TecnoTeach

I believe

2012-01-16T15:51:00.002Z

Starting Blogging

2012-01-16T15:40:00.000Z

I am blogginhg.

123

2011-12-01T13:58:00.002Z

adasdsf dsf fds dsf

QR Fresher Hunt Around Campus

2011-09-05T09:00:00.000+01:00

It is Fresher's Week, or Welcome Week, at University of Dundee, and students are starting a new journey in their lives. Like all new journeys there are hurdles to overcome to get to the final destination. During Welcome Week, my role is to provide students with their induction to the the IT systems that they will use at University to communicate, access materials and in some cases collaborate with others. Over the past two years I have evaluated this system, observed students in their first few days at University and discussed some of the difficulties. The main aspect that arises is finding their way about Campus and Dundee.

University is like a small town with lots of buildings, rooms, people and procedures and it is difficult to assimilate all this knowledge and locate various buildings in this maze-like community. Likewise, Dundee is a large town with lots of places of interest that are sometimes never found. The traditional method of finding places are organised guided tours of the University or local area or follow the crowd and all get lost together. Today I decided to change from the traditional to the present and organised a QR Fresher Hunt for my First Year Primary Student Teachers and for new students across University in collaboration with Karen from Dundee University Students Association (DUSA).

The QR Fresher Hunt used i-nigma software to create QR Codes with hidden messages that were revealed when students scanned the codes with i-nigma App on iPhones that were provided by myself for each group or using the students' own mobile devices that are compatible with i-nigma software. The messages within the QR codes asked students to locate a key area in the University (Teaching Rooms, Reception Area, Assignment Location, Student Services, Bank Machines, Gym, Book Shop, businesses in dundee and local areas of interest, etc) with a specific task to do when they arrived there.

The activity started with a shy, quiet class who were still getting to know their peers and their lecturer. When students returned from the QR Fresher Hunt the atmosphere had transformed into a lively class who undertook all activities and were eager to share the information, leaflets and knowledge about areas of University, with their peers. More importantly, new friendships were made through this collaborative activity where everyone was involved in each task.

QR codes have a huge potential to be part of Education, whether it be to support or extend learning or to make learners engage with their learning environment rather than dismiss it. Maybe the seeds I have sown today will scatter to a wider community where others will adopt this active approach to Fresher's Week but more importantly that our future teachers may use this method to engage, support, personalise and motivate the children of today's generation.

Press Release: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/pressreleases/2011/september11/playtag.htm

Free Wikis For Higher Education

2011-02-25T22:46:00.000Z

Fantastic news - Wikispaces are now providing free spaces for Higher Education without all the advertising.

http://www.wikispaces.com/content/for/highered

I have used wikispaces for rather a long time in education and the value of this tool to provide a window to the world for communication, collaboration and creativity is huge. You don't get many things in life for free but this is one of those gems that should be treasured and appreciated otherwise it will come lost in the mine.

There Is More To Farming Than Wellies & Manure!!!

2011-02-22T16:22:00.001Z

A repost related to Facebook and Farmville as student teachers are looking at Games Based Learning.

Do you have Facebook? Do you have Farmville? Do you visit your farm at least once a day? Do you have crops and animals or do you do just crops or just animals? Do you organise your farm with animals in one area and crops in another? Do you help neighbours with their farms? Do you play for fun or to make money or move up a level?

Ploughing, planting, harvesting, reaping, gathering eggs, collecting milk, storing items, buying seeds/ machinery/ fuel/ storage and earning virtual money are all part of a day's work on Farmville, Facebook's highly addictive application as evident in the latest statistics below:

Usage:

The addiction for Farmville is quite catching. I had resisted interacting with this application due to perceiving it as another Tamagothchi type fad that would not last long. I took no interest in my teenage daughter's addiction to it and told student teacher's to turn off Farmville during ICT inputs unless they could give me an educational reason why they could play this. Well being true educationalists they were able to provide ample reasons which led me to enquire more about what was making this addictive and was there true educational value in this application.

Well I have to say, if you go down to the farm today you are in for a big surprise. There are lots of educational values from helping you neighbouring farmers, time-management, organisation, budgeting, developing, maintaining etc.. These are generic values that can be applied to the game, however, the main educational value lies in the field of 'business management'. This is the problem solving part that makes you think: what crops shall I plant to gain the most money, what crops shall I plant that I can harvest in the time given, will I have animals, trees and buildings as they take up space and do not make as much money? Mathematical skills are required to answer these questions if you want your farm to thrive and reap a tidy profit which is known as Return On Investment (ROI) in the financial world.

Business Management:

Let's start with the planting of seeds where the following factors need to be taken into consideration: The cost of the seeds, how much the crop will sell for and the harvest time. The following screenshot provides examples of a variety of seeds that can be purchased from the Market.

When I initially started Farmville I chose crops that I personally would eat or would look nice in my farm. This is all fine but will not be the most profitable means of ensuring my farm has a healthy ROI and I am sure this is not how 'real' farmers farm their lands! So it became clear that a formula was required to work out what would reap the best ROI. This is the formula I used:

H=harvest value

C=initial price

T=time (in hours)

ROI=(H-C)/T

Random selection of crops for their taste and looks quickly flew out the window as I became a Scrooge and watched my money quickly grow.

Collaborative Farming

Whilst my seeds were growing, and this could take a few days for some, I needed to remain busy on the farmy. One way to do this is to help neighbouring farms that belong to Facebook friends. By scaring their crows, raking their leaves, fertilising their crops etc., I can earn more money without depleting theirs. Now this is not how the real world works. If a farmer works on another farm it is usually for a payment not for the love of it, however, rather than be paid in coins, Farmville pays in experience which helps climb up the experience levels. In a discussion with my teenage daughter, this is more important to her than the money as she wants to be a higher level than her peers. This competitive attitude towards gaming is part of today's generation where being better is a key factor in games. My daughter, who used to visit her farm more than five times a day, told me she was not using it much now due to the fact her friend managed to get to a higher level than her thus she gave up as she could not work out how to achieve this in such a short period of time. Problem-solving is one of our globalised key competences and it looks like my daughter prefers competition and knowledge more. The formula above was explained and now she has returned to Farmville to see if she can achieve her goal of winning!

Giving & Receiving

Being a good neighbour is not just about helping each other but stems to sending free gifts to one another. Now there is no obligation to do this and it costs the sender no money to send a gift (not like in the real world). The only benefits are that hopefully the neighbour will be good enough to send a gift back. So money is not the answer to all but simply being kind and thoughtful might reap rewards of a nice new cow or some fuel for a vehicle.

Animals

Caring for animals does have educational values and stems back to looking after those Tamagotchis many year's ago. Having animals is not the most profitable method of farming but less time consuming. I have a lecturer friend who only has animals as she does not have the time to farm the land. Now that is fine is you are happy tending to the various animals when you have time but I think a zoo would be better! With my business management head on and my ROI, decisions need to be made whether animals are profitable. The price of animals are not cheap and have the same formula to buying seeds:

H=harvest value

C=initial price

T=time (in hours)

ROI=(H-C)/T

Now it does not take a mathematical genius to work out that it will take a long time to make any ROI with animals. Take buying a cow: the cost is 300 coins, it takes 1 day to harvest and the produce only sells for 6 coins. To sell the cow will only get the grand total of 15 coins. That is 50 days work to break even! With a recession on at the moment one needs to decide if this is the best way to earn money remembering that animals take up land that could be farmed.

Trees, buildings, vehicles etc

Farms are not just fields with crops but have barns, a house, tractors, harvesters etc... And yes a farm can have these things but first money must be made. Sticking to the educational model of ROI, students should always think is a need or a want, what it the ROI for what I will buy and compare before hitting the purchase button. I am sure this will be lessons learnt for future life where it is so easy to click purchase and use a credit card without thinking is this something I need and is it something I can afford to buy at this present time.

Collaborative Blogging - Knowledge Construction of The Crowd

2011-02-13T17:51:00.002Z

Collaborative Blogging - crowd sourcing knowledge from student teachers to create one collaborative post. How did we do this?

First I created a collaborative Google Document and placed headers related to the topic 'handheld learning'.

I then provided the small group of students with the link to the document and they had to place their names beside the area they wanted to write about. Students then reflected in their own time on their specific sub-topic.

The final document is below related to our collaborative reflections of handheld technology:

iPhone Collaborative lecture
Advantages: Tutors can receive instantaneous feedback from us during lectures, using poll4.com for example (like Sharon used the other day). With it being anonymous students are more likely to participate rather than having to put their hand up and share their ideas in front of 90 other people.
They can also be used to contribute to collaborative documents while information is fresh in your mind, even just placing a reminder there for expansion (by yourself or others) at a later stage.
Disadvantages: They can be quite fiddly to use and may result in you losing concentration on the content of the actual lecture.

iPhone Personal lecture

A way in which the IPhone can be used in personal lectures is by using QR codes. Lectures would create QR codes which they will display on their Power Points in their lectures. These QR codes would link to articles and websites relevant to the lecture they are presenting. Using the IPhone, students will be able to scan the QR code and will be linked straight to the relevant article or website. This will be useful because it will give the students instant access to the information and they will not have to spend time typing in complicated URL’s. It will also be effective because the students will be able to view the relevant information whilst the lecture is talking about it. This will also save the lecture time when creating their PowerPoints because they will not have to spend time selecting examples of information from the websites or articles to put into their PowerPoint.

Keira

iPhone Collaborative tutorial - Tamar

iPhones can be hugely useful in a tutorial for personal use and collaborative uses. I initially thought i was looking at personal uses so here are how you could use it for your own individual use.
One obvious use for it is to take notes. There are a variety of apps you can use to take notes on and edit them at a later. I really like “document” apps because it is very simple to use and use can create different folders to keep your lectures organised.
Another use for an iphone in tutorials is to use the internet. By having the internet on the iphone you would be able to bring up any relevent web pages, useful link and resources online.
Another app that I personally use is the “stickies app”, I find it very useful for recording all of the work I still have to complete and any other notes I must remember. This app would allow you to write anything relevent and tasks you need to complete for your tutorial.

iphones can be used to help encourage collaboration in tutorials. One very useful app is “bump”, personally I think this is a very useful app that allows people to work together, share ideas annd then gather them all together on the main device. Bump allows you to literally drag information across from one device to another. The app I mentioned earlier, “stickies” is useful to use along side bump. It means that people can write their thoughts and ideas down on the post it’s and gather them together on another device.
Using google docs on an iphone would allow everyone in the tutorial to simultaneously add their ideas and opinions into one document.

Although I have only mentioned a few ideas of how to use an iphone personally and collaboratively. I feel that an iphone can be a very useful resource to have in a tutorial.

iPhone Personal tutorial

IPad collaborative lecture (Lyndsay Dunn)

For this collaborative task I chose to look at the IPad and how it can be incorporated into a collaborative lecture. I selected this area to reflect on as I have used the IPad in lecturers previously and have an understanding of how they can be used, but using them as part of a collaborative lecture is something I needed to research further.

There seem to be many different advantages of using the IPad in this way which could enhance learning. The first advantage that came to mind was using the device, so that lecturers can receive instantaneous or real time feedback. Tools such as Poll4 can be used for simple questions or to elicit deeper responses and are quick and easy to set up. Google Docs is another collaborative tool, which can be used to create and edit documents in real time by a number of people. I believe that by having this anonymous exchange of information, alongside verbal, can encourage interactions from the students. Anonymity may encourage more students to have a voice and be supported in their learning. Many students have answers to the questions being asked or have extra information, but never put their hands up. Lecture theatres can be a daunting place for some people.

An app I would like to discuss is Dropbox. Dropbox is a web based file hosting service, which enables users to access and share files on different devices using ‘cloud computing’. Using this app, lecturers could drop their power points into the Dropbox or students could download them from Blackboard dropping them into their own Dropbox. The IPad can then be used in lectures to pick up the power point and add notes. Students can not only add their own notes, but the lecturer may wish to add extra notes as well to enhance the lecture, personalising the learning to the particular class.

Good Reader used along with Dropbox is another tool to encourage collaboration. This app allows pdf files to be annotated, highlighted and drawn upon. Once this has been done the document can be shared among the lecture theatre. E books can also be highlighted and shared in a similar way giving access to more information.

There seems to be many advantages in incorporating the IPad into a collaborative lecture and am aware I’m just scratching the surface, however, it is important to look at the negative side too. As with most technology once you get used to using it it’s hard to live without. It is inevitable that at some point there will be some sort of fault and for this reason it is important to have a backup plan.

Changing the structure can be a good thing, however, it also means that time and effort must go into training and figuring out how to use everything. This will be easy for some people, but others may struggle or lack of time may be an issue and let’s not forget the people who don’t like change.

Using new technology is always exciting, but I feel that some may become distracted and lose focus on the lecture. Students could be looking at their Face book, checking their email.... instead of paying attention to the lecture and it could go undetected. Some students may be one step behind and miss out on important information while they are concentrating on something else.

There are always two sides to a story, but I think in this case the positive would outweigh the negatives. There are always going to be people who don’t want to pay attention in lectures, however, people need to take responsibility for their own learning.

By
Lyndsay Dunn

iPad Collaborative Lecture
Nicole Blues
As I have previously blogged about in my post “iPads – How exciting!”, I am very interested in the educational value of the iPad, both for us as university students and for our future practice in the classroom. I found the Apple In Education website to be very informative whilst completing my research on the subject. Through this I found out more of the educational benefits of the iPad, and the features programmed to aid the teaching process. For example, the clip shows students in Seton Hill University, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, attending a lecture where each student has their own personal iPad with them. As the lecturer goes through the of the slides on their powerpoint, each student can add their own personal notes on to their iPads. The key collaboration aspect comes in to place as the lecturer is also able to add key notes onto their powerpoint, and these will also show up on the students screens. Whilst watching the video, I was intrigued as to how this process would work and showed an interest in finding out more about this area. Sharon then took this on board, had a play with various apps to find a solution and incorporated it into our next input.
We used Dropbox, an online program in which you can save your files, to test this function. As the video on the website states, Dropbox allows you to hold all of your files in one place, so you can access them wherever you are – very handy when you need a powerpoint, ebook or journal whilst sat in a lecture theatre! These files can then be opened up on your personal iPad and annotated with your own notes, or by the lecturer. I think this is a very useful function of the iPad as it allows you to have any file you may need at your fingertips, all within the space of one small gadget instead of carrying around folders or individual sheets of paper.
Another useful function of an iPad in a collaborative lecture, is the use of sites such as Poll4, which allows the lecturer to share a question on the screen, and receive responses from the crowd through their handheld devices. This system allows contributors to submit their answers anonymously, therefore encouraging those who may not usually speak out in class, to do so with confidence. The lecturer will then receive a wider range of responses displayed on their screen, which is also useful for them to look back over, rather than forgetting answers submitted orally.
I am interested in testing out the other apps available for the iPad in the future, as the Apple In Education site has a number of apps built for teaching here, which I will hope to test when I next borrow a device.
iPad Collaborative tutorial
Mandy
iPad Personal lecture
An iPad can be a very useful tool to support our learning. With access to the Internet, users are able to access online documents or lecture notes for example.
One piece of software on the iPad which I was impressed with was ‘Good Reader’. It allows you to open a document and annotate. The following are just some of Good Reader’s features: it allows you to write your own notes straight onto your P.D.F. file, use different shapes and lines to annotate your work and to use a highlighter tool. One feature in particular that I liked was how you are able to attach a sticky note to your page if you needed to leave yourself a reminder or just some additional information.
To me, this would be very beneficial as it is easy to use and is much more efficient than having handwritten notes.
When you have finished annotating your document, it can be transferred and stored on your own personal computer. One recommendation that was made to us was to make use of Dropbox, a website which allows online storage. By using this you are able to access your own personal documents when you need them no matter where you are, as long as you have Internet access.
Another benefit of having an iPad for personal use in a lecture is that if something is mentioned that you are not entirely clear about, again if you have access to the Internet, you are able to do a quick search to help your understanding. - Kirsten
iPad Personal tutorial

Voices Of The World - Love Is In The Air

2011-02-12T23:02:00.000Z

February's task for Voices Of The World was created by student primary teachers at University of Dundee. Two of the teachers wrote about the task on their blogs:

Miss Goodheart's ICT Elective Blog

Miss Wright - Reflective ICT Blog

The task's theme is 'Love' where schools around the world will create five vokis each that say a line of a well known love poem. The vokis will then be placed on the VOTW site for children to develop an appreciation of different languages, dialects and accents. To view an example of what children will be making, look at what the students created earlier - VOTW FEBRUARY.

Get Information Delivered To You Rather Than Having To Find It

2011-02-06T14:11:00.000Z

This post is primarily targeted to my primary student teachers, however, if you do not use iGoogle or do not have live feeds from blogs and news then this might be of interest. On the other hand, if you do the above with iGoogle or using a different method then you might want to share with us.

When was the last time you had to go to the Post Office and collect your mail that could be delivered through your letterbox? Do you do this on a daily, weekly basis? Do you ask yourself - Why can't this mail be just delivered to me rather than waste my time and energy collecting mail that can be delivered?

The same questions can be asked regarding the information we keep going back to online that could be delivered to our online mail boxes or an area online that becomes your hub of information gathering. One method, that I use, is my iGoogle page, that I customise to pull all the latest blog post and news feeds rather than clicking on each site to find out if an update post is available. This page is accessible via my Mac, iPad and iPhone to adhere to my premise that information is delivered anytime, anyplace, anywhere. The first two devices provide a very slick interface with the later device, the iPhone, providing a very basic interface that suits more instant retrieval than deep engagement.

The video below provides a brief overview of iGoogle:

If you have a Google account you can start using iGoogle, however, if not you might want to create one. For all those students who have created a blog account you maybe able to use this. The video below provides an overview of how to edit your iGoogle Homepage:

The following link provides a brief overview of How To Add Google RSS Feed to your iGoogle page.

http://www.wikihow.com/Add-an-RSS-Feed-to-Your-iGoogle-Page

Setting Your Blog's RSS Feed

So that people can find your RSS feed on your own blog you should make this available by going to the Dashboard of your blog the select:

1. Design
2. Add A Gadget
3. Select the gadget - Subscribe to my Blog
4. Save

When you view at your blog you will now have an RSS feed for comments and posts which other people can select to keep up-to-date with your blog.

