Synopsis

Digital literacy according to QCAR is paramount for students to achieve by the end of year 8 (Dep, ed, 2007. As prensky (2001) states, not all learners in the classroom are digitally literate and have trouble engaging with educational ICT’s as their involvement with ICT may have been limited to games, game searches and you tube videos.
As an inspired pre service teacher, exploring students previous interests and computer skills can help design and implement digital and ICT skills. The term “engage or enrage me” has been defined also by Prensky (2005) and is a real and relevant issue that needs to be considered in professional development for all educators.
Lifelong learning skills are utilised by embedding technologies that allow students to work autonomously, connect with the real world , use higher order thinking skills and have the necessary cognitive skills needed to evaluate and reflect on their own learning.
The divide between digital natives and immigrants can also be seen as a disadvantage in the classroom for some learners. Teachers need to acknowledge this discrepancy in positive and constructive ways by scaffolding learning to educe knowledge and understanding from the skills and content that E learning can offer. E Learning represents a new and more intelligent means of generating information to be accessed, refined and transformed by many participants. This mode of demonstrating new understandings developed and presented to particular audiences is valued amongst many educators. Compared to older and more industrial methods of gaining information by transmission, E learning is a great evolvement of the education paradigm and should be utilised in the classroom for all its advantages and rewards that are both extrinsically and intrinsically motivated. . This synopsis will identify four categories that underpin high order thinking skills that are valued in learning through ICT’s:
• Access and gain information,
• Consolidate and refine information,
• Transform information to develop new understanding and
• Present knowledge to an Audience

Wiki
The first category of access and gain information can be well demonstrated in the use of a wiki. In my blog Ward Cunningham (1995) who invented the wiki defines wiki’s as one of the easiest and user friendly tools to use for collaborative learning.
Wiki's are visually presented and promote particapation of ideas and information and engages students creative and original ideas. A wiki allows students to document their ideas and knowledge for other students to add to, refine or organise.
This tool has many qualities for presenting information in a visually stimulating way compared to note taking or dot points. Younger students can use this tool for simple yet exploratory tasks that could be utilised in a class event like an excursion. This sort of task might ask students to develop a list of equipment, supplies and requirements that are needed for the trip. As the information wiki progresses through to a final inventory, students can categorise all the requirements, determine their usefulness and how best to utilise them in a certain topic or situation.
Students can then add to the wiki new and clarified information that might have been uploaded through hyperlinks and other contributions to the wiki, comment and evaluate other students work.
Learning that is constructed by students gives more meaning, relevance and instigates ownership of the task, inspiring intrinsic motivation and lifelong learning skills.
Wiki’s represent phase 3 (Eisenberg, Berkowitz, 2006)Big 6 Theory of learning. access information as well as Kearsley,G, Shneiderman's , B, (1999), engagement theory (relate, create and donate), asking students to enhance their cognitive abilities to comprehend new understandings.
Students are encouraged in this format to add and critique other students work, giving students opportunities to extend and refine information and use higher order thinking skills.
Students and others connected to the classroom wiki can be a source of information as well as a classmate which is another positive aspect of how E learning is helping to change the dynamics in the classroom. A wiki can also provide communication elements between school contexts and home which is becoming more valued and significant in today’s world.
Educators and parents need to keep safe and secure online searching options available and facilitate the search for younger students by keeping this information ready for access.
Students are both peer and teacher supported, essentially, creating a wiki is student centred but giving students the guidance they need when they need it. "By allowing students to be involved in the construction of the task, meaningfulness and relevance and, therefore, students’ level of engagement can increase" (Marzano, 1997).


WEBSITE
Creating a website, as I have mentioned in my blog, provides students with many , creative and worthwhile learning opportunities and would best exemplify consolidate and refine information within a learning framework.
New knowledge acquired through ICT formats demonstrate meaningful engagement through collaborative and purposeful tasks. Students can use websites to access information. learners would use this new information and process it to reach the required criteria.
The process of creating a website utilises a constructivist approach to learning. This form of information acquisition is “experiential and self-directed" (Kearsley, Shneiderman, 1999) which is situated within the engagement theory . This learning process also aligns with the Dimensions of Learning Framework.
From conception of a website to its creation, students are demonstrating many attributes of higher order thinking, from previous modes of lower order skills in the acquisition and understanding of information to analysing, synthesising, and evaluating (Bloom, B. 1956).
As I have mentioned in my blog, using a website to facilitate learning is a tool which ultimately is the best for retrieving information necessary in the 21st century.

