Sandra’s ICT Blog

Personal Competency Test

I cannot believe that this is my last ICT reflection… its quite sad really…

Anyway on a brighter note! According to the results of my personal competency test i vastly improved by 18 marks. Clearly, this can solely be attributed to my undertaking of this course under computer genius Mark Lee. When I first undertook the personal competency test it was evident that I was not at all proficient or familiar with computer tasks involving spread sheets, desktop publishing, digital video, graphic organisers and multi-media projects, which I believe I scored myself a 1 in each. I think I scored myself a 1 in each not because I wasn’t able to understand the underlying workings of the programs but more so for the simple fact that I had never come across or needed to work with them previously. By undertaking this course I was granted the opportunity to turn around my lack of competency in these areas, where now I am in a position where I am more confident when dealing with these programs and would be more than happy to implement them as teaching tools/aids in my future classrooms and especially more currently on my 5 day practicum coming up shortly.

In my first blog I specifically noted that “I hope that my lecturer Mark Lee will be able to dedicate enough time in class to deal with my lack of knowledge and bring me up to date with such computer tasks/items inclusive of spreadsheets and web publishing in particular.” I think my knowledge and ability in working with these programs has increased hundred fold (slight exaggeration but you get the gist). I think in my current personal competency results I fared quite well, clearly this class educated me and aided me in an area of technology which will be imperative for teachers to be well versed in for future teaching strategies.

In my first blog I was expected to isolate areas I considered my self strong and weak in. I considered myself to have little strength in relation to ICT, being only confident in the use of general programs such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint. There was a long list of ICT programs that I considered myself extremely weak and not proficient at all in. The main programs included Spreadsheets and Computer Multimedia Programs (Photo story) as well as creating websites and blogs. Obviously, on the personal competency test I deemed myself proficient in using and creating blogs as for the majority of this semester I have worked on my very own Edublog having little trouble in writing blogs and linking files and documents and such. Also I think that under Mark’s careful direction I was able to utilise Spreadsheets and the many HARD formulas for presentation purposes so clearly I am not as weak as I was proficient wise in relation to this program. In relation to Multimedia programs I believe I am fine in working with Photo Story (images and music) though I am still not at all confident with working with video and video recording devices never owning one. More importantly, after working on the WebQuest evaluation task I am more than fine in deeming which WebQuests are effective and such, but I am not at all confident in creating my own… this is clearly something Mark will have to aid me in my next ICT related course. I still don’t consider myself especially strong in relation to education programs such as Inspiration as I feel that was easily the hardest portfolio item to complete and can only hope that I passed in it. It was time consuming and I found it confusing. Obviously, I will need more practice in the use of programs such as this to make myself more proficient in the use of ICTs in the classroom.

As in coming years technology is bound to be having a lasting impact on education strategies I believe that the undertaking of this course was imperative in assisting me in my future career as a teacher. Already on my practical visits I have seen so many set tasks centred on the utilisation of technology, such as WebQuests, PowerPoint, Microsoft Word and whole class SmartBoard interaction. I think that by undertaking this course I can see myself more able to be ‘keeping up with the times’ and incorporating into lessons ICTs which will cater to modern day student needs and bring the lesson more to life, enabling constructivist learning to occur on a more frequent basis, not just with hands on learning with materials but also through programs such as WebQuests.

Prior to undertaking this course I didn’t feel confident with my computer ability and knew that this was going to be a hindrance to my future teaching career. But now on reflection and more importantly on my practicum I am more important to answering and aiding children in relation to their ICT tasks. My confidence was most boosted when a child in my Year 5 practicum class asked me to help them with PowerPoint and I knew exactly what to do woot! Anyway as the teaching profession is moving along in a more technological direction this course has made me a more confident advocate of ICTs in the classrooms and has granted me the experience I have needed to pursue these programs in a classroom atmosphere.

I will forever miss ICT!

Well this week i was worried that i simply wasn’t going to have near enough time to finish my portfolio items. At uni the assignments are really starting to build up and its just extremely stressful. Though, this tutorial worked out to be a blessing in disguise. We had the majority of the tutorial to work at our own pace and read through the study guides and such. Well in this tutorial i practically finished off my inspiration but there are still a few elements that i will need to tweak. Well when i got sick of working on the inspiration i took some time to read through the study guide for next week on presentation graphics.

