Podcasts

Hello Everyone,

I tried to use MyPodcast to create my own podcast. Unfortunately the site is not registering any more applicants. I used a Google search to discover another free pod casting site called PodOmatic. You can view my Podcast at the end of this blog posting.

I have to admit I knew very little about podcasts prior to commencing this course. I know my previous university use to podcast lectures so that students could access and review the content online. In our on-campus lecture podcasts were described as Personal on Demand Casts. According to Chan, Lee & McLoughlin (2006.) podcasts allow the target audience to listen to the content at a convenient time and place as they can be downloaded to one’s computer as they become available. These files can be transferred to devices such iPods and MP3 player.

The CQU moodle site for week four has identified some uses of podcasts in the classroom. I have discussed some of the uses with my colleague, Emily and this discussion can be viewed here. The Langwitches blog, The Magic of Learning raises some great points about using podcasts in the classroom and gives some great examples. This blog site can be accessed here. After reviewing various readings and creating my own podcast, I have identified various positives and negatives for using podcasts in the classroom. I have identified these through a PMI analysis.

Positive
-Students can access content at a convenient place at anytime of the day.
-Allow learners to develop listening skills as they do not rely of visual senses.
-High level of social cachet for younger students in particular
-Develop a wide range of skills such as; collaboration skills, writing skills, speaking skills, presentation skills, communication skills, oral fluency, auditory skills, digital storytelling skills, media literacy, information literacy and technology skills.
-Integrate multiple skills in the learning process.
-Engage and motivate students.
-Introduce students to a new medium in the classroom.
- Parents can access the content and understand what their children are learning about.
-Model appropriate oral communication skills.
-Create collaborative tasks such as class story telling
-Allow student to recognize positives and benefits in peers’ work and thus learn from each other.
-Model appropriate use of voice such as intonation, volume and expression.

Negative
-Heavy reliance on technology and equipment availability
- Time consuming task, particularly for younger years.
-Does not cater for the visual and kinesthetic learners.
-Students may not like how their voice sounds recorded.

Interesting
-Podcasts are audio files only, whilst vodcasts are video podcast and can be easily produced and accessed.
-Specific constraints and clear guidelines must be used to ensure students stay on task.

These are my thoughts on the podcasting tool and I look forward to hearing what you think.

VOKI

Hi Everyone,

I was unable to make my own Podcast on MyPodcast as the site was not taking anymore applications for registration. Therefore I went off and discovered more about Vokis. You can see the Voki I designed in the sidebar of my blog.

Voki is a combination of "vox", which is Latin for voice, and "Loki", which is a prankster character in Norse Mythology. The origin of the word Voki also describes its purpose because a Voki enables users to express their “voice” through a customized character.

When I designed my own Voki, I was unsure how to embed this tool into my blog and therefore performed a Google search. The search results introduced to me to a fantastic blog called The EduBlogger. This blog gave me clear instructions on how to embed Voki and also outline some interesting ideas for using a Voki in the classroom. Some of these ideas included;

-Creating avatars that are similar to the students and having students record a message that tells the class about themselves. This is a great idea for introductions at the beginning of the year and an engaging way to profile students.
- Students with English as a second language or students with low literacy skills can use the speaking avatars to practice and listen to their speech. They may use the computerised voice first then record their own voice when they feel more comfortable. Writing, reading and pronunciation are all practiced.
-Students can create an avatar to represent a character from a story. This character can then be used to present a creative point of view from the character on an event within the plot.
Further suggestions from The EduBlogger can be accessed here.

A few of my colleagues have also had some experience with Vokis. Kim Thompson suggested using a Voki as an “additional teacher” within her year 3/4 classroom. I agreed with Kim and further suggested using a Voki for role-play or creating “expert” characters. This discussion can be seen here.

I see the great potential in using a Voki. However I found that the intonation and pronunciation used by the generic voice does not suit our Australian accent and can be misleading for students. I understand that one can record their own voice but I wonder if there is any other way to adjust the accent and add intonation to the Voki generic voice. If any one has any ideas I would love to hear them.

Images in the classroom

Hi All,

I personally believe images offer great potential in the classroom as they are an important component of our culture. We encounter images throughout our day, as they are used to entertain us, persuade us with advertising and provide vital information through an easy access medium. I think images and visuals are becoming a major part of our society and students are encountering them on a more regular basis. Therefore we as future learning managers must expose our students to a range of images and develop the visual literacy required to be an informed and critical thinking citizen.

