Synopsis

We are living in exponential times, where educators are expected to prepare learners for jobs that are yet to be invented. Twenty-first century learners think and process information differently and they are no longer the people who the education system was designed to teach (Prensky, 2001). Learners are living in the digital age, yet they are “powering down” to go to school and it is our responsibility as educators to provide a twenty-first century education that will support these children to be active participants in a digital world. Consequently, I have analysed many digital tools and engaged in discussions about them with my peers through my blog, which I will refer back to throughout my synopsis. Each tool I have explored has been analysed through the lens of various learning theories, e-learning and other pedagogical frameworks and Queensland Education. The purpose of this synopsis is to demonstrate how the combination of digital tools and good pedagogy serves to transform, engage, facilitate, support and enhance learning for all students in the digital age.

Living in the information age we are spoilt for choice in terms of searching for and acquiring knowledge. In fact, with so much information at our finger tips it can become overwhelming just trying to keep-up-to-date. That is why RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a fantastic technology that can assist both teachers and students to access and gain information without overload and confusion. I chose Google Reader to assist me in following the blogs of my peers throughout my blogging task. As I mentioned in my blog, RSS is a great tool for managing time effectively, just imagine trying to monitor twenty-five student’s blogs manually. However, using Google Reader learning managers will be alerted every time one of their learners posts a new blog entry. This will allow for educators to provide students with immediate and appropriate feedback, which supports in building confidence in their ability to complete complex tasks (Mazarno & Pickering, 2006). Furthermore, Google Reader supports teachers to monitor students’ comments on their peers’ blogs. This can help educators not only clear up any misconceptions about a topic, but can also alert them to any cyberbullying that may be happening enabling them to eliminate such behaviour. What is more, students will benefit from using Google Reader as they will be able to follow their classmates’ blogs, viewing the work of their peers to gain alternative perspectives and gain a deeper understanding of the topic. Queensland Education (2000) promotes such collaborative learning as students benefit from opportunities that allow them to internalise information and gain new insights through substantive conversations. Similarly, Vygotski (1978) the founder of social constructivism supports collaborative learning as his theory asserts that humans construct meaning through personal interactions within their social context. In addition, educators and students alike can use RSS feeder to keep informed about websites, blogs or podcasts as new updates become available, making it very useful for accessing and gaining information about topics over a period of time.

Concept Mapping is a great tool to consolidate and refine information that can be used to help learners organise information on just about any topic. As I discussed in my blog titled Concept Mapping, the applications of this tool are numerous as it can be used to brainstorm and elicit prior knowledge about a topic, which can then be referred to throughout the unit, keeping learners on-track and allowing them to modify their map as the unit progresses. Alternatively, it can be used effectively at the end of a unit to demonstrate what information has been gained and how it all fits together. At first, I was not sure how effective concept mapping would be as a digital tool after experiencing difficulties using it initially. However, after further practice using the software and online conversations with my peers I recognised that I had been too quick to judge such a valuable tool. What I failed to realise was concept mapping is underpinned by cognitive theory, which relates to how the brain processes information. This tool assists in organising or chunking information. When learners understand how elements fit together the brain can then view the information as a single item as it builds it onto prior knowledge which is known as schema (Sweller, 1998, cited in Kearsley, 2010). Educators could use this tool effectively in the classroom and the example in my blog outlines how text2mindmap software could be used at the end of a jigsaw activity. This could support students to consolidate and refine their knowledge about a topic by collaboratively building an online concept map and then posting it on a blog, wiki or webpage. This instructional approach is supported by Eisenberg and Berkowitz (2001) Big6 e-learning framework that promotes helping students to work smarter not faster. Through the use of concept mapping students can find, process and use information effectively. When engaging in concept mapping students are employing higher order thinking skills such as analysing, evaluating and synthesising which facilitate learners to operate in the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy thus promoting thinking in learning (Frangenheim, 2007).

