This blog is about my reflection of the lecture notes, readings and workshops for the subject "EDU4UML" taught at La Trobe University for 3 days (25-27 May, 2015). It is a subject dealing with using multimedia for learning. It is very important and useful for teachers and teacher educators in the 21st century.
Reflecting all the lectures, readings and workshops that I had been through for 3 days, I come to think about the situations in Myanmar, my home country, which is still developing. I have come to compare the situations of Australia and those of Myanmar. Reflecting so, I feel extremely dissatisfied with the conditions of my motherland for many reasons.
First, the Internet is an essential part of schools and university students' learning and the lecturers' instructions here. They can take full advantage of the Internet. For example, instead of paper-based assignments, online-based assignments are always used. In Myanmar, however, even universities, let alone schools, do not have internet access for academic purposes. There has been an increasing series of complaints from the public concerning the very slow internet connection. In my opinion, one of the most important reasons for being such outdated in schools and universities is that the Myanmar government does not provide enough financial support for them. All the universities in Myanmar are administered by the government; there is no private university yet except one or two private international colleges. Although there has been some vague news that universities in Myanmar will be privatised soon, they are still under the government. I believe that privatisation of our universities will help provide infrastructure required for them with their autonomy, and improve teaching-learning situations much more. Second, our universities and schools use the traditional teaching methods and simple teaching aids most of the time without using multimedia. As teachers mostly use teacher-centred approach such as lecture method, and the texts are exam-oriented, most of the students only do rote learning without any critical thinking and creative thinking which are not required for the exams. Therefore, educational reforms are now underway in Myanmar but not very successful yet.
Taking into account the above situations in Myanmar, the use of multimedia for learning in my country is still very far away. Still, I hope that the current educational reform will help improve Myanmar education sector with many good educational policies and modern infrastructure for educational institutions in the country. However, although multimedia are useful tools, teachers will be the most important change agents of the education system of Myanmar. Therefore, our teachers should be well-qualified for such a positive change to take place. As a teacher educator, I am convinced that I will be able to equip my student teachers with the modern knowledge of using multimedia for learning, which I believe to be one of the most important 21st century skills for them. In this way, I intend to contribute to the development of education sector in my country Myanmar, as well.
On the third day, Dr. Greg Powell covered the last lecture on animation, and workshop that we had to get involved in. In the following parts, I am going to present the lecture, some reading materials and workshop in a brief way with my reflection based on my experience and how I may use the knowledge gained in Myanmar context.
Lectures
Animation is the theme of the third day lecture. By its definition, animation is the process by which we see still pictures move. There are a lot of reasons why animations should be taught in schools as enunciated in the slide on the right. The brief benefits of teaching animations are that students can develop creativity, questioning and language skills, mathematical, logical and spatial skills, collaboration skills, multiple intelligences, critical thinking and have fun.
Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/) is good for young people aged 8 and older. It provides tools for animation and several related creations like interactive art and games.
I think Edsoft and Stopmotion, the two professional animation softwares, will be very beneficial for local Australian teachers. However, I think it will be too expensive for a teacher from Myanmar to buy and use it if our government does not buy it for the university or school he or she is in. Therefore, I think that despite their benefits, Myanmar teachers will be able to use Scratch and Game maker for free if they are really keen on using animation for instruction.
Readings
Reading One: Understanding engagement in educational computer games
This is about an empirical study to understand engagement in educational computer games, based on in-depth interviews with 12 educational computer game players. The players were undergraduate students (aged 19-25) who voluntarily participated in 1-hour interview sessions. The researchers collected and analysed data by using Grounded Theory (GT) to build theory from data, based on the three main steps of the coding procedures of the GT approach, viz., (1) open coding, (2) axial coding and (3) selective coding. The research findings in Nah et al (2012) suggest that the educational game players were engaged in the games. The results also suggest that motivation is a key factor in fostering users' interest in educational computer games, and that such motivation can be self-generated or generated from users' external environment. Moreover, the students' sense of curiosity is also found to be a major factor that sustains user engagement in educational computer games. In my opinion, this kind of research conducted on teenagers (13-19) will be more effective because, from my observations, they are really fond of computer games and so will love educational computer games, as well.
