Image Manipulation with Picnik

The following images have been uploaded into Flickr and then edited in Picnik.  

As you can see this first photo is very blue and dull looking, even though it was taken in the afternoon on sunset. I really didn't think that any program would be able to fix this issue. I was happy to find that I was able to make a few changes in Picnik and I now have a lovely family portrait that I can use.

This is the finished result. 

I think this program would be fantastic for students to use. There are various features that you are able to use to gain different effects. Picnik can be used to reduce the file size and even the actual size of some images.  If you are asking your students to create a PowerPoint presentation, they could upload their photos for their presentation in Flickr and then compress and alter the photos in Picnik. It is often a very difficult task when trying to explain how to reduce the photo size to enable it to be published on a Web page, email, or PowerPoint and Picnik is a great, easy and simple way of allowing not only you as a teacher to perform these changes but for you students as well. Once again a lesson involving this type of task would be classed as active learning and in line with Dale's Cone & the Learning Pyramid ensure learning effectiveness and retention.

Week One EPL Journey & Google Earth

Thursday and Friday I attended my orientation days of my EPL.  I was very nervous to say the least.  I am completing my EPL in a Primary School made up of three (3) classes with a total of sixty three (63) students and three (3) full time teachers, one of which is also the Principal and my Mentor Teacher.  I was a little unsure of what ICT's would be available in the school and if any, would the teachers be using them?  I was delighted to find that each classroom has ten (10) laptops each, an interactive whiteboard, (that I am itching to learn how to use) and teachers that embrace modern technology & ICT's in learning.  The students were into the computer and working on an interactive classroom with the LOTE teacher an hour into my first day.  The enthusiasm of the teacher was rubbing off onto the students, and I found myself wanting to learn more and more.  Marzano and Pickering;s (2006) DOL 1 explains that teachers need to "Exhibit a sense of enthusiasm about material you present.  If you are excited about the content, students may share your enthusiasm." Well I can undoubtedly see this occurring with the LOTE teacher and the students. It was fantastic to be able to watch this happening and to become a part of it.  One of the advanced students was able to show me what the class had completed in the past, and what they were engaging in at present. I would love to be able to be a part of their journey but unfortunately I am unable to gain access to that part of learning place. The use of ICTs within this school is very important as there is a high percentage of Aboriginal students that come from the local community, who do not have the opportunity to interact with ICT's outside of school.  I have found in the very short time of being there, that ALL students in this particular class are very excited and engaged in leraning with the new ICT's being introduced into the classroom/ learning environment.  Another new ICT I have been introduced to over the past week, is Mathletics. What an amazing way for students to gain confidence in their math skills. I have not had the opportunity as yet to see this in action in the classroom, but have been able to go online and view how it all works. I will put further information on my blog once I learn more about this spectacular program.

The class is also involved in virtual contact with other teachers and students in Indonesia. They are able to look up on Google Earth where the students school physically is, enabling them to gain a greater understanding of how far away they are. This is a great way students can learn about Indonesia first hand, through  the actual students from Indonesia telling their stories.  Marzano and Pickering (2006) states this it is important to "Construct tasks that are 'authentic', that is, related to life outside of school or in the workplace.  Students who clearly see the relevance and use of tasks are more likely to be engaged in them."  I was in the class when they received their very first email response from the teacher at the Indonesian school, accepting their friendship/contact request the class had submitted in the previous lesson.  The look on the students faces was just fantastic.  There were looks of disbelief and excitement.  The LOTE teacher put this email up on the interactive whiteboard for everyone to see.  The students were then able to go online to Google Earth and look up the place the school was at  as well as start to research about Indonesia so they could accumulate questions to forward onto the students at the Indonesian school.

