Blog Reflection 4.1

Today's blog reflection is about the learning purpose of using:

1. images/visual representations created by others, and
2. learner-generated images/visuals.

In my teaching practice I am inclined to use both in using images created by others but never leaving it at just making use of them.  I would want the students to engage with those visuals in some way by transforming those materials in a meaningful way.

I picked up in my reading that somewhere between 60% and 65% of learners are visual.  So visuals are really important to providing supportive learning and getting engagement with the students.  There are so many visuals and videos available and so many examples, that the problem becomes what to use to best help everyone in the class to undertake the learning that is required.  I think that the curriculum is so packed with requirements, that there isn't much room for taking a leisurely tour through what is available.  I think that planning the lesson and carefully pre-checking that what is asked in the activity is possible in the tool.  I have found many dead links and instances of tools that have changed or have been reported incorrectly. 

In this task I am thinking about the use of a painting (visual) of early colonial life and the students need to look at the painting and use a framework about the elements of society to make some comments about how early colonial life would have been, what types of tasks they did at work and at home, what kinds of food they had, what kinds of shelter they had and what kinds of entertainment they had. This comes from year 7 history curriculum.  My year 7 child just completed this activity with a digitised painted image.

SAMR for using images/visuals learner-accessed vs learner generated

Context	Substitution	Augmentation	Modification	Redefinition
Learner-accessed	Students access a digital copy of the photo and they write about their understanding of it in a separate word document.	Students access an individual digital copy of the photo and use a digital annotating tool to place their analysis onto the photo attached to icons which expand out when users roll over it with the mouse.	Students access a group accessed copy of the digital photo and they place comments using the annotating tool and they can read comments made by other students.	Students could make the image interactive through a platform such as Second Life.  The annotations could be replaced by short video clips giving the students understanding of each aspect of colonial life.
Learner- generated	Students create their own picture of colonial life based on visual and textual accounts using a digital tool.	Students annotate their own digital creation with an annotation tool showing their analysis and references for their ideas about colonial life.	Students share their images with the group and can add their own annotations.	Students could use learner created backdrops and artefacts and share them.  Perhaps like a Minecraft world.  Artefacts could be shared.

 

Comments?

What do you think about using virtual worlds like Minecraft or Second Life in education?

 

Do you have a year 7 student at your house who just did the same history task?  What did you think? 

Is doing this process different for using digital art than from doing a digitised painting?

Reflection 3.3 Websites

In my work life I have maintained a number of websites.  Most recently I have maintained a Wix site.  Wix also includes a blog tool and blog pages can be easily added to the wix site as well as a subscription element.  When I first started with the wix site, I used mail chimp to maintain my mailing list because it allowed me to create very professional looking newsletters with ease.  I had a first version of a blog in wordpress.  After a while I combined all three into wix because the integration was much easier to do within the single tool rather than having one tool for the blog, one for newsletters and one to manage content on my website.  

PMI        Plus,  Minus and Interesting for websites

P	M	I
Convergence of several tools. Wix in particular has amazing templates and tutorials with how-tos.	Time commitment for both the student and the teacher.	Many educators maintain websites about their research or interest area and are very happy to share their ideas.

(PMI template adopted from Global Education)

SAMR for a website based activity

Substitution	Augmentation	Modification	Redefinition
Use the website like a power point to publish information.	Use the website to include links to computer programs that the students have written.	Maybe using the website to create a COP with subject experts across a couple of classes so that students can learn from other students how to program in certain ways such as animation.	Maybe using the website to create joint programs where students begin a program and then upload it with comments, other students take that program and add to it.

(SAMR template table adapted from Technology Is Learning)