Here is a link to an interesting Vodcast:
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/tv/catalyst/cat_s11_ep25_GreenBatteries.wmv
sorry you will need to copy and paste URL as I cannot hyperlink it, if anybody knows how please make a comment!!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Week 4: Podcast
I am unable to post pictures or video to my blog. I do not know why at this stage as it was all going so well. I have provided a link to an interesting podcast by Richard Dawkins. He is a world famous evolutionary biologist with a particular interest in how religion can be a part of intelligent peoples ideas, that is, "how can humans so passionately believe in something that is simply the imaginings of somebody else".
A podcast is not interactive and as such has value in its content delivery. Well chosen podcasts can have a valuble contribution to learning. Its simple, incorporate quality, peer reviewed podcasts in lessons and you will catter for ICTs, there is realy nothing more to it. Be conscious of how students respond to the podcast and modify your choices based on their comments.
Here is a link to an interesting podcast:
http://libsyn.com/media/pointofinquiry/2-10-06.mp3
Here is a link to a website that provides a good rundown of podcasts and podcasting:
http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/what-is-a-podcast.htm
A podcast is not interactive and as such has value in its content delivery. Well chosen podcasts can have a valuble contribution to learning. Its simple, incorporate quality, peer reviewed podcasts in lessons and you will catter for ICTs, there is realy nothing more to it. Be conscious of how students respond to the podcast and modify your choices based on their comments.
Here is a link to an interesting podcast:
http://libsyn.com/media/pointofinquiry/2-10-06.mp3
Here is a link to a website that provides a good rundown of podcasts and podcasting:
http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/what-is-a-podcast.htm
Week 4: Digital pictures
Well, I got some pictures uploaded at the lecture on Wednesday afternoon. As a university student and perspective teacher I an a collector of data. It is telling that much of the data I have collected is actually in picture form. One always thinks of pictures being somewhat stagnant and restrained within their own story. I made a movie using Microsoft Movie Maker and used still pictures to do it. After I put the stills together with sound a real story all of a sudden came to life. The use of individual pictures in conjunction with programs like Microsoft Movie Maker can make for an entertaining and educational learning experience for middle phase learners.
Jennah Ritter (2010) comments that MovieMaker, "technology would be extremely beneficial towards students after being on an excursion". I used pictures in my movie to great effect and believe that a series of still pictures can be better than a series of movies in education. I added through a comment that MovieMaker, through a picture series, and used to document field trips, could also be used to help teachers reflect on the field trip and also to use as a teaching tool for other students.
The plant at the top of my blog is called Heliamphora nutans (Sun Pitcher Plant). It is an extremely rare plant from Mt Romania in Venezuela. These plants grow in the cloud forests that are located on top of huge slabs of rock called a Tepui. The highest waterfall in the world originates on top of a Tepui and is called Angle falls and plunges about 1000m. The Sun Pitcher Plants are often living literally in clouds that blow over Mt Romania and grow on bare rock; this makes them extremely hard to grow. The interesting thing about these plants is they are carnivorous and get the nitrogen they need by hydrolysing proteins from insects that get trapped. They trap insects through a passive pitfall trap. Insects are drawn to nectar excreted on the little red cap at the top of the leaf. The nectar is secreted by nectar secreting glands and these glands are located in ribs that move longitudinally down into the plant. The insects follow these and eventually slip into a reservoir of water at the bottom of the funnel. They cannot escape from the reservoir as it is lined with downward pointing hairs. The plant secretes pepsinase into the water in the reservoir that acts enzymatically to digest the insect.
The picture in the bottom left of the blog is a photograph of the seed pod of a plant called Proboscidea louisianica, the unicorn plant. It is a native of North America and is primarily a weed of cultivated areas. It has become naturalised in Australia and the seed pod pictured is a burr that entangles the feet and faces of grazing animals often leading to death. The interesting thing about this plant is that it is carnivorous, capturing small flying insects that get stuck on the leaves. The other interesting thing about this plant is its stigma (female pollen capturing organ) is thigmotrophic (responds to touch through movement).
