When I first started this blog, I was hesitant about the whole affair because I didn’t know how I could go about it – I’ve never been that attached to computers. I came into this thinking “Well… it’s for a mark. I better write coherently!”
Over these past few months, it has turned out to be an interesting experience. I never associatedwith blogs prior to when starting this, so it has been as a new environment and a new way of posting my thoughts online, different to the Livejournal and Deviantart journals I’ve used in the past.
I keep wondering now that it’s over if I really will return to this humble blog site and post to it as I gather more experience in teaching. Who knows? Things might change, I’m gonna be marrying soon, and next year is unpredictable, with the possibility of delaying my studies.
I guess just like the unpredictability of where technology is heading, as in many ways it defines the unpredictability of our growth from now into the future. Even with the short amount of time updating this blog, I did notice a change in me – sort of an appreciation for technology in the classroom. I thought to be creative, one has to use scissors and glossy paper.
I think computers can be our glossy paper, if we use them appropriately.
Remember the OLPC XO laptop? I covered this in an earlier blog post, as it’s a project (One Laptop Per Child) to create really inexpensive laptops to give to children in developing countries.
Well, they totally revamped its design! Check it out!
There’s more information about it in this BBC News article “Design revamp for $100 laptop“. Not only is it cheaper to purchase ($75!), but it’s also “double-screened” and can be changed to look like an electronic book. It’s really nifty, I’ve had more than enough experience using the iPhone touch screen to really welcome a touch-screen laptop!
From my past experience with XO, I did find the clunky keyboard to be a bit of a pain. I’m sure the touch-screen interface gets rid of that problem, but I wouldn’t really know. As of right now, though, it’s a vast improvement.
I love the program explained in the article “The Virtual School: An integrated collaborative environment for the classroom” (2000). The concept of having a built-in chat system akin to AIM sounds way more convenient than trying to ping-pong messages between people via e-mail. Indeed, many of my discussions for group assessments this semester have taken place in online chats like MSN, AIM, etc. I really like the idea that students can gather together and talk about their projects using the internet’s advantage of quick communication.
The experiment was not without its flaws, though. Apparently there were not enough computers for the students to be able to use the program in the first place (And if they did get access to it, they were limited to 30-40 minutes), which is why I would find this program more suitable for use at home. Obviously if I were at school already, I would rather physically talk to my team mate. Nothing beats face-to-face communication.
At home, the concept would be amazing, though. Imagine a child being sick and not attending school, but still being able to help with the group project as they group chat with their partners!
One thing I noticed in my practicum that I haven’t mentioned is that when my Year Four students went to their computer labs, they were told to visit their e-mail addresses. At first, I thought “hotmail?”, but the school had its own e-mail system so the children had their own addresses, similar to that of me having my UTS e-mail.
It really interested me because I always thought it was strictly for university, but I can totally imagine it as being massively useful. From what I remember back when I used to attend primary school, news was spread through word of mouth or fliers, but now if a child missed any schedule changes or activities that will happen during the week, they can just pop open their e-mail and check! How convenient!
It’s kind of funny how even with such a nifty gizmo, it will never escape the horrors of spam. I found some of my students giggling over e-mails they were receiving with endless gibberish, and the teachers had to instruct them over how to clear and what was considered spam.
Hope they don’t get any Viagra e-mails! That would be hilariously difficult to explain.
Alissa’s blog entry about being “tormented by tech” rang very VERY familiar bells for me. I still remember being fourteen and drawing a digital Christmas picture for my now-boyfriend/fiancee/whatever, and in the middle of the night my computer crashed. Hours of work gone. I literally shrieked and sobbed uncontrollably, and it’s not like that never happened again. It’s amazing how technology can be reliable and utterly convenient one minute, but then destructive and untrustworthy the next. I even recently lost a file I was working on for an assessment, and that was being written on Textmate! (A supposedly pretty simple and reliable program on Macs)
However, what makes traditional technology any better? Man creates technology to help improve on things that are pulling us back. We also need to consider that technology is manmade and man isn’t perfect. I lost my file on an electronic notepad, and one might think “Hey, why didn’t you write it on a notebook instead? That’s way more reliable!”
Well, I was drawing a 30-page comic strip that was poured on by the rain. It’s not that technology is unpredictable, it’s that LIFE can be so. I think we need to consider that fact whenever our computer freezes up on us and makes us really angry as we have to pick up the pieces. I mean… haven’t we been in a situation where it was a bundle of papers being blown away in the wind instead? I have way more sob stories regarding physical destruction.
It’s articles like “Building Software Beats Using it” (2003) that makes me wonder if I’m missing something about putting children in front of a computer and building a program.
