Assignment 1: Reflection 4, Week 5.

Well what can I say? If only they made Power Point presentations this interactive when I completed my undergraduate degree! Whilst I understand that Power Point presentations have become 'old hat' some of the new changes and capabilities of Power Point 2013 breathe life back into the product as a teaching tool. My previous experiences with Power Point were with 2007 version and the changes are both refreshing and inspiring. I did have some issues though. There are changes from the 2010 version of Power Point and how it interacts with windows to the 2013 version and how it interacts with Windows 8.1.  I have been unsuccessful in my endeavour to include a fully functionally Voki into the presentation and was forced to make changes I am not happy with. I was unable to source any 'how to do' clips online for this issue at this stage. I did find one helpful lead but was still unable to achieve the desired result of converting the Voki to an AVI file which could be embedded directly into the Power Point slide. This problem aside, Power Point 2013 has proven to be a far more interactive and consumer friendly product that opens up many uses within the teaching paradigm.

The use of Power Point as a presentation tool has always been an interesting concept. My past experiences have included a spectrum of styles from content rich to heavy on the 'bells and whistles'. The big advantages I see with PP 2013 is the ease of incorporation for other ICT tools. PP 2013 is a brilliant addition to the teaching toolbox as a stand alone ICT tool but more effectively a platform for the delivery of other ICT tools in the classroom. For example, in this presentation I was able to tie in a U-Tube clip, some other video content and a 'GoAnimate' mini movie clip. In fact, with the versatility of the modern PP tools, it is highly adaptable to delivering a complete lesson plan into the classroom. I can see great benefit for this particularly if a service teacher needs to leave a prepared lesson for a supply teacher to deliver. PP 2013 would be an amazingly compatible tool for that application.

In order to begin to condition myself and my personal pedagogy, I chose to use to focus on literacy and numeracy as a base subject for my Power Point topic. Regardless of the 'subject' we are to teach in future, literacy and numeracy must be embedded with in all other teaching areas so it made sense to me to make this my focus. Engagement through digital media was the next challenge so I thought I would mix it up a bit with some video content, a Voki and to try something new I gave GoAnimate a test drive.

I had high hopes for my Voki. It was there to hit the home run and nail the final message home that literacy and numeracy is the pathway to success in all real world endeavours.  Hmmm it appears this Voki is refusing to embed into this blog post too. Plan 'B', here is a picture and the link to the Voki.  http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=9629671&height=267&width=200

A touch late for St. Patrick's Day maybe but appropriate for reinforcing the message that was intended for him to deliver.

The video clips used in the PP were chosen for different reasons. There was a modified One Direction song which was there more as a hook aimed at inclusion and attraction of the female junior secondary students (Moyles, 2011). This video is a bit of fun and is designed to promote math thinking. It was here to engage with literacy and pop culture but promote numeracy.

I thought this was very well done. The uploader of this clip has many more from different subject areas so I would suggest that all current and pre-service teachers take the time to have a look.

The next video in the presentation is really handy. It is a clip from the original Wizard of Oz movie. This is brilliant because as a piece of classical movie history it is a recognisable literacy product. The particular scene I have used is of importance to numeracy too as it is the meeting with the wizard where the Scarecrow asks for a brain (Math Wizard, 2007).

Without going into too much detail, I think this is a fantastic clip for literacy based on its own merits as a piece of cinematography that transcends the generation barrier but it is awesome for numeracy because when receiving his 'gift' from the Wizard, Scarecrow misquotes the Pythagoras Theorem opening up many avenues for hooks into a math lesson on that point alone.

The third video used is a MUST SEE. This is amazing! I have bookmarked the Teaching Channel site. For any teacher who wants to find examples of relating literacy and numeracy back to Real World problems this site will prove truly inspirational to you (Brookins and James, 2014).
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/real-world-math-examples

The final ICT tool embedded in the PP was a GoAnimate clip I put together. This was my first effort but it was comprehensive enough to understand how valuable of a tool GoAnimate can be.

This short, experimental example was very easy to put together and was simple to embed into the PP slide. The scope of this product is boundless due to the design of the tool. There will be times when it is not perfect but it will always have a way of proving adaptable. Literacy, Numeracy and Adaptability combine to offer the best chance for success rather than mere survival in the Real World environment. A handy tool that lends itself to creativity well. I like it.
http://goanimate.com/videos/0TJuDVgL7zQU
(Hogan, Damien. 2014).




