Mobile technologies

  Using Mobile technologies to promote Children's learning
(reading)

Having recently bought a  new mobile, a Nokia E63, I was wondering if I could use mobile phones to promote children's learning. The answer is....Yes!

I read the article called "Using Mobile technologies to promote Children's learning" by Carly Shler (2009). This article opened my eyes on new learning techniques using students mobile phones. It starts by stating key opportunities in mobile learning:

Encourage " anywhere anytime" learning as mobile devices allow students to gather, access and process information outside the classroom. Reach underserved children as thanks to their relatively low cost and accessibility in low - income communities, mobile phones can help advance digital equity. Improve 21st century social interactions as Mobile technologies have the power to promote and foster collaboration and communication. Fit with learning environment as mobiles can help overcome challenges associate with larger technologies. And finally, enable personalized learning experience as there are some significant opportunities to support autonomous and individualised learning.

All of these ideas are fabulous, but did they actually have some specific examples, and the answer is yes again...

For instance, a North Carolina's 2008-2009 teacher of the year asked her grade 6 students to translate passages from classic litterature into texting speech which demonstrated their comprehension of the text (Carly, 2009). Also, a Geohistorian project used mobile technologies to link classrooms to historical landmarks. Students could use their mobile phones to take videos, photos and audio clips of local landmarks, which were then transformed into movies taht students put on internet (Carly, 2006). Moreover, it can be used as a device to inform parents about parents-teachers meetings or even to inform them of the child's progress in their education. Furthermore, mobile technologies can empower kids to explore a whole range of environments through numerous games found in mobiles. The majority of such applications involve museum game or games about another town or city.

My first thoughts was: What about the underdeveloped countries? How would they use mobiles in their classrooms? Apparently, 80% of the world's population now lives within the range of a cellular network. For example, in Africa, the access to personal computers is limited but mobile devices are inexpensive and increasingly available  (Aderinoye, Ojokheta & Olojede, 2007).

There are negative points about using mobiles as a learning tool. It increases the "screen time" and with the increasinh obesity in Australia, it can be seen as a flaw. Also, the difficulty to monitor children's access to inappropriate content. The concern that mobile phones can have a negative aspect on children's health...

To sum up, I think that there were some very useful points in this article about how to use mobile phones as a educational tool. Personally, I will probably use my future students' mobile phone only to take pictures and videos to enhance their learning. It is true that (right now) a mobile phone is less expensive than a bran new Mac, so it could be more accessible to students.

I now see my mobile phone completly differently...Much more educational power than what i thought before reading this article!

                                              

picture found at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/10058201@N02/5398739715/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Twitter

Tweet Tweet

(reacting to students' post+ class)

Last week, we were asked to sign up to Twitter. Again, I did not see how this could help us as primary school teachers later on in our classroom.

But I found Sean and John's discussion on Twitter and its use in the primary classroom and it helped me to undersant its use. They made a list of advantages and disavantages about twitter. On the one hand, students who struggle to communicate through lengthy writing can communicate more easily using twitter as it builds confidence through shorter posts. (see Martin Waller's article here). Also, twitter can be used as a professional development for the teacher using the tweets from other teachers. It also increase teacher/parent communication as teachers can upload pictures of artwork done by the students etc. On the other hand, exposure to other people's tweets can grant access to inappropriate material for the classroom and there can be potential privacy problems.

It is true that it can help the professional development of the teachers. For example, I discovered a very interesting Maths video by checking out Lydia's post on Twitter. Also, I learnt everything about dingles by reading MissJames very amusing blog post and about her incredible adventure to create a video.

Twitter is without a doubt one of the best ways to communicate and share our ideas about education. To be honnest, I am still not very confident with Twitter. But it is just a matter of time!
  
                                              
                                                 


Picture taken at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/fanieart/4086054666/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Educational blogging

Educational Blogging

( class+reading)

To be honnest I couldn't understand why we were asked to create our own blog in Profesional Experience 3. Obviously it made us share with other pupils what we have learnt and therefore share some teaching ideas and some interesting information about technology, however, I couldn't see how I could intergate it in primary classroom. This is why I read Educational Blogging by Stephen Downes (2004) and everything became clear to me...

