bianca

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Fallon, S. (2005). All the World’s a Stage. Blogs aren’t just for techheads and political cranks. They’re opening up classrooms, too.

Edutopia. Feb. issue.

After reading All the worlds a stage: Teaching through on line journal” by Sarah Fallon. it lead me to think, why are teachers so afraid with change. yes some may be afraid of how to operate technology or the fact they may be “technophobic”. but we are teachers we are used to change. every year new students walk through our classroom doors. syllabus change and units and topics change. so what is it that scares teachers away from incorporating this change into their classrooms. after reading sarahs article, technology brings about manly educational benefits. for example sarah states why she believes blogging is beneficial in her classroom. “hey give an audience to individual reflection and experience. They’re also giving classrooms a new way to face the world.” i totally agree with sarah, why encourage students to produce magnificent pieces of work only for them to be shut away in books and confined to the classroom walls. its like learning a new dance and only performing it in front of the mirror, where is the sense in that. children need encouragements and motivation other than from you as the teacher. students need a voice and a place to share their opinions with other children and this can be done through blogging. Sarah also raises the idea that on line learning can assist the teacher because if parents can follow their child’s learning progress on line, there will be less questions in parent teacher interviews. Giving children some excitement in learning units can motivate them to try harder and be more enthusiastic about education. so the question still remains why would teachers not aim to incorporate 21st learning into traditional learning techniques. Im sure that each individual has their reasons but me personally have been inspired by the endless opportunities on line learning offers. if teachers done try to teach new learning styles then we may end up with a generation of technology illiterate students and what good would they be in a society made up of technology. we teachers can start by understanding the benefits that Sarah outlines and aim to incorporate new teaching styles. Don’t be afraid to try because there is no harm in learning with students. Give children an audience with the world its stage and teachers can be the producers, guiding them in their role. If all else fails at least start trying even if it is with wikki spaces, at least children’s ideas wont be locked up in the classroom at the end of the day. Be the promoters of change.

 

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The commentary piece by channel 10 news, is an excellent example of how podcasting can be integrated into the classroom setting. sometimes teachers find it very difficult to engage students in every single subjects as some topics can appear extremely tedious and boring. At the same time these subject are important to students educational development. Therefor podcasting can be used to the advantage of teachers as they can use them to engage and spark students interests. As the example channel 10 reported, poetry can be very boring and many students become unmotivated as well as see no point in creating a poetic piece if nobody is going to listen to it. podcasting allows children to becoming motivated if they know they will get the opportunity to use commuters to record their work for a real audience, an audience other than their classmates. Another valid point that was raised in the report was that podcasting is an excellent way for teacher to engage boys in English. To young boys, English may appear as a girls subject or they struggle to express themselves with the correct English wording. However, podcasting can change this as majority of boys love computers and may be better at expressing themselves when speaking rather than writing. therefor podcasting is an opportunity that all teachers should embrace in. Yes it may be hard initially to implement into the classroom as learning and teaching new technology can be difficult to manage, but in the long run when students are producing better essays and poems the benefits will shine through. As evident in the report by channel 10 news students become very excited when learning with tools that are considered cool such as “mobile phones and computers”. i believe that if podcasting is going to spark enthusiasm and passion for learning… why not try it.

 During class we discussed, why we would technology in the classroom. basically we outlined the benefits. click on the thumbnail and take a look at what my group and i thought.

http://www.apple.com/education/digitalauthoring/podcasting.html

After reading the article “podcasting in education”, i once again was reminded by the enormous amounts of benefits that podcasting holds. the many examples that the article expressed includes: Professional development, communicated with parents, place homework tasks online, foreign language lessons, perform plays, and the list goes on. This article opened my eyes to the creativity this program holds. it allows children to have expression and creativity. podcasting is motivating to the new generation as children today are becoming bored with traditional essays, reading and arithmetic. However i do believe that traditional learning’s are crucial to intellectual development but podcasting adds creativity to boring teaching units. the main difference between the two, is that podcasting provides children with a real audience and voice. they become the speakers with the world their audience. The walls of the classroom are expanded and students are allowed to be set free. in the podcasting world there are no rules, there is no right and wrong, all there is an educational playground waiting to be explored.

i truly believe that podcasting is an easy introduction to the 21st technology that is being invented. its an interactive tool which all age children can engage themselves in. Basically it offers benefits and creativity that a piece of paper can simply not offer. teachers must consider this tool if they are to produce students that are experience in all areas of the world. whether we like it or technology is becoming our world and teachers need to prepare their students for this revolutionary change. podcasting is the best and easiest way to start.

