ICT's Week Three Learning Activities

1-4. View slide show. Read chapters 1 and 5 of the Dimensions of Learning Teacher's Manual. Reflect on the Power Point and Manual and complete just how you night use the 8LMQ's and DoL together. Post to forum.




LMQ1 links with DoL 1: Feeling accepted by teachers and peers. This is identifying individual differences and individual needs. Establishing relationships with your students and make the students feel comfortable and accepted. A teacher should also respond appropriately to students incorrect answers.



LMQ2 links with DoL 1: Attitudes and Perceptions and Perceive Tasks as Valuable and Interesting. This is where the teacher only assigns valuable tasks therefore trust is gained that the teacher will only give out assessments that are valuable and worth doing. Good relationships between the teacher/student will gain trust of the students and they may feel that the teacher values them and will assign worth wile tasks. "Help students relate the information to real-life experiences in which the information can be used" (Marzano and Pickering, 1997, p.31). Students need to be engaged in the classroom in order to learn and retain knowledge. Tasks that are authentic will help and also allow for student choices where possible. Students Individual Interests and goals are very important to them, therefore if they are able to concentrate a task/assignment on one of these it will engage them and the student will then see these tasks as valuable.



LMQ3 links with DoL 1: Experience a sense of comfort and order. The students need to feel comfortable and secure in order to have their minds on the task at hand. If students are being bullied and picked on they will be less likely to concentrate on their work as they will be worrying about the taunts. This may mean the teacher might have to find out how they feel comfortable and aid this for the student to learn more effectively. Classroom rules and procedures give the students a sense of order. They will have guidelines on what to do and not to do to maintain comfort and order in the classroom, they will learn what is expected and accepted. Also movement is a good strategy for maintaining focus. A task may become boring or the students may be lacking attention after a pro longed period, therefore getting the students up and moving for a 2-5 minute exercises may freshen them up and enable them to focus better for the remainder of the task.



LMQ4 links with DoL 1: Believe they have the ability and resources to complete tasks. LMQ4 also links with DoL 5: Self-regulated thinking-identify and use necessary resources. It is important in schools to use numerous resources with the students and encourage them to use as many as they can. This may be books, teachers, the Internet, peers and online resources (google, encyclopedias). "Being aware of necessary resources involves a cycle of assessing what resources are needed, determining there availability, accessing them, using them appropriately, and continually reassessing to identify additional resources as you work. In the technology society we now enjoy, each step of this cycle can be enhanced with the use of communication and information systems" (Marzano and Pickering, 1997, p. 293).



LMQ5 links with DoL 1: Providing authentic activities and DoL 5: Self-regulated thinking- plan appropriately. "One habit that teachers obviously want students to develop is planning. Planning can be fairly loose or it can involve a process. The process might include methodically defining a goal, identifying the steps needed to achieve the goal, anticipating potential problems, assigning responsibilities, and creating a time line with checkpoints" (Marzano and Pickering, 1997, p.291). Planning appropriately can help students at school or in daily life. There may be times when one becomes stressed with an overload of work. Planning effectively and carefully can minimise this stress and maximize the achievement/outcome. If an assignment seems like a lot of work and a little overwhelming, the student could break it down into sections to work on, or create a time line which will indicate what they should have done at a specific point in time. This method/strategy will help students in later life, in the workforce if they are involved in a major project. Time management/planning appropriately is a habit of mind that will be useful for the students future and will help them on their learning journey through there schooling life. Again providing authentic and valuable activities/tasks will engage the students a lot better than an artificial or make believe activity.



LMQ6 links with DoL 5: Respond appropriately to feedback. Students need to learn that if they are given constructive criticism/feedback it is to improve their performance. The student does not need to agree with all of the feedback, although they are encouraged to be open minded enough to take it on board and dismiss or use the feedback when they feel it to be appropriate. When a student is working on an assignment it may be useful to inform them that it may be a good idea to ask someone for feedback on their task. This can help the student stay focused or provide them with more ideas, or to help make the assessment more accurate. When practicing a play/character it may be beneficial for the student to perform/rehearse in from of someone or a small group for feedback. If a student is involved in a drama class and their assessment is to perform in front of an audience, they can watch the audiences body language for feedback. Also they may need to pause to an appropriate amount of time whilst the audience laughs or applause's, to ensure the dialogue to be delivered by the actor/student is not lost.



