Evaluating

Question 2: 

a)     Conveying new information- 

The way a teacher conveys new information to students needs to be dramatically changed! Instead of just asking the students to start a new section of their book, begin a new page with the heading or title page of a new subject, Web 2.0 allows endless possibilities for engaging students interests in new subjects. For example introducing the new Subject of Romeo and Juliet to an English class has endless interactive possibilities. Students could be shown a clip/trailer from http://www.youtube.com with the trailer embedded within, and then a comparative clip from another trailer to show students that the subject is not going to be about passive learning but interesting engaging learning. The subject could even be presented on a wiki with the files embedded within to allow for greater interactivity and interest. Presenting new and unknown information in a format that is comfortable to students in their digital native environment stops the tasks from being daunting, but deepens opportunities to succeed. Examples shown below. Free easy to use wiki available at –

 b)     Encouraging collaboration- 

Collaboration is easy amongst younger students but harder to achieve for competitive older students. When creating our project on http://trenchwarfare.pbwiki.com is was hard to create tasks aimed for year 12 students that enabled individual deep learning but also collaborative in nature. Examining the syllabus on http://www.boardofstudies.com allowed us to recognise that the outcomes of year 12 are HSC based, so assessing on similar grounds does help students to achieve the best eventual results. BUT saying that, the way students learn is different and creating an opportunity within a project for students to work with their peers and learn on creative levels, that targets self learning styles is important.

   

Advanced students will be able to create roles within the group such as leader, and scribe etc. Having projects based on the web enables quieter students to acheive beyond expectations and show potential by breaking free of mould dictated within physical social interactions. The iternet enables great group work.

c)      Classroom Management Methods- 

Software that is more traditionally known as web 1.0 are sites such as http://www.hotmail.com, which provides a service that the individual has to ‘outsource’ to find information. Google search page was also another initial Web 1.0 software that enabled individuals to search to a separate page but going from one web page to another. http://www.google.com was the first to be involved to change this ‘outsourcing’ to instead have information ‘in sourced’ by being able to search off your homepages through the Google toolbar that gets placed within your own toolbar. This addition of software is a sign of Web 2.0, meaning to have the information on the Internet in sourced to the ease of the user. Knowing this information is highly resourceful to a teacher! When creating projects that are web-based (more and more necessary) stop students from procrastinating is vital. To do this, you must give them the information (this also allows you to provide reliable information which is good) or ‘in source’ the information to them. Students who are all digital natives, do not like outsourcing and will quickly become bored. Instead hyper linking text so that information is readily available, deepens learning opportunities. Video clips are great for use within education as they enable the ability to hyperlink in by embedding software and even upload videos straight to the home sites to stop students from procrastinating and wasting time searching for suitable videos such as http://www.youtube.com. Uploading the video they need to view allows direct access and maximises learning and helps with time management. Video clips also target visual learners and make the web and classroom web-based projects more interactive. The use of sound on the Internet encourages diverse learning styles by targeting musical learners. Sound clips can be taken from speeches, pod casts, broadcasts, media extracts, recordings of events and many other useful sources. Once again, placing them onto the web-based projects will allow students direct access to the information that is needed, not just popular music. http://www.bbc.com is a highly resourceful site for video and sound films that can be utilised in the classroom. The schools link provides Web 2.0 information presented within key learning areas and interesting tasks that can be used by teachers to encourage learning. The radio is highly useful in pod casting from broadcasts or useful sites to keep the students up to date with events. Web 2.0 has made this so much more easier for the internet user by providing the ability to RSS feed sites, meaning to ‘subscribe’ to updates, events and media. An example being students can RSS to http://www.ninemsn/news to have news headlines in video format come straight to their homepages. Links to newspaper articles that are related to class work are very useful and informative for students. It gives primary sources, which are always up to date. http://www.smh.com.au is an example where you can also subscribe to regular media updates or interest stories to be emailed directly to your email. Photos or pictures personalise and allow students to have an intimate approach to the Internet. http://www.flickr.com enables the Web 1.0 action of outsourcing to upload your own photos, which is a negative, but then has further Web 2.0 software that allows you to interact with the images and even RSS feed your own images to your own site. This change over from old technology to new is what Web 2.0 is all about, creating the ability to do something simple within our comfortable Web 1.0 world but then furthering potential by having possibilities of ‘in sourcing’ with highly developed software. Online learning plays a necessary and poignant role in today’s education system but unfortanutely more noteably so in the ‘better-off’ schools. Online and digital based learning is increasing in students lives today and will eventually take over pens and paper. From a teaching point of view there are several key points to remember- To facilitate effective online learning, there needs to be-A teacher constantly wondering around the class to make sure students are on track and to subconciously remind them of what they need to do.-Pair based learning to allow students to interact with the results they come up with think, pair, share and also more importantly which was something we learnt in this course, PEER TEACHING. Every student explores the internet with different exploratory techniques and making a wiki together we all digested the information together in different ways and assisting one another was a key part of this point.-Self taught learning is when students discover and experience for themselves finding atheir own information and having to digest it in a way that isnt spoon fed like normal class.-Examples being all the websites that students use that older people are out of touch with such as myspace are mostly self taught but there are young children using internet coding even to only make a background but embedding files deep within webpages was once considered a hugely complex task.- The teacher needs to create online tasks that link into the ideas of online learning. So for the students just to look up and print off an online journal article is not enough, instead staying online and synthesising analysing and even creating further tasks puts them into the highest level of deeper learning and probbaly takes half the time seeing as it is completed online and in a way that the students best relate to and appreciate.More traditional teaching methods still apply, such as needing to strategically place students with students whom they work well with, not just their friends, and to give occasional checks that students are on task by subconsciously slowing walking the room so they don’t have free range. With computers though, insourcing is the key when teamed with presenting information in interesting ways. 

