More great online resources....

Cool Melbourne Website

http://www.coolmelbourne.org/resource-centre/

The Cool Melbourne website gives a local perspective to environmental issues and promotes a great range of green stories taking place in the community. The educational videos offered are perfect for children and clearly portray environmental challenges we face as a global community.


Native Planet Website

http://www.nativeplanet.org/index.shtm

This website represents the mission of Jean-Philippe Soule, an activist determined to educate people about native cultures and assist traditional communities all over the world. The photo gallery allows you to specify the culture and browse through images that reflect different customs and rituals...a useful classroom resource.

Australian Human Rights Commission Website

http://www.hreoc.gov.au/education/index.html

The education program offered on this website aims at explaining what human rights are, where they come from and how they are protected in Australian and International law. Teachers resources available include activities on child's rights, disability rights, human rights, indigenous rights, multiculturalism, race relations and sexual harassment.



Making Cents Website

http://www.makingcents.com.au/

Making Cents provides a series of education units for primary schools, particularly useful for Social Sciences and Maths curriculum, focused on developing monetary skills and an awareness of various financial issues. Resources are grouped by state and broken down into lower, middle and upper primary levels. The complete teaching unit booklet with lesson plan ideas can be downloaded from the site.

Catchment Detox Game

http://www.catchmentdetox.net.au/

This online game serves as a great resource for an environmental unit in the classroom. Basically, it puts you in charge of a whole catchment and you have a 100 turns to score points through your management of environmental issues. For example, you have the choice to plant crops, log forests and provide food and wealth to the population. The game encourages children to devise environmental strategies. This serves as the perfect means of establishing an awareness of the balance required for a healthy planet.

The UN Food Force Game

http://www.food-force.com/

In this game, children interactively explore the process of delivering food aid to crisis areas. The website makes a point of relating the gaming environment to reality and provides information for teachers that help define what hunger is, why people are hungry and how to end hunger.

BBC Online Educational Games

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/games/

This website offers a wide range of online games categorised for primary school students as follows: art, citizenship, geography, history, languages, literacy, music, numeracy, physical education, health and science.

Angries Out Website

http://www.angriesout.com/

As an aspiring teacher, I must say that it's easy to overlook the impact behavioural and emotional issues have in the classroom. This website provides anger management techniques for children. There are many resources including interactive exercises that can be downloaded onto the computer free of charge. Below is an extract taken from the website. It's great material for a classroom display.

RULES FOR GETTING YOUR MADS OUT
Check your tummy, jaws and your fists. See if the mads are coming.
Breathe! Blow your mad out.
Get your control. Feel good about getting your control.
Stop and think; make a good choice.
People are not to be hurt with your hands, feet or voice.
You Can't hurt people just because you are mad.
Remember to use your firm words, not your fists.
Use a strong voice and talk your mads out. Say "I feel mad when you ____."
Sometimes you need to take a time out to get your control back.
Take yourself off to a safe place and talk to yourself.
Pat yourself on the back for getting your mad out nicely.

Activities with Microsoft Word

Here are 3 activities that can be done with Microsoft Word.

1) Shared Story Writing: Students are asked to start writing a story about anything they want. They are given 5 minutes to write and then, unknowingly, are told to swap computers with a classmate. It is then up to the student to continue with another person's story (in a different text colour). After 4 computer swaps, students return to their original story and add a concluding paragraph. Students may then be encouraged to share their stories. The activity is all about getting the kids thinking. They are forced to analyse, interpret and then add to an unfamiliar piece of creative writing.

2) Spell-Check Activity: Whilst in Word students are asked to turn off their monitors. The teacher then reads out the material for the students to type, including various homographs. Turning the monitors back on, students reflect on their dependence of the spell check feature on Microsoft Word. The teacher may make reference to homographs in the English language that spell check won't pick up on when used in the wrong context. This may form the basis of a lesson on homographs. I think its important to have students habitually using traditional dictionaries in the classroom. Teachers may have students include a vocabulary section to their diary or blog. When they come across unfamiliar words or are unsure as how to spell a word, they look it up in the dictionary and add it to their diary.

