Edmodo?

So....Edmodo! What is it?

http://www.edmodo.com/home

It's a form of 'social networking' that has evolved for teachers. Let's face it, so many student's use facebook for social networking, and are really good at it! Students check their facebook once a day if not more...so why not create a social networking site with an education spin!!?

Edmodo is a great site for students to discuss and evaluate current topics they are learning in a subject. Students can submit work, receive marks and share resources.

Teachers must create a profile for their students, and place it on private settings so that no one can join but the students - protecting their privacy. This is very important as cyber bullying can occur on any social networking website. If signing up my class, I would suggest that students do not place their surname in. Even though a breach of privacy is low, it protects you and the students.

I think that parents can also access the edmodo website - observing only the posts made by their child. I am not 100% sure how this works however, but I am going to look into it.

One problem that can arise from using websites such as 'edmodo' is that it is out of the schools 'control'. If anything bad occurs on the website (ie. bullying), the teacher may get in trouble as it is not directly associated with the school. In order to set up an edmodo account for students, teachers should discuss the idea with the school and understand exactly how to place the site on private.

ABC.net and Spicy Nodes

Over this semester, I have been exposed to a vast number of ICT mediums that I never knew existed! For my Biology assignment 2, we had to design a series of lessons on fossils, evolution and divergent/convergent evolution using ICT. For my part of the assignment, I looked at the various ways we could use ICT when introducing the topic of fossils. When I began researching this area and the ways in which I could use ICT to teach it, I found two ‘games’ on www.abc.net.au! Both of these games are interactive activities that could be used as a class based or individual activity. The first of these games is a fun ‘predict, observe, explain’ (POE) activity, in which you drag the body of the horse to various locations in the picture and observe whether the environment is right for a fossil to form. I would get the students to try predicting what will happen and explaining why – this is a great way to begin class discussion and engage students with the content material.

http://www.abc.net.au/beasts/fossilfun/burial/default.htm

This second POE activity from the same website allows students to predict whether a fossil will be made under certain conditions.

http://www.abc.net.au/beasts/fossilfun/makingfossils/default.htm

I originally wanted to create a worksheet for students to complete – however this assignment was supposed to only use ICT so I had to look into computer based ways for students to record their findings. This is when I came across spicy nodes! http://www.spicynodes.org/ Spicy nodes are a fantastic way for students to make concept maps and create URL links so that you (as a teacher) can use them as a form of assessment. I had a play around with the program to see how it works and came up this this:

http://www.spicynodes.org/a/9992b8c1e9c789a6fcb9388c9c61de0f

Spicy nodes give students the ability to create concept maps that include youtube videos and photos. Students can change the colour of the text, change the font and edit the layout. It gives students the ability to visualise and construct their learning whilst remaining fun and interactive.

Maths Online

In my current placement school, I have seen a different approach to ICT in Maths which was fantastic!! The program the teacher and students use is called ‘Maths Online’ which is perfect for the year 7’s. Maths online requires the teacher to allocate various topics to students through their online account. The students then log on to their account and enter into their allocated topic. Once logged into the topic, the students watch a video describing how to do the problems they have been allocated and are then provided with a worksheet to complete.

This program is particularly great as it allows teachers to allocate specific topics to students of varying ability. If there are students that are struggling in the class, the teacher can allocate them easier topics to complete and build their knowledge. On the other hand, it is a great way to excel students that are above their ability level.

 The only downfall to this program is that students each require a laptop and headphones. While many students have laptops these days, this is a difficult program to run a class on if not all students have a laptop at school. It is also difficult having 24 students in a class with headphones on - it can be difficult to regain their attention.

 If students are all working quietly, it is a great chance to make your way around the classroom and discuss each students progress.

www.mathsonline.com.au

VELS

ICT supports knowledge-building among teams and enables team members to collaborate, inquire, interact and integrate prior knowledge with new understanding.

(Victorian Essential Learning Standards) 

Information and communications technology (ICT) in the classroom is a controversial yet revolutionary part of today’s education system. There are many arguments for and against its use which has resulted in a divide between different generations of teachers. I personally believe however, many teachers who dislike the use of ICT, simply fail to understand it and therefore do not know how to successfully implement its use in their classroom. Whilst there are still elements of ICT I am yet to learn, I believe that it can be used in many ways to enhance learning for students, particularly in my Learning Area’s – Biology and Chemistry.

Part of being in a Science class is learning how to conduct practical experiments to further expand a student’s content knowledge. Something that isn’t done very well however, is inquiry based learning – where students are expected to extend their knowledge through self created exploration. Experiments require collaboration and interaction between students in groups – an experience which can be enhanced and made more inquiry based through the use of ICT. Generally, when students carry out an investigative task, they present their results in a lab report which can easily be assessed. This however does not particularly extend their learning and does not share ideas within the classroom. This is where the use of ICT can play a role!

I’m sure many of you have heard of ‘myth busters’ (http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/mythbusters/) - a television show that takes science to its limits and uses inquiry based activities to create incredible science experiments (not to be done at home!). This show, while a little extreme for classroom practice, is a fantastic example of the use of ICT while doing inquiry and group based experimental activities. Instead of performing a regular experiment that requires a practical report write up, students could create their own experiments, which they can film or document. After this, students could present their findings to the entire class through various ICT platforms resulting in collaboration of ideas between the whole class (instead of an individual reports). This idea of creating a visual presentation to express experimental results and ideas links perfectly to VELS Level 6 – ‘students use a range of ICT tools and data types to visualise their thinking strategies when solving problems and developing new understanding’.

The use of ICT is an excellent way of expanding experimental activities, however some teachers may discredit it as a time consuming task and avoid its use. While I understand this line of thinking, I think it is a shame that so much of science has become theory based and not experimentally based. More credit needs to be put to collaborative inquiry based learning – even if it requires a little more time and effort. ICT offers teachers and students multiple platforms for this to occur and, dare I say it, may be more fun for students than writing up a lab report!! It also provides a way for students to share their learning and findings thereby extending other class members knowledge. Overall, ICT is a fantastic way to explore and expand group work in Science classrooms.

mmm ICT in action!

Well this is blog number 2!! I have had several interesting encounters with ICT in my placement schools so far. In my pervious placement – I witnessed a Year 7 Mathematics classroom which was using ICT in an unusual way. All the students were using their laptops which were linked up to the teacher’s computer through the wireless network. Instead of the teacher writing on the board, she was writing notes/questions on her laptop which were then appearing on the student’s laptops.  I think it is called interactive classroom? After the teacher wrote a question, the students would individually write in the solution on their laptops.  This meant that they each student automatically got a copy of the notes and could take them home to continue work on their laptop.

 In theory, this was a great idea – however there were several technological difficulties! Throughout the class, many of the student’s computers started dropping out of wireless connection and the notes were not appearing on their computers. The students eventually had to just write up the notes on the computer themselves. I personally think that in this case, it would have been much more efficient and practical to have the students write the notes by hand in the first place. Much of the lesson time was wasted with students complaining that their computers weren’t working and needed help. This doesn’t mean that I don’t think this program should be used in maths! I think for quick pop quizzes etc, this would be a great tool (given the connection works). I had never witnessed a program like this in use and would be interested to see other ways in which it could work successfully and enhance learning.

ps. took me awhile to figure out how to post this!

I can't believe I'm blogging!!!

I never thought I would create a blog in my life...yet here I am!!!

Hopefully I can think of some interesting things to say....only time will tell!

ICT is one crazy subject.

Have a fab day ;-)
Rose