4.7.4 Online collaboration experience

A reflect on the collaborative process I experienced in this lesson 4.7.

I found collaboration to be good during this lesson. It helped me to move on where I was lagging behind. In fact collaboration makes the course move because it has the element of peer assessment where one fears to miss the marks from the fellow learners.

The unique challenges of collaborating online.

The challenges of online collaboration are that some members are too slow and it makes the ‘speed merchants’ demoralized.

Some members read their fellow learners’ contribution late when other groups have already moved on.

Sometimes the Internet is intermittent in some hours of the day, yet it might be the only limited space of time outside classroom hours at the work place. 

I intend to use the following resources in my classroom which I discovered and I will adapt to them when needs arises:

·         http://www.nothingbeatstherealthing.info/resources-guide

·         http://www.teachingcopyright.org

·        https://openeducationalresources.pbworks.com/w/page/25308415/Legal%20Aspects%20of%20OER

·         https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/library/services/copyrigh

          

·         http://www.copyright.com/learn/media-downloads/  

How I would integrate the teaching of search literacy and information literacy skills in my teaching.4.6.4

I first make my Students know what they are looking for, then when using a search engine like Google for example, they have to be able to identify the proper search terms.

They have to critic their sources in form of assessing the information found in those sources considering validity, accuracy and reliability or appropriateness for the purpose intended.

I also teach or encourage them to use social networks and information tools to gather and share information amongst themselves and to me-their teacher.

Media Literacy as part of Digital Literacy 4.5

Media literacy refers to the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and produce communication in a variety of forms and it involves many components of technology literacy as well. It can be broken down as below:

1. AUDIENCE, 
2. MESSAGE, 
3. MEANING,
4.  RESPONSIBILITY
5.  AND REALITY. 

Briefly it can be practiced using some of the following questions  below:

• Why was this advert made?

• What does it want me to do?

• Who is the target audience? /who is this for? /who are they talking to?

• Who might be harmed by this message?

• What does the story teller want me to remember?

• How does this make me feel and how do my emotions influence my interpretation of this?

• What does this want me to think about?

• What would someone learn from this?

• How might different people understand this differently?

• What is my interpretation and what do I learn about myself from my interpretation?

• Is this a fact, opinion or something else?

• How credible is this and how do I know?

• Can I trust this source to tell me the truth about this advert?

Digital infused lesson 4.4

In the digital literacy there is critical thinking, creativity, sharing collaboration and communication. But it is almost a must to be ethical, to stay safe and manage risks in the digital world, and as well use technology to participate in educational, cultural and economic activities.

The areas which are new to my understanding include:
Risk management in the digital world and also the visual-static representations. I have never imagined of drawing cartoons, or even forming any comic strip in my life. I only observe them in newspapers and Kids' magazines.

Comic strip and peer collaboration 4.2.4 Reflection

Lesson 4.2.3 was quite interesting. I had never dreamed of forming and owning any cartoon works. I always see it it News papers and magazines but I have ended up forming one.

This lesson introduced me to many comical slangs and jargons, some of which mean different things to different people. And I have come to discover why my students' essays are deteriorating greatly as they are full of abstract abbreviations and slangs.

I have ever collaborated on line but not as it was in this case.

The challenges of using a comic strip is that;

• It consume a lot of time to produce.
• It limits the expressions and the more elaborative work pieces.
• It is more easier to be mis-interpreted by some students.
• It is addictive because if at one time a teacher teaches without it, students get bored and may not understand.
• It is mainly visual and can not easily be used without a projector and screen.
• The visually impaired may miss out.
• All the work must be digitized

  

The potential it holds is that:

It is a tool for easy understanding of abstract concepts and topics.

It kill boredom to some students.

It save space and time.

It is self explanatory to the learners.

It improves the computer skills of both the teacher and the students.

A changing education landscape 4.1.4

• I have observed and learned that modern teachers need to know that learners have a divergent mind when it comes to the use of technology. It remains the duty of the teacher to guide his learners in order to become responsible digital citizens.
• This module shows how poisonous the Internet can be to society and can create renegades instead of useful professionals. The Internet is portrayed as a tool to disseminate harmful information to the public. The most interesting of all is that students only or more often look for where they can cause danger in order to express their notoriety.
• Teacher need to put monitoring means within the school technology structure in order to monitor the reckless learners. Also to relentlessly talk to student to be good digital citizens. Use of Wordles can make students’ write-ups interesting and boost up their studies instead of misusing the various media tools at their disposal.
• Guidance and mentoring is as well vital to the learners. Some learners went to school because their parents wanted them to be at school. Such learners are the ones who may think in future that going through a university is enough no matter what they learned from there; such learners can never have a divergent thinking and would find it too difficult to fit in the modern challenging world which demands for creativity as opposed to the era of the industrial revolution when one would only do a job that he studied and qualified for. Education and technology requires teachers to prepare learners to be ‘Donkeys of all walks’.

Reflection about lesson 3.9 ASSURE lesson plan

This module is based mainly on how to prepare an ASSURE lesson plan and how to integrate technology in teaching:

In the ASSURE lesson plan module, I have learned how to Analyze learners;

 And it aligns well with the SAMR and TPACK models for technology integration because it caters for the learners in a constructivist way, as well as integrating technology in teaching.

I have learned that technology integration has several steps and measures. And that each step works at a given level of teaching/learning.

I have understood more of the SAMR model than the TPACK model. The SAMR model has four levels i.e Substitution, Augementation, Modification and Redifinition.

In my operations at school, I have discovered that I have been using Substitution almost only; in case I used technology integration. My focus is going to be on trying the rest of the three steps of the model.

Even though the TPACK model integrates pedagogy, Knowledge content and technology, where a teacher fails out-whether has limited knowledge content or technology deficiency or otherwise, his weakness can easily be observed by anybody inclusive his students, which can be quite embarrassing on his side.

Thanks to CCTI

I am now able to create an online space in which I collected and organized resources which I use in my teaching for example website and URLs which give out vivid subject content.

I was also able to use the basic office soft ware like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Power Point and later Mindmeister to use in the teaching of Geography as a subject as below: https://www.mindmeister.com/554989480 

http://www.baycongroup.com/excel.htm  for Micro soft Excel tutorials.

I learned and used Catherine shroick’s guide lines on how to locate and to use educational software plus its evaluation. And indeed several ways can be used to identify URLs with fake subject content: For example how I used the following Software evaluation tips:

Checklist for Evaluating Web Resources

Is the Web a good research tool? This question is dependent on the researcher's objective. As in traditional print resources one must use a method of critical analysis to determine its value. Here is a checklist for evaluating web resources to help in that determination.

• Is the information reliable? 
• Check the author's credentials and affiliation. Is the author an expert in the field? 
• Does the resource have a reputable organization or expert behind it? 
• Are the sources of information stated? Can you verify the information? 
• Can the author be contacted for clarification? 
• Check for organizational or author biases.

Http://www.lib.vt.edu/instruct/evaluate/

I also learned how to select instructional methods, media and materials in order to design a learning activity that integrates technology resources to support my teaching while involving my learners.

                                    

 In fact I can now use a rubric prepared online and evaluate the performance of my learners professionally. http://rubistar.4teachers.org/

Thanks for reading and you can even drop a comment.