Prior to reading the study guide i had clearly underestimated the importance of presenation programs such as PowerPoint. For, as Newby (2004) contained within the study guide puts it, “As a teacher and/or a student, a great deal of learning focuses on presentations of some kind- thus this application is one that should become a regular in your learning arsenal.”

In today’s classrooms and future classrooms teachers are expected to differentiate learning processes for students. And so, by implementing this program in my future classrooms students who are visual learners will be catered to, and more importantly, if a set a task for year 5 or 6 in presenting findings and such, PowerPoint can be used. This program would give these students a more hands on approach at presenting their knowledge base and acting as the means to present their research skills.

After this tutorial i am content that i was able to get most of my inspiration done as well as read through the study guide for next week. Clearly, i have been able to identify methods and uses for these ICT programs in my future teaching career. I think this subject is actually worthwhile and am happy that i have had the opportunity to undertake it. ICT ROX!

 xoxo

Well this week was technically supposed to be dedicated to looking at inspiration and how it is useful for teaching and such. But ultimately Mark gave into our pleas allowing us to fix up and re-work elements of our excel gradebooks. We were instructed as to how to obtain the colour coding of marks and such through specific formulae to differentiate examination scores. We also updated our spreadsheets to include actual grading for students as well as the frequency of grading amongst the students. If this were an actual gradebook that i was using for practical purposes in my future teaching career i am completely sure that i will adapt excel gradebooking into my routine as a means to keep marks and check the consistency of marks. I am really relieved that we dealt with using a technology such as this as i am a naturally messy person and wouldnt really be able to count on myself to keep marks neatly.

After the excel gradebooks were updated and ‘practically perfect in every way’, we didnt have much time remaining in the lesson. Mark briefly introduced us to the ‘inspiration/kidspiration’ program. I really like this visually stimulating program and will be sure to attempt to use it within my future teaching profession. As Lockard & Abrams (2004) believe that the program, “works as a kind of visual outline for almost any purpose, including planning stories or even story boarding for video productions… The key is the ease and flexibility with which [concepts] are created and then linked together.”

From the basic introduction that Mark gave us as to this classroom technology i am really looking forward to starting this task and having fun, noting and mind mapping all over the place about whatever topic i eventually choose to look at in depth. At the moment i am thinking of looking at online games as i dont think that many people will be inclined to choose it over something like smartboard technology. Anyway, time will ultimately tell…

 I look forward to working on this lil inspiration portfolio item in the coming weeks…

 Xoxo!

Last week for my week 7 tutorial with Mark Lee we embarked on a lesson dedicated to spreadsheets. As this lesson was more so an introduction to spreadsheets i picked up on a lot of helpful tips when using the program. What puzzled me though was that this appears to be such a great program that teachers can utilise for keeping rolls and students’ marks up to date, although i have never seen the teacher i am currently completing my practical teaching with use it. I suppose that she is still stuck in the Stone Age… marking a roll book and recording marks… such is life. But regardless, when I am a teacher I can definitely say even at this point in time that spreadsheets are going to cater to all of my organisational needs! According to Newby, 2004: Examples of uses for Excel spreadsheets-

 When looking at this table I can see myself adapting a number of these spreadsheet uses for when I am a teacher. From using the excel program as a storage for grades and marks, to create class seating charts, designing spelling lists for tests and keeping track of attendance I can see that excel is going to become my adopted ‘baby’. I think that excel will also have major benefits for the students I will be working with from helping them create charts with goals and graphing of the weather for mathematics tasks. On my practical in the coming weeks I am going to definitely question the teacher I am working with about her knowledge, understanding and implementation of excel in the classroom for my personal knowledge. It was also in this week 7 workshop that I decided to in fact take some of the excel tutorials recommended by Mark. I found that by completing these tutorials I was more adept at being able to keep pace with Mark in the following lesson when creating my spreadsheet and utilising the many formulas. I found this tutorial extremely helpful in getting to know the basics of the formulas and their explicit applications. Instead of simply calculating the sum of a students marks myself I will simply be able to utilise the sum function, saving me both time and effort.

I was never exactly confident about working with spreadsheets… but! Now I can conclude that I will be more than happy to implement them within my classroom. My students will be a group who hopefully will be technology adept under my careful guidance and knowledge.

