Kristine's Blog

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

Hey guys!!





Since beginning this course I would have to say I had a pretty good knowledge of different technologies available however didnt really understand their full potential to create authentic learning experiences for learners. I am on social websites such as facebook and myspace on the daily baisis; use the interent to get the daily news and to research for uni assignments and teaching resources.





Web 2.0 technologies allow anyone to interact via the web. There are many resources on the internet where learners are able to contibute their knowledge and ideas and recieve feedback from others users. Resources include blogs, wikis, youtube/teachertube and flickr.





Wikis
Wikis are websites that can be viewed by anyone who has access to the internet. Users can easily add, remove, edit and change content on the wiki site. Wiki are easier for a group of web users to organise information on the same subject area without having to send emails to and from each person whcih is not good for co-ordinating and organsing a group's imput. Using a wiki is simple; there are only three controls you need to know

• Edit: Users click on this and a edit toolbar will appear allowing the user to make changes to the site.


• Save: Users click on this after making adjustments to the site; the information then becomes a webpage for everyone to see.


• Link: Allows users to create a new page

The largest wiki is Wikipedia; the world largest online encycolpedia. Wikis could be used in a learning context by having learners create a wiki; they can add their knowledge and understandings which can be recognised by other online users; this would be a much more authentic and meaningful approach to learning experience than creating a poster just to hang in the classroom for only the teacher, parents and peers to see where as on the wiki; learners' contributions are easily available to anyone with web access.

Create your own wiki! www.wikispaces.com or www.wetpaint.com

Blogs
Blogs is short for web log which are publicly accessible online journals. Users are able write entries on their personal blog about their feelings, values and beliefs like a diary, then read other blogs and comment on them. Blogs can become a discusion through comments so news/information is interactive.Blogs are a great way to contribute information and gain information and motivation from other blog users. Blogs can be used as a creative writing space for learners.

Create your own blog!! www.blogger.com

Youtube/teacher tube
Youtube/teacher tube allows teachers and learners to create their own videos and upload onto the website for other web users to view and comment. You tube makes it easy for teachers and learners to search for educational videos; unfortantly they are blocked in public schools and education departments.

Visit youtube!! www.youtube.com

Flickr
Flickr allows users to upload pictures to share with public or select few friends. Users can organise photos according to different themes and topics. Users can add tags which makes it easier to search for images. Flickr also provides print options for users.

Visit Flickr www.flickr.com

Hey All

Learning designs are simply methods of designing student learning experiences. The learning design can be considered the framework that supports the student learning experiences.

• Learning tasks: What the students will do; this involves problems, investigations, projects etc


• Learning resouces: The resources that can be used to assist students with the learning task; this involves books, articles, journals, case studies, web sites etc


• Learning support: Involves instructions, procedures and announcements.

Hey Guys

As we already know our learners come form many different backgrounds and have differerent values and beliefs. Our indigenous learners have different perspectives to the dominant european culture in Australia as they have a strong connection to the land and its natural habitats. Many indigenous learners come from rual communities and therefore dont find some learning experiences in our european dominant education system meanigful and real life.

After reading Ernie Grants 'my land, my tracks'; it gave a good framwork for creating effective learning experiences based on the three elements outlined in the reading:

• Land
• Language
• Culture

These elements can be contexutalised in terms of time, place and relationships. Grant also goes on to say that we can look at each of these elements in terms of

• Pre contact (impact from european settlers)
• Contact
• Post Contact
• Contemporary issues

It is important that we reconginse our indigenous learners and their way of life so we can plan meaningful learning experiences to enhance their learning abilities.

Hello All

When surfing the internet everyone; especially children have the right to safe, high performace internet browsing.

Child Safety
Parents and educators have a responsibility to protect children from exposure to harmful material on the world wide web; materials such as:

• Pornographic images
• Offensive materials
• Hateful materials
• Voilent materials
• Material that encourages illegal or dangerous activities

NetAlert is an ongoing commitment to provide safe online environment for families and children. Cybersmart offers advice, resources and activities for young children, children, teenagers to enjoy safe internet browsing; and training for schools and librabry staff.

Net alert website (which also has access to the Cybersmart website): http://www.netalert.gov.au/

Stranger Danger
Stranger danger on the internet is when there is contact with someone online who is claiming to be someone they are not. People on social websites such as myspace, facebook, twitter and chatrooms take the risk of comming into contact with stranger danger. So that is why when using the internet, use a nickname, never give out on full name and address and passwords should be a mixture of letters and numbers (more secure) and to be never given out (people can use your account).

Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is when bullying such as teasing, spreading rumours and recieving unwanted messages happens through technologies such as SMS messaging, discussion groups, chatrooms, instant messaging and email. Ways to prevent this is to block or delete any unfriendly users and ignoring unwanted messages.

Privacy
Privacy on the internet refers to protecting personal documents or images that have been uploaded onto the internet. For example when on social networking websites such as facebook there are options to change privacy status to select who can see your details.

Walled garden approach refers to a closed set of information services provided for users. Schools have restricted access on the world wide web; can only access government approved websites this is to promote child safety by preventing stranger danger and cyberbulling over the internet.

Hello All

Since the turn of the millienum, our learners have developed a whole new learning style which we as learning managers need to adapt to in order to teach our students. They have grown up in the digital age where we rely on mobile phones, internet, digital cameras, video games and music players in order to recieve information,commuicate; basically to survive in today's society.

Prensky (2001) has categorised learners as:

• Digital natives: born into and grown up with digital technology and therefore have the specific language and syntax around technology.
• Digital Immigrants: born prior to the digital age and therefore are forced to adapt to the digital world.

"Digital Immigrant instructors who speak on an outdated language (that of pre-digital age) are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language." -Marc Prensky-

Prensky's native Vs Immigrant generalisation is agreeable. Since the turn of the millienum we have been bombarded with the introduction of new technologies which are being updated all the time. Technologies such as the internet with the introduction of facebook, myspace, twitter, youtube and MSN; web cameras, digital cameras, mobile phones, blackberries, video games; the transition from VCRs to DVDs and Casettes to CDs and MP3s. I would agree that learners born after the turn of the millenium would be classed as digital natives as they are growing up with this technology; however for myself I grew up in the 90s where I listened to cassettes on my tape player and walkman and watched videos on VCR. When I reached my teenage years was when the new digital technology came in; I needed to be able to use the internet in order to complete learning tasks, videos and casettes were no longer being made so I needed to get a stereo system where I could play both cassettes and cds to listen to my music. At 16 I got a digital camera to replace my old one which bought film and took it to the shop to get developed. At 17 I got my own mobile phone; 18 an MP3 player and discovered the use of USBs and memory sticks which I needed for uni studies.

Now I am only 20 but I dont know whether Prensky would class me as a digital native or immigrant as to my more mature peers; but I do consider myself to have a pretty good knowledge of todays technology but who knows what technology will be invented by the time I graduate and begin my first year of teaching.