Jen’s Blog

It has been a while since I last posted on here, but semester has been so busy I haven’t had a chance to breathe!

I thought I would update on some ways I’ve been using technology over the past few weeks in teaching and university work!

Firstly, I was just on prac with a year one class. My classroom had a smart-board called “Ibo”. I had only used these minimally in the past so I was quite excited at the chance to be able to use one in my teaching and to explore its use in the classroom. I discovered that this is an excellent tool! I was able to teach the kids in a new and exciting way with them thoroughly engaged!

Each day I used Ibo to teach spelling. We were able to write words, manipulate them, highlight their structure and features and the kids loved it! Each child was eager to spell because they could write on Ibo.

I also used it to teach capacity. I wanted to introduce the kids to the topic in an interactive and fun way – I had previously had a disaster of a lesson with practical capacity and the children got a little over-excited. This worked really well, I used Jenny Eather’s site Rainforest Maths. The kids loved this! Later when I attempted the same practical lesson again the kids understood much more and were more settled.

I also used Ibo for brainstorming, watching storybooks, watching clips to show the children practical examples of storms and was able to use some of the fantastic software available!

In terms of uni work, since learning how to use Garageband I have been using it non-stop! I just finished a children’s theatre assignment where I had to do the director’s notes for a play and create a prompt book. I wanted to insert some music for the play. I used the loops on Garageband to create some music which was appropriate for the scenes!

I also put up the LAMS sequence Laura and I made on the lams community. It is called ‘Healthy Eating’ and is under my name. Check it out if you like – although, you will need to register for the lams community. It is free!

Other than that, I have been using normal software like Microsoft office, photoshop, indesign etc for assignments!

Must go – so much to do in this last week! Thanks for checking out my blog!

Jen

Ok, so the last post wasn’t my last post! But I was just doing a final explore before tomorrow of my peer’s blogs.

It is amazing the research we have covered by sharing with one another! I noticed on Krizzia’s blog a link to a music teacher’s blog. I wish I had seen this before tonight! It could have provided many resources. I had a quick look over and it seems to have a lot of information I could spend hours looking over.

I thought I would post the link here too and will have a look through later to see what more it contains!

Image source: http://randymccluskey.com/

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I thought to finish of my final blog posting before my assignment is marked I would think about posting a bit of a sum up of my learning experiences in this subject.

Entitled “Current Issues and Applications in Educational Computing” I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it has been quite a learning journey. Both in terms of software use, but most importantly my view on using technology in the classroom.

I found this video tonight from Anderson Primary School in Singapore. It is a video that was shown at their end of year prize giving ceremony. It really brought home the value of using this technology. It has so many wonderful uses including reviewing an entire year through photos and videos.

While watching this I was reminded of my years at school where at Presentation Evening I would sit for a good 15 minutes while my principal would explain various activities which had happened in the year. This 4 minute video, I believe, would be more beneficial and can really show what has gone on during the year at that school.

The video also showed the value of using technology for a variety of means in the classroom across many different Key Learning Areas. Something I have also been challenged about in this subject.

But perhaps the thing that I am most reminded of in this video is the great opportunity technology provides in sharing our small community with the wider world. We have so many opportunities to connect our classrooms with those on the other side of the world! Our students will have opportunities that we never had in school to share and have their voice heard! This is something I do not want to pass up!

I have just been looking through some of Shirley‘s old posts and came across her critique of one of my posts earlier on in my blogging. She reminded me of the importance of considering the appropriateness of resources for the kids we are teaching. I have become so excited about the wide range of resources available I think this was a helpful reminder before dosing my students with inappropriate things!

One point Shirley raises is that many resources for primary students are aimed at upper primary. There are very few for younger kids. I started thinking about how you could incorporate technology for them.

I then remembered LAMS!!!!!!! I have become excited remembering this wonderful tool and could see many benefits in using this to construct my own online learning experiences incorporating relevant parts of the technology available, but constructing an age appropriate, valid learning experience for kids!

Image source: http://access.nuim.ie/disability/images/489.JPG

I have just listened to Cassie’s post on Assistive Technologies for students with special needs. She explains assistive technology as, “any software or hardware that has been specially designed to help improve access to a computer”.

In some of the reading I have done it seems that music is deemed a useful tool for students to express themselves. I wonder now what technology might be available to assist students to use the music technology I have researched. Cassie’s post lists some hardware like larger keyboards and jostick controlled mice… I wonder if there is specific software available in as well….

I received this email today:

“Because fewer public schools offer music programs to students, the nonprofit organization Little Kids Rock decided to “provide its unique music curriculum” free of charge to schools. And to us. Part of the expansive iTunes U, Little Kids Rock offers guitar lessons, drum lessons, and other musical resources.”

