Digital Resource: Glogster

Glogster allows users to create small interactive posters. It was interesting software to experiment with, but I feel that it lacked the power of other apps to maintain children’s interest in such a wide variety of ways.

I decided to create a resource for Year 2s to explore the life-cycle of Monarch Butterflies, as a part of a unit on the variety of ways that “Living things grow, change and have offspring similar to themselves (ACARA-ACSSU030, 2016)”.

I imagined that a link to this resource might be provided to families as an ‘at home’ exercise. I would think that some families would appreciate an occasional optional way to be involved in their child’s education, but I do understand that families are busy, and such a resource would need to be considered only supplementary to the complete learning at school.

An alternative approach would be to use the resource without the voice track on an interactive whiteboard in class.

My resource is viewable here, although P.C.s not equipped with Adobe Flash Player, may not be able to display it correctly.

Evaluation Matrix

Name of Teaching Resource

Glogster (The Life Cycle of A Monarch Butterfly)

Weblink

http://ategreens.edu.glogster.com/life-cycle-of-a-monarch-butterfly/

Who should this digital teaching resource be used with?

Year 2

Which subject or learning area would it be most appropriate to use in?

Science Understanding: Biological Sciences

Identify the strengths of this teaching resource

Glogster is fairly easy to use, and posters created using Glogster can be eye-catching, and I did like the fact that a commentary could be recorded to help students to understand the content. I felt that this would be helpful, as most Year 2s are still developing readers.

Identify any weaknesses of this teaching resource

Glogster did not offer a very wide variety of tools, and i did not think that the elements of the poster loaded quickly enough.

Explain any ideas that you may have for the future use of this teaching resource

Interactive posters are a wonderful resource which can be used during group time with an interactive whiteboard, or individually on iPads or PC.s. Despite my enthusiasm for this format, I will not use Glogster again. I have put a good deal of time and effort into using its capabilities to their fullest, and I have been very disappointed with the result.

Glogster did not offer me the opportunity to create a revision component of the lesson, so I created a quiz using Purpose Games to link to my Glogster presentation. Despite my repeated efforts, however, to use Glogster’s ‘link’ function to incorporate the quiz, the information was lost several times.

in order that students might be able to successfully navigate through their lesson regardless of whether they are at home or in class, I have recorded myself discussing the content with the students, and displayed a large ‘play’ button on the poster. However, due to poor software design, the button does not always load, which seriously diminishes the worth of the software in an educational setting. Also, the videos sourced through Glogster did not behave predictably, and often did not play.

Today’s young people are digitally expectant (Howell, 2012), and I love the idea of supplementing teaching with digital resources. However, I have no plans to use Glogster in the future. Better tools are already available, others will continue to be developed.

Reference List

*all images retrieved by Glogster

Australian Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2016). The Australian Curriculum. Retrieved from http://australiancurriculum.edu.au

Enchanted Learning. (n.d.) Monarch Butterfly. Retrieved from: http://enchantedlearning.com/learning/butterfly/species.Monarch.shtml

Gunther, L.(2016). The Monarch Butterfly. Retrieved from: http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/monarch_butterfly.htm

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

Monarch Butterflies. (n.d.) Monarch Butterflies. Retrieved from: http://monarch-butterfly.com

Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund. (2016). [image]. Retrieved from: http://nfwf.org/monarch/Pages/home.aspx

 

Digital Resource: Tiny Tap

I think that Tiny Tap has a great deal of potential as a digital learning resource.

When the staff from my children’s school first began to talk about the possibility of introducing an iPad program for primary-level students, I was curious about how the hardware would be used in the classroom. I had never before heard of Tiny Tap, but I can now imagine that teachers could effectively craft their own learning resources, using this, or similar, software, or find something appropriate that has been made by others

We really are entering an exciting time for engaging children in the classroom in new and interesting ways.

Despite being a resource for classroom iPads, the app I have created should be viewable from a P.C. here:

Tiny Tap

(Later addendum:

Please bear in mind that this resource is designed for iPads in schools. Many of its features will not work from a personal computer, and for this I apologise.)

This resource has been created for Year 5 or 6 Civics (ACHASSK115-116, ACHASSK143-145). It was a time-consuming exercise, but I found it a worthwhile and exciting challenge, and I believe that I have gained skills that will ensure that my next attempt is even better.

