Nutty Nutritionists Wiki

Our group worked on "Healthy lunchbox and Hygiene" and produced an authentic task that ran over a 5 week period addressing the criteria of the Year 4 level of the K-10 Scope and Sequence in Health and Physical Education.

You can view our wiki here at the "Nutty Nutritionists" home page and follow the page links to view our authentic task, teacher resources and lesson overviews.

To view our presentation PowerPoint that we uploaded to authorstream you can click on the visual below or likewise Click here

I believe we have produced a very good resource for any teacher to use either as is or for a guide n=making changes to give their personal touch to the program.

I have gained a lot from doing this assignment and I am very grateful for the wiki resources of other groups that I am sure will benefit me in my teaching. This collaborative exercise is a fantastic initiative to assist us in upcoming pracs and our early days of teaching. I have never received anything like this in any other unit.

TEAM Work

                                                                (ViVaNSE, 2011)

At the beginning of the assignment I watched this YouTube which was on the companion website  under Group Teacher assignment 3A situated  under the support tutorials and tools section. I found it to be invaluable as it was a great reminder of Team Work.After I watched it I was reminded of things like accountability, responsibility and commitment and I took these thoughts into our group meetings.

"Members create an environment that allows everyone to go BEYOND their LIMITATIONS" (ViVaNSE, 2011).

I have had a lot of experience working in teams over the years but this does not mean that I am an expert and I too need to be reminded of these concepts. I also was conscious of the fact that I am in my third year of studies and the others have only just commenced uni.I knew that I could be of a benefit to the others but I was only one component of the team so I would have to hold back on certain things and let the others contribute.

I have just sat here and watched the YouTube again,after we have completed our group assignment and I truly can say that the meaning of Team was absent many times in our group. I don't wish to be negative however I feel it is a good exercise to use such a powerful tool like this YouTube to help me understand better how if things were done differently our group project would have been a more positive experience.

On reflection these things appeared issues:

• Members share authority and responsibility for self management - If you can't make a meeting it only takes communicating with another member. We had shared all group members contact details however some members chose not to communicate which left meetings being only attended by some members who were then forced to make decisions on moving forward.

• Quality Collaboration- If everyone had stood up and completed what they personally chose to do in the time frame agreed upon at meetings I could say that we would have experienced quality collaboration. Rather than the rest of us becoming despondent towards the completion of this assignment to the level we had first set, we discussed together how we were feeling and how we could go about this. We turned this into a positive and just got in and got the job done ourselves.

• Teamwork is simply putting W before Ego- I feel that I encouraged my peers to keep working towards our teams goals no matter who ended up doing some of the tasks. I can truly say that I am proud of the way that some team members turned this around.

• Members help one another, help other team members reach their true potential.At the end of the day our wiki and our presentation were finished to the level we set out.  I know that everyone will have their own feelings on this and only themselves can weigh up their contribution and how this makes them feel. I personally know that this is a common thing with uni group work so I don't get too head up over it. I just do what I raise my hand to do and try to pick up any pieces along the way. At the end of the day I needed this to be completed so I could gain a reasonable assessment. 

I know that I can say that I contributed to the following:

• Members help one another, help other team members reach their true potential. I know that I have demonstrated a strong commitment to helping other team members to gain a stronger understanding of various things in this unit. I am willing, sometimes too willing to support other students to be able to improve their standing. One day it may be me in need and I hope that someone will offer me the support that I show to others. 

I have bookmarked this YouTube as I think it is a very valuable resource for me to watch again and again. Reflection is the best thing to allow yourself to reach the truth about what you have achieved in a team situation. 

Searching for Refereed Conference Papers or Conference Proceedings

I was having a fair amount of trouble trying to find a refereed conference paper for my assignment  using Find it. I was searching for Assistive Technologies and clicking on the scholary selection in the top menu box on the LHS of the screen. When I would do this the conference page would disappear from the screen leaving me with only to be able to search for some of the items on the list. I knew there must be something else I had to do so I left it and when I was next at uni I went and saw Pim at the help desk in the library and once again she was so willing to lend a hand. The beauty of having the Library staff help you is that they have their computer set up so you, the student sit opposite them at the help desk but you have a screen in front of you to allow you to follow everything that they are doing on the main screen. This is a fantastic tool as it is really authentic in your learning.

So we set about finding out what I had to do and Pim suggested that my search Assistive Technologies needed to be refined. She told me to truncate it, which means that you place an *(asterick) after a certain part of a word and it will widen your search to include any ending to that part of a word. Pim chose to put in Assistive Technolog* and then we asked for a scholary search and voila there was the conference paper on the menu with a number beside it. So the search was on any words that link to Assistive Technolog - so this could be technologies, technology etc.

Truncating is a good thing to rememeber for further searching I do.

