Monday, May 3, 2010

Reflective synopsis

Gone are the days where students are expected to sit and listen to a teacher drone on about a topic and show their knowledge by answering exam questions or by completing an overly structured assessment. Our schooling is now heading in the direction of being student orientated. It is now the students themselves who can choose the direction of their education. In some subjects they now have the opportunity to choose their own form of assessment medium. Possibilities can range from like this assessment a blog, through to a video or power point presentation. Our students are now also more involved in the research and fact finding in their own education. This is student orientated learning rather than the classical teacher orientated learning where the teacher would be the source of all knowledge and students would have no say in the form their assessment would take.

The usage of this technology as a form of assessment and just as part of everyday classes can be seen as being part of Kearsley and Shneiderman’s learning engagement theory. “The fundamental idea underlying engagement theory is that student’s must be meaningfully engaged in learning activities through interaction with others and worthwhile tasks,” (Kearsley and Shneiderman, 1999). Which means, that if students work in small groups on a project, (film, power point, etc.) which has a relationship with a real life issue or topic, your students are more likely to be interested and involved in the task as it is more motivating for students if the task is meaningful to them, (Kearsley and Shneiderman, 1999). I believe that a technology rich environment, especially in a class with a knowledgeable teacher, can have a huge impact on the way students perceive their schooling. This course so far has changed some of my own perceptions on the usage of technologies within a classroom. It has made me think of a number of uses for each piece of technology addressed, some of which are posted as the previous blog entries.
This blog has addressed classroom uses for blogs, interactive white boards, videos including YouTube and animations, online photo storage and manipulation, Google Earth and maps, wiki’s and Wikipedia, digital storytelling, copyright free music, vokis, power points and how to upload them for viewing online. This blog has also addressed equity in technology use, internet security and digital immigrants. Part of this synopsis calls for me to indicate which of these technologies I would use in my classroom.

The first tool which jumps to mind is blogs. I intend to be a prep teacher so I can see many possibilities for blog usage with this age group. The main one I can see is as communication with parents. It would be an up to date notice board as well as a way of showcasing the students work. Privacy of the blog would have to be considered as it may have photos of minors on it; a system would have to be set up where parents are added as members of the blog, this would protect the safety of the children involved. Viewing the blog at home may assist parents with guiding their children’s homework tasks, a fuller explanation may be posted on the blog with examples. I think that including parents in the homework process may make the necessary tasks less mundane. With parent assistance children may also be able to post their homework responses to the blog saving the heartache of losing treasured photos or similar items at school. These can be viewed in the class on an interactive whiteboard. While in the classroom the students can contribute to the blog by taking turns reflecting on their day or as a class reflect on special occasions the group experiences, e.g. Excursions or visits by experts in any field to the school environment.

As mentioned above, I already have a use for an interactive white board in my class. Utilising an interactive white board in conjunction with a blog and homework would, I think give a student a sense of independence and personal success when they can use this classroom tool to show their peers something of their own creation. During my current work experience I have seen a prep class’s uses of an interactive white board. During discussions of Australia we were shown a map using Google Earth and pictures of native Australian animals in their natural habitat. Utilising the whiteboard in this way means that students did not need to crowd around a book or computer screen, the whole class can see the resources at once and then participate in the discussion. I would definitely use the whiteboard for similar uses, as a way of all children having access to vital information when it is needed. The interactive whiteboard has never ending possibilities and using it in conjunction with the huge amount of online resources available will also give me ideas of how to get a concept across to my students when my imagination lets me down.

There are no limits on the possibilities for the creation of a wiki, there are wikis addressing every topic and Wikipedia fills in any gaps left behind. The third tool which I am most likely to utilise is the wiki. Meryl and I have discussed the possibilities of using a wiki for the purpose of profiling students with their learning styles. I added that asking students in your class to create a profile of interests, hobbies, etc, before the beginning of the year. For prep kids this can be a vital to help children to settle in and you may be able to guide a single child to a group of children with similar interests. A fantastic aspect of a wiki is that you are able to return and alter any aspect of the wiki at a later stage. Similar things need to be considered with wikis as blogs, such as privacy and security settings. Also a wiki may be utilised in a similar way as I have described for a blog with notices and homework tasks available for parents to access at home.