Reading Two: Using multimedia to enhance learning
This reading material is an article by David Feith about using multimedia wisely to enhance learning. In the article, Feith presented several recent researches done by prominent scholars first, and then he suggested how to use multimedia most profitably to enhance teaching and learning. Primarily, he argues that recent brain research indicate that multimedia doe not develop all aspects of intelligence and so should not be used in all learning contexts.
According to Feith (2008), multimedia is only a tool and so its usefulness or benefits are reliant on the way it it used. Reflecting on Roger Sperry's research on the left and right hemispheres of the brain (cited in Feith (2008)), it is impossible to develop all the intelligences with multimedia. It is also crucially important to pay attention to the technique of mind mapping developed and started teaching by Tony Buzon in the 1970s. Buzon studied brain research that showed the brain remembers things by making associations, or remembers things that are emphasised.
Professor Howard Gardner developed the theory of multiple intelligence in his book "Frames of mind: the theory of 'multiple intelligences'" in 1983. According to Armstrong (2000, cited in Feith, 2008), "the essence of multiple intelligences theory is to respect the many differences among people, the multiple variations in the ways that they learn, the several modes by which they can be assessed, and the almost infinite number of ways in which they can leave a mark on the world." Caine and Caine (1991) examines and discusses the implications of the brain for learning and teaching. It summarises 'the accumulated insights of the research' and develop 12 principles that 'can serve as a general theoretical foundation for brain-based learning. Boyle's (1997) essential point: multimedia technology and the internet are enormously potential learning tools, but that the technology alone does not enhance learning.
Based on the recent research, Feith concluded that teachers' role is still crucial although many powerful multimedia tools are now in hand. He also emphasised that there are still several skills that multimedia cannot develop. In my opinion, teachers should keep doing research on the benefits and weaknesses of using multimedia in the future as nothing is ever perfect in this 21st century.
Unpacking the potential of educational gaming: a new tool for gaming research
As game play is very popular nowadays, especially among children and teenagers, game business are also producing more and more complex, engaging games. Several educational researchers have studied the usability and benefits of games in education. In the virtual communities of game play, players make reflection, planning, and interaction to build a shared understanding, value system, and culture around the game itself. According to Lave and Wenger (1991, cited in Wideman et al., 2007), if new players decides to participate, they then begin to move into the community more fully, learning its practices, values, roles, and symbols through observation, practice, and interaction with more experienced members. If educational games are properly designed, they can function as "practice fields" (Senge, 1994, cited in Wideman et al., 2007) which engage students in many meaningful realistic learning activities. However, there are significant bodies of research only in two disciplines, viz., medical education and business management studies. As engaging educational games are in necessity, Wideman and others developed Virtual Usability Laboratory (VULab), a tool for collecting the kinds of rich and "thick" game-play process data. The game was tested in a computer laboratory at a university in a large Canadian city over two separate sessions. During the sessions, students played an educational game and the VULab was used to record the gaming episode and present pre- and possession questionnaires. Analysis of the data showed several technical and usability issues that players had with the game. Though the students responded in questionnaires that they enjoyed the game, they were found to be confused and frustrated at different points throughout the game session. However, the field test results clearly demonstrate the possibility and value of VULab for the unobtrusive capture of data central to understanding many of the key elements of educational gaming. Personally speaking, educational games I have seen are just simple language games which will only interest keen language learners. However, by studying this research article, I come to be convinced that more engaging educational games that will teach young students English language will be highly beneficial for the ordinary students as well as for the keen ones.
Workshop
Quia
Quia was the most important part of the third day workshop. It has three main sections as shown in the following picture of its main page. I think all the sections are excellent, depending on who use them. For example, the students and teachers who are keen on mathematics will find IXL section truly engaging and valuable. Likewise, those teachers who want to buy Pdf's of good teaching-learning materials will regard Quia Books section invaluable.
However, the most useful section of the three, I think, is the Quiz Web, in which we tried to do several tasks in the class. We had to construct our own multiple-choice questions and then go around the class to try one another's. It was really fun and a good learning experience for me because I could differentiate the good and the bad questions.
Next, we being asked to construct some kind of quiz available on Quia, I constructed a Hang Man quiz by the title of "Animals". I built the quiz with 20 names of commonly-found animals and some clues for each. After that, we had to roam around the class to attempt one another's quizzes. I found that some of my classmates made Battleship quiz, which I was not used to tackling. I think I need to study many more unfamiliar kinds of quizzes like it on the Quia. It will surely be a training ground for me. I am confident that these kinds of quizzes will make my students engaged, and that they will also be able to make their future students interested and encouraged to continue studying the lessons. Moreover, I am convinced that if I could keep using this website back in my country, I would be able to construct my own test on the Quia for my students to do.
