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)