MODULE 5

A DIFFERENT WAY TO INTRODUCE DONOGHUE V STEVENSON IN YEAR 12 CONSUMER LAW OR YEAR 10 COMMERCE!!

I found this video on YouTube and my Year 12 Legal Studies students loved it (although as usual the slow internet speed hampered my original ideas and the lesson ended up being a a race as to who could upload the video first!!)

Digital Story Telling presents so many possibilities I don't know where to begin. Podcasts, Vodcasts, Enhanced Podcasts - all these offer students to use a range of higher order thinking skills. In planning one of these students need to start with a mindmap of all the points they wish to include, then they need to create a storyboard to sequence their ideas and after this write a script. If they are presenting an enhanced podcast they need to sequence the photos or images with the written word and after that maybe add music. This is Bloom's taxonomy in action!! Such presentions allow students to effectively work in groups by allocating tasks and encouraging collaborative learning.

Such presentations could be used for fieldwork, for revision at the conclusion of a topic or for senior students preparing for final exams - to mention a few! And GarageBand is very easy for students to use and teach each other and the teacher!!

MODULE 4

THIS IS CALLED IMPLODE
Originally uploaded by luddite2008

I wanted to explore flickr but I imploded!!

Exploring flickr, like many other Web 2.0 explorations, is time consuming, rewarding sometimes and at others incredably frustrating. As a luddite, I am always a bit sceptical about these things, but can see many ways to use Flickr and all the other "bits".

Our students, who have grown up with the internet and digital cameras, mobile phones, ipods etc etc.. are quite comfortable and even aspire to make themselves "clickable", 24 hours a day and have no qualms about telling the world about themselves and showing everything.

As educaters, we need to make them aware of their digital footprint and ensure they understand the notion of copyright. However, copyright as we know it is undergoing a transformation and re-invention. Teachers and students need to help each other work out what copyright, creative commons and digital footprints mean in the 21st century.

MODULE 3

Google has entered our language and is expanding it's meaning beyond a search engine. The many forms that google has entered into has enormous implications for learning and how we use ICT. With the advant of more free online software applications such as google docs, we can log onto any computer, anywhere and access a range of our own and other people's resources and encourage our students to learn in collaborative way. Google docs are very similar to the software we are already using but paying for so it is not very difficult to learn how to use it. The main limitation at the moment is access to and internet speed in our schools. To wordprocess, develop presentations and use spreadsheets online at the moment would create practical problems due to the speed of our internet connections but I am sure that will improve soon!!

MODULE 2

Creating a blog using blogger was easier than others I have used, especially uploading photos and videos.
I have used blogs in the classroom and find the first thing I need to reinforce with the students is that what they put on the internet is their digital footprint and it was remain there forever, so it is important to ensure comments are appropriate. In Legal Studies students give themselves a name relating to the subject such as Chief Justice Dom and post comments using this. They post comments to motivate each other and reflect on tasks done in class such as oral tasks. They have access to the blog at home and one of the postive comments I have received is they like the links I have provided to sites such as the Board of Studies.