Janelle’s Blog

I could not believe it when I read Sue Water’s blog recently about schools that are charging their students to use the internet. Apparently this has become the largest barrier for teachers who want to incorporate technology into their lessons – some students simply can not afford it.
I am both shocked about this revelation and scared. I believe that so many schools are struggling to fit everything into such ’small’ budgets, and that it is therefore likely that many schools may follow suit. The schools that I feel are most at risk are the ones with high concentrations of teachers and staff who do not value or support technology in education. It is therefore essential that all future teachers realise the advantages that technology (and the internet) can have on education, so that when they are involved in such decisions they will be able to support allocating funds towards technology.
I also believe that all key stakeholders to education should put their money where their mouth is and financially support the provision of wireless broadband internet in schools. This is especially important when all experts seem to agree that technology is the most important basic skill that this new generation of children will be required to master in for the future of this nation.

Image made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Available here.

I recently read an interesting article discussing constructiVism and constructioNism which I believe is extremely relevant to my studies as a primary teacher.
Here is a video that I created to communicate my thoughts on this.

Images (in the video) made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Available below:
Image 1, Image 2, Image 3, Image 4, Music.

This semester I have been learning about ways that computer technologies can be used creatviely in the classroom. I have experimented with different programs and tools that I had never used previously. I now have some great ideas of how I could use these technologies in my future classroom. However I wonder how society has (and will) react to this change in the school environment. This reminds me about the Presbyterian Ladies’ College at Crodon who recently gained media exposure. Year 9 English students were allowed to use the internet, their ipods, and mobile phones (to ‘phone a friend’) during an exam. To summarise the response: the media was shocked.
The teacher Dierdre Coleman rationalised this new form of assessment, stating “In their working lives they will never need to carry enormous amounts of information around in their heads. What they will need to do is access information from all their sources quickly and they will need to check the reliability of their information”. Ms Coleman then introduced something that I myself have recently been learning at university: plagerism. [these tasks] test their skills in finding information, assessing the reliability of the information and then citing it correctly, so they are not involved in plagiarism… Learning to manipulate the information requires higher order thinking skills to answer the questions.
Suprisingly (for some) the exam is not as easy as it may appear. Students admit that it is hard to make sense of all the information available in the time given (40 minutes).
The idea for these exams was initiated by Peter Reimann who pointed out that computers and the internet are now being used in schools and classrooms everywhere and yet when it comes to assessments teachers are removing those resources and going back to a 19th century mode of testing. I am thankful that this school has reflected on this and made changes to the way they approach assessment. In this way I believe that this school is one step ahead of many others. The exposure gained from the ‘shock’ of this change has impacted on others. In fact the Board of Studies is now looking at ways it could incorporate the use of computers in the exams. This has forced me to think about how I will use technology myself for assessment purposes.
I pose the question: Will the University of Technology follow? Will future teachers soon be allowed to use new technologies in their own exams?

Image made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Available here.

I have always dreaded class presentations. Not so much giving them but watching them. This is because people tend to rely on the powerpoint and do not give much thought to the presenting. Often they simply read word for word the text on the screen, and add some sound effects, transitions and pictures. They hope this will score them good marks; the audience try to stay awake.
Edward Tufte writes about this. He states that rather than supplementing a presentation, powerpoints have substituted them. I agree with him. Powerpoints are being used in nearly every school. But what is this teaching students? I think it is teaching students to use little words and focus on decoration rather than content. No wonder technology is getting a bad reputation. Teachers should be very careful in their use of powerpoint in the classroom. It could even be avoided… there are so many other great software programs available.

Made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Available here.

Two teachers share their success with the learning program “Inspiration”. I admit that I thought the idea behind this program was a bit pointless. I thought.. why would teachers use a computer program to make a mindmap when paper and pen works? The project ideas shared by these teachers has changed my mind… within minutes. It sounds as though the program can do all sorts of things, including transforming a mindmap into an outline, giving students structure for a task such as writing a report. One point that I had not thought about previously is that using mindmaps helps students to see the links and connections between their ideas. In this short article I have been inspired to use mindmap software myself. I believe that it can not only help students generate ideas but also helps them organise them.

Made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Available here.