One thing I agree with, though, is that you can’t just put children to do tasks that are just “yes” or “no” or “true” and “false.” It’s so easy for a child that’s struggling to just make a guess, because hey… 50% chance of getting it correct. It’s really hard to check if they are really understanding it all. Children need an active role in learning, whether it’s discussing or creating.
But to be brutally honest, I don’t feel like time would be well-spent trying to teach children to build intricate programs on the computer just for the sake of learning fractions. They’re trying to learn mathematics, not how to do CSS code or complex bells and whistles like that. I guess I just feel extremities are never good. You wouldn’t want to be a teacher that just teaches by the textbook, nor a teacher that spends an hour setting up and training the children to do something that will technically be “irrelevant” to what they’re trying to learn in the end.
Funny how the part that I found most meaningful about the article was the section where children were discussing and talking about their problems with fractions, brainstorming and making mind maps. I feel that’s wonderful exploration. Sometimes “simplicity” just works!
For the past two weeks, we’ve been encouraged to make video diaries over how we’ve progressed into our road to teaching, and it was a nice experience! It was great being able to express oneself trying to time our voice with pictures and music. I only feel bad that I didn’t give myself enough time to use completely original photography. Flickr’d all the way, and I included artwork from one of my best friends. (You can see it in the credits)
My thoughts on Digital Storytelling in the classroom are absolutely similar to the commentary featured in this article. I feel this would be a very time-consuming task more because… you can’t just go to a computer and make one! I think I spent more time obsessing over how my video diary was gonna pan out compared to when I was DOING it! It’s a two minute video compared with about three hours of work on the computer and even longer thinking about it. It would be a powerful way to get children to make a creative writing piece come alive… or even if they want to share a story of their most favourite summer holiday experience. It’s a way to do News that can be archived!
I still remember seeing this one News by a girl back in Practicum last year, and it was such a fantastic one. She clearly thought about it… and it would have been nice to be able to see it again. Time is fleeting, and I’m sure if children are really encouraged to do their all, they’ll have a digital story they’ll be proud of for years to come.
My main concern is how they will make the voice-samples, though. I mean with my diary, I was lucky because I owned a Mac at home, but I can imagine the average children’s video diary would have quite a bit of chattering in the background. I would probably try to see if I can get one child at a time to rush to the computer lab to do their sample when they’re ready. If I really have the courage to try this in the future. Who knows? There are some really lovely resources on how to create video diaries online, such as this very useful step-by-step process. That’s just one of the many ways to go about it.
But enough of my chattering, here’s the video diary! (iMovie and Garageband were used, for those curious)
So I’ve been going to a school and teaching for the past two weeks. My first lesson was handwriting, which was coincidentally the last lesson I did. Now, in my last prac when I was doing that lesson, I accidentally drew the lines on the board the long way so that caused a huge delay in terms of teaching them.
So where am I going with this?
At my last prac, there was a smartboard, but I’ve been taking massive advantage of having a smartboard this time around. Rather than draw it on the board and take a hefty amount of time, I googled the handwriting paper line style and just showed it up on the smartboard, where all I had to do then was pick up one of their “electronic” pens and write away!
So all I’m trying to say is..
Smartboards are an excellent creation and offer so many opportunities when crafting lesson plans. I’ve had “worksheets” up on board that students were DYING to answer! Now that’s engagement.
My friend Jana has a really in-depth blog post on the article “Sand Castles go Digital“ and after reading it, I completely agreed with her view on the considerable advantages of using technology. I’m sure as a child, we’ve all made our share of sand buildings and mud cakes that we thought were fantastic works of art, but they’e never fared well with the passage of time. I still remember building a mud cake with flowers on the top. It was my best mud cake ever.
But with the introduction and involvement of technology in children’s schools, students have the opportunity to play and experiment like they would with a sand castle, but the sand castle can be saved, edited, and showcased to a vast audience around the world! So as the article said, these “digital sand castles” can continue nurturing the child’s learning experience, where they can return and continue improving their understanding on the subject or pursuing their goal further.
In e-learning today, we had to make a comic using Comic Life describing a pictorial metaphor about e-learning. I ended up making one by myself in class for fun (Since we had to work in pairs).
I felt a bit proud of the result since I’m so used to drawing comics as opposed to using stock images. I hope this makes sense! This is my general opinion on e-learning, etc.
(And yeah, we had to post our photo.)
This application could be very fun to use in the classroom and also encouraging for those who want to make a comic, but don’t feel confident about their artistic skills. Anyone can make a comic! And it’s another medium that is powerful in expressing one’s opinion. All images nabbed off flickr:(Panel 1, Panel 2, Panel 3, Panel 4, Panel 6)
Source:
My friend 