 It had disappeared before, because the search I was doing did not come up with a match so it eliminates all types without a match.

I feel I have learnt a lot about the Findit facility and all the ins and outs that go with it through trial and error. I had a laugh with Pim and said that I may get the hang of it by the end of my degree and her reply with a chuckle was that’s good but guess what they will probably change it all on you too!

Group Assignment Meeting One

12th April 2012

We met in meeting room one at the Rockingham library at 10am as agreed the week before. Unfortunately Shelley could not make the start of the meeting but she joined us later in the morning. Everyone seemed very keen to get moving with this project and all seemed happy to make the effort to attend uni even though it was our assigned break. Nothing like keeping routine in your life!

We began by working through the group project brainstorming document and since I had my laptop with me with Eduroam working I agreed to sign in to the group and take the records of our meeting. For some reason I could not get on to the docs as it appeared that I had not been given access so no problem I had printed out the form and just filled it in.

We agreed on our group learning goals and made the decision to aim to address the High Distinction criteria of the marking rubric and to follow process of the marking rubric as our two key goals. we also set ground rules/Code of conduct that we would communicate via email or text messages between group members as well as hold regular meetings.

Group meetings were set to be held on:
Thursday 19/4/12 and 20/4/12 between 10am-12noon to allow members to get to afternoon workshops.

Our teaching topic was decided to be 'Healthy Lunchbox and Food Safety' and our chosen year group is Year 4. This would definitely fit in with the Health and Physical Eduction K-10 Scope and Sequence.

We all listed individual skills and agreed to go home and work on agreed areas and bring back to the next meeting.

I spoke with Shelley about the Google docs setup and she said she had done it all and I should be authorised to use the site. After a bit of digging around I discovered that she had entered the incorrect email address for me and Jo so she used my computer and set our access up. This will be great as I can then go home and do the write up from the meeting to allow everyone to have a copy of there to do lists and also everyone can add to the docs whenever they like to keep everyone up to speed with things. I like the feel of this way of communication already.

On a personal note I came home not quite sure about which direction we were heading. I suppose I am thinking of things from a third year student who has had a fair amount of experience using the Curriculum framework and K-10 scope and sequence both at uni and also when I was working in schools. I feel I may have been taken the wrong way with some suggestions and when I tried to discuss the opportunities of cross curricular planning with this topic. I understand that this is group work so I shall try and sit back a bit, within reason.

Using Find it

The best way to explain using Findit is to view the following diagram that I found on the Murdoch library site. Here is the link direct to this article you will find some useful Frequently asked questions that may help you solve a mystery!

How do I use Findit?

First use the single search box, then use the options shown below to refine your results.
Tip: If you want to search by author or title, use the Advanced Search option.








(Murdoch University, 2012)
 

• Use the Advanced Search and type the journal name in the From this publication box. If you want to search a particular issue add the relevant details to the Volume and Issue boxes.

 

I have found Findit easier to use now that I have carried out this research assignment as it has allowed me to try all the variables.

Here is a YouTube that I found on how to use Findit through another university showing us that Findit is a worldwide tool for the benefit of all.

Group Assignment

For assignment task 3 we have a group work component to our learning. We had to form groups in our workshops so our one is made up of five of us who sit together as 'A' group on Thursday's Rockingham workshop. We are all 'mature' aged students doing our Primary School teaching degree.

We decided in our last workshop that it would be advantageous if we utilised the following three Thursday's when we had a break week and then the two online weeks by meeting as a group to plan and carry out our work for the presentation. I mentioned to the group that we are able to book a meeting room in the Rockingham Library and I offered to make the bookings and let everyone know the room details. I have previously blogged about this free service to students in which I shall link here.

Shelley offered to set up the group Google Docs for us and we were to receive notice to sign up as authorised users. Jo organised us all to fill in 5 contact sheets, filling in our contact details and passing on to the next group member to complete with all of us receiving a copy for reference. It was good that everyone was so enthusiastic to get the ball rolling. We discussed the fact of utilising information from our research assignment so to report back to the first meeting if you felt your research topic would be an appropriate choice.

Jenni had put a Group Project Brainstorming template for our use in which we had agreed we would complete at the first meeting.


Stay tuned for our meeting updates.

Google Guide

I have picked up a copy of the 2012 Edition of the Google Guide, a magazine that is a complete guide. I hear Jenni talk of many things with google but I have not had time to check them all out.

When I was having trouble with my blogging on Yola I asked Jenny about alt4ernative website/blog sites to use. She mentioned that she uses Google Docs for heaps of things. Just like the iPad for beginners magazine I purchased at the same time I can see many hours of reading and playing with technologies ahead of me!