Following Another Person's Blog

If you visit a blog and wish to subscribe to their feeds so you can have their latest posts placed in your iGoogle account you should look for the RSS feed on their page and subscribe to it by selecting 'Add to Google'. Any new posts will now appear in your iGoogle page as a summary.

Primary Student Blog Of The Week

2011-02-06T11:01:00.000Z

This week I have chosen Nicole's blog post, iPads - How Exciting!, as my student post of the week.

It is reflective, contains good links and reference to educational aspects and provides an insight into possible ways we can use iPads in education.

Well done Nicole.

If you have a spare moment, please go to Nicole's blog and leave her a comment to encourage her on her journey of blogging or provide additional advice to deepen her knowledge.

Forde, C., McMahon, M. & Reeves, J. (2009). Putting Together Professional Portfolios. London: Sage. Part 2 - Describe/Reflect/Evaluate through Windows Movie Making

2011-02-06T10:47:00.000Z

'A portfolio is a means of structuring, demonstrating and reflecting on your development as a professional. At the heart of portfolio development is your learning' (Forde, 2009, p,13).

The three elements to examining practice:

Reflection - Why something was undertaken a specific way.

Description - What happened?

Evaluation - How did this affect me?

It is not just examining one's own practice but what we observe and learn from others. This can be through observing others teaching, attending a lecture or undertaking a CPD course or reading a book or article. The only difference is, although we can reflect on what we observe or read, it is not until we put this into practice can we truly reflect on how this affects ourselves.

There are times when we reflect and match our learning to specific attainment goals, for example, Standard for Initial Teacher Education (SITE) or HERA for lecturers at University. The model of reflecting, describing and evaluating may paint a picture to the reader, however, this picture sometimes requires evidence to substantiate the claims being made.

Using the models presented above, I reflected on a recent Digital Moving Editing process with students that was undertaken last week.

1. Reflection on Digital Movie Making Editing Process With Students

Small groups of student teachers had completed the filming part of their digital movies and were ready to progress to the Editing process using Windows Movie Maker. This software was being used as it can be found on the majority of machines in schools, the University has this on their machines and all students have access to this software on their personal computers.

Prior to editing, the movie files required converting from .mp4 to .wmm. The file were in this format due to using Flip Cameras. To convert the files the online tool, zamzar.com, was used due to no converter software being on university machines and to show students a possible tool they could use for converting specific files.

2. Description of What Happened

Converting the files using Zamzar was timely due to the software only allowing one upload at a time. A link would then be sent to a specified email account to which the converted file could be downloaded. To save time, students were asked to share this task rather than one student undertake with the whole process taking around 30 - 40 minutes.

In general, all files converted and played in their new .wmm format, however, the problem occurred when we tried to import them into Windows Movie Maker Software. Some of the files corrupted with the pixels becoming blurred.

To counteract this problem we downloaded trial versions of conversion software and converted all the files again. This worked well for all groups minus one: Windows Movie Maker would not recognise all the files saying an 'index' file was missing. We searched this problem, download additional files but could not fix the problem until it became apparent that the problem was due to all the files being converted at one time rather than one by one with the software: problem solved.

Next minor problem, for one group, was when they imported their files to WMM it would only allow one to import and removed this when another was imported. Although a minor problem this was a little unusual as normally you see all files that are imported. To counteract this we simply had to place the files on the storyboard each time they were imported.

Last problem!!! A diligent student had worked very hard, all alone and without help or fuss, to edit her movie. It was just about finished when she asked me about saving it as her space on the University would not allow. Now, the student had imported all her files from a memory stick and I pulled it out!!! This was not a good move because the computer was still looking for this files from the memory stick and all her hard work was deleted from WMM!!! I had suddenly made the error that I warn all students about: past the point of no return...

3. Evaluation of WMM

Looking back at this scenario, many problems would not have occurred if there was a video converter on machines rather than try online or trial versions. With different cameras being used and different file formats available, it only makes sense to have a reputable conversion software in place to ensure this part of the process flows smoothly. It can be very frustrating going through this process and things not working and it it technical setbacks like this that may stop many in moving forward with digital movie making. Having spoken to technical support, we are now getting a converter software to use, Wondershare, for future movie make inputs. Yes, a bit late for this one but sometimes it is only after events that we reflect and decide what to do to eliminate replication.

The next question that I keep asking myself is 'Why continue to use WMM?' The latest version is not so easy to use and the current version, that we have on our University machines, is no longer running smoothly without hitches. Is it time to inverts in a simple child-friendly software, similar to digital blue but one step above, that schools might be using or one that students can introduce into schools? Part of me says it is time to move on but the other part says use what the majority have on their machines so student teachers can at least try WMM at school rather than not.

Whichever method I decide to employ next WMM session, I need to look at what local schools are using, try different tools out and take into account the benefits and disadvantages of each tool. It may end up that a varied approach is taken rather than the one shoe fits all method.

If you incorporate WMM into your classroom practice or Local Authority then please let me know how you get around the conversion aspect and what software you use for editing. Please take into account that the target age group would be for children age 9 - 12 years old. We already use Digital Blue Software and want to go the next step up. Look forward to your replies.

Forde, C., McMahon, M. & Reeves, J. (2009). Putting Together Professional Portfolios. London: Sage.

2011-01-30T20:40:00.002Z

Chapter 1 - What Is a Portfolio

'a space in which you can plan and reflect in depth on your practice, helping identify your strengths and find ways of building on these' (p.1).

'a collection of materials put together in a meaningful way to demonstrate the practice and learning of an educational practitioner' (p.1).

IT IS NOT

'a random collection of materials and artefacts'.

What is the purpose:

* to illustrate achievements?

* to demonstrate ongoing developments of thinking and practice?

* to collect evidence?

* to provide a vehicle for reflection?

Types of portfolios:

* Course Content - contains items that have significant relevance to a course.

* CPD Portfolio - contains record of professional development with reflections and evaluations.

* Competence-based Portfolio - achievement against specific criteria.

* Accreditation for Prior Learning - contains evidence related to prior learning.

* Project Portfolio - contains resources and reflections of groups related to a specific topic.

There are quite a few similarities and differences between what we place in different types of portfolios that it is easy to get blur the boundaries between the main focus or to use the wrong tool for the job. In this age where many use blogs and wikis as their electronic means of reflection and evidence, I do question whether the correct tool is being applied for the correct purpose. How often I have seen wikis being used as a reflective tool in the format of a diary and blogs being used as a place to record evidence when the other way around would be much more beneficial. Surely as years roll on it is much easier to view an organised wiki to view specific key evidence that trail through a specific tag in a blog and likely so, it is easier to map development by viewing the learning journey in a blog than fish through a wikispace.

If you are using a blog or a wikispace: what is the purpose of your online space? Look at the different types and purposes and see if you can reflect on the reason you have either chosen a tool or been asked to use a tool and is it the right tool for the job. Hopefully by looking at the above key aspects, you will begin to understand the 'why' and 'what' of ePortfolios and the online tools available. There will be cross-overs and stand-alone moments but at the end of the day the underpinning purpose should be a place to map the development of one's relationship between learning and practice.

My Personal Response:

I originally created this blog, not to illustrate my achievements or collect evidence but to share what I was doing with technology in the classroom with a wider audience where the knowledge of the crowd was far greater than the knowledge of the individual. By joining the 'community of practice' of my fellow educational bloggers, I could learn from them and reciprocate this knowledge sharing by sharing my ideas through this blog where developments in emerging technologies were at the heart of my reflections.

Over the years, this blog has moved a little towards collecting evidence, however, still has the reflective process and sharing as the main reason for posting. It has still not, to me, met the purpose of 'illustrating achievement' due to it being my personal reflective area to connect with others and converse rather than just show. Illustrating my achievement comes primarily through my professional CV or through my personal wikispace that provides more a timeline of events and evidence rather than the reflective process.

So the question is, why am I writing about Portfolios and discussing my blog? It appears that many use blogs for the purpose of a Portfolio and tag specific aspects of learning. For me, this is not the purpose of my blog, and like the old saying goes, 'what is one man's meat is another man's poison'.

Primary Students' Blogging

2011-01-28T20:00:00.000Z

My second year ICT Elective group have just started blogging where they are using the tool to reflect on their learning and share their new found knowledge with one another. Hopefully by the end of the module students will be using the reflective practitioner approach where they will be:

* critically analysing their reflections;
* linking rather than just writing;
* referring to research and readings;
* explaining process rather than tell a story;
* engaging with this community they are in online;
* using their blog to reflect after the module finishes rather than just for the module.

You might want to welcome them and provide them with some advice related to effective reflective blogging or just some encouragement. You an view their blogs from the links below. Go on, make a student teacher's day.

Gillian
Keira
Nicole
Caroline
Lyndsay
Tamar

Kirsten
Mandy

Don't Lecture Me - I'm A 21st Century Learner

2011-01-08T16:08:00.000Z

Next Friday, 14th January, I have been invited to present at University's Discovery Days. This event is where new professors to the University present a short presentation and take questions. This year, I will be joining the new professors, not because I am a professor (a goal for the future), but to disseminate one of the pedagogical approaches I take during lectures. If you are interested, read below what I will be discussing and if free come to Dundee and join two days of a variety of presentations related to many different topics.

Today’s generation of learners are social beings who communicate, collaborate, create, co-create and connect using online technologies. This ‘Net Generation’, or Net Gens as Tapscott (2008) defines them, is a generation whose modus operandi is networking with freedom to create and produce content online through ‘infiltered self-expression’. Outwith educational institutions, learners are forming communities through various social media networks where they are creating user-generated content, sharing with their peers, co-creating content already produced, discussing, evaluating, debating and learning from one another.

The ‘Net Generation’ are no longer linear learners, but multi-faceted learners. They have access to large sources of information at their fingertips (Bonk, 2009) and are no longer confined to learning at a specific time and place. They are no longer passive consumers but ‘Digital Natives’ (Prensky, 2001) who simultaneously employ a range of social media to communicate. These social media enable them to be constantly connected to friends and family (Oblinger, 2008) through the use of synchronous and asynchronous technologies. As a result of students’ social experiences, they simply want to communicate and have a voice, however, when they attend lectures communication becomes a very singular aspect where the lecturer is the key communicator of information or opportunities for questions or discussion typically results in only 5% of students responding to 95% of the lecturer’s questions.

The lecture setting was not originally designed to enable social constructivism. Lectures were created to address the problem of large enrollments of students in schools, in the late 1800s, where a standardised curriculum was delivered to large class sizes rather than taught (Horn, 2008). The role of students, in a lecture, was a consumer-style approach to learning, whereby students were expected to listen to retrieve information from the lecturer who imparted knowledge to the crowd resulting in passive non-participatory learning. This hierarchical learning style has been organised this way for many years where, ‘those who know tell those who do not know, and thereby maintain and enhance their own status, while passing on accumulated wisdom and experience’ (Brandes & Ginnis, 1986: 10). While this method may have been efficient, it did not provide an effective learning experience that met the needs of all learners.

Although today’s lectures have changed to try and address the needs of learners, they still replicate many methods of the past: passive learning, knowledge delivery and one way communication. Students are no longer passive consumers of learning. They are no longer content to sit for long periods of time and listen to lectures and take notes but want to be engaged through learning that is interactive, personalised, collaborative, creative and innovative (Trilling & Fadel, 2009). The role of the lecturer is no longer a knowledge delivery role or a one-person show to an attentive audience, but rather the manager, advisor, guider and teacher of a learning community. However, these learning communities are not a new notion brought about by technology. Lave & Wenger’s (1991) ‘communities of practice’ emphasised the collaborative nature of learning from individual to participation in a social world. This community of practice can be in the same locality at the same time, for example a group of students attending a lecture, or in different localities at different times, or a group of students around the world with the same interest using social media tools to discuss and learn from one another. This form of social constructivism, where knowledge and understanding is constructed through the active process of discussing and reflecting with peers, produces a richer learning environment where collaboration and active learning are the drivers of knowledge and higher level thinking skills.

To change lectures from consumer to ‘prosumer’ learning, a shift in pedagogy, from delivering to facilitating, is required. This can be achieved through implementing online technologies, for example Poll Everywhere™ and students’ personal mobile devices, during the lecture to ascertain, ‘What do you know?’, ‘What do you want to know?’ and ‘What do you not understand?’. The use of these technologies allows all students to have a voice amongst the many and enables lecturers to address students’ needs in real time rather than after the event. These collaborative tools enhance the learning process by enabling students to communicate their knowledge and understanding on a professional level by being one of many who contribute to the creation of a whole product. The use of students’ personal mobile phones also provides a vehicle for students to let their voice be heard in the crowd through textual responses displayed on the main lecture screen which can be annonynous or authored. Lecturers can then react to the responses by acknowledging ideas, rectifying misunderstandings, exploring new thinking or deepening current understandings. Finally, due to the collaborative technologies storing discussions and ideas, in an electronic format that can be accessed after the lecture, students can revisit learning to deepen their understanding rather than try to retain only what was verbalised in the lecture setting.

‘Don’t lecture me I’m a 21st century learner’ does not require lectures to change but the lecturer’s pedagogy from non-interactive delivery methods, such as lectures and using Web 1.0, towards an environment that better enables active learning. Students are no longer content with just finding and reading information but want to create and share synchronously rather than asynchronously. ‘The old way of doing things is presentation-driven; information is delivered and tested’ (Solomon, 2007: 21). This method prepares students for jobs that require rote learning, which still has a place in society; however, to compete in a globalised world the skills of communication, collaboration and innovation are also required. ‘The new way is collaboration, with information shared, discussed, refined with others, and understood deeply’ (Solomon, 2007: 21). The lecturer’s role in this process is to provide the correct environment where today’s generation can let their voices be heard using social learning tools of this century. The multiple voices of the crowd, when facilitated and guided by the lecturer, can lead to a far richer learning experience for every individual in that crowd.

To lecture does not guarantee that learning will occur and to learn does not require that one needs to be lectured, however, when lecturing and learning unite, a deeper learning environment occurs.

Christensen, C. M. et al. (2008). Disrupting Class: How disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns. New York: McGraw Hill

2010-12-27T20:34:00.002Z

Next on the reading list is Clayton Christensen's Disrupting Class. Thankfully this book provides a little more innovative reading rather than putting modern terminology to old pedagogy. What is also favourable about this book is that it does not throw down your throat the old adage of 'Digital Natives' that Prensky likes to put forward but takes a wider reflection on learning with comparisons to the global business world: the world we are preparing our children to survive in.

So rather than state that today's generation are a multi-tasking generation who should learn the way they learn sub-consciously out with the school environment, it is quickly asks the questions: Is our child-centred methods of learning what will enable our children to succeed in the future. Christensen does query this briefly when he highlights that Asisan students are performing better in league tables due to their 'lecture' stye of learning compared to student-centred learning style of America who are falling further behind the league table. On the other hand, an article in the Washing Post argues the benefits of the American style of teaching as it prepares students for a fast-paced future where problems-solving, communication, collaboration and innovation are at the heart of learning, not just memorising facts and figures.

I do believe that both go hand in hand just like teaching and learning work together. Remember, you can teach but a child may not learn and a child can learn without being taught. When teaching and learning work together the educational experience is far richer. Just the same as we need to be able to have knowledge and skills as the backbone to what we can offer but we also need the ability to innovate, solve problems and work with others. It reminds me of how my own musical ability and my children's. I am a mathematical musician who reads music to perform, who uses my memory to know how a piece of music should be interpreted. Composing my own music or simply playing a requested tune is not possible if I do not have it in my memory or the notes are not there to be read. My children, on the other hand, learnt music initially by ear. They learnt by exploring all the instruments my musician husband and I had around the house. Learning to read music was a chore but they persevered and are now accomplished musicians with the ability to read and play all music styles through using the skills and knowledge they have developed over the years. They are also able to extend what is on the written script to wonderful musical treats rather than just the notes that are there. Without the skills and knowledge they would be limited in their creativity and their ability to work as a team with an array of musicians. Without their innovation and creativity they would be limited to only playing what they know and what they can access.

Teaching and learning with technologies is similar to this. Yes today's generation have the technology around them and use aspects of the technology to create, communicate and collaborate to meet their own needs. Some will be innovative and creative and some will just do what they have learnt from others. It is the job of educators to develop the skills and knowledge of children's use of technologies alongside creativity and innovation. Technologies should not just be a 'bolt on' in the classroom to make something look presentable but should be used where the technology will enhance the learning environment not duplicate what works perfectly. Christensen mirrors this view where he states that 'schools use computers as a tool and a topic, not as a primary instructional mechanism that helps students learn in ways that are customised to their type of intelligence...Teachers have implemented computers in the most common-sense way - to sustain their existing practices and pedagogies rather than to displace them' (Chrsitensen, 2008:81).

How often is the above still true for many educators who still use technology to make their learning apparently meet the needs of all learners - visual and auditory learners will get images, audio and video in presentations!!! Hands-up those that have taken this approach? I have to admit, when I started my current post as a lecturer all my primary teacher pedagogy was thrown aside as I became the lecturer that focused more on imparting knowledge to the crowds rather than teach the way that underpinned my personal classroom pedagogy. I was too centred around the educational content rather than the students' learning needs. I only began to address learners' needs after the module assignment at the end of each block where the assignments revealed current understanding of concepts. Unfortunately, my evaluation of learning was too late for current learners due to them moving to the next module. Christensen discusses this conventional teacher assessment process where 'if students haven't mastered all the material but know it well enough to get a passing grade, the students will move on' (Christensen, 2008:108).

Reflecting on my 'lecture' pedagogy, I changed my 'sage on stage' delivery to a more interactive model using the technology students had in their pockets, bags etc. Interactive teaching and learning using mobile technologies is my pedagogical style and area of research. In January I will be presenting with newly appointed professors at Dundee University's Discovery Day. This will focus on my current research using mobile devices in lecture theatres to change my delivery style, enable all students to be active in learning and to meet their immediate needs. Hopefully, in the new year, the research paper will be complete and I will be able to share many of the positive findings with my global peers.

So to finish with, educators need to always keep at the back of their minds, no matter what method they use:

If a child does not learn the way we teach we should teach the way they learn.

Prensky, M. (2010). Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for real learning. London: Corwin

2010-12-27T17:56:00.001Z

I have always enjoyed reading Marc Prensky's writings where I have connected with his thoughts and ideas. I have to admit, I was rather disappointed when reading his 'Teaching Digital Natives' due to the lack of innovation and creativity that normal comes through in his writings. Marc is now putting forward the notion of 'Partnering for Real Learning' as if it were something new. He is making out that education is still sitting in the Victorian bubble where we lecture children rather than meet their immediate needs, teach programmes of study rather than use the contexts they thrive in outside the educational environment and have learning as a one way street where we fill empty vessels rather than 'partner' their learning. Is this new reading? Is this new theories of teaching and learning? I think not!

