Playful Learning

In an article written for technology news Japan has now released a robot that can cook. It can  flip okonomiyaki and slice sushi. Recently I remember reading about robots who could organise and order books for a library.

In the article it states that “Japan is home to almost half of the world’s 800,000 industrial robots and expects the industry to expand to $US 10 billion”.

I am amazed and a little worried. WIth all this advancement and the world job market as it is, is it not a little worrying that these robots could be taking away  human jobs. Are they more effecient? Probably! Will it cut down on costs for businesses? Sure! But what is next?

When we look at teaching, conferencing has become more popular, which cuts down on teacher costs, because one teacher can teach thousands of students all at once. Computer programs are being developed that are extremely easy to understand so children can self teach themselves. Whilst i am amazed this does scare me a little……. I have seen ‘The terminator’!!!!!

Grant

Learning is a continuous process and dealing with ICT is something that is going to be a very interesting process for me. However, through out this course I have learnt to make a podcast, a video, use comic applications, blog, embed, create a whole program using LAMS. All of these things i would not have thought possible before I started this course. I feel as I become a teacher and go into the schools to make lessons interesting and entertaining I will need to refresh myself on all the innovative programs available and by 2012 I’m sure there will be many……..

Below is my attempt at podcasting and adding visuals to my ideas about “learning”. Enjoy.

Grant

grant-week-3

“A Sydney girls’ school will let its students use iPods, the internet and mobile phones during exams as a new methods of assessment. Presbyterian Ladies’ College at Croydon will let year nine English students use the hi-tech equipment during exams first, before rolling out the program across all subjects by the end of the year.”

This article from ninemsn (August 2008) goes on to quote English teacher Dierdre Coleman, who is dean of students for years seven to nine at the school, went on to say that the move was about “redefining” cheating, and would allow modern day technology to be fairly incorporated into modern education. In their working lives they will never need to carry enormous amounts of information around in their heads. What they will need to do is access information from all their sources quickly and they will need to check the reliability of their information. In terms of preparing them for the world, we need to redefine our attitudes towards traditional ideas of cheating.”

I think that it is great that schools are reevaluating assessment methods in light of modern technology, and incorporating changes to the curriculum. There are valid points from Tom and Aimee’s blog (cheating via access of outside friends and plagarism) however I do agree that allowing access to internet is a more true reflection of current work and life practices. Lene

 http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=617470 - August 2008

http://tomnaimee.edublogs.org/

Reading Bronwyn’s blog about growing up digital and our profound reliance and use of computers made me reflect on how often computers affect our lives. Emails and interactions, bank accounts, university assignments – if I don’t use a computer daily there is usually something monumental going on. However, while reading the blog, the often quoted “If the world were a village of 100 people….” came to mind. Many millions of people are living today without access to computers and even more without the internet. Please find following one version of this thought-provoking document….

If the World Were a Village of 100 People

If we could reduce the world’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, the demographics would look something like this:

The village would have 60 Asians, 14 Africans, 12 Europeans, 8 Latin Americans, 5 from the USA and Canada, and 1 from the South Pacific51 would be male, 49 would be female

82 would be non-white; 18 white

67 would be non-Christian; 33 would be Christian

80 would live in substandard housing

50 would be malnourished and 1 dying of starvation

33 would be without access to a safe water supply

39 would lack access to improved sanitation

24 would not have any electricity (And of the 76 that do
have electricity, most would only use it for light at night.)

7 people would have access to the Internet

1 would have a college education

1 would have HIV

2 would be near birth; 1 near death

5 would control 32% of the entire world’s wealth; all 5 would be US citizens

33 would be receiving –and attempting to live on– only 3% of the income of “the village”

So when we are talking about growing up digital and our daily interaction with computers and technology, take some time to consider the other 90% of the planet’s population that do not experience life as we know it. Lene

http://moo26.edublogs.org/2009/03/31/growing-up-digital-b/ - Bronwyn’s blog

http://www.familycare.org/news/if_the_world.htm 

Anyone considering students use cell phones should read the following quote from the Daily Mail newspaper (September 2008)….

“Children who use mobile phones are five times more likely to develop a type of brain tumour, research has suggested. The Swedish study indicated that under-16s are more at risk of radiation from mobile phones because their brains and nervous systems are still developing. Because their heads are smaller and their skulls are thinner the radiation penetrates deeper into their brains, it is believed.”

Often we take on new technology or developments only to find out later that they are damaging to our society or environment - fossil based fuels, DDT, CFC – I am sure the full list would take a life time to read. Now the phones that have made our lives so convenient may be killing our children.

Before cell phones should be recommended or available to students we need to consider the health aspects and find ways to minimise or remove the risk. Hands free phones, text only and using them to read from were uses that were recommended in the article, and anything that keeps the actual phone away from their ears appears (at this stage) to be alright.

