Infographics - week 6

I've always seen infographics and thought they were a great visual way of viewing information but creating one myself was always put it into the 'to hard' category (along with lots of the other things I have learn't in this course!) That will no longer be the case. Look out world, I now know how to make my own 'infographics'. Below is a simple one I created using easel.ly, an easy to use program that has thousands of templates I can use to create any type of infographic I chose. Infographics can also be created using everyday programs like powerpoint and excel.

An infographic is a picture that gives a visual display of data. It not only allows a great deal of data to be communicated fast, it is also much easier to view and to make connections and draw conclusion from the data that is represented. It is also a fun way to represent data to children.

Here are three ways you can use infographics in a classroom:

• As a source of information
• As a tool to teach visual literacy
• As a way for students to express their or others' data

Incorporating infographics into my classroom pedagogy is something I will definitely do. It has so many benefits. It includes both textual information, diagrams and images that can meet the needs of linguistic and visual learners. The text is often written as small amounts of information rather than long paragraphs which can be daunting for some learners. Because of the visual way it is presented it can help students who experience difficulties in literacy skills (ESL students). The visuals often display connections that may help students understand ways  things connect. It also makes learning fun. Rather than presenting a project on a piece of cardboard, students can use their imaginations to create info-graphs that incorporate everything. 

Assessment Task 1A

This course has opened my eyes to a new way of approaching challenges. It has changed how I attempt tasks and how I view the use of digital technology in a classroom. When the course first started I had no idea what it would entail but straight away I got the idea from one of the first activities we had to do that this course challenge me. We were asked to view videos on what the attributes of a designer were. They said things like; curiosity, thinking outside the box, attention to detail and executing good design. You can see others in my blog post here. These helped me to realise that this course was going to push me to step outside my own little bubble and attempt things I have been scared to do before, things like blogs, wikis, wordclouds and mindmaps. I was scared and excited all at once.

We were introduced to ‘The Design Cycle’ (view example here).  A concept I had never heard of. One that the more I looked at the more it became clearer. The design cycle would be a platform to follow once I came up with a design challenge to implement in a classroom setting.

This design challenge in itself became a challenge. I didn’t know what kind of design I needed to come up with. Eventually after flicking through online sites I decided on a challenge that enabled children to make a gift for christmas. The gift was to be a personalised candle. This would incorporate a few different elements. In the planning process of the design cycle I wanted my students to come up with ways they could transfer the image they created onto a candle.  This was outlined in the product overview on my wiki. Thinking back on this section of the design cycle I would incorporate more research and experimental processes. Hands on attempts to transfer the image using a few different methods that the students came up with themselves. This would incorporate learning outcomes from ‘Design and Technologies Knowledge and understanding’ as outlined in my wiki (Learning outcomes from the Australian Curriculum).

I discovered that the design cycle could work in many different ways. It was not designed to only follow one pattern. It gave me ideas to follow in each section but I didn’t need to do them necessarily one after the other. I could create something, then investigate it or I could investigate it, evaluate it and then create it. As children’s minds work in different ways this open thinking using the design cycle could enhance my classroom. Children could work at their own pace, getting ideas down, creating items and evaluating design, basically owning their own work. This would lead to the atmosphere of a co-constructed classroom where they could teach me and each other. You can read my thoughts on a co-constructed classroom here.

While creating documents associated through the design cycle I came across a few problems. As my target age group was year 3-4 I thought that the risk assessments and design specifications would be too hard for them to grasp. In my own classroom I would change these to cater for a younger age group. I would incorporated more brainstorming of ideas towards the risks and find creative ways they can represent the results.

A big lesson I learnt from this design challenge was learning to work collaboratively. I tend to like to work independently and feel a bit apprehensive about others seeing my work. To be put in a group where I had to share my ideas was very scary. Through being forced to work in a wiki with others I can now see the benefits of this and how it can help me as a teacher working with other teachers and help my students benefit from working collaboratively with other students. Through the wiki I was able to give and receive feedback. By working collaboratively through this medium I could see the benefits of other peoples perspectives on things. Questions were asked about things I didn’t think to put in my design and I was then able to change. I could also help others in my group by giving them a ideas on challenges they had. My thoughts on this can be found here. 

