Glogster

Week 5 - Engagement Activity 4b

 

Reflection on Glogster

 

Having never seen nor heard of a 'Glogster' prior to this engagement activity, this was yet another very new experience for me. After creating my first Glogster, I consider it to be the twenty-first century's version of the cardboard posters I used to make for project presentations in primary school. Hardcover, single-set-per-school-library encyclopedias, at that time, were the most significant source of information for young students. I remember being excited when the news agencies began selling project packets in the 1980s. These were kits consisting of information and printed images that could be glued onto cardboard posters, to complete projects on common themes such as The First Settlement. These kits were a real treat because everything you needed was already gathered together - you didn't have to compete for library books, or scribble information from a reference book during your short time at the library (because reference books could not go home). Posters could be adorned with coloured pictures, rather than black and white photocopied or hand-drawn images from the same book as everyone else's. 

It was not all that long ago when PCs were not even on the radar, and the internet would have been considered a space-age fantasy. I remember when my parents had a computer installed in their offices - I think it was a mainframe type setup (?) - but whatever it was, it was HUGE! From what I can remember, having been a child at the time, it consisted of several structures that were taller than me, and covered most of one floor of the office building. I got the impression it was very temperamental, as it had to be kept at a certain temperature with air conditioning, and because Mum was always paranoid about 'losing' information. This anxiety continues to haunt her, some thirty years later. This monstrosity of a 'thing' made a persistent humming sound, and due to its overall size and noise, as well as the levels of 'fuss' it created, its presence was undeniable. It took technicians weeks to install it, and to train Mum in its use.

How times and technology have changed! Within a relatively short passage of time, there would not be many businesses or homes without at least one computer. With glogster, students can now prepare and present their project posters digitally, with an abundance of information available at the click of a finger. And the results by far exceed the gooey, gluey, all-the-same cardboard project posters of the bygone era. Students are spoiled for information now, but the emphasis has changed and it is now up to them to learn to be discerning and choose the most relevant and reliable sources of information, resulting in broader learning experiences and enhanced learning outcomes. 

In the Early Childhood setting, a teacher could create sets of glogsters, to engage students in the learning of early literacy and numeracy skills. For example, concepts, positional language, phonics, and numbers. The variety of 'pieces', such as videos, images, audio and text would maintain attention that might be lost through speaking alone. I think glogster would be a great collaborative tool in early primary school classes. Groups of children could combine individually sourced information, facts and examples to create a combined glogster, without the pressure of creating one on their own  (though this would not be impossible). Teachers could use this type of project as an engaging tool to excite students about learning and using creativity, while sourcing and absorbing important content knowledge. In this way, the glogster is facilitating the application of the TPACK concept.

My Glogster

My Prezi

Untitled Prezi on Prezi

Prezi

Week 5 - Engagement Activity 4a

 

Reflection on Prezi

Wow - what a new experience! I have never before seen, nor heard of Prezi, and now I have made my own! This was quite a challenge at 10pm at night, since I now realise I must deliver a reflection on all three tools to my blog. I fear I may be a little late submitting this week, as I have yet to complete this post (it is 12:13am according to my laptop), and create and reflect on Glogster!

Not surprisingly, I found Prezi quite a startling application, having never seen it before.  While the tutorials made it seem very straight forward, it took some getting used to when I used it myself. I'm not sure if my finished project is as it should be, but it seems to work okay. I have used the same theme as in my Powerpoint - beginning sounds ABC (Wonderful Words, Super Sounds), however my Prezi presentation is more of a discussion activity, rather than a hands-on, interactive game. I tried to import the Powerpoint, but was unable to complete this procedure. Gaining this skill would certainly save time in the future, enabling a discussion-based presentation to be created from an existing interactive game.

I think one of the major benefits of Prezi, particularly for global learners, is that it provides a general overview of the topic upfront, before delving into the smaller screens for further detail. Prezi would provide plenty of stimulus, in the form of text, images and media files, for students to confidently deliver oral presentations in an engaging way, without the need to read from notes. Teachers can use Prezi to provide stimulus for class discussion and participation; visuals are so much more stimulating than text on a page - this form of presentation encourages free-thinking, and exploration and processing of ideas.

