Assessment 3 - eLearning Design

Rationale

This unit plan has been prepared and designed for a Prep class. With the recent floods in Rockhampton students have been studying many aspects of water and its uses. As a component of this unit, students will examine what lives in the water. The first step in the development of this unit was to profile my learners. Due to time constraints, profiling of the students has been carried out through classroom observations and conferencing with my mentor teacher to gain an understanding of the student’s current level of skills and knowledge and to identify any specific needs.

The class is made up of twenty-two students, fourteen boys and eight girls. The class can be broken down further to six high achievers, twelve average students and four low achievers. There is also one student who is identified as Autistic and at times resists engaging in certain literacy and numeracy activities. However, this student has a fascination with technology and usually engages in activities in which ICTs are utilised. For this reason, ICT’s will be integrated into this unit to support this student’s learning. Prep students are currently participating in a multisensory play based curriculum which addresses the auditory, visual and kinaesthetic learning styles. Moreover, the mentor teacher recommends that when the students are learning a new skill it is best to use explicit step by step instruction with demonstrations and allow students hands on practice. Currently, students have a basic knowledge of sea creatures and have demonstrated a keen interest in sea creatures when reading books, in play and class discussions. It was also noted that students enjoy publishing their work and sharing it with other students, family and staff members. This is evident by numerous displays of recent work around the classroom.

With this in mind, the focus of this mini unit will be exploring what creatures live under the sea and researching about them. The lessons will incorporate whole group, small groups and individual work with a range of activities that are both teacher centred and student centred. The unit will integrate a number of learning areas: Language and Learning/Writing & Shaping, Active Learning Processes/ Investigating Technology, Thinking, Imagining & Responding. Over the three weeks students will acquire, extend and refine their knowledge of sea creatures, develop oral language and research skills and be exposed to various structures of writing e.g. lists. Students will also use technology in a global context to communicate with an organisation affiliated with the subject area. As students work their way through this unit, acquiring knowledge in order to construct new meaning and exploring the possibilities of ICTs they will become more digitally literate. Moreover, they will appreciate how they and society are influenced by ICTs everyday and what part sea creatures play in our environment and lives. In the concluding stages, threads will be drawn together to create an animation of “under the sea” as a final product of their learning experiences.

The Engagement Theory is a conceptual framework for technology- based learning and teaching which takes into account the needs of students learning for life through authentic experiences. According to Kearsley & Shneiderman (1999) “Engagement theory is presented as a model for learning in technology-based environments which synthesizes many elements for past theories of learning. The major premise is that students must be engaged in their course work in order for effective learning to occur.” It requires students to be able to relate to the activity, to create a product and then to donate it back to a prescribed audience. In regards to this unit, students will relate to the content through a personal interest in exploring the environment in which they live. Create a product of their learning through utilising and extending their skills in a wide range of ICTs to produce an animation and donate their product back to their siblings, parents and grandparents to be shared and enjoyed. Furthermore, during the research component of the unit, students will be broken into groups to explore an assigned sea creature. Students will be required to relate with one another through discussions and questions to construct meaning from the acquired knowledge and then come back together with the class to share their findings, demonstrating both the ‘Connectivist’ and ‘Constructivist’ theories to learning.  

Integrated SOSE and ICT Unit Plan: ‘Under the Sea’ Animation

Early Years Curriculum Guideline Links:

Language learning & communication: Writing & shaping

• develop understandings of the links between spoken/signed language and written language through collaborative experiences where ideas and experiences are discussed and written down.
• discuss why texts are constructed for different purposes.

Active learning processes: Investigating technology

• investigate products of technology and make connections with ways products are used in everyday life (e.g. computers and emails)

Active learning processes: Imagining and responding

• use information and communication technologies to explore artistic elements, processes and techniques.
• work collaboratively on a project or real-life problem as they generate, act upon, and evaluate ideas, designs and actions.

