Thursday, 26 March 2015

Week 3 Engagement Activity


WEBSITE REFLECTION

My Weebly link


Websites are considered mostly static, as students cannot contribute to content. They are mostly used for delivery of content and are considered as WEB 1.0, until the webmaster changes content. A website will only provide a form of lower order thinking if the student is only instructed to learn and recite the content that is on the website. Websites would fall under the Substitution category reflecting on the SAMR model.





BLOG REFLECTION

Explore the technical features of Blogger.com
General layout features.
Header, Navigation bar- About, contact, social connections (sharing), search, email, the post, body page, sidebars, comments bar, About me, Blogs Archive
Page views graph, updates table, stats, (more below)
How is a blog constructed and presented
A blog is constructed by pushing the create blog button
Add title, address, and choose template.
Presented with a heading and text block, can picture image box, can be changed to suit users preferences
Adding a post, click on your blog title, a new bar navigation bar appears on the left side, click on new post button, and add content.
Can it be customised?
Custom domain names, Templates, Background, Adjust widths, Layout
The design of your blog can be changed and altered.
What types of files can be embedded and/or linked to
Media (video), link websites, text, HTML files, PDF
Can media be used in your blog?
YES


Blogs have many benefits within the classroom.
·         Encourages independent learning via collaborating of information and using higher order thinking skills to synthesis, analysis, and evaluate content to form individual ideas.

·         Reading and contributing to each other’s blogs allows for creativity to be shared for the evolving of thought processes.

·         Allows for students to reflect on their learning path, while critically examining their diverse learning needs.

·         Can be used to construct assessment pieces, allows for visual thought processes that can be adjusted by formative assessment.

·         Peer learning, encouraging students to help one another, via comments.

·         Allows for sharing of content, video links, text, images.

·         Can form a classroom hub, with class rules and codes of conduct.

·         Blogs can involve parents, to allow for contribution and address and learning concerns.

·         Teachers can post weekly prizes and positive recognition to install motivation.



USE the SAMR model to identify how blogs could be used at each level of SAMR
Substitution- Displaying of content.
Augmentation- Being able to comment on a post.
Manipulation- Create presentations individually that have multimedia content.
Redefinition- Using blogs for the collaboration of new ideas, and creating a peer learning group for the purpose of producing an end product as a group, using multimedia content.



WIKI REFLECTION
Wiki-spaces Classroom is a social writing platform for education that is an extension of the traditional classroom environment. Wiki benefits teachers and students with the ability of working in collaboration for the collection of content to achieve a particular learning outcome. Wikis are open to all members that have permission and can be accessed on multiple technologies, including, browsers, tablets and phones. Technical issues can also be facilitated via Wiki as collaborative help and support is achievable. There are multiple ways in which Wikis can be used. For example, wikis are a live document that can be edited and evolved by multiple authors, however editing issues have been identified. Educators could have students set their own Wikis up and have teacher access, and allow each student to edit their own Wikis. Even though Wiki can be used in this way, unfortunately it removes a major part of what Wiki is all about, which is the collaboration of content and adding individuals own ideas and perspectives. Using Wiki classroom in its traditional manner, i.e. having the teacher setup as the organiser and the students as members, builds intellectual trust as wiki relies on the assumption that all authors have good intentions.

Wiki classroom is a safe Social network platform based on set tasks that can be accessed only by set permissions allowing constant open access for both teacher and student. Students have the flexibility to complete work activities at their own pace, while teachers have the ability to provide formative assessment while monitoring participation and engagement. The teacher can also adjust tasks to cater for diversity and equity as some students may find work to easy, or to difficult, allowing the teacher to provide support, or challenging learning goals.

The way I would use Wiki classroom is as follows. One of my disciplinary areas is Industrial, Technology and Design (Manual arts). I would allocate all students with a project that has been manufactured i.e. Toolbox. Once the students have seen the project, my task for them is to create a manufacturing plan of that project. While the teacher can provide documents and resources embedded into Wiki, this only provides for lower order thinking as outlined in blooms, and the substitution level of the SAMR model. Moving to the next level of the SAMR model, Augmentation, is providing students with content and having the ability for students to comment on that content, still at the lower order thinking level. At the modification level of the SAMR model, Wiki can be used to display content, provide step by step instructions, and have students communicate collaboratively while providing transformation of how this unit has previously been delivered without the use of ICT. To maximise Wikis potential for the facilitation of higher order thinking for my proposed unit of work is to firstly allocate students with one class project. The set task is for the class to collaboratively work through specific headings of how to produce the project i.e. Safety, tools to be used, cutting out processes, and assembly processes. The wiki would provide areas to input content under each heading. Each student would need to contribute their own ideas and provide evidence of how, what and why to provide a justification on choosing their synthesised content from research. Once all students have contributed to the Wiki under all headings, the final complete plan can be created. This process falls under the Redefinition heading as outlined in the SAMR model as the delivery of this unit has completely transformed from traditional methods previously used. As Blooms describes, that processes involving, synthesis, analysis and evaluation are higher order thinking skills that students had to facilitate to be able to justify the contribution of content into the classroom Wiki.


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