SlideShare and Using Music on the Web

Hi All,

I have already experimented with SlideShare when I used it to upload my ‘Time Management’ PowerPoint onto my blog a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t have the opportunity to add audio to my PowerPoint presentation when I was constructing it, as I didn’t have access to the relevant resources to make that a possibility (and I still do not have access to a computer with a microphone to make that possible now). However, I do see the benefits of adding audio to a slideshow presentation. By adding audio to a presentation you have the ability to present the same presentation when relevant. This in turn saves time and resources as the lecture (or presentation) to accompany the slideshow has already been presented (thus reducing the need for someone to present the same content time after time). Through adding audio, thus having the opportunity to re-use the same presentation it provides consistency to allows people to feel better engaged than simply just looking at the PowerPoint itself (for example distance education students may find a Podcast to accompany a PowerPoint presentation more insightful than simply just reading the limited information that is presented on the slides).

Again, I do not have access to the technology to download music and save it to my computer (as I am using a public computer). However, I can see how adding music to your pedagogical strategy can enhance the engagement of children with a particular topic. Music could be used to introduce a topic or motivate children to learn (or used to help children remember something). The most prime example of using music in the classroom would be the rhyme used to teach children how to say the alphabet. Moreover, a previous post is also a wonderful example of how music could be successfully implemented into to classroom to assist students with their learning. The You Tube clip featured a song about nouns. The way the song was presented, it allowed children a opportunity to remember and interpret what a noun is.

I would appreciate any feedback from any of my blogs.

Regards

Chloe

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a great starting point for all researched based assignments and any general information you require about any possible topic. Wikipedia is a great starting point as it has strict guidelines for who can place information on the webpage and is constantly monitored by professionals in relevant fields.

Wikipedia also provides an extensive reference list to the information that has been used as the focus point for each topic area. This is due to the source being provided as a link to each topic area. Wikipedia is an easy and effective way to get relevant and factual information all in the one location. This saves time and frustration when researching for assessment tasks. Likewise, as learning managers, we can encourage students to start their research process by using Wikipedia as their first port of call for finding information about their desired topic. Through allowing students to use Wikipedia, we can encourage exceptional research skills and stop procrastination through offering them an abundance of knowledge in one vicinity.

Wikipedia is also a great starting point due to it's convenience. No longer do students need to go to the library and seek encyclopaedias in which they are not allowed to take home, they can access all the relevant information they require in one convenient location, thus meaning that students are able to study in their own way, at any time that best suits their schedule.

You can access Wikipedia by clicking here.

Regards
Chloe

Google Earth

Hi All,

I think that Google Earth is a wonderful tool that can be implemented into the classroom in so many imaginative ways I never would have thought possible before reading Joe Wood’s Blog.

I have learned that Google Earth can be used as a way of creating a virtual tour around the planet. Students can create their own tour for wherever they wish to visit. From reading the posts to Joe’s Blog, Google Earth can be used as an educational tool that can help to enhance a student’s understanding of places and spaces.

Google Earth can be implemented into a classroom in the following ways (as adapted from Joe Wood’s blog):

• Arts and Literature;
• Social Studies;
• Mathematics and
• Science.

Arts and Literature
 Create a virtual tour of Shakespeare’s life, including where he was born, where he grew up, where the ‘Globe’ is situated and where many of his plays took place and the places in which his plays were based on (ie. Shakespeare’s Hamlet was based in Denmark).

Social Studies
 Students could create a virtual tour of the places where Ned Kelly visited during his most infamous time.
 Students could also make a tour of the places that were most famous in the Eureka Stockade. Students could make a comparison of the places now, to how the think they would have looked at the time of the gold rush.

Mathematics
 Students could use Google Earth to conduct real life Maths lessons. This can be done through measuring areas of countries, perimeters and other lessons that incorporate the longitude and latitude of countries.

Science
 Use Google Earth to create and monitor temperature trends, patterns in the moon and sun, examine areas where earthquakes have struck, etc.

Above are only a few examples of the ways Google Earth can be implemented into the classroom, however, if you would like more examples of effective ways to use Google Earth in your classroom, I suggest you visit Joe’s Blog.

Regards

Chloe

You Tube

Hi All,

I never really used You Tube before I started this course. I never understood the hype of how people could ‘waste hours on end’ playing around with You Tube. Now, I think You Tube is fantastic. There is something for everyone on You Tube. There is educational videos, funny comedy clips, How To Clips, you name it, You Tube has it.
Below is a clip I would definitely use in my classroom. The other day in class we were actually doing activities on nouns and the students couldn’t understand and comprehend what a noun was. I think this clip is extrememly catchy and would engage the students to help the remember exactly what a noun is. I would show this clip at the beginning of a lesson so that students could remember the catch phrase used throughout the clip ‘a noun is a person, place or thing’. The tune is stuck in my head and I would hope that students would be the same.

Enjoy the Clip



Chloe.

Flickr & Picnik

Hi All,

At first I had a few issues creating a Flickr account; however, once that issue was sorted I had a great play around and explored all the amazing resources that Flickr had to offer. I found Flickr to be very similar to that of searching ‘Google Images’. I was interested in seeing if people in Rockhampton (or people that had a particular interest in Rockhampton) used Flickr. I was delighted to see some beautiful images of the area, places and people in Rockhampton being posted on Flickr.

The following is my favourite image from Flickr of Rockhampton. It is the wonderful Customs House.




