Looking back on my Journey

Reflecting back to the week one tutorial where I found the Interactive Whiteboard a daunting tool to use within the classroom. I now have the knowledge of an endless amount of educational technologies (cloud computing, game bases learning, blogging, Skype, augmented reality, Google Earth, wiki spaces etc) that can be used effectively within the classroom. As outlined in the Horizon Report, there are technologies to watch on the, “near term horizon and long term horizon” (Johnson et al., 2010, p.6) but reality is that technology is only evolving and sooner or later these technologies will be in the classroom.

The question is as a teacher, can you effectively include them, “to benefit teaching and learning” (Queensland Government, 2011, p.1) as a tool and not as an end in itself? I think that using the TPACK framework in the classroom is a challenge, although, it is a challenge worth taking. It allows for the effective use of technology to benefit the teaching and learning within education. The traditional methods of teaching evident in schools at the moment are failing to engage and motivate students because, “students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach” (Prensky, 2001, p.2). Throughout this course, I have learnt that technology is not the enemy; it makes classes fun, exciting and engaging. I believe if learning is fun for the students, then teaching will be enjoyable for the educator.  Jason Zagami has taken on the attitude of looking into the future and exploring what will be available in our future classrooms, as well as, what should be practiced within the classroom today.

It is exciting to know that although, this may be my last post (officially) my journey with technology is just beginning.

Reference List Johnson, L., Smith, R., Levine, A., & Haywood, K. (2010). 2010 Horizon            Report:            K-12 Edition. Texas: The New Media Consortium. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. Retrieved March           5, 2011,from www.marcprensky.com/.../prensky%20-%20digital%20           natives, %20digital%20immigrants%20-%20part1.pdf Queensland Government. (2011). Smart classrooms professional              development framework. Retrieved April 19, 2011, from                 http://education.qld.gov.au/smartclassrooms/             pdframework/ictc/indicators.html

My Learning Adventure

My group continued in working towards putting together our professional development video that will be aimed at teaching existing teachers about a specific content area, a specific pedagogy and a technology (TPACK). We decided to go with:

                Content: SOSE

                Pedagogy: Inquiry Based Learning

                Technology: Second Life

In order for this professional development video to be successful further research into each area will be necessary. I was conscious throughout the planning process that we were not taking on a “technocentric” approach as spoken about in previous weeks. Therefore, the first step my group took was exploring how to cover the Essential Learnings for the grade level appropriate.

 

We then decided that inquiry based learning would be appropriate for teaching SOSE using Second Life. Inquiry based learning is, “not so much seeking the right answer, it is a seeking for truth, information, or knowledge by seeking information through questioning” (EBC, 2004, p.1). The students will explore the world of Second Life through virtual fieldtrips, personal exploration and teacher-guided direction through questioning to create a research report. The planning around these lessons/unit was created using Marsh’s model of inquiry. 

The last part of this statement is the essence of inquiry-based learning, “tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand” (EBC, 2004, p.1).  Second Life effectively involves the students in their learning because it is engaging. Second Life, “enables deeply immersive, meaningful, and memorable experiences” (Linden Lab, 2011, p.3) and it caters, “to many kinds of learners - visual, auditory, and experiential” (Linden Lab, 2011, p.4).

For more information on Second Life in education read the following document:

Our professional development video is using a combination of different technologies including; jaycut.com video editing, Screencast-o-Matic, GoAnimate, video recording, Audacity, PowerPoint and Microsoft Word. I feel that I have mastered these technologies when putting together our group’s personal development video. Jaycut.com worked as a really good movie editing program because it worked within the ‘cloud’ allowing our entire movie to be saved online and no technological issues occurred that we were previously experiencing with Movie Maker. Screencast-o-Matic was the perfect tool to use within our movie as it provides the audience with clear guidance of how to use and implement our educational technology in the classroom. I was hesitant to use animations within our movie, although, I was pleasantly surprised when I worked out that it was a simple program to use. Overall, I feel that I not only mastered the understanding of the educational program Second Life, I also developed numerous technological skills that I did not have previously.

Reference List Education Broadcasting Corporation. (2004). Concept to classroom- what is                inquiry based learning? Retrieved April 14, 2011, from                http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/index.html Linden Lab. (2011). Second life education: The virtual learning advantage.           Retrieved April 14, 2011, from http://lecs-static-secondlife-           com.s3.amazonaws.com/work/SL-Edu-Brochure-010411.pdf

Living a Second Life

I really cannot believe how much I feel that I am dramatically changing from a digital immigrant to a digital native. I am truly becoming digitally savvy and this is only the beginning. Blogs, wikis, twitter, cloud computing, augmented reality and the list goes on. It amazes me that after only a few short weeks, I am beginning to comfortably use these programs when planning school activities, lessons and units.  Just when I thought there could not be any more amazing programs that I could use within the classroom, I came across Second Life. In reference to my group’s professional development we decided that we wanted to focus on SOSE as the curriculum area and thought about addressing the SOSE KLA through an inquiry-based learning approach. Second Life seems to be a technology that would assist in the teaching and learning in social studies.

What is Second Life? Well it is a, “a three-dimensional virtual community” (Kayne, 2011, p.1), allowing individual members to create their own character, which are referred to as an avatar. These characters can, “walk, fly or teleport through the Second Life Metaverse - meeting, interacting, learning, travelling, playing, building and exploring” (Rankin, 2011, p.1). 

So, we have this really engaging program but how can we use it as an educational tool? At this current point in time a lot of research is going into the role Second Life can play in the classroom. A case study found that, “Second Life activities improved students learning experience, furthermore, students who participated in the Second Life activities in the case study showed higher learning motivation and better performance” (James, 2009, p.3). Four levels of classroom use of, “Second Life can be used to help in implementing the technology into the classroom” (Duke, 2011, p.1), these include:

• Presentation Tool: This could be used in a lecture or an explanation to provide students with 3D models.
• Guided experience: “Engage Second Life in the classroom following specific steps and activities defined by the teacher” (Duke, 2011, p.1).
• Self Directed Assistance: Once students begin feeling confident, “teachers can define a more open ended series of activities for students to engage” (Duke, 2011, p.1).
• Student Generated Content: This is the top level which could involve the students, reaching the point of generating content within Second Life, transitioning from consumers to producers of content” (Duke, 2011, p.1). This is not an easy step and would probably not be reached in a primary school setting.

I find Second Life has the potential to be such an engaging, interactive program that students will find interesting. If implemented in the classroom correctly it has the potential to do wonderful things!

I found an amazing slideshow that provides teachers with 11 ways to use Second Life in their classroom...



Reference List Duke, C. (2011). Levels of classroom use of second life. Retrieved April 6, 2011, from http://www.cmduke.com/2011/01/26/levels-of-classroom-use-of-second-life/ James, B. (2009). Extending the classroom through second life. Journal of Information             Systems Education: 82(4), 1-20. Retrieved April 6, 2011, from              http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4041/is_200907/ai_n32128815/ Kayne, R. (2011). What is second life? Retrieved April 6, 2011, from  http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-second-life.htm Rankin, B. (2011). What is second life? Retrieved April 6, 2011, from http://askbobrankin.com/what_is_second_life.html