Evaluation Matrix

Name of Teaching Resource

Tiny Tap (The Government of Australia)

Weblink

http://www.tinytap.it/games/g1h5p/Government-Of-Australia

Who should this digital teaching resource be used with?

Year 5/6

Which subject or learning area would it be most appropriate to use in?

Humanities and Social Sciences: Civics and Citizenship

Identify the strengths of this teaching resource

When I was a child, a great deal of classroom time was spent copying text handwritten onto a blackboard, into exercise books. Tiny Tap allows educators to teach through the creation of games that engage children’s interest. I can imagine that this would be particularly effective in the middle years of primary education, at which stage the children have some beginning reading and computer skills, but the material presented can be still quite colourful and visual. I particularly like the matching and shape sorting capabilities of the application because they really held my children’s interest when I asked them to give me some feedback on the software. I think that these tools will solidify learning.

Identify any weaknesses of this teaching resource

Tiny Tap is an app for iPad, so while games may be viewable from a P.C., many of their features are either missing or do no work correctly when viewed from that platform. This may not be an issue where the app is being used as part of an iPad program, but would limit its usefulness if students were going to access their own technology at home.

Another thing that particularly bothered me was the ease with which information could be accidentally deleted. In order for the software to be useful, major alterations should be verified . It is too easy to accidentally hit a key and lose vast quantities of work.

Explain any ideas that you may have for the future use of this teaching resource

This was a wonderful learning opportunity, and I think that upon reflection, on future attempts I might make even more of an effort to utilise the interactive features of the program. I think that I made too much of an effort to base each slide on a separate idea, and in fact, more of a narrative style would be effective. A video could be broken into separate sections, for example, and each be tested by a game as the lesson progresses. I think that this would be most effective with children in middle primary level.

Reference List

*all images retrieved by Tiny Tap

Australian Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting Authority. (2016) The Australian Curriculum. Retrieved from http://australiancurriculum.edu.au

Australian Government. (n.d.). Federation. Retrieved from: http://australia.gov.au/about-government/how-government-works/federation

Larsen, S. (2010) Preferential Voting. Retrieved from: http://www.abc.net.au/btn/story/s2960412.htm

Morey, S. (2013). Explainer: How does the senate voting system work? Retrieved from: http://theconversation.com/explainer-how-does-the-senate-voting-system-work-17768

Parliamentary Education Office. (n.d.). Educating, schools, students, and teachers about parliament. Retrieved from: http://peo.gov.au

Digital Fluency

(Cuban, 2014)

I like this cartoon, as do my older children.

My parents may not be equally enthusiastic!

Indisputably, today’s children were born into a technology-rich world.

As a pre-service teacher, I feel a responsibility to be digitally fluent, if I am soon to help them to prepare for their future (MacManus, 2013).

So, what is digital fluency? Is it simply being able to use a computer?

(“Christian”, 2011)

As this cartoon suggests, digital literacy, (being capable of operating technologies required for daily life), might often be sufficient, but it is not mastery.

For Shaun McCusker (2010), digital fluency is the “ability to effortlessly manipulate, transform and move information across various media and platforms”.

(Hammond, 2015)

So, how can teachers and students become truely technologically proficient?

White (2013) believes that digital fluency is so vital for the future success of school graduates, that a school subject of that name should be ideally introduced, to teach technology terms; design; digital security, critical thinking; research skills; and digital commons and copyright.

Certainly, professional development opportunities for educators should focus on technology integration into the classroom and learning process (Holland, 2013).

As teachers, we might create a class blog to assign research projects, and allow students to solve problems digitally with spreadsheet programmes and search engines (Holland, 2013).

Opportunities such as the Hour of Code, or other childrens’ programming tools (Jones, 2014), give young people an insight into how technology works, and student networking software such as Edmodo can teach digital collaboration.

I also see amazing potential for students create wonderful content using presentation tools like Prezi in the place of traditional poster-type projects (Howell, 2012).

I believe that together we must prioritise working towards developing “digital content creators, technology innovators, and digitally fluent learners” (Howell, 2012), if we are to serve the future well.

