Screen casting

In creating our screen cast we found it difficult to decide whether we wanted our entire group to be a part of the narration of the screen cast or one independent group member. As initially we had thought it would be nice for our entire group to be a part of the screen cast we found our time was limited and we had left his aspect of the task very late and this would not be so easily done.

Sharing The Work Load

Entering into the task we were aware it may be difficult to assign tasks and decide who would be best fit to work on aspects of the task. As there were four pages and four of us it was easily decided that we would each dedicate our time to finish a page although the work was shared through the group one person was assigned to completed a particular page and taking the work done with in the class room and posting it to the web.

HOME:Brennan Gillam

AUTHENTIC:Josephine

LESSON OVERVIEW:Grant Flanigan

TEACHER RESOURCE:Harriet Holton

Challenges during task 3

Unfortunately during the task as we started making great progress as group member (Grant Flanigan) fell sick with appendicitis and also had complications with his surgery causing him to be unable to work on the task for nearly a week and a half. Although this made completing the task difficult what we found most difficult was maintaining communication so as to see how Grant was doing and if he was able to do the assignment whilst in hospital. 

So as to insure we could keep contact we decided it would be beneficial to create a Facebook group for our task and also for later on during other units where we may experience difficulty and may be able to bounce ideas off of one another. Using this facebook group we were able to post our progress onto the page as well as keep in contact with Grant and have him able to view our progress through a simple and often used network. 

Task 3

Task 3, the third and final task of semester one asks us to think about both the uses of resources as a teacher and student. Put into small groups we were asked create an authentic learning task which had uses of technology included in the task and post it onto a wiki space so as it was shareable with other teachers. Our authentic task required us to focus on a specific subject and from this subject creatively build a task that would engage our students and be useful to other teachers who may go onto our wiki to view the task.

    My group consists of Myself, Harriet Holton, Brennan Gillam and Grant Flanigan. Together we brainstormed which subjects we most enjoyed and how we would be able to incorporate this into our authentically learning task. We had decided that both cooking and physical education were of interest to us as most young students enjoyed making food as well as out door activity and as we had a physical education student as part of our group(Brennan Gillam) this became very beneficial to us.

After we had chosen our subject we then brainstormed how we would blend the two subjects so as to make them apart of the same task leading us to the title - Super foods for Super Students. Our title suggest the use of healthy foods that stimulate energy and concentration in the class, make them "super students" both in the class room and in physical activity.

By this stage in the task we had reached around the second or third lesson and not yet created our wiki space nor had we looked into how to use a wiki space. Although we had completed a lot of drafting and developed a good understanding for our goals in the task the wiki space needed to be at least created as soon as possible.

Using and choosing Jing

After exploring a number of screen casting tools i chose to use Jing as it appeared wildly popular among other people and also simple to use. After using screen casting tools such as screenr i found this to be the least frustrating of those i had explored.

Jing was simple and quick to download to my computer and was also simple to understand in terms of use. You were able to choose how much of your desktop screen you wanted to have viewed in the screen capturing and were also able to pause and restart your screen capture recording if needed. 

In the image bellow the small sun in the top right corner is the Jing application, making it easy to find after accessing and also easily available for use so as not to become apart of the screen cast.

After becoming more familiar with the screen casting tool i found it easier to use and also found myself creating my screen cast two or three times so as to ensure it conveyed exactly what i wanted in the screen with out having other applications or pages that had no relation to the task. 

posting my screen cast

I have just recently completed my Screen casting, using Screen casting tool Jing. As i was originally going to use Screenr i chose instead to use jing as this way i would be able to use the help of my other group member whom were also using it. I at this stage am attempting to upload my screen cast to my website but this is proving to be very difficult and also very stressful as i need it to be uploaded and completed ASAP in time for peer reviews and marking. 

So far i have been asking for my group members help so as to see where i am going wrong and hope that soon i will have it uploaded and understand where i was going wrong to begin with. 

Referencing Tool: End Note

After exploring the technology tool box on the LMS i chose to use popular referencing tool EndNote for task two. EndNote is a referencing tool which allows users a free 30 day trial available to download to mac or Microsoft computers. After this 30 day trial users are required to purchase the software online, but fortunately for Murdoch students we are provided with the full software of Endnote accessible from the library upon request.

Using the range of resources myself and my group members used to research our specific subject on the Murdoch Library i was able to develop my knowledge of end note using these resources to transfer into my EndNote referencing library. I found it very simple to use and also think it will be very useful in future assignments.

