Today in the workshop we began with a literacy task. We were required to watch an Aboriginal Dreamtime story from www.abc.net.au/dustechoes , and then retell the story using the mind-mapping program Inspiration (which we were introduced to in the week 1 workshop). At first I was quite taken aback and unsure as to how I would be able to complete this literacy task using such a seemingly scientifically-based program, let alone how my future students would be able to manage this task.
However I persevered. Firstly I watched the online video of the dreamtime story "The Bat and the Butterfly". Then I opened and explored the teacher's guide in order to deepen my understanding of the story. I noted the 'blackline master' depicting the events of the story out of order - with the aim of students rearranging the events into correct order. I used these events as a starting point for my Inspiration diagram.
I then watched the video and tried to pull out pivotal 'screenshots' that would depict the story via diagram. I really made a concerted effort to try to limit the amount of screenshots used, to ensure my finished product was a diagram, and not just pictures with copious amounts of writing attached. I ended up with 7 pictures, and placed a sentence under each. I then arranged these in a 'snake shaped' flow chart to show the progression of the story.
I can see this activity as being useful for use in my future classroom, but only in the upper primary years. I found the task to be quite fiddley and slightly tedious - i.e. having to take screenshots at 'just the right time' and then import them into Inspiration via Paint I felt to be quite a 'clunky' task. I therefore feel that the lower and middle primary students may become frustrated and disheartened by the process required to complete the task and it therefore would not be suitable at that level. I would used it in a 5/6 class if, and only if, students were made very familiar with the process required and displayed general confidence and competence regarding computers.
The second focus of today's workshop was to complete a numeracy task using Microsoft Excel - a task I am very familiar with and found to be quite easy.
We were required to separate M & Ms into colour groups and graph these. Your can see my graph to the left of this text. I created a bar graph and formatted the bars as to better reflect the data they are representing - e.g. red bar for 'red' category. I also added individual data labels onto the top of the bars, again to increase the clarity of the data. I then copied a picture from the M & Ms website and placed it beside the heading to make the graph look more interesting.
I think graphing data is a fantastic activity for the classroom as it is a great way of integrating numeracy with ICT, and appealing to visual learners.
However I do not feel comfortable with using M & Ms in the classroom. Along with the obvious issues associated with allergies and childhood obesity, I also don't believe that I as a teacher should be seen to be promoting brand-name products to my students. I would much prefer to use confetti shapes or something similar that students can sort and graph.
In the lecture this week we learned about "The Learning Federation" website. I am incredibly impressed with this resource, and have found a multitude of uses for this whilst on placement. I have mainly used it for numeracy (counting and subtraction) and literacy (sequencing and describing events in chronological order). I found that my students really enjoyed these activities when we played them together on the interactive whiteboard and this succeeded in "allowing for multiple and distributed intelligences" and "generating motivation to learn" (taken from G. Powell lecture notes - accessed 29/08/10 entitled Integrating ICT in the Classroom).
As I was most recently on placement in a Prep class, many of the students did not have adequate reading literacy levels to allow them to understand explanation or instruction without additional attention or strong visual cues. Using activities from The Learning Federation website on the IWB worked well to remedy this as students were provided those strong visual cues, along with the written and auditory instructions. I predict that programs such as this will not only assist them to understand the task on that particular day, but also actually, over time, improve their literacy skills - which just goes to show what a fantastic resource ICT can be in the classroom.
In terms of "generating motivation to learn" - students were always incredibly motivated when they knew that the class were to be doing and activity "on the big screen". I ensured that I had students participate in the tasks, which further increased motivation as all of the students "wanted to have a go".
Aside from The Learning Federation, another program I used quite a lot on placement was "Rainforest Maths" which I also found to be very good. This was simply a levelled maths program covering all areas of VELS that was very interactive and colourful, and the students seemed to love. Maybe there is some scope to discuss this in future years of this subject?
Overall this week in Learning Technologies has perhaps been the most enjoyable and useful for me so far, because of the exploration of the Learning Federation and its wonderful application in the classroom.
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