Week 5 Movie Marker

In this week workshop, we looked at many different websites to create animation movies. Greg mentioned the benefits of using this technology for the students and teachers in the 21st century education. The reasons being it can be engaging and can be integrated across the curriculum. Due to limited time provided in the workshop, all the animation websites were quickly scanned through. I was very frustated not having enough time to complete my movies as I started to enjoy exploring these activities. It would be interesting to see how I can adapt these activities in my classroom. I think my students would enjoy this as much as I do.The first website explored was http://zimmertwins.com/ . In this website user can create movies storyboard from scratch. The movies can be as simple or as complex as they wish.

Next website was http://www.reasonablyclever.com/ This website allowed users to create a leggo character. You can change their features like hair, arms, clothes, face etc. The background can also be changed into different theme. I would like to use this activity in my classroom as a praise to students.
http://www.storygames.com/teachmanPF/Rebus.html The Rebus activity is helpful in lower grades to build students basic English skills especially for ESL students. It explored the concepts of does it sound right? Does it look right? We looked the word "two", and discussed whether students can disguish the difference between "two", "to" and "too". This is a great excersie for visual learners and it can helps students to begin understanding the meaning of words. As a teacher, I think it is an excellent idea and should be included in my teaching.
Greg also pointed out, this activity can be useful if you are teaching LOTE because it implies the same concepts.

Another way to get students engaged in this activity is have them create a Rebus of their own. Students can type out their story on the word document. Then they can insert picture images where they like to replace the words. Images can be found practically from any website. However when using moving images, the file should be saved as a webpage.

Another interesting website was http://www.sketchswap.com/ .
This website allowed us to sketch our picture then submit it. Once the picture has been submitted it will send back a suprise image of anything. A great opportunity for student to generate picutres and send through school and exchange with other students.

http://dfilm.com/live/moviemaker.html

This website is not recommended for children due to some sexual characters. However it is worth exploring.

Others website included:

http://www.xtranormal.com/

http://myths.e2bn.org/create
http://catchmentdetox.net.au/
http://www.ziptales.com.au/

Scary Night - Directed by Nghiem

Week 4 Dreamtime Stories and M&M Activity

Today workshop we looked at the "Dustechoes" website: http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/. I found this website was quite interesting and good resources to use when teaching about Aboriginal culture. The website focused on Aboriginal culture and exploring their dreamtime stories. I selected a story called the "Morning Star" and viewed the video. After viewing the video I then captured the image and pasted it into the Inspiration software and retell
the story in my own words. The activity took me quite a while to understand what to do. Firstly I didn't really have good knowledge about Aboriginal culture, having to read and retell the story in my own words was quite confusing and time consuming. I noticed some students in the class were also confused.
This is a good activity to do considering if students have prior knowledge and have some lessons on Aboriginal culture before hands. More time should have been provided to help those students who were not skills in ICT.

The second activity was sorting and graphing the colours of M&M. I brought to class a bag of M&M and sorted out the colours. Once the M&M get sorted I then graph the result using Microsoft Excel. There were different template of graph you can use. I chose the vertical bar graph and filled the colours corresponding to its name (see the picture below). Some images of M&M characters were inserted to make the graph looks more interesting.

I was very engaged with the M&M's Activity and would recommended this activity to everyone who want to use it for numeracy and ICT lessons. This activity can be found at http://www.m-ms.com/us/

Week 3 Games Development, Technology Design Process (IDPE)

Today workshop, we were asked to work pairs using the Technology Design Process 'Investigate, Design, Process, Evaluate(IDPE)' to make a frog jump. The only resources were a picture of a Frog, a piece of cardboard, a rubber band, scissors and glue. My idea was to hold the rubber band around my thumb and index finger. Folded a piece of cardboard in half with a picture of the Frog glued on it. Put the folded cardboard around the rubber band. Holded and pulled the cardboard back as far as I can then released it.
I wasn't really impressed with my creation because it was more like a flying frog rather a jumping frog. Another concerns brought to my attention was safety issue. Students might get hurt if they don't know how to handle the rubber band probably. It might get into someones eyes, face etc... Few groups had came up with grate ideas.
I found this activity was very helpful. It helped to show student that ICT is not necessary to do with computer. It can be involved in a piece of cardboard like what I did today. This activity will help students to develop a higher Order Thinking Skills. Of which they will need to investigate and design how to make the frog jump. What have they produced and finally analyse and evaluate their design.

I can see this type of activity can be done with grade as low as Prep. They can draw on the paper of their ideas etc... It is recommended to run at least once a week.


Quia website

Then I created some games online using the "Quia". I went into the "quia" website: http://www.quia.com/. Created user name and password.