3) Rebus Writing: Before commencing the activity, various images are added to the child's Word sheet. Students are then asked to write a story and use the images in place of various words. An example is shown below:


Software packages like Kids Pix are perfect for rebus activities:

http://www.mindscape.net.au/products/TopProducts.asp?cid=1&ssid=8&sst=2

Rebus writing may be considered highly effective for level 1 and 2 students because it develops their understanding on how words represent various concepts. This style of writing can also be easily applied within different units of words. For example, during an Indigenous Australia unit of work teachers may include on the page a picture of a digaree-doo, a boomerang, a camp fire, a spear and a kangaroo and have students devise their own dreamtime story using rebus writing.

ICT Workshop 5 - Online Multimedia Resources

In this weeks workshop we had a brief look at various online multimedia teaching tools. The fundamental purpose in reviewing these websites was to form an understanding of ways to creatively enhance the learning experience of children in the classroom with ICT. The obvious advantage in having students use multimedia programs relates to higher levels of engagement. However, beyond that, it is important to recognise the core objective of each activity set and ensure students do not become distracted within the creative process. By this I mean that as important as it is for students to familiarise themselves with program features, they may easily become side-tracked if not guided through the activity and get lost in their own exploration. As such, teachers may set time lines that allow for a play around session before beginning the activity as defined by the learning objective.

The Zimmer Twins Website allows children to make their own animated movies, an activity particularly useful for English and evaluating various issues in Humanities. For example, within an environmental unit, teachers may have students create their own advertising campaign to raise public awareness. This may form the later part of a lesson plan that involves groups of students researching different environmental issues, discussing possible solutions and then creating their own campaign. With something like this, teachers may further engage students by organising an environmental awareness day, and having each group set up a display that shows their research on the issue and the campaign video they created.

With the English discipline, there are various ways teachers may take advantage of movie making software. For story writing, a comparative advantage as opposed to traditional pen and paper techniques is that as well as formulating a plot and story dialogue, students must also analyse the best way to visually represent their ideas. A teacher may also set a role playing theme, for example conflict resolution, and have students use their animated videos to portray their interpretations.

Zimmer Twins Website - Movie Maker

http://www.zimmertwins.com/movie/starters

The Roller Mache Website is also handy for story telling activities. Resources are available here that demonstrate different ways to tell a story, for example story boarding and clay model freeze framing. It is integral to differentiate learning activities, fundamental when catering for mixed ability classrooms. A great way to encourage creative ambition of children with hands on artistic skills would be to have them stage a production using clay models or their own puppets. A production in which kids work in groups and have the chance to reveal their final piece of work to an audience also adds an element of empowerment to the learning process. Videos from Roller Mache depicting professional projects are a great source of inspiration when setting these kind of projects.

Roller Mache Website

http://www.abc.ne.au/rollercoaster/rollermache/

The next two websites, Build Your Wild Self and Mini Mizer allow students to design their own characters. This sort of activity may form the basis of a descriptive writing task. Also, printouts of created characters make great classroom display material. Character development software has additional value when exploring social issues like stereotyping. Students may be asked to use the design tools to represent their interpretations of certain stereotypes and this may lead into a class discussion.

Build Your Wild Self Website

http://www.buildyourwildself.com/

Mini Mizer Website

http://humor.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.reasonablyclever.com

With the Sketch Swap Website, students use the mouse to draw a picture free hand. Once completed, the picture is sent out becoming part of a shared database, and another random piece of work is displayed- a sketch swap as the name suggests. Teachers must be cautious as to the lack of control they have with the random swap feature and inappropriate material may sneak through even though the site is monitored. At the same time, there are many innovative activities that can be applied to the program dynamics. Students may take on the role of art critics and analyse the vision and style of different images that appear. Screen shots can be taken and they could construct some sort of art catalogue. Once again...its all about reaching that higher level thinking.

