My EPL and ICT's

Hi all,

I thought it had been a few days and I really wanted to reflect on my EPL. So far I have only completed 1 day. My placement is at West Mackay Primary school with Grade 6.

From an ICT point of view, the moment I walked in to the classroom, I realised that relating my pedagogy through ICT's was going to be a real challenge. There was a serious lack of any ICT's in the classroom, the most advanced technology was a chalkboard. After some discussions with my mentor teacher regarding my focus for the term, she and I came to the conclusion that I was to instigate a unit of work based on the students choosing a non-English speaking country, with an ICT focus. Since then I have been trying to find free websites that can assist in the development of this idea.

The first thing we wanted the students to design was a brochure, after much playing around I found a website that allowed me to create a travel brochure for free, http://www.mybrochuremaker.com/ . I manged to copy and paste some digital images from Flickr to assist in the creation.






The next step was to find a website that could help me produce and authentic looking ticket once again after a bit of searching I found http://omatic.musicairport.com/ which allowed me to make one for free.

There is still much more to be discovered I am sure I will be investigating glogs as we also want the students to produce a poster. Then possibly Microsoft Publisher as they will also be required to make a mock passport. They will probably spend much time researching their country too on the web through sites such as http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ and http://wikitravel.org/ which both have a huge variety of information which will be required to complete their projects. Google Earth will also be investigated at the beginning as students decide on their countries and experiment with the applications that are available. Although still a little hazy, the more I document and reflect on the topic the more concrete my plan becomes.

This topic excites me and I believe that this will have an impact on the students. If I can generate enthusiasm with the learners with this project through the use of ICT's, creativity, group work and investigation I will be thrilled.

My mentor teacher has really left much of the initial planning for this unit up to me, and she will then evaluate my progress and direction before we proceed. I hope that all the theory that I have learnt so far such relate-create-donate, student-centred learning, and developing positive habits of mind, will assist me in this pursuit. The main issue for me was to use ICT's for cross-curricular learning experiences. I believe that this is one of the central benefits of the various multimedia devices, they can span KLA's, not to mention various learning and interest levels.

Cheers,

Kylie

Kiersley, G. & Shneiderman. B. (1999). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning.

Marzano, R. & Pickering. D. (1997). Dimensions of Learning. Teachers Manual (2nd ed.). Victoria. Hawker Browlow Education.