Reflective Synopsis

Information and Communication technologies (ICT's) and E-Tools have not only changed incrementally from that of the past, but they have developed and adapted to the 21st century learner. The 21st century learner is what Prensky (2001) would describe as 'digital natives'. As a learning manager studying to teach these 'digital natives' it is very important for me to be diligent in applying myself to the new technologies available. I need to be able to ensure that I have the capabilities to innovate with new e-learning technologies and make effective methodologies that can be used to implement E-tools into learning; what the students learn can be supported and enhanced by e-learning, and activities and tasks can become more meaningful, authentic, and real-life.

Throughout this courses study investigations into new technologies have been undertaken. Experimenting and innovating with new e-learning tools has been a journey with the purpose to be able to acquire highly reflective information; developing real-life experiences with the tools has given me an insightful understanding of ICT's and their use in Education. This reflective synopsis will demonstrate my development and understanding of e-learning with specific reference to four ICT tools that I have researched throughout the course so far. I will illustrate ways and methods that the four specific tools could be used and implemented in classes to support, transform and enhance learners and what they are learning.

“Students explore and experiment with the use of a range of ICT functions and applications. They develop the knowledge, skills and capacity to select and use ICTs to inquire, develop new understandings, transform information and construct new knowledge for a specific purpose or context. They communicate with others in an ethical, safe and responsible manner. They develop understandings of the impact of ICTs on society”. (QSA 2007)

Before commencing study in this course I was not aware of the vast amount of technologies available through the web and I certainly did not cogitate on the immensity of technologies that are relied on in schools today. Classroom environments are fast becoming technology rich environments providing opportunity for new and innovative methodologies for teachers (Khine & Fisher2003),  Technology plays a huge role in everyone's lives in the 21st century and especially in children's lives; they have become fluent with technologies; students need to be able to embrace the new technologies that the world has to offer and engage with them in ways that reflect their lifestyles (Prenksy 2005). It is my understanding that a large part of teaching will be to help students gain knowledge by e-learning; I realise that I learnt very differently to the way that learners learn now, and so I need to be able to adapt and adjust to the technologies to be able to support their learning and e-learning.

The principles of how students learn and how they retain knowledge was a topic that I was extremely interested in; knowledge isn't simply passed on by the teacher, instead, students actively construct knowledge (Snowman et al., 2009). I need to generate higher order thinking amongst the students making information meaningful and authentic.

Throughout the E-learning course I have explored innumerable different e-tools that the course had to offer; I did this by myself, with peers, and in groups. I cannot emphasise enough on the extent of the number of tools that are available that I had absolutely no idea existed, in fact, this showed me that firstly, I hold hesitation to dive into the digital world, and secondly, when working collaboratively (with other people) the depth of information that you can obtain is boundless. Deconstructing DeBono's six thinking hats allowed me to relate that knowledge to students e-learning and how my learners might best learn. Putting my thoughts and findings into my first wiki was the beginning steps to invading the digital world.




http://taosecurity.blogspot.com/2006/04/risk-mitigation-if-youve-been.html

 
Once I was introduced to wiki and blogging and websites, I new that there would be no end to the amount of information that I was going to retain each lesson and each session of exploration for me. The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT's) or E-tools that I innovated, engaged with and explored were divided in to four groups.


Group One: Online spaces. Group Two: Multi-media websites and programs. Group Three: Presentation tools. And Group Four: Programs centred on simulations and animations or mind mapping tools.

Group One: Please See Group One Posting!

Group One's E-tools consist of websites, wiki's, and blogs. All three of these are tools that I have explored throughout this e-learning course and I have developed an understanding, gathered information and valuable knowledge as to how I could use them and they could be effective e-tools in my classroom. One of the main things that I gathered from investigating these tool was that they are all appurtenant to collaboration which is principal in education, and essentially high schools. Contributing to one of my first wiki's showed me that the contribution of others can immensely develop and enhance information. 

