I'm lovin' it!

Hey guys,
More gems in this weeks course notes. The first task was getting a YouTube clip that we could use in a lesson - funny thing is, I used one in a lesson that I did today! It's called 'Tree of Hope' and it is about litter and it's negative affects. I used the clip as a hook - and gee, did it hook! I didn't say anything, just put the clip on and the classroom buzz just disappeared! After that, the rest of the lesson went really well - the kids were really interested in what we were talking about and had ideas and opinions. I also used the clip to show the kids the recycling symbol. Here is the clip:



Other things that we have learnt about this week have included wikipedia. Anyone who has ever tried to search on something on Google has ended up in wikipedia, I'm sure. It would be great to use for students as it gives a great starting off point for research; the language is easy to understand; and it provides links within wikipedia to other related topics. Also, it is great because you can access it from any internet connection, so students are able to use it within the school or from home, so they can keep the continuity in their research.

Google earth was very cool. I really enjoyed finding my house, and I can imagine that students would too. You could of course use this to teach geography, but I also like the suggestions on the blog of using it to research the locations of Shakepeare's plays and Jane Austen's books (or any of the books that the students are reading). Also, I thought that it could be used for students to experience places that are in the news, or are significant (ie, Haiti or Gallipoli).

I couldn't create a narration for my powerpoint, because I don't have a microphone for my computer (will have to look into that), but I followed the instructions and think that it would be ok to do. The power point presentation I used was from an assignment that I did for my undergraduate degree in Human Movement Science. After doing the powerpoint workshop a couple of weeks ago, I was quite ashamed of this presentation - which I think is a good thing! It means that I'm learning how to use ICT's more effectively (which is probably the point of the course!)I thought the process of uploading the powerpoint presentations onto slideshare was simplistic, and I'm sure that with the right intsruction, students would too.

I downloaded some copyright-free music. That was cool too. I can imagine using them for music lessons to discuss how tempo, volume etc are being used to evoke emotion, and asking students what that makes them feel. This could then become a health lesson (mental health) or an english lesson (writing a poem).

All of the tasks that we completed in this weeks course notes would not stand on their own, but rather as a means of enhancing an ICT skill that the students already have. So I think that these ICT's are pedagogically linked to Dimensions of Learning (DoL) 3 and 4 - Extend and Refine Knowledge; and Use Knowledge Meaningfully (Marzano and Pickering, 1997). Students will already have an ICT base that they can expand upon (DoL3) and use these ICT's to enhance their existing ICT's (DoL4).

As always, I would love to hear any comments from you.

- Leesha!

Marzano, R. & Pickering, D. (1997). Dimensions of learning: Teacher's manual (2nd ed.). Alexandria : ASCD.