Activity 6.1

In Monday's Class, we had a guest speaker Joyce Seitzinger from Australia talk to the class about Personal Learning Networks. she talked to us about what a PLN is and what tools we can use to develop our PLN to maximize the usefulness of PLN's

The first point that Joyce talked about that I found particularly interesting was how social media is a very useful platform to develop your PLN. The part that I found the most interesting was about the use of twitter. I learnt that twitter is a very effective tool to develop your PLN. I already knew that you can use twitter to follow industry professionals, but the thing I learnt was that you can use the hash tags to access rich information from others with the same interest as you. Before Joyce's presentation, I didn't really see twitter as a useful tool, but after hearing about it and all the benefits of it, i will definitely be using it in the future.

The second bit that I learnt the most from was when she talked about all of the different tools that are available for your PLN and how they can be grouped into different categories. Some of the new tools that were introduced to me by Joyce were, Flipboard and About Me. About me will be particularly useful for me as it aggregates all the tools in one place and makes it easier for people to find you as everything is all on one page.

A challenge that I can see myself facing in the future is: How to stay active on all of the different tools (What to post? when to post it? do I have enough time to manage all of these different tools?)

6.14

Here is a picture of my PLN diagram

At the moment, My PLN is quite small and I'm looking to expand it with some of the new tools I have learnt about from Joyce's Presentation and by trying some of the other tools I have seen from other student's Diagrams. At the moment I get a learning edge from my PLN because I have a good mix of communication and learning tools which means I can gather information and communicate it effectively using my PLN

Activity 5.1

An e portfolio is a collection of an individuals experiences, achievements and learning which is normally presented in a CV format and aided by websites such as Linked-in

Sites such as Linked-in and other similar websites are great for connecting with others in the same field as you. They are great for establishing and expanding networks and could aid in future job prospects.

Another purpose that e portfolios have that is useful is when employees "google you" they will be able to have access to a great academic reference rather than just relying on impressions that they get from other online profiles such as Facebook, whos content may not necessarily benefit the employee they are searching. 


Click here for my Linked In Profile: 
Click here for my Google site with Basic CV

Week 4 Other Activites

Other Activities. Have added a calendar to the side bar. Have also added a widget for twitter (couldn't get the twitter feed to show but if you click on the follow me button you can see my twitter feed) RSS feed of blog can be found on http://wikieducator.org/User:SamMcFadyen

Activity 4.1

The section that I changed on the wiki was the Skype section in the wiki 

http://wikieducator.org/VirtualMV/Digital_Learning_Technologies/Social/Web_conferencing

I added a brief description of what Skype is and some of the features. I also provided my opinion on how suitable I think Skype would be to use to steam classes.

Activity 3.2

Here is a diagram showing the different technologies I have been exposed to at E.I.T. 

Activity 3.3

Below are some of the skills that 21st century teachers must have. They have been classified based on difficulty.

Basic

• Conduct an effective search query with the minimum possible time
• Use of online sticky notes to capture interesting ideas
• Use of online graphic organisers and printables
• Annotate web pages and highlight important parts of text to share with the class
• Use note taking tools to share content with students
• Learn about the different ways to use YouTube in the classroom
• Use digital tools for time management purposes
• Identify online resources that are safe for student browsing
• Use of mobile devices.
• Understand issues related to copyright and fair use of online materials
• Use and provide students with task management tools to organise and plan their learning
• Be able to detect plagarised works in students assignments
• Have a knowledge about online security 
• Compile a digital e-portfolio for their own development
• Use social networking to connect with and grow professionally
• Use info-graphics to visually stimulate students
• Use Video content to engage students
• Exploit digital images for classroom use 
• Spreadsheet skills
• Social networking knowledge

Intermediate

• Use file sharing to share documents and files with students online
• Use social bookmarking to share resources with and between learners
• Conduct a research paper using digital tools
• Exploit group text messaging tools for collaborative project work
• Use of collaborative tools for text construction and editing
• Use digital assessment tools to create quizzes
• Use polling software to create a real-time survey in class
• Curate web content for classroom learning
• Create and deliver asynchronous presentations and training sessions
• Create and edit digital audio 
• Database Skills
• Interactive whiteboard skills 