Example of ideal classroom for group work in computers. Gives opportunity to work with peers aswell as independently, and the teacher can freely walk around.

 

d)     Higher level learning-

Higher level learning is vital to enabling students to learn to the best of their ability.

http://www.kurwongbss.eq.edu.au/thinking/Bloom/bloomspres.ppt

http://www.kurwongbss.eq.edu.au/thinking/Bloom/BLOOM%20(one%20page%20poster).doc
“We Learn . . .10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we see
50% of what we see and hear
70% of what we discuss
80% of what we experience
95% of what we teach others.”

Higher level learning will occur when

1. student is presented with information in a way that targets their interest. (see answer 2 part a and c)

2. Presented in a varying range of learning styles so that they can learn best suited to their own learning style.

BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMYCreatingGenerating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing thingsDesigning, constructing, planning, producing, inventing. 

Justifying a decision or course of action

Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging

  

Analysing

Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships

Comparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding

 

Applying

Using information in another familiar situation

Implementing, carrying out, using, executing

  

Understanding

Explaining ideas or conceptsInterpreting, summarising, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining 

Remembering

Recalling information

Recognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding

 

a)      Internet address of my wiki-

http://trenchwarfare.pbwiki.com/

           

            b) Five key issues encountered when completing the project-

1.      Finding accurate information that is reliable for students to be able to use within a classroom environment. That is, sites that aren’t just necessarily www.wikipedia.com based (or similar sites that are edited by anyone) but more reliable in content. www.bbc.co.uk/history had a great amount of information that was highly reliable and most importantly interactive.

2.      When creating a group project, and initially brainstorming ideas, all group members come up with different results. It is then challenging to find a compromise of everyone’s collective ideas and stop disagreements. Time-wise it is often easier to delegate different tasks to people, so that each member can take responsibility for each of their own tasks instead of just procrastinating. We found that group members who were most computer-literate were competent in the actual creation and formatting of the wiki, whereas less confident in computer skills, devised tasks that were challenge and then posting them on the wiki. Allowing self input with group discussion was the key to overcoming conflicts.

3.      Thinking up activities that were actually interesting for our prospective students, was difficult, especially because they had to be independent based, not teacher instructed. We found making the wording short and to the point allowed a greater level of student creativity to possibly emerge, with less menial repitive tasks. Our tasks also are aimed to cater for all different learning styles, which is the key to targeting students interests and best achievements.

