8
June
2008
Final ICT Competency Test
ED1113 has come to an end! Filling out the competency test now, it is interesting and rewarding to see see the advances I have made to a higher level of ICT competency. From the first competency test that I completed I attained a score of 29, which has now improved to a score of 45! To be honest I feel that I could replicate all the activities that I have learnt, yet I am not completely 100% sure who well and fast I could do them, as I generally am not that brilliant on computers, although better now ( : Even though I am graded as a level 3 under question 10, where it is to do with digital videoing, I have only had one experience in slightly editing a movie, nothing too extensive, so I would need a refresher in completing that. Additionally, I have to work on the organisation of my e-mailing as I don not really maintain an address book and organise my mail folders, its all just sort of there, so to speak. In general I think my organisation of different things in files etc could definitely be improved, along with my general navigation on the computer, which could be better, faster and more second-natured. All these little improvements will therefore, make me a more proficient teacher for students, parents and fellow teachers, such as “clean”, quick communication skills via email and the help of organisation. Other than that as I said previously, I am pretty confident about what the other questions in the competency test asked about.
Although the test gives everyone a good indication of the level of skill and knowledge they have obtained, I thought that some of the questions did not apply to us as first semester uni students, as some questions were asking whether the activities and skills we learnt during the course are being incorporated into our teaching, obviously not applying to us, which gave the highest score on the test. Nevertheless, I was very happy and impressed that I genuinely learnt skills that I will, and I’m sure have to, incorporate into my teaching one day, due to the quickly-paced technological world that we live in today. I would say that before going into my teaching profession, I would need to brush up on my computer skills as there seems to be new programs be created all the time and would need to be up to date with my students. This course has showed me all the wonderful and educating things that technology has to offer and how it can be included into teaching to make a fun and interactive classroom, but also an independent working environment for individuals to learnt by themselves with the assistance of engaging computer activities.
I really believe that this course is an important course learnt at university that anyone aspiring to be a teacher, would benefit from and need. Mark was a friendly tutor who helped out whenever asked and explained things so that no matter what level of technological confidence you were at, you would understand and further enrich your understanding.
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8
June
2008
This week we are looking at photo story, which is another program I have not used before so I am looking forward to it. I have decided that I am going to be doing a photo story about a journey. I feel that photo story can be a great activity for students, which can be put into all types of learning for any subject for example, English, where the students could be learning about journey and narrative story writing, additionally, it could be used in art, simply displaying an individuals art, or in design and technology, where a student can show the steps in which a student went through in their design project, and so on.
I had lots of fun creating my photo story and adding different custom animations, captions and I really enjoyed choosing all the different music, appropriate to the story. Take a look! 
photostory – Journey To Japan
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7
June
2008
During this week we began looking at the program “inspiration” which is a program designed for classroom activities such as mind mapping. We had to read and become familiar with it in order for us to be able to use it and create our own mind map that could be chosen from a list of options including:
§ Interactive whiteboards
§ Online games and/or simulations
§ 3D virtual environments
§ “Web 2.0”or a particular aspect of it (e.g. blogs, wikis, podcasting)
§ Social networking (e.g. MySpace, Facebook)
§ Mobile learning
§ Pervasive/ubiquitous computing technologies for learning
§ A topic of your choice (you will need to obtain approval from your tutor)
I chose to do interactive whiteboards which can be viewed on the following week’s post. I enjoyed this activity and as I have stated in my following blog, I will definitely incorporate it into my classroom activities as a teacher, as a result of its engaging nature and inclusive learning abilities.
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17
May
2008
interactive-whiteboards.
The Powerpoint presentation was a lot of fun, which I know is a shared feeling amoung children as my younger brothers who are 10 are also required to complete them for certain little projects, and throughally enjoy them, spending hours perfecting each slide. Therefore, I’d definitely use this program with children for home assignments and perhaps classroom activities, depending on the amount of time given. The one thing negative about powerpoint is that it is time consuming and children may be too concerned with the workings of it rather than the work content. Nevertheless, it is a great, engaging program than students canlearn from. I think I got a bit too excited about the special effects that can be done to each slide, yet I really think it looks good and I am proud of the end product. I am really enjoying this computer course and I think that it is an important one, considering the ever-changing technical world that young individuals are growing up in, which we as the teachers must confidently accommodate for.
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13
May
2008
interactive-whiteboards.doc
I found the Inspiration program to be very engaging and beneficial for me as a teacher-to-be in order to facilitate the students with an interesting classroom activity, making the classroom a fun and interactive learning environment. It is a great program that can be used in the classroom in order for students to visualise and consolidate information for school activities and projects.
The program was very straight forward to use, with little confusion about what to do in each step therefore, making it an easy task to then teach to students, which will be very beneficial for myself and students. I never heard of Inspiration before completing this workshop, so I found it really fun. It was a chance to expand my computer skills on a more creative level and has opened up teaching and learning opportunities, which will undoubtedly make for an enjoyable, interactive classroom.