LMQ7 links with DoL 5: Creative Thinking-generate, trust and maintain your own standards of evaluation. Maybe as a teacher you could encourage the students to reflect on how they think they did on an assignment/test. They may choose to only rely on others (teacher, peers) standards of evaluation or they may choose to incorporate their own standards of evaluation also. Therefore maybe covering a broader area or feeling content that they have reached their personal standards too.



LMQ8 links with DoL 1: Establish a relationship with each student in the class. A teacher can talk informally to students about their interests and be aware of what student/s are involved in and comment on such activities they are involved in or achievements they have made. Also it's always good to greet every student that comes into your class. By establishing a relationship with each student in the class it may then be easier to inform them about a specific learning progress as there is already an easy communicative relationship established and the student will probably value the teacher more for showing an interest in their hobbies, achievements and well being. LMQ8 also links with DoL 5: Responding appropriately to others feelings and knowledge. When expressing an opinion people will be more likely to listen to you if you analyze their feelings and level of knowledge and respond appropriately. This will also contribute to successful communication between people from different social and cultural groups/backgrounds.



5-7. Download this article 'What are Habits of Mind' and print out for future reference. What are the similarities and differences between Marzano's and Costa and Kallicks habits of mind? Post thoughts to forum.



Both articles seem to have the same way of thinking and are quite similar. Costa's reading focuses on critical and creative thinking while Marzano's also looks at self-regulated thinking. Costa and Kallick's seem to put more emphasis and importance on the enjoyment of learning and finding humour, their reading seems to be more of an emotional and inspirational approach whereas Marzano's reading seems to be more about lessons and strategies. They both imply that these documented habits of mind are a guideline and can be added to or changed if necessary to fit in with a particular situation. Marzano's, in my opinion is, is written more for teachers, with strategies, whereas Costa's is more inspirational. Both of the readings were very informative although written in a different manner.



8-11. Spend some time Reading through the DoL manual and make notes about Dimensions 1 and 5. List the strategies suggested for each dimension. See if you can add to that list with your own strategies, or ones you have seen/read about. Any questions or observations post to the DoL discussion forum.



Critical Thinking



Be accurate and seek accuracy:

• Focus/Accuracy: When reading a project/assignment read only first for accuracy rather than reading to check for a number of things as you may miss things that are incorrect.


• Resources: References, dictionary, spell check etc.


• Proofing: Get a few people to read your project. As they are unfamiliar with the content they will be more prone to pick out mistakes.

Be clear and seek clarity:

• Rehearse: To ensure you are understood and are able to express what you mean.


• Questions: To see if the receiver/audience understands and 'gets' what you are saying/presenting.

Maintain an open mind:

• Positive thinking: React positively even if you don't agree with what a persons is saying try and see it from their point of view.


• Gather information: Genuinely listen to others and ask questions in order to understand their point of view/opinions.


• Schema: If you initially act negatively to a suggestion, reflect on what has been stated and ask yourself if you have received all relevant information. Then ask yourself if you have seen the statement from different angles/points of view.

Restrain Impulsivity:

• Self-talk: Think before you speak. Ask yourself if you understand the information/activity before responding. Think it through before voicing opinions/answers.


• Listen: Listen to peoples whole opinions/answers before voicing your own opinion.


• Time: Give yourself time to think before declaring the answer/solution.

Take a position when the situation warrants it:

• Research: the topic first before giving your opinion or stand on a topic. If you don't have all the information relating to the topic you may take a faulty stand on the matter.


• Investigate: If you are not exactly sure of a point in a situation it may be wise to investigate it before making a formal stand on the matter.

Respond appropriately to others feelings and level of knowledge:

• Communication: Assess what level of knowledge the other person has and respond/interact accordingly.


• Empathy and understanding: If someone is feeling blue, empathise and understand their feelings and communicate accordingly.