This now leads me on to one of the topics for the week 'Google Earth'.  As discussed above, there are many ways in which you could use Google Earth in the classroom.  After looking at Joe Wood's Blog on Google Earth in the classroom with project based learning, I can see so many more exciting ideas for how we could utilise this amazing ICT.  Exploring geographical locations is just the start.  Exploring what the terrain is like in certain areas would be interesting. But the exciting thing I came across was using it for a Shakespeare unit to follow where it was set. What a fantastic way to engage students on a subject they may find boring or difficult!  I can not wait until I go back to school next week and share with my mentor teacher, the different ways in which it can be utilised.

References:

Marzano, R., & Pickering, D.  (2006).  Dimensions of learning: Teachers manual (2nd ed.).  Victoria, Australia:  Hawker Brownlow Education.

Flickr and Diverse Learning Styles

Image courtesy of  Flickr (2010)

Flickr is an online program that allows you to load, download and store your photos in one place. You are able to set your security settings to permit friends to view your photos.  These photos can then be embedded into a document or blog as I have done here.  There is an endless supply of photos that other people have uploaded and saved as publicly viewable files.  These photos could be used by students in the classroom for various reasons.  As a teacher, you could possibly use Flickr to accumulate photos you would like to use to aid in visual learning, thus catering for those students who are visual learners.Students in our classes have such a broad range of learning styles that we must cater for.

As Felder and Spurlin (2004) state "Students have different strengths and preferences in the ways they take in and process information - which is to say, they have different learning styles." It is important that we accommodate all learning styles from Active to reflective learners, through the use of hands-on and group work to allow students time to reflect on what they have just completed. Sensing to Intuitive learners through connection with real world tasks as well as interpretations or theories that link with facts. Visual and verbal learners require pictures, diagrams etc with verbal explanation. Sequential and global learners need sequential steps that also help the student see connections to other topics and disciplines. We need to make sure as educators that we incorporate all of the mentioned learning styles for the benefit of every student in our classes. This all seems like a lot to take in, but I think that thorough planning will enable us cover all learning styles, not just one! And if we remember that everyone is an individual with individual needs and learning styles we will succeed! Flickr is just one way in which we can cater for these students.

Blown away by ICT's

This is what our future is going to look like! It is happening now and we need to be fully aware and up to date with global ICT's, thus allowing our students to be able to experience as many new ICT as possible. The more we interact with new ICT's the further ahead our students will be, especially when there are students who would not necessarily have access to many ICT's at home.



This application Microsoft surface is currently being used by a school in Townsville and my husband had the fantastic opportunity to be a part of a professional development day involving this new ICT. Imagine having one of these in your school, it would fantastic. Only problem is, the kids would be fighting over whose go it is. I believe it is only a matter of time before we see these forms of technologies emerging in all of our schools across Australia. I look forward to utilising all of the technologies heading our way within my lessons.

PowerPoint the valuable tool

The development of a PowerPoint presentation was next on our list and I started by completing all of the required readings and watching the tutorial video. I found the video to be helpful in someways and confusing in others. I had previously worked with PowerPoint in my undergraduate studies, but thought I should watch the video to see if I could learn some more to make my presentations more interactive, enjoyable and engaging. I followed the instructions and developed my own presentation as the video progressed. There were a few features that the video said were available but when it came time to implement them, I found they were no longer available through the version of PowerPoint I had on my computer. Finally after typing in the HELP area what I was looking for, I found out how I could utilise the new version in different and more interactive ways. I developed a PowerPoint to be used within an English lesson to give visual aid to students on the topic of 'Representations' within the film 'The Tracker'. PowerPoint presentations can be used for various reasons, such as, in classes for the purpose of adding to the verbal descriptions of some topics to enable students to become further engaged and it is a great way to cater for diverse learning styles present within your class. The versatility and technology available within a presentation is fantastic. I do believe that PowerPoint's can be over used and can contain too much information for students to understand and take in. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication!

The Tracker Powerpoint

View more presentations from CQuniversity.