According to Callow (1999) visual literacy helps to extend the concept of literacy beyond being able to read and write print to encompass ideas about how we communicate in our culture through images. Therefore students need to develop meaning making systems that enable them to understand images that:
-"Represent actions, objects, and settings
-Create interactive or interpersonal meanings between the viewer and what is viewed by the use of features such as colour, angles, shot distance, and type of media employed (e.g., photos, clip art, diagrams, etc.)
-Present layout choices that indicate the value of or emphasis on particular elements within an image, such as the salience (attention-gaining aspect) of a particular object or piece of text." (Callow, 1999.)
Callow’s article looks further into the importance of visual literacy and is a great read to understand the importance of using images and visual aids in the classroom. This article can be accessed online here.

I explored some online image sites recently as my grade six class is starting a unit on global warming. I found this “world in your hands” image on Flickr and believe it would be great to provoke thinking and emotions in my students. A discussion of what this image means to the students could help guide students into acknowledging that they have a role as global citizens and that their actions can affect our world. Therefore by providing this image I am connecting students emotionally to content and creating positive attitudes and perceptions to the global warming content because student will be encouraged to see the task as relevant and meaningful. (Marzano & Pickering, 1997) Another online tool I found useful when searching for relevant images for my global warming focus was search-cube.com. This site is a search engine that gathers relevant images and video files for your target content. It then compiles its findings into a handy cube arrangement. I believe presenting this cube to students would be a great method to engage them in the unit, however one would have to review all images prior to ensure all material is appropriate.

Overall images offer multiple benefits for the classroom context. My colleague, Kelly Blood has performed a PMI analysis on Images in the classroom and I have added further to this analysis. This discussion can be accessed here.

Image retrieved from Flickr.

LMS- Learning Management Systems

Hello Everyone,

During week three, I registered to make my own Learning Management System. Unfortunately, due to an excessive backlog I was unable to create my own system. Although, we are all frequent users of LMS systems like Moodle and Blackboard. I will in turn reflect on this tool from my own experience. As a learner using LMS I have mixed feelings about the tool.

I like being able to access information, resources, course guidelines at any time of the night and day. The organization of Moodle is easy to navigate and locating resources is quite easy. It is also great to be able to contribute and discuss concerns with my peers and lecturers in forums. However, I really do think the on-campus lectures compliment this Learning Management System and I would feel totally overwhelmed if I was a FLEX student and only had Moodle as my learning tool. This could come down to my auditory and social learning preferences. I would be interested to know if anyone would prefer to just use the Moodle system.

When I consider my own feelings about the LMS, I’m not sure if I would use it as a major teaching tool in my classroom. This system can be quite daunting for the students and therefore I believe focused scaffolding would be essential when implementing this tool in the primary classroom context. Learning Managements Systems can be incorporated in the classroom context through virtual classrooms or Blackboard systems developed by Queensland Education’s Learning Place. I have conducted a brief SWOT analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of LMS in the classroom.

Strengths
- Organised structure within the system
- Access available 24/7 for teachers, students and parents
- Time efficiency as tasks can be accessed at home
- Online quizzes can be incorporated in system to monitor learning process
- Communication and reminders through announcements
- Collaborative learning through discussion forums
- Encourages independent learning
- Provide students with a range of resources they wouldn’t normally access
- Password protected system

Weaknesses
-Pressure on students to monitor learning and pace themselves
-Minimal personal contact and thus students cannot instantly ask for help and get an answer
-Does not cater for the auditory or social learners
-Overwhelming and could deter some students engagement with topic

Opportunities
-Parent involvement increased and thus multiple perspectives included in classroom
-Extension resources can be included for advanced students to access
-Monitor students’ engagement with task materials and conduct formative quizzes
-Safety of computer screen allows shy, quiet students to voice their opinions
-Exposure to new technologies

Threats
-Computer access at home might pose problems
-Discussion boards could open opportunities for online bullying and thus expectations must be clearly outlined prior to implementation of system
-Independent learning could cause a large gap between members of the class with students being at different task completion levels.

Let me know how you feel about this system and if you think it is restricted to a certain age group.

Cheers Pauline

RSS READER

Hi Followers,

I have recently set up my own RSS reader through my Google account. By setting up this tool I am able to manage my favourite sites and the blogs that I follow through the one easy access location. This has made life a lot easier and saved time as I don’t have to navigate around the web to multiple sites.

