For Year 9 Drama Students- assessment 3

This Voki is for my learning activity for ICTs Assessment item 3.

Year 9 Homework Task:

Learning e.Journal Reflective Synopsis

Thinking back to the beginning of my Learning Journey, I can already see a vast improvement and understanding in my capabilities relating to ICTs. After being actively involved with my peers through discussion boards and by keeping up with my fellow peers’ Blogs, I have learnt a considerable amount and it is great to hear other student's experiences in implementing their respective ICTs.

A particular video that was on the Moodle Course Website for Week 2-ICT for Learning Design was the speech by Sir Ken Robinson. This video really brought things into perspective for me. It made me think about my pedagogy and how to make it even more effective through creativity. As Ken Robinson said:

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” (Robinson. K, 2006)

This means taking a risk and not being afraid to fail. This is one of my classroom rules for my Year 8 drama and dance class.

“Over the last twenty years, technology has reorganised how we live, how we communicate and how we learn.” (Siemens, G 2004)

Technology is advancing rapidly and with school aged students being at the forefront of this change, it is important that we as teachers use these advances in technology to enhance their learning experiences. By using these new technologies, the students will be able to relate more readily to the subject matter. As the video first sited by Scot Aldred in Week 2-ICT for Learning Design states:

“If you are not using technology to teach, you should be!” (Transforming Teaching Through Technology, 2007)

As a teacher of very practical based subjects (dance and drama) it is up to me to use this to my advantage by making each lesson “direct, purposeful experiences” (Dale’s cone- learning effectiveness). This means making every lesson very hands on and full of real life experiences. These practises include a very student-centred approach to the classroom.

My teaching area Dance covers three learning aspects: performance, choreography and appreciation. Appreciation is dance analysis which can be through the form of live performances and/or the student’s own work but is mainly executed through video and clip excerpts from many different resources. I have had many conversations with my Mentor Teacher about this and how the students relate well to seeing visual examples. This is because they have been taught to analyse visual examples for assessment purposes so it then becomes natural to them for exercises undertaken within class time. Implementing ICTs within the classroom has proved very beneficial for my Mentor Meacher and this is apparent through my observations of these classes. On the pupil free day at my pre-service teaching school, it was discovered after a study conducted earlier this year that the preferred learning style of the year 8 students were: visual (61), followed by kinaesthetic (42) and then auditory (18). This discovery reinforces the importance of ICTs as a visual example for the students as auditory is proving not to be enough to enhance their learning experience.

The other day I was conducting a lesson for year 8’s about cannon within dance and I found a excerpt from So You Think You Can Dance finale. I showed this to them as an example and I found by using something that relates more directly to them, the students displayed a better understanding of what was being taught.

As a result of the different learning styles observed within a classroom, it is important that as teachers we cater for every learning style whether it is active or reflective, visual or verbal.

Through my experience with ICTs for Learning Design, I have learnt many different methods to engage my students. Before starting this course, I thought that ICTs were just videos but my thoughts on this have changed as my learning has expanded.

Now I have successfully learnt how to:

Create an Avatar through Voki, I think this activity is fantastic and as you can see on my blog, you can customise these to look however you wish. The possibilities are endless with these avatars and they would be a fantastic hook to get your students engaged! I can see these avatars being implemented for instructional use for primary school. For high school, I think the students would be capable to create their own and they could post homework tasks through these avatars to make homework more interesting.

PowerPoint: Although I already had experience in using PowerPoint, I now see more uses for this software (see my blog posting regarding: ICTs at my pre service school). Each room at the school has a data projector so instead of writing excessive amounts on the white board; the teachers create a PowerPoint slide for the students to observe. By including pictures, activities and videos within these PowerPoint slides also makes it more exciting for the students.

Blogs and Wikis: After creating my own Blog and Wiki, I have seen the uses for these in the classroom. Student’s can create their own collaborative website through a Wiki and can create a learning journey (similar to what we have as GDLT students) on a blog.

YouTube and TeacherTube: I was familiar with this broadcasting site, but not so much with use of TeacherTube. There are an excessive amount of educational videos that I was not aware of and some would be fantastic to implement within my lessons. Students can also create educational videos and upload them onto YouTube for assessment purposes. This relates to the donate phase of the Engagement Theory created by Greg Kearsley and Ben Scheiderman.

