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Mobile Learning Reflection

Ipods
Ipod touch
Ipad

Mobile Phones

Other ICT Tools

Various ICT Tools I have had a play with. Some have creations on my wiki others on the related web-site.

I didn't create anything to save, in relation to the explore learning gizmos, I have just had a play with some of the algebra online simulations for year 8 maths on the website.

Memes
Bubbl.us
Text2mindmap
Tagxedo instructions
Tagxedo reflection
Photoface - deleted from my wiki as it was annoying. It plays automatically when I open the wiki page.
Sharendipity
Explore Learning - Gizmos - online simulations

Tagxedo

Tagxedo

Looking through various web-sites I stumbled onto Tagxedo and thought I found something fantastic but was a little let down by the end of my experience.

The Tagxedo idea is, in my opinion, very exciting. I found it visually stimulating and easy to create but after making my creation found that I could only share half of the product.

With Tagxedo the idea is to import a group of words which mean something to you, select some options such as shape and colour and spin it into an image like the one I created below. The words can be in a text document and uploaded or you can upload a blog or web-site address and Tagxedo will import the words from that location.

In keeping with my focus on learning designs and theories integrating ICT I selected some words from the revised Blooms Taxonomy and created a text file which I then uploaded in Tagxedo. The fun part is as you move your mouse over the words they pop out and make themselves seen.

I would love to embed something like this into another creation, such as a glogster or a wiki or blog. I believe it to have the potential to be a great visual learning tool. Unfortunately, although it appears to have the feature to create a HTML code I couldn't get it to work. The best I could do was save a jpeg file and upload the static image. The static image is still great but it loses definition the larger you make it and knowing how it should work with the words popping out leaves me feeling let down just looking at the static image.

The only way I can figure to look at the word popping version is to follow the instructions I have in my wiki.

Click on the image I created in Tagxedo below to be re-directed to my wiki.

Blooms Taxonomy Apple

http://www.tagxedo.com/app.html

Taxedo Creator

Mind Mapping - Blooms Taxonomy?

The idea of organizing information into a visual concept is fantastic. I have often drawn pictures on paper trying to organize thoughts and ideas in order to make sense of them. This is great as long as it is not too complex which is rare. Over the last couple of weeks I have created concept maps using both bubbl.us and text 2 mind map.

The examples I created are on my wiki. See the following links:

Bubble.us curriculum map
Text2mindmap on Blooms Taxonomy

I found both tools very easy to use. There was very minimal time wasted in learning how to use them, which meant I could get straight into focusing on my concepts. I also found them both very easy to share and embedd when completed.

Personally, I enjoy concept maps. It helps me to see the big picture of the content by summarizing, consolidating and understanding my learning. As you can see all of these verbs are not up the top of blooms taxonomy. They don't seem to be in the realm of higher order thinking and yet concept maps seem extremely valuable to me. How can I transform them using my pedagogy into something that is going to encourage complex thinking?

Let's start by looking at the following SWOT analysis in relation to concept maps. More specifically on-line concept mapping.

STRENGTHS	WEAKNESSES
Easy to use Easy to share	Can be under-utilised by simply summarising information
OPPORTUNITIES	THREATS
Brainstorming Planning Classifying & organising information Comparing information Evaluating information Can encourage the creation of new thoughts, ideas and or strategies Potential for collaborative learning	Can get too complex and difficult to "see" the information

As listed in the SWOT analysis, I believe concept maps are much more than tools for consolidating learning. I have certainly not been utilizing concept maps to their full potential in my own learning.

This web-site called Live the Solution gives examples of how mind maps can be created through the process of evaluating information and creating new ideas. Now we are entering the realm of more complex thinking.

After reviewing the examples on the Live the Solution web-site, I believe to make the most of concept mapping in the realm of complex thinking it is all in the scaffolding! What questions are you asking your learners to consider when creating an on-line concept map? When learners are creating an on-line concept map in order to answer a question or find a solution they are extending their learning past lower-order thinking routines towards higher order thinking.

As in the examples on the Live the Solution web-site, learners are trying to analyse and solve problems by creating strategies for global warming or behaviour change management. Not only has the on-line concept map enabled the process of complex thinking it has also resulted in a creation that can be shared and evaluated by anyone who looks at it.

Creating a concept map to evaluate a problem or create a strategy can also be set-up as a group project
on-line, enabling collaborative learning.

In summary, I think on-line concept mapping is a fantastic tool that enables learning at all realms of Blooms taxonomy.

Web-sites I have reviewed on Concept Maps and Blooms Taxonomy:

http://live-the-solution.com/mindmaps/

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/757

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4719

Presentation Tools - Prezi and Glogster

Prezi

If you mention the name prezi all you will hear is fantastic things. I think I can see that there are the possiblity of fantastic things but I struggled with working out how to use it.

I did create a few simple prezis to try out a few ideas and have embedded my very basic prezi on my wiki . However, I think I will need to spend a lot of time getting to know the tricks before I come up with something great.

I did watch the tutorials which made it look fantastic but then had trouble using it. I think my greatest challenge was working out how to use the very simple tool bars.  It felt a bit like learning to ripstick to me, very wobbly and unstable in the beginning but now I am cruising. Still waiting on the cruising bit with Prezi but I know it is coming.

One feature that I think has a lot of potential is the uploading of power point slides. I did upload my power point slides into a prezi and then embedded it into my wiki but it still needs a lot of work from there which I am sure is more than achievable once you have the skills.

The other feature I discovered that was actually easy to use was the automated presentation where you can just elect the time delay.

I realise also that it is possible to add music, you tube videos and pretty much everything else.

I have spent quite a lot of time this week working with powerpoint and was a bit disappointed when I found it difficult to share independently on the web. It is possible but messy. So the fact that embedding prezis is so easy was very exciting. If you are going to spend a lot of time on creating, you want to be able to share it easily.

The zoom feature once you get your head around it is potentially the best part, particulary if the overall concept is still recognizable with the squint test as per the Prezi tutorial. I think that sums up the prezi. Squint and you can see the overall concept or idea and then you can zoom in on the detail.

