eLEARNING

eLearning has had a huge impact on classroom learning and has changed student learning. The World Wide Web and other technologies have created endless means of learning methods, tools and resources that enhance student learning. Students born in the early 1990s till now “never now life without the internet or connected devices (Handal, B., 2012). Through their education using technologies is second nature to them as it has slowly been implemented into their lives both inside and outside of school.

This video will demonstrate eLearning in a classroom:
 

Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP-mg_Ets1w

Successful eLearning developments are:

–          IWBs
White boards that allow for maximum interaction and a number of technologies can be used through this as it has access to the World Wide Web

–          Webquests
Dodge (1995) defines a webquest as, ‘an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the internet, optionally supplemented with videoconferencing.’ It involves students answering a specific question rather than just a broad internet search.

–          Learning Objects
Interactive learning activities/games. Here is an example of one:
–          Weblogs
Websites where students can post information for all users to see.

–          Mobile Phones

–          World Wide Web

–          iPads and mobile tablets

These are used as cognitive tools in the classroom.
These eLearning methods are effective in engaging the bodily- kinaesthetic learners in the classroom as they are being interactive with their learning. Not only is maximum engagement a given, but learning can also be fun, challenging and efficient. Creativity is also supported as students can use innovative and creative methods of sourcing and presenting information and solving problems.

I believe eLearning has played a pivotal role in communication. Teachers can set works, answer questions or provide feedback without actually coming in contact with the child. Class pages such as moodle allow students to work at home as they can view what the teacher has scaffolded for them. GoogleDocs is another method of sharing work between students so each student can add to one anothers work which automatically saves. The teacher can also have access to this.

As much as there are numerous benefits of elearning, there are also disadvantages. Students can lose focus of the task at hand with the media they are using. Students are often tempted to plagiarise works by copying and pasting anything and everything off the internet that is not their original ideas. It is important that the teacher stresses to the students to create and present their own ideas.

Retreived from: http://econtent.thelearningfederation.edu.au/ec/viewing/L25/index.html?key=xHZiTkmI

REFERENCES:

Dodge, B. (1995). Some Thoughts About WebQuests http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html

Handal, B. (2012). Mobile Learning. PowerPoint presented at The University of Notre Dame Sydney. Lecture 2 in ED4134.

CYBERBULLYING

 

Unfortunately in schools, there can be cases of bullying that are present. Bullying includes aggressive behaviours and verbal, physical or psychological taunts against others. Since an increase in technologies which are used by school students, some forms of bullying have turned into CYBERBULLYING!

Cyberbullying is the bullying through internet, mobile phones or other technological devices. It is a form of psychological bullying that has unfortunately now has a great depth due to several varying technologies. Forms include:

• Sending nasty emails, text messages, voice messages or voice messages
• Creating nasty or false posts about others
• Sending photos or videos of one without their consent through email, text etc.
• Pretending to be someone else through chatting, posting or messaging
• Accessing someone’s accounts
• Blocking individuals from online groups

This game gives an insight to children the dangers of using technology and how cyberbullying can occur as well as being prevented:

CLICK HERE TO PLAY THE GAME >>
Retrieved from: https://budd-e.staysmartonline.gov.au/primary/main.php

Technology, namely the internet has now provided the world with varying communicative methods. These communications can be exposed to all users of the internet; hence the implications of cyberbullying are extreme. Some forms of bullying may only be seen be a small group of students (e.g. one child being violent towards another) whereas on the contrary, some forms of cyberbullying can be seen by the entire world. This means that cyberbullying can occur both in and outside of schools. Often victims of cyberbullying will not report or tell others about the incidence of cyberbullying. For a victim, it can be very degrading having the entire world see false or embarrassing things about you. Hence, I believe that there are extreme dangers and precautions that need to be taken when using communicative technologies.

Retrieved from: http://blpssully.global2.vic.edu.au/2011/10/25/say-no-to-cyber-bullying/

I strongly agree that using technologies can be very dangerous; however I am confident that cyberbullying can be avoided and prevented as technology is too valuable of a resource to ignore due to cyberbullying. Schools are trying to take stances however cannot monitor cyberbullying every minute of the day. Most schools should have Anti-Bullying Policies in place for students and parents to see and understand. Schools also blocks social media pages in an attempt to reduce cyberbullying at school. Some schools have talks by police and have severe consequences in place for children who are caught cyberbullying. I believe the level of control of cyberbullying however is inconsistent and students and parents need to be made more aware of the dangers of using technology and realise that cyberbullying is common.  

I believe these cyberbullying awareness preventative measures and tips are effective as they involve both child and parents:

• Parent’s knowing their child’s phone and internet use
• Creating difficult passwords for personal information
• Not replying to messages
• Blocking senders
• Children need to talk to a trusted adult
• Report the sender
• Save messages to use as evidence
• Capture screen dumps or messages

I strongly believe that cyberbullying frequently occurs and that students need to be constantly reminded of the risks involved with going online. I believe that the preventative measures are effective however are not emphasised enough to school students. In my classroom, I would be certain to make aware the hazards of using technology aware and would ensure that students who have social media pages are aware of their actions online.