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Amusing and fun times with Voki avatars

This week I have had to design and set up my very own e-Portfolio within Mahara, and then design a Voki avatar through a website called SitePal. Playing around with the Voki was a great deal of fun and I can see how students would find them motivating and enjoyable to watch and listen to, and also to be able to create one of their very own. Avatars can be used in many different places for many different reasons. I was required to design a Voki and then embed it into this posting, which is what I have done. The character of a Voki can be manipulated in many ways, from the hair, clothing, facial features and even bling. I believe the best part to be the way in which I could record my own voice for up to sixty seconds and have it speak my personal message. Students would see Voki's as an amusing and stimulating way to complete a project. Students could make use of these Vokis within a blog, to state fascinating points or ideas about themselves, or a character they are writing about for a biography. It may possibly be incorporated into a presentation such as a film review. The initial consolidation of information could be placed on a reflective blog, where the Voki could introduce the film and what it is about. The blogs might be judged by peers, and the one with the highest votes, could be published in the local newspaper as a review for the book/film. Aldred, S. (2010) states "... project work and negotiated outcomes ... build student ownership which in turn makes the learning meaningful and engaging." Learning effectiveness and Learning retention as displayed by Dales Cone and the learning Pyramid, show how active learning experiences benefit students greatly. It is important when designing activities and lessons that the learning manager consults Smith and Lynch's model of learning design (8LMQS), thus resulting in the desired outcomes for all students involved, no matter what the diversity of the class. Designing activities involving the use of Vokis will be exciting and enable engagement for those who may not have previously been engaged.

Aldred, S. (2010). EDED20491 - ICTs for learning design: Study guide. Rockhampton, Qld: CQUniversity Australia.

Mahara the one stop storage space

On reflection of the residential school I attended back in February, I realise how scared and confused I was when faced with the task of developing my e-portfolio in Mahara. I was afraid that I may not be able to remember how to do all of the steps involved, and the fact that this was going to be an assessable tool I was developing. I needed to get my head around it and make sure I got it right so I could focus on the important parts, such as adding relevant information to Mahara and my professional blog, which is now embedded within my Mahara portfolio. I believe this tool to be one of great importance not only to myself, but for my future students within the secondary classroom. This style of tool will allow students to create their own resume, build groups of varying interests, and store work they have developed over time. I see Mahara as a single storage place for all of your important documents, files, videos, and links from various sources, allowing you to access them at anytime with the click of a button. It gives you the flexibility to create different views, allowing you to be selective in what information is accessible, by whom and even how long it is accessible for. This ICT could be used within many classroom settings and provides a way of performing a collaborative tasks amongst students. Students could use Mahara to develop and store material they are gathering for a project on biographies within an English class, using Mahara as a way of designing their own biography. Students could develop their biography through a blog and embed it into Mahara, creating a group that can access and view each blog. They can use the chat tool within the program to discuss any ideas, issues or problems they may have with their project/biography. This activity was designed with the Kearsley and Shneidermans Engagement theory in mind. Kearsley and Shneiderman (1999) state that " the fundamental idea underlying engagement theory is that students must be meaningfully engaged in learning activities through interaction with others and worthwhile tasks... [and] ... is intended to be a conceptual framework for technology based learning and teaching." The ideas for use in a classroom setting are endless, and once again I am excited at the prospect of using this tool within my classes in the future. Houghton and Sheehan (200) believe one of the characteristics of the knowledge economy is that "Learning involves both education and learning-by-doing, learning-by-using and learning-by-interacting." Mahara is a fantastic tool to ensure that schools and students are keeping with the times and utilising available technology in this knowledge economy with which we now live.

Reference List

Aldred, S. (2010). EDED20491 - ICTs for learning design: Study guide. Rockhampton, Qld: CQUniversity Australia.

Houghton, J., & Sheehan, P. (2000). A primer on the knowledge economy. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-course, EDED20491 ICTs for learning design, http://e-courses.cqu.edu.au.

Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement Theory: A framework for tehnology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-course, EDED20491 ICTs for learning design, http://e-courses.cqu.edu.au.