There are a lot of YouTubes on how to use Google like the one below

Utilising the study/ meeting rooms in the Rockingham library

We formed a group in our last workshop and I suggested that we may like to meet on a Thursday in the library at the same time as our usual workshop as the rest of the group all had other units after lunch on Thursdays so it was convenient for everyone. I booked a meeting room, which is free for students. You just have to go to the library and make a booking with one of the librarians – usually at the help desk but if it is unavailable you see someone at the checkout counter. They only need your name and a contact phone number. If they don't know you they may ask to see your Murdoch card for ID. The beauty of this is there is room for everyone and you can talk to each other without disturbing other people in the library, there is a whiteboard and plenty of power points for everyone’s lap tops so good all round.

Check out the link to the Rockingham Campus Community Library it has all their contact details etc.

I utilise the library on a regular basis to study each week, making my ½ day at uni a full time day by studying. I have a routine where I drop my two high school sons off to school in Mandurah at 8am and then I get to Rockingham by 8.30. On a Thursday when my workshop is at 10am I can get a good study session in beforehand and then I take a lunch break and go back until about 3 so I get home when the kids arrive from school. By then I have usually had enough. Sometimes I just spend the hour before workshop in the CRC (Resource room) becoming familiar with what is available for student teachers to borrow. This is a fantastic service made available to us especially for our assignments and pracs. You can test out resources – a bit like trying before you buy!

It is amazing how many others do the same thing and I have actually developed relationships with other students from other year groups over my 3 years of doing this. You usually see a group of us before exams having study sessions together.  I must say this is one of my better study habits.

Assistive Technologies

For my assignment I have chosen to research Assistive Technologies and how they can benefit technology in my classroom. I am completing a minor in Inclusive Education so this will be very beneficial to me.

So what are assistive technologies? In my assignment I wrote the following explanation:

They are devices for people with disabilities that help them to perform tasks that they can't do without them. One of the main things that must be considered when setting students in the classroom up with assistive devices is will they actually be of use to the student as so often money is actually wasted on buying the latest gadgets that do not fit in with requirements of the student. A key factor is the school should not make decisions solely but include the outside agencies involved with the student before making purchases i.e. family, support people and agencies. Having all parties on board with the chosen assistive technology will see greater results for the student.

I have uploaded a YouTube that demonstrates various assistive technologies this teacher uses in her classroom.

(Weilbelk, 2008)

I have worked in a special needs school before and I have had the opportunity to access some very good assistive technologies and seen both the benefits to students as well as some that have been a really bad choice for a student. The reason being is they have been purchased without addressing the needs of the student properly, staff have had no training in how to use them so they get shelved unless some-one is able to spend the time to work out how to use them in their own time.

On the other hand I have shared in the excitement of when a student who was 12 years old began communicating via a program called Clicker 5. The student had Autism and was unable to communicate and he displayed behaviour management issues related to his communication issues. The visiting teacher from The Centre for Inclusive Schooling suggested we implement a computer program called Clicker 5.

Writing this blog brings tears to my eyes as I remember the day that he wrote a message to his Mum. I have three  children who I often tell  to be quiet and stop talking and this Mum just dreamed of the day that she could hold a conversation with her son, so to imagine what his mum must have been thinking.

After researching for this assignment and reading the article about a five year old boy in Queensland who uses an app on an iPhone to help him communicate just gives me a sense of relief for these people who can be taught to use assistive technologies for a better life.

Guess who got an iPad and iPhone for their birthday?

Yes I have turned another year older and I got a huge surprise from my family when they gave me an iPad for my birthday. I was totally shocked as it came out of the blue. I have a very good friend who is a Year One Teacher and unbeknown to me she has been joking with my husband for sometime over him buying me an iPad.
A month before my birthday he received an email at his work to advise him that he had won an iPad so he quietly put it away knowing that I would appreciate it! At the same time my phone needed replacing so he got me the iPhone as Donna had been telling him how having the both of them just added to the value.

Now I have to learn how to use them and I have been so busy that I have not had a chance to sit down and play. I was at the Perth Airport waiting to pick up relatives the other day so I went for a browse in the newsagent and to my amazement on the shelf was a magazine iPad for beginners so I had to buy it. It has everything from setting up, getting started, the next step, essential apps ad also a help desk section. I look forward to working through the process using this resource.

I could probably have got all of this information from the net however I am a very visual learner and being able to follow along with the book will suit me just right for starters and then I will be off and running.

Wow I have come a long way since commencing this unit in February and I have a long way to go. Learning is lifelong and I really believe in this saying!

How to put a YouTube into my blog

Well I am getting far more adventurous believe it or not? I often do a search to find a YouTube that may help me solve a problem or to find out more about something that I am studying. I decided that I had better find out how to put one in my blog to strengthen the information I wish to share with others.

