Una’s Blog

Here is my first attempt at a Vodcast!

Enjoy!

I just read Sunny’s blog post A Vision of K-12 Students Today about a video she found. I found it thought provoking and very moving.

In the middle of the video, the students hold up a number of signs asking how different forms of technology (ipod, camera, laptop etc) could help them learn. I think this is a clear challenge to teachers to think beyond the obvious. It is our challenge, our job, to develop with the techonology, and enable our students to use all the tools they have available to them. Especially the ones that they are most interested in, and that are going to become ever more important in the future. The students are asking to be taught to think, create, analyse, evaluate, and apply. The internet is the perfect tool with which to learn all of these skills, with the right training, programs, and i believe, the right philosophy. Fundamentally, the students are asking to be engaged.

I just watched the youth video from the 2020 summit. It was very comforting and encouraging to realise that the youth of Australia are taking these issues so seriously, that there are those that are inspired to work towards the goals that we believe in. I hope the students that I will be teaching one day will develop this same energy, and consciousness.

From watching the introduction to the summit, and from hearing the PM Rudd speak about what he is trying to achieve with this summit, it is obvious that we are starting to think globally. Not only on a business and economic level, but also on a personal, educational, environmental and political level. It struck me that Australia’s politics has turned a corner, a very BIG corner. I couldn’t even imagine Howard doing something like this. Rudd is opening the doors to discussion, questions, creative ideas, and creative solutions to some of the key issues that are facing us as a nation. The most important part of this summit to me is that he is opening the nation up to communication. This is demonstrated by the thousands of blogs and forums that have been created and commented on in the last month. The Internet has been a perfect forum for all the people not one of the 1000 invited to the summit to express their views, ask questions, and generally start the ‘conversation’ around these issues. See the Blogocracy for one example.

Video from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp-F7diymq8

I chose this image to base my teaching metaphor on primarily because it is very nature based. When i thought about it more however, it became apparent that it fit with a lot of my ideas about teaching. Firstly, the importance of the environment, that learning is a social act, and is done in a social context. Each student (or ripple) effects the others, and one thought or idea leads to the next. In this way learning is very connected. The second idea is that education is for change; that education is action based, not only in its method, but also in its outcomes. Education and learning should produce effects. In this way the stone that is dropped into the water could be seen as the teacher, or the catalyst, which initiates the change. This highlights the importance of a good teacher, someone who inspires learning, action, and change. The third idea revolves around the reflective nature of water. Reflection is a very important aspect of education. It leads to further insight into a students ideas, questions, communication, and metalearning. 

There are a number of problems with this metaphor, however. Well not so much problems as things that I cant relate to it easily. The following are things i would have liked to include in my mini-philosophy. The metaphor:   
   Doesn’t allow for a facilitator role of teacher in learning, which I believe in.   
   Doesn’t easily allow for the collaborative nature of education.   
   Doesn’t have a place for the role of technology in education, (maybe I need a different metaphor for that.) 

Image From: www.flickr.com/photos/89488115@N00/276344173

I just read Jemma’s metaphor about her view on teaching. I really loved her image and her ideas. It has inspired me to try and figure out (and try to explain) mine, using my own metaphor.

Wish me luck!

I just finished looking at Sergio Chaparro-Univazo’s online powerpoint presentation Some Issues on LIS Education and Collaboration in Latin America (2005). In this presentation Chaparro-Univazo asks questions such as: why collaborate, why should we cooperation with Latin American Library Schools, and where should we start?

The link between the developing nations and the developed ones (like Australia), especially in the area of education, has always been of great interest to me. As Chaparro-Univazo asserts, online education offers a wide array of possibilities for enhancing the collaboration process. Collaborating with students in classrooms in areas of the world that are almost the opposite to their own is an ideal way begin students thinking about issues such as social justice, poverty, human rights and racism. In this way collaborative internet activities would complement and connect well with an HSIE unit and values.

Of course there are many many problems with this idea. Online education requires IT infrastructure that is not available, or is limited, in a lot of Latin American countries. However, Chaparro-Univazo suggests one place we could start with this endeavour would be with agencies and international organizations that promote cooperation (such as The Educational Portal of the Americas, and United World Colleges). He also outlines many reasons that this area must be approached in a careful way, which i completely agree with, however, I feel it is important enough, and would have enough benefits to make it worth the effort.

Image From: http://www.educoas.org

In the article Sandcastles Go Digital, (2003), Harel emphasises the importance of “playing to learn and learning to play”. He draws the connection between playing and constructionist learning. As discussed in class today, constructionist learning is a sub-strand of constructivist learning, and a theory pioneered by Seymour Papert. Constructionist teaching highlights the importance of students constructing and not only being instructed (LAMS and webquests are examples of instructional use of technology). In terms of using technology this means that students are encourage and able to design, create, express, reflect, as well as publish, share, and celebrate their work. Some programs that we talked about that do this were Scratch, Comic Life, and Garageband.

In class we had a short time to discover and explore Scratch and Comic Life. They were internesting programs, and ones that I can see being effectively used in a primary classroom. It certainly fits in with the constructionist view of students creating and doing. Honestly, at first i found the program a little confusing, and I think the more time spent exploring and practicing on it, the better. Some of the published products on the Scratch website were quite impressive.

Image From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/spacetrucker/94209642/sizes/s/

In class today Alissa and I were experimenting with the program Comic Life. We were discussing meaningful learning supported by technology.

Here is what we came up with (in about 10 minutes flat!).