Synopsis

Throughout this course, we have explored a range of different online programs designed to assist with teaching content, but more importantly engaging students to want to learn. It has been a very exciting learning curve for me- I love learning new programs and have hinted in previous posts about being a bit of a nerd when it comes to technology. I have had a genuine interest in the programs that we have explored.

Theory

In week one, we learnt about learning theories- Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Social Constructivism and Connectivism. The programs that we have explored can each be adapted to incorporate these learning theories. For example, the game I created in Powerpoint fits Behaviourism learners well; the use of concept maps is great for Cognitivism learners; this blog is a useful tool for Social Constructivism learners; and the creation of wikispaces and weeblys for Connectivism.

Throughout our journey, we have learnt about Bloom's Taxonomy and the SAMR model. I found that once introduced to the new programs, I began to explore the ways in which I could incorporate it into my teaching. In my thinking, I adapted parts of SAMR without consciously doing so- asking "how would I use this?" Once I understood SAMR, I was able to focus my thinking, with the goal of not just relying on substitution but on creating tasks that incorporated curriculum goals with engagement through augmentation, modification and redefinition.

I believe that an important additional consideration that needs to be included when planning to incorporate ICTs into teaching is "what is the final goal?" The trap that the use of SAMR can assist to redirect and avoid is using technology for technology's sake- the incorporation of technology should not just be because you have to, but rather that it is value adding to the content and to the engagement of students.

The questions of "can I be doing this better?", "are there other ways of engaging students to ensure they are all achieving their best?" should constantly be asked to ensure that you are achieving your curriculum goals through excellent engagement. These are important questions that can be motived from the use of SAMR and Bloom's Taxonomy.

(Source: Schrock, K. viewed from http://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html)

Cyber-Safety

While developing my skills in these programs, a key consideration was cyber-safety. While technology is great to incorporate, I had to keep asking the question of "how am I going to protect my students?", not only from clicking on the a website and finding adult content, but from identification on websites through photos, and cyber-bullying. Education Queensland have a great website with information for their teachers.

One of the programs that I explored further was Movie Maker to show a movie of photos that had been taken- an activity for prep students to recreate the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". I took into consideration the privacy of students pictures when developing this, and ensured that their faces were not identifiable. 

In practical use, with the incorporation of programs such as Weeblys, I would use a base page for research projects that would give the students a list of websites that were "safe" to use.

Reflection and the Future

As previously stated, the SAMR model has guided my thinking throughout the course to date. I am 100% behind the use of ICTs within my classroom with the underlying rule that they will be value adding and engaging students.

This course has taught me a lot- I have learnt about new technology and it has challenged my pre-conceived notions about incorporating ICTs with the classroom. If I was being honest, without this course I may have steered myself towards the "using technology for technology's sake" route, rather than develop ideas that allow for better engagement with students. With the use of SAMR, I have been able to channel my thoughts and ideas, and I believe to use the programs to further engage the students. 

Now that I have spent a very small amount of time in a classroom, and done study in other subjects, I can better understand the importance of engagement on a number of fronts including behaviour management and achieving learning outcomes. I can see myself using the collaborative nature of the programs to increase engagement and interest, and to scaffold harder concepts through the use of different examples that meet the learning theories discussed above. Additionally, I believe that it is easier to take the time to offer feedback to individual students as I will not need to lug 30 books home each day, and it offers opportunities for other students to work together to provide opinions.

Overall, I believe that ICTs will be a great addition to my teaching repertoire. 

References

Education Queensland (2012). Risk Management. Retrieved from http://education.qld.gov.au/web/schools/riskman.html 

Newton, M. (2014). Melissa Newton ICT Blog. Retrieved from ictblog27.blogspot.com.au 

Newton, M. (2014). Melissa Newton Wikispace. Retrieved from https://melissanewtoncqu.wikispaces.com/ 

Newton, M. (2014). Melissa Newton ICT 2014. Retrieved from ihttp://melissanewton.weebly.com 

Schrock, K. (2014). Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything. Retrieved from http://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html

Reflection Five, Week Six

This week we were encouraged to look at any tool that we use and unpack it. A list of nine optional activities were provided. I chose concept maps from this list.

