Playing around with avatars

Wiki analysis + comparison of a blog

I'm reviewing wikis again and their benefits. I found an article which focused on the positives and negatives of using a wiki for higher education. Plus: Prepare, compose, edit, review and assess tasks, collaboratively. Think critically. Team work skills - beneficial for group assignment Global access - possibility of building on cultural understanding. Minus: Because it is so open - anyone can edit that content which maybe shouldn't be edited. Also, copyright and ownership issues may arise (especially if the same task is being discussed in great detail). Interesting:

“Despite the fact that there are many who have serious doubts and concerns’ regarding Wikipedia’s overall quality, Wikipedia’s website is one of the most visited sites on the Internet, serving an average 50.000 http

requests per second”

At school I was told not to reference wikipedia. However, it was always one of the easiest websites to access and read - it gave me some good background knowledge and most of the time it did contain accurate information. The key differences between blogs and wiki are that wikis can be edited by anyone - with an account (not hard to get), whereas in a blog, 'outsiders' can only add comments and the blog owner has control over the content (can delete anything). Both allow pictures and videos to be uploaded and links to be added. Personally I prefer the layout and tools to edit blogs over wikis. But wikis seem to welcome collaborative work over blogs.

Why use ICTs in classrooms? This is why!

More thoughts on PowerPoint

Ok, so I just read a preview of a book called "Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery" by Garr Reynolds. He was very honest in his description of PowerPoints. The key messages I got out of the preview were 1. They are not necessary on all occasions -I agree as PowerPoints shouldn't have too much info and so somtimes handouts, notes whiteboards and flipcharts are more appropriate. 2. The key principles when creating a PowerPoint presentation are: restraint, simplicity and naturalness. This book preview did not change my opinion on PowerPoint(I will use it in my classroom) - it just makes me consider how to best use it effectively.

Uses of PowerPoint

I have been using PowerPoint for a number of years now - I probably started using it when I was in grade 9 for assignments and continue to use it today for my uni assignments and in my prac classroom. PowerPoint is a very simple program to use and it is easy to undo any mistakes. It sometimes takes me a while to complete the process of using animation (but that has always been through trial and error) and there are so many effects to choose from - I waste too much time!! :) As mentioned before, I have used PowerPoint in a grade 4 classroom before. I think this was more beneficial than me writing on the board as it was colourful, animated, pre-made (no waiting for me to write something - but a teacher could be editing a powerpoint during the lesson anyway(if needed)) and can contain sounds. I found a website stating the positives of PowerPoint, but it did have some suggestions as to it's educational purpose: using it to teach students, or students using it to show knowledge/capabilities or, using it to diplay information without a persons presence (eg. parent info night(parents can go at own pace), or slide show of pictures - what happened during the day?) I know that I will be using PowerPoint in my future classroom because I know how to use it already and I think that it is a very effective ICT tool. However, I do wonder, will my students be so advanced in using PowerPoint that it is not something facinating to them? At least it is more engaging that reading my writing and deciphering my drawing! :)

Wikis and websites

I have just recently made a wiki and a website. I quite enjoyed it, except that I didn't know what to put on them. I watched the youtube clip which showed a class wiki where they wrote a text book - I thought this was a very creative way of using a wiki. Can anyone give me any suggestions as to where a wiki could be used in a prep classroom? I thought that maybe a website could be used as a Webquest, but is there any other meaningful use?

Concept maps 2

I was just trying out the concept mapping tool "Text2Mindmap" and I created a mind map on animals - for my lesson in the week. I found this tool not as 'exciting' as the "bubbl.us". It took me longer to work out how to use the program (it is simple though), and whenever a change is made in the text it moves the boxes away from where they were before (annoying). Like the bubbl.us, it had options for colour and font which made it fun to use. Now the question - why have people put the effort into designing programs/tools for creating concept maps? Do people really use them that much? How are they beneficial to learning? I found a website which goes into detail about the theory of concept mapping and how it is useful. I didn't read the whole article but the key points that I got from it was the fact that concept maps place items in a hierarchial order and then visually show the relationships between all the ideas, concepts, objects etc. This prompted my mind into thinking about how our brains work - we learn/remember things by linking information to existing knowledge. Concept mapping is just one way of visually representing those links - helping use retain the information. Also, I think that these concept mapping tools are a great way to organise declarative knowledge (Dimension 2). Do you agree?

Concept mapping

I had so much fun creating the following concept map. As a visual learner I found it very beneficial to clarify my thoughts. This would work well in a classroom as it is very simple to use, it's easy to edit and it's so colourful! If students were working on a brainstorming activity independantly or as a group - this would work well. I am yet to try the other concept mapping program - so I'll let you know how that goes.

What I learnt about blogging.

Before this course I had very little knowledge about blogging in society let alone using it in the classroom. I found the reading from Stephen Downes easy to read and benefical in my learning. The statements from students and educational professionals really displayed the positives that blogging has for education. The statement that stood out to me most was that blogging gives oppurtunity for people to reflect, critize, question and react. Personally, I don't like writing reflections because generally I am the only person who will see them and due to time restraints I don't normally consider or read them again. However, I now see value in reflecting via blogging as other people can give feedback and then the reflection has more meaning and value. - it's like a working document. I see this working in a classroom - however the only concern I have is the possiblity of 'outsiders' bullying my students or replying in an inappropriate manner. I would want blogging to be a positive experience for my students. So I was wondering if anyone knew - is there any posibility of blocking certain people from blogs or is it literally open to the whole world? Thanks :) I finally got around to answering this question of mine (because no one else did), and the answer is yes, you can place blocks on blogs. I first went searching through google for the answer, and found that other blogging sites such as "WordPress" allow you to control viewers. However, I have Blogger - so I went exploring through the tabs and found this: It is a tool that allows you to add authors to one blog (useful for a group assignment) and also place blocks/ select the views. I think that this is a great tool as information is more secure and the students may be more likely to share information more freely - knowing who can and can't view it.

First experience

Hey all, This is my first time blogging. I don't really know what to say, but hopefully as the weeks unfold I will learn more about online tools such as blogging. I enjoy learning about computer based programs and technologies and hopefully I will catch the blogging fever! I have never thought about using blogs in the classroom as all my prac experiences have had a maximum of three computers. I value the use of pen and paper, however using the internet has many benefits such as communicating quickly over long distances and giving students a wider audience (can be both positive and negative). I'll keep thinking on the topic, and I'm looking forward to learning more. :) Sarah x