Using the SAMR Model to put some of these findings into a logical and measurable format we have the opportunity to combine literacy and numeracy again in an effort to succeed in the real life task of critiquing the benefits of Power Point 2013 for use in a classroom environment

.PP 2010 redefined the PP tool. It became so much more than its earlier versions and 2013 expands on this. The functionality is astounding.

The scope of capability of PP 2013 allows major task redesign opportunity. Power Point is a more holistic ICT tool than ever before. It has transcended being categorised as merely a digital slide show.

Despite the scope of capability, PP 2013 can be used as a direct substitute for PP 2007 and PP 2010.

Power Point Link

I was genuinely surprised, in a good way, to see how Power Point has evolved from what I had expected to be using this week.  That being said, in my humble opinion, I can't see why Power Point 2013 would not be used in digital classroom environment. The functionality and ease of operation are fantastic, the capability of the product (when compared to previous versions) is astounding and the simplicity and fast creation are a bonus. As I mentioned earlier in this post, even if the only time it was used was to deliver a digital lesson plan to a supply teacher it is worth its weight in gold (as my friend the Irish Voki would say).

References

Brookins, P. and James, R. 2014. Make it Real: Connecting Math to Life. Teaching Channel.
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/real-world-math-examples

Hogan, Damien. March 30th, 2014. literacy and numeracy. GoAnimate.  http://goanimate.com/videos/0TJuDVgL7zQU

Mathwizard. November, 2007. Scarecrow doesn't get a brain afterall. You Tube. Viewed March 30, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUCZXn9RZ9s

Moyles, C. October 24th, 2011. One Direction - Math Song. You Tube. Viewed March 30, 2014.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfkcJHlXKXY

 Oddcast Inc, 2014. www.voki.com.
 http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=9629671&height=267&width=200 


Puentedura, R. SAMR Model Diagram, Viewed March 30th, 2014. http://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html

Assessment 1: Reflection 3, Week 4.

Gary mentioned in the tute session this week, and it was reinforced in the course material, that this week was a monster for information on the ICT front. Totally insane volumes of information, ideas and tools were presented to us this week and it is quite phenomenal who interrelated it 'can' all be as well.  After looking through all of the material, playing with a lot of it and just sitting and spending time wondering how it can all add to pedagogy and the curriculum, I decided to unpack the video option for further exploration in this week's blog post.

This week the ICT tools that were introduced to us were images and how they can enhance learning, digital audio and digital video. The ways in which these tools can enhance pedagogy, with the focus of improved delivery of information and promotion of engagement, are limited only by the teaching environment and the imagination of the learning facilitator implementing them. I have enjoyed experiencing many of these tools being effectively utilised during my personal education journey.

I may be easily pleased or just overly curious, but I find still images very engaging. I like to explore the reasons why a particular image has been chosen to 'represent or create engagement' as a hook for a given unit of content or information. Those facilitators that do this well have become masterful at promoting visual literacy. Visual literacy is a term that I have only become exposed to this week. I like the connotation the term suggests. With evolving pedagogy a constantly changing dynamic, all forms of literacy are integral to the learning experience. I have always been captivated by, and envious of the talents, of people with genuine artistic talent. The way they can use an image to bring to life the written word or an idea or concept that is otherwise difficult to communicate is a remarkable gift but also a literacy marvel. Here is my take on a PMI for visual images but impacted on by my personal axiology so it most likely differ to the views of others.

PLUS: Captivating, intriguing, stimulating, engaging and often witty.
MINUS: Must source externally due to lack of artistic talent, time consuming to find an image that supports my viewpoint given that it is externally sourced.
INTERESTING: Tying the image to the content is satisfying, the enhancement of the content is great and the value added by visual literacy is something I have always appreciated but honestly have undervalued through the vision of my personal lens.

My experience with digital audio is far more limited. The most common usage I have been exposed to has been via radio but from an educational perspective podcasts are at the top of the list. The convenience of a podcast has been a highlight for my learning journey. My introduction to podcasts came through my undergraduate degree. The added dimension to e-learning facilitated by podcasts provided me with enhanced flexibility for my personal journey and has had a lasting impact on my pedagogy as a pre-service teacher. The value of podcasts for me have been the freedom to learn in unconventional environments and in a unique and engaging fashion. The future of podcasts for me as a pre-service teacher offer a flexibility to enable students to utilise their study time in ways that enable both freedom and multi-sensory learning. This is a fantastic addition to the teaching toolbox we have been supplied with so far.

