Week 5

Week 5 – Animation & Educational Games

Animation

Engagement of Students in ICT

Computer Games

· Summary of Class Activity
Fantastic animation programmes and educational games galore! We started by looking at Dvolver/Dfilms , which is very easy

to use, has great graphics and is well designed, but is not suitable for children due to its provocative tone. We then looked at Zimmertwins, which again is easy to use. This one, however, is suitable for kids. We swapped sketches with the aptly names Sketchswap. While this isn’t acceptable

for kids due to the unpredictable nature of the pictures you receive back, the idea is a nice one to take to the classroom. My favourite activity was Build Your Wildself: visually very fun, and very educational. We also looked at Xtranormal - suitable to use by students who are more accomplished in animation - and we made mini-mizers at Reasonably Clever. We did some blind typing and work on homonyms (see Ode to a Spell Checker - included in full at the end of this blog), and rebus writing: http://www.storygames.com/TeachManPF/Rebus.html. Greg also suggested an activity where you have each student at a computer and get them to write their own story for 20 minutes. You then sit in front of someone else's computer, read what they have written and continue on with the story. Then stop at 20mins, highlight paragraph in different colour, and repeat etc. Once they've been written, you return to your original computer and read out the stories. This is a challenge for students as they must think and write on the go – it’s great mental aerobics. Towards the end of the lesson, Greg took us to the simulation, Catchment Detox, which he advised could be used over a couple of terms, though I didn’t get a chance to explore this site.

Another great find was the WesternAustralian site called Ziptales, where we had a brief look at one of the lesson ideas on how to make your own teddy bear. We ran through a great lesson idea that came from this activity: after making the bears, take a series of shots to make into an animation. This is a lovely idea that I’d definitely take to the classroom, and there’s a lot of potential for developing literacy, art, and technology learning around this. This lesson, and other animation projects from the site, link to I/D, P&E and stretches the children's understanding of ICT and what it can achieve. By developing the stories that accompany the animations, links with English are also explored. There would be much benefit in subscribing to this site, as the activities look very engaging.

Unfortunately, I had a frustrating problem with my computer going haywire (to use the technical term) whenever I tried to add pictures to my blog, and I think I may have missed out on at least one of the activities through the lesson as I tried to catch up with the sites and activities we had already completed. There was so much in this lesson though, so I still feel like I got a lot out of it.

· Readings/Major Issues/Key Concepts

A very important point was raised in the Herald Sun article about Yarraville West Primary School’s clay animation program by Blanche Clark (http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/learn/yarraville-west-primary-school/story-e6frf7ox-1111113232320 ). The teacher running the programme states that it fits well with VELS – particularly in the Domain of Design, Creativity and Technology – but perhaps even more importantly than this, she talks about the way it encourages “habits of mind”. I think this is an essential ingredient when we’re thinking about how we’re going to use ICT in our classes. Habits of mind (from the book Habits of Mind by Arthur Costa and Bena Kallick) is about promoting student creativity and critical thinking skills, and includes “persisting, thinking and communicating with clarity and precision, striving for accuracy and finding humour…”. You can understand how the slow and delicate process of filming a claymation would develop these attributes in children. Interestingly, (and I’ve talked about this in previous blogs) my prac teacher has discussed with me the increasing “sloppiness” and haphazard attitude of the students year by year. Though she sees the incredible benefits of technology in our lives and in education, she attributes this lack of thoroughness to the “click-and-go” culture that children experience as they spend more and more time on computers and with other technologies such as game consoles and mobile phones. She’s hoping to develop a Master’s thesis around this issue, but it doesn’t take a genius to recognise elements of this fact in our own lives: auto-correction for spelling, formatting, copy-and-paste, abbreviated phone-text language etc. are just a few examples. Anyway, this idea of habits of mind caught my eye because I feel that these are the kinds of skills that we can, and must, develop in kids to help them become more thorough in their work. It’s an antidote to help reverse the negative effects that technology can have on children, and a very important one at that.

· Application in classroom (past & future)

I was lucky to see students at my last practicum learning to use the ‘Scratch’ animation software. It introduced students to programming, and leads on to more sophisticated programming and robotics with Lego Mindstorms, where students learn to write programs for their own robots. I was happy to see how quickly the kids picked this up, and how naturally they would adopt it into their work - indeed, many students would choose to do Scratch projects to support their presentations to the class, and would do a wonderful job with them.

