What a Journey!

When our course started at the beginning of the year, I left each residential school day feeling very overwhelmed! Just as I overcame these feelings, the same feeling of uneasiness came back during my first few weeks in class, especially ICTs!! The thought of posting my personal thoughts of my learning journey made me feel anxious and very ill! It took me a few weeks to go anywhere near the blog I had created and after much procrastination I finally built up the courage to begin. Since I have started my placement, I am so grateful for this subject and what it has taught me. What I really had no idea about before, I am now becoming a lot more comfortable with. Also being in a class of 50 year 5 students who are already so computer literate, I realised just how important the use of ICTs in the classroom really are.
http://tobeys-reflection.blogspot.com/2010/03/understanding-icts.html

In this post I’d really like to share not only about what I’ve learnt from the courseware, but also how it has already come into practise in the classroom for me. My first placement, which is a double Year 5 class, is at Taranganba State School. From my first day in this class the students had just been working on PowerPoint presentations. The majority of the class was very competent using this programme, and knew exactly how to open and save their work on their USBs. As for the students that weren’t getting the hang of it so quickly, I was glad of my recent knowledge of PowerPoint, which enabled me to help them. This project had a few different parts to it which included a PowerPoint presentation on a scientist, a 3D project they built relating to the scientist, an oral speech, and a written evaluation of how they felt with the end results. I am sharing this with you as it really showed me how far the classrooms have come with technology, especially since I finished school 10 years ago!
Photographs of the projects have been taken, and we are in the process of orally recording the student’s evaluation. A virtual classroom has been set up on the learning place www.thelearningplace.com.au where parents are able to view the children’s work and see what they are doing in class. The Teachers are very active in maintaining this high standard, and are currently setting up a class blog so that parents will be able to keep up to date with what the students are learning, and what’s happening in the classroom. I have been absolutely amazed at how much ICTs have been used each day, and we haven’t even got to the Interactive whiteboards yet!! The next project is a group assignment where the class is setting up WIKIs. Once again I am grateful for my recently gained skills and knowledge of WIKIs, they’re definitely going to come in handy because even the Teachers don’t understand how they work yet!
The class is very fortunate to have a Librarian who is an absolute whiz on computers, and access to so many computers available in their class and the library. I have seen first hand now how the use of all the ICTs in the classroom truly enhance the students learning. It adds another dimension to their learning, and the class have been so engaged that the teachers and I have been staying in class several lunch hours so the students are able to work on their projects and gain skills in ICTs. Learning can be engaging, engrossing, amazing, disorientating, and often deeply pleasurable. If it’s fun, fine. But is doesn’t need to be fun. The application of technologies can enhance the curricula in imaginative ways beyond mere fun; it can add new dimensions to units of study and expand out notions of literacy. Access to a range of resources, new audiences, and a variety of media allow the teacher and student to teach and learn in new and enriching ways. Holliday, M., Johnston, R., Ljungdahl, March, P., Winch, G., L., (2001, p 316)

I have also been completely fascinated by the Interactive Whiteboards. As mentioned in my blog posting http://tobeys-reflection.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-wonderful-interactive-whiteboards.html I genuinely feel that any classroom with these available is very fortunate. A visit to Parkhurst showed just how much can be done with them in the class, and Karlee (GDLT student) left a comment saying “you can see how they would not only support and enhance learning, but also make the teaching process more efficient for Learning Managers...”Karlee Kries, April 25, 2010.

I also found Flickr and Picnik to be exciting programmes, they don’t take too long to get the hang of, and as I’ve mentioned in further detail in my post, could be used for a variety of projects in the classroom. http://tobeys-reflection.blogspot.com/2010/04/experimenting-with-flickr-and-picnik.html I had so much fun with Flickr and Picnik, I can see they will be something exciting to play with on the side as a weekend hobby! I also have some Art lessons coming up in class and I’m hoping that I might somehow be able to incorporate this programme for one of my activities.

The Avatars and Vokis are another way to enhance learning. I had never seen one before starting this course, and they intrigued me, even more so when I came to design my own. (Which by the way Kendal left a comment saying mine looked just like hers!! http://tobeys-reflection.blogspot.com/2010/03/acvokiembed200-267-bfd8a36b787df41e2dc0.html and view Kendal’s at http://kendal-candise.blogspot.com/) I think if someone my age can get so excited about Avatars and Voki’s then I’m sure students will as well! I know my Year 5 class will when I get a chance to use them for a lesson!

Another piece of technology that I have found to be so useful personally and professionally is you tube. www.youtube.com there seems to be an endless amount of clips available to suit any subject or even year level for that matter. I remember back at Residential school when Scot showed us the Greek aboriginal clip, it was quick, but interesting, and captured everyone’s attention. I feel every teacher can benefit from this, as well as the students. A favourite clip of mine is posted on my blog. http://tobeys-reflection.blogspot.com/2010/04/yes-i-am-going-to-be-your-teacher.html Karlee also had some great you tube clips on her blog, I left her a comment after hearing how much the class loved them during her lesson. http://ictslearningdesign.blogspot.com/2010/04/draft_20.html. She too left another reply saying how successful they were.

My learning journey so far has definitely kept me very busy, and I am throroughly enjoying all courseware that has been available. Now when I log onto the ICT moodle site, I don’t get the nervous shakes so bad as I did in the first few weeks. There is so much more I want to learn, and I feel my new found enthusiasm for computers will allow me to embrace what the 21st century has to offer and share all my new found knowledge and experience within the classroom.

References

Holliday, M., Johnston, R., Ljungdahl, March, P., Winch, G., L., 2001, Literacy: Reading, Writing and Children’s Literature:Third Edition, Oxford NewYork: Oxford University Press