YouTube - Catering to Learning Styles

Youtube, TeacherTube and similar video sites provide a wealth of ready made educational videos which can serve to complement learning experiences. I am currently focusing on a science unit in my 4/5 EPL class where the students are studying the layers of the earth, volcanoes, rocks and minerals.

Included below are two great youtube videos about rocks. Below these videos, I describe the first video and my pedagogical rationale for using it in a lesson.





The first video above introduces students to the three main types of rocks – sedimentary rocks, igneous rocks and metamorphic rocks. The video describes each type of rock, how it is formed, provides examples/ images and other interesting facts. This video would be great to play towards the conclusion of a lesson on the three types of rocks to consolidate the learner’s knowledge and enhance the learning experience. Playing this video may serve to excite students about the study of rocks, whilst supporting the various learning styles and multiple intelligences in the classroom.

Visual/spacial and auditory learners for example, would benefit from listening to a different voice explaining the rocks types and seeing examples. On a practical note, another reason for playing this video is that certain rock samples can be difficult for teachers to access, however playing a video such as this allows students to actually see what it is that they are learning about without leaving the classroom.  Included below is a power presentation I created (incorporating this video) for a science lesson I will be delivering on Thursday.

Please feel free to share your thoughts or offer any feedback.

Rocks and the Rock Cycle

View more presentations from Karlee K.

Music for Learning - Exploring Incompetech

Today I completed the learning activity on royalty free music - visiting www.incompetech.com and downloading a piece of music to my hard drive (which I uploaded to a music hosting website and included in a link here: zSHARE - Swimmey Texture.mp3). The piece of music I chose was a calm, relaxing number called Swimmey Texture. A music file such as this would be perfect to play through the IWB sound system as the class completed a quiet activity at their desks or participated in silent reading. A more 'up-beat' track would create a more appropriate mood for times when students are tidying up the room or are involved in a more active task, such as an art activity.

During our tutorial group’s visit to Parkurst State School earlier this month, Kath Warcon (a year 4/5 teacher), described how she often plays educational tracks from itunes (that she has downloaded for free) as the students; prepare for another activity, are moving about the room or tidying up their places. Kath also uses music as an instructional strategy. When it comes time for students to finish up a task (in preparation for lunch or another activity), she plays ‘the popcorn song’ through her ipod and the IWB sound system. Whenever students hear the song, they know that it is time to pack up and finish what they were doing. Another example she gave (and played for us), was a number facts song which the students sing along to. Thus, music can also serve as a direct educational tool and would be ideal for those students with a strong musical intelligence (Birmingham Grid for Learning, 2010).

Music could also be incorporated into lessons as a hook or as a background track in power point presentations - further enhancing the learning process. Music, like images, can be a powerful tool for evoking emotion in learners and can contribute towards creating a positive classroom climate (DoL 1).  Furthermore, music stimulates another sense among learners and according to The Abilene Christian University Adams Center for Teaching Excellence (2000), the input stage of active learning involves input from multiple sources and multiple senses. Thus, by incorporating music into lessons, teachers promote active learning.

Google Earth

Today I experimented with Google Earth - viewed Yeppoon from above, found my house (shown right) and zoomed to street level. I also 'flew' to places of interest (including Yeppoon State School where I am completing my EPL) as well as famous locations across around the world.

However, Google Earth is much more than a tool for finding and viewing 'where you live' or 'Rodeo Drive in Hollywood.' This digital tool can support and enhance learning experiences and become an integral tool in the lessons teachers deliver. In Joe Wood's blog , he explains how Google Earth can be used in the classroom (video below). For example, on Joe Woods' blog, he mentions an activity in which student can create placemarks and map the paths taken by famous Americans - what a novel idea for the presentation of a SOSE assignment.

I also learnt that Google Earth can be used to make a 'global tour' and began considering how I could use this functionality in my teaching. A Year 7 English assignment for example, could involve students creating a presentation 'About Me' using Goolge Earth. The learners could search for and find landmarks (for example, where they were born, where they went to school, their childhood home, places they went to holidays), add placemarks on those locations, edit the placemarks (by adding a title, description and photo) and then save and share the virtual tour they have created of their life's journey. Through activities such as this, students participate in active learning. As Google Earth is available on the web, the project could be completed on classroom computers or at another location, such as their home or the library.

