girls are from venus, boys are from mars... seems the same with technology

While browsing this evening I found this article. I also saved it on Diigo (I think).

I took the following notes

- written in 2008 about learning and also outside of the classroom activities

- ICT increases motivation more for boys

- girls use ICTs less

- boys use it for leisure purposes

- girls prefer social and creative uses and are often less confident

- boys see tech for their own sake, girls see it as a tool for learning and furthering interests. 

- girls are more likely to suffer from cyberbullying

- don't use ICTs differently in class. - boys prefer database software, file manipulation, internet.. girls - prefer communication, publishing, photo manipulating (social) - sharing etc. 

This are some useful findings when considering what activities can be done in the classroom. For example, girls may prefer to share, take photos, chat, comment and be creative, where as, boys appear to like to problem solve and use ICTs to their fullest extent, and try to learn as much about each program and how to use it as possible. Perhaps, in group work activities where students need to do a combination of any of these tasks, I should consider making groups with both boys and girls. 

A very insightful article, providing a lot to think about. 

#hashtagearemylife #omg #yolo

#ihearthashtags

They are pretty great. Even though it can be annoying when my younger cousins constantly hashtag on facebook about everything in their lives. #yolo #swag #lol - you get the idea.

But what about #help! #religionassignment
and tagging too! @missFoddy. @teacher @schoolreligionclass

I'm talking about using twitter for study. I tweeted David yesterday with an assignment question and he got back really quick (I was actually impressed). It also means that students can search hashtags for answers as well. So when students are studying for an exam, this would be handy. Also, collaborative learning on tasks could also be handy.

Theres also another tool here fakebook. Facebook for a classroom. I've heard its good for history and also religion and also character understanding in english.

I'm starting to see now how much we should be using social media in our classrooms. As I mentioned on twitter, I caved and got pinterest, something I'd been avoiding because I find social media a distraction, but I must admit I love it. I've already collected about 75 teaching resources already.

Jill's blog was the reason why I decided to get pinterest. Also, I'd heard raving reviews from many of my teaching colleagues on prac.

assessment and technology

Do we need to get rid of hand written maths tests?

Seriously? - with technology aren't they are bit outdated? We've got all the technology in the world to make tests online- lecturers do it all the time.. why aren't we doing it in our classrooms?

This article  provides some maths online test resources and also says 'it's so easy' - but is it?

for the students?

I also want to ask the question... why are we still using maths tests at the end of term? all the time?
In my experience with a test, they only really examine students understanding, memory, and maybe a little application. Depending on the question, it can ask students to analyse and evaluate - but this doesn't happen a lot in maths in tests. And tests certainly don't help students create. Of course, I'm referring to Bloom's taxonomy (the version of Bloom's that I use comes from Frangenheim (2012).

Back to testing online. I know that when I'm testing students on maths, I want them to show me that they can do the working out, which shows that they understand and can apply the laws, processes and formulae that they need to. With online testing, this is not necessarily the case. Also, in terms of validity and reliability of assessment, students can also cheat with assessment, unless there are some blocking of sites set up through the schools wifi- magic.

At the same time, for formative assessment, I can understand using online tests as a tool, but then again, the teacher may be restricted on the amount of feedback that can be provided.

I've seen students through one of my tutoring groups that I have at my old school struggle to answer questions to online maths quizzes because they weren't 'able' to do the working out. They thought that they had to just 'get' the answer straight away, but I mentioned that it may take a few steps to work out on pen and paper, you may not be able to figure it out straight away. I think the website they were using was http://www.mathsonline.com.au/

If you watched my online artefact you might be like 'hang on a minute alice, you've just gone against everything you said when you said you would use geddit as an online tool". Well, you have a point. However, in the context I mentioned that I would be using it for physics to check students understanding but ALSO to build self regulation - which geddit does. Geddit also lets the teacher provide feedback, and as a formative assessment tool, the teacher can identify what the students really aren't getting. And, I would tell the students to use pen and paper to do their working out, because if they can do complicated physics calculations in their heads, they should be at university and not school. Also, Geddit allows your to put multiple choice, short answer and long answer questions, so I would probably use a combination of these in the classroom. Different context and purpose.

