My final culminating statement

Review of what I've learnt!

7 Blue posts (Posts reacting to readings and comments)

• T-PACK
• INFLUENCE OF BLOGGING
• E-PORTFOLIOS
• IWB
• ACHIEVING EQUITY
• A SCHOOL'S DUTY OF CARE
• IPADS

5 Green posts (Posts reacting to staff or other peers posts)

• Interesting post by a peer (response to Kyle Foster's post).
• A School's Duty of Care (post reacting to Glynis).
• Commenting on Kim's blog (response to Kim Trinh's post).
• Discussing Equity (post reacting to Glynis).
• IWB (response to Rebecca Vacarella's post).

8 Orange posts (posts reflecting on other stimulating experiences in class or on prac)

• First time blogger (in class).
• T-pack (in class).
• IWB (on prac).
• Connected Learning (own experience).
• The use of the IWB (on prac).
• Running my class item (on prac).
• Turning technologies (in class).
• I-pads in the classroom (in class).

OVERVIEW! 

Before undertaking the subject Professional Experience 3 I didn't think that I would gain so much valuable information from it. However, now reflecting over the semester I've actually learned some very critical information ranging from different issues that teachers need to consider and work around. These issues were raised throughout the lit circles week after week, with Maria, Glynis and my peers shedding deep discussion about it.

In my opinion the weeks in which we had discussed and were introduced to the Interactive White Board (IWB) was the lesson most beneficial for myself in, It gave me the opportunity to incorporate it into my teaching practices at this present moment. An example of this was during my prac where IWB was incorporated in nearly all my lessons. The reason as to why I feel this way is because the issues we had gone through in the lit circles are aspects we need to consider as teachers. However, since I'm not yet a fully qualified teacher I feel the only real thing I could do with this new formed knowledge is consider and prepare for it in the future. In contrast to the IWB I could readily implement it to improve my learning and teaching experiences during prac.Therefore, I felt that this new skill and knowledge I have of creating an IWB has helped create effective engaging lessons. This reflection is seen in the posts titled The use of the IWB on prac.

In relation to the topic discussed above Higgins, S., Beauchamp, G, & Miller, D. had covered the advantages and disadvantages of using the IWB in a classroom setting.(Interactive Whiteboards.)

Another aspect as to how Professional Experience 3 has helped was learning actual ways we could implement technology and the range of technology that could be used in a classroom. I was aware that technology has been ever growing in the recent years substantially, however I never really knew how I could work around this trend and implement it into my practices. PE3 has helped me familiarise my self over the 10 weeks where readings of  Roblyer, M (2006) had helped myslef introduce the need to develop the tools and skills needed to integrate technology effectively in a classroom setting (T-PACK).

Davis, A., & McGral, E. (2006) had given me information as to how blogging activities could be implemented into a classroom setting as it could be used in a way to vary the type of literacy students are undertaking. Also, to give students the chance to write more meaningfully about their own experiences. (The influence of blogging in primary Education).

Furthermore, over the course of professional experience learning about the different types of technologies available (First time blogger!) had been very useful also. Some of these include video conferencing (Connected Learning), blogging, e-portfolios (E-portfolios), twitter, I-pads, QR codes (IPADS in the classroom), creating a video (Creating our resource for assignment 1) and different online websites available like bubbl.us.

With professional experience it has ultimately giving me valuable resources which I could only further develop and better my self in becoming a better teacher. From very minimal knowledge of how technology could be implemented into the classroom before beginning this class and now looking back I feel so much more comfortable in actually using certain technologies in the classroom. One of the most valuable resources that I have already used during prac is the IWB which is a great tool to create engaging lessons.  

Reference List

Barret, H.C. (2010). Balancing the two faces of e-portfolios. Retrieved from http://eft.educom.pt/index.php/eft/article/viewFile/161/102.

Davis, A., &McGrail, E. (2011). The influence of classroom blogging on elementary student writing.Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 25(4) 415-437.