4.      Using our skills we have learnt this semester as a teacher, not just a student was also challenging. Meaning, putting into practice all the internet software they we have been introduced to over the semester was what is necessary to us as future teachers but most difficult. We obviously want the students to learn and utilize their own knowledge, so giving them freedom in how they present their results meant fitting into ‘digital natives’ of the future. An example of this is in ‘Task 2’ where students are asked to created a trench. This doesn’t necessarily just mean a model trench, it can mean a digital image or photos within Flickr, the students were given the self directed opportunity to decide for themselves.

5.      Technologically, www.pbwiki.com has some technical flaws that hinders the presentation of the project. The font seems to change back to automatically overlapping when different group members sign in, and this could potentially be a problem to trying to present information to students, if they cant easily read/access task, they will get bored. Perhaps schools may subscribe to a more technologically advanced wiki provider, that students would also be able to acess might solve this problem, because otherwise it has to be dealt with.

 b) Collaborative nature of the project- 

http://trenchwarfare.pbwiki.com is highly collaborative in nature but appropriately so. Our KLA is for year 12 students, so the HSC is individual based so tasks are individually targeted but with group work underlying any problems that may arise. Example being, students have a final essay that is compulsory, this is absolutely necessary for achieving outcomes set by the board of studies. But, how students are enabled to go about gaining and learning the knowledge is up to the teachers direction and giving more interesting tasks that enable social mobility are most attractive to students. Our trench warfare tasks allow students to complete their tasks independently, but also within a group, targeting self motivated completion of the task for their own worth, but also working to gain knowledge from others contributions. Each individuals behaviour is driven by their purposes, and the HSC is hugely important but also not letting down your team members will drive individuals to achieve.

Web 2.0 is essentially an increasing range of software that supports a variety of technologies for open and collaborative communication, learning and creativity. Discuss. 1500 words.

 

Web 2.0 is a world that is unknowingly new to most people but when utilised properly, can provide endless opportunities for open and collaborative communication, learning and creativity. However a problem lies in using the software to the best of its ability, to maximise Web 2.0’s potential to facilitate learning and accessibility to the opening of the online world. Students can often waste time when working with computers due to a pressure of extrinsic motivation, and largely that most students actually excel in Internet skills and computer work is not challenging enough. Web 2.0 has provided an outlet for learning through creativity and communication through ever developing software that morphs in tune with the needs of the public. The difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 is huge, the most notable fact being that no longer is there a need to outsource for information, software of Web 2.0 enables information to be automatically in sourced to the individual, making the Internet far easier and accessible to all.

 

Web 1.0 was the beginning of the Internet in about 1990 and is the software that began the World Wide Web phenomena. Software that is more traditionally known as web 1.0 are sites such as http://www.hotmail.com, which provides a service that the individual has to ‘outsource’ to find information. Google search page was also another initial Web 1.0 software that enabled individuals to search to a separate page but going from one web page to another. http://www.google.com was the first to be involved to change this ‘outsourcing’ to instead have information ‘in sourced’ by being able to search off your homepages through the google toolbar that gets placed within your own toolbar. This addition of software is a sign of Web 2.0, meaning to have the information on the Internet in sourced to the ease of the user.

