Week 5 - Tool Group 3 - Prezi

After exploring the options provided in the Learning engagement activities, to me Prezi was the obvious choice. Prezi is a presentation tool that offers the unique feature of smoothly, “zooming” up close on a specific area of the canvas page, which allows you to show the section that you want, at certain times, keeping the students from being distracted from other information on the screen. Although Prezi does not have as many advanced features like “Microsoft PowerPoint”, it does have the basics needed to create a presentation. Prezi provides you with options of animation, however the user has to have the power and the ability to make the presentation engaging and interesting. Each section, where you display information, whether it is images or text, it is important to only reinforce key points or introduce different topics. You should refrain from reading directly off the presentation screen, demonstrating that you know and understand what you’re teaching; furthermore, having a heavily cluttered canvas can be distracting and confusing for some learners.
Every learner has a different combination of learning Styles. Prezi caters for these diverse styles through multimedia methods, such as embedding images, sound and design. They can also be used by the students, not just the teachers. The learners can work in collaborate learning groups, which involves all students in the learning experience. Working within groups also gives the learners rolls to play, from a scribe/ recorder, to the group spokesperson. A great feature of the Prezi being online is that once you make an account, you can access it from any computer with access to the internet. Prezi’s are also able to be downloaded; meaning that you can transport them on a USB stick or simply that you will not need to access the internet to access the file. Prezi’s are great for an educational teaching environment because you can present them more than once. If you are teaching multiple classes the same topic, you could show the same presentation rather than writing the same thing on the board every class.

Overall, I believe Prezi is a useful tool that can help keep a presentation interesting, in a learning environment. Creating a presentation through Prezi (or any other presentation program) in a group situation can help learners build on their technology capability skills as well as their social skills. Working within Collaborative groups also encourages peer teaching, and students teaching other learners, shows that they have understood the task/ topic, so much that they are able to support their peers in their learning experience. Although Prezi does have quite a few limitations, such as cost effective upgrades for certain extra features, it is a tool that can be utilised effectively to interest learners, therefore engage them in their studies.
View my Prezi here: http://prezi.com/7lo5y9s0zzrf/untitled-prezi/?kw=view-7lo5y9s0zzrf&rc=ref-35742869

Week 4: Digital Video - Tool 2

Creating a video for the first time, appeared challenging, but in reality it was very simple. I used “Windows Movie maker 2.6” for the first time and it proved to be very helpful and had a lot more useful features than the latest version “Windows Live Movie Maker”. I also used the program “Audacity” which allowed me to edit my “voice over” and add music to play softly in the background. Movie maker has clearly been designed so even an amateur like myself can find it useful. It has a simple design structure, again making it simple and easy to use. It involves mainly drag and drop editing where you can change the amount of time an image is viewed by sliding a bar. It provides photo transition animations when changing from one image to another which can be useful if your intent is to not only provide information but to also engage your learners and make the video interesting and enjoyable. Simply having a series of images blink onto the screen, one after the other is not going to be as enjoyable or interesting as a video with creative image transition animations.

I believe that videos have a unique feature, one that can evoke passion and even persuade us to change our opinions. Through their method of delivery, sound, images and videos come together in a harmony where they have the potential to inspire, encourage and motivate, therefore being a useful tool in our community. Therefore they can be a very useful tool in an educational environment. Even in their simplest form, videos can provide support and opportunities for many different types of learners. It can be used to support students of most learning styles, whether it is visual learners or auditor learners.

Digital video

My Digital Video 

Images Support Learners

Being able to display and edit digital photographs for a learning environment provides my learners with visual aids. Photos and Images can be extremely helpful, especially for the students who are visual learners, like myself. Instead of confusing the student with multiple descriptions of a certain image, simply showing them will help them to understand. I find it helps to get the message across to the learner, more swiftly and clearly then words alone. These images also include graphs and tables.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adettara/7629888212/sizes/c/in/photostream/

Learning about Blogs Experience - Tool 1

Being a student studying this particular topic by distance education, so far I have found it quite challenging. Keeping in mind that my exposure to ICT studies has been quite limited and I had very little prior knowledge of what a blog was, let alone what the functionalities and/or benefits of a “Blog” were. Due to my inexperience with Blogs, I found it necessary to research what a Blog was and familiarise myself with the term and what it consists of. After a quick web search I found a useful site, clearly for amateur, soon to be “bloggers”, which  explained that a “Blog” can be a “personal diary” (https://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g)  that the world can view, “a professional exchange of knowledge that contain links to contemporary events, conferences, publications” (http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/pluginfile.php/302824/mod_page/content/8/blogs.html) or basically whatever you want it to be.

One of the many beneficial features of using a blog in a learning context may be that it allows students to compare they’re quality of work with their peers to either clarify or reinforce the students understandings of the particular task. Another benefit of using a blog in a learning environment is that it can be quite useful for students (such as myself) to complete tasks by distance as it is produced online, therefore allowing real time communication and progression in their studies. Blogging within a learning environment may also improve your writing.  Using a blog as a learning tool for student’s means that they will be posting their work online, and doing so comes with rules and responsibilities. The students are accountable for maintaining copyright and associated regulations and must realise that their work is open to public scrutiny. Additionally, knowing how to reference will make your students competent researchers. More benefits to using a blog as a learning tool for students in a learning environment can be found on this website:  (http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/07/06/what-are-the-10-secret-benefits-of-blogging/). This website is also where the foundation for my ideas originated from.