Thats all for this week!

xoxo

Okai i would consider myself a little bit of a ‘newbie’ in regards to the program Microsoft Publisher. According to Mark the program can be used for the creation of brochures and most importantly! autobiographies! lol. From my limited experience on publisher in my ed1113 class (seeing as i dont have the program at home) i think the program would have a number of great implications for classroom students. For a number of reasons i think that i would prefer to use Microsoft Publisher with my students rather than word based on Publisher. Firstly Publisher tends to offer layout guides as well as customisation of layout, which would extend my future already computer literate students (because lets face it the youth today have taken to computers and programs extremely well and fast) compared to Word. Simply, the program is easy to utilise for design purposes and ‘professional’ publishing purposes as well. Though the major drawback is simply that access of Publisher at home will be unlikely as was the case in my ed1113 class.

 Everything in regards to technology from my practical observations has been implemented with the purpose of extending the student. I think that a program like Publisher when used correctly will cater to extending the child’s computer literacy mostly in regards to the improvement of application design, a worthy ability indeed. I think that by utilising this program i will be able to set my future students on a path where they will be more able to present work of a higher standard through the Publisher program which will reflect on their professionalism in their work.

 Ed1113 is doing wonders for my confidence in regards to classroom technologies so much to the point that in my most recent practical i was confident enough to aid them in their powerpoint presentations and most importantly with their work on Publisher!

On finding out that i am going to actually make my own WebQuest in ED4134 i am completely freaked. After merely being introduced to WebQuests i cannot fathom how i am going to put a fullt-fledged WebQuest of my own together. To get more of a feel for WebQuests i decided to completely ‘the WebQuest about WebQuests’ (who named this! how lame! lol). I suppose i can conclude that after spending my precious time completing this WebQuest i am starting to get more of a feel for the elements of a ‘good’ WebQuest as opposed to a poor one. This little tutorial greatly helped me with the portfolio item that i just completed! I think that once you complete a WebQuest and then analyse one you tend to take for granted the amount of work and effort that has been put in (which kind of scares me, for i dont want to complete a WebQuest that i would rate as poorly as the ’shocking sharks’ one i examined). I want to be able to create a WebQuest that facilitates inquiry based learning, guided discovery and problem based learning so that students will be able to go beyond, completely extending themselves intellectually as to a specific topic.

According to Mark Lee “the WebQuest model focuses on having students use Web-based resources supplied by the teacher/WebQuest designer, as opposed to having students find resources for themselves.” On reflection of my primary school experience i recall the majority of WebQuests that i engaged in being more of the comprehension-rote learning style, not having me find my own resources and such. In regards to Mark Lee’s comment there are both advantages and disadvantages to the modern WebQuest approach. Firstly, in regards to advantages with students having to use the resources they have questions posed to them which cannot be answered simply by viewing a site and regurgitating the information that it provides. Also, by using the resources higher order thinking is facilitated so that students are able to fufil the criterion of analysing, synthesising and evaluating through a simple internet task sooner rather than later. Further i think that by ‘using’ resources rather than having to sift through all the endless crap provided by search engines e.g. AltaVista this saves ample time that can be dedicated to analysing the information provided. Though in regards to disadvantages and this approach i think that children should be able to have the choice to find internet sites that may be better suited to what they are seeking out, as some teachers may not be the best judges of relevant and accurate sites in relation to information.

I sincerely do not think that WebQuests are suitable for for all types of learning situations and scenarios as i tend to feel that for younger grades in primary especially a more hands on approach is needed for some tasks. I dont think that young children can particularly focus long enough on a task to be able to complete a WebQuest thoroughly enough, especially in the hot weather. I think that WebQuests do have their merits but in my future classrooms they would be a rarity because lets face it, they take quite a while to make and they dont exactly develop the motor skills that young children need to. I believe WebQuests would be more predominant amongst the secondary year groups rather than primary schoolers, where it is more about comprehension as compared to high order analysing, synthesising and evaluating.

 (Advanced). How do WebQuests support Constructivist learning?  According to Funderstanding, “Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us generates our own “rules” and “mental models,” which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences.” I think that by understanding constructivism one can link WebQuests to the Constructivist approach as by taking part in ‘using’ resources one can analyse, synthesis and evaluate, all constructivist approaches rather than regurgitate.

