My Journey

First semester is finally coming to and end and it is a great relief to know we are about to submit our final task for this unit. It has been a bit of a bumpy ride at times but I have learnt so much along the ride which has made me quiet technology savvy which I am quiet proud of.

 I hope one day when I become a teacher I can use this teacher resource we created to implement using technology to students and use the fun project we came up with. This will not only teach students about technology but about science, the earth, the solar system and all of the other aspects of the solar system.

 I am overall proud of our group and what we have achieved and think we have come along way in working together. It is amazing what you can achieve with a bit of guidance, dedication and peer support. I look forward to implement things I have learnt in the real world and I already use my referencing tool 'Endnote' that I used for my previous assignment in this task and I use it frequently in other units. 

I feel like I have only touched the beginning of what is really out there using technology and I cant wait to learn more!

I hope you have enjoyed my journey as much as I have.

To access our Wikispace please click here

This is the information we used to guide our Authentic learning using the Australian Standardised Curriculum.  It is available on Scootle and there are also an abundance of tools, worksheets, activities to support the scope and sequence of our task.

Feelings

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I found this task probably the most challenging because in order for it to be completed successfully we all had to contribute. I caught up with Karri on a few occasions which was a blessing in disguise because it gave us direction and we both helped each other to complete our individual tasks as well as to help everyone else.

Technology can be so frustrating at times as I had a few issues with my internet connection on this computer When everything goes well tasks are quick to complete but sometimes the most simplest task can take forever because I didn't have Java installed to watch a video or didn't save my work on the Wiki space so had to start all over again. It was great to let off some steam when we got to meet with our group as I realised we had a lot of the same issues. If I couldn't remember how something was done or needed a little bit of help trying to embed my power point presentation You tube was also great for this as there is always step by step guides on how to do something on there !

Unit content

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Assignment three really tested our knowledge of things we had learnt throughout this unit. All of the things I had learnt throughout this unit I pretty much used again in this task as well as learning new things along the way. The lectures provided an abundance of information of different resources we could use to help us  create our teachers resource as well as gave us information on Authentic learning and how to apply this as future teachers. On the LMS there was heaps of samples that we could use as guidelines and if we were ever unsure of something I would go onto the discussions board on the LMS and write to students and tutors to solve my problems which was a great help.

It is easy to become complacent with time and I didn't realise how much work this task entailed. I was a bit hesitant in working in a group as I don't like relying on other people. I was worried if someone didn't pull their weight my grade would be affected. I think everyone had this thought though and that's why in the end everyone did a great job on getting the job done.

It was great how everyone got involved in the Facebook communications if someone was having a problem. It really showed all of us working collaboratively in an effort to complete the task.

The lectures were a great way to refer back to something if we were unsure about. We focused on following similar formats of some of the samples online which was a great help but also used the marking rubric to make sure we were on the right track.

Issues !!!

The biggest thing our group lacked was motivation. It wasn't until the end when we all really put in effort and carried our own weight. We needed to do this to complete assignment 3 and at the start it was just not happening. I think having an online week contributed to this factor as we hadn't caught up for two weeks. In the end I was proud of our group as we all got together as a team. It was frustrating at times because we set deadlines as a group and it wasn't until the last minute that things got done. I contributed to these frustrations as well as I hadn't completed my power point presentation until the last minute. However I did load it up Monday morning and I felt like there was a big relief lifted off my shoulders. Lucy did a great job as the Wiki manager and made our page look great as she did the home page. Karri completed the lesson plan page which was a detailed lesson plan which was really well put together. The lesson plan gave everyone direction in what we needed to add onto our own pages.

All of us experienced some difficulties with Wiki space as it was hard to navigate. There are a few times I had helped the other girls with their pages and tried to upload PDF's and images of websites and there was an encrypted format which made it very difficult. We got Jenni's expertise on this one and it was soon fixed in class. What a relief that was as we were all pretty over it by this stage !!

Resources

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After much research using Google, You tube, Scootle and Nasa Kids our group found some great resources that would support our topic 'space' and would teach kids in an authentic way. Scootle was a great resource that had information following the Australian Standardised Curriculum for year 5 students which was our intended age group.

I found looking for resources the most tedious as I spent hours on the computer looking for resources that had worksheets, interactive games and videos and it was hard to find specifics on the solar system that we needed to teach at that year level. This was the most important part for Hannah and Cleo to complete their teachers and students resource pages as they needed to embed, hyperlink and add information about these resources. Karri did a lot of work on this part and it was great to have her dedication as it was extremely frustrating, of hours searching the net and not finding something that was appropriate to what we wanted to educate the students about.

Nasa was a great website as this was dedicated to astronomy. There was a kids section on Nasa  that had lots of great information and interactive tools for both students and teachers. We got a lot of information from this resource and found it very helpful.

Another great resource was You tube. This had a lot of videos that were developed for kids to teach them about space. It also had tutorials on how to teach kids how to blog, and use Kerpoof which was our online technology for kids to make a digital story book on space.

Kerpoof is a great resource to implement technology in a fun and creative way to create a digital story book. This was a great way to show an authentic way of teaching in the classroom and one that also brings art into the subject area.

Throughout this we used Skitch to create screen captures and I created a  presentation with a 5 minute narration that was a requirement of the task. I decided to use Powerpoint to present my information as it has all the tools and gadgets available to present my work as well as making it engaging to viewers.

Task 3 - Teachers Resource

Task 3 required us to form a small group and create a teacher's wiki resource to present a project for students that would follow an authentic way of teaching and learning using technology. In class we came up with a topic, subject area and a name for our group of 5. After deciding our topic which was 'The Solar System' we thought it was appropriate to call ourselves 'The Space Cadets'. Science was a great subject area as it explores many different concepts that we could apply to a variety of technologies to create our project.

At the start I found it overwhelming to allocate roles for people in our group as we had not done much research on what was required of us in the task. Karri is a great leader and has good organisation and team leadership skills so we allocated her the position of project manager. After looking at the examples we realised that it would be easier to allocate everyone a page to finish and then help with others if when needed.

We decided to use Facebook as our source of contact as it was easily accessible for everyone on their mobile phones and it was easier than email as this wasnt something everyone checked frequently. 

Our communications at the start lacked because there was a week where our workshop and lecture was online so we failed to communicate during this week. I found this put a lot of pressure on all of us as we still didn't really know where to start and our task was due in 12 days !!

Karri and I caught up and we decided to get on top of everything and start giving people roles and write a list of what was required. We were a bit shocked how much work was involved so  we quickly got our move on.