Words: 297

Bibliography:

“Christian”. (2011). [image]. The Difference Between Digital Literacy and Digital Fluency. Retrieved from: http://www.socialens.com/blog/2011/02/05/the-difference-between-digital-literacy-and-digital-fluency/

Cuban, L. (2014). [image]. Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice. Retrieved from: https://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2014/05/24/cartoons-on-digital-natives-and-immigrants/

Hammond, N. (2015). [image]. Sports Journalism. Retrieved from: https://dcit.newcastle.edu.au/nickhammond/about-me/

Holland, B. (2013). Building technology fluency: Preparing students to be digital learners. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/building-tech-fluency-digital-learners-beth-holland

Howell, J. (2012). Teaching with ICT: Digital Pedagogies for Collaboration and Creativity. South Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press.

Jones, M. (2014). Cracking the Code. Retrieved from:http://globaldigitalcitizen.org/cracking-the-code

MacManus, M. (2013). Getting young people fluent in digital. The Guardian. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/social-enterprise-network/2013/aug/02/young-people-fluent-digital

McCusker, S. (2010). “Go Where You Grow”. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/ShawnMcCusker

New Zealand Ministry of Education. (2016) Towards Digital Fluency. Retrieved from: http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Towards-Digital-Fluency.pdf

White, G. (2013). Digital fluency for the digital age. Retrieved from: https://rd.acer.edu.au/article/digital-fluency-for-the-digital-age

Wolfe, J. (2014). [image]. Jessica Wolfe Blog. Retrieved from:https://jessicawolfeblog.wordpress.com

Digital Curation

(Sutton, 2014)

A month ago, I had never heard of ‘digital curation’.

To be honest, “curation” sounded like something that would happen in a museum.

(Roseberry, 2011)

I needed a great definition!

“Curation is an act of creating new meaning by combining existing content with new perspective” (Minocha and Petre, 2012).

Yes!

‘Digital curation’ is the process of collecting information from various digital sources, and presenting it in a manner that suits the curator’s needs… just like in a museum!

Steven Rosenbaum’s video served as a useful introduction to the concept that whereas previously we, the public, had been only consumers of the media, now we are all creating it.
Today we can “archive, annotate, appropriate, and recirculate media content in powerful new ways”(Jenkins et al, 2009).

Watch Gideon Burton’s video:

Did you notice this slide?

(Burton, 2015)

How helpful!

So digital curation has three main purposes.

1. Expression

   We can all curate our own “digital cabinet of curiosities”.

   If I love teapots, then I can pull together my favourite teapot-related media, and share it with the world.

2. Marketing

   Perhaps I might have created the teapot collection as a vehicle for promoting my product relevant to teapot enthusiasts.

   That is curating for marketing purposes.

3. Understanding

Meaningful collections of useful content can be useful for education purposes.

*Pinterest allows users to collect interesting media together.

*Storify collates social media input relevant to the “story” being told.

*Diego and Zotero allow for group collection and annotation of digital bookmarks.

(V, 2009)

In a time when we are being constantly offered far too much information, “digital curation represents a good faith effort to… make sense of the world” (Roseberry, 2011).

As teachers, we will need to have organised stores of resources both for our own use, and to offer to our students.

Let’s curate!

Words: 300.

Bibliography:

Burton, G. (2015). Digital Curation. Retrieved from YouTube: https://youtu.be/JUvdnhanDjU

Jenkins, H., Purushotma, R., Weigel, M., Clinton, K. & Robinson, A.J. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21^st Century. A report for the MacArthur Foundation. Boston: MIT Press.

Kelly, D. (2014). Digital Curation: Definitions, Tools, and Strategies. Retrieved from: http://www.slideshare.net/DavidKelly3/digital-curation-definitions-tools-and-strategies-37615428

Minocha, S. & Petre, M. (2012). Vitae Innovate- Handbook of social media for researchers and supervisors-digital technologies for research dialogues. The Open University. http://www.vitae.ac.uk/policy-practice/567271/Handbook-of-social-media-for-researchers -and-supervisors.html

Roseberry, J. (2011) [image]. Crazy About Curation. 3 Bee Brothers. Retrieved from: http://www.3beebrothers.com/2011_12_01_archive.html

Roseberry, J. (2011) Crazy About Curation. 3 Bee Brothers. Retrieved from: http://www.3beebrothers.com/2011_12_01_archive.html

Rosenbaum, S. (2011) . Retrieved from Youtube:https://youtu.be/iASluLoKQbo

Sutton, M. (2014). [image]. Content Creation Tools- The Ultimate List. Retrieved from: http://www.curata.com/blog/content-curation-tools-the-ultimate-list/

Sutton, M. (2014). Content Creation Tools- The Ultimate List. Retrieved from: http://www.curata.com/blog/content-curation-tools-the-ultimate-list/

V, S. (2009) [image]. Retrieved from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/noworke/3922708883

 

Digital Convergence

(Garrett, 2011)

“One device to rule them all!” (“ajit”, 2006)

Although I make few calls, I love my mobile phone.