Active learning processes: Thinking

• choose, with support, how and when to use information and communication technologies to help solve problems or find information.
• gathers information and explores information sources, including using communication and information technology (ICT), in collaboration with others.

What your learners will be learning and demonstrating at the end? (WoW)

Students will learn that:

• Oceans contain many living sea creatures.
• Specific sea creatures live in different parts of the ocean.
• Sea creatures have particular attributes specific to species.
• ICT tools are an integral part of everyday life.
• ICT’s serve both creative and practical purposes.

Students will be able to:

• Demonstrate the structural format of a list.
• Recall and identify at least ten sea creatures.
• Compare similarities and differences between sea creatures.
• Explain the process of creating an animation.
• Recall, speak and record one sentence about a researched sea creature.
• Design and create a sea creature.

What the learners will be doing? How will they be doing it?

- Students will work collaboratively to brainstorm creatures that live in the sea using their prior knowledge. Teacher will scribe student responses and create a sea creature list explaining the characteristics and structure of a list.

- Students will view “Little Mermaid” movie trailer and teacher will read “Commotion in the Ocean” big book to explore and identify other sea creatures to be added to their list.

- Whole class discussion on what questions they have about sea creatures. Students will communicate with an external organisation such as “Underwater World” explaining what the class is learning about and asking if they could provide some information for the class to use.

- Whole class will view “Commotion in the Ocean” animation and observe and participate in a step by step demonstration of a simple animation.

- In small group rotations, students will be guided to research six sea creatures. This activity will be scaffolded through posing of four questions for each sea creature. Students will evaluate and analyse the information presented and construct a simple sentence to be placed on the research page. Copy and Paste webpage address onto IWB for each sea creature. Explain to students that it is important to acknowledge when you have used someone else's ideas. This will have to be put up in the credits of the animation so that we are acting ethically with the information. Remaining groups will be designing and creating their sea creatures to feature in the animation. This is an independent activity to be assisted by the teacher aide.

- In small groups, each student will rehearse one sentence each from the group’s research page to be recorded for the animation. Students to seek accuracy and clarity when speaking. Remaining groups will finish off their sea creature creations.

- Students will plan the sequences of movements for their creatures across the backwashed paper. Students will be responsible for communicating and co-ordinating with each other to move their creatures in turn between photographs.
- Whole group, students will reflect and discuss the process of making an animation, sharing their opinions and ideas on the many different stages of the process. Students to communicate with “Underwater World” to thank them and to send a copy of the finished product for them to enjoy.

How ICT is embedded into the unit/learning sequence and what it is used for?

• Brainstorming session culminating in a list of sea creatures on IWB.
• Exploration of sea creatures through You-Tube clip projected onto IWB.
• Communicate with “Underwater World” through email.
• View “Commotion in the Ocean” animation from You-Tube on IWB.
• Use of camera on a tripod for photographs and Moviemaker software program projected onto IWB during simple animation demonstration and “Under the Sea” animation.
• Research sea creatures using website.
• Scaffolded research page of questions and responses created on IWB.
• Record audio files for each student using Sound Recorder on laptop.

What the final product will be and who it will be for?

The final product will be authentic hands on experience of discovery and exploration of the natural world through ICT. Students will have a deeper understanding of sea creatures and the part they play in our world and lives and also developed their skills and knowledge in various ICT tools across a broad range of applications. This awareness will give students confidence in using ICT’s in new ways to help build on and extend their learning in school and throughout life. The “Under the Sea” animation is the tangible product of this unit which has been developed for the students themselves to be shared and enjoyed by family and friends for many years. It is the evidence of the student’s collaborative effort and hard work.

How you will align your unit with Bloom’s Taxonomy to support a focus on higher order thinking?

Remembering – at least ten sea creatures and one fact about the researched creature.

Applying – internet search to access and gather information specific to sea creatures.

Analysing & Evaluating –information from website to distinguish which best responds to the posed question.

Creating – an informative animation developed from research.