PLUS: Engages diversity in teaching techniques, offers freedom and flexibility in learning environments, is friendly for mobile devices.
MINUS: Requires a 'player' of some description, may not suit all learning styles and is not practical for students with hearing issues.
INTERESTING: Personal touch, inventive, ingenuitive, offers scope for stand alone and complementary content delivery.

The engagement aspect and trying something different with the digital video tools were eye opening. What I loved about it was that it wasn't a 'stand alone' ICT tool. My decision to unpack the video was mostly because it was new. Something I have not tried before. The surprise though was how integrated so many other ICT tools became involved throughout the process. The digital video creation process brought together a widely diverse range of ICT products into one complete tool. My end product isn't perfect. There are errors that I have chosen not to remove or 're do' because they highlight parts of the process, strengths and failings of the tools used in creation and also the enjoyment factor I experienced making my first ever 'movie'. I don't want to fix it up for that reason. It is my first effort and for that reason will remain in its initial form.

To actually create my movie I used Windows Movie Maker (Microsoft, 2014).  This was a great tool because everything necessary for production was in one place and easy to find and use. The interesting part of this process though was the creation of the input data for the movie. To create this data I used a digital camera to take pictures. In this way I was able to incorporate the digital images component of this week's material into the movie making process. To allow these pictures to be useful many needed to be re-sized. Others required editing and in some parts of the movie images were altered with paint brush. All of this editing was performed using Microsoft Paint (Microsoft, 2013).

(Fletchet, at el, 2014)

Here is an example of the editing performed on a digital picture with the Paint program. In this picture my son, James, is demonstrating how to correctly scribe the letter 'J'. I must also give a special thank you to James' for his willingness to assist with making the still shots that combined to create the movie. An additional thank you also goes out to James' school teachers for permitting me to use their teaching resources for the picture content. The teaching aids are awesome and these ladies need to be given the credit they deserve for these ICT tools (although not digital but certainly engaging).  This is not the finished product, but at this point it is appropriate to introduce the first stage of the movie product.

(Hogan, D. 2014. Video without audio)

There were a few errors that came through from the creation of the movie at this stage. A slide is out of position but the addition of the audio covers it over well. Adding the audio track to the movie also had a few challenges. Jamesie left his mark on this one well. The sensitivity of modern laptop microphones is a factor to be very cautious of as is the ICT ingenuity of 5 year old boys. Jamesie was watching 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' two rooms away. I did not notice any sound while recording the instructional component of the movie and given that the movie was saved before the track was added it would have been easy to make a new final copy. However on playback, as you can clearly hear, James managed to increase the movie volume on the chipmunk music routine and we have some unintended soundtrack additions. It is cute though. I have intentionally retained this copy due to the status of being the first effort for me and therefore sentimentally important to me. The full version appears below complete with audio. 

(Hogan, D. 2014. Video with audio)

The benefits of this tool as an education aid are diverse and immense. This can be utilised as I have done in the format of an instructional video, it can be used to record a power point, to show externally sourced video clips or in any way the imagination and inventiveness of a facilitator can think of. It is an amazingly engaging and versatile tool as a classroom activity or assessment medium too. The educational and curriculum possibilities are endless. As a student created presentation, digital video production is awesome based upon my very limited creation experience. I did though employ a digital camera to create my own digital images, use Paint to resize, edit and in some cases create a new image from the inputted data, embedded an audio recording added with the movie maker program and used the movie maker program to wrap it all together. Then to cap it off, I am employing the ICT tool of a blog to discuss and analyse the process. Definitely a massive ICT week.


REFERENCES

Fletchet. et al. 2014, Teaching aids for prep green class to learn to write and scribe numbers. Saint Anthony's School. Rockhampton.

Hogan, D. 2014. Video without Audio Content. Rockhampton.

Hogan, D. 2014. Video with Audio Content. Rockhampton.

Microsoft. 2014. Windows Movie Maker, sourced as an app embedded in Windows 8.1.

Microsoft. 2013. Microsoft Paint, sourced as an app embedded in Windows 8.

Assignment 1: Reflection 2, Week 3.

