Archive for May, 2008
Week 13 – Final Reflection
the end of the semester is already here! it’s come around quicker than i ever could have imagined…
so here is my final weekly reflection.
This week i reflected back upon my first week of ICT. as part of this reflection, i re-did my personal competency test. here is the link: Week 13 Competency Test
before doing the test again, i looked back at my first test, completed in week 1. this was very interesting, as i saw my scores in each category, from my first week of the course, and realised just how much ICT has taught me about technology.
it was good to see that my knowledge has definitely improved in certain aspects of ICT:
Strengths
in particular, my strengths were revealed to be in the areas of technology presentation, desktop publishing and multimedia projects.
in my first competency test, i didnt even know what a webquest was. But by the end of the course i now have seen several examples of webquests, and critiqued and reviewed them as well, in terms of their effectiveness to be used in the classroom.
i also learnt the importance of constructivist learning, and how ICT is beneficial in helping to establish a constructivist classroom.
i can now also successfully and competently hyperlink items in my work, such as in microsoft word.
i learnt how to create professional publications, using Microsoft publisher – again, a program i had never used or heard of before.
prior to ICT, i had never used a graphic organiser, or even knew what they were. after portfolio item #6, however, i became proficient in the program, Inspiration, and successfully created my own mind map on an emerging technology.
my strengths also lie in multimedia projects – in week one, i had never created any multimedia projects. now, i have made one using Photo Story, just last week. this project was compiled using sound, photographs and video, and helped me to learn more about incorporating these 3 elements to create engaging presentations – something i will most definitely be using in my future profession as a teacher.
Weaknesses
re-doing the competency test also revealed that there are still a few areas i can improve upon in the future, to better help me utilise technology efficiently and effectively in the classroom.
I still have never created a digital video, so therefore have no proficiencies in this area.
i can also improve in the area of problem-based learning: i would like to be able to one day create my own WebQuest, and use it in my future as a teacher.
how my learning in this unit will assist me in my future career as a teacher.
ICT opened my eyes to the impact and importance of technology in primary schools today. in my own primary school days, we only ever used computers in years 5 and 6; and even then, they were only in the library, and used predominantly by the teacher, with the students passively watching on.
in great contrast, today, students are actively involved in their learning, and they engage in technology with a hands-on approach. the reliance upon a constructivist learning environment was revealed to me through this unit, and has emphasised its effectiveness in enhancing the learning experience, for both students and teachers alike.
ICT has helped me to understand the types of technology used in schools today, and has developed my skills and proficiencies in these areas, to assist me as a teacher of the future.
i feel that i, as a prospective teacher, will need to continuously keep up with the ever-turbulent pace of technology in today’s society. students will always be a step ahead of me, as they are the younger generation, exposed to new advances in technology.
ICT has helped me to achieve this in some way, and the skills i have developed will without a doubt stay with me for many years to come, and when i finally can put them into practice for my very own lessons in the not-so-distant future – i cant wait to do this: to enhance my students’ learning, through the use of ICT in the constructivist classroom i aspire to create.
overall, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed ICT. the portfolio items didnt feel like assessment tasks: they were fun, interesting, and inciteful learning experiences, simultaneously developing my skills in many areas of ICT.
i hope to continue to improve my already proficient skills in the next few years of my course.
so for the last time, i sign off my blog.
Bye!
1 comment May 28, 2008
Week 11 & 12
for these two weeks, we looked at a program called Photo Story 3.
this program, i learnt, is used to enhance images with audio and editing features, in order to create a visual story compiled of images.
i really enjoyed this task: i use programs at home to edit my own personal photos, such as Adobe Photoshop. i like to fiddle around with different settings like exposure, brightness and contrast, hue and saturation etc to enhance my photos. because of this, using Photo Story was fun and interesting.
i got to be creative in this week’s portfolio item: we had to create some form of a story through pictures, the titles and music. adding music i found was a great way to better convey the story, as it sets the mood and tone for the images being displayed simultaneously as the music plays.
the study guide took me through a step-by-step process of creating a story using Photo Story, going over its features on editing photos, how to upload them, how to incorporate audio files to the project, and how to add titles and descriptions to photos, in order to better convey the story being told through the project.
this final task was a nice way to end and wrap up the unit: one i thoroughly enjoyed and benefitted from greatly 
Add comment May 27, 2008
Portfolio Item #7: PowerPoint presentation
interactive whiteboards powerpoint presentation
Add comment May 18, 2008
Portfolio item #6: Inspiration mind map
Inspiration mind map – Interactive Whiteboards
Add comment May 14, 2008
Week 10
this week’s workshop foucsed on presentation software, and how they are used to visually convey a message. we learnt that these programs are extremely useful in the classroom, to present information to students in an interesting and engaging manner.
we looked at Microsoft PowerPoint in particular – a program i began using back in my early years of high school, and one i am confident in using.
portfolio item #7 was to create a powerpoint presentation about an emerging technology – the same used in Inspiration for the previous portfolio item. my presentation was on Interactive Whiteboards. i enjoyed creating my slideshow – i’m very competent with the program, and felt at ease when completing it.
however, our portfolio item required us to use a feature of powerpoint i had never experienced before – speaker notes.
i learnt about them, and realised these would be particularly helpful when presenting the slideshow orally – speaker’s notes give queues to the speaker to guide them through the presentation.
they will be especially helpful for me in the future as a teacher: when presenting slideshows to students, the speaker notes will be a handy assistance in presenting the information to students.
Add comment May 14, 2008
Week 9
continuing on from last week, we looked further at Inspiration. In this week’s workshop, we worked on portfolio item #6: creating a mind map of information and research on an emergent technology in education. i chose to do my mindmap on interactive whiteboards – something i was lucky enough to use in my final few years of high school. its amazing to see that so many primary schools today also utilise interactive whiteboards, or ‘SMART boards’ as they were known at my high school.
Add comment May 14, 2008