I also believe Google Earth would be a great tool to use when explaining the theory of Pangaea and the concept of continental drift during a science lesson for my EPL class. The world as presented in Google Earth could be projected onto the IWB and students could see how the various continents may have once joined together. For example, as the class sees the image shown right, you could ask them if they can see how the American and African continents were once been connected.

The science unit I am delivering also looks at volcanoes and Google Earth could be used to create a tour of the world’s active volcanoes for presentation to the class. In a secondary context, consider how much more exciting Geography lessons would be if students could view the world, continents, states and landmarks on Google Earth, rather than in their text books. These applications demonstrate how Google Earth can be used in the classroom (and outside the classroom) to support and enhance learning in a meaningful and engaging way.

Flickr

Flickr is the portal of choice for storing images and accessing images made available from individuals located around the world.

Earlier this month, I added some recent images to my existing Flickr account, one of which is included below.

P1310100
Originally uploaded by KazaEK

I also added the below images from Flickr to my blog. There are countless photos available on the site and the search tool makes it easy to find what you are looking for.

fireworks on the willamette river - _MG_8698
Originally uploaded by sean dreilinger

In the past, I've used Flickr as;

A. a repository for my personal photos and

B. a means to search for images of interest.

However, as a pre-service teacher, I now see this site in a different light. In considering how Flickr can be used in classrooms and how the site fits in with the pedagogical frameworks discussed in ICTs for learning design, I've discovered a range of new teaching and learning applications which will now be discussed.

Thus far, my postings have focused on publishing text-based content to the web, but online photo galleries and image repositories such as Flickr present opportunities for teachers and learners to publish images to the web.

Flickr allow teachers and learners alike to create photo albums and multimedia shows to share with their parents, friends, teachers, the community and others around the globe. My EPL class at Yeppoon State School for example takes digital photos throughout the year during class activities and school events. Flickr would be a great space for the class to upload their images in one place - allowing the students and other audiences to access the images and see what has been happening in the class regardless of their location.

Flickr is a great way to document and share teaching and learning experiences - field trips, school camps, practical activities, fetes, functions, guest speakers and more could all become part of a class or school ‘photo stream.’ Furthermore, classes and learners can create separate albums for related pictures. Teachers could even encourage learners to create an online portfolio with digital images of their work. For example, a visual art class or students studying a photography unit could create an online gallery of their work on Flickr. Thus, the site is ideal for facilitating learning through images and catering to the visual learners in your class.

Flickr also affords its users a global audience, other people are able to located images by the tags you add, view descriptions added to your images and comment on those images. Thus, an online dialogue with other Flickr users can be created and learners can become involved in a community that contributes images on particular topic, creating a sense of belonging among students as recommended Kunc (1992).

You can also create an RSS feed in Flickr and be alerted when photos related to a topic you are studying are uploaded onto the site. Flickr is also a fantastic resource for learners to source images for school projects and for teachers to find images to include in lesson materials – as most photos are publicly available and can be used by anyone (provided of course, that you reference the image to Flickr). Hence, Flickr is ideal for introducing your learners to the world of digital images/ online image publishing and encouraging them to engage in social conversations/ collaborative learning with Flickr users and other students from all over the world.

Picnik and Image Manipulation

I really enjoyed using Picnik in this learning activity – who knew there was a far superior version to ‘Paint’ available free of charge on the web?

During this learning activity, I:

1. created a Picnik account,

2. uploaded an image,

3. edited the image using the various tools available (e.g. cropping, resizing, rotating, auto-fixing, sharpening, altering the colours/ contrast),

4. ‘created’ the image (adding further effects and a frame) and

5. saved the image to my computer, uploaded it Flickr and posted it to my blog.

I repeated this process using another image and the results can be seen below.

Original Photo...............................Photo After Editing.

Original Photo................................Photo After Editing.

