As a scientist POE’s or Predict-Observe-Explain are central to my teaching method so when I was reading Melissa’s comments about using POE’s on computers I was immediately interested.
In a POE, for you non science people, students predict what they think is going to happen in the experiment, observe the experiment taking place and then explain what happened and why it happened. This is especially interesting when school students or even university students predict incorrectly which happened for us in our POE in first semester…
POE’s are great as Melissa says as they encourage discussion, collaboration and scientific thinking in students. Using learning designs as discussed by Kearney, POE’s could be used more frequently in class as the observation of the experiment could be repeated multiple times…
So the questions for you know are…
1 – PREDICT what will happen when you put two eggs into pure water… OBSERVE and EXPLAIN
How can I use a podcast in Maths or Science? I checked out Apple’s Podcasting in Education which gave me something to work with…
Check out my ideas in my podcast created and attached… hope you enjoy and hope I can do these activities with students in my teaching career next year… sure their podcasts will be much more exciting than mine, as they are the Digital geniuses!
Elgg is an online social network designed specificially for academics. Students and Teachers can create profiles, add photos, videos, blogs, friend lists, podcasts and many more. Schools are seeing Elgg as a great learning tool due to its online collaboration between students. Collaboration, interestingly enough, was sited earlier as one of the Six C’s of Motivation.
As training school teachers we are always discussing in our methods subjects how we can make learning more student centered. Using Elgg is collaborative as well as student centered… we are entering students worlds… we are using what is known to these students (Prensky’s digital natives) and helping them to learn in their own personal learning environments.
I asked my younger sister, who is 17 and just started Year 12 at school, if she would like to learn through using MySpace or something similar to Elgg… she was very keen on the idea saying that this form of learning would motivate her to learn and would help especially in group assignments and working collaboratively with small classes both from home and school.
Students are already immersed in MySpace, Bebo and Facebook – why not utilise what they already know to build on it for further knowledge?
After years and years of Games designers asking educators to use their games for learning, there is now a flood of games used as learning tools… There are so many games currently being used for learning including; Civilization, CSI, Age of Empires II, Age of Mythology & Sim City 4. Prensky has compiled over 500 “serious” gamesfor learning purposes. These can be found at Social Impact Games and Games Parents and Teachers.
Educators and artists are now coming together to discuss leaning curriculum and content. Games are being designed which are both fun to play but also educationally correct. As teachers, we cant become captivated by the game, but need to think about when we would use the game for learning purposes; before, during or after instruction and what content is being covered by the game. A point Van Eck highlights for teachers is to check what content the game gets wrong as this could take more time for teachers to correct this knowledge. He also points out that there’s a risk of thinking all games are for learning purposes which is definately not true!
Like all technologies used in the classroom we need to ask; Does the potential learning from this game or other technical device, outweigh the time taken to learn how to use and play the game. It’s very easy to become captivated by a device and miss the content specific curriculum needed to be taught, but if the device will help students learn content in a fun and motivating way, then why not give it a go…
As a scientists CSI is definately one I’d go for with a class… Check these ones out!
“CSI Hard Evidence” From
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctB5iplqEUI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPu_bpEUgKA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzXPnuP6aRI
Wang and Han believe in order to motivate students we need to give them six things; control, control, collaboration, constructing meaning, and consequences. I created a mind map of the six elements of motivation and what each of these mean for students
Wang and Han, in agreement with Turner and Paris (1995), believe that the six C’s of motivation enhance student motivation when applied to open tasks…
This led me to question, what really motivates students… Do we want to feel like we have a choice about the task at hand? Do we enjoy a challenge rather than being bored or anxious? Do we like to feel we are in control of some part of the task? Do we enjoy effective collaboration with other students? Do we like to construct meaning for ourselves so the task has some long lasting effect? and do we like to be responsible for the consequences of our actions? I believe yes to all the above questions and therefore am in agreeance with Wang and Han…
It would be interesting to know if secondary school students agree with this article
UIT tells us that Ditigal Stories [are] in the classroom. UIT features the story of Maddie Buras after Katrina swept through her town of New Orleans. She says about making a digital story “It forced me to be very concise, yet to strongly convey my personal feelings.”
Digital Stories used a combination of audio and visual to bring the audience into the story. Students and teachers can give their personal stories and others are more likely to listen as the information is being presented in an interactive format.UIT says that students need to prepare in advance before completing Digital Stories as they may become distracted with the technology and forget the story they are trying to tell!