Student-centred learning, scaffolding, facilitating learning are not new buzz words or concepts they are practitioners' teaching and learning techniques that have been put forward for many years. They are techniques that I have used with and without technology. To me, all Marc has put forward in his book is to come up with a new buzz word: partnering. Why make new words when they all ready exists and work well: a bit of a slap in the face to him advocating that technology should only be used if it changes the learning and teaching environment rather than a bolt on!!!

To be fair on Marc, there are aspects of his book that align with today's thinking and will be a book that I would suggest to student teachers to read, reflect and debate.

Here are some of the key points that I took from the book:

INTRODUCTION SECTION

* Attention - today's students have a different attention capability than other generations. This is true and true for every new generation of learners. What needs to be noted is that today's generation are multi-tasters who select what they want to focus on and block out what does not interest them. So is it short attention spans for the 'old ways' of learning, as Marc asks, or is it short attention spans that need to be trained to be more focussed to enable deeper learning?

* What students want from schools - not to be lectured, respected, trusted, follow own interests and passions, create, work collaboratively, connect and 'real' education. Again I agree with many of these aspects but this is NOT new reading. As a qualified primary teacher, active learning and meeting the needs of children were at the heart of my pedagogy; that was last century! I have always wanted children to create, collaborate, communicate and co-create with their immediate peers and those around the world. I do believe that we should let children follow their interests and passions but we need to open the doors to other avenues that might spark another interest rather than just keep a child in an 'interest bubble'. Learning is about meeting needs then extending and exploring.

Marc states that the new educational pedagogy should involve 'partnering' to enable the above. Yes that is true but again not a new concept.

CHAPTER 1 PARTNERING

Direct Instruction - teachers who lecture, talk and students listen, take notes, read and memorise. Again the term 'direct instruction' comes in many titles: didactic teaching or passive learning to name a few. Although not a new concept, what I did like was Marc's analogy of this style of learning where he referred to it as the Federal Express where 'you can have the best delivery system in the world, but if no one is home to receive the package, it doesn't much matter. Too often, today's students are not there to receive what their teachers are delivering' (Prensky, 2010:10). How often I see this in a lecture theatre where students are there but the information being delivered is not reaching the recipients. A scenario in many learning environments and one which Marc states can be changed by students and teachers adopting different roles in the 'partnering' process: student as researcher, technology user/expert, thinker, world changer, self-teacher and the teacher as coach/guide, goal setter/questioner, learning designer, context provider, and quality assurer. As you can see, not ground breaking theories of learning just written with Marc's twist of wording!

The rest of the chapters delve deeper into the ways partnering can occur in education looking at 'how' children learn today rather than how they interact with technology. If you are looking to read about ways to 'use' technology with our 'Digital Native' then this is possibly not the book you want to read. If, on the other hand, you want to look at 'how' today's 'Digital Natives' learn then this might be a book to read in conjunction with the key theorists in education to provide a balanced approach rather than a one sided view.

Digital Natives or Digitally Naive

2010-09-06T20:38:00.000+01:00

Are today's students really Digital Natives as Marc Prensky defines them or are they just Digitally Naive? Yes it is true that 'Students are not just using technology differently today, but are approaching their life and daily activities differently because of technology' (Prensky, 2006:40) however, is this change productive or counter productive?

Prensky (2006) discusses the key areas of change that Digital Natives have embraced shedding a positive light on each area. Although there are many benefits to this technological change, there are many questions that could be raised in relation to change.

Digital Natives Communicate Differently

Digital Natives use an array of technologies that enable synchronous and asynchronous communication using their mobiles to text or Internet technology to instant message an array of people at one time. Instant communication is at the forefront of their communication where they want quick, short responses rather than a lengthily wait for a response.

There are questions to be posed regarding this style of communication:

Can our Digital Natives focus on one thread of a conversation or are they hyperlinking between many?

Do they have the patience to wait for a response rather than demand instant communication?

Can they create well constructed correspondences that are well thought out, have depth and clearly communicate a view or opinion or do they quickly create and send?

Do they think before they communicate on their social media sites and what the implications of their words or images will have on a wider audience?

Digital Natives Share Differently

Today's technology opens the doors of closed in communities to share with the wider world whether others want to be informed or not. Sharing is no longer confined to the physical aspect and location base restriction of collaboration but is extended through an array of technologies. I am a great believer in sharing knowledge, ideas and skill with others but there are questions to be asked.

To share or not share that is the questions - do our Digital Natives share too much information or not?

Do our Digital Natives understand the repercussions of sharing various aspects of their life to an open audience?

Will out Digital Natives need to change their identities in the future to flee their online past that will haunt them?

Digital Natives Buy and Sell Differently

The high street stores are no longer the only means of purchasing products where they can adjust their price according to their location. The Internet enables consumers the ability to shop around from the comfort of their homes to compare prices and read reviews created by others. Consumers no longer need to rely on only the sale's representatives advertising pitch but those of the consumer. The ability to sell products no longer requires the restrictions of building a business or standing in the cold on a Sunday at a local car boot sale. The internet enables all to place products online to sell to a wider audience. Again a few questions can be asked?

Do our Digital Natives understand the true value of money or do they just use a card number to purchase without any true thought for how much they are spending?

What will make a product stand out from the crowd when all are selling online?

Digital Natives Exchange Differently

Exchanging images, music and videos are at the heart of sharing at no cost to the recipient. This raises the question:

Do our Digital Natives understand copyright or are they ignorant to ownership and permissions?

Digital Natives Create Differently

This is one area that our Digital Natives excel in where they create, co-create and innovate using technology. Creating movies, websites, Apps, games etc are at the heart of many Digital Natives where they do not just want to consume information but create it. There are excellent examples of Digital Natives using their creative skills in innovative ways however, there are a few that abuse the system and create content that is inappropriate. Youtube is one area where Digital Natives like to create and share with a wider audience. This leads to the question:

Do Digital Natives understand the implications of their creations on a wider audience?

Digital Natives Coordinate Differently

Working collaboratively online is one of the key attributes of today's technology and our Digital Natives embrace this aspect. Working together anytime, anyplace, anywhere is now part of society rather than having to restrictions of location collaboration. Working together to deepen knowledge or brainstorm ideas can be undertaken much simpler through connected technologies. There are many excellent forms of collaboration taking place globally however the question that could be asked:

Does the voice of the crowd become a mob where there are no key players in some groups to facilitate and filter the lone expert voice from the crowd?

The above are just a few questions posed related to today's Digital Natives. These questions are not all my views but ones that could be discussed by the global audience. What are your views on Digital Natives from experience, research or your personal opinions? Share these views and start a discussion with tomorrow's teachers who will be reflecting on Prensky's notion of Digital Natives over the next few days.

Why use a wiki?

2010-03-09T19:19:00.000Z

Wikis work where they are enable asynchronous collaboration with different time/ different place creating an inter-subjective space that glues the collaborative learning together. In the previous post I described how wikis can be used as a web page/ show page of work children have created. My collaborative project, Voices Of the World is testimony to this style, a collaborative showcase of what children create around the world. Children working together, different time and place, to learn from one another.

This type of collaboration fits into areas of the two types of activities that Larusson & Alterman (2009) refer to as: tightly coupled activities and loosely coupled activities.

Tightly Coupled Activities - connect to create shared products. Students must stay coordinated and focus on key materials.

Loosely Coupled Activities - connect but do not need an end product. Not every contribution must be recognised.

VOTW relates to the Tightly Coupled Activity in that schools around the world must adhere to the rules of the monthly task to create a product that children around the world will be able to listen to and understand. The Loosely Coupled Activities relates to the aspect where not all schools have to contribute every month. This is where collaborative projects, with a large amount of collaborators can either get it right or wrong. If you force people to contribute then they will leave, if you leave people to contribute when they want there is a possibility that no contributions are given. A balance between to the types of activities is required to ensure all are comfortable in the level of participation required.

Two questions to ask in any computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments:

* Did students learn?
* Did technology support collaboration

A third question I would add:

* Could the learning and collaboration occur successfully without the technology?

If you can answer yes to the above questions then you are using the correct tool for the job.

A Wiki, A Blog or A Forum?

2010-03-09T15:18:00.000Z

Web 2.0 is full of a range of tools that can be used effectively in the learning environment, however, like any tool one needs to justify why they are using it and not all tools are used for the purpose they were created. Screwdrivers were made for getting screws in or out of an object but many of use use them for other things: opening paint tins, scrapping small thing out small spaces etc...

Making a decision regarding a tool to use is the easiest part, however, sometimes the decision is not the best one. Let's take three Web tools that can be found in many learning platforms of used as separate entities from the web: Blogs, Wikis and Forums.

Why do we use these? How do we use these? Is this the best tool for the job? Could we do the task more effectively using another medium?

According to Warlick (2005), each of these tools have specific purposes:

Blog - used to communicate or deliver a message to a specific audience.

Wiki - content management system used to construct a collaborative document.

Forum - a conversation that builds on ideas through constructing new knowledge by reflecting and reacting.

Many educators use blogs personally or with children to communicate to a wider audience information. It is used as a way of sharing information. A bit like a news board but reaching a wider audience and with a facility to retrieve old posts through effective tagging. I used this style of blogging when a primary teacher at High School of Dundee to share our learning with the wider community or to publish our fortnightly radio shows. I did not, however, use the blog in isolation due to the moveable nature of the blog posts where items can be lost in archives, wikispaces were also used to have a permanent quick visual record of what we had created similar to a website.

Using wikis as a means to store and share information is the prime method of implementation in education rather than the collaborative document creation that they were designed for. The reason being is that wikis are only collaborative asynchronously meaning that children can not collaborate real time.

The last tool, Forums, which are in many virtual learning environments, are used in many educational settings from schools to further education. In Scotland's National Education Network GLOW, many schools are implementing the use of Forums to connect, share and collaborate with children inside and outside school. Many are using the tool effectively to deepen and extend knowledge through the discussion aspect and many are using ineffectively through posting content to these areas without the collaborative conversation taking place. Should another tool be used instead to publish if no communication is initiated?

Out of the three tools, Forums appear to be the least effective tool due to three aspects: non-instant chat, no facilitation or goal and no RSS feeds on some. Today's technology enables instant communication and collaboration with others that Forums can sometimes not provide. The delay in response can be frustrating that a different method of communication is chosen. There is, however, a positive side to this delay, it provides thinking time and does not pressurise the reader to respond. The other aspect, facilitation, is what can keep a forum alive. To create a question on a forum and never return to engage with others provides a simple statement rather than a conversation. Facilitation can be through only opening a Forum at a specific time where the users know there will be someone there to read and respond to their posts. An open forum, where facilitation is as and when needed will only work effectively if there is an RSS feed attached to the forum discussion. The forums in Ning use RSS effectively by notify the members when a new post has arrived. Members can respond freely, however, what keeps these forums alive are the key players who create a forum question returning and interacting with their members where a conversation is developed.

Do you use blogs, wikis or forums in your educational setting and are you using the correct tool for the job?

Do We Still Need Editors?

2010-03-03T22:28:00.001Z

Although written in 2005 this book is now slightly outdated as I review five years on. Blogging was just taking off for many at this period but technology has moved on where there is more instant communication and collaboration occurring.

There are, however, small pockets of information that can be taken from the book with the first being the publishing aspect. Prior to blogging, journalists were the publishers and they had to persuade their editor to publish their stories. This was not a free voice process with the editors editing the stories as they pleased prior to publication. Blogging, changed the wheel where the journalists, alias the Web 2.0 bloggers, no longer have to go past the editor to publish but can freely put their stories on the internet for anyone to read. Freedom of speech...freedom of text... To an extent freedom to bypass people enables all to have a voice but for many this freedom can come at a cost. Apple employees are not allowed to blog and neither are many other employees as the company safeguards what is written about them or by their staff. In schools, who blog, this authoritarian line is taken by some, to an extent with others and completely ignored by a few. Why? This all depends on the systems that are in place. Some schools are not happy with children blogging freely and do not want children's work to be put in the eye of the public. An experience I had of this approach came from the school not wanting parents comparing children's work online where enough pressure was placed on the child to achieve without comparing daily against others. The middle ground, is where teachers allow children to blog but through a moderated environment where the teacher approves children's post prior to publish. The majority of post that evolve through this method are account of events or learning rather than reflections on personal learning. The final approach, a free voice for all, is very rare and I am not too sure why such freedom is granted since I have never gone down that route. Surely, anything that will go out the school building to the public eye should be moderated, like the editor of a newspaper. I therefore ask the question: should primary children be allowed the freedom to blog freely where their voice can be heard without submitting their voice to an editor first?

If you answer that we are giving children an authentic audience, to an extent this is correct, however, who reads their blogs daily? All public blogs can be read by anyone, however, Hewitt (2005) explain the notion of 'The Tail'. This reflects the 95 - 99% of blogs that do not get thousands of followers each day. They are the tail at the end of the graph that no one or just some follow. Our children are 'The Tail' and very few people will read their blogs. Very few people read mine as I am part of 'the tail' too, but, as I have said in previous posts, I do not blog for an audience I blog as a reflective tool where I can dip back and find reflections of readings or educational tools that I have encountered. Maybe the notion of 'giving all freedom to let their voices be heard to a global audience' is the wrong notion and blogging should be more about what will the benefit be to publishing one's reflections on an open space to recording in a private diary. Why do I not just use good old Word and type my reflections in there? Why do I not just buy a paper notebook and scribble my thoughts in there? The answer to all of these questions is that a blogging connects me with a small group of like-minded people in my 'tail'. We learn from one another. Children can learn from one another too rather than just publishing to Web 2.0.

This takes me back to my questions: 'Do we still need editors?' As an adult I would say no if I follow the rules of etiquette on the net. Student teachers - I would say no, however, with the way that many freely write in their social media pages, I would have to say that they still need to be taught net etiquette to ensure the balance between personal and professionalism are not weighed too heavily to one side. Lastly, as for children, I am still under the impression that moderation is required through an editor, their teacher, to ensure what is placed online represents a school rather than an unguided free voice. Schools are about providing the conditions that scaffold children's learning and this is no different with technology where it is imperative that children are taught net etiquette to safe guard their futures.

Instructional Blogging - The Constructivist Approach

2010-03-03T00:02:00.000Z

'Instructional blogging operates as a knowledge-centered instructional tool. In this the model the instructor involves students in research activities, engages them in discussion with practitioners, and leads them through development concepts of the discipline's knowledge domain' (Glogoff, S. 2005: 1)

Instructional blogging is the method that I employ with student primary teachers to extent their understanding of a concept. Some think they are doing blogging to ensure they pass their assignment, however, quite a few see the benefits to instructional blogging in that it enables them to be a reflective practitioner where they can participate in a lecture/ workshop then deepen their understanding through reflecting on the process.

In my previous post related to blogging, I discussed how blogging enables one's voice to be heard and enables those that wish to become online publishers. The personal act of blogging is one aspect, however, Glogoff (2005) emphasises the social component of learning that are central to Vygotsky's notions of social cognition where peer interaction is an important element in blogging through utilising the comment aspect of a blog to engage in conversations. To an extent this is true, however, many people are happy to blog without having to engage in the conversation part. If you are reading this post, then I have to say it is here primarily from my benefit. If others learn for what I write this is a bonus, however, the main reason I blog is to capture my reflections on technology in education and collate these reflections in a format that is accessible to me. I do know that many of the my students are not blogging for the collaborative aspect but more because it is part of the course. They are encouraged to read their peers blogs but only a handful actually do this without encouragement. This is a real pity as by reading what others write we learn just like if we listen to what others say, rather than verbalise all the time, we will be able to adjust our thinking and views where appropriate.

When implementing instructional blogging, Clark & Mayer (2003) advocate three instructional techniques: receptive, directive and guided discovery (cited Glogoff 2005). Of these three techniques I would say I employ the last two where I provided responses to student's posts and direct students to a specific focus to blog about. Initially, I adopted the receptive technique where students were free to blog about the ICT input they had undertaken. This technique was changed due to some students not blogging, some basically just saying what happened and some not extending their posts with links to what they were discussing. It became clear that the art of blogging needs to be taught through the guided discovery technique and the facilitator needs to model effective blogging to students. This model of learning mirrors the constructivist approach of cognitive scaffolding where students revisit their learning, build upon knowledge, reflect then delve deeper. The student primary teacher's blogs are a prime example of this style of learning. By looking through a student's blogging development, one can clearly see how the writer' craft of blogging has developed through constructive comments from tutors and peers and through the student's readings of other blogs.

This takes me back to my comment about why I blog, yes I did say that it is mainly for my own professional reflections, however, the social aspect associated with blogging is part of my culture where I learn from others and hopefully they learn from me too. Blogging is not a one-to-many act like a church sermon, it is a one-to-many-to-one where we share and learn from one another.

Warlick. D. F., (2005). Classroom Blogging: A Teacher's Guide to the Blogosphere. North Carolina: The Landmark Project

2010-03-01T22:44:00.000Z

Although this book is now outdated, it is still a starting point for those who have never blogged and wish to dip their toes in to find out what it is all about. This was my bible when I started blogging many years ago. What is a blog?

Warlick's initial conceptual understanding: 'a way for almost anyone, regardless of their technical expertise, to publish information for global audiences over the Internet.' (P9).

This understanding developed to: 'giving voice to people like you and me..a new society of citizen journalists' (P9). The latter is what I relate blogging to, where many can let their 'voices' be heard on the global web rather than those that have the skills and knowledge of HTML coding.

Warlick goes on to mention his attendance at a 'bloggercon' (a meeting or conference of bloggers) where he was originally disillusioned by the spontaneous discussions rather than the sage on the stage type with courteous discussions. However, on reflection he saw the ethics of this where 'all participants had equal voice, equal right, and equal opportunity to share their ideas' (P13).

