright laws you need to practice if you intend on using their images. If you would like to read my blog on the safe and legal practices of the internet, it also includes links to a few helpful websites.http://erinreneesblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/safe-and-legal-internet-practices.html

All of these digital tools are ways to keep children engaged in their learning. The world’s technologies are evolving every day and it is important that students as well as teachers are able to use these technologies. Since the technology and information of today are moving so rapidly the idea of 'know-where' (Knowing where to find information when needed) is much more highly regarded than the 'know-how' and the 'know- what'. Please click on the link which will take you to my blog on the connectivism theory, a theory a think works well with E-Learning.http://erinreneesblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/connectivism-e-learning.html

References

Department of education and early childhood development, 2010,

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/elearning/technology/presentation.htm

The 4th Tool....

The 4th digital technology we learnt about are 'Other Tools'. This is a pretty broad title, but basically everything else falls under this category. In class we played with Bee bots,talking points and web cams. These are all used to help engage kids in their learning. The bee bots were extremely fun. I would use these in the class room, especially the more advanced one that looked like a racing car. You could not only make it go front,back, left and right but you could program what angle you wanted it to turn. It also had a spot for a pen so it can draw while it's moving. This would have be perfect for me when I was in school learning the different angled triangles and stuff like that. Not only does this tool assist the learning but it also makes something as boring and hard as maths really fun and interesting. I know I learn better when I enjoy what is being taught and this bee bot is the perfect way to make learning fun. 

Presentation Tools

Presentation tools are anything you would you to present information to people. I have explored prezzie and PowerPoint. I had only used PowerPoint once before in about year 4. Each person in my class got to spend time in the library with the IT teacher and learn how to make a PowerPoint presentation. Unfortunately since I went to such a large school there was not enough time to get a full understanding of what exactly was happening. I can just remember being told I had to go to the library and sitting next to this man at the computer and picking fonts and different word animations. No explanation as to why we were using PowerPoint or what it could be used for was given. I hadn't touched PowerPoint since then. I suppose having a negative experience with something can really put you off and that's why I never really had an interest for using PowerPoint until E-Learning. I still found PowerPoint a bit tricky to use. So I'm not so sure about how it would go with young children,But then again I've seen prep students navigate a computer better then I can so you never know! It would be best suited to higher primary school levels and high school students and upwards I think.  Prezzie was another thing I couldn't navigate around, but I'm having the same problem with that as I had with wordle. My computer is blocking it for some reason. I am going to give it another go on a different computer though and hopefully I'll be able to work it out easily. I have created a PowerPoint presentation about presentation tools which I have added into this blog.

OK for some reason this is how the PowerPoint added itself to my blog. I don't know enough about this to fix it, so it'll have to do for now!!!

Multimedia Fun!

So I just finished making my demonstrative movie using movie maker and I must say I am very impressed. It was so easy to use! I'm currently uploading it to YouTube and then I'm going to have a go at embedding it into my blog!
I seriously can't believe how easy it was. I've been putting off cause I've been unwell and thought it would be too complicated, but I was wrong. Here I am with the worlds worst migraine and I just made a movie. As you can probably tell I'm pretty stoked.
Right so the upsides of using movie maker, well for one it is just so  so simple to use. You can use photos already on your computer or take some with your web cam. This would be a great tool to use in classroom because of its simplicity and..it's fun too! Students would be able to make their own demonstrative videos to share with the class,teachers could even make demonstrative videos to shown to their students to introduce new topics, subjects or just teach them how to do something that would normally be a little boring. Although it is simple and easy to use, I think it could also be a massive distraction for kids. There's so much to explore and many different ways to display your movie, I can see kids getting a little silly with it and using it incorrectly or just being on it to waste time. Supervision would be required.

I've also added my avatar into this blog. Now I've worked out how to embed things :)

My Movie

New Laptop, New Things to play with!

As I said in my earlier post, I have just gotten a new lap top and it is amazing. I was finding e-learning very frustrating because of my old lap top and it's capabilities. My new lap is fantastic though. It came with the snipping tool thats talkd about so much in e-learning. It also came with powerpoint and movie maker, which my old lap top didn't have either. I haven't had a chance to play with those tools yet....but stayed tuned because I'm looking forward to making powerpoints and my demonstrative movie too!!!
I have been playing with a programme that came on my lap top called Cyberlink you cam. It's the webcam on the lap top, except I can do all sorts of fun things like change my backround, make myself wear silly hats and mask and I can also have an avatar. I'm still trying to work out the kinks with the avatars. The mouth movements don't quite match up. But it's so much fun. I'm trying to see if  I can put my avatar onto my blog. There is a link to add it to youtube and facebook, so surely I think I'll be able to add it into my blog somehow. Oh and you'll have to excuse my voice, I seem to have come down with the plague or something similar and my voice seems to be coming and going. Ok so I managed to upload it to Youtube and I've added the link here for you to click on and view.
http://youtu.be/PnEbaZj2CpI
I'm really enjoying playing with the multimedia tools, I wish this kind of stuff existed when I was in school. I would've been much more interested in class! I think the avatar's are a great way to get children engaged in different subjects. Since you can use different types of avatars (animals, historical monuments, aliens etc) it you could use them to introduce new topics to the children, or even get them to make an avatar and use it for a classroom presentation. Making learning fun is important to keep kids focused on the topic.

I've also created a voki which I've added to the side bar of my blog.

Safe and Legal Internet Practices.

It is extremely important to stay safe online, especially when you've got young children using the internet. Protecting children from the unsavoury content on the internet is a must. Setting up parental controls on the home computer is a good way for parents make sure their children aren't exposed to this type of content. At school however, protecting kids from explicit content can be a bit more tricky. Most schools run on a network, where alot of content is blocked, not just explicit materials but social networking sites as well. Cyber-bullying is also an issue when using the internet at school. It is important to educate children about this issue and make them aware that it is unacceptable and also from children that are victims to cyber bullying to speak up and let a teacher or parent know. This is another reason why social networking sites are usually blocked on school computers.
Now onto the legal side of things. Copyright laws still apply online.
It is important to always check the laws if you're not sure about something. Here's a few links that I found help in informing me of the do's and don'ts
http://education.qld.gov.au/web/schools/riskman.html
http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/scw/go/pid/946
The 10% rule still applies online aslo. If using content that does not belong to you always check with the publisher or owner that it is ok to use it and give credit where necessary.