Using Blogger To Assist A Direct Instruction Lesson

Hi Everyone,

I have just created a second blog account with the same email address as this blog. This second account is being used to assist convey the instructions to my 'classroom' using a Voki to hook student interest. My 'students' are required to maintain a blog for collaborative learning and the first lesson is on how to create one, publish postings and add comments. An example is provided to model the entries for the students. This model will be printed out and included in my portfolio.

The new learning for me was that blog postings and comments as well as still images can be copied and pasted into a Word document for printing. Voki avatars however do not come out (there is only a blank space). Additionally, I have found out that you don't need two email accounts to have two blogs. When you have two blog accounts and you sign in with your email address, both accounts appear as links on the dashboard.

I hope everyone's portfolio is near completion.

Best Regards
Lloyd

What Can Primary Students Handle?

Hi everyone,

As part of the licence and ED4492 assessment, the students are required to start their own wiki and comment on someone else's posting. In the course of our studies I experienced two peers who had different points of view with regard to whether primary students could successfully tackle a task involving Excel and Publisher. I chose this intriguing debate as the subject of my wiki. What follows is my original wiki question and some of the comments that were generated because of it. These students have granted me permission to copy their comments from the secure LearnJCU site onto my blog site to which I am very grateful. Please enjoy and leave a comment if you agree or disagree:

I am using Excel and Publisher as two ICT items within a predominantly SOSE Greenhouse Gas Emissions learning context. It has been suggested by a peer that the use of Excel and Publisher might be too advanced for Year 6/7 students citing that if we as university students need scaffolding for these programs, then Excel and Publisher might be too difficult for primary students. This is certainly a valid comment and one worth investigating.


Another peer has suggested that if the students had quality instruction in the past on these programs (say Yr 6-7) then by year 7 they should be able to handle some tasks with sufficient scaffolding to overcome any perceived difficulties. Your comments are most welcome however, please be aware that your own experiences with computer programs and any instruction you may have received whether good or not so, may significantly affect your answer. I look forward to any contributions.


Regards

Lloyd Dawson

Commencement of student comments
Hello Lloyd,

This is a very interesting question. First and foremost as with all use of technology in the classroom the teacher needs to have some basic understanding of the programs being used and then use the program with the students being prepared to learn new things, students are wonderful and revealing new or easier way to complete operations with software. If you go in blind the results with students will be no good.Yes I think students in upper Primary are more then capable of handling Excel or Publisher. In fact in our 4th year math subject we were provided us with articles which articulated how successful this was (these articles were written in an Action Research approach). I have also heard of success with both programs in the upper school from teachers including my third year prac teacher who covers excel in term 3 and publisher in term 4 with great results. I think as long as it has a purpose, the students are engaged and you are clear with what they need to do then they can handle it.

This is my personal opinion but then I decided I should back myself with research or evidence and I stumbled upon this website: http://www.microsoft.com/education/candy.mspx, it is a Microsoft website promoting the use of word, excel and power point to reach math outcomes. They have heaps of different lessons so check it out, and adjust to suit you. After a read through even though it states intermediate to advanced I believe it can be adapted to suit lower level students in the upper primary levels. We can't just discount students abilities because we find it difficult because they are very quick at this technology stuff. And again if it is meaningful for them they will do the best they can. Scaffold them so they succeed, use group work and make it interesting!

Monday, 11/03/2008 4:49 PM by Lisa Goes


Hi Lloyd!

I agree with Lisa. I can tell you from personal experience that students will have no problems with Excel and publisher with the right knowledge and scaffolding.

At my last prac, I had my year 3/4 students do a survey then transfer the data into a table in excel and make a chart/pie graph. Some students wizzed through it, while other needed more assistance. I found it worked well to ahve to more tech-literate students assist the other less able students. I also found it a huge help to explain to the student what things meant. I didn't just say, "click here and do this". I was , "Now we need to creat a chart from the numbers we've put in this table, so click on this button which looks like a little chart (makes sense, no?) and then...."

It's important to explain not only HOW we do something, but WHY as well!

Hope this makes sense!

Erica

Monday, 11/03/2008 5:15 PM by Erica Thompson
Hi Lloyd!

I too agree with Lisa- students in upper primary are more than capable in using specific functions in MS Excel and MS Publisher. However, I must highlight what Erica has mantioned- with the right knowledge and scaffolding.

While I am still in my early 20's I am a very strong believer in the traditional, explicit teaching practice. However, this is not to say that I do not use other techniques. My belief in such techniques stem from personal high school and university experiences.

If students need to know the 'how to' of something they need to be shown explicitly. Compliment your verbal explanations with visual cues than demonstrate which menus and functions students will be required to use to produce say a column graph. Remember one demonstration may not be adequate. Even in high school I usually aim for at least three, working with the following principle:

Eg.1 I do you watch

Eg.2 I do you help

Eg.3 You do I watch.

This strategy can used with the whole class or on an individual basis.

Additionally, opportunities for hands-on practice cannot be stress enough. Design activities that allow students to practice and master the skills taught. You may wish for students to work in groups so they can scaffold each other. Once the fundamentals are grasped more challenging tasks can be set.

The important thing to remember is that students need the fundamental knowledge and skills before they can master the complex tasks. One of the best ways to achieve this is using explicit teaching practices.

I hope this proves helpful Lloyd. Good Luck!

*Krys*

Monday, 11/03/2008 6:31 PM by Krystal Pearson


I agree with both Krystal and Erica if students have had little to no experience they will find the task difficult so scaffolding is key! I have found while teaching word functions with a grade 7 class (using explicit teaching) at the end it was really fun to choose three or four buttons (depending on time) and find out what they do. Luckily I had the advantage of a large projector that linked into my laptop for this. Although this would be difficult in a high school setting I found it very helpful at the primary school level because it encouraged students to try things. Although before this I would highlight in big bold flashing lights the undo button in case the experiment turned bad.

Monday, 11/03/2008 7:25 PM by Lisa Goes
End of comments


There is so much that we as future teachers can take away from these comments, not just in terms of Excel & Publisher but in general teaching terms when faced with challenges in our classrooms that I thought they should be presented in both the wiki and blog forums. I have really valued the experiences these peers have offered in my own learning journey as a result of this subject.

Best Regards
Lloyd

Webquest change

Hi everyone,

After discussing the big picture with Max Lenoy today, he recommended that I not attempt to do a webquest as the time factor to successfully complete one would place the submission of my portfolio beyond the due date of 10 Nov 08. I will be adopting the 5e lesson format I was introduced earlier this year in Science.

Regards
Lloyd

Preliminary Over

The proposal has been presented and now it is time to produce the final unit. One comment provided by Max Lenoy after assessing the proposal was to include a webquest. To do this without dropping one of the existing 3 ICTs (Publisher, Excel & Blog) would be to embed the webquest within the blog. To make the webquest more interesting for the students in my 'perfect classroom', I will use a Voki to detail the quest and provide the instructions the students are to follow on the quest. More to follow very soon and since I now have one less subject to complete assessment for, material will be coming quick and fast. So buckle up your seat belts.

Regards
Lloyd