Web 2.0 is now full of tools that replicate 'bloggercons'. Twitter, for example is a prime example of a mass of people letting their voices be heard. More like a conversation at a nightclub with people shouting out, however, in the midst of all these vocalisations there will be something that grabs someone's attention and is worth a read. A bit like car boot sales, what is trash to one's eye is a golden nugget to another. Through my RSS feeds there are a mass of post thrown to my iPhone each day which I duly skim through during those spare five minutes that occasionally occur during the day. The majority of these blog posts are discarded, however, one or two generally catch my eye and extent or deepen my knowledge to replicate my grandmother's philosophy that you learn something new everyday.

Mass conversations have their place in today's society, however, there is still a place for focused contributions to the global voice of the web and this is where blogging fits nicely into this category, especially in education by providing what Warlick categorised as 'authentic assignments of finding, reading, and evaluating blog-based information within the context of curriculum and then make them bloggers, communicators with a broadening audience, then we may do a more effective job of teaching literacy, both in the traditional sense, and within the context of an emerging new definition of literacy in a networked, digital information environment' (P16).

To an extent some schools have adopted this approach where children are the bloggers, however, many schools that have blogs revert to the teacher being the blogger and the children being the consumers. Yes, the children may have created work that is placed on the blog but it becomes a glorified website. Warlick stated that 'the blogosphere is a global conversation. using the web has traditionally been an act of passively consuming information. Because of blogs, more and more Internet users are becoming active participants in the digital information environment' (P22). He then goes on state that blogs are personal. To an extend this is true but in education the majority are not due to being a class blog rather than a personal blog. One of the reasons for teacher-led blogs is security and ensuring that children are not given free access to publish their voices incase they write inappropriate content. Although there are mechanisms in place for teachers to moderate posts prior to publishing, many teachers take the safe route where they are the publishers. I have to admit this is the route I took a few years ago when I was a class teacher as the school were not happy with children publishing straight into the eyes of the world. This also stemmed from working as a mediator for Superclubs Plus where even in a closed secure environment, I witness how children can use tools inappropriately when they think a teacher is not physically monitoring them.

Scotland's national intranet for education, GLOW, is currently a very teacher-led platform, however, this has been acknowledged and the plans to implement wikis and blogs into this environment should provide pupils with a place to let their voices be heard in a closed environment. This means that teachers will have the platform and the environment that enable children to let their voices be heard in a safe environment. Care, however, needs to be taken that the learning is not contrived but is meaningful otherwise the blog will just become an electronic replacement for a pen and paper and children will quickly see this link where technology is being used to replace a conventional method rather than create a new method of learning.

Individualisation On Collaborative Walls

2010-01-22T22:28:00.003Z

Wallwisher is not a new kid on the block with many educators using this tool to enable children to let their individual thoughts or knowledge be shared amongst the many. The potential for using this tool in schools, where it is not blocked, is huge due to the open nature of the product: it is not just one thing it can be many. This is exemplified through the various suggestions educators have come up with below:

Ways to use Wallwisher in Education:

16 Ways To Use A Wall

Ideas from the crowd

Tom Barrett's Crowd Source Ideas

It is fine to come up with wonderful ways to embed various technology into the learning environment however, what do children think about using Wallwisher? One teacher, Mrs Brownsword, undertook a little research to ascertain what her children thought of this tool for learning. Most thought it was fun and easy with few seeing the collaborative aspect of it. This could be due to the fact they created their own stickies and did not view the whole process but the individual one. Sometimes when working collaboratively technology might actually stop this process from occurring due to children contributing to a product from individual machines or at different times and places. Although I advocate that children should not all be around one machine with only one hand on the mouse and the rest of the group observing but using collaborative tools like Google Docs, PrimaryPad or Mindmeister, the individual's contribution to the whole must be made clear to ensure children know they are working collaboratively or as Johnson and Jonson (1990) state cooperatively.

Cooperative learning, according to Murdoch and Wilson (2004), is where children are working towards a shared goal and this shared goal must be made explicit at the start. This notion that children must know what is expected of them is further exemplified by Johnston and Jonson (1990) to enable effective cooperative learning. Working cooperatively is not just a simply matter of placing children in groups but consideration should be taken into some of the five key elements of cooperative learning as identified by Johnson et al (1998):

* Positive Interdependence;
* Individual Accountability;
* Face-to-face Interaction;
* Interpersonal and Small Group Skills;
* Group Processing.

Positive Interdependence: children need to work together to reach a shared goal where 'each student is not only required to complete their part of the work, but ensure that others do likewise' (Gillies & Ashmand, 2003: 35).

Individual Accountability: Each member is accountable for their own work and how it contributes to the whole.

Face-to-face Interaction: enables effective communication and supports thinking skills.

Interpersonal and Small Group Skills: children must learn to work together as a group to develop social skills which 'pupils do not come to school with the social skills they need to collaborate effectively with others' (Jolliffe, 2007: 92).

Group Processing: time to reflect on how the group worked is required to ensure that the skills of cooperative learning can be developed further.

Working collaboratively with others, over time and place, using technology is a key skill that our young children must develop to enable them to survive their globalised futures. Using technology may not hit the five key elements suggested above exactly but have strands of the elements permeating through the process. the only element that may be questioned would be the face-to-face Interaction where some collaborative applications do not allow this. However, tools like Google Docs and PrimaryPad allow students to use the chat area to clarify their thoughts and brainstorm whilst the main area is used to create the product. The importance of collaboration is emphasised in one of the four capacities, successful learners, of Scotland's CfE as shown in the image below:

The benefits of Wallwisher and its use in education are apparent from the links above where different curricular areas are addressed. However, allowing the individual's voice heard in the crowd was my main focus for implementing this tool into a lecture setting with student teachers. All too often students are lectured to at University where the knowledgeable one, the lecturer, imparts their knowledge to the unacknowledged, the student. Timely questions are asked with only 5 % of students answering 95 % of the questions. The same ones put their hands up each lecture and the same ones shy away and allow others to talk. When I asked students why this was the response was that the did not like speaking out to such a large audience, frightened they would say the wrong thing or simply were quite happy to listen. Finding ways to engage all students in inputs was one of the main challenges I faced when I came to University as I was used to engaging primary children in the learning environment but they were not all sitting in rows with over one hundred others watching the sage on the stage.

One way to engage the mass of students was through using their handheld devices. Text me questions or answers rather than the one hand one voice method. Respond to questions by voting or textual replies using handheld devices and the online tool Polleverywhere. Wallwisher was the next tool that appeared to have the potential to enable interaction during lecture where all voices could be heard. To test the waters, I created various walls with questions that I wished to ask a small group of students during an ICT input:

What will the future of education be in ten year's time?

What they hoped to learn in the ICT module.

What social media tools they currently used.

What are the educational benefits of handheld learning?

Each of these questions were asked throughout the input to break up the monotony of listening to my voice, involve all students in the responses and to record their thoughts. This was undertaken in an ICT suite which worked well with the only problem being the stickies overlapping. It was only until later that I realised the creator of the page is the only one who could move the stickies around not all the contributors. Minor aspect to an otherwise excellent tool.

The next step is how to incorporate this tool with a larger body of students and possibly in a lecture theatre. I decided to test Wallwisher on the iPhone to ascertain if it could be used. It became clear there are limitations to using Wallwisher this way:

1. You can not create a sticky;

2. You can not close a link down;

3. You can add an link;

4. You can add text to a stiky already created.

Barriers are just creative hurdles that make your mind think innovatively. It is still possible to use Wallwisher with handheld devices. I created an account with Wallwisher for my students, Individualisation, where all students will use the same username and password when working collaboratively. There are two advantages to this: all children are in one account and the teacher does not need to create many accounts and deal with children forgetting passwords and the settings can be set so that only the account user's can edit the wall for security purposes. With an account create stickies are created beforehand with no text in them. Group names or student's names can be added to each sticky and when the student opens the page with their handheld device they are able to enter text in the sticky assigned to them. It is therefore possible to let everyone's voices be heard on collaborative walls.

What Can Student Teachers Do When On Placement?

2010-01-09T17:38:00.000Z

All too often when I teach student primary teachers ways to use Web 2.0 tools the first question they ask is, 'Can I use this application in schools or is it blocked?'. Most of the time I do not have the answer as the application maybe new or is not getting used in schools by many. Although I try to give the students a balance between what they can use and what they will hopefully be able to embed in their future practice, it can be frustrating for them to go through four years not being able to implement current technologies. Living in the past is not what our future primary teachers are trained to be, they are the ones who will teach the future generation and they should be able to access tools that enable collaboration, innovation etc...

So to answer their question, 'Can I use this application in schools?', and to hopefully help myself and others who provide training to practitioners out with our own geographical location, I posted a tweet on Twitter asking the 'crowd' if Wallwisher was blocked in their Local Authority. Most replies say it is not with some having the problem of their computers still running on IE6 which will not support Wallwisher.

With the information provided from fellow teachers I decided to be more organised and create a shared Google Doc - ICT in Schools to collate this information and hopefully build a depository of what can and can't be used in schools, primarily in Scotland, however, the rest of the UK and elsewhere would be interesting to know too. Is it only certain areas that are blocking or allowing children access to the tools they can access at home?

I would be grateful if you could help me providing me with information regarding what is blocked or not blocked for Wallwisher, Twitter, Voki, Wordle, Youtube and Delicious. More applications will be added over time, however, this will get the ball rolling.

To access the collaborative document go to ICT in School.

Find your Local Authority (all are in for Scotland) or type in your Authority/ Location in the appropriate row. Use the numbers suggested on the form to state: 0 - blocked, 1 - only teacher access and 2 - access for all.

Over the next few months I will collate this data and create a report which I will share will the global community. Thanks in advance for your help in preparing our student teachers for 'on the job' teaching and for helping others be prepared for presenting workshops in other places around the world.

Lessons To Be Learnt! GPS iPhone Mission

2009-11-24T19:28:00.000Z

Using iPhones with student teachers has always been my mission in the hope that I will engage our future primary teachers with today's technology and education's future tools for learning.

So why, after planning an input, organising and managing the hardware, testing the set of devices and implementing do I not feel the wow factor that I normally enthuse when waxing lyrical about handheld learning?

A simple answer - the technology let me down!!! I can't believe I am saying this but there are lessons to be learnt from this experience. If you are looking at using handhelds with children, students and adults then read on as the lessons learnt may assist you to achieve success rather than failure.

The planned activity for the third year student teachers was to engage the students in a fun outdoor activity using my set of iPhones and the software and App GPSMission. Students were to work in groups to complete the mission I had previously created around University of Dundee called 'Santa's Deliveries'.

The preparation work, prior to the activity, took over an hour where the following :

1. Assign each handset a desktop picture with the iPhones name to distinguish all the black iphones as they all look the same. Did not want to put stickers on them as felt it would tarnish their design!

2. Created seven email accounts at google mail for each handset so that individual accounts for each iPhone could be created at GPSMission. Individual accounts are required with GPSMission where you have multiple people playing the game at the same time. The application does not allow more than one person using the same login therefore I created Handheld01, Handheld02 etc...

3. Log each iPhone into GPSMission using the designated login created above.

4. Charge all iPhones up.

5. Create the Santa's Deliveries Mission using my GPSMission account that incorporated clues related to location, riddles at location, pictures, audio and video to be taken and different locations to ensure students experienced using the different tools in the one device. All media would be sent to my personal iPhone to ensure privacy was adhered to.

6. Go around campus and test out mission with phones (I did get funny looks with all these devices on my possession!)

The above did take sometime to set-up, however, like any activity that is new, more time is required during the initial preparation stage. This is similar to getting a new IWB in class or software, you need to spend time setting the technology up for users.

With eager students waiting to take up the challenge wearing various Christmas accessories (yes it is still November but they are future primary teachers) I explained the mission and set each group off in five minute intervals.

The buzz of excitement was tremendous and once they had all departed I logged on to GPSMission and sat back to await the various media to come flooding in as the students worked their way around the different missions.

Well it was too good to be true, only one group managed to get a GPS signal and all the other groups were not able to engage in the activity. They were disappointed but not as disappointed as I was. Why did it work earlier and not now? Why would it not pick up the GPS signal? Was it because they started off with the wireless connected rather than 3G? In my search for an answer I came up with the following:

Fix GPS (macrumors)

Here's how you fix it:

- Go to settings, general, auto-lock, change it from 1 Minute to NEVER
- Go to settings, general, reset, reset network settings (THIS WILL REBOOT YOUR IPHONE)
- Go outside, in a clear place with NO tree's, buildings, or anything blocking your view of the sky
- Open "MAPS", click NO on all that wi-fi, then click the little gps icon, and let it sync up with the satellites (this could take a few minutes)

I tried the above and it still is not working. So went back to the thought that is is because the wireless was activated first but Apple say that GPS works on wireless and 3G so that does not match with my theory.

GPS (Global Positioning System) technology uses information from earth-orbiting satellites to find locations. A-GPS (Assisted GPS) on iPhone 3GS goes a step further, finding the closest satellites to more quickly identify your position. If you’re not within a clear line of sight to a GPS satellite, iPhone finds you via Wi-Fi. If you’re not in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot, iPhone finds you using cellular towers. The size of a location circle tells you how accurately iPhone is able to calculate that location: The smaller the circle, the more accurate the location. iPhone also offers a built-in digital compass that automatically repositions maps to match the direction you’re facing

I am currently testing out different settings to ascertain which gives the best and most reliable GPS signal and will amend post with findings.

Now it was not only technology that let me down but my own assumptions that students would be able to work the iPhones as they are all digital natives and I think it is a simple device to operate. This assumption was incorrect as the iPhone is not like your normal mobile devices just like an apple mac is not like a standard PC. Time is required to acclimatise with the device and how it works. In my eagerness to get students to undertake the mission I forgot to teach them the basic IT skills first: how to access their email to send media, how to use voice recorder, how to use video, how to use the touch screen etc... Things I take for granted were not demonstrated which was a large error on my part and made me reflect on my theory that technology should not just be put into educator's hands they should be taught how it will deepen their learning and how to use it. A bit like the government putting IWBs into classrooms but not providing the training to accompany it.

On reflection of some of the problems the students encountered, where they said they could not send media as an account had not been set up. This was due to the students selecting the 'mail' icon on the device which is matched to a specific email account. This had not been set up as I presumed the students would use the Internet to open their own email accounts and send me the information. The students did not take this route whereas they saw the 'mail' option would not connect and presumed it did not work. My mindset with technology is always to try another route when things fail, however, this is not the way all think and even our digital natives took the barrier route rather than the detour. To counteract this happening again I assigned all handsets to their email accounts that I had previously set up earlier in the day when I thought I was organised! This is a much better system as it means students only use the accounts that are set up by the teacher providing a safer learning device.

My journey through implementing handheld learning is not a straight road to the destination but more like the hills of Scotland: rough and rugged with twisting paths that lead to unknown destinations.

If all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all.

Dan Rather

2020 and Beyond

2009-11-19T18:47:00.001Z

Futurelab (2007). 2020 and Beyond. UK: Bristol

Futurelab's 2020 report tries to predict what the future of education will be with a vision for more personalised education. They question:

To what extent are we prepared, as a society and as educators, for the massive changes in human capabilities that digital technologies are likely to enable in the next 13 years?
To what extent are our future visions for education based upon assumptions about humanity, society and technology that are no longer valid?
To what extent can we, as educators, help to shape the developments of technology in order to enhance human development?

To what extent can we, as educators, help to shape the developments of technology in order to enhance human development?

If educators are to shape the future they are the ones that need to be engaged with the latest and futuristic technologies at the early stages rather than wait for the top down approach where devices are placed into classrooms with no knowledge of the true purpose of learning.

Douglas Adams states:

'the best way we can predict the future is to build it'

This is where I think my role as a lecturer in primary education comes into being and one that I question every time I visit students in schools. I perceive my role as introducing future technologies and developing ways in which they can be embedded in education with my students, however, when I visit schools and see one antiquated computer in classrooms running Sherston's maths, two IWBs for the whole school in 'quiet' rooms, ICT suites with scheduled once a week slots etc, I wonder why I am bothering as the students will not be able to implement many of the tools and ideas we use at University. If I were to take the route of 'let's prepare them for what's out there' then my course would not be 'building the future' but simply maintaining the past. Our students teachers are the ones who will change the future of teaching and their enthusiasm and ideas should be build upon not buried under the foundations of the past.

So what is the future? Personalisation and integrated technology are high on the list. By 2020 technology will be embedded and distributed in most objects. Mobile phones, MP3 players, PDAs etc will become discrete objects invisibly integrated into our clothes and accessories. How will this impact on education? Will we still be sitting in rows being tested on our knowledge within or will we be tested on our ability to use use tools to assist our knowledge and analyse it? Will the written or typed word still be seen as 'the' method of assessing learning or will children be allowed to choose their preferred method of showing their understandings? Will learning be still confined to the place called 'school' or will learning be at the time and place that meets the learner's needs?

'The future is already here, it is just unevenly distributed'. (Gibson: 30)

Many of the questions about the future are already being answered in small educational pockets in society where brave educationalists are willing to take the plunge and implement learning that moves away from the Victorian past to how our children learn in their present environment and in some cases how they could learn in the future. Tom Barrett's innovative teaching is one of the small pockets of present and future teaching and learning that is out there where Tom is creating vibrant environments for children and teachers to communicate, collaborate and learn. Time Ryland is another exciting educator who's futuristic learning is exciting, engaging and a place where children can truly connect.

Predicting the future is not simple and if it were we would be prepared rather than have it thrown at us. But that is what makes the future exciting: being unpredictable. If we knew what was around the corner we would maybe never go that that route. The future is about embracing and working with change to meet young learner's needs rather than ignore and stay in the past.

Radio Show - Successful Learners

2008-11-17T22:55:00.002Z

A Curriculum For Excellence advocates that children should develop in the four capacities: successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.