Blogs
Blogs present a learning format that fits well into transforming information to develop new understanding. Blogs have been used as an online journal which can be updated and viewed by any person who knows the blogs url address. They can be created by any individual for private or professional purposes and have been used in the educational domain for many years.
As my blog discusses, the collaborative and learning aspects that blogging in the learning environment provides enables students to view other perspectives of a topic, relate their own perspectives to the blog and have the opportunity to discuss and reason their own understandings of that topic.

Huffaker (2005) identified the dual benefits of using traditional forms of learning with educational technology : Digital and critical literacies are promoted, giving students a fluency in digital languages that can only enhance their learning skills in the 21st century.
Not unlike a website, blogs can be used in the school as a means of communicating to parents and other students of the students, class and schools learning journey through pictures videos and presentations.
Homework collaboration between students can also be communicated through this tool to be retrieved after school hours. Learning is transformed by this process of communication and can assist in all KLS’s and in all year levels.
Students ability to acknowledge and critically evaluate other forms of thinking and understandings to enrich and transform their own, are using higher order thinking and reasoning skills to attain a thorough understanding of the topic.
Productive Pedagogies value this form of learning through connectedness with the world, engaging with practical and or hypothetical problems that are not restricted to the classroom (Productive pedagogies,2004).
Blogs would be valued in higher education as students self directed learning is encouraged. Students have a wide range of opinions to consider and their own time and learning style to assimilate new information with known information to enhance new understandings.
Implementing blog writing in a classroom can be a fun, collaborative and enriching experience for all students as they and others become involved in a real world context for celebrating their learning journey. Blogs can also be used to facilitate learners who have poor oral skills to demonstrate their learning, extend and encourage ICT skills and provide an alternative method of presenting information.

Blogs represent an information platform where information can be transformed into deeper understandings in a real world context that is engaging and appealing to most learners. Collaboration is the key element of a blogs function and can be used to acknowledge others views and comments as you can see in my blog comments . As a pre service teacher, I will endeavour to use blogs in my classroom to help communication, learning and connectedness to real world topics and information.

Movie maker
Finally, I chose movie maker to represent the category presenting knowledge to an audience as my blog will further explain. Movie maker is easy to use and because of the explicit steps and elements that need to be addressed, this tool is student centred and teacher guided. Teachers who use movie maker in their classrooms are addressing essential learnings standards promoting positive and pedagogical outcomes for all students.
Creative abilities are encouraged by the tools visual capabilities and student’s prior knowledge of presenting can generate original ideas that they may not have thought of before. As a digital immigrant, my approach to technology has been impeded by the technical skills required.
As Movie maker is presented in a social context, my fear subsided and I began to play with the elements of this tool. My experience and enjoyment felt by using movie maker contributed to self motivation and a personal interest to achieve the desired results.
By using images, videos, sound, text and many effects, students can create engaging and informative presentations. Students have many intelligences that can be discovered and enhanced using a digital format such as movie maker and the learning derived from its viewing or creation can help educators align other KLA's with its use to embed content or conceptual ideas of a topic.
This digital tool is identified as the last stage of Kearsley & Shneiderman’s Engagement theory, donate: and also aligns with the big6 learning framework. frangenheim's revised theory based on Blooms taxonomy suggests students level of ability can also be considered with movie maker in the last stage of cognitive demands, create.
The skills used to produce a movie are valued and an important element of presenting learning outcomes in higher levels of education. Students in lower year levels would appreciate the stimulating effect that a movie offers, but would not yet have the computer or literacy skills needed to create one individually.


