Moving Image Education: A Visit From Fife

This week at university students edited their movies which they will hopefully be sharing with you in the next week or two.  One student wrote an interesting post related to the technical steps of movies making where she discusses the pros and cons and how she would address these in the classroom: iTeach blog.

The majority of students then reflected upon the visit from Fife Local Authority related to what Fife schools are doing in relation to ICT.  Jim Birney, Fife's Education Adviser ICT, kindly came to University with three colleagues to allow students teachers to see the huge range of exciting ICT educational learning that is going on in schools across Fife.  Students reflected upon what they learnt from Jim and colleagues in their personal blogs.

The contextualised aspect of GBL was discussed by MissC who noted that ICT should not be confined to ICT suites but embedded into classroom learning.  One student, iRight, provided an overview of all games that were introduced with reference to Curriculum for Excellence's outcomes.  MissyMack provided a specific example of GBL using SuperTux and how Prensky's five levels of learning can be addressed through this game.

There are more post still to be written which I shall add later in the week.  If you read this post and have time, please read some of the students' post and give them some feedback.

Moving Image Education

This week students have started their Moving Image Education (MIE) part of their ICT elective.  Animation, filming and moving images are what we will be discussing, reading, doing and reflecting upon to develop a better understanding of how to use MIE in education.

There are two student blogs that I would like to draw your attention to where the students have provided insightful reflections from their own practice and readings.

iCare's post provided the reader with information of the three areas of MIE - Analyse - Create - Explore.  This was taken from the MIE site which the students were asked to read and reflect upon.  iClare the develops her post further by relating MIE to Scottish Education where CfE discuss the how MIE can link to the four capacities of CfE.

Finally, iClare provided an example of how a teacher is using MIE in her classroom.  A very good post which is worth a read.

The next post that I recommend reading was created by iTeach.  Here iTeach starts by referring to the three 'Cs' of MIE which is exemplified through a simple diagram.

iTeach then provided the reader with three sections related to MIE: Why do we need MIE? Why study MIE? MIE and the Curriculum for Excellence.  Again, a clearly written post the is concise and informative.

IWB Training - e-Learning & Face-To-Face Learning

Now we are at the last stage of the research where you now have the chance to provide your personal perspective of the training approach you undertook.  When creating your response you should reflect upon:

1. The findings from the questionnaire.
2. The discussion you had with your group.
3. The feedback your group and other groups in your year provided on your Wallwisher page.
4. The feedback the other year group provided on their Wallwisher page.

When you respond to this post you should read what others have said before you.  Do you agree or disagree with them?  Do you have something different to say?  

Once you have reflected on all of the above you should be ready to provide your personal feedback.

QR Fresher Hunt Around Campus

It is Fresher's Week, or Welcome Week, at University of Dundee, and students are starting a new journey in their lives.  Like all new journeys there are hurdles to overcome to get to the final destination.  During Welcome Week, my role is to provide students with their induction to the the IT systems that they will use at University to communicate, access materials and in some cases collaborate with others.  Over the past two years I have evaluated this system, observed students in their first few days at University and discussed some of the difficulties.  The main aspect that arises is finding their way about Campus and Dundee.

University is like a small town with lots of buildings, rooms, people and procedures and it is difficult to assimilate all this knowledge and locate various buildings in this maze-like community.  Likewise, Dundee is a large town with lots of places of interest that are sometimes never found.  The traditional method of finding places are organised guided tours of the University or local area or follow the crowd and all get lost together.  Today I decided to change from the traditional to the present and organised a QR Fresher Hunt for my First Year Primary Student Teachers and for new students across University in collaboration with Karen from Dundee University Students Association (DUSA).

The QR Fresher Hunt used i-nigma software to create QR Codes  with hidden messages that were revealed when students scanned the codes with i-nigma App on iPhones that were provided by myself for each group or using the students' own mobile devices that are compatible with i-nigma software.  The messages within the QR codes asked students to locate a key area in the University (Teaching Rooms, Reception Area, Assignment Location, Student Services, Bank Machines, Gym, Book Shop, businesses in dundee and local areas of interest, etc) with a specific task to do when they arrived there.

The activity started with a shy, quiet class who were still getting to know their peers and their lecturer.  When students returned from the QR Fresher Hunt the atmosphere had transformed into a lively class who undertook all activities and were eager to share the information, leaflets and knowledge about areas of University, with their peers.  More importantly, new friendships were made through this collaborative activity where everyone was involved in each task.

QR codes have a huge potential to be part of Education, whether it be to support or extend learning or to make learners engage with their learning environment rather than dismiss it.  Maybe the seeds I have sown today will scatter to a wider community where others will adopt this active approach to Fresher's Week but more importantly that our future teachers may use this method to engage, support, personalise and motivate the children of today's generation.