I focused on blogs and how blogging could be applied to my teacher context; enhancing and supporting students learning. Blogs were something that I had never thought to include into curriculum or schooling before this course. I agreed with Rouse (2010) when he says that a blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. My group one blog posting shares all of my ideas and finding of blogs and their effectiveness in e-learning. Essentially blogs are space on the web that allow reflections, observations, experimentation, and ideas, etc to be shared or collaborated. Blogs are ideal because of their simplicity and ease of use, they are customisable with the options of uploading or embedding different ICT's (images, audio's, video's, etc). 

Whilst creating and developing my blog: http://biancajaneturner.blogspot.com/ I experimented with all of the different options and gadgets that the tool has to offer. I do strongly believe that Blogs will be very beneficial for learners, as you can see and read in my blog posting. Blogs are huge sites for reflection, observations, evaluation, critique, and collaboration, which are all vital to learners learning. These skills allow learners to create meaning from activities and to relate information to real-life situations. Students will immediately feel excitement and be attracted to the idea of using and developing a blog simply because they are a new, exciting, and an appealing technology. Of coarse I did have some small things to critique about the site in terms of its use in a classroom, such as, you do need Internet access, and you need to set guidelines for the structure and content of the blogs.

Again, Please refer to my Group One blog posting for my experimentation, information, critique, and SWOT analysis on the use of blogs in learning!

Blogs are somewhat safe because only the author can contribute to the one blog user. Teachers / learning managers will need to ensure that legal issues such as copyright has been discussed and understood by every student and teacher.

I would implement blogs into classroom activities, as I said in the blog posting. I will scaffold activities for the students to create a blog and add to with each activity. I must ensure that I scaffold correctly (posing questions and ICT tools) for the students. Students will be encouraged to record and reflect on their ideas and learning journeys. To ensure that critical thinking is occurring the students need to be analysing, evaluating and synthesising!

Blogs are great E-tools to be using in the class, they allow for collaboration and also individual work. They create a database for the parents to look over to see how their child is progressing (and the same for the teacher). Blogs will support and enhance students learning - Please see the blog posting!

Group Two: Please see Group Two posting!

Group Two include multi-media technologies: picture, video and audio programs. Multi-media is something that every one is somewhat familiar with and has in their every day lives. YouTube is the multi-media program that I have explored and reflected on: Group two posting.

YouTube is something that I was familiar with and had implemented into previous lesson structures, I have found YouTube very useful in the past to interest the students and get them motivated for a topic, for example, if you were teaching Shakespeare in English (which is quite boring and tedious for the students) you could show them a new YouTube clip that present the Shakespeare play in an interesting way:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMkuUADWW2A

YouTube is immediately appealing to the students and therefore, it acts as a great reward for good behaviour as well. YouTube is excellent for relating topics to real life experiences and for exhibiting / portraying meaning. Please see Group Two blog posting for all of the strengths (SWOT analysis) that YouTube has; I also presented some weaknesses and threats that YouTube can have.

I will continue to utilise YouTube in my students e-learning journey's as it does offer many positives to learning. I love YouTube and I think that it definitely does support learning because of the enormous variety of clips available on any sort of topic. High School students will learn well off of viewing a video / clip and therefore, YouTube presents the opportunity to challenge the learners and extend their knowledge!

Please see the Group two blog posting for more information!

Group Three: Please see Group Three posting!

Group Three e-tools are presentation tools, so it is visual literacy. It's the attractiveness of something to the eye. I chose to investigate and experiment with Glogster. Glogster is a poster of information that anyone can create. I created a simple Glog about mobile phones in schools (as it was one of our wiki topics): http://bjane22.glogster.com/mobilephonesinschool/. Glogster is great because it allows you to upload any pictures, sounds, or video's that you wish; Glogster is dependant on Group Two's tools.

Please see Group Three blog for strengths of glogster and also critiqued weaknesses (SWOT analysis). I found Glogster very easy to access and manage. I believe that Glogster is something that I will use in the classroom, though, not so much for student input or activities. Glogster is a great way for teachers to poster their classroom walls with motivational and educational pictures and information, it would also act as a great tool for a teachers to introduce a new topic or generate interest in an on-going topic (enhance learning)because the posters will appeal to the learners. Glogster is a great way for students to present their ideas in an attractive format and share with others. Glogster could also act as a collaborative task for the class to do while the teacher creates it into the computer.

