BEFUNKY

Bit of fun this cold Monday morning.

Week One, Week Two, Week Three here we are.

Where has the time gone?

This week looked at integrating blogs, wiki’s and Weebly’s into the teaching environment. I chose to look closely at wiki’s. I wanted to look more closely at wiki’s to enhance myself and readers of my blog how wiki’s can be a highly effective teaching tool for all ages, and competency levels in the classroom.

To understand the concept of a wiki, I think of it as a peice of butchers paper- a blank canvas that can be written on, drawn on and have general feelings expressed. Although a wiki can be so much more.  I think to explain it further, lets go there. WIKI

To access my Wiki

User: wikiuser00    (thats zero, zero) 

Password: hetrae

De Bono's six hats - Uncovered

BLACK BLUE RED WHITE GREEN YELLOW

I just Googled ‘what is a wiki’. Before today, I had no idea what it was. Well, I though I had no idea. Then I realised I have been using wiki’s since I did my first Google search. It only just clicked to me that my favorite (not so reliable) source ‘Wikipedia’ was just that. A wiki. Somewhere that people can collaborate information.

This week we used an embedded wiki from the E-Learning moodle site to construct – or deconstruct ‘De Bono’s six thinking hats’, on the topic ‘Mobile phones in the classroom’. Edward De Bono’s six thinking hats encourage lateral and higher order thinking to what can simply be ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions.

https://debono11.wikispaces.com/file/view/wordle1.jpg/155102701/495x290/wordle1.jpg

Wiki’s pull mainly from the underlying learning theory that is social constructivism; learning from others and collaborating between a group of people- peer education. This is portrayed through De Bono’s hats wiki because each person has the opportunity to input information, thoughts and feelings about the topic- the scaffold supports a range of perspectives this way. Connectivism also comes into play in this setting; connectivism being the learning theory of the digital age. I think of it as, the path to finding the information, knowing how and where to find it, is more important than the information itself. In a ‘wiki’ environment, all the information is readily available to be edited and added to when needed. Any information relating to the topic is right there, even if you can’t remember it all.

At the start of the activity I had NO idea what I was meant to be doing, thrown in the deep end and I really hoped I could swim… or at least make it to the side without drowning, and that I did. As I read through the opinions of my classmates, it all sort of clicked I finally ‘got it’ - going back to last weeks lessons of Felder & Solomon’s learning styles of a Global Learner. This activity gave everyone in the group an equal opportunity to participate and share their views on the topic. This was excellent for me, as a first year working along side second and third years, gave me insight into views of fellow future educators.

Although putting on my ‘black hat’ so to speak, an issue of this activity I found was that some of the points were repeated multiple times, making the reading quite repetitive. On some of the pages, there were a lot of people’s ideas, making it quite hard to comprehend at times. Overall, the activity worked quite well and was set up to model very well and could be easily adapted to other topics.

This could be a great tool in the classroom for brainstorming or the like group situations. It uses ICT to encourage parallel thinking and expand the mind. Using the six thinking hats in a wiki activity gives students the ability to learn off each other and collaborating ideas in a neat and tidy webpage. Because wiki’s are so accessible, students could easily gain access at home to continue the brainstorming or to reflect back on in times of revision etc.

I went in to the activity thinking that mobile phones in the classroom were a bad idea – probably because my schools have always reinforced that – reflecting back to my behaviourisms. After the activity, I still wasn’t 100% convinced that each child should have a mobile phone sitting beside them on their desk, although my mind wasn’t closed to the idea that students couldn’t use them to positively effect their education in the classroom. I believe that this shows really, how successful this activity has been, the ability to open your imagination and feed off others’ views and thoughts. 

here is a link to our wiki about mobile phones in the classroom using De Bono's hats.

https://debono11.wikispaces.com/file/view/wordle1.jpg/155102701/495x290/wordle1.jpg

Thanks for reading. Hope it wasn't too long :)

Poplet - Core Learning Theories

Week One Readings

Welcome to my first E-Learning blog.

The Week One online material this week presented itself as being one of the most important things to know becoming a teacher... No learner learns the same way. 

Teaching has definitely changed over the years, because of advanced technology, teachers and students have the equipment and information to teach in ways once unthinkable. With the help of computers and other devices- teachers can display information in multiple of ways to cater for all different students learning styles (outlined below). 


This is the first time I have been exposed to these models; The VAK and Felder & Solomon's.
What I have taken from these two learning models is outlined in the mind map below.

Behind these learning styles are interesting theories; Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Constructivism and Connectivism.

This course tends to lean on the Connectivism approach. Connectivism was proposed by George Siemens as the learning theory for the digital age. It identifies the networked nature of learning with computers and the internet- learning for the new age. 
The main idea behind this is that 'connectivism' is the ability to know how and where to find the information or knowledge rather than the actual information found.


This weeks readings have given me an overview of the learning systems and how easily ICT can be integrated into the classroom. I understand that each of my future students will have different levels of prior knowledge and understanding of using ICT, just as everyone in this class has; and each student will learn and comprehend information differently- it will be my job as an educator to ensure each child gets the same opportunity to success both inside and outside the classroom.


Good Luck everyone for week Two!

Welcome to my blog

Just a little bit about me- 

My names Brooklyn, I am a BLM primary student at CQU Bundaberg, and have this blog for Managing E-Learning.

I graduated from North Bundy High in 2011 and since then have been working at Bank Of Queensland.

This subject is one that scares me a little bit but hopefully though the next couple of weeks I pick it up :)

Anyway, thanks for reading.

I'm sure I will see you all around soon