Digital stories reminds me of teacher at a school I did practicum at who used to carry his laptop around with him all the time… He had so many videos and stories saved on his lap top that he would play for the students to keep them interested. Anytime he was unable to do an experiment due to safety requirements he’d find the experiment online and go through the proceedure and results with the students online… Students loved it!
Papert asks if it is possible to invent the educational airplane… to go from the school of yesterday to the school of tomorrow… and asks if this change will improve the educational system or render it obsolete.
Oppenheimer in Papert believes there is no evidence that computers improve Learning and Teaching and Papert agrees with him. After our discussion in our Professional Learning Portfolio tutorial, I tend to agree with them also. If technology is oinly used to improve the teaching of yesterday, such as putting our text books online and continuing to teach from them, then the computer has not improved our teaching or our learning. If the use of technology is not to improve the teaching and learning strategies, to improve our pedagogy or to engage the students any differently then when I was at school, then we may as well go back to the hard copy text books, pens and a black board.
We live in a digital age where technology seems to rule everything… without technology where would we be? As one Japanese student stated in Prensky’s article “When you lose your mobile, you lose part of your brain”… When you discover that someone doesn’t have an email address, you are shocked… when each home doesnt have a computer you are shocked…
As Kearney discusses it’s interesting to delve into the possibilities technology brings to education. Computer use in the classroom has slowly becoming more common place…. The Interactive White Board is quickly being installed into classrooms around the world and teachers are being encouraged to use the technology in their teaching methods… and now the new learning tool is the mobile phone – almost every child has a mobile phone and this small computer might become the next learning tool…
However, as stated by Maree tools must be used properly in order to give value to students… technology, as Blanton says, when emphasised over and above pedagocial practices, is simply an expensive tool.
Everyone has gone to school and therefore believes they know how teachers should teach… but as we go out to get full time jobs we need to start thinking, what are the things we need to remember in order to be a good teacher…
So how about we start a blog where all our friends can get together and talk about random strategies… no need… Division 42 has already done this for us… Division 42’s Topic for one day was Teaching… “Guest Writer Really ~ Teachers” believes the key ingredient for a teacher is to be yourself… and asked for others’ opinions…
Some responses given included;
Don’t to try beat them at their own game. It will only encourage them and others to keep going.
“When it comes time to having your own lessons, besides being yourself, the next key elements you need to bring to the room are meaningful and relevant lessons… I cannot overstate the importance of those two words.”
Don’t be afraid to admit you’ve made an error
Don’t be lazy when it comes to setting exams, assignments etc – construct questions that are relevant
Challenge and engage them with something different
never be afraid to have fun in the classroom
Teach the behaviour you want
Create an intimate space
Eyeballthem
Some education authorities suggest that children remember;
20% of what they hear
30% of what they see
50% of what they see AND hear
70% of what THEY say {this one makes me giggle }
90% of what they do
… plan your lessons accordingly, and you will create meaningful and relevant lessons
In response to Maree’s question above… I am related to 5 little people (brothers and sisters) who are still at school… They are all VERY big internet users and will be on Facebook, My Space and personal emails until very early hours of the morning. Many parents, mine included, think that their kids waste too much time socialising online at the expense of their studies, which I can agree with after seeing my brother who is “studying for the HSC” online still at 4am most mornings these holidays!
According to Danah Boyd, kids on MySpace and the like are simply “hanging out”. She states “For many teens, hanging out has moved online”… so it comes to the end of the school holidays (as it is now… school goes back on tuesday for most of NSW) and you get back to school and ask eachother, who did you see during the holidays??? and the response is “well i just hung out online”… where are kids expected to learn to be social beings, interactive beings… how are they going to learn people skills or skills to deal with different situations? We are not all going to get jobs sitting behind computers all day and I dont think it’s healthy for kids these days to be on the net all holidays “hanging out” with a computer and not running around outside with friends or family…
And on that note… in response to another question… “What are your thoughts about blogging as a tool for communicating in classrooms?”- Kids these days spend enough time on the computer at home that I dont think they need to use it at school simply as a “tool.” I mentioned Blanton’s article in my last post and my response is therefore… if teachers are only using blogging for the sake of using blogging and its not making any effects on the teaching or learning strategy of the students then should they really be using it?