This week has been a bit of a roller coaster. Ups and downs. Overall though a productive one and also still a work in progress. To complement the studies we are undertaking this week in other subjects the ICT tools we investigated this week have been very useful. We learned about some of the uses for wiki spaces and about basic website design as a learning tool. Adding in tools like wordle added some extra spice to the overall experience too. Wrapping it all together has been an exciting journey as well as a challenging one. Working through the process to create them was a fantastic experience, even if the end result isn't quite up to speed yet. I suppose that is also a part and parcel of working with technology, when it doesn't quite go to plan you need a back up plan to be able to seamlessly deliver content and achieve learning goals. This week has been a lesson in reinforcing that position as much as exposing new ICT options and tools to round out our teaching toolboxes.

I am really enjoying the blogging. It gives a medium to express my perspective on the exposure I am receiving to new concepts, theories, pedagogies and practises that will mould and enhance my learning journey as a pre-service teacher and long into my evolution as a learning facilitator. Blogs can be used in many ways within the education paradigm. Primarily I use mine as a online journal or pre-service diary at the moment. This is a limited use of a blog as a learning tool within a  classroom environment though. Regardless of how you intend to implement blogs into the learning environment they have many pedagogical advantages. Blogs can be addictive and a lot of fun. I was hesitant at first but have already started to look forward to my weekly blogging session. Blogs promote student participation, improve literacy and offer some of the more introverted students a chance to interact with their peers and still feel comfortable (Kharbach, 2012). Just the opportunity to open communication channels and promote discussion makes blogs a winning addition to the teacher toolbox without all the additional things that can be achieved in promoting learning and engaging students.

The blog program we are using in this course is the google blog tool and it is very easy to use which adds to its appeal as a teaching tool. The site can be customised in many ways. The layout, introduction of voki and other animation tools and adding outside content enable the functionality of the blog tool to lend itself to a wide variety of uses and personalisation. Blogging certainly isn't the 'be all and end all' of technology in education but it is a very handy and useful tool.  To highlight the introduction of outside content and to also give a clear perspective of my thoughts on blogging I have incorporated a SAMR model below.

An SAMR is a model which is designed to assist teachers to integrate technology into their professional pedagogy. The main aim of the SAMR is to help to map the student outcome component of the learning process (Schrock, 2014).  The experiences I have had with my blog so far show me how the blog fits into the SAMR model in the following ways:
- SUBSTITUTION: My blog has used technology to substitute for a written journal or diary style book.
- AUGMENTATION: My blog is highly functional compared to a paper and pencil journal. I am not artistic and my blog compensates for this very well. It permits me to use my imagination without needed the skills required to draw for example. I can 'make my blog attractive' without that skill set.
-MODIFICATION- My blog allows me to add audio and video components, voki technology and many other tools to compliment and enhance basic written text.
-REDEFINITION- With the functions available to enhance my blog, and the ability to grant others access to comment on posts, my blog has become much more than a personal diary entry in a book could ever be. Its almost like my blog is an online semi interactive diary.

I am looking forward to learning more about my blog and its functionality over the next few weeks also. It is at this point my favourite ICT tool uncovered during my pre-service teaching learning journey so far.

My wiki spaces experience was, and continues to be, a mixed bag experience.  I found the experience of setting up the wiki space very educational and from what I have noticed so far on the site it holds many functions that I will enjoy unpacking. Unfortunately though I have been unable to move my wiki forward to a point where it is operational. It is Sunday evening and I am yet to receive the confirmation email to permit me to really immerse myself in this ICT tool. I have requested this email be resent as of Friday afternoon, so hopefully we will be operational on this site very soon. Drawing on my experiences with the De Bono Hats exercise of last week though, and the experiences learned in the initial set up of the site, I have a small feel for the value of the wiki as a learning tool. It fits well into the SAMR model of evaluation as the benefits are more pronounced as point of difference than the blog.
-SUBSTITUTION- Put very simply, for me the wiki is the 'modern butcher's paper'. It can also be used to replace a blackboard or whiteboard in a classroom environment.
-AUGMENTATION- The wiki has much to offer as an augmentation tool, but this is also where it is compromised. It is great that everyone has access to the site, but with only one person effectively being able to 'edit' it or 'add' to it at a time there is potential for work to be lost as only the last person to save in a spot will have their work saved. There is no way that I have recognised at this point to know if someone else is in the same space as me while I am there.
-MODIFICATION- Well, I have never seen the ability to integrate other ICT tools or embed anything into good old butchers paper, black or white boards, so technology options available to wiki's is the most awesome feature of this tool.
-REDEFINITION- The way tasks can be redesigned using a wiki space are almost endless. This is one tool where I would have to say the boundary is your imagination and desire to implement the tool into the teaching pedagogy for any given subject area. I can see this being used across all year levels but really shining in the primary and junior secondary areas.