Creative Thinking

Persevere:

• Goal setting: Set small goals that will lead to finalising the larger task.


• Identify: Identify different aspects that are not working and use alternative ways to finish the task.


• Surrounding People: Certain people should be seeked out when one is considering to give up on a task. Try to speak to and surround yourself by inspirational and motivational people rather than people who are not.


• Visualisation: Visualise the goal wanting to be achieved.


• Breaks: If you are feeling exhausted or burned out have a break, listen to some music or go for a walk. Usually when a person has these type of breaks the answers/solution comes to mind.

Push the limits of your knowledge and abilities:

• Goal setting/time management: Set a goal to finish a task in a shorter time than usual. Push yourself to meet the goal deadline.


• Interaction/communication: Try and speak to other people who push their limits.


• Motivation: Put up quotes and phrases to motivate you to meet the deadline.


• Identify: Identify people in your life that have pushed their limits and call on them for inspiration if needed.

Generate, trust, and maintain your own standards of evaluation:

• Self-talk: self-talk to identify your personal standards.


• Higher standards: Make a task more challenging if becoming bored by the present task.


• Document and Display: Write a list of standards, review it and regularly focus on it.

Generate new ways of viewing a situation that are outside the boundaries of standard conventions:

• Analogies/Metaphors: to see things in a different way


• Brainstorming: many ideas and variations past the initial idea.


• Visualisation: See the topic/task through a child's eyes for example.


• Interaction/Communication: Interact and communicate with like minded creative thinking people.

Self-regulate thinking

Monitor your own thinking:

• Reminders: What am I thinking?


• Documentation: Write down your strategies that work while performing a task, so you know what works for next time.


• Reflection: What works and what does not work.


• Visualisation: Write down quotes and phrases that are inspirational and motivating so you can read them and visualise the success/outcome.

Plan appropriately:

• Clear goal: Have a clear goal so you know exactly what you are attempting to achieve.

• Organise/Planning: Write down goals with dates on when the goal shall be completed by. Maybe buy a wall planner.

• Checkpoints: For long term goals identify shorter term goals or checkpoints, and acknowledge your success along the way. This makes the long term goal easier achieved as you are working on several smaller goals rather than one big overwhelming one.

• Review: To check if the plan/task is working. If not it may need a different approach.

Identify and use necessary resources:

• Availability: Of resources that are needed and what else is available

• Interact/Communicate: with people who have been involved in similar tasks/projects. Collect Information, Inspiration and Motivation.

• Self -talk: What else is available? Ask yourself so you don't miss out on something you might overlook.

Respond Appropriately to Feedback:

• Specific Feedback: When working on a difficult task, stop every now and again and ask specific questions that will give you the answers you need for your project.

• Constructive Criticism: Ask peoples opinions, but don't get personal or reject the comments if you don't like them. Keep an open mind, take the comment/s on board. It may help or it may not. Make it a positive procedure to receive feedback, not a negative thing.

Evaluate the effectiveness of your actions:

• Self-talk: What worked? What would I do differently next time?

• Comparison: Compare your tactics with someone else who has done a similar thing. Look for things you could do or change to be more successful next time.

• Deconstruct: The large task into smaller ones, more manageable.

ICT"S Week 2 Learning Activities

1. Think about your own experiences at school and write about what you believe was student-centred and what was student centric.

Unfortunately while I was at school that majority of my learning/classes were not student centered. There was a lot of 'chalk and talk' approaches and not many other means of teaching. The amount of note taking and blackboard writing that went on was massive and I believe from that style of teaching I did not learn very well. This is why drama and art classes were so fun for me and enabled me to learn. We got to watch movies on drama pieces and art history/styles, listen to music and interpret the feelings and emotions behind that piece of music and sometimes draw/paint what the music felt like. In drama we practiced a lot of different drama techniques/styles and incorporate them into script or improvisational work. We had excursions to art galleries and theatres. I think this is why I excelled in these subjects as it was different, interesting and 'colourful' so to speak and catered for students different learning styles. I believe if my other learning learning areas were slightly more student-centered and covered a variety of learning styles I would have learnt a lot more and retained the knowledge I was taught.