Using prezi in education is certainly something I would like to do in the future. Even with my limited prezi knowledge at the moment, I can see the benefits of Prezi when it comes to collaborative brainstorming, debating and presenting ideas and much much more. I will look forward to checking out Prezi in more detail in the future.

Glogster

I have to admit, this was fun. I did have the same problem as Prezi in that it took a little while to get used to the editing features but they are all there.

I have embedded my glogster on my blog this time as well as my wiki just because it looks pretty!

As discussed in our engagement materials the potential uses for a presentation tool like this are numerous not to mention how much fun students would have. Even if the content is not their favorite, I think they would still learn content in the process of creation.

The beauty of the Glogster and Prezi is that they are the presentation tools but almost anything can be created and embedded into them so the variety of media and the related learning opportunities is vast. This means that even though the primary learning styles used in these tools is visual, they can accommodate other styles such as auditory.

Presentation Tools - Powerpoint

This week we looked at digital presentation tools, how to physically use them and then apply them in our teaching context. In the beginning, when I started getting to know these presentation tools, I was starting to think that they were exactly as they were described, tools for presenting information.

It left me wondering how that was going to encourage higher level learning in my students. Well, if time is no boundary, the sky is the limit for being creative with these tools. I think the key is to put the tools in the hands of the students with a reasonable scaffold. The first tool I looked at was Powerpoint closely followed by Prezi and Glogster.

I seemed to have a lot to say about my experience creating powerpoints and for some reason I tended to spend a lot of time creating them, so before we go on to looking at my powerpoint experience it is probably a good idea to have a look at the following SWOT analysis, which outlines the main points to consider before integrating powerpoint into my learning design framework.

SWOT Analysis - Powerpoint Presentations

STRENGTHS	WEAKNESSES
Can be created by students individually or collaboratively Allows add-ons such as Mouse Mischief Authorstream Has many creative features and tool-bars Can create inter-active versions of slideshows with links or add-ons Allows creativity in presentation options and features Can incorporate other media eg. audio, images and video	Not as easy to share on Web 2.0 as other presentation tools Can lose some functionality when shared on the web Large number of tool bars and features can extend the time taken to create a project if new to powerpoint
OPPORTUNITIES	THREATS
Collaborative learning is possible Inter-active presentations can enable problem-solving thinking strategies Opportunity to teach legal and ethical practices in using this media Story boards and outlining can be incorporated in the project	Need to ensure legal and ethical practices are adhered to when using external material such as images and audio other presentation tools such as prezi are being created that are possibly quicker to create and share

Powerpoint

I created two powerpoint presentations this week. The first one was a basic powerpoint presentation which could be used to present information to my learners. This presentation was called an Introduction to Algebra and focuses on the concept of an algebraic expression.

I embedded a voki into my introductory slide of this powerpoint presentation and it works very well while being used in power point software on my computer, but doesn't work when viewed through my wiki, even if only embedded in my wiki as a powerpoint file. My course co-ordinator Wendy Fasso has suggested I try to convert the voki to a video using  Camstudio or Screencast-o-matic. I haven't had time to investigate these options as yet due to time contstraints, but will endeavour to do so prior to the end of this course as I do enjoy voki's, and if I can convert them to video there may be other uses for them in addition to including them in powerpoint presentations.

My first basic Powerpoint presentation is on algebraic expressions and is embedded on my wiki.

Microsoft Mouse Mischief

Even though my first powerpoint is primarily for presenting information, I did explore the add in microsoft mouse mischief which has the potential to transform the presentation into a more interactive learning tool. The final slide of my basic powerpoint presentation above, allows students to answer a question consolidating the information presented in the presentation. The powerpoint has to be played in microsoft mouse mischief mode for this interactivity to work.

From my limited experience it appears to me that if you run the slideshow using microsoft mouse mischief, other features, such as audio and transitions, won't work in your slideshow when played by microsoft mouse mischief. It is a shame you can't have the best of both worlds but on the other hand you could still prepare a separate short powerpoint presentation or even use a different media such as video, to present the material and then follow it up with a focused mouse mischief presentation to engage the whole class in an interactive environment. Mouse mischief enables either an individual learner or the whole class to participate in answering multiple choice, taking polls and drawing pictures.

Student created Powerpoints

I think the most powerful way to integrate powerpoint into my learning design framework is to have students create and present the powerpoint based around a scaffold presented by the teacher. This type of learning exercise could find itself anywhere from the bottom of Bloom's Taxonomy, simply presenting information remembered, to the top, evaluating, creating and problem solving. One idea is for the student to have an everyday problem that they need to solve using an algebraic expression or equation. This may require the student to use hyper-links to look at the problem, explain the use of algebra and then apply algebra to the problem. There may be more than one outcome.

Inter-active Powerpoint

As part of my own learning experience, and my course requirements, I created a second powerpoint using hyper-links. As a whole, I did find powerpoint very user-friendly, however, the more I used it the more features I found and the clock ticked by so I had to make the decision to stop creating and reflect on what I have completed to date. Therefore, my second powerpoint with hyper-links isn't complete but I do think I have done enough to have an understanding of using powerpoint in a more interactive way with hyper-links.

The following is my hyperlinked Powerpoint presentation in draft form. For some reason the hyperlinks on slide one do not work after being uploaded to Authorstream. The hyper-links on all other slides do work. Therefore if you would like to watch the slideshow direct from this blog you can view it below but will need to click to move past the first slide. If you would like to view the Powerpoint with all hyperlinks working correctly you can download the Powerpoint file from my wiki.

Algebra Hyperlinked Power Poi...

More PowerPoint presentations from Jackie Russell

Storyboards

You can also see where I planning to go with this powerpoint by looking at the storyboard I created in word.

The storyboard is where I started when creating this powerpoint and although it took me a long time to create, it resulted in a fantastic first draft plan of where I wanted my powerpoint to go. I referred back to it several times when sorting out my slides in powerpoint. Creating the storyboard in word was very simple.

Outlining

The next step was outlining in Word. I am in two minds about this one. I can see the benefits of creating the slides in this way but I also don't think it saved a lot of time as typing in the same headings in powerpoint was possibly not much slower.

I am currently using microsoft word 2010 and found that the feature in Word of transferring the outline from word to Powerpoint didn't seem to exist anymore. I then went to Powerpoint and opened the outline from there. When I did this Powerpoint did not included all of the indented dot points as I had expected it too so I had to re-type these anyway.