Reflecting – discussing and sharing opinions about the stages in the process of creating the animation.

Reference List

Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1998). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Educational Technology, 38(5), 20-23.

Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Retrieved from CQUniversity Course Resources Online EDED20491 http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Assessment 2 - Summary of Digital Technology Analysis

 Summary of Digital Technologies Analysis

The last few weeks of investigating and exploring with ICT’s has been challenging, frustrating, exhilarating and a time consuming process. However, this process has been beneficial for allowing me to critically analyse and evaluate the capabilities of each tool to enhance the learning of my students, as well as, the ability of these tools and online spaces to keep my students safe at all times. The following summary discusses those tools I have selected across the four groups to best serve these purposes.

Group 1

After delving into the world of online spaces, I have decided the Wiki is the technological tool that is most versatile and supportive of my students learning in this group. Wikis incorporate the features of a Website with the valuable addition of interactive capabilities. This social software approach supports knowledge-building networks through collaboration, communication and creation. They not only engage students in the content I want to teach but also with each other to develop higher order thinking, creative thinking and problem solving skills. I do find value in teaching students to be reflective in their learning; however, I feel successful blogging requires commitment over the long term which can place a higher demand on student’s time and therefore, would not consider using this in a primary context.

As an introduction to Wiki, I would discuss the responsibilities of the students when using Wiki. Firstly, I would engage the class in a ‘communities of practice’ task which would require students to negotiate the rules and regulations of participation. The aim would be for students to understand that they own the online space and that respect for each other is required. I would scaffold this activity to facilitate higher-order thinking such as; social etiquette, appropriate language, attribution and copyright. This would then become a page that students could refer to ensure that the standard is maintained by all students at all times.

To further enhance student learning, the Wikis would become the ‘hub’ of the class. I have discovered, with the set up my own Wiki as a family organiser “(See Appendix A)”, that they are very effect and efficient for communicating with the online generation. I would definitely implement a class organiser page which would include important dates, parent information notices, homework tasks and assignment criteria sheets so students have access to the information they need 24/7 with no excuses. The Wiki is so quick to edit, information can be easily be updated to avoid it from becoming static and to encourage students to stay engaged in class activities. Lastly, I would use the Wiki as a place for students to link or upload resources they have found to share with other students to extend learning beyond the classroom. Students can also communicate ideas, opinions and ask questions to promote discussions to develop an online network to also enhance learning.

Wikis are also flexible in that the settings can be altered to accommodate editorial rights to just the teacher or to everybody in the class. The value in Wiki is in the ability for students to edit the page, so it is vitally important that there is protection from unwanted visitors. Student Wikis should be established through the ‘Learning Place’ which is recognised as a safe, password protected online space specifically designed for educational purposes. 

Group 2

Moviemaker was a standout in this group because as it can incorporate many of the technological skills applied in Picnik and Flickr. Furthermore, Moviemaker has no creative limit which makes it highly valuable for engaging and extending my students. Learning will be enhanced through having students develop a critical awareness of this powerful medium through having to consider target audience, planning, team work and purpose, all the while encouraging students to communicate with one another. Moviemaker is also a very useful tool for teachers to gauge the level of student understanding of key themes and concepts covered.

In my classroom, I would require students to form small groups to produce a movie from photos and video footage acquired during a school event such as, a camp or fete to be presented on the parent night. All footage and photos would be pooled as a resource for each group to compile their own movie. Students would then be stepped through the process of producing the movie over six in-class tutorials. Each tutorial will focus on developing technical abilities in importing media files, using and editing files, using and editing video clips, adding slide transitions and special effects, creating narration, adding titles and credits, and, saving and playing the movie.

The final product will be assessed on the student’s ability to accurately identify a sequence and patterns in events, as well as, their ability to best emphasise the key elements of the event in the most creative way. Moviemaker is perfectly positioned to support all student learning styles alongside a number of other positive attributes as mentioned in my Moviemaker MADNESS Blog analysis “(See Apendix B)”. Additionally, students will have to engage skills of negotiation and compromise with one another to produce a high quality presentation.

