Sarah’s Blog :)

I am writing this in response to Brendans post on, WebQuest Taxonomy: A Taxonomy of Tasks. After reading the post, I agree with Brendan that webquests are a great and exciting way for teaching and learning. I have never heard of a webquest before I starting the e-learning subject, and this post enlightens webquests and explains the different ways that they can be used. I like the idea of using a webquest for mystery tasks such as solving a puzzle created by the teacher.

I also agree that webquests can open up many new doors for teaching and learning, especially when modelling their own needs and settings. In my future teaching career, I would like to use webquests in my classroom, as they can combine many different outcomes and indicators across a variety of Key Learning Areas. From reading Brendans post, I have realised that there are loads of new technologies which can be used to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom.

 Image: http://www.lerc.educ.ubc.ca/LERC/courses/310/cdwebq/magnify2.jpeg

I have just read an article on the impact of e-portfolios. I always thought that portfolios is a great idea for assessment, as there are so many different types of portfolios for students. Portfolios enable students to assess their own learning and for the teacher to present their best work to their parents or other teachers. However, the use of an e-portfolio adds many advantages to using portfolios in the classroom.

A definiton of an e-portfolio was stated in the article, “It is a purposeful selection of evidence by the learner at a point in time, with a particular audience in mind. It is a part of a personal online space…”. This definition demonstrates the importance of an e-portfolio in the classroom.

I agree with the article that e-portfolios benefit learning in many ways, especially in a joined teaching an learning apporach. E-portfolios need to be clearly linked to learning, otherwise it would be unmeaninful and unworthwhile. I believe that e-portfolios are  great tool to be used for assessment. It can be easily accessed by parents at home, and it is a way to collaborate and share work with other students worldwide. In my future teaching practices I would lose to use an e-portfolio and see how the students interact with it and appeciate it.

Image: http://scottish-rscs.org.uk/newsfeed/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/jigsaw_pieces.jpg

I have just recently read Kathy Shields post on Entanglement in a Virtual Web. Having read Kathy’s blog, I have thought about the impact that the internet does to a person. I agree with Kathy that the internet is a big social networking place. The internet can prioritize your life, and before you know it, you can spend every waking moment being on the internet and talking to people. I personally, have stopped myself from using MSN or any chat web-based sites, as I feel that I can spend hours just talking to people.

I agree with Kathy that many people can suffocate from to much exposure of the web, and it’s not healthy for their well-being. I agree that the web is very similar to a spider’s web, as its draws people in, and they become tangled in the web and the social networking. For example, face book draws in many people from around the world, and people can spend hours just networking more friends, and socializing. I agree with Kathy that there must be a balance between the real world and using the web. People must experience the real world and interact and socialize within the real world, instead of becoming “entangled in a web, and spinning yourself into a cocoon tethered by millions of other people in your social network”.

Since I have stopped myself from using MSN and other social networking sites, I now have more time to experience the real world and do a lot more adventurous and exciting things.  

Image: http://atangledweb.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/tangled_web.jpg

I have just read Amelia’s post on Computers as Paintbrush. I remember watching their presentation during class and looking at their creative powerpoint. I agree with Amelia that computers should encourage children to be actively engaged. Children should be actively playing, exploring, inventing, designing and experimenting with new softwares and tools on the computer, instead of just being passively involved.

 I believe that children should be immersed into softwares such as garageband which allows them to create podcasts and invent a podcast. I also believe that childhood is the most creative time in a child’s life. During my afterschool care, all of the little kids think of many creative games to play which engages them for hours. I agree with Amelia that as teachers, we should be providing students with many opportuntities to explore computer softwares and we should be exposing the students in programs which allows them to explore, design, and create. We should be utilising this new technology and becoming familar with new programs and softwares, instead of hindering ourselves and our students.  

During our e-Learning classes, we have started to create our own digitial stories. I am finding this hard to do, as I have never created a digital story before and im not sure what to write about. I am still in the process of making mine and viewing other digital stories to give me ideas. This is when I came across the commentary, Digital Stories in the Classroom. After viewing this commentary, I felt myself being emotionally attached. The words, images, and music were so powerful, and really allowed the viewer to be engaged and become apart of the story. I feel that after viewing this commentary, it is important to understand that digital stories is a creative way to convey many personal feelings and show your personal experience to a larger societal event.

As teachers, we should encourage students to create a digital story, as it allows them to convey a personal experience in one’s life. Students should understand that a good digital story needs a powerful narration and a strong question. Its important that the visual images and music help enhance the story. I believe that by immersing students in a digital story it will encourage them to be interactive and more engaged in the learning experience. It will give them a sense of fullfilment after they have completed their story and for teachers it will be a great success to see the students so immersed in the technology. This commentary influenced me to think more in depth about my digital story so I can create a powerful story to show to the class

Image: http://www.dragonarts.co.uk/Writers_group/digitalstory.png

After reading Brendan’s Post on Listen to the Natives I agree with Brendan that young students love playing with digital media due to them changing constantly and growing up quickly. Children love to be immersed in the technology world, and as teachers I feel that we should be providing our students with as many opportunitities to interact with technology. I agree with Brendan that as teachers we are not up to speed with the eagerness of students to learn, and that we should be using their enthusiasm as a beacon for our professional development.

