Una’s Blog

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!).

I just read the article Let Them Blog: Using Weblogs to Advance Literacy in the K-12 Classroom by D. Huffaker (2005).

Huffaker makes the point that learning what types of activities and applications students are using on the Internet is only a superficial look, we need to understand how they are using these applications in order to come up with innovative strategies for new learning environments. Huffaker notes that blogs enable individual expression as well as aspects of community development, creating an online community of interdependent learners. The coexistence of these two ideas in one tool seems to be perfect for a primary classroom.

One point Huffaker raises that I found particularly interesting was the idea of digital literacy (p. 9). He states that educational technology advances all of the current essential 3 types of literacy (verbal, visual, and digital). Digital literacy is necessary for success in the technological world, just as reading and writing (the two foundations of education today) are necessary to success in society. The way that Huffaker puts digital literacy in the same league as reading and writing shows just how important it is considered. If we keep traveling in the same direction we have been for the last 20 years then, I have to agree. We will need to be ‘fluent’ in using technology to the point where it becomes innate. It will be a fundamental skill.

Image From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidanexpedition/378644476/

I just read the article Indigenous Students Connect with Blogs (Education Views, 16(11), June 6, 2007, p.17).

This article is about a teacher who used a blog to connect with her students doing a specific program while she was overseas. It says that it took her two weeks to teach the students how to use a weblog, but after that the students responded very enthusiastically to the project. She used it to give them information and photos from her trip to China, and in that way got the students interested in the places she was going and seeing. One example is when she went to visit the Great Wall of China, she got the students to do research on it, and discuss their impressions with the class online.

The most impressive thing about this article was that it described a legitimate reason for the students to start using a blog. I believe that once they had that experience it would be easier to use a blog again, and possibly in more complex and collaborative ways next time.

This is a mind map I made in E-Learning class today about the reasons we use/ should use online learning in the primary classroom. Its not complete yet, there are just some initial thoughts…

I have just read Prensky’s Listen to the Natives (2005).

The underlying theme that seems to be present in this article is that teachers need to learn from their students in the digital areas where they feel less at home, and need to include the students in decsions about their own learning. However, to me, this valid message gets lost in the other claims Prensky makes. To me, this article seems to be about a very narrow group of students on the whole. It is about the kids that can afford the money and the time spent gaming and using the internet excessively. What about those students who do not have a computer at home, or have internet access, or own a Wii? The inequality of access does not seem to be taken into account. To label a whole generation ‘digital natives’ and another ‘digital immigrants’ seems like an oversimplification.

I have one overriding question, am I a digital immigrant or native? What about the generation of teachers at I am a part of? Where do we stand in Prensky’s distinct, somewhat polarising division between the teacher-immigrant and student-native? I have grown up with the internet, with gaming, with computers and mobile phones, and yet I am also a teacher, am I therefore technologically disadvantaged?

Image From: http://www.clipartof.com/images/clipart/thumbnail2/5720_computer_illiterate_ woman_sitting_in_front_of_a_desktop_pc.jpg

I am a little concerned about the singleminded message that seems to be developing from what I am reading. It seems to me that if we follow the advise of all the authors of the articles I have read so far (admittedly not a lot yet), that we might be in danger of going too far the other way, and forget about the benefits of books and the interactions we have in the physical classrooms we are a part of. I realise this is a long way from happening at the moment, and there is still the current fight to get the internet properly and innovatively integrated into classrooms in the first place. However, I find it interesting that I have not yet read one article that is advocating a healthy balance between e-learning classrooms and so called ‘old fashioned’ classrooms.