Creating a web site as a learning tool was an awesome experience. I was really nervous about this task but the tools available to assist with the creation of a static site from Weebly made it a really engaging and exciting experience. I am really looking forward to doing more with this site in the coming weeks. I like the freedom the website appears to offer when compared to the other mediums we have explored this week. The ease of embedding other technology into site is appealing and I have explored some of these options this week. An example of this is the Wordle site which was created by Jonathan Fienberg (2013). By use of basic editing programs like paint it is easy to copy and paste onto the website. This level of basic functionality appeals to me as my ICT learning curve is still fairly steep. Here is an example of the content Wordle is able to provide.

One of the key features of the Wordle product that I really like is the word sizing can be set to be proportionate to the frequency it appears in a given text.  This adds an additional literacy component to the tool enhancing its suitability as a learning aid. My site can be viewed at the following address  http://damienhogan.weebly.com/.  Like the SAMR model, PMI tools are a great indicator for the success of learning outcomes. PMI is an acronym that stands for Plus, Minus and Interesting. Not one to miss an opportunity to learn by doing, I will explore the use of PMI to critique the website learning tool for this week.
The great advantage of this tool is that it enhances the age old methodology of weighing up the pros and cons of a decision with the added flavour of 'interesting' thrown into the mix (Mind Tools, 2014).
PLUS - simple to create, versatile, highly interactive, new pages are easy to add for new topics, catalogued.
MINUS - To gain the best use of the tool students will find it beneficial to have access to the internet outside of school hours. Hard to add people to the site depending on functionality needed. To really gain the best benefit out of the Weebly product you need to consider becoming a paying customer.
INTERESTING - Aside from the restrictions involved if you are not a paying customer (these are more inconveniences rather than real restrictions), imagination is the true limiting factor to how much you can do with a static website. This is the ICT version of the project paper or cardboard assignments.

Putting all of this together and seeing, by experiencing, engaging with and utilising, this technology has proven to be the steepest step to my learning curve with ICT tools so far.  I have enjoyed this journey and believe I will continue to do so as it is increasing in excitement the more I uncover. I have opted to explore the three tools we learned about during the week but at this stage the one that appeals most to me so far is the blog. It is for this reason that I chose to unpack it in more detail than the other two tools. I am certain the appeal of both the wiki and the website will escalate as we do more with them. The personal appeal of the blog is a reintroduction of sorts more so than the new dynamic of the ICT component. I used to journal my day for many years and this exercise has brought that love back to life for me. Regardless though, the blog is my tool of choice from the past week.


REFERENCES

Fienberg, J. 2013. Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds, http://www.wordle.net/

Kharbach, M. 2012. The Ultimate Guide To Using Blogs In Teaching, Education Technology and Mobile Learning. Retrieved from http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/ultimate-guide-to-use-of-blogs-in.html

Mind Tools. 2014. Plus, Minus, Interesting, Weighing the pros and cons of a decision. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_05.htm

Puentedura, R. SAMR Model diagram, Viewed 16th of March, 2014. http://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html

Schrock, K. 2014. Kathy Schrock's guide to everything, http://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html

Assignment 1: Reflection 1, Week 2.

Wow! What a week! The learning curve stepped it up a notch this week for sure. ICT was packed with drama. There were issues that were confronting, interactive, innovative and reflective. The interactive activity was one that made me take stock of my own feelings, thoughts and exposed my personal axiology on the subject matter. It was confrontational, personalised and potentially deeply argumentative.

Our task this week was to revise the learning theories and then participate in the use of a wiki to promote collaborative thinking on the controversial topic of mobile phones in school environments.  My take on this issue was that we were using the ICT tool of a wiki to explore the appropriateness of another ICT tool in the form of a mobile phone. Pedagogy, technology, personal belief systems and critical thinking were all exposed throughout as the exercise unfolded.

The revision of learning theories was great. It helped me grasp the usage and application of these theories a little more. I also had the chance to recognise in myself a change that is already occurring in my personal learning. Greater exposure to these theories, along with an underlying understanding of their use, is opening my mind to the value of a more holistic approach to learning. I realise that a holistic approach to teaching is integral to cater for the diversity in any given group of students. A holistic approach to learning is bringing more creativity to my personal journey and exposing me to things I need to explore in learning more about myself.  This point alone deems the journey successful.

