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.