Higgins, S., Beauchamp, G. & Miller, D. (2007). Reviewing the literature on interactive whiteboards. Learning, Media and Technology, 32(3), 213-225

Roblyer, M (2006). Teaching with instructional software. In M. Roblyer (Ed). Integrating educational technology into teaching. (4th ed.). Merrill. Prentice Hall. Columbus, Ohio. Chapter 3.

Week 10 I-PADS IN THE CLASSROOM!

The reading that was assigned to this tutorial was about implementing the use of I-PADS in the classroom and whether or not they are really worth the extra expenditure for classrooms. 

This article discusses a project they had undertook in Canada involving 2 elementary schools one being a rural and the other an urban classroom. Both who had implemented the use of I-PADS into their classroom. Both classes had used the I-PADS for the specific task of developing digital story telling skills.The particular focus on upper elementary schools was because students were showing a disinterest in education and the researchers wanted to see the effects of implementing the I-PADS into classroom practices. 

Results from the project tell us that the use of I-PADS was a great  success as students from both schools had great experiences where access to the internet was much quicker and convenient then starting up a laptop. The schools were provided with support from a research team for the main reason on helping with digital storytelling. It was also seen as a great way for students to work independently because if the teacher had asked a question and the students were not able to answer, they simply looked the answer up on the I-PADS. However, with this comes the issue of whether students are really independent of dependent on looking up answers all the time on Google or on other search engines.

All in all, the use of the I-PADS in the classroom setting seem to be an effective resource for students to use because they were highly engaging in this research project.

 LEARNING EXPERIENCE CREATING QR CODES!

In class we had to create an activity using certain apps on an ipad or ipone. The activity we had to complete was to create a journey for students which were broken into step by step instructions. Alicia, Kyle, Charlotte and I for example had questions that led students to go to the library, then to locate a certain a book and return it to their classroom. These instructions were transformed into QR codes where student could only read if they had the correct iphone or ipad app to do so. The QR codes could be created on this website: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

Overall, I think that I'd love to implement an activity where students would have to create their own QR codes and share with other peers and complete each others. It would be a unique lesson where I personally believe students would immediately be engaged. As with as any lesson which is hands on is any lesson a student would be highly involved with from my experience at prac.

References

Reid, D. & Ostashevski, N. (2011). iPads in the Classroom – New Technologies, Old Issues: Are they really worth the effort?.
In T. Bastiaens & M. Ebner (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2011 (pp. 1689-1694). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.

http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

Interesting post from a peer

I was reading through my fellow classmates blogs and stumbled upon Kyle Foster's. One particular post that really interested me was titled 'Male teacher shortages'. The reason as to why i was interested in this because it had relevance towards myself becoming a male teacher.

The post was primarily based on the article to the right --------------------->

Most of the article was a bit to hard to read because of the resizing of the image. However my view on this issue of a Male teacher shortage is strong as on the past two prac's that I have been on had on average 3-5 Male teachers. However, as this article states there has been an increase growth of 25% of male teachers since 2001 which is a promising amount.

I think that there needs to be a lot more male teachers and my firm belief that contributes to this is the main issue that:

•  A lot of the students who are experiencing family issues for example divorced parents. These children need to have a male role model the child could look up to as an example. This would essential in regards to the way the child would behave in his later years growing up. 
• It may also provide students with someone who they could talk to if they need advice.

Have a look at this post and many more interesting post that Kyle has blogged about here:

http://profex3kyleyfoster.blogspot.com.au/ 

Week 9 Turning Technologies

Maria ran this tutorial and handed us these remotes that were titled 'ResponseCardRF'. What we did with these remotes was Maria would put a question up on the IWB and we'd have to answer by pressing certain buttons on these remotes. On the IWB displayed how many students had answered and whether we'd still be waiting for others to answer. I found this to be a very interesting resource and would wonder how students would respond and react to these when implemented into the classroom setting.

How it could be implemented in a classroom setting?