I also feel that teachers should be at the foreground of schooling, and that as teachers we should be using technology in a classrooms on a daily basis. We are in an advancing technological world, and the students are the key to your future. As teachers, we should be listening to the students about their opinions of their classrooms and schooling. Therefore, after reflecting on this issue, I came to agree with Brendan’s thoughts about this issue, and also believe that as teachers we are not the ‘digital immigrants’ and students are not the ‘digital natives’, but we should all be helping each other and learning together.

Image: http://www.timeoutsydney.com.au/kids/large-genz20.jpg

As I was reading the commentary, Sand Castles Go Digital, it made me understand that using the Internet and going digital is important to increase creativity and knowledge, if used appropriately. I like how the article starts with setting the scene of building a sand castle, as it made me understand the concept of constructionist learning. Constructionism is a theory by Seymour Papert, who believes that “children learn best when they are in the active roles of designer and constructor”. I feel that it is important for children to reflect on their learning and build upon prior knowledge, and therefore by using digital sources, it will provide a sense of continuity, by allowing the child to take further, add to, reflect on, share, and extend on, and develop their knowledge. I feel that the internet provides endless opportunities for a wide-open learning environment in which children can explore the world, express themselves and make creations.

This commentary is worthwhile to read, as it explains and discusses how doing a simple activity like building sandcastles encourages discovery learning and open-ended play, and explains how computers and the internet do the same thing aswell. Therefore, in my future teaching practices, I want to encourage discovery learning and encourage students to use digital media so they can have a sense of exchanging ideas and being immersed in an open-ended learning environment.

Image: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Travel/Pix/pictures/2007/07/31/Sandcastle460.jpg

I was looking on the internet for an interesting article, and came across this particular article titled, ‘Taking Charge’. The article mentioned how all of the advances in technology have allowed special-needs students more freedom and more control over their education, which I believe is vital in a childs life. An example that the article used was, The Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind. The article talks about how this school is leading the way into the digital age by using more mainstream hardware and software, and breakthrough designs for the blind/visually impaired students such as screen readers that say words out loud and shows it in braille.

I find it so amazing that the advancement in technology is encouraging students to head into the workforce with computer skills and allowing them to work in the court and medical transcriptionist. I feel that these advancements are opening wider opportunities for special needs students which is great for their well-being.

The article has also shown me, how to teach computer skills in the classroom, such as to start of with the basics and then move up to further difficult levels. This allows the students to become familar with the basics. I feel that this school is an inspiration, as it helps blind students by using Braille, and they use the interactice whiteboards to translate words into other languages which is a promising tool for ESL students.

This article has shown me how to teach technology in the classroom to gain promising benefits from the students, and strategies that may help special need students to learn. Therefore, during my future teaching practices, I will take charge and use technology, so everyone in my class can gain freedom and independence!

I also found another article, “Teaching Special Needs students in th regular classroom” by Emma Macdonald, which is worthwhile to read. This article discusses different ways to teach special needs student in the regular classroom from a personal point of view.

Image: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/bncollin/files/alphasmart.jpg

I have just read Matthew’s post on, “Connecting Learning Across the World”. He mentioned that he went to a presentation from the French Teacher, Bernard Garcin, who has worked on a collaborative project with 30 different schools around the world. He mentioned that they used online technologies to help support their student’s language learning. Students had to write emails in a foreign language in their correspondence. I believe that this learning technique is interesting, as it encourages the students to step out of their comfort zone and write emails which they are not familar with.

This collaborative project interests me, as it demonstrates that through interaction and cooperation with different schools, it can benefit the students in the future in many ways. I also feel that having an understanding of different learning and teaching strategies in other countries will help me in my future teaching practise, as I will be able to gain greater experience in a variety of teaching and learning strategies.

I admit that I do have a facebook and a MySpace like many of us out there, and recently I was asking myself if schools encourage these social networks or do they ban them? I came across these commentary, “Dont tell your parents – schools embrace MySpace”. The commentary spoke about how some schools ban these social networks due to them wasting classroom time, and other schools have included facebook and myspace into their curriculum. I use to believe that these social networks were a waste of time, but after reading this commentary, it makes me wonder. The article mentions that by using these social networks it encourages collaboration and interaction between students. It also encourages a personal learning environment, as students need to communicate, document and consume their learning across different disciplines.

The article suggests that social networks acts as a networking tool where students and teachers can find other people with similar interests and therefore share and debate their work. In the educational context, it allows students to collaborate ideas outside the walls of their schools.

Therefore, I believe that social networks may be useful for communicating ideas outside of schools, however still should not be used within schools as it may distract students from doing their school work and as a result wastes classroom learning time.  

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/luc/1824234195/