WORDLE

Name of teaching resource Wordle

Weblink (if web based)   http://www.wordle.net

Who should this digital teaching resource be used with? (ie year/grade) Grade 6 students

How should it be used? (e.g. individual, whole class) This Wordle will be displayed as posters around the classroom. They will be displayed at the beginning of the Australian Governament learning block. These posters will be there for kids to familiarise themselves with terms that will be used and discussed during that period.

Which subject or learning area would it be most appropriate to use in? Civics and citizenship component of Humanities and Social Sciences

Identify the strengths of this teaching resource Easy to use, free program. Can choose different colours, fonts and layouts to make it more appealing for the targeted audience.

Identify any weaknesses of this teaching resource Biggest weakness I found was the inability to save the wordle. There are buttons to allow this but they wouldn’t work. This may have been my computer but after searching online using google and wordle’s frequent Q/A I found that it wasn’t an easy process. Also found that you couldn’t modify specific words in the wordle, it would randomize the whole thing.

Explain any ideas you may have for further use of this teaching resource I think wordle will be a great learning tool for any topic that is taught in class. The program is easy to use and as a result you get fun, interesting word clouds. The bright colours and fonts engage the children and allow them to visualise terms that they essentially need to know for the upcoming topic.

PREZI

Name of teaching resource Prezi

Weblink (if web based) Please copy link to watch presentation https://prezi.com/kc3apeqlftv_/ball-sports/

Who should this digital teaching resource be used with? (ie year/grade) This presentation would be suitable for Grade 1 children

How should it be used? (e.g. individual, whole class) This presentation will be shown to the kids to educate them on different ball types and also terms that are associated with each ball/sport. The kids can then participate in a modified version of the sports. They will learn the basics of each.

Which subject or learning area would it be most appropriate to use in? Movement and physical activity section of Health and Physical Education

Identify the strengths of this teaching resource Easy to use, step by step program. It allows the user to produce presentations very easily. There are numerous fonts, backgrounds, pictures and colours to make these presentations very appealing to the audience. They have different templates to use and modify as you need.

Identify any weaknesses of this teaching resource If you want a private account you have to pay. The free templates are made for public viewing.

Explain any ideas you may have for further use of this teaching resource I think you could easily create further presentations but this time on each topic, eg one just for basketball. This would be done as the child’s understanding of each sport grew.

Reference for youtube video in presentation

SPORTS BALLS Finger Family | Songs For Kids | Surprise Eggs Animation for Children | Nursery Rhymes. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 29 April 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n48MIq1ftFE

BEING A DIGITAL CURATOR

There is a big wide world of information out there, we access it via our laptops, phones and tablets, and it’s called the Internet. The Internet to some can be a very confronting, new and scary thing and before looking further into the topic of digital curating, I was very overwhelmed at the thought of researching a topic. There is so much information displayed on our screens at the click of a button. We can access essentially any information we desire, but where do we start when looking for a particular topic and how do we know what is useful content? The answer is digital curation tools and they have become a necessity as they allow “a person with a focused interest in a specific topic to find and collect artefacts on the Internet to share with their target audience” (Flintoff, Mellow, & Clark, 2014). Curation is such an important learning tool, to be able to filter through the important information and leave behind the rest is vital for a learner in today’s society. The following are great examples of digital curation tools.

 

(Pinterest,2014)

The Internet has a huge range of free digital curation tools such as Pinterest, Storify and Scoop.it. Each one is designed to appeal to certain people, for example Pinterest targets audiences that learn via pictures and graphics. The curation tool though that I would like to focus on is called Scoop.it. This curation tool is being called an indispensable learning tool by Johnson (2016) on the website Teach Thought. Scoop.it has many great features, firstly it uses an online magazine format which is visually effective, but also can be accessed online, via iPhone and android. Lastly people have the ability to share their curated topics with their friends or colleagues via social media links.

(Gbailey, 2013)

This sharing is what makes Scoop.it such a useful learning tool. It is discussed by Johnson (2016) that a significant reason why both educators and students like Scoop.it is its ability to allow cooperative, communal learning. People can share and or access topics and add or subtract substance to the group, from an educator’s point of view this will enhance the student’s learning.

Searching for information on the Internet can be a scary, laboring task for some, but with digital curating tools such as Scoop.it and Pinterest, people can become a skilled curator in no time.