At first I thought I would allow the students in my classroom to use Flickr when completing assignments (practically if they had to create a PowerPoint presentation, the quality of some of these images could really enrich the quality of their assignments). However, I was curious to know how safe students would be when using Flickr (I would not like to be teaching a lesson where my students could readily access pornography and other sexual images). Through searching a few ‘key words’ I discovered that Flickr was tasteful in their approach, however some images left little to the imagination and posed many different connotations. I personally would be reluctant to allow my students to use Flickr in the classroom to complete assignments; however I would encourage them to use images for their assignments when assessment is completed at home. Moreover, Flickr could be used as a tool for sharing images that were taken in the classroom by students for an assessment item or for sharing images from an excursion.

Picnik is another imaging tool that could be implemented into the classroom. Picnik is an easy to use photo editing tool. I found Picnik very simplistic and self explanatory. Picnik is very similar to the Microsoft imaging tool I already currently use. I would use Picnik in the classroom to edit photos that were taken on school excursions and to highlight the main features of an image. Below is the Customs House photo I found on Flickr. I have edited this image using Picnik. As you can see the before and after photos are very different from one another.




Customs House after being edited using Picnik.

Chloe

PowerPoint

Hi All,
I have created a PowerPoint presentation this week. I have used PowerPoint several times in the past, therefore I didn’t face any new challenges when creating this PowerPoint. However, I look forward to implanting audio and visual aspects to my next PowerPoint presentation.

I personally think PowerPoint is a fantastic teaching tool as it provides the visual aid to accompany the presentation. PowerPoint, when used effectively can provide a greater understand of the concept, as it can embed important and relevant key words, through visual representation, that the speaker is focusing on.

I would implement PowerPoint into my classroom when introducing a new Unit of Work or any other interesting topic. It can also be used as a focus point to engage students within a subject area that they may be experiencing particular issues with.

Below I have created a small PowerPoint presentation, for the purpose of ICTs for Learning Design. I enjoyed playing with PowerPoint, as I haven’t created a PowerPoint presentation for a while. The focus of this PowerPoint was time management. It is important that all students have a concept of time management and have their own routines that work effectively for themselves, as we all live busy lives. Through creating awareness of time management and educating students on how they too, can have good time management, I would hope to see an increase in class participation, homework being completed as well as other extra curricular activities that occur in the home.

G:\Time Management

View more presentations from clopo.

(I am very proud of myself for incorporating new technology with SlideShare. I worked out all by myself how to embed a slideshow into my blog and I now have yet another great technology tool I can use in my classroom).

Regards
Chloe.

Mahara.

Hi All,
I haven’t been able to journal for a while as I have had a few internet issues, which isn’t the best thing when you are studying an ICTs course. I have been looking at Mahara over the past few weeks and every time I go to write about it, I seem to get writer block!

After thinking about Mahara and contemplating if I would ever use it beyond the scope of this course, I have concluded I would. Mahara is a sensational tool that almost anyone anywhere can use; including the students we are going to teach. From my perspective, I will use Mahara as a storage place for all of my course work I have completed during the GDLT. Moreover, I think it is a fantastic way to network with other teachers. For primary school teachers, teaching is seen as a ‘generalist role’, thus we have to be experts in every area- Maths, English, Science, HPE and the Arts to name a few. The reality is, we are not all experts at everything, in fact some will naturally be able to design lesson plans that flow and incorporate all the necessary elements in the Essential Learnings without difficulty for HPE. On the other hand, others who are more musically talented may struggle when designing HPE lessons and vice versa. Therefore, through networking with other learning managers on a website, such as Mahara, we are able to share lesson plan, ideas, professional opinions and seek advice.

Additionally, I see Mahara as a working portfolio. Mahara is a place where all assignments, lesson plans, feed back and any journal articles of relevance that have been collected throughout the years, can be stored in one handy location and without any trouble, can be located and accessed. The use of key words when storing materials, makes accessing all information easy and effective. Likewise, our students are able to do the same with any of their electronic work. I think it would be amazing for a student to be able to collect and store all of their work throughout the years in one location, from P-12. This would mean that if a student was to change schools, teachers would be able to assess their level of work and be alluded to potential learning difficulties well before it is to late. Moreover, students themselves are able to see their progression throughout their schooling career and have the ability to reflect on their own work. Parents and careers will also have the ability to see more of their child’s work because access to Mahara can also be done at home.

Overall, I think Mahara is an exceptional educational tool and I will be using it as a working portfolio and will be encouraging other teachers to do the same. It is not often that you can have access to all your study materials, assignment, lesson plans, resources and peer feedback at the click of a button.

Regards
Chloe.

Where would you use a VOKI?

Hi All,

I have already embedded a Voki in a previous post and talked about how I would use them to help engage students with Reading Difficulties. Voki’s can be presented as another way to demonstrate speech. For example, I would use a Voki to demonstrate to the class how they should be reading and use it to demonstrate how a 'good' running record would sound, through including fluent reading and demonstrations of self correction.

Additionally, I would use a Voki as a ‘hook’ when introducing a new topic to the class. Voki’s are a fantastic way to engage the students. For example, this term my class is doing a Unit of Work titled ‘What on Earth?’ It is all about natural disasters and Earth. I would use a Voki to introduce this topic in the following way…


Get a Voki now!



I would like to know how anyone else would use a Voki and if you have any other examples to share?

Regards
Chloe.