In fact, the merits of the website are varied and wide. It has a lot of adjustable online applications like allowing teachers to build their own quizzes and other kinds of learning activities for their students. Moreover, it also gives us opportunity to try to do learning games on different subjects created by other people. I think it would be beneficial for us if we joined it and really used it for our class for a long time. However, we could join it for 30-day free trial. I think it would not be easy for me and my students to use it far more than the trial days as it is still very difficult for Myanmar people to pay for the monthly price or to afford to do so.
I believe that Dvolver is a very good online movie maker with quite much adjustability in dialogues, and with many interesting choices for inputs such as backgrounds, music, and characters. However, one of its defects is that as it has no speech system to let the character speak, the viewers have to read all the words in the dialogue box to understand the video we make. Therefore, in my opinion, this online application will be more suitable for young learners. There is no doubt that students will get fun and better language practice, especially in reading skill. In the class, I made a simple language teaching movie on Greetings, one plot of which can be seen on the right side.
PowToon is a captivating presentation application. I have seen one or two awesome movie clips which were made using this online application. I made an account in the class as soon as Dr. Greg introduced it to us. Although my free account allows me to use basic presentation templates and basic tools without download rights, I find it really worthwhile. I tried to make a movie entitled "Life is: Trial movie clip" on PowToon. Despite its poor quality then, I made up my mind to develop my skills in making good presentation movies on it. I also think about making my multimedia presentation movie, my second assignment project in this subject, with the great help of PowToon.
Sketch Swap
My sketch
I was not very comfortable with using Sketch Swap perhaps because I am not very keen on drawing pictures. One thing which confused me much was how the unrelated pictures were swapped between strangers. The unpredictability and uncontrollability over the sketches swapped from our strangers overwhelmed me while drawing. I drew a young man saying "Hello!" to the viewers as seen on the right side, and then submit it. But after some time, I got a sketch of a beautiful couple surrounded by 'hearts' which is shown in the following one. That time, I was lucky, I thought.
The sketch I received
However, when I tried to draw a new sketch of a girl and submit it for the second time, I got some ugly sketches of dogs and cats. What an unlucky time. However, I think some students who like drawing will like this online application very much. As my student teachers will teach young people, they will be able to use Sketch Swap effectively. As youngsters, the learners will find it really engaging since they normally like mysteries.
I like Buildyourwildself because it allows me to combine several parts of weird wild animals in the body of a human being. In my opinion, the young learners will like this online application very much as they are generally lovers of legends and strange animals. What may attract them most will be that they can hear the sounds of the wild animals they chose. They can also learn about each animal that they chose for making their wild selves. As a language teacher, I am convinced that this website can help young ESL learners develop their language skills, especially reading skill, and some knowledge about animals. Therefore, I intend to recommend my student teachers to practice using it so that they will be able to engage their future students in some meaningful learning activities.
In this 21st century, education is a very important asset for the people all over the world. There have appeared a lot of new terms associated with 21st century skills such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT), media literacy, digital literacy and innovation. On the first day of Dr. Greg's three-day intensive course, he covered one main lecture on digital technology, and several applications and useful websites which we did in a workshop format. We also have reading materials that played an important role in understanding the lessons better. Therefore, in the following portion, I intend to present my reflections on the first day in the order of (1) lecture, (2) some readings, and (3) some essential applications and websites that I aim to be able to use in the classroom context in my country.
Lecture One: Digital Technologies for the 21st century
21st century skills
The lecture gave me a lot of knowledge and insights about technology in the 21st century. It is amazing to know that, in the current global environment, there are two prominent change agents: education and the Internet. I strongly agree with this statement because both the categories are influential and crucially important for the 21st century learners. I knew the term "Education 3.0" better with the elaborated definitions by means of two categories: the What Skills and the How Skills. As the present education trend is changing into the form of Education 3.0, the 21st century skills by 2006 Gilbert review (UK) are becoming essential for all the people. In fact, the students should be trained to be fully equipped with these essential skills. For that, teachers should also be trying their best to keep themselves updated with more knowledge and skills.
