MAHARA

Personally I have found the Mahara e-portfolio a little hard to understand and use. I know that I won't learn everything over night, and also understand that as I use it more for our group assessment, that I will gain more confidence. As stated in our notes in week four, mahara is a fully featured electronic portfolio, weblog (blog), resume builder and social networking system, connecting users and creating on-line communities, which will allow it's users to build presentations for specific purposes. Mahara allows its users to invite other people and friends, find friends, create your own community, aswell as create blogs, store files, change certain column's, add pictures, add text boxes. Mahara is specifically designed to store examples of your professional practise and display views to specific audiences. Also your mahara views could be used to make prospective principles aware of your skill sets and improve your liklehood of future employment. Mahara has so many positives to you on a personal level aswell as with group work. The amount of benifits this e-portfolio has is tremendous. I am definately going to use mahara to my benifit when it comes time for me to find employment in my chosen profession of being a learning manager. I know I am a long way off using mahara to it's fullest potential, but as I said earlier I am keen to learn.
The educational benifits for using it in a classroom is great, although I do think that this would only work well in higher primary school, and high schools. Prensky (2001) states that 'the single most biggest problem facing education today is that digital immigrant instructors speak an outdated language (that of pre-digital age) are struggleing to teach a population that speaks an entirely new launguage. Todays teachers have to learn to communicate in the launguage and style of their students.' This is why I think it is so good that I have the opportunity to experience these technologies, and gain confidence in using them. So when I am a learning manager in this 21st century, I will be able to teach my students the way they deserve to be taught.


On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001)
© 2001 Marc Prensky
"engage me or enrage me"Marc Prensky 2005
www.netalert.gov.au

Really Simple Syndication

RSS allows students to keep up to date information pertaining to their current study area, and we use an aggregator to keep track of like minded Blogs which alerts you to new postings made by fellow participants. The RSS also allows you to monitor other blogs or websites that have an RSS feed. When you log into your google account the new posts made by other members are there to view at you own leisure. This would be a great tool educationally in the classroom as you and the students could save the related websites on the blog and have easy access to them. There would also be interacting opportunities as you are able to make comments on the blogs.

WIKI'S

Wiki's as I understand them provide web publishing opportunities that are either individual or collaborative, and it offers non-technical people to add to and alter the content. I understand that the one who starts the wiki can choose to have it completley closed to non members or open to everyone. If I were to use this software in my classroom, I would have it open to only the classroom students, before opening it to anybody, so that they can enter their own learnings onto it, working collaborativley as a class, before actually making their comments. The wiki would relate to the Learning Engagement Theory in the way that the students would be engaged in meaningful learning activities through interaction with others on a worthwhile task. (Shneiderman, 1994, 1998: Shneiderman et al, 1995: Kearsley, 1997). I find this software a bit challenging to use as compared to blogs. But can also see the benifits in the way that the students can use it as a group project, where each student can make changes or add to it.

Synopsis

There are many ways to include the use of blogs in the classroom for students. It would be a great tool for students to use and write in daily or weekly, and as time goes by the students can revisit their postings, read the comments from fellow students and enhance their learning. With most students having some access to a computer at home, or if they don't, there are computers almost everywhere, like shopping centres, libraries and at friends houses. With the students having a URL address they can invite their families to see what they learn at school, and they too can make their own comments, which I believe would encourage the student to want to do more. At the moment in classrooms students use Science journals, Mathematics journals and other journals. By making this information available in computer's the benefits are endless. I have just finished adding my fellow colleagues to my blog URL, and found it an easy process. I think what I do is add people to my blog, does it then go to the person I requested, and then when that person say's yes to following me, is this when they come up as one of my follower's???Not quite sure, but I will find out sooner or later.

Tanya

Explore Learning - GIZMOS

I found this on-line site above excellent! explorelearning.com is an on-line simulation that powers inquiry and understanding. GIZMOS is an award winning on-line simulation for grades in upper primary. It provides students with opportunities to develop higher understanding in the subjects of Maths and Science. It is computer base manipulative, that brings research to life. The teachers who have already experienced this have only great comments, such as 'enhances enthusiasm, the 3D brings it to real life examples, it extends on what is taught in the classroom, and students can access it from home as well as school, this also increases interest and therefor performance. Gizmos are designed as a supplemental curriculum materials that support state and national curriculum standards, plus gizmos helps teachers bring research-proven instructional strategies to their classroom's. I had a turn on the demo (frognuts.com) Dissect a Frog. This was very informative as well as interactive, this demo amazed me and I didn't want to stop learning. I encourage any of my followers to try this site out, like I was I believe you will be addicted in no time...