The two examples that we were given were bubbl.us and text2mindmap. I had previously used both of these programs to develop a concept map for a novel for year 6 students, however I opted to us a downloaded program. For this week's task, I chose to unpack bubbl.us.

Creation of concept map through bubbl.us

bubbl.us is an easy program to use. You can create concept maps with relative ease. The first few screens are easy to navigate, and there is plenty of online support for how to use the program through places such as YouTube.

To start, click on "Start Brainstorming". This will take you to a new concept map that looks like this:

It is now as simple as clicking "Start Here" to write what the main topic is going to be. Once happy with your topic, you get two options from each box- to add a "child" box, which is linked to the "parent" box; or start an unlinked concept.

Here is an example using healthy food as the main topic. This is a simple concept map with the topic, categories coming off the parent box, and three examples of each category. This has been developed for my year one class that I will have for my first Embedded Professional Learning (EPL) placement.

As I have designed this for year one students, I want to make it as easy to read as possible. bubbl.us offers the option to change the text colours and the box colours. As this is for year one students, I changed the category colours to provide better differentiation.

This took about 10 minutes to create and is a way that you can use concept maps for brainstorming. If I were to use this activity in my year 1 classroom, I would get the students to respond with all the different examples they could think of for each of the categories. Some would be small, such as the dairy one, but others quite large ie fruit and vegetables.

A new feature that I found was the ability to "connect" concepts together and show the relationship between them. Below is a concept map for the book "Other Brother" which shows a few of the characters from the novel and the relationships that are identifiable from reading (French, S. 2012).

This map shows a few things. The two main characters are "Kieran" and "Bon", who I highlighted in red to stand out. "Renee" and "Mum" are biological connections, so I made them both green. "Max" and "Julia" are friends of the main characters within the novel so I made them blue.

Through creating a number of separate boxes, I was able to connect the two boxes together and type any information that was appropriate. As per this concept map, I outlined biological connections, as well as emotional connections between the main characters and the friends.

While some of the connections in the picture above may not be accurate, it does allow you to choose if you want a one-way arrow, such as that between "Max" and "Bon" which reflects Max bullying Bon, or a two-way arrow between "Bon" and "Kieran" showing that they are cousins.

Use of bubbl.us

The use of concept maps is not a new phenomenon, and would therefore be classed as Substitution. It is taking an action that many people have done by hand and making it electronic. I would, however, argue that there is a touch of Augmentation as well due to the fact that while you can easily draw a concept map on paper, the added features of quick colour coding and ability to move boxes to suit needs provides a better way of doing this exercise. I believe that the collaborative approach by both on paper and electronic versions does not change that much.

And now, for a concept map showing the relationship between Bloom's Taxonomy and SAMR (Schrock, 2014).

I have provided above two different ways to demonstrate the use of this program within classrooms. There are a number of other ways that you could use the program such as for visual presentations of an essay and the arguments that the student will use; showing a path of decisions and outcomes; showing relationships; demonstrating similarities/differences through listing of characteristics etc.

Overall, it is an easy program to use that can be adapted to fit classrooms replacing the hand-written concept maps with increased flexibility.

Reference List

French, S. (2012). Other Brother. Australia: Walker Books Australia.

Schrock, K. (2014). Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything. Retrieved from http://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html.

Reflection Four, Week Five

This week we explored the use of Powerpoint, Prezi and Glogster.

This week I chose to use Powerpoint. I have had a bit of experience using Powerpoint, and decided that I would explore its use further. I would like to justify this choice through the discussion we had in class this week.

We talked about the implementation of a few pieces of technology from the different perspectives of key stakeholders within the education process. This discussion kept coming back to the issue of acceptance and willingness of those above in the hierarchy of teaching- their willingness to accept ICT in teaching methods, their willingness to pay for subscriptions etc.