Glogster has such customisable features that you could create anything with it; students would need to be monitored when they are creating them. Glogster is Fun and Creative! Glogster will provide support for learners because it is an easy to understand format for them to read. Please see Group Three posting!

Group Four: Please see Group Four posting!

My last tool chosen from the group four was the fun and easy-to-use Bubble.Us which is a mind mapping and brainstorming tool online. Mind mapping and brain storming is such an important part of learning for students, they will use these preparation techniques for the rest of their lives; by implementing it now we are supporting their learning and preparing them for real-life experiences. Brain storming is collaborating the classes ideas together so that the information can expand and enhance.

I did experiment with the mind mapping tool as you can see in the Group Four blog posting along with my SWOT analysis of the ICT.

I didn't know that such a tool would exist online, I always thought that I would be brain storming on butchers paper or on the white board. Bubble.us is the new, technical way to mind map. the student will find it so much more interesting then having to copy the bubbles off of the white board, as soon as you open the program the technology will appeal to the learners.

Bubble.us would be extremely effective on an interactive white board and could give opportunity for the students to become more involved, moving out of their seats to interact with the board (students need to move around every now and again).

I know that after discovering the site I have already used it multiple times and I don't dread the idea of mind mapping anymore; hopefully when I implement Bubble,us into my lesson the students will generate more value from mind mapping and brain storming!

Safe, Legal, Ethical Guidelines for the use of Blogs, YouTube, Blogster, and Bubble.us

When using website and ICT's you need to ensure that you are doing the right things; that includes the teacher and the student. The Internet is not a completely safe environment, I need to make my learners aware of this before commencing any technology activities. The most important thing is that the student know what they shouldn't be doing:

- Writing addresses
- Writing their full name
- Writing personal details
- Writing friends or family's personal details
- Do not use inappropriate videos, pictures, or audio's, etc

Conclusion

After comprehensively experimenting and evaluating ICT's and being actively involved with collaborative spaces in the past weeks, it is very clear that Information and Communication Technologies are becoming embedded into society and in to education. ICT's are an invaluable resource in the classroom and their positive impact on learning is immeasurable. Education is changing and E-Learning is a means / method that teachers and learning managers need to prepare for and dedicate themselves to. I have thoroughly enjoyed and gained great outcomes / results from investigating, experimenting, and critiquing all of the different ICT tools. I have been able to evaluate and reflect on my experiences and thus created meaning out of tasks (enhanced my learning). I endeavour to ensure that I allow and create the opportunities for my learners to result with the same positive outcomes with the use of e-learning. I will create lessons involving different technologies and ICT's that are structured to enhance and support their learning; the lessons will cater to each individuals needs and to develop higher order thinking.

Use ICT's in school!!!   

References

Khine, M. S., & Fisher, D. (2003). Technology-  rich learning environments. Toh Tuck Link, Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.     

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives: Digital immigrants. Retrieved July 20, 2011, 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. Retrieved July 20, 2011, from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf

Queensland Studies Authority. (2007). Information and communication technologies: Cross-curriculum priority. Retrieved August 2 2011 from http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/7300.html

Rowse, D. (2010). What is a Blog?. Retrieved from http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/02/05/what-is-a-blog

           Snowman, J., Dobozy, E., Scevak, J., Bryer, F., & Bartlett, B. (2009). Psychology Applied to Teaching (1st ed.). Milton, QLD: John Wiley & Sons Australia

Group 1: Blogging!!!

E-Tools... Websites, Wiki's and Blogs.

E-tools are such valuable technologies for education in the 21st century; they are a huge database of collaboratively designed information that is in such an easily visible form. In this course, managing E-learning, I have explored with all of these E-tools and have particularly focused on blogging. I explored with wiki's through the moodle site and included my say into some of the sites: behaviourism, and the mobile phones wiki which was linked to De Bono's six thinking hats, and of coarse I have explored with numerous websites.