As I’ve talked about classroom application for the games we looked at in the workshop already, I would like to quickly talk about Google Earth. I’ve found so many uses for it in my lessons, and I think it’s a great tool to use in the future. The last time I used it was for a maths lesson on elevations. Using Google Earth, we looked at the school from the top view for the top elevation or plan, and from the street view to get the front and side elevations. The activity sparked some very interesting discussions from the children as they thought about what shape their building was, what it would look like from above, and how they could locate it from surrounding landmarks. It’s also fantastic for humanities and science subjects; I’ve used it for both, and I think it has endless applications.

· Websites

Build Your Wildself: http://www.buildyourwildself.com/

Scratch: http://scratch.mit.edu/

Xtranormal: http://www.xtranormal.com/

ZimmerTwins, Create a Movie: http://www.zimmertwins.com/movie/starters

SketchSwap: http://www.sketchswap.com/

Information about Clay Animation: http://www.clayanimator.com/

Reasonably Clever: http://www.reasonablyclever.com/

Mini-mizers: http://www.reasonablyclever.com/?page_id=31

Zip Tales: http://www.ziptales.com.au/

Mindstorms: http://www.lego.com/eng/education/mindstorms/

Catchment Detox:

http://catchmentdetox.net.au/

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Newspaper Article:

Herald Sun, Claymation – Yarra West Primary School

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/learn/yarraville-west-primary-school/story-e6frf7ox-1111113232320

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Ode To A Spell-Checker. (My attempt from dictation)

I have a spelling checker
It came with my PC
It plainly marks for my review
Mistakes I cannot see,

I strike a key and type a word
And wait for it to say
Whether I am wrong or right
It shows me straight away.

Ode to Spell Checker

Eye halve a spelling checker

It came with my pea sea

It plainly marks four my revue

Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word

And weight four it two say

Weather eye am wrong oar write

It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid

It nose bee fore two long

And eye can put the error rite

Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it

I am shore your pleased two no

Its letter perfect awl the weigh

My checker tolled me sew.

(Author unknown)

Week 4

ICT - Blog 4

Week 4 – Dreamtime Stories, & MS Excel

Learning Federation Learning Objectives

Inspiration Task: Dreamtime Stories

MS Excel: M&M Spreadsheet Activity

(Online learning: Thinking Curriculum Tools & ICT)

· Summary of Class Activity

In this session we returned to the Inspiration mind-mapping software. This was a particularly enjoyable lesson. The Dreamtime stories and animation from Dust Echoes demonstrate the kind of successful amalgams that can take place between traditional art forms and technology. These entertaining and thought-provoking Dreamtime stories were nicely accompanied and supported by the stylised animation. Our task was to re-tell one of the stories using freeze-frames taken from the animation. I feel much more comfortable using Inspiration this time around, and was happy that we had a substantial amount of time to carry out the task. We spent the second half of the class working on a spreadsheet activity. It was liberating to learn about the hitherto mysterious world of Excel. Using images copy and pasted from the official M&M’s website , we created a graph to show the number of different coloured M&M’s in a pack. Even though I haven’t used Excel before, I felt more comfortable clicking around to try out different functions then I had been previously – hey, what’s the worst that can happen?

· Readings/Major Issues/Key Concepts

I would like to response to the extra lecture posted on LMS, which compares the way ICT is used by objectivist and constructivist teachers. As a teacher who values explicit, teacher-directed learning as well as constructivist, student-based learning, I can see that ICT has a useful application for both. I’ve stressed before the importance of using technology intelligently, and I think this is pertinent here as well. This starts with a deep understanding of where the student is at with their learning and where you want their learning to go. For example, I am tutoring a student who I have judged is in need of some intensive explicit instruction, and needs to take some time to consolidate their learning through rote-methods. For this student, I think they would benefit greatly by using something like Mathletics or BrainPop, or other drill and practice software. However, I would be very cautious about setting children this work, and would only do so if I thought it necessary for the individual student’s progress. For many students, though, I would use technology in order to stretch their understanding. Simulations are fantastic for this; some great ones I’ve come across are The Reconstrutors (which is probably better suited to High School Students), Calculate your Carbon Footprint, Sim City (of course), and even games such as Civilization and Age of Empire for history. Technologies that challenge students to present their work in new and creative forms are also valuable. My students at the last prac school I visited would create clever Scratch animations to demonstrate their understandings of different topics, and they would use Audacity to record creative projects such as songs and plays. This use of technology makes the students more independent and responsible in their learning, not only because they become experts in the technology itself, but also because it allows them to listen or watch back on their work (much as the teacher would do) and edit it accordingly. This student independence that you achieve with the use of ICT is the cornerstone of a constructivist, student-based learning model.