The '6 Thinking Hats' theory developed from the works of Edward De Bono brought together all of these aspects for me (De Bono, 1985).  This exercise challenged me a lot to be able to de-compartmentalise and categorise my thought processes on a single given topic, mobile phones in schools, into the specific segments of the 6 hat theory.

The overview of the design theory behind this exercise is explained well by Paul Foreman (n.d.) in his mind map critique of Edward De Bono's 6 hat theory. Paul explains in detail the purposes, thoughts and functionality of each hat's role within the overall framework of the De Bono concept. Writing within each of these 'thought compartments' challenged me and forced me to explore beyond my personal axiology and consider the specific roles without bias. To enable this outcome I was taken out of my comfort zone not just personally but also professionally. I was required to use many of the learning theories that my personal axiology and the pedagogy of my 'traditional' learning style do not often employ. I found this confronting, challenging and ultimately rewarding.

In this way, my learning process utilised several of the learning theories individually to complete the exercise. The overall exercise is a brilliant example of how to employ the social constructivism learning theory. Social Constructivism is essentially the use of society to construct and build a knowledge base (Wikipedia, 2014). In our specific setting, social constructivism was used to engage our specific community of pre-service teachers to draw on collective wisdom. The wiki medium of delivery was very effective in achieving this outcome.

The other important aspect of social constructivism as a learning tool is modelling and scaffolding. Gary gave a strong outline of how to use the wiki product, and also on the use of the 6 hat theory, for this specific task during the tute class session. Through his efforts he ensured that the modelling component of social constructivism was incorporated within this learning theory to accomplish the required task. For the record, I did not realise that until I reflected on my weekly learning journey. It was seamlessly incorporated and embedded in what I thought, at the time, was a behaviourism example.  Well done Gary.

The 6 hat theory is an exceptional tool to engage students individually and then link that to the group structure. This is the best example I have been involved with so far on my learning journey to explore scaffolding and the value it brings to the learning process. As I mentioned earlier in this post, I used many of the other learning strategies to complete my role in the process at an individual level. Once all of the other entries began rolling in through the wiki it was great to read them. This collaborative environment highlighted the effectiveness of scaffolding to the learning process and to the building of a collective knowledge base.

Gary explained during the tute, and it was mentioned in the weekly readings also, that the next step in the process would be to collate the findings and mould them into a singular and powerful collection of knowledge. This would be achieved by using groupings of students to compile and synthesise the information from their respective 'hat if input' from all of the entries made on that particular coloured hat. This would be putting into practice the structural skills learned from the taxonomy examples in the weekly readings.

Although this is an exercise that can be presented in countless formats, the use of the wiki ICT tool was both enjoyable, interactive and educational. Wiki's certainly appear to be the ultimate example of social constructivism with the capability of a Wiki extending from an intimate group to the entire global community.

My personal experiences with social constructivism have been exercises I have viewed with the 'blinkers on' so to say. I have enjoyed them, I have learned from them but I have viewed them as a bit of a gimmick and some fun. This week I have changed my personal pedagogy and widened my view of effective learning practises thanks not just to being immersed in the social constructivism exercise, but through beginning to understand the rationale behind the concept as a learning tool. My tool box as an educator is enhanced and its effectiveness improved by the experiences that have impacted on my personal learning journey this week.


REFERENCE LIST

De Bono, E. (1985). Six Thinking Hats. London, Penguin Books.

Foreman, P. (n.d.). Six Thinking Hats Summary in PDF. Retrieved from  http://www.inspiration.moonfruit.com/#/edward-de-bono/4519676395

Wikipedia (2014, January 29). Social Constructivism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_constructivism

Week 1: Video and Reading Reflections.

I found the video seminar by Dr Judy Willis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMZnfFD1maU#t=18) to be thought provoking and highly engaging. I learned a lot of new 'nifty' terms too, as well as many new techniques that can be incorporated into classroom situations. These were not all necessarily ICT specific with many being pedagogically aligned.  One particular new term I learned which is strongly ICT focused is the method of delivery of this information. I have termed it a video seminar for the benefit of others like myself who are not familiar with the correct term, 'webinar'. How about that?