So this is what I did

1. I first found the YouTube that I wanted to use and copied the URL
2. In my blog I clicked on the 'Insert a Video' icon that sits on the menu bar ( 8 in from the right or 2 along to the right of the Link icon)
3. You have to choose a file to Upload - follow the LHS of the page
4. Click on 'From YouTube'
5. Paste the URL you have chosen and then click the magnifying glass tosearch A list of YouTubes comes up on the screen. You need to select the one you wish to use by clickingon it on the list and then click on Select (bottom RH corner of page)
6. Voila it appears on your screen.

Here is an example of one I have done to follow these directions as a check that I have written the right instructions.

My next thing to learn is to make my own YouTube. I have this set as a goal to do before our final assignment so watch this blog for bigger and better things!

Getting Back Assignment 1B

It is always good to get back an assignment just to confirm where you are going with your learning. I was very pleased with my marks and to be honest these are what I was expecting. I believe because we had such a detailed marking rubric as well as having participated in the Peer Review process and having had all types of help available to us i.e. Companion website, LMS, Tutors and Peers, really gave us all a very good opportunity to gain a high distinction.

The only section that I did not receive a High Distinction mark was in the Quality of Instructions.See below screen shot of this section of my marking rubric.

This came as no surprise as I had written about this in a blog I wrote before I submitted the assignment about the Peer Review. It was suggested that I try and do a video or YouTube but I chose not to at the time as I was on my 3rd Year prac and was time poor. Check out this blog for cross reference.This actually made me very happy that I had worked through the rubric and was able to establish this before I submitted my assignment.

I have had discussions with a few fellow students who never fared as well as I did and this has made me think about the assignment some more. I wonder what their Peer Review was like, as I think if it was done correctly the student should have been able to take on the advise they would have received and made the changes to the assignment. I know that some things are personal choices in regards to presentation however if you have not worked and understood the requirements of the rubric the peer review should have picked up on these things and you should have been able to have reached a higher mark.

I have spent sometime with a peer from this unit and we pulled the 'marking rubric to bits' in a very positive way. After I explained the rubric, my friend was able to see and understand why she got the mark she did. In a way we carried out a peer review in more detail. I know that her future blogs are going to be of a higher standard addressing the criteria. Doing this also has made me more conscious of my very own blog. I feel very good about being able to help someone along the way and I know that I probably found it a little easier because I have been at uni for a few years and have become used to the procedures, one of these being to address the rubric or marking guide to the fullest.

APA 6th Guide for Referencing

I have found a really comprehensive guide for using APA 6th referencing style. It is the Curtin University Library APA 6th Referencing   

You can see the cover page of the referencing guide here that I have screen captured.

(Curtin University, 2012)

The reason I like working with the Curtin guide is I find it so well laid out where I can follow along very easily. It is broken into the different types of referencing and it has a table that shows you an example of how to
In- text reference and how the reference list should look. Take a look at the screen capture I have made below to see why I am so impressed with the layout of information.

(Curtin University, 2012)

I found out about this guide from a fellow student I was studying with in my first year studies and I have now passed on this information to a few students in this unit who I have met. If everyone took the time to share good ideas the experience of study would be so much easier.

EndNote Tutorial

During our workshop on 5/4/12 we attended an EndNote tutorial at the Rockingham library given by two of the Librarians Jenny and Pim.I took my own laptop along as I wanted to make sure it was working on my computer but the Eduroam connection was so slow that I ended up just watching Shelley do the exercises - authentic tasks,on the computer she was using!

I still managed to learn a fair amount from the tutorial as Jenny was demonstrating the process on the Interactive Whiteboard - Expert Performance so I was able to clearly follow the processes she was discussing. Our EDN 113 tutor Jenni Parker also explained some aspects of the program that furthered the knowledge of the presenters. This showed me how important working on authentic tasks can be as Jenni added to the instruction that was given. I can relate this to Multiple Perspectives.

I had already loaded EndNote X3 for windows to my laptop last year for another unit but I have not used it as we all had major problems with the downloads and IT Department contacted us to remove them from our computers and I eventually was sent X3 version which I have now loaded but I never knew what to do with it all.

During all of last years debacles I met with Pim in the library and she gave me a quick run down and provided me with a document 'An Introduction to EndNote X3 for Windows' - I have made a screen shot of the cover page using Jing to display here:

(Murdoch University, 2010)

I have made a printout of this resource for easy access.

I now need to go home and begin the Task 2: Research Technologies Assignment and put this new found knowledge into practice.

If I find I need further help on using EndNote I can go to the following sources for help before I need to bother my tutor Jenni.

• Call in to the Rockingham Library and speak to Pim or Jenny at the Service desk
• Access the EndNote introduction workbook
• Go to Companion website and complete the Online Tutorial for week 9 which is on referencing and copyright  - see below screen capture for details.