 

References

Flintoff, K., Mellow, P., & Clark, K. (2014). Digital curation: Opportunities for learning, teaching, research and professional development. Ctl.curtin.edu.au. Retrieved 28 April 2016, from http://ctl.curtin.edu.au/events/conferences/tlf/tlf2014/refereed/flintoff.html

 Johnson, L. (2016). Teachthought.com. Retrieved 28 April 2016, from http://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/trends-shifts/why-scoopit-is-becoming-an-indispensable-learning-tool/

Gbailey, S. (2013). Scoop.it Launches Social Curation App For #iPad ~ Sociable360.com | #SocialMedia #Marketing #WebDesign.. Sociable360.blogspot.com.au. Retrieved 28 April 2016, from http://sociable360.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/scoopit-launches-social-curation-app.html

How can your company use Pinterest? @Serps_Invaders Blog. (2014). Serps-invaders.com. Retrieved 28 April 2016, from http://www.serps-invaders.com/blog/how-can-your-company-use-pinterest/

 

PARTICIPATION AND THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

 

(Bridging the digital divide, 2015)

Growing up technology was not a big part of my household. I was raised primarily by my mother. She worked hard but did not earn a lot and the money she did have went to essential items like petrol, food and clothes. It’s weird to think of it now but we classified a computer and Internet luxury items, I can now see I grew up apart of a digital divide.

In Howell’s book she discussed that “The digital divide is the digital gap between individuals, households and businesses in different geographic areas and their access to technology within the different socioeconomic classes” (Howell, 2012, p55). The above definition describes many different factors that are contributing to the digital divide. All people have different circumstances, some that allow minor access to devices, some that allow none and maybe even people who can afford the device but not to go online. This last point was discussed in an article written by Bentley, where she states that “currently one in five Australians are not accessing the internet” even though the price of devices like laptops and mobile phones have dropped (Bentley, 2014). This is due to poor access to cheap and reliable broadband. This is an example of just one divide that needs to be bridged as the Internet shouldn’t be viewed as a novelty but an essential service for every human being (Bentley, 2014).

As future educators of people from all walks of life we cannot assume that all of our students have access to the required technologies needed of them in the Australian Curriculum. During school hours there will be exposure to technology, how much will depend on the school and also teacher, but outside of the classroom many of the above factors can build up that digital divide. There is a quote used by Bentley where they say “In Europe for example, access to the internet is now deemed a human right” (Bentley, 2014). Until Australia gets to this point we must be aware that such a divide does exist and in certain situations be understanding and either assist or have alternatives for these children.

 

References

Howell, J. (2012). Teaching with ICT : digital pedagogies for collaboration & creativity. South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Oxford University Press

Bentley, P. (2014). Bridging the digital divide. ABC News. Retrieved 28 April 2016, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-02/bridging-the-digital-divide/5566644 

Bridging the Digital Divide – All Education blogs about Entrance exams, Colleges, Courses online on globaleducates.com. (2015). All Education blogs about Entrance exams, Colleges, Courses online on globaleducates.com. Retrieved 28 April 2016, from http://www.globaleducates.com/blog/bridging-the-digital-divide/

       

WHAT IS A DIGITAL WORLD?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             (2016)

We all live in a digital world. Not everyone lives the same way in this digital world but it surrounds them. It surrounds you and me by the mobile phones we carry, or the laptops we type away on, or even the toys our kids play with. Howell mentions in her book that we are all living in a highly interconnected world and that information and communication surrounding us no longer has any boundaries (Howell, 2012).

So as a teaching student why is this so important to me? Or why as aspiring teachers do we need to care about technology in our classrooms? Over the past decade or so technology and digital devices have crept into the classroom, for me this occurred only once a week in the computer labs but nowadays this is very different. These days there are expectations, as discussed in Howell’s book these aren’t only expectations from the kids but also parents and more so employers of the wider community. They expect the education system to produce “technologically fluent students” who can walk straight into a work force and stay up to date with emerging technologies (Howell, 2012, p6).

Teachers, whether they be old, new or aspiring need to develop or up skill their digital process of teaching, also known as digital pedagogy (Howell, 2012). Research suggests that technology makes learning more engaging and fun for kids. Teachers that don’t incorporate these changes into their lessons could find that kids just aren’t learning or retaining important information. An article written by Prensky (2008) really highlights an importance on including the students and trying to find out what engages them in the classroom. He continues to talk about how teachers and students think differently and he quotes a young man from Florida who says, “You think of technology as a tool. We think of it as a foundation, it’s the basis of everything we do” (Prensky, 2008,p2).

We live in a digital world, some people may not like that but it is best to jump on board and enjoy the ride. The world around us is evolving and as teachers we need to be able to best equip the future leaders of today.

References

Howell, J. (2012). Teaching with ICT : digital pedagogies for collaboration & creativity. South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Oxford University Press

Prensky, M. (2008). The 21st-Century Digital Learner. Edutopia. Retrieved 28 April 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/ikid-digital-learner-technology-2008

(2016). Encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com. Retrieved 28 April 2016, from https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSO9NqO6B95mrJrg2e3ZN9V-l4cpsOBHwTSWeYR8B6NeZk8A2i2