13
November
2008
Reading through a post by Soda, I came across a blog called ‘Netiquette – Huh?’. I have never heard of this term before and decided to read. Soda explains the meaning of Netiquette as the Internets own code of contact and use of jargon amongst world users. How fascinating!
By second nature, we all are a part of this, for example;
* As Soda writes, the use of caps locks is a form of yelling or exaggerating.
* What about words such as ‘spam’? This word related specifically to unsolicited junk e-mail.
* Emoticons and Internet abbreviations.
There is no formal set of rules for Netiquette which cannot be enforced, however, if you Google Netiquette there are many Web Pages that have more or less the same information regarding Netiquette. Even the University of Macquarie has an online page called Student Guide: Netiquette which outlines various examples of Netiquette including; being polite, being careful with humor and sarcasm and respecting others.
All Internet users should keep this in mind at all times… Don’t forget YOUR manners!
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7
November
2008
Listening to Freya’s podcast on Teacher Training, I have to agree on the pertinent issue that although Technology in the classroom is fantastic and opens up many wonderful opportunities, the potential of the proper use of technology is the teachers responsibility, and if the teacher is not trained or is incapable of using the technologies properly, then the students will suffer. Teachers need more than to be provided with the resources and equipment to ‘play-around’ and figure out the use of various soft wares for example, by themselves. Teachers need to be provided with training and support. Training and support means ON GOING services rather than one or two days of support. On-line courses, in-services and so on. Needless to say, teachers do need to put in their 2 cents as well. ‘Playing’ with various soft wares and programs is beneficial too.
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3
November
2008
There are a number of articles that refer to learning from hand held devices.
I have already (in previous blogs) expressed my thoughts on podcasting through the use of mobile phones and mp3′s or iPods. These are both hand held devices and I recognise their use in the classroom. But the articles at hand deal with a much larger issue; Using hand held devices (in particular, mobile phones) for everyday learning.
Two articles by Marc Prensky What Can You Learn From A Cell Phone? – Almost Anything? and ‘But the Screen Is Too Small’ with the tag line ’Sorry, ‘”Digital Immigrants” – Cell Phones – Not Computers - Are The Future Of Education’, deal with this issue.
The titles say all that Prensky believes – mobile phones should be used in education.
Prensky outlines the various uses of the mobile phone – SMS’s, browsing the Internet, sending emails, downloading programs and playing educational games, using the camera or video.
He concludes the article ‘But the Screen Is Too Small’ with a comment that suggests that if you were born before the ‘digital age’ you may think this is all impossible as the screen is too small, but children have been playing Game Boy for many years and seem to be fine. He concludes in a somewhat comical way, urging people to catch up with the times.
I do believe mobiles and other small hand held devices can be used in education for SOME projects or learning experiences. But everyday? I WAS and AM living in the existing digital age, I played Game Boy and I use my phone to SMS many times during one day…. regardless of what Prensky says, I still think that the screen IS TOO SMALL!
MY EYES HURT!! The screen is too small!
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1
November
2008
Taplop… I mean Laptop… Laptops are the focus of this blog.
I was recently browsing through Allanah King’s Blog when I decided to look through some of her older posts, and so I went to the archives and chose to look through ‘April 2007′ when I was caught by a blog under the name and acronym OLPC meaning One Laptop Per Child.
Reading King’s blog, at first I thought that OLPC was only the project in which laptops were provided to children in a rural town of Nigeria, however, upon a little more research I realised that in fact, OLPC is the actual device itself. OLPC is a laptop with specific features for students. It has been designed so that it is appropriately sized for children, with an appropriate design and as well as suitbale softwares.
I wasn’t completely mislead by King’s blog – OLPC is a designed laptop for children in developing nations and is a non-profit organisation.
This is the OLPC Mission Statement:
To create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.
Check out what Wikpedia has to say to find out more by clicking on this link –>
OLPCTHIS IS TRULY AMAZING, TRULY ASTOUNDING STUFF, RIGHT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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24
October
2008
Reading Jasmine’s post Thinking about the Impossible, she refers to an article by Seymous Papert called Technology in Schools and makes the comment that she disagrees with Papert that ‘computers and technology in schools aren’t improving students learning experiences’. I agree with Jasmine, that computers DO help students’ learning experiences and after reading this in Jasmine’s blog, I felt compelled to read the article by Papert myself to find out why Papert believes they do not.
These are the very interesting points I discovered;
1) Papert claims that as the current situation stands, as long as we attempt to improve the system by which technology assists student learning, no improvement will be made. We actually need to change the system.
2) As the system changes, learning experiences will change, for example; the content of knowledge. An example of this is maths. As time progresses, students will have greater access to computers and will not need to know various aspects of the Mathematics curriculum. This goes in a vice verca scenarios as well as Papert words;
‘many topics that were unteachably abstract in the context of pencil and paper technologies will be considered as appropriate for children in the context of a digital technology ‘.
With out delving too deep into this issue Papert uses a comical way of answering this issue. He says that he imagines a teacher saying;
‘”Those dreams are fine. I’m sure that will happen someday. So will vacations on Mars! Meantime, what do I do Monday?’I find this comical and Papert answers with; if you have a vision of ‘someday’ a teacher must use this to guide them for ‘Monday’.