Images: Personal photos taken and edited by Karlee Kreis

 

As you can see in the 'Coke Bottle Building' photo, the 'Neon' effect in Picnik enabled me to manipulate the image in a way that expressed the coke brand (and colour) and is far different from the original photo I took whilst on a study tour in China (I come from a Marketing background and previously worked for Coca-Cola Amatil).  Note that the image/ title at the top of my Blog (Karlee's e.Journal) was editied in Picnik and I found the process of customising an image for my blog very rewarding,

Picnik would be a great image manipulation tool for students wishing to edit images for class projects, their wiki or blog. Using the site could become a lesson in itself, where students learn how to manipulate digital images and then perhaps post them onto their (or the class) Flickr account.  The hands-on nature of Picnik would also foster creativity and could be used in learning experiences underpinned by engagement theory (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999). For instance, students could collaborate (relate) to build an online photo gallery of digitally altered images on Flickr on the topic being studied (Create) and make these images available to an outside audience, be it their peers, the teacher or parents (Donate).

For lower primary grades, the images created could be used in special occasion cards (e.g. for Mother’s Day) or compiled and presented in a power point presentation to parents during a parent conference in the classroom. 

In fact, I am so enthusastic about Picnik, that I will be working with the learners in my ELP class next week to edit an image in Picnik for their Mother's Day card (example left).

Picnik is yet another digital tool that enables active, hands-on learning (as students use multiple senses, in an active process to produce a product as per Dale's Cone (Abilene Christian University Adams Center for Teaching Excellence, 2000). Referring to the Learning Pyramid, using Picnik would also enable higher retention of the skills learnt and the learning experience itself through practical experience (Abilene Christian University Adams Center for Teaching Excellence, 2000). Picnik is my new favourite website and I can't wait to share it with the learners I'm currently working with.

Dvolver Movie Maker

Thanks to Kris Holden, I too discovered Dvolver.com.

With this website, it is so easy to create your own movies in cartoon or 3D. I can see this being particularly useful in dramas classes and English lessons. It would be a great way to encourage creative writing or generally foster creativity among your learners (a key idea behind Sir Ken Robinson's presentation 'Do schools kill creativity). The site would be ideal for teaching the concept of dialogue and plot, as well as punctuation, spelling and grammar since learners can see the results of the text they type in as they preview their mini-movies.

Using this website would be a fun and exciting way to engage learners... imagine an English lesson in which you are looking at narratives and story telling. Wouldn't creating a mini-movie using this website be a fantastic way for small groups of students (or even the whole class) to collaborate on a story, present it to an outside audience (for example, their parents or peers), all the while being engaged in a direct, hands-on purposeful learning experience (in accordance with Engagement theory and Dale's Cone)? The 'Active learners' in your class (Felder & Soloman, 2009) and those with dominant visual, musical and/ or linguistic intelligences (Birmingham Grid for Learners, 2010), would surely benefit from a learning experience involving Dvolver.

This is a fantastic site, and I'm sure students would find it as much fun to use as I did. I highly recommend visiting the site, and having a go at creating your own mini movie, or even better, introducing it to your EPL class and working it into one of your lessons!

Kind regards,

Karlee

Avatar is More Than a Blockbuster Movie!

Official Avatar Movie

When I first heard the term avatar used in the context of teaching and ICT, I couldn’t help but mentally picture the Na'vi - blue alien-like creatures, bounding from tree to tree in the rainforests of Pandora. However, avatars are more than characters in James Cameron’s latest blockbuster movie. In fact, they can be a highly effective and creative digital tool for learning managers. This post discusses the advantages and uses of avatars in teaching, with specific reference to ‘voki’ – an online publishing tool for creating avatars.

So what exactly is a voki and how can they be used in teaching?

A voki is a personalisable cartoon avatar which enables users to create a character/ audio player and express themselves on the web using a customised message (Pearce & Bass, 2008, p. 143). Vokis are one of many ‘plug-ins’ available to learning managers for use on the web (be it on a blog, in an email message, on a site profile, or on an online learning site such as moodle). The voki webiste can be accessed at http://www.voki.com/. Once you sign up to voki, you can begin creating a basic animated voki character for free (or explore other paid options such as 'site pal' - more advanced talking characters for websites).

The capabilities of voki are such, that you can customise a voki to suit your preferences or teaching topic. A voki’s; character style, player 'skin,' facial features, background, skin, hair, makeup, voice, ‘bling,’ clothes, can all be modified (as shown in the screen shot below).