Even though my storyboard was my inital plan, my Powerpoint did undergo some changes as I started to create it. I found some slides had to change levels from the original storyboard. My creation evolved and my master plan was possibly too big for the time frame of this exercise. Possibly due to the level of my Powerpoint skills to date.

Sharing Powerpoint on Web 2.0

I am not sure if the following is a drawback because I don't have sufficient technical knowledge or whether it is a justifiable limitation of powerpoint, but in this day and age of web 2.0 I found powerpoint to be more difficult to integrate into the web without losing some functions, than other presentation tools I have looked at such as Prezi and Glogster. Although, by adding the add-on authorstream to my powerpoint software, this was certainly improved but some of my hyper-links in the first slide did not work when shared.

Add-ons and Sharing

It was certainly easy to improve the functions of powerpoint by downloading add-ons such as Microsoft Mouse Mischief and Authorstream which you can then apply direct from Powerpoint but it seems you do lose varying degrees of functionality when uploading slideshows to the web.

It may be a case of improving my technical skills and finding ways around the limitations, for example creating a video from my voki as suggested earlier, or by using Authorstream instead of Slideshow to maintain the use of animations etc. I am not sure what the answer is to the inconsistency of my hyperlinks when uploaded through Authorstream but the rest of the presentation worked well.

Stop-Motion Movies

Another option which I played with was stop-motion movies. These are fun. The slides are preparedin Powerpoint and then uploaded into Moviemaker to create a short movie. This is certainly another medium for creative learning.

I created the following basic stop-motion movie which I called "The Running Man"

Bloom's Taxonomy

I can see the potential of interactive Powerpoint presentations in learning and teaching. The options for hyper-links even include linking to outside files, web-sites etc as well as within the one file. Using hyper-links, learners can create slideshows that enable several different outcomes for the viewer. Planning and creating this type of presentation requires the learner to consider that there are different outcomes and evaluate how he or she wants their reader to get there.

Considering different outcomes moves the learner up the scale in Blooms Taxonomy, possibly into the higher order thinking areas of analysing, evaluating and creating. The learner needs to think of the possible journey someone using their Powerpoint presentation may take and what they want that journey to mean to that person.

The following slideshow that I found outlines the type of questions that should be asked when scaffolding an activity that requires higher order thinking at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy. If we are to integrate technology using Powerpoint to engage a learner in higher order thinking I believe that an interactive Powerpoint could be effective if the scaffolded questions are effective.

As per slide number 9 in the following slideshow created by Carla Piper, the types of questions that are needed by the scaffold could be:

• create
• evaluate
• synthesize
• analyze

Essential questions from Carla Piper

In summary, I do believe that Powerpoint is a very useful learning tool and one that most learners would be very familiar with. I know my daughter prepared a Powerpoint presentation in year 2 for school and still plays around on it creating pictures and slideshows. Therefore, by the time a learner is in high school, much of the time spent getting to know the tool would be less necessary than in my case, and the learner could use it to prepare presentations that may extend all the way to the top of blooms taxonomy as discussed earlier.

Digital Videos Reflection

Wow, what a learning experience.  I got a lot more out of this than I anticipated. Did I say that at the beginning of each of these media reflections? Well, this one led my learning in two directions, firstly the obvious one of learning to create digital video but the second, legal practices, which although it applies to all digital media, was much richer in this case.

I thought I was flying along creating my movie and then I had a bit of a realization that I needed to consider legal practices a bit more deeply and was introduced to creative commons.

Legal and Ethical Practices with Digital Movies

I created my movie in moviemaker 2.6 by selecting group of family photos and trying out all of the effects, transitions and included text on my introductory image. I then decided that I needed to add some music with an audio file. I uploaded into moviemaker a Deep Forest music track from a cd that I have at home. It sounded great and fitted in with the photos well. I was very happy with my progress even though it had taken me a few hours of tweaking and playing around with moviemaker.

I was now ready to embed it in my wiki. My first problem was with plug-ins but that turned out to be fairly minor. My solution through collaborating on my university forum was to upload my movie into youtube and then embed it into my wiki. Problem solved except that I started thinking about my music. Am I allowed to use the music on my cd even though I paid for it and it is mine? Back to the forum I go!

I haven't ever posted anything on the web, not even in facebook so it was a new question for me. The answer was that I couldn't use third party music without their permission as I would be distributing it on the web by embedding it in my wiki. However, a solution suggested by a fellow university student was to check out the creative commons web-site. Well there went another night!

I have to say, initially I was very confused about the creative commons web-site but by the end of the night I had chosen a music track uploaded it to moviemaker and then you tube and finally onto my wiki. I had also checked out what I was allowed to do with that track under the specific creative commons licence attached to it and included a link to that as well. So now I can comfortably enjoy my movie on my wiki knowing that I haven't breached any legal rules in relation to distributing third party media.

The other consideration I had to address was the use of photos of my children in my movie and consequently on my wiki. As the photos were ethical and I don't believe endangered them in any way I had decided it was okay to include those photos in my movie and consequently my wiki. However, considering the context in which I am using my wiki, that is in the capacity of a student teacher, I also needed to make sure that people viewing my wiki know that I have permission from the parents of the children in the images even though I am their parent. In my future as a qualified teacher I do need to be aware of putting photos of anyone's children on the web and ensure that I do have the correct permissions from parents and guardians of those children. In addition to that I also need to mindful of the children's wishes as well. For whatever reason they may not want their photo on the internet and I feel that we as teachers need to respect the wishes of our students as well.

These requirements of distributing third party material and receiving permission to put photos of students on the internet must also be passed down to the students themselves. Students when participating in learning experiences involving digital media and on-line learning spaces must be taught to take into consideration legal and ethical practices as well. One way of doing this is to engage students in activities such as I have just done and have them work out what their options are when including third party material etc on the internet. Introduce them to creative commons web-sites and let them look at the licence keys attached to each music track. Maybe they can create their own music and include it on the creative commons web-site, selecting which licence they think is relevant for their piece of work. This would certainly help them respect the wishes of other creators who are sharing their creations as well.

