Embedded Task 5 - Reflection on Simulations, Interactives (or Technology of your choice)

European Creative Classroom Framework

How does this reflect your beliefs and values about education?

It reflects my belief that classrooms should be creative and innovative in order to gain student engagement and further their learning. It also reflects my belief that classrooms need to be modern and need to use the current technology available, as these ICT applications are extremely influential in the learning of the students.

 How would your beliefs and values have to change to accommodate and work with the ideas presented here?

However, while I do believe technology is the central to student learning I do also believe that the use of technology can sometimes distract students from their learning and that the old note-taking style is the best approach in some cases. Therefore, I would have to change this belief or monitor students’ use of technology to ensure it is being used appropriately and that it does have an educational benefit.

This week’s technology explained…

Interactive learning objects: I probably would not incorporate them too much into my pedagogy, in particular, the circuits and gapminder program, as these would be more suited for a maths or science teacher and thus, do not reflect my own disciplines.

Google Maps: This would be beneficial in history lessons, as it would help me in explaining the geographical location of countries and places.

Online concept mapping: Great tool to use in either English or History when introducing a new topic to discover what students know and don’t know about the new unit.

Online Timetables: This would definitely be of benefit to me in a history lesson to give students a clear indication of the time of events.

Chosen technology for discussion: Google Docs

Overview of the technical aspects

-       Smart editing and styling tools: gives students the opportunity to be creative in their approach to the task.

-       Easily formats text and paragraphs: easy for students to use and therefore, only a small time is spent introducing students to the application.

-       Thousands of fonts: gives students the opportunity to be creative and unique.

-       Can add links, images, drawings, and tables: increases students’ engagement through the use of additional interesting multi-media.

-       Can be used from phone, tablet, or computer: students can virtually access it at any time.

-       Collaborative – everyone can work together: gives students the opportunity to work as part of a team.

-       Changes are automatically saved: students do not run the risk of losing their work.

-       Works with Microsoft Word: students have the ability to convert their responses into a word document if necessary.

-       Offline editing available: students can edit their work at any time.

-       Create graphs – can advance maths lessons

-       Chat with other users who are online – students can instantly get feedback from their peers and other students.

-       Collects data with a spreadsheet or form – improves teachers ability to track student progress

What learning outcomes can they support in your classroom? What sorts of materials/activities will they support?

-       Increased student feedback: teacher can be given access to students’ google docs and offer them feedback throughout their task.

-       Teachers can use it to collaborate on lesson plans with their colleagues. Therefore, students are being taught with the most authentic content and best possible teaching strategy.

-       Teachers can share class notes and presentations with students – improving student revision.

-       Whole-class activities – gives students the opportunity to work together and increase their knowledge based on their peers’ responses.

-       Improves student collaboration – students can work as part of a team on the same document or comment on other students’ individual work.

-       Improves teacher communication to ESL parents and students with the option of translator available – teachers can send newsletters and permissions slips to parents in their traditional language.

-       Teachers and students can use it to gather research information and ask for opinions.

-       Improves visual literacy with Google Doc drawing.

-       Improves student creativity – students can add their own individuality to the document through choosing particular styles, fonts, images and videos. 

Implemented in my own pedagogy:

The use of Google Docs can be applied to my own teaching context in a number of ways. Being a history teacher, using Google Docs would give me access to sharing primary sources with the students through sharing images from the time of the event on the Google Doc. Also, as students are more likely to retain information with the use of an image or visual I would input this into my pedagogy and make sure I have plenty of visuals on these documents. Also, with my second discipline being English, Google Docs could be used for character development in novel study. For example, I could put the name of a particular character up on a whole classroom Doc and get students to brainstorm character traits around it, so every student’s understanding of the character is advancing. Also, it would be an extremely helpful tool in essay writing. This is for the reason that I would have the ability to direct students in their writing. In addition to this, Google Docs would also provide me with the ability to provide instant feedback to students and track student progress. This would ultimately improve educational outcomes as students are instantly getting the feedback they need in order to develop. Additionally, the use of Google Docs would give me the opportunity to collaborate on lesson plans my colleagues. Furthermore, students learning would increase, as they are being taught with a broader perspective and with a more developed teaching strategy. 

Google Docs using the SAMR model:

Substitution:

Teacher puts class content on Google Docs and students copy into their notebooks. Therefore, at first Google Docs is just a basic ‘substitution’ to teachers writing on whiteboards/chalkboards.