Creating a radio show with children addresses these four capacities with a heavy emphasis on 'successful learners' as detailed below:

Enthusiasm and motivation for learning: creating a radio show with children is an exciting medium to engage children in the learning process. By providing a goal, audience and purpose, children will become motivated to participate in a role that suits their learning style and capability.
Determination to reach high standards of achievement: providing an audience for a radio show, whether this be another class, whole school or a global audience, places importance on the standard that the children’s work must reach. Children want others to listen and praise their shows, they want people to come back and tune in again. This will only occur if their radio shows meet a specific standard.
Openess to new thinking and ideas: radio shows are not static they must adapt to news and events as they happen. Children need to be adaptable to their listeners’ needs. There is no point in doing the same show every week as listeners would soon tune out. To keep the show interesting children need to listen to each others ideas and also the views of their audience.
Use literacy, communication and numeracy skills: these three skills are addressed through the radio show in different aspects. Children develop their literacy skills as they create scripts for each show where different styles of writing are taking into consideration; informal for the DJS and formal for the news reporters. A radio show is all about communicating news, views and entertaining the listeners. Children have to learn how to use the tools to communicate and create a show that is not just a talking narrative but an entertaining auditory medium. Although numeracy skills are not as prominent as the other two skills, they are still apparent through the use of the technology where timing and percentages are important aspects as children edit recordings and work out specific timings of various parts of the show to ensure it stays within a specific time limit.
Use technology for learning: creating a radio show requires the use of various technologies from digital voice recorders, microphones, recording and editing software, music making software and Web 2.0 tools. Once the skills in using the various technology has been developed, the technology then becomes learning tools rather than technical ones.
Think creatively and independently: creativity is at the heart of a radio show. Children need to ‘create’ a show incorporating new ideas, music, interviews, questions etc… through taking on different roles. Withing these roles children may be required to work independently to create an aspect of the show where they will record and edit their contribution.
Learn independently and as part of a group: although children have individual roles to undertake, for example, DJ, news reporter, music maker etc… they are all working towards one goal: a collaborative radio show.
Make reasoned evaluations: the whole process of creating a radio show requires continual evaluation from discussion what aspects to include at the planning stage to which aspects to remove at the editing stage.
Link and apply different learning in new situations: there are many aspects of a radio show that enable new learning and skills to develop. Children can change roles with each show to develop new skills or can learn new concepts as the theme of each show changes. Radio shows are not static learning environments but active ones.

MixBook

2008-11-09T20:33:00.002Z

Mixbook is another online tool that creates a photo book/album. When I first looked at this tool a year ago I dismissed it as I was wanting a tool that incorporated audio too and this did not fit the criteria.

Looking at a tool with tunnel vision limits the true potential and capabilities that can be offered. When viewing any source, one should look at how it can fit into different aspects of the curriculum rather than just one.

Mixbook is an excellent visual representation of images and text in a book format. The example below does not do it justice as a visual representation of a book. To view the extended version then click HERE where the user has to turn the pages. This interactive aspect, rather than slideshow aspect, brings the book alive.

The example I created below will hopefully develop as members of VOTW add their personal page. That's the beauty of Mixbook, it allows collaboration. You can invite others in and they can add to your book. Collaboration can not happen at the same time as the second person will be alerted that a user is already editing the book. This eliminates children working collaboratively at the same time on different machines but it does not eliminate collaboration. Children can still work together on the same book taking different roles. One can be researcher of information that they save to a shared area, one can be retriever or creator of images that is saved to a shared area, another could be writer who writes up the researcher's information in own words whereas another could be designer of the MixBook.

This would result in a collaborative project that meets the needs of individuals within a group as each child takes on a role they can develop a sense of achievement. Although each member has a individual role to take the group still need to collaborate to ensure their final product gells together.

What I like about collaborative projects, using technology, that enable children to work together but at their own machine, is that everyone is participating. When you place two or more children around one machine not all are actively engaged in the learning process. There is only one mouse which is normally controlled by the most able child. Yes, it is true, children can learn for this able child but active participation by all needs to be questioned. Also, children learn by doing not just observing.

MixBook is not limited to collaboration within a class it could be collaboration within a school or with another school. A school could create an account and use MixBook as an electronic newsletter of events, display of work etc that have occurred at the school for each year group. A class can work together to create a book with each child contributing to a page pertaining to class project, environment, collaborative story, instruction etc. Children can use MixBook to create a collaborative project with an exchange school where time and location will no longer be a barrier to the collaboration.

Although the collaborative aspect is an excellent feature, MixBook is also an individual tool where children can create their own books and personalise. These books are another way to represent their learning, knowledge and understanding which can be shared with the world or a selected audience.

Digital tools are what children use at home to represent their meanings. They create, edit, remash and produce but at school traditional tools are the main method with technology being an add-on for some. I am not advocating that the traditional tools should be thrown aside, what I am saying is technology has a place in the classroom if we can look at the tools available and remove the walls of the tunnel so that we can see the opportunities of embedding digital learning in the classroom.

| View | Create Your Own Photoproject

Mobile For What?

2008-10-07T22:34:00.002+01:00

What do you use your mobile for? There are many uses and some people only use a limited array of the tools available. Vote below to find out more.

online casino Polls

Mobile Phones - Past, Present & Future

2008-10-07T21:02:00.003+01:00

This short video, which I found at 5min, gives an overview of the transformation of mobile phones over the years. I managed to spot fifteen of the mobile phones I have purchased over the years. It is amazing how technology has rapidly changed and what the predictions for the future are. How many mobiles can you spot that you have purchased over the years?

The Evolution of Mobile Phones

Your Digital Trace!

2008-10-07T17:27:00.002+01:00

Do you know all the places where there is a digital trace of yourself on the Internet? Googling your name can bring up some but is a tiresome task plodding through it. I stumbled over 123people today and tried my name. Where I thought I knew I had placed information about myself I suddenly found many more places. What alarmed me most was finding pictures of myself. For those that know me and my online presence will know that I do not place my own picture on the internet but use an avatar. To find pictures placed on people's sites without my permission was a bit upsetting. What do I do now? Email the people and ask for the pictures to be removed? Leave it and accept that this is life? I would like to hear your views but before you fire away why not go over and type your own name and see what comes up.

Test

2008-10-01T19:09:00.001+01:00

Digital Video With Children

2008-08-30T20:24:00.003+01:00

Digital video is an excellent tool to not only capture learning but enable creativity. The video below is an excellent example of how digital video can create a learning context through very short clips that are edited together. This video also reveals the depth of planning that is required before going 'on location'.

The use of Technologies is part of children’s lives. Everyday our ‘digital natives’ use technology to communicate, collaborate, problem solve, create, innovate, entertain or simply to do an everyday task out with the school environment. It is our jobs, as educators, to embrace this style of learning and develop ways to engage children in the learning process through using teaching methods that reflect 21st Century learning.

“Being skilled in using ICT is essential is children and young people are to be effective contributors, and to communicate and interact on a global scale.”

(LTScotland. (2008) Cover Paper For Draft Experiences And Outcomes In Technologies.
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/curriculumforexcellence/outcomes/technologies/index.asp)
(Date retrieved: 21st August 2008)

Through the use of digital media, children will have the opportunity to develop Language skills through storyboarding, questioning, reasoning and presentation. The use of technology also affords opportunities for collaboration and creativity as advocated in A Curriculum For Excellence where:

“Young people should find their learning challenging, engaging and motivating. The curriculum should encourage high aspirations and ambitions for all. At all stages, learners of all aptitudes and abilities should experience an appropriate level of challenge, to enable each individual to achieve his or her potential. They should be active in their learning and have opportunities to develop and demonstrate their creativity.”

(LTScotland. (2004) The Curriculum Review Group 2004: A Curriculum For Excellence. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/11/20178/45862

(Date retrieved: 21st August 2008)

How does digital video fit into A Curriculum for Excellence? Read Moving Image and A Curriculum For Excellence by Angus Digital Media Centre for a clear overview.

Why Are We Teaching?

2008-08-30T19:33:00.002+01:00

Why are you going into the classroom on Monday? Is it for the money or is it because you believe in many reason to be there? Watch below and see if you believe.

What A Load Of Wiki!

2008-06-14T10:31:00.005+01:00

Wikis are an effective tool to enable collaborative work within the school setting or with others around the world and allow children to share their work outside the four classroom walls.

Wikis can be used in two ways - show and display or collaboration. Show and display is the most common method as it allows children to display their work on the Internet so their friends and family can view or to share with their partner schools around the world.

An example of a school using wikispaces as 'show and display' can be seen at The High School of Dundee's Junior School wikispace. Here you will see how each year group has their own area to display their ICT work.

An example of a school using wikispaces as a collaborative tool, within the school setting, can be seen at The High School of Dundee's Junior School RadioHigh. The children use this wikispace to create collaborative radio shows.

Finally, an example of using wikispaces to collaborate and 'show and display' can be seen at Voices Of The World where schools around the world work together to connect our children.

Let's Get Talking

2008-06-14T08:35:00.004+01:00

The use of the voice as a means of presentation online by children is possible in this world where the written and typed word are the main means of communication. One way this is possible is through the online tool voki where children, and adults, can create an animated character that talks.

Here are some examples of vokis being used in education:

1. Teacher's using the tool for personal use - see my voki to top right of this blog;

2. Children using voki to introduce each other by telling 8 random facts about themselves at the High School of Dundee;

3. Children using voki to connect with others around the world at Voices Of The World;

4. Using voki as a school mascot to develop listening skills and engage children in the learning process.;

5. Modern Languages - learn words, listen in French and translate into English etc'

6. To introduce what the children are going to learn today as below (WALT & WILF):

Get a Voki now!

Legitimate Peripheral Participation - Situated Learning

2008-05-04T20:44:00.005+01:00

This grand title, Legitimate Peripheral Participation, sounds better placed in a law book than in education, however, the addition of, Situated Learning, to the title gives the game away. This book reflects the work of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger in the late 80's early 90's. Reading a book published in 1991 is a contrast from my normal repertoire where I am normally looking forward and finding what will be happening next in Education. However, to look forward, a backward step is always required to understand what came before and how to build on it.

Lave and Wenger theory of learning, back in the early 90's was that a move from viewing learning as acquisition of certain forms of knowledge to seeing it as a social relationship where situations and participation and the keys to learning through Communities Of Practice. Lave and Wenger believed that the best way to learn is through working with others where learning is distributed amongst peers rather than individualised and stored in the heads of individuals. Learning is not seen as a discrete body of abstract knowledge but about engaging in the learning process with others. This has similarities to Vygotsky's sociocultural approach that incorporates Marxist theories where culture provides the children with the means to, what to think and how to think. According to Vygotsky, children learn through shared problem solving with others, parent, teacher, sibling or peers where the child is guided initially with knowledgeable parent etc until some responsibility can be taken by the child.

Learning in this way is referred to, by Vygotsky, as working in the Zone of Proximal Development where cognitive development occurs through interaction with others. Lave and Wenger's Legitimate Peripheral Participation mirrors Vygotsky's theory in that through working with others in actional contexts, children can construct knowledge.

Etienne Wenger explains the three dimensions to a Community Of Practice:

What is it about? - joint participation

How it functions? - mutual engagement

What capability it has produced? - shared repertoire of resources, routines, vocab etc.

Reflecting on these three dimensions and my own collaborative projects, there are many similarities to the Voices Of The World (VOTW) project where:

What is it about? - children around the world participating together each month in a global project to unite our children using their voices rather than text.

How it functions? - through agreement by teachers a monthly task is undertaken using the same skills and rules as all involved.

What capability it has produced? - through sharing the same resource, wikispace, routine and media.

Using the term 'collaborative' for the above project could be said to focus more on technical knowledge, skills and creating a product to share with others in a show and display area where children can learn from one another. Communities of Practice, however, are more than skills and knowledge, they are also:

- relationships

- identity

- commitments

- memories

Building communities with technology, for our children to learn and for like minded educators to learn from one another, enable learning to expand the term situated from the immediate community to the global one.

A Task For My Viking Educators!

2008-04-29T19:31:00.002+01:00

Below is the instructions for my viking educators to create their own vokis. Have fun.

| View | Upload your own

The New Technologies Guidelines

2008-04-29T15:09:00.002+01:00

The new Technologies Guidelines issued by Learning Teaching Scotland are a breath of fresh air to the out-dated 5-14 Guidelines. The 5-14 Guidelines were a good source of knowing what skills children were to develop when they were first published in 2000. Due to the advancements in technology, the skills the chidlren have all ready acquired through using technology outwith school and the drive of the Curriculum For Excellence where creativity and active learning should now be at at the heart of teaching and learning, the new guidelines provide a framework for implementing a more creative approach with Technology.

The slideshow below provides and overview of the new guidelines with a closer look at the Early Years level which is applicable to Nursery and Primary 1 in Scottish schools.

| View | Upload your own

Progressive Inquiry In Computer Supporte Collaborative Learning (CSILE)

2008-03-18T15:45:00.003Z

Facilitation of progressive inquiry at school appears to require changing in the traditional division of cognitive labor between the teacher and the students and encouraging students themselves take on responsibility for cognitive (e.g., questioning, explaining) and metacognitive (e.g., goalsetting, monitoring, and evaluating) aspects of inquiry (Bereiter and Scardamalia, 1987). Teachers should not, however, rely too much on students’ unguided creativity, but should intervene by providing pedagogical guidance and an expert-model if students are not able to make progress themselves. Therefore, in order to productively participate in CSCL, in each pedagogical situation balance should be found between teacher-controlled and student-controlled aspects of inquiry (Hakkarainen, Lipponen, & Järvelä, in press).

In traditional classroom learning situations the goals of the learning are clear, concrete and mainly set up by the teacher. In a progressive-inquiry classroom, students have to self-generate their learning agenda and are also responsible for setting up goals.

This may look like giving children too much freedom to learn what they think they need to learn. Delve a little deeper and it is clear that this is not the case. Rather than teach children in the traditional way and churn through page after page of a course book because it fits the exam, why not find out what the children know and need to learn. It may be that the children are ready to take the exam tomorrow.

Giving children the opportunity to reflect on what they know and plan what they need to find out is actually harder work than picking up the textbook and teaching from that. The teacher needs to still have broad aims and objectives working within a framework which is then developed with the needs of the children.

Reflection of how we learn and how we teach is not a bad thing. I know that my reflections are highlighting that the web 2.0 is being used too much as a show and retrieve model rather than true collaboration between others. Rather than communicating and producing individual products it is now time for mass collaboration to create one end product!

Collaborative Technology For Facilitating Progressive Inquiry

2008-03-18T13:40:00.002Z

'A fundamental aspect of the design of computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments is to provide users tools for posting knowledge productions into a shared working space and providing tools for progressive discourse interaction between the users.' (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1993)

Today's free Web 2.0 tools enable 'computer supported collaborative learning environments' if used in the correct context. Take blogs for example, many are used by educators as an electronic diary to show what what is happening at school. My school blog is exactly this, a place to inform children and parents what is happening at our school. Our school radio blog, RadioHigh, also displays our shows as they are published. In other words, the tools are being used as a means to share with others what we do but with no collaboration.

Not all our blogs are purely show and tell areas but area areas to enable communication with others outwith our school. Our bear blogs allow our children to learn about each other's cultures through bear diaries. Again, they are still a place to publish and show with some aspects of communication through the comment options of each post. In reality, the comments are not really providing the children with 'true' communication due to the inconsistent approach that is implemented by some teachers where the comments are placed randomly with no feedback. More a case of by placing a comment on the blog this is satisfying a tick box. Although the blogging aspect has not produced in depth collaboration, this is not the fault of the children as they are using the tools as they have been taught. The change come in the teacher approach where modelling good practice will sew the seeds of effective collaboration.

The other collaborative tool that I implement at school is wikispaces which provide an excellent tool for collaboration and for show and tell too. True collaboration on the workpieces is taking place through our RadioHigh wikispace where the children work together, outwith school, to create their radio show using the main page as the collaborative script and the discussion area to communicate with one another. I am now currently working on a collaborative activity using wikispace with three countries in Europe that will provide a space to develop their knowledge rather than just share their knowledge mirroring the following approach that emphasis:

'the importance of engaging students in processes of question- and explanation-driven inquiry by imitating practices of scientific research communities. Progressive inquiry entails that new knowledge is not simply assimilated but constructed through solving problems of explanation and understanding (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1993).'

Innovative Technologies For Collaboraitve Learning

2008-03-18T11:36:00.005Z

ITCOLE project focuses on developing innovative pedagogical models, design principles and technology for collaborative knowledge building to be used in European education.

The project has three key scientific and technical objectives:
Develop pedagogical models of collaborative knowledge building for European education.
Develop a modular knowledge-building environment to support collaborative learning.
Evaluate, test and disseminate the environment in European schools in order to build meaningful pedagogical practices and to advance the use of collaborative learning technology.

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is playing an increasing important role in education. The idea that meaningful learning takes place in communities and that knowledge is not static but situated in teams, organisations and social networks is widely acknowledged. Although this is true and many e-learning systems have appeared over the years, many of these environments are designed to manage and share learning materials or work rather than engage in active learning and knowledge building where:

'the users neither merely deliver knowledge nor are they just skimming or 'surfing' through knowledge; they are actively participants in the process of knowledge creation.'

As the use and integration of network technologies increase, society changes and adapts and tunes in to survive. Are we preparing our children for this change where:

'In a knowledge society competence and expertise can no longer be described as the skills of one individual only, but are instead relying on the collaborative expertise of teams and networks, a socially shared cognition and capability.'

As a consequence there needs to be a change in the pedagogical philosophy in education to move more to a more scientific inquiry approach of contributing to collaborative processes of questioning, producing theories and explanations and critically evaluating new understandings. In this approach children are constantly co-constructing knowledge through mutual engagement.

The Progressive Inquiry model acknowledges the socially shared character of enquiry with the following key elements:

Reflecting on this model, does this mirror how I use learning environments and collaboration? I am not entirely sure as I feel many of our school blogs are merely display areas without true collaboration and knowledge building. This is an area I feel I would like to and can develop over the remainder of the school session with the children. Yes it has been good to be publishers to the world but let get down to using the tools to expand our knowledge further.

Finding The Ties That Bind

2008-03-12T18:24:00.005Z

Harold Edgerton, the inventor of the strobe light, once explained:

'when he wanted to to find something out, first he would ask around to see whether anybody knew the answer, then he would try it out in the lab himself, and only then would he try looking the information up in a book or library.'

There are many similarities to today's networked communities to the networked labs of the past. Today we use our social electronic networks to connect, learn and share with others. Children are using this technology at home to find answers to their homework by first asking someone through MSN. If unsuccessful they 'google' it. Only when these methods fail do they revert to the textbooks. It is not just youngsters who are using the technology to get instant answers but adults too. I can't remember the last time I looked up a book to source the information I am looking for. It is not just the electronic aspect that appeals to me but the now anytime. anywhere aspect the many of our mobile devices are offering. When travelling to work with my colleague, she drives, we have many discussions and many times questions arise that we don't have the answers to, rather than wait until we get to school I 'google' the question with my iPhone. If this does not work, depending on the nature of the question, I email or text someone who I know will respond fairly quickly.

