I agree with your idea. Wiki accepts more people's interaction. This means it is a good idea to apply the use of Wiki for group activities! Weebly also achieves collaborative group learning like project-based assignment, or just simply a classroom website for a particular topic.
I also thought Big six theory was clearer. It shapes any learning stage and provides what will be strategies to apply.
Regards,
Sayoko
August 28, 2010: aoigonza said…
Hello, tokyo345! Thank you for the comment.
I think that Big six is one of the important teaching tools in elearning. Teachers, especially whose teaching areas are not related to computers, should know this strategy in order to teaching globally and effectively.
I agree with you. I often use PowerPoint as a learning tool in my class. In my opinion, when I use PowerPoint, I can get more attentions from students. Using PowerPoint relates to bahaviour management for me. Students watch the PowerPoint slides carefully so they cannot be noisy.
Actually, it is good point that PowerPoint could manage students’ behaviour as well. However, that means that teachers should create slides clearly and directly to key points. Otherwise, slides can make students confused and will make classroom chaos…
Since my first discipline is also Japanese, I agree with your way of using the picture above.
The pedagogical use of images and podcast is what I would like to try in my future teaching. Authentic experience is what students need to gain when they learn, and teachers have to give those experiences in the context of teaching. When we examined the usefulness of the two applications, I thought it would be a wonderful idea to use for resource sharing.
As Piaget’s theory also mentioned that students learn something new by their previous knowledge. If their previous Japanese knowledge was based on authentic topics, the learning will be more familiar for them; therefore, they will find fun in studying. When they find fun in studying, the learning outcomes will be gained easily, which is also Piaget’s theory.
I agree with you. YouTube is one of effective tools for teaching. Students would be interested in watching YouTube clips in classes. In my opinion, Visual learning is easy to understand for many students. So, using YouTube videos in classes are going work effectively for students' learning.
Thank you, tae23.
I am pretty sure that most of students in classes are visual learners due to technology improvement. Also, we have saying: 'The picture is worth a thousand words'!
This synopsis describes an effective elearning based on what I have learned in Managing E-Learning. We have explored Blogger (Google, 2010a), Weebly, Wikispace (Tangient LLC, 2010), windows MovieMaker, PodOmatic, picnik (Google, 2010b), flickr (Yahoo! Inc., 2010) and skype (Skype, 2010) as digital pedagogy. In the former part of this synopsis, one of the important theories is explained through the key point of effective learning. The latter part will demonstrate three examples, which are skype (Skype, 2010), Blogger (Google, 2010a) and windows MovieMaker, in order to describe how to engage elearning for effective learning.
1. Effective Learning
According to Engagement Theory (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999), effective learning occurs when learning activities foster group work, project-based, and real-life context. First of all, why do learning activities need to happen in these situations in order to enhance effective learning?
Kearsley and Shneiderman (1999) mentioned that when students are in groups, they are obliged to say something. For example, when students are told to research in groups, each member in the group needs to collect information rather than avoid the task completely because they feel more responsibility toward their group. In addition, Kearsley and Shneiderman (1999) said that when students work in groups, they can motivate each other. In the research situation, if one student finds good information, others feel that they want to find better.Finally, Kearsley and Shneiderman (1999) stated that when students are in groups, they can share their own knowledge based on previous experiences, cultural backgrounds and perspectives. For instance, if the group is organized by Australian, Chinese and Indian students, they can share cultural differences. Also, an inclusive classroom is not a rare case in Australia now.
Project-based activities engage students’ interests. As Piaget’s theory stated (Mclnerney & Mclnerney, 2006, p 49), if a project is about students’ interests, they will develop their project enthusiastically. In addition, when students are on the project, where the topic is decided by them, they feel like they control the learning activity, and this will also enhance their learning.
Real-life context was demonstrated by Dimension 4 (Marzano & Pickering, 2006, p 5); learning occurs when students utilize their knowledge in real life context. For example, reading textbooks will not engage learning unless students are able to demonstrate the information outside of schools by themselves. In addition, authentic activities will reinforce students’ stimulus and fulfilment rather than students who do not know how to manipulate the information in real-life.
2. Effective Learning and Digital tools
As three important situations which engage the learning are presented, I will demonstrate how elearning collaborates these situations. The first example is a Skype conversation in a Japanese class. Skype (2010) lets anyone who has internet connection to be able to call with voice and video; to have conference calls with companies; to chat by texts; to send files; to share screens. However, teachers can also utilize this content as digital pedagogy.