Sketch Swap Website

www.sketchswap.com/

Zip Tales is another online resource developed as a literacy tool for children. Though the program requires registration and costs apply, it has been professionally developed with a framework that fits right into the classroom. There are a wide range of text types and stories available and activities focus on areas like comprehension, spelling and grammer. I like how there are genres that appeal to both genders; adventure, fantasy, mystery and fairytales. I think boys are much harder to motivate in reading and writing activities. It is important to capture their interest with vivid animations, sound effects and stories that appeal to their thirst for adventure.

Zip Tales Website - Online Learning Tool

http://www.ziptales.com.au/

D Volver video: Class Perspective

Above is an example of what can be created using online multimedia tools. For this particular video, I used the D Volver Website:

http://www.dvolver.com/

Though very straightfoward to use, it must be mentioned that this site would not be suitable for children given the explicit nature of some the characters. In any case, it is a great example of how ICT can help differntiate teaching methods and engage through creativity. I will explore online video multimedia tools further in the next post.

The M&Ms activity: ICT and Maths

The M&Ms activity; yet another great example of how ICT can strengthen the learning experience by involving creativity. If I think back to my primary school days it was all standard question answer worksheets and algorithms. There must be a better way to teach kids maths!! In this weeks maths lecture I come to understand the importance of developing a child's mental calculative process and familirisation of number groupings before introducing algorithmic rules. To often students develop the perception that maths is a set of formulated procedures and neglect the practicality of maths in everyday life. It's so important to engage students through creative yet challenging activities. Also, problem solving tasks that require student initiative, higher level thinking and discussion provide a much deeper learning experience than a worksheet of sums.

So, how do M&Ms fit into all of this?

The purpose of this workshop task was to explore mathematical concepts that may be applied to a packet of M&Ms and facilitate the process using ICT. Given the number of M&Ms for each colour varies within a packet, mathematical topics for this activity may include grouping, graphing, percentages, fractions and calculation. As seen below, using worksheets like Greg's 'M&M's Candy Colour Chart', a graphical representation of colour groups can be formed.

This information can then be input into Microsoft Excel where students may examine different ways to present information and make use of the spreadsheet features.

There are various ways a teacher may involve this type of activity when planning a lesson. Students may work in groups with each group exploring different mathematical ideas to report back to the class. One group focusing on percentages may predict the percentage of each colour group to the total number of M&M's using the the paper worksheet and then verify their estimates using the Excel spreadsheet. Another group may be in charge of collecting information as to establish which colour on average appears most or least frequently in a packet of M&M's. Surveying information gathered in a maths class can be a great resource for other subjects. For example, the class can discuss reasons as to why they think certain colours are used more than others and then be asked to write an opinionated piece on what colours they would include in a packet of M&M's. The percentage figures of different ingredients may also be examined and related back to health issues associated with sugars, artificial colouring and saturated fats. In this way creativity makes for a more dynamic learning experience, but still, it's critical that the core learning purpose of any lesson is firmly grounded within the activity being used.

I am slowly coming to understand the absolute level of involvement and responsibility teaching requires. There are many other issues to consider besides the learning benefits of the activity described above. These include:

• Does the school have a 'junk food' policy?
• Do students have any special dietary requirements? (considering M&M's will inevitably be eaten at the end of class)
• Does the activity endorse junk food in any way?
• Will student's parents allow them to bring M&Ms to class?

A teacher must be aware of all these things and may be sometimes be required to sacrifice a good lesson plan because of unsuspecting issues. However I think the best teachers are adaptive and always have a plan B. So I pose the question (to myself); what could be used in place of a packet of M&M's? Maybe a can of mixed fruit...though that might get messy. A packet of stir fry mix vegetables? Still, I think I'd go for the M&M's but be sure to cover my bases. A health awareness objective would definitely form part of the lesson plan.