 

• Go to LMS discussion board and see if other students have had similar queries or put up the question for help. This is very good practice for any student.

I am feeling far more confident to approach this assignment than I did last year as I feel that everywhere I look I can get help for something that may not come to me first time. This is what I like so much about this unit.

What is EndNote?

EndNote is bibliographies made easy. The following is what the company says about themselves.Take the time to visit these links and make yourself familiar with this great tool. I can already see how beneficial and time saving it is going to be with my future studies and also later when I become a teacher. I can still be building a reference library - it does not stop with the end of my degree.


Millions of researchers, scholarly writers, students, and librarians use EndNote to search online bibliographic databases, organize their references, images and PDFs in any language, and create bibliographies and figure lists instantly. Instead of spending hours typing bibliographies, or using index cards to organize their references, they do it the easy way—by using EndNote! And EndNote Web is included with EndNote so you can collaborate with others easily. EndNote for Windows and Macintosh is a valuable all-in-one tool that integrates the following tasks into one program:

• Search bibliographic databases on the Internet
• Organize references, images, PDFs and other files
• Watch the bibliography and figure list appear as you write!
• Collaborate using EndNote Web, the Web-based research and writing component of EndNote 

Linking this blog to my Yola website

Now that I have corrected all of my Yola website troubles I have made a link to this blog on my Yola home page. Viewers just need to click where directed to go direct to my new blog I have created with blogger.com. You can see this on the screen save below.

I have now removed the "My Blog" page title and deleted all of the previous blogs from the Yola site. There should be no confusion with my blog from here in, with no history except my blog entries in regards to this mistake.

Sorting out my drama's with Yola!

As mentioned in my earlier blog about starting over I had discovered that I had probably copied a blog direct from word instead of using the notepad. I had moved on to creating this blog using blogger.com but I still had the blogs sitting on my Yola site and I thought that I'd rather delete these completely.

I met with Jenni after our workshop on Thursday and she once again was my saviour. Nothing seems too much for Jenni and she has the patience to sit with me and talk me through the problem, offering alternatives and making me feel comfortable with the process. Jenni showed me how to copy the entries and put them in notepad which then removes all the formatting from word and then to repaste the entry back into the website where I then carried out the formatting - headings, colours etc.

As I am a hands on learner this was a great opportunity to learn what I will never do again!! By fixing my mistakes that were not only blogs but also text throughout the whole website, I have it set like concrete in my brain never to use Word again when using Yola. I went to the library and worked on my corrections whilst the process was fresh in my head. I felt very satisfied at the completion that I had been able to have my Yola website back to what it should have been.
Jenni had made a YouTube video of this warning and placed on the companion website. I had watched it but did not have the confidence to try and fix my whole website and blog without first talking with Jenni. I now understand the process and know that I could work this out for myself if need be - hopefully I wont make this mistake again!

Peer review completed in workshop

On 29th March I attended the afternoon workshop as I was on my prac and couldn't make my normal morning workshop. This gave me the opportunity to meet a group of different students which always boosts life on campus. 

Jenni discussed the issues that had arisen with the peer reviews and how some students had not had reviews completed on their work. The lady sitting next to me was one of these people. I felt that this put her in an unfair situation with her assessment as I had already been able to make changes to my website based on my review. Jenni suggested that the process could not be done on through the system that had been set up however it could be done by someone just following the rubric and giving verbal or notes to the person.I offered to complete the review for Lisa and we stayed back after the workshop ended and carried out a review with Lisa taking down notes of my suggestions as we went.

For Lisa's assignment she chose a family tree site www.myheritage.com.

Amazingly, genealogy and photography happen to be two of my interests so following Lisa's instructions was invaluable for me. I even signed up for the site and plan to use this for my own family tree. A great idea is it will create a book report which gives you the run down of all your family and their information and who's related to who with photo's. I would love to complete this for my Mum as she would really appreciate something like this.

 












Since this day I have gone back and had another look at Lisa's site and she has made a lot of the suggestions that I made in the review and I believe her Assignment is looking much better. She was very grateful for my offer to do the review and to stay back and complete it - I know this from her telling me but also that she took the time to add it to her blog!

Using the LMS Discussion Board

I can not emphasise enough the value of the discussion board on the LMS. I make it a habit to each day look at the discussions and I follow the threads. I find that I learn a lot from reading them and many times I am able to work out a problem I may be having with the same thing. 
I am the first to admit that I don't write on here nearly enough probably because I don't feel overly confident with putting something up there in case it is not 100% correct. Some of the students write such good posts and even create their own video's to help others - this is a little out of my league at the moment.
Funnily enough I find myself helping students face to face so often without a worry so I need to overcome my fears and trust myself and make some postings. This probably comes from my constant use of the LMS and the companion website and how I learn so much from it. I find myself telling others about what I have read and watched and redirect them to these postings. 

