Week Four (part two)

Mathematics - Excel and M&Ms
I've decided to split this week's blog post into two - so this is part two!

In this second activity we're using computers to represent data in graph form. We use physical objects (the MnMs) to collect and collate data, we use the MnM website for useful information and images, bringing it all together in Microsoft Excel like the image to the left.

So, very simply, here is a point-by-point explanation of the activity we did today:
1. Take a packet of MnMs, and tally the number of different coloured MnMs found in that packet. Greg gave us a handy hand-out that can be done with pen and paper.
2. Take this information you have collated and place it in Microsoft Excel in the manner displayed at the top left-hand corner of the image - that is, with two coloums, one being 'colours', the other 'numbers'.
3. Highlight this information and use the insert tab to create a graph. I chose a 3D pyramid graph.
4. A nice little touch you can add to the graph is changing the colour of each coloum to the colour of MnM they represent. You can also add a visual cue for the students - a number at the top of each coloum, like I have done.
5. Then get onto the MnM website, use the 'print screen' button to choose and add a nice little image to the information you have graphed. As you can see, I've added an image of the red and yellow MnM characters.

This seems to be an excellent activity introducing (or extending) students' knowledge of Excel, also incorporating mathematics with computers, and trawling websites for useful information and images.

Week Four (part one)

Story Retelling - Dust Echoes
Today's session began with Greg showing us a lovely little flash animation video from the Dust Echoes: Ancient Stories, New Voices website (which can be found here). Greg tells us that we'll be using this website to select, and then retell a story from one of the flash videos on the site by 'Print Screen'-ing and cropping images, before pasting them in Inspiration. This seems like it will be a superb way of engaging students within stories (and not just Indigenous Australian stories). It is also a new and engaging way of retelling stories that I have not encountered before - that is a computer-based, visual retelling.

I chose the video called Namorrodor, which is the story of a creature, signalled into life by a shooting star. The Namorrodor hunts at night and this video is concerned with the Namorrodor's hunting of a baby. However, the baby's mother manages to fight off the Namorrodor before he manages to capture the baby.

The exact method of creating the retelling (the one I created is on the right) is:
1. take 'print screen' shots of the video at crucial points in the story.
2. cut out the relevant part of the shot in Paint and then paste it in the Inspiration program.
3. then arrange the shots in Inspiration in an artistic order - a retelling of the video.
4. perhaps you can add text as well - I did. (I took the text from the PDF document avaliable on the Dust Echoes website).

I'm really quite excited/impressed by this method of retelling. It is not something I have encountered in the classroom and I am sure to put it into use.

Week 3 - Design Briefs/Online Games/other, etc., so forth and so on...

So. Today we are looking at design briefs. I really don't know what the hell they are - luckily we were given paper and information and all sorts of other assorted niceties so I was quickly up to speed.

I am reliably informed that this is the old system of designing: 1. investigate, 2. design, 3. produce, 4. evaluate. That seemed all nice and lovely to me, but apparently it is insufficient to the needs of the sorts of people who involve themselves with design briefs. These aforementioned 'sorts of people' have opted, now, for the following: 1. investigate/design, 2. produce, 3. analyse/evaluate. That's all well and good. But I don't really understand the problem with the old system given that 'analyse' is more-or-less a synonym for 'evaluate' under these circumstance. Never-the-less!... it appears another addition to the newer system is a 'cycle flow' thing that encourages the sorts of people who involve themselves with design briefs to return to investigate/design and undertake the whole process again. Something. I haven't had enough coffee.

Um. My group completed a hard copy of the design brief for the jumping frog activity so unfortunately for you you cannot see it here. However, luckily for you I took pictures with my horrid little mobile phone of the whole escapade. The challenge now is to see whether or not I can get these pictures from the phone to my blog - without the phone deciding to chuck a tantrum. Let's see...

Looks like it's working! That's a photo of Chris preparing for jumping frog launch...