Websites are a great tool that can help learners transform information to develop new understandings, particularly when they engage in creating their own websites which can now be done simply by visiting Weebly. Websites provide a wealth of information and entertainment, they are easy to access and now they are just as easy to create. However, as I mentioned in my blog it is necessary for educators to teach their students’ skills in information literacy, critical literacy and digital literacy to empower them to access and evaluate online sources for themselves as these skills are integral to participating in a digital world (Education Queensland, 2008). Website creation is a useful tool that can be used across all KLAs and it provides a great medium for providing learners with an authentic assessment task that would be suitable for all learning preferences as it would allow students to present their learning in their own way. Collaborative website creation supports many of the principles of Engagement Theory (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1998) as referred to in my blog titled E-Learning Frameworks because it promotes the three major elements of Relate-Create-Donate. Kearsley and Shneiderman suggest that by engaging students in these meaningful activities learners will be more self-directed and motivated. Similarly, the productive pedagogies supports classroom instruction that promotes higher order thinking, substantive conversation, a problem based curriculum and connectedness to the world (Queensland Education, 2002b). In addition, Weebly can be used like a virtual classroom that students could access outside of school hours which could provide learners with additional learning activities, inform parents about what their children are learning and notify them of any up-coming events. However, educators need to be selective of the information and images posted on student generated websites because of the risks of operating in a public domain. Consequently, these issues create teaching opportunities for students to learn about cybersafety helping to raise the learners’ awareness about online “stranger danger”. Further, one of the requirements for delivering effective digital pedagogy, is that educators need to teach students how to learn and work legally, ethically and safely while online (Queensland Education, 2008).

Digital video is an excellent tool learners can use to present knowledge to an audience. According to Prensky (2001) students in the knowledge economy are very different from those of the past as their digital capabilities support them to learn effectively in multimodal environments similar to those found on YouTube, TeacherTube and Teacher.tv. However, as I mentioned in my blog titled Digital Video – You Tube and subsequent conversations with my peers, it is essential that these clips are never played live. As an alternative to viewing, using MovieMaker in education has many advantages and applications as outlined in my blog titled Creating Digital Video. MovieMaker provides easy to use free software that enables users to drop and drag still images or video footage into the program, and enhance it with text and music to produce a digital video. Some of the instructional uses presented by Kearney and Schuck (2004) for digital video are: communication, observation and analysis and reflection. However, it can be challenging for educators to maintain the rigour of the content (Schuck & Kearney, 2004). Learning managers can assist students by getting them to plan using a storyboard, scaffolding them through a serious of questions their video can answer, or using a criteria sheet or checklist. Recently, I developed a SOSE inquiry unit for a Year Seven class that included an assessment task which required the learners to produce a digital video that informed, entertained and persuaded their audience using the subject matter of an environmental issue (further details can be viewed on my blog). The task required higher order thinking, teamwork and was based on Kearsley and Shneiderman’s (1999) Engagement Theory, as the students worked collaboratively to solve problems and create solutions and then used digital video to present their knowledge to the rest of the school. By creating digital video students will inadvertently practice using habits of mind such as persistence, thinking and communicating with clarity and precision and creating, imagining and innovating (Costa & Kallick, 2000). What is more, Kearney and Schuck (2004) suggest that even reluctant learners remain engaged and motivated when using digital video this is because students do not view it as “normal work”. In a time when educators are finding it difficult to engage their students it makes sense to keep learners in the game of learning by incorporating good pedagogical practices with innovative tools such as digital video.

Throughout this learning journey I have explored Google Reader and how RSS can help students access and gain information, used text2mindmap to consolidate and refine information and discovered how concept mapping helps learners organise and chunk information. I demonstrated how Weebly is a great tool for assisting students to transform information to develop new understandings through the lens of Engagement Theory and illustrated how learners can relate, create and donate by using MovieMaker to present knowledge to an audience. All of these tools can assist in providing learners with a twenty-first century education, but what is most important is the pedagogy that is combined with them that will develop lifelong learners, who are higher order thinkers, with positive habits of mind that can work collaboratively to solve the problems of the future.


References

Costa, A. and Kallick, B. (2000). Describing sixteen habits of mind. Retrieved from http://www.instituteforhabitsofmind.com/what-are-habits-mind.
Eisenberg, M. and Berkowitz, B. (1998). http://www.big6.com/2001/11/19/a-big6%e2%84%a2-skills-overview/

Education Queensland. (2008). Smart classrooms bytes: eLearning for smart classroom. [electronic resource] Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/pdf/scbyte-elearning.pdf.

Fisch, K., McLeod, S., and Bronman, J. (2008, Dec 9) We are living in exponential times. [video file] Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUMf7FWGdCw.

Frangenheim, E. (1998). Reflections on Classroom Thinking Strategies. Loganholme: Rodin Educational Consultancy.

Kearney, M. and Schuck, S. (2006). Students in the directors seat: Teaching and learning across the school curriculum with student-generated video. [electronic resource]. Retrieved from http://www.ed-dev.uts.edu.au/teachered/research/dvproject/pdfs/ReportWeb.pdf

Kearsley, G. and Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. [electronic resource]. Retrieved from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm.

