Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Group 4 - Using Yahoo Mail
Today you were taught some tools in Yahoo Mail where you only had written instructions to follow. How do you think you managed this lesson?
Group 3 - Using Yahoo Mail
Today you were taught some tools in Yahoo Mail where Mrs Tonner talked used the whiteboard to demonstrate. You also had written step by step instructions to refer to. How do you think you managed this lesson?
Group 2 - Using Yahoo Mail
Today you were taught some tools in Yahoo Mail where Mrs Tonner only talked. How do you think you managed this lesson?
Group 1 - Using Yahoo Mail
Today you were taught some tools in Yahoo Mail where Mrs Tonner talked and wrote key points on the board. How do you think you managed this lesson?
What way was best?
Last week each class in L7 were taught different ways to find out which style of teaching produces the best results. Group 1 took the whole 40 minutes to complete their lesson which was purely listening. Many children required help due to not remembering steps. Group 2 only took 20 minutes as due to the visual help written on the board. Most help was either reassurance or tecnical issues. Group 3 surprised me as they had no teacher help and purely written instructions. The majority of the children whizzed through this lesson with a few requiring help due to not reading the instructions carefully. Group 4, who had instruction sheets, teacher input and the whiteboard for demonstrations completed the lesson in 10 minutes. Only 2 children required support due to not paying attention or reading the instructions. This reduction in time was very exciting as it highlighted that more could be achieved in a lesson if the correct method of teaching is used.
Group 4 - Creating An E-mail Account
Today you were taught how to create an e-mail account with Yahoo Mail. The style of teaching used was auditory, written instructions and demonstrations using the whiteboard. How successful do you think the lesson was? Did you find it easy or difficult follow all instructions? What made you seek support - forgot instruction, required verification that you were doing the correct thing or frightened to make a mistake? Comment on why you were successful of unsuccessful today.
Group 3 - Creating An E-mail Account
Today you were taught how to create an e-mail account with Yahoo Mail. The style of teaching used was written instructions. How successful do you think the lesson was? Did you find it easy or difficult follow all instructions? What made you seek support - did not understand instructions, required verification that you were doing the correct thing or frightened to make a mistake? Comment on why you were successful of unsuccessful today.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Group 2 - Creating An E-mail Account
Today you were taught how to create an e-mail account with Yahoo Mail. The style of teaching used was auditory and written instructions. How successful do you think the lesson was? Did you find it easy or difficult follow all instructions? What made you seek support - forgot instruction, required verification that you were doing the correct thing or frightened to make a mistake? Comment on why you were successful of unsuccessful today.
Group 1 - Creating An E-mail Account
Today you were taught how to create an e-mail account with Yahoo Mail. The style of teaching used was purely auditory where Mrs Tonner talked you through the process. How successful do you think the lesson was? Did you find it easy or difficult only relying on your hearing to follow instructions? What made you seek support - forgot instruction, required verification that you were doing the correct thing or frightened to make a mistake? Comment on why you were successful of unsuccessful today.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
How Do You Learn? Group 2
How do you think you learn? Do you learn by listening or reading? Do you need to write things down before you remember something? How do you remember the code for the school? Do you remember the numbers once you have heard them or do you need to write it down? Or do youi type it in and remember how it looks on the keyboard? Tell me how you think you learn best and give me examples of why you think this is the best way you learn.
How Do You Learn? - Group 1
How do you think you learn? Do you learn by listening or reading? Do you need to write things down before you remember something? How do you remember the code for the school? Do you remember the numbers once you have heard them or do you need to write it down? Or do youi type it in and remember how it looks on the keyboard? Tell me how you think you learn best and give me examples of why you think this is the best way you learn.
How Do You Learn? - Group 4
How do you think you learn? Do you learn by listening or reading? Do you need to write things down before you remember something? How do you remember the code for the school? Do you remember the numbers once you have heard them or do you need to write it down? Or do youi type it in and remember how it looks on the keyboard? Tell me how you think you learn best and give me examples of why you think this is the best way you learn.