Education scientist Sugata Mitra's new experiments in self-teaching is a marvellous TED talk event. In the 17-minute Youtube video, he addressed how he did his experiments in students' self-teaching in several places in India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Italy and some other for months. The results confirmed that children can teach themselves by using technology, especially enough computer and internet access. The video inspired me to try similar teaching-learning situations in my country. It also encouraged me to try my best as a teacher in any kind of negative situations of the schools and classes of mine. Sugata Mitra's presentation can be watched on the following video.
Dr. Greg Powell also showed us a very creative lecture by Sir Ken Robinson. It was such a great video clip with many creative input features that at the end of it, some classmates of ours said “Wow!” However, I was not surprised by the Youtube video not because I did not regard it as amazing but because I have watched it for several times and been taken aback by the ideas and the presentation styles of the man. The movie can be watched below. Be amazed!
Readings Reading One: Comparing frameworks for 21st Century skills by Chris Dede In this article by Chris Dede published in 2009, he first defined 21st century skills by comparing it to 20th century skills. Then he presented a detailed comparison of frameworks for 21st century skills. According to Dede (2009), 21st century skills are different from those of 20th century in terms of the capabilities people need for work, citizenship and self-actualisation. Some 'perennial' skills like 'collaboration' can also be 'contextual' skills in the light of 'collaboration' done via 21st century communication like the Internet. Despite the skills being good, classrooms today lack 21st century learning and teaching largely because of high-stakes tests not assessing these competencies, and because of lack of professional development for educators. Although there have been conceptual frameworks for "21st Century Skills" proposed by several famous groups and individual scholars, the ones by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills Framework (2006) and the Project for 21st Century Skills (P21) serve as a baseline for all the subsequent analyses because they are more detailed and more widely adopted. Most importantly, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills which are also known as digital literacies are emphasised nowadays. I agree with the views in this article by Chris Dede. His proposition that assessment systems should be embedded with ICT these days is also much appreciated. Reading Two: Opinion of teachers towards using multimedia learning package Nowadays, there has been an interesting research interest in the combination of multimedia to teachers' instruction. According to Bagui (1998, cited in Sharma & Kakkar (2011)), "multimedia" refers to "the combining of text, graphics, animation, picture, videos and sound to present information." In this research by Dr. Hemant Lata Sharma & Dr. Nidhi Kakkar, they had 10 B.Ed student teachers from different education colleges in Haryana State of North India answer their self-designed opinionnaire in order to find out the latter's opinions towards using Multimedia Learning (MML) packages. It is interesting to see the results that the students teachers unanimously agreed on the four points: (1) it is possible to teach Education Technology through MML packages; (2) it is very useful for distant learners and for the self-study of the students; (3) MML package covers the whole syllabus; and (4) MML package helps the teachers to teach a large class. However, they disagreed on the three points: (1) assignment given at the end is insufficient; (2) it was not interactive in nature; and (3) individual difference was not kept in mind while developing the MML package. As a teacher educator myself, this research article particularly appeals to me and helps me strengthen the idea that I should equip my B.Ed student teachers with 21st century skills, especially using MML packages.
Reading Three: Active learning through multimedia byRoger C. Schank It is nature that children learn by doing. It is, therefore, very important for teachers to take into consideration the nature of "learning by doing" as eloquently popularised by John Dewey. According to Schank (1994), instead of relying on "page-turning architecture" which is outdated and not very educational, educational technologists should focus on making educational software which can make students learn actively and naturally. In other words, educational technologists should move from behaviouristic "drill and practice" model of educational software originally similarly designed by B.F. Skinner to the individualised softwares which can present users with tasks that interest them, allow them to be curious, offer users the possibility of recovery from failure without being embarrassed, and put learners in control of a task. In fact, I can learn a lot from the researcher's presentation of his six revised teaching architectures followed by practical examples of educational software to illustrate each, viz: (1) simulation-based learning by doing, (2) incidental learning, (3) learning by reflection, (4) case-based teaching, (5) learning by exploring, and (6) goal-directed learning. I believe that his detailed presentation of the six teaching architectures should be the baseline for all the engaging active teaching-learning situations through the use of multimedia.
