Week 3

The topic this week was Digital Citizenship. We started off by talking about digital footprints, how you look and present yourself online and how you can use 'Personal Branding' to make your self look a particular way online. We were told that if you wanted to present yourself well online then you should appear in the first 3 spots of Google when you search your name. I tried to find myself and found that only my old unused Myspace profile was the only thing from me on the whole first page of Google. This really surprised me as I have not touched that account in years, yet it appears on the first page, however none of my other profiles which I use on a daily basis show up. I also tried searching the title of my webpage and my blog and I have not been able to discover them through a Google search. From a privacy point of view this is a good thing, however in the case that I wanted to be found for self promotional reasons this would be a bad thing and I would have to try and make myself more discoverable.  

Jan said that to make ourselves known and in order to prevent misrepresentation of our selves we should buy domain names, every possible combination. I thought this was a little unnecessary and over the top, even if you are someone who is in the public view often. Even so I still went and had a look at the website that was given to us to check the availability of my name on social media profiles - http://namechk.com/ we were shown many other ways of making ourselves known as well such as About.me and a few different blogging sites.

From there we started to talk about online safety. We were shown a website we could go to for information about how to stay safe online - StaySmartOnline.gov.au, as this is a Government website it probably has quite a bit of useful information, however I have not had a thorough look at it as of yet. We were given advice such as making any profiles private and to update security settings, and to never put personal information on to the Internet.

After we discussed safety, we moved onto cyberbullying, what it looks like and how you might be able to recognise it in another person/student. We were given a list of ways that might help to recognise if someone is being cyber-bullied:

•  changes in personality
•  appearing more lonely or distressed
•  less interaction with students at school
•  possible peer rejection
•  decline in school work
•  excessive sleepiness or lack of focus
•  higher levels of absenteeism
•  increased negative self-perception
•  a decline in physical health
•  suicidal thoughts—this should be reported to administration and parents/carers immediately

Not only was how to identify cyber bullying discussed, but also the reasons behind it. In this section what really surprised me was what is known as self-cyberbullying, where messages and cruel remarks are sent to the person by themselves. The reason for this could vary from seeking attention to trying to get help without having the actually ask. Even so the fact that this happens really shocked me and it was something I never thought I would see, however as a future teacher it will just be one more thing I must look out for in order to help my students.

We then moved on to our How to Lecture, this time we were talking about copyright, I discovered that even pictures you find on the web are protected under copyright laws. I had always just thought that you could just take a picture from anywhere and it did not really matter. We were given a task where we had to identify if we were allowed to use a particular image based on the information given on the site. I struggled with this task but discovered some general information that will really help me in the future - such as if its creative commons it okay to use if you attribute where it was found, if it is in the public domain you can use it and if their is no information given do not use it. From here with this new information I had to go about changing my webpage as all my images would have been copyright infringements. I used a site to help me identify pictures I could use and changed to them to ones that don't break copyright laws.  

Week Two

Our second lecture was titled Learning to be a teacher (with technology). From the very beginning I was learning new terminology, being introduced to the term 'Pedagogy' (Ped-uh-goh-jee). I discovered that this term according to the dictionary meant 'the function or work of a teacher; teaching' or 'the art or science of teaching; education; instructional methods', or my understanding of it - 'how a teacher teaches'.

From here we were then introduced to Authentic Learning which was classified as a 'pedagogical modal'. I discovered that while, from the title it may seem like a simple concept, it was in fact quite detailed and made up of 9 elements, which I won't go into detail about but will list:

• Authentic context
• Authentic activity
• Expert performances
• Multiple perspectives
• Collaboration
• Reflection
• Articulation
• Coaching and scaffolding
• Authentic assessment

While in this lecture I realised that I had probably been taught with this sort of approach in my Primary School days. I remembered one task in particular that I did which would have used some of these aspects - particularly authentic context and authentic activity. I did this task in around year 3 or 4 and was required to make a shopping list and estimate the prices of a list of particular items, from there we had to go to the shop next door to our school and actually go and buy these items. I believe this was an authentic learning task as it had real world relevance while teaching us about estimating and working with money. This task had benefits both mathematically and economically as it also gave me understanding of the value of money in a real world environment.  

