In Thursday’s lesson, I had taken my images in to start and finish the Photostory3 task, which was sent through on Thursday. I found Photostry3 to be if great assistance, and had never heard of the program before. I found it of great help to use it, and found it alot quicker to use, as opposed to the other programs available with Cameras and other expensive photo programs.

In terms of an educational point of view, this program would be of great assistance to students. The steps of producing a visual story product is simple and quick as opposed to other programs. I think students will enjoy the flexibilty of the program in terms of the special features such as music and transitions as opposed to other programs. As a teacher I can see this to be of great help. Photostory3 can also allow teachers to present a new topic to a class through images rather than text, which caters for the variety of learning styles for students, particularly from an auditory and visual point of view. This has been a great program to have been introduced with, and will be used in my future teaching career.

This week, I finalised my Inspiration task, and progressed onto the next portfolio Item- A Powerpoint presentation. This task required me to use my information I did on my Inspiration task, and transform it onto a Powerpoint Presentation. I approached the task by ooking at what was required of me, and then applied it to the slides.

I began typing the headings, and then using the information I typed in the text boxes, I used that as my sub-headings. I felt for this presentation that using sounds was not necessary, as it doesn’t apply to the topic of Interactive Whiteboards and would not be appropriate to an adult group.

I feel that when designing slides, that the backgrounds need to be variated, to create interest, and maintain the attention of the intended audience. This work will be finished in the following week.

This program is vital for a variety of situations, and would suit a variety of careers. The program assists the Education department in terms of schools, as a teacher can present the information to the students, and meet their needs. This can be distinguished through introducing a new topic to students, teaching students a unit of work, without verbally teaching students, allowing students to self teach themselves with the program, and develop technological skills with the program, as well as basically introduce students to the program, and teach them the variety of mediums available with Microsoft Powerpoint for those unfamiliar with it.

On a Uni context, Powerpoint is valuable as it can allow a student to present information to the class, as well as the tutor. A lecturer uses powerpoint to communicate information to the students, which is vital to a subject, which is part of their course.

From a differentiation point of view, Powerpoint can cater for most children’t needs. It would be most suitable to a visual learner as they are visually seeing a product, as opposed to writing it down. An auditory learner is appllying the visual aspect with the auditoy factor from the presenter, the kinaesthetic learner is using the information given to them, and writing it down- being effective.

Today in ICT, we finished off our Inspiration Task. I discovered more about the program today, including choosing a background to suit the images, which represent the information that needs to be communicated. I also had discovered in the marking criteria that I had to find an article to go with the Inspiration task. It was lucky for me that I found a Case study embedded in the article as it was not only informative, but also gave me a situation which can be related to the subject.

I feel with this program, that it can be useful to many individuals in a variety of fields. People who are in a bussiness corp. would use this information in order to better promote their product, or to expand on a company, an advertising agency would use Inspiration to look at how the designed product can influence the mind of an individual, a teaacher would use the program to encourage students to explore a given topic, and present it, using the program.

As a teacher, I can value the importance of Inspiration in terms of using it with students. It enables them to display information not only in a digital, but also neat manner. Some of the novelties of Inspiration include the little drag down function- which can be a text box filled with information to share. This gadget was something I thought was quite funky as it was something I had never seen before, and enhanced my presentation as it didn’t appear clattered with information- quite “Inspiring”! When out in the teaching workforce, I will implement this program as part of my curricular activities.

This week, we were introduced to the program, Inspiration. I had never heard of the program before, but when it was presented to me, I was suprised on the usefulness of the program, and felt at ease with this feeling. I thought the program at first seemed a little pointless, as it is very easy to draw a mind map. However, as I relfected on my history with mind maps, I came to the conclusion that alternatives such as Inspiration is good, as it can make the maps condensed with the information, and give a more attractive and neat look. This was made obvious by the demonstration given. I found this program to be flexible with its ease of making the figure/bubble, and linking it to a further one. I also enjoyed looking for a caption to link it to the key information that needs to be displayed. I found Inspiration to be more of a rememberance tool as well. To expand on this, Inspiration enabled me to expand on knowledge, rather than what I had written. This prevented me from repeating previous information.

The topic I had chosen for this project was the Interactive Whiteboards. I have used the Whiteboard before, so it was very easy to apply the knowledge I have in this tool, to the information which needed to be displayed within the Inspiration program. i followed through with this task, and also explored various sources, in order to expand on that knowledge. I found a case study, which can be found at the bottom of my web.

In terms of the Inspiration program, I can see how it can be utilised within the classroom environment. Inspiration can allow students to apply various tasks to the computer. They can relate information by an image, and use various avenues to ensure their information is impacting and made effective, through the various mediums available in both technology and the program.

For a student, Inspiration can be used at University to explain information to various students, or be used in a presentation, for a particular subject. I look forward to finishing off this task

excel-assessment.xls

This week, we had finished the Excel Portfolio Item. I found the concept of the Grade system difficult, and had to ask for assistance. I think this was mainly due to the fact that I was at the back of the room, meaning that it took me a while to follow through with the sums, in order to complete the portfolio item.
After the assistance, I can now present the item, and hand it in as an assessment. Please find it attched.

