Samara's ed Blog » WEEKLY REFLECTIONS

Weekly Reflections (Week 11 & 12)

samara — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:28:29 +0000

During weeks 11 and 12 I learnt about photostory and what you can explore on this application. For me I found it very engaging and interesting to use as I have never used photostory before. In a classroom I would use this application for presenting and showing students work to teachers and parents of my class as well as the students, to communicate their achievement. Now I know how to use this application I will use it for personal and education uses. However other than the uses above I would not know how else to use this program although I will find other ways and reason to use it. As it is fun and engaging for student. Students could use this application to communicate a presentation or show their news for the week if they wish.

Weely Reflection (Week 13)

samara — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:21:35 +0000

How will your learning this unit assist you in your future career as a teacher?

This unit was a variable experience for me. As a teacher we need to use various ways of educating and engaging students. This course enabled me to understand all the different aspects of technology which I can use in order to engage and educate them. Through the presentation skills and learning about ways to inform them and develop students knowledge. It is through engagement in learning where I believe students learn to most and not only surface learning but most importantly deep learning. Through what I have learnt in this course I would use this in educating children and my students in all areas of learning as I have found it very valuable especially power point and photo story.

Week 13 (Personal Competency Test)

samara — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:13:15 +0000

Competency Test

In contrast to the first personal competency test, the second taken in week 13 of this course improved dramatically. Overall there was a dramatic improvement towards all aspects of the test. Similar to the first test taken I once again scored highly in the areas relating to basic computer use, file management and email. Unlike the last test taken, and due to this cause I scored much higher as I am more competent in the areas of multi media projects and presentation as well as constuctivist learning.

Although I scored high in mant areas there are certainly aspects in which I need to work on and these include graphics and photos and desktop publishing. These are my weaknesses and the areas in which I still need to work on.

Weekly Reflections (Week 10)

samara — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:19:03 +0000

Presentation Graphics and programs are used in many situations. In a school environment these presentation programs can be used effectively to communicate ideas and concepts to students in your class in an engaging and in lighting manner. Programs including powerpoint and kids pix are used in many situations and circumstances in a educational environment as a way of visually representing information rather than oral. In today’s society teachers need to recognise that many students are actually visual learners.

To teachers PowerPoint can be used in various ways including communication with a large group of people for example lectures, programming and classroom handouts can also be used by the teachers. In addition these presentation programs can be used by students as well. The examples include students presentations, communicate news, groups debates and so much more.

As a teacher there are various ways that I can use PowerPoint in my classroom. I would encourage my students to also use these presentation programs and graphics.

Weekly Reflections (Week 9)

samara — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:16:03 +0000

This week we learnt about the uses of numerous visual communication skills that can be used in the classroom. Although the main focus was on inspiration, which is a major visual communication tool that organises and composes interactive mind maps of various types. Through inspiration students in a primary level or using kidspiration are able to visualise certain concepts in ways that other visual communication skills are not able to.

“It works as a kind of visual outline for almost any purpose, including planning stories or even story boarding for video productions … The key is the ease and flexibility with which [concepts] are created and then linked together” (Lockard & Abrams, 2004).

As an educator in a school I could use inspiration in my lessons to create a simulating and colourful display to communicate information in a basic beginning way to a concept. For example in mathematics inspiration can be used to demonstrate different ways of completing one problem.

WEEEKLY REFLECTION (WEEKS 7&8)

samara — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:47:27 +0000

In our classes these past 2 weeks we have been focusing on using spreadsheets and how it can be incorporated into teaching strategies and practices. These spreadsheets are an excellent way in managing, manipulating and analyzing data, especially the student’s grades and accomplishments. I learnt that teachers can use spreadsheets for examples excel for numerous situations including class lists, grading, seating charts and so forth. As for students they are able to use spreadsheets for assessments, graphing, reports using formulas. In a classroom when I am teaching I would certainly use spreadsheet.

Weekly Reflection (week 6)

samara — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:11:32 +0000

Using Microsoft Publisher was very difficult for me, as I have never used this program before and therefore I was very skeptical and negative about the overall idea of Microsoft Publisher. I learnt that this program is very useful as it enables you to create and manipulate pages that can be manually designed or designed by using a layout. As a teacher Microsoft Publisher will enable me to create numerous documents for example newsletters, worksheets, brochures, handouts and awards. Teaching my students about Microsoft Publisher will also help my students for future reference in educational ways for projects and so forth.

WEEK 5 REFLECTION

samara — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:03:54 +0000

Week 5 lesson focused on web quests and the importance and involvement of web quests in a contemporary classroom. At first I did not understand the point of web quests but with some research I now get web quests. Web quests are useful for the classroom as they involve students and allow them to work together as groups. A good web quest enables students to interact with each other and know the importance of social interaction with other children. As a teacher I now understand that web quests are a great way to enable students to participate in class work, and use technology at the same time. Web quests allow students to provide information and give them a chance to ask questions and further develop their knowledge. In a classroom I would use web quests in numerous ways for different topics especially HSIE as there are numerous quality web quests available.

Week 4 Reflection

samara — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 03:07:04 +0000

“Word processing is a natural part of a teacher’s life” (Fewell & Gibbs, 2003).

As you can see from the above statement this week I am learning about word processing and hyperlinked documents. Word is used all the time by teachers and students for many reasons as it can provide numerous purposes, and numerous presentation types. For example as a teacher I am able to use word for lesson plans, assessment sheets, notes and basic class work, while students can use word to write essays, make tables and so forth. In my practical year 4 students used word to type up their narrative stories.

Weekly Reflection (Week 3)

samara — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:05:27 +0000

Week 3’s learning was focusing on understanding the web. The worldwide web opens a huge door to classroom teaching and learning. The web provides both students and teachers with an opportunity to gather and develop a far broader research strategies other than what the usual classroom provides. The web is readily available in most schools as it becomes an easy source to use. The web nevertheless can provide some set backs as resources found on the internet are not always creditable and professional for educational sources. This can become a problem for students as they need to develop particular skills to notice that some sources are not always useful for what they are researching. In many circumstances students and both teachers become independent on the easy access to the web and never look at other resources that are also useful such as books and articles which are found away from the web.

As the weekly information presented to us states

“Education has also acknowledged the opportunities the www holds for teaching and learning in the twenty first century and the ability of the web to transform the “traditional” classroom into a virtual classroom where students can engage with an ever-increasing base of knowledge, resources and people.”

As a teacher the WWW (world wide web), provides ways for teachers to research lessons, look at syllabuses, and develop the technical ways that students know. Teachers can use the internet to conduct lessons as the net contains online learning in many schools.

It is extremely important that both students and teachers learn to develop skills which enable them to critically evaluate to quality of information found on the web for numerous reasons. As the web is so profound and contain so much information there are particular websites that can be used when finding creditable information.

When evaluating a website it needs mastery. Carefully apprising a web site is important to identity it’s purpose. For example students and both teachers need to consider the;

source

intended audience

date of publication

appearence

reputation