Blog of Big Rich

After reading Rachel’s post I found that this would be somethign to aim more at Stage 3 and above possibly late Stage 2 as students below that level most likely wouldn’t be able to take photos or film anything particularly well or safely. Its uniques in that its a great way for studetns to show their artistic skills off with Adobe to manipulate photo’s add backgrounds do a wide variety of great things.

The lessons are brief but give the teacher room to use it how it fits best into their classroom teaching style, however they are situational and as far as I can see only useable for certain topics.

After reading Alissa’s post about Distance learning it occured to me that the isolation as she stated could become over bearing and that if the students attitude is negative to learning long distance then they are doomed form the start. This would be a challenge for the teachers to maintain the students enthusiasm. I think some ways to help would be to as suggested get them in contact with each other, use the tecnology to get several students online at once and chat through a messenger program or with audio program so they can speak and even see each other if they had a video camera.

I disagree with Alissa when she said that they should have a one off meeting since they will need mroe interaction on a personal level to develop there social and interpersonal skills. I do agree however that in some cases its more practical and economical to learn via the interenet nad long distance learning rather than travelling for several hours each day to and from school.

After reading this article by Seymour Papert i found his metaphors to have real meaning. They gave the reader somethign ot compare their opinions and thoughts to so that those who don’t study teaching can compare to something that we all know. How Computers were and in most cases still are a new tool to complete old teaching practices.

What the article is saying is that using computers technology to supplement teaching is still in its infancy and requires more research and effort to perfect, Flight took a while to become commercially viable and had a lot of doubters, but now its the quickest method of transport currently available and the most economical. When it comes to teaching technology will be a big part of the fuure and we need to develop teaching strategies and teach new skills to keep up to date with the global communities needs to develop the leaders of the future.

After reading Michelles post about this article it reminded me of when I was younger playing online games such as Everquest and how I was consumed with the game, I would go to work surf the net about differnet ideas about the game there, then coem home and stay up till the early hours of the morning to play it just to go to work sleep deprived and repeat teh previous days performance. It is amazing how easily you can lose track of time when you are online or doing something on a computer that you are engrossed in.

I agree with Michelle when she said at school its easy to monitor childrens activities on computers but when they are at home we have no idea and rely on the parents to keep them on a tight leash (pardon the anaolgy). I think that this article is extremeley valid and should be required rading to alert people who havent experienced Computer Time Dialation ( what I said to my mother after a Stargate episode ) where you can lose track of the time with the greatest of ease without realising it.

I also agree with her when she says that children need to learn how to manage their time and develop a balance in life between school, family, friends , computers, sports there is a large variety of activities children adn adults need to create a balance with. its just knowing how to balance your life that is the true skill.

After reading this article I cna honestly say that I had never thought about approaching businesses for tips on what topics to teach (however I do see the merit in doing so). The article starts off powerfully by setting a scene that someone from the past would walk around today and not recognise anythign until they walked into a class room with eth implication that technology is being embraced everywhere except in the classroom.

It discusses how in todays global community you need to be able to do mroe than regurgitate facts and figures, you needot be able to work in teams, use technology to convey your ideas and to help convince others of your point of view. like what was suggested in the section about 9/11. How reading about something didnt really change their opinion but seeing a movie on the same thing changed their mind. This is the power of media which is linked directly into the Digital world.

It ends with the suggestion that some courses could be online to supplement teaching in the classroom not replace it. And that teachers could access them and edit improve upon them if they feel that there is avoid in their current teaching prgoram so all teachers could benefit , This I think is a great idea of teachers shared all their programs and ideas since our job is to educate young minds.

After reading Meg’s Post on Papert’s article i must say I tend to agree with Meg. I think that she naield it when most kids these days are disinterested in schooling not because its too hard, but because its boring and not challenging. I do however disagree to some degree where she said if the work isnt hard enough they become distracted, this has merit but if its too hard then they are distracted aswell. You need to pick appropriately challenging work so that its withitbn their reach but not so easy they are as Meg said ” Spoon fed ”

 I agree from personal experience when playing games you try something if it doesnt work you can try a different approach next time. Also I agree that games are an important part of learning Val Badham impressed that upon me last semester in Professional Experience 5.

I read this article and found it to be a well written if not biased document about how computers are used in the school should be re thought. The analogies that are used are very thought provoking. For example “ Consider the following three things: computers, television, finger paint. Which of the three doesn’t belong? For most people, the answer seems obvious: “finger paint” doesn’t fit….But until we start to think of computers more like finger paint and less like television, computers will not live up to their full potential.”

It discusses how children should be encouaraged to create things with Digital products, not just learn to word process, type or have access to the internet but to truley engage in learning though creation. It also talked abotu a man named Mike Lee, he was a high school drop out who liked to sketch, he joined a computer club, got to experiement with things that he wanted to wihtout the pressure of mundain assignments that are usually boring. Instead he got to create whatever images he wanted, work on a variety of different techniques. People around him in teh club started to ask him how to do things and the more his skills developed the more peopel wanted to know off him. This changed his imagery as he didnt want to encourage the younger peopel to include violetn imagery and it also taught him how to teach others.

The article also discusses how we need to rethink and revolutionise , I do however disagree with at the primary school level especially mixing the groups across age because in the younger years studetns need differnet attention. I am sceptical on stopping breaking up the school day into do the work when its finished you cna then have your recess/lunch because then you will need more teachers or smaller classes since everyoen will be finishing at differnet times and the logistics of the whole thing will be a nightmare.

I do recommend this article to anyone as its well written but some of the ideas aren’t practical in my opinion.

After reading Michelle’s blog about obviously as the title suggests digital story telling. I watched the video ”tortise run” aswell which can be selected here here. And i liked how the students had modelled the characters out of clay themselves, had written the script based off the traditional tale . I agree with Michelle when she says that “The web site teachers students and teachers how to develop their own digital story with step by step instructions. The web site is attractive and easy to navigate around with terminology being at the level of children.”  I will be recommending this site to my fellow students for use once they are teachers.

After reading this article I found that it opened my eyes on a few different ways to motovate students and it reaffirmed what we had previously leanrt, that in giving students ownership of their work and by  displaying it publicly for them in most cases it increases the enthusiasm for cokmpleting the work to a higher standard.  It also opened my mind to a variety of other ways that work together to make learning long lasting and fun at the same time.

I know that I will be tryign to include as many of these “C’s” into my teaching lessons and assessments as possible as a motivated learner is a truley awesome thing to see, because if the mind is willing it cna accomplish anything.

The 6 C’s are

Choice – Challenge – Control – Collaboration – Constructing Meaning – Consequences

In reading Nat’s post on this aritcle about cyber bullying to be truley shocking. Bullying in the school is bad enough, now to invade the safety of their homes where a child should feel safe is horrifying. Sure you could say that they could just turn off their phones, not go online, but why should the freedoms everyone else have be stolen from these people by some selfish cowardly people who think they are acting cool or that its only fun (it maybe fun for them but it sure as hell isn’t for those being bullied) I still am unsure how anyone could deem it fun to begin with.

This article has made me aware of how bad cyber bullying can be and that in the school I eventually work in after uni, to find out what the school has implemented to stop this disgraceful act and if the school doesnt have a policy to ensure that one gets impemented shortly after.