This got me thinking. While we are exploring a large range of programs, what am I going to do should I get a position as a school that does not have access to all these wonderful new ideas? What if they aren't equipped to give the students access? I would hate to spend so much time developing ideas and lesson plans that are not able to be implemented. This is why I chose Powerpoint.

Powerpoint is a Microsoft program should be accessible through most computers- if it is a Mac, then a suitable conversion program will need to be available on the computer. Generally, the computers that students will have access to will come with Powerpoint installed, and therefore saves a large amount of issues with downloading/gaining access to this program.

As stated above, I have had some experience with Powerpoint. This experience has been through the creation of boring presentations. I had embedded a picture or two, and once even included some sound that I had recorded. Had I not attended this class, I may have continued with this dull format.

I decided to have an attempt at creating a game after viewing what little you could see of Glenna Shaw's (2010) work. I immediately could see how you could manipulate the functions of Powerpoint to create a game.

The first thing that I did was choose a theme. I decided that this was the most appropriate:

It is bright, but not too busy ie you can easily add text, images and buttons without the theme getting in the way. There were a number to choose from, and even once I chose this one, I was offered the ability to change the colour scheme.

I appreciate the consistency of the Microsoft programs. If you are fluent with Word, then you have a huge advantage when using Powerpoint. Powerpoint offers a somewhat instinctual layout with the main functions being on the homepage ie "New Slide", editing of text, and editing of styles. Anything off this screen is what I would call a perk- a little something extra that you need to play with to get working.

So once I had determined my theme, I inserted a few more slides. These all had the same theme as the original slide, and you can change the layout to fit your needs.

I first built the game with four players in mind, however I manipulated it so that you can have a number of different player combinations. It would work where you have one device for 4 children and they each have a go, or it could work with a group working cooperatively to determine the answers. Additionally, this could be a class exercise where each student could provide verbal or written feedback to the teacher, with the general consensus answer being chosen.

I drew up the board with 16 questions as shown below. The star is the current question.

 This didn't take long to draw up, with the use of a text box. I created one about the right size and then clicked on "Quick Styles" which let me preview and change the colour of the box. I then copied the box, placed it where I wanted it and clicked the style button to chose a different colour with the same style. On the image above, you will see two styles- the start and finish are different from the number tiles.

Another great function of Powerpoint is that you can ensure all your boxes and images are lined up, spaced evenly between them and central to the middle of the page or text. When you are dragging the items on the screen, lines appear to show you this. I love this tool!!! It made everything so easy to line up and space evenly.

Inserting text into the boxes was easy and I love the button that lets you change the text size with an "up" and "down" button. I could easily highlight the text that I wanted to increase in size, and click on the "up" button. It increases in increments of 4, which was great.

Next I created the slides with the Questions on them. It was as simple as adding the text for the title and question. For the answer, again, I created a text box, changed the style (I modelled them on the board colours) and then added the different possible answers.

I started piecing the questions together after consulting the curriculum and determining the math requirements for year two, I included questions around General Capability requirements ACMNA029, ACMNA030 and ACMNA035. Had I created all 16 questions, I could have included more Capabilities into the mix.

I then created a correct and incorrect screen. This was a simple task as well. I used one of the "online images" that they offer for the correct screen. I pasted this and then copied it and changed the size of the images.

On the incorrect screen, I decided that it was best to provide feedback on the way in which you get the answer. You will see examples of the different methods I chose- a picture, a table and some text. These were all very easy to create. I employed the tools listed above.

After creating the first question and slides about correct and incorrect, I then wanted to insert the board again, with the star in a new place. Powerpoint offers a great function that you can right click on any slide and duplicate it. It then appears directly under the original. I then dragged it down to where I wanted to put it. I clicked on the star and dragged it to where I wanted it.