· Application in classroom (past & future)

I am very excited about the two activities we did today – lessons that can be directly transferred to the classroom are always very welcome. The activity we did today with the Dreamtime stories would make an engaging class activity, and fits well with the English, Humanities, & ICT curriculum in VELS. This would really help kids with the difficult tasks of structuring and summarising, as the activity requires them to hone in on the most crucial elements of a story and allows them to see the natural arc a good story takes. This is a particularly good website, and could inspire many other engaging class activities. There was some controversy about the appropriateness of the stories for children due to the violent nature of some of the stories. Of course, it is important for the teacher to make these calls based on the maturity and circumstances of the class. I do feel, though, that while violent, these stories would strengthen rather than harm children, and I liken them to the Grimm Brother’s fairy tales in the level of violence they portray.

There was some controversy with the M&M’s activity as well. While a fun and educational lesson, the issue of using corporate advertising and products in class bears thinking about. On the one hand, it seems that advertising and product-pushing is so ubiquitous that it renders any use in the classroom insignificant. On the other hand, teachers are in a unique position of responsibility and authority over children, and must think about the implications of their lessons contributing to or perpetuating this. I feel that I would use this in class, but I would consider following up with an additional discussion around advertising and the various ways companies try to get us to buy their products, so the students can start to analyse what is behind the games, websites and other advertising ploys used by companies to sell their products.

· Other Websites/Links

Le@rning Federation: (Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA)) For great ICT learning resources and audio/visual repository http://econtent.thelearningfederation.edu.au/ec/p/home

ELearning ICT Showcase:

http://epotential.education.vic.gov.au/showcase/index.php?showcase_id=53

Dust Echoes: http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/

The Reconstructors: http://reconstructors.rice.edu/recon1/index.html

Mathletics: http://www.mathletics.com.au/

BrainPop: http://www.brainpop.com/

Microsoft Windows Live Movie Maker: http://www.microsoft.com/education/teachers/guides/windows_movie_maker.aspx

HyperStudio: http://www.mackiev.com/hyperstudio/

iLife: http://www.apple.com/ilife/

M&M’s Website: http://www.m-ms.com.au

Carbon Calculator for Kids http://babyology.com.au/miscellaneous/clever-carbon-footprint-calculator-for-kids.html

Journals:

‘On using school as an ad medium: THE CONSUMER’, by Mark Dolliver, sourced from Brandweek. (Brandweek April 13, 2009, v50 i15, pAM24(1) 2009)

http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/eds/detail?vid=1&hid=114&sid=947c4fdc-ffc0-46ef-b2c0-6415a66ed02a%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=bth&AN=38419665

Also, from Web of Science (ISI) – , Preventive Medicine: ‘Marketing of foods of minimal nutritional value to children in schools’ by A. Molnar. (PREVENTIVE MEDICINE 47 (5): 504-507 NOV 2008)

http://www.hub.sciverse.com/action/home/proceed (accessed through University of Melbourne Super Search).

