Website for use at school

Recently when doing some curriculum writing for PE at school we have come to find/be shown some very cool websites that can add to the learning experience of the students.

The first is xtranormal.com which is a website that will take the text of a script and transform it into an animated movie.  It then allows you to play director and select characters, scenes, shot types, and even expressions and animations of characters.  Here is one i put together in a matter of minutes.

We have decided to use this website as an alternative to students doing a presentation.  We will set an assignment that will require students to research a drug and create an informative movie detailing information on its uses and effects but through the situation of a relationship and the social effect the drug has on it.

The other is a website called wordle.net which is a word cloud creating website.  It can take any text and create a custom or randomly generated word cloud from the entered words, emphasising any word that occurs in the text more than others.  Here is a sample of a word cloud from wordle.net based around the famous Martin Luther King speech – I have a dream.

I can see this website as useful in brainstorming.  Brainstorming normally just provides lists of words where any duplicates are eliminated.  This allows for duplicates to be emphasised – reflecting its importance.

Wikipedia

At the end of our last unit we discussed the use of wikipedia as a source of information. Wikipedia is becoming such a easy place to find out what you need that its pretty much the first place anyone looks. I know I do. And more and more we are taking what is said on there as gospel. A recent article in the age shows that you do so at your own peril. Have a read.

FIFA boss done over by Wikipedia: South Africans find out the hard way that you can’t believe everything on Wikipedia.

IQ Test

Free-IQTest.net – IQ Test

With all this talk about IQ testing, I thought it appropriate for me to test myself – for experience sake.  Firstly, it’s a bit of an effort to find a test that doesn’t ask for a credit card  or at least email details.  But I found this one at free-IQTest.net and managed to score a 147… So what does that mean?

A good way to understand the difference in the needs of these different groups of gifted children is to consider how far they are from the norm of 100:

• Mildly Gifted — 115 to 129
• Moderately Gifted — 130 to 144
• Highly Gifted — 145 to 159
• Exceptionally Gifted — 160 to 179
• Profoundly Gifted — 180

So, based on this – I am a highly gifted child… Not bad for a 28 year old.

Prezi

I did an assignment today detailing the reaction of my peers as they were introduced to the presentation tool Prezi.  I offered to put some well made Prezi’s on my blog for people to look at, so here they are: (Apologies that you cant view them in WordPress, but apparently Flash based content isnt supported).

A good one for showing how it can be used as a teaching tool

This is an overview as to how Prezi could be used as a teaching tool.  Concentrates on text based learning and making it more interesting.

Solar System Prezi-tation

This demonstrtaes how to present assignment requirements to students in a more interesting way.

IE University

I chose this one to show a more visually based one.  A lot of pictures makes for an interesting introduction to IE University.

Second Life

Forget the fuzz of red hair on the head, this is me – in Second Life.  My first experience in this virtual world was truly that, an experience.  I was very impressed, although I must say also frustrated that i couldnt get my avatar to look like me (my own incompetence).  Being shown around by Rita’s daughter was a great way to be introduced into this new world, a world that visually is very established.  Walking around with the other members of our class already had me wondering why we dont run our online lectures through second life instead of how we do know.

The thing I found really daunting about Second Life and any virtual world is that the possibilities are truly endless and there is no limit on the scope that it can fill.  World after world could be invented and explored.  And its ability to be used as an educational tool is something that needs to be embraced.  During our lecture before the excursion I was a little skeptical, and still probably am somewhat, as to the type of people who use virtual worlds.  When the internet first became readily available to the average Joe, the idea of a chat forum was very exciting – talking to people from all over the world about a shared interest/topic.  But chat forums slowly became seedy places full of people pretending to be someone they, at times with sinister motives.  I was questioning if virtual worlds are going to suffer a similar fate.  There is no doubt that virtual worlds are full of potential in terms of the possibilities they offer – especially for education, so I hope this is not the case.

Kseniya Simonova’s Amazing Sand Drawing

Reflection on Using LbD

Recently Ben Davies and I attended a Professional Development on the use of a Health, Driver Education and Drug Use Curriculum from Western Australia.

We were very happy with the PD and the content that the curriculum covered and are keen to see its implementation in our respective schools (Ben is at Lanyon HS and I am at Lyneham HS – opposite ends of town).

