Photos, Videos, Podcast and Voki

Week 4:
Time to have some fun :)

Again we were sent into what seemed like the continually spinning void of figuring out how to do the activities. Britt and I tackled the tasks together and this helped quite a lot.

Firstly MobaPhoto didn’t want to download so instead I decided to crop some pictures in paint or word. These 2 have the basic tools needed to crop pictures and are easy to use. So what I decided to do was to crop an image which when u look at it closely without the background gives a different interpretation of what is going on in the image. The second then shows what it is talking about. This would be an easy tool to help students understand perspectives and to not always assume that the picture is just the pain attraction in the image.

After this there were then some more minor setbacks like the fact that the computers we had couldn’t record voice or sound so it was up to the iPhone. Now this seemed like a good plan except when it came time to upload the voice text it didn’t work. I didn’t know how to change the format of the file so just had to use some pre-set voices on the website.

Mats Voki

I feel the Voki had some great aspects about it. The tool could be used to get students interacting with other students which will enable them to replay over the message again and again. The voki set up is easy and can be fun for the students. There are step by step instructions which make this process simple. This could also be used in flex situations where the students might have to listen to the teacher online.

My Podcast

The podcast was relatively easy and only had minor setbacks. Other than this the way in which the materials were uploaded on the free website was easily done and was again fun to make. The podcast idea still isn’t my favourite simply because there are easier methods which don’t involve the internet to view video streams. In saying that it still has usable qualities which enable the students to make their own podcasts, follow specific ones from teacher and possibly even demonstrate their assessments via a video task.

 That pretty much covers my week. I didn’t have enough time to make the Movie but have had some prior experience in that field. The movie maker sounded rather interesting but did appear to be annoying when uploading the final product to the blog as like a lot of things.  

Week 3 PMI

Week 3:

This week during our computer time it was great to see how easy it was to use wikis, weebly and blogger after some physical help. This is where is always seem to struggle as I am a kinaesthetic learner I need to be shown to learn these tools. Overall it was a good week and I did feel a little more confident about the 3 ICTs that were covered.  

Wiki:

Overall I Like using wikis they provide a very good basic layout which is interesting and applicable to everyday people. There are simple enough instructions and what I would call user friendly options. There will always be that global use going on in your head but by making the wiki private it brings the usage of wikis back into the picture.  

+Plus+	-Minus-	?Interest?
·         Easy tool bar to navigate through modifying your wiki ·         Can make the wiki private, invitation only ·         Collaborative overall theme	·         Online threats from other people ·         Initially setting up the wiki was a little confusing	·         Can change your design of wiki, layout and colours ·         Can keep tabs on viewers usage

Blogger:

Blogger is a useful online tool as it provides you with complete control as to what goes onto the blog and exactly what is said. There is ample room to upload multi modal devices. This would definitely be something I would consider using in the future.

+Plus+	-Minus-	?Interest?
·         You can upload endless amounts of pictures, videos and web links. ·         Able to edit your work and post what you like ·         Multiple uses not just for school use, personal sue is also available ·         You can control who is following your blog	·         Cannot link the comments to online threads just that particular work ·         Have to add urls to follow people	·         Can change your design of layout, make it to your liking ·         Easy to navigate around people blogs as well as following links

Weebly:

I was first exposed to weebly last year and from having experience I would definitely use it again. It provides easy enough explanation of the set up process and allows for a lot of personal choice. This I feel would be best suited for an investigation style task as you can link a lot of things to your pages and follow this in an order of tasks.   

+Plus+	-Minus-	?Interest?
·         Easily accessible to all students ·         Can make the page to your own preferences ·         You can upload endless amounts of pictures, videos and web links.	·         Cannot post feedback onto webpage ·         The page does go global so is open to everyone in the world	·         Can design to incorporate a learning journey/process ·         Because it is on the internet students can access this at home aswell

Week 2 reflection:

The vast array of uses and knowledgeable ways ICTs can be applied into classrooms is astonishing. I came to that assumption last week but after my first tute it made it much clearer.  Yes I knew I phones were very capable devices but unless you actually know how to use the ICT resources that you have they are useless. I didn’t and still don’t really know how to simply add a video from my I phone to my blog just because I wouldn’t know where to look in the first place (hopefully ask Wendy this week about that). The activity material this week seemed very familiar, I connected well with it because I had enough background knowledge about the topics to understand them and go through them fairly quickly. Something which opened my eyes was the fact that ED QLD acknowledges that ICTs pedagogy is necessary to teach in the 21^st century. To go forward in an ICT based world we need the people making up our curriculums to see that we must progress our learning styles and methods. Without this the next generation of learners would not be equipped for the world and thus helping them to not succeed. The TPACK model I feel is one which can be understood easily and shows just how important ICTs really are. So after my first tute I did feel relieved that I hadn’t got lost from the pack. I felt I could relate to and understand what was going on. This is it for another week and I am hopeful that in the future I will be doing a video reflection J      

Week 1 Reflection:

Ok so I managed to figure out how to make a blog (thanks to shona) and started on some of the activities for the week. Due to my absence from the first tute I did feel that I could slightly comprehend what was going on through the activities but really had no clue as to what it really meant or how it was relevant. Because I am writing the rest of this reflection in the second week I can now say it makes...........a little more sense. I definitely agree that ICTs have their place in schools and the evolving way in which we use these are making things like face to face interaction less frequent. This being said if we didn’t have these technologies then how would distance learners cope. I would have to say that I am a fence sitter when it comes to this topic because I feel that the authentic learning methods like student interaction and hands on collaboration are hard to not incorporate. Social skills might be overlooked just to coincide with the technologies available. Still I value ICTs in the classroom and know their importance. That’s it for me see you next week.  
 

My video about Learning Theorys impact on Teaching.