Kearsley, G. (2010). The Theory Into Practice Database. Retrieved from http://tip.psychology.org/.

Margaryan, A. and Littlejohn, A. (2008). Are digital natives myth or reality?: Students’ use of technologies for learning. [electronic resource] Retrieved from http://www.academy.gcal.ac.uk/anoush/documents/DigitalNativesMythOrReality-

Marzano, R. and Pickering, J. (2006). Dimensions of learning teacher’s manual. Heatherton, VIC: Hawker Brownlow Education.

Media Awareness Network. (2010). Web awareness: Challenging Cyberbullying.
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/special_initiatives/wa_resources/wa_shared/backgrounders/challenge_cyberbullying.cfm

Mueller, J. (2010). Authentic assessment toolbox. [electronic resource] Retrieved from http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/index.htm .

Presnsky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. [electronic resource] Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf.

Prensky, M. (2005). Engage me or enrage me: what today’s learners demand. [electronic resource] Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf.

Queensland Education. (2002a). Risk management: Risks associated with web publishing [electronic resource] Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/web/schools/riskman.html.

Queensland Education. (2002b). A guide to productive pedagogies: A classroom reflection manual. Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/public_media/reports/curriculum-framework/productive-pedagogies/pdfs/prodped.pdf.

Thrupp, R. (2009). ICT created diversity in the classroom: The contemporary learner. [electronic resource] Retrieved from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/file.php/4033/ThruppAcec.pdf.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Links to Comments

Comments to my peers

24/08/10 from Sheena to Michael on concept mapping
26/08/10 from Sheena to Amy on concept mapping

Comments from all my peers


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Creating Digital Video

The digital video you have just watched was created by a group of students who I worked with on a previous assessment task. We used my digital camera to record the footage and then we used MovieMaker to create a video which we included in our oral presentation and can now be viewed on our website 4 Easy Steps to Authentic Assessment. Digital video was a great medium for our learning group to present various views and theories on authentic assessment in a concise and entertaining format. We combined video footage with text and music to scaffold the viewer and make it more professional. The music was sourced from Creative Commons which allowed us to use royalty free music for our presentation. The finished product ran for a few minutes yet, many hours of research and knowledge refinement went into its creation which made it a great vehicle for gaining a deep understanding about authentic assessment from different perspectives.

Using digital video in education has many advantages and applications. Kearney and Schuck (2004) suggest some common ones are; communication, observation and analysis and reflection. Further, some of the benefits for learners include affective, metacognitive, higher order thinking, communication and presentation, literacy, organisational and teamwork, moviemaking skills, problem solving and creative thinking.

However, a threat of using digital video is the challenge of maintaining the rigour of the content and how it connects to curriculum outcomes needs to be upheld (Schuck & Kearney, 2006). Students can get carried away with the process of movie making and miss the point entirely, that is why it is important that Learning Managers scaffold the students keeping them on task and focussed on the learning outcomes. This could be accomplished by requesting that students present a storyboard of their movie prior to filming, providing students with questions to be answered as they go through the process or perhaps a checklist or task criteria sheet which they refer to frequently may assist the learners to make the necessary gains.

Digital video can be created with a digital video camera although most still digital cameras also have a video capability. Consequently, the digital still cameras will not produce movies with high quality sound as you have just experienced in the movie I have uploaded. Digital equipment can be expensive and in most cases there is never enough video cameras to go around therefore, it is helpful to know that videos can also be made using still photographs with accompanying music and text. Still digital cameras are less expensive and are genearlly easier to get hold of. Using MovieMaker is great way for students to develop their own videos because it is drag and drop format makes it so simple to use and better still it's totally free. Most children will be familiar with this free software and may have already made their own movies before. However, MovieMaker does offer some great features if you have any buddying Speilbergs in your class who want to explore, but you can make quite an impressive finished product just by using the basics.

There are so many different ways to use digital video, recently I wrote a SOSE Inquiry unit for a Year Seven cohort and as one of the assessment tasks I chose to use digital video as a medium for students to present their knowledge to an audience. The task involved the students to work in small groups to research a global environmental issue associated with climate change. They used their knowledge to examine the school environment and identify areas that may be contributing to the issue, for example, they may have found rubbish to be an issue so they needed to create solutions to reduce, reuse and recycle rubbish and implement them in the school. The criteria of their video was it must inform their audience of their chosen enivonmental problem, identify it at a local level and present solutions for the problem. The video also should entertain their audience and persuade them to help implement their solutions around the school. The task required higher order thinking and teamwork. This task links well to Kearsley and Shneiderman's (1999) Engagement Theory as it uses the basic principles of Relate as the students are working collaboratively, Create as they are solving problems and creating solutions both locally and globally and Donate as they use their knowledge through digital video to inform, entertain and persuade the rest of the school to join their cause.