Home internet and computer access needs to be addressed here as well. Equity for all children needs to be considered, do all of my students have access to a computer at home? Do all of my students have supervised access to the internet? Can your digitalised homework be made into a hard copy for students who do not have these resources at home? Will any students be disadvantaged by this? The equity of all children needs to be a thought of mine whenever I am considering requesting the use of technology outside of the classroom.

When considering technology usage in my classroom I will be open to the discovery of materials which will engage my students with increasing effectiveness. Over the creation of my blog I have had to consider the uses of a variety of different technologies and how best to apply them to a classroom situation. I now feel much better prepared and ready to face technology challenges within my classroom. Technology within the classroom is part of the future of our schools, as a teacher graduating in 2012 I hope that I can be a tech savvy teacher who can teach her students in an engaging way, utilising technology in appropriate ways throughout all aspects of my teaching and my career.

Please refer to the left of the page for:
- A complete reference list of blogs which I have commented on as part of this assignment, including their post dates and subjects
- A complete reference list for all of my blog postings including the ones used for this synopsis

Availability of our blogs online!

Hi all!
The availability of our blogs online has just jumped out at me in a huge way. On my previous blog posting about digital storytelling I got a comment from someone named Andy. From what I can tell we do not currently have an Andy participating in our course.
I am well aware that my blog is open for public viewing and in a way I did invite comments from people outside of this course. I have not taken any measures to hide my blog from anyone searching the web. I am just finding it amazing that anyone would want to comment on my assignment!

So I have to say HI! to Andy and thanks for the comment! I never thought that anyone outside of our course would actually take the time to look at my blog so, thank you!

If my blog held information about my classroom, I would have been taking measures to block any unknown readers from just popping in, but since it's not, I don't mind nice random people from internet land commenting politely on my blog entries..... so anyone who isn't a BLM student go right ahead and comment let's see what you have to say!

Zelina

Friday, April 30, 2010

Digital Storytelling

This weeks topic is digital story telling. I had a lot of difficulty viewing the videos associated with this topic, a few on going issues with my internet connection. But I know that I could use digital storytelling with my students for just about any topic.
Integrating the design and production of class videos into the assessment of my class is something that I would enjoy doing, instead of me telling my students a story it can be my students telling me their stories. Doing this would be a way of relating it back to learning engagement theory. The students could be relating it to their lives, their environment, as some of the example videos showed, expression of support for a topic like animal protection, or the telling of a love tale.
Students can create, use up to date technology to challenge themselves with the creation of a video, video is valued in real world situations because it shows the processes that the students have had to go through to reach that final state of success where they have designed, produced, edited and shown their skills and their thoughts in a visual and audio medium.
Students can easily donate their final product back into the world through places like youtube where comments and constructive criticism can be made. They can show their opinions on real world topics, war, famine, animal abuse through these videos, this is their story telling.

Going back to voices from the cape.....
One of the first things that voices from the cape says to us about story telling is that the story comes from inside of us, which comes back to the children telling stories of some meaning to them. It would be pointless to ask a group of children to tell a story about American Gridiron for example if they have no prior knowledge of the topic and no motivation to find out the information. Another point that jumps out at me from this video is that the children need to know every aspect of the equipment that they are using, there isn't much point to a child guided activity when the teacher jumps in half way through because the child does not have the knowledge of how to finish the project because they haven't had the opportunity to learn. Helping our students to learn how to use all of the equipment they may use is vital to these children learning to tell a story using a digital medium or just to film a video.
The points the I think I can use in my class are that the children need to have interest in the topics they are telling stories about and they need to be given the opportunities to play with and learn about the technologies at their disposal.

Updated Reflections on IWB's

Hi All,
In the last 3 weeks during work experience I have been able to see an interactive white board up close and I have been able to have a play with it myself. It is incredible what they can do! I am with a prep class and the primary use for the white board in this class is in conjunction with the learning places resources in relation to letter sounds. The children can touch the letter on the screen and it makes the sound that the letter makes, the children then drag it down to the appropriate word and picture and the computer then goes on to say the whole word. This may seen like everyday work for some of the teachers to be in this course but I graduated before the implementation of IWB's in high schools and I hadn't stepped foot into a primary school since I had graduated. The simple implementation of this technology as part of the transitioning in the classroom has opened my eyes to how simple it can be to use these white boards.

Thanks to Meryl I now can consider making my own IWB to practice with. This blog, shows you how to make one and I already have the Wii remote to have a go at it with.... any one have a spare infrared light bulb lying around?

