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.