Here I have added a screen save of an entry I have added to the discussion board in regards to a query about when we would get our marks for the assignment 1b. I try and put a positive stance to my entries as I have often read entries on other units where people write things that probably should not be written on a public forum.

Peer Review - the one completed on my website and blog

My reviewer was very generous in her evaluation of my website. I received an email from her straight away to let me know she was doing my review. Through a few emails I ended up helping her out with a few things and she (I don't think it professional to mention name here) asked me to have a look at her instructions. I made the time to have a quick look and over the next few days we both were discussing how we were receiving error messages and having all sorts of trouble with Yola. Sometimes knowing you are not alone is a big help. I think we supported each other very well.

I value the comments received and have made a few changes to my site. I have discussed a few ways to use the Flickr resource and emphasised why I have not gone into detail with these sections as they are areas that are not privacy protected. I hope that this covers this area. I am very aware that I could have done a YouTube and in time this is something that I want to approach. I was very time poor at the time of doing this up and made the decision to lose a few marks of this assignment if need be to be able to approach my prac with open eyes each day and a clear head. I have this on my must learn to do list before the end of the unit so I accept the comment well.

A screen save of the comments made by my reviewer:

As for the blogs I thought I had completed the required blogs for the week we were up to and I have now done a lot more. I have discussed this with Jenni as my blog in Yola has been inoperative for some time and I have now converted to using blogger.com and I am in catch up mode. Yola was not allowing me to do links or anything so I know that I can really make my blogs a lot more appealing visually. By the end of the semester I hope to have this all looking much better.

I really think the Peer Review system is a great idea and encourage the Tutors to leave this in the assessments for future years. It gave me a good sense of rubric use and allowed me to carry out the assessment process. As a third year student I have completed units on assessment and we briefly touched on rubrics. I appreciate the opportunity to expand on this learning. Hands on authentic learning!

Peer Review -the one I completed

I found the Peer Review process very easy to follow as I had listened and made notes from the lecture when Dani spoke about it all. 

I was on prac at the time and decided that I wanted to be fair to the person I was to review and I sent an email to her immediately to receive the URL of her website and blog so I could get it out of the way the first day. I was a little nervous in reviewing as I know what it is like to be an absolute amateur at web pages and blogs! I was hoping to receive some-one who I did not know but this was not the case. The lady who I had to review was in my first year units before she withdrew from uni so I was really pleased to see that she was back at uni but I was also hoping that she would not remember me! 

The rubric was fantastic - so well presented and I felt far more comfortable being able to cross reference everything to the rubric. I have also learnt in Learning, Teaching and Assessment last year to use the sandwich approach "positive, negative, positive.' 

I took the time to look at the website, read it all and then the blogs before I moved on to the assessment against the rubric. When you read some-ones blog and get a feeling of the journey of putting it all together you have a greater appreciation of the finished product. I was able to make my comments using the blog entries as a reference point.

The social resource was very well done as far as the power point presentation of Punchbowl. I followed the directions through and was able to successfully produce an invitation for myself without any hesitation at any point of the procedure. The screen captures were done very well. I could not falter the instructions - I had the proof of being able to complete it for myself as a guide. When I had to comment on the features I thought she could improve on and how I believe I gave constructive suggestions backed up with positive encouraging comments. 

The blog section became a little harder to do, however I once again allowed the rubric to make the decisions for me. I backed up the marks with suggestions that I know will make for a better assessment. My main advise was to use the Blog Guideline

 

The pleasing thing for me was to receive an email from the student thanking me for so many good pointers and for being so encouraging. I have since taken another look at the site and was really impressed to see that she had made changes from my comments. If I was to be doing another review the whole lot would be changed to higher marks and different comments.

On another note I got a little frustrated when I went to submit the review because I had it all disappear into cyberspace and it never registered so I had to do it all again. I had taken this process very seriously and was unable to retrieve a single thing so it was back to the drawing board to get it done promptly. Once again Dani had placed messages on the LMS so I did not feel alone.

I am so embarrased at looking over the review again today and I  have noticed so many mistakes. I am not normally like this but can only put it down to having to do the whole review again in a short time slot. How could I ever have submitted this like that?

Converting a word document to a pdf file

I completed my instructions on how to use Flickr for my Assignment 1b as a word document and I then had to learn how to convert this to a pdf file.

Firstly what is a pdf? When you save your file as a pdf (portable document format) it preserves all the fonts, formatting, graphics and colour no matter what application you have used to create it. By saving my file as a pdf it means that no-one can change anything and whoever is opening it up to view can see it just as I created it.

When you use word and are saving a document you go to Save as and type in your file name and then it asks you to save as type. If your computer has been set up to allow documents to be saved as a pdf you can click on the arrow beside this and scroll down until you find PDF. If this is there you then just click on PDF and the file is saved as a PDF file. This is easy! Well my computer had not been set up to do this so I had to find out how I set it up.

I went to the Companion website and yes Jenni had the instructions all there for me to follow. Unfortunately it did not work on my version so I went to the LMS for help. Some-one had made a request for help on pdf's so I followed the thread and came up with another solution using cutpdf.com. I am so impressed with how everyone is so helpful on the discussion board. I have made a Jing screensaver of the thread to show just how good this is.

All it takes is to ask the question and some-one generally answers your cry for help. If your request is not answered quickly I notice that a Tutor will then come in and offer help.

Jing

Last year when I was doing The Arts and Health & Phys Ed units externally we had to do a power point presentation in our groups. One of my group members was studying EDN 113 at the time, and kept coming up with we should use Jing, skype, this and that! At the time we all laughed at him because none of us knew what he was talking about however our presentation was put together with him using Jing and how lucky we were that he had this expertise. Now it is my turn to get out of comfort zone and explore. 

So what is Jing you ask?  Jing is a free program that allows you to take screenshots (a photo of what you have on your computer screen)  and you can add arrows, text and highlight on the page to your screen capture then you can share them with someone else straight away.  I did this in my assignment 1b where I was writing instructions on how to sign up for Flicker.com. I took a screenshot as I was signing up myself then I used the tools to make it a visual tool for the reader to follow. By using the arrows and text box I was able to give direction and brief instruction that stood out on the page. 

Jing can also be used to record screencasts where you can make your own video's up to 5 minutes long. I have not ventured into this yet but am looking forward to exploring. I have had the opportunity to look at some fellow students work on the LMS discussion board and am so impressed at what they have produced...more so because some have actually produced help video's to answer fellow students problems. How good is this that people who have probably never even heard of these tings before are now using them to help others.  

I like this idea as you can create a video using Jing and then have it on file to use over and over. We are utilising these on the Companion website where Jenni Parker seems to have made one for every possible problem we come across! I read the Jing customer stories on the Jing web page and was so impressed to read of the time saving aspect of using Jing. There is an article about a school librarian who was introduced to Jing and she went away and taught herself in 30 minutes how to make a video tutorial for her weekly classes where she teaches many classes the same things. She now puts links to these tutorials on the library website  and any student or teacher can access them for themselves. 

I can see the benefits of doing this for myself as a teacher as i would be able to make tutorials that we as a class can watch together and it would give me the time to be able to monitor the students understanding and be able to be on hand to help more.

Check out the Jing Features page to see a bit more about this and check out the Jing screensaver I created to go with this blog! I'm on the way to better things.

Catching Up

I feel like I am making excuses for not having this blog up to date. When I hit trouble with the Yola website not working I was just commencing my Maths 2 week prac. I decided that I had to make priorities in my life and this meant that I had to be in full prac mode and not worrying about the blog. I decided that as I used things I would jot notes in my file and then I would come back to them and write them up in my blog. The pressure was off and here I go at completing the task. 

In the end I have completed my prac stress free and I will get this done, so all is good!

Resizing a Photo

This post was originally posted to Yola on March 18th, 2012
16/3/12 – I have been unable to access www.yolasite.com today hence these entries that I have blogged in a word document.

Today I have been exploring the support tutorials and tools on the companion website  in preparation for completing my assignment. Up until today I have always resized my photos using ACDSee, a photo manager program that I find very easy to navigate. The only problem I have recently found is I only have this program on my home computer and I do all my Murdoch study on my laptop. I find I just do what I have to do on the home computer and then I email it to my laptop. Yes I know this is not ideal but it is what I have been doing. As you can imagine watching a simple You tube on Resize a photo (MS Paint on PC)  really helps me out. I am a visual learner so being able to watch the you tube makes my life so easy. I can just keep watching it as a guide until I can just do this on my own. It is so simple. 

On the video Jenni explained how she likes to keep the original photo on file and then has a separate file with the resized picture. As photography is one of my hobbies I have a huge collection of digital shots on file and I have learnt my lesson a long time ago about resizing and not saving the original copy. This is a very important part of the procedure to resizing and I appreciate Jenni’s thorough coverage of this. It is only when it is too late when we learn by our mistakes so it is valuable to us that this was mentioned.

I found it very useful to have the YouTube playing and then I paused it whilst I carried out that part of the instructions then returned to listen to the next part of the YouTube until I had managed to resize and save a photo. I am gaining confidence in trying new things trusting my ability yet relying on the information on the companion website. Wow what can I achieve next?

 

Feeling Behind!

Originally posted to Yola on Sunday, March 18, 2012

16/3/12- I have been unable to access www.yolasite.com today hence these entries that I have blogged in a word document. I have read on LMS that another student was experiencing the same problem so I hope this is not ongoing.

Thursday's workshops seem to come around so fast and I feel like I am so far behind in this unit. After reading the LMS discussion board I realise I am not alone as I read many other students are feeling the dame. We are not falling behind, more like we are finding this entire technology unit mind boggling. For me, as a very mature aged student, I am amazed at all of these different programs that I can learn to use, that will benefit not only me but all the students I may teach one day. I think the hours I am spending exploring are not actually making me feel like I am behind more so that i do not have enough hours in a day to investigate everything I read and hear about. Every little step of this unit has been an enormous confidence builder. I am not afraid to have a go and step out of my comfort zone now. Only last week I just couldn't imagine being able to complete Assignment 1a and now I am so enthusiastic at attempting Assignment 1B.

Workshop Week 3

Originally posted to Yola on Wednesday, March 14, 2012

In the week 2 tutorial our group had the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) and Learning Federation demonstrated to us by Jenni. The purpose of the activity was for us to gain an understanding through hands on authentic learning, to enable us to transfer our knowledge to Group 2 in the week 3 tutorial.

As a group we set a plan to break the teaching amongst group members and for each of us to go home and investigate further the concepts shown to us by Jenni. This was a very good idea to consolidate our learning and to allow us to search further for other IWB activities. Chris grasped the concept of the computer and IWB setup whilst I was enthusiastic at exploring some Mathematics activities as I have a maths prac coming up next week. This was a great opportunity for me to carry out the registration required to allow me to then pass on to next week's group.

Chris began our demonstration giving very clear instructions on the setup of the Mac and the IWB. We can read about this in Chris's blog.

Here I will review my instructions given on how to register with the Le@rning Federation.

1. Click on Registration URL.
2. Complete registration.
3. Murdoch MAIS will appear. Login with your Username and Password.

Well done you are now ready to learn, teach and collaborate using digital resources from the Le@rning Federation.

The activity I chose was a counting: whole numbers for Year 6 students. Follow on here for the directions I gave the group.

1. Click on HOME at the top LHS of the menu bar.
2. Locate the Browse by topic section on the homepage
3. Click on Mathematics
4. Locate the Number section
5. Click on Counting
6. Scroll down through activities to Hopper challenge: whole numbers
7. Click on Intro
8. Click on Start

From here you are free to explore the game. It has very clear instructions. From here Shelley demonstrated the way to navigate the IWB. I will endeavour to link to these instructions as they become available.

The beauty of the Le@rning Federation is the ability to use all of the resources on your own computer without an IWB. The difference is, on the computer you use your mouse to navigate and on the IWB you use your finger to tap the prompts. I was impressed that I could locate a game to demonstrate in which I was able to practice in advance of my presentation. As a teacher it is imperative for us to know what we are going to teach so I know I will take advantage of this site. This will enable me to make access to the site and know exactly what I have to do for set up and the procedure to follow the game. this would prevent a lot of time wasting in the classroom lesson time as well. I consider developing this good work ethic which will demonstrate good organisational skills and boost my confidence.

Good luck in following our groups instructions and I trust you will gain as much from The Le@rning Federation as I intend to.

Starting over

Here I am beginning my blog for EDN 113 Living and Learning with Technology. For some reason I have experienced an awful amount of trouble using the blog in Yola.com and I have decided to waste no more time trying to fix the problem. 

I spoke with Jenni Parker, my tutor in class on Thursday and we seem to think that I may have copied a blog direct from word without saving into a notepad first and this has corrupted my blog.  The interesting thing is, on the discussion board I have been reading about so many people saying they are experiencing the same problems. Can we all have done this wrong all at once? 

Jenni emailed me back on Friday and has suggested I try using blogger.com and then add a link to my website to this blog page. I have used Jing to take screen shots of my past posts in the Yola.com blog and I will copy the information into this blog so it is what my Peer Reviewer reviewed last week. I would rather have them all in the same place for the ease of the blog assessment. I don't know what I would have done without Jenni's help and guidance throughout this unit. I have tried very hard to solve any problems by using the companion website and the LMS discussion board before I have contacted Jenni as I think this is a better way to learn. The old saying that you learn by your mistakes is certainly in play here! 

What I am liking straight away is the spell check facility that blogger.com offers - this is why I used the word option to begin with and transferred everything to Yola. Linking is also much easier as this feature does not always work on Yola, another discussion point on the LMS. I hope I can remain this positive about blogger.com after I have caught up and completed some more entries.

My First Blog!

Originally posted to Yola on Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Here I am.... I have made it this far which is surprising as I have never attempted anything like this before. I am actually deep down excited about the opportunities that this unit is going to present to me. The more I explore with the companion website and the text book the more it opens my eyes to the possibilities for me, both personally and also with the students I will one day be teaching.