Pros and Cons of On-Line Learning

On-Line Learning....
The pros and cons:

Pros:

• time management
• flexibility
• still connect with others
• share thoughts/ideas with others through discussion board
• can multi-task
• lots of independent work (if you like that)
• not having to sit in class for 5 hours a day

Cons:

• no social interaction (face-to-face contact) with colleagues and professors
• harder to share examples of work
• don't have the opportunity to have questions answered IMMEDIATELY
• no opportunity to work with others (some like group work)
• easier to procrastinate with assignments
• no opportunity to sit around and talk with classmates about non-class related issues

Overall, it's been a great experience. This was my first on-line AQ course. In the past I have always taken AQ courses in the month of July. I am definitely looking forward to having my summer FREE this year! I have to admit that when the course first started I was nervous about how it would go. It was so nice to have such supportive professors and colleagues in my course. It really helped to encourage me along the way. I've learned alot from this course and had fun doing it! I'm looking forward to implementing all that I've learned into my classroom.

Thank you everyone for making my first on-line learning experience a successful one!

Take care,

Naomi

PowerPoint in the Classroom

PowerPoint Pros and Cons

Although PowerPoint has been used for years in schools by both teachers and students, there are pros and cons to its use and in order to use it successfully; teachers need to create effective lectures and assignments while using PowerPoint.
Some pros and cons are listed below:

PowerPoint Pros:

• detailed info can be very legible
• excellent for photographs and diagrams
• can incorporate digital images, video clips (allows teacher to reach visual and audio learners)
• can be animated
• can be shared electronically
• great in an inclusion classroom (great way to motivate and involve both the special education and general education students)

PowerPoint Cons:

• lacks in-class flexibility
• dim lights = drowsy students
• no persistence of information (only one board visible)
• technological failures (no power, blown projector, etc.)
• may be presented too fast for students to make good use/notes
• small amount of words per slide requires presenter to use large amounts of slides which breaks up information (it is proven that information is absorbed and learned better if all relative information is presented next to each other)

In short, PowerPoint is a powerful tool that in the right circumstances can be a significant enhancement to student learning. However, it's not the right tool for all circumstances, and should only be used when it clearly will add to student learning.

Digital Imagery in the Classroom

Using digital cameras in education is yet another way to incorporate differentiated learning into your classroom. Visual literacy needs to be an important part of everyone's educational experience. Just as people read text they should be able to read images and understand how images communicate ideas and experiences. Digital images offer students and teachers opportunities to be creative with photographs. The two most important trends in digital imaging are an increase in image quality and a reduction in camera cost. A reduction in the cost of digital cameras makes for an exciting possibility of an increasingly affordable technology to integrate into your classroom.

Some exciting ideas for using digital imagery in your classroom:

• photo journals of field trips
• class newsletters
• bulletin boards
• powerpoint presentations
• photos of vocabulary items
• picture alphabet
• poster designs
• photo seating charts
• personalized name tags
• photo essays
• art activities
• e-mailing pictures to parents for class updates
• flash cards
• photo greeting cards
• class scrapbook

The possibilities really are endless. Digital cameras have revolutionized how we use and adapt images in the classroom and the school environment. For more ideas, try taking a look at the posted links.

Podcasting in Education

Podcasting...

It's the latest in internet technology. The term is used to describe a collection of technologies for automatically distributing audio and video programs over the internet.
Education is made portable through podcasting and there is great potential for the use of podcasting within education.
Like most things, there are, of course, some advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

• users have full control over what they listen to and where and when they listen
• provides the educator with another channel for material review
• assist auditory learners, and
• non-native speakers
• replace full classroom or online sessions when content simply requires delivery

Disadvantages:

• not necessarily designed for two-way interaction or audience participation
• computers need sufficient bandwidth for downloading the MP3 audio files
• may replace reading (and for some, reading the old fashioned way is necessary)
• may cause carelessness among people trying to multi-task and do too many things at once (not focusing on any one task)

Despite the few disadvantages that podcasting seems to have, there are many more advantages that I could have listed. There are many great ways that podcasting can be used in education. The activities seem like they would be extremely motivating for students and I think they would really welcome technology like this in the classroom. If we want to keep our students' attention, we need to keep up with the times - technology is forever expanding and we need to keep ourselves informed.

