Reflective Synopsis

Image from: http://mkalty.org/technology-quotes/

One thing I know for certain now is that everyone has the ability to learn ICT.  I have come to the understanding that it is not only beneficial for students and everyone else for that matter to pursue and build upon their current knowledge base of ICT but it is also crucial for their own success in interacting and communicating effectively in today's environment. It is the new language that one must learn. It is the new literacy of a new dimension.

However, with this new form of multimodal literacies comes new responsibilities. Ethical behaviour must be taught, copyright and intellectual property rights of creators and producers must be respected and legal guidelines must be followed. From the outset, students must be equipped with enough knowledge and understanding of these safe, legal and ethical practices with ICT so a culture of self accountability of students is formed. This is foundational to their learning and gives students a strong structure in which to build their learning upon.

As as I reflect upon my own journey in the past 6 weeks on exploring new technological platforms. My perception of technology prior to this was that of a complete phenomenon. The scope of my technological skill base was being able to write emails, search the web and press 'like' on face book with the ability to type in a few comments. My knowledge has now been modified to newer levels through the use of clear and concise scaffolding from lecture material, peer work exploration, and instructional tools such as YOUTUBE. These three tools have made a way for me to transform previous knowledge at a very substitutional level of emailing and searching the web to a much more transformative level. This has all been achieved though the framework of the SAMR model developed by Dr Ruben Puentedura. I am now able to produce my own work, share my information with others through blogging and enhance my viewer's experience by integrating other modalities like videos, voice recording and photographs for better illustrative purposes. I have also redefined the ways I choose to present information by learning how to create movies or cartoon illustrations which I accomplished for another subject.

Technology and Learning Theories

Technology can be used to support the learning theories of Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Social Constructivism and Connectivism within the framework of the SAMR model and bloom's taxonomy. Furthermore, it should be noted these learning theories and taxonomies do blend into each other in some shape or form depending on the perspective you are looking from.

Using the technologies we have learnt thus far as examples:

Tools such as websites, youtube, pod casts, lend themselves towards behaviourist and cognitivist learning theories.  From a behaviourist perspective students are able to utilise 'practice and drill' methods by accessing websites like Mathaletics and Spelladrome to give immediate results on performance. Furthermore students are able to access sites such as Khan Academy and You tube which results in 'behavioural instructional design' (Skinner 1976)) i.e  the student acquires new information to implement in their own learning context resulting in immediate success or failure.

From a Cognitivist perspective, the copious amounts of information the students have access to online demands higher order thinking thinking skills (Blooms taxonomy). Students need to be able to sift through this information, determine the accuracy of source and quality of information as well as evaluate and analyse the value of it through their learning context. Behaviourism and Cognitivism tend to fall under the substitution and augmentation level where there is an enhancement in their learning process but not at a transformative level.

'Behaviorist learning theory focuses significantly on predictability, that is ensuring what is intended is achieved and the link between a stimulus and the response it evokes is reliable'

From a learning perspective tools such as Glogster, Powerpoint, Prezi also embody the idea of behaviourism and cognitivitism at the substitution and augmentation levels in that students sit in a controlled environment where a 'stimulus to response' can be measured. The students listen to the presentation, analyse the information, and a certain outcome is expected from this process. These tools aren't transformative but enhance the students learning by being more engaging from the integration of music, images and videos embedded in it.


Tools such as Blogs, Wikis, Voice thread, Blackboard collaborate and You tube gives way to more social constructivist and connectivist learning theories. These theories generally fall under the transformation level of the SAMR framework where modification and redefinition is clearly present. Students are able to work collaboratively and learn constructively from one another. Not knowing is no longer an issue but having the ability to be able to find that information from 'more knowledgable' sources is more the fundamental key.  At this level students become authors and producers where their work can be created and published to a broader audience for a more purposeful and rewarding outcome. Students then have the ability to re-create and redefine their knowledge into a different dimension by creating interactive videos, movies or their own animated cartoon into something that can be shared world wide or produced collaboratively with other student while  re-defining the boundaries of time and space.


There is no doubt  that Information Communication Technology in today's classroom has a very strong case and the potential to transform, facilitate, support and enhance learning. It does not by any means dictate or compete with learning in and of itself but rather compliments and aids with the learning process. A strong knowledge base of subject content is still needed in order to successfully transfer information from one dimension to another for successful learning outcomes.


Lastly, embracing technology in your school environment significantly reduces time spent, increases productivity and quality of work that would have never been possible before.

And time is precious!


Nicole X



References

http://ictemmakaz.blogspot.com.au/

http://elishatoms.blogspot.com.au/

Redefining Technology in Libraries and Schools. By: JACOBS-ISRAEL, MELISSA, MOOREFIELD-LANG, HEATHER, Teacher Librarian, 14811782, Dec2013, Vol. 41, Issue 2










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Week 6 Reflection 5

                              iMOVIE


IMovie was the technology of choice for this week.

My very first attempt to create an imovie was last year when my husband and I decided to audition for the block 2014. We had to create a 5 min video about ourselves. I had no idea how to create one..so again YOUTUBE came to my aid when I had access to 'more knowledgable others'. The result was a rough compilation of media ...still I was proud of what I had created as rough as it was.

This however is my second attempt of movie making. I chose to explore this option more and to build upon my existing knowledge which now had become a little vague. But I thought  if I had done it before I could surely do it again.

Imovie is a great tool for students to use as a way of presenting their content in a more engaging and creative way rather than more traditional methods. I have experienced first hand the benefits of watching instructional videos to help me learn and I feel this is one of the most effective communication/educational tools out there for 'how-to-do-it' content.  It affords the ability to be able to learn as quick or slow as you like...You can stop, rewind or replay instantaneously to re-learn the information.  For visual people like me....its a dream!

The imovie was created last week for my Literacy and Numeracy Assessment 1 for secondary students. The main aim was to promote literacy and numeracy and convey how they are both embodied into our subject area. So I chose to present in a movie format.

A mobile phone device was used for the question and answer part from secondary students. I did not even have to be there to take these footages. My son went over to his friends house and did it there after a bribe and then texted it too me. I also got another friend who has 4 secondary kids to take it on her phone and send it too me.  This saved me a lot of time in having to be there and record myself.  This is one of the benefits that technology offers. On the down side, I had no control of how the students engaged with the questions etc...so the quality of it could have been better. The quality of the You tube videos I used within my movie were not perfect illustration. It was hard to find something that I really wanted. It definitely would have been better if I had some willing actors to do it myself...

Using YouTube to learn the various components and features imovie offered was essential for me to understand how to do it. Themes and transitions were easy to work with as was adding pictures from iphoto. I downloaded various YouTube videos to integrate into my movie by using Aimesoft. Amiesoft converted the You Tube video into an mp4 format very quickly and easily so I could then export it into imovie.

The music was the most challenging part for me as I wanted music to be played continuously  throughout the movie except for when the students were speaking...I'm sure there must be an easier way of doing it because it took a long time to manipulate the volume settings. I obviously got there in the end.

The most frustrating part was trying to get it onto my blog or anywhere for that matter. I tried slideshare...paid for an account to increase the MB as the movie was over 300MB - even after I did this it kept  stopping and not completing the process. I uploaded it to dropbox but it still would not allow me to put it straight into my Blog. I did try YOUTUBE at the very start but it said I did not have enough disk space. Long story short I eventually got it on to YOUTUBE and then onto my blog!

To make a quality movie there are other devices that you can buy to enhance the audio and visual setting. This would be a good investment if you were doing it often enough.