Task Two: Researcher

After the successful completion of Task one we have no began Task two. I am pleased with my work in task one and hope i can be just as successful or ever more successful in this task, after receiving constructive feed back from my peers.

Task two requires us to complete the research on a specific schooling subject using referencing tools so as to develop skills as a teacher and learner. I must document my progress as i complete the task over a number of weeks developing skills in the use of  Murdoch Library (My selected researching tool), EndNote (my selected referencing tool) and Screenr (My selected screen casting tool). 

The first steps in the task have been completed in groups which has been extremely beneficial in understanding the task and having the support of other student, my group consists of myself, Brennan, Harriet and Grant. Although the task can be very stressful at time having group members to refer to for help is very helpful. We work well as a group,  as we have very similar study methods and get along very well when exploring aspects of the task minimising drama and allowing us to complete the task successfully when we sit down and allow complete concentration to the task. 

Outcomes

In the beginning of the task i  found the social learner aspect of the task to be most difficult to understand. I felt some information and instructions on how to complete the task were extremely vague and as it was only early in the semester i was hesitant to ask questions and admit confusion. After lectures 28/02 and 06/03 the task became much easier to follow and understand, after this point i felt a lot more confident in the construction of my social resource. 

Whilst composing my instruction and researching my social spaces i discussed many of my options with other students in the class so as to ensure i was on the right path and to assess whether others would find my chosen resource easily accessible. 

In conclusion i feel that through Task one i have been able to expand my knowledge on the use of technologies not only for use in the classroom but for day to day use also. I feel i am more confident in my use of technology than when i first started in the unit and will be able to better use technologies for other assignments. Documenting what i have learnt through my blog has also given opportunity to see ideas and knowledge produced in writing and there for reflect on it as it has expanded. 

Technologies

After now having completed my web page and the research of m three technologies i was able to assess the usefulness of each three technologies in relation to how i would use each resource. I chose to asses the usefulness of Google form, Survey monkey and kwiksurveys as part of my social learner. My intended use for my social resource was to establish the preferred catering choices in the event of a party. Using facebook i would invite guests to the event and upon RSVP, if RSVP'd yes would then be requested to follow the directions to the polling page where guests would be allowed one vote and also the ability to view current statistics.

Google form is an extension onto google drive which allows online users to share, create and customise any form of document including surveys which is was my intended use. User do not need to sign up to the resource, and are provided with a wide range of templates and document types. Although the resource provides a wide range of selection it appears more difficult to navigate in creating the survey where as in survey generators such as kwiksurvys and survey monkey these are more effective and quick in publishing.

Survey monkey unlike google forms requires users to sign up to a username and password in order to use their website. Basic sign up allows users to use basic tools and for more advanced tools users must purchase their tools. As survey monkey is only a basic user provider for free use this limits what users can create and publish. Guests whom also wanted to vote would also have to create an account on survey monkey causing this to be some what inconvenient for guest use also.

Ultimately i chose to use kwiksurvey for my social resource. kwiksurvy is a free social resource that allows users to publish, create and customise three different forms of data; polls, surveys and quizzes. I chose to use the polls application of kwiksurveys, as this was easily accessible and also easy to create. Kwiksurveys provided a link directly to the poll published and those whom voted did not need to sign up for an account unlike with Survey monkey. Guest were provided also with the opportunity to view post voting the current statistics where as with both Google form and Survey monkey this option was not provided.

Social Resource

Part two of this task requires us to research three social resources, in relation to a specific event and use one of these three resources to assist in solving any problems we may encounter with in the event. Once we have first investigated three social resources to assist in our event, we must then choose one of these three social resources and demonstrate how this resource will assist us. This will be done through printed instructions, screen shots and also a PDF pasted onto the social resource page of your website  to be documented to a partner who will attempt to follow these instructions and carry out the actions provided.

I have chosen to base my social resource task on the event of a party, this party will provide food and drinks to all guests but to carry out the party as the host I would like to first know the preferred food my guests would like to be served. Through the research of three social resources I will create invitations using a Facebook event which will include s link to a surveying page,  that will request all guests to tick either attending or not and if attending to also choose which food they would prefer to be served, out of three options.

I will research two online tools to create invitations to be sent in the mail, an event/website in which a survey could be added to and guests whom click attend will survey as to what food they would prefer and upon completing this survey will be shown statistics of the most popular choice at that point.

