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Here’s a little movie I made in regards to digital learning

DLDG Busse

Photo courtesy of Google Images - www.blog.kateaspen.com

Why Tweet?  I found the article  Twitter – 10 Insights from Psychology interesting and a nice explanation as to why people may be motivated to join Twitter.  For this DLDG subject I didn’t join for three reasons; it was optional, very very public and not disimilar to Facebook – of which I already use.

I worry that Twitter for adolescents may become a social judgement platform, including bullying and irrelevant insights into each others lives.  Is there nothing private anymore? Nonetheless a good article.

In response to Luke Duncan’s post and youtube clip regarding mobile phones and hand held devices in the classroom I like to use that old adage…”if you can’t beat them join them”.  Students are increasingly bringing mobile phones and handheld devices into the classroom so why not use them to the subjects advantage and do away with asking them to be turned off.

Below are a few iPhone Apps that could be used in 7-12 PDHPE.

After reading Filomena’s blog on e-Portfolios and listening to a Learning Portfolio lecture today on Literacy in Education presented by Associate Professor Pauline Gibbons I started to think about just how lucky we are to be entering a teaching profession at this moment.  We have this wonderful selection of digital access capable of producing creative, colourful, academic portfolios that encompasses activities for all KLA’s and includes implementation of literacy lessons.

I agree with Filomena that e-Portfolios encourage active, engaging, meaningful learning.

I found this detailed discussion and visual display from a student at University of Arkansas WEB 2.0 TOOLS IN PETE Encouraging the social, collaborative and reflective construction of knowledge.

I could use this as a base for building my own ePortfolio in PDHPE.

Herrington and Kervin (2007) write succinctly and precisely when they suggest that their are ten ways to offer authentic learning using technology in the classroom.

In the diagram below the PDHPE students in Mira’s tutorial put the following Mind Map together using the Inspiration software to demonstrate how we could do this with the PDHPE syllabus.  What do you think?

Authentic Learning in PDHPE

Resources

Herrington, J. & Kervin, L. (2007) Authentic Learning Supported by Technology: Ten suggestions and cases of integration in classrooms. University of Wollongong, Australia

photo courtesy of Google Images - csem.flinders.edu.au

I have read, viewed, listened, downloaded and streamed a range of digital information that exists in cyberland!  It’s all relevant and beautifully necessary for a career as a secondary teacher willing to embrace and implement the tools of our Digital Generation.  Here’s a re-cap of some of the things I have really enjoyed.

• A really cool video we watched in our first lecture was THIS one!

I enjoyed the Skype session with Chris Betcher in our second lecture and have since reviewed his BLOG. I appreciated his ideas that encourages students to present in front of a class using only images within their powerpoint presentation for stimulus.  I have seen my own daughters in school struggle with delivering their “news” because they spent the entire time looking down at their notes written on palm calms trying to decipher what they had written.  Similarly while on Prac I noticed one of my Year 11 classes struggled with the same lack of creative thought.  The use of images to stimulate the  delivery of a presentation is a very basic and simple introduction of technology in the classroom and can be implemented from a very young age. I would love to see the primary schools encouraging this method for good quality news!

Thank you Denis Masseni for your precise summary in Curriculum Leadership e-Journal of just what this social media terminology means and how it can be used in schools today to improve communication. Masseni’s article talks about the use of wikis, blogs and twitter as an immediate communication platform in schools.  Disgruntled parents could establish their Blogs and wikis to begin immediate discussions surrounding NAPLAN, MySchools, Cyber-bullying, the Athletics Carnival!  Responses from other parents and teachers would be  immediate.

In a society where we are increasingly too busy our schools can utilise social media such as Twitter to minimise the communication gap between parents, students and teachers.  I really believe that the benefits of social media in schools is endless, and I  love Masseni’s idea of Tweets regarding the English word of the week.

Mira Danon-Baird’s post July 29, 2010 highlights the importance of teaching our students cyber-awareness and the simple lesson of adjusting your  privacy settings to protect you.  It is often a misconception that our class-rooms are full of digital natives who grew up as computer savvy, with an understanding of the intricacies of computer technology and a knowledge of how to protect themselves from the social dangers of a public domain.  However, this is not necessarily the case.  We are not all digital natives.  “Curiousity and teacher-awareness has been bubbling away” (Danon-Baird 2010) which leads to a social awareness of the dangers of connected-students, however as Danon-Baird states it is important that we continue to encourage cyber-awareness and that teachers continue to attend Personal Development classes. Cyber-etiquette and smart choices need to be made when it comes to protecting each others privacy.  I agree that we can’t just let our students “loose” in cyber-world we must teach them how to be good cyber-citizens in a digital environment.

I find the Bullying! No way. website a great resource for students trying to get a handle on bullying in schools.

Papert’s reading “The Gears of my Childhood” took me back to the early days of my own education, and that was some time ago but I remember certain things that always had me far more engaged and stimulated in class.  I only truly liked learning when I could really “get my hands dirty” and just do it and it was an exciting and fresh new way each time we delved into a new topic.  For that reason I loved Physical Education, Home Economics and Science.  It was delivered to me in a variety of interesting ways. As a teacher I am inspired by the exciting world of technology that has embraced school children in their learning domain.  Papert’s article demonstrates that learners learn differently, either visually, auditory, reading or kinaesthetically and that individuals understand and remember when taught in a variety of ways.  Papert was  a visual/kinaesthetic learner, he was able to understand mathematics clearer by comparing and establishing models. It is wonderful to know that we can manipulate the inevitable implementation of computers in the classroom in our favour.  Computers can give students another realm of education that utilises amazing technology at all angles.  Meaningful learning in all shapes and sizes is a vital ingredient for academic interest and indeed success in the classroom.

As a mature age student, former corporate employee and mother of two I am quite experienced when it comes to the use and implementation of technology in our home and the classroom.  I am always interested and committed to it being used appropriately.  I view the introduction of electronic devices, internet based programmes and social networking pages as a positive way of motivating students to learning.  It must however be monitored and delivered at an appropriate level.  As a parent I have preferred to minimize the amount of time my children spend  sitting in front a computer screen, hand-held device or playing endless games on a Nintendo or even worse, a Wii.  I realise that this was a good decision because their are so many relevant and appropriate internet based programmes that my kids can be using that are not only fun but of great academic benefit!

While on Prac I was impressed with the standard of equipment and facilities available to the students. They each had a laptop, instant network access, and computers with a projector in each classroom, however I don’t think they were being used to their full advantage.   I used YouTube on a number of ocassions, which the girls loved, but there was so much more I could have implemented – such as Inspiration to summarise what we were discussing.  I was often frustrated by the distraction the laptops caused while sitting in class.  I was often asking them to close their laptops and listen to me – yes boring for them! During my next Practical experience I am going to implement greater use of the technology available to the students and see how it is received.

Kids, teenagers, adults just love their electronic devices, so if you can’t beat them, join them, I say!

photo courtesy of google images - www.laptopsarena.com