Press Release: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/pressreleases/2011/september11/playtag.htm

Free Wikis For Higher Education

Fantastic news - Wikispaces are now providing free spaces for Higher Education without all the advertising.

http://www.wikispaces.com/content/for/highered

I have used wikispaces for rather a long time in education and the value of this tool to provide a window to the world for communication, collaboration and creativity is huge.  You don't get many things in life for free but this is one of those gems that should be treasured and appreciated otherwise it will come lost in the mine.

There Is More To Farming Than Wellies & Manure!!!

A repost related to Facebook and Farmville as student teachers are looking at Games Based Learning.

Do you have Facebook?  Do you have Farmville?  Do you visit your farm at least once a day?  Do you have crops and animals or do you do just crops or just animals?  Do you organise your farm with animals in one area and crops in another?  Do you help neighbours with their farms?  Do you play for fun or to make money or move up a level?

Ploughing, planting, harvesting, reaping, gathering eggs, collecting milk, storing items, buying seeds/ machinery/ fuel/ storage and earning virtual money are all part of a day's work on Farmville, Facebook's highly addictive application as evident in the latest statistics below:

Usage:


The addiction for Farmville is quite catching.  I had resisted interacting with this application due to perceiving it as another Tamagothchi type fad that would not last long.  I took no interest in my teenage daughter's addiction to it and told student teacher's to turn off Farmville during ICT inputs unless they could give me an educational reason why they could play this.  Well being true educationalists they were able to provide ample reasons which led me to enquire more about what was making this addictive and was there true educational value in this application.

Well I have to say, if you go down to the farm today you are in for a big surprise.  There are lots of educational values from helping you neighbouring farmers, time-management, organisation, budgeting, developing, maintaining etc..  These are generic values that can be applied to the game, however, the main educational value lies in the field of 'business management'.  This is the problem solving part that makes you think: what crops shall I plant to gain the most money, what crops shall I plant that I can harvest in the time given, will I have animals, trees and buildings as they take up space and do not make as much money?  Mathematical skills are required to answer these questions if you want your farm to thrive and reap a tidy profit which is known as Return On Investment (ROI) in the financial world.

Business Management:


Let's start with the planting of seeds where the following factors need to be taken into consideration:  The cost of the seeds, how much the crop will sell for and the harvest time.  The following screenshot provides examples of a variety of seeds that can be purchased from the Market.

When I initially started Farmville I chose crops that I personally would eat or would look nice in my farm.  This is all fine but will not be the most profitable means of ensuring my farm has a healthy ROI and I am sure this is not how 'real' farmers farm their lands!  So it became clear that a formula was required to work out what would reap the best ROI.  This is the formula I used:

H=harvest value

C=initial price

T=time (in hours)

ROI=(H-C)/T

Random selection of crops for their taste and looks quickly flew out the window as I became a Scrooge and watched my money quickly grow.


Collaborative Farming


Whilst my seeds were growing, and this could take a few days for some, I needed to remain busy on the farmy.  One way to do this is to help neighbouring farms that belong to Facebook friends.  By scaring their crows, raking their leaves, fertilising their crops etc., I can earn more money without depleting theirs.  Now this is not how the real world works.  If a farmer works on another farm it is usually for a payment not for the love of it, however, rather than be paid in coins, Farmville pays in experience which helps climb up the experience levels.  In a discussion with my teenage daughter, this is more important to her than the money as she wants to be a higher level than her peers.  This competitive attitude towards gaming is part of today's generation where being better is a key factor in games.  My daughter, who used to  visit her farm more than five times a day, told me she was not using it much now due to the fact her friend managed to get to a higher level than her thus she gave up as she could not work out how to achieve this in such a short period of time.  Problem-solving is one of  our globalised key competences and it looks like my daughter prefers competition and knowledge more.  The formula above was explained and now she has returned to Farmville to see if she can achieve her goal of winning!


Giving & Receiving


Being a good neighbour is not just about helping each other but stems to sending free gifts to one another.  Now there is no obligation to do this and it costs the sender no money to send a gift (not like in the real world).  The only benefits are that hopefully the neighbour will be good enough to send a gift back.  So money is not the answer to all but simply being kind and thoughtful might reap rewards of a nice new cow or some fuel for a vehicle.


Animals


Caring for animals does have educational values and stems back to looking after those Tamagotchis many year's ago.  Having animals is not the most profitable method of farming but less time consuming.  I have a lecturer friend who only has animals as she does not have the time to farm the land.  Now that is fine is you are happy tending to the various animals when you have time but I think a zoo would be better!  With my business management head on and my ROI, decisions need to be made whether animals are profitable.  The price of animals are not cheap and have the same formula to buying seeds:

H=harvest value

C=initial price

T=time (in hours)

ROI=(H-C)/T

Now it does not take a mathematical genius to work out that it will take a long time to make any ROI with animals.  Take buying a cow: the cost is 300 coins, it takes 1 day to harvest and the produce only sells for 6 coins.  To sell the cow will only get the grand total of 15 coins.  That is 50 days work to break even!  With a recession on at the moment one needs to decide if this is the best way to earn money remembering that animals take up land that could be farmed.