Week 3

Week 3 – I/D, P&E & Quia Game Design

I/D, P & E

Game making on Quia

· Summary of Class Activity

In this class we took some time out from the computers and focused on with design using the Investigate/Design, Produce and Evaluate model (I/D, P & E). We were set the task of making a frog that jumped with materials limited to card, elastic band, sticky-tape and a little frog print-out. Working with Young, we did make our frog jump, though not in the most elegant possible way. It was interesting to see all the different methods people had come up with around the class, and I can see how setting such design tasks would be invaluable as a classroom activity. We also looked at the Quia web site, and utilised its free 30-day trial to experiment with making different games that could be used in the classroom such as hangman, word-searches, balloon pops, and good old-fashioned multi-choice quizzes. The program was easy to use, and allowed you to devise a game around the subject of your choice, and is useful in this regard. However, I feel that the graphics and whole visual appeal of the games isn’t very exciting (or perhaps it was just the game I made?!). Considering the high level of the games you can find and download off the computer, I think I’m more inclined to use those rather than my own generated one. I have found so many good games this way, but if I had trouble finding a suitable pre-made game, I would use make my own using Quia. What is more, I feel that many of these games such as hangman or quizzes would be better played away from the computers. I have had some great prac lessons where the class formed groups and took part in an imaginary game show, and there are many other great (manual) games that students and teacher can enjoy together as a class. Basically, if it adds something, then definitely use the computer; if not, stick to the conventional form.

· Readings/Major Issues/Key Concepts

When I was reading Developing Ethical Behaviours in Students: What Schools Must Do, by Doug Johnson (listen in the research articles section of LMS) I realised that I have cyber worries galore! I have already experienced some during my teaching prac. They come in two categories: ‘pull-your-hair-out’ worries, and ‘pain-in-the-butt’ worries. The first category is a teacher’s worst nightmare, and includes things like cyber stalking and pornography. I haven’t come across anything this serious. The worst thing I’ve seen is a student (unwittingly) looking up Queen’s ‘The Bicycle Song’ on YouTubem, which is basically a clip of fully nude men and women riding around on bikes. The student, stunned and intrigued, meekly told me after a few moments that he thought he should stop watching it – a mature response, given the circumstance. The 'pain-in-the-butt' worries are less serious, perhaps, but still very concerning over the long-term. My 'pain-in-the-butt' cyber experience was the amount of copy and pasting of information from the Internet students would do when researching on the computers. By the definition of “ethical” in the paper sited above (“…an 'ethical action' does no harm to oneself, other individuals, or society”) we can say that this certainly is an ethical issue: both because it harms the student and because, if carried on into later years, it harms the party whose work is being plagiarised. We spoke about this in class. The students concurred that there is not much learning that takes place when they copy someone else’s work, and we also decided that it turns out to be quite embarrassing when you are reading out your work and you can’t read it properly because you haven’t written it.

I will end with a bold prediction that students will become increasingly used to copying work from the Internet, and this will actually change societies understanding of “plagiarism” in the future. The teacher will always be fighting against this tide: we can see this in the lengths universities go to when checking students’ work for plagiarism. But, ultimately, just as our understanding of copyright has been shifted with the proliferation of illegal downloads of music, movies and games from the Internet, we would be naïve to think that our understanding of ownership of information and the way we use this information wont be radically altered as well.

· Application in classroom

As discussed above, I feel that I’d use the Quia games function sparingly – only if I couldn’t find a pre-made game on the Internet, and if we couldn’t play the game away from the computer. I feel that some of these games don’t present rich learning opportunities for students; tasks such as word finds, for example, don’t require the students to use any higher-order thinking and involve only very superficial understanding of the material being learned. On the other hand, I have seen the advantage of devising your own multiple-choice quizzes at my last prac school. Here, the teacher wanted to test the kids’ knowledge about body systems before they started the unit so he would know what needed to be covered. I guess you could hand out a written test, but this way he got instant feedback about how the students were going without having to mark them individually. Just to finish off, I would suggest that maybe you could use the Quia program with the kids by getting them to make their own games and playing games made by other students, as this would engage them more than if it they are made by the teacher.

· Websites

Link to Quia books & Quia Web http://www.quia.com/

IXL Maths (associated with Quia) http://www.ixl.com/

Media Awareness Network, Cyber Pigs game incl. teacher’s guide. http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/privacy_playground/ This site has great graphics and sound, is fun and not too daggy. (I love the idea of a virtual pigsty - I think I’ve created my own on my laptop).

Readings

Developing Ethical Behaviours in Students: What Schools Must Do, by Doug Johnson (Director of Media and Technology, Mankato Area Public Schools, Mankato (MN), 2002; posted on LMS - research articles):

http://webct.latrobe.edu.au/webct/urw/lc17802779087071.tp17802779120071/displayContentPage.dowebct?updateBreadcrumb=false&pageID=17802779908071

VELS Design, Creativity and Technology Downloads: http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/dct/downloads.html