The engagement theory has three components: Relate-Create-Donate. The engagement theory is a creative, collaborative way for students to share and learn and because it has an outside authentic focus, it gives the students an extrinsic motivation. Students need to be engaged in active learning which consists of problem based learning. This can be without technology however Kearsley and Scheiderman strongly believe that “technology can facilitate engagement in ways which are difficult to achieve otherwise.” (Kearsley and Scheiderman, 1999)

Within the strategising phase of Lynch’s 8 Learning Management Questions, it consists of questions:

4. what resources do I have at my disposal?
5. What will constitute the learning journey? and
6. Who will do that?

Through the strategising phase is where we as teachers need to implement the use of ICTs. Question 5 of the Learning Management Question draws parallels with the Dimensions of Learning Strategies 2 (Acquire and Integrate Knowledge), 3 (Extend and refine knowledge) and 4 (Use knowledge meaningfully).

ICTs can be very complex however teachers need to try to implement even the simplest methods regardless of the school's facilities. This refers to question 4 of Lynch’s 8 learning management questions: What resources do I have at my disposal?
ICT usage will vary from school to school but through using technology, students will benefit in their experiences. This could be as simple as including videos, PowerPoint’s and Online Quizzes.

Memories from my schooling consist of a lot of chalk and talk experiences (teacher-centric). With this is mind, it is important to me that each lesson has a student-centric approach with inclusive ICTs.

From my learning journey, I now have a better understanding of the importance of ICTs and incorporating a visual and hands on pedagogy. Some of the things that I have learnt in the weekly activities I will continue to incorporate into my lessons. These include ICTs such as: Wikis, Blogs, Avatars, Picnik, online quizzes or activities and e.Portfolio programs such as Mahara.

References:

Active Learning Centre (2000) Dale’s Cone. Retrieved 11 March, 2010, from
http://www.acu.edu/cte/activelearning/focus_images/dalecone.gif

Aldred, S. (2010) Learning Management Questions (Adapted from Lynch 2003). Retrieved 20 March, 2010, from
http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/file.php/9976/8lmq_s.pdf

Differentiation, One Size Does Not Fit All. Handout distributed to all teachers at my Pre- Service Teaching School, 13 of April, 2010.

Kearsley, G, Schneiderman, B, (1999). Engagement Theory: A Framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved 9 March, 2010, from
http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Lynch, D. (2003) The Bachelor of Learning Management (BLM) and Education Capability. Retrieved 3 March, 2010, from
http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=44465

Robinson, K. (2006) Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? [Video] Retrieved 14 March, 2010, from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Siemens, G (2004) Connectivism: A Learning Theory for a Digital Age. Retrieved 15 March, 2010, from
http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Transforming Teaching Through Technology (2007) Pay Attention [Video]. Retrieved 15 March, 2010, from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEFKfXiCbLw

Applying Digital Pedagogies 4

Wow, what a week of Digital Pedagogies! Here is a brief reflection on each of the pedagogies stated on the Moodle site for ICTs for Learning Design.

YouTube and TeacherTube:

This was my first real exploration into TeacherTube. I think as this site grows it will get better and better and every subject area and matter will be covered.

I found a great little video on Drama conventions which I thought was great for the classroom:



I also found this video on Dance (I have also seen it on Youtube), this would be a great hook for a lesson of the history of dance. It would appeal to the students very well I think because of its comedic aspects. It is also educational though as it goes through popular dance styles in each era.




Google Earth:

What a fantastic tool for SOSE or geography classes! It can zoom right down to my own house!

Some ideas I had with incorporating these into dance and drama included:

For drama, it could be shown to students for the location of scripts they are analysing. This way, students have an authentic approach to acing because they can visualise where they are.

A location in Google Earth could be used for a template when creating sets and backdrops for a musical or play.

If researching a particular dance culture, a location could be shown to the students so that they can understand its origins (Indigenous dancing for an example).

It really is an amazing tool and something that can be implemented in many different classes.

