children and Technology

I just viewed Sean’s vodcast which commentated on the article ”Digital Video goes to school” by Helen Haffenberg.

The article goes beyond the articles i have read on Digital Storytelling and moves towards Digital Videos. This allows student that little bit more freedom to expand their thoughts and ideas personally but with the benefit of expansion on photos.

Vide benefits linked to learning provides enormous benefits for students learning, it allows them to ”explore,expand and express what they have learnt”.

As sean says the saying ” A picture is worth a thousand words”  is true, with videos and photos you don’t need words to portray an emotion, it is used to extend this idea of context. So students who don’t feel comfortable performing can still make their ideas worth ”1000 words”.

I feel after researching and reading this idea of digital storytelling and vidoes in the classroom that is should be an integrated tool in learning and is a very important tool for learning, not only to motivate students and keep them interested but to create higher order thinking with how they portray the information they have gathered.

So allow student to get creative and express themselves in more ways then just pen and paper.

Apart of Idel Harels article ”sand castles go digital” explains that it’s not just about the child learning but grown ups can learn to. We never stop learning. Remember the saying ”You learn something new everyday”.

Adults also need time to play, to get their hands dirty and play amongst the sand with their computers and to HAVE FUN!!!! either on their own or with the kids.

As cited in the article an interview once with Picasso, he was asked ”when did you learn to paint?” Picasso answered ”You and i started learning at the same age, and i learned the same way that you did. The difference is that you stopped”.

As Harel puts it ”Those who aren’t able to dig around when they’re 50 or 60 lose something precious, their ability to learn”.

Webquests are about ”bringing together the most effective instructional practices into one student activity” for example critical thinking, co-operative learning, authentic assessmentand Integration of technology.

For example in South Carolina

Click on photo below, they constructed a webquest for the students called ”Create a zoo exhibit”, designed for the upper primary years but can be adapted for other years, it challenges students to research animals and habitats, to develop an appropriate exhibit.

source- www.flickr.com

and ”Eye of the Storm” which gives the students insights into natures destructive forms, from tornadoes to hurricanes, I found it would be quite challenging for the upper primary years but it is very exciting.

source- www.google.com

I read literature that linked Levin to an example of digital story telling in the classroom. see my review, What is digital storytelling.

Levin has students ”make history come alive” by interviewing holocaust survivors and publish their stories. The main key to digital story telling is to engage the audience. However Ohler (in press) ”If you don’t have a good story to tell, then the technology just makes that more obvious” .

To encourage digital story telling in the classroom, the elements of ‘oral’ storytelling and incorporate this with the digital elements.

So why not bring the history back to the students, make the link personal and not from a textbook.

”THERE IS ONLY SO MUCH A TEXTBOOK CAN TELL US!”

i did an English lesson while on prac and asked if i could incorporate the computers and net with it, as i had found an interactive website that would help the students with their first poem using metaphors and similies.

It comes under the English outcome WS2.14 and id for a Stage 2 class.

i got the students to sit in a circle away from the computers (no distraction) and got them thinking about metaphors and similies to describe themselves, we wrote some of these on the board. Then we spoke about how they could describe and inform others about them in only a few words. This was the tricky part.

I then got the students to get onto the net and get onto an interactive website called ‘‘ettcweb” which is a website that helps students to create instant poems. We did one ”all about me poem” and an ”animal poem”

The students were keen to find new and exciting words as well as similies and metaphors, this idea of using a new way of producing texts really got them interested and they all particiapated and we ended up with some great poems using metaphors and similies.

i read an article today titled ”inside/outside, crossing the lines of race, class, culture and community” by Maddle Buras. It looks at introducing digital stories on the classroom. It allows students stories to become more personal as they re-create their feelings, it provides intimacy and these digital stories can include ”images, spoken texts and music”.

Digital stoires do take time and practice, but the most successful come from ”a strong questions and a powerful narrative” van Deurse. It allows concepts from an idea or story to ”be brought to the seat next to them”.

Maddle Buras did a digital story on a hurricane that swept through the village she said ”i wanted people to see the hurricane though an individuals eyes, rather then simply seeing the media coverage”.

I think digital stories are a great way to get students motivated in researching as well as providing students with the creative opportunity to share their own thoughts and ideas on a topic.

Source-http://www.flickr.com/photos/22060524@N04/2177870275/

My views of learning have changed since reading ideas on constructionism. We were asked in class to think of an image that would fit our metaphor for learning. When i was reading about constructionism i found a quote from Seymore Papert that i really follow for my ideas on learning. According to Papert learning

”happens especially felicitously in a context where the learner is consciously engaged in constructing a public entity, whether it’s a sand castle on the beach or a theory of the universe.”

The photo above would be my image for my ”metaphor for learning” It involves kids discovering, kids discovering something new. To these children a cardboard box is something new and different. They are ”personally engaging” and ”sharing ideas” about this idea/game. The children are playing an ”active role” in the construction of this car or truck, or whatever it is that these children want to create. They are then sharing ideas with another little boy and to me collaboration is another key term in learning. Learning also should take place in an open environment and children should be the builder, designer of these ideas for learning, whether as Papert says it is a ”sand castle or notion of the universe” it should be shared with others to learn.

I read an article today that introduced me to the idea of constructionism, refer to my page children can be designers and builders. Never did i think of students being able to construct and create ideas about things to then share with peers not only in the classroom but around the world. This idea is called ”constructionism” and is based on the theory by Seymour Papert (1980′s) in which ”children learn best when they use computers in a way that puts them in the active role of designer and builder”

This as a future teacher is a great tool that i am definatley going to engage my students in. Creating ideas and creations allows them to think about an idea ”individually”.  Students are ”personallly engaged in thinking about an idea” and are constantly thinking about thinking.  Students need to fully understand their concept or idea in order to fully explain and share with their audience.

Its a great idea for my future teaching, i think we should embrace this theory of constructionism in the classroom and move away from the ”traditional views” of teacher instructing and students ”passivley absorbing”.

I just read a post on Talia’s blog titled ” digital storytelling” this is something i didn’t know much about, i knew the idea behind it but in using i-movie and garage band in class i relised there are so many technologies and programs out there to cater for the students who do feel less confdent in computer classes.

Talia made a great point that digital story telling is a great tool to facilitate and cater for all students learning and needs. Talia says digital storytelling is a ”creative and original way to incorporate computers in  the classroom”. In using a digital story-telling in a lesson you are able to include different forms of digital content, personal narratives, photos, audio, I-movie and adding movie tracks. All of these are then combined to creat ea movie and tell a story digitally.

This can motivate and create ”motivation and interest” in the classroom and towards learning. It’s a great way to introduce students to technology in a fun and innovative way that isn’t to daunting to those stdents who feel less confident in this area.

Here is a teacher tube video that shows that it’s not just students that can learn from technology in the classroom.

Source- http://www.infed.org/images/scenes/pick-me.jpg

blog1.mp3

Using garage band i was able to record my thoughts,processes and ideas of this project being implemented an Alabama. Allowing a grant for E-learning in classrooms to not only assist student learning but continually growing with staff development.