Reflective Synopsis

Hello fellow bloggers!!

Well here I am posting what is my final entry for my blog for managing e learning. I am going to be as honest as I can so hear goes...
When I started this course I felt overwelled by the idea of having to be able to know and understand these technologies (wikis, blogs, mahara, flickr etc) having only used facebook, myspace and MSN. When I first began my learning journey by attending all the managing e learning tutes and experimenting with the new technology. When I first set up the blog; with help from my lecturer I noticed that there were manay similarities to myspace; with myspace I can leave blogs and comment other peoples myspaces and customise the layout and background and it also has instant messaging (IM) blogs are pretty much the same minus the IM. The blog was easy enough for me to understand with the simple instructions on blogger.com however I had assistance from Chloe with the background and layout; I googled blog backgrounds and searched through a wide range of styles before selecting one and downloading its code then adding it to my blog. During the tutes I was given a chance to continue experiement with the managing e learning website, blogger and mahara; I felt I got a lot of infomation about using the new technologies from the lecture with the course coordinator Scot Aldred; I felt much more confident using the technolgy after Scot took us through both blogs and marahra step-by-step and teaching us how to upload images and youtube clips and how blogs and marahra can be used in the education system.

It was not for a while until I posted my very first entry onto my blog (I had customised the layout and background and filled in my personal details at this point) this first entry to was get me started and to explain how I was feeling knowing I was about to start a journey into these new technologies. I remember feeling very overwellmed with a large amount of activties to complete on the managing e learning website and the fact that I felt like I was the only one who was lacking confidence with this task. However once reading other peer's blog posts, watching videos and commenting and recieving comments I felt much better about myself and this journey knowing I wasnt alone.

A while after posting my first entry to my blog I began to turn away from the technology as I found it extremly time consuming and felt the need to complete assignments from other subjects. My second posting was on the active learning theory by Kearsley and Shneiderman. They taught me what I found to be a great way of going about group projects.

Relate phase: communication, planning, management and social skills is what is learnt from this skills that require profieciency in the workforce. So I thought to myself If we as learning managers want our students to leave high school to be workplace ready why are we giving students less group project work and more independent work becuase we see group work as 'cheating'?.
Create phase: problem solving, taking control and responsibilty of their learning, making it interesting for themselves, a chance to create something original
Donate phase: The project has an outside customer (Not just the teacher); parents, campus group, school, organisation, charity etc

This made me think about my positive experiences with large group projects and it makes me want to promote group projects in my classroom.

The next posting I enjoyed was learning about Dales cone and learning pyramid. Surprising that; according to Dales cone and learning pyramid that we learn less by reading and listening to lectures and learn more by doing things and practicing them and teaching them to others; so why to we continue to teach using reading and listening; yes we still need to those skills to be able to read and listen but if we implement more kinaesthetic activities our learners will retain more knowledge and most likely enjoy it more too!

Another interesting post was about multiple intelligence; interesting that IQ testing is very limited and that there are eight different areas of abilties

  • Body Kinasethetic (Body smart)
  • Visual/spatual (Picture smart)
  • Interpersonal (People smart)
  • Intrapersonal (Myself smart)
  • Logical - mathematical (Number smart)
  • Musical (Music Smart)
  • Naturalist (Nature Smart)
  • Verbal Lingustic (Word Smart)

Some of these abilties I can see clearly taught in our essential learnings but some are emphased more than others. For instance I think I would have more interpersonal and intrapersonal learning experiences.

Next, is Mazlows Heirachy of Needs which I had limited knowledge of. Back in high school III was taught that the basic needs for human survival was food, water and sheter; but Mazlow states that humans also need love and support (from family and friends) and safety and security (from the dangers in the big world) when I was reading this I instantly remembered the news article I had recently read in the courier mail about a learning centre set up at Toolooa State High where students could practice the skills of life in the real world skills such as real estate, finances, baby care, personal and heath care etc, made me wish I had something like that when I went to school because isnt that what we want for out learners? to be able to survive out in the big wide world; I still live at home and the thought of leaving home soon to live my own life is kind of scary.

Another interesting reading was the Prensky reading and this theory on digitial native Vs digital immagrants. I believe the digital age began at the turn of the millienum after year 2000 the world has been bombarded with new technologies. Now I was 11 at this time so does this mean I am an digital native or immagrant becuase I see myself of having a pretty good understanding of our commonly used technology and how they work but when I gradute in the next 18mths there will be new technologies available to me so its a big responsibiltiy as a learning manager to know this technoloy and use it in the classroom becuase most of our learners we teach in the classroom are classed as digital natives.

Also on this long but interesting journey I have broaderned by knowledge and understandings of internet saftey (protecting our children on the net) and the huge range of technologies available to the web that would enhance learning experiences. I have learnt more about wikis and how they can help a group of learners work together (thanks to the video "Wikis in plain english"!) and how blogs can be used share ideas and assist other users. As a future learning manager I will make it a goal to use these newly learnt technologies in my classroom as a way of engaging learners and talking the 'digital native langugage' in order to create authentic and meaningful real life learning experiences; create ideas and sharing them with fellow learning managers and hopefully gaining teaching ideas as well.

While I am still typing I would like to thank everyone who read my blog and asissted me with my journey, the comments made by my fellow classmates made me feel more confident about my ideas that I hope to bring to the classroom in the future and they gave me some things to think about (Chloe's Mind Shift Video - very good!) so I finish my learning journey using blogs and begin a new journey through mahara.

Thank you!!

References

AUTC. (2003). The Learning Design Construct. Retrieved August 19, 2009, from http://learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/project/learn_design.htm

Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement Theory: A Framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved August 17, 2009 from http://www.home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Kunc, N. : Axis Consultation and Training Ltd. (1992). The Need to Belong: Rediscovering Maslow's Heirachy of Needs. Retrieved August 18, 2009, from http://www.normemma.com/armaslow.htm

Nichols, K. (2007). What is Learning? Current knowledge and theories. In Smith, R., Lynch, D. E., & Knight, B. A. (eds). Learning Management: Transitioning teachers for national and internation change. (pp. 21-29). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Retrieved August 18, 2009, from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20%20part1.pdf

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