Wikipedia:

I remember through school getting it drilled into me that Wikipedia is not a real website and it is not to be used for research for assignments because of its unreliability. I never would have thought that in my fourth year of University I would be asked to look it up and think of how it could be useful to my students!

Contradictory to my old high school, I do see the benefits of Wikipedia. If you are looking for a quick definition or understanding of a word or phrase, Wikipedia is fantastic for a quick fix.

When researching my two subject areas Dance and Drama, the following information came up:

Dance:

“Dance (from French danser, perhaps from Frankish) is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music,^[1] used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting.” (Wikipedia, 2010)

This is actually a good general definition of dance and it summarizes the information well.

Drama:

“Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance.^[1] The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" (Classical Greek: δρᾶμα, drama), which is derived from "to do" (Classical Greek: δράω, drao). The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a collective form of reception. The structure of dramatic texts, unlike other forms of literature, is directly influenced by this collaborative production and collective reception.^[2] The early modern tragedy Hamlet (1601) by Shakespeare and the classical Athenian tragedy Oedipus the King (c. 429 BCE) by Sophocles are among the supreme masterpieces of the art of drama.” (Wikipedia, 2010)

This is also a good general definition for students to see and gather a general perception from.

I would encourage my students to look up Wikipedia for definitions or meaning of a word or phrase. From here, there are many different key words and phrases that can be triggered and then looked up in addition to this word which is where I think Wikipedia is a great tool. Down the bottom there is a list of references where the people who have posted onto Wikipedia, have sourced their information on. This can be a great linking tool and a one stop place to find plenty of different websites about the topic of choice!

SlideShare:

I am very sad to report that I could not embed an audio clip into a SlideShare presentation. After seeing some fanstastic examples on other student's blogs, I can see how this can enhance learning. It keeps the information flow consistent to each student or class and it assists in covering the visual and auditory components of learning. Students could have access to the presentation at home and listen in their own time. It really does bring life to a simple Slideshow!

Incompetech:

This website is ideal for my two teaching areas. It is important to follow copyright laws and this is a way to access music which doesn't breach these rules. Although this is more directed to music online, this is important to keep in mind for musicals and rock eisteddfods etc. After looking around on this site, I have found theatre scripts as well! It is a great tool for someone who has their two teaching areas within this industry but also a great way at access music for other classes. Music is a great tool to enhance learning. Using music to assist PowerPoint presentations could prove to be very effective!

Flickr and Picnik

I have to admit that it took me a little while to get my head around these, even though they are not complicated I found that there wasn't many instructions and I didn't see the use until now that is...
I have discovered that Flickr is a photo uploader which organisers your photos, it is sort of like an online album! It reminded me of something similar to a social networking website, but only photos. After a week of fiddling around (yes, a week), I also found that it also is a site to FIND images as well, similar to Google Images. Although I found that there wasn't much of a range compared to Google Images.
Something I thought of immediately was that it could be used as a place for students to store and organise images for their assignments. These could be pictures from a range of sources or pictures that they have taken themselves.

Picnik was a little easier, it was similar to the Adobe Photoshop and I thought this could be useful for students for resizing images or editing them a little bit if needed. Here is a picture I found from someone's wedding:

(Image courtesy of Flickr, originally from http://www.jogjalifestyle.com/search/Black+and+red+wedding+dress)

I have seen this effect done so many times in wedding pictures so I thought I would give it a go for myself using Picnik (I think it would work better with more colour in the flowers):

(Image courtesy of Flickr, originally from http://www.jogjalifestyle.com/search/Black+and+red+wedding+dress)

Picnik was great fun and I can see how student's could use this free facility. It is a great way to edit your pictures and add a bit of life into them! There were alot of editing options to choose from!