Trees, buildings, vehicles etc

Farms are not just fields with crops but have barns, a house, tractors, harvesters etc...   And yes a farm can have these things but first money must be made.  Sticking to the educational model of ROI, students should always think is a need or a want, what it the ROI for what I will buy and compare before hitting the purchase button.  I am sure this will be lessons learnt for future life where it is so easy to click purchase and use a credit card without thinking is this something I need and is it something I can afford to buy at this present time.

Collaborative Blogging - Knowledge Construction of The Crowd

Collaborative Blogging - crowd sourcing knowledge from student teachers to create one collaborative post.  How did we do this?

First I created a collaborative Google Document and placed headers related to the topic 'handheld learning'.

I then provided the small group of students with the link to the document and they had to place their names beside the area they wanted to write about.  Students then reflected in their own time on their specific sub-topic.

The final document is below related to our collaborative reflections of handheld technology:

iPhone Collaborative lecture
Advantages: Tutors can receive instantaneous feedback from us during lectures, using poll4.com for example (like Sharon used the other day). With it being anonymous students are more likely to participate rather than having to put their hand up and share their ideas in front of 90 other people.
They can also be used to contribute to collaborative documents while information is fresh in your mind, even just placing a reminder there for expansion (by yourself or others) at a later stage.
Disadvantages: They can be quite fiddly to use and may result in you losing concentration on the content of the actual lecture.


iPhone Personal lecture

A way in which the IPhone can be used in personal lectures is by using QR codes. Lectures would create QR codes which they will display on their Power Points in their lectures. These QR codes would link to articles and websites relevant to the lecture they are presenting. Using the IPhone, students will be able to scan the QR code and will be linked straight to the relevant article or website. This will be useful because it will give the students instant access to the information and they will not have to spend time typing in complicated URL’s. It will also be effective because the students will be able to view the relevant information whilst the lecture is talking about it. This will also save the lecture time when creating their PowerPoints because they will not have to spend time selecting examples of information from the websites or articles to put into their PowerPoint.

Keira

iPhone Collaborative tutorial - Tamar

iPhones can be hugely useful in a tutorial for personal use and collaborative uses. I initially thought i was looking at personal uses so here are how you could use it for your own individual use.
One obvious use for it is to take notes. There are a variety of apps you can use to take notes on and edit them at a later.  I really like “document” apps because it is very simple to use and use can create different folders to keep your lectures organised.
Another use for an iphone in tutorials is to use the internet. By having the internet on the iphone you would be able to bring up any relevent web pages, useful link and resources online.
Another app that I personally use is the “stickies app”, I find it very useful for recording all of the work I still have to complete and any other notes I must remember. This app would allow you to write anything relevent and tasks you need to complete for your tutorial.  

iphones can be used to help encourage collaboration in tutorials. One very useful app is “bump”, personally I think this is a very useful app that allows people to work together, share ideas annd then gather them all together on the main device. Bump allows you to literally drag information across from one device to another. The app I mentioned earlier, “stickies” is useful to use along side bump. It means that people can write their thoughts and ideas down on the post it’s and gather them together on another device.
Using google docs on an iphone would allow everyone in the tutorial to simultaneously add their ideas and opinions into one document.

Although I have only mentioned a few ideas of how to use an iphone personally and collaboratively. I feel that an iphone can be a very useful resource to have in a tutorial.

iPhone Personal tutorial


IPad collaborative lecture (Lyndsay Dunn)

For this collaborative task I chose to look at the IPad and how it can be incorporated into a collaborative lecture. I selected this area to reflect on as I have used the IPad in lecturers previously and have an understanding of how they can be used, but using them as part of a collaborative lecture is something I needed to research further.

There seem to be many different advantages of using the IPad in this way which could enhance learning. The first advantage that came to mind was using the device, so that lecturers can receive instantaneous or real time feedback. Tools such as Poll4 can be used for simple questions or to elicit deeper responses and are quick and easy to set up. Google Docs is another collaborative tool, which can be used to create and edit documents in real time by a number of people. I believe that by having this anonymous exchange of information, alongside verbal, can encourage interactions from the students. Anonymity may encourage more students to have a voice and be supported in their learning. Many students have answers to the questions being asked or have extra information, but never put their hands up. Lecture theatres can be a daunting place for some people.

An app I would like to discuss is Dropbox. Dropbox is a web based file hosting service, which enables users to access and share files on different devices using ‘cloud computing’. Using this app, lecturers could drop their power points into the Dropbox or students could download them from Blackboard dropping them into their own Dropbox. The IPad can then be used in lectures to pick up the power point and add notes. Students can not only add their own notes, but the lecturer may wish to add extra notes as well to enhance the lecture, personalising the learning to the particular class.

Good Reader used along with Dropbox is another tool to encourage collaboration. This app allows pdf files to be annotated, highlighted and drawn upon. Once this has been done the document can be shared among the lecture theatre. E books can also be highlighted and shared in a similar way giving access to more information.