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". This definition reflects the tool as it is a simple way to easily access a list of headlines, updated notices, and sometimes content at one location. Therefore websites whose content changes on unpredictable schedules can now be continuously monitored. The notifications through RSS reader are organized according to the latest feeds and are presented in an easy to follow format.

Most websites have RSS feeds and are represented by a little orange icon, once you know the URL of an RSS feed, you can provide that address to an RSS reader program and it will monitor the feed for you.

Some common uses for RSS readers are:
-Notification of the arrival of new products in a store online
-Listing and notifying you of newsletter issues, including email newsletters
-Weather, news and other alerts of changing conditions
-Notification of additions of new items to a database, or new members to a group
-Blog updates

Some Possible uses for the learning manager could include:
· Monitoring of students’ blogs, forums, and wikis
· Keeping to update with the fellow colleagues’ and professional experts’ opinions
· Staying informed about the latest technology and educational tools on the market
· Sharing global news notifications with the class and ensuring globally aware citizens are developed

I believe the key benefit of RSS reader is that it reduces time by managing a large amount of websites. With the speed of today’s society, time is of essence to all of us. I am grateful to have discovered this new tool and believe it will be a great advantage in my future classroom.

Regards Pauline

Web logging- Discovering More Potential

Hi Everyone,

I know I have already commented about blogs as a tool in the classroom. However as I get more familiar with this tool, I am discovering more benefits of its use. I have now realized that blogging is not just about journal entries and it can really encourage students to learn together and help one another out. Therefore this tool caters for different ability levels as it gives struggling students the opportunity to ask for help and encourages peer tutoring. For instance, one of our peers Anna was having difficulty with converting documents to picture files and in an attempt to help I offered her my strategy. This discussion can be viewed here. Let me know if you agree with this great benefit of web-logging.
Cheers Pauline

PowerPoint in the classroom

Hi Everyone,

I can remember PowerPoint being a vital tool used in the classroom when I was a little girl and still believe it has a place in our classrooms today. Although I have used PowerPoint before, I found the PowerPoint tutorials offered in week three of Managing E-learning very helpful as I was introduced to some new and easier techniques of using PowerPoint. The first step during the scaffolding process was to create an organizational chart in word to map the plan of the presentation. I had never done this before but in reflection believe it is a very important step and I will encourage my future students to do the same. The next step of the scaffolding tutorial was to design the outline of the presentation in a word document and send it to PowerPoint. Once again I had never done this before and can recognize the benefits of this scaffolding process. By approaching PowerPoint through this scaffolded design approach, one will reduce the risk of overemphasizing gadgets and keep the focus on the target content. I have identified some positives and negatives of the PowerPoint tool.

Positives
1. PowerPoint is fun to watch and fun to make.
2. Used correctly, PowerPoint can accommodate all learners' needs.
3. It has a spell-check function and can be edited
4. It motivates students when used in moderation.
5. It motivates staff.
6. PowerPoint allows you to reflect on your lesson and correct any needed changes.
7. PowerPoint can be accessed and reused at a later date to revise concepts.
8. You can print out what you did in class for students that were absent. Or one could turn the accountability on to students and post presentations on-line.
9. PowerPoint is not hard to learn and there is a help tab available on the tool.

Negatives
1. Content can sometimes take a back seat to gadgets and “tricks”.
2. Computers crash, networks go down, viruses can plague computers and a back-up plan is needed.
3. Overuse can diminish PowerPoint's effectiveness and become boring for students.
4. Classrooms need large monitors or projectors to display presentations.

Overall PowerPoint is a wonderful tool and for learning in both a student and teacher-directed situation, as it can add a new dimension to learning. It allows teachers to explain abstract concepts, while accommodating all learning styles. PowerPoint is also an achievable task for children to produce to demonstrate their understanding of the topic. As future learning managers we must just be aware of PowerPoint Paralysis. Triple "P" can be defined as the over use of gadgets and effects that prolong the PowerPoint experience and as a result distract the learners from the key concept being taught.

Nevertheless there is great potential for PowerPoint in the classroom such as:
- general overviews of the topic avoids note taking
- lively games/ quizzes for students (like million dollar question)
- Interesting visual aids for oral presentations

This list could go on. I recently used PowerPoint to design a Deal or No Deal game for a subtraction lesson with my students. The students were engaged by the different medium and seemed to enjoy the game. This just goes to show by using a PowerPoint correctly one can make a somewhat dry and mundane topic engaging for the students. Let me know what you think about PowerPoint and what examples you have seen in the classroom contexts.

Regards Pauline.