ICTs in my Pre-service teaching school

After just completeing two weeks of Prac, I just thought I would comment on the ICTs in the school that I am in. I am in a private school and the resources are amazing. They have so much IT support, I think about 5 workers?
The roll marking systems are all computerised and they will tell you who is absent automatically as you sign in. All teachers have a small laptop that they can carry around with them and that are good for marking rolls in assembly.
Every classroom has a data projector, screen and computer which I didn't even notice at the start but as I thought about it, my high school only had a few classrooms with data projectors in them and we were always having to book the computer room even if the teacher wanted to show us something briefly. The teachers at my pre-service school use the data projector as a white board too, making PowerPoints then projecting them for students to copy.
They do have a computer room but every class also has around 15 laptops that the students can use if they need. So advanced!
Each teacher has a teacher log in access and there is everything!! Resources from past years, movies and clips are on a program called clickview. They even gave me a log in access so I can see how it all works. Every teacher also has a teacher ID card which allows you to photocopy. I also got one of these and one of the IT support team took my picture, and printed an ID card in three minutes!
This school has one interactive whiteboard but no where near my area so I won't get to use one. I am relieved but it would be nice to see it in action too!
Is everyone else's schools this efficient? I was very impressed by this school!
Courtney

PowerPoint activity- Martha Graham

Martha Graham

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The YouTube videos didn't transfer so I have included the links below.

To view the first video click here

and the second video click here

This is just a basic PowerPoint about Martha Graham. My Mentor teacher for my upcoming prac informed me that the year 11 students were doing a topic on Martha Graham which is where I got the insperation for this one.I felt I went a little overboard with quotes but there were just too many great ones that I couldn't pass on. I think it could be more exciting but I did add activities and videos to enhance the powerpoint. I tend to always make my format plain and basic but I think the animations and colours is what attracts the students (not too many though). I forgot how time consuming they were especially all the referencing too! I think they are very effective tool to summarise and it is always good to assist talks with a visual component.

Mahara

Mahara! What an experience this week has been! Week 5 had me feeling much better about everything technology. I found connections with Maraha to the blogs and wikis and this made it easier for me to comprehend. I remember from Res School not understanding much about Mahara and how I would use it. But after carefully going through the videos and exploring it a bit more, I think I am getting the hang of it now. I now have realised that Mahara is everything down to a personal blog to a discussion board to a resume! It also has the facilities that a socializing network website does.

I can now see many uses for this within schooling as well for our own beneficial reasons. I can imagine making a view for each topic or for just the content for that week. I see similarities in the Moodle tutorials that we have every week where there are activities, videos, links, readings etc. Instead of having it written on paper, the students could navigate a View given to them to enhance their learning experience.

I also loved the convience of adding this blog to our profile!
I now have a much clearer understanding after this week and I am feeling much more confident.

Courtney

Creating an avatar through Voki

I just loved creating an avatar! What endless possibilities. This will be useful for a hook or introduction. I think it would even be a good activity posting idea for the students. Students can put homework answers in their own avatar then show the class to make homework a bit more exciting!

Getting used to WIkis!

I think the Wikis will just take getting used to. I can think of plenty of ideas and I can see the value it can have in schools but before I can use it, I need to get my own head around it!
Some ideas I thought of incuded

Similar to the example video made available to us in Week 4- see bellow (cited by Aldred, S)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmkqcp11pHM&feature=player_embedded

Students could be asked to create a "textbook" on whatever topic they were studying. Each sudent could get a chapter and this could be marked as assessment. I thought this idea was fantasic as I thought of all the extensions that could be done as well. Such as adding home made videos or links. This could work really well in my two teaching areas (dance and drama) as examples of whatever the topic was could be posted so the reader can visualise what is being spoken about. (My week 2 ICT incorporation activity for drama could also work great embedded within this "textbook")
The fact that anyone can edit these is also great as it incorporates all involvement including teachers. Editing can also be seen as consistent improvement by seeing what others edited and what they added onto the original.
I think that the idea for posting homework tasks in blogs is also great as it is a bit different and students can customise their own blog. This is a great way for us as teachers to check if they are on track as well.

Thanks
Courtney Rice

ICTs Week 2 Learning Activities and Thoughts

Learning Activities:

Think about your own experiences at school and write a list of what you believe was student-centred and what was teacher-centric...

I think majority of my experience at school was teacher-centric. I don’t remember many classes asking things to students like what we are learning about now. I remember that drama, art and home economics were always a bit more learner-centred but I believe this was only because of the prac aspect of these subjects. Religion was the learner-centred because the priest wanted us to believe through our own way, we drew pictures up until the last day of yr 12. I remember Maths and English being chalk and talk every day.