Yes, I love digital convergence!

“Digital convergence” is the process of Information Technology, Telecommunications, Consumer Electronics, and Entertainment coming together into an amalgamation (“ajit”, 2006). Its product is the interactive “new media” comprising all the digital technologies, which include internet, online news, video games, digital photography, and digital videos (Jensen, 2016).

In his 1995 book, Nicholas Negroponte described the dawning of digital convergence in this way;

“Bits co-mingle effortlessly…

The mixing of audio, video, and data is called multimedia. It sounds complicated, but it’s nothing more than co-mingled bits.”

Co-mingled bits in the smart phone:

(Miss. Donna, 2015)

Corning (2013) imagined an amazing future for digital convergence:

Digital Convergence promises much for the future of education. Already the app platform offers mobile device users scope for seemingly limitless functionality (xprt, n.d.).

Classrooms across the world are implementing tablet roll-outs, and installing interactive whiteboards (Dade Schools, 2014), and previously disengaged children are responding in exciting ways:

(K-12 Blueprint, 2015)

Matt Britland (2013), sees a future paperless classroom, where students and teachers collaborate using multimedia across the cloud in art, mathematics, and geography.

(“Mobile Technology in the Classroom, 2015)

I can imagine a future in which technology could inform children relevantly throughout the day, according to their location, ability level, previous responses, and available support (Core Education, 2015). I can also imagine students being able to carry a single mobile device, perhaps worn as a watch and able to operate as a smartphone, which could connect to a screen at school or in the home, and will contain all of their personal learning resources. Much of the required technology for such a useful application of digital convergence is already here:

(Hernandez, 2015)

(Watson, 2015)

Digital convergence is changing the world!

Words: 297

Bibliography

“ajit”. (2006). Digital convergence = mashups. Retrieved from: http://www.opengardensblog.futuretext.com/archives/2006/04/digital_converg.html

Britland, M. (2013). What is the future of technology in education? The Guardian. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/jun/19/technology-future-education-cloud-social-learning

Brown, T. (2015).[image]. The Blog of a Pre-Service Teacher. Retrieved from: https://tiannigb.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/digital-convergence-an-insight-into-henry-jenkins-philosphy-and-convergence-in-the-classroom/

Core Education (2015) [image]. Ten Trends of 2015: Digital Convergence. Retrieved from: http://www.core-ed.org/thought-leadership/ten-trends/ten-trends-2015/digital-convergence

Core Education (2015) [image]. Ten Trends of 2015: Digital Convergence. Retrieved from: http://www.core-ed.org/thought-leadership/ten-trends/ten-trends-2015/digital-convergence

Corning. (2013). A Day Made of Glass. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/PfgmlVxLC9w

Dade Schools (2014). Digital Convergence. http://digital.dadeschools.net

Garret, (2011). [image]. One Device to Rule Them All. Retrieved from: http://anidea.com/innovation/one-device-to-rule-them-all/

Hernandez, A. (2015). . Do Consumers Want One Device to Rule Them All? Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/-oi1B9fjVs4

Jadoo, K. (2015). [image]. Financial Technology(FinTech): The Digital Convergence of Business and Finance. Retrieved From: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/financial-technologyfintech-digital-convergence-business-jadoo

Jensen, M. (2016). Digital convergence: Global trends in broadband and broadcast media concentration. Association for Progressive Communications. Retrieved from: https://www.apc.org/en/news/digital-convergence-global-trends-broadband-and-br

K-12 Blueprint. (2015). Digital Convergence. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/dg2EIUsOZsg

Miss. Donna (2015) Digital Convergence. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/o9hq50FoH5o

“Mobile Technology in the Classroom”. (2015). Retrieved from: http://wwonline.net/mobile-technology-in-the-classroom/

Negroponte, N. (1995). Being Digital. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Watson, N. (2015). [image]. One Device to Rule Them All – Are we nearly there yet? Retrieved from: http://www.anthonywatson.net.au/?p=31

Xprt. (n.d.) Examples of Digital Convergence. Retrieved from: http://xprt.ca/web_files/Xprt_Examples_of_Convergence.pdf