Project Noah

I have heard of Project Noah but has never really gotten into in-depth about it till I was reading fellow course mate Vicky's blog, 'A young teacher's walk'. Vicky has written about it in a very interesting way that has prompted me to check out this website.
In her posting about Project Noah, Vicky has stated 'It is a tool to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere' about this website which after going into it, I found that it is a brilliant website for all ages!!. It is a really useful website for teachers especially to teach their students about wildlife species.

And as written by BBC's Ella Davies:

A smart way to save wildlife

And as quoted by BBC:
"A modern invention that may also hold the key to saving species in the future. Project Noah is a global study that encourages nature lovers to document the wildlife they encounter, using a purpose built phone app and web community. In addition to the virtual "collection" of species, Project Noah encourages citizen science by linking up with existing surveys including the International Spider Survey and the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network".

Reference: Davies, E., (2011). A Smart Way to Save Wildlife. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/13454621

Weekly Reflection - wk 8

 My last weekly reflection before submission of my second assignment. How am I feeling? Tense and stressed!!

                                   
source: clayzmama.com (n.d.) I'm a little too tense to be stressed. Retrieved from http://clayzmama.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/stressed.jpg?w=500


Only halfway through my unit plan, so much to read and research on!! Guess I'll be burning the midnight oil tonight as submission is tomorrow!! But luckily my course mate KayYi who has just came back from her holidays in Japan, (read her post 'Holiday Mood') has gotten me a Totoro keychain!! :) Looking at it really brightened up my day. Again technology was used for the animation when director and writer Hayao Miyazaki created it to be made into a family/fantasy movie. This movie has in 1989 won five awards, Blue Ribbon Special Award, Kinema Junpo Award, Readers' Choice Award, Mainichi Film Concours, Ofuji Noburo Award and was also nominated for the Saturn Award under Best Genre Video Release

                                 

source: downtherabbithole.co.uk (n.d.) Giant Totoro Amigurumi Post. Retrieved from http://downtherabbithole.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Totoro.jpg

                       

source: Fang Olina (2012). Totoro. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaFJ0PVYeow         

Misuse of Technology.

Reading through one of my course mates, Megan Lim's blog, one of her postings "Facebook Status: Deceased", she has mentioned that one of her tutors has recently brought up an issue that a deceased friend’s facebook account who was apparently being used by the deceased’s family member. The tutor and her group of friends are receiving notifications from the deceased friend and they are finding the notifications from somewhat disturbing. Megan's immediate reactions to this issue was that of misuse or that of identity theft. She google searched for more information and found 3 main ways to go about the issue. Below are the information that she has posted up which I personally thought was really useful and everyone should be aware of it!

"1. Memorialising Accounts.

I was surprised to find a ‘Memorialization’ option for a deceased person’s facebook account. wow! We could actually report to facebook on a facebook user’s death. This was something new to me. Here is a list of what happens when a facebook user’s account is ‘memorialised‘ from this Facebook FAQ page for Deactivating, Deleting & Memorialising AccountsWhen a person passes away, we memorialize their account to protect their privacy. Here are some of the key features of memorialized accounts:
No one can log into a memorialized account and no new friends can be accepted
Depending on the privacy settings of the deceased person’s account, friends can share memories on the memorialized timeline. Anyone can send private messages to the deceased person
Content the deceased person shared (ex: photos, posts) remains on Facebook and is visible to the audience it was shared with. Memorialized timelines don’t appear in People You May Know and other suggestions
Creating a timeline in remembrance of an already deceased person is not allowed. We encourage you to create a Page to do this. Learn how to request the memorialization of a deceased person’s account.

2. Deletion of Account.

Alternatively if having access digital footprints and memories of their loved ones is too hard to bear, immediate family members may request for permanent deletion of the deceased’s facebook account. Here is a link to it ‘Special Request for Deceased Person’s Account’.

3. Leaving Passwords to Account.

There is also a ‘trend’ of leaving Facebook Passwords in Wills as the Will creator sometimes would like families to access personal or family digital photos and videos that they do not have in print. You can read more about it in this article ‘People Are Starting To Leave Their Facebook Passwords In Their Will'  by Davis October 13, 2011.

This has reminded me of an article that I've previously read,

"According to lawyer Robert Allard, 15-year-old Audrie Pott hanged herself last September after students shared photos showing her being sexually assaulted during a party on cell phones and online.
News of the arrest in connection to Pott's alleged sexual assault comes just days after a 17-year-old Canadian girl committed suicide after being allegedly raped Like in Audrie's case, Rehtaeh Parsons' alleged attackers also took pictures of the rape and circulated them around school. The girl's parents say the once-popular and confident teen became the target of relentless bullying and name-calling, which continued even after her death".

Links to Audrie and Retaeh's stories:
Audrie Pott

Rehtaeh Parsons

The community, especially younger generation should be taught not only how to use technology but also to use it wisely as everyone should understand that the misuse of technology can cause harm and even death!! 

Unit Plan

After reading through assignment 2 criteria and going through the

Assignment 2 forums, got a feeling that its really going to be hectic and consistent burning of the midnight oil!! :(

Below is the criteria:

There are two parts to the assignment:

Part A: Learning journal - worth 5% of the course mark

Part B: A 3-5 week unit design, including a 500 word essay justifying your ICT choices - worth 35% of the course mark.

This assignment consists of three main tasks:

1. The learning journal
2. Unit plan and
3. Essay. 

For a more detailed planning of how to do the unit plan, read through KayYi's blog and saw her putting this up, which she has taken from fellow coursemate, Carmen Gambe.