I can't wait to get out and find my own uses for the interactive white boards, at the beginning of the year it can be as simple as the daily routine being crossed off as tasks are completed, rather then using paper. Gosh the possibilities are completely endless..... I just hope that in 3 years time IWB's are in each and every single classroom and especially in mine!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Something I wasn't able to post on Meryl's Blog

Meryl (Logging onto managing E-Learning, 29 March 2010), had an idea about creating a wiki full of quizzes and the like to gain an idea of student's learning styles before they actually come into the classroom or just very early in the year. I think that the idea she's started here is something to work on once we've graduated. I have heard of quite a few teachers who, once they are told who is going to be in there class send out letters introducing themselves to the children and ask for an introduction in return. In addition to your learning styles quiz you could add in personal questions, interests, hobbies, that kind of thing. So that on that first day of school you can have a reference to work from for conversation starters and you can have the best strategies possible for settling your class in. Gee that was a lot!

Monday, April 19, 2010

INCOMPETECH.

Royalty free music is helpful when your not huge on stealing other peoples music without their knowledge (eg, Limewire). For the world of legal downloads we have iTunes and Bigpond music. But if its not pop music or well known classical where can we find it? Places like Incompetech help us out here. They provide us with various length clips without copyright laws attached. Which basically makes it free music.... which we can use in a presentation to set a mood or to claim back a classes attention when their minds begin to wander. I believe that a great use for a few pieces that I have found is for quiet free time, soft music, like piano which settle and promote a calm environment. This kind of music is swear word free and my favourite pieces don't have words at all. Music in a classroom at a low volume level is also great when you have a disruptive class next door or work being completed outside your room. It will often help to block out the noises without distracting the students in independent work. Music which isn't from a popular genre won't have children singing or dancing along either.
I enjoy working with some background music as I do find that it blocks out the surrounding noises in my house, which includes the neighbour's dogs. I can honestly say that doing this helps me to work well.

Slide Share

I think that SlideShare will be helpful when it comes to using power point presentations and sharing resources with my peers online. As I have shown earlier in my blog, I can use powerpoint with ease. The previously uploaded video which is a screen capture of my presentation seems to be similar to the Slide Share uploader, I also had to record my voice over separately for it. Using Slide Share and uploading my power points to somewhere public such as the class blog could also show parents how technology has been used in their classes and would assist them with helping their children with their homework, especially if they can go online and find out exactly how the topic was addressed in the class. Even an activity as simple as highlighting the verbs in a sentence can be carried out using power point if it has been set up correctly. This can then be followed through with students writing their own sentences or reading a favourite story and finding the verbs in it for homework. The possibilities are endless when power point is integrated into the every day work in the classroom.

Sydney Opera House


opera house
Originally uploaded by ZelinaT
This can be used to show my students where in the world we are in relation to Sydney, the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour. It can give my students a real sense of where they really are in the world. It can give a them a true view of how big the world is, show them the building that they are in at the time and slowly zoom out to show them at each stage where they are, at the school, in the neighbourhood, in Bundaberg, in Queensland, in Australia on Earth.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Wikipedia

Wikipedia!
The online encyclopedia that anyone can edit! The difficult thing about wikipedia is that anyone can edit it. There is no guarantee that the information that you get from wikipedia is going to be at all accurate, as anyone including me can access the page and edit it to suit my own opinion and views, which aren't nesessarily the correct ones for this particular page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_education is a link to a wikipedia page which shows us the basic concepts behind teaching maths. I always look for the reputable references at the end of these pages to find the most accurate information for assignments.

Google Earth

This is the first time that I have played with Google Earth, usually I just make the most of Google Maps in my browser. This allows me to mark places of interest and has a decent amount of zoom. I could spend hours looking at quite a few land marks, something that I have already done with the street view option available on Google maps. I have seen the Eiffel Tower, the pyramids in Egypt just to name two. I can take my students to the places I am telling them about. If we are talking about Australia which we are currently doing in my EPL prep class, instead of showing a single picture of the Sydney Opera House I can take them to it.
Utilising satellite images is incredibly easy, even easier if you are connected to the net and don't need to save what you intend to show to them.