I continued this process before doing the more tricky stage which was creating to directions for when you click a box, such as the "continue" boxes you can see in the images above. This was a relatively easy process, however it exercised my brain to ensure that I was creating the appropriate link ie from the answer box on the question page to either the correct or incorrect page.

Creating the actual links was easy. Under the "Insert" menu, I found the "Action" button. This opened up a menu where I could chose to link it to the next page, or a certain page, and also add sound to the selection. I chose to do a "click" sound for all bar the last page where the "you won" page comes up. Here I chose to insert applause from their menu (although it sounds more like a train).

The only difficulty I had with this stage was that I had to remember to select the box before creating the action, otherwise it would only activate if you clicked on the word. I wanted anywhere on the box to be active.

This is about all of the technical steps. There was a lot of repeating and duplicating of items. A lot of time was taken to get my head around how this would game would function and a lot of testing of items. I am happy with the final tool which can be downloaded from here: Math Geniuses- A Board Game

Reflection:

Once I was happy with the document, I decided to upload it to my Weebly. We had discussed in class using programs to upload it into this blog, however this was not successful by Gary. I uploaded the game to Weebly, however when I tried to play it through there, it did not work. The document is there, however the decision I made to insert click buttons to take you to the appropriate page does not work properly. I tried it on my WikiSpace, and it is a workable edition, however you need to download it. It is currently just under 5mb, which means that if I had completed the full 16 questions, it may need to have been broken up which is not really an option for year two students.

After uploading the game to my WikiSpace, I downloaded it to ensure it worked. I found, however, that if you didn't enable editing, the game does not show the titles on each slide. If you do click to enable editing, then it seemed to work.

Having these issues with uploading and downloading the game, I would choose not to upload this game to either a Weebly or a WikiSpace. I think it would be easier to have it on a memory stick or email that is downloaded prior to the lesson. This would mean that the game should be played first up, or after a break to allow time for set-up.

While Powerpoint is readily accessible, one of the main concerns I have with this program is that you cannot control students from just clicking through the game to the end, as you would on a normal Powerpoint presentation. It would need to be monitored to ensure that there is no "cheating". Additionally, I was not able to find a way to keep track of how many questions were answered correctly.

With the limitations in mind, I can see many different ways of using a Powerpoint for interaction. What I have created could be classed as Augmentation and Modification, however you could use it for a number of lessons including:

• The more simple forms of presentation that include links to websites, videos and have embedded pictures;
• Recreating books with sequencing and asking each child to retell the story in their own words of that slide through audio;
• Creating choose your own adventure books where students design their own stories and endings;
• Teaching the relationship between actions and reactions- provide different ways to react to situations with the students learning about consequences of their actions;
• Change the ending of stories. 

Overall, I can see myself using Powerpoint in a classroom both for teaching and for interaction by the students. I think the easy access and manipulation of the program means that it is a good medium to invest the time in to build up skills and understanding of the possible uses.


References: 

Shaw, Glenna. (2010). Presentations, Educational Games and Project Management. Retrieved from  http://www.pptmagic.com/

Reflection Three, Week Four

This week we looked a podcasts, videos and images as education tools.

I had never worked with any of these mediums, so I decided to play around with video tool. My two original ideas were somehow drawing up how parliament works- to explain who is who with lots of pictures. I decided that due to time constraints, this would be too hard. I then started thinking along the line of sequencing in a children's book.

We are currently exploring in Literacy activities that you should be conducting before, during and after reading literature to your students. One of the activities we discussed was sequencing- putting the key parts of the story into order.

I decided that I would take ACELT1580, ACELY1654 and ACELY1647 of the Foundation Literacy General Capabilities on board and recreate the Monday- Saturday part of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" (due to time constraints I was only able to do this part of the book, however with more time I would have done from cover to cover).

I decided to use "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" due to the number of different images that was required. With a class of 25+ students, each would need to have a role. A few students (4-5) could type up the words and insert the pictures; 15 students could colour-in the foods; and 1-6 students could do the narration. A total of 22 pictures were used, which is almost enough to cover a class of 25 each holding up a picture.