Picnik

This is a great site. I had so much fun uploading pictures and creating pieces I never thought possible. I even considered changing professions, from a novice Learning Manager to a Professional Card maker. This was a very easy site to use. The educational gain from using a site like this is amazing as students can upload pictures and photo's and incorporate colourful pictures to posters and assignments at their own leisure, be it in the classroom or at home. Also teachers can make their presentations bright and pleasing to the eye to enhance interest from the students. Picnik is easy to use and I would encourage students and teachers who have little computer skills to experiment with a site like this to gain confidence with this sort of technology.

Flickr

Flickr is a great way to share photo's with family and friends if you had no physical contact with them for periods of time. Setting up an account is very straight forward. I had a play on this program and couldn't wait for my family to have a look at the photo's that I uploaded. To think of it in an educational environment it could be used in the classroom with the students, and also from teacher to teacher for collaboration and support and sharing ideas. I created my own Flickr site and went a bit overboard with uploading some photo's, as I have used the whole 100% of room that your allowed to use per month. http://flickr.com/photos/hammas/ I haven't yet found the time to tag or even label pictures that I uploaded. I plan to do that when time allows me. I can see this flickr site would be great to share with fellow colleagues, and leave face book as a more personal journey with your friends outside of your professional life. If you have a look at my site, I would like to get your e mail addresses so I can have some friends in my list. :)

Voki's

What an impressive learning tool. When I set my voki avatar up, I couldn't wait to show my son Alex. Even I got excited to hear my own name on the computer. Alex was just as excited, if not more. I played around with the different ways of adding voice to the character. I had to change a few words, for example G'day, to Good day as the computer was saying it in a way you couldn't understand, unless you knew what it was meant to say in the first place. I can see how the avatars that you or your students make would bring excitement and interest to any lesson. This tool would be good for the students to be actively involved. I think I would allow the students to spend the first few lessons on just having fun creating their personal avatar, as I think the excitement of creating them could take the children's thinking away from the actual subject they are supposed to be learning about. I also loved how you can use animals, and actual pictures of real people, not cartoons. Using the mouse to move the characters heads and eyes is quite funny. It could brighten any ones day if you were having a bad day. The educational gains with using avatars are great, you could introduce a subject, encourage the students to create their own voki, which would enhance their knowledge in computers, the list goes on forever.
This is my attempt to include my voki into my blog I hope you check it out and make some comments.

My Introduction to Technology

I haven't started my BLOG until now, and I realise why. I'm very afraid of the unknown, and computer's and technology would be one of the main things I don't know much about. But I than realised that this course is going to teach me a great deal about different terms and excellent sites regarding the computer. Through the first few weeks of starting this course, I found that I was taking a lot of time to get my head around the first two quiz's. I have done a great deal of writing things down, so I know and understand to my best ability. I was worried as a fellow course member was talking about how exciting this course was and how it takes her away from other assignments. I began, with her encouragement, to try and look at this course in a different more positive way. I hated sitting in front of a computer, as I am more of a physical hands-on sort of person. I realised that even known I didn't like working on the computer I needed to make more of an effort. With the first and second quiz with questions about terminologies and what do the terms mean, I found were challenging. But I also gained some helpful knowledge. One thing that stood out was how in education the single biggest problem facing education today is our 'Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks entirely new language.' I have realised I am one of those people, so there was a new goal for myself to reach, and that is to be up to date with technology and their benefits. I have also learnt about the fear the all adults and children must face when being introduced to new learning's. I can see how soon in this world, computers will play a major part in every ones life, for example, I remember when mobile phones were introduced, I remember saying to myself "Who needs a mobile phone, only the rich people use them, how silly!" But today I think almost every one owns one, and probably couldn't live without it. So I had to accept them, and the change to peoples lives they make. The point to this story is that I decided I wouldn't deny computers and technologies as soon they will be just a 'normal' way of life.
I would like to hear from other people and what your thoughts are.