The picture in the bottom right is a photo of a rain forest scene taken at Otway National Park in Victoria. Victoria has large tracts of wet temperate rainforest. These forests are very dense and wet and provide for some extraordinary biodiversity and spectacular scenery.
The picture of the beach scene is of Bells Beach in Victoria. Bells Beach is a famous surfing beach with rolling sets of tube waves as can be seen.
Jennah Ritter. (2010). E-learning journey: week 5-moviemaker. Retrieved from Jennah's Blog: http://jmritter.blogspot.com/
Jennah Ritter (2010) comments that MovieMaker, "technology would be extremely beneficial towards students after being on an excursion". I used pictures in my movie to great effect and believe that a series of still pictures can be better than a series of movies in education. I added through a comment that MovieMaker, through a picture series, and used to document field trips, could also be used to help teachers reflect on the field trip and also to use as a teaching tool for other students.
The plant at the top of my blog is called Heliamphora nutans (Sun Pitcher Plant). It is an extremely rare plant from Mt Romania in Venezuela. These plants grow in the cloud forests that are located on top of huge slabs of rock called a Tepui. The highest waterfall in the world originates on top of a Tepui and is called Angle falls and plunges about 1000m. The Sun Pitcher Plants are often living literally in clouds that blow over Mt Romania and grow on bare rock; this makes them extremely hard to grow. The interesting thing about these plants is they are carnivorous and get the nitrogen they need by hydrolysing proteins from insects that get trapped. They trap insects through a passive pitfall trap. Insects are drawn to nectar excreted on the little red cap at the top of the leaf. The nectar is secreted by nectar secreting glands and these glands are located in ribs that move longitudinally down into the plant. The insects follow these and eventually slip into a reservoir of water at the bottom of the funnel. They cannot escape from the reservoir as it is lined with downward pointing hairs. The plant secretes pepsinase into the water in the reservoir that acts enzymatically to digest the insect.
The picture in the bottom left of the blog is a photograph of the seed pod of a plant called Proboscidea louisianica, the unicorn plant. It is a native of North America and is primarily a weed of cultivated areas. It has become naturalised in Australia and the seed pod pictured is a burr that entangles the feet and faces of grazing animals often leading to death. The interesting thing about this plant is that it is carnivorous, capturing small flying insects that get stuck on the leaves. The other interesting thing about this plant is its stigma (female pollen capturing organ) is thigmotrophic (responds to touch through movement).
The picture in the bottom right is a photo of a rain forest scene taken at Otway National Park in Victoria. Victoria has large tracts of wet temperate rainforest. These forests are very dense and wet and provide for some extraordinary biodiversity and spectacular scenery.
The picture of the beach scene is of Bells Beach in Victoria. Bells Beach is a famous surfing beach with rolling sets of tube waves as can be seen.
Jennah Ritter. (2010). E-learning journey: week 5-moviemaker. Retrieved from Jennah's Blog: http://jmritter.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Assignment 3: My thoughts and progress:
This week I started to contemplate the assignment 3 task, probably a bit early but I need to get my automatic mechanism thinking about it now. I am studying to be a science teacher (secondary). I have done a lot of lesson and unit planning in chemistry and decided to concentrate on biology this time. I thought, “where is a good place to start in biology”, having never planned any biology lessons. I came to the conclusion, “after careful consideration” to start at the core of biology and an area that I know well. For those that do not know, one of the core features of biology is the diversity of life, its evolution, and systematics. Students need to get some perspective on the diversity of life as a way to understand life. It is all well and good to teach cell biology and genetics but I think that secondary students “particularly middle phase learners” need perspective, not detail and invisible concepts.
Once I decided to look at the diversity of life I found myself weighing up a number of options:
1: Take a broad brush to the whole of life.
There is a problem here, how does one teach it, use the 5 kingdom system (which is outdated and frankly ridiculous given our current knowledge) or teach the 3 domain system for which two thirds of it are bacterial (rather boring and invisible to middle phase learners).
2: Look at one particular group of organisms.
