Week 4 Reflection

Wow, another week has flown by! The time is slipping away so quickly, but I am enjoying this course just as much as I did the very first day! This week has been another busy one for me and for everybody else I am sure. I found this week's digital tools great, but I will admit I was a little intimidated using a podcast for the first time. Have a read of my blog and let me know what you think.

Digital Technologies 2

This week's digital tools were multimedia. They consisted of images, podcasting, digital audio and digital video. The learning materials provided to us on Moodle this week were enormously helpful in helping me get my head around it all and making sense of what was what. In a digital world we know longer think of reading and writing as textbooks and notes. Reading can involve anything from viewing, listening or responding and writing can involve anything from talking, listening, designing or producing. A great article that we were provided with, Pedagogic Potentials of Multimodal Literacy gave me a great insight as to how to incorporate multimedia into the classroom. Students need to be able to combine traditional literacy practices with the manipulation of different modes of image, graphic, sound and movement. We know that multimedia in the classroom is more engaging for students than working with a textbook and writing notes, but it also helps achieve higher order thinking. Did you know?


• Retention is improved through words and pictures.
• Students learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near each other.
• Extraneous words, pictures and sounds should be excluded rather than included.  

More examples of why it is important to use multimedia can be found by following this link. From this knowledge we were then able to look at how this relates to our three digital tools. I have created a table with a list of the activities I have completed that were a requirement of this week as well as optional. You can view it below:

 

Using images in the classroom is a quick and easy way to help achieve higher order thinking. There are so many tools on the web that can assist you with uploading, animating, manipulating and resizing your own photos. It is important to note that before uploading images to the web you need to gain permission from the people within the photo. Children should not identified and the photos that are uploaded should be placed in a secure environment. There are many uses for images in learning and according to JISC Media these can range from:

• Illustrating concepts and showing examples of what you're talking about.
• To inspire the discussion of a topic.
• Encourage team work and foster collaboration.
• Enhance visual communication skills.
• As a prompt to get students to research all aspects of a topic.

Some of the suggestions that were outlined by JISC Media sound like they would be of a massive benefit in a secondary classroom. One that I would particularly like to adapt is being able to document an assignment. This means that instead of taking notes, students can use photographs as their source of feedback. When using cameras in the classroom, there are a number of things I need to consider as a teacher. This was covered in our week 4 tutorial and included:

• Checking the school camera before class (battery is fully charged, memory card is empty).
• Never use my own personal camera.
• Keep safe, legal and ethical (always delete images from the camera before returning them to storage, take images from angles that are difficult to identify the student, always receive permission from students and parents and always be aware of 'selfies')

Being aware of 'selfies' is a particularly important thing for me to note, especially because I will be teaching secondary. As long as I am always conscious of what I am doing and ensuring that things will not be misinterpreted by somebody (students, parents, teachers and community alike), I should be safe from any legal and ethical dilemmas.

This week I downloaded a program called MobaPhoto that resizes your images through a quick and simple process. Although it does not change the physical appearance of the photo it reduces the amount of information it carries. This will create fewer download delays for the viewer to the site. As well as this, most websites have limited storage, so by resizing an image you will be using far less space. I have downloaded and resized a photo (which can be seen below), using the above mentioned program. The photo was courtesy of examiner.com. On the left hand side you can see the original, its size is 10.5KB. The photo on the right has been resized at 6.67KB.












    



Being able to manipulate images to suit the context you are teaching in is a great advancement. It is a relatively new concept, however, there are already a number of free websites that allow you to recreate images. I used a website called Befunky and I have sourced the photo from a website called Flickr. The best thing about the Flickr site is that all you have to do is create an account and then you can store or upload your own photos, or look at other peoples photos. The site has a setting where you can enable a 'creative commons- licensed content' search and this ensures that you are not using photos that have copyright or that you shouldn't be using. I have inserted my edited photo to the right. As you can see I have created a frame, added some small clip art in the corners and have adjusted the background. If it were a photo of a person, I would also have the option to fix red eyes, tone their skin and even add blusher!
In a classroom environment this tool could prove to be handy. Although I don't believe it would be used as much in a secondary school setting, it could still be used for assignments to highlight key parts of an image, or to make it 'their own'.

In simple terms, a podcast is a sound file. A fantastic resource that we were provided with this week is a wiki page called Podcasting in Education. It was a fantastic source for information and helped me to understand the purpose behind such a tool. A podcast can be integrated into schools in numerous ways. The website that was provided to us in Moodle had some great examples of how we could use them in a classroom. After looking through the list I have identified what I believe would be most appropriate for my classroom and I have shared them below:

• Students can publish their work.
• I can distribute assignments.
• Peer teaching.
• Create an archive of classes (so if students are away they can access what they have missed). 

