Cool Resources

I know assignments can be very stressful and time consuming but can also be very rewarding and you learn a lot from the experience. I know Assignment 1 is due in just over 24 hours and I’m sure I am with a lot of other students who still have not completed it. But during my experience with this assignment I have found some pretty cool resources.

My artefact is a website telling parents what the students of “my” year 6 science class will be learning about. I decided to do electrical circuits and found this great online resource that allows students to create a online electrical circuits. Click here to check it out.

HPE apps

I wanted to talk about two blogs that I have read today, that link together nicely. I was reading Hayden’s blog, which he talked about the use of cameras in HPE classes, with the idea being for students to be able to analysis, compare and evaluate their movements to one of a professional. Then I read Delsimone‘s blog which linked to Hayden’s blog, where he gave links to apps that can be used in conjunction with a camera that can aid with the process of biomechanical analysis.

Like both Hayden and Delsimone I am also interested in the biomechanics and how movements can effect performance in sport, and would like to add to this discussion. This link, similar to Delsimone, will take you to a website that has various apps that can help biomechanical analysis, which can be downloaded to your iPhone or iPad. Some apps are free, some require a small free but will hopefully assist some on those future HPE teachers.

The pressure is on!!

With less than a week to complete assignment one, along with writing the weekly three blogs, the weekly learning path, attending tutorials and lectures for this and other courses, work commitments  and other activities that take up our time it is hard to not feel a bit stressed.

The pressure is on to complete this assignment and I for one have done very minimal so far in completing it. I have read a few posts on how much time and effort is required in completing this assignment, and the frustration of trying to learn new technologies. For example Rochelleop has blogged about her experience with learning how to use new technologies and it taking up huge amounts of time. I guess all we can do now is pull up our socks and do the best we can to complete this assignment. Best of luck to everyone.

Gaming in the classroom

One thing is certain, gaming is becoming more and more popular and becoming a social norm in society. The use of gaming can have both positive and negative effects as highlighted in this article. The article sums the positive and negative effects gaming has on society. Some of the positive impacts being improving hand eye coordination and improving thinking and strategy skills.  With the negative impacts being excess playing time and social isolation.

As Jaimie mentioned in her blog, video games has been the cause of many debates, especially when linked to education. It is clear that gaming and many other technologies are apart of society and growing more and more popular so why not use educational games as a way of learning? I don’t mean students should be able to play GTA or Call of duty during class, but there are many great educational games out there that are interesting, engaging and can benefit learners if applied properly with appropriate playing time.

Mobile phones and Classrooms

Should mobile phones be banned in classrooms?

It’s a hot topic with many views and opinions and debates amongst teachers and pre-service teachers. Similar to Danielle‘s blog and her views on banning smart phones in schools, I believe utilising smart phones and connecting students to technologies they use outside of school can be beneficial in learning. I know there are students out there who use there phones in a wrong way or get distracted during lessons with texts, tweets and Facebook posts, so there needs to be boundaries when they can access their smart phones. But banning mobiles, especially  in schools who don’t have the budget to give all students the opportunity to use ICTs regularly can be disadvantaged, especially as we see technology becoming more widely used in the modern day workplace.

Scootle

As a requirement of this weeks learning path I was exposed to Scootle for the first time. The task was to locate resources using our Scootle account and then share it on the EDC3100 forum.

Scootle is a website that links to the Australian Curriculum where teachers and pre-service teachers can access each others resources such as unit plans, lesson plans and any other materials related to teaching and learning. It is a great resource for teachers and pre-service teachers to use to help create interesting, engaging lessons for their students. There are a lot of resources on Scootle where teachers can use and adopt it into their lessons. To access Scootle click here.

Thanks for reading

Is technology making us anti-social?

During this weeks learning path there was a question that said “The rise of computers and especially mobile devices making people more likely to ignore those around them and focus on the device. True or false?”. My first thought was true, and that it was clear through my experiences that people focus more on computer or mobile devices and ignore those around them. But apparently it was false!! and that the rise of computers and mobile devices are not making people more likely to ignore those around them. To be honest I was quite shocked and I think most people would have had the same reaction.

I read this article, which you can find here which I believe to be true in which in some cases having a mobile phone can be more anti-social rather than social and that some people would rather message, Facebook, Snapchat, Tweet or email each other rather then talk face to face. I’m not saying that utilising this form of communication is wrong but instead to moderate your time in these devices and when in social situations be more aware and enjoy peoples company that is around you.

Confidence in sharing

Just recently I read Hayley Richter’s blog which really resonated with me. Hayley speaks about her troubles with finding the courage in writing in the discussion forums and questions throughout the the EDC3100 learning path. She mentioned that she feels that she doesn’t know what she is talking about, or that people and sitting there judging her on what she writes on public forums. I feel very much the same, with me being someone who is quite private in sharing my thoughts and ideas in the fear of being judged or ridiculed. But like Hayley I am hoping in time I become more comfortable and confident in sharing my work and ideas throughout this course.

Postman’s 5 things to know

This weeks learning path had some very interesting topics, but one particular topic that most people found interesting was Postman’ 5 things to know about technological change. One of the five things to know that I found myself thinking a lot about was “technology is always a trade off “,which means, where there is an advantage with technology there is always a corresponding disadvantage. Similar to Hayden’s blog, I thought I would share another example of where this happens.

“An example of an advantage with technology is with our smart phones when we are creating texts. The phone automatically corrects out misspellings which is user friendly and time saving although this does not allow us to recognise and amend our own misspellings therefore we are disadvantaged when writing on paper”

Thanks for reading

Confidence in teaching ICT

I was reading a interesting article that investigates the overarching research question: Are ICT initiatives having the desired impact on teaching and learning in schools? Research was conducted with both Queensland state and catholic schools which involved 2652 teachers and 168 different schools. The research shows that a lot of teachers have little to some confidence when teaching with ICT or integrating ICTs into there lessons. The article also shows  how this impacts the students learning when teachers with little or low confidence are teaching them how to use ICT. You can find the article here. Once you are on this website there is a hyperlink to the full article. Thanks for reading.