Dr Willis discussed the importance of learning being facilitated by the absorbing of knowledge. This is not a foreign concept to most I am sure. Dr Willis' focus though was on the barriers to knowledge being absorbed. This was totally fascinating to me. She spoke about the Reticular Activating System (RAS) and the role it plays in filtering information to the 'thinking parts of the brain' like the Pre Frontal Cortex (PFC).

The RAS is the first filter for information travelling successfully to the PFC. This is an instinctive filter. It is all about safety in the environment. The first thing students of any age will notice is change in the environment. The next thing the RAS will do is try to identify danger or stresses and it will then look for things that are new, different and pique the curiosity of the student.  Dr Willis suggests a regular and consistent routine in the classroom at the start of a lesson will put students at ease and open up the RAS to be  to less of a barrier to information travelling to the PFC.

Ways of to stimulate learning are to appeal to the prior knowledge base, interests and personal goals of students. One method Dr Willis mentioned was to advertise upcoming 'events' in the learning journey. A particular 'event' in her classroom experience was a science curriculum topic based around 'force'. She engaged students in the weeks leading up to this with 'Star Wars' references which intensified as the start date grew closer. This piqued my personal interests also. I am not sure if anyone else noticed but I found this particularly engaging when I noticed that the Edutopia product, the organisation presenting this knowledge, is a product of the George Lucus Educational Foundation. George Lucas being the mastermind behind the Star Wars franchise. This was, for me, a personal example of Dr Willis, possibly totally unintentionally, applying her suggestions of appealing to a prior knowledge base and piquing personal interests to lower barriers and engage for the content to be more readily absorbed.

Dr Willis then began to talk about another part of the brain. The Amygdala is a second filter in the brain that also prevents information flow to the PFC. This is a more subtle filter though and is where the 'fight, flight or freeze' instincts of human nature come into play. Information is screened in the Amygdala once it has already passed by the RAS and before it is received by the PFC. Dr Willis suggest that learning barriers appearing from information blocked in the Amygdala can be identified in defiance or opposition in students. This behaviour may be attributed to the 'Fight' survival technique. Students that display ADHD or similar tendencies, including disengaging and wandering around the room may have succumbed to the 'Flight' characteristic; and those with OCD tendencies, anxiety issues or at the more extreme end of the scale, seizures, are in 'Frozen' mode.

To counter some of these characteristics it is important to ensure that lessons are interesting, relevant and appeal to a student's particular interest and pleasures. There are many ways to achieve this and a focus on personalisation and multi sensory engagement are key pedagogical tools that can be employed here. Dr Willis again referenced the use of advertising to be of great benefit in achieving that goal. She implores educators to focus on HERE/ME/NOW tactics to keep interest and curiosity at a high and stresses and RAS and Amygdala barriers at a minimum. This includes stresses from in the classroom and from outside school.

Some of the 'in school' stresses that educators need to focus on include:
- fear of being wrong
- embarrassed to read aloud
- anxiety associated with exams and tests
- physical and language barriers
- cliques and bullying
- frustration with difficult material
- boredom from lack of stimulation

Some good ways to acknowledge if these factors are impacting on learning is to attempt to personalise the lessons. Ways this can be done is to seek feedback. This can include interactive pedagogy like thumbs up or thumbs down systems or with ICT methods like individual whiteboards or cards for example.

In a classroom environment Dr Willis enforces the need to recognise outside of school stresses. She suggest sympathising with the causes of this outside stress. She states the importance of acknowledging the roadblocks this stress will cause to learning, also understanding that the stressed student will not be able to efficiently learn whilst under these stresses. There may be nothing an educator can do directly (in relation to the lesson at that time) to facilitate the learning of these stressed students. Recognition of this is integral.

Dr Willis outlines that students learn by connecting new or related information to their stored patterns of knowledge. This shows that the core underlying goal here is to create a positive emotional state. This leads to better memory retention while a stressed state leads to less short term and long term memory. A positive emotional state leads to facilitating learning where as a stressed state leads to information blockage on the path to the PFC and the 'thinking parts of the brain'.

The concept of diverse intelligence spoken about in the article by Grace Rubenstein offers support to the theories of Dr Willis. This is particularly true in the case of personalisation of the lessons based on the the needs of individuals and the different ways that people learn. This article points out that the information on brain research outlined is not yet proven and cannot be claimed as fact at this point. However the arguments drawn from the research strongly support Dr Willis' views on personalisation of the educational experience being paramount to permit people that learn in different and diverse ways to each achieve the most they possibly can out of their respective educational journeys.