I could personally see this tool being used for multiple choice questions perhaps assessing students knowledge at the end of a unit.


References

The Horizon Report 2011 Edition. Retrieved from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2011-Horizon-Report.pdf

A school's duty of care!

This weeks reading was about the extent of responsibility a school has on a student when giving students access to cyberspace.On this particular issue I believe we should give students a certain amount of freedom when accessing the internet. The reason for this belief is because by giving students freedom, this will show them that the teacher trusts the student, and there needs to be a mutual respect between a child and the teacher in order for effective teaching to happen.
Thus, I believe before letting students go onto the computers, I'd say to the students that 'I trust every single student and am giving you the responsibility to behave appropriately on the internet. If I find one student or any student looking up inappropriate things on the web I will stop the computer lesson'.

In this case also take into account Vygotzki's theory of scaffolding where the teacher would be guiding the students in the right direction as to what they should be researching or doing when they are accessing cyberspace.

However, then a lot of participants and Glynis had agreed that for the past few years a lot of schools have blocked a whole list of websites in which students would not be able to access. For example YouTube. This then brings the issue as to what if students had found a link to help answer questions based on school work however this was blocked, therefore limiting the students ability to complete school work.

Glynis had also raised an important issue relating to this in terms of what if students only access to the internet was through school. Then, if the majority of websites were blocked or if there was no freedom of students how could students possibly complete homework which requires the access of cyberspace. Ultimately limiting the learning experience of students.

With freedom comes a lot of responsibility, what I mean by this is that if students are given freedom to cyberspace there are a lot of dangers that students may face. For example, the privacy of students may not be protected. In order to prevent this issue teachers need to prepare well for this encounter by for example having a well prepared lesson in which the teacher has already checked the website in which students would be using. Or, giving very clear instructions as to what students could access whilst on the internet.

Glynis had also informed the class that every school has implemented the Fair Use policy, and when she had asked the class whether students received a sheet that states the expectations of students and teachers she was shocked. The Fair use Policy is a contract that displays the expected standards of the students behaviours whilst online and using the internet.

Glynis concluded the tutorial by showing us this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_o8auwnJtqE which I thought would be very relevant to show students when teaching the topic of child protection. Take a look for yourself.

All in all, I believe that this weeks lesson carried on by Glynis was very critical. It has made me consider and put more thought critically in regards to the things I need to consider when having lessons in place involved with students accessing cyberspace.

Reference

A School's duty of care for students to whom it gives access to cyberspace: Data in (Content Regulation) and Data Out. Retrieved from www.netsafe.org.nz/Doc.../netsafepapers_grahambassett_duty.pdf.

Running my class item

My teacher wanted me to run the school item for assembly and this was a very exciting and nerve racking experience. The school item was based on creating a play based on the English book they had been going through as a class. This would be the first time teaching Drama and the book they were reading was 'Little Red Rocket'.

An idea that my co-operating teacher had thought of was bringing in characters like the wiggles, dr who, the darleck, a dinosaur, satellite, and a student playing the role of a teacher. Some of these characters being random characters not from the book. Who'd  pop onto stage depending on the scene of the story.

My co-operating teacher had created the play and did the majority of creating the costumes of a space rocket, the big red car, satellite and the darleck. The rest of the costumes were borrowed from the school. So for two days straight I would be rehearsing the play and letting the students familiarise themselves with their roles. This was hard as at time students would become too excited which results in misbehaving and acting inappropriately. It was also difficult controlling those student who would wait offstage whilst aiding students who'd be on stage.

Friday morning was the day of the assembly where we'd have to run the school item. We had the chance to rehearse it once because of time restraints and students mucking up. My class had ran the assembly as well on Friday so we quickly assigned roles for teachers to hand names and which students would help hand awards and read certain sentences on the sheet provided. Also making sure that the projector in the hall had worked where Little Red Rocket would be displayed on the big overhead for the audience to follow.