Workshop Jing
JingSmith main page logo
Dr. Greg introduced us how to use a very useful screen shot application named Jing. It was fun for all of us to have new experience. Though I had seen that application before, I did not know how to use it exactly. So I was thrilled at it. I tried to do several screen shots of pictures, which I kept in the storage place on the desktop computer in front of me. I used it for screen capturing in other tasks of the subsequent workshops. I believe that the students will know this application very interesting as it will allows them to screenshot not only anything on the screen but also short video clips. As my students are practising teachers, they will be able to teach their future students how to use it for their projects and tasks by me equipping the former with the skills in using it effectively. My students can simply be informed that this application is downloadable for free on TechSmith Website.
DopplelMe
My DoppelMe
On that day, we were then introduced to a graphic application named “DoppelMe" by which we could create a picture of a similar person to us. I used different kinds features provided for the picture to fit my appearance to the best of my ability. The final picture of mine is provided on the left.
I believe that this online application will also engage my students who will learn to use it to pass on to their future young learners. I am convinced that my students will be keen on using it because it is a personalised application which, on completion, will be a kind of encouragement for them to be self-confident and work harder. But what I am particularly worried about in the context of Myanmar, my country, is that we still have great difficulty with internet access even in my current university let alone schools and so we may not be able to use this kind of useful application. Another similar but seemingly better-featured online graphic application is “VOKI”. We had a good laugh because the picture spoke to us in different strange ways. I think it will be better suited for young learners as it is fun and can engage them deeply. Inspiration
My teaching aid named "Sports"
Inspiration, another useful application, is downloadable for 30-day free trials. But in the class, we could get easy access to the application on the desktop computers available in the computer lab. Dr. Greg asked us to build on the application something interesting from our own field of expertise. As a teacher educator on English Language Teaching (ELT), I tried to construct a relation map about some popular sports with the pictures which were available on the application and in the list of my collected screen shots of pictures from the Internet thanks to Jing. It was also an exciting task for all of us.
An example of mind map
I am convinced that Inspiration will be extremely beneficial for my student teachers. By using the application, they will be able to create their own engaging colourful teaching materials for their instruction by themselves. As it will allow them to make interesting diagrams, outlines and mind maps of their own, it will help them with planning their lessons, and arranging important ideas concerning the lessons. Besides, by using this application effectively and efficiently, they will also be able to develop their future students' critical and creative thinking skills, and mind mapping skills, which are crucial for 21st century learners. The sample mind map described on the left is a kind of task that young learners can do and learn. Bubbl.us
I think Bubbl.us is also a very useful mind-mapping website. As it is easy to construct a mind map on this online application, I can also recommend my students to use it for creating tasks related to the English language lessons. However, one defect of using it would be that we have to pay for signing up an account on it to use for longer time. Therefore, I think my students will not be able to use it often in the context of my country Myanmar although it seems fantastic.
Storybird
What I was particularly absorbed in as an amateur writer was a superb website called Storybird which allows us to write and publish our own picture stories after making a new account. We can also read stories written for different age groups there. There are thousands of colourful pictures on it with which the members can write and publish their picture stories. I deeply hope my student teachers will be extremely interested in it as they will be able to use Storybird for their future story-loving children and teenagers.
The story I wrote on Storybird
In the class, we were asked to write a story of our own by choosing a lot of artistic pictures available on the website. I tried to write a story entitled “A girl who loved animals” with the aim of acquiring the sense of loving animals by 5-7 age-group learners. However, I had not finished it up when the lecturer told us to stop and so I finished it later. On the right is my story which you can read on Storybird. :-) MS Publisher
Later in the afternoon, Dr. Greg introduced us to Microsoft Publisher (MS Publisher) with special focus on “Brochure”. Each of us was asked to make a brochure about something interesting. He also asked us to Google for some useful pictures. He gave Hawaii as a sample topic. Then I chose Mrauk-U as my topic for my brochure as I also missed my native land very much at that time. After some time, the lecturer asked us to stand up and observe the other classmates' works. It was not only a relaxing but also beneficial time for us as we could learn from one another.
Honestly speaking, before I came to this class, I did not have the idea of using MS Publisher for assigning my students projects on the subjects I taught. I believe that it will be very beneficial for my students if I assign them to do projects similar to the one we did ourselves. In such a situation, the learning contexts will be very meaningful and down-to-earth not only for my student teachers but also for their future students. I have decided to apply this knowledge with my students when I go back to my country.
