A New Discovery

An exciting discovery of a new ICT was made today.  I was introduced to the concept of 'Overlay Programs' for HPE/Sports. Sportscode & Motion Pro are examples of these types of programs which allow teachers, coaches or athletes to analyse the performance in a  particular sport. This may perhaps be extremely beneficial to the track and field team in all areas, to determine how the students can improve their technique.  This program is uncomplicated, and engages students in their own learning journey.  Students would be able to film each other performing a particular run, throw or jump event.  The information from the recording can then be processed by the teacher, and overlayed onto the correct technique required to gain best results.  Next the students will be able to analyse how their performance can be improved, as well as how well they performed.  Furthermore these programs can capture the performance changes in the students over a period of time, allowing the teacher to see actual improvements, as well as determining where they require extra guidance and advice on technique.  These programs are helpful to teachers in senior grades as it offers a way to document students learning and improvement. Following is an example of how an overlay program operates.
SportsCode Analysis

Motion Pro

Wikipedia - To trust or not to trust?

Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia in which anyone can contribute. Wikipedia has rules and guidelines and is monitored to keep information accurate. Only six years ago when i started my journey to becoming a teacher, I was implicitly told by lecturers that we were NOT to use Wikipedia as reference tool as it was highly unreliable. Oh how times have changed in only six years. Wikipedia is a great place for students to go to gain valuable and reliable information at the click of a button. I found when I completed my search for nutrition on Wikipedia the list of resources was endless. From a food balance wheel to related topics, and external links to associated websites such as Diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic disease. There was also a link to databases on recipe nutrition. This would be something I would incorporate into my lesson on developing a health menu. Students would be able to look up nutrition on Wikipedia and have a look around at what they think the important issues relating to nutrition and the development of their menu are. Wikipedia would be a starting point for students to research the topic and they would then need to corroborate this information with another source.  Pearce and Bass (2008) state "Using Wikipedia for learning activities offers teachers and students the opportunity to illustrate how well they understand a given topic and how to go about 'knowing' the difference.'


References:

Pearce, J. & Bass, G.  (2008).  Technology toolkits: Introducing you to Web 2.0.  Victoria, Australia:  Nelson Cengage learning.

YouTube and TeacherTube

I have selected this YouTube video for the purpose a HPE class. In today's society we are faced with so many digitally enhanced images, it is no wonder girls in particular have a distorted view of what it is to be beautiful. This lesson would be talking about feeling beautiful on the inside and liking you for you. It is important that both girls and boys understand that what portrayed in the media is often not what is in real life. From the sports celebrities to non famous people, their images are altered to conform with today's societal norms. This YouTube video will show how these images are altered and will shock most students when they see how it is done. This video can be found on both YouTube and TeacherTube, and is just one of many that you can use to gain engagement and interest within the classroom. YouTube Videos are a great way to start a lesson as the 'Hook'. I look forward to implementing YouTube and TeacherTube into my lessons in the near future.

Interactive WhiteBoards

The Interactive WhiteBoard is a tool that I cannot wait to get my hands on and learn how to incorporate it into my lesson planning. The school in which I am completing my EPL at is fortunate enough to have one in each of their classrooms. The teachers are actively using these boards and the children are engaged constantly when they are in use. The following video discusses the advantages of the Promethean board, which is a type of interactive whiteboard. My Eldest son came home at the beginning of the year and told me about the Promethean board they have in their classroom. The excitement in his voice when he was explaining to me what it was, created a very clear picture about how children in the learning environment feel about this emerging ICT. These interactive whiteboards make learning interactive, interesting, entertaining and engaging for all students, as well as making use of technologies to better engage visual auditory and kinesthetic learning styles. ACU (2000), states active learning is "A multi-direction learning experience in which learning occurs teacher-to-student, student-to-teacher...[and] involves activity-base learning experiences: input, process, and output. These activity-based experiences take many shapes, whole class involvement, teams, small groups, trios, pairs, individuals." The interactive white board or Promethean is an example of how we can incorporate active learning into our classrooms.





References:

ACU Adams Center for Teaching Excellence. (2000). Active learning online. Retrieved from http://www.acu.edu/cte/activelearning/whyuseal2.htm

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.