2. Contrast the 8LMQ's with what you have experienced in your own education and think about the advantages and possible pitfalls of this approach.

I personally think there are great advantages to this approach. I certainly wish I had been taught via the 8 Learning Management Questions. This approach is very student-centered, which was a lacking approach in my schooling years. I love the idea of flexible/negotiated assessment as it makes it interesting and relative to the students, ensuring better learning outcomes. I also like the emphasis on learning styles and how students learn in a different way. When I was at school there was a lot of 'chalk and talk' teaching and that style did not help me excel at all. Also the summative and formative assessment ways are great for a teacher to monitor the student's level and to see if they 'get it' or not. And finally the layout of the classroom, I believe has an impact on the students ability to learn and should be changed to enhance the particular learning area.

3. Read the Learning Engagement Theory article, complete the following Indicators of Engaged Learning Quiz. Reflect on the kinds of learning activities you could design that fulfill this approach.

Doing authentic projects shows that students get a higher level of satisfaction compared to students working on artificial projects. For example our drama class will be putting on a performance night with the profits going towards a local charity of the students choice. The class will be divided into groups and shown a snippet from a DVD of a drama performance and some u-tube drama performance videos to give the students an idea of what they could create. They will then brainstorm to come up with a chosen topic which is relevant to them for their piece/performance. The use of multimedia will be encouraged to be used in the performance weather it be a collaboration of pictures flashed up onto the cyclorama at the back of the stage while they are performing or a filmed video in the gaps/breaks of performances. They may also use voice overs and music. The students will be encouraged to use the Internet to get more ideas about their performance or watch another performance for inspiration. The next piece of text from the learning engagement theory article outlines the importance of technology in teaching rather than the traditional ways of teaching..... "They concluded that the virtual classroom environment resulted in better mastery of course materials, greater student satisfaction, and a higher level of student reported learning than traditional classroom experiences." (http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm)

4. Formal Learning Experiences. How will your students rate the learning experience you design for them?

Unfortunately I have not had any formal learning experiences in the last two years. It has been six years since I graduated from the Bachelor of Performing Arts. Within this course/program, it is the first time I have had any formal learning experiences for over 4 years. I should think from what I am learning in this course and continuing to learn, will help me engage with the students and provide them with an interesting and authentic learning experience. I shall incorporate different teaching strategies into my teaching to cater for students different learning styles. Therefore I think and should hope my students would mark my class in the upper scale of the pyramid.

5. What does your learning style look like? And how might you cater for the individual differences in learning styles for your students?

My learning style is very visual opposed to verbal. I need to see things in order to learn then, rather than hear them. My visual reading was my highest reading at an 11. Next on par rating as a 7 is my active and sequential learning styles. Lastly down the middle I scored a 1 on the sensual/intuitive learning style meaning I do not really favour one of those over the other.
Every student is different when it comes to learning. Some children are going to respond better to verbal learning styles while others are visual learners. The same applies for the other learning styles, therefore I believe it is crucial to incorporate these into classes to ensure all students are learning. For example if I am reading a passage of text out to the students in drama class I would also hand out a hard copy for the visual learners, while I'm speaking for the verbal learners. Then I would get the students up to act out a section of the text for the kinesthetic learners.

6. The learning issues and challenges posed by different learning styles and personalities.

This quiz shows how much each person may differ from the next. This is the same in the classroom. Each student is an individual and will learn in a different manner, no one person is the same. In a learning design one must remember this and choose to teach in a wide range on styles ensuring all students are given the opportunity to learn, as they will learn in different ways. One child will not learn the same way as another child, therefore a number of learning/teaching styles will be needed and practiced.

7. Read Kunc's article on Mazlow's Hierarchy and modern schooling. How does this understanding of learning match with what we have discussed about active learning and learner diversity?

