After having a look at a blog by Lisa http://lg87.worpress.com/ I decided to create a fun avatar that students can create and interact with. If you would like to experiment with VOKIs then here is the site:
http://www.voki.com/
These avatars are great to hook students into ICTs and can make learning fun. Making learning more enjoyable motivates students. There is little worse in the educational world than having to persist through a boring lesson. Using VOKIs as an engagement tool has the potential for students to engage with material in their own expressive way and collaborate with each other using a forum that is socially accpetable in their world.
As part of the Blog component for the GHG emissions unit I am designing, I will allow the students to interact using avatars they have created on the internet.
Get a Voki now!
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Pedagogical Licence - Initial Unit Proposal
My final unit plan incorporating ICTs into an educational context will probably evolve from this initial proposal. However, since learning in general is a journey to be experienced rather than the arrival at a destination, the following proposal is likened to my starting point. Over the coming weeks I will continue to document my thoughts and investigations to arrive with the best unit I can produce from the perspective of my students who populate my 'perfect classroom'. I sincerely trust you enjoy reading this journey as much as I have experienced it.
Unit Proposal
Belief Statement &Context:
I am committed to student-centered enquiry based learning that fosters life long learning both within and beyond the school context because I maintain that each student learns differently. These differences are affected by a number of factors that may include learning styles or sociocultural barriers. Quality teaching provides students with opportunities in life and therefore a teacher commits a gross disservice by disregarding even one student in any of the KLAs. Therefore when teaching lessons/units including ICTs, all students should be allowed to explore and develop skills without prejudice to become an active citizen with all the opportunities of any other.
Educational Context – Year 6/7 Studies of Society and Environment
The students will investigate greenhouse gas emissions, what causes them and their planetary effects. Additionally, the students will formulate immediate as well as future alternatives they can employ to lower their carbon footprint individually, around their home and the school.
ICT Items:
v Web log:
The students will maintain a group journal of their investigations and findings in a blog space on blogger.com to foster collaborative learning. Students will be required to add a positive comment on at least two blogs by other groups they found helpful and/or interesting.
v Microsoft Publisher
Students will produce a brochure detailing their findings about greenhouse gas emissions and ways to combat the issue. I have chosen this ICT because of its ease of use and effectiveness in communicating the students’ findings to the school and the community at large.
v Microsoft Excel (individual assessment)
As part of this unit the students will learn how to represent GHG data on three separate graphs within a spreadsheet. The students will gather data on GHG emissions since 1750, the world’s worst polluters by nation and per capita. This ICT links visual learning to empirical data with research and mathematical skills emphasized.
I am committed to student-centered enquiry based learning that fosters life long learning both within and beyond the school context because I maintain that each student learns differently. These differences are affected by a number of factors that may include learning styles or sociocultural barriers. Quality teaching provides students with opportunities in life and therefore a teacher commits a gross disservice by disregarding even one student in any of the KLAs. Therefore when teaching lessons/units including ICTs, all students should be allowed to explore and develop skills without prejudice to become an active citizen with all the opportunities of any other.
Educational Context – Year 6/7 Studies of Society and Environment
The students will investigate greenhouse gas emissions, what causes them and their planetary effects. Additionally, the students will formulate immediate as well as future alternatives they can employ to lower their carbon footprint individually, around their home and the school.
ICT Items:
v Web log:
The students will maintain a group journal of their investigations and findings in a blog space on blogger.com to foster collaborative learning. Students will be required to add a positive comment on at least two blogs by other groups they found helpful and/or interesting.
v Microsoft Publisher
Students will produce a brochure detailing their findings about greenhouse gas emissions and ways to combat the issue. I have chosen this ICT because of its ease of use and effectiveness in communicating the students’ findings to the school and the community at large.
v Microsoft Excel (individual assessment)
As part of this unit the students will learn how to represent GHG data on three separate graphs within a spreadsheet. The students will gather data on GHG emissions since 1750, the world’s worst polluters by nation and per capita. This ICT links visual learning to empirical data with research and mathematical skills emphasized.
Friday, October 10, 2008
ICT Pedagogical Licence
G'day Bloggers,
Welcome to my Technology Across the Curriculum and education JCU blogspot. As part of my ICT Pedagogical Licence this blogspace will incorporate evidence of ICTs being effectively used to assist in an educational environment.
As part of my commitment to incorporating ICT's across every KLA, I will be posting blogs freely available to be downloaded that provide both multilesson units and individual lessons that can be used and/or modified by an educator to suit their classroom. Additionally, I will be providing teaching resource website reviews to direct fellow educators to resources I have effectively used and have found extremely helpful in an educational context.
Please feel free to leave a comment if you have found a blog useful or would like to add something to any blog.
Regards
Lloyd Dawson
Welcome to my Technology Across the Curriculum and education JCU blogspot. As part of my ICT Pedagogical Licence this blogspace will incorporate evidence of ICTs being effectively used to assist in an educational environment.
As part of my commitment to incorporating ICT's across every KLA, I will be posting blogs freely available to be downloaded that provide both multilesson units and individual lessons that can be used and/or modified by an educator to suit their classroom. Additionally, I will be providing teaching resource website reviews to direct fellow educators to resources I have effectively used and have found extremely helpful in an educational context.
Please feel free to leave a comment if you have found a blog useful or would like to add something to any blog.
Regards
Lloyd Dawson
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