Week 7

You Tube.....
You tube is absolutely brimming with videos of silly stunts and cats gone crazy, but if you look there are educational videos posted, you just have to find them. Or better yet, make your own and post it on you tube with appropriate Tags (which according to wikipedia is, 'a keyword or term associated with or assigned to a piece of information') and let someone else come along and find it.
Below is a video I found of children of different ages explaining the importance of HPE. Showing a video as simple as this could show your students that kids do like HPE, especially if you have a few in the class who aren't interested. From what I can tell it is just a few children telling the camera their honest opinions of HPE which would support the integration of HPE in the classrooom.

Picnik Photo Manipluation


picnik_new_sample1
Originally uploaded by ZelinaT
This is a photo which I have played with using the photo manipluation with Picnik.

Flickr Image

This is a photo from the site flickr, it was originally uploaded by Sayran and is taken of Lake Lanier North Georgia at sunset. This is a photo I have not taken myself, but can still use. The use of this photo shows our ability to web share a variety of different resources over the internet. It is amazing to have such resources at my finger tips.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Week 6

Video.....
Videos are easy to take and easy to utilise.
I can use videos to demonstrate activities to children or introduce new concepts. I can also use video to record my student's achievements. Taking a video of an activity and revisiting it later can show children how far they are progressed and what they have achieved as a learner over a period of time. As a child I loved being able to record something and watch what I had done before. Even now I love to take videos with just my old digital camera. While I was at school I had access to video cameras and a program called Final Cut Express which I could use to create some master pieces. I unfortunately do not have my favourite piece of work which I spent hours on, a documentary about anorexia which I proudly got an A on. Otherwise I would definitely be showing off my full abilities with a camera.
Video is just so easy to use, save and revisit later. I love it.

Flickr.....
Flickr is great to share photos with anyone in the world. The following blog entry is of a photo that i have used from flickr. I love the freedom of using other peoples photos and also of uploading my own for people to use and see IF I choose to let them. I can change the security settings on any of my pictures to make them private, for only friends to see if I choose to. In a classroom, I can create an online network with parents of my students and they can access the photos I have taken throughout the day. Maintaining security standards would be vital so that the safety and security of the students involved is maintained which is vital when sharing photos of children on the internet.

Picnik.....
The entry after my flikr image should be one which has been manipulated using Picnik, sent to Flickr and posted to my blog.
I have linked all of these accounts which makes sending these photos as simple as a click of a mouse.
Picnik is simple to use and has the basics of photo editing which is often needed on a computer but comes free of charge. These edited photos can also be posted to your facebook account for sharing with friends and family. This is very easy to use technology which I will be making the most of in the future.

Animations.....
Animations such as flash can be interactive and/or informative. The example of the frog is an interactive way to learn about the frog, its life cycle, etc. This type of delivery would be great for students who like to interact with the lesson yet it will allow for the students to rewind sections or start again depending on the type of program used.
As it says on Moodle, 'Animations and simulations are good choices for conceptually difficult learning content'. It can allow a 3-D look into images in a way that a photo cannot. Putting some time into creating an animation can assist with your students understanding the concepts of the subject and allow them to interact with it and revisit it later.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Week 5..... powerpoint and interactive whiteboards

Hopefully this will work for everyone.... I used a screen capture program to record my powerpoint presentation.... I wanted to post it here as more proof of how easy it is to use video, power point and narrating altogether on a blog.... this took me less then an hour, I spent most of that time playing around with the animations.
This is a basic example of what can be used. we can take it as far as we like, having powerpoints set up so that students can work on their hand-eye co-ordination without having to use video games. And we can know that our students are accessing a child-safe program.


Interactive White Boards......
They are not something that I am familiar with. Having a look at some of the you tube clips though it is easy to see how they can be utilised within a classroom. I especially like the MIT sketching clip, this sought of use is great for cause and effect and before, during and after descriptions and children could use this to investigate different ways of doing things. I'd love to spend some time playing with one of these white boards to see what I can get out of it.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Week 4

Week 4..... not much on moodle for this week but I did find some interesting reads while looking for information on completely different topics.... more on that later though.

Mahara.... and my e.portfolio
Something I am definitely going to have to explore further soon, especially with our next assignment using it. I can see that it can be a valuable tool for showcasing what I can do, once some time is spent on it I could definitely use it instead of hard copy pieces of work. It appears to have unlimited potential some of which I hope to be able to tap into for this next task.