Finally, I embedded my movie on my wiki. It has a sound track from the creative commons web-site with attribution. I have also embedded it below for easy viewing.

This movie has been created using windows movie maker 2.6 and uploaded to you tube as an unlisted video.   The audio file was sourced from sound cloud which was a link on the creative commons website. The name of the audio file is "The Night Off" by Forest Lake. You can find the licence terms here.  Permission has been received from the parents of all persons under 18 participating in this video. The digital images shown are the original creations of myself and my mother-in-law Margaret Russell.

Now that I have experienced creating a video and considered the legal and ethical implications of sharing it, I need to think about whether this technology is of any use in a learning context.

How can Digital Videos be Integrated into my Learning Design Framework?

My first idea is that videos can be used in several ways by teachers. They can be used as a presentation tool to present ideas and concepts, to motivate, to inspire or to spark a thinking process, but they can also be used by the students themselves to think, enquire, collaborate, critique and create.

While the idea of using digital video by the teacher as a presentation of  the content to be learned has a place in learning, I am going to focus on the second scenario where students create the video based around a scaffolded project with the aim of facilitating higher order thinking. The following is a SWOT analysis outlining my ideas surrounding digital video in that context.

STRENGTHS	WEAKNESSES
Easy to make Easy to share Technology such as cameras and phones with video capabilites, ipods for recording sound, movie maker etc are generally easily accessible for minimum cost Incorporates visual learning styles with images that can be still, moving, photos, animated, drawings, mind-maps etc. All can be incorporated into a video. Incorporates auditory learning styles with sound, whether it be music, speach, noises interviews etc	Unless scaffolded correctly some students may not feel comfortable with the media as it displays the students creativity and can also require the student to present some of their personality in the project If weakly scaffolded the time spent on the media may overtake the learning objective
OPPORTUNITIES	THREATS
Encourages creativity Students have an end product that they can visually see, hear and share suitable for collaborative learning If the learning objective is well scaffolded and students are supported where neccesary, students who may not normally be comfortable sharing their personality or being openly creative may grow in confidence Opportunity to teach legal and ethical use of digital media	Easy to breach copyright laws with images and audio. Need to consider closely the suitability of images and audio for students especially in the context of modern culture and ethical behaviour in learning environments.

If I am going to integrate digital video into my learning design framework I would also need to consider where it could fit into Bloom's Taxonomy? 

What do I hope to achieve by integrating digital video? Can digital video be used at the level of higher order thinking?

The following is a prezi created by Joshua Coupal that I found while researching. Joshua's prezi overviews some of what we have learnt about technology and learning in this course and goes on to categorize digital video right at the top of Bloom's Digital Taxonomy as enabling higher order thinking in the categories of evaluating and creating.

If digital video can be incorporated in higher order thinking what learning experiences or scaffolds could I incorporate?

I think that digital video learning experiences that result in higher order thinking skills would need to incorporate inquiry, evaluation and creation of new ideas. As per most learning experiences at this level the type of scaffold and question posed to students is very important. It is also possible to set a project using collaborative learning when integrating digital video. Therefore, projects incorporating small groups of maybe five students would enrich the experience.

For business students, a topic such as the effects on the local economy of proposed measures to import a product that is currently already produced in australia could form the basis of a project. This topic could result in images, interviews, debates and ideas all drawn together into a video presentation.

To manage the scope of the topic, students could initially be shown a web-site about employment in the banana farming industry in Tully. This web-site could begin to generate some thought and enquiry as to possible changes in employment resulting from changes in the local economy. What could the local economy do to protect employment from outside changes, or is diversity in employment opportunities in the local area an option? What other employment opportunities could be created? Can the students create a video recruiting employees in this new employment opportunity?

Another possibly less complex idea that still results in creating new ideas would be to have students consider, enquire, evaluate and create new ideas for a new product that solves a problem and then present a marketing video. The problem may be taking the rubbish out? Is there a product that can solve this problem? Due to my own lack of creativity it may be beneficial to brainstorm with the class some ideas for problems that need solving. In addition, if a student comes up with a great idea, we may need to again look at learning about copyright from the point of view of the owner of the idea.

Again, to assist students to focus on the learning process, the project could include the use of a storyboard or concept map as part of the process of creating the video.

In summary, digital video is generally accessible and is much more than a presentation tool if used correctly. It opens up the opportunity to teach students about legal and ethical practices when using technology particularly when sharing. Digital video also enables inquiry, evaluation and creative thinking all of which are higher level thinking concepts. Finally, digital video complements and encourages learning using visual as well as auditory learning styles.

Digital Media Reflections

This week I have been looking at and working with the following three forms of digital media:

1. Images
2. Audio
3. Video

Let's look at each media individually and then select one for further investigation.

IMAGES

Basically, the message I received from working with images are that they can be very powerful, thought-provoking teaching tools. They are easy to work with in that they are so accessible and easy to share as long as legal and ethical practices are adhered to. Images are not just photographs, they can and do include drawings, digital creations, concept maps and the list goes on.

This week I looked at photographs as images and used Mobaphoto to resize and upload a batch of photos previously taken on my camera and saved to my computer. I uploaded the photos to my wiki which you can view here.

I found the process very simple. By resizing the photos they uploaded as a batch very fast. I also believe that there has been no noticeable loss of detail in the images  as compared to the originals.

I also uploaded images direct from a google search into my wiki with attribution. If you first have a look at the image on my wiki you can then see the beginnings of how an image may begin to be used within my TPACK learning design. This area of my wiki is still in the fledging stages of starting to develop my own personal learning design principles but you can see how the beginnings of teaching content knowledge, for example changes to the local economy in a business context, can start with an image.

It is also important to note that images need to be correctly attributed to the owner or source from where they came. I have included a link below the image in my wiki to show where that image was sourced from indicating that it is not my creation. This is also important to teach students to do the same when using technology in learning.

AUDIO

This was a surprising form of media for me. I believe that my personal learning style tends toward visual learning and as such I personallly find listening alone boring. I did believe that audio as a media tool would be boring and difficult to integrate into my personal teaching learning design.

However, I have been proven wrong. Audio was actually quite fun to do and although creativity is not my strong point my mind is starting to wander on ways that I can integrate it into a TPACK learning design.