 After viewing this effective teacher tube by Rachel Boyd, i came to realise the short but very meaningful words that describe blogging. The video is very simple but extremely effective, as the  short phrases placed on the slide present to the audience so many positives towards blogging. My favourite slide was when it stated,  ” Giving students an audience”, with the background of a map of the world. This i believe is the best thing about blogging, that students can communicate with other children across the planet with a click of a button.  other phrases that i was attracted to, was that blogging provides students with the opportunity to express themselves, as well as the fact that blogging gives them a voice. This way even students who are too shy to speak in-front of the class, can still express their ideas and feeling on a topic without the fear of face to face confrontation. However, i don’t believe that blogging is the only important aspect of education, as i think that students should still be engaged in traditional learning’s, such as writing essays and adding sums. Blogging should work along side other learning topics and be incorporated into traditional eduction to bring excitement into learning.

 The positives of blogging definitely out weigh the negatives, such as blogging provides ownership, motivation, creativity and extends the walls of the classroom. These are just a few mentioned in Rachel Boyds slide. The only negative aspect of blogging that i believe to be evident, is that not many teachers are experienced with this new tool and may be too afraid to approach the idea of logging. However this negative can easily be fixed  with sufficient teacher training, because i believe if teachers don’t try to use exciting technology in their classroom, students will be far too advanced for the teacher and the teacher will be completely lost in the past. Rachel clearly shows the endless amounts of positives blogging provides, we would be stupid not to take the plunge, don’t you think?

 i was so intrigued by the variety of ways that Alanah king uses technology within her classroom. at first i thought that using technology within education can distract students and stray them away from the purpose of learning. however, after watching Alanah’s blog, its easy to see that using blogs, Flicker and pod-casts, children can showcase their work not only to parents but to the rest of the world. it was totally liberating to see that technology such as sykpe can allow students to learn about other cultures and people through talking on the Internet. To me this seemed like a more advanced method of pen pals. This is the same with blogging, Alanah invites her students to write down all their thoughts and crazy ideas on the class blog but instead of the students ideas primarily being secluded to the classroom, outsiders can enjoys students ideas too. i honestly believe that when i become a qualified teacher i will aim to allow my students experience the same excitement as Alanah’s students do. i think that using blogs in the classroom invites students to be creative with their idea and allows the teacher to spruce up boring topics. i also liked the idea that Alanah had of children taking it in turns to be blog monitors as it allows all ideas and work to be viewed, as well as all children are then involved in learning the new technology. finally i believe that after watching Alanah kings story, it has shown me exactly how exciting blogs, pod-casting, skype and flicker can be in the classroom. the fact that countries all over the world can read students work is so motivating for students to try their hardest in the classroom. After all by using blogs in the classroom, the teacher wont need to use merits or stckers because the rewards would be someone across the glob reading students writtings.

this is my vodcast on the article

Prensky, M. (2005/2006) Listen to the Natives. Educational Leadership. 63(4), 8-13
http://www.ascd.org/authors/ed_lead/el200512_prensky.html

bianca.mp4

i read the commentary article and this is what i thought.

ACMA Media Release (2007), Australian families with children are ‘media-rich’, research finds. 17th Dec., 2007. http://internet.aca.gov.au

bs.mp3

In our second session of e-learning, we created a podcast containing out wildest dreams. mine was about my future as a teacher and how i see myself in the next couple of years. after using garage ban d to create my podcast, i realised how effectively this could be used in the classroom.

this is my podcast-biancas-podcast.mp3

Students could write stories, poems or evennews reports and then have the oppotunity to celebrate their work by recording it and allowing other students to listen. podcasts also allow students ot publish their work on mobile phones or even globally on the internet. I believe this can add fun and new experiences to students as well as motivate them. podcasting is fun, easy and exciting peice of technology that can enhance students learning by bringing their work to life. this is my podcast…

I think the reading “log on education”, is an OK reading that gives you a view of both sides of the spectrum. However, i found it did not give clear statements or points of how technology in the classroom can help students to be creative. the more i read of it i found that it would explain how technology could be used but then contradicted itself with a bad aspect of the technological item. it does raise a potentially good point, that teachers cannot primarily rely on technology to be the sole of their lesson as some time technology is unreliable and does not work according to plan. what i got out of the article is that technology is good but bad.