Knowledge building through communities is not a new concept as humans have collaborated over the past centuries to achieve tasks that any one person could not achieve alone. In the world of business and education, in the past, the process of collective action was primarily a 'top down control structure' with management giving orders at the top and the floor workers working! This style was also the 'teaching of the past' style where the teacher is the 'manager' telling the children what they are going to learn with the children being the 'workers' where they produced the completed textbook tasks. This 'top down' approach to teaching is still evident in many schools today as it is secure, gets results and is in a comfort zone. There are also times when this approach is the best suited for the learning environment but is it the best for every lesson? Should children be subjected to didactic teaching the majority of their learning week?

The 'top down' model, in business, moved towards flatter organisational structures developing management information system (MIS) where everyone worked together to collate and store information. Although this system was more favourable than the 'top down' approach the end product was merely a collaborative database system. Nothing really wrong with that, look at wikipedia, the on-line collaborative encyclopedia which has a mass of information due to the collaborative efforts of many across boundaries. Where MIS approaches fall down is where data is churned in by individuals to create a vast database of information without acquiring any knowledge of the subject due to purely inputting information.

There are similarities to this approach in many of the aspects of schooling that children undertake, and I for one am guilty of this approach. Take for example how I used to teach children how to create an interactive map using Google Maps. Thinking I was doing well linking it to a context, the children either created an interactive map of Mark Beaumont's journey around the world or located where all the schools for our global project, Voices Of The World, were from.

On reflection of the MIS model where:

'Until information has been comprehended and interpreted to the point that it can be applied to a situation, it is not knowledge.'

This led me to re-address how I taught interactive maps with more looking at the locations in comparison to where we live and places we know on the map than simply searching information and placing placemarks on the map.

Learning and collaboration are not just about sharing information but about building communities that bind us together. In the project Voices Of The World, there are two sides to the coin: a sub-bread of the MIS system and COP (Community Of Practice) (Lave Wenger. 1991). The Voices Of The World area is the MIS system where schools have worked on a task that will be part of a global outcome in that their children's voices will represent their school and location from the world. This wikispace where the final products are hosted each month could be classes as an Internet page as their is no live collaboration happening on the site; it is just an area to share and display to the naked eye.

For those that manage to get past the 'show and display' aspect of the Voices Of The World wikispace, they will question how these schools manage to unite each month over time and space. This is where the COP comes into being through the teachers' network. Here you will find teachers collaborating, sharing and working together to unite our children together. The community is vibrant where 'learning how to learn is the price of entry into this knowledge-building community' where tools, activities and people constitute the three elements as defined by Activity Theory. These three elements are interdependent where a change to one affects the others, for example, when a new social media tool is introduced each month, participants need to learn and adjust to the new tools as they implement them into their new activity.

Finding the ties that bind is not always that easy. Take for example, a ning network I set up for teachers involved in bear exchanges with my school. This was created to enable the teachers to communicate and collaborate with one another. A place where I could hopefully answer many teachers' questions just once rather than privately in emails. A place to learn from one another and make more connections with other. If you look you will see this did not happen due to no leadership, no desire and no commitment. This community were not ready for this collaborative technology preferring to communicate through the closed walls of their emails as this is the technology that they are accustomed to. Children, on the other hand, have no problems with collaborative technologies and willing embrace it.

Sometimes if you believe something is worth building and the only way to be part is through the community you build the perseverance is all that is needed. The teachers' network for Voices Of The World started with 5 active participants and now has just under 60. Many teachers who joined initially communicated with me through email. However, through using the network to constantly place my communications to the community, the network is a vibrant area for like-minded educationalist to work together.

Let's Count The Voices!

2008-03-06T11:11:00.006Z

Voices Of The World is still growing with more teachers joining every week. The latest recruit is from Pakistan showing the true communication aspect of the Internet where one person plants a seed that grows and develops through networks. Not only does this seed connect people it also cross-breads within the community to form new species or partnerships.

Creating a community where it is not just publishing and retrieving information is easy and that is what the Voices Of The World wikispace initially looks like: a place to display work from schools around the world. However, if you scratch the surface and manage to get to the actual teachers' network you find a vibrant community of like minded people working together to create a similar end product, conversing with each other to learn from one another's knowledge and expertise, sharing new ideas of practice and forming new partnerships and projects. To me, this is the true community, the hub of activity, the place to meet, learn and share in our flat world.

This global community across the world is being captured in a nutshell by John Johnson from Sandaig Primary with a visual map of where the Voices Of The World Community are from in the form of the Google Map below. Credit goes to John for capturing the people in our community as below:

Although our Voices Of The World community has many branches of activity, the root is connecting our children together using their voices. Last month's task is now on-line where the children were to say the numbers 1 - 10 in their own language accompanied by images. All contributions are now available at the Voices Of The World wikispace and what you will see that although we are effectively all singing from the same hymn book by following the instructions provided, like voices, which sound different, the outcomes look different due to each school's creativity.

One of my favourite contributions for this February's task is from Lebanon due to the numbers not looking like numbers as we know them adding to my learning alongside the children.

Empowerment - eTwinning - Oslo

2008-03-01T19:12:00.000Z

Each year the Time Magazine selects a 'person of the year' and in 2006 the picture on the front cover was not the same on every publication of this magazine due to a mirror being there. The reasoning behind this was that everyone was important due to the development of Web 2.0 where everyone can be a creator, publisher or critic. This simple idea on the front cover of the above magazine sums up in a nutshell the power of society through today's technology tools.

Back in July 16th 1969 the Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the moon with a computer power of the same capacity of today's modern cars!

Back in 1969 teachers used chalk and talk to teach. Now they have interactive whiteboards that are being used in the same way but with electricity! Many teachers are using ICT to do the same things differently rather than new teaching and learning contexts where there is more: open learning across the world, problem solving, communication, collaboration, student production, authentic learning and whole school engagement.

The above points were highlighted at a recent eTwinning workshop in Oslo, Norway. Reflecting on the above I do not categorise myself in the above but I do see many teachers still embedding the technology into the curriculum as an electronic version of the teaching they know rather than the teaching of today and the future. It is easy to turn pages into electronic versions or change the output of research into a PowerPoint. Not only is this easy but it is in the comfort zone of 'this is how we have always taught and it has always worked well'. To remain in this zone makes our schools appear like electronic time capsules to children. In their world outside the walls of the school, they are collaborating, communicating, sharing and learning with their friends through their social networking where location is not a barrier. They are creating and producing to an audience: does school reflect this?

Today's technology enables empowerment for all not just those who can or those who will allow. Education has controlled empowerment for many centuries with the teacher being in charge. Teaching in the 21st century is now shifting control to children in a structured environment where a more equal playing field evolves.

What's Your Type?

2008-02-26T17:42:00.001Z

So according to behavioural pshycologists Dona Dawson who was commissioned to undertake research in social media behaviours at realbuzz, I am an 'enthusiast'. I suppose it it better than being a 'self confessor' or a 'cynical clown'.

There are five different social media behaviours that people personify themselves as with 'philosophers' and 'critics' being the other two. To ascertain which group you belong to you answer a small set of multiple choice questions to reveal your identity.

Now here I was thinking my identity was safe and the real me was hiding, like the wizard fro the Wizard Of OZ, behind a big machine, but in my case hopefully in a more friendlier way. How little did I know that my image was still breaking through the barrier or the screen.

For those that are working with me on many global projects and for those that met me first through Web 2.0 then met me in real life. I wonder if you have a picture in your mind what you think I am. For those that met me, did I come over as a different person or was I still the same. Very interested to know so go on, tell me if I am an 'enthusiast' or if I am portrayed as something different in your mind.

Voices Of The World - January

2008-02-04T09:04:00.000Z

Voices Of The World has grown from strength to strength with new members from around the world joining the VOTW social network each week. Each month a new task is given to members to connect our children together using their voices and a different tool from the internet.

January's task was to contribute to a collaborative voicethread then create one for the participant's school related to customs. The tasks have strict criterias to ensure that language is not a barrier. Below you can view the collaborative voicethread and to see each individual contribution then go the the VOTW wikispace.

Living Their Lives On-line

2008-01-26T20:27:00.000Z

Frontline's , an American documentary show, looks into the lives of today's children who are growing up on-line in networked societies. Is this good or bad? In their video, which is well worth a watch, teenagers talk about how the on-line environment appeals to them as no one is telling them what to do as no one is in charge.

According to Frontline, 90% of American teenagers are on-line and this number is growing. For teenagers the Internet is a place for self-expression, a place to complain about their parents/school and a means to connect with one another. Teenagers today, are the first generation to come of age in a virtual world outside the reach of their parents of teachers. Their is a shift from the Internet being controlled by adults to teenagers where they live their lives on-line with their network of friends. It is a place for them to go and hook up as a continuation of their existence. To one boy on the documentary, he related the Internet to being as important as currency as without it you can not survive!

The downside to this immediate virtual world is that classrooms do not represent this fast paced life resulting in many children finding it difficult to stay focused during a traditional lesson.

What is appealing to many children about the Internet is the chance to create a new identity for themselves. The documentary highlights how one girl takes this new identity to an alarmingly new levels to become something she can't be in the really world where she changes from the quiet bullied child to the next goth queen in poses that would better in a male magazine than a fourteen year old's social network page. On the other side of the coin, another girl who is popular with her peers. clever, funny and witty becomes the real her on-line where she can stop hiding behind this 'fun to be with' individual to a quiet, serious girl who can talk openly on-line. As positive as this may sound where it looks like the Internet is allowing someone to be the 'real' person they are, further watching of documentary reveals that this young girl is actually connecting with a network of friends who all believe in anorexia! If is quite shocking and part of you thinks, this can only happen in America, but I am sure this is what happens all over the world.

If you read my blog you will know that I am a true advocate for technology but what I watched next on the documentary was extremely sad where a child committed suicide due to the cyberbullying. Constantly being told he was a loser, gay or made fun of whilst he was desperately trying to fit in with this on-line society, this young boy decided to end his life. To make matters worse, his father found out that his son had communicated with another unknown friend on ways to kill himself looking at suicide sites. Alarming, disturbing, shocking are all the emotions I felt watching this where it appears that children are leading a truly different life from what their parents and teachers know them to be.

There is something about reading words, you read them over and over and truly believe what is in front of you.

It used to be that when a child was bullied they came home to their safe haven away from the bullies, however, the virtual world means that bullying continues within their own home through the technology.

Living in today's world is not easy for today's children. Constantly we hear that children are better off and can ask for nothing with all the playstations, plasma TVs. laptops, mobile phones etc that they have in their possessions, but, do we realise the pressure they have to be seen as accepted by not just lots but many online. In the outside world there are adults who can sometimes spot bullying or problems, however, the on-line life of our children has no concerned adults watching their moves online when they have the door closed in their bedrooms in their connected worlds.

Did You Know?

2008-01-20T22:18:00.000Z

Preparing For Our Globalised Future

2008-01-20T19:16:00.000Z

Social Media Tools to use in Education:

Animoto - audio & visual tool - time limit.

Audacity - sound recorder and editor.

Blogger - blog tool.

Google Maps - interactive maps.

Classtools - random name/word picker plus more.

Cre8txt - hand-held keyboard with SMS text translation and predictive text.

High School Blog - Junior School blog.

Ning - social network

OnetrueMedia - audio & visual presentation tool.

Slideshare - upload PowerPoints to share on web with option to add audio.

Tumblr - mini version of a blog with many features.

Twitter - 150 word maximum communication tool.

Voki - animated avatar with voice.

Wikispaces - collaborative working area.

Youtube - search videos or upload own to place on blog, wiki etc.

Zamzar - converts files to different formats.

Classtools

2008-01-17T18:22:00.000Z

Just testing Classtools to see what it looks like and can do on a blog site.

Click here for full screen version

PowerPoint On Mobile Phones

2008-01-16T18:13:00.001Z

Viewing Microsoft products on mobile phones is not always possible due to many mobile phones, including the iPhone, not wanting to converse with this software. This is all very well for those who just want to use their phones as, how should I put this...phones. However, for those that want to exploit the full potential of mobile devices for personal and professional use I would like to be able to view PowerPoints on my mobiles and it can be done.

Initially, I thought it would be a simple process of uploading the PowerPoint to Slideshare and viewing online. This was not possible as you can not view any of the PowerPoints on this site on my iPhone or my son's Sony Ericsson. Not to be deterred I played around with two methods: picture and video.

The first method, picture, is the quickest and can be done in PowerPoint. All you need to do is save the file as a JPEG File Interchange format and each slide becomes a set of files. Upload these files to your PowerPoint and view as a set of images that are neatly saved in a folder assigned for this specific PowerPoint. This is fast and effective but takes up computer memory. To try and hold on to the memory I had I thought that I could upload the pictures to Flickr and view as a slideshow. This all looked well and the pictures appeared when accessed from iPhone, however, when the slideshow option was selected no pictures were displayed due to requiring Flash which is not available on the iPhone.

The other method, video, requires the PowerPoint to be converted to an MP4 file which can then be viewed on a mobile or iPod with video functions. I downloaded the trial version of PowerPoint to DVD from Wondershare that converts ppt files to MP4 files. This process took a little longer and the downside is it will cost me money once the trial period is complete. The bonus is you can upload to YouTube and view online saving memory space in the mobile device. This is fine for those that have unlimited access to the Internet from their mobile but for those who have to pay I am sure sacrificing some memory would be the route they will take.

It looks like I will simple save my PowerPoints to JPEG File Interchange as it is much quicker and I can view my files on the move and others can view on their phones too if I send them the folder.

Put iPhone In the Box?

2008-01-10T19:54:00.000Z

The downside of the iPhone and many bog standard mobile phones is that they do not have Pocket Word, Excel etc. Now who really wants this on their phones as not really 'cool' applications in children's eyes but they are still the nuts and bolts of many documents. Now that my iPhone has become a serious part of my life, I want to be able to access all applications not just the one that are restricted to the phone. Many non-iPhone users of standard mobile phones enjoy boasting what their phones can do and the iPhone can't.

Not one to look at gadgets in the normal way but how they can work to their full potential I decided to look for ways around the iPhone's restriction to iTunes where you have to be hooked to a machine with iTunes loaded. This is fine when at home but rather fiddly as every time you want to view a document on the iPhone you need to hook up to iTunes. If at school, where iTunes are not allowed on the PCs then I would copy to memory stick to view at home. This was rather frustrating on the bus ride home where a good read of a new policy would surely make the journey less boring...

Like always there comes a moment when the light bulb ignites and a way around the problem becomes obvious: send the document as an attachment to myself which can then be opened using the iPhone's Safari browser which can view Word, Excel, HTML and PDF files in mail.

Reading the latest Health and Safety Document was now possible on the bus journey home but i have to admit the text was not the best - readable but not crystal clear. By chance I viewed a document that was sent to my email address that had been saved in HTML format and the difference between the Word and HTML one was remarkable. the reason for this is that HTML is the standard format for Web pages where it is designed for smaller screens where the browser decides how best to display the text. With this in mind I then started saving all Word files I wished to view on my iPhone as an HTML file making the clarity of the text much clearer and the read home much easier.

Reading documents is fine but there comes a time when you want to make amendments. My solution above does not cater for this due to the document being read only when viewed from an email attachment. Frustration on the bus wanting to edit documents but having to wait until I reached home where I normally forgot what the edit was to be that I had to re-read the whole document again. This is when I remembered the tool Box on the Internet that provides 1G free to upload Word, HTML, Excel, and PDF files alongside pictures, movies and music files that are supported by Safari's built-in media player.

The advantages of using Box out weight the mail system as I can:

1. edit and save documents using my mobile device;

2. view large images without them being compressed by iTunes to the size of my screen;

3. upload podcasts on the way home from school to listen to on the bus rather than relying on iTunes to sync the podcast to my iPhone for me.

4. view Box in the mobile version being m.box.net or i.box.net.

Being able to work around a restricted product and making it work as a true hand-held learning device results in strengthening the fight to provide children with hand-held learning products to enable their learning to be anytime, anyplace anywhere. A few children received iPhones for Christmas at my school. Rather than them sitting in the tray in the classroom they are told they must bring them to my class where they can be taught how to use them to their full potential - exciting times lie ahead...

Look What I Tumbled Over

2008-01-09T21:39:00.000Z

There are benefits to playing with mobile phones and reading about what can be done from a non-educationalists view is that sometimes the creative light bulb ignites and you think 'I could use this with the children'. These moments only happen if your mind is open to looking at things in a different light and being willing to change your plans that you sat up for nights on end perfecting.

Blogging was my new tool to use with the children in 2006-7 and is still a fantastic way to collaborate, share, publish and comment on what we do in school with others. I have to admit I did not go down the road of creating individual blogs for the 300+ pupils that I teach but resorted to class blogs, school blog, radio blog, bear blog and collaborative blog where the posts were checked by the class teacher to ensure the standard of work that our school strives for was still maintained. Part of me wanted to let the children free but respect for what the whole school strives for restrained me. Also, having reviewed many children's personal blogs from other schools I did not always see them used effectively rather than a glorified MSN slot. Before many of you innovative teachers comment back about all the benefits and how wrong I am, please hold back from hitting the comment button yet as we teachers should be allowed to chose the learning tool that we think is appropriate for our children and environment.

So although the children could not freely post they were able to create a post in Word, spell check their document then the teacher would proof read prior to publishing. By using this method the children realised that only their best work would be published to the world just like their best work is placed on the walls of the school. This was required to break the barrier for some from their MSN and text language giving children the ability to adapt their writing to match the context they are working just like adapting the way they talk from playground to classroom.

This standard and system was also implemented in the 'comments' section of blogging where all comments were moderated by myself. The main reason we to ensure that no inappropriate comments were placed on our school site and the other was to ensure that the children were still developing their language skills appropriately and that the comments reflected the ability of the child. Initially children did not use correct grammar or spelling with simple comments with one or two words. Knowing that these were not the standard of the children they were deleted to which the children quickly learned that what was acceptable and what was not. By implementing a 'standard' at the beginning this ensured that the social media tools we used were not just a quick means of publishing but were tools to develop the children thinking and Language skills.

Now back to the light bulb moment at the start of this post. Looking at tools for my iPhone I came across Tumblr which is a microblog. At first I thought what would the benefit be to using this when Blogger deals with my large post and Twitter deals with my short bursts. Never one to not taste a meal due to not liking the look I gave Tumblr a try and have to say I was impressed with the potential of the product. What can it do that makes me want to use it personally and with children to compliment the other two tools named above?

1. The small, simplistic style is perfect for viewing on a mobile device.

2. Adding 'text' is similar style to Blogger but you do not need to put as much meat into the product with the bonus against Twitter that it allows more than 140 characters so fits nicely in the middle. Great for children as a reflection where their thoughts do not look drowned on the Blogger layout and have a little more style than Twitter.

3. Images can be added with captions - bonus to Twitter. No need for huge post to go with images just the image and what it is about. This would be good for out Paris trip for short commentaries on the week's trip so that parent's can feel they are with child.

4. Quotes with reference is a super feature. When children are researching they can place the text in here and place a link to the page the quote appeared. This is something that we try and teach children to do but now it is combined as a feature in Tumblr. Not only do I see benefits for children with this but you can set up an area or account for research with other professionals where information and links on a specific topic appear in a concise format - big thumbs up for this part.

5. Links is similar to quotes but the text you type will be a link. So rather than referencing this becomes a resource area with all the links to the specific pages pertaining to a specific topic.

6. Chit Chat allows communication like Twitter but was unable to use this as did not have any other people to chit chat with here - still a good feature embed into the software.

7. Audio file no greater that 5 mb can be uploaded and played. Now this is a super feature that even played on my fussy iPhone.

8. Video embed codes from Youtube can be added and also played on my iPhone.

9. Accounts can be create within your account related to specific groups of people.

The whole package that Tumblr offers is very appealing not just for the ability to use on a mobile device but the simplicity to use within the classroom to enhance the learning process. I will definitely be setting up accounts for children to use initially for a research project the primary 7 children are about to participate in but also as a way of allowing the children to have personal reflection blogs on a small scale.

Watch this space.

What's In Store This Year?

2008-01-02T22:04:00.000Z

Facebook, Firefox and iPhone were the stars of 2007 where the iPhone has to be the the winner in my book. For a woman who changes her phones as often as David Beckham changes his hair styles then I think I know a little bit about what makes a excellent piece of technology.

Being gadget orientated I am always on the look out for what to buy next and with the drone of the pipes to mark the arrival of a new year it also marks the search to see what might tempt my 'gadget' eye.

Kindle - the much talked about wireless book reader by Amazon that lets you buy, download and read digital books on the go. At the moment Kindle is only available in the US and may as well stay there as to me it is just another gadget that can be found on other devices. Take my iPhone for example, or many other mobiles with large screens and Internet access, where you can easily access books via the net. Now the iPhone does have the wonderful touch device of using two fingers to enlarge the screen rather than select a zoom tool. Would I buy this product for the classroom? A instant no is the answer as it would be another device to add to the others when really we want learning to be in the hand but anytime, anyplace, anywhere. I don't think having a Kindle in your pocket will enhance the learning and teaching and will certainly not make you look like the coolest kid in the playground.

Zune is expected to be launched in the UK towards the end of the year. Zune is Microsoft's version of an iPod with a whopping maximum 80GB capacity. Sorry, have to mention the iPhone again, which already plays music, videos and displays pictures so will not be asking Santa for a Zune next year.

Sony's Network Sharing Camera looks a bit boxy and ugly to go in a girl's handbag but it does have a 5 mega-pixel camera making it better than, this is difficult to type, my iPhone which is only 2 mega-pixels. The Sony camera states it can upload to the web easily from any PC which is easier than the iphone with a few itunes restrictions which can be bypassed but is fiddly. The question is - do I need two cameras? Have to say no as get by with the iPhone one since I am no pro at photography.

Digital Memo Recorder enables you to write on normal paper that is placed on the digital recorder tablet then hook up to your laptop/PC and transfer the written or scribbled notes. If you spend a little more you can purchase software that turns the handwriting into legible text. Now this is a gadget I do like and have ordered one from Amazon. When I a listening to others at conferences or meetings I do find my mobile devices too small to work and doodle with. My previous phones enabled notes to be written with an stylus but it was a bit fiddly. The iPhone takes notes via the qwerty keyboard but not as fast as writing and you can't doodle. This looks like my answer as I do like note taking in the written format and the bonus is my notes will be turned to text when I connect to my laptop rather than having to type all I have written. This will also aid me when reading as I like to jot down various quotes or points. I am quite excited about this and hope to try this in the classroom to see what benefits it could harness - watch this space.

SanDisk Sansa TakeTV Video Player enables you to take video from your computer and watch it on your TV screen. Just download the videos to the TakeTV flash drive and plug it into the TakeTV cradle for viewing. There are no complicated set ups just plug and play as shown in the video below. Now this is a really cool piece of technology that I think will be purchased this year. Yes my iPhone does play videos beautifully, anytime, anyplace, anywhere but when sharing with many it is a tad crowded around the highly polished screen. Now at home my husband sits in the lounge with a TV screen that is far too big as it shows the pores on David Beckham's face! It would be so easy to share videos with many on his TV in a flash with this device and I am sure even my non-techno husband will think this is a winner. Now, is this suitable for schools. A few years ago I would say yes but most schools have their computers linked to projectors therefore their is no need to have this device unless your classroom is still in the dark ages with only a video player and a TV.

More Free Videos Here

I am sure there are other gadgets out there which might entice me and if you think you know one for the girl with the iPhone then let me know and I'll check it out.

Wikipedia's Rival?

2008-01-02T21:17:00.000Z

Google's new project 'Knol' to produce an index of articles on a wide variety of topics will be a direct competitor to Wikipedia. Well this is what Google hope but will it be reality? Google is certainly classed as a search engine that gets results and is one that I use every day. I very rarely use other search engines though I do teach the children at school to search using a variety to compare results, but, when in the throw of a lesson and want a quick solution we do not debate which search provider we should use we simply Google out query.

Now that Google is branching out to the 'organised' and 'contained' method of storing information where it is displayed on a page with the information rather that a list of multiple sites with the information in a variety of different forms, it may make life easier to retrieve all that one wants to know about the different tubing sizes of brass instruments! The brass player reading the 'Knol' article will know that the information is reliable due to the author of the article being displayed. Now, if the author was John Wallace then the reader would search no further as they are reading an article by a virtuoso trumpet player, however, if the article had no author, as in wikipedia, then the reader may wish to search further to compare the information to ensure it is accurate.

At the moment Knol is in Beta form and only invited authors can contribute. It looks like it will not be open to all but those with Knowledge to ensure the articles are accurate. Although a good thing to have restricted contributors it does fly in the face of Web 2.0 where we are all authors and contributors in the vast world of electronic knowledge. On the other hand, maybe this is a way to control the vast sea of publishers and ensure what we seek is valid rather than the ramblings of a disgruntled contributor.

Let The Show Begin

2007-12-19T21:00:00.000Z

RadioHigh is now firmly embeded into the Junior School at The High School of Dundee where children expect the show to be broadcast every second week. The use of the voice has developed greatly over the past year from the birth of the school radio show, children's podcasts to communicate their stories, sound stories, Ted Bear's adventures cycling around the world talking avatars and the current global project Voices Of The World.

All the above are ways to encourage children to use their voice to communicate when using technology rather than the typed or written word. The other aspect encourages children to listen to one another and reflect. Years ago in schools the listening center sat in the corner of the classroom where children were given specific listening tasks to do. These were about many topics that did not fit into the classroom theme but were sequential in their level of ability.

The listening center was soon placed in the cupboard becoming a area of the curriculum that was forgotten about. Aswell as listening the use of the voice became less important with children being assessed on a 2 - 5 minute presentation once a year about something meaningful to them. Not much practice or teaching would go into this as it was area that was done to tick a box rather than an area that was taught.

The dying art of the voice and listening fired up my enthusiasm for podcasting in its many guises. The methods I have implemented enable children to develop their talking and listening skills through contexualised, meaningful learning rather than tick box style.

If you listen to the podcast below you will hear confident individuals who have worked collaboratively to create a show for an audience. This audience are every child in the school who tune in at 10.15 on a Thursday morning in their classrooms to give the show a live broadcast feel. Not only are the audience in the classrooms but around the world due to the sharing aspect of the Internet. If children have a purpose to their learning then they will give that extra inch to make their work the best that they can.

RadioHigh was the seed that sown back in 2006 that blossomed, matured and branched off to many new species. If you do listen and want to leave a comment then why not let the children read your thoughts by posting your comment on their blog not mine at the RadioHigh site?

Subscribe Free Add to my Page

Voices Of The World Are Stars

2007-11-27T22:12:00.000Z

The theme this month in Voices Of The World was the well know nursery rhyme Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This was selected as I felt it did not matter what language a school sang this song the music would carry the connection through. Also, if a child sings the song in their own language then they get to hear the different sounds other languages or accents make.

As always the teachers involved are very enthusiastic and create fantastic end results. The final products are just arriving in but I though I would share a preview of what there is. Below is a slidecasts of a few schools I selected to create an audio and visual presentation. The best, however, can be found at the November's task for VOTW where each individual school have created a wonderful visual and audio presentation.

If you listen to the slideshow below it is worth staying tuned to the end as the children from Estonia are worth a listen to.

| View | Upload your own

EduBlog Awards 2007 - Nomination

2007-11-26T22:32:00.000Z

Voices Of The World is through to the finals of the Edublog Awards 2007.
This is a fantastic achievement and if you would like to vote for Voices Of The World project then click here: VOTW

The Bear - Necessities of Education

2007-11-21T22:22:00.001Z

If you go down to the school today you're in for a big surprise... twelve new intakes to the school in the disguise of bears! In each stage of the Junior School a bear or furry friend has travelled from afar afield as New Zealand to nearer home in Glamis to create a partnership with an exchange school. This year sees the largest intake of twelve bears to different stages in the Junior School as part of my bear exchange project which aims to use the bears as a means of comunication with others around the world. Each week a different child take their class bear home to record their adventures. Pictures and text are placed on their assigned bear blog to share with their exchange school. Through these electronic bear diaries, children at both schools can learn about one another's cultures in a fun and meaningful environment. As well as learning through the bear diaries, the children can communicate with their exchange school through using the comment's link. Finding a new entry from an exchange school on the bear blog generates great excitement with the children eager to learn more about life in another country, whether it be Sweden, Estonia, New Zealand, Netherlands, England or Scotland. Location is irrelevant as the technology provides a tool for communication and collaboration breaking down the walls of the classroom and connecting children with their peers from around the world.

Meaningful, purposeful and contextual learning are at the heart of how I teach. What better way to develop language and communication skills through creating bear stories than making a fictional character, writing the story in a jotter, getting it marked then turning the page for the next story. Who sees the work? Teacher and pupil and maybe an interested parent when the book returns home. Who sees the bear blog? The child, the teacher, the class, the school, the parents, the exchange school and the world. I am sure any teacher would agree this is what real contextualised learning is about where we are creating effective contributors, successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens. These four dimensions are all aparent in bear exchanges if the motivation and encouragement is there from the teachers too.

From the humble beginning of a bear exchange with a school in America six years ago to twelve around the world today, I can honesty say this method of learning engages the children more than text book learning. If we are to prepare our children for their globalised future we need to teach them how to connect, communicate and collaborate using innovative methods and technology.

RadioHigh's Journey To Excellence

2007-11-20T18:59:00.000Z

RadioHigh, the Junior School's radio show, is about to hit the air waves once again after many successful broadcasts last session. The new RadioHigh crew are being shown the ropes as they work through the first show of the term.

Creating a 15 minute show can take a lot of hours of preparation, recording, editing & teem work, however, the final product is well worth the hard word.

Over the past few weeks there has been a lot of questioning and reasoning why various activities or lessons are implemented into my curriculum. The easiest answer would be to say they are fun, engaging, motivating, meaningful, purposeful and successful. This does sound quite boastful but this post is not aimed at bragging about what I do but encouraging others to join the podcasting venture that many schools have embarked upon.

The HMIe's current mission to improve Scottish Education through 'The Journey To Excellence' has ten dimensions with successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens at the heart of the model.

These four core dimensions are evident in providing an opportunity for children to be part of a school radio show. Successful learners goes without saying. To create a show children need to learn a vast array of skills from technology to communication that are not apparent in their everyday classroom work. Mastering these skills to produce a show for the whole school and world proves they were successful in their learning.

Confident individuals is a dimension that can either be evident at the start where children opt for DJ roles or is a gradual discovery in some children who may take the role of musicians or news reporter and find that their part is an important aspect of the show.

It does not matter which role a child takes, whether it be in the spotlight or behind the scenes editing and researching, every child is part of a team and their contribution is important making them effective contributors.

The last dimension, responsible citizens, plays a large part of the creation process where each child is responsible for their part to ensure they meet deadlines and do not let any of their team down.

It is not just the four dimensions at the heart of The Journey To Excellence that are apparent in podcasting but many of the other sub-dimensions are evident too. The dimension, Engages Young People In The Highest Quality Learning Activities, depends on what standards are set: allowing children to create a script, practise, record, edit & mix and evaluate rather than talk, record and publish provides a benchmark that is acceptable.

Publishing the children's podcasts to a designated area on the internet gives the children an audience thus focusing on outcomes and success for all learners.

Last session a quite child participated in RadioHigh who normally took a back seat in discussions in class. Initially, she was happy for other children to do the talking whilst she researched and created the news reports. The turning point came when this reserved child asked to say the news then wrote in a comment on RadioHigh that when she was older she wanted to be a news reporter for Radio 2. A turning point for a child through a medium that develops a culture of ambition and achievement.

The beauty of posting podcasts on a blog enables children to comment and reflect on each show meeting the dimension reflects on its own work and thrives on challenge where suggestions by others challenges the productions team to always strive for excellence.

The above are the key dimensions that can be achieved through providing children with the opportunity to let their voice be heard.

Interactive What?

2007-11-20T18:51:00.000Z

Interactive whiteboards are tools teachers can either live with or without depending on how well the teachers are trained, what resources are available and how reliable the IWB is rather than having a mind of it's own.

Tom Barrett has come up with a super collaborative idea for IWB users to share their tips, tricks or ideas with others through a simple one slide presentation. This is a excellent example of collaboration using social media tools to share and learn from one another. Great idea Tom.

Christmas Is Coming

2007-11-20T18:22:00.000Z

In the midst of HMIe preparations there is still time to source some jollies for the run up to Christmas. Looking at John Johnston's Del.icio.us list flagged up a great wiki full of festive cheer. Worth a look by any educator wishing to source about anything to engage children this Christmas. Have to say the video at the bottom of the wiki brought back many memories of my school day pop stars...

My New Arrival

2007-11-10T16:31:00.000Z

She was delivered this morning at 10.15 am and 6 seconds precisely at a healthy weight of 135g. Excitement in the Tonner household at the new addition to the family was fever pitch with everyone wanting to get their hands on mum's new baby. But she is so precious that she needs to stay in my hands until we get to know one another better. My beautiful new iphone is 'beautiful'. It was love at first sight and I can't wait to share her with the children at school. The decision now is whether to put my Orange SPV up for adoption or let her become husband's baby? Just like all my other children they all have their own characteristics and so do my two phones that I am paying maintance on both. Decisions are hard at the moment but I need to dash as baby iphone is calling...

Voices Of The World - November

2007-11-07T11:19:00.000Z

This month's task for our global project Voices Of The World was created by L2W. The task for all the different countries around the world was to sing and record Twinkle Twinkle in their own language using different backing tracks I created. The children then create pictures in Paint to go with the song. Look at the finished results below for Dundee. At the end of November the songs from all around the world are released so you can hear all the different voices. Not only will there be a slideshow like below for each country but a lively podcast that will merger all the songs together. The reason this will work very effectively this month is due to everyone using a backing track I created which are in the same pitch and tempo with and intro and ending. This will mean I can merge each song one after the other. Along with the songs I plan to have the words on a screen with the flag and country so we have visual and auditory together. I think this is going to be a fantastic end product for the 50+ members in Voices Of The World.

Remember to click on the small speaker to hear the singing.

Free MySpace slideshows, photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Halloween's Coming!!!

2007-10-31T12:01:00.000Z

Many of the products children create for Halloween fall into the 'art and craft' category where the evidence can be displayed in classrooms and corridors in the school and the class blog if the teacher gets that far. It is not just 'art and craft' activities that the children participate as events like Halloween provide an excellent context in music where teachers promote the context to its full potential. Sharing these musical activities used to be confined to the there and then of music where once the song was performed it was not so easily sharable without holding concerts in schools. This has all changed with imagination and creative tools. The children in primary 1 and 2 would like to share their Halloween songs with the school, commuity and world. Below is an example of what can be achieved in a 30 minute lesson. To listen to the other Halloween musical creations the children created then click HERE for primary 1 and HERE for primary 2.

Get a Voki now!

E-Twinning Nottingham Update

2007-10-28T21:48:00.000Z

Belated CPD report on a recent E-Twinning workshop in Nottingham.

Nick Falk & Anne Jakins

Student adventures in Etwinning

Nick and Anne talked about their experiences working with children in eTwinning projects. One of the applications they implemented, Crazy Talk, to allow their actual bears to become animated and talk was an excellent idea that is similar to how we use voki. The added bonus is that the bear is not a virtual animated character but the actual teddy bear. The other bonus is you have more than one minute to record your audio. Voki does have the bonus of being placed on the children's bear blogs whereas Crazy Talk is a stand alone application not applicable to web. I do think both applications have a place in education to allow children to use their voice rather than the typed and written text.

Animation is not all about using plastecene as Oscar had pointed out at his animation workshop. Pictures can be used effectively. Nick and Anne again showed a simple idea where the children had created paper people to represent their culture dancing to traditional music with another slide showing the other countries work.

Not using animation but video a good example of the place we live in was the video of their bear in London. This looks like an idea to do around the school in the different areas to music.

Anne and Nick's main aim is to dissolve boundaries and make the learning experience not just at school in the classroom with the teacher but with parents, community and the world.

George glass

George delivered a super presentation highlighting all the manageable and effective ways to implement a European dimension into the curriculum through the use of ICT. International work is a collaborative process with pupil collaboration within and without their community. Staff collaboration with teachers in their school then outwith the school location with practitioners around the world. In short, eTwinning is about developing 21st century skills for pupils and staff.

By being involved in eTwinning projects the benefits are substantial enabling expression, flexible and creative context, real content, real audience, contextualised opportunities, inclusion, motivation, engagement and promotes understanding and empathy to other cultures.

From the many examples of good eTwinning practice, a few are worth noting. The use of pictures and music to represent a custom can be created. For example, making a slideshow with music on the theme Rememberance Day provides the intended audience in the other country a flavour of a tradition without words. This would fit perfectly with primary 7 children who work on World War 2 where pictures of our Remembrance Parade and the Last Post music can be jammed together. It is not just historical traditions that could be shared but take the topic Halloween which could be celebrated differently in other countries.

Moving from pictures to animation George showed a wonderful simple animation of a snowman being built then melting to music. Again communication is not a barrier here due to the visual and auditory holding the viewers attention. What appealed to me was the simplicity of this movie which could be introduced to the middle stages of the primary school.

All the above use objects or pictures to communicate. George did show some videos of the children at Cauldeen Primary School. One example showed how the children taught each country a traditional dance. Again a super cross-curricular idea focusing on another area rather than Language and ICT. Due to using children this is not a piece of work I would place on the school's social network area but would be sent direct.

Similar to traditional dances is the topic traditional games with one school teaching the other.

What did come as a surprise was the sharing of the school radio show. Although we have our RadioHigh show I have never integrated this with my exchange work. This is a super way to let the other schools find out what we are doing and possibly contribute to each show. For example, a different bear exchange school can have a 1 - 2 minute slot each week.

An inspiring presentation packed with many examples of how eTwinnning and ICT can connect our children and dissolve classroom walls making learning about school, community and world.

Voices Of The World's TV Production

2007-10-28T10:48:00.000Z

Look what can happen when you get five teachers from around the world together - Voices Of The World's First Movie!

E-Twinning Nottingham

2007-10-27T16:53:00.000+01:00

This year's trip to Nottingham for the E-Twinning Professional Development Workshop was a two day event focusing on: With around sixty teachers from around Europe this was an excellent opportunity to make new connections and develop my own CPD through participating in workshops.

The main focus, this year, was Oscar Stinger's Animation workshop where advice straight from the expert animator would be put in practice once back at school. Stop motion animation is not a new skill to me as I have implemented it into my teaching for the past four years. However, like many , animation was self-taught and I felt this was an area I could develop further through a concentrated CPD course.

Oscar made it clear immediately that animation needs to be simple. How true these words are as I have allowed children to create elaborate scripts that become difficult to complete successfully in the allocated time.

Using familiar stories was the next suggestion where the objects do not have to be made from Plasticine. This suggestion opened the doors for the younger children in the school to retell a story through animation without the need to have the additional skills of creating their characters.

Animation does not always require voice overs as music can tell a story if selected appropriately. An excellent example of animation and music, although created by adults, is the Piano Man. Now I do not think the younger children would be able to do the music aspect, however, this is a good way to incorporate Dance E-jay with the children in the middle school who can create music to go with their movies thus removing the copyright element.

One last general point would be to keep things simple.

The nitty, gritty aspect of animation which boils down to characters and scenery highlighted one main problem in my design: too small. The backdrops are too small where children try to work in A4 paper boxes transformed into a scene. The characters are too small with thin legs and small feet resulting in falling apart and not being able to stand. The workspace allocation between two computers for a group of children was again too small in my class setting. Space and size are required to make an effective animation to enable children to work effectively rather than under constraints.

Oscar has undertaken many animation workshops that he obviously has the proceedure down to an art. Placed in small groups of 4/5 our first task was to brainstorm an idea based on a theme: E-Twinning. Each group then shared their chosen idea with all other groups, just like we ask children to share their ideas, with Oscar giving encouragement and a few ideas.

Next step was to create a simple bullet point list of each scene. A storyboard could be used but I think the bullets are more effective when you only have minimum actions happening. This process was fairly quick with an outline of the story produced on paper.

The next stage, creating the characters with plastecene transformed the adults in the group to young children showing you are never too old to animate. Giving children time to work through this process is important rather than create characters when required; a bit like baking where it is much easier to have all the ingredients ready prior to the baking process.

Last stage saw the creation of the animated movie using I Can Animate which is only compatable with Apple Macs . This is not a problem as Stop Motion Pro cna be used with PCS.

I have to say I like this software to the Digital Blue software I currently use which is more restricting than I Can Animate. Although Digital Blue is not as powerful it still has its place with the lower end of the school by being rebust and simple to use.

Minature Computers A Whisker Away

2007-10-23T14:58:00.000+01:00

The future looks small, tiny, microscopic... The future looks like it will fit into our hands soon.

Scottish, German, and Italian engineers and scientists are studying how nano-sized wires could one day bring the size of a supercomputer so it could be held in one’s hand. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), along with associates from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany) and the University of Rome (Italy) are studying these tiny wires, along with miniscule microchips. Nano-sized wires have diameters that are in the general range of one thousand times smaller than human hair. The extremely small unit of “nano-“ stands for one-billionth, as in one nanometer is one billionth of one meter.

Now that is the technical bit over with how will this effect the future? The power of handheld learning will now become more powerful enabling users to match current computer capabilities and more. This leads to the next question, should we be investing money in education of software and hardware that will become part of history very shortly or should we be investing in learning how to use the technology of the future? A tricky question as I would not have a job without my computer suite. Where would that leave me - back in the classroom infront of the interactive whiteboard? To stay in the game you need to be ahead of the game, hence the reason I am embracing handheld learning this year and the next.

Mobile Phones

2007-10-17T18:33:00.000+01:00

How do we get around differences in technology when children all have different mobile phones? Some have bluetooth whilst others are still working on infrared. Some have MP3 players whilst others only have camera functions.

The way around this problem, would be purchasing a block set of mobile phones for children to use in school. They may not be assigned to a class but to classes. Just like the computers and laptops we have in the school, which all work from the same system so would the mobile phones. Why should we expect children to use their own tools when we don't ask them to being their own jotters or computers?

At school I have a set of mobile phones that I use but they are all different. This is not an issue as I feel it gives children to chance to explore different set-ups. However, now that I am taking this mobile learning much more seriously I have started to purchase a set of Nokia 6630 phones from Ebay to enable the children to use the same device with the same instructions at the same time. In this way the children are not exploring different phones to find different functions they are using the phones as learning tools. This is an exciting era in teaching and one that is sure to be the future.

Keep In the Know Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere

2007-10-14T22:34:00.000+01:00

Mobileglu is another super free device that mobilises your feeds by acting acts as a hub between the mobile and popular Web services like flickr, del.icio.us, upcoming.org, mobloguk and RSS feeds.

MobileGlu allows mobile users to subscribe to their online accounts, and the system will grab the data, optimise it for the mobile and will allow the user to view their online data using a java phone application.

There is no escaping technology and how it is changing our lives and thirst and impatience to want to know now, wanting immediate access to information, wanting to be informed now not later, wanting to be up-t0-date with what is happening: basically just want, want, wanting...

Now when my children were younger I always had the mantra 'is it a need or a want?' the answer was normally the later and they were told to wait. This view still applies when they 'want' the latest Fifa 2008 X-box game but I have to say that this does not apply to their thirst and my own to 'want to know' through looking at Bebo pages, seeing who is on MSN, checking mobiles for messages and for me, checking my RSS widget feed on my desktop.

Using my laptop to be up-dated with my RSS feeds was the best way I knew as access on mobile but not really 'mobile friendly'. This has changed today through registering with mobileglu where I can now view my RSS feeds on a mobile friendly version anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

Mobileglu is an amazing application, and deserves to sit on the phone of everyone who is interested in tracking information on the move.

Why not start and stick my feed on your phone?

Never To Young!

2007-10-13T21:23:00.000+01:00

It looks like mobile phones are not just for the tech savy but the young too. An excellent pic and arrangement created in Flickr by Spitzgogo-CHEN.

Alright the little girl is only 'playing' with the mobile phone but that is how it all starts - children see technology initially as toys and are not threatened by them. Technology is part of their lives but when they come to school this changes and many forms of technology and gadgets are removed for 'traditionally' methods of teaching. I am still in favour of the traditional approach but blended with the 'real' world outside the classroom walls.

Mobiles Phones - Constructive Not Deconstructive

2007-10-11T21:20:00.000+01:00

This year my pitch at the Scottish Learning Festival was how to use and view mobile phones constructively in Education. Below is my presentation with audio for those who could not make it.

Bear Exchange - How To Blog

2007-10-09T21:00:00.000+01:00

The first set of tutorials for my bear exchange teachers gets everyone blogging about their exchanges using text and images.

networking My Bear Exchanges

2007-10-09T20:42:00.000+01:00

All bears are now in schools or still travelling to their destinations - some taking longer than others! This year I managed to set up 12 exchanges with schools from around Britain, Estonia, Sweden, Netherlands and New Zealand with a blog for each exchange linked through a central bear blog. This area links to all the posts and comments the children create to connect themselves together and learn from each other.

It is not just the children who are learning this year, the teachers are too. Through the success of using a social network, onevoice.ning, to connect teachers together with my Voices Of The World project where teachers can communicate, share ideas and problems and learn from one another, I decided to create a network for my bear exchange teachers so that I can have a centralised area to communicate. I am sure this will work much better than constantly sending emails to different people and answering the same questions over and over. Using the web 2.0 to network breaks down barriers of time and space and enables true collaboration. I hope that the teachers I have in my school and the exchange schools will now broaden their connections from one-to-one to one-to-many as this is what true collaboration is about.

If you do pop over to the bear exchange network it is a little quite at the moment compared to my Voices Of The World one due to only being created and many teachers involved in the exchange on holiday. Hopefully over the weeks it will begin to thrive.

Would You Like To Work Here?

2007-10-08T22:27:00.000+01:00

Another miniclip game that can also be used in ICT under 'controlling and moddelling' strand where children can participate in a simulation. Not only can it be used in ICT it also fits in with the new numeracy strand that looks at budgeting money - have to say you have to be very quick thinking to make money in this game and fast on your toes or shoudl I say fingers!

Know Your Grammar

2007-10-08T21:35:00.000+01:00

Grammar lessons can be a bit dry but if you want to lighten them up then pop over to videojug
which has a host of free informative and amusing clips that will certainly start lessons with a bang.

VideoJug: How To Use Exclamation Marks

Mr Men Fun

2007-10-08T21:14:00.000+01:00

Those who think teaching computing is a bit nerdish and is about coding and spreadsheets needs to think again. To me it is like being a kid all day playing with gadgets and showing children the future. The area in ICT, controlling and modelling, is one of my favourites where the attainment - 'control a device on the screen using the arrow keys' can used with many applications. Here is one, Mr Men Pinball, that suits the younger children, especially primary 1, as they develop their hand and eye co-ordination and understand that what they input via keyboard effects what happens on screen. Time to get back to polishing up my high-score so I have street cred!

Mr Men Pinball

Activate multiple targets for bonus points in Mr Bump Pinball!

Play this free game now!!

Laugh At It And Your Part Of It!

2007-10-06T21:44:00.000+01:00

The Goverment's new campaign called 'Laugh at it and your part of it' will run for six weeks on social networking websites Myspace and Bebo, as well as MSN Instant Messenger and Yahoo.

Children using these services will be faced with pop-up adverts showing examples of text messages and cyberspace abuse and bullying.

This move by the Government comes after a recent study by DCSF that up to 34 per cent of 12 - 15 year olds had experienced a form of cyberbullying.

The Govenment's cyberbullying campaign gives practical advice to children through the form of a quiz and facts.

As educators are we doing our bit and educating children how to stay safe or are we hiding behind the traditional methods of teaching and ignoring the realities of the real world? Children need to be taught how to use technologies effectively and safely. They need to be taught the right and wrong way to use these just like they are taught what is acceptable behaviour. Why should cyberbullying be left to the ICT teacher in many schools rather than be part of PSD? We need to educate our children about acceptable use now rather than leave it too late and the child turns around and states 'but I did not think this would happen!'

Voices Of The World Task 2

2007-10-04T20:21:00.000+01:00

After the success of task 1, Voices Of The World's October task is now on-line for the 32 members from around the world to complete. This month introduces the tool Animoto as it incorporates audio and images. Each school is now asked to sing 30 seconds of their National Anthem in any format/style they want - this is where you see the creative teachers come forward. Using the National Anthems as the themes is another method of breaking down language barriers as the music and sound becomes the focus not the interpretation of the language.

The final product will consist of all animitos created by each school being showcased on the Voices Of The World wikispace, however, depending on the amount of entries (the VOTW network is growing daily) it might be a case that a selction of audios from the various animitos will be extracted to create a podcast as I do not want the podcasts to last more than 15 minutes.

Below is an example of what the end product might look like but with children singing!!!

Instructions for this months task are in the voicethread below with voice instructions:

Voices Of The World Is Here!

2007-10-02T11:49:00.000+01:00

Voices Of The World is now ready for the world to hear. It has been an amazing month working with teachers across the world to connect our children together. To attempt this project a few years ago would have been cumbersome, lengthly and time-consuming. This is not the case in today's globalised world where technology enables everyone to be on an equal playing field and connect together.

When I started VOTW there were only five other schools involved. This has grown considerably over the past weeks to currently thirty-one members. There was a point when I considered making the project private so that I only had one voice to represent each county but the use of dialect and accent became a new factor to give children an appreciation for not just different languages but how our voices differ using the same language.

You can listen to the podcast below from each country and try to guess where they are from. If you are having difficulties them go to the VOTW wikispace where you can listen to each school individually.

If you would like to find out more about Voices Of The World then visit the teacher's area at onevoice.

Subscribe Free Add to my Page

What A Lot Of Noise!!!

2007-09-22T18:17:00.001+01:00

Listen to what happens when you let children loose on voki:

Get a Voki now!

Identity Crisis!

2007-09-15T23:00:00.000+01:00

When faced with a barrier creativity is always the answer. At the school where I work I am not allowed to place any pictures of children on our school's blog, bear blog or wikispace due to keeping our children's identities safe. There are many times when it would be simpler and more attractive to place their pictures on the site to complement a post, however, I do agree with ensuring security measures are in place and that they are consistent across the school.

So what at first seemed like a barrier to many aspect of how I use the web 2.0 in my educationally setting it provided me with a problem. Those that know me know I thrive on deriving ways to solve problems to overcome barriers as it allows me to think creatively. The problem was I wanted children to have an identity online but not their true identities. I wanted something that they could relate to as being them without revealing their true selves.

The answer was simple - allow children to create their identities through weemees and vokis.

To start the identity process off I created weemee characters to represent each class and placed them on our Junior School Wiki. On a more personal level the children then created their own animated characters with audio containing eight random facts about themselves. The result is a meet the class page for every class in the school. Rather than be presented with a class of children in their school uniforms looking like normal school children you are now presented with the children's animated characters that talk to you.

All children from primary one to primary seven have been involved in creating vokis with primary one and two creating a class animated pet then primary three to seven creating their own animated characters. Although the children are all creating vokis this is at different levels of support throughout the school from teacher recording the voice overs to children in upper classes using Audacity to record and edit their own facts.

I would have to admit that these lessons have generated excitement throughout the whole school with every child motivated to participate in the learning process. As well as the lessons providing an excellent ICT lesson they have the dual purpose of introducing the children to their exchange schools in a fun and imaginative way rather than a picture with typed facts.

If you do visit our 'class of 2007-8', please be patient if a class link does not yet have all the children's vokis uploaded as some children are still working hard, especially in the lower classes.

To give you a flavour of what the children are creating listen to Lucas below:

Just a short note - when working with multiple classes it is easier to create a yahoo account for each class and use this to register each class into voki as to do 300 children, in my case, would be time consuming and it is easier to have one account for each class. Also, get the children to save their vokis with a specific word before their name to make retrieval easier.

Bear We Go

2007-09-07T19:45:00.000+01:00

The beginning of term is always busy trying to arrange new exchanges with schools around the world and this year seems busier than normal as I organise all my new collaborative projects. When I started using technology and a bear, five year ago whilst a primary class teacher, I knew this collaborative style of learning was an excellent way to learn about the differences and similarities in our cultures. My first exchange was to a school in America with my then Primary Five class where we sent Shougal McDougall, the highland cow, to America and they sent Elvis the husky dog to use. Although the collaborative aspect of technology was not as advanced as today's Web 2.0 and I hit on many problems through lack of communication, the seeds were sown in that I knew this was a method of extending the learning outside the classroom walls.

This year sees a host of collaborative projects with schools around the world about to kick off from class projects to whole school projects. Here is a flavour of the main projects I have co-ordinated for this year:

Bear Exchanges (class projects)- this year I have managed to set up ten bear exchanges with schools from around the world. Our nearest exchange is with Glamis Primary School in Scotland which is only a few miles away from our school. This fits in perfectly with the primary four's local study and also gives a good comparison between a city school and a rural school. Our furthest away school is in new Zealand with Rachel Boyd. All exchanges evolve around sending a furry friend to each school then keeping a diary of the bear's adventures. The children can then use the comment area to ask questions.

Voices Of The World (whole school) - A world wide project to unite children together using their voices. I came up with the idea for this project prior to attending an E-twinning workshop in Estonia. Due to using podcasting extensively to create our radio show RadioHigh, I wanted to connect children together through their voice and the thought of a monthly podcast with all the different voices on the same theme seemed the ideal solution. How would this work when we all speak different languages? Through simplicity and believe me it will work as at the present I have 20 eager members from around the world with a few more still to join. The first VOTW product will be released at the end of September and is already looking good from the network side. To make this a whole school advent at my school I am selecting a different class each month to complete the task.

Ted's Adventures Around The World - (whole school) - Mark Beaumont is currently cycling around the world trying to break a world record. Ted Bear is cycling with Mark and their adventures are told each week through a bear voki. Each week a class read Mark's diaries then create the bear voki to retell the adventures. Children will also create a voicethread related to the country that Mark is travelling through. Using the animated character and the annotated slideshow gives a balance between what is appealing to the younger and the older children.

An other project that is in the planning stages is a movie Disney style. Four schools from around the world will create an animated movie with one doing the script, the next the animation, the next the voice over and the last the music/sound effects. This is an excellent collaborative opportunity to work collaboratively with others using technology to break down location barriers.

The above projects are opportunities to connect our children with the world, provide meaningful learning and prepare our children for their globalised future.

Any thoughts or ideas then please feel free to comment.

Voices Of The World Task 1

2007-09-05T21:54:00.000+01:00

Voices Of The World is now up and running with the first task on the OneVoice network. For those that need a little guidance to complete the task use the voicethread below. You can pause the voicethread at any time using the player buttons. Have fun and look forward to all the vokis from around the world.