In addition, Kearney and Schuck (2006) propose using digital video when going on excursions or to document student's experiments as it can be used as a tool to review and analyse details that may have been missed due to the excitment of the event. Furthermore, when students engage in creating digital video it can help motivate them to employ habits of mind such as persistence, thinking and communicating with clarity and precision and creating, imagining and innovating (Costa & Kallick, 2000).

Furthermore, Kearney and Schuck (2004) suggest that digital video promotes autonomous behvaiour as students remain on-task because they are engaged and motivated including students who are usually reluctant to learn. This is becuase the students' attitudes and perceptions have been adjusted as they do not view the project as "normal work". Further, the learners believe they have more choice and control over their work which heightens a sense of ownership. Additionally, the learners valued the prompt feedback where they were able to self assess which resulted in them refining and improving their finished product.

Other associated applications are digital interviews or demonstrations of learning for instance, Prep students could record themselves counting or saying the alphabet which could be used for assessment purposes, or be included in digital portfolios, or even as a reflection tool to show student progress that could be enjoyed by parents or the learners themselves. Such applications of digital video can support students with diverse learning needs especially those with low literacy but sound ICT skills making the classroom a more level playing field.

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References

Kearney, M. and Schuck, S. (2004). Students in the directors seat: Teaching and learning across the school curriculum with student-generated video [eletronic resource] Retrieved from http://www.ed-dev.uts/teachered/research/dvproject/pdfs/ReportWeb.pdf

Kearsley, G. and Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. [eletronic resource] Retrieved from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm.

Costa, A. and Kallick, B. (2000). Describing sixteen habits of mind [eletronic resource] Retrieved from http://www.instituteforhabitsofmind.com/what-are-habits-mind

Video courtesy of 4 Easy Steps to Authentic Assessment

Digital Video - YouTube

The digital video you've just watched was courtesy of YouTube.com it came from the Live Earth SOS short movie collection. I used this video as part of a SOSE inquiry unit that was titled Think Globally, Act Locally with the driving question "How can I help save our planet?" The unit investigates global environmental issues related to climate change and requires the students to research them on a global level and then examine the school at a local level and identify areas the school community may be contributing to these issues and then implement solutions at school to reduce, reuse and recycle. This digital video was chosen because it was engaging, entertaining and informative as it suggests actions that each and everyone of us can take everyday to make a difference in our fight against climate change.

YouTube is an excellent resource for accessing information especially when introducing a topic to a class and a hook is required. However, because anyone can create digital videos and upload them to YouTube it is essential that the material is selected very carefully as some of the clips are inappropriate. Another golden rule for presenting YouTube clips to learners is you must always download them and NEVER play them live or you could be in for a nasty surprise. I recommend using keepvid to save the clip as it is very easy to use and all you need to do is download the url onto the site and it saves it for you onto your computer. No need for wasting time buffering or the like and best of all it's free and instant becuase you don't need to register. Other excellent video resources for educators can be found at TeacherTube.com or Teachers.tv these two great websites provide video, documents, lesson plans and teaching resources.

Digital video isn't just great for engaging visual and auditory learners, it can also be used as a stimulis for creative writing, where the teacher presents a clip and the students write the ending. This type of engaging stimulis can encourage even the most reluctent writers. Prensky (2005) suggests that by engaging the learners at their level, in this case through a multimedia stimulis we can bring the "old stuff" such as creative writing into the twenty-first century in an more modern approach that connects with the students.

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References

Presnky, M. (2005). Engage me or enrage me: What doday's learners demand. [eletronic resource] Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf

Video and image courtesy of YouTube.com

Weebly Websites

Websites provide internet surfers instant access to entertainment and all sorts of information all with the click of a button. Life B.G. (before Google) seems difficult to imagine...what did we do? Libraries must have been really busy places. A website is a collection of online documents pertaining to a particular topic, they can be posted by individuals, groups of people, commercial entities or government bodies. Websites are easy to access and just as easy to create. They provide learners with a great tool to transform information to develop new understandings either individually or collaboratively. Websites are controlled by the host, which means the creator of the website is responsible for all the content that is seen on it and visitors to the site are only able to view the material making it a safe online environment. However, because it's so easy to build a website and anyone can do it, Learning Managers need to teach their students information literacy and critical literacy skills so they can evaluate the information on a website and assess the credibility of a source for themselves. Queensland Education (2008) emphasises improving student's digital literacy as it is integral to participating effectively in a digital world. Students who have highly developed digital literacy skills often demonstrate the characteristics of effective digital learners which include the attributes of a lifelong learner: they are a knowledgeable person with deep understanding, a complex thinker, a creative person, an active investigator, an effective communicator, a particpant in an interdependent world and a reflective and self-directed learner.