Starting firstly with my audio experience, my first attempt at creating an audio file was through voki. I used a voki to record my voice in two different ways and then embedded the voki on my wiki. Please check out the audio files in my wiki here.

To start with I created a voki and recorded my voice directly through the voki. This is the first voki embedded in my wiki. I found it fantastic that firstly, I didn't sound that bad and secondly that there was a talking head with my audio which I found kind of cool. It was just plain fun. However, the playback from the voki was a bit disjointed.

So, I had a look at recording my voice through Audacity and embedding just the sound file into my wiki. It did sound better than the voki and I was left with the feeling that because Audacity made it so easy to record an audio file that the accessibility of audio for teaching was fantastic.

Going back to my voki, I decided to create another one and upload my audacity audio file into my new voki.   I then embedded this second voki into my wiki. I think this voki sounded much better than the first. It did have a bit of background noise but I think with a bit more experience in Audacity that could be fixed.

In summary, I would be the type of student who would cringe if my teacher told me I had to record an audio file using my voice. However, I actually found it fun and have had a hard time not going back to audacity and playing around some more with it, purely due to time restraints and making sure I experience everything in this course.

That being said I now believe the use of digital audio in teaching and learning could be very beneficial in a number of areas. I think it would require a degree of creative scaffolding by the teacher to ensure that the focus is on learning and not on student insecurities in using the technology. Obvious choices for using audio may be recorded interviews incorporated into learning experiences, but I think it can move further than that. Audio doesn't have to be a voice, it can be meaningful sounds, music and creations. Audio can also be integrated into visual experiences as well, possibly making both richer.

Going back to the exercise of using a voki, there are other options such as typing in the audio. I haven't had time this week to venture into podcasts but that is another door obviously that opens when integrating audio into learning.

DIGITAL VIDEO

I have decided to investigate digital video further and have provided a separate reflection on this.

Wiki Learning Space Reflection

My choice of learning spaces to further explore is wikis. I have been spending quite a lot of time in my wiki and love it. I like to be organised and although I previously said that wiki's were messy I have found that a wiki is providing me a wonderful space to organize my own learning. It is also providing a space for me to catalogue ideas for my future teaching career. My personal learning wiki for ICT can be found at this link.

Included in my previous reflection on learning spaces I created a PMI chart on wiki's, along with blogs and websites. As a starting point it would be great idea to have a look at this PMI chart for wikis prior to discussing how wiki's can be further used in learning, so I have recreated it in this posting.

However, my initial reflection on blogs, wikis and web-sites as learning spaces also discusses legal, safe and ethical practices when working in any learning space. 

PMI charts on all three learning spaces are also included, which will further enrich our discussion on how wiki's can be used in learning as we will be able to make connections to other learning spaces.

PMI Chart - Wiki

Plus	Minus	Implications
Enables collaborative learning regardless of physical presence. User friendly tool bar. Students can all contribute Information on the Wiki can be continuously updated there are different settings for who can view and edit the wiki There is a history which can be restored if information is deleted and later required. Information can be very well organised by the use of pages, links, table of contents etc Has a comments feature which could be used by either the facilitator or other students	Students can delete other students work either deliberately or by accident Students cannot work in the wiki concurrently as only one of the students work will be saved. Can be very messy and difficult to navigate depending on the students skills in using the wiki Students like to present information differently, so if they are all using the same space some students may feel uncomfortable with the layout contributed by other students.	Very good opportunities for collaborative learning Small group brainstorming is very useful in a wiki whether it be by a scaffold such as debono's 6 thinking hats or setting up a wiki page as a place to add words, pictures, videos etc as ideas in any format that can be later organised and evaluated on a separate wiki page using a different scaffold such as a concept map for example. Wiki's have the capabilites to organise information enabling them to facilitate an extensive research assignment or body of work which has been thought out, critiqued and organised. This can be done collaboratively in groups the members of which are in different locations. Eg it may be students in their homes on the other side of town or class projects sharing with schools on the other side of the world. All with the ability to contribute to the wiki.

As much as I have found that I believe wiki's are wonderful for myself as both a learner and an "organised" teacher, I need to consider how and why I would incorporate wikis' in my personal learning design.

Throughout this course I have found that technology can be used to encourage higher order thinking. As discussed by Wendy Fasso (2013) social constructivism is "learning.... that is founded upon social interactions within a learning community or expert community." One of the greatest benefits of wikis is collaborative learning(Gokhale, 1995) which is where learners work together and consequently enrich their learning through shared experiences.

Individually, learners generally learn within the boundaries of their personal abilities but as advocated by Vygotsky(1978) learners can extend their learning through social interaction (Instructional design.org). This means that based on Vygotsky's theory, collaborative learning, which is possible in wikis can extend the learning of students into their personal zones of proximinal development  with support from peers and/or teachers (Instructional Design.org). That is not to say there is no ceiling on what a student can learn, they are still bound by their personal learning abilities but collaborative learning supports an extension on what normally would have been learnt by that individual.

The "Education Wikis" web-site has a collection of wikis currently being used for educational purposes. A number of the wikis listed have been created and used as resource collections for teachers but there are also class wikis and collaborative class projects which have been created in a wiki. If you do look further at the teacher resource wikis, it is worth noting that in a sense although not focused on student learning they are collaborative professional development as teachers endeavor to share ideas.

One wiki that I believe to be a good example of collaborative learning for students I found within the Education wikis web-site. It was a collaborative project created by students and scaffolded by the teacher. The project and content was based around british romanticism.  The wiki also includes reflections by the teacher and the students on the collaborative learning experience.

My two teaching areas are mathematics and business. I certainly believe that I will be able to incorporate wikis into my learning design framework in these two teaching areas. Being in my first year of my graduate diploma of teaching and learning my creativity in designing learning experiences is certainly in its fledgling stages but already I can see that wikis' would be useful in creating collaborative learning projects based around real-life problem solving. For example, business students may start by being allocated to small groups each with their own wiki. They could then start with a brainstorming page on the pro's and cons of marketing a product. This may be scaffolded by a SWOT analysis. Based on their SWOT anaylsis they may move onto ideas for producing the product. This may include collecting and evaluating information related to the potential product and setting up pin boards or glogsters with ideas which they can embed in the wiki and collaboratively evaluate. The project could go further through the process of product development all through the use of a scaffolded wiki. The process would entail collaborative problem solving and creation of new ideas.