Conclusion
ICT’s offer students many opportunities to be aware of their learning progress by the format that information and learning criteria are provided and presented. Students can have an autonomous and responsible role in their learning journey, and can ultimately be independent in their learning with the teacher taking a facilitators role. Students are asked to continually reflect on their work to identify their own understandings. This process is valued as lifelong learning skills are being formed and encouraged as students own self directed learning process becomes self motivated and reflective
We have only been part of this new digital paradigm for a short time and we are still learning the new and innovative advances that are happening all the time.
Today’s educators concur: Literacy has altered from a static construct to a rapid and constant process of transformation in the way we communicate and It has shifted from the traditional print technology to a larger, global mindset.
"We are educating people out of their creativity," which signifies and reiterates what other educators such as Vygostky with his constructivism theory and with Kearsley and Shneiderman,(1999)in their engagement theory about our current level of collaborative inquiry based learning and the ultimate success in our schools at this moment.

References


Australian National Curriculum (ACARA) (2010). National Curriculum Draft. [Electronic resource]. Retrieved May 2010. From http:// www.acara.edu.au

Cunningham, W (1995). What is a Wiki, WikiWikiWeb. [Electronic resource] 1995 retrieved June 2010 from http://www.wiki.org/wiki.Eisenberg, M. & Berkowitz, B. (2001). The Big 6. Retrieved 9, August, 2010 from; http://www.big6.com/

Eisenberg, M & Berkowitz, B (2001). Big 6 Skills Overview. Hardcopy received from CQU, June 2010. In class lecture notes, course FAHE11001, 2010, Term Two.


Frangenheim, E. (1998). Reflections on Classroom Thinking Strategies. Loganholme: Rodin Educational Consultancy

Huffer, D (2005). The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom. AACE journal, 12 (2), 91-98 [electronic resource] 2005 retrieved July 2010From www.editlib.org

Karppinen, P. (2005). Meaningful learning with digital and online videos: Theoretical perspectives. AACE Journal, 13(3), 233-250.

Kearsley, G (1997) & Shneiderman, B (1994, 1998). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. [Electronic resource] 1999, retrieved from moodle,cqu.edu.au/course/view.php?id=4033

Kruse, K. (2004). The Benefits and Drawbacks of E-Learning. [on-line]. Retrieved 20, July, 2010 from http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art1_3.htm


Langwitches Blog; The Magic of Learning. (2008) retrieved 9 August, 2010, from; http://langwitches.org/blog/2008/12/27/blogging-lesson-plan-writing/

Marzano, R., Pickering, D., Arrendondo, D., Blackburn, G., Brandt, R., Moffett, C., Paynter, D., Pollock, J, Whisler, J. (1997). Dimensions of Learning teachers manual (2nd ed). Aurora, Colorado: McREL

Queensland Education. (2002b). A guide to productive pedagogies: A classroom reflection manual. Retrieved August 20th 2010 from http://education.qld.gov.au/public_media/reports/curriculum-framework/productive-pedagogies/pdf/propped.pdf

Ruth,A, Houghton, L, (2009), The wiki way of learning, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 2009, 25(2), 135-152. Retrieved August 2010 from http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet25/ruth.pdf

Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals; pp. 201–207;B. S. Bloom (Ed.) Susan Fauer Company, Inc. 1956.

The state of Queensland (Department of Education, Training and the Arts). (2007). Essential Learnings Retrieved August 2010 from http:// education.qld.gov.au.

Blog comments

My comments to posts

• Sadi Mayers- Movie maker
• Sadi Meyers - Concept map
• Sheena St0kes -Blogs
• Michael Hoskin -Concept map
• Michael Hoskin - Weebly web
• Kylie Neylan - Big6
• Amanda Fraser - power point

A web site of my own

Websites contain a collection of digital documents, objects, images, sounds and an abundance of related web pages and addresses pertaining to one central idea or topic. Websites can sell products, services and information or provide a bank of information. Governments, schools, individuals and retail establishments use websites to access customers and provide information for them. A website can only be managed by a person or an organisation. Only they can change the layout, or content, delete or add hyperlinks, insert movies or learning objects. Creating a website is relatively easy and can be accessed anytime, not limiting its use to school hours only.
This tool would be ideal to incorporate with an assessment task to show evidence of research, related and relevant topics, theorists and students own definitions and new understandings demonstrated and presented in a meaningful and purposeful way. The tools available to design and structure how information can be presented are unlimited and create a platform like no other for students to experiment with multiple intelligences and abilities in numerous ways. Lower level students would create a website with the class as a collaborative and informative project to document their learning journey and to keep parents and networks informed of the learning journey.
As with any public domain, students need to know how to access the most authentic and accurate content in the most constructive and secure way which means legitimate and reliable sources of information must be sourced, and provided in some lower year classes so students have all the information required to complete the task . Digital literacy and critical literacy skills need to be employed to access appropriate and relevant information and further educate students and their ability to find safe information with ease and accuracy.