Augmentation:

Class completes essay using Google Docs instead of using pen and paper. The functional benefit here is that teachers can give students instant feedback and track their progress. The impact of immediate feedback is that students may begin to become more engaged in learning.

Modification:

Students can comment and view other students’ work. The benefit here is that students are learning from each other and assisting in both their own individual learning and that of their fellow students.

Redefinition:

The Google Doc application becomes a virtual classroom. All classroom activities are at the students’ fingertips as well as this they gain additional support from digital artefacts.  Teachers can track student progress and interests and adjust their pedagogy accordingly. Students can submit their drafts online to the teacher and receive instant feedback. Students can work through classroom activities anytime through teachers publishing them on the Doc. Students have the ability to ask the teacher questions at any time and their peers through comments or the chat application. Students can collaborate ideas together from their own homes. 

My example:

The following is a link to an example I constructed which would be acceptable to use in an English lesson on metaphors.

https://docs.google.com/a/cqumail.com/document/d/1MIpmUhBkuOPyG5nq7eFeDwLit1N-9wnF9Yski1h59sQ/edit?usp=sharing

Assessment 1: Embedded Task 4 - Reflection on Presentation tools

PowerPoint Presentations

1.   An overview of the technical aspects

What can this technology do?

·         Embed text, links, audio, video and images – teachers can input the lesson’s content onto slides and accompany it with relevant engaging and educational video, images and audio.

·         Creates interactive quizzes – teachers can input quizzes to students’ understanding.

·         Creates concept maps and brainstorms (SmartArt function) – gives students the ability to ease into a new topic through the breakdown of concepts these tools offer.

·         Image files – students and teachers can create images through saving slides as jpg images.

·         Slide transitioning and animation – teachers can include slide transitions and animations into their slides to increase student engagement.

·         Edit images e.g. crop, border, filter – teachers and students can edit images they insert onto their slides to enhance presentations.

·         Easy to use – functions explained, ‘help’ tool included if needed – easy for contemporary teachers and students to understanding – “basic” form of technology.

·         Built in spelling, research, thesaurus and language application – can assist students in expanding their vocabulary and their spelling and grammar skills.  

·         Commenting and notes tool – teachers have the ability to give student feedback through comments and add to ideas through notes.

·         Creates charts (e.g. graphs) and shapes – teachers can input educational visuals to assist student understanding – e.g. this could help with statistics.

·         Varied background options – teachers can design bright and vibrant presentations to gain student attention.

What learning outcomes can they support in a classroom?

·         Improves student comprehension – students are more likely to retain information if an image or visual is presented with it.

·         Develops student creativity – students can design presentations – this allows them to be creative.

·         Assists in student individuality – students have the ability to personalise images.

·         Improves student understanding – teachers can test student knowledge through interactive quizzes; allowing teachers to see areas for improvement and adjust pedagogy accordingly.

·         Improves student feedback – teachers can add comments to students’ presentations; making it easily identifiable to students where they can improve.

·         Builds students’ ability to complete self-directed work – students don’t need to rely on the teacher to explain topics – the presentation can also be self-directed where students work through slides and then ask their teacher for help if needed.  

What sorts of activities/materials will they support?

·         Preparing handouts – if teachers use the notes page layout view they can print their presentation as a hand-out for students to refer back to after the lesson as revision (Brooks & Byles, 2015).

·         Vocabulary review activities – teachers can create slideshows of vocabulary words that students need to learn. Ran as a study show - with the words appearing along with pictures and definitions to help a student remember the meaning (i.e. a form of technological flash cards) (Brooks & Byles, 2015).

·         Spelling activities - teachers could have an image of the words they want students to spell on the side. Then have students say the spelling word and then spell it in their notebooks. As they spell, or to help them when they get confused, words could be brought up one letter at a time through mouse click (Brooks & Byles, 2015).

·         Multi-modal presentations – PowerPoint can be an option for students when they complete multi-modal tasks for assessment.

·         Oral presentations – students can make a PowerPoint to accompany their speech to gain audience attention and get their idea further across. Also if allowed, students can record their oral on their PowerPoint to avoid getting nervous in person.

·         Introducing a new topic – PowerPoint presentations can be a great form of direct teaching. Thus, making them an excellent tool to use especially when students have to gain knowledge of a new topic first, in order to apply it.