There seems to be many advantages in incorporating the IPad into a collaborative lecture and am aware I’m just scratching the surface, however, it is important to look at the negative side too. As with most technology once you get used to using it it’s hard to live without. It is inevitable that at some point there will be some sort of fault and for this reason it is important to have a backup plan.

Changing the structure can be a good thing, however, it also means that time and effort must go into training and figuring out how to use everything. This will be easy for some people, but others may struggle or lack of time may be an issue and let’s not forget the people who don’t like change.  

Using new technology is always exciting, but I feel that some may become distracted and lose focus on the lecture. Students could be looking at their Face book, checking their email.... instead of paying attention to the lecture and it could go undetected. Some students may be one step behind and miss out on important information while they are concentrating on something else.

There are always two sides to a story, but I think in this case the positive would outweigh the negatives. There are always going to be people who don’t want to pay attention in lectures, however, people need to take responsibility for their own learning.

By
Lyndsay Dunn    

iPad Collaborative Lecture
Nicole Blues
As I have previously blogged about in my post “iPads – How exciting!”, I am very interested in the educational value of the iPad, both for us as university students and for our future practice in the classroom. I found the Apple In Education website to be very informative whilst completing my research on the subject. Through this I found out more of the educational benefits of the iPad, and the features programmed to aid the teaching process. For example, the clip shows students in Seton Hill University, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, attending a lecture where each student has their own personal iPad with them. As the lecturer goes through the of the slides on their powerpoint, each student can add their own personal notes on to their iPads. The key collaboration aspect comes in to place as the lecturer is also able to add key notes onto their powerpoint, and these will also show up on the students screens. Whilst watching the video, I was intrigued as to how this process would work and showed an interest in finding out more about this area. Sharon then took this on board, had a play with various apps to find a solution and incorporated it into our next input.
We used Dropbox, an online program in which you can save your files, to test this function. As the video on the website states, Dropbox allows you to hold all of your files in one place, so you can access them wherever you are – very handy when you need a powerpoint, ebook or journal whilst sat in a lecture theatre! These files can then be opened up on your personal iPad and annotated with your own notes, or by the lecturer. I think this is a very useful function of the iPad as it allows you to have any file you may need at your fingertips, all within the space of one small gadget instead of carrying around folders or individual sheets of paper.
Another useful function of an iPad in a collaborative lecture, is the use of sites such as Poll4, which allows the lecturer to share a question on the screen, and receive responses from the crowd through their handheld devices. This system allows contributors to submit their answers anonymously, therefore encouraging those who may not usually speak out in class, to do so with confidence. The lecturer will then receive a wider range of responses displayed on their screen, which is also useful for them to look back over, rather than forgetting answers submitted orally.
I am interested in testing out the other apps available for the iPad in the future, as the Apple In Education site has a number of apps built for teaching here, which I will hope to test when I next borrow a device.
iPad Collaborative tutorial
Mandy
iPad Personal lecture
An iPad can be a very useful tool to support our learning. With access to the Internet, users are able to access online documents or lecture notes for example.
One piece of software on the iPad which I was impressed with was ‘Good Reader’. It allows you to open a document and annotate. The following are just some of Good Reader’s features: it allows you to write your own notes straight onto your P.D.F. file, use different shapes and lines to annotate your work and to use a highlighter tool. One feature in particular that I liked was how you are able to attach a sticky note to your page if you needed to leave yourself a reminder or just some additional information.
To me, this would be very beneficial as it is easy to use and is much more efficient than having handwritten notes.
When you have finished annotating your document, it can be transferred and stored on your own personal computer. One recommendation that was made to us was to make use of Dropbox, a website which allows online storage. By using this you are able to access your own personal documents when you need them no matter where you are, as long as you have Internet access.
Another benefit of having an iPad for personal use in a lecture is that if something is mentioned that you are not entirely clear about, again if you have access to the Internet, you are able to do a quick search to help your understanding. - Kirsten
iPad Personal tutorial

Voices Of The World - Love Is In The Air

February's task for Voices Of The World was created by student primary teachers at University of Dundee.  Two of the teachers wrote about the task on their blogs:

Miss Goodheart's ICT Elective Blog

Miss Wright - Reflective ICT Blog

The task's theme is 'Love' where schools around the world will create five vokis each that say a line of a well known love poem.  The vokis will then be placed on the VOTW site for children to develop an appreciation of different languages, dialects and accents.  To view an example of what children will be making, look at what the students created earlier - VOTW FEBRUARY.

Get Information Delivered To You Rather Than Having To Find It

This post is primarily targeted to my primary student teachers, however, if you do not use iGoogle or do not have live feeds from blogs and news then this might be of interest.  On the other hand, if you do the above with iGoogle or using a different method then you might want to share with us.

When was the last time you had to go to the Post Office and collect your mail that could be delivered through your letterbox?  Do you do this on a daily, weekly basis?  Do you ask yourself - Why can't this mail be just delivered to me rather than waste my time and energy collecting mail that can be delivered?