 Examples of the pictures used.

I am very lucky in that I have access to two prep students in my immediate family, and quite a few within the extended family. This video was made with 4 children- 3 in prep and the voice over done by a niece in year 2 and my son who is in prep. The pictures were coloured in by 2 prep students. The words and pictures were done by myself, however with supervision and assistance, this task could have been completed by prep students.

I was very careful when taking the photos to not include their faces. As this video would be made available on the internet, I did not want to compromise the safety of the participants. If this were my prep class, I would have done the same thing and movie night viewing. This is where students could point themselves out the their parents.

The photos were taken using a camera as the quality of them was high. They were then uploaded into Movie Maker. I chose Movie Maker as it was free and very easy to use. I was able to make the movie by uploading the pictures onto the main screen of the program. If I was happy with the default settings, the movie would have been complete within approximately 10mins of uploading the photos.

I customised the amount of time each photo stayed on the screen for. This was a very easy process using a drop-down menu. The default was set at seven seconds, which I felt was too long. Three seconds seemed to last well, and gave our narrators long enough time to read and verbalise the words on the screen.

There are a number of different options that you could include in the movie such as which way you want the next image to appear from, inserting captions and titles, changing the visual effects etc, however this movie was not designed for such.

The next task was to create the narration. This took a few practices to complete, however with three clicks, you had sound. The quality of the sound is good. Once you are happy with it, the main screen shows you the visual and audio components together like this:

Once happy with the movie, you are given a number of options for saving the movie dependent on the viewing format. I chose one that would keep the size of the movie relatively low.

This is the final product (please note that they are a little loud on the credits screen...):

I was very happy with the final product and I could see myself using video in a number of ways in the classroom.

I was assisting a student last night with their math homework when we came to a problem of dividing two fractions. I vaguely remembered that something had to be inverted. We used google and found a site that showed a few different ways to explain how to do the problem including a complicated diagram and a video. Using a program like Movie Maker, I could develop quick movies that explain to students step by step how to solve maths problems like this. It would take less than an hour to do and would provide additional support to students outside of school hours rather than trying to rely on parental help, and encouraging independence. You could also use this task as a student driven one to confirm learning by asking the students to make a one minute to explain math problems in a way that is clear to them.

I would also use Movie Maker to recreate books/events/poetry etc for parent nights. I believe that these sorts of lessons help to engage a higher number of students and additionally provide fantastic examples for parents so that they see what their children are up to. It also opens up an avenue of creativity that may not have been possible before (redefinition within the SAMR model).

There are so many ways that videos could be incorporated in teaching today. It does open up another possible avenue of engagement for all students and can be used to demonstrate different abilities such as leadership through organising the project, artistic capabilities both through the physical and digital aspects, and teamwork with all students pulling together to complete the task.

As with all tasks involving photos, images and the like, careful consideration needs to be taken of where this is going to be viewed at a later date. If any of the movies had the students faces in them, I would be careful about the distribution of this. I would ensure that I had written permission from the parents to use their images, and would keep screening to within the classroom and to the teachers. I would prefer to design tasks that made the images unidentifiable (as per the movie I have made) which I believe still looks good and suits the purpose it was designed for.

This is a very easy medium to use and I look forward to incorporating it into my lessons.

Reflection Two, Week Three

This week we explored the different mediums of Blogs, Wikispaces and Weebly Websites. All three can be incorporated into learning and teaching, however each provides a different set of benefits. The SAMR Model, which aims to assist with the incorporation of technology into learning, will be included in the examination of these mediums of technology.

Dr Ruben Puentedura's SAMR Model

Dr Ruben Puentedura developed the SAMR Model that "aims to support teachers to design, develop and integrate learning technologies to support high levels of learning achievement" (Education Queensland, 2013). SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition (Education Queensland, 2013). 

This table explains the SAMR Model well (Puentedura, 2014):

Image created by Dr Ruben Puentedura. Retrieved from http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives/2014/01/31/SAMRAnAppliedIntroduction.pdf

This model can be utilised to allow teachers to develop technology components within lessons, in some cases just replacing a task with the use of technology, such as instead of handwriting a journal article, students could do so through a word processing program. This is an example of substitution. Augmentation would be using technology to create a journal on a blogging program which students, teachers and parents can access online and provide feedback for example. Modification could be the use of blogs by a class that is studying a particular subject whereby they research the topic further and provide a persuasive argument using online resources. Redefinition would be using blogs to discuss a topic, which are then read and feedback provided by students who are studying the same topic in another part of the world. They then work together to provide solutions to topics ie climate change, bullying through sharing of ideas and working collaboratively. 

Blog- ICT27.blogspot.com

The blog program we explored was this one- Blogger. The first step was to have a Gmail account, something that I have had for years. I then created a blog through my email. This was a relatively easy process for myself, however I saw fellow students have a hard time with this. Having a small IT background and a general interest in different computer programs has made the tasks of setting up these accounts relatively easy for me, almost to the point of being second nature.

Once I had created a blog with a name and web link, I gained access to a dashboard that offers many different customisable options.  For example, I could choose a theme background from a number of pictures and a layout that I decided was both function and visually pleasing. Other information I can see from the dashboard includes how many people are visiting my blog per day, which country they reside in, and comments that have been made to my posts.

One of the benefits with this program is that you I could change features such as the theme and layout without saving the changes and view them on a preview screen prior to publishing the change. When I was happy with the change, I saved it.

Another great function of the program was how easy it is to incorporate items such as a Voki into the blog. Google was my source on how to do this and it is a very easy process that I have since been able to share with my fellow students. 

The adding of posts has been equally easy. I greatly appreciate the ability to be able to draft a post that I can work on over a number of days and save as I go, without having to write it in another program or publish an incomplete post. When writing the post, you have a number of options such as the text size, font, and colour, as well as inserting links, pictures and most of the basic word processing features. 

The limitations of the program are that it is restrictive. The text comes in 5 sizes- smallest, small, normal, large and largest; while the fonts are Arial, Courier, Georgia, Helvetica, Times, Trebuchet and Verdana. I would have liked to see the inclusion of Wingdings which can add some interest particularly for primary school children. 

The program can be a little bit hard to negotiate, however with time it does become easier. I would suggest that when first learning to use this program, that attention to detail is required. The information is there to make the program work for you, however you need to be looking in the right place. 

I agree with Thomas (2008) that a blog can be used as a group tool, however it is not as effective as a wikispace or a discussion forum. Having said that however, I believe that this medium can be incorporated into learning, although limited when looking as collaborative tasks. I would suggest that it is ideal for self-reflection and for the teacher to ascertain that key learning has indeed been met.

The other consideration for this medium is that feedback need to be provided on an individual level ie responding with a comment. I believe that if personalised feedback is not offered, students will be reluctant to put in the effort. This is the same had this task been completed using handwriting. I would personally prefer to log on to a blog when had time, ie watching my children play sport, from the comfort of my lounge etc, and provide feedback than cart home 30 exercise books. I can also type faster than I can write. It also means that I do not have to finish the task in such a short time frame due to be required to return the books tomorrow for another task. 

In terms of security, blogs are highly secure when compared to wikispaces. Once a post is made, the author/owner of the blog is the only person that can change it. Comments do need to be monitored, however I believe that if you complete a lesson on what is appropriate and not appropriate when writing and responding to blogs, you can combat this issue. The owner of the blog can delete inappropriate content. 

