Mobile Phones Wiki

Week two was a bit similar to last week, expect we were required brainstorm about what we thought about mobile phones.

Mobile phones are a great teaching tool as there are many different applications that can be used to teach children the basics of spelling, reading, writing and learning of math. However, they can become a distracting possession as children could play games, text one another or anything that may draw their focus from the learning topic. Also, not every child can afford a fancy mobile phone that allows them to go on the internet or download applications for their learning, which people need to realise this before introducing them into the classroom. Therefore, I have come to conclude that mobile phones would be useful in the classroom as long as the proper cautions are taken to make sure that they are being used for education purposes only and that each child has one.

We also were required to look at different points of view by using the 'Six Thinking Hats' . Each hat has a different way of thinking about the subjects:

1.  White Hat - facts and details.
2.  Black Hat - examines problems.
3.  Yellow  Hat - focuses on the positvies.
4.  Red Hat - emotions and feelings toward a topic.
5.  Green Hat - requires creativeness, imagination and lateral thinking.
6.  Blue Hat - reflection, metacognition and understanding.

In my reflection, I decided to do the White Hat and the Yellow Hat as I wanted to use a change of thinking. I found this task quite easy as the questions helped me to think about mobile phones in different ways. How I reflected to this task was:

• (White Hat) Mobile phones have a wide range of uses which can include being used in a classroom if used in the right manner. There are numerous different applications that can be used to teach children everyday basics, such as grammar, spelling, punctuation and even maths. Children can become distracted with mobile phones, going off track of what the class is actually learning. What is needed to be found out is whether mobile phones are a constructive way of teaching in the classroom and how do we know what year levels would be most beneficial to this type of technology?
• (Yellow Hat) Mobile phones have a wide range applications that can be used for the teaching children the basics of english and mathematics. This can be successful as children are eger to learn about technology and find it more interesting than looking at white dust being written on a black board. Technology of these advances is a good thing because children are more willing to learn.

The Thinking Hat scaffold that we contributed to was an excellent example of thinking about different points on the issue. In a classroom, this would be useful in the teaching of children to discover the different way of thinking by putting on one hat at a time. I will certainly be using this technique myself in the future as I find it a brilliant scaffold.

Learning Theories - Constructivism

Week one we had to conduct a bit of research to find out a bit about constructivism, which I found intregingly interesting. I have joined a group to research topic with Kristi and Louise on constructivism and added a little something to the page. I couldn't do much because they had already done a wonderful job of covering everything. Before now, I had absolutely no clue to what constructivism is, but now, I have a fair understanding.
Constructivism is when the teacher acts as a guide in the classroom, so the students can develop skills, such as reflective thinking, when asked to look for answers themselves. Children engage in group activites to discover an answer themselves while the teacher looks over and acts a guide, then the class discusses what they have found and build on that knowledge.

"The dominant 'progressive/constructivist' philosophy in education schools leads to teacher training that prescribes a student-centered classroom where the teacher's role is to serve mainly as a facilitator for student-directed learning. Under that philosophy it is regarded as bad practice for teachers to actually do much teaching. They are supposed to act as 'the guide on the side' rather than 'the sage on the stage.' Claimed by George K. Cunningham Ph.D on illinoisloop.org (http://www.illinoisloop.org/whatswrong.html).

This course got me to examine these readings in greater depth to show that I have understood what the topic means and to brainstorm why these learnings are used. It would be useful in my teaching context, as children need to be able to learn the ability of a thinking process. Comparing it online to in the classroom, children could have more opportunities online as all their information is there for them to learn. However, it is also important for a child to be productive in a classroom, so they can interact and voice their opinion. This activity was designed to be behaviourist, constructivist and connectivism. The reason behind this thinking is because this activity showed my feelings toward the learning theory wiki, got me to brainstorm and research information on this particular topic and it also got me to connect with other ideas that were brainstormed throught the group. This can support children who struggle to brainstorm by helping them by discussing ideas instead of just teaching it to them. The PMI scaffold that we used can also be a thinking routine as it gets you to think about one particular point of view instead of looking at the one. This would be useful in my own classroom, teaching children not to just look at one point of view, but a wide range of views.

Managing E-Learning Lesson 1

Posting on the Gladstone Wiki Profile was pretty easy in my opinion. After receiving an email from Wendy Fasso, I read what I needed to do before my first lecture and what I needed. Creating a blog was a breeze for me as I knew how to create a google user and blog, which I successfully completed in about 2 minutes. I did, however, need to look at the tutorial for some sections of how to add things to the blog, like how to put a 'YouTube' video in my blog, which I found very interesting. With adding my first blog, I wasn't quite sure what to write, so I wrote my opinion on photoshopping and how it would go in the classroom. Also, I had a few problems with how to find things on the moodle site. One thing I had an issue with finding was finding where I attach my blog link so that people in my class can find me. Also, with the Campus Group Wikis, I was a bit confused to what they were supposed to be used for. Once I talked to a few people, they helped me out and I now feel fully confident of what I need to accomplish.

Photo Shopping

Original Photo

Cropped and Edited Photo

 One Example of the great opportunities technology offers is being able to take a photo, upload it to the computer and edit it; making the photo look completely different to what it originally looked like. For this photo of my right eye, I used Windows Photo Gallery to edit and give this photo a whole different look. Even though Windows Photo Gallery isn't as advanced as some other photo edit programs, like Adobe Photoshop, it still gives a basic idea of what this type of technology can do. In the process of editing a photo, also known as photo shopping, I opened the uploaded, original photo with Windows Photo Gallery and clicked 'Fix' on the tool bar. Some options should appear on the right hand side of the screen: Auto Adjust, Adjust Exposure, Adjust Colour, Crop Picture, and Fix Red Eye. Auto Adjust automatically improces the colour and exposure, Adjust Exposure gives you the option of manually adjusting the contrast and brightness, Adjust Colour gives you the option of manually adusting the temperature, tint and saturation, Fix Red Eyes allows you to manually take any redness out of the eyes, and Crop Picture alows you to cut off sides of the photo. The reason it is useful to use this type of technology in the classroom is so children can use this technology later on in life to change a picture to look the way they want it for importantant documents, e.g. an assignment.