In summary, I believe that the greatest benefits of wikis as opposed to other learning spaces such as blogs and web-sites is that by design wikis enable collaborative learning and the value behind that is an extension on what an individual learner would normally learn by themselves. Higher order thinking and problem solving collaboratively are certainly achievable with wikis. Other learning spaces can incorporate collaborative learning but not by natural design and not to the extent afforded by wikis.


References:


Fasso, W. (2013) A brief overview of learning theory. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDED20491: ICTs for Learning Design, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au

Gokhale, A. (1995) Collaborative Learning Enhances Critical Thinking. Journal of Technology Education Volume 7 Number 1 Retrieved from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v7n1/gokhale.jte-v7n1.html

Instructional Design.org: website page Social Development Theory (L.Vygotsky) retrieved from: http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/social-development.html

Learning Space Reflections

This week we have been looking at the following three learning spaces:

• Blogs
• Wikis
• Websites

The idea is to get to know each learning space and pick one for a more in depth evaluation.

Well my heart was set on wiki's but now that I have been setting up my weebly web-site and have worked out that I can include my Blog and Wiki as separate pages on my web-site I think a web-site has a lot of advantages as well.  For example putting together units of learning that incorporate wiki's and blogs. That way you can use the benefits of each space for different learning experiences.

Before I make a final decision about which space to concentrate on, I am going to look at each learning space individually  with the use of PMI charts. Lets Start with Blogs!

Blogs

Plus	Minus	Implications
Great reflection tool Simple to use once you know your way around them Can't be changed by anyone but the author unless the author's share the one log-on Publicly viewed An effective space for putting opinions and information Comments can be made on the information or opinions and a dialogue can be set-up through those comments Can be edited as the author's ideas change making the blog an evolving space for learning. Has a simple tool bar Can link and embed material	While you can receive feedback by way of comments, blogs for the most part appear to be mostly a one way discussion. I think the comments are usually based around the author's posting and ideas and leaves little room for extensive introduction of ideas from elsewhere.  If the blog is edited there does not appear to be any history of past thoughts and postings There is limited material that can be created within the blog. Most material needs to be created outside the blog and then either embedded or linked into the discussion	Blogs are very good at being a space for reflection and organising or consolidating learning activities or concepts. In relation to the learning area of mathematics they can be a space for posting results of learning experiences held outside of the blog. For example charts and statistics could be embedded with a discussion of the results. In relation to business learning areas a similar use could be to post results of SWOT anaylsis or financial summaries etc and receive comments on the author's anaylsis. Blog's are a very good tool for a learner to consolidate learning done elsewhere and receive comments by the way of feedback on their ideas

In general Blogs are very useful learning spaces. Although, in my opinion their best use is for individual reflections, receipt of feedback and posting of results and consolidations of learning activities. All of these activities in blogs help the learner organise and understand their learning materials and experiences. While blogs can be considered collaborative as they are publicly viewed and afford the use of comments, they need more creativity to extend that collaboration. One example may be by creating group blogs. However, I think there are better spaces for extensive group interactive learning activities such as wikis.

What can a Wiki do? 

What are the limitations? 

How can I incorporate one into my teaching design?

Let's look at these questions using a PMI chart.

Link to my wiki

Plus	Minus	Implications
Enables collaborative learning regardless of physical presence. User friendly tool bar. Students can all contribute Information on the Wiki can be continuously updated there are different settings for who can view and edit the wiki There is a history which can be restored if information is deleted and later required. Information can be very well organised by the use of pages, links, table of contents etc Has a comments feature which could be used by either the facilitator or other students	Students can delete other students work either deliberately or by accident Students cannot work in the wiki concurrently as only one of the students work will be saved. Can be very messy and difficult to navigate depending on the students skills in using the wiki Students like to present information differently, so if they are all using the same space some students may feel uncomfortable with the layout contributed by other students.	Very good opportunities for collaborative learning Small group brainstorming is very useful in a wiki whether it be by a scaffold such as debono's 6 thinking hats or setting up a wiki page as a place to add words, pictures, videos etc as ideas in any format that can be later organised and evaluated on a separate wiki page using a different scaffold such as a concept map for example. Wiki's have the capabilites to organise information enabling them to facilitate an extensive research assignment or body of work which has been thought out, critiqued and organised. This can be done collaboratively in groups the members of which are in different locations. Eg it may be students in their homes on the other side of town or class projects sharing with schools on the other side of the world. All with the ability to contribute to the wiki. Follow this link for examples of wikis currently used in educational situations

Wiki's do have a lot of potential for learning and teaching. As I have stated in my previous reflection on using a wiki, I did initially find them messy. Now, with a little more experience I realise they do not have to be and although I was initially uncomfortable with the messiness, the messiness when it exists can also be used as part of the learning experience. Sometimes, the messiness can even be part of the scaffold. I am going to look further at the use of wiki's in my next reflection.

How can a web-site fit in to a learning design? 

Link to my website

Plus	Minus	Implications
Cannot be edited without the permission of the author There is the possibility of multiple authors to be set-up which can allow extended collaborative learning experiences There is a variety of types of material that can be created within the web-site. The web-site does allow linking and embedding as well There is the opportunity to organise pages within the web-site which are actually blogs and or wiki's The web-site can be simple to use for beginners Web-sites can also get as complicated as the author's skills permit Web-sites encourage creativity through their versatility of design features	Because there is no edit feature when there is only one author, comment boxes and other opportunities would need to be embedded in the web-site if collaborative learning is to take place on the web-site	Web-sites create opportunities for communicating with parents by creating a class web-site populated with learning material from the class as a whole. Individual student web-sites could also be viewed by parents who wish to view their children's learning experiences. Websites can facilitate communication between students and teachers for example inter-active homework pages by embedding links to education sites etc Student websites could be used by business students to put together research projects and publish them on-site. Some examples could be of the nature of marketing a product, how to manage finances, looking at economies etc Maths students could apply mathematical skills to solve real-life problems and publish on their web-site. Some examples may be setting up a web-site page to calculate conversions for  the everyday chef in the kitchen. eg pounds to kg etc The web-site could look like a chef's web-site with recipes and pictures with a conversion calculator embedded in the middle.