Mark Lee proposed the question: What is meant by scaffolding (c.f. the work of Lev Vygotsky), and why is it important within the context of a WebQuest? To be honest i had no idea what scaffolding actually was, that was until i did a little research of my own. I found out that scaffolding is defined as “A process by which adults or more able peers provide supportive structures to help children learn and play. Scaffolding occurs at a time when children are faced with a challenge that they can solve with a simple hint, question, or prompt”, thankyou google! So therefore scaffolding is important to WebQuests in general beacause a WebQuest provides a structure that allows children to interactively learn while under the illusion of playing on a site. By ‘using’ resources and ‘transforming’ and ‘configuring’ answers from the information they are unknowingly participating in Vygotsky’s notion of scaffolding…

Anyway to end on a good note… i finished my portfolio item yay! sadly the Newcastle Knights lost to Parramatta!

Im generally not the best person to ask about the World Wide Web. Yeah i tend to use it  for research or general interest purposes though if someone were to ask me to define it they would probably get the answer umm! rather than as according to Lockard and Abrams “The www is a global netword comprised of millions of servers… Most users understand the Web as the resources- the documents, graphics, audio and video files- that are found on those servers”. Geez! lol.

But! after attending this week’s tutorial i feel a little more confident about my ideas and abilities. I know the difference between a home page and a URL  as well as the components to the URL (i feel like such a supergenius lol). I feel confident to start a conversation involving web jargon.. although i think that would be slightly lame… lol. I completed the Pandia tutorial but found it really confusing… the only part i understood was in relation to key words and searching which helped me loads with my portfolio item 2 searching techniques.

What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the Web in relation to classroom teaching and learning? What are some of the specific ways in which you might use the Web in your own teaching? Nowadays i think it is common teaching technique to use the web in teaching. On my first practical the teacher that i was working with introduced me to a mathematics website with brain teasers and class activities that she used each morning to wake her students up and get them going before their maths lesson was to officially begin. This is definitely an example of a specific way i will implement the internet into teaching methods in the future. http://www.transum.org/Software/ (This is the website! hope you’ll find it interesting!). Though there are definite advantages and disadvantages to using the Web in relation to classroom teaching. In regards to disadvantages a teacher may become too dependent upon the internet for classroom teaching/activities which would prohibit the children developing themselves with hands on activities… and more importantly the internet is not always reliable and so therefore wouldnt be as effective as an approved book for information and such. Advantage wise using the internet for teaching activites develops the necessary searching skills for young children and presents one with information at their fingertips instantaneously.

Why is it important for both students and teachers to develop skills to enable them to critically evaluate the quality of information found on the Web? What criteria are important when evaluating web sites for educational purposes? It is important for both students and teachers to develop skills enabling them to evaluate quality information from the rubbish so that when students are older they will find web researching a much easier task, enabling them to complete their work more efficiently. For teachers in particular, they must be able to evaluate the quality of information on the net so that they can model correct internet ettiquette in regards to this topic and also so that they can delve through internet information, providing their students with correct and quality information that they can add to their knowledge base in regards to particular topics. The criteria that are important when evaluating web sites for educational purposes as according to the website The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It’s a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources, http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html, includes checking the authority of the webpage, delving into whether the site is accurate, reliable and error-free, deciphering whether the page is bias in its presentation of information, checking the date and currency of the page, and finally the general coverage of information on the page… its ‘intrinsic value’.

I am a WWW connoisseur!

Today i felt like delving further into the tangled web of understanding the web and expanding my knowledge on the internet interacting with email services. After checking the announcements from Mark Lee i decided to delve into the prescribed sites online ‘How web servers work’ and ‘Internet for Education’.