 Video clips are great for use within education as they enable the ability to hyperlink in by embedding software and even upload videos straight to the home sites to stop students from procrastinating and wasting time searching for suitable videos such as http://www.youtube.com. Uploading the video they need to view allows direct access and maximises learning and helps with time management. Video clips also target visual learners and make the web and classroom web-based projects more interactive. The use of sound on the Internet encourages diverse learning styles by targeting musical learners. Sound clips can be taken from speeches, pod casts, broadcasts, media extracts, recordings of events and many other useful sources. Once again, placing them onto the web-based projects will allow students direct access to the information that is needed, not just popular music. http://www.bbc.com is a highly resourceful site for video and sound films that can be utilised in the classroom. The schools link provides Web 2.0 information presented within key learning areas and interesting tasks that can be used by teachers to encourage learning. The radio is highly useful in pod casting from broadcasts or useful sites to keep the students up to date with events. Web 2.0 has made this so much more easier for the internet user by providing the ability to RSS feed sites, meaning to ‘subscribe’ to updates, events and media. An example being students can RSS to http://www.ninemsn/news to have news headlines in video format come straight to their homepages. Links to newspaper articles that are related to class work are very useful and informative for students. It gives primary sources, which are always up to date. http://www.smh.com.au is an example where you can also subscribe to regular media updates or interest stories to be emailed directly to your email. Photos or pictures personalise and allow students to have an intimate approach to the Internet. http://www.flickr.com enables the Web 1.0 action of outsourcing to upload your own photos, which is a negative, but then has further Web 2.0 software that allows you to interact with the images and even RSS feed your own images to your own site. This change over from old technology to new is what Web 2.0 is all about, creating the ability to do something simple within our comfortable Web 1.0 world but then furthering potential by having possibilities of ‘in sourcing’ with highly developed software.  Interactivity is the key to Web 2.0 and allowing students to connect with each other and networking is the key to a collaborative classroom. Making a group up is the perfect way to integrate MySpace or Facebook technologies to a classroom. It is a fun and interesting way to hold a class, and it, like all other Web 2.0 programs, can be accessed and contributed from any Internet place. http://www.facebook.com is a friend-linking site that like Flickr, contains inner embedded software to maximise your interest in the Web 2.0 world. Students would enjoy using sites that they use at home for social purposes in the classroom as they are given the chance to excel at something they find interesting. Blogging on sites such as http://www.wordpress.com allows a teacher to view and find records of a student’s progress and see how they have worked progressively on a project over time. It also allows for the students to be reflective and critical of their own work, which has been found to be a wonderful way to learn. This self-critiquing is vital to understanding concepts, and blogging, like diary entries provides a way for students to learn on an inner level, but also projecting thoughts about themes. http://www.heyjude.com is an example of a blog that is embedded with Web 2.0 software and provides information as well as reflective processes. Students can learn a huge amount from viewing someone else’s reflections and in true Web 2.0 style, subscription to heyjude (which often features points on new Web developments) is available. Uploading PowerPoint presentations to web pages allows students to access work that was presented to them in class at a later date. It saves time and resources in printing pages off and also utilises key multimedia skills and targets visual and oral learners. On a creative aspect, Webquests and Wikis are hugely popular and a great way to make a project interactive for students. Students are able to design and manage a page of their own, which could be focused on a class project. They can work individually and post items up but combine together to make a collaborative effort. http://www.pbwiki.com is an easy to use site that is accessible and most importantly easy to use for all ages. It has the ability to have embedded software allowing the teacher to control the task by in sourcing, not outsourcing, so the assignment time is maximised with less distraction and more focused deeper learning. As hopeful teachers of the future the ultimate aim is that students will learn what they are being taught. A huge problem though is that most students experience superficial or surface learning. This is often because they experience a sense of extrinsic motivation, sometimes pressure from a teacher, to show they understand the work. A teacher’s aim is then for deep or sound learning is teamed with the need for the students to experience a level of internal or intrinsic motivation. Thinking within the world of Web 2.0, computer work can be at times largely external motivation compelling students to complete work but not interactively just passively. The worst thing that could happen would be to just inundate students will a huge task, they will feel no interest in completing task for their own benefit, instead only do task to complete work. The need to structure and constantly monitor students work and build up tasks slowly to gain knowledge and interest gives teachers a role of facilitator when it comes to Internet work. Web 2.0 provides the software that challenges and interests student by providing tools that are easy and most importantly relevant, not just to schoolwork but also social lives. Software is increasingly becoming related to communication, to not isolate the Internet world and the key of Web 2.0 is enabling creativity. Web 2.0 is a tool that can be utilised to a teacher’s ability and the software that is luckily free in the ever-developing Internet is vital in keeping in touch with students. 

http://heyjude.wordpress.com

Is an awesome site for a great blog. SO interactive and embedded hyperlinks make this accessible and easy to use. Ideal starting point to aim for my blog to one day be! This is also necessary in teaching as web 2.0 is now a tool for teaching

 Video via Rss

Inserting videos is so easy to do with rss feeds. it enables students to easily have the information at their hands in online projects.

  Del.icio.us-

www.Del.icio.us.com is a portable and shareable favourites list.

Immediately you can see the teacher benefits of this. Instead of creating worksheets of suggested websites for use, you can just give students access to your del.icio.us list and at a click they can access a useful list of sites that is helpful to their studies.