How do You Learn? Group 3
How do you think you learn? Do you learn by listening or reading? Do you need to write things down before you remember something? How do you remember the code for the school? Do you remember the numbers once you have heard them or do you need to write it down? Or do youi type it in and remember how it looks on the keyboard? Tell me how you think you learn best and give me examples of why you think this is the best way you learn.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Inside The Black Box
Why have I not read this report until now? How often have I heard the phrase 'inside the black box' used and taken no real meaning from it? Having read this report by Black & William, I can reflect on many of the scenarios that they talk about. For example, marking at the end of the term or a block of work. How wrong that now appears when the results are for my Excel sheet to state who will win the Science prize for the year rather than analyse the results and amend my plans to meet the needs of children. How often have I looked at the end result and presentation rather than the process? Too many times. If one thing, from all this reading on assessment, I now have a clearer picture why I should be assessing. It is not about marks it is about finding where a child is and working out the next steps to help them in their learning. This is what I was taught at college but have to admit over the years have fallen into the trap of assessing for the sake of it. Thankfully, I have awaken to this poor practice and hope, with further research and action, that the additional time spent, will produce fruitful results.Saturday, November 18, 2006
Digital Portfolios - Finding A Suitable Method
I challenged myself in the last post to try out the digital portfolio method of recording thinking skills through speech bubbles etc. The results of the various methods are:
Word - Very easy to set up a template page with a picture and speech bubbles for the children to type their thoughts in. See the screen shot below. If each child had their own word file a bank of self assessments can then be stored.
How would it be managed? Would a new word file be created for every assessment?
If a new word file was created for each assessment this makes it harder to look back as the pupil or teacher would have to keep opening various files. I am sure that by Primary 7 the class teacher would not want to look through the mountain of files for each child. One word file for each child is the obvious answer with each new assessment on a new page.
The management of each new assessment could be time consuming in setting up if the teacher were to set up a new page for all pupils in class. Opening and closing 30 files and adding the new content would sure put a teacher off using the technology when a photocopier can copy the files much faster. Is there a solution to this? Yes, by creating one new file and teaching the children how to insert the new file into their Word document would be the answer. The process is exactly the same as inserting a picture but file is selected form the insert menu rather than picture.
The only problem now would be access to computers. If a computer suite at school then all children at the same time would be the obvious answer. If limited to classroom computer the immediate aspect of the assessment might loose meaning. Children could write on paper first then this could be transfered to digital via camera, scanner or child typing up. Is this the best way or is the digital aspect then become another chore? I think that depends on the teacher's views on digital asessment and on the aspect of assessment in general.
PowerPoint - Again easy to set up by teacher. Adding text not so straight forward as Word as the child will have to select text tool then type.
The arguments for and against this method are similar to the above. Ths children would still require to place the new slide for each assessment which is not a difficult task. The advantage of this system to others is that the slides down the side give an overview of the various assessments making it easier to pinpoint a specific assessment rather than scroll throiugh all the pages.
Web 2.0 - As much as I would like to think that I could use tools like flickr to do this job I have to admit that there would be more problems that benefits. If I am making individual portfolios then accounts for each child would require setting up. The children would have to learn how to use this tool and also learn how to place an annotated flickr image into a blog or wiki. When the purpose is to reflect on the thinking skills rather than the ICT skills I think the simplist most effective way should be administered. ICT should only be used if it enhances the learning and teaching process not just for the sake of it.
I would have liked to place assessments on a blog so that the teacher could place her comments, the child could place theirs and so could their parents. The blog would obviously have a password for only that child. The only side that would require looking into would be the management. If it were a child's annotated picture, which I do like, who would place it there? If it were a Word file it would be too time consuming. If it were a PowerPoint file it is possible to upload to Slideshare, but again a time consuming task. The only way the blog would really work is by creating a typed post with responses. For this type of assessment I do not think this is the method to use.
