Laurenne’s Blog

I have thoroughly enjoyed my first time blogging this semester as I have gained so much knowledge, and experience. I have decided to continue my blogs throughout my teaching experience.

There are more blogs yet to come!

I read with interest Lauren’s blog, this website was called Creative Educators and from browsing this site I  thought this site was very interesting as I have not come across a website similar to this and I am sure this site will be used for when I am a teacher!. I thought this site will be a great site to use with my students when working with technology as the site helps students to make digital stories, work with interactive whiteboards and publish to print, HTML and video. This site can also allow teachers to access stories from other educators on their successes with the website.  I like how the website is based on the curriculum and focused on student learning, and contain little teacher instruction as possible. This website page will be used in my teaching experience with my students as it enables the students to explore their creativity and imaginations in using technology.

Unfortunately my mindmap was unable to be uploaded or copied into my blog due to again technical difficulties. My mindmap will be attempted again throughout this week and hopefully I will have some success in having my mindmap displayed in my blog.

Thank you for your patience.

I agree with Monique’s views about Comic Strip, that it is a sequence of drawings that tells a story. When I created my comic strip, it provided me a way for my opinion and thoughts to be heard in an entertaining and humorous way. I had so much fun in creating my comic strip and I can visualise my students engaging with this program in creating an interesting story to tell. I believe that Comics can be an excellent way to get students interested in reading and writing a story of their own. This is bbecause the text is less daunting to read than a novel. If students find success in reading comics they might be more motivated to try other types of texts

I think that Comics can be an excellent springboard to get students interested in reading. Students not only will benefit from reading a comic strip but they will also enjoy creating them. I think using Comic Strips in the classroom will be good for teaching English in the classroom.

 I found an article called The LAMS Community. This article has depicted that LAMS Community allow teachers to share and adapt digital lesson plans, and discuss their experiences of using LAMS.” it is an open source teaching that encourages the sharing of digital lesson plans. Teachers, trainers and professors can find digital lessons plans that are freely available to use and adapt, and they can share their own creations and adaptations to the benefit of all education. In creating my own LAMS task with Lauren, we had a lot of enjoyment and learnt that there are other ways of teaching and assessing content to students. We both found that using LAMS Community was very beneficial to teachers and students and this will be carried on throughout our teaching.

I read an interesting article called Digital Stories, this article mentioned that storytelling is the art of turning a personal narrative into a multimedia experience.  It can combine music, video and/or still images with your creative voice.  The results are an original production that engages the viewing audience in ways that are often surprising and powerful.
Digital storytelling can be used to introduce or reinforce the power of writing.  Through the writing process and its refinement, students often discover the power of personal expression and greater creativity with digital tools at their aidAdvancements in technology have given everyone the opportunity to be a digital storyteller for a online, world-wide audience.  In our e-learning class we explored and created digital story broad via the media “Imovie” or “Garageband” or “Photostory” or “Moviemaker”. This was a wonderful learning experience in beginning the making of a digital story and of its technical aspects. I have gained that digital stories will be very useful in my classroom and that my technical illiteracy will not have an impact on the quality of the ICT learning experiences of my future students.

An interesting statement from Janelle’s blog which was based on the fact that there are many software programs available to use for presentations, and powerpoint is not the only software program to present information. I agree with Janelle, there are times where I have tried to maintain focused when a huge class are all using powerpoint for  their presentations.It can be sometimes not be interesting as they often simply read word for word the text on the screen, and add sound effects and transitions and pictures.

 Recently this semester in the subject Visual Arts and Craft education we were assigned to use a software program to present our information on an artist to the class. Everyone in the class chose to use powerpoint, I noticed in the class students were drifting away from the presentations, they were doing other university work. This amazed me, and from this experience I have learnt that when I am a teacher I will need to teach the students about other software programs we can present information instead of using powerpoint. The subject e- learning has given me a huge insight about other software programs that can be used to aid the students’ presentations such as podcasting.

Therefore teachers should be very careful in their use of powerpoint in the classroom. It could even be avoided as there are so many other great software programs available.

Image reference: http://images.inmagine.com/168nwm/imagesource/is995/is995078.jpg

My first Podcast that I created in e- learning, and I thoroughly enjoyed using this new software as I can see the benefits in using this software with my students. It is a great program for students and teachers to share information with anyone at any time. It allows educators and students remarkable opportunities for their voices to be heard.

I used this Podcast with my students at my last practicum where they were directed to act out what they heard from the Podcast. This brought a lot of enjoyment and excitement and students began to have an interest in Podcasting. I then did a lesson the following day on Podcasting with my students.

Have a listen to My First Podcast

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Janelle’s blog which was based on the article ‘Digital Video Goes to School’. I enjoyed reading this blog and article as digital video technologies are a new exciting new tool that teachers can now use. I recalled my practicum teacher at my previous school that used digital videos a lot in her class as a way to provide opportunities for her to interact with her students to give them access to content in a new way. From my observations the students really enjoyed watching the digital videos and this can be shown by how their concentration level improved as well as their level of excitement when the teacher would tell them they are about to watch a digital video.

The use of digital video can be used in many different ways in the classroom in a variety of KLAs for example: digital video can be used for digital storytelling, videos, e-portfolios and analysis. I agree with Janelle’s statement in regards to the article stating that digital video is a powerful way to motivate students, energise teaching, and link to community. Janelle believed that motivation is such an internal process that we can manipulate it. I also believe motivation is an internal process which depends on the teacher’s ability to maintain students interest. It can also be seen that learning opportunities are optimised because the content and interactivity motivate and engage the learner and connect with them cognitively, emotionally, and culturally.

                               Students Podcasting  - What teachers need to know                                               Reference:

British Council Learning. (2007).Podcasting. Retrieved August 19, 2008 from: 

 http://www.britishcouncil.org/etwinning-quality-label-sackville-school-podcasting.htm

I read an article that was found on the internet called ‘Podcast in the Classroom’. This article contains thorough information about what is podcasting and the benefits in using Podcasting in the classroom.

The article depicts that ‘Podcasting’ is a significant resource which teachers can use to teach and learn a language. Podcasting is also a tool which allows teachers to share their ideas and suggestions in order to improve their method of teaching. It also enables students and teachers to share information with anyone at any time.

In creating a podcast it allows students to share learning experiences. They  learn to research, write, develop vocabulary, speak effectively, manage time, solve problems, and grab attention. It provides them with a world-wide audience that makes learning meaningful and assessment authentic. Teachers can use the technology to provide additional and revision material to students to download and review at a time that suits them.

                                 What are your thoughts about Podcasting?