Like the first day, the second day instructions by Dr. Greg Powell included some engaging lectures and interesting practical workshops. In the following, I will present the two lectures, a brief coverage of two or three readings and workshops of that day in a brief way with my reflections on them based on my experiences and the context of my country Myanmar.
Lectures (Two and Three)
On the second day, Dr. Greg Powell covered two lectures (Lecture Two and Three), which are briefly presented under the particular topics in the following.
Lecture Two
A slide from Lecture Two
Lecture Two is concerned with the matters of how to protect students while they are browsing the internet. As educators, we should try to empower our learners to develop safe and responsible online behaviours to protect themselves every time and everywhere they go online. Therefore, it is very important for students to behave well online according to the clear definitions of behaving online as specified in the slide on the left.
It is not at all appropriate to restrict the use of technology in this 21st century. However, we should empower our students to go online without any risks. Cyber bullying and harassment problems like teasing, spreading rumours and lies about somebody in the class should be banned and taken action. According to Australian cover bullying prevalence study (2009), the reasons for bullying among students are that the person bullying disliked the person being bullied, that they found bullying fun, that they enjoyed bullying others, and that they liked to feel tough and strong, in control and popular. I think these reasons for bullying are true for the students all over the world.
A slide from Lecture Two
Another kind of risks for students is that they should be careful with completing personal detail forms, and with privacy issues, especially when creating websites and publishing online documents. We should also instruct our students to avoid spams and viruses in their e-mails carefully. For students to be safe and responsible online, they should be empowered to follow guidelines for schools and Internet Acceptable Use Agreements (AUAs). Moreover, as teachers, we should try to follow the important advice mentioned on the right.
Apart from them, we should educate our students to be safe and responsible online by showing some useful videos to them. For example, by watching educating movie clips like Tagged and Sexting, our students can automatically learn to behave online. Indeed, the movie "Tagged" even touched my heart deeply with a lot of moral lessons in the end. Why don't you spend some time usefully watching it below! We can also discuss what our students learn from it after watching it.
Lecture Three
A slide from Lecture Three
Lecture Three is related to how the benefits of 'digital environments' be maximized for the students. Digital revolution has provided many opportunities in education for students and teachers. However, it is important that digital objects like audio and video files should contribute to the users' learning through understanding of concepts or processes and development of skills rather than drill and practice. In other words, one of the most important objectives of using learning objects should be to challenge students to question, investigate, analyse, synthesise, solve problems, make decision and reflect on their learning. For learning objects to be educationally sound, the four principles of learner focus, content integrity, usability and accessibility mentioned on the right are essential.
A slide from Lecture Three
On one hand, teachers should be aware of the notion that learning objects are not replacing concepts which can be presented in a classroom environment. On the other hand, they should deliver learning objects to the students in a meaningful way. For example, students can interact and learn online in Scootle (which I will elaborate more in the workshop section below).
As a teacher educator specialising in methodology, I am convinced that all the teachers should pay special attention to the pedagogically-based learning design described on the left, when they use online learning objects with students.
A slide from Lecture Three
As a matter of fact, there are many benefits of using the digital environments or the Internet as some main ones specified on the right slide.
To study more about and use educationally sound learning objects, the following websites will be very beneficial:
Reading One: Protecting yourself online: what everyone needs to know (2nd edition)
8 simple tips for protecting yourself online
This is a booklet of guidelines for protecting oneself online primarily compiled by the Australia Government with the intention of keeping the Australian people safe and secure online. Generally, the 8 simple tips for protecting oneself online which are described as original on the right are quite comprehensive and effective if people do follow them. The guideline booklet has been written with three main sections, viz., how to secure your computer, how to be smart online, and how to be safe online. Under each section, there are clear explanations of the conditions of risks online with relevant examples where necessary, and how to avoid them. Near the end, some government official websites are given for studying more about tips for protecting oneself online, and for reporting online incidents to the appropriate departments directly. In Myanmar, my motherland, there has been an increasing number of online users and so the number of cyber crimes is also going up. As Myanmar government has not yet compiled any official guideline for protecting oneself online and any official law for taking actions against cyber crimes, this guideline booklet can be a good main reference for doing so.