A personal highlight for me this week was the video clip of Sir Ken Robinson. In this clip Sir Ken discusses the topic of schools killing education. I believe strongly that he has 'hit the proverbial nail on the head' with his insights and anecdotes.  Ken gives real life examples of the importance and value of personalised learning being a necessity. He briefly outlines the history of our current education system at a global level. The importance of this is to set the stage for relevance and to highlight the role of personalisation in learning. A genuinely masterful portrayal that I encourage everyone to watch. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY).

The implications of these findings in my classroom are an indicator of potential roadblocks to learning as well as highlighting strategies and pedagogies to counter, and ultimately avoid, many of these educational pitfalls. The need to identify the diversity of the brain and the different learning styles that are necessary because of that diversity will be crucial in my classroom. Facilitating all of the varied learning needs of students is at the soul of modern teaching practices and pedagogies. The importance of managing stress in the classroom, as much as the stresses from outside of the room, are paramount in ensuring students are not just ready to learn but able to learn. This a potentially negative implication in the classroom as much as the diversity of needs that already exist aside from stress. It is the macro and micro management of this range of diversity that presents both the greatest challenge and the greatest rewards available in the teaching profession - to be able to influence the growth and formation of the brains of your students. The magnitude if that is unfathomable. The implications of it in the classroom weigh heavily with responsibility. The outcomes that are possible are truly astonishing and simply amazing. Who would not want to be a part of that process?

To meet this challenge and be successful in the changing face of pedagogies, diversity and educational evolution (or even revolution as Sir Ken refers to it), can only be achieved by using the complete toolbox we have available as educators. ICT is not a useful tool in this success. It is an integral component. ICT needs to be embedded as an essential component in all pedagogical approaches not viewed or seen as a separate pedagogy. ICT practices need to become the underlying web that ties it all together if we are to be empowered to deliver the content we need to deliver to meet the increasing diverse range of educational needs in the average classroom. That said, there is no longer such a thing as an average classroom. Each classroom is becoming increasingly unique. The range of needs in each room is being recognised as unique and the diversity is increasing at a rate where normality no longer is conceivable. ICT is the universal pedagogical tool in our box. It cannot be used alone to be successful it is a glue that binds the other approaches together and allows them to be successful in the modern classroom.

In reference to Sir Ken's video clip and the relevance it holds to this week's topics, it boldly suggests that the entire global educational system is outdated and not structured to achieve the outcomes the modern student, employer and global citizen requires from formal education. Sir Ken points out the existing structure is still rooted in supplying a educated worker suitable for the needs of the manufacturing industry borne of the industrial revolution. The world has changed. People have changed. Education needs to change. The diversity of the individual and the need for more personalised learning has been the theme that has grabbed my attention this week. The diversity this creates in the classroom has highlighted the failings and shortcomings of the current education system to meet the needs of the students, to empower teachers to meet the students' needs and ultimately to 'send them out' into society and the workforce. The quality of person and employee the modern social and business worlds require deems it necessary for the system to be overhauled to achieve this. Assuming of course that this remains a primary goal of the organised educational system.

As a pre-service teacher I found all of the topics this week confronting. Confronting because they challenged my view on teaching, and rightfully so. It was the confrontational nature of the subject content that kept me keen and focused on the work. This made it personalised for me. The implications of these factors in the classroom are equally challenging. I look forward to embracing the opportunity to meet this challenge, not head on as such, but more in a fashion of 'melding it all together'. The diversity of a classroom is the greatest challenge I can see in my future as an educator. This same diversity will be responsible for the greatest satisfaction I aim to gain as a member of the teaching profession and it is what drives my motivation for my personal journey as a member of the teaching vocation. Success for my classroom will be each student gaining the most useful tools they can to enable their own educational journeys, and therefore facilitating their own personal definitions of educational success.  

For me, social constructivism, which focuses on social interactions and collaborations, and connectivism, the tools to find infomation, are what works best for my personal learning needs. In my working life between school and university, I built a career around connectivism. Knowing where and how to source information was far more reliable than trying to remember the information. This proved particularly important when updated information superseded older text. For other people with different learning needs the quizzes and tutoring tools of behaviourism may be more appropriate. Cognitivism and the mental processes it involves will appeal to people with yet another set of learning needs. As educators though, it is our role to understand how and when to employ each of these methodologies, when appropriate, based on the diversity in our respective classrooms at any given time.