Before Managing E-learning I had not thought to ever start a Blog, in fact, I didn't understand what you would do with a blog or what it would be for. I certainly never believed that blogging could be used in education and could actually enhance and support learning.

I have particularly focused on, explored, and been actively participating with the blogging site called Blogger, which is the site that managing e-learning directed us to use:

http://bloghackz.com/

However, I did explore with another blog website called blog.com. I created an account with blog.com: http://biancajaneturner.blog.com/wp-admin/?c=1.

Blogs are websites that can contain a writer's or groups of writer's opinions, experiences, observations,  and etc. Blogs provide so many advantages and opportunities, they can simply act as a type of journal for people to share globally or privately, or they can act as a website of information and media value. Blogs are great because of their simplicity and ease of use. At first it did seem quite daunting to begin a whole new web page all by myself and knowing that I had selected it to be shared so that anyone could access it. Blogging is about exploring, you do need to spend time looking around the site finding shortcuts and new things. Blogs allow you to upload or embed pictures, videos, audio's and much more; finding out how to do this was simply a matter of looking and pressing the buttons that I wasn't sure of. I had great fun developing my blog over the weeks and I found that as the weeks progressed I learnt many new things and my posts became more and more advanced and interesting.

What was most surprising to me was finding out just how useful blogging could be in my classroom. Because I am teaching to high school students there is so many tasks that I could set involving blogging. I could ask my students to create a blog and then week by week they could answer some structured question regarding the topic of focus, I could make it a necessity for them to include a different ICT tool in each blog and afterwards we can go through them as a class. So, blogs create opportunity for exploration of technology, for the students to collaborate their ideas, opinions, and experiences, and to encourage creativity. The following YouTube clip was especially interested me because firstly, it introduced to me that I could also use blogging in Health and Physical Education, and secondly, it gave me a guide as to how I could implement structured blogging in my classroom:



  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZAYqxEgBkg


Having the students involved in the same activity and collaborating their opinions, ideas, and experiences, can generate higher order thinking; blogs have the ability to be extremely effective in the classroom.

Strengths:
- Easily accessible tool that you can record ideas, opinion, experiences, and much more onto
- Allows further ICT tool: pictures, audio's, videos, etc to be uploaded or embedded into posts

- Encourages creativity

- Immediately eye catch and interesting to students

- Can be used to record reflections and evaluations, generating problem solving skills and process, allowing  
  the students to create meaning out of the activities
- It is a text based communication online which allows extended audiences to view the site
- Supports easy storage of ideas
- It is easily assessable for the teacher to track progress made by the student
- Postings are in chronological order making it eay to keep track of

Weaknesses:
- Access to the Internet is required. if you set a blog post for homework you need to ensure that each and
  every student has access to the Internet at home.
- Similar to Glogster, you can become too involved with the aesthetics rather then the content in the blog, as
  a teacher I would need to ensure that I make my expectations clear and structure that content that is
  required.
- Unless safety precautions are taken, blogs are open to any viewer, including unwanted ones.

Opportunities:
- Blogs unlock so many opportunities and allow for such variety and difference. the use of blogs will only keep on becoming more and more beneficial in the classroom; soon they will be a part of the curriculum and assessment pieces. Teachers need to explore with the E-tool and discover new ways to implement it into the classroom.

Threats:
- Legal actions need to be taken and safety precautions should be followed, ensuring that you are aware of
  who is looking and monitoring your students work.
- Copyright needs to be completely avoided, make sure that you site where you got the resources from.

 http://bloghackz.com/.

I have enjoyed blogging so much and I believe that I will continue to find new and exciting things that I can do with my blogs. Blogs are a place of reflection and reflection is a huge part of education for learners, especially in high school.

I haven't used blogging in my practice yet, simply because I wasn't aware that it was an E-tool that could be implemented into lesson plans. I look forward to structuring some blogging activities into my teaching because I can now see the huge benefits that it can offer!

http://www.geekestateblog.com/blogging-is-a-marathan-not-a-sprint-heres-a-6-month-real-estate-blogging-strategy/

Group 2: You Tube; Is it a useful tool?

