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.