So in answer to my first question, no. We don't need to get rid of hand written maths tests, if anything we need more maths assessment that allows for more higher order thinking. In this case and context, I argue that less technology is actually better.

My unit plan and some resources

Well, after finishing assignment 1, I'm getting more excited about my unit plan. I actually enjoy writing unit plans because its so practical in terms of teaching.

I'm using a unit that I wrote for another course for year 12 physics about circuits and testing variables on circuits to check energy efficiency and things like that.

Today, I did a quick browse of the web for some resources and I found a two that I thought Ah! that will come in handy when I will teach...


The first is a tool for making Gifs. Gifs, in my opinion, are under-utilised in education at the moment. Basically a gif is a image that moves or a really short video on repeat. For anyone who has never seen a gif, think the pictures in harry potter.

When I came across this website I thought what a brilliant idea... getting students to make gifs to show how something works. In physics, we use a lot of diagrams to explain how things work. I think it would really help if these diagrams could move. So either, I could make gifs to show for example, the water flow metaphor for electricity, or get the students to create gifs to show me how their circuits should work in their assignments, or get them to make a gif to help them remember how to do an equation. The possibilities are endless.

The other resource that I found that I thought ah! this would really help build student understanding and help them apply their knowledge, is a circuit digram/circuit simulator see here. I think I would use this in my unit plan when students are hypothesizing about their experiments to help them check and plan. Also, it can help teach the essential items in circuits.

I'm still working on getting some more resources etc, but I think this is a good start.

EDC3100 assignment 1 submission

Alice Foddy 0061035466 EDC3100 assignment 1 submission.

Well, I guess this is it.

For my assignment I've created a Prezi. The link is here. (I'm praying it works). I made it public so it should work.

I've included my reference list in this post because I don't like the way that the prezi made my references look. So I've embedded it below. I'm just picky.

I've also included a PDF of my script/transcript of the audio in the prezi. This will help the marker to know when to click. I thought this might be helpful because it can be annoying if you click to the next slide and I hadn't finished talking and you have to go back. It may not be entirely precise.. as in I may have said something slightly different, but you'll get the idea. I've also included the timing for each of the slides to show that it runs for less than 7 minutes. But I wouldn't hand the my reference list and script to parents in a real life situation.  I just thought it might be useful for the marker to have. 

Below are the links. I think I've embedded them ok. It links to google drive and I've also made them public so hopefully they work as well.

Script

References

Lets think on our feet!

Flicking through (wait, its more scrolling than flicking... whatever) scrolling through feedly I came across Jill's blog - Which I love (and hate, those macaroons look amazing!). Anyways, the post about having to deal with tech mishaps in the classroom was so handy. It just reminded me that in my unit plan and while on prac, I will need to think about what will happen if things do go wrong. The link in Jill's blog lead me to the list of how to cope when lucifer makes a visit to the classroom and unplugs the internet. 

I think it is important to just know your content, know all that you need to, know your objectives, know what your students need to do and achieve by the end of the lesson. 

I unfortunately had a tech mishap on my last prac, but luckily it was right at the end of the lesson, and it gave the students 10 minutes to think about their assignment. Mind you, that whole lesson was a muddle because there was noise outside, it was friday afternoon before a big day, and I was trying to teach and engage the students in stuff that was super important, but there were silly people misbehaving outside of the classroom which were distracting them way too much... anyway... thats behind me now, but I did learn that when there is a will there is a way, and students will learn, but we might have to use a different way.. that may not include ICT sometimes. 

Organisation through ICT.

There are so many students out there that don't have the skills to be organised, hate writing in their planners and constantly hand in assignments late.

What can ICT offer to help students become more independent and organised?
- Apps... lots of apps.

Though they basically only substitute a student planner, there are apps for homework, there are apps for calendars, there are reminders on phones that you can create. If teachers want to get personal, they can even send out group text reminders.

Theres a list here  of 100 organisation and productivity apps. But if you want a few less heres a list of 30.

Hope this helps people :)