Exploring my new talents

After four weeks of e-learning I am very excited to announce that I am now proud owner of a Blog, a Wiki and a Website, and I have created my own Voki. I feel like a new door has opened up for me, with so many opportunities to create fun and engaging ICT's my brain is in overdrive with creative ideas to teach using these technologies. I have brought a few of these ICT's together in my website and am using them in my lesson next week. Click here and go check it out. I am very proud of what I have achieved in the last couple of weeks, I have used technology more than I ever have and have really enjoyed it. Honestly, I am glad that I have done this course internally as I find that the guidance from the website is useful but as I am more of a Kinaesthetic and Interpersonal learner, therefore I have sourced a lot of guidance and help from my peer learners. I find by someone showing me how to do something and then by practising it I pick things up a lot quicker and easier. I suppose this is a good example of the constructivist theory where through guidance and scaffolding, I have added on to what knowledge I had and further developed it to where I am now. I am so excited about what I can now do, I have surprised myself and am quite amazed at how structured and easy that these ICT's are to use.

Week Two activity

In this week's activity we used Edward de Bono's 'six thinking hats' method to reflect on whether or not we believe mobile phones should be allowed in classrooms. De Bono's strategy allowed us to respond using the six modes of thinking. See link. By collaborating in this exercise we were able to look at the topic of mobile phones in the classroom from all points of view, and discovered points we may not have been aware of. As everyone contributed their ideas and opinions it broadened our own knowledge and understanding of the topic, therefore once again supporting Vygotsky's social constructivist theory that emphasises how our knowledge and understandings about things develop through social encounters. De Bono's thinking hats are a great way to encourage thinking on a range of levels, as is Bloom's Taxonomy (see link). Both these teaching strategies support higher order thinking which is essential for all students to develop, as we are living in a knowledge economy that requires thinking outside the box. These days, through ICT's, we have access to an abundance of information. It is how we process and use this information that determines our success, hence the importance to not only process information on the basic level but also to extend our thinking to the higher level. For instance, it is like doing this course, I have access to all the tools and the information necessary to manipulate them. Although how far I decide to take it is up to me, I could create my blog and wiki and complete this course never to use them again. Or, I could take what I have learnt, get creative, trial it, change it, enhance it and embed it into my teaching pedagogy, and hopefully gain succesful outcomes.

Using screen capture

I used my week one activities blog to practice 'screen capture' which I found the instructions to on the Tech-help box on moodle. With some help from Danielle I was able to use this application in my blog. Danielle informed me of how you have to first copy and paste the picture to paint or a similar program (under a jpeg) to be able to download it on to your blog. I have printed out the tech-help instructions as a reference for my next attempt at screen capture, but I feel after a couple more goes it will become automatic. I have learnt a new skill today. YAY!

Week one's activities

Gardner's Eight Multiple Intelligences (link)
I found the reading on multiple intelligences interesting. We are all so different in the way we best learn, and as a teacher this needs to be considered in our planning as it is easy to fall into a habit of teaching in the same way. Below are the results from the multiple intelligences test I did. I feel this is a good indicator of my learning styles. I believe I do learn easier through being shown and then by trialling it myself, as once I have practised I tend to retain it very quickly. Hence, why I had a panic attack after initially enrolling in this course by flex. I became overwhelmed by all the information I received, and although it is set out very straight forward, I prefer the face to face interaction and confirmation that I am on the right track. See my test results below from Bimingham Grid for Learning, have a go yourself, you might surprise yourself!

Week One Reflection

I found this week very challenging, having to set up a Wiki and a Blog seemed like an overload. After struggling to navigate through both programs I found myself backtracking and searching for more guidance. To my surprise it was all there on the moodle site, clear instructions to follow, and a step-by-step tutorial. This reminded me that when using technology, it is worth taking your time and going over all the instructions before diving in. It made a big difference, saved me time and ended up not being as complicated as I first thought.
Once again I am amazed at how well you can learn over a computer, how someone from else where and at a different time can set up such a clear guide with voice over and graphics to teach you in your own time and place. The reading on connectivism illustrated to me how by sharing our knowledge through networks such as blogs and wikis we benefit our own learning, as the more input and resources shared the more knowledge we gain. My first thought about participating in the wiki was at how time consuming it may be, but after reading the article I realised that the wiki will actually save me time, as instead of reading all the articles individually, we are able to divide them up within the group and inform one another in our own words what the article was about. Therefore, not only are we just extracting the important parts of each reading, but also gaining a range of perspectives of each topic. Also as Danielle shared with me "The best way of learning is by teaching someone else". I found that by reading the article on connectivism and then going and summarising it in a PMI I myself gained more understanding from what I had read about.
The readings for week one highlighted to me the importance as a future teacher of staying up-to date with ICT's; as the student's we will be teaching have grown up in a digital culture and the way they best learn is influenced by technologies, therefore it is our responsibility to keep in touch with the culture and language of ever advancing technologies.