In order to effectively record audio, there are a number of things that must first be considered. To start with, there can be no background noise as this will limit the clarity of the speech (this was pretty challenging for me being in a building with 1st year students!). Although most laptops have built in microphones and they do work well, it may also be a good idea to buy a device that can record your audio more clearly. As well as this, it is a good idea to have a program that can record the audio for you. I have downloaded Audacity onto my computer. It was simple enough to use and easy enough to navigate and I have inserted a print screen below of when I was creating my own audio. From this, I added the audio to two interactive tools; Blabberize and Voki (I have inserted these below my audacity print screen picture). I believe that when creating podcasts, Blabberize was a better tool to use because you can insert your own image and adjust it to your own teaching context, whereas Voki provides you with templates and doesn't allow a lot of creativity.
You could also add podcasts in the classroom by inserting them into PowerPoints or Moviemaker.

 

Learning about podcasts this week was great for me. I guarantee that I will be using podcasts in my classroom. As I will be teaching Business, Secondary, this will come in very useful for me and my students. I am most likely going to introduce it to them as part of the curriculum. This means that I am not going in blind and I have an understanding of the importance of such tools.

Creating a digital video was the final tool that we were introduced to this week. In order to create my video I had to download Windows MovieMaker. This program allows users to insert still images, photographs, video snippets, titles, credits, music and voice overs to create their own movies. I will admit, I found inserting audio into my own movie incredibly hard. After hours of fiddling around with my computer I realised it wasn't working because I had to change the file format from an MP4 to a WMV. Although this was a mishap I experienced, I believe that it is still a great tool to assist with student learning. There are so many ways students can create their own videos, for example:

• Using digital video cameras.
• Still photographs.
• Audio overlay.
• Inclusion of an external video. 

As a teacher, I could use Windows MovieMaker in the classroom to present a lesson, provide instructions on specific tasks or give assignment hints to the students. Students could use this tool for their own assignments, as it would show competency in ICT. Being able to effectively use this tool would should that students are:

• Using higher order thinking.
• Are communicating in the classroom.
• Can present data in a logical, concise and clear format.
• Are organised and can work as part of a team.
• Are improving their literacy skills.
• Moviemaking skill development.

I have created a short video on why online teaching is important. I have inserted questions on Crayola backgrounds, snippets of a YouTube video and audio (school bell). You can see the appropriate referencing for the visuals and audio at the end of my blog.

Out of all the tools I have been introduced to this week, I believe I will use podcasting/ digital audio the most in my classroom as I believe it will be the most affective for teenagers.

Tutorial Information

This week's tutorial was very informative. After running through some assignment feedback we got straight into looking at this week's tools as well as reflecting on last week's tools.
We looked at what a title page on a Weebly site should have and then we shared our ideas on Padlet. I have inserted a screen shot below of what our group came up with.

We also looked at different ways we could use this week's digital tools. By far the most important thing I took out of the lesson was my understanding that these tools need to ensure that the primary focus is still on the desired learning outcome. Although it may be fun to play around with such tools, we cannot use them just because we feel like it. I also noted that it is important to plan for differentiated learning. This means I have to prepare for all different types of learners at different learning stages.
This week we were also introduced to green screening images and how they can be effective in the classroom. Although English is not my discipline area for Secondary teaching, we were provided with a Term 1, English C2C Unit. This allowed us to investigate what kind of things we would have to provide our students with so they can show their understanding of ICT, as well as display higher order thinking.

I hope everybody else has had a fantastic week! I look forward to reading more blogs in the coming days.

Hannah

References:

Presenter Media [animation]. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.presentermedia.com/index.php?id=120&target=category&start=20&maincat=animsp#listing_of_items

Fasso, W. (2013). Learning Material. Retrieved from CQUniversity FAHE11001 Moodle page, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=145984

Hirche, C [animation]. Retrieved from http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp  

Mayerc. (2007). Podcasting in Education. Retrieved July 23, 2013, from http://podcasting-in-education.wikispaces.com/

Walsh, M. Pedagogic Potential of Multimodal literacy. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.acu.edu.au%2F__data%2Fassets%2Fpdf_file%2F0007%2F195676%2FChapter_3_Multimodal_Literacy_M_Walsh.pdf&ei=7cLxUbTOBOuuiQfcmoGYAQ&usg=AFQjCNGLyBL5dqq1U8OPc8M_YJc_NAHgDA&sig2=ev3qvOeR-U0tdKZ5K_UkXw&bvm=bv.49784469,d.aGc.

Stansbury, M. (2008). Analysis: How multimedia can improve learning, July 23. Retrieved from http://www.eschoolnews.com/2008/03/26/analysis-how-multimedia-can-improve-learning/

JISC Media. (n.d.). Practical Ways to Use Digital Images in Teaching and Learning, July 23. Retrieved from http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/guide/practical-ways-to-use-digital-images-in-teaching-and-learning/.

COFA Online. (2010, Oct 25). Why is online teaching important? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDULQMR6wJs.

SoundEffectsFactory. (2012, Apr 1). School Bell [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41G_7B73AgE