I decided to go with the 2nd option and look at the plants. Now I have the problem of how to present them. The plants are divided into a number of broad groups including the seedless non-vascular plants (the mosses), the seedless vascular plants (the ferns and fern allies), the gymnosperms (plants with naked seeds including the pines and cycads), and the angiosperms (covered seeds, the flowering plants). These groups are further divided into divisions and it is these divisions that are the break at which I have decided to concentrate on. For example the seedless vascular plants are divided into 4 divisions including the Psilotophyta, Lycopodiophyta, Equisetophyta and Polypodiophyta. I have decided to produce a PowerPoint as a teaching tool. The PowerPoint will divide the plants into their groups (this is a colloquial concept) and then discuss the divisions and their differences. I hope to include in the PowerPoint pictures (full slide pictures) and taxonomic trees (I would make the PowerPoint available to the students). Along with the PowerPoint I hope to set up a blog which the students will add to as a class (giving them administration rights to it).
Importantly as a teacher I can get students actively involved in learning about these plants as they are accessible and rather easily divided based on their characteristics (except for the Equisetophyta).
Secondly to this, I plan on producing a practical PowerPoint that would aim to lead a chemistry class through an experimental procedure and a “teachers notes” to go with the PowerPoint. I am aware that these are two separate lessons though I would like to demonstrate the full use of the ICT. The reason I have chosen to construct a PowerPoint on a different topic is to keep it simple, as I would have to form a dissection and use photographic microscopy to produce a PowerPoint for the plant dissections. I hope this is OK with you Lisa if you are reading this (I will communicate my aims more directly to you in time).
Once I decided to look at the diversity of life I found myself weighing up a number of options:
1: Take a broad brush to the whole of life.
There is a problem here, how does one teach it, use the 5 kingdom system (which is outdated and frankly ridiculous given our current knowledge) or teach the 3 domain system for which two thirds of it are bacterial (rather boring and invisible to middle phase learners).
2: Look at one particular group of organisms.
I decided to go with the 2nd option and look at the plants. Now I have the problem of how to present them. The plants are divided into a number of broad groups including the seedless non-vascular plants (the mosses), the seedless vascular plants (the ferns and fern allies), the gymnosperms (plants with naked seeds including the pines and cycads), and the angiosperms (covered seeds, the flowering plants). These groups are further divided into divisions and it is these divisions that are the break at which I have decided to concentrate on. For example the seedless vascular plants are divided into 4 divisions including the Psilotophyta, Lycopodiophyta, Equisetophyta and Polypodiophyta. I have decided to produce a PowerPoint as a teaching tool. The PowerPoint will divide the plants into their groups (this is a colloquial concept) and then discuss the divisions and their differences. I hope to include in the PowerPoint pictures (full slide pictures) and taxonomic trees (I would make the PowerPoint available to the students). Along with the PowerPoint I hope to set up a blog which the students will add to as a class (giving them administration rights to it).
Importantly as a teacher I can get students actively involved in learning about these plants as they are accessible and rather easily divided based on their characteristics (except for the Equisetophyta).
Secondly to this, I plan on producing a practical PowerPoint that would aim to lead a chemistry class through an experimental procedure and a “teachers notes” to go with the PowerPoint. I am aware that these are two separate lessons though I would like to demonstrate the full use of the ICT. The reason I have chosen to construct a PowerPoint on a different topic is to keep it simple, as I would have to form a dissection and use photographic microscopy to produce a PowerPoint for the plant dissections. I hope this is OK with you Lisa if you are reading this (I will communicate my aims more directly to you in time).
Week 3: Jason’s soapbox!
I am going to confine my work to my blog as I think it is the perfect platform to not only inform people of my ideas and progress but also to consolidate what I am doing. Frankly, I am finding the forums convoluted and somewhat undirected. I am a rather independent and private worker and find them to be particularly unpleasant places to operate (not to knock those that thrive and enjoy open online communication). This is not to say that I do not see a place for forums and wikis, but one needs to be cautions as these areas, “as well as blogs” are not formally peer reviewed and therefore the information presented within these medias is not necessarily to be trusted. The internet can provide vast amounts of information though as we all know this information needs to be treated with a degree of scepticism and carefully filtered.
What have I been doing this week: Week 3:
I got lost somewhere in time this week. To be honest I have not spent a great deal of time on my E-Learning course. I suppose if I had to sum up what I have done it would be sitting, contemplating and waiting to see what other people are doing. It is not entirely true that I did nothing as I started my assignment 3 task, or at least started doing some brain storming (see assignment entry).
Blog reflection week 3: PowerPoint:
PowerPoint is a software application that allows a teacher to provide crisp topic content. Rather than talking about PowerPoint as an application I will discuss it as a useful tool. I have made many PowerPoint’s and think they are an excellent ICT tool for teaching. Of course its use is not limited to theory as it also has powerful applications in practical work.
PowerPoint as a lesson planning tool:
PowerPoint, “because it has excellent information organising capabilities” is useful as a lesson planning tool. While the standard lesson plan is critical, PowerPoint can be used to help unpack the content of the lesson systematically and form the basis of a PowerPoint presentation at a later date. The PowerPoint itself becomes the scaffolding for the lesson plan.
Experimental procedure PowerPoint:
PowerPoint is an excellent tool for stepping a class through experimental procedures. The problem with experimental procedures is that students sometimes find them confusing and are often at different stages of an experimental procedure. Experimental procedures do not always go as planned for many reasons and for this reason a well presented PowerPoint is useful in stepping students through the procedure. One can include in the PowerPoint the experimental procedure, equations and calculations, pictures of laboratory apparatus, chemicals, and outcomes to name a few. As a teacher one can step the class through the procedure and importantly, know where your own explanations are at, stopping the class to go over the next stage of the experiment.
PowerPoint as a student access study guide:
Because PowerPoint is good for stepping out concepts and unpacking content, is digital, and can contain variable media, it is appealing to the middle phase learner (in theory). Study guides in the form of PowerPoint’s may be an advantageous way to give students independent learning options. Some university lecturers use and provide PowerPoint presentations which are extremely helpful for getting a quick point by point understanding of a topic. PowerPoint’s can form the basis of study guides and also complement them.
Inclusion and PowerPoint:
I would like to note as I always do that teachers need to keep in mind the fact that many “at risk” students may not have access to digital technologies and this needs to be a point of consideration. As part of a good inclusionary process, options other than digital need to be provided.
PowerPoint as a lesson planning tool:
PowerPoint, “because it has excellent information organising capabilities” is useful as a lesson planning tool. While the standard lesson plan is critical, PowerPoint can be used to help unpack the content of the lesson systematically and form the basis of a PowerPoint presentation at a later date. The PowerPoint itself becomes the scaffolding for the lesson plan.
Experimental procedure PowerPoint:
PowerPoint is an excellent tool for stepping a class through experimental procedures. The problem with experimental procedures is that students sometimes find them confusing and are often at different stages of an experimental procedure. Experimental procedures do not always go as planned for many reasons and for this reason a well presented PowerPoint is useful in stepping students through the procedure. One can include in the PowerPoint the experimental procedure, equations and calculations, pictures of laboratory apparatus, chemicals, and outcomes to name a few. As a teacher one can step the class through the procedure and importantly, know where your own explanations are at, stopping the class to go over the next stage of the experiment.
PowerPoint as a student access study guide:
Because PowerPoint is good for stepping out concepts and unpacking content, is digital, and can contain variable media, it is appealing to the middle phase learner (in theory). Study guides in the form of PowerPoint’s may be an advantageous way to give students independent learning options. Some university lecturers use and provide PowerPoint presentations which are extremely helpful for getting a quick point by point understanding of a topic. PowerPoint’s can form the basis of study guides and also complement them.
Inclusion and PowerPoint:
I would like to note as I always do that teachers need to keep in mind the fact that many “at risk” students may not have access to digital technologies and this needs to be a point of consideration. As part of a good inclusionary process, options other than digital need to be provided.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)