It then provides a link taking you to the “Little Kids Rock” page in itunes. I thought this seemed like an interesting thing to investigate, particularly given my interest in public education and music. I decided to look up the “Little Kids Rock” website . With a bit of exploring I found that the main program is American and does not have as much relevance to us, but there are still some worthwhile resources.

This is their rationale for the program.

“ believes that all children in our public schools deserve music education. Music education is a transforming force in children’s lives. This is why we are dedicated to bringing free musical instruments and music instruction to public school children. At Little Kids Rock, we believe that ”

(Little Kids Rock, n.d.)

The American program offers free music tuition in schools, providing the teachers and the instruments. However, recently on itunes they have put up a number of resources which could be helpful for teachers. These include activity books, videos teaching guitar and drums and various items from kids and professionals.

Reference:

Little Kids Rock. (n.d.). Little Kids Rock. Retrieved March 5, 2008 from Little Kids Rock website: http://www.littlekidsrock.org/index.htm.

I have done a critique for my assignment on the use of computer-mediated composition technologies. One which keeps popping up is Hyperscore so I wanted to have a go at using it myself to see if it’s all it’s cracked up to be. On my exploration I came across this midi file:

http://www.hyperscore.com/music/IgorMIDI.mp3

This was composed by a 10 year old child who had no musical background in composition. This was done in a week and performed by the Berlin Orchestra in 2001!

Unfortunately, I only own macs and hyperscore seems to work for Windows machines only and has costs to purchase, although from the research and various videos available both on the Hyperscore website and you-tube it seems to have positive reviews!

I have been reading a fair bit about music software for primary school students and one which keeps popping up is the “Super Duper Music Looper“. This is not free software, but you can play a demo online (requires flash).

One thing I like about this software is that it doesn’t require any musical notation knowledge to compose and by just using loops some fairly sophisticated compositions can be made! It is like garage band – but simpler! Students can also record their own voices into the composition and send it via email to others!

One disadvantage is that it only works for windows machines.

I’ve just read Krizzia’s post about integrating music into the curriculum. She is right when she says that many teachers do not have music experience. I have seen in some of my prac schools this overcome by having a specialist music teacher. However, even with an RFF teacher, the time spent on Music is roughly 30mins per class. This is not enough time! Sadly, music is an area often neglected, or if done, generally consists of singing. There is so much more to music than this!

I have watched the children in my pracs when I’ve done music with them (meaningful lessons, not just singing) and they have loved every minute! Kids enjoy music.

I was chatting to an RFF music teacher yesterday about her lessons. She was explaining that she was teaching kids to write rhythms in music notation. These were simple simple rhythms but she explained that the kids LOVED creating. She said on their sheets many of the kids had written “Created by …” or “Composed by…” rather than just their name.

Music is such a rich area which children love to do! More teachers should get on board… there are soo many resources online as well that can be used which require very little musical knowledge to use!

How unrealistic would it be to hear a student in your class say this comment? Even more unrealistic if they were actually serious! Well, it seems this is the trend that is beginning within the NSWDET particularly in public schools.

Mum brought home her copy of “Side by Side” the newspaper for NSW Public Schools and I’ve noticed a quite surprising trend that a lot of the articles are looking at the use of digital media in the classroom. Surprising, but encouraging! It appears that there is a push for better use of technology.

I’ve also been reflecting on Emma’s great post, Webtools for learning Kath Cassidy, where Emma reminds us that the only restrictions on using ICT in the classroom is our own inhibitions and fears. She encourages teachers to take on a risk-taking approach. I think many teachers would find this daunting and not know where to begin. However, it appears that the department has caught onto this and is now giving teachers access to great resources!

One of the new initiatives mentioned in Side by Side are the new program “Connected Classrooms”. Doherty the writer of this article states that this new program is “the biggest education transformation in decades…” (Issue 15, Feb 2008). The project aims to “build a collaborative learning community where we share best practise and great ideas and materials among our schoools and we store and access that material on our own network” (Doherty, 2008).

By 2011 all 2,200 public schools in NSW will have at least one connected classroom. This will enable students to take virtual excursions anywhere in the world (even universe), speak to experts in real time, communicate with peers anywhere in the state and have classes via video conferencing.

Another resource recently available to teachers is called “Skoool”. This is a joint initiative between the DET and Intel. Skoool is a group of Australian web-based resources where students can learn through an online stimulus. Students can learn to resuscitate humans, create shapes and explore gravity and the solar system plus much more! These resources are primarily maths and science resources.

These resources can be accessed at the TaLe website (www.tale.edu.au) although the site requires you have a DET login. To view examples of the Skoool resource look here.

It seems children will be able to virtually go to America any day of the week in our classrooms in the near future!

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