Furthermore, as a teacher, I will have to make sure that those students who do not have a signed media release form are not used in the project resource pool to ensure I uphold a ‘duty of care’ for all my  students. Moviemaker also provides an opportunity for students to learn to work ethically when using the work of others. This requires them to give attribution for all audio clips, images and text used in their productions to ensure there is no breach of copyright laws.

Group 3

For this group, I took an old powerpoint and created three new presentations “(See Appendices C)”. The first was with interactive powerpoint which was very simplistic but still had the same format and boring undertone of powerpoint which most students are already familiar with. The next format was Glogster which was easy and fun to use, but had too many gadgets which I think could have potential to distract from the quality of content. Furthermore, I did not like how you could not see the whole poster on the computer screen. This makes managing the content more difficult which would also impact upon the presentation quality. The last was a Prezi which looks like powerpoint but with a new attitude. The Prezi provides a perfect balance between being the most creative to use while providing the most professional finish.

In my upper level primary class, I would ask students to research a topic and then present their findings to the class in Prezi. The structure of Prezi is more of an open canvas rather than a linear progression as in powerpoint. This promotes higher-order thinking for students as they lay out their thoughts in no specific order on one page, similar to a mindmap. This process is more time efficient as it eliminates the need to create a separate storyboard. The canvas becomes the presentation as ideas are organised into slides by a pathway. Furthermore, Prezi’s bird’s eye view of the presentation allows the student to zoom in and out and across the canvas so information can be presented centred round questions from the audience. This facilitates discussion and a more audience centred presentation resulting in a more meaningful learning experience. Prezi’s also limit the amount of text used on each slide forcing students to be creative in the use of other embedded formats such as videos and images to help communicate ideas and thoughts to the audience.

Prezi is also stored online and accessible from any computer with internet access eliminating the reliance on flashdrives. Prezi is also a safe online site for students as access is password protected and allows up to ten students to collaborate on the same presentation. This eliminates the need to email sections to other group members in order to construct the presentation. Furthermore, because Prezi is stored online there are no issues with newer versions conflicting with older versions. With this in mind, I think it would be the most valuable tool in my classroom for developing the presentation skills and enhancing the learning of my students.

Group 4

In this last group, I chose to explore Dipity and Bubbl.us. Each tool serves a different purpose within the educational context. Dipity has the power to bring the traditionally boring history lesson to life. I created my timeline of events over a three month period but I found that if activities were placed too close together on the timeline the images reduced in size and the timeline lost some of its visual appeal. I spent much time on trying to reduce the time span to allow more room on the timeline; however, I didn’t get it worked out. As for Bubbl.us (See Appendix D)”, it was really user friendly as I had it mastered in about five minutes. Mind mapping and brainstorming are essential skills which often underpin projects and assignments throughout the schooling years. For this reason, I wanted it to be included in my eLearning experiences tools to facilitate the development of these skills.

The beauty of Bubbl.us is that it also allows students to record as many ideas as springs to mind, in whatever order, collaboratively online. I used it to organise key ideas for a powerpoint presentation. The addition of colour in the bubbles helped to link ideas on a strand to better organise my thoughts. Bubbl.us enhances student learning because the map is easy to edit, so corrections and adjustments can be made as you go and the page remains neat and tidy. In the classroom, it would be an ideal medium for students to brainstorm for problem solving purposes. The format is free of restrictions which allow students to get really creative in their thinking. In addition, I would also encourage students to use Bubbl.us to graph their thinking process to be embedded into a Prezi or written assignment to help convey complex information more clearly.  

Lastly, due to the unexpected and untimely nature of technical difficulties, a lot of time and hard work can easily be lost if it hasn’t been saved. It is important that when using any online stored eLearning tool like Bubbl.us that students develop the habit of saving of their work frequently to minimise the effects of technical glitches. Furthermore, these online tools are often password protected to ensure their online safety. Students need to understand that they should not give their passwords to anyone and they should not be written down in a place that is accessible by others, e.g. school diary.