This topic has opened me up to a whole new world to include in my classroom pedagogy. My understanding of digital technology in a classroom before this course was interactive whiteboards and online maths programs. I now see the amazing opportunities my students will have if I incorporated all the different aspects of digital technology into my classroom and how their minds can be opened to all possibilities. Wilson and Harris (2004) said, subjects like art, music and technology allow for the expression of multiple intelligences because they allow for a range of domains to be uncovered. How exciting for our students to be allowed to experience all this in their classrooms.

Reference:

Wilson, V., & Harris, M. (2004) Creative change? A review of the impact of design and technology in schools in England. Journal of Technology Education. 15(2), 46-65

Reflections on Peer assessment. The 'Evaluation' of the design challenge - week 5

This week I delved into the unknown world of having to assess and give feedback to a peer on their design challenge. I was quite scared to do this, even though the girl I was assessing seemed lovely when working with her through our group wiki, I didn't want her to take things personal or think I was attacking her work or idea.

Lu & Law (2011) found that students involved in peer grading plus qualitative feedback were more satisfied and showed grater improvements in their tasks.

It was rather a simple task when I got down to it. I just used the information she had provided of her design challenge posted on our group wiki and filled in the information. When I needed to give my opinion on something I tried to be as honest as I could and give constructive criticism rather than just criticise something.

These prompt cards provided the basis for the peer evaluation I used which was put into a table format by a member of our group (thanks Bec!).

These cards would be a very effective tool to use in a classroom when teaching students about peer analysis and what to look for in a product. They provide great visuals which appeal to students as well as questions that get minds thinking about what type of things they should be looking for when evaluation something.

Reference:

Lu, J., Law, N., (2011) Online peer assessment effects of cognitive and effective feedback. Retrieved from: http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5b7e2ee4-d80e-40a2-8cdd-9a5c24e90b9c%40sessionmgr112&vid=1&hid=120

Prompt cards retrieved from www.tes.co.uk/

Web 2.0 and classrooms - week 4

Notes from textbook reading chapter 16
Mandy Peace

Technology has changed the world. Who would have thought that the computer and internet could changed the way we work, learn and play so drastically. The internet now provides us with a vast audience that can inspire us, we can collaborate with, learn from and create with. Hargreaves (2003) states, 'ICT's potentially provide a network structure to turn 25000 schools and their staff into another small world in which any two nodes can connect with each other easily and quickly' (p.13)

Web 2.0 is an umbrella term used to describe  the new generation of web-based communications including social networking, wikis, blogs and podcasts. It is now relatively simple for anyone with minimal expertise to create webspace.

It allows students to

• be creative
• have a degree of control over their own learning
• solve problems
• improve personal IT capabilities
• work cooperatively

By incorporating Web 2.0 into a classroom teachers are allowing students to be exposed to a rich and diverse learning environment. Some of the platforms that teachers could use in a classroom could be:

• blogs - this could be used as a forum for online journalling, or class blogs where students are encouraged to post specific pieces. It could be used to collect and store information on a certain topic or share work with your own class or other classes or even schools
• wikis - a place where students can place information they have researched for others to see. A collaborative place where students can work together without actually having to be in the same space
• Podcasts - a place for students to record and share things from music they compose to verbal instructions to information on topics they have learnt about.

It is important to understand that you don't need to KNOW everything. A classroom is a place of learning for teachers as well and often students find great pleasure in 'being the teacher' and teaching others about Web 2.0 capabilities.

references:
Hargreaves, D.H. (2003) Working literally: How innovation networks make an education epidemic. Nottingham: DfES Publications.

Developing a co-constructed classroom - week 5

Textbook reading - chapter 11 - Teachers and pupils incorporated
Gina Blackbury and Deb Woods 
In a co-constructed classroom the teacher moves away from being the 'authority' of information and becomes a 'guide on the side'. This opens the classroom up to be an inquiry based and experiential learning process. Through multi-model technologies such as the internet, skype, email and youtube students can explore subjects rather than just learn them.

The chapter follows a teacher 'Deb' as she is pushed out of her comfort zone to introduce her students to a different way of learning. One of the ways she did this was by letting go of the need to know everything before she taught it to her students. A co-constructed classroom values the teacher as a learner and she used this to her advantage by changing her pedagogy to get the class to teach each other. She twisted the tables on them and let them search out answers to problems and teach each-other.

There are so many benefits to having a co-constructed learning environment and the textbook outlines these. It outlines the benefits for both the students and the teacher. Some of these are:

Student

• pupils become highly engaged and motivated
• they become independent, self-regulated learners
• it encourages peer collaboration and communication
• pupils interests are identified and incorporated into the curriculum
• individualised learning programs and a self paced environment
• a community based learning environment, peer-to-peer, peer-to-teacher and teacher-to-peer learning.