Recently I worked collaboratively to develop a website based on authentic assessment. The website can be viewed at 4 Easy Steps to Authentic Assessment. This website was set up through Weebly and was very user friendly, it offered a variety of templates to build the website from and enough space to include text and images we also uploaded a digital video we created using moviemaker. The tool was completely free, simple to use and provided a professional finish, the only limit was our own imagination.

There are so many learning opportunities through creating a website and it is a useful tool for all ages across all KLAs. Collaborative website creation encompasses many of the principles of Engagement Theory (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1998) as it allows learners to work in teams on a project that is authentic and meaningful, as it can be viewed and used by the outside world These three components are known as; Relate-Create-Donate. Kearsley and Shneiderman (1998) suggest that by engaging students in meaningful activities that involve creating, problem-solving, reasoning, decision-making and evaluation learners will be more self directed and motivated. Similarly, the Productive Pedagogies framework supports classroom instruction that promotes higher order thinking, substantive conversation, a problem based curriculum and connectedness to the world.

In addition to assessment tasks, weebly websites can be used as a tool for students to access outside of school hours similar to a virtual classroom. As long as the site was password protected, a secure online environment could be set up that would also provide parents with information about what their children are learning and notify them of any class news or upcoming events. Furthermore, parents could use the website as a means of communication with their child's teacher.

When creating a class website it is important to remember that it will be published in a public domain and therefore is at risk of being accessed by people who are unknown to the host and could pose a threat to the childrens' safety. Consequently, Learning Managers need to be selective of what information is posted on the site and refrain from uploading any images of the students faces. Such issues create "authentic teachable moments" in the classroom where teachers can explore the risks involved with using the internet and provide students with strategies for safe practice. Cybersafe Schools have released a teacher's guide to internet safety to help educators provide safe online learning and NetSafe Kids offer resources that raise childrens' awareness of online "Stranger Danger". In addition Queensland Education (2002) provided educators with documents that will inform them how to operate legally, safely and ethically online.

To return to my synopsis click here

References

Education Queensland. (2002a). Risk Management: Risks associated with web publishing [eletronic resource] Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/web/schools/riskman.html.

Education Queensland (2002b) A guide to productive pedagogies: A classroom reflection manual [electronic resource] Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/public_media/reports/curriculum-framework/productive-pedagogies/pdfs/prodped.pdf.

Kearsley, G. & Shneiderman, B. (1999) Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning [eletronic resource] Retrieved from http://home.sprynet.com~gkearsley/engage.htm.

Education Queensland. (2008). Smart classrooms bytes: eLearning for smart classroom. [electronic resource] Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/pdf/scbyte-learning.pdf.

Image courtesy of weebly.com

Image Resizing

Image resizing is a great tool as it allows you to transform photos and images into smaller sizes so they can be uploaded onto blogs, wikis or any number of technologies without using up too much space.

Upload resized image.

Explain how I resized an image using mobaphoto a free program for resizing photos.

Pos+
It is a necessary tool to be able to use as it allows you to reduce the file size of an image so it can be stored in other places such as blogs, wikis and moodle. Learners will get a lot of use from knowing how to resize an image as they can use the class digital camera to document learning journeys such as experiments or excursions and then reflect by examining the images providing opportunities for substantive conversations to take place. (as discussed in the 120p reading from week 5) The students can then use their own images which they have ownership of (DoL) that will help to deepen their understanding (productive pedagogies)

Flickr

Explain what flickr is





Pos+ and Neg+

Visual Literacy

Support low literacy students

Help engage students

Provides a great resource for students to use to support their information in assignments

Good for highlighting the importance of copyright and using images that are legal.

Tag Galaxy allows you to browse Flickr in 3D using a flash application. You can choose one photo and download it or you can screen capture all the photos on the globe to give you a collage of all the images that match the search. Can be used when introducing a new unit to give a visual snapshot of things related to it.

It recommeneded that Students don't access flickr directly it is advisable for the LM to download a variety of images that the learners can choose from. Threats that students may access inappropriate images.

Not all images are usable as some of them are copyright.

If you want to take a look follow the link to flickr and see for yourself better still why not try Tag Galaxy for a 3D perspective.