The item came on and I assigned my self off stage to help the other characters who would be lined outside of the hall waiting for their ques. The main reason why my teacher and I thought this would be best suitable was because a lot of the students who were outside needed to be quiet and well behaved in order for the audience to be able to hear the performance on stage.

All in all the play went well and I thought that the muck ups that did occur, for example there was a delay of one student having trouble with his peer to put the dinosaur suit on and arrived late rushing on to stage and also the satellite not being able to fit through the door to exit off-stage. But this created the humour for the audience who thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

The use of the IWB in practical

Before going to my old primary school Bonnyrigg Heights Primary school I was really nervous as I had year 4 this year which was a big step from kindergarten last year. Another factor which had also contributed to my fear was the use of the IWB and Technology beacuse I had never really took the time to understand how to use or create a lesson absed on IWB on my own, or really incorporated different types of technologies into a lesson.

What I had done to overcome this issue was youtubed several tutorial videos and this helped me familairise myself with the basics of the smart notebook program. The smart notebook program being the resource to create an IWB file.

On the first day of practical I had asked my tertiary adviser to teach me and a peer about the basic tools of the smart notebook program. This was very useful because as the teacher had demonstrated how to use a certain tool she allowed my peer and I to replicate what she had done. I had also asked my co-operating teacher actually being my year 6 teacher in the past about the IWB, and he had introduced me to 'smart exchange' which is an effective tool which provides an extensive list of learning game that vary across the curriculum.

All in all, as I slowly familiarised my self with the smartnote book program I then became comfortable with it as a utilised it daily incorporated into my lessons. I also think that that the lesson we had in Professional Experience about the IWB with Maria going through some key aspects of the IWB. 

Commenting about Kim's blog

Hi all, Kim, Lily, Quynh and I were all placed at the same school Bonnyrigg Heights Public School this year. I was very interested to contrast and compare Kim's experiences with the use of technology in her classroom with mine.

In reading her post about her experiences during prac with how technology was used it was very similar in a lot of ways with the experiences I encountered. I've also commented on her post regarding the similarities on her blog.

Find her engaging blog at http://whatevzkimee.blogspot.com.au/

WEEK 7 Connected Learning!

This weeks tutorial was run by Maria and was based upon Connected Learning in an Australian Technology Program. In this lesson we had looked at the wide range of different technologies that were available in classrooms for teachers to use. Also, the benefits they have as well as the possible negative effects they might pose.

In my own experience during high school in year 12 my English classroom had the camera set as well as the Television for video conferencing. There was no use of this technology in terms of learning the content we needed in regards to school content. However, I do remember vaguely using the video conference once where my whole class as well as fellow year 12 English classes sat in the room and talked to another school.

But for video conferencing to be implemented in a primary setting I cannot see the relevance as to what students could be possibly discussing with other schools as they are too young. However, I came up with an idea that there might be a possibility for debating through video conferencing but other than that I wasn't too sure as to how primary aged students could use this form of 'Connected Learning'.

Other forms of connected learning could be achieved through Skyping where students now can communicate with anyone from anywhere just by having a webcam and the program Skype.

References
Hunter, J. L. (2012). Connected Learning in an Australian Technology Program: A case study. In I. Management Association. USA (Ed), Organisational Learning and Knowledge: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications (pp. 1623-1632).

Creating our resource for assignment

Hi all!

Would just like to share a YouTube video that Kyle and myself had made for assignment one analysing two websites that we thought were very useful for teachers and upcoming student-teachers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2Hdg-nfZ1w

Discussing Achieving Equity in Education with Glynis

Today, was the week in which i had to present the reading with my fellow peers Kyle and Ariel in which today's tutorial would be run by Glenyce for the first time.

The reading was 'A Vision for 2020: Achieve Equity in Education. A Contribution to Public Discussion of the 2020 Summit Idea by Save our Schools.' The article discusses the need for an improvement and increase in equity within education. It focuses on the need to improve education to support low SES and Indigenous families to achieve equity across the nation.

