Bubblus PMI

After playing with bubblus online it was a really useful tool for when setting out concept maps. I loved how it was so simple and straight forward making it easy for any age group to use. Check out my PMI for my Bubblus.

PMI Bubblus

Preffered learning Style

After taking the Felder and Solomon questionnaire on learning stlyes it was obvious that I had a range of different learning styles. Learning styles are important especially when teaching in a classroom. You need to take your time to observe how each learner is different and support their style by incorperating a range of different techniques.

To see how I went in the questionnaire check out my results!

My learning style

Weebly Webquest

Check out my weebly webquest designed for a SOSE unit of work!

Weebly Web quest on the Great Barrier Reef

Week Three Reflection of digital learning tools

Okay, so after week three tutorial it made a little more sense. Well, only due to the fact that I could make connections to this week’s activities as well as in the tute. I am pretty familiar with the three digital tools that were introduced, these include, wiki spaces, blogs, as well as other websites such as weebly. Being a third year student have been exposed to these useful recourses throughout my course- wiki spaces being the most popular. However, are Web 2.0 effective for students to use in the classroom? That is the question that is at the tips of your tongues. My reply to you ladies and gentlemen, would be to wait and see! To explore all aspects of this, I have insisted on creating a plus, minus and interesting chart to show you what I think of each learning tool.

Useful Technology Resources- Weebly

Weebly

Plus	Minus	Interesting
C Add your own flavour to the website C Add images, links, videos from youtube, home made or vokis. C Single page author C Teachers can create the website and be easily accessible to students C Easy to navigate around the page with visual clues such as headings, texts C Cater for all different learning styles by using different technology resources such as audio, visual and its hands on.	D Teachers cannot see how much the website is accessed by students. D Once published it is online and anyone can view this site created. D Teachers cant post feedback onto the site for students to view.	A Enable active participation within the classroom A Teachers can scaffold the learning through the use of chronological activies A Students can access the site at home if they want to catch up on work or produce more work A Teachers can make it for assessment purposes and enable the students to create their own to demonstrate their knowledge through ICT’s.

After previously using weebly as an assessment piece in SOSE in term three, I believe that it was effective, especially if it was given to students for classroom purposes. It enables the teacher to scaffold the learning in different ways to cater for the learning styles of students. If the teacher uses the site and make it as visually and actively appealing as they can, weebly can be an effective way to engage their learners through the use of technology. It gives them an insight to how a web page can be developed and demonstrate their understanding of content being learnt. It can even cater for those students who are possibly gifted and talented, as an enrichment task. This being because they might be able to specifically demonstrate their exceptional abilities within one strand, but by using the ICT’s this might slow it down and them have to successfully step up in another area.

CLASSROOM TIP: Teachers can set up a weebly webquest to scaffold the learning. It can either be used as a collaborative working tool, but also can be great to encourage independent learning.

CLASSROOM TIP: Target audience can be students of any age, a web quest as a whole group task can be specifically designed for learners of six to eight years old. Whereas, you could group students from ages 9-11 as a collaborative group task and any age up set a web quest up for students to work indepedently.

Useful Techonlogy Resources- Blogs

Blogs

Plus	Minus	Interesting
C Blogs are simple owned by your students, therefore adding, editing any information.  C Single page author  C Can be set up for numerous reasons, blogging everyday about certain topics or setting up an account for an assessment base item.  C Blogs are chronological. Are placed in order depending on when you have added to your blog  C Anyone can add comments to your blogs.	D It’s a worldwide tool for learning or engagement therefore, anyone that has a blog can follow you and access your information.  D Having to ask people for url’s to follow them on blogger.  D The comments cannot be used as a discussion thread to a topic, only the blog itself.	A You can add multi modal resources such as, writing, pictures, videos, links.  A You can personalise your own blog. Design it however you wish.

My perception of blogs is that it is essentially a useful tool because it allows anyone to be in control and design it the way they wish. They can work at their own pace and it isn’t so serious. You can add your own perspectives and reflections on their and it doesn’t have to be written in an essay structure. It’s a little more laid back, which is a positive for me as it reflects my personality. In saying this, I don’t believe it will be a resourceful tool for EVERYONE, especially in a classroom. For the fact that students are a little worried about what they say on blogger and that they might be criticised for it as it can be accessed by everyone.

ClASSROOM TIP: Blogs are really useful when wanting to get students to reflect on activities that have been completed in class. CLASSROOM TIP: Blogger can be intended for any age group, well predominately over the age of eight.

Constructivism V's Collaboration

Meanwhile, while they are actually not versing each other, constructivism and collaboration use each other to effectively enhance learning.

Still a little confused with these two theories, after reading some online web pages I was able to develop a better sense of what each two do.

 After reading a page on Education Broadcasting Corporation (2004) I was able to draw information that by learning through constructivism, it actively challenges the students or learners to think outside the box or think at that higher level; High Order Thinking. I found a really great quote from the site above, stating that the role of the teacher should-

“provide tools such as problem-solving and inquiry-based learning activities with which students formulate and test their ideas, draw conclusions and inferences, and pool and convey their knowledge in a collaborative learning environment.”

Which than leads me to my next point of collaborative learning. I know that when learning I would much prefer learning through collaborative learning as it gives me the opportunity to see things from other peoples perspectives.

"Collaborative learning is an educational approach that involves groups of learners working together to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product.The Learning occurs though active engagement among peers, either face-to-face or online" (Curtin University, 2011).