The first activity was to create a quiz with no more than 5 questions. However I didn't get it right and stuffed it up so I didn't have any quiz games. But I will try it again next time.

Then I created a Jumble Words game base on animals. Click this link to play the game: http://www.quia.com/jw/386805.html

Next activities were Hangman game; http://www.quia.com/hm/667575.html. I need to be very carefully here (if I am in school environment) as some student might be scared with the hangman. Select something appropriate.

Lastly was Possum Magic Pop up game: http://www.quia.com/cz/347237.html.

I found "Quia" program was very useful to have. It is free for 30 days. It is engaging. Students can do some research about a topic first. They can then put it into games. Student can learn through playing approach.

Week 2 ePortfolios and MS Publisher

In the workshop we discussed about ePortfolio, Interviewing Process and created a Brochure using MS Publisher.

Discussion about ePortfolio, how important it is to get a job. Greg showed an sample of student's ePortfolio. Introduction of ePortfolio should include a simple paragraph of your Philosophy of Education, List of Awards and Achievements, CV, Personal Interest and Reflections about Practicum. The ePortfolio can be created using MS Publisher.

Beside having to create an ePortfolio for myself as required for this subject, I had no ideas why I have to do it and what are the benefits. Not until I read Newsletter from Smart QLD "Learning with digital portfolios", I realised how valuable it is for 21st Century learning. It is a form of assessment that brings students and teachers together. Its features inclued working spaces for creating, collaborating, enquiring and building new knowledge through reflective practice.

Greg also suggested some great hints of what to do and not to do when applying for the job.

• Do not put referees in if they don't like you or they don't know you well enough. If they asked for 3 referees then only to put down 3.
• Application of Theories to Classroom Experiences
• Always meet their criteria
• Use appropriate font sizes
• Don't write up your resume in the last minute.
• Ask someone to read through your resume.
• Check your spelling
• Talk about your strengths "I am very keen to be part of the team"
• Let people know if you are taking up another school.
• Don't smoke in a car.
• Dress appropriately
• Have a good knowledge about the school. Look up MySchool website.
• School might hand out questions, write over the sheet. Highlighting any important words or sentences.
• Look at the person interviewing you.
• Ask the question to be repeated to you if you are unsure.
• Shake their hands.
• Know the panel members names.
• Always have some questions to ask them. Who is my mentor? What is her/his position?
• What is my year level? Never talk about money or position at this time. If they call you for the position. Ask who is your mentor, salary, position, who you work with etc.. Example of work. What is important, things that is relevant for the school you're applying for.

Sample of the brochure that I have created

After the discussion, I learnt how to create a Brochure advertising a holiday destination using MS Publisher (see above samples). MS Publisher has many templates which were simple and easy to follow. I imagined how engage this activity would be to students. Students can discuss and share back their brochure with the class. Why do you think they have the graphics here? Students can compare their work to the real brochure. Brochure can be displayed in the school's foyer. How exciting!!!

References:

Smart QLD, 2010, Learning with digital portfolios, http://www.education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/pdf/smart-newsletter.pdf

Week 1 Introduction to Inspiration and Development of Blog/Wiki

Today workshop I had a choice to develop a Blog or a Wiki for my ICT reflection. I decided to go with Blog because I would like to see the different between the two; Blog and Wiki. Since I have already developed a Wiki for my WebQuest it would be a good chance for me to learn more about Blog. Blog and Wiki was very similar. They were free blog publishing tool for easily sharing of though to the world. Wiki is a newer version compared to Blog.



After I had developed my Blog. I had time to play with the Inspiration software. I made two mind maps. The first one was topic of "Africa" with some ideas related to Africa e.g. Animals, Food, Music. I added some African animals images using Paint. I also attempted to add some sound to the words or images but didn't work out well. When I clicked on the word "Zebra" or the "Zebra" image I would excepted to hear some zebra's sound.

Secondly I created a Mammal Animals web. I selected a few animals that categorised as mammal into the web. Interesting I also learned how to hyperlinks websites so when I selected picture of the dog, a dog's website would appear.

The Inspiration software was very interesting and useful for the 21st century classroom. I have learnt so much from this software. I think student will be engaged in this as much as I did. They can build graphic organisers, including concept maps, webs, ideas maps and most importantly mind mapping. Mind mapping is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid to studying and organizing information, solving problems, making decisions and writing (wikipedia, 2010).

Inspiration can help students to develop kills such as Brainstorming, Planning, Organising and Thinking. I would highly recommended this to my class.


Reference:

Inspiration, No date,
http://www.inspiration.com/> Visted 15/08/2010

Mind mapping, created date 11 August 2010 at 20:23. Visted 15/08/2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map>