In the Early Childhood context, Prezis could be used to compile a collection of nursery rhymes, poems, songs or stories. Children can readily see what is available, and easily select their favourite poem, nursery rhyme, song or story. Once selected, a progression of frames tells the story in a fluent, sequential way, through a seemless progression of images, text and media insets. Prezi could be used to create living books or learning books, detailing factual information on various topics. For example, a teacher could create a Prezi on Minibeasts or Marsupials. A different creature could be introduced daily to young children, who are very eager to learn about such things. Older children could research information to create their own books or research projects to deliver to their class, or post on-line. Numeracy concepts could also be delivered through Prezi presentations, with various groups of items arranged within frames and shapes. For older children, various mathematical problems could be posed within different frames, and they could work collaboratively to solve the problems.

The potential uses for Prezi, as a learning tool, are endless. It enables teachers to deliver content knowledge in pedagogically creative and effective ways, through the use of technology, thus fulfilling TPACK requirements. Another benefit of Prezi is that it is available free on-line for those who do not have Powerpoint, or it can be downloaded it to a computer or USB for off-line, portable use also.

 

Powerpoint

Week 5 - Engagement Activities 1,2,3 

 

My Powerpoint + Reflection on Powerpoint

I have used Powerpoint quite frequently in the past, however this week's engagement activities prompted me to explore some new avenues which will, undoubtedly, enhance my creativity and use of Powerpoint in the future. In particular I followed a link from the week 5 Moodle Learning Materials to a site called Powerpoint Magic, where I discovered another link to Presentermedia. I was so impressed by Presentermedia's animated 3D figures and templates, as well as their standard clipart, that I promptly purchased a year's subscription (40% off at present, if you are interested!). I also discovered Slideshare, but was less than impressed with the way it played back my powerpoint presentation, altering fonts and not operating my hyperlinks in the correct way - a formatting problem which has led to a less than professional end product when accessed through Slideshare. (I later uploaded this to my website, and the link is below this post).

I have always enjoyed using Powerpoint, and prefer to make my own templates/backgrounds and design my own layouts. This week I was really excited to learn about the hyperlink function, as this has opened up a whole new practical use for Powerpoint for me to utilise in the Early Childhood context. Now I can make interactive games for young students to learn, for example, phonics, early number skills, basic concepts, positional language and so on. This makes putting TPACK into practice a breeze, since any interactive Powerpoints I create can be structured to include technological, pedagogical and content knowledge, all while the children have fun playing! 

The Powerpoint I created this week focuses on beginning sounds /a/,/b/and /c/. It is called Wonderful Words, Super Sounds. Students have the option of which sound they would like to explore, and are then presented with several images of items beginning with that sound. They are prompted to say the sound then say the word. After this, they are offered an activity, via a hyperlink, which asks them to identify images on a linked screen that begin with that same sound (there is a mix of correct and incorrect answers). Each image selected is hyperlinked to an individual results screen, which has the chosen image isolated and enlarged, with the word displayed beneath and the beginning sound highlighted using a key colour for that sound. There is information telling the student if they are correct, or if they need to try again. A variety of positive feedback is provided by animated characters, with remarks designed to amuse and encourage the young participants, thus keeping them engaged and learning. A 'next' hyperlink is included on each results page to return the student to the page where they can identify another word beginning with the chosen sound. At the bottom of this page, once the student has finished the activity, there is the option to view a screen with all images beginning with the chosen sound, with written words beside the images (a summary); and there is also the option to choose a 'new sound'. 

To improve this interactive game, I would add some audio files, which would be activated when items are clicked on with the mouse. At present, children would initially benefit from having an adult help them to understand the task, but would soon learn what is required. The audio files would also be of benefit to students with additional needs and generally low literacy skills. I would also utilise the drag and drop idea discussed in the Moodle tutorial in many Early Childhood designed interactive Powerpoint games. 

All in all, I think the possibilities with Powerpoint are endless. While the setting up of games, especially the hyperlinks that make them interactive, can be time-consuming, I think time spent preparing such games is an investment in creating a very useful bank of resources that employ each aspect of the TPACK concept in a very successful way. Using technology to teach content knowledge, really does require the thoughtful application of effective pedagogical skills and knowledge. 

Wonderful Words, Super Sounds 

Interactive Powerpoint Game

http://fionasmanagingelearningwebsite.weebly.com/fionas-abc-ppt-game.html