Firstly, in regards to the ‘Internet for Education’ site i found it to be particularly informative in terms of incorporation of ICT into teaching. I found that there were actual links to official sites dedicated to outlining nearly every aspect of teaching imaginable. The site continued to detail both non-familiar and familiar internet databases for searching such as ERIC and HERO. Most importantly the website allowed for my to create my own ‘links basket’ and allowed me to identify a number. I also found this site great because it listed the pros and cons of search engines (which also helped me a little with my portfolio item 2 researching). The site further reiterated the point that in a search it is imperative to pick out the best search terms and key words.  This is definitely an idea that i will be putting to my future students to aid them in their quest for the most effective searches. I particularly enjoyed the ‘Judge’ section of the website where emphasis was put on the internet not always being trustworthy but more importantly i came across a helpful little acronym that will aid me in getting this idea to students in the future- When looking at a website ask yourself the 3 WWWs- who, where and when. I can pretty much conclude that this website is one that i will surely refer to when teaching in the future as there were a number of helpful hints/tips on the implementation of computer knowledge for students.

Secondly, in regards to the ‘How web servers work’ site i found it really helpful as it explained the whole ‘browser and server’ scenario, bringing it visually alive with a simple image lol. It reiterated various points regarding computer connections to the internet around the world and IP addresses, etc. I found this website was helpful for myself in reiterating points that had been slightly unclear from the tutorials, though ultimately i’m not sure if it would be wholly important in the educating of students… though in 3-4 years time who knows what will be being taught in classrooms.. so i will not refer to this site as redundant in regards to teaching methods just as yet…  who knows maybe by then computers may have taken over the world! :O!

Why is it important for a teacher to have an understanding of how computer networks, as well as the Internet and WWW, work? I think it is imperative for a teacher to have an understanding of how computer networds as well as the Internet and WWW work because students these days are intuitive little beings and are wanting to broaden their knowledge base as much as possible- and generally a hot topic in their minds is in regards to understanding computers and the internet. I think it is also important for a teacher to know about computer networks and such because to be an effective teacher in regards to the implementation of smartboards into classrooms which call for a complete understanding of these elements. If the basics of computer networks and the internet are not understood properly by the teacher it is obvious that a complete understanding cannot be passed onto students = ineffective teaching.

What are some potential applications of Internet services such as the WWW and email that you might draw on to enhance teaching and learning in your classroom? As the smartboard is a predominant member of the teaching classroom nowadays i can draw on a number of english and mathematics activities and have the class complete them as a group task discussing opinions and answers along the way. Im not sure if email would be appropriate for young children and class activities but again with WWW it can be demonstrated to smaller students as a tool of broadening knowledge when search effective techniques are employed.

Newcastle beat Manly 13-12

What i learnt in this tutorial:

I found today’s lesson to be quite intense compared to our past few tutorials. I am someone who does not have a great grasp of the purposes of the internet and such, so today’s lesson really opened my eyes to it all. By attending this tutorial i am now able to understand the function of the program MS DOS. I suppose that MS DOS isn’t a program that i will be utilising within my future profession but for my own knowledge i am happy that ive gained a greater understanding. I now am able to use the program to find the ip addressses of various sites which will enable me to connect to the sites slightly faster. But we also learnt about many other interesting insights into internet usage and such. I was previously aware that generally internet usage is used for the world wide web and email but my knowledge was furthered in regards to the notion of clients and servers, whereby i now understand that the client is a program (e.g. MS Outlook) that is utilised to access a specific server (mail server).

My home computer has been prone to viruses and such and seeing as my family are pretty much technologically inept this tutorial did wonders for me. I am now aware that you ‘cannot catch a flu from a computer’ lol. More importantly i find that i will be able to more so recognise specific viruses and how they infiltrate your system i.e. through email attachments and such. Another key little insight i learnt within this lesson was that a trojan horse is NOT! a virus strangely enough… but instead a program that is implemented to plant a virus or damage specific files on your computer… how scary! I really believe that this tutorial was a pleasure to attend… i can now conclude that the internet is good, though at the same time bad

How what i learnt in this tutorial may be applied to my future profession as a teacher:

Through expanding my knowledge base within this tutorial i feel that any questions directed at me by my future students regarding email and the internet especially the notion of clients and servers will be able to be answered both more confidently and thoroughly. By listening in on this tutorial i feel that i will be more competent with my internet usage and therefore a better model for my future students to follow as to computer use. I will be more able to guide them in the use of safe programs as well as the avoidance of viruses and such. Again as i foresee that smartboard will be implemented into the vast majority if not all classrooms in the future and the internet accessed and demonstrated through it, so as this tutorial has built up my confidence in regards to internet usage i believe that more effective internet learning and familiarisation will occur in my classroom as a result.