Looking into multimedia technologies such as, picture, video, and audio programs and website was so interesting and exciting for me. The variety of tools available is amazing; it could include the Flickr website which allows you to edit, manipulate, and crop a picture online. Voki is a great multimedia tool, which I did explore with and added onto this blog; Voki is where you create an avatar to talk for you and to speak any information or words that you wish. I don't think that Voki will be of great use to me a secondary education environment, because I lay importance on creating real life experiences and meaningful information. Why would I create a creature or make believe person to say something when maybe I could get a real (important) person to communicate with the students?

YouTube: Broadcast Yourself.

http://www.coolpctips.com/2011/04/stop-youtube-video-to-restart-on-fullscreen/

YouTube is a video-sharing website that uses the technologies of Adobe Flash Player and HTML5. It provides / displays a huge variety of visual stimulants, including movies, tv episodes, and music videos. It also allows amateur content to be uploaded by individuals, such as, funny videos, records, video blogging, and much, much more. YouTube is an open book for multimedia articles.

YouTube is a tool that I am fairly familiar with because it is a heavily used technology in high schools in the 21st century. I have seen innumerable different YouTube clips ranging from educational to humorous outrages.
Educational (using an activboard: specific to English):



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGxTCZ665vs&feature=related
I utilised the benefits of YouTube and shared this clip with fellow teachers; they found it to be useful and an activity that they will use in future lessons.

Humerous (Year 8's will die with laughter after watching this):




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN5PoW7_kdA
My year 8 class found watching this to be a great reward at the end of the class for their good behaviour that they demonstrated all lesson!

I have already implemented a YouTube clip into my Week 1 blog posting that was specific to the topic that I explored: behaviourism. The topic of behaviourism was actually something that I was to add information to a wiki page for.

From exploring YouTube further I discovered that anyone can view the clips, however only registered users can upload videos on to the website. I am already a registered user and it was so simple years ago when I signed that I decided to see if much had changed... It hasn't; the directions that the site gives you are precise and easy to follow that anyone could become a member (although you do need to be over 18). Previous to E-Learning I had uploaded multiple videos to the website of my four wheel driving experiences however, I will not present them on this blog page for privacy reasons.

YouTube has been a very useful tool for me and my mentor teachers throughout my prac experiences. I even found on the site clips for teachers / learning managers to help us keep up to date and motivate us:



 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNLTBpFDjag&feature=related
Engaging with the learners is a very important factor for teachers and YouTube assists with it. YouTube presents so many positives that I am not sure that I can put even half of them in to dot point. Here goes:

Strengths:
- Immediately attractive to students
- Can create or show real life experiences / situations to the the students
- Easy to use / user friendly
- Easy to navigate / search
- Free source of media
- Can be educational
- It can be replayed several times for students to see critical points again
- They can be paused for the students to take notes or to have discussion
- Clips can generate all kinds of different emotions; they can motivate, educate, inform etc.
- You can find anything that you need!!!

Weaknesses:
- You do need Internet
- The clips may not always be trustworthy / reliable
- The clips are not interactive
- The speed of the downloading can be slow at times

Opportunities:
- The teacher could create a class account on YouTube and allow the students access to submit videos in relation to assessment
- The teacher could use clips to introduce new topics
- The teacher could use clips to engage with the students
- The teacher could use the clips to generate interest for the students
- Etc

Threats:
- Legal safely / copyright
- The rating / content of the clip needs to checked by the teacher in case there is anything inappropriate

So, when YouTube clips are used correctly and safely they are extremely useful in classrooms and education.