 REFERENCES:

Get with it: understanding and identifying cyberbullying to help protect your children. Brunswick Press Ltd.  30-01 11/08

SOCIAL-CONSTRUCTIVISM

Take a look at these images below:

Retrieved from: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/10/13/active-learning-classrooms

Retrieved from: http://www.squidoo.com/BuildingBlockToys?utm_source=google&utm_medium=imgres&utm_campaign=framebuster

Retrieved from: http://sabb46.edublogs.org/2011/01/09/social-constructivism/

Retrieved from: http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/social-development.html

 

What do these images mean and what comes to mind when you first saw them?

 The images above actually reflect social-constructivism.

Now, what is social-constructivism?
Constructivism is the process of learning as the building and construction of knowledge. Learners are actively constructing their knowledge and meaning from experiences. This means that we learn absolutely nothing from scratch; ideas are related to something we have seen or experienced and we then continue to build on them and our knowledge of this idea has broadened.

Social and cultural factors influence learning, both providing new knowledge as well as creating a base of what we already know. In a learning environment, groups construct knowledge for one another – collaboratively sharing ideas and creating a framework of melded ideas and shared meanings. Likewise, the learner is an information constructor who actively constructs or creates their own subjective idea of objective reality and information is linked to prior knowledge.

Opposed to the constructivist learning environment is the traditional classroom environment. This theory refers to teacher-orientated learning in comparison to student-orientated learning. This table compares the two:

I strongly believe the Constructivist approach is much more effective. It allows students to acquire their own knowledge by building on what they already know. Students are the pioneers for their own learning which is scaffolded by teachers. I believe the classroom is more interactive, productive and stimulating for learners through physical and verbal practices and resources. I am fond of the aspect of social-constructivism that everyone has their own views on ideas – “Rather than transmitted, knowledge is created, or constructed, by each learner, thus the mind is not a tool for reproducing the external reality, but rather the mind produces its own, unique conception of events” (Enonbun, 2010, p. 19)

There are however a few limiting factors to constructivism. For example, allowing students to work in groups, it could take time to set up the groups, the teacher may need to teacher specific group work skills and there may be varying abilities and personalities in the group that could create conflict. Another factor is the teacher has to provide enough scaffolding to effectively facilitate student learning. Lack of scaffolding may result in the students being confused as well as disengaged.

Even though there are disadvantages of the constructivist theory, I would definitely implement it in my classroom so that learners are doing their own learning and creating their own experiences. The internet and increasing technologies are imperative to active learning and i would definitely recommend utilising a variety of technologies to assist students in creating their own knowledge.

REFERENCES:

Enonbun, O. (2010). Constructivism and Web 2.0 in the Emerging Learning Era: A Global Perspective: Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability. Cnetrali Michigan University. Vol 6(4) p. 17-27)

Table – Brewer, J., & Daane, C.J. (2002). Translating constructivist theory into practice in primary-grade mathematics, 123(2), 416-417.

PROMOTING INTELLECTUAL QUALITY WITH AN IWB

 
Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anvZfoLv2Rg

Increasing and accelerating technologies have meant interactive whiteboards play a crucial role in our classrooms today. This technology allows students to basically ‘interact’ with the whiteboard at the front of the class.

IMAGE ONE:

       
Retrieved from: http://apslibrary.edublogs.org/iwb-resources/

IMAGE TWO:

 
Retrieved from: http://kirsten20102219.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/blackboard.jpg

Technology enhances teaching, thus enhances learning also. IWBs have drastically changed the learning environment for the better. This increase in technology has taken over classrooms providing enjoyable learning experiences for students and teachers. However, do IWBs promote intellectual quality?

Intellectual quality refers to pedagogy-orientated environment where thorough understandings of concepts and ideas are made. intellectual quality is derived from what students learn based on what they have been taught. IWBs aid the teaching process, hence support learning. The IWB promotes intellectual quality as it “provides the class with content that can be easily manipulated.” (Kent, 2008). IWBs allow teachers to teach interactive lessons using a variety of tools and activities accessible with IWBs. I believe this interaction creates engagement with content and students are willing to participate and learn (often without realising they are learning). I believe they are revolutionising intellectual quality as they provide visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning styles so children can learn with what style best suits them. IWBs are for more effective for students so they do not rope learn content as they are actively learning. It promotes higher order thinking, allows children to interact with content, they can express themselves and be creative and learn in fun and engaging ways.

Some of the ways to learn using IWBS in the classroom are:

• Learning objects
• Instant access to the internet for whole class to see
• Sorting, ordering, labelling activities
• Puzzles and games
• Watching videos
• Answer questions
• And more…

If the teacher is prepared and has effectively scaffolded, then IWBs are the perfect resource for teaching and supporting relationships with content.

The only disadvantage with IWBs I believe is that it can be hard to differentiate for the spectrum of learning abilities. Students who struggle with concepts and students who are working beyond concepts often will be learning at the same level when the teacher uses the IWB. Who does this then promote intellectual quality for?

However, in comparison to a teacher reading from a text aloud or children copying notes from the board, I strongly believe an IWB far more effectively promotes intellectual quality. From experience as a student, using an IWB definitely engaged me as a learner and I found that I was inclined to interact with the content. As a teacher, I know that using an IWB will have a positive impact to learning in the classroom.

REFERENCES:

Kent, P. (2008).  Interactive whiteboards: A practical guide for primary teachers.Australia: Macmillan Teacher Resource