Advanced

• Use of screen casting tools to create and share tutorials 
• Exploit computer games for pedagogical purposes 
• Create screen capture videos and tutorials 
• Use blogs and wikis to create online platforms for students
• RSS feeds 
• Website design and management skills 
• Video and podcasting 

References: 

www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/33-digital-skills-every-21st-century.html

http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/tools_technologies/20_technology_skills_every_educator_should_have

Activity 3.1

E.I.T. uses a wide range of Digital Learning Technologies. Below I will describe 3 of them and their role at E.I.T.

Moodle

Moodle is a free piece of software that helps education providers provide online courses. For E.I.T, moodle is the software that powers E.I.T. online. The role that E.I.T. online plays at E.I.T. is huge its where students enroll in their courses, download class notes, submit assignments and it is a platform where students and the lecturers can communicate through the online forums for each class.

Reference: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moodle

Video Conferencing

Video conferencing allows people in different locations to have face to face meetings

Video conferencing at E.I.T. is rather important. It allows students from Taradale and Gisborne to connect with each other when blended learning classes are being taken. Also when lecturers stream their classes through software such as adobe connect, it allows students to access the class and be part of it without actually being in the class physically if they are unable to attend for some reason.

Reference: www.investopedia.com/terms/v/video-conferencing.asp

Social Media

The role of social media at E.I.T. isn't as big as the other technologies I have described but is still important none the less. Social media provides E.I.T. with a platform to communicate with the students by letting them know what is happening at E.I.T. (notices, events, important dates) Also, through using their page on Facebook/twitter they can advertise E.I.T. for free and may attract new students through their page.

Activity 2.3

I consider the cost of new  technology to be the biggest challenge for ubiquitious and Individualised DLT. 

Technology is growing at such a rapid pace in our days that it is hard for teachers and education providers to keep up with the ever changing technology. 

They may buy the latest piece of technology, only for it to be irrelevant and completely changed a year later. The new, upgraded technology usually comes at a high cost and can be very expensive for education providers that have to buy many of the new product. 

Activity 2.2

The technology integration that i found to be the most memorable was community building and collaborating. An example of this was when I did a group project for Systems Analysis and Design and we all used drop-box to gather our documents together. 

It was a great tool to organise our data and keep track of where we were. It did however provide some barriers, the biggest being confusion when there were multiple copies of documents and unfinished ones.

Activity 2.1

Pedagogies

Terry Anderson Identified 4 pedagogies: Behaviorist/Cognitive, Constructivist, Connectivist and Blended/Instructivist.

Behaviorist/Cognitive is more self focused learning and changing your views on how you learn and your behavior towards learning

Constructivist is learning in groups. It plays on the old saying "two heads are better than one"

Connectivist is learning using networks and other groups such as the community

Finally, the blended pedagogy changes to suit the situation. An example of this is the Instructivist where content is taught in a lecture. (would be to cater for large crowds of students)

An example of when i have used the Behaviorist/Cognitive theory is when I learnt the guitar. Its the way that I prefer to learn as I can go at my own pace and gather a deeper understanding of what I am learning rather than trying to keep up with the whole class.

An example of the constructivist theory is when I had to do a group project on investigating a problem at a local business. There are both positive and negative aspects of this theory, the positives being that you get a wide range of views on one subject and more people means there are more skill sets and this may enable work to be done faster. Negatives are: Clashing personalities and group-think.

An example of a blended/instructivist theory is when learning the marketing paper at E.I.T. there were a large number of students in that class so it was just a lecturer talking and us students taking notes the whole time. For me its a rather impersonal way of teaching.

E learning can be integrated for the Behaviourist through use of sites like E.I.T. Online where information is available all the time so the student can learn at their own pace. 

Forums and using Skype or similar software for group conferences can be a way that E earning can be integrated for the constructivist. 

For the connectivist, E learning can be integrated through the use of social media and group pages on there. 

For Blended/Instructivist, things such as power point,projectors mobile phones can be ways E learning can be integrated.