Through looking at using technology within the classroom, in the back of my mind i would always ask myself “how about those children within the class with learning difficulties, either physically or mentally? or those who are ESL or come from this such a family background?”.

However, after reading Barbara F. Green’s journal article on “Inspiring Students with Special Needs” she points out the fact that programs are thoroughly graphic and this software helps to support students of all abilities across the curriculum. Being a Special Ed. teacher herself, she explains how specific programs cater for all learning difficulties, taking into consideration physical and health disabilities as well as including students with low vision. An example of this graphic software that she uses within her classroom is ‘INSPIRATION’. This program gives a visual representation of concepts and their relationships by linking ideas, pictures, symbols and text. It povides different colours, shapes, fonts and patterns to group and classify words, ideas and concepts.

It is through this program where children with learning and cognitive disabilites can use graphic organiser software to brainstorm their ideas for projects, stories, and reports and then organise them into a sequence. Green continues to point out the advantages of this ‘Inspiration’ software is its flexibility and usefulness of the ability of teachers to create template designed for individual students, where teacher can use hyperlinks to preselected web sites as well as documents. These types of programs allow children to draw in a nice, neat and organised fashion as this is hard for students with learning difficulties to do as they have issues with perception, spacing, sizing, orientation etc.

Through reading this journal article it made me explore and experiment this ‘Inspiration’ computer program and i think this program is a great example that Barbara used within her Special Ed. programs.

Have a look at this program as a basis for devising e-learning activities and exercises with Special Needs children.

References:

Learning and Leading with Technology (2008). Inspiring Students with Special Needs (p.38-39). Vol 36, No. 3. An article written by: Barbara F. Green November 2008.

Image made availiable under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution – Image: ‘“Inquire Within” show of Chicago artists with+disabilities‘
www.flickr.com/photos/11414092@N06/3533667716

- Courtney – xxx

After watching influencial videos about podcasting in Jaz’s blog “Podcasting!! Oh so scary“, we decided to respond through a podcast of our own!  Please have a listen and enjoy!!

anitandcourtneypodcast

-Anita & Courtney xx

In class recently, we have been exploring the term constructionism. I read an article by Idit Harel called “Sand Castles Go Digital” (2003) to better understand the concept.  Harel believes that “kids naturally learn as they play”, but the more powerful form of learning is constructionist learning. New ideas are created when learners are actively engaged in creating and sharing it with audiences. “Constructionism, a theory pioneered by Seymour Papert of the MIT Media Lab, holds that children learn best when they are in the active roles of designer and constructor, like the kids building the sand castle on the beach.” The idea is that this learning happens when learners are consciously engaged in constructing a public entity, so for example the sand castle on the beach. Audiences play a huge role in constructionist learning, and impact the learners’ efforts.

This was an example video of constructionism learning that my teacher gave to us. Note the participation and effort of students, think about the role an audience plays..

 (If you are already a teacher, create two learning tasks. One task,make clear the audience to students, and the other task make no audience except for the students themselves. Is there a difference in learning and creativity?)

Harel encourages us as educators to seize the moment of learning! For example, building sand castles becomes wide-open learning environments when parents or grown-ups take the opportunity to interact and chat about oceans, tides and sea animals, thereby connecting knowledge to kids play. “These grown-ups take advantage of the time when kids have “big ears,” when they really listen because they are engaged and thinking about something “in the moment.” “

Harel also believes that going Digital can increase creativity and knowledge. “As researchers, our challenge then became to think about how we could use technology and the Internet to replicate sand castle play and create more opportunities and contexts for constructionist learning.” We as teachers need to learn how to replicate this type of sand castle play in the classroom. What are some ways we can do that?

“The Net, for example, offers a wide-open learning environment in which children can explore the world, express themselves, save their creations, revise and refine them over time and exchange ideas in ways that were simply not possible in the past . But it is not the technologies themselves that are so important; rather, what is important are the ways that we use the technologies and think about them.”

Do you agree with Harel’s remarks about digital sand castles? 

References:

Picture from: http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php?terms=child+sandcastle&edit=yes&page=1

So i was just surfing teacher tube and came across this video. It gives some great insight into the use of computers within school and looking at overall percentages. I thought it was pretty cool and really provided some hard facts as we come to terms with this technological generation!!