As an evaluation of this task, I found Microsoft a valuable tool in the Education world. I believe that Excel can be used in a variety of ways, in terms of displaying results of students marks, forming a graph on results or with data gathered by students- within the classroom environment, the program would also allow students to use another tool other than pencils, and rulers to display mathematical information, it would integrate technology within the classroom, as well as teach skills to the teacher.

This resource can also be of assistance while at uni as it can assist in the evaluation of information for an assessment task or to develop further skills from other sources eg. teachers in order to broaden the skills in the program.

todays-work.xls

In this lesson, we were taught the world of Microsoft Excel. It was good to revisit this program, as it is vital for the education world.

Mark had given us the basic fundamentals of Microsoft Excel, and the ways in which to set up the program in regards to Headings, columns, cells, mathematical statistics and totaling data. it was good to revise this program, as it has been some time since I last used this program. A saple of work can be found attached to this document. This is a work in progress, and provides the framework which goes towards the next portfolio item. I think this may only be an example though.

In terms of implementing the Microsoft Excel program into an education environment, with the incorporation of this week’s reading, I believe it is vital for children of all stages to be exposed to this program, from a simplistic times in the early stages, to a more sophisticated approach in the later part of Stage 3. The reason for this is because children are forever exposed to data, and for an auditory and visual learner, this is the best way in which data can be presented, in a graph, which can be made using this program.

I also believe that Excel is beneficial for teachers, as it provides an organisational setting when collating marks, students information and progress over a period of time, which can make life easier.

I look forward to the following week of the  “revising” session of Microsoft Excel.

In the previous lesson, we were presented with the Microsoft Publisher program. It was explained to us that Publisher can be used for a variety of different contexts. It is quite often that Publisher is used for creative activities in an educational environment, as opposed to a business environment where files such as meeting agendas and formal business apparel are designed.

I found that using Publisher wll allow students to design and present information in a variety of contexts. It further extends the Microsoft Word program, as it can give students more options on borders, backgrounds, templates for presenting information, and the type of information being presented, meaning that it is beneficial to the classroom environment. I found, as said in the Portfolio Item page, that making my own document on Publisher was alot easier to do as it allowed me to talk about myself, as well as present the document to represent some of the concpets that represent me such as colour choice, simplistic borders and presentation as well as the photograph. This allowed me to further explore the Publisher program, rather than being under a structre, which was good.

I feel that once I have completed this course, and am teaching in the REAL world, that I will be able to take this information of using Publisher on board, and allowing students to present information, flyers and programs using this resource. As much as I have used this before for an intensive design project for my HSC, it was good to revisit this useful resource.

I look forward to the weeks ahead!

portfolio-4-2nd-web-quest.doc

portfolio-4-pt-1.doc

This entry involves the portfolio of Web Quests. I felt Web Quest to be an interactive server where students can access information regarding a project. I  felt that some positive aspects of Web Quest (since my previous entry) include:

• Teachers providing students to relevant sites for Web Quests
• The information for the project relevant with its captions
• The tasks to be interactive and web-based
• Students were able to express themselves within the tasks through art, and technology.

I felt there were some negative qualities of the web Quest. This involved:

• That the information to be accessed had a more internet bias approach
• Some Web Quests had links which were broken, where as a book for example would have the information presented in it, without a “broken link”.

Overall, I felt that Web Quests were a great and interactive tool for students to use, and it’s great to see the advancement in technology since I was at school, and the way in which information is presented. If I had not taken part in this subject, I would not have known that this worl even existed.

I feel that this supports Vygotsky’s theory of scaffolding as students are able to use the basic information they know on subjects such as “bugs” or “Africa” and find out further information such as the use of technology, and the thought of even being a bug, such innovative and creative ideas. It also gives students the opportunity to be creative with their mind, and think of ways to process informaion and be in the mind of someone else, or another object.

a-rubric-for-evaluating-webquests.docx

I have read the reading for this week, and found the introduction to Microsoft Publisher to be quite interesting. I am looking forward to playing around with it for the next portfolio. I think Publisher is one of those programs (which I have experienced before) where it gives you alot of le-way on the sorts of tasks you can do. It also allows an individual to use the creative side of their brain, and create a variety of projects, and information sheets. I feel that this task will be a little easier to grasp.

I found the instructions for WebQuest to be ok. The rubric was fairly complex, but I’m sure over due course that the information will come as second nature to me.

uni-ict-portfolio-assessment-2.docuni-ict-portfolio-assessment-2.docThis tutorial provided me with the opportunity to start some of the work due for this assessment. It was great that Mark was able to re-cover the expectations of the second assessment, as I was unable to attend the lesson. I feel with my learning style (auditory), that Mark gave me a greater idea on how this assessment was to be presented. This week, I feel I have locked into the University life in terms of the amount of work that needs to be done with a certain amount of time. Tjis will be continuous until the break in the middle of the year- which will be great.

I felt the second part of Mark’s lesson this week was good on the WebQuests. I had never heard of them before, and fouund it interesting that students (or children) were not encouraged to not use the search engines as much unless they were looking for information and then evaluatiing. The use of WebQuest allows students to have that interactive tool, as well as analyse, synthesise and evaluate information. This is far greater and more high order thinking I feel for students in a learning environment. I shall remember this tool when teaching in a professional role.. I would like to have more information on the types of Webquests available so that when I am in the professional environment, I’ll know exactly where to go inorder to show the students. I look forward to next lesson.