As Marlow's Hierarchy of needs shows that all people need to feel that they belong. Students need to feel that they belong within their families, society and at school. To ensure students are ready to learn they need to feel that they belong despite their academic, athletic, attractiveness and diverse status/level. They need to know that a sense of belonging is a human right, not just dished out when they excel at a sport or academically. Once students feel they belong they will develop a sense of self-worth, and as worthy human beings deserve the right to learn like anyone else. "As we take away students sense of belonging, we completely undermine their capacity to learn the skills that will enable them to belong." (Kunc, 1992) We need to provide students with an authentic sense of belonging. We need to find students individual strengths and provide them the opportunity to flourish in those areas. If a child is naughty or suffers from a form of diversity one of the worst things to do is segregate them from the group/class.
This article was great! As we have discussed as a Learning Manager we need to provide students with an authentic learning experience. If it interests them or they can relate to it, or excel in a personal strength, students will stay interested, feel their own achievements and want to learn. It doesn't matter what level the child is academically, what social circle they are from or weather they suffer with a form of diversity they must feel as though they belong and that they are worthy.

8. Take the multiple intelligence test, then take the emotional intelligence test, review your results. How would you use this information to inform your learning design?

This again shows how i learn and what learning styles suit me. Many of us learn in different ways and this must be thought about carefully before approaching a learning design. Even though I learn in a particular way, my students may not therefore my learning design and teaching strategies must cater for all learning styles.

Week One Learning Activities for ICT"S

1. Think about your own education, what has it resembled to date? Was it remnant of the Industrial Age or was it based around skills required for the 21st Century?

Thinking back to my high school education, my school was in the changeover from the industrial era to educating for the 21st century. There was a strong base of traditional ways of teaching and in early years of high school there was a lot of 'chalk and talk' classes. In year 8 and 9 (1997-1998) I saw computers in the library and maybe a couple of computer labs for the commerce subject and thought to myself 'Why on earth would you want to learn about computers and what on earth would you do on them?' In year 11 (2000) two of my teachers said they would no longer accept hand written assignments. I was shocked and had to learn to use a computer. My family did not own a computer, therefor I had to go to the library at lunch time or on my study period to type up these particular assignments. This was one of my first interaction with computers, as up until this time the school made no emphasis that I needed to. Although all our classes were not just taught on text. In my later years of high school some teachers incorporated Oht's, videos, music, text and PowerPoint presentations. I do believe my high school was going through a transition from the Industrial ere to educating for the 21st century. I do regret that my school wasn't more focused on educating for the 21st century as it seems I've had to learn most things from scratch, specifically technologies.

2. The Future work article was written ten years ago. Think about where we are now and the rapid changes that have occurred since that article was written

Since the Future work article was written, enormous changes have occurred in technology within the economy. This to me shows the progression in only ten years. At the rate of technology advancing I predict so much more changing in the next ten years. In the article I like how the writers predicted a rise in childcare centres and workers and a rise in food type jobs for the convenience of working families. Most of what was predicted back then is happening now. Although from all these technological advances I think we are going to loose out slightly on traditional/trade type workers which may be a down fall if you think about farmers etc. Ten years ago if a machinery part broke on a farming machine and a new piece needed to be ordered it could take week/s to receive the replacement part, especially in a rural area. Now with the technological advancement a new one could be ordered in minutes and arrive within days. What I'm trying to say is that the upsides to living in a knowledge economy out way the few downsides. Just imagine how much is going to change in these next ten years

3. How does the author differentiate between mode 1 and mode 2 knowledge and what implications does this have for you as a teaching profession?

From my understanding mode one is a traditional way of educating. It is discipline based and usually produced by individuals and is inherently local or localised. Whereas mode two is produced in divers sites, subject to social accountability, heterogeneous and transdisciplanary. Mode one has it's foundations firmly based in most schools . Mode two knowledge is becoming more widely used in schools and educational institutions as they need to adapt to rapid and extensive change. In saying this mode one still has a place in education. We have entered a period of 'meta-change'. In becoming a teacher I believe that I will need to be versatile and adapt easily to the knowledge economy we have become. I will need to incorporate text, Internet, DVDs and power point presentations just to name a few, into my pedagogic strategies. A teacher now days needs to change with the times, stay current and make learning interesting so the student can relate to it and retain the information/knowledge.

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