Enjoy…

Video Resource: Teacher tube

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=12102&title=Did_you_know___Accessing_Technology

After stumbling across kelly’s blog “A thousand words: promoting teachers visual literacy skills” it really got me thinking about the visual generation and society we are apart of today.  It is evident from her reading of the article that it is important to note that our children, that is our students, are all growing up in this visual generation being surrounded by visual images which stimulate their minds. These can come from sources such as billboards, magazines, televisions, newspapers etc… which all display textual and numerical information. It is thus important to note as a teacher our students mut be highly literate, being able to read and write about what is gong on in the world around them and beyond.

Kelly continu on to talk about the importance of students becoming visually literate ‘navigating the real world’, being able to decode, comprehend and analyse the things they see and what is being effectively communicated. She has then pointed out a vital part in how we actually go about teaching this to our students, we have to know how to do it ourselves. 

IF WE CAN’T DO IT WE CAN’T TEACH IT!

We as teachers have to be able to develop these conceptual, instructional, and technical skills so we feel comfident enough to relay it back to our students when incorporating into the learning program. Thus, it is important to embed activities and exercises where children are askedto analyse, synthesise, apply and understand visual information as crucial literacy.

- Courtney – xxx 

Resources: Images:

www.flickr.com/photos/40645538@N00/3212680093

www.flickr.com/photos/20741443@N00/3477908173 

www.flickr.com/photos/7943478@N07/2361365501

  www.flickr.com/photos/18559043@N04/2970686837

Through reading the blog ‘Engaging Learners with Technology’ of teacher Jenny Mackness, it has given me great insight into the effective ways and starting point of engaging students within the technology learning process. She starts off by asking the question ‘how do you ensure that learners engage with the technology?’ which is a key point in determining your starting point. Through looking at this her major concern is to engage learners within learning and technology is only a tool – a means to an end.

Through her teaching experience she explains that it has lead her to the realisation and knowledge of how to sufficently engage your students. It is through; your own passion and enthusiasm towards the technology, having students interests at the forefront of everything that you do as a teacher, recognising learners as individuals and building mutually respectful relationships with them and ensuing activites teachers plan are worthwhile.

So how do we do this online you may ask???

She states that teachers ra enot just there to set up the online task ans then leave students in the dark for the rest of the task. Rather, teachers can take a backseat but not at the start of task. The beginning of an online task is crucial as it is the time to work the hardest to engage the students. Through this you are to:

• model and demonstrate
• make sure students get all the technical and ‘wayfinding’ support they need both through teachers actionsand information provided
• Teacher is to use ‘back channeling’ as a strategy – helping students form postive relationships between both student-teacher and with each other
• making students comfortable with the unfamiliar environment.

I love how she puts it at the end when she states:

“Engaging students with technology is similar to engaging them with the library, or introducing them to the students union activities, taking them on a campus tour and so on. We need to do the same things online, because without time spent on this famialiarisation process students will not feel safe enough or sufficiently comfortable to engage fully with the learning process.”

- Courtney – xxx

Resources:

Teacher blog: Jenny connected, by jenny mackness. Accessed: 24/5/09 from: http://jennymackness.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/engaging-learners-with-technology/

Image made available by Creative Commons license: Image: ‘Kids in the hall‘ www.flickr.com/photos/82947718@N00/7339925

 I was looking at an education journal called ‘Learning & Leading with Technology’, and came across a section called ‘As I see “it”’. This section is written by Dave Eisenmann, the technology integration specialist for Minnestonka (Minnesota) Public School and a professor at St. Mary’s University in Minneapolis. This weeks article was labelled “Interactive Whiteboards as a Springboard for Integration”. I found this article highly relevant after my own interactions with smartboards on my practicum.

Eisenmann refers to technology in his distract as an “accelerator of learning” and is highly supportive of smartboards in every classroom. He sees the major benefits of interactive whiteboards, and believes that “they are a powerful catalyst for higher levels of teacher technology integration”.  He lists the enormous variety of other technologies including podcasts, video recordings, student response systems, Internet resources, online assessments, blogging and more. He believes that this “springboard” technology digitizes teachers’ daily activities and lessons. “Teachers become more comfortable with technology and incorporate new technologies at a faster pace. This also leads to better and more authentic use of technology by their students”. Through research, he has concluded that they is a direct correlation between daily use of interactive whiteboards and higher levels of teacher technology proficiency.

