Learning e.Journal: What a Journey!

I have been avoiding engagement with blogs and other elements of ICT's, as I am not very computer literate and once I started my EPL placement at Durack SS, I found they do not yet use ICT's very much in the classroom in which I am placed. The technology in the classroom is less than six months old, in many cases (even classroom telephones!), and the teachers are slowly come to grips with the new learning experiences they can provide because of this new technology. So it was only due to the second piece of assessment that I found myself actively engaging with the other student blogs, and through them many other ICT opportunities and tools for use in my classroom.

Admittedly this is probably a little too late for the assessment purposes, I should have engaged much sooner. However I am please to confirm a growing passion for the 'endless' variations of technology available, and the potential they bring to assist my learners engage within the lessons I provide. I am particularly interested in the ability to cover multiple learning styles within the one lesson by using ICT tools, which are often freely available on the internet. For example, in one of her postings, Debbie Mollenhagen describes the effectiveness of Power-point slide presentations in engaging students with ADHD with the course material. Debbie highlights the use of multi-intelligence strategies to engage these students within the school curriculum guidelines. I felt Debbie demonstrates a genuine concern for the engagement of ADHD sufferers within the classroom environment and has found a good use of ICT's to address learning and behavioural issues within any classroom.

Karlee has a phone application embedded on her blog homepage, which has a virtual fish tank, where visitors to the site can feed the fish by simply clicking on the left mouse button, somewhere in the tank, which deposits food for the fish.

The more you click, the more food is provided and the fish move around the tank in order to eat the food. Not only is this a very cool and interesting addition to Karlee's site, I can see the potential in educational terms. If a learning manager where to have a virtual fish tank displayed on their interactive white board during class, it could be used as a motivational tool for students to complete their work, so that they can feed the fish as a reward system.

The uses for this interactive imagery is similar to that of the avatars we have had to create as part of the course ware. Emma Eborn used a dolphin avatar as a hook to engage year eleven students in environmental issues associated with their class. I shared how I too have used avatars to engage a six year old in his learning of reading and writing, which demonstrates the versatility of this simple tool to engage the student in the required learning area, they just want to be a part of it. Also, Samantha Green gives three very useful ideas of how avatars can be used to engage students, while also raising a valid negative to the use of avatars, the amount of download memory used for each avatar. I had not thought about, nor was I aware of the avatar's download capacity, which could be very relevant if one where to encourage students to develop their avatars from home.

As my EPL placement does not use ICT's in any substantial way, at the moment, and given that Durack SS is in one of the lowest socio-ecenomic areas of Brisbane (Inala), many of the students do not have computer or internet access at home, therefore applying ICT's in this environment can be difficult. However Emma Eborn raised a valid alternative for these students, in order to blog their learning experiences as part of conducting a science experiment within a small group. Emma suggested those who did not have internet access at home or those who where not comfortable with e-journaling, could do the same in a hand written journal, which could be presented to the teacher regularly. I think Emma's idea demonstrates a creative answer to the often used excuse for not engaging with ICT's, the accessibility of all students to the relevant technology.

Although the week five course ware, for ICT's for Learning Design, is explained simply with very good youtube tutorials, with my limited experience with computers and the internet, I still found it very difficult to grasp how to use Mahara and Blogger. So I engaged the assistance of one of my former youth group kids, who is now formally trained in IT, to help me to learn how to navigate around and usefully engage with the various sites and blogs I am required to access. I found this solution extremely helpful to me as a hands on learner, to have someone beside me to instruct me (not do it for me) and it also gave me confidence to try new things (everything was new!), because if I made a mistake, I could be shown easily how to rectify the matter and move on. I felt empowered in my learning and Tom commented how he also enjoyed the experience of assisting me to learn, particularly as he also is a hands on learner and could appreciate how I needed to be guided. Not only have I become more aware of useful tools for providing learning experiences, and grown significantly in my abilities in using ICT's, I have unwittingly enabled someone else to experience the joys of teaching. Who Knows maybe this whole experience might inspire Tom to become an effective learning manager?

Finally, although I do not have much opportunity to apply my learning in ICT's within my classroom environment, at the moment, I am leading a children's program as part of a Christian convention is Chinchilla, this weekend, and I am embedding some youtube clips into Power-point presentations, in conjunction with other projected images to enhance the engagement and experience of the children I am assisting to learn about God. I am very excited about the role ICT's will play in my present and future learning/teaching experiences.

Take Care
Tony Merrin