I had specifically focused on the National Goals for schooling and the issues that arose with it. One of the main issues was that Australia has not made any actions since 1999 in addressing the National goals. One of the goals that I had focused on was increasing the number of students finishing schooling to year 12. The question that I had formed was how can the government and society help increase the numbers of students completing school to year 12. A lot of discussion was provoked which i was very happy to discuss as a whole.

Suggestions that were made included making year 12 compulsory for all students instead of giving students the option to drop out in year 10.  However, Glynis had provoked the discussion in relation to this issue that would it be wrong to make schooling to year 12 compulsory because of the fact that some students are just not made for school and would much prefer be a hands on person like a tradesman. But on the other hand I believe that there are that portion of students who are dropping it out as they see it as an easy way out. I also thought that the extra two years of schooling will help students mature and give them enough time to develop a better idea as to what career prospect they want to pursue in the future.

Throughout the tutorial run by Glynis we talked about the digital divide and equity. A digital divide can range from socioeconomic status, gender divide and economic divide to name a few. I think that the discussion we had in this lesson was very beneficial for upcoming student teachers to develop the understanding of different equity issues that are present in the school environment.

References

A Vision for 2020: Achieve Equity in Education. A Contribution to Public Discussion of the 2020 Summit Idea by Save our Schools - the national independent advocacy group. April 2008. Retrieved from www.valuesineducation.org.au/pdf/sos0804.pdf.

Interactive whiteboards

This week's literature circles was based on whole-class technologies and the class had to complete the reading of 'Reviewing the literature on interactive whiteboards, learning, media and technology' written by Higgens, Beuachamp and Miller.

Lorianna, Ariel and Alice had investigated the benefits and issues that come with the interactive whiteboards. A discussion had been raised based on the idea that 'students believe teachers had not been using it for its full potential' and I thought that this was true.

When the IWB was first introduced I was in year 8 and teachers at that time did not have a great knowledge as to how to implement the use of the IWB for classroom activities, which was expected.

However when I was on prac last year this was not the case as my Co-operating teacher had consistently used the IWB for mathematics and music lessons where she would allow students to come up to the board and answer questions. Where students were actually interacting and using the whiteboard instead of the case where teachers are the only ones interacting with IWB, which I experienced during High School. This, being a specific issue raised from the discussion from the girls that 'students should be interacting with the board and not just seeing what the teacher is doing'.

I personally believe that the IWB are an effective tool that sparks interest in the students as it is something much more unique than the usual method of the teacher talking and the students listening. Also, with assessment 2 of PE3 this allows us to actually develop a detailed lesson which implements the use of the IWB which is a great tool to familiarising  ourselves with the use of IWB which was explored in the tutorial.

Rebecca Vacarella's blog on the IWB!

My fellow classmate and good friend Rebecca had posted some interesting points about the IWB where she had stated she used http://www.atomiclearning.com/ which helped familiarised herself with the basics of the IWB. This particular website was also explored in detail by Maria who introduced to us various websites available for us to explore and use. Rebecca had also said that she had used the IWB during her prac with her kindergarten class and was a success in terms of it being a very useful tool in motivating in engaging students of the task at hand.

Have a look at the wonderful posts Rebecca has made throughout her experiences on profession experience 3.

http://becs-edu-blogosphere.blogspot.com.au/

References
Higgens, S., Beauchamp, G. & Miller, D. (2007). 'Reviewing the literature on interactive whiteboards, learning, media and technology' 32(3), 213-225.

E-Portfolios

This weeks reading was about E-Portfolios and in order to gain a better understanding as to what E-portfolio's was about I read Balancing the two Faces of ePortfolios  By Helen C. Barrett.

E-portfolios range could range from writing samples, pictures, videos or projects and in other forms. However, what Helen and Barret really focused was the two main factors of E-portfolios being: workspace and showcase.

Showcase is about the learning and reflection factor of a piece, whereas the workspace focuses on students taking responsibility and ownership of their own work and liable for the work the work they have done. Therefore, these two aspects are an essential part of a primary classroom as well as a secondary classroom. As, children need to have the ability to learn and reflect on their experiences dealt with in class.