On my recent practicum, I was with a year 5 class and experienced many lessons that used technology to enhance learning. The technology used in lessons included computers and interactive whiteboards also known as smartboards. In my classroom there was one interactive whiteboard at the front of the room. I taught many lessons using the interactive whiteboard, and found it extremely helpful in keep students attention and participation. I could create lessons that were interactive and practical, where students got out from their seats and participated in tasks. I found the interactive whiteboard allowed me to include photographs and other visuals, videos and links to websites and educational games. Students could access the same things from their own computers. I was able to involve computer programs such as Notebook10 and the worldwide web to make my lessons engaging and innovative. I walked away from prac feeling very passionate about interactive whiteboards, as I was able to see the difference they made in teaching, and the many things one can do with them. I believe with Eisenmann, that technology can accelerate learning when it keeps students focused and excited.

How did you find teachers used technology in your classrooms? If you used an interactive whiteboard did you view it as a burden or a benefit? Did you enjoy teaching through this method?

 -Anita xx

References:

Eisenmann, D. (2009). ‘Learning and Leading with Technology’. The ISTE Journal of Educational Technology of Practice & Policy. Vol.36, No. 6 (2009).

Picture from:

 http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php?terms=smartboard&page=3&edit=yes&com=no

I have recently finsihed a practicum at Barnier Public School which is known as a technology school that aims to “challenge the future”.

The school chooses technology as their major form of delivery because they believe it is engaging and stimulating children. “Children today are living in a digital world. The technology allows teachers to provide lessons with greater relevance to children’s everyday lives”, (Barnier Public School).

Each classroom, the library, the technology centre and the staffroom is supplied with an Interactive Smartboard. There are approximately 400 Windows based computers throughout the school that are connected to the school’s network. In my practicum class every student had a computer workstation, sharing a computer with a partner, (Barnier Public School).

Each Stage also has the up and coming Personal Response Systems called Senteo. This technology has encouraged successful student learning and engagement. Senteos are used as a form of assessment or game. A Senteo is a hand held remote that each student receives to interact with the Smartboards, (Barnier Public School).

Senteos

Our school’s Digital Programming enables teachers to share digital lessons. It saves time for students and teachers when accessing lessons, website links and technology resources, enables collaboration and it provides a student-centred learning environment, (Barnier Public School). The school intranet also includes class homepages, information about school events, search engines, photographs and stories.

Is this too much technology? Is too much interaction with the computer a bad thing? Should there be a balance of tradition teaching methods and new technological teaching methods?

 -Anita xx

References:

http://www.barnier-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/Technology/techbarnier.html

Picture from: http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php?terms=smartboard&page=1&edit=yes&com=no

Picture from: http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php?terms=smartboard&page=2&edit=yes&com=no

Through reading BECTA (2003) article ‘What the research says about digital video in teaching and learning’, I have come to form a greater understanding of the use of digital video within the classroom.

There are many benefits for teachers with using digital videoing within their classroom. Firstly, it motivates students and keeps them on task, increaing the likelihood of them completing an exercise/activity. This said it then seeks to improve students’ overall literacy skills, for example their understandings of narratives. It prvides not only students but similarly teachers with differentiation of teaching and learning within the classroom, intern taking into consideration differing abilities, standards and learning styles of individual students. Finally through the physical use of them within the classroom is at ease for teaching to record student engagment and practice. In tern, teachers are able to re-use previous digital videos with future classes, re-editing them as suitable.

Moreover, with the use of digital videoing within the clssroom provides benefits for students learning, as well as engaging within the teaching process. Digital videoing draws upon students’ out-of-school interests which increases their motivation and enjoyment of learning tasks. It seeks to encourage self-esteem and creativity as it provides students with a feeling of sense of achievement through the making and editing process. Through these processes students build upon and gain varying social skills such as; communication, negotiation, decision making and problem solving strategies. These allow them to explore differing roles, responsibilities and identities as they work on shared and grouped vidoes. Lastly, digital videoing becomes a benefit for the student and the wider community as completed products and work can be shown to parents and the community, sharing student achievement and learning.

These benefits for both students and teachers show the importance or need for inclusion of digital videos within teaching and learning.

- Courtney – xxx

 Image made available by Creative Commons license: Image: ‘Panasonic AG-HVX200‘ www.flickr.com/photos/83245449@N00/108616724