Digital Storytelling

"Digital Storytelling is a process of connection. It is a remembrance of life stories, in combination with the power of voice and imagery. Digital Storytelling allows people to connect, using technology that's relevant to the way they live today."

(Hicks & Woodburn)


7 Elements of Digital Storytelling

1. Point (of view)
In digital storytelling, we have combined the idea of point—the reason the story exists—with an emphasis that it come from a first-person perspective. These are personal stories and have some relevance for the storyteller, which is passed on to the audience.

2. Dramatic Question
Digital stories are structured around a question, and the body of the story is the attempt of the storyteller to answer that question. The traditional arc of the digital story begins with the dramatic question, rises and falls around personal experience, and climaxes with a realization, which is often the result of critical reflection.

3. Emotional Content
In the digital storytelling workshop, we often ask participants to tell powerful personal stories, and this emotional access to another’s experience is a major part of the story’s impact for an audience. The storytelling process allows the storyteller to make (new) meaning out of personal experience.

4. The Gift of Your Voice
An important part of the experience of a digital story both for the storyteller and the audience is the voice of the storyteller. The sound of the storyteller’s voice adds a level of vulnerability and authenticity to the story.

5. The Power of the Soundtrack
New media allows for easy access to musical recordings and ambient sounds to add layers of production to the story. The musical soundtrack is often called the manipulative part of the story, because music has such power to influence an audience’s emotional connection to a story.

6. Economy
The normal digital story is 4-5 minutes long, and the written text is less than one double-spaced page of text. The typical story has approximately 30 visual images. This relatively small asset bank forces the storyteller to make critical choices about what and how to communicate layers of meaning in the story.

7. Pacing
Successful stories make successful use of pace. The storyteller carefully considers how much to tell, show, or put in front of the audience at any given time, and also lets the story breathe, or pause, from time to time, especially at transitions.

Informative In-service

Check it out....

Hi Everyone! Just wanted to post an interesting in-service I came across offered by the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board. It's seems to fall right in line with our course and more specifically this weeks discussion topic. The description of the in-service is as follows:

This 4 part workshop series, provided by the Media Awareness Network focuses on understanding how youth use the Internet today and how we can help them develop critical thinking skills to keep them safe online. Participants will receive a copy of this licensed presentation and resources to use at school.

Session #1 is called: Kids for Sale: Online Privacy and Marketing to Kids
It's on April 17th, from 4pm - 5:30pm, at the Ancaster Memorial Building

If anyone wants any further information on this in-service, please let me know.

I'm definitely going to try to go to these workshops and hopefully I can bring something back to contribute to our class!

Internet Safety

The discussion topic for this week brought up many interesting and surprising facts. The article titled "No More Chalk" had an interesting comment stating that it was a worry that students who have less technology in their schools will have to play catch-up later with those who went to better-equipped schools. I think this is definitely something that we need to address. I already see this happening in the way of resources such as textbooks and extra-curricular activities and equipment. I am currently teaching at an inner city school and when I first arrived I was astonished at the lack of resources for certain programs in the school. It reminds me of the saying "University is only for the rich". Is this what is going to happen to our younger students? Will only the students that live in higher socio-economic status areas benefit from resources and up to date technologies in their schools? What about the rest of the students?

The article on internet safety had some very surprising facts:

• 56% of children use internet-based chat rooms and 2/3 of those are unmonitored
• more than 40% of the study sample had been approached by someone asking for their personal information

I found this information very scary. I know that in most schools students usually never have unsupervised access to the internet, but I also know that it is very difficult for 1 teacher to watch an entire class of students on the computers and it only takes a few minutes of a teacher having their back turned for a student to get into trouble. The article listed some suggestions for schools in regards to this issue. I think it's a good idea to talk to the students about the dangers of the internet and inform them of internet safety tips. Teachers and students alike could use more information on this topic.