A weakness, as I see it, from using a Blog as a learning tool, is that feedback is also provided online. This written method of feedback has some obvious flaws in that it leaves out emotion and intentions you may otherwise receive from face to face feedback. Emphasis on specific words that may perhaps have been intended to be emphasised on might be over looked by the student. Another potential weakness would be that the ability for students to access each other’s postings may lead to plagiarism or stealing of ideas.

On the other hand, Blogs are a wonderful and practical resource for students studying by distance that opens a variety of opportunities, although they need to be used responsibly and like specified earlier, must be kept within the copyright boundaries.

Creating a Website - Reflection

Most children of the 21^st century have grown up alongside ever advancing technologies for most of their childhoods and will surely be surrounded by it for the rest of their lives. Technology has been designed to be intuitive and most learners have become accustom to using technology on a day to day basis as a provider of entertainment, so why not make learning entertaining? By using these technologies for educational purposes, we are creating an environment where school and fun can be used in the same sentence. Enjoying the education experience is of high importance for engaging the student and getting them to focus on the task at hand.

In saying this, a website is an interactive tool that if used properly and with the appropriate restrictions can be a highly beneficial tool to support teaching and learning. Websites allow you to upload many different types of content from “YouTube” videos to PDF files, and also has the feature of more than one page.  While fun is a tool for engaging a student, we should never lose sight of the imperative of a solid technical basis of education.

Creating a Wiki - Reflection

A wiki is an online website that gives you the opportunity to publicly display information either through text, video or music. It can be used in many different forms for many different reasons including a personal diary, an area for discussion or to simply present information of interest.

In an educational environment, students may be required to participate in group activities, and because not all students study on campus a system is required to help connect the students with in that group. Wiki’s are an online website where you have the capability of communicating with your peers by text, videos, pictures and music in real time. Pages can be edited and viewed at any time (27/7) and restrictions can be set only allowing access for members of that group to view/edit their information.  Because Wiki’s have this large variety of different capabilities, they are a useful tool for students and teachers in a learning environment. Every student is as unique as their fingerprint; therefore, each student has an individual, preferred style of learning. These different styles of learning vary from visual (Spatial) learning, where the learner prefers to use pictures and images as visual aids, to Verbal (Linguistic) learning, where the learner prefers using words, both speech and writing. (http://www.learning-styles-online.com/overview/)

As you can see, wiki’s can be a very useful tools for educators to teacher their students not only in the classroom but also over a great distance. But when using the internet as a means of communication, there is always going to be that element of online safety that needs to be addressed, that’s why we, as teachers need to be aware of these issues and teach our students the benefits of online tools and the dangers of internet misuse.  (http://www.netsmartz.org/Safety/SafetyTips)

Creating a Blog - Reflection

A blog is a web site where you can post opinions and information online for the public to view, which is usually updated regularly like a personal journal. Blogs are made for public viewing which can be a useful tool for educators in a learning environment as they allow students to view work their peers have posted. Blogs are an online based site which allows educators to not only teach within the boundaries of the classroom, but also provide structured, supportive activities online for learners unable to attend school. They would not be a useful tool for students studying by distance, but rather for basic support activities for students that may be struggling. Blogs also contain an area for comments, where peers can have their say on that particular blog article and where educators may choose to post feedback on their students post.
I see blogs as useful, online tools which have the potential to create a supportive learning environment. Because of their various features and their diverse range of designs and what they can be used for, it is important to always remember to abide by the copyright laws when you post something that isn’t you own.

Mobile Phones Forum Reflection

As this was my first exposure to a wiki forum and the specific learning technique used in this forum, that is “De Bono’s Six Coloured Hats”, I found it quite interesting in the way that the discussion was set out. “De Bono’s” learning technique uses the example of different coloured hats in that wearing the different hats changes your perspective on the topic and makes you open to different sides to the subject. For example; wearing the Black hat, you become a critical and judgemental thinker, giving your opinion on where the specific topic is weakest or likely to fail (http://www.debonothinkingsystems.com/tools/6hats.htm).

The “Mobile Phone” forum is displayed in a table format helping to categorise the different “hats” or perspectives. This made it easier to speak with a specific perspective, agreeing or disagreeing with the arguments within that category. I found the topic to be quite interesting and debatable amongst my pears. Because it is such a debatable topic and an engaging way of discussion, I believe it has the qualities of connectivism. Connectavism could be observed at work during this forum demonstrated by the way each individual was prepared to engage with others in the discussion openly sharing their pears diverse view, beliefs and opinions. I also believe that Cognitivism is evident within this method of teaching as it encouraged positive engagement within the specific topic, required problem solving, thinking and memory of what they have previously learnt. The guiding questions within the forum make the assumptions that the participants have current knowledge of the subject matter and that they will be able to provide their opinions from their previous experiences. This is basically the simple definition of Constructivism, as I understand it.

I felt quite comfortable with participating in the forum, to share my opinion and how I feel about the specific topic and to see  how my pears interpreted the issue. Categorising the different opinions help to focus on the specific major topics within the subject, so that the questions are definitely being addressed.