In practical examples, I would use a blog to substitute the task of handwriting a journal. I am currently developing activities for an assessment item for a novel"Other Brother". I would break the class up into three groups and ask them to write a journal entry about the same event from the perspective of the different key characters- Bon, Kieran and Gina/Julia/Bon's dad eg. Bon's visit to Kieran's house, which is their first time meeting; Bon's first day at Kieran's school; Bon sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night and Kieran convincing him to come home; and Bon and Kieran getting caught out of the house and being grounded; Kieran attempting to stand up for Bon against the bullies when they dress him in a skirt; Julia's sudden departure from the school and the town. 

This activity could be further developed as the blog offers each student the ability to read the entry by the other students and provide feedback. It also offers a chance to finish the book, as it were, as the ending is very open. Students could break into groups and write what they believe was on the postcard from Julia, the reply from Bon or Kieran, and read each other's responses. I think the modification of this task would both meets some of the general capabilities within the Curriculum, whilst providing students with a new learning experience that builds upon their understanding of the novel whilst working somewhat collaboratively with their peers. 

These activities use substitution, augmentation and modification from the SAMR model and assess understanding, evaluating, and creating from Blooms Taxonomy. 

Another example using a blog would be to ask the students to do some research into bullying, a key theme in the novel. I would ask them to research the topic, providing links to websites which they found useful, and then reflect on their own experiences of bullying. They could write about examples from the book that ties into a time when they were bullied or bullied someone else. This activity would fall into the Modification and Redefinition parts of SAMR.

As a side task, I like the idea of students writing something good about their peers. I had previously done this on a piece of paper when I was at school. A blog could be used for each student to write an introduction about themselves ie age, family structure, favourite movie/song/book/sport etc. Once all the students have had time to get to know each other, they could visit each other's introduction post and write something they like about them eg "You make me laugh with your jokes" or "You are going to be the world's next Beckham". This activity would fall under the Substitution and Augmentation parts of SAMR.

Weebly Website- http://melissanewton.weebly.com

Weebly has taken a lot of the thinking and scary notions out of building a website, with a simple click and drag system which allows you to add content the way you want. Overall, it took me about 10 minutes to set it up, with about 8 minutes of that was choosing which template I wanted to use.

The template choices were vast. They offer different themes and a stock photo that comes with each. I chose the sky to grass template as it seemed light, and I could tie in the idea of reaching for the skies for my students. 

The process for initial setup is very similar to that of Blogger- chose your theme, your weblink and then a dashboard of sorts opens up.  On the left are a number of buttons that reflect the different components that you can add to your website. You simply click on the one you want and drag it onto your site. 

The templates come with three pages created for you- "Home", "About" and "Contact". Adding additional pages is very easy. You are given the option to add a "Standard" page or a "Blog", "Store" or "External Link".  With each new page you add, you can chose the title, the layout, if it is hidden from navigation, password protected, as well as adding in a description of the page, and meta keywords in the advanced settings.

A feature that I found very useful is the ability to stagger the pages so that I could create a core page that the base for all Class Plans, and then have individual pages for each subject. These pages are indented to the right to look like they belong/fall under the Class Plans title.

I am able to invite people to access my webpage based on a few categories. This however is limited unless you want to pay a per the month fee. As a test, I added one person as an Administrator, which gives them free access to edit and create. I would be hesitant to give this type of access to students, as there is content that I have written that I do not want edited or removed. With the Author access, you are able to restrict which pages members can edit. This would be more practical in a school situation.

The website doesn't have a "Save" button as such, but rather a "Publish" button. I found that I forgot to press the publish button on a number of occasions. This is one of the fail-safes to ensure that you do not make changes you are not happy with.

In practical application, the Weebly Website would be a very useful tool. I can see the application of it almost only limited by the skills and imagination of the educator. As I stated before, one of the key limitations is access. It could become a one-stop shop for all the information that you want a student to access. It definitely offers more opportunities to be collaborative, however unless you are willing to pay for the service or give students full write access, it can be quite limiting on what content you are able to provide.