Reading Two: Sex and tech: results from a survey of teens and young adults
This reading material is about an exploratory study conducted for better understanding the intersection between sex and cyberspace with respect to attitudes and behaviour. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and Cosmoginl.com commissioned a survey of teens (13-19) and young people (20-26) to explore electronic activity. The survey was done to a total of 1,280 respondents - 653 teens and 627 young adults - between September 25, and 2008 and October 3, 2008. Nine interesting key findings of the research study were identified. The first finding is that a significant number of teens have electronically sent or uploaded nude or semi-nude photos or videos of themselves. The second finding is that such an online act starts at a young age and increases as teens become young adults. The third is that sexually suggestive messages like text, e-mail and instant message are even more common than sexually suggestive images among the people of these ages. The fourth is that despite some sending such images to their boyfriends or girlfriends, some also send them to strangers. It is surprising to see that many teens and young adults do such online image-sending in spite of their high possibility of being in danger (the fifth finding) and of them being publicised with the consent of the owners (the sixth finding). It is also astonishing to find that many young people who receive nude/semi-nude images and sexually suggestive texts and e-mails are sharing them to the others not originally intended (the seventh finding). Seeing that teens and young adults give many reasons for sending or posting sexually explicit content (the ninth finding) even when they are quite aware of the fact that such an online act can have negative impact on them (the eighth finding), I tend to believe that it will be very dangerous for them if they keep doing so. Although we have personal rights for sending or posting our own images or videos, it is not wrong to be extra careful with doing so online. Sometimes, posting such sexually explicit content online is like inviting dangers for a girl or a young women. Therefore, I believe that it is really worth educating our teens and young people about using technology effectively and wisely.
Workshop
Yenka
Screenshot of Yenka Homepage
According to Dr. Greg, Yenka is a very useful website for the learners since it provides them opportunities to make numerous experiments safely in a virtual environment on the four fields of study: mathematics, science, technology and, ICT and computing. He hinted that he learners may learn a lot from their virtual safe experiments. When I tried to use it, it did not turn up very well for me perhaps because I was still new to it. When I tried it at a later date, I tried to register and download the application free of charge as a teacher. But my Mac not allowing the file to open, I could not try it yet up to now. But I believe that if the students can really use the application, it will be extremely beneficial for them.
Scootle
Screenshot of Scootle homepage
I find Scootle really fruitful as we can search for the relevant learning materials for us as teachers and for our students. Although my Australian classmates who are also in-service teachers from local schools would benefit most from it as it showcases the Australia curriculum and related materials, international students including me also had lots of useful things which I believe I will be able to use in the context of my country.
When I tried browsing Scootle for English language, I narrowed it by selecting the grades that the content was supposed to be part of. Then I found a lot of videos and other readings on different topics under English language, which are linked to Splash of the well-known ABC. Therefore, I could study a lot of materials there. I am sure that I will recommend my students to do research and discussion on different instructional topics partially based on the website. However, the most crucial thing, I believe, is that I need to spend some of my time regularly on browsing and using it to the best of my benefit so that I will be able to render my knowledge and skills to my students. Splash
Screenshot of Splash homepage
I am particularly absorbed in Splash of the ABC which can help us learn with many useful good-quality documentary video clips, games, audio clips and many other learning tools. I searched for materials concerning English language teaching and found a lot of learning materials. The video we watched in the class was one of the most famous songs for kids by the name of "Twinkle, twinkle little stars" (which you may have already listened or read before). In the video, you can see how it was demonstrated in an attractive way for the kids! I will use such materials for teaching English Language Teaching (ELT) to my student teachers. I also intend to encourage them to use Splash effectively for their future students as I am convinced that we can easily search for many useful materials related to our students' level there.
Roller Mache
Screenshot of Roller Mache homepage
Roller Mache is quite an interesting website for animation. On that website, we can watch some inspirational video clips of famous animators explaining how they made their animations, learn how to do animation movies from the written explanations, and create our own animations if we have already registered there. It is a superb help for the learners who are interested in animations or creative art. As the teacher is to "open the doors for the children" so that they can "enter by themselves", I will recommend my student teachers to try to use the website and encourage their future students to try it by discussing the merits of using it.