The Le@rning Federation

Just registered to 'The Learning Federation' website;

http://www.thelearningfederation.edu.au/

There are so many great resources available here across a wide range of subjects. Different resource types include learning objects (interactive and multimedia resources), images, audio and video. Resources are grouped in topics and are described in terms of their key learning objectives. They are also labelled according to the year level they're best suited for.

This helps when incorporating the online resources into lesson plans. Say I was doing a unit focusing on Australia's Gold Rush period. Here are a few resources that I may draw upon:

1) INTERACTIVE GOLD RUSH GAME

2) VISUAL IMAGE: INVITATION TO THE OPEN OF THE GOLDFIELDS WATER SUPPLY

3) VIDEO: FOOTAGE OF MEN DIGGING FOR GOLD

Planning is an essential element of good teaching. Planning and resourcefulness go hand in hand and I think the impact of the online revolution in this area has made the role of the teacher much easier. Websites like 'The Learning Federation' must be exploited for all there worth. It took me less than 2 minutes to log into my account, browse for 'Gold Rush' resources and pick out three things that I might use in the classroom. Compare this to the process a teacher would have gone through 20 years ago. This isnt to say that the practicality of online learning resources suggests a complete technologically based learning experience for children. I think children should be exposed to a range of learning experiences and it would wrong to become dependent on online resources. For example, bringing in the working apparatus used during the Gold Rush and giving kids a hands on experience may provide for a stronger learning experience than any of the 3 things I found online. Its all about differentiating teaching strategies and keeping students engaged in the classroom.

Workshop 4: Educational Videos

In today's workshop we reflected on how to best use educational videos in the classroom. We were introduced to the Dust Echoes website that contains 12 animated dream time stories.

http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/

I must say, the videos on this particular website are beautifully put together and I loved the emotive indigenous music played in the background. Each video has an underlying theme; that of love, loyalty, duty to country and native customs and law. Stories are narrated by aboriginal people and this provides for an authentic learning experience. As with any resource, it would be important to check the content of the videos before using them. Some of the animations on the Dust Echoes website contain low level images of violence.

Using Inspiration 8, I created a visual map of the 'Brolga Song' video that I watched. Like the story-mapping activity I discussed in an earlier post, this serves as a great example of how ICT can compliment English lessons.

Retell methods are effective in building students comprehensive skills. Using Inspiration 8 allows the teacher to alter the activity in different ways, and adjust for the ability of the student. For example, images of the video may be put on screen for children to rearrange and configure as to retell the story. Students may also be encouraged to work through the whole exercise themselves, upload the images and reflect their own visual interpretation of the video. It's critical that students are familiar with and understand any of the computer functions required with this sort of exercise. It would be wrong for any teacher to presume students have a working knowledge of the print screen function for example. Thus, I would include in any lesson plan of this nature, a rundown on computer functions related to the activity at the start and provide students with a set of clear resources they can refer to if necessary. It may be an idea for students to have an ICT journal, or a personal blog spot in which they are required to include any new computer functions they come across.

I think it's important when constructing lesson plans to always analyse the value of the activity in terms of key learning models like Bloom's Taxonomy. The Blooms model is a powerful teaching tool as it classifies the objectives in developing a students higher order thinking. As such, an extension to the activity described above may be for students to create a mind map of the central theme or idea of the video; not an easy task considering the abstract nature and hidden meanings of dream time stories. In terms of Blooms, a straightforward retell activity invokes a students knowledge and comprehension level. However, a strength of visual mapping programs is that they encourage analysis, synthesis and evaluation of ideas. This key feature must be utilised.

There is such a wide range of online educational videos available suitable for every topic area. Below are links to two other websites that teachers may find useful.

1) Kids Know It: Educational movies website

http://www.kidsknowit.com/interactive-educational-movies/index.php

2) National Geographic: Educational videos

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids