Me and My Current Feelings Towards Study

G’day followers and sorry to have been off the air for so long. So….. This is me at the moment.

I am an angry and frustrated creature who is trying to balance work and study with a little bankrupsy in the mix just to really tick me off. Assignments. Well I read some crackers tonight and the two that I relate to regarding how I am at the moment belong to TheInterpreter and her blog I have hit a wall and the other, CHLOEMPRICE‘s Dear Technology.  Like TheInterpreter, I to have hit a wall with my brain looking like this.

 Dead with a spanner in the works. No biggy, so I just push on and keep going. Now Chloe has just made my day with her comment about having lost internet access. Bane of my existence. I work with an 8gig usb router that works fine most days and others…

 Nah, F-you I don’t want to work or connect. Or my personal favourite,  What’s that? Got an assignment? F-you, I’m going to go slower than a snail.

Ah the joys of technology. But no, the fact that your own wall is more interesting than any assignment is one I know all to well. How do I get around it? I get up. Go for a walk or a 10 minute snooze (minus my two black cats) then go back to it. Sometimes I am no longer a raving deathclaw or a jammed machine, other times you just do another assignment or turn off the computer and walk away. Oh and make sure that you go back and do it, or you will fail.

Till next time, keep those gears running.     

 

The Bass Man

 HODGSON C. (2014) , Chris Lilly’ Jonah From Tonga [image] retrieved April 20 2016 from https://www.google.com.au/search?q=jonah+from+tonga+puck+you+miss+line&espv=2&biw=1600&bih=755&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj37erIlJ3MAhVX52MKHdcSDUEQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=f2W20FgFzqVeFM%3A

 Dobel M. / Alamy Stock Photo (2016), Monkey wrench in old machinery, retrieved April 20 2016: http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-monkey-wrench-jammed-in-gears-of-old-machinery-55061297.html  

RenaissanceReaper, (2013), Vault Boy. [blog] retrieved April 20 2016: http://playstationallstars.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:RenaissanceReaper/Fake_Vault_Boy

Scheiwe, M. (2016) Deathclaw, personal computer screenshot.

Scheiwe, M. (2015) Bass guitar and effects pedal, [personal photograph]

 

 

 

Parents while Studying

G’day, now I know some of us may be a parents or parents to be, but my question is how does it influence the parent that is at university? I know myself I have a child due in August and find it kind of a blessing that I am finishing my degree at the end of next year so that I will be at home with my wife and not on professional experience. However back to my point, how does a baby influence your studies?

Through my degree I have had one or two classes where a mother has had her infant in the class with her. That I find takes courage, especially when Bubby starts to bawl during the lecture. Some may frown upon having infants in their lectures, but I was on Facebook this morning and saw one of the most touching news articles on the ABC news page I follow.

The article stated that a Baylor University professor from Waco, Texas actually held and calmed a mother’s 4 month old daughter through a one hour lecture all because her babysitter fell ill. This really moved me and it shows that it is possible to have infants in the lecture hall if there is a means of keeping them happy and quite. Not only does the infant feel secure and relaxed, his or her mother and father (or one or the other) can listen and learn while knowing that their precious gift is also in good hands. The article can be found here. 

To tie this with ICT, parents, or a parent/guardian, can choose to study their degree through the course that offer an online option for study. Also they have tools like Skype, Facebook, SMS, email and, for those of us at USQ, blogs, umail, black board and others. This makes it possible for them to be able to study from home with their children while still being able to collaborate with their peers and educators.

Till next time

Cheers

Matt

The RAT Framework and the Use of ICT and Pedagogy

Well well it has been a big week this week. My brain once again feels like this.

Chewing over the question “How can ICT and Pedagogy be used?” and learning about the SLIC and RAT frameworks has given me a great deal to think about. Like Chloe mentioned in her blog, I too thought that Googling ICT resources and applying them to my lesson plans was going to be a simple process…. Nope, there is a lot more to it. I, like David, r ead a number of encyclopaedias from my parents’ era (70’s and 80’s) and I also experienced the missing knowledge that I could find using dial up internet. Even then to now there is still new information (and old) that was missing from those websites.

Enter the RAT. 

Hughes, Thomas,  & Scharber (2006) provided all of us with the RAT  (Replacement, Amplification, Transformation) model. I took a look in my last attempt in this course and did not pay it much mind. Big Mistake. After a deeper look at it I agree with Chloe, that it is a great tool for self reflection, regarding the use of ICT in my classroom. I found the RAT model page that David provided in the learning path and Chloe mentioned in her blog, really interesting to look at and further my understanding of what it is all about.

From reading about the RAT, I understand that each of the sections has the potential to influence my teaching through the use of ICTs. The idea that replace means a different mode way of doing the exact same thing and not altering the outcome makes a lot more sense as well. So back to ICT and Pedagogy and how the RAT helps.

I like the video example provided in the learning path Examples of ICT and Pedagogy where the instructor implements the Wii in order to demonstrate concepts using its sensors. Trninic & Abrahamson, (2012) made note that this use of what was new technology takes the form of Embodied-Interaction (EI) learning environments, which they described as being  “a form of technology-supported training activity, by which users develop or enhance cognitive resources that presumably undergird specialized forms of human practice, such as proportional reasoning”.  They continued by defining that the difference between EI and “hands on” educational activities in general (concrete or virtual),  and I quote,  “is that EI users’ physical actions are intrinsic, not just logistically instrumental, to obtaining information”. This means that the learner,  whether using  finger, limb, torso, or even whole-body movements to interact with this embodied artefact,  not only initialise the manipulation of  objects, but these motions themselves become part of this learned cultural–perceptuomotor structure, therefore making  EI  a ‘hands in’ approach (Trninic & Abrahamson, 2012).

So even with this understanding, I still have a great deal of information to process this weekend. Till next time, keep learning.

Matt

References:

Hughes, J., Thomas, R., & Scharber, C. (2006). Assessing Technology Integration: The RAT – Replacement, Amplification, and Transformation – Framework. In C. Crawford, R. Carlsen, K. McFerrin, J. Price, R. Weber, & D. A. Willis (Eds.), Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2006 (pp. 1616–1620). Orlando, Florida: AACE. Retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/p/22293/

The Horrible Histories ‘Spy Rat’ in disguise, 2013, Courtesy of the IWM London retrieved: http://www.artfund.org/what-to-see/exhibitions/2014/07/19/horrible-histories-spies-exhibition

Trninic, D., & Abrahamson, D. (2012). Embodied artifacts and conceptual performances. In International Conference of the learning sciences: Future of learning (ICLS 2012) (Vol. 1, pp. 283–290). Sydney. Retrieved from http://ccl.northwestern.edu/papers/2012/ICLS2012-EmbodiedArtifacts.pdf

Wallpapercave, 2016, Nuclear Explosion, retrieved: http://wallpapercave.com/nuclear-explosion-wallpaper

Technology and the Future of Social Interaction

G’day everyone and sorry for the lateness of all my blogs.

So we are looking at whether or not technology is making us antisocial. Now I know that many may see the teenagers  sitting at tables texting away like, as the late Robin Williams stated’, “a cyber-witches covenant” (Williams, 2010). Yes they appear to be sitting there not talking to one another, but are they actually being antisocial? In the eyes of face to face interaction yes, however, thanks to social media like Facebook and twitter, or even emails, people are still being social, just not in the traditional sense.

I just looked up an interesting book called Together But Alone? by Sherry Turkle which took me to a TED talk clip which I would recommend listening to. One particular point she makes is that parents are emailing or texting during meals while their children complain about not having their full attention. All well and good, but Turkle (2012) points out that these same children turn right around and do it to their own friends and peers. So you can see on the one hand technology can make us appear antisocial.

Looking at Skye’s   blog post, the quote she used by Rainie & Wellman, (2012) noted that even with the attention we are paying to new gadgets, it is not the technology  but rather the user who determines  how these technologies are used and shapes their behaviour. This link follows another point that Turkle (2012)  made where “people want to customise their lives”  and to have a sort of control over where they focus their attention. She continues on to with the idea that people can end hiding form each other despite being so connected.

Skye I wish to thank you for that link to Morgan Hampton’s post, because the point he made regarding Lack of personal relationships also ties in with this particular TED talk. Turkle (2012) mentions about 5 minutes into the TED talk, about a business man in his 50’s who feels as if he no longer has colleagues at work because they are all busy emailing or various other digital applications. So this makes the case that technology can actually make us antisocial.

Despite the problem of being less face to face, there are benefits to using technology. Among these is the ability to provide feedback almost instantly, and especially when applied to businesses. Kristina Cisnero (2014) provided 10 points on how beneficial social media can be to businesses. These include

1. Social media is an easy way find information about your particular audience
2.  It helps target these audiences more effectively and specifically like, by age, gender, location etc
3. it can be used to attract new customers and thus expanding  your audience
4. Social media allows consumers to provide instant feedback from  their personal perspectives
5. Using Facebook, twitter and Google to gather intelligence and statistics enabling you to get ahead of the competition. So it can be seen that businesses can use social media as an advantage in the market.

Facebook is another example how social media can actually make us more social. When I first used it, I thought meh, what a waste of my time. WRONG!!! Facebook has allowed for me to catch up with friends that I had been out of contact with for years and provides a free way to communicate with friends overseas. Two personal examples are that one of my friends had moved to England, and the second was my wife (then fiancée) went to Africa for three weeks. Thanks to Facebook I managed to save tons of money on long-distance calls.

So to conclude, technology is great and it does allow us to connect more efficiently, however, don’t fall into the trap of being together but alone. Have a face to face conversation once in a while and remember you are humans not robots.

Cheers

Matt

Cisnero, K., (2014),  10 Benefits of Social Media for Business Every Skeptic Should Know. Retrieved March, 17 from: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-for-business/

Hampton, M., (2014), Technology: Is it making kids anti-social?, Retrieved March, 17 from: http://universe.byu.edu/2014/08/22/technology-is-it-making-kids-anti-social/

 Rainie, L., & Wellman, B. (2012). Networked: the new social operating system. Cambridge Ma: The MIT press.

Turkle, S., (2012), Connected, but alone?, TED Talk retrieved March, 17 from: http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together#t-294850

Willams, R. (2010), Weapons of Self-destruction, Los Angeles Cal: HBO.

 

Mentor Teachers and ICT

Reading through Kristen Smith’s blog post Is ICT on?,  I began to think back to my own professional experiences and how my mentors used ICT. To be honest there was not a lot focus upon it ( my last prac in particular), however the students had  an ICT class during the week. Most of the time it was stories that were placed up on the IBW. Now my own lesson planning has focused more on written plans that do not incorporate ICTs, and now I am beginning to see just how many interactive resources are out their that can be used to influence student learning.

I recently had a look at a site called Top Marks that provides a number of interactive learning game sites that can be organised by subject and year level. One of the games I actually looked at was called Starship English which had three different games. These were:

• Story plant: Where you grow your own story from the story plant.
  With a helpful dragon fly named Sky to guide you through the steps in planning and writing a story. At each step, choose a leaf and click on it.
  When the plant has stopped growing, Sky will read the story you’ve made.
• Space Spins: In this game you click on the handle to make a sentence appear on the screen, which Sky will say. Then you can press ‘Play again’ to hear it again and to say it with Sky. Click on the handle to make the next sentence appear.
• Finally there is Word Jumbler: This game has three subcategories:

Sounds the same : Click on the correct word to fill the gap in the sentence.

What’s the pattern? : Click on the correct vowel phoneme to fill the gap.

Count the syllables : Click on the correct button for the number of syllables in the word.
At the end of each game, you can print out your words or play again.

You can find this game through Top Marks or follow this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/english/wordjumbler.shtml

Knowing that there are all these games out there, I am going to try and a balance between non ICT and ICT based learning in my lesson plans. Like Kristen mentioned in her post, using ICTs in learning provides students with varied learning tools to cater for their different kinds of minds/intelligence  as Gardeners Theory of Multiple Intelligence’s points out that students learn using one or more of the seven intelligences.

Thanks for reading and thank you to Kristen for a very insightful blog post

Cheers

Matt

Why (not) Use ICTs

This week we were looking at the question Why (not) use ICTs and pedagogy? Like Skye Clarkson and Chloe Price, I also focused on an adapted version of the “big three factors” identified by Kirschner and Wopereis (2003). I also enjoyed the opportunity to use Gliffy to make my concept map. Thank you for providing the link in your post Skye. You can find my concept map here .

I agree with both Skye and Chloe in regards to if and where possible, ICT should be implemented into the classroom in order to prepare students for the ever changing future. Despite the pros that come with implementation of ICTs in classrooms, we also have to consider the cons, like unreliable information on some sights and  the expense of installation of software and technology just for example. A more in-depth list of why ICTs are beneficial and why they may not be can be found in the document  Pros and Cons of ICT in the classroom  (Mascoll, K.,2013). Mascoll (2013) makes the point in her blog that ICTs improve the quality of education by providing benefits for parents, teachers and students. She also mentions that there are some downsides as well, like teacher attitude and the expense of the systems required.

Another site discussing the pros and cons of ICTs in the classroom is Sophia Harris’s 2015 article 5 Pros and Cons of Using Technology in your Classroom: How Much Do you Agree? Harris (2015) states that some of the pros include:

• Independent learning for students: where the educator could assign  students to work in a group and encourage them to complete a set task by using the technology and check out on the academic queries if they arise.
• Life skills via technology: Where educators could prepare students with the vital skills like as focusing on creating presentation, maintaining proper etiquette and writing emails which could be inculcated in the classroom’s ICT equipment.

While some of the cons could include:

• Forgetting the basic ways of studying where students focus more on enhancing their knowledge in the use of the technology for even the simple problems don’t use their minds at all like they would using books.
• Disconnection with Social Media, where students’ ability to verbally communicate ideas could decline unless creating assignments in the class which are using both technology tools and oral presentations like power-points.

So while it is important to use ICTs in our pedagogical delivery, we must also be aware of any cons that could arise from them as well.

Till next time thanks for reading and thank you to both Skye and Chloe.

Matt

Kirschner, P., & Wopereis, I. G. J. H. (2003). Mindtools for teacher communities: a European perspective. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 12(1), 105-124. doi:10.1080/14759390300200148

Mascoll, K. (2013), Pros and Cons of ICT in the classroom. Retrieved March 10 from: http://nicegrif.blogspot.com.au/

Harris, S. (2015), 5 Pros and Cons of Using Technology in your Classroom: How Much Do you Agree?. Retrieved March 10 from: http://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/insights/2064-pros-and-cons-of-technology-in-the-classroom

 

 

Students and The Pre-service Teacher

G’day. I know I am running late with my first blog of the week, but I read a post by Chris Redfern that captured my attention. Chris made the point that providing a strong mask that radiates ” I know what I am doing ” can make all the difference while on professional experience. So I get the idea of a pre-service teacher as looking like this.  Chris’s blog post  can be found here.

I would like to refer to  Green, Chedzoy, Harris, Mitchell, Naughton, Rolfe & Stanton (1998) investigation into student perceptions of how university courses have supported their practice in schools. Through numerous interviews, they found that students were not encountering adequate opportunities to practise teaching or modelling of their class teachers, which resulted in low levels of student teacher confidence as well as inadequate subject knowledge. So this means that it is tricky for first time teachers to display this armoured shell.

To add to this, I found an interview by Sarah Green from the Harvard Business Review with Professor Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic in 2014. Chamorro-Premuzic pointed out that confident people tend to be more charismatic, extroverted, and socially skilled– which in most cultures are highly desirable feature especially the Western world,  where confidence is equated with competence, which may result in the assumption that confident people are also more able-skilled or talented.

Professor Chamorro-Premuzic goes on to say that ‘there is a very big difference between confidence and competence. Competent people are generally confident, but confident people are generally not competent. They are just good at hiding their incompetence and their insecurities– mostly because they are self-deceived themselves, so they generally think that they are much better than they actually are.‘ Now I am not saying do not be confident and certainly not criticising Chris’s blog. Following Green’s interview, I am stating that new teachers need to be careful in their confidence and competence balcance.

Without this balance any chink in your armour could result in the students looking like  (and possibly acting like) this to a pre-service teacher.

A beast that can tear you shreds if you are not on your toes. Preservice teachers who over display the impression of “knowing it all” could also undermine their relationship with their mentor, thus limiting their opportunities for growth (Ward & Wells 2003).

To conclude, I do agree with Chris  and his statment “I believe that as we enter schools (sometimes for the first time) we need to have the confidence of a teacher who has been teaching for 10 years“. But I also have to caution readers with Chamorro-Premuzic’s (2014) point that “Competent people are generally confident, but confident people are generally not competent. They are just good at hiding their incompetence and their insecurities– mostly because they are self-deceived themselves, so they generally think that they are much better than they actually are,” and also displaying the ‘knowing it all attitude’ can harm your relationship with both students and your mentor  according to Ward & Wells (2003). So be confident and hide your insecurities, but keep a strong poker face and maintain the balance or life can be hard during professional experience. Again great blog post Chris.

Thanks

Matt

Stormtrooper image, RS Prop Masters, 2014, retrieved March 9 2016 from: http://www.rspropmasters.com/stormtrooper/

Deathclaw image, Snowden B. 2016 retrieved March 9 2016: from http://fraghero.com/fallout-4s-deadliest-enemies/2/

First Week Back on the ICT Wagon

Coming to the end of a very full week of learning across four courses, my brain feels like the picture above. That being said, I have to admit that it does actually feel good to be back. I also have a much broader outlook upon EDC 3100 this time round, now that I have a better grasp of the concepts.

This week I posted some ideas for assistance with learning and/or improving ICT skills, in the forms of “how to” videos online and institutional learning programs. These hyper-links  can be found onmy two blog posts: What are ICTs and how do I learn new ICT? and ICT and Training For Those Who Are New To Them. I also just found out a new

application in my word press software for linking earlier posts to my current post by accident (winner).  I actually wrote the latter post after reading  The Future Looks Bright put up by nvandoornblog. She pointed out that she struggles with using ICT and that is where provided my second post so that others like herself (including her) can develop or refine their skills.

I often make the mistake of assuming that everyone at university has a grasp of ICT, and that is a very flawed train of thought. Like nvandoornblog, my father has just started his Law degree and is using extremely limited skills. Not everyone is a computer wizard, and I am lightyears from perfect. It takes time to establish the necessary skills required to use ICTs and a great deal of patience.

This  is why assistance in the forms of ‘how to’ videos like this by Ho, B., 2011 and institutional tool kits like those supplied by Universities (click here), as well as their library classes and peer guided learning programs can be beneficial to struggling users of ICT.

Thanks for reading and special thanks to nvandoornblog for your kind comments in your last post ICT Newbie. Glad to help

Matt

ICT and Training For Those Who Are New To Them.

I happen to be cruising through the post The Future Looks Bright put up by nvandoornblog, regarding some of the things mentioned in the post. Nvandoornblog stated that “I was so amazed by this concept as I am totally computer illiterate that I feel the advancements and the speed at which changes in technology are taking place are at such a rapid pace”..

Here is where I would like to go back to my original post titled What are ICTs and how do I learn new ICT? where I made the point that learning a new skill in ICT can be considered as a frightening process which could leave some people feeling like this.

I know when I first started using a computer in the mid-90s using this system ….

 

I honestly saw something that looked like this….

A sort of wasteland that I had no idea of how I was going to get through .

But like many difficult processes there are ways to increase your understanding. These ways can include reading the instructions of any new devices and also looking up YouTube “how to” clips like the one I used as an example my last blog by Ho, B., 2011 and also through institutions like the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Education and Social Work website, where there are strategies that can assist in building up the basic know how to various ICT programs. More on information on the University of Sydney Faculty of Education and Social Work website at: http://sydney.edu.au/education_social_work/learning_teaching/ict/ .

So Nvandoornblog and to others out there that new or struggling with ICTs… You are not alone and there are different resources out there to help you gain a stronger understanding of ICT.

Thanks for reading

Matt

Could you operate normally without ICT?

A nuclear explosion  erupts in a nearby city on the day that you have to deliver a presentation to the the corporation’s chairman, teach a science class on the whiteboard, or even typing up your current assignment and are on the cusp of submitting in two minutes. The power goes out. Computers, smartphones, tablets, aircraft, cars and data bases are completely fried and useless.

Think about everything that you have done today.

All your emails, texts, money, files and photographs…. Gone. Could you do everything that you normally do during the day?  Everything that you do using this…..

In a world that now looks like this, with all ICT destroyed and all data erased.

Could you do it? Ignore any realistic ideas regarding atomic fallout and radiation. Could… You…. Do everything as normal?

I for one could cope by going back to older forms of communication for certain things, but a lot that we have to do in our lives requires some form of ICT. This is mainly through the use of the internet, in order to access information and almost instantly send messages to friends and co-workers and the reliance on electronic devices to make our lives easier.

Reflecting on David’s thought activity in this week’s learning path, which I found very interesting, I could focus on writing and postage again to remain in contact with people over long distances and communicating my ideas to them. But without ICTs like the internet and computers, my ability to gain access to knowledge and referencing materials would become very limited to the finite content of books. Therefore, I would also have to rely on the knowledge of other people in written or orally presented forms.

So to conclude, just have a think about this post, and have a think about all of this. Could you continue on doing things normally?

Thanks for reading

Matt