Personal Learning Space

I found a great website today. It has some great interactive activities that cover all KLA’s and can be effectively used on a SMART board that children will love. It has activities that cater to all ages in primary school. It looks at ways in which children can sort shapes, numbers and letters, do procedures such as ‘How to make a cup of tea’ etc.

This website is a very hand-on site that is highly educational and fun for children. It does not have to be used on a SMART board, however would probably work better.

 Check it out!!!

Primary Resources

As an educator in primary schools it is so important to share resources, not compete with other teachers and support one another with technology in the efforts to put the children’s learning needs first. Using technology is really about utilizing new and improved resources to make improvements on different areas of our lives and the children’s lives that we teach.

James Hollis states that this is happning right now, he likes to call it ‘Sharing Technology’. Sharing technology with others allows teachers and students to access resources that have never before been available! For example we can quickly and esily access teachertube, wikipedia, google etc.

We as teachers can now share our thoughts, expertise, techniques, experiences, software programs, ideas, reflections, websites, hopes, visions etc. We can do this because technology makes it so easy for us.

It is just incredible where tehnology is taking us!!!

Source: www.jpprufino.com/…/2007/11/internet.jpg

 I agree with the article Scott read. I also believe that some of the most important skills we can foster in our children are; eXploring, eXressing and eXchanding.

I do really feel that the internet is an incredible source for exchanging ideas and publishing students work. I agree with Scott’s articl, in that perhaps students could email a published piece of work rather that than printing and perhaps students could share their work with their friends!

The internet really does have enormous amounts of potential for learning within the classroom!

Source: www.six.somerset.gov.uk/…/Suite%20scene2.jpg

I feel that learning with ICT offers students a world of opportunity: global communiction with peers and an engagement i rich, relevant tasks based on real situations.  It is important as it requires students to develop and apply critical literacy skills.

Students learning definately has to always be at the centre and I feel that ICT is a way in which student learning is enhanced! ICT skills, however, are best developed when used in the broader learning context. I found that having to complete a rationale for our LAMS assignement to be of good value as it made me think about why and when we would use ICT in the classroom. It is important to use ICT only when it is appropriate and will support the students learning!!

 I definitely agree with Michelle, in that podcasts better equip students with their reading and writing skills. It helps children think about what they are saying and writing, knowing that people all around the world are going to see it/hear it. This is very beneficial to the child’s learning and creative thinking.

It is incredible to think that podcasting  is PUBLISHING where children’s work is ‘out there’ for the world to see and consume!

I agree with Krizzia in that learning is an individual journey of discovery in which one is supported by so many near and far. I also believe that learning never stops!

Listening to Allanah King talk about her class using technology was inspirational! Her class is using most of the various programs that we looked at as a class in our elective week which is fantastic for year 4/5 children.

Allanah King’s uses MAC computers in her classroom for reading, writing and maths help in the mornings and at other times uses them to blog. Allanah King started by investigating different ways of blogging before she introduced it to her class. All children at Appleny Public School have a blog account and are expected to contribute  to each others postings.

The children at Applyby have contact with other schools around the world. One being in Wales and the other in New York which is an incredible learning experience for all the children involved. The children according to Allanah King get excited when they see how many people are watching their blogs globally.

Allanah King’s students started podcasting the happenings of learning in the classroom, she said she is more concerned about what they say/write rather than the grammar. In her classroom she has 3 monitors per week, 1 person for the technical side of things and 2 people to do the talking. She uses the program GarageBand which we used in class which is so simple to use, and easy to get good at!

Her class also has skype conversations with the students in Wales and New York and the most recent program is Flickr. Allanah King lets the sudents borrow the class camera so that they can then post them on the internet.

The important thing is that everone has a go. There are challenges along the way, however the rewards are GREAT!!!  

Download Video: Posted by AllanahK at TeacherTube.com.

I am tinking about chossing the topic of smartboards for my Task 2 assignment. I know very little about them and hve had no contact with them so far. I am keen to find out more about them and understand why teachers would choose to use one.

I have begun doing a small amount of research about them and have come to a realisation that SMART boards are used to combine the simplicity of the whiteboard with the power of a computer to engage students around the world. The SMART board has a touch sensitive display that connects to the computer and projector to show the computer image.

 The SMART board is very exciting as you can control the computer applications directly from the display,write notes in digital ink and save the work to the computer!!!

 According to websites I have looked up it is very easy to use, which makes it even better!

last week in our elective week, we had an online lecture using skype with Debbie Evans. Debbie Evans is an expert in the LAMS program working at the ICT centre at MAcquarie University. Debbie was able to chat with us about LAMS and the benefits of using it within the classroom. She believed that it gae children the opportunity to be designers. Her advice to us was

a) to keep our sequences simple and rich

b) to include a few gates so that classroom discussion or activities could take place and

c) to use LAMS across all KLA’s, not just Maths and Science.

This conversation with Debbie helped to clear up any confusions in my mind about using LAMS.  I felt like our topic of Bullying was going to be appropriate and hopefully will be beneficial to individual students and school communities.

It is an interesting concept using blogs in the classroom. I feel that it is a good thing to do, particuarly if students are able to communicate with others around the world. I feel that it is a place where children can express their ideas and findings. It gives students the opportunity to provide feedback via the web. It is a fun, educational task that children can have fun with at any time of the day, whether they are at home or school. Blogging creates an atmosphere of student keen and interested in sharing and expressing ideas.

Blogs cn be used to employ good spelling habits, grammar skills and a evelop a love for writing from a small age. It is an innovative concept that has benefits when used with primary children.

Blogs can help children:

a) take responsibility for daily posts,

b) increase communication between friends, family and relatives (particuarly those far away), 

c) have exposure to new, innovative technologies is important for children to become familiar with,

d) improve writing, editing and spelling and typing skills.