Appendices

Appendix A.

http://jpeff.blogspot.com/2011/03/wiki-creation-and-capabilities.html

Appendix B.

            http://jpeff.blogspot.com/2011/03/moviemaker-madness.html

Appendix C.

 http://jpeff.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html

Appendix D.

 http://jpeff.blogspot.com/2011/04/south-korean-exchange-student-downunder.html

Group 4 Technologies

Bubbl.us is another online tool that provides a great platform for mindmapping and brainstorming topics. It is really easy to use. I used my mindmap to organise my thoughts for a presentation. Each bubble represents an idea. Starting with the parent bubble, new bubbles can be linked via a child bubble or a sibling bubble to create a visual display of ideas around the main topic. Great for planning projects or reports, as well as reflecting on topics just learnt in class. Work is saved online so that it can be accessed from any computer. Bubbl.us can also be embedded into blogs, linked to other pages and emailed.

The Dipity is useful for ordering events to create an interactive timeline. I found it easy to use and able to support a number of multimedia files. The overall effect is highly visual and personal. The presentation is mainly image based which makes you tell the story in pictures supported by minimal text. Images are able to be imported straight from Flickr which is really handy, especially helpful when using images of others because students are able to easily identify what attribution is required. A very simplistic tool that is very effective.

Bubbl.us
Plus: -Easy to master -Promotes higher-order thinking -Stored online -Printable -Collaborative	Minus: -Limited creativity -Limited support for other multimedia formats	Interesting: -Projects shape themselves because ideas are easily added to over time and can be easily manoeuvred around the page
Dipity
Plus: -Highly visual -Printable -Interactive -Collaborative	Minus: -Doesn’t promote higher-order thinking -Information can become too small if two events are placed too close on the timeline	Interesting: -Can be used to make timelines of major world events. -Brings history to life.

  

  

South Korean Exchange Student 'Downunder' on Dipity.

Group 3 - Presentation Technologies

       

These days, there are so many platforms available for presenting information. I have produced my first interactive powerpoint. It has the same organising structure as a normal powerpoint but in addition it has links to each slide from the homepage and back again. I don’t see this as a great benefit and doesn’t seem any more interactive than progressing through a presentation from start to finish. In fact, there is the possibility of losing track during the presentation.

My Prezi is fantastic, it puts a whole new spin on powerpoint. Prezi is alot more visually stimulating than a powerpoint because all the information is constructed on the one canvas. A pathway is created through the information by the author for Prezi to chunk the information into individual slides to present. Images, videos, audios, text and links are all supported in Prezi. The canvas feel promotes minimal text use, challenging students to incorporate other forms of media to inform the audience. This formate genuinely supports all the learning styles, can be collaborative and looks really professional.

Finally, I have used the same information from my powerpoints and converted it into a Glog. Similiar to the Prezi, this format takes on a poster style canvas but has a more scrapbooking feel. I found this site easy to use but a little tricky to organise my content. The whole poster is not visable as you are constructing, so balancing the page is more difficult. Glogging is excellent for classroom projects as teachers can have up to 50 students in the class. Everybody has access to all student glogs, eliminating fiddly invitations and acceptance. This is a virtual online classroom that is completely safe for students.