Contrast this approach with what you have experienced in your own education and think about the advantages and possible pitfalls of this approach...

I think that the Profiling Phase is important as it is refreshing to see that teachers now should not just assume what was taught the year before and move on straight away. Question 2 is very learner-centred (as are all 8 questions) as it focuses on what is necessary to be taught (curriculum etc.) and what they want to learn. So what can be incorporated into the ‘needs’ that is something that they ‘want’ to learn as well? There is a lot of feedback approach in these questions and in my education, I never was asked what I wanted to learn which I think is the difference in today’s teaching and the advantages it has.

Learning Activity design

Since my second teaching area is Drama, I decided to do a drama activity. In school we learnt about the Japanese theatre known as Kabuki where men play both gender roles and it is all shown through movement. It is known for its elaborate costumes and make up. If this was a drama theatre style studied within the curriculum, I thought the students could research thoroughly through library, search engines, any means of research and find out the authentic way to apply makeup and what different colours or designs on the face symbolised. After this they could create an educational video showing viewers how to apply Kabuki make-up and why they wear it etc. Then post it onto YouTube. If this was a long term activity they could submit action plans, story boards, scripts etc. Obviously this is just a rough idea and more research would have to be conducted.

1. Write a list of formal learning experiences that you have had over the last two years.
2. Categorise each of these learning experiences (between 1 and 10) according to Dale's Cone and the Learning Pyramid (1 = poor; 10 = excellent)
3. Add up all of the scores and divide the total by the number of learning experiences.

Performing Arts degree- 10
Responsible Service of alcohol certificate-7
Employment training (new job) including Evacuation etc.-8

I realised after looking at Dale’s cone that I was so lucky to do a degree such as performing arts. Every experience I could think of within these 3 years was a 10! We had mentors come in from different companies; we performed an array of different shows in different settings. Everything we did was 100% hands on. Of course there were moments of chalk and talk when we were learning something new but this always followed in an example of what we had learnt. My university studies were very rich in experiences.
Outside of Uni, I just thought of when I obtained my RSA and I wondered why I scored it do high for just a 3 hour lecture. The man who took it was so into his work and what he did and he enriched us with a story for everything we learnt. He had an example for everything! To make something as mundane as a RSA course interesting, I really admired him. His preparation and dedication is something I will take and try to implement in my teaching experiences.
For the employment training, we had a very hands-on approach where we did a real evacuation drill. The venue where I work is a big place so to get this many people out is a very serious task. It was a very good learning experience to do this in a dramatic experience. They told us that “now was the time to make mistakes”. A very good experience.
So over all my learning experiences over the last 2 years was a 8.3 which is a good outcome.

Learning style results Results for: Courtney Rice ACT X REF 11 9 7 5 3 1 1 3 5 7 9 11 <-- --> SEN X INT 11 9 7 5 3 1 1 3 5 7 9 11 <-- --> VIS X VRB 11 9 7 5 3 1 1 3 5 7 9 11 <-- --> SEQ X GLO 11 9 7 5 3 1 1 3 5 7 9 11 <-- -->