YouTube as an E-learning tool will support and enhance what students learn simply for the fact that it can supply real life situations and examples, it can create meaning out of topics, and the majority of the time it is an authentic source of information and media. It's an immediately attractive technology for the students and it is current with the 21st century learner :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DTUDczwtyc&feature=related

Group 3: Glogster for Education

Today I have been exploring Presentation ICT's which include a large array of different tools. I have focused on and explored with Glogster. I have never before even heard of the tool glogster before an E-Learning lecture let alone utilised it. Glogster is in a kind of multimedia format poster, it is a website where you can create a poster that can include anything that you desire. It can have information, visual attractions; including text, pictures, animations, videos, and audio's. Here is my first attempt at creating a glog:

    

Oh my gosh, I just successfully embedded that! =)

I found this website so easy to navigate and to use, I had fun exploring with all of the different pictures, audios, and videos that the tool has to offer. My glog did involve a topic that I had previously explored in E-Learning; mobile phones in classrooms. Glogster allowed me to present a certain amount of information that I had in an attractive and appealing way. I did, in fact, use / present this glog to my class on one of my prac days and they gave me positive feedback that it did interest them and grab their attention. This glog took me only minutes to create and manipulate, and I was so pleased with the outcome and specifically the option that I had of keeping it private or shared to a global length.

The opportunities that this website offers is immense, this is a very valuable tool for me now to use in my lessons! The tool even has a specifically designed education (EDU) section for educators and learners. In this section the information and variety offered is incredible. I explored the site and found a few very eye catching that I would love to hang in a classroom (site legally of coarse) once I am a teacher.

How great is this one!!!:

     

http://jessasaurus.glogster.com/N-E-R-D-/
Can you imagine this poster staring at the students as they walk in the door to your class? Glogster has opened up a whole new technology based learning for me. Glogster will be able to relate work to real life situations, create meaning, and authenticity!

Strengths:
It is hard to just list the strengths of this particular ICT tool, you could listen to me talk about this website and it usefulness for a long time. It will be valuable to both students and teachers. Here some dot points that I have come up with: Glogster is:

- Appealing to the students
- Easy to use / user friendly
- Promotes creativity
- Quick to create
- Engaging
- Easily manipulable with the new information and objects
- Diverse
- 21st century tool (up to date)

Weaknesses:
Although glogster does have A LOT of positives / strengths, a like every other ICT tool, it does have its weaknesses.
- I found that when I was exploring with Glogster I became too involved with the aesthetics rather then the content. This could become an 'issue' for some teachers if they do find themselves delving into creativity to too great of extents.
- For me, Glogster seems that it will be a very useful tool for the teachers to use rather then as an activity for the students to perform; it could become quite a lengthy task if all of the students are to complete their own Glog.

Oppurtunites:
- Glogster provides huge opportunity for exploration; teachers could find many resources on the site to help them in their unit and lesson planning.
- Teachers could use a Glog to present a new topic to students,
- to generate interest in an ongoing topic for the students,
- to motivate the students, and
- much, much more!!!

Threats:
- Similar to every website, there is always the need for caution of safety and legal rights / issues. If a teacher is allowing / instructing students to create their own Glog she / he needs to ensure that the legal and safe 'rules' have been understood and that no one is doing the wrong thing.
- Of coarse teachers also need to ensure that they are following procedures correctly.

Hmmm... I could keep on going on about Glogster for several pages, but hopefully I have touched on the importance and value of it while stating other matters. As I said, I have already used the tool in my prac classess and found the outcome to be very succesful and interesting for the students! I look forward to utilising the tool more and more!


 
http://superfreake.glogster.com/STAND-OUT/

Group 4: Bubble.us in the classroom

Bubble.us is a mind mapping or brainstorming tool that is accessible through the Internet : https://bubbl.us/
It a a great ICT tool that can be and should be utilised by Learning Managers in schools today. Brainstorming is something that every teacher encourages students to do. Mind mapping is an activity that is promoted by Education Queensland and thus, it is included in every classroom in schools today. Unfortunately, brainstorming with large groups of students can become uninteresting and tedious for the students; Bubble.us is a new and exciting way to to put the students ideas together. Bubble.us allows the students to have interaction with different technologies and stimulates creativeness with the ease of changing colours, font types, and branches out to new bubbles.