Some VERY INTERESTING points are raised by Papert. I find the article inspiring because to me, it only speaks the truth. One day, not only will individual students and their learning be influences by the DIGITAL AGE, but whole schools will operate differently. This is an exciting time!!!
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21
October
2008
Technologies are of huge benefits in education for reasons that have been previously discussed, but to name a few; it increases student motivation as well as opening up a world of possibilities to discover and create.
If technology has these positive implications, imagine what can be done for students that require special needs. An article The Future Is Now describes how simple mobile phone caters for a blind student with a Braille pad, and further more, has a built in global positioning system so that they can even use a phone to navigate their surroundings. The future holds, explains the director of research at the Centre for Applied Special Technology, far more possibilities including specialised ’belt-buckle’ computers (wow), that have a number of functions that can assist students with special needs, for example; an ESL student can have information delivered to them in their language, or represented to them in sign language for a child that is deaf. Also, timed reminders for a child with ADD. Impressed? I am.
In the e-learning Journal of Special Education In Technology an online article called Digital Text in the Classroom claims that printed text is ‘rigid’ as it fails to cater for students that may have dyslexia or that may be blind, whereas the flexibility of digital text caters for a class-wide basis.
There is a HUGE range of existing and developing digital technologies that will greatly assist students with a wide range of mild and extreme special needs. I see a major issue as cost and availability, but hopefully, as time progresses, these facilities will become more readily available and all students will be given equal opportunities to learn the same material at the same pace, and to create and discover.
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15
October
2008
Like with anything, there are pros and cons to Technology including; the Internet, mobile phones and digital cameras.
Over the past few years, a more recent form of bullying is rapidly increasing known as Cyber bullying. Having read the article Cyber bullying: An old problem in a new guise? by Marilyn A. Campbell, some interesting (and very sad) points are raised. The use of the Internet and social networking such as MySpace, Facebook or chat rooms such as MSN, has increased the forms in which students can bully one another. Some examples are; forwarding private emails to the rest of the class, creating a website and posting photos of a targeted individual, or sending nasty text messages to students at school, while the ‘bullies’ watch the individual’s reaction at a distance… the list continues.
Campbell raises the issues of the ‘power of the written word’. Bullying is an age-old incident and is often either physical or verbal, however, with cyber bullying, written text can increase the level at which the victim is emotionally effected. Verbal bullying is terrible, but a child may not recall specific details, with cyber bullying, the comments are written – they are bold and defined – there is no passing it.
Another serious concern, is that cyber bullying can happen at any given point in time. There is no need to be face-to-face with the victim.
So what can we do?
Campbell lists a number of ways to HELP prevent cyber bullying.
- Awareness to parents
- School policies
- Supervision
- Intervention
Regardless of this however, I think that cyber bullying is a serious concern and is often beyond the teachers grasp. Some say that bullying is a part of growing up, it is playful, character building and is a childhood right of passage.
I disagree… bullying is WRONG. It is a sad and frightening issue and something more needs to be done, but what?
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9
October
2008
I have worked in classrooms with and without smart boards or interactive white boards, however my experience is not large enough to make any valid judgment on the issue and so I watched a video Interactive Whiteboards: Boon or Boondoggle? in order to increase my understanding on the pros and cons of smart boards.
The video provided some interesting statistics;
30% of US schools have interactive white boards in at least one of their classrooms.
The UK, on the other hand, have interactive white boards in almost half of all classrooms.
The Head of Learning Technologies for the UK’s Department of Education and Skills – Doug Brown commented that interactive white boards has improved; the pace of the lesson, student motivation, student engagement and teacher preparation.
A further comment is made; it is not the board that makes the difference, but how the teacher uses it. Students demand interactivity, and it is the teachers responsibility to use the interactive white board to its full potential.
My small experience with a smart board would have me agree with this. I think that interactive white boards can be of vast improvement in the classroom if the teacher can use it effectively.
I honestly believe that smart boards are FANTASTIC but if the teacher fails to use it appropriately, please… don’t bother!!!
CHALK BOARDS? OR INTERACTIVE BOARDS?
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3
October
2008
After reading some inspiring blog’s of New Zeanlander Teacher Allanah King, I created a short podcast on my thoughts about blogging. Her blog page is called Life is not a race to be first finished, and I looked spesifically at her blog page under the catergorie blogging.
Blogging fosters links between students and parents, communities and schools.
Blogging lets one be creative, and respond to inspiring material at ones own pace.
Listen to find out more; nicole2008
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30
September
2008
Wow! How true it is that students are more willing to learn and complete a task when the student is given ‘ownership’ of the task. This point is raised by Emma in her response to the article The 6 C’s of Motivation. After reading Emma’s posting and feeling a sense of connection with it (as I personally understand the sense of motivation to work and learn given a project that I can ‘control’) I felt compelled to also read the article.
Applying to the everyday project, ‘open-ended tasks’ allows students to explore the chosen area as they please. This increases their level of willingness to learn.
This is especially relevant to technology and the use of computers, as the Internet and other digital medias, opens to students many opportunities to LEARN and CREATE.
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