2.   PowerPoint applied to my own teaching context

Pedagogy

The use of PowerPoints can be applied to my own teaching context in a number of ways. For example, because one of my chosen disciplines is English they would be of great assistance. Firstly, they could be used to advance students’ vocabulary through “vocab study shows” (as mentioned previously). In addition to this, they could be used as a tool to increase students’ spelling capabilities through providing an effective structure to develop these skills (see activities/materials sections). Also, in a history teacher context due to PowerPoints having the ability to make interactive class quizzes I could use this function to test general knowledge on the current unit’s topic. Additionally, the use of PowerPoint would make it easy for me to discuss and share primary sources with the students like images and video footage from the time of the event. Also, as students are more likely to retain information with the use of an image or visual I would input this into my pedagogy and make sure I have plenty of visuals in the presentations to assist students in retaining information. For an example of how it could be included in my teaching context refer to my example PowerPoint at the bottom of the post.

SAMR Model in a PowerPoint Presentation Context

Substitution:

Teacher puts class content on presentation slides and students copy into their notebooks. Therefore, at first PowerPoint is just a basic ‘substitution’ to teachers writing on whiteboards/chalkboards.

Augmentation:

Class completes quiz using PowerPoint instead of using pen and paper. The functional benefit here is that teachers can receive almost immediate feedback on student level of understanding of material if completed as a whole class activity. The impact of immediate feedback is that students may begin to become more engaged in learning.

Modification:

Students can record their multimodal presentations onto their PowerPoints. Students can avoid the nervousness of having to present in front of the class.  

Redefinition:

Whole class lessons are structured on PowerPoints. The use of video, images and audio accompanying content in the lesson, increases student engagement and with that increases student educational outcomes. PowerPoint presentations can be saved and given to students as handouts to refer back to for revision which hence, makes exam study easier for the students. The PowerPoint program becomes central to student learning progression with each lesson being structured using the application. 

References

Brooks, S., & Byles, B. (2015). Ideas for using PowerPoint in a classroom. Retrieved from http://internet4classrooms.com/ideas_pp.htm

Grammar and Punctuation Revision

More presentations from Louise

Embedded Task 3 - Reflection on Audio, Images and Video

Digital tool: Images

In current times teachers are incorporating the use of images in classroom activities to assist their students’ learning. After completing this week’s tutorial and reflective task I have seen just how useful they can be within the classroom.  From the tutorial I gathered that students are more likely to retain information with the use of an image or visual. Furthermore, this presented to me the importance of inputting this into my pedagogy and making sure I have plenty of visuals to assist students in retaining information. After completing the activity I now view the use of images as a powerful classroom educational tool.

 

1.   An overview of the technical aspects:

·         What can this technology do (image applications)? What you can do with images?

-          Resize and upload images

-          Add alterations to images

-          Download images

-          Share images

-          Make images private or public

-          Save images for educational use

-          Low level technological skill needed – basic computer skills needed

-          Personalise images

-          Add captions

·         What learning outcomes can they support in a classroom?

-          Student engagement – students will respond better to images than to text as they find this disengaging and “boring”.

-          Student comprehension – students are more likely to retain information if an image or visual is presented with it.

-          Student creativity – students can use images to do design tasks – this allows them to be creative.

-          Student individuality – students have the ability to personalise images.

·         What sorts of materials/activities will they support?

-          Creative tasks – students can use images to enhance their work.

-          Multimedia activities – students can use images to enhance presentations.

-          Research activities – students will have access to primary sources through images taken at the time of the event.

2.   Images applied to my own teaching context

The use of images can be applied to my own teaching context in a number of ways. Being a history teacher, using images would give me access to sharing primary sources with the students through providing images from the time of the event. Also, as students are more likely to retain information with the use of an image or visual I would input this into my pedagogy and make sure I have plenty of visuals during these lessons. Also, with my second discipline being English, images could be used for character development in novel study. For example, this could be achieved through getting students to create/design the major characters in the novel to develop their character understanding.  

 

Images using the SAMR model

Substitution

Teacher gets students to design images using computer program. Therefore, at first it is just a basic substitution for students drawing in their notebooks.

Augmentation:

Students have the ability to edit their images while keeping previous versions. The functional benefit here is that teachers can track student progress. 

Modification:

Students have the ability to look at images from the time an event occurred and thus, have easy access to primary sources. Students no longer have to specifically rely on text recounts. 

Redefinition:

Students have the ability to edit, create, personalise, download, upload and share images with their peers and teacher. The use of images in the classroom becomes central to student comprehension with the gaining of student engagement.