Vokis!
Voki's are easy to use, simple talking faces which capture your interests quickly. After being prompted to by moodle I joined up for a voki account here. I had a decent play around looking at all of the possible options in regards to your talking person/creature, the backgrounds, voice accents, as well as little tweaks that are possible even to the point of changing the size of the mouth you use. There is sometimes a bit of difficulty with how they talk if using the type and talk function. If you record your own sound files and upload them then that problem is solved.


Get a Voki now!

My voki is unable to correctly say voki, however for more commonly used words she pronounces them clearly enough for directions to be given using this voki. In a classroom this could be used to give directions for activities on computers. It could guide the children to be able to act independently on tasks with minimal adult direction, such as matching games if the child isn't at a stage of reading which allows them to be able to read the written instructions, the voki can be made up by the teachers and then replayed over and over by the children if they do not understand the instructions the first time around.

Other Research.....
This week while researching effective teaching for Learning Management 1, I came across quite a few hits on google which basically linked what I was searching for (effective teaching) and ICT's, as being two very closely linked topics. Which is true according to a few articles including one from ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) on March 9, 2010 and another from a site called Faculty Focus, where a teacher experimented with his class getting them to use twitter as a way of discussing the topics which he had addressed during the week, it took some trial and error time but it was found that the way to get the most out of the students was to use small groups, have them discuss a reading and post about it and then as a class read about their reflections.
I think that this is a great way to correlate students findings, perhaps more suited to a wiki page, but it had all students involved which I think is fantastic, some students don't want to get up in front of their peers and present, this is an alternative way for their findings to be heard.

Just this weeks thoughts!!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Week 3 - Here comes the technology!

Week 3...... Lets reflect on a few things addressed.

Google Reader.... RSS
Very handy little thing where I can add a number of sites to be followed, helpful for me and my students so that we can keep track of site updates without constantly having to go back to each site google reader is now keeping track of all of the blogs I am following for this task, and as igoogle is my home page google reader is only 1 click away, so much easier. This is also helpful as when I log onto the Uni computers I don't have my handy little laptop with my one million bookmarks of where I am a member, this will help me to keep track of it all online, it seems pretty simple, easy to use for the first time user too.

I'm not sure if it is possible or not but if a class user name and password were set up each class member would be able to use the same reader, I'm sure that there is something more appropriate and I'm sure that it will come up in the next few weeks.... on second thoughts an on going updated blog could be edited to include updated links with comments as to who has updated on these topics.... or there is the good old discussion forums..... how to share these links with my students I wonder..... I shall have to look into it :)

Just some ramblings

Wiki's.....
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Can it be any more basic? I love commoncraft and how they can explain things even to me and I thought I understood most of it. I'm definitely keeping it as a reference for when I can't manage to explain a piece of technology to someone. Definitely a useful tool for students if what you are asking of them is a completely unfamiliar concept.
But back to Wiki's, I made a wiki..... http://zelinaswiki.wikispace.com it's pretty boring right now but with everyone's help it could become something.... not sure what though.

Wiki's can be utilised so easily in the classroom, allowing everyone to be able to access and edit as they need to adding more information from where ever they happen to be. http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com has links to other wikis which have been used for classrooms, interesting to see the different ways they can be used.

That's just about it for this week I think.....

Blog usage in MY classroom

This is to address the learning activity about using blogs in my classroom.

My ultimate place to be in 3 years is teaching preps or year 1's, so please take that into consideration when reading this.

My class blog would be set up by me with my students contributing to a class endeavour rather then individual blogs which for this age group would be more time consuming then helpful or engaging for a number of students. On this I would post a sampling of students work, (going through out the term, would include all children over time - possibly using a pick it out of a hat strategy for fairness). With parents and the schools permission I may even post learning stories (visuals) so that parents would be able to see the processes that their children have gone through to learn new things.
This blog would have to be set to private with only the parents of these children following it, it would need monitoring and recording of who was actually accessing the posts.

Children would be asked daily or weekly what they consider to be important enough to post to the blog, and would take turns in actually blogging it.

Anyone out there think the process could work?

Who knows!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Week 2 - E-learning Design

Things to discuss..... 21st century learners, internet safety, Access and equity, taking difference into account, learner/student centred learning.....

21 st century learners....
I am a digital native as I have mentioned earlier, I like using technology to keep myself busy. But is technology the answer to our behaviour management issues? Engaging a less then enthusiastic learner with an educational game may be easiest but is it for the best? My goal in 3 years time is to be a teacher who can engage my students using a number of mediums including technology yes, sure but behaviour management will still need to be addressed separately.