This Authentic Learning approach in my opinion seemed very thorough and beneficial to a child's education, as it had worked for me in the past I could see that it would be a useful modal to base tasks I create for my future students.

After we learnt what authentic learning was, we then discussed how it could be done in a technological environment; using tools such as websites, power point presentations and, videos to do these tasks. We were shown an example of a task where a principal had asked the students to prepare a report of how water was used in the school and ways that water could be saved. Through a process of collecting data, writing reports and presenting information, technology could be used in so many aspects of the task and could really be beneficial to how a child learns. 

In our How To lecture we were given more information on how to go about making our websites and blogs and one person was even given the chance to start theirs then in the lecture, in order to show everyone that it was not an overly difficult process. Seeing this helped even more to calm some of my fears that I had about this task. 

This unit tries to show then benefits of using technology is a learning environment, however in this lecture I saw that there is also a downside to using technology in the classroom. This came about when we were using a question sheet that updated live on to the projector at the front of the room. We were required to post questions we had about completing task one, however some people thought they were funny and were posting inappropriate comments such as 'for a good time call (insert number)'. Not only are their negatives for using technology, but technology still has its limits. While I was making this blog post I typed the word 'blogs'; ironically enough while in a blog it tells me that this word is incorrect and puts a squiggly red line underneath it. While technology is not always perfect and can be misused in the wrong hands, it can be extremely beneficial to those who want to learn.    

The First Week!

There I was, sitting in the Loneragen Building Lecture Theatre; In my first lecture of my Primary Education Degree, not knowing what to expect. The theatre started getting fuller and fuller, most of the seats had been filled. Next our Unit Co-ordinator Jenni Parker and our Lecturer Jan Herrington walk in and begin setting up for the lecture. The noise of the other students fills the room, I look around to try and see what types of people will be on this journey with me. When ready to start, the noise drops instantly, eyes staring to the front of the room. As Jan and Jenni begin to speak, my nerves begin to lift. I begin to realise that these people are quite friendly and they seem very passionate about the topic. I start listening to what they have to say and from that point on... my journey had begun.

This first lecture was an introduction to the unit, Jan began by showing us the differences in classrooms from the 1920's to the modern day. We learnt that class numbers had dropped and I was especially shocked to learn that in the '20's desks were fixed to the floor. I thought back to my time in primary school and and remembered that moving desks around was a common feature of my classroom depending on the activity.

Classes 1920's (Left) & 2000's (Right) - From Lecture One Slides

After these brief differences, it was into the unit outline. We were shown how to navigate the Learning Management System (LMS) and were introduced to our tasks for the course. At this point I had already read the Unit Information and had a pretty good idea about this information. When I had first read the task outlines I was put off by what the tasks were asking us to do (see previous post), and upon attending this lecture my fears grew. It was stated that we wont be taught how to use these technologies, but that we would be given tools and we would have to figure out how to use them ourselves. Later in the lecture, comments from previous students' were shown such as the following from 'Chloe' from the 2013 unit:

"At the beginning of the semester, this unit was definitely one of my least favourites. I was not confident about using technology for my assignments and I did not think that I would do very well in EDN113 because of this. As I worked through each assignment, my initial impression of this unit began changing and I quickly saw how this unit was particularly relevant for teachers."

Upon reading these my thoughts began to change, I saw that many people had been in the same position I was currently in and had managed to accomplish the tasks that I was about to undertake. Seeing that it could be done I felt better and I thought that the Co-ordinators would not give us a task that we were designed to fail. With this new insight I began to feel confident and intrigued about what I was going to be able to put together.

We were then shown through more information about the assessment and the LMS system and what sort of effort would be required of us in the unit. We were then shown some possible technologies from the Technology Toolbox that would be helpful for us during out tasks - sites such as Blogger, Weebly, Google. However it was emphasised to us that we should not use Facebook for any purpose in this unit as it is not a good site to use for such activities. After some more general housekeeping information we were informed that we were going to need a Google Account to access certain documents in this unit and in the How To Lecture which followed we were guided through how to do this as well as signing up to the EDN113 Google Drive Folder.

All in all, I think it was a good introduction to this unit and a good start to my journey into becoming a Primary School teacher.

