Group 4 Technologies - Other Digital Tools’ use in education

I’ve skipped through many examples of these tools, much as I did with Glogster.  It’s really hit home to me just how much useful information and how many useful examples are out there, as well as all the irrelevant, useless dross.  It’s easy to spend hours signing up to various tools, trying to learn them and looking at how other people are using them.  Connectivism and collaboration.  If only I, or all teachers, had the time to keep up with the new ICT tools and their application.  No wonder kids feel that teachers are out of date.  They have so much more time on their hands to discover these wonders on the web and every week will no doubt bring the next new best thing.  However, instead of being threatened or overwhelmed by this fact, perhaps we should be utilising children to educate or update teachers on ICTs?  Instead of/in addition to a Monday morning discussion on, say, current affairs over the weekend, what about a discussion (and presentation) of any new ICT tools or useful (education) sites discovered by pupils over the last week?

Group 4 Technologies – Digital Tools is a bit of a mish-mash of online tools, many of which are fantastic, if you have the time to investigate them properly.  At least my whistle-stop tour has informed me of the kinds of tools out there.  Take Adobe Flash for example.  It’s everywhere.  My Prezi on Presentation Tools uses flash, most decent websites use it as do most of the Animation and Simulation tools recommended in the course materials.  There’s no way that I, or any other digital immigrant teacher has time to learn the programming necessary, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the digital native Gen Z children pick it up in a flash (sorry).

Animations and Simulations. There are thousands of these on the web.  They are much more interactive than textbooks and whiteboards; so much more engaging for children of all ages.  Take a look at the site ABCya (“see ya”, get it?) for loads of ideas.  I found this one on the Skeletal System.  Not only does it ensure the pupil gets the answers right, it challenges them to do so in as few clicks as possible, honing their mouse skills as well as increasing their anatomical knowledge.  Couldn’t this be done in any other way?  Is there a pedagogical reason behind using this, rather than, say, a picture, photocopied 25 times? 

The pupils could write down the appropriate terms from a list on the whiteboard.  Of course, it could be done that way.  Think of the time it’d take, the resources it’d use up.  Would it be any better?  No, it would be less engaging for young minds.  It would also entail the teacher marking 25 sheets, or going around helping 25 pupils, whereas the interactive version tells a pupil when they’re wrong.  If they can’t work out the correct answer, they can ask the teacher for assistance.  Alternatively, the teacher can focus extra help on the slower learners, or extend the faster learners, not to mention what they could with the time freed up from photocopying, writing on the board, etc.  It’s already prepared online for them. 

Of course, the drawback with this and most of these tools is that each child would need a computer to work individually.  Sure, they can work collaboratively, but that’s not always the best way to learn.  One day, not too far in the future, every school pupil will have a digital device on their desk.  At this stage a wireless mouse each for Mouse Mischief on PowerPoint (see earlier blog and Prezi) is probably beyond the budget of most primary schools.

Google Earth and Google Maps were two other tools in Group 4.  They have many similarities, which is why I’m considering them together.  Once again, there is just not the time to explore these fantastic tools to their fullest.  There is no doubt I will be using one or either of these in my primary school on the IWB.  Children have always loved maps and atlases.   Google’s tools aren’t just interactive (free) maps; not just visual images of the geography of the earth.  They now come with street views of the buildings themselves, descriptions of places of interest and businesses and photographs of the areas published by the public.  They provide the opportunity of plotting routes, giving distances and timings by car or foot.

Tewantin State School - Google Maps

If that wasn’t enough, it’s amazing what you can tailor in My Maps.  The class can save their own map and individuals work on it at home, creating their own variations and additions.  For example, a homework project to combine say HPE with Arts having children photograph and plot the nearest parks, walkways and nature trails, perhaps creating a running, cycling or dog-walking route for their other pupils to enjoy. 

The course materials alone give 15 examples from plotting of earthquakes to comparison timings of local bus routes, to a student’s 3D representation of Tutankhamen’s Tomb.  If the world is not enough, Google Earth has extended to the moon and Mars and the galaxies beyond, using NASA images.  Kids should never be bored in school again!

Google Documents for Collaboration.  Well, you’ll have seen from my previous posts that I’m not a big fan of Google Docs (GDs).  Google yes.  Google Docs, no.  I have found nothing but limitations and frustrations with them and think there are better alternatives.  The course materials suggest an example of GDs’ use: “if your students are working with an expert, they can ask questions, see the response, and question again” (Moodle).  They can do this (and more, in a much more interactive way) with SKYPE, VoIP, or non-simultaneously with emails, wikis and blogs.

http://userlogos.org/node/1624


GDs for collaboration come into their own for group projects, particularly where pupils do not wish to have the collaborative document they are working on made public (although there are other ways of doing that with other ICTs too).  Does this online collaboration limit the development of face-to-face interpersonal skills?  Probably.  Would it be better for pupils to work together in reality rather than over the ether?  Probably, but particularly in remote areas this is not always practical.  Looking a little more globally, however, GDs do offer opportunities for international collaboration on global discussion points such as sustainability, for example, with pupils learning from peers in other countries as to their approach to recycling, for example.

In terms of English language, GDs do encourage “writing as a process and encourage multiple revisions and peer editing” (no more so than other collaborative writing, particularly if revisions are not kept), as well as enabling the teacher to add comments to be considered along the way.

Online Concept Mapping was the final tool.  I used Bubbl.us and discussed both Bubbl.us and Text2Mindmap in my blog on Blogs as education tools and used Text2Mindmap on by blog Wikis as education tools.  The Text2Mindmaps programming and functionality just isn’t there yet, and I doubt it will ever be as the last update was 2008!  Time to update the course materials.

Zooburst for interactive digital storybooks looks like a great tool for the tots. 

http://www.zooburst.com/



An animated pop-up book application (free for teachers). I’m sure, from a child’s point of view, a pop-up book on a big screen IWB could be more engaging than a hard-copy, paper pop-up book. From a teacher’s point of view, there are real benefits from being able to engage the whole class with one book, rather than only a few, or a large group not really getting to see the pictures up close. The opportunity is also afforded (as with traditional books) to ask questions about the sky, about the characters, what the children think might happen next and what they might say (the speech bubbles are expandable, so they could guess before the teacher clicked on the bubble to reveal the text). The time spent researching a new text for a class, reading through the pre-created books online would be no more than reading through a traditional book, but drafting a whole one might be rather time consuming.

Thinking outside the box a little, assuming the relevant-age children would not be computer literate enough to create their own books, the teacher could create one, collaboratively, in the classroom, engaging the pupils to choose characters, backgrounds, even plots, or, taking an existing even partly-completed book (like the example of Little Red Riding Hood) and having the children decide what happens next. For certain fairy tales, the children would know the plots, or they could change them or make them up themselves. Once saved, the children could share “their” creation with their parents at home, practicing reading further and maybe enhancing the story for future revisions.