e-learning experiences

Salter’s article “Making use of online discussion groups” (pages 5-10) outlines some advantages and disadvantages of discussion-board type technologies, as well as some strategies for implementing this technology in the classroom. One of the advantages that stood out to me is the idea that online discussions can provoke deeper thinking by giving students more time to reflect and compose their response. In terms of improving writing skills I believe online discussions could be very useful in the classroom, since publishing or posting messages online gives students practice in writing for a wide audience in a variety of ways. Maria makes a similar point about how technology can enhance writing skills in her post on wikis.

Another important point Salter raised was the need for clear instructions, guidelines for use and marking criteria that must be spelt out to students in the beginning. If students do not know how to use discussion boards or are unsure what is expected of them chaos could ensue, so I think establishing what is expected early on is essential if this is to be used in the classroom. One of Salter’s suggestions that I would hesitate to implement, though, is the idea of anonymous posts, since I think this could create tension if criticisms were made anonymously of students’ work, for example.

If I had the opportunity to use discussion boards in my classroom, I would probably do so with an older primary class, ie stage 3. Before doing so I would definitely discuss the idea with my students to make sure everyone was comfortable with the technology and that it was relevant to the curriculum.

From url: http://www.nofanalone.com/blog/archives/2007_03.html

Prensky’s (2005) article ‘Listen to the natives‘ argues the point that it is becoming increasingly difficult for teachers to engage students in the 21st century classroom. I agree with this point, and also agree that using technology and media that students are interested in is a great way to engage them, provided it is done in a relevant and meaningful way that supports the curriculum. However, I think some of his suggestions could be problematic, such as always letting students choose their own groups or partners for assignments, as well as an emphasis on mobile phone technologies in the classroom. I think that computer technology is more accessible and acceptable in the classroom than mobiles, not to mention the fact that not every student in the average Australian classroom has a mobile phone, but I believe most have access to a pc, at least at school.

Overall, I agree that students should be taught how to use new and emerging technologies at school and that this knowledge would benefit them greatly in their futures. However while peer tutoring and student-lead lessons may be used effectively in classrooms, I tend to think this is best done occasionally, and that it is up to the teacher to learn the requisite skills to teach new technologies to his or her class.

Funbrain vodcast

Here is my vodcast evaluation of kid’s website funbrain.com… enjoy!

In his article ‘Computer as paintbrush: technology, play and the creative society’ (Resnick, 2006) Resnick argues that most children’s interactions with computers are passive, but that this needn’t be the case. I agree that instead of just interacting with computer technology, students should use media such as garageband, etc, to create and design projects, giving them a greater understanding of how technology works and how they can manipulate it to different ends.

From google images URL here

Resnick’s article cites several examples of how this has been done, for example a marble machine that uses small computers (Crickets) to manipulate the marble’s path through the maze. The experimentation this child undertook to determine where she should place her crickets, how she could time the crickets movements, etc, involved a lot of creative thinking, and was also something she highly enjoyed. I think that technologies like this that can be integrated into the curriculum are great tools that can foster creative thinking in students, and can perhaps engage them in ways that traditional methods cannot.

Podcasting is something I had never attempted until last week’s e-learning seminar. It was an interesting experience and recording a podcast was much easier to do than I had previously imagined, so much so that I can see this being integrated into the primary classroom in a variety of ways. This extract from Will Richardson’s ‘Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms’ gives examples of some ways podcasts have been used, particularly in the United States. I thought the idea of using podcasting to record lessons was a great idea, since students who missed the lesson could catch up on their own time, or those seeking revision or clarification could review the lesson time and time again. I also thought students using podcasts to record information, practice foreign languages, and even to practice speeches or presentations was a fantastic opportunity for them to really gauge their progress in these areas, and be able to see how they could improve their technique.

Overall, I think podcasting has the potential to be used in an extremely relevant and meaningful way in the classroom across a number of KLAs. I intend to do some more research on podcasting to find more examples of its use in classrooms, and to what effect.

McKenzies’ article, Stuffing technology into the curriculum, argues that technology is being used in the classroom in ways which are redundant and counterproductive. He believes that technology should be used meaningfully as a tool to assist learning, not as a series of exercises that must be done to fulfil departmental criteria. I tend to agree with his view, having seen on practicum last semester a few examples of how ICT (Information and Computer technology) is used in an everyday classroom.

One particular example that was not particularly well integrated was a lesson where students copied and pasted data from the ABS into an excel spreadsheet to create a chart. Of course I think its a great idea that students are taught how to do this! The issue I had with the lesson, though, was that the data the students were using was not related to anything else they were learning about at the time. I think it would have been better if the students could have made a graph relating to their COGS topic of machines, after perhaps collecting some data themselves. This lesson was basically done to tick a box, and I think the students would have found it more useful, relevant and perhaps remembered what they had learnt better if it had been incorporated into their current unit of work.