School website: Schools have secure online intranet websites for students’ access at school and teachers can set up a password that only those students can access from elsewhere. This networking between school and home is occurring in many schools. The school website has an added benefit which provides evidence of students work and progress through uploaded pictures, information and presentations. School work can be obtained from the site if students are sick or away, homework can be delivered this way and parents can be more involved in their students learning journey by providing an avenue for communication and future learning goals.
Blooms taxonomy exemplifies the process of remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate and design structures which align well with the Big 6. learning framework of website production. This creative element is valued in the new knowledge economy as Ken Robinson (2010) has justified many times in his professional development seminars
Robinson, K (2010)
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Ken robinson

http://rachelm64.weebly.com/
To return to my synopsis

The Big 6

Big6 Zen Powerpoint

View more presentations from Mary Alice Osborne.

Reflecting on my journey

ICT literacy is for me is similar to learning a new language that isn’t based on any European structure, like Chinese. New methods of presenting information that do not relate to any previous knowledge make learning difficult and therefore less motivating to continue with. Learning ICT’s as a digital immigrant is akin to a student in a classroom with a learning disability that needs sensitive and guided instruction and well considered scaffolding of the task. The many setbacks and frustrations I attribute to a lack of technology knowledge for example in the sourcing of information. This reflects the lack of success for an adult student, which in turn reduces the intrinsic motivation toward learning and contributes to a continued downslide
By being able to critically reflect on how the learning process feels and how it is documented helps me understand how students may find learning difficult (in any KLA). The unknowns, such as technical skills, search requirements and processes, can be supported along the way to help students find the exploration of a new subject engaging, progressive and motivating. By using ICT’s in the classroom my own learning has been scaffolded by using and incorporating technical skills with content higher order thinking skills are being utilised. The use of these new forms of finding, using and presenting information sufficient scaffolding, students’ abilities to think in new and original ways are being promoted through the use of ICT’s in schools. Lifelong learning is also implicit in students learning through the use of ICT’s, as learning needs to be self motivated and directed to achieve the skills needed in the 21st century. Pedagogy used to implement ICT’s into the classroom environment needs to consider new approaches that guide and facilitate the learner. ICT skills and knowledge is manifested by the students’ application of technology intertwined with content, pathways to reach that content and connectedness to the real world.

Power point - an over used presentation format

Interactive Power point presentations....I'm still yet to do one, I have the long list of instructions which has put me off just starting. Stay tuned..

A photo story3 presentation

Using Photo story 3 to engage students by using images, sound and text is one of the most simple, rewarding and positive learning experiences I've had so far on my E-learning journey. Last year in my prac school I had the fortunate experience of receiving a tutorial of this program in less than half an hour! Students in the middle years (3,4 & 5) were also learning this presentation process to display their understandings in an ICT format. This engaged the students by using the combination of digital elements together to produce original ideas in a real world setting. This story was created for an assignment in another subject which in turn helped me find the relatedness of the content "Authentic assessment" in an ICT paradigm. As I continue to navigate through E-learning, connections from skills to content are reinforced, furthering and inspiring my quest for related knowledge and skills. Learning of ICT's is implicitly linked to lifelong learning as my self directed learning becomes easier and more conceivable to achieve by practice and conscious application. Photo story is very simply scaffolded and would be an excellent tool for students to learn to use and present their work in. Previous understandings of basic computer skills and terminology would obviously be required to scaffold learning to be taught and utilised succinctly to embedd the learnt knowledge and understanding.

Web addresses that are worth it

My porta portal
This is a great way to keep track of all those web addresses that you want to keep handy. You are welcoome to use and enjoy them. Why not create one for yourself - It's free..