Interactive Powerpoint
Plus: -Teaches students to organise thoughts - Chunking into key points -Printable	Minus: -Overuse of dot points - Creativity is limited -Not collaborative online	Interesting: Has been the pioneer of digital presentations and widely used by individuals and corporate but will eventually be superseded
Prezi
Plus: -Eliminates storyboards -No concerns about different versions of pp not being compatible -More visual based -Collaborative (up to 10 students can work simultaneously on the same Prezi) -Creative expression unlimited -Online storage	Minus: -Not all media is supported yet -Difficult to print presentation	Interesting: -Still evolving as a powerful presentation too -Spacial approach rather than lineal approach to construction
Glogs:
Plus: -Limited space forces students to consider how best to present information -Online storage -Can be embedded into other formats -Teachers and students can easily view each others work -Safe, protected environment -Easy to master	Minus: -Vulnerable to technical issues (students not saving work) -Students can waste time -Focus can be taken from the quality of content by distracting gadgets -Lack of inclass time -Can be slow to upload due to the graphical nature	Interesting: -Spacial or lineal approach to construction

Moviemaker MADNESS

Moviemaker is a brilliant technological tool. I thought putting my photos into a motion picture was going to be painstakingly hard but I was pleasantly surprised how quickly it all came together. Maneuvering around the site was easy, once you have your photos and video uploaded it was just a case of dragging and dropping them in sequence into the timeline along the bottom of the screen. Then, it was time to add your special effects. It was amazing what the addition of music does for your clip. I did mine on a family day Go Karting at ‘Kenrose Park’. It is very basic but honestly, it has only taken a couple of hours. If you were inclined, you could easily invest more time and have a high quality piece of work to claim as your own. The quality of this tool has really impressed me.

In the classroom, moviemaking could be used across all genres eg. reporting, story-telling, interviewing, instructional, investigating and persuasive speech. Most students would engage, if the topic was relevant to them. Furthermore, this would be an ideal tool for collaborative learning. The Learning Engagement Theory springs to mind.

Plus:
Highly engaging (verging on addictive)
Suitable for all learning types, visual, audible and kinesthetic
Accessible and inexpensive
User friendly

Minus:
Time consuming
Making sure students give attribution where required

Interesting:
You can always make your movie better...just depends on how much time you have!

Podcast Reflection

Podcasting is simply an auditory recording which can be uploaded and downloaded from a computer. It is actually quite boring and uninspiring but really practical. Universities often use them for external students who cannot attend weekly lectures. Lecturers only need to record the lecture as it is being delivered, so there is no extra demand put on their time. Podcasts are ideally designed for the audible learner but also complement other learning styles as it can be stopped, rewound or repeatedly played to help gain a better understanding. My daughter, in year 7, uses podcasts for her Mandarin lessons. This allows her to practice her language skills at home. ESL students would also benefit from podcasts to support their learning outside the classroom. I have no idea, at the moment, about what to put in my podcast. I have used them before and don't think they would be difficult to create.

Plus:
A limited level of technical expertise to produce
Not time consuming and inexpensive to make
Portable
Supplement learning
Can be rewound, replayed, fast-forwarded instantly.

Minus:
Audible learners are a minority.

Interesting:
Global platform, information sharing across the globe.

Playing with Picnik

Well, I started out this little Picnik journey confused and subsequently frustrated but all is calm, I have done it. I have uploaded a favourite photo of mine into Flickr that has been modified to my personal liking lol. As I began to play, the pieces all came together for me. I must admit it took me some time to navigate my way around the site but it was interesting, the more I manipulated the more engaged I became thinking about what else I could do. (My own little personal experience of the power of engagement in learning). By the end, I was having a ball and can’t wait to have more spare time, after this course, to play. I would imagine kids would love to play in Picnik too.

In an educational context, digital images would most frequently be used by teachers to introduce a topic to create a discussion. This would give the teacher an insight to what the students already know and how to extend that knowledge. The pedagogical framework to apply would be See, Think, Wonder. Asking the students open-ended questions about the image could progress them through Bloom’s Taxonomy to higher-order thinking of analyzing and creating. I would definitely consider using it in a history or geography context.

Plus: Digital images bring the world into the classroom.
Cameras are easily accessible to students and can be shared.
Capture images of excursions to be used in report or recounts
Inexpensive to produce

Minus: Students need to be informed of code of ethics when using images
Copyright issues

Interesting: A picture can be unwrapped and used in so many different ways, according to topic and age of students.