The list can also be collaborative, meaning students could add useful sites if they found more and the list would be on going and ever relevant. Unlike a favourites list, it doesnt have to be accessed on only 1 computer, meaning accessibility with ease.

 

 Facebook-

Facebook is nothing new, but is taking the world by storm. An introductory view to facebook shows that it is a social networking site, very similar to my space but slightly varied.

Facebook introduces its roles and purpose within the web 2.0 world-

1. social interaction

2. posting information

3. upload images

4. learning

Like MySpace, Facebook is coming inder much scrutiny due to its popularity. Many articles and media pieces highlight positive aspects of the sites but show the negative aspects of distraction within the workplace so also school-

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=287544

http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=285796 

Facebook (and myspace) can be used to link and aide students in their learning projects. However, straying from task would be very easy so high levels of monitoring to make sure students stay on task would be needed.

 Flickr-

I found flickr originally abit hard to use, having to create a yahoo account annoyed me because different email accounts everywhere with different passwords is frustrating. What would be good is if flickr could take an existing account (like facebook can). I can see how people would like flickr as is similar to myspace in the fact that it is about photos etc. But when you can post photos on a blog there isnt the greatest need to have several different sites when one can do eveything. With sites that everyone centralises to like facebook and myspace, the need for flickr isnt imperative.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11221067@N08/?saved=1

ED2203 Class Wiki

 Wiki-

For our assignment myself, Eliza and Dani have created http://group6wiki.pbwiki.com Although it’s still a work in progress, I anticipate that Wiki-ing is going to be a huge part of our teaching future and if used properly in the classroom it could be a great teaching facilitator.

Its interesting though that the full effect of wiki-ing has not come into place until fairly recently considering the idea and foundational wiki was created in 1995. Also, the controversial site www.wikipedia.com was one of the first widespread users of the concept. I find that wikipedia is a reasonable source for reading background information on a subject and although not an academic source, is resourceful enough for vague understanding on a topic. For example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki helped me to understanding about the initial idea.

Thinking on, wiki-ing is now a hugely changed thing and as we are doing in Networked Learning we will be able to use it with students, to create group work or ongoing wholeclass assignments can be added to from home. It is a great interactive tool to keep in touch with students from all aspects of life.

http://ndnetworked.pbwiki.com/ED2033-Web-2

This wiki is from our Networked learning class.

http://ndnetworked.pbwiki.com/

How to Develop a pbwiki and general thoughts

PB Wiki

·                                 A wiki is an easy-to-use web page that multiple people can edit. It’s like a shared whiteboard online. Don’t worry about getting IT support or installing any software. We handle all of that. You just start typing and get an online classroom in about 5 minutes.

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·                                 Why use PBwiki? No HTML experience required. Create a syllabus, share it with your students, and let them write collaborative essays online. Create online Powerpoint-like presentations right from your wiki.

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·                                 Who else is using PBwiki?We host over 135,000 wikis and thousands of others have used PBwikis for their classrooms, from elementary schools to Stanford and Harvard.

o                                                        http://mrlindsay.pbwiki.com is Mr. Lindsay’s beautiful classroom wiki, where he demos his students’ work with book reviews, poems, stories, and tons of other resources. It’s a wiki run “by the students, for the students.”

o                                                        http://cas100b.pbwiki.com is another excellent educational wiki. You’ll note the project proposals, class notes, and different sections for different classes.

o                                                        http://epochewiki.pbwiki.com is the Penn State English 15 course, which is required for all freshman English students at Penn State.

PBwiki can help you engage with your audiencePBwiki provides educators an easy way to post class room material online and gives students the ability to collaborate through the internet. Check out our video on how PBwiki is helping educators educate.Can’t access YouTube? Check out our video through TeacherTube’s site here: PBwiki helping educators educate.

Also, be sure to check out the rest of our videos and see what educators are saying about us. See the rest of our PBwiki Educator Videos.

 

Background Paper references and details on how to set up the Wiki are available on

http://pbwiki.com/edu.pb

A tutorial instruction page ins available in pbWiki

http://ndnetworked.pbwiki.com/FrontPage

Our Web 2.0 Wiki is up and running at

http://ndnetworked.pbwiki.com/ED2033-Web-2