Now the other Web 2.0 tool that might be possible is a Wiki. The wiki allows other types of files to be embedded into the wiki space. So a child's Word or PowerPoint (depends which is chosen) could be placed on a wiki page set up for a specific child that has a password. Parents, pupil and teacher can comment as the page is a collaborative document for those with the password. The wiki can then become the child's portfolio area with new pages for each year they are at school.
Having sat down and typed my thoughts on this subject I am now going to try to implement this with one of my classes at school using PowerPoint and a wiki to see if it is possible to enhance the learning and teaching through use of digital portfolios and wikis or whether it is a time consuming exercise.
Word - Very easy to set up a template page with a picture and speech bubbles for the children to type their thoughts in. See the screen shot below. If each child had their own word file a bank of self assessments can then be stored.
How would it be managed? Would a new word file be created for every assessment?
If a new word file was created for each assessment this makes it harder to look back as the pupil or teacher would have to keep opening various files. I am sure that by Primary 7 the class teacher would not want to look through the mountain of files for each child. One word file for each child is the obvious answer with each new assessment on a new page.
The management of each new assessment could be time consuming in setting up if the teacher were to set up a new page for all pupils in class. Opening and closing 30 files and adding the new content would sure put a teacher off using the technology when a photocopier can copy the files much faster. Is there a solution to this? Yes, by creating one new file and teaching the children how to insert the new file into their Word document would be the answer. The process is exactly the same as inserting a picture but file is selected form the insert menu rather than picture.
The only problem now would be access to computers. If a computer suite at school then all children at the same time would be the obvious answer. If limited to classroom computer the immediate aspect of the assessment might loose meaning. Children could write on paper first then this could be transfered to digital via camera, scanner or child typing up. Is this the best way or is the digital aspect then become another chore? I think that depends on the teacher's views on digital asessment and on the aspect of assessment in general.
PowerPoint - Again easy to set up by teacher. Adding text not so straight forward as Word as the child will have to select text tool then type.
The arguments for and against this method are similar to the above. Ths children would still require to place the new slide for each assessment which is not a difficult task. The advantage of this system to others is that the slides down the side give an overview of the various assessments making it easier to pinpoint a specific assessment rather than scroll throiugh all the pages.
Web 2.0 - As much as I would like to think that I could use tools like flickr to do this job I have to admit that there would be more problems that benefits. If I am making individual portfolios then accounts for each child would require setting up. The children would have to learn how to use this tool and also learn how to place an annotated flickr image into a blog or wiki. When the purpose is to reflect on the thinking skills rather than the ICT skills I think the simplist most effective way should be administered. ICT should only be used if it enhances the learning and teaching process not just for the sake of it.
I would have liked to place assessments on a blog so that the teacher could place her comments, the child could place theirs and so could their parents. The blog would obviously have a password for only that child. The only side that would require looking into would be the management. If it were a child's annotated picture, which I do like, who would place it there? If it were a Word file it would be too time consuming. If it were a PowerPoint file it is possible to upload to Slideshare, but again a time consuming task. The only way the blog would really work is by creating a typed post with responses. For this type of assessment I do not think this is the method to use.
Now the other Web 2.0 tool that might be possible is a Wiki. The wiki allows other types of files to be embedded into the wiki space. So a child's Word or PowerPoint (depends which is chosen) could be placed on a wiki page set up for a specific child that has a password. Parents, pupil and teacher can comment as the page is a collaborative document for those with the password. The wiki can then become the child's portfolio area with new pages for each year they are at school.
Having sat down and typed my thoughts on this subject I am now going to try to implement this with one of my classes at school using PowerPoint and a wiki to see if it is possible to enhance the learning and teaching through use of digital portfolios and wikis or whether it is a time consuming exercise.
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