Internet safety......
Internet safety, the downside to technology, how do we know that our kids are safe on the internet? How do we know who they are talking to on the net?
Company after company have brought out net safe, kid safe, programs to protect our kids but do they work? Only time can tell us. The government has gotten on the bandwagon in the past bringing up the website www.netalert.gov.au as an informative website for parents and has links to child directed activities to help with the educating of our little ones.
I believe that the best way for our students to be safe on the net is to be supervising them and at home if they are at the age where they want their privacy make sure you are checking who exactly they have been typing frantically to for the last 4 hours.
The walled garden is one approach for schools but I think that the private schools may be on the better track with rules set in place for the students to be able have freedom to great websites that the government may not have gotten around to approving yet.

Access and Equity.....
Watching 'Voices from the cape' from ABC's Message stick does show how technology can help engage students in the classroom. Getting the students involved in these sorts of programs shows not only the students that school is worthwhile and that they have great potential inside of them but it shows their parents, siblings, elders, the community and the rest of Australia the tactic works and here are the results to show it. Each of these areas of Australia no matter how bad their reputation, should be given the opportunity to have these sorts of visitors to engage the children, help manage behaviours and bring them technology and experiences that they may not have been able to gain from anywhere else in their life.
Each child within Australia no matter where they are from should have access to computers, cameras and someone to motivate them to make something of it. In 2007 Kevin Rudd did make a promise of a computer for every student from years 9-12 in his election campaign in 2007 and sure we are starting to see these computers pop up here and there but are they too late to help some of our less fortunate students?

Korea international School.....
They made a online reference for themselves and the world and they got noticed. It's a brilliant idea and it is apparent on youtube that they are now using it as a bit of a draw card for the school. But it comes down to the students were involved, they put time, energy and a lot of thought into the presentation of this piece of work (or is it art?) As a student I would have loved to have been able to sit back at the end of the term put up old Internet explorer and go "look mum this is what I did all term". Looking at it, it is something that I would have loved to have done and I wish that my schools had the imagination, creativity and the energy to help us create something so outstanding.

Just some thoughts on the things brought up in this weeks eLearning exercises.......

Monday, March 8, 2010

Week 1 - The introduction

This is basically the beginning of my blogging life, as a child of the technological era, I've had a myspace (since abandoned), A facebook (mainly used for the apps), a twitter account (followed a few celebrities and gave up), an email/facebook/youtube enabled phone (unfortunately not an iphone) and I currently have two laptops and an ancient desktop to my name. Yet, this is my first blog, it is confusing how I can be so up to date with technology and yet not have a blog (until now). But really it is a time constraint thing, how many people really have the time to sit and blog? although there was a hyperlink about blogging on your phone, so if i get around to reading that I won't even have that as an excuse anymore. But now onto the point of the BLOG.

Week one!

The OMG! factor, how am i supposed to get through all of this content and still live? Not sure but I did manage it, here are some reflections.
Learning engagement theory.....
For students, this could mean less boredom in the classroom, make them feel included, wanted, and interested. Keeping our students interested is what we need to be doing, involving them in activities like open ended tasks. What a concept... let the children choose how to present a task to you. Depending on the age of your group you may need to supervise or you may be able to sit back and be surprised at the results in front of you.
For teachers, this could mean that we are interested, involved and even interacting with the assignments as works in progress or as finished results. Keeping us interested, now that's an idea I'd like to be part of and help grow.

Active learning....
Just goes to show everyone that we do need to be getting somewhere different to where we are today.

Learning Style.....
Personally, I am balanced as both an active and reflective learner, I'm definitely a sensing learner, I'm reasonably balanced with visual and verbal learning, but I am definitely a sequential learner. Knowing this about my students will help me to adjust my teaching style to each of them, and by being flexible in my teaching in this way my students, may not always be addressed personally and to their greatest strengths but they will be able to understand how other peoples strengths can bounce off their own creating a stronger piece of work.

Learning Theory....
Behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism - three theories which we can read and understand but in today's world are they really relevant? Will I be using these theories as a basis of my teachings? or will I be helping my students connect this topic to that topic to something we studied a year ago?

Keeping our students interacting, engaged and interested in what we are trying to help them learn is where we need to be heading. I hope that as a future teacher I can learn the best methods right here and right now to assist and guide this vital learning of the future of our world.... We shall just have to wait and see how I go