The only example of how I would use this program as a home base. (I do not want to get bogged down in all the uses for this medium, as I am already hovering close to 2000 words for this analysis.) I would add everything that we are doing onto a website like this for easy reference for myself and my students. The ease in which you can add content is amazing. I can see how I would develop my unit of work on "Other Brother" and upload it to the website. It would also assist with students who are away with keeping up with their workloads, and guidance for students and parents alike to keep track of where their child is up to and what they are expected to do.

This medium is a perfect example of Redefinition from the SAMR model. It brings together all the components you use and opens up a new level of learning.

Wikispace- http://melissanewtoncqu.wikispace.com

Wikispaces are the most collaborative medium that is being analysed within this blog. I believe that Wikispaces are the easiest medium analysed as they come "classroom ready" with the teacher only being required to add members and content.

Once you go through the registration process, you come to the dashboard. This site is already set up with a page for "Members", "Projects", "Events", "Assessment", and "Settings". This is very much something that you could use to immediately upload content and be ready to use within a day. 

On the members page, you can send out email invitations; or through the Settings Page, you can set up new accounts. I think that creating the log-ins yourself would be best as you do not have the added worries of students not receiving their log-in emails. You can directly upload a spreadsheet with all this information if you wish (which might make it easier if the student already has a generic school log-in that you could copy). 

On the Projects page, you can enter details about tasks you would like the students to complete. This is a great tool as you can elect to set a due date, as well as assign students into groups. Once assigned, students can start typing on a page and working collaboratively on the task. This page can also allow you to plan for the future in that you can set a project for any time in the future and it will remain hidden until the start time.

On the Events page, you can add items as well as decide if they are to be seen or hidden. This works well with the Projects page.

The Assessment page allows the owner of the Wikispace to track the work that each students has done. For example, I can pull up each of the projects and see if the student has contributed through writing on the page, reading the page, or saving the page. This is great for group work where you want to ensure that each member is contributing to the task.

As previously stated, this medium is very collaborative, however one of the drawbacks is the management of content. Students are able to access and edit content contributed by their fellow classmates, which could be accidental or malicious. 

As with the Weebly websites, Wikispaces would fall under the Redefinition part of SAMR models. It offers the opportunity to bring all the students together to learn and work collaboratively and can easily include outside sources such as other websites, blogs etc.

Put into practice, as with the Weebly websites, I can see the opportunities are endless. Content control is the main issue. However I would use this in conjunction with my website- the wikispace would be where the practical work gets done such as concept maps and the final outcomes would be posted on the website. 

Self-Reflection

Until this subject, I had never really had any inclination to create a blog. I had previously had some experience with building a website, however I did not know about Weebly. I had never heard of a Wikispace.

This week has challenged me to find ways to incorporate them into learning and learning outcomes. While I do have some ability to navigate rather easily through programs, I did find some of the finer details difficult to negotiate. 

I had started this blog believing that the Wikispaces was probably going to be my favourite medium, however that changed when I started to use the Weebly website. I did make a mistake with the Wikispaces and navigated away from the Classroom setting of it. I could not get it to revert back to this, so I deleted that Wikispace. Since restarting, I have found it much easier to utilise.

I can see numerous ways to use this technology especially using the SAMR model. I have listed a few ways above, but please note that my ideas are not limited to those listed above. 

I have enjoyed this subject so far and have appreciated the opening up to new technologies. I had never heard of a Voki or Wordle previously, but have been able to incorporate both of these into the mediums analysed above. 

References

Education Queensland. (2013). The SAMR Model: engage in deep learning and authentic contexts. Retrieved from https://classroomconnections.eq.edu.au/topics/Pages/2013/issue-7/samr-learning-technologies.aspx 

Puentedura, Ruben. (2014). SAMR: An Applied Introduction. Retrieved from http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives/2014/01/31/SAMRAnAppliedIntroduction.pdf

Thomas. (2008). Using Blogs to Enhance Learning- Some Helpful Tips. Retrieved from http://www.openeducation.net/2008/10/10/using-blogs-to-enhance-learning-%E2%80%93-some-helpful-tips/