Teacher

• more time to observe students which supports ongoing assessment practices
• reduction of anxiety and feeling they need to 'know it all'
• pupil motivation translates to productivity

As we can see dot pointed above this type of classroom is beneficial to both student and teacher and is a healthy addition to classroom pedagogy.

Reference:
Blackberry, G., & Woods, D. (2015). Teachers and pupils incorporated, Developing a co-constructed classroom. In S. Younie, M. Leask & K. Burden (Eds.), Teaching and learning with ICT in the primary school. New York: Routledge.

Thoughts on 'The Peer Assessment Process'

Having to do a peer assessment is not my idea of fun. However being part of a peer group and giving feedback on each others design challenges has been a great learning experience. It is wonderful to see the different ideas people have and how they go about instigating them. Looking at their ideas opens up a whole new avenue of thinking for me as often I have an idea of what needs to be done and think that my way is the only way. This process has enabled me to change my way of thinking and incorporate ideas that others have suggested. It has helped me to think outside my own little box of thinking and look at a different picture. It has provided different perspectives on how I could or should do things.

When studying online you don't get a lot of interaction with other students. Working as a peer group overcomes that problem somewhat. I have formed a relationship of sorts with the girls in my group. Their personalities have definitely come out in the comments they post and I appreciate their input into my challenge and can see what kind of student they are themselves.

We had a bit of trouble setting up our wiki to work on, then trouble with documents disappearing but each of us took it in our stride, cried over it, got frustrated over it, worried over it and questioned whether we were on the right track. Through the comments that happened during that time I could tell that those girls I am working with were just like me!! 'Technology newbies'.........

Now to start on the actual peer assessment part!! eekk

Futures Thinking - week 5

Futures thinking, why it is an important approach and how we could include it in the pedagogy of our own classroom.

Futures thinking involves considering all the possible outcomes or 'futures' of a product in order to increase the probability of the best possible outcome. As teachers we are expected to guide a students thinking so that they are set up with the skills they require to consider all possible outcomes and consider the impact it will have on the environment and the future. Futures thinking promotes the knowledge, skills and understanding that are needed in order to think more critically and creatively about the future (Fasso, 2015)

Education is about the future. It is important to give students the tools and opportunities to think about the future and their roles in it.

References:

Fasso, W. (2015) Week 5 Futures thinking Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDCU12038 Design and Digital technologies, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au

Twitter! - week 3

I can honestly say that I have NEVER been interested or tempted to open a twitter account, so when I was asked to this week I had no idea what I was getting into or why I even needed to.  But I set it up and tweeted my idea of how children learn technology. Here is a picture of my very first twitter post ;)

You can see what I am saying by following my  twitter account through this link.

After tweeting I receive a question about my statement. I didn't even know you could do that!! I can see how this could work in a classroom. A discussion could be started through a statement put on by a teacher and children could respond. Twitter is a public forum though so unless there was some sort of privacy setting it could attract others not invited into the discussion and cause problems. The minimum age for joining Twitter is also 13 so it would not work (and I think there would be some upset parents if children were asked to start an account) for primary school aged children.

Reflections on the 'Planning' of my design challenge - week 3

This week was the planning stage of the design challenge. We were shown how to do a decision making matrix using a table taken from Mindtools.com. The website had a video tutorial that showed us how to use the template! It was a great way to learn about why we need to do a design matrix and to think about different factors that will result in our final product. It was also so easy to follow which is a big bonus for younger students. Using online tutorials can be a great addition to any classroom, especially if they are catered for the age group you are teaching.

I came up with three designs (really more like three of the same product but different sizes/shape/cost/colour) and did a matrix on which one would best fit our challenge. It was fantastic to have the decision making process taken of our hands and leaving it down to the facts presented in front of us. It would really help the students to see why a certain way is best.  I also did a document labelled 'design points from decision matrix'. This showed in detail the costings, sizes, advantages and disadvantages of each design. Although the decision matrix is a great tool to use I think that laying it all out there and getting the students to point out why each design is good/bad is a great way to get them involved in the decision making process. It gives them ownership of the final design picked. 

I am starting to understand the design cycle process more and it is becoming clearer as to why we should use it in our classrooms. 

Here is a picture of the final design I have come up with using the design matrix and my design points document.