Would you learn to make a cake better by:
a) Reading a recipe
b) Watching Huey’s Cooking Adventures
c) Helping your mum make a cake

Think about it. Check your answer, are you sure you want to lock it in?
Did you pick (c)? I wonder how many people picked (c)? I did.
We learn best when we are actually involved in the process, in a meaningful way. This is the basic idea underlying the constructive learning theory. Freya comments on the article ‘Building software beats using it’ by Idit Harel, expanding on how children can ‘build’ in the classroom using new technologies. I agree completely with Harel and Freya, but I am a little skeptical how it will work in practice. This is because I have seen very little use of computers in schools (during my prac experiences). Teachers appear to be so stretched already trying to include all outcomes into the planned curriculum. I believe that people need to put more thought and resources into creating units of work that teachers can pick up and use, that use technologies in the ways outlined by Harel. In my opinion if teachers had access to step by step instructions on how to actually teach this then they probably would actually teach it.

Image created by Janelle Rigby.

I watched this video in a sociology class. I find it fascinating that a school such as this has been created. It shows that there are some people in the world that believe in the power of technology to increase learning so much so that they are willing to spend an incredible amount of money. It is obviously not affordable for every school to be built like this school. However schools could adopt similar practices as demonstrated by the Philidelphia school. For example, laptops for each student and a project based curriculum. When we think about these things, the task of changing all schools into ‘future schools’ suddenly seems achieveable.

I recently read an article titled “Making History Come Alive” that made me make the statement in the title above. The Urban School of San Francisco has developed a subject titled ‘Telling Their Stories: Oral History’ in which students interview survivors of the Holocast, edit the video footage, and upload onto a website. This program is unique and insightful as it shows how valuable a project-based curriculum can be both to students and the community. The technology used by these students is not difficult to learn yet has enabled students to share the powerful stories they have worked hard to record with a global audience. In this way students have moved from being learners to contributors. In fact many agree that this website is very valuable to historians as it contains primary sources of information about the Holocast survivors. Some of the highlights for me regarding this program is the way that parents are involved, and the provision of personal laptops to allow students to continue work at home, both of which help to bridge the gap between the school and family. Of further significance is the way that the Urban School approaches technology. Rather than having classes that focus on teaching technological skills, they create classes which work on meaningful projects through which students learn and use technology. In this way student learning is meaningful and is self-motivated. This is the way that I would love to teach, although I realise that many Australian schools are not prepared for teachers who focus on time consuming projects such as these.
(The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) recognized Urban School’s Telling Their Stories project with a Leading Edge Recognition award for excellence in technology integration – March, 2004.)

Levin, H. (2003). Making history come alive: Students interview Holocaust survivors and publish their stories. Learning and Leading with Technology 31(3), 22-27.

Image available from the Urban School of San Francisco website.

‘Digital Video Goes to School’ suggests that digital video is a powerful way to motivate students, energise teaching, and link to community. While I do agree with this I also want to pose a question… can we really be certain about what will motivate students… motivation is such an internal process that I do not believe we can manipulate it. This being said, the use of digital video can be used in many different ways in the classroom. Different genres of digital video can be used, for example digital stoytelling, e-portfolios and analysis. Video can also be used in each KLA in the classroom.
It was stated that video is a natural fit when you want to capture emotion, herritage or culture, memorable experiences and more. I ask the question – why would we want to capture emotion? Is this educational? I believe that it is a vital part of the curriculum that every teacher should teach. For years I believe teachers have used role play in drama to attempt to explore the idea of emotion. Digital video technologies are one exciting new tool that teachers can now use for this.
Another interesting practice raised in this article is that digital video helps the professional development of teachers. This can occur when exemplary teachers are recorded and then viewed by prospective teachers (and other teachers). Teachers can view the way that their collegues approach and incorporate e-learning, and hopefully they will learn from them, and their own classrooms benefit.

Hoffenberg, H., & Handler, M. (2001). Digital video goes to school. Learning & Leading with Technology, 29(2), 10-15.

Image made available under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Available here.

Teachers  are being encouraged to learn different tools that they will be expected to use in the classroom in the near future. Teachers can not deny children the rich learning experiences which come through using these technologies. New media is beginning to be used in flexible ways in schools. For example, the use a genre of video called digital storytelling is becoming widely popular. Through this medium students (and teachers) are able to create powerfull stories as voice, music and images combine. Matthew blogs about this and directs attention towards a site where prospective teachers have published their own digital stories. I myself have recently experienced creating a digital story and would encourage teachers to think about how they can incorporate this media into their classrooms. Obviously a task like this can not be completed in one afternoon with no prior planning. A task like this would likely span over weeks, but would be meaningful to students and well worth the effort. Suprisingly (for me) however is that these digital stories are very simple to create. Once an idea for a story is found, the process is both educational and enjoyable. I used Photo Story 3 and a very old microphone to create my digital story book: Here is my story, enjoy.