The curriculum was presented to each of the teachers attending in a folder that sequentially detailed all of the activities covered – a teachers dream.  It was presented so thoroughly that its implementation into our own schools curriculum would be almost seamless.  Throughout the PD Ben and I often conversed about where each of the activities would align in the Learn by Design framework.  We found we used the LbD framework as a checklist to warrant legitimacy of the curriculum, wanting to ensure the content covered the 4 domains within Learning by Design before we would give it the final tick.

As a result we thought we would re write the proposed curriculum through the lens of Learning by Design and set to CG Learner to start documenting it. 

This is what Learning by Design has become for me.  It has made me understand that content presented to students needs to cover the 4 domains of LbD for it to be a true, expansive, learning experience and it is a tool I can use to ensure my presented curriculum is such an experience.

Ben and I found that as we entered the activities into CG Learner we were very conscious of the possibility of it favouring a particular domain and not exposing students to all areas.  This would have been a good opportunity for us to identify gaps in the proposed curriculum and come up with supporting material and further activities to ensure the ‘roundness’ of the curriculum.

We were very happy to see that as we documented activities they began to fall into the different domains and the content really will be a powerful educational experience for the students.  Being at a new school, I am treading lightly as to its actual implementation in classes, and will browse the Health curriculum within my school to see where this content can fit – if only in parts.

The use of CG Learner was powerful also.  Having the document stored in cyberspace allows both Ben and myself to access it as we please.  The ability for two teachers to document and develop curriculum while it is being taught in two different schools at different ends of town is fantastic.  Effectively we will be ‘live-updating’ for each other as we progress at different speeds through the document.  This then lends itself to curriculum development branching outside of the staffroom, outside of the school, outside of the city – even outside of the country – instantaneously.

We can attach and share resources we find suitable for each of the activities, and then both have access to them at the same time in different places.

CGLearner

Sitting down with Ed and Ben for our first crack at using the web based Learn by Design tool was a good experience.  Transfering our placemat into the learning element format made us realise that we had left a fair few gaps in our planning.  This was made really evident through the linear overview display that CGLearner has.

It is great to be able to drag components of the element and change the order of them from that linear overview.  Unfortunately when we tried to do this a couple of times it would freeze and not allow us to drop the section where we wanted it.

Normally in the past when writing out an element I have been reliant on someone else, in most cases Ed, to do the documentation and make sure it is written and formatted correctly.  With CG Learner I was able to take more control of the input. And effectively that’s all it is.  Just inputting the information you need and the formatting is automatic.  Saves a lot of time.

We ran into some obstacles.  The ability to put in tables and pictures wasn’t impossible, but not the most user-friendly way of doing things.  With experience and knowing how to access the features you need, especially with tables, will come.

When pasting into CG Learner from other programs, web pages or word, we had issues getting the formatting how we wanted it.  It would always paste at a much smaller font and within a text box which made it tricky to use.

All in all The CG Learner is a great advance into the freedom of documenting using the Learning by Design model.  It was easier to use and more accessible to the average joe.  I can only assume it will get better and easier still.

Inclusivity

After discussing inclusivity in our lecture Bill brought up a really good point that made things a bit clearer to me.  I guess I had been a little superficial in regard to what is inclusivity in the classroom.  I had the idea that it was grouping everyone together and providing an education that caters for them.  I hadn’t considered it more intimately where it is purely catering for and meeting the needs of the students you have.  Be it in a large classroom of students with different needs, or a selective group of elite students, or a group of special needs kids, inclusivity is making sure everyone in your classroom has the opportunity to learn and develop with the content presented and experienced.  That a range of work and ideas need to be covered that each individual in the setting can relate to and gain from.  Reach is a great word in educating.  If you can have a greater reach in terms of including as many students as possible, than that is the real power.

I think creating an inclusive learning environment can be difficult, but as they say – Nothing good comes easy…

Blog 2 – Tuesday 25th November

LbD Placemat

Ben, Ed and I sat down this afternoon to finish off our placemat. “Lanyon Cribs”, as it has been named in honor of the great show MTV Cribs, will have the students learning Measurement, Scale and Area through the overarching activity of researching houses from around the world and eventually building a model of one they design themselves (Only a Maths/PE teacher could be happy with a sentence that long!). Once we finally got into our heads that the placemat is a real over view and basic structure for the eventual Learning Element, we plodded our way through the task. We were able to create a really great unit that will be exciting to teach. Already I am looking forward to meating out the placemat and being more specific with the tasks and activities that the students will experience.

Amidst reports and just generally approaching the end of the year it required every bit of our concentration (and bad jokes) to keep our heads in the right space but was definitely a worthwhile activity.

Now I have to go and build a retaining wall!