Meg’s Blog

i recently read the article “Children as Multimedia critics: Middle School Students’ Motivation for and Critical Analysis of Educational Computer Games Designed by Other Children” by The University of Georgia Department of Instructional technology. The article describes how children are creating their own educational computer games. I think this is a fantastic idea as children can then claim ownership over these games and understand the industry. I also think that some of the points in this article relating to constructivism are very interesting. I agree, that children need to complete tasks not because they desire praise or fear punishment, but because of their own intrinsic desire to do so. It is also interesting to note that other children found these games interesting and it is interesting to note that children enjoyed the challenging games the most. This is valuble information for myself as a teacher because this can correlate with classroom content. Children should be challenged to achieve in anything they do, so that they can develop and feel a sense of achievement when they complete something new. As the article suggests, by challenging students their results are even more valued when published to a wider community, and thus their motivation is increased. This was a very interesting article. Im not sure how the game designers feel knowing a 10 year old can do their job!

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I recently read Allanahs post “Involving parents in the ICT happening at school.” In this article Allanah discusses the methods she uses to involve parents in childrens ICT learning. I think this is a very important component in children’s learning. Parents are vital to ensuring students practice and understand safe computer use. When teaching, I will try to encourage parent communication in a variety of ways. These include;

 

• Parent/Teacher Interviews
• Information Nights
• Meetings
• Newsletter publications
• Notes
• Handouts

 

I believe that parent support is as important as student interest.

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It was very interesting to read Matthew’s views on Virtual Excursions as I have just completed a LAMS task that is about space. My LAMS program acts as a virtual excursion to a place that cannot atually be visited. I think this is a great resource to use as children still get to interact with the environment without actually going there. It also means that in this already over-crowded curriculum you can teachnically visit a site for half an hour a week without losing a whole day of teaching. I do agree with Matthew though when he states that many virtual excursions are indeed just research projects where students simply find information about the site without much interactivity or deeper learning. I really like Rachel’s LAMS task which takes students to a trip though Antarctica, another place that is often studied in school, yet never visited. Overall I feel that virtual Excursions are a great tool for teachers if they are done well and allow students to be involved in valuable learning experiences, rather than a research task.

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I recently read the article “Development and assessment of the “Science net” e-learning system for science education at the elementary school level” by Takeshi Kitazawai, Masahiro Nagai, Hiroshi Kato, and Kanji Akahori. The article describes a new program called science net which was created to help japanese students improve in science. Students reported in the study that it is useful to be able to check the work at home and be able to catch up what they have missed. Is this the future of education? Classrooms are so busy and there are so many extra-curricular activities in school that some students will miss numerous days during the term. Will teachers need to post all their lessons online to ensure students can keep up with the content? I’m not sure. From my personal practicum experiences i can see that students who have been on holidays or ill miss a large amount of the work, and often cannot catch up. I think it would be useful to have things like this for students with extended absenses to catch up or keep up while they are away. I do think though that schools have become competetive environments and children are placed under a lot of pressure. Emotionally and psycologically students do need to have time off from school, especially if they are unwell. At the moment i think that this is a bit drastic for all students, but i think it has a place for students with extended absenses.

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I have read Allanah Kings post “Timez Attack – a new way to learn your tables”. This post describes the computer game “Timez Attack” which is a downloadable game for Pc or Mac which allows students to progress through a series of levels through testing their time-tables.

I feel this is a great example of how technological games can be effectively used to enhance student’s interest in topics that are often considered boring. Technological games can be used to involve typically distracted students in  learning. It also brings a competitive aspects to the classroom which encourages student’s to try harder. This also makes repetitive learning fun by putting it in a different context. I think computer games and programs such as mathletics are under-used in the classroom.

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I recently read the article “Internet Safety: Issues For New Zealand Primary Schools” by John Hope. It was interesting to read the level of computer safety that is taught in NZ. 18% of all schools have still not addressed the issue of internet safety. This is a real issue to me as I feel no child, no matter what their age is should be allowed to work on a computer without first being aware of the dangers involved, and the ways to combat these dangers. I then started to wonder what Australia’s positions on these ideas were. The NSW curriculum does not include information on cyber safety in the curriculum. This is unacceptable. How will teachers find time and resources to teach this topic if it is not allocated in the curriculum? It can also be easily forgotten if it is not allocated to a certain amount of time or a certain stage. Overall, reading this article really made me recognise the importance of cyber danger education and the unbelievable truth that it is not valued by the Department of Education and training.

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It was very interesting to hear sara’s explanation of constructionism and instructionism. I tend to agree with the points she raises as teaching can only be measured by the learning produced from it. Therefore teaching is the most important aspect of a classroom and it should be designed to promote as much learning as possible. Student’s should be given opportunities to discover for themselves and they should have opportunities to publish the products of their learning to an audience. It is the teacher’s responsibility to provide positive environments and activities that promote student exploration  and thus discovery.

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This is an absoloutely fantastic video i found on Youtube. It shows the advances in educational technology up until now, and it also raises questions about what could happen in the future. I think this video is not only interesting for teachers and IT enthusiasts but it would also be great to show students. This could fit into a HSIE unit on change and it could interest students at it can directly relate to a large part of their life. This was a really good find and i will definitely use it in the future.

I recently watched the video “Rhombus” which Alissa posted on her blog. I found this hilarious as it is true. I would consider myself quite knowledgeable yet I did not know half of the things they were asking in the clip. I recently went to a trivia night and noone else on my trivia table could recall how many sides on a rhombus. This lead me to question, Why do we forget this information? Is it because it is not in an attractive format as the clip suggests? This would give qualify the need for smartboards and projectors and computer games and programs in the classroom. I do not think this is the whole problem though. I feel that people do not retain those facts because they are not discovered themselves. Students are simply told, and then quizzed on information such as this. They are not given opportunities to discover this information for themselves as the constructionist view would want us to do. I think as a pre-service teacher it was quite scary to see this clip and has definitely made me question what pedagogies I will use in the classroom.

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I recently read the article “Sand castles go digital” by Idet Harrel which using the example of children building sandcastles on the beach as a way to show the importance of free play. I love the imagery used in this article. I think that the author was gifted at explaining what appears to be an extremely complex topic in a simpler form.

I really agree with the ideas raised in this article. Specifically that about providing opportunities for students to be involved in free play and using their discoveries to explain more complex topics. i.e. such as the idea of explaining the movement of tides when the child is building the sandcastle.

Overall i think that children need the opportunity to play with technology in order to truly have ownership of their learning. It is then the teachers role to transform their discoveries into an important learning experience. I will never think of sandcastles the same again!