I have began creating one; my example is one that could expand to great lengths and could be continued on throughout many lessons with students, it is also an example that shows that Bubble.us is an ICT tool that is not only useful in classroom for students. Bubble.us could be used for teachers / learning managers in staff meetings, in preparation for classes / lesson planning, and much more. Here is mine that I have only just begun:

So, I have only mentioned very few of the benefits that Bubble.us as an ICT tool can be in a classroom. I had great fun exploring with it for the first time, in fact, I had never heard of it before the Managing E-learning course introduced it to me.

Strengths:
- Easily accessible / quick
- It promotes concept mapping
- Fun
- Interesting
- Creative
- Makes brainstorimg more visually attractive
- Interactive
- Advanced form of brainstorming
- Appealing to the students

Weaknesses:
- Need access to at least one computer (teachers)
- It is an ICT tool, therefore, you need to have some sort of direction with computers
- You can't attach images which could be very useful sometimes
- If you were to divide the students up, doing multiple different bubble.us's, it could be difficult to combine all of the results together.

Oppurtunities:
- Encourages collaborative learning
- Concept map could be introduced to guide students learning and goals

Threats:
- Students need to understand the calue of mind mapping and how it can be used

All in all, Bubble.us is a very effective ICT to use in classrooms, it is a fun and easy to use mind mapping and brainstorming tool. Because mind mapping and brainstorming is something that is implemented in every classroom, Bubble.us will allow creativity to be introduced back into education ( which has been lacking, particularly in high schools); creativity is important to me as a learning manager because students need it develop and grow as learners. 

Use Bubble.us it is so easy and looks great!   

Collaboratively Exploring

Today I decided to take some of my lecturers advice and explore other people ideas and blogs. This would be called working collaboratively I think...

Here I found some fishies:


I just think that this is a great example of how the internet and ICT's can allow you to find new sources, new tools, and new and exciting things! Who would of thought that you could have fish swimming around on your page and be able to feed them? Its like a a 21st century tamagotchi =)

Multiple Intelligences Test

Howard Gardner created the multiple intelligences test in 1975 based on the multiple intelligences that he categorised into eight different intelligences which learners abilities were shown. The test shows a learners best learning style. The multiple test theory has a website online where you can take the test The following is my results of the test, and you can see at the top the website to go to if you wish to take the test yourself:

This test says that I am mainly a musical learner (musical smart) and I am also a kinesthetic learner (body smart). I think that these results are very very accurate to my particular learning style. I am quite musical; I play three different instruments and keeping up with new and popular music is of quite high priority in my life. I love sports! I think that if it were possible to learn everything through active activities and sports I would be the new Einstein =)

The multiple intelligences test as an E-tool in an educational environment does present many benefits and could possible assist both learners and teachers towards success. It is an online tool and therefore the students will firstly being learning skills in navigating the Internet and experimenting with tools. The test is chiefly beneficial for students because it highlights their strengths and weaknesses and even acts as a set of information for them to be able to describe themselves as a learner; this test is something useful that they could 'carry' with them as learners and share with new teachers.

The test is very useful for teachers to have for all of their students as it does tell them exactly how each student best learns and also how they most likely will not learn at all. The multiple intellegince test results is something that a teacher could add to each students profile (which every teacher should have for each student).

I know that when I am a teacher I will try to get each student to complete the test so that I can look into each students profile and ensure that I am catering to all of their needs!

Week Two: E-leearning design principles: Mobile Phone Wiki

Reflecting: This weeks task was to add to the mobile phones wiki which is related to de Bono's six thinking hats. The six thinking hats is something that I was vaguely familiar with beforehand but this task still seemed daunting to me. How am I supposed to relate de Bono's genius to what I think about mobile phones in education?

I attempted to begin the task multiple times, however I was still struggling with finalising my ideas and opinions. After attending class on Thursday everything became more clear and I grasped a better understanding of what was expected in the task. In class, we had discussions on mobile phones in education with the use of de Bono's six thinking hats; everyone voiced their ideas and opinions helping me so much. I was able to complete the wiki task. I now agree with the edited work of Ewing, Lowrie and Higgs (2010, p. 13) when they say that 'communication is a dynamic process that individuals use to exchange ideas, relate experience, make sense of situations or convey meaning...' In this particular situation, I do not believe that I would have adequately completed the task without communicating with other learning managers and networking ideas. The wiki that we have all been contributing to is a great example of our networking and sharing of ideas in this course.