Still an immigrant!

Just a few words that still don't describe how I feel about ICT's!

Using this program Wordle, was very user friendly, cathartic to vent with and reponsive to my requests. This tool was used in my classroom to show how words can be more effective in another format. The students wanted to do one straight away - which we did with their favourite mini beast and all its information to be displayed in their work books.

My first movie - a group effort

This video was created using a digital camera, which could not make the speech link with the visual of talking - so the voices are out of sinc !Movie maker is basic to use, could be more user friendly in the size of the editing pane. A great experience that I envisage to use in the classroom as it was easy as pie to implement -although using it in a classroom would have it's challenges.
Individual movies or group work? how long it might take to individually film, edit, and add transitions, text and music? How long would it take to learn to do?

Movie Maker has been one of my favourite digital tools to use on this journey through technological landscapes. I am investigating the pedagogical requirements to facilitate learning through this medium and hope to convince you of its worthiness and functionality in the classroom.
Movie maker was fun to use – and when learning is fun , knowledge is connected to that emotive perception and is more easily accessed. Karppinen , 2005, corresponds to this notion that through experimentation and playing , students are developing their own productive and constructive abilities
Rapidly changing technology has developed to such an advanced extent that new teaching and learning ways and opportunities are available in our homes and classrooms through a computer.
Digital videos can be used in classrooms in many informative and inspiring ways. Information can be presented to engage interest in a topic, represent different opinions and influences, to inspire creativity and to assess what students know and can do. Teaching students how to generate their own digital movie can foster engagement, art, creativity, literacy, and uncover unidentified intelligences and learning styles.
Using Movie Maker, (a program downloaded from the internet for free) some colleagues and myself made a short movie for an assignment. As I am a novice to most technology, I was surprised at the basic and straight forward directions, and the help button was always available.
Once pictures were uploaded they could be placed easily where you wanted them, text could be inserted in many styles and sounds could be placed in at any time. As with all learning, the student (myself) has previous experience with watching content in films which is something I unconsciously used when designing the layout and accompanying features. All students have seen a presentation in a digital form and will have this at least, as prior knowledge to draw on.
Movie maker is a learning tool and is used in conjunction with KLA outcomes such as Literacy, ICT’s, Mathematics, Science and Sose. Researchers suggest teachers incorporate “student centered video to develop and share stories in fourth and fifth grade, with benefits of supporting structure and development of confidence in writing (Banaszewski, 2002,cited in (Kearney & Shuck, 2006). Video production to develop and justify reasoning processes used within a science class have also been observed . (Thode, 2001,cited in Kearney & Shuck, 2006)
Students in lower year levels might find the sequencing of images , sound and text a bit overwhelming. Lessons in computer skills require scaffolding to align with developmentally appropriate learning abilities and be informed by curriculum documents and assessed using appropriate criteria.
Using digital video to present knowledge and understanding of a topic also implicitly fosters students understanding of the digital learning format, enabling an new method and tools to present an idea, topic or concept . Teachers need to be cognisant of the learning frameworks that underpin technological and digital literacies and construct these understandings through pedagogical practices. Kearney and Shuck (2006) articulate that “student centred digital video is now being used in classrooms to support, extend or change pedagogy or curriculum outcomes”.

Teachers may be challenged by the constructivists approach to digital learning and learners may find the alteration from content outcomes to higher order thinking skills (which endow lifelong learning skills), a huge change in skill and ability required. Hedberg (2006)


Reference:

Hedberg, J. (2006). Searching for Distruptive Pedagogies: Matching Pedagogies to The Technologies. [on-line]. Retrieved 10 July, 2010, From: Curriculum Leadership Website; http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/default.asp?id=18898

Karppinen, P. (2005). Meaningful learning with digital and online videos: Theoretical perspectives. AACE Journal, 13(3), 233-250.

Shuck, S. and Kearney, M. 2004. Student's in the Directors Seat: Teaching and Learning across the School Curriculum With Student Generated Videos. [on-line]. Retrieved 20, July, 2010. From, Central Queensland University, http://www.eddev.uts.edu.au/teachered/research/dvproject/pdfs/ReportWeb.pdf
To return to my synopsis