A unique capability of voki, is that you can customise the character’s audio message, using either a microphone (to record up to sixty seconds of your own voice) or the text to speech feature on the voki website. Once the voki character is complete, a HTML code is generated and can be embeded in your webpage for the world to see (and play!).

The customisable and animated nature of vokis appeals to upper primary students and teenagers, who undeniably enjoy experimenting with new technologies. Vokis can be used by students to personalise their work and express themselves, for example by creating a voki reflective of themselves or their personality to their blog as a welcome message. The fun, novel of nature of vokis make them perfect for engaging students through active learning and for motivating them to learn. Given what we know about multiple literacies and learning styles, vokis are also a great way to engage both auditory and visual learners and are thus pedagogically justified.

As my patriotic voki friend from the US Army mentioned above, vokis can also be used by teachers to enhance lessons and engage learners. For instance, teachers could employ vokis on a moodle site or a teacher administered (class or student) blog to introduce; a unit of work, topic or homework assignment.

Please press play on the voki below for an example of how a voki can be customised by learning managers to suit the topic they are teaching and introduce students to online material or a homework assignment. In the example given, Sarah Palin, introduces the topic of misrepresented quotes to an English class, beginning with her (famously misrepresented) statement "I can see Russia from my house." Further instructions and details could then be given in written format on the class site or blog. Students might be asked to research and discuss other quotes throughout history where the meaning intended was lost in translation. From this example, you can see how vokis can be customised to suit a topic and interest students in the topic from the outset with an attention grabbing introduction (or ‘hook’).

IWB: The Blackboard of the 21st Century

Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) are the Blackboard of the 21st Century.

Schools throughout Central Queensland are rapidly adopting the technology, with Parkhurst State School (in Rockhampton) featuring an IWB in every classroom.

Dysart State School (DSS), where I attended most of my primary years (and where my mother is currently a teacher), has also embraced IWB technology - with almost all teaching spaces housing an IWB. Late last year I visited the school (volunteering as a 'class helper') and was amazed to see how the classrooms had transformed since I was a student there in the early 1990's... air-conditioning, IWBs and no painfully uncomfortable wooden chairs!

DSS has two types of IWBs – Soft boards for the lower school (as they are essentially giant touch screens, ideal for children to interact with) and Hard boards for the upper school (as they include an electronic pen and are ideal for tasks requiring greater accuracy).

At DSS, the IWBs have access to everything on the school network, internet access, the ability to play DVDs and access to software programs on the schools network specifically designed for IWB use including; Super Spell, Google Earth and Art Rage. IWBs have become integral to daily lessons at DSS, with teachers frequently using the IWB to visit educational websites (such as Enchanted Learning and Music Lab) and display pictures and documents.

IWBs offer a host of benefits, for example:

- Teachers can plan and save lessons in advance on the computer.
- Class work can be saved, printed and emailed.
- ICT skills can be seamlessly integrated into the syllabus and learning experiences.
- Various media, software and internet applications can be displayed and used on the one teaching board.
- Students are exposed to and can use various technologies and programs in the classroom which, without an IWB, would be difficult.

Most importantly, learning in a classroom with an IWB becomes a visual and interactive experience which facilitates hands-on, student-centred learning. Referring to Dale’s Cone (below), IWBs promote active, deeper and more effective learning through demonstration and direct, purposeful experiences (Abilene Christian University Adams Center for Teaching Excellence, 2000). For instance, teachers can easily demonstrate content and activities on the IWB and students can use the electronic pen to interact with the board or search internet sites (e.g. Google Earth or Wikipedia) themselves during class discussions to find the answer to their question – becoming an active participant in their own learning. IWB's also enable students to 'practice by doing' and immediately apply what they have learnt, which according to the Learning Pyramid, further promotes active learning and higher retention (Abilene Christian University Adams Center for Teaching Excellence, 2000).

Later this month, our internal class will be visiting Parkhurst State School and I am looking forward to seeing their IWBs in action and learning about their ICT program.




Images courtesy of: Abilene Christian University Adams Center for Teaching Excellence.(2000).