The article also mentioned that further studies may show that the risk is not so high, but the cynic in me wonders who is funding those studies….. Lene

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1058989/Children-use-mobile-phones-times-likely-develop-brain-tumours.html 

While I can appreciate the value of games and technology to increase the fun and learning for students, the phrase in this post that really caught my eye was ‘real world consequences’, stating that in games there aren’t any.  Real world consequences are what we live with every day, and it seems that a lot of social issues of today arise from the separation in the minds of action and real world consequences.

Two examples come to mind – obesity and violence. In my mind computer games have had a real impact in the real world on both these issues. This separation from nature and the world around us when we are hooked up to games that are essentially sedentary and often played alone indoors can create in the mind a feeling of being aloof to the real world consequences of our actions (or inaction as the case may be!). Sitting for hours in front of a screen while your avatar runs, jumps, fights and flies does not mean that you are burning calories. Often food consumed during this time is also convenient high calorie fare, which also has real world consequences.

Violence is another aspect to computer games that has me concerned. Admittedly many educational games are not overtly violent, but when children are getting the message that games are ok, fun and the skills gained aid learning, this can spill over into the home arena. Many games on the market today have violent aspects to them. I believe that these games have increased society’s tolerance for violence. First person perspectives – where it looks like you are pulling the trigger etc rather than an avatar – are even more likely to desensitize the player to violence.

While I can see the benefit of games and technology in some circumstances – I am using technology to learn Italian – I also think that it is vital to teach students about the real world consequences of their choices, and to make those choices overt rather than unconscious. Lene

Whilst I was on practicum I witnessed a class that used a wiki in the classroom. In response to the post Wiki’s in the classroom posted on 09/04/09, I would definitely say I would use them. They allow students to get their own say and it is a great way for them to communicate with each other. It allows children who may be generally quiet when asked a verbal question to have their say. One child from the class was overseas at the time, so it gave the class great discussion points and the children were able to keep in contact with that student and learn with him as he was on that adventure.

Children must be taught about the problems that may arise with wiki’s or any internet usage, as described in the photo.

-Never put information that you don’t want everyone to know on the computer

-Watch out for bullying and report it if it is occuring. Cyber bullying is the most harmful form of bullying as it can be broadcast to a greater amount of people in a short period of time.

When I was on prac I noticed the teacher could monitor what time a child was on the computer at night and in the morning. I felt this even limited a child’s personal space and could put pressure on the teacher if they realised the child sleeping irregularly.

Overall though, a wiki is a great way to keep in contact with the class- to set out required work and to form a ‘whole class’ environment. It also involves the teacher in the learning process and allows for open communication in the class.

Grant

TV is my friend! Whilst i acknowledge the drawbacks of watching too much tv and I do agree with limiting how much is watched i beleive that Movies and television shows give children a lot of ideas and allow their imagination to flourish.

This being said, I agree with Lena’s comments written on this blog page on 21/04/09 about violence. This is a parental and teachers obligation to make sure materials are not being viewed that are unsuitable for children. This line is a blurry one though and is best decided by the guardian or parent of the child. The teacher should always play safe and if they are unsure get advice from other peers or from the parents.

Limiting the viewing time to 1 hour I think is a little unreasonable. I think it depends on the child and the family. Televsion has always been a gret escape from reality for me. It provides me with insight into other people’s situations and how other mind’s think and how other people live. Sometimes, if a child is not a very good reader and lives a rather sheltered life this may be there only way to understand other points of view, not to mention television and movies give a great visualisation to a story.

Whilst I acknowledge the negatives….. TV is still very much my friend……..

Grant

I just joined up on Toondoo and had a ball creating the comic showing here to the left.  What a fabulous resource for students who have great comic ideas but have trouble with their own images!  Put this site on your ‘to use’ list!

-E-

http://www.toondoo.com/

 Mobile learning is a very interesting subject to explore. There are many capabilities and applications available for teaching. Tomand Aimee explored some ideas about using mobile phones for educational purposes on 30/05/09. I beleive iphones offer many applications such as podcasting, video recording and picture taking all in one easy to hold package. It has all the benefits of a laptop only smaller. Obviously it does not hold the same capacity of information but i’m sure as the years go on technology will fix this problem.

The iphone could be used for students to keep an audio diary of their day, there are many fun math games which would increase childrens interest in numbers and problems which might be set for tasks if children finish their work quickly.

Some disadvantages if the iphone was to be introduced into schools would include-

- children texting on phones to each other

- quite costly for schools or parents

- limited storage space

Overall, I would be interested in trying this form of technology out as I think children would find it interesting and I think there are many learning possibilites.

Grant