Firstly, he describes what a Web space or a blog is - "a public, personal communication zone" (Downes, 2004). It can be used in our primary classroom as a space "where students can post the results of their work or reflection or it can be a private personal space, reserved for students' thoughts and teacher guidance." (Downes, 2004)

In the institut St-Joseph in Quebec City, a fifth-grade class was asked to create a blog which they should use as a diary. Some students sait that "the blogs [gave them] the chance to comunicate between [them] and motivate [them] to write more. (Downes, 2004). Downes (2004) also explains that blogging is an opportunity to exchange students' point of view with the restof the worls not just people in their immediate environment.

An other excellent point was made about preparing our students for univeristies. it is true that most students can be overwelmed when they get to uni as they were never asked to check their e-mails or for course information online. In this institut, information were posted on the blog and students had to check them regularly. This makes those students have more experience writing online and aquire new set of skills and attitudes. Also, blogging can be used as a motivational tool. Course credit can be awarded for online discussion.

Moreover, blogging also allows students to access current events. In this institut, students had to comment on world events, presidential election, etc. In my case, I have no television at home and my only access to French news is by the internet. How good would it be if by a click I could check my French friends' blogs and see what is happening in my country...

 To sum up, Will Richarson, one of the leading proponents of blogging in education wrote that " more and more teachers and schools are starting to experiment with the technology as a way to communicate with students and parents. I think that I will be one of these teachers as I can now see how many benefits can come from blooging!

                                                            

picture taken at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alamodestuff/4351730264/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Podcasts

P o d  c a s  t  s
(class+reading)

In week 3 we had to read an article called: "Podcasts in Education: Let their Voices Be Heard" (Spague, D, 2008). Even though I use my Ipod every days to go to work, run or simply in the car, I never knew that what i was listening to were in fact: Podcasts! Postcasts are audio, video, text, and other media files that can be played on the computer or downloaded to MP3 players.

The article made some very good points. It started of with a scenario: Sandra missed school because of an accident but was still able to follow up with her peers thanks to podcasts. Her teacher was recording himself for every lesson he gave, so it was easy for Sandra to sit at her desk and listen to him, in her own house.

Podcasts are fabulous tools in primary schools in numerous ways. Firstly, teachers can find some good and relevant podcasts to use in the classroom to enhance their lesson. Secondly, teachers can create their own podcasts for their students to listen to them during their free time. Thirdly, students can create podcasts as it can be a meaningful and motivating activities for them!

Having read these articles that mention that various university around the world have devices to record their lecturers, I would love to have that at UTS and if there is, can someone tell me how to get them! Anyways, you will know more about podcasts after my presentation on Thursday...

                         
picture taken at: http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://images.appleinsider.com/14voice02-650.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/11/14/google_voice_search_app_for_iphone_arriving_shortly.html&usg=__CDClk4FQTvNne-KBBzxl-I8fNSw=&h=433&w=650&sz=40&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=Wa1BBC3U-qjO1M:&tbnh=130&tbnw=171&ei=qgeUTf_hCoukugPNscnmCw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvoice%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D839%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=480&vpy=376&dur=265&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=141&ty=99&oei=qgeUTf_hCoukugPNscnmCw&page=1&ndsp=35&ved=1t:429,r:17,s:0

About Me

Me.

My name is Elsa Ribal-Vigneau. As you can imagine from my name, I am French. I have been living in Sydney for over two years now. Back at home, I have studied in a International School where technology was one of the priorities. Every classroom was equipped with a Smart board, computer lessons were offered, and we had access to computers in most rooms. In my last years of high school, students in my class were already starting to bring laptops in class to take notes...

But now that I am studying how to intergrate Learning Technologies in our classroom, I see that all of that was NOTHING. Now you can use Podcasts to record your lessons, twitter to keep them up to date, or even Youtube videos to teach them how to do something...

and

so

much

more!

These recent changes in technology used in class can be seen as an incredible chance, however, too much technology in the classroom can be seen as a negative thing. That is the reason why I took this photo of myself. I think it represents well what people think about technology these day. Some teachers are just happy to have a computer to check their mails before starting the day, some teachers are happy to have a smart board and some kind of technology in their classroom, some of them are worried that it will take too much time or effort, and some, are excited about this INCREDIBLE amount of things we can do to enhance students' learning.

Right now, I am part of the happy ones, but it only a matter of time for me to change into the last category, the enthousiastics...