The actual information that was included in the Inspiration activity, namely Interactive Whiteboards was another interesting activity as I had only briefly heard something on them but didn’t know their abilities and the different benefits of using one. They are another devise that I would use as teacher as it is proved to be a great asset in the classroom for both teachers and students. The teacher is able to convey some curriculum content in order for students to complete activities, or perform a whole lesson. Students are able to interact with each other and the teacher, enriching their learning experiences. They are very successful and are continuing to enter into classrooms all over the world. I wish that I had Interactive Whiteboards and Inspiration during my primary school years as I believe it would have made specific content such as mathematics more enjoyable and clear.
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29
April
2008
Mental Maths Results using Excel Portfolio Item 5
I found this excel lesson more challenging than I expected! I remember participating in excel activities during high school, however it was never to the extent of detail that was required in this task. At first I wasn’t understanding the meaning of “IF” and why the “$” sign, needed to be included in obtaining a certain calculation. After listening very carefully to Mark’s instructions in class and fiddled around on the computer more than I maybe should have probably taken, I eventually figured out each step and am amazed at the results. I now understand the difference between relative and absolute referencing, which involves the use of the dollar signs.
Microsoft excel is 100% maths friendly, acting like a large sophisticated, automatic calculator. I hope to do well in this task, as I feel that I have worked well in understanding the meaning and purpose of simple arithmetic calculations, calculation of percentages; use of basic mathematical, for instance SUM and AVERAGE, together with more advanced formulas, such as IF and RANK. Take a look!
I am looking forward to the next task and continuing to develop my skills and as a result, broaden my options in computer work.
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22
April
2008
Using excel was something that was not new to me yet, I cannot remember it to be as advanced as the one we were completing in class where we found out the sum, average and percentage for example. So, I was really pleased to be discovering and understanding new computer skills, which will definitely be utilized in teaching, as the reading has suggested. For instance, compiling and recording academic grades for students, creating class seating charts, spelling and classroom lists. It is a program that is greatly proficient in easily and quickly calculating accurate results and composing them into relevant and neat graphs. These elements are vital in teaching as it will convieniently save time, benefiting both the students and teacher.
Along with all the ED1113 tutorials, its great to know that their is help beyond the classroom such as the atomic learning website, which as a future teacher will be helpful no doubt, due to all the technological advances there are today. There will be times where students will know something that I as the teacher won’t, and it’ll be only a matter of a click of a mouse (ironically) to learn and understand these computer concepts.
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15
April
2008
This week’s task was new and fun as it was the first time I have used Microsoft Publisher. It was a quick an easy activity which was self-explanatory. I am happy with my progress and am feeling quite confident in delving into new computer activities. I’m impressed with all the different tasks assigned to us to complete each week, as they are helping us to build on our technological knowledge and skills. One thing that I found a little difficult, or rather, time-staking however, was the referencing. I was unsure what to include in the referencing and if it was adequate enough. I hope that I figured it out correctly! I was unsure whether I had to include a reference for clip art pictures, so I included it to be safe. All in all I am pleased with my grade I received for my last activity and hope to replicate this mark in this task.
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1
April
2008
Portfolio Item 3 – Evaluate two WebQuests was an interesting topic for me as I was unsure what it actually was and its purpose, that is the regulate Internet searching and surfing in the classroom, to a concentrated topic. I think this is going to be so useful in my future teaching as it will be a safe environment for children to learn in as they are not going to be exposed to any illicit, harmful or useless material.
This tutorial has equipped me with the essential information I need to discifer between good and not so helpful WebQuests, as it is said that this is one important aspect one must look at when delving into the WebQuest worlds. Thus, I found this activity of looking a t a number of WebQuests and evaluating two of them, very helpful. The rubric provided an outline as to how a good WebQuest is determined from a bad one. I would really like to try and create one one day and I am pleased to know that my knowledge in computer technology is continuing to progress.
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26
March
2008
I would completely agree with the statement that indicates that Microsoft Word is one of the most frequently used programs. It assists the needs of an array of people, without a doubt teachers, helping them to create classroom and formal work, for example. I feel that I am confident and efficient in being able to use almost all activities on Microsoft Word and would say that I use it frequently. However, I stated in my competency test that I was unable to create a hyperlinked document, as I have never tried and was looking forward to completing portfolio item 2.
Whilst reading the word 2 hyperlinked document it was interesting to find out that font was a misused technical term, which I contribute to! I was unaware that, what I previously thought was the “font”, was actually called the typeface, and in actual fact, the font was the characterisation, so to speak, of the typeface. Word document 3 also highlighted an unsure and unused devise to me, namely tabs, which will would have been helpful to me during my school years when creating particular documents, but will now be used in future activities. I actually found each document helpful, in either refreshing or clarifying specific terms, as people self-teach themselves to use a computer rather than reading a manual of step by step instructions; therefore actually explaining in full terms their functions and usefulness.
My newly developed skills were put to the test straight away, having to complete Portfolio Item 2 – Web Searching and Document Production, which I really enjoyed. As I have previously stated, I had never created a hyperlink or did not even known what a header and footer were, let alone how to do it. So, it was a challenge, which proved to be easy and straightforward tasks and will definitely benefit me in the long run for university and teaching, for example. It also was interesting to see how the search engines compared with other search engines in relation to relevance and accuracy according to a topic under specific search terms. I did not want to be narrow-minded or bias in undertaking this activity, however I believed that Google was going to take the cake in this activity, which was reaffirmed nonetheless, in the results I obtain. Take a look for yourself!
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