For the second weeks activities we were given a few different frameworks. These included T pack, Learning Engagement Theory and the Big Six as well as the frameworks that we have already looked at such as DoL and Productive Pedagogy. The framework that I have decided to focus on is The Big Six and this is because I think it has a practical use in every class at school as well as being useful to higher education students and even people in the workforce.
This framework will work well because it brings the natural talents of the students and the information that you are trying to teach and bring them together. It was developed by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz. Together they came up with a framework that took the processes that every day people use subconsciously and refine it to be a great way of finding information. It can help with all types of work but is really handy when it comes to problem solving. The Big Six is, at the moment, the most commonly used framework by students and their teachers in schools.
A lot of different professionals in the field of education have been saying for a long time now that we need to integrate the use of ICT's and importantly computers, with what all teachers are teaching their students instead of just the separate computer classes (Berkowitz, B,. Eisenberg, M,. Johnson, D,. 2010). It would take all of the teachers in the school communicating with each other to get this to happen but with The Big Six framework it forces the teachers to bring ICT's into the classroom. The Big Six has 6 different stages. These 6 stages take the students through a full process that allows them to explore different information and different ways of gathering that information.
The six stages
1 Task Definition. At this stage the students are communicating with each other, the teachers and any other professionals that they are able to connect with (maybe using technology) to get a focus question or pick or topic. This is a question that will help them answer the problem that they have at that time. Once this is done they will start to define what the topic or question will incorporate.
2 Information Seeking Strategies. Instead of just going out and seeking the information straight away, this step gets the students to take a look at what resources they have available to them to find information. They may have a computer with the inter or intranet with messenger and skype to communicate with professionals. They may have mobile phones to call people with, use wiki's to communicate idea's with other people who are doing a topic that may link with theirs or they may have a voice recorder to record a conversation that they have with a professional face to face.
3 Location and Access. They now have a focus topic or question and they know all of the equipment that they have at their disposal to find out the information that they are seeking. This level is about now finding the sources that they are going to get the information from. These sources can be people, face to face or via phone or skype, Internet sites, or books.
4 Use Of Information. Now that they have their sources, they can finally gather their information. This is the first and only stage in which the students will gather information.
5 Synthesis. In this stage the students will put all of their information together and show it in a variety of ways. This will allow the students to be able to see which way their information is better put forward or displayed.
6 Evaluation. Now that they have chosen the best way to show their information they must go back over everything that they have done and see whether or not it is all related back to the topic or focus question that they negotiated with the teacher in the first stage.
No other framework goes directly into this much information. The students would respond well to it as they have everything set out for them and all that they have to do is gather the information. It would also be handy for the teacher because it would be easy to gauge what each individual student is up to and which students need teacher input. The Big Six puts out a logical framework that I will be able to use easily to have a look and different tools that can be used on the Internet.
Berkowitz, B,. Eisenberg, M,. Johnson, D,. (2010) Information, communications and Technology (ICT) Skills Curriculum Based on the Big Six Skills Approach to Information Problem Solving. Viewed July 21, from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/file.php/4033/LMC_Big6-ICT_Curriculum_LMC_MayJune2010.pdf
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Weebly
Now I have created a weebly page as well. There isn't much on their at this stage but I will endeavour to put some interesting stuff up soon http://www.weebly.com/weebly/main.php
Monday, July 19, 2010
wiki
Hi Guys I have just started a wiki page as well. If you would like to follow or comment on it here is the url. http://mattsmanaginglearning.wikispaces.com/
Concept Maps
As part of week one we were asked to have a look at some on-line concept mapping sites. The two sites that we were asked to look at in particular were bubbl.us and text2mindmap. Both work around the same structure, having a centre point and moving outwards and both had their advantages and disadvantages. I liked bubbl.us because I was able to change the colour of each balloon if I had wanted to while with the text2mindmap this was not possible.
Text 2mindmap was a great site that had a simple easy to follow layout both when writing out the bubbles and creating the concept map to your liking. One thing that I was not able to do with either site was colour the lines individually or curve the lines (this is probably just my fault for not looking hard enough for how to do it). This would have helped with my concept map as I do not like looking at straight lines and find them hard to follow.
How ever they turned out the idea of concept mapping on the computer is a great idea as they can be saved and re opened later. If someone else does cause you to muck up or you accidentally do something incorrectly you just hit the back button and have another go. This allows for a precise concept map that is free of cross outs or smudges and students can have as many goes as they like to get it correct instead of the old 'your getting one sheet of paper and that's it so don't stuff it up'.
Text 2mindmap was a great site that had a simple easy to follow layout both when writing out the bubbles and creating the concept map to your liking. One thing that I was not able to do with either site was colour the lines individually or curve the lines (this is probably just my fault for not looking hard enough for how to do it). This would have helped with my concept map as I do not like looking at straight lines and find them hard to follow.
How ever they turned out the idea of concept mapping on the computer is a great idea as they can be saved and re opened later. If someone else does cause you to muck up or you accidentally do something incorrectly you just hit the back button and have another go. This allows for a precise concept map that is free of cross outs or smudges and students can have as many goes as they like to get it correct instead of the old 'your getting one sheet of paper and that's it so don't stuff it up'.
Getting started with blogs
Hi guy's, this is a few weeks late but between trying to work out how to use this thing and then remembering all the passwords, well its been frustrating to say the least.
Doing the E Learning course has given me the ability to see how these interactive websites can be used as a teaching/learning tool. Before starting this course I was quite happy to stay away from computers as I was not very good at using them and could see no benefit for the students. Now I can see that these types of online tools can be a huge advantage in the classroom.
They allow students to share ideas and processes with each other when ever and where ever they may be. It allows students to be constantly connected to each other in an environment that they feel comfortable in and are able to work quickly and proficiently in. Blogs allow students to work independently on their work but at the same time allows other students to see what they are doing, provide feedback and critique each others work.
It also takes the boredom out of learning for the students and puts them in a situation where the whole world is at their finger tips. They can be sitting down in a nice air con room in the perfect learning conditions and be talking to some one from overseas or getting information for an assignment right from the horses mouth. It gives the students endless opportunities to learn in both a formal and informal environment.
i can now see that all teachers should be using this tool somewhere within their class programs. It is what the students are doing at the moment and its about time we as teachers caught up and gave them the best possible opportunities to learn.
Doing the E Learning course has given me the ability to see how these interactive websites can be used as a teaching/learning tool. Before starting this course I was quite happy to stay away from computers as I was not very good at using them and could see no benefit for the students. Now I can see that these types of online tools can be a huge advantage in the classroom.
They allow students to share ideas and processes with each other when ever and where ever they may be. It allows students to be constantly connected to each other in an environment that they feel comfortable in and are able to work quickly and proficiently in. Blogs allow students to work independently on their work but at the same time allows other students to see what they are doing, provide feedback and critique each others work.
It also takes the boredom out of learning for the students and puts them in a situation where the whole world is at their finger tips. They can be sitting down in a nice air con room in the perfect learning conditions and be talking to some one from overseas or getting information for an assignment right from the horses mouth. It gives the students endless opportunities to learn in both a formal and informal environment.
i can now see that all teachers should be using this tool somewhere within their class programs. It is what the students are doing at the moment and its about time we as teachers caught up and gave them the best possible opportunities to learn.
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