Edutopia
Screenshot of Edutopia homepage
I really like Edutopia for the numerous articles, videos and researches on a wide range of educational topics. The writers are educationists themselves and so their presentations are convincing and influential, I think. As I registered on the website, they send me the updates on the news and articles via my e-mail regularly. I think every teacher who wants to improve themselves should register there, get e-mail updates, and study and develop their educational horizons. I think it is a good thing for us to join the conversation with the educational community there. Vimeo
After lunch that day, Dr. Greg told us to do pair work by giving a rubber band, a card, a piece of tape and a frog picture each. The task was to try to make the paper frog jump and then to make a demonstration of the frog leaping in front of the class by a volunteer from each group. I thought it would be an important part of an animation movie if we were to make one with a frog as a character in it. My Vietnamese friend and I thought about making it jump in various ways. Only at last did we think about folding the card, putting one tip of it to the paper frog above with the rubber band after binding the frog to the tip of the card, and pressing the upper tip of the folded card gently and releasing it. Then one representative from each group had to make a demonstration in front of the class. It was fun for all of us! Then we video-recorded our frog leaping for posting on Vimeo. You can enjoy watching my amazing video clip entitled "How to make a paper frog leap on and on!" on my Vimeo wall. Just a click on the link given! :)
Reasonablyclever.com
Like the first day, the second day workshops covered quite a number of useful websites. First of all, we had to try an incredibly awesome website named "reasonablyclever.com".
There are a lot of interesting features in it. We can create a lot of colourful pictures by using it. I think this website will be especially useful for the young learners because there are several ways of making colourful pictures with various pieces of art to choose from. I believe that the learners will develop creativity by the teacher asking them to do tasks like letting them create the pictures of their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and best friends. Depending on the teacher's intuitiveness, he or she can adjust the tasks and even develop the learners' other skills like presentation or communication skills. Although we tried only Classic Minimizer of the website in the class, I found on later browsing that other sections like Blockhead will also be very suitable for children. I am sure that these online applications will not only boost young learners' creativity but also make them happy and engaged.
Wordle
My wordle
Wordle is a website where the words we put are transformed into an attractive colourful word cloud. In our Sagaing University of Education, Myanmar, our student teachers are normally assigned to make teaching aids. This online application can be helpful for them as they can make the main words of a particular language topic into a word cloud and printing it out as a wall sheet. On top of that, they can also be encouraged to use this application for making teaching aids needed for their group teaching and bloc teaching. I also intend to use this website for my lessons back in my country. The word maze shown on the left is the one about some words associated with sports that I did with the application in the class.
Tagxedo
Word apple made on Tagxedo
Tagxedo is a similar online application to Wordle. Personally speaking, I prefer Tagxedo to Wordle because the former can produce more attractive word mazes than the latter. Moreover, I think Tagxedo will be better to use especially for the young learners as it allows us to create word mazes resembling animals that the learners of these ages are normally very interested in. But we may alternate the two websites for making word mazes. There is no doubt that Tagxedo is an excellent tool for making instructional aids for all the teacher educators, teachers and student teachers.
A word cock made on Tagxedo
The two pictures provided on the left and above are the ones that I tried to make by using Taxedo during the class.I believe that anyone can easily learn to use this application.
Makebeliefscomix
What particularly enchanted me was Makebeliefscomix which is a comic-making online application. We can create comics with the appropriate characters and dialogue boxes that we want to use. When we finish creating our comics, we can save it on our computers and send it to a friend if we wish to do so. I am fully convinced that this application will make my student teachers a brand-new experience that will last all their lives as a happy memory. They will be able to create their own comics and share to their classmates. This will also be a kind of language practice by restricting using only English for dialogues even though the application allows them to use their mother tongue. Therefore, it will be an enjoyable learning activity for them, too. Such joys and learning can be boosted with their future students of younger ages with the teachers' creative assignments.
The following is a comic strip that I created on Makebeliefscomix in the class. The theme of the comic is that the student teachers (hereby including me in spite of my being a teacher educator in my country) are confused by the two opposite ideas of a language teacher (that is, Dr. Howard Nicholas, our language teaching lecturer, in my mind) and a multimedia teacher (that is, Dr. Greg Powell, our EDU4UML lecturer, in my mind). The title of my comic strip is "Language teacher and multimedia teacher", which I provide below.
My comic entitled "Language teacher and multimedia teacher" made on Makebeliefscomix.com
Despite me being quite a mature person now, I was overjoyed and proud of my own creation which I even shared on my Facebook timeline and my classmates praised. Taking into account my joy and pride in my own creation, my student teachers and their future students of younger ages will be exuberant and extremely proud. On the other hand, they will also learn English language unconsciously. Therefore, I have made up my mind to render this experience to my student teachers back in my country Myanmar.