Why so.

When I first looked at the Assessment section of the unit guide for EDN113 - Living and Learning with Technology, I immediately started to freak out. I read that for Task 1 I would have to do the following:

In Task 1 you will create a personal/professional website that you will use to present all your work in EDN113, and a blog to reflect on your learning throughout the semester. You will also research safe, ethical and responsible use of ICT in an online environment and create a set of digital guidelines for students.

(EDN113 Living and Learning with Technology Unit Guide)

In that moment my mind started to race with thoughts such as 'I'm not going to able to do that', 'I've never created a website before and I know nothing about how to create a website' and, 'They can't really expect us to do this can they'. I procrastinated starting my website and I really had no idea where to begin and how to go about this task. Eventually I checked out the Technology Toolbox, a resource which the Unit Co-ordinator Jenni Parker created, which has useful information and a list of possible choices to help guide us through the creation of our websites and blogs.

Unit Co-ordinator Jenni Parker

In the end I had three main choices for possible website builders - Wix, Webnode and finally the one I ended up going with Weebly. I began to research these sites and found a good tool to compare my choices - Website Tooltester. I looked at this site and found great reviews for each of the sites which I then used to make my final choice (WTT - Wix, WTT - Webnode, WTT - Weebly). I ended deciding on Weebly because of the reviews that the website tool tester gave me. It stated that Weebly had an overall rating of 4.9/5, where as Wix was 3.9/5 and Webnode 4/5. I also checked and and compared other features such as the Widget capabilities, storage space and, ease of use. Being a new website maker this was an important factor for me as I needed something that was going to be easy for me to use; Wix and Weebly both gave ease of use 5 star ratings where as Webnode was only 4/5 so I then eliminated that as a choice. The Weebly Review stated that there was unlimited storage space as against Wix which stated there was a maximum of 20GB storage space. I knew that this wouldn't be a huge factor for the purpose of the EDN113 tasks as even 20GB is a lot of space, but I decided to go with Weebly because it did have unlimited space which allowed for much greater use of my site for teaching purposes when I am a fully qualified teacher. 

As for my blog, it was suggested to me that I use Blogger. I tried out this tool and was initially a little confused about how to use it. After playing around with the tool and figuring out the workings of the site I became a little more confident and set out and created my blog using Blogger. At the end of my first post I encountered my first major problem - how to link an image to a particular website. I ended up using Google to find an answer pretty quickly. I read that the only way to link an image was to manipulate the HTML, upon reading these words my heart skipped a beat. I had never done anything with HTML and had no idea how it worked. However upon reading further down the page which I was reading -  http://www.cliveeaton.com/linkimagesinblogger.html, I discovered it wasn't really very technical and in fact quite easy to accomplish. 

So in my first blog post I had already learnt new skills which also benefited me in this post as well (linking the above image). Although I had learned how to link an image, I had problems actually putting the image in the blog post in the first place. I was initially using the Firefox Internet browser and when I clicked the add image button in the blog creation tools, nothing would load no matter how many times I tried. Upon switching over to Google Chrome and trying the same thing in this browser the option to upload an image appeared instantly. I do not know why this is the case but I must remember in the future I should construct blog posts in Chrome.

Already in the first few weeks of this course I have created a website, blog and learnt new skills such as HTML. I look forward to what else I will learn in this unit and what skills I will be able to transfer into my career as a primary school teacher.

So it begins...

Introduction

Hi, I am Jarrod Trigg, welcome to my blog. I have recently started a Primary Education Degree at Murdoch University. This blog is my journey through my degree, specifically for the unit EDN113 - Living and Learning with Technology. In this unit we were required to create a website and a blog in order to introduce us to technologies we could use as teaching resources for our future students. The point of the website and blog is to discuss and reflect on what we have learnt and how it can be beneficial to the students we will teach in the future.

The link to my website is:
mrtrigg.weebly.com
I have only just created it, so at this stage it is not very detailed, but over the course of this semester as I learn more and do the tasks required, my site will grow and be updated continually. I hope to be able to use this site once i have graduated and received my degree, in order to connect students to a technological teaching environment alongside a standard classroom environment.

If you would like to learn more about my University or my Course then follow the links provided.