IWB

Ah, the interactive whiteboard. I love the concept of it. I have seen many of them around the place, but have only ever seen one used once successfully as an interactive whiteboard. Every other time, they are only used as a projector. I attempted to use one on prac but it failed miserably.

It really is a decent concept in itself. Engaging and allows for full class participation in activities to a certain extent. I can imagine the uses of it in ICT would be great as well. But they are so rarely used to their potential. Maybe instead of blogging for this course we could learn some useful ICT skills, like maybe get trained on how to actually use the interactive whiteboards. Imagine that, University teaching you a useful skill that can be easily and effectively implemented into a classroom.

I’m very glad to see that some people managed to use ICT’s effectively on prac. If you are an early primary teacher, this blog shows some really great resources that can be used.

Teaching Blogs

Wow,

Anyone would think that teachers didn’t really have anything to do with their time. The more of these theories that I google, the more blogs I am seeing from teachers about them. This is the most recent one I have found. Its a different platform to the one that we are using, but is still just a blog. If people want to read things, I don’t understand why they would want to read blogs on a computer. Why not just do something productive with your time and read a blog.

I was actually thinking the other day how much technology has changed the way school is done. I was in the library at the school that I went to for prac and there were only 3 isles of books, about 15m total length in the entire library. It was crazy. There were also about 80 laptops and 50 computers in there. This is such a change from when I was in primary school. We had books everywhere and there were 3 computers. One for the librarian, one for the IT person, and one for students. I remember doing assignments out of encyclopaedias, and I’m not even 20

Small world

So I was working my way through my activities on study desk and I ended up Googling postman’s 5 things to refresh my memory as to what they were and came across this blog. I found it in the top 3 links from google. Fancy that, My lecturer and tutors blog is in the top few search results in google. Its not very exciting, but it gave me something to write about in here. So as I go through the study desk I am finding so many things that we should have learnt that I was doing already. It’s kind of interesting to see that these things I am doing are actually theories that someone is getting credit for, even though all they did is write it down.  oh well. Time to go back to work now

 

The cyber smart thing

 

So, I have completed my cyber smart thing and now have to reflect on it. Well my reflections. Number 1, Little Johnny in grade who took the picture of the girl in her bathers, its a bit of a mix of two different worlds. The poor girl was probably raised in the most conservative family in the world to be calling her togs bathers, and Johnny, why did his parents give him a phone in grade 5. I mean come on, what is a year 5 kid gonna do with a phone. Your just asking for trouble. This is a kid who is 10 years old… A 10 year old does not need a phone. We are looking at a generation that is gonna crash and burn. Yea they might have the best technologies we have ever seen. But where are the practical skills gonna go. Noone wants to do work outside anymore. Doesn’t matter what technology you have, you need a house to live in. A house that is built by physical skills, not a computer. There will always be a need for physical work. Oh lets create a robot, go for it. 

I’m part of this technology generation, but I differ in a big way from how the students I teach use the technology. I have a smart phone that only has 200mb of memory space on it. It can fit in my pocket and looks old as anything. The students I teach, the grade 8’s have these huge expensive phones. Obviously their parents are paying for it as a year 8 kid can’t have a job. They sit there with these super expensive phones, but only have one tatty old book and a scruffy uniform. Doesn’t have a great balance if you ask me. But oh well. This is the world we live in.

 

Digital footprint.

After a stressful time on prac I’m back looking at all this stuff again. I must say I am so keen to finish this course and move onto holidays. 

Ive started, finished and handed in 2 3000 word assignments in the last 2 days so the last thing i want to do is sit down and start working on another one but I don’t really have a choice. Anyway, hang in there everyone else. Ill be discussing more of my thoughts about this content over the next few days. I think I have a fair bit of catching up to do as well, so there could be quite a few posts.

On a sad note, I have to work on state of origin night. How bad is that 😦

in conclusion, hang in there everyone. Only a few more weeks till holidays. Good luck with all your exams

 

Im back

After a stressful time on prac I’m back looking at all this stuff again. I must say I am so keen to finish this course and move onto holidays. 

Ive started, finished and handed in 2 3000 word assignments in the last 2 days so the last thing i want to do is sit down and start working on another one but I don’t really have a choice. Anyway, hang in there everyone else. Ill be discussing more of my thoughts about this content over the next few days. I think I have a fair bit of catching up to do as well, so there could be quite a few posts.

On a sad note, I have to work on state of origin night. How bad is that 😦

in conclusion, hang in there everyone. Only a few more weeks till holidays. Good luck with all your exams

 

Technology being a benefit?

What is the use of technology within the classroom…. Well its a good waste of time. There is nothing like trying to teach a class, but because the technology is there, people in power make it compulsory to use it even though traditional methods would be fine. Why do you need a fancy interactive whiteboard when an old fashioned projector would have done the trick. Why do you need a power point to deliver information to students that could have just been written on the board.

A benefit to education? In some cases yes. Have we learnt ICT skills in this course? No. If i didn’t know how to seer up a projector, create an automated workflow or solve IT problems on a computer already, I would still have no idea. What have we learnt from this course…. Well, I can now type on a blog page as well as in Microsoft word. Pretty phenomenal skill right there. Not really….. 

Technology’s scary

It’s a bit worrying when you think about how much information is on the internet these days. People can go online and find out so much about you using just basic computer skills. Then when you look at all the organisations that are online like banks, government organisations, schools etc., it really becomes an issue. If you have above average computer skills and a password generator, you can get into the personal details about people or in extreme situations, their finances.

 

Then as the technology has progressed we have program’s such as iCloud which is an online storage program where people can store their personal files, passwords, address books and anything else they like. If someone got into another persons iCloud, they wouldn’t need to hack into bank accounts to get their money, they could simply just copy all the persons passwords or PIN numbers and access the accounts as though they owned them themselves.

 

Recently, ebay went into lockdown (article link) after it was hacked with the hackers gaining access to members addresses, phone numbers, passwords, personal accounts and other personal information. This will potentially effect any number of ebay’s 145 million users.

 

It’s kinda scary really, with all our personal information in one place it makes it a lot easier for people to gain access to it. Are we still sure that technology is such a good idea??

Imbedding ICT’s

Practical experience has been good so far. 1 week down, only 2 to go. I am finding it difficult to find ways to imbed ICT skills into my lessons, especially within HPE. The school I am in does not have an outstanding access to ICT’s. There are computer labs available, but much of the work students are doing on them is for assessment they already have. Most of the assessment pieces that they are working towards at the moment are reflections on learning that they do in the prac lessons which is difficult to apply ICT in as they are outside on an oval, or away from the school altogether.

 

Mathematics is hard to use ICT’s in the classroom as students don’t have easy access to any technological devices. The only access within the classroom is via the teachers computer which limits the personal exposure for each student. Hopefully I get a few more chances to apply the skills I have leant through this class over the next few weeks.

Time is short

Well prac has started now, and I am exhausted. Working in up to 4 different workplaces a week is hard enough as it is, but now I am teaching at a school all day as well, it’s just so much harder. I’m putting in a lot of hours across the board starting at school at 8 in the morning, and finishing then working one job after school, then another job until 12am, starting again at 8 the next morning. I am really struggling to fit my uni study I am still expected to do within all of that.

 

Oh well. In my effort to try to stay engaged with the course I have spent some time looking through some other students blogs. At this time, this blog in particular caught my eye as quite an impressive effort. Makes my blog look a bit ordinary really. Made me really think about the use of other people work and how easily it can be faked online.