Collaborative PowerPoint

In the last week the class engaged in a collaborative PowerPoint in google docs.
I found this activity very useful as we were building on our ideas from the games based learning input and presenting them in a PowerPoint format. This would be beneficial to children as they would and improve their skills in this program. The fact that the activity was in a google doc was very helpful as each member of our group could have their own computer and contribute to specific slides, this eliminates the annoyance of crowding around a computer to work together which creates a difficult situation.
The result of each person contributing from their own computer is that teamwork is made much easier than it had previously been.

I think that as well as building on previous ICT skills, using the google doc PowerPoint enables the Health and Wellbeing outcomes;

I make full use of and value the opportunities I am given to improve and manage my learning and, in turn, I can help to encourage learning and confidence in others.

*Responsibility of all

HWB 2-11a

I value the opportunities I am given to make friends and be part of a group in a range of situations.

*Responsibility of all

HWB 2-14a

Games Based Learning

During the module we have experienced tools which could implement games based learning within the curriculum. Guitar Hero, Samba and the Wii bike all use interactive technology to enhance learning. We then concentrated on the guitar hero in a group, discussed and recorded in a google doc how we could use this as a context throughout the curriculum. I liked the idea of using it as a tool for engagement and building the subject areas around a band/character the pupils can design.
I feel that my first impressions of games based learning were that it may be fun but failed to see the real educational benefit pupil's would get from the game itself. Throughout the input I realised that I needed to look past the immediate short term benefits of the game e.g hand eye co-ordination and look further.
Guitar Hero in the classroom is not specific to music teaching, it can be expanded to every subject area, creating a gig, selling tickets, pricing venues, designing logos, etc are all related to the starting point of the game. I realised this, not only when we were making our google doc and discussing how we could use this in the classroom but also when I was playing the game, I was engaged immediately as the pupils would also be, I wanted to pick the outfit and guitar for my character and choose my favourite song, I realised that if pupils were making these elements of the game themselves whilst designing costumes and writing songs the level of engagement would increase rapidly.
An interesting question raised by Sharon is how often would the game be played. I felt that it would need to be the introduction but could be used throughout for inspiration or to maintain enthusiasm for the project.

I feel that the stimulus of this particular games based learning tool meets the Curriculum for Excellence principles of Challenge and Enjoyment, Personalisation and Choice and Coherence.

I feel that the game is engaging for the pupils the activities created from the different areas of the curriculum provide scope for appropriate challenge and a sense of achievement in the final product
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Challenge and enjoyment
'Children and young people should find their learning challenging, engaging and motivating. The curriculum should encourage high aspirations and ambitions for all.
At all stages, learners of all aptitudes and abilities should experience an appropriate level of challenge, to enable each individual to achieve his or her potential. They should be active in their learning and have opportunities to develop and demonstrate their creativity. There should be support to enable children and young people to sustain their effort.'

The fact that pupils can create their own style in every aspect of the project from their character to the song they play creates massive opportunities for personalisation and choice and pupil's will feel a sense of ownership in their work.

Personalisation and choice
'The curriculum should respond to individual needs and support particular aptitudes and talents. It should give each child and young person increasing opportunities for exercising responsible personal choice as they move through their school career.
Once they have achieved suitable levels of attainment across a wide range of areas of learning, the choice should become as open as possible. There should be safeguards to ensure that choices are soundly based and lead to successful outcomes.'

The project is drawing in many aspects of the curriculum and linking pupil's experiences together simply using the one stimulus.

Coherence
'Taken as a whole, children and young people's learning activities should combine to form a coherent experience. There should be clear links between the different aspects of children and young people's learning, including opportunities for extended activities which draw different strands of learning together.'

Another example of games based learning is the Sony PSP which provides support as well as stimulus for learning.

iPhone Treasure Hunt

This week Sharon had us running around the university looking for clues in out treasure hunt! Using the code-scanning app we took pictures which led to another code with another clue! Unfortunatly nobody found the prize, I'm not sure if Sharon was joking and sent us on a wild goose chase just for the experience or if there was actually a prize somewhere and we all missed it. Either way it worked because the experience was extremely engaging, even if we didn't win the prize I still enjoyed following the clues and working together. It may have worked better if each team started out with a different code though, as the first person to solve the clue was followed by everybody else. Doing this with a class would end up in a pile up of thirty children all trying to take photos. The active learning with the modern technology was a perfect combination! I will definatly use this in the classroom! This is my favourite transferable activity so far!

Bear Blogs

Throughout the module our class has teamed up with the Modern Languages elective to send off a teddy bear to a foreign country. We named him, took pictures and sent him away in a little box with a few treats for our friends in Germany.
We are connected to Sharon's bear blog and posts are going up from our class and from our friends across the world. I think that the whole process has been engaging and would defiantly work in a classroom. The bear's adventures are exciting for the learners as they will be interested to see where their bear has been and will be able to take the bear sent to them on adventures of their own. Sharon's stories of the bear on the bike rove that pupils love this idea as they wanted to know exactly where it was and  the excitement generated when a bear arrives in our input is enough to sow how much fun pupils will have!
Our post for the bear blog hasn't been added yet as it was the responsibility of somebody from the modern languages group however, although she volunteered for the job I think it would have been better if Kirsten or myself had done it as we have more emphasis on the blogging aspect of the project. This is about decision making and I feel that we did not anticipate as a group that blogs have less importance outside of our elective. I would like this not to be the case as I am finding blogging useful and although I can fall behind due to my laziness, I feel that I am learning as I write. I am coming to conclusions about the activities because of my reflections.
I think this is what separates the two blogs as this is my reflective blog which I can learn from and use in the future whereas the bear blog is used for communication and documentation. This shows me that blogs have many uses and I should be more focused on completing mine on time as I am the one who will benefit.
 I think that my new found appreciation of blogging helps me to use the skill in my own practice as Ganley (2004) states that, 'when a teacher believes in what she's doing and is confident in her tools, well, it rubs off on even the most resistant of students. As reflective research teachers, we must continue to circle back and look at how what we do ties into our long-term educational goals.'
Richardson (2006) writes in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms that, 'If we want students to learn from blogs, we have to experience that learning firsthand,' and that, 'teachers should blog to show students that it is something of value and to model appropriate ways of doing it.'
I agree with this point as throughout this module I have gained a better insight into the obtacles learners will face during each task. This will help me overcome them myself and be able to teach them with confidence.

Collaborative Task

In the most recent input Sharon assigned us a collaborative task in which we were to create a video in which we were to make a video using Animoto.
Our group created a Wordle using words from a collaborative wiki.
I liked the idea of a space where each person could input ideas at the same time. This would defiantly work in the classroom as it could be used in the same way as mind-mapping. Instead of calling out answers with the teacher recording, the document could be shown on the interactive whiteboard whilst pupils are typing in ideas. This benefits pupils who may not want to answer in class.
We also needed to use Zamzar to convert our picture files into JPEG format. We've used Zamzar before when converting music files for our animations and I think it a very valuable website for teachers as before I wouldn't have known how to do this and may have had to use another resource or no resource at all.
The collaborative document could be useful for homework as it could be accessed from home computers.
Another good use for a document like this is for pupils questions. If pupils are finding an  certain aspect of an activity difficult then it could highlight to the teacher that something specific was not properly explained during the introduction of their lesson. Instead of the teacher finding that the pupils are struggling by helping several pupils individually the teacher could see quickly that a task may be causing confusion or difficulty.
The collaborative document is similar to Poll4 which allows pupils to vote or comment on a particular question. This may or may not be anonymous which allows the same benefits for quiet pupils.