Well this one was a surprise for me, I thought web-sites where something you paid somebody else to do. I am sure that there are a lot of situations where that is still true but WOW they are available to everyone! I found setting up the web-site incredibly easy. More than that I can certainly see how they can be used in a TPACK learning design. While web-sites do not have the same level of collaborative learning attributes of wikis they could still certainly fit into a social constructivist learning theory.

The web-site could be set-up in a learning environment with access from either one author, or three and have as a benefit, the content protected from outside parties. For example 3 students could all have access to log-in to the web-site as the author and make changes. If there is a need for more open collaboration, web-sites can be organised to the extent of creating pages within the web-site that are essentially the student's wiki or blog. In the case of a group of 3 students working on a web-site there could also be 3 pages one dedicated to each individual student's wiki or blog. To me, that allows the integration of the benefits of technology in a more robust way than just a link, which I think is awesome.

As we can see from the PMI charts above all 3 learning spaces have different affordances so being able to bring them together neatly in one space is wonderful.

As much as I loved the web-site and I certainly found it easy to use, I cannot let go of the wiki as my main learning space for further investigation. I like the potential for high degrees of collaborative learning and also found that I became very comfortable with the tool bars reasonably quickly. I can also see that although I feel like I can do a lot in a wiki already, there appears to be so much more for me to learn. I do think however, that outside of my course-work I am certainly going to find a use for all three learning spaces in the implementation of my personal learning design.

Ethical, Safe and Legal Practices

One thing in common with all three of these on-line learning spaces is the necessary use of ethical, safe and legal practices. At this stage of my learning, I cannot see any differences between the three learning spaces when it comes to the issue of referencing, attribution and safe and ethical practices. The fact that it is so easy to put third party information within an on-line learning space, whether it be photos, video or text just to mention a few, makes it even more important to consider the implications of referencing and attributing to the original authors or creators. The website at smart copying gives a lot of information about theses requirements particularly for wiki's and blogs.

What we as teachers need to do in whatever space we are using with our students is to ensure we include the skills of referencing and attribution as part of the learning process in order to make it second nature for our students. In order to start this process we need to set a good example in the materials that we are presenting to our students. Another important way of integrating this mind-set is to ensure that students when they are doing collaborative learning attribute any ideas from their fellow students into their own work. Apart from the obvious requirement that it is the right thing to do, it would also feel special to the students to feel like their personal work is acknowledged even if it is from a student in the same classroom.

In addition to attribution, it is also important as part of our scaffolding to ensure that students are using ethical language, pictures and practices on their learning spaces. We need to ensure students have an understanding of what this means so some learning time would also need to be spent with students when introducing and of the three learning spaces. We also need to consider whether the content of any media we include on a learning space is suitable. For example have we received permission from the parents or guardians of any children under the age of 18? Have we disclosed too much personal information about any students on our learning space?

Possibly one area to consider though, is the monitoring rights we have as teachers / facilitators on each of these sights. As far as I am aware from my experience in investigating these learning spaces, all three would be able to be overseen by the teacher / facilitator to some degree but possibly not 100% of the time.

IN SUMMARY, I think all three web-sites are very useful learning spaces. I am going to further examine Wiki's in my next posting and look at how they can be incorporated into my learning design framework.

Working in a Wiki with De Bono's 6 Thinking Hats - Reflection

As a background for those who may not have been involved in this activity we were asked to participate in a Wiki using De Bono's 6 thinking hats. The topic of discussion was "Mobile Phones - should they be used in the classroom?"

By the end of this exercise I could see a lot of benefits for using wiki's as a learning tool for students collaborative learning. However, I must admit at first it was a bit overwhelming for two reasons. Firstly, I wasn't quite sure I had a full understanding of the task and secondly, inside the wiki was just plain messy. My personal learning style requires that I create some order and direction and I need to end up with a result that consolidates my learning, so I was feeling a little out of my comfort zone in the beginning as I didn't have my head around the task.

Instructions for getting into the wiki and editing it were great but the links to explain De Bono's 6 thinking hats were not working so I had to google the concept of De Bono's 6 thinking hats to work out the task. I also emailed Wendy who confirmed I was on the right track. Once I made a decision about what I was supposed to do I just had to navigate my way around the wiki.

I have to say I haven't seen other wiki's to compare this one to but it did feel messy and hard to follow. Originally that frustrated me but by the end of the task I realised it was ok for it to be messy. It was similar to brainstorming and collecting ideas. If this engagement task was to be used in our classrooms with the true purpose being to learn about the content such as the mobile phone debate, the collection of information using De Bono's six thinking hats in the wiki would only be the first stage of the learning experience. As Wendy mentioned in our engagement activity description, this activity would normally be followed up by a sorting and filtering process. I think that is the part I feel is neccessary to do to consolidate my personal learning. However, I now see that consolidating my learning about mobile phones wasn't the purpose of the exercise and I am glad we didn't have to follow through with that part of the learning experience in this case. The second part of the exercise is actually this reflection which is in fact consolidating my learning experience just as I was hoping.

So what have I learn't and how did I learn it?

I believe I have learn't that the design of this learning experience in the wiki is an example of the learning theory Social Constructivism. Using the wiki in this way is not only a great way to share ideas and introduce new ones but allows students to digest their understanding of the material, look at different viewpoints and possibly even change the way they think about the topic using collaborative learning. The great thing is all of that learning is documented. It also allows students to contribute in their own time allowing the wiki to become an evolving piece of work.

It would be interesting in a classroom situation (online or offline of course) to see the results of this type of exercise. And by results, I mean see if students have changed their original way of thinking about a topic.

I also consider the learning theory of Connectivism to play a part in this wiki exercise as it has certainly connected the learners ideas and thoughts using 21st century technology. However, in my opinion I think the main learning theory is still Social Constructivism. My understanding of connectivism at this point of time extends beyond using a wiki to share ideas, to using technology to search for information, critically analyse it and collate not so much the content knowledge but the access to the knowledge onto some form of on-line space which then supports the learning experience. Although this exercise shares information among learners which is then considered and consolidated by the learners, I don't feel it extends to a learning experience that is primarily based on the Connectivism theory.

What are the benefits, issues, drawbacks of participating in a wiki like this?

The first obvious benefit is collaborative learning without the restriction of physical presence. Being able to change and edit is certainly valuable as well in that it allows interaction between learners as well as creating an evolving learning experience.

As I noted at the beginning of this reflection, I found our wiki very messy and it had a lot of information, contributed by other learners, to sift through which was difficult. In saying that I now don't believe that is a negative issue in relation to wiki's but a characteristic of collecting ideas. I consider that the way we used our wiki was like a brain-storming exercise, just getting the ideas on paper. I am sure there are scaffolded ways of then consolidating those ideas using wiki's. There is also the possiblity that the students using this wiki, myself included may not have very much experience, so that could have possibly contributed to the poor formatting?  As I was working through the wiki I did think it  would be better used in smaller groups of maybe 5 students, but now I think that maybe it depends on both the task and the technological skills and experience of the students.

I have started using one of the quizz wiki's and find that very useful for sharing ideas. We are in a small group of 4 and at this point in time it is easy to follow and contribute to. It is also now not a completely new experience.

There are pros and cons to everything in life so even with wikis there are some drawbacks as well.

The main drawback that I have noticed, is that a few of my fellow learners have experienced the situation where there contributions to the wiki have been removed or over-written.. Apparently there is a history button or section of the wiki that will keep a record of all work contributed but I haven't experienced it's use as yet.

The only other area which I think is a drawback is that I would like further editing options. It may be that I will learn more about setting up tables etc in wiki's in the future but the editing task bar felt very limited.

How did the scaffold support the collection of a range of perspectives?

I think De Bono's six thinking hats is a great way to extend student's thinking. The concept of ensuring the student has thought from all viewpoints is valuable in creating a thicker sense of understanding of the topic. It is often too easy throughout life in general, to jump on the bandwagon of one train of thought and comfortably stay there. Considering other view points and perspectives encourages better participation in society as well as extending learning in general. It also allows the learner to criticize their own viewpoint which may either strengthen it or change it. In addition to using the thinking hats, reviewing other students comments and perspectives in the process further enriches the process of thinking and critiquing.


As a final note, I did see a you tube video in our learning material about organising a camping trip using a wiki. I found it on the smart copying web-site. That video gave me an overview of wiki's and highlighted the potential of the collaborative use of wikis. The fact that individuals in different locations can create collaboratively is fantastic.

I think that I will use wiki's in the future for smaller group activities, whether they be as communication tools in planning group assignments or the actual assessment task themselves. I am sure my ideas will evolve with my own exposure to wikis.

TPACK - What is it?

Welcome to the world of teaching and the use of acronyms!

What is TPACK?

TPACK is just one type of learning design framework used by teachers. For those of you who are not familiar with the art of teaching it is actually quite a complex process. There is a lot to consider and plan for prior to entering any classroom.

My understanding of a learning design framework is that it ensures that the teacher is able to consider and integrate all elements necessary for a successful learning experience. In relation to TPACK what are these elements?

The elements of the TPACK learning design are represented by the acronym as follows:

• Technological
• Pedagogical
• And
• Content
• Knowledge 

Individually each element appears to be almost self-explanatory although I personally have had to tackle with the word pedagogy quite a few times in consolidating my own understanding.

Let's start with two of the terms listed above, "pedagogy" and "content". 

Pedagogy. Pedagogy as defined by CQ University (2013) means "the strategies, techniques and approaches that teachers can use to facilitate learning."

Content. This is used to describe the material or subject matter the teacher is teaching. For example, mathematics.

On their own they are not going to create any great learning experience but when they are used together they create not only another acronym (PCK - Pedagogical Content Knowledge) but as described by Mishra and Koehler (2006, p1021) they describe the "manner in which subject matter is transformed for teaching". Mishra and Koehler (2006, p1021) also go on to say that PCK occurs "when the teacher interprets the subject matter and finds different ways to represent it and make it accessible to learners".

So PCK is our starting point. It is transforming subject matter for teaching. Let's introduce technology!

If you are like me and superficially consider how technology fits in to a learning design framework you may initially consider that it is just a support tool for teaching content. Whether it be used for presenting information learnt by students, or just a different platform to present the same pedagogy. For example, putting information sheets or homework questions on a wiki or web-site for students to read.

Like I said, superficial thinking, NO! Technology is much more than that. The word that made it all fit together for me was INTEGRATION!. Wendy Fasso our course co-ordinator considered this concept in our tutorial and for me it tied TPACK together.

Technology to me is integrated into the learning design framework in that, just like content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge, it is a knowledge base for teaching (Mishra and Koehler, 2006). If integrated correctly, technology together with pedagogy and content knowledge, could reinforce the concepts of Bloom's Taxonomy including higher order thinking. If used correctly with the correct pedagogy and appropriate content, it can be less of a platform for presenting learning and more of problem solving tool. The trick is working out what type of technology suits your problem. For example how can I use a wiki to incorporate collaborative learning and extend the learning to solving a problem? How can a wiki make my students work through a problem collaboratively and create new ideas?

However, if you stop and think about TPACK for too long it can start to get quite complex. When that starts to happen, I find it useful to look at a diagram that links the three knowledge bases together. Where they intersect in the middle is where you get TPACK.

Image Source

As with with most things teaching it is a good idea to share ideas. I have been communicating with my fellow GDLT students, looking at their blogs and sharing ideas. The following YouTube video on TPACK is quite popular and I first watched it on Amy's blog. It helps to sum up in fairly basic terms how each element of TPACK fits together.

Source

If you are after more information on the topic of TPACK, I also found a web-site of a company working in  remote areas of Australia that discusses it further. If you would like some further insight please look at the following link.

Reference List:


CQUniversity Australia. (2013). EDED20456 - Pedagogical Content Knowledge: Study guide.
Rockhampton, Qld: Author.


Mishra, P and Koehler M, Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge. Teachers College Record Volume 108, Number 6, June 2006, pp 1017-1054