And that's a photo of me holding our jumping frog which was an absolute failure! In my defence, I'm pretty awful with my hands and so forth. Everyone's frogs were much better than ours. It was highly embarrassing.

Despite it all, these sorts of activities do seem incredibly useful. I'm not especially kinesthetically skilled and I'm always thinking of ways of teaching to those who are. These sorts of activities can help, I would imagine. Even the design brief process is no doubt a great way to encourage teamwork, higher order thinking - even literacy skills!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnndddddddddddddddddd... we move on the this website. It's called Quia and you can make all sorts of lovely little quizzes on it - also games and the such. And so we did. I made one. Although the website seems to have deleted it, for some absurd reason - but it's ok, because it seems everyone else's quizzes and games have been deleted too. It seems Quia just hates everyone. Good for Quia.

Anyway, I began by making a quiz about classical music - because that's what I know. We all had the opportunity then to try out eachother's quizzes. I thought mine might be tough, but it was nothing compared to Sarah's traditional spelling of Scottish words quiz! Wowzers, Batman!

Um. Then I tried hangman. I do appreciate that Quia has options apart from a man actually being hanged, because that might be utterly inappropriate in some schools - for example, the school I was on placement at! Incredibly inappropriate given the histories of the students at the school. So, yes, be careful with hangman is the story of the day.

But, yes, Quia appears to be a useful tool for the classroom. Fun, yet also opening up avenues for the reinforcement of content covered in class. I could see students taking and making games and quizzes on Quia, for sure. The only problem would be, obviously, Quia's deleting of these games and quizzes after some time.

Ok. That's it for now. I'm going to get some coffee. I leave you with a picture of a LaTrobe duck I took on my mobile phone while walking to today's lesson. Bye!

(My photographic skills are finely honed.)

Week 2 - Microsoft Publisher and other assorted assortments

Now, right. Microsoft Publisher seems to be the program of the day. I don't think I've used Publisher since, maybe, 1995, to be honest. So, let's see if Publisher today is anything like the program I left behind. I remember Publisher being slightly annoying and irritating all those years ago - or maybe that was just me and my general attitude towards computers and all things. We shall see.

I kind of think that the things you would use Publisher for back then, and now can, these days, be done by newer, better, more advanced programs - obviously Adobe Photoshop or whatever it is springs immediately to mind. Yet, I am completely unable to master Adobe Photoshop so there's no way I would expect a class of students/kids to. Publisher is probably the right tool to use in the classroom. However I feel that these days, Publisher is limited to the classroom and well-meaning amateurs.

We're creating little brochures in Publisher now. Here's an example of what we've all come up with. Visit Laos!

There we are. That's a lovely little example of what you can do on Publisher these days. It's largely what I remember being able to do on Publisher in the past. That's not a criticism - just a statement. It's is, however, easy to use and therefore appropriate for the classroom - middle and upper primary. Once again, I'm really hoping to find ICT resources for lower primary classes - where are you!?

Yes, so Publisher is easy to use, nicely streamlined. Look at all the brochure templates nicely lined up, ready for you to choose them, take them home.

So, yes, Publisher has really not changed. I guess it's found it's niche and is comfortable with it? But, yes, all-in-all, a useful little tool for the classroom.

At this point we move onto e-portfolios. That is, CV-type-thing presented in an electronic format. It turns out that we'll have to submit one of these in this subject. I remember speaking to my sister, who last year - or was it the year before? - completed a DipEd., primary and secondary at LaTrobe's Albury/Wodonga campus. She had to do one of these e-portfolio-thingies. She printed it off, blew it up (in size) and was able to take it to interviews and it proved to be a useful little tool.

I suppose these e-portfolios can't replace the traditional CV, they are, however, a nice little addition to the job selection process. Demonstrating your ease with ICT, while presenting yourself. I can see e-portfolios being of great use to me in the future.

That's all for this week! Bye....