So far in this course I have achieved so much, I have learnt the importance of keeping up with technology and ICT's, especially as a LM who will be teaching learners of the 21st century. I have gained understandings of E tools and how they are related to education. As I am going through my journey I can relate ideas, theories and the use of ICT's to how they will be useful and beneficial in my classroom.

Using mobile phones, for example, we came up with multiple advantages and disadvantages to using mobile phones in education. If mobile phones were to be included into classrooms it would transform learning, and they could, in some ways, support and facilitate learning, especially in certain activities and curriculum tasks. I believe that if mobile phones were to be used in education there would act as ways to enhance learners learning! 

References 

Ewing, R, Lowrie, T & Higgs, J (eds.) 2010, Teaching and communicating: rethinking professional

experiences, Oxford University Press, Australia.

Week 1: Learning theory and e-learning

This week I looked at the learning theory of behaviourism. I believe that the beginning minutes of the above YouTube clip provides an in depth definition and reasoning into the topic of behaviourism and certain behaviourist approaches.

In this week I was firstly directed to the site http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/behaviour.htm , which gives a general overview of what behaviourism is and the different ways that it is studied and experimented; the website also gives an explicit idea of what behaviourism is in education or in a classroom. The site mainly gives the impression that behaviourism in education is 'the dominance of the teacher and the modification of behaviour'.

Jessica Collins and I wrote into the wiki page http://fahe11001gladstone.wikispaces.com/Behaviourism, on the topic of behaviourism and we expressed our ideas. It was my first time to use or create a wiki and at first I found the experience very daunting. There was so much that I was unsure of...Do I need to log in? Do I just press edit or do I create a new entry??? Adding to a wiki on a topic seemed as though it was an experience aimed at exploration; working in pairs gave the opportunity for argument and the exchange of ideas (collaboration).   

We used the positives, minus, and interests (PMI) method to jot down some key points of behaviourism.   
   
We found that some positives include that it teaches the students positive efficacy, it allows the learners to modify their behaviour in accordance to consequences that the teacher enforces, and that if positive behaviour is recognised other students will react and copy.
Some minus things of behaviourism is that if the teacher is not consistent (dominant) the students will not feel the need to be consistent in their behaviours, if a teacher is only concerned with bad behaviour then the amount of good behaviour demonstrated will decrease, and if a teacher does not follow through on rewards then the students will lose trust.

Interesting things about the learning theory of behaviourism is that rewards motivate students, difficult students can transform into exemplary students, and that actions and consequences can create classroom expectations. 
From all of these points you can see that behaviourist strategies are very much reliant on the teacher.


Using the PMI scaffolding method to deconstruct information and classify it was nice and easy for me, it allowed me to put my thoughts (collaborated with Jess) into an easy to understand format. Reflecting now, I think that i will make use of the PMI scaffolding method in my classroom on prac days=)


A wiki entry is new to me and after using it for the first time, I believe that it could be a very useful tool in education and in my classroom. It is a new and different networking system! 


Lastly, I would like to recommend that you watch the YouTube clip 'The Big Bang Theory - Sheldon Trains Penny' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy_mIEnnlF4), which is very good, and comical example of a simple behaviourist approach. 

Hey: About Me

Hey, My name is Bianca Jane Turner, I am studying the Bachelor of Learning Management (BLM, secondary) at Central Queensland University (CQU). I am majoring in Health and Phjysical Education and my minor is English.

In this course, FAHE11001: Managing E-learning, I am beginning with very little knowledge of all of the different technologies and communication networks that have developed and unfortunately these technologies have now exceeded my 'capabiltites'; I do not have a great deal of basic computer / technical skills. 

I am one of very few people that I know of who do not have a facebook, myspace, or twitter profile, and I am challenging myself to develop my knowledge of the different technologies available in this century. Hopefully by the end of my journey I will be 'up-to-date' with the different information and communications technology.