The same questions can be asked regarding the information we keep going back to online that could be delivered to our online mail boxes or an area online that becomes your hub of information gathering.  One method, that I use, is my iGoogle page, that I customise to pull all the latest blog post and news feeds rather than clicking on each site to find out if an update post is available.  This page is accessible via my Mac, iPad and iPhone to adhere to my premise that information is delivered anytime, anyplace, anywhere.  The first two devices provide a very slick interface with the later device, the iPhone, providing a very basic interface that suits more instant retrieval than deep engagement.

The video below provides a brief overview of iGoogle:



If you have a Google account you can start using iGoogle, however, if not you might want to create one.  For all those students who have created a blog account you maybe able to use this.  The video below provides an overview of how to edit your iGoogle Homepage:




The following link provides a brief overview of How To Add Google RSS Feed to your iGoogle page.

http://www.wikihow.com/Add-an-RSS-Feed-to-Your-iGoogle-Page

Setting Your Blog's RSS Feed

So that people can find your RSS feed on your own blog you should make this available by going to the Dashboard of your blog the select:

1.  Design
2.  Add A Gadget
3.  Select the gadget - Subscribe to my Blog
4.  Save

When you view at your blog you will now have an RSS feed for comments and posts which other people can select to keep up-to-date with your blog.

Following Another Person's Blog

If you visit a blog and wish to subscribe to their feeds so you can have their latest posts placed in your iGoogle account you should look for the RSS feed on their page and subscribe to it by selecting 'Add to Google'.  Any new posts will now appear in your iGoogle page as a summary.

Primary Student Blog Of The Week

This week I have chosen Nicole's blog post, iPads - How Exciting!, as my student post of the week.

It is reflective, contains good links and reference to educational aspects and provides an insight into possible ways we can use iPads in education.

Well done Nicole.

If you have a spare moment, please go to Nicole's blog and leave her a comment to encourage her on her journey of blogging or provide additional advice to deepen her knowledge.

Forde, C., McMahon, M. & Reeves, J. (2009). Putting Together Professional Portfolios. London: Sage. Part 2 - Describe/Reflect/Evaluate through Windows Movie Making

'A portfolio is a means of structuring, demonstrating and reflecting on your development as a professional.  At the heart of portfolio development is your learning' (Forde, 2009, p,13).

The three elements to examining practice:

Reflection - Why something was undertaken a specific way.

Description - What happened?

Evaluation - How did this affect me?

It is not just examining one's own practice but what we observe and learn from others.  This can be through observing others teaching, attending a lecture or undertaking a CPD course or reading a book or article.  The only difference is, although we can reflect on what we observe or read, it is not until we put this into practice can we truly reflect on how this affects ourselves.

There are times when we reflect and match our learning to specific attainment goals, for example,   Standard for Initial Teacher Education (SITE) or HERA for lecturers at University.  The model of reflecting, describing and evaluating may paint a picture to the reader, however, this picture sometimes requires evidence to substantiate the claims being made.

Using the models presented above, I reflected on a recent Digital Moving Editing process with students that was undertaken last week.

1.  Reflection on Digital Movie Making Editing Process With Students

Small groups of student teachers had completed the filming part of their digital movies and were ready to progress to the Editing process using Windows Movie Maker.  This software was being used as it can be found on the majority of machines in schools, the University has this on their machines and all students have access to this software on their personal computers.

Prior to editing, the movie files required converting from .mp4 to .wmm.  The file were in this format due to using Flip Cameras.  To convert the files the online tool, zamzar.com, was used due to no converter software being on university machines and to show students a possible tool they could use for converting specific files.

2.  Description of What Happened

Converting the files using Zamzar was timely due to the software only allowing one upload at a time.  A link would then be sent to a specified email account to which the converted file could be downloaded.  To save time, students were asked to share this task rather than one student undertake with the whole process taking around 30 - 40 minutes.

In general, all files converted and played in their new .wmm format, however, the problem occurred when we tried to import them into Windows Movie Maker Software.  Some of the files corrupted with the pixels becoming blurred.

To counteract this problem we downloaded trial versions of conversion software and converted all the files again.  This worked well for all groups minus one: Windows Movie Maker would not recognise all the files saying an 'index' file was missing.  We searched this problem, download additional files but could not fix the problem until it became apparent that the problem was due to all the files being converted at one time rather than one by one with the software: problem solved.

Next minor problem, for one group, was when they imported their files to WMM it would only allow one to import and removed this when another was imported.  Although a minor problem this was a little unusual as normally you see all files that are imported.  To counteract this we simply had to place the files on the storyboard each time they were imported.

Last problem!!!  A diligent student had worked very hard, all alone and without help or fuss, to edit her movie.  It was just about finished when she asked me about saving it as her space on the University would not allow.  Now, the student had imported all her files from a memory stick and I pulled it out!!!  This was not a good move because the computer was still looking for this files from the memory stick and all her hard work was deleted from WMM!!!  I had suddenly made the error that I warn all students about: past the point of no return...

