Creative Technologies

I missed this presentation as well as it was in the same week when Google Earth was presented. I decided to investigate the websites that were used throughout the presentation.

www.kerpoof.com

www.kidipiks.com

www.fotoll.com

They were similar to some websites I had found while doing research on student friendly sites. I think its really good that so many educational websites are becoming available that incorporate new technologies. I don’t know if I would use these websites as a basis of lessons but they would be good to direct students to if they finish early or as a reward.

I liked fotoll as it allows students to poll results and ask questions. I think this is a different way of teaching statistics in maths. I’m not sure I would use it in my classroom until I had a good play with all the resources to know exactly what the positives and negatives are.

Kym

Sharing Information

This is an answer to the Web-Quest question:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~thefreodoc/Curtin/index.html

I really liked the idea of presenting a new innovation each week. I feel a lot more comfortable now in using a lot of resources and I have learnt new things about resources I already use. I also really liked the idea of using a wiki page to put down all the new information as it allows me to go back later on if I am unsure of how to use an innovation in the classroom. The online blogs were a really good idea too as you got to see what other people thought of different topics and if your views matched theirs.

This was a really good assignment and it was good how the Web-quest was integrated as it brings together things we had learnt last year.

Kym

Google Earth

I was unable to attend this presentation as I was sick but I have used Google Earth and know how valuable it can be. I would use this resource in the classroom if I had access to the technology. It is a great tool for teaching student mapping for Maths, population density etc. for SOSE and the Environment for Science. I think this resource would have been great when I was doing Geography in high school as it would have been a fun way to compare populations and land uses.

I think students will love being able to zoom in on their house seemingly from space. It is a great resource and I definitely will be using it in the classroom.

Kym

Online Photo Sharing

I really don’t think this is a valuable thing to use in the classroom. I guess I just have an issue with letting students on to sites that are designed for adults. I mean who knows who will be on there??? I have seen schools share photos online but most of them have a school webpage that parents/ other teachers can go on and look at the students. I also think many parents won’t want a teacher using sites such as Flickr in the classroom.

Justin did a good presentation in showing us how to work the sites and how each one is different. It is good to know how to create a album and to know how to store photos on the Internet. I think the best thing for me was being able to type in a topic and lots of different photos came up. This is a good resource if you want to create a photo montage using photo story or powerpoint to show the students photos of a topic (for example photos of a volcano). This is probably the only way I would integrate it into the classroom.

Kym

Search Engines and Web 2.0

Tracey and I did our presentation on the value of using search engines and web 2.0 in the classroom. We looked at it from the point of view of sites suitable for students. We found kid friendly search engines and looked at sites designed for children. I think our presentation went well except for the few rude students who thought it was ok to be looking at flight websites and facebook.

The innovation we focused on are good in the classroom but may not be ready to be implemented yet as some are still being developed for example www.zoeybot.com. In a few years as more classrooms integrate technology the Internet will be commonly used to find resources so kid-safe sites need to be developed. My opinion is that when I have my own classroom I will definitely be looking at kid designed sites for my students to use.

kym

A good site for everyone to check out is kidzui.com (type it in google and see what comes up)

Smartboards- The New Frontier!

A couple of weeks ago we had a presentation on smart boards and how to use them in the classroom. I was really looking forward to this lesson as I have not really had a chance to use them before. The presentation was fantastic and they showed us lots of different ways to use them. I feel more confident in sitting down and having a go at making a lesson with them. Although my classroom does not have a smart-board it is still good to know how to use them in case next year on ATP my class has one.

I hope all teachers think they are as good as I do! You shouldn’t be scared of technology!

Kym

HELP! My prac class is going to make or break me!

Ok so I am worried and scared about the field experience coming up as the class I am in is nothing I have seen before and the teacher to me seems like she shouldnt even being teaching! I went to visit the class today and every lesson she does is out of mass produced teachers books with worksheets and lesson plans all laid out. She works through the books during the year as what they kids will be learning each term. She told me the english module they will be doing while I am there is biographies/autobiographies and the SOSE/Science model is natural disasters.

I have been told that someone comes in to teach science, art, phys ed, music/drama and language. She has a huge amount of dot time nearly all of Wednesday off as well as other time scattered around. I have two teachers one does Mon, Tues and Wed while the other Thurs and Friday, the other teacher has most of Friday off as that is her Dot time. I am freaking out as I will basically only be teaching English and maths lessons and as interesting as they can be I would like some experience in other stuff.

I spoke to the teacher who comes in and does Science on Wednesday but she told me she only does theory science someone else does the ‘fun stuff’ as she put it. She said I can teach some of her lessons if I want but she won’t assess me.

I really don’t think this classroom is the best environment for a prac student as it is so mismatched and unorganised. The classroom itself has 35 children who also according to the teacher can only do structured individual work as they misbehave when doing constructive, group work. Everything we learn at uni is based around constructive group work!!!!

I have no idea what I will do I guess I will have to see how it goes when I actually get in to the classroom, any feedback would be greatly appreciated though. Thanks!

Kym

Clickers- Are they actually worth the money?

I have to admit that I don’t like the idea of clickers in the classroom and would rather spend my money on other things for the students. Why spend money on something that really only serves one purpose??? It can really only be used for tests and I think if teachers were given access to them they would become lazy and only do tests. I don’t want to do tests with my students unless I absolutely need to so there would be no need for clickers in my classroom. It was a great presentation but not enough to change my mind.

In the prac classroom I am about to enter they have no technology resources at all, no smartboard, no progector nothing only one whiteboard and one blackboard! This is not the only classroom I have seen with this how are clickers supposed to be integrated into these classrooms???

Sorry to all those clicker lovers, they may be good in theory but in practise……..

kym

Podcasts

So podcasts- what can I say I currently have 93 stored on my ipod just from the past 6 months. I have downloaded all sorts of different podcasts- TV shows, Internet info, languages and radio. The presentation on podcasts confirmed my belief that podcasts are fantastic and you can use them in the classroom.

When using podcasts it is important for the teacher to screen the information first to make sure all content is alright for students as I myself have downloaded some podcasts I think to be good and then find out they have swear words or images unsuitable for children.

I don’t think I would be up to speed at the moment to use podcasts in the classroom I would need more ideas and research on how to integrate them effectively into a lesson. I don’t want podcasts to just be a filler they need to bring something to what the students are learning.

Kym

My IPod is my World

So in class today we had to learn about ipod’s and MP3’s which I already had a fairly good idea about. It was good to see how to use it in different ways. I use my ipod for music, TV, podcasts and movie so it was interesting to see how podcasts and audio is created. I don’t think I would use Ipod/MP3’s in the classroom as you can buy audio recorders that I personally think are a lot easier to use than Ipod technology.

I have a digital recorder that allows up to 500minutes stored on a device smaller than most ipods. It is easier to use and it is a lot less distracting for students than ipods. I would also want to keep my ipod separate from the students, to keep personal information private.

Kym