Website progress

Since the beginning of the semester I have made large amounts of progress in the development of my website and my blog from when I first published them. Since day one I have already noticed a better understanding for the use of technology and development of blogs and websites. At this point I have been able to develop all three required pages of my website and add information to two of these three. On my website I have learnt how to add hyperlinks to my posts so as to transfer to a new page with more information on my topic, add photos to pages, of myself or images from university.

At this point I have found unit EDN113 to be very useful in my development in technology as prior to the class I had little to no knowledge of the number of the things I could do online and the tools I could use to incorporate into teaching later on.

I am yet to add my information in relation to my social learner to my website but am in the process of investigating three social resources at this point in time and hope to have added information in relation to my social resource by tomorrow afternoon.

Paper Blogs.

On the 28/02 we partook in a task of which could be used with in the class room to promote technology. As the students we were asked to create a paper blog. Each student was asked to write on a piece of paper a blog recount of our first two weeks at university, assessing it in blog terms.

We then used coloured pieces of card to display our blogs as if they were online. Using this card our hand written blogs were glued to the piece of paper and using coloured card and other decorative tools such as coloured pens, coloured paper and more. The aim of this task being that we use creative materials to represent a technological application.

As a class we were then asked to walk around the workshop room and read one or two other peoples blogs and to then using a sticky note, post a comment onto their blog in the same form as you would use online. This gave students the opportunity to get an idea of how others may have been posting online and also gains an idea of how many others will have been feeling similar to themselves a out the first couple weeks at university.

Through this task we had identified an activity that not only we had enjoyed but with correct equipment younger children with in the class room would also enjoy and could do for s number of hours or over a number of lessons through out a term. Not only would this task be useful for creativity task but also to educate children on What a blog is, Why it is used, Who may use it, language used in a blog and maybe even to raise early awareness of cyber bullying.

21st century learning

On the 06/03, our lecture explored the ides of "21st century learning and technology".  This idea explored how we could redevelop class rooms and Australians design to learning so as to stimulate the minds of young children in today's society. A number of schools around Australia have adapted new ways of teaching so as to in some ways experiment how children learn in regards to these teaching methods and their learning environment.  Immersion learning proposes that we create classes without periods, that instead we have fixed blocks of time dedicated to a specific subject such as one week to maths the following English and so on continuing through the pattern. As well as this was a quote by Steve Jobs at an apple convention where he states "tear down education designed for the 19th century to replace it for an education of the 21st century". Such discussion is useful so as to develop a better understanding for the need to include and use technology in the class room so as to engage with students and create the new generation of learners.

An example of a 21st century school is http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/funky-school/story-e6frg8h6-1226130668112#. This is a school in Australia's North West, Sydney where class rooms are not made up of your common 20 to 30 but up to numbers of 120. Students are not expected to sit down and sit facing the front of the class room where technically there is no front as there are no more than three walls. This is an example of a 21st century school where a learning environment has been developed to suit today's 21st century our technology and our children. This link is useful to us as university students as it represents an example of different teaching environments and causes us to consider the kind environment we would like to teach in and how we would form our own teaching environment to best benefit our students and best stimulate their learning.

Task 1: Creating my website

As part of task one, I have began to create my website and at this point have been able to include a brief bio of myself, an image and to also create my social learner and contact page. At this stage I am finding it difficult to create my page but am taking the process slowly so as to ensure I am creating my page correctly or at least trying to make as little mistakes as possible. I found week twos classes to be extremely useful as after week two I felt  I had a better understanding for aspects of task 1 that I before found confusing as we were given the opportunity to discuss the definitions of both a blog and a website there for breaking the task down to form better knowledge of what is expected from the student.

Week 1, EDN113

Made it through week one of university, Yay. As scary as it was i really enjoyed my first week and am amazed at how much i am learning already. I have enjoyed gradually becoming more comfortable around my class mates and forming new friendships in such a short space of time. I am studying four units this semester, EDN111(language for learning and teaching), EDN110 (mathematics for teaching), FDN103(Knowing nature) and EDN113(Living and learning with technology) of which will be the main focus of my blog.

Entering into the unit, we were asked to consider today's most popular social networking website, Face book. As a group we were asked to consider the positives, minuses and interesting factors of Face book and how it is used by society and maybe used in years to come; bellow I have formed a chart to display what we found through group discussion.

I found this activity very useful as it was the first opportunity as a class we were given to communicate with one another and compare opinions. We were given the opportunity to have a brief in site into what to expect during workshops over the next semester and there for prepare for the following week also.