3.  Evaluation of WMM

Looking back at this scenario, many problems would not have occurred if there was a video converter on machines rather than try online or trial versions.  With different cameras being used and different file formats available, it only makes sense to have a reputable conversion software in place to ensure this part of the process flows smoothly.  It can be very frustrating going through this process and things not working and it it technical setbacks like this that may stop many in moving forward with digital movie making.  Having spoken to technical support, we are now getting a converter software to use, Wondershare, for future movie make inputs.  Yes, a bit late for this one but sometimes it is only after events that we reflect and decide what to do to eliminate replication.

The next question that I keep asking myself is 'Why continue to use WMM?'  The latest version is not so easy to use and the current version, that we have on our University machines, is no longer running smoothly without hitches.  Is it time to inverts in a simple child-friendly software, similar to digital blue but one step above, that schools might be using or one that students can introduce into schools?  Part of me says it is time to move on but the other part says use what the majority have on their machines so student teachers can at least try WMM at school rather than not.

Whichever method I decide to employ next WMM session, I need to look at what local schools are using, try different tools out and take into account the benefits and disadvantages of each tool.  It may end up that a varied approach is taken rather than the one shoe fits all method.

If you incorporate WMM into your classroom practice or Local Authority then please let me know how you get around the conversion aspect and what software you use for editing.  Please take into account that the target age group would be for children age 9 - 12 years old.  We already use Digital Blue Software and want to go the next step up.  Look forward to your replies.

Forde, C., McMahon, M. & Reeves, J. (2009). Putting Together Professional Portfolios. London: Sage.

Chapter 1 - What Is a Portfolio

'a space in which you can plan and reflect in depth on your practice, helping identify your strengths and find ways of building on these' (p.1).

OR

'a collection of materials put together in a meaningful way to demonstrate the practice and learning of an educational practitioner' (p.1).

IT IS NOT

'a random collection of materials and artefacts'.

What is the purpose:

* to illustrate achievements?

* to demonstrate ongoing developments of thinking and practice?

* to collect evidence?

* to provide a vehicle for reflection?

Types of portfolios:

* Course Content - contains items that have significant relevance to a course.

* CPD Portfolio - contains record of professional development with reflections and evaluations.

* Competence-based Portfolio - achievement against specific criteria.

* Accreditation for Prior Learning - contains evidence related to prior learning.

* Project Portfolio - contains resources and reflections of groups related to a specific topic.

There are quite a few similarities and differences between what we place in different types of portfolios that it is easy to get blur the boundaries between the main focus or to use the wrong tool for the job.  In this age where many use blogs and wikis as their electronic means of reflection and evidence, I do question whether the correct tool is being applied for the correct purpose.  How often I have seen wikis being used as a reflective tool in the format of a diary and blogs being used as a place to record evidence when the other way around would be much more beneficial.  Surely as years roll on it is much easier to view an organised wiki to view specific key evidence that trail through a specific tag in a blog and likely so, it is easier to map development by viewing the learning journey in a blog than fish through a wikispace.  

If you are using a blog or a wikispace: what is the purpose of your online space?  Look at the different types and purposes and see if you can reflect on the reason you have either chosen a tool or been asked to use a tool and is it the right tool for the job.  Hopefully by looking at the above key aspects, you will begin to understand the 'why' and 'what' of ePortfolios and the online tools available.  There will be cross-overs and stand-alone moments but at the end of the day the underpinning purpose should be a place to map the development of one's relationship between learning and practice.

My Personal Response:

I originally created this blog, not to illustrate my achievements or collect evidence but to share what I was doing with technology in the classroom with a wider audience where the knowledge of the crowd was far greater than the knowledge of the individual.  By joining the 'community of practice' of my fellow educational bloggers, I could learn from them and reciprocate this knowledge sharing by sharing my ideas through this blog where developments in emerging technologies were at the heart of my reflections.

Over the years, this blog has moved a little towards collecting evidence, however, still has the reflective process and sharing as the main reason for posting.  It has still not, to me, met the purpose of 'illustrating achievement' due to it being my personal reflective area to connect with others and converse rather than just show.  Illustrating my achievement comes primarily through my professional CV or through my personal wikispace that provides more a timeline of events and evidence rather than the reflective process.

So the question is, why am I writing about Portfolios and discussing my blog?  It appears that many use blogs for the purpose of a Portfolio and tag specific aspects of learning.  For me, this is not the purpose of my blog, and like the old saying goes, 'what is one man's meat is another man's poison'.  

Primary Students' Blogging

My second year ICT Elective group have just started blogging where they are using the tool to reflect on their learning and share their new found knowledge with one another.  Hopefully by the end of the module students will be using the reflective practitioner approach where they will be:

* critically analysing their reflections;
* linking rather than just writing;
* referring to research and readings;
* explaining process rather than tell a story;
* engaging with this community they are in online;
* using their blog to reflect after the module finishes rather than just for the module.

You might want to welcome them and provide them with some advice related to effective reflective blogging or just some encouragement.  You an view their blogs from the links below.  Go on, make a student teacher's day.


Gillian
Keira
Nicole
Caroline
Lyndsay
Tamar

Kirsten
Mandy

Don't Lecture Me - I'm A 21st Century Learner

Next Friday, 14th January, I have been invited to present at University's Discovery Days.  This event is where new professors to the University present a short presentation and take questions.  This year, I will be joining the new professors, not because I am a professor (a goal for the future), but to disseminate one of the pedagogical approaches I take during lectures.  If you are interested, read below what I will be discussing and if free come to Dundee and join two days of a variety of presentations related to many different topics.

Today’s generation of learners are social beings who communicate, collaborate, create, co-create and connect using online technologies.  This ‘Net Generation’, or Net Gens as Tapscott (2008) defines them, is a generation whose modus operandi is networking with freedom to create and produce content online through ‘infiltered self-expression’.  Outwith educational institutions, learners are forming communities through various social media networks where they are creating user-generated content, sharing with their peers, co-creating content already produced, discussing, evaluating, debating and learning from one another.  

The ‘Net Generation’ are no longer linear learners, but multi-faceted learners.  They have access to large sources of information at their fingertips (Bonk, 2009) and are no longer confined to learning at a specific time and place.  They are no longer passive consumers but ‘Digital Natives’ (Prensky, 2001) who simultaneously employ a range of social media to communicate.  These social media enable them to be constantly connected to friends and family (Oblinger, 2008) through the use of synchronous and asynchronous technologies.  As a result of students’ social experiences, they simply want to communicate and have a voice, however, when they attend lectures communication becomes a very singular aspect where the lecturer is the key communicator of information or opportunities for questions or discussion typically results in only 5% of students responding to 95% of the lecturer’s questions.

The lecture setting was not originally designed to enable social constructivism.  Lectures were created to address the problem of large enrollments of students in schools, in the late 1800s, where a standardised curriculum was delivered to large class sizes rather than taught (Horn, 2008).  The role   of students, in a lecture, was a consumer-style approach to learning, whereby students were expected to listen to retrieve information from the lecturer who imparted knowledge to the crowd resulting in passive non-participatory learning. This hierarchical learning style has been organised this way for many years where, ‘those who know tell those who do not know, and thereby maintain and enhance their own status, while passing on accumulated wisdom and experience’ (Brandes & Ginnis, 1986: 10).  While this method may have been efficient, it did not provide an effective learning experience that met the needs of all learners.

Although today’s lectures have changed to try and address the needs of learners, they still replicate many methods of the past: passive learning, knowledge delivery and one way communication.  Students are no longer passive consumers of learning.  They are no longer content to sit for long periods of time and listen to lectures and take notes but want to be engaged through learning that is interactive, personalised, collaborative, creative and innovative (Trilling & Fadel, 2009).  The role of the lecturer is no longer a knowledge delivery role or a one-person show to an attentive audience, but rather the manager, advisor, guider and teacher of a learning community.  However, these learning communities are not a new notion brought about by technology.  Lave & Wenger’s (1991) ‘communities of practice’ emphasised the collaborative nature of learning from individual to participation in a social world.  This community of practice can be in the same locality at the same time, for example a group of students attending a lecture, or in different localities at different times, or a group of students around the world with the same interest using social media tools to discuss and learn from one another.  This form of social constructivism, where knowledge and understanding is constructed through the active process of discussing and reflecting with peers, produces a richer learning environment where collaboration and active learning are the drivers of knowledge and higher level thinking skills. 

To change lectures from consumer to ‘prosumer’ learning, a shift in pedagogy, from delivering to facilitating, is required.  This can be achieved through implementing online technologies, for example Poll Everywhere™ and students’ personal mobile devices, during the lecture to ascertain, ‘What do you know?’, ‘What do you want to know?’ and ‘What do you not understand?’.  The use of these technologies allows all students to have a voice amongst the many and enables lecturers to address students’ needs in real time rather than after the event.   These collaborative tools enhance the learning process by enabling students to communicate their knowledge and understanding on a professional level by being one of many who contribute to the creation of a whole product.  The use of students’ personal mobile phones also provides a vehicle for students to let their voice be heard in the crowd through textual responses displayed on the main lecture screen which can be annonynous or authored.  Lecturers can then react to the responses by acknowledging ideas, rectifying misunderstandings, exploring new thinking or deepening current understandings.  Finally, due to the collaborative technologies storing discussions and ideas, in an electronic format that can be accessed after the lecture, students can revisit learning to deepen their understanding rather than try to retain only what was verbalised in the lecture setting.

‘Don’t lecture me I’m a 21st century learner’ does not require lectures to change but the lecturer’s pedagogy from non-interactive delivery methods, such as lectures and using Web 1.0, towards an environment that better enables active learning.  Students are no longer content with just finding and reading information but want to create and share synchronously rather than asynchronously.  ‘The old way of doing things is presentation-driven; information is delivered and tested’ (Solomon, 2007: 21).  This method prepares students for jobs that require rote learning, which still has a place in society; however, to compete in a globalised world the skills of communication, collaboration and innovation are also required.  ‘The new way is collaboration, with information shared, discussed, refined with others, and understood deeply’ (Solomon, 2007: 21).  The lecturer’s role in this process is to provide the correct environment where today’s generation can let their voices be heard using social learning tools of this century.  The multiple voices of the crowd, when facilitated and guided by the lecturer, can lead to a far richer learning experience for every individual in that crowd.  

To lecture does not guarantee that learning will occur and to learn does not require that one needs to be lectured, however, when lecturing and learning unite, a deeper learning environment occurs.

Christensen, C. M. et al. (2008). Disrupting Class: How disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns. New York: McGraw Hill

Next on the reading list is Clayton Christensen's Disrupting Class. Thankfully this book provides a little more innovative reading rather than putting modern terminology to old pedagogy. What is also favourable about this book is that it does not throw down your throat the old adage of 'Digital Natives' that Prensky likes to put forward but takes a wider reflection on learning with comparisons to the global business world: the world we are preparing our children to survive in.

So rather than state that today's generation are a multi-tasking generation who should learn the way they learn sub-consciously out with the school environment, it is quickly asks the questions: Is our child-centred methods of learning what will enable our children to succeed in the future. Christensen does query this briefly when he highlights that Asisan students are performing better in league tables due to their 'lecture' stye of learning compared to student-centred learning style of America who are falling further behind the league table. On the other hand, an article in the Washing Post argues the benefits of the American style of teaching as it prepares students for a fast-paced future where problems-solving, communication, collaboration and innovation are at the heart of learning, not just memorising facts and figures.

I do believe that both go hand in hand just like teaching and learning work together. Remember, you can teach but a child may not learn and a child can learn without being taught. When teaching and learning work together the educational experience is far richer. Just the same as we need to be able to have knowledge and skills as the backbone to what we can offer but we also need the ability to innovate, solve problems and work with others. It reminds me of how my own musical ability and my children's. I am a mathematical musician who reads music to perform, who uses my memory to know how a piece of music should be interpreted. Composing my own music or simply playing a requested tune is not possible if I do not have it in my memory or the notes are not there to be read. My children, on the other hand, learnt music initially by ear. They learnt by exploring all the instruments my musician husband and I had around the house. Learning to read music was a chore but they persevered and are now accomplished musicians with the ability to read and play all music styles through using the skills and knowledge they have developed over the years. They are also able to extend what is on the written script to wonderful musical treats rather than just the notes that are there. Without the skills and knowledge they would be limited in their creativity and their ability to work as a team with an array of musicians. Without their innovation and creativity they would be limited to only playing what they know and what they can access.

Teaching and learning with technologies is similar to this. Yes today's generation have the technology around them and use aspects of the technology to create, communicate and collaborate to meet their own needs. Some will be innovative and creative and some will just do what they have learnt from others. It is the job of educators to develop the skills and knowledge of children's use of technologies alongside creativity and innovation. Technologies should not just be a 'bolt on' in the classroom to make something look presentable but should be used where the technology will enhance the learning environment not duplicate what works perfectly. Christensen mirrors this view where he states that 'schools use computers as a tool and a topic, not as a primary instructional mechanism that helps students learn in ways that are customised to their type of intelligence...Teachers have implemented computers in the most common-sense way - to sustain their existing practices and pedagogies rather than to displace them' (Chrsitensen, 2008:81).

How often is the above still true for many educators who still use technology to make their learning apparently meet the needs of all learners - visual and auditory learners will get images, audio and video in presentations!!! Hands-up those that have taken this approach? I have to admit, when I started my current post as a lecturer all my primary teacher pedagogy was thrown aside as I became the lecturer that focused more on imparting knowledge to the crowds rather than teach the way that underpinned my personal classroom pedagogy. I was too centred around the educational content rather than the students' learning needs. I only began to address learners' needs after the module assignment at the end of each block where the assignments revealed current understanding of concepts. Unfortunately, my evaluation of learning was too late for current learners due to them moving to the next module. Christensen discusses this conventional teacher assessment process where 'if students haven't mastered all the material but know it well enough to get a passing grade, the students will move on' (Christensen, 2008:108).

Reflecting on my 'lecture' pedagogy, I changed my 'sage on stage' delivery to a more interactive model using the technology students had in their pockets, bags etc. Interactive teaching and learning using mobile technologies is my pedagogical style and area of research. In January I will be presenting with newly appointed professors at Dundee University's Discovery Day. This will focus on my current research using mobile devices in lecture theatres to change my delivery style, enable all students to be active in learning and to meet their immediate needs. Hopefully, in the new year, the research paper will be complete and I will be able to share many of the positive findings with my global peers.

So to finish with, educators need to always keep at the back of their minds, no matter what method they use:

If a child does not learn the way we teach we should teach the way they learn.