Step 1 - Consider the context.
Information should include:
• Students
• School
• Special Events
• Staff
Step 2 – Understand the alignment process: Curriculum, Assessment and Pedagogy
Head to the source for Curriculum documents, Structural models and Constructing/Transforming knowledge.
Step 3 – Plan units by considering the following questions:
1. What curriculum will we use?
2. What evidence do students need to produce?
3. How will we foster learning that uses the curriculum to produce evidence?

That makes me wonder why is everyone else so organized and I am not??

                               

source: Domestic Witch (2010). Rerieved from http://www.awakeningbusiness.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/overwhelmedOnly.jpg

 

Weekly Reflection - wk 5

  source: Pre-school information. Retrieved from http://www.d1010449.cp.blacknight.com/stmichaelsns.ie/images/stories/royalty-free-children-clipart- 

Reading through Hsing Hua and Chai Hung's interesting blogs, I saw that they've put in the stickman game as well. Gosh, think the everyone in class has been playing with it!! Yes, that includes me and as a matter of fact, I've also introduced this interesting and fun game to my kids at home! If you are not aware of this game We are into our week 5 now, starting on our unit plan which is our for assignment 2, due on the 22nd April 2013 (doomsday!!). Never been fantastic in creating unit plans and to think of using the Australian Curriculum makes it worst!! Don't get me wrong, the Australian Curriculum is brilliant but the research and read up on it thats making dread doing the unit plan. I've chosen Science for prep year. Have always been more comfortable in the early years setting than primary or middle school.    

Using the Interactive Whiteboard

There are many advantages to using interactive whiteboards. The following are probably the main ones.

• They provide electronically all the familiar features of a traditional classroom blackboard or ordinary whiteboard.

• They replace the scenario of a large group crowding around a single computer. The interactive whiteboard allows a large group to sit and participate comfortably in a presentation.

• You can enhance any presentation or lesson by easily integrating video, animation, graphics, text and audio with the spoken presentation.

• You can display material from a number sources such as CD-ROMs, websites, DVDs, VHS tapes and television. There are other methods of presentation of information on the horizon offering further flexibility.

• You can usually edit information directly during lessons and save any changes or additions to the computer.

• Notes, diagrams and entire lessons or presentations can be saved, archived and added to the intranet or similar centralised resource. This means that presentation or class'work in progress' can be saved ready for the next period.

• Student benefits from the interaction with the knowledge and task, both personally and socially.

• Creates a collaborative layout and an environment of engagement so that there is naturally more dialogue between tutor and students, peer-to-peer and within groups.

• Some say that students are better behaved and more motivated.

• Effective method of presenting ideas, whether to students or colleagues, or to prospects.

• Useful way of getting feedback on ideas from others. There are many ways of achieiving this. If you want, you could kit the audience with keypads from the XPress Audience Response System and link them up with the computer in the interactive whiteboard setup and get responses in real time on the computer screen. The responses could be to test questions, contests, exams, or voting.   

              Link to "Training Tutorials for Promethean and Smart Boards"   

 
                 
source: Tom Hopper (2007). Interactive Whiteboard Demonstartion. Retrieved from  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjdNPMZJbLs

Reference:
Tekgia (2012). The Advantages of  an Interactive Whiteboard. Retrieved from http://www.tekgia.com/product_info.php/products_id/293

Reasons for Teachers to use Technology in the Classrooms

           

                          

source: technologynewsvideos (2013) Top Ten Reasons to Use Technology in Education. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWaYoyZVSxo



Technology is ubiquitous, touching almost every part of our lives, our communities, our homes. Yet most schools lag far behind when it comes to integrating technology into classroom learning. Many are just beginning to explore the true potential tech offers for teaching and learning. Properly used, technology will help students acquire the skills they need to survive in a complex, highly technological knowledge-based economy. Integrating technology into classroom instruction means more than teaching basic computer skills and software programs in a separate computer class. Effective tech integration must happen across the curriculum in ways that research shows deepen and enhance the learning process. In particular, it must support four key components of learning: active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback, and connection to real-world experts. Effective technology integration is achieved when the use of technology is routine and transparent and when technology supports curricular goals.

Many people believe that technology-enabled project learning is the ne plus ultra of classroom instruction. Learning through projects while equipped with technology tools allows students to be intellectually challenged while providing them with a realistic snapshot of what the modern office looks like. Through projects, students acquire and refine their analysis and problem-solving skills as they work individually and in teams to find, process, and synthesize information they've found online.

The myriad resources of the online world also provide each classroom with more interesting, diverse, and current learning materials. The Web connects students to experts in the real world and provides numerous opportunities for expressing understanding through images, sound, and text.

New tech tools for visualizing and modeling, especially in the sciences, offer students ways to experiment and observe phenomenon and to view results in graphic ways that aid in understanding. And, as an added benefit, with technology tools and a project-learning approach, students are more likely to stay engaged and on task, reducing behavioral problems in the classroom.

Technology also changes the way teachers teach, offering educators effective ways to reach different types of learners and assess student understanding through multiple means. It also enhances the relationship between teacher and student. When technology is effectively integrated into subject areas, teachers grow into roles of adviser, content expert, and coach. Technology helps make teaching and learning more meaningful and fun (Edutopia, 2008).

10 Excellent iPad Applications for Teachers


http://www.emergingedtech.com/2011/03/10-excellent-ipad-applications-for-teachers/


 Web based interactive whiteboards


http://www.emergingedtech.com/2009/04/online-interactive-whiteboards/ 



Reference: Edutopia (2008). Why Integrate Technology into the Curriculum?: The Reasons Are Many. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-introduction