Students are divided into groups, and need to discuss what they will talk about with the Japanese students via Skype. At the same time, Japanese students will prepare some topics. Once Australian and Japanese students have decided what they would like to talk about with each other, they will exchange their questions by E-mail in order to prepare answers. A group of students should research on the internet to collect up-to-date information. Afterwards, each group in Australia and Japan will have a conversation via Skype using the resources which they have prepared. They can share this information, and practice Japanese (or English for the Japanese students) at the same time.
This activity enhances students’ learning because the topic of the project is not provided by a teacher. Instead, they can decide by themselves so they can prepare the questions based on their interests. In addition, as Kearsley and Shneiderman (1999) described, E-mail is one of the collaborative tools since students need to discuss what and how to write in Japanese; they can share their knowledge about E-mail and Japanese language. Most importantly, the topic of this project is in a real-life context; the topic is what they want; they can talk to Japanese people directly.
The second example is the blog. In blogger (Google, 2010a), users can publish texts; arrange their own blog; upload pictures; post comments on their friends’ blogs. In addition, anyone can create account since it’s free content. There are many types of blogs, such as personal blogs (mainly diaries), travel blogs, music blogs and education blogs.
For instance, in a Japanese class, a teacher can create an account for the class so all students can create new posts and access them. A teacher divides students into a few groups and provides each group a topic, such as festivals in Japan, to research. Each group needs to research on the internet, and gather information on their blog during lessons. A teacher can also provide other digital pedagogy such as flickr (Yahoo! Inc., 2010) and picnic (Google, 2010b) for pictures, and windows MovieMaker for movies. At the end of this project, students need to post their reflections of the project on the blog, and present what they have researched to other classmates by showing their blogs.
This activity also contains collaboration, projects and real-life context. Students in groups need to cooperate to arrange their own blog, share their knowledge, write articles on blogs and collect information from the internet. In this project, time management would be a key point. Students should decide the details of their topics. For example, if the topic is about Japanese events, students are required to research what kind of events there are in Japan. Then they need to determine which events they will focus on. It is important for each student in a group to work on their projects step by step. Since students are able to utilize the internet as a tool of research, they can find authentic materials. If a teacher has students work on wikispace (Tangient LLC, 2010) instead on a blog, wikispace (Tangient LLC, 2010) lets a teacher correct students’ posts interactively. This is because on wikispace (Tangient LLC, 2010) viewers can edit users’ posts directly, rather than by leaving comments.
The last example is the combination of PowerPoint and windows MovieMaker. This example is utilized individually, or by groups. Most of the time, PowerPoint presentations are created to provide information about research; however, students can construct short stories using windows MovieMaker. I will implement this example for a cultural study in Japanese class.
Students read a few Japanese fairy tales. Then they are asked to choose their favourite part of the stories in order to create a short animations based on it. They need to gather pictures related to the story from the internet, and put them on each slide. Once students finish arranging PowerPoint slides, they have to put each slide in windows MovieMaker in order to make the slides animate. If the class has enough time, students can also add music to their animations. At the end of this activity, students will need to show their movies and tell the whole class about the story that they have chosen in Japanese.
This activity will enhance cultural learning. Students need to know about every story since they will choose which part of the story they will animate. They can not create animations unless they understand the story which they have chosen. As an elearning tool, the activity includes collaborative work, as students need to choose which scene they want to work on, collect information from the internet, and create movies. Students have to consider who will do what in order to collaborate, and this is the project-based activity. Finally, as students will present their stories in Japanese, they will utilize the grammar and vocabulary which they need. This puts the activity in a real-life context.
Since this topic is about Japanese fairy tales, this could be utilized in an arts class. For example, if there is a student who has a disability in the class, a teacher is able to ask the student to create this animation instead of acting; therefore, this would be also effective for an inclusive classroom.
Conclusion
As this synopsis described, teachers will find many ways to enhance students’ learning using digital tools. However, the development of technology is too fast and too complicated to follow every single technology. What teachers should do is choose an appropriate technology tool for their situations and students, and have the students explore it. In addition, young students find that technology is more interesting and familiar than adults, as Prensky (2001, as cited in Knipe, 2007, p. 25) stated; therefore, students will find it much easier than teachers feel. This is one of the reasons students are facilitated their learning by digital tools. In addition, computer knowledge is must-have skill for 21st century children. Teachers and schools have to include digital tools study in each subject as long as schools are a place where students are able to prepare for their futures.