In the discussion of Lit circles the question as to 'when on prac or when you have your own class would you use e-portfolios? why/why not? How often would you use them? was asked. I would personally consider the use of e-portfolios however the only aspect which may question my decision to use one is the difficulty for teachers to monitor students E-portfolios as well as blogs.

 

References

Balancing the two faces of e-portfolios. Retrieved from http:/eft.educom.pt/indext,php/eft/article/viewFile/161/102 

The influence of blogging in primary education

Blogging was something I have heard of in the past but never got into it myself. Professional experience has introduced  blogging as a whole and what it can do for us as student-teachers. Maria had brought the interesting idea that blogging allows us as teachers to express our experiences for the world wide web to view and comment. But also can be used within the classroom as a technological advance for student learning. I personally would like to attempt to use a blogging writing project for students to participate in. The purpose of this would be to vary the type of literacy students usually undertake with written assignments precisely and to introduce a new lifelong skill that students can use in the future.

In today's lit circles the girls had revolved a discussion based on Davis, A & McGrail, E article 'The influence of classroom blogging on elementary student writing'.  Sophie, Devashna and Rebecca had raised the question about the influences of classroom blogging on student writing. Concepts were brought about the idea that through blogging students could socialise with their peers through blogging. The reason for this is because students have the ability to comment or chat on each others blogs. It could be used as a tool to express the students emotions or posts about facts that they find interesting. 

I.e. the events that they had experienced in school or sporting events that they participated in over the weekend. As students are blogging about these certain possibilities, they are at the same time developing their social skills, cognitive skills and computer skills. This would ultimately benefit them in the future as they are familiar with the use of technology.

References

Davis, A., & McGrail, E. (2011). The influence of classroom blogging on elementary student writing. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 25(4) 415-437.

T-PACK

This was our second week back into uni, and today we had the first group complete their literature circles. The girls who presented went into a lot of depth into their discussion as it went for about 20 minutes. I thought the discussion was very effective as it gave me a greater understanding about instructional games and different forms technology could be implemented into a classroom. The girls made us form a small group to discuss among ourselves about a certain topic on instructional games.

The topic question the group had formed was how  instructional games effect students. Different ideas were discussed, a mutual agreement came when we all agreed that instructional games are a great way to motivate and spark interest in the students in any topic. Because students are easily interested in hands on activities/games.

We had also discussed a possible negative impact on instructional games. This was based on the idea that students may lose interest in the theoretical work required to be completed and would only want to play instructional games. With that said we believed that there should be a balance between instructional games as well as theoretical work. Also that games should be used as a reward system, for example once students have completed their worksheet they may have the rest of the lesson to be on the computer.

In the tutorial we had gone through a Youtube video clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNoijjIrPT. This introduced us to T-PACK which stands for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. What T-PACK pack provides teachers and student-teachers are the essential tools needed for teachers to integrate technology effectively in their teaching practices. Lee Shulman created the former model PCK (Pedagogical Content Knowledge).

Image from http://www.tpck.org/ 



References

Roblyer, M (2006). Teaching with instructional software. In M. Roblyer (Ed). Integrating educational technology into learning. (4th ed). Merrill. Prentice Hall. Columbus, Ohio. Chapter 3. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNoijjIrPT8

//www.tpck.org/ 

First time blogger!!

This will be my first time ever blogging. The purpose of this blog is to reflect on my experiences on professional experience 3 in class as to the content and experiences I have gained in class. Also, the experiences I will be reflecting on when going onto prac for my second time :)

This was the first week of uni after such a long and exciting break. It was everything I had expected, meeting new friends, seeing old friends and learning about new subjects that may better myself as a teacher.

For my first lesson of professional experience 3 we had to complete a mind map about the different types of technologies available and present in the primary classroom throughout the years. Here are the examples I had come up with in class visible in this mind map.