I found that I was all over the place which is why my scores are so balanced except for visual/verbal. For some questions, I preferred team work and for the others, I preferred working alone. Then I like text in some aspects then pictures in others. Very inconsistent. Interesting to see though. Every learner will be different and our biggest task will be to accommodate for all these needs. Outcome for personality test moderately expressed extravert slightly expressed sensing personality distinctively expressed feeling personality moderately expressed judging personality Problems within the classroom would be to cater for all these differences. Not only are the students learning styles different but my results for the personality test were different again! So imagine what it must be like for developing, ever changing students! Maybe for a primary school setting it would be easier as you have the same set of children for a year, but for a secondary teacher, this will prove a challenge as they have a number of students in a number of classes. These tests were very interesting to do!! It just goes to show how different everyone is. I think a diverse classroom is also a rewarding experience as everyday will be different and every learner will bring something different to the class. Rediscovering Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs This reading had so much content and very interesting ideas. I agree with Kanc that there are some downfalls with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. I think that what some students lack at home, they gain at school and vice versa. How can we ensure that children coming into our class feel covered in the physiological, safety and love aspects? What if a child comes from a hard home life and like I said above what they lack at home, they gain in school? Or do they have to have the love and safety at home before they even can begin to learn? I think Maslow had the right idea but this does not apply to everyone. To cater for a wide range of diversity in a classroom and having all students involved means providing belonging, love and safety to a child. Sir Ken Robinson Clip Some quotes I found interesting from Sir Ken Robinson’s speech, as mentioned on the discussion board, I just found him so captivating! I agreed with everything he said: “Kids will take a chance, even if they don’t know, they will have a go.” “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” “We are educating people out of their creative capacities.” “Picasso said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.” This week has been full of content. It is really interesting to see what sort of learner I was and how I want to be taught. I am assuming the results from these tests were different for everyone, as will the results for students in our classes.

ICTs Week One Activity and Thoughts

Learning Activity One

1. Think about your own education -- what has it resembled to date? Was it a remnant of the Industrial Age or was it based around the skills required for the 21st century?

I think my education was based around the skills required for the 21^st century. I remember my schools trying really hard to have the latest technology even in primary school. I never really thought about it much until reading this but we got taught at a very young age how to do a power point presentation, I was only in yr 5 so 1999. I suppose you don’t think about it much when that is the way you are taught, but at the same time, the thought of interactive whiteboards scares me because it is unknown.

2. Future work was written 10 years ago. Think about where we are now and the rapid changes that have occurred even since this article was written.

The section that stood out to me the most was the “digital phones and personal digital assistants” as cutting edge equipment. This has obviously advanced over ten years to iphones/ipads etc. I agree in some instants though where it states about take away food employment rising, the fact that computer related jobs will grow such as computer engineers etc. This article was correct in predicting the importance or “take over” of computers and this made me think about the self checkouts in Woolworths or Big W. Will there be such thing as a checkout chick in 10 years? Another point was that the article could have never predicted the economic downfall that occurred.

3. How does the author differentiate between Mode 1 and 2 knowledge and what implications does this have for you as a teaching professional?

Mode one was based around the a single concept meaning it was produced my individuals in universities or traditional research centres whereas mode two seems like it has a collective based research knowledge. It was produced in diverse sites by teams. Mode one seems to be what you know and Mode two is more what you can achieve with this knowledge.

4. How do Smith and Mienczakowski ideas work, or conflict with the three readings above?

The Smith and Mienczakowski have the same main points as most of the articles do but I think the most similar is the Mode two as it has the same broad approach to knowledge. It states in the article that the BLM program in 2000 used to be focused on “what students know, rather than how they use that knowledge” (Seltzer and Bentley 1999, p. 9). This reflects what the Mode Two was trying to say as the new BLM was trying to develop a new strategy, “one that involves all parts of education and training systems, including the community and the schools”. This was the main concept in the Mode two article. I think that the 8 Learning Management questions were really useful too.

Social Capital Learning Activity

1. How valid are the speakers ideas about social capital and family values in today's children?

I thought that this clip was really interesting. It made me think of how much time has changed, it is sort of a safety thing too and what the world has turned into. “Life was rich outside of School”. I believe that students can still get this richness from outside of school but this also depends on values, morals, family, religion etc. She made some interesting points and made me think about life experiences that students learn and bring to school. Everyone is different.

Power Point Learning Activity

Just some ideas, it is only week one so I am sure this list will grow and grow!

· Enrich the students with experience in the classroom and even use the experiences they bring in

· To establish a creative pedagogy that will benefit all students and keep them engaged!

· Establish that not one student is the same and how to manage diversity

· Teaching and learning at the same time.

· Have a mutual level of respect

· Change your strategies if it is not working, develop a new way of learning

· Create a pedagogy that is learner focused and not teacher focused

· Use every resource to guide the students ICT’s etc.

· We are not teachers we are learning managers

· Learning Management as: "the capacity to design pedagogic strategies that achieve learning outcomes in students". (Smith & Lynch)