Assignment 2

A Reflective Synopsis.

Before I sat down to write this synopsis, I gave my blog a reading-over, and wow, have I learned a lot in the past couple of months.  I remember during the Res school listening to how we were going to be working on our own blogs, wikis, making our own podcasts and even attempt a website.  I can tell you now that I was more than a little intimidated to begin with!  Through the weekly engagements however, I was able to steadily make progress to the point now that I read over my blog and am hardly able to believe what I have been able to accomplish.  Starting with the wiki activity in week one using deBono's hats, and progressing from there, I am impressed how the course has scaffolded my learning about many different technologies like wikis, blogs, voki, how to manipulate and embed images, and discovered my favourite website, Khan Academy.  These technologies and more are talked about extensively in my blog and my wiki, which I am happy to say, are really coming together well, and have turned into a very useful learning resource.  I also learned about TPAC and the methods by which technological knowledge, content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge are combined to form the technological pedagogical content knowledge (Mishra & Koehler 2006).


The use of technology is an important part of education and will continue to become more important as it becomes further integrated with our lives.  The participation in the debono's wiki activities was the real beginning of my education on E-learning and how online tools can facilitate learning that incorporates multiple learning theories, with a focus on constructivism, as explained further in my blog.  I found the experience transformed my way of thinking about e-learning, and the way it can help cooperation and the sharing of knowledge.  It was also interesting to discover about Felder and Solomon's (reference) learning styles, and how to best engage with students according to their preferred style.  I also learned about Multiple intelligences and recorded my experiences with them on my blog as linked above.  Finally, I feel a strong personal connection with Vygotsky's "zone of proximal development," because, to me, it seems to solidify the fuzziness of common sense into a more concrete theory of how to bridge students' gap between what they know and what they want to know (Schunk, 1996).  I also look forward to incorporating cooperative learning theory into my lessons, as detailed in my blog. 


The initial focus aimed to outline the best practices for teachers to get to know their learner. Felder and Solomon propose there are different learning styles: active and reflective, sensing and intuitive, visual and verbal, and Sequential and global. There is considerable debate in the field however.  Another theory to that attempts to categorise how learners learn is the theory of multiple intelligences, but theory is fiercely debated as explained by Han S. Paik. It is fair to say that within academia, the theory of Multiple intelligences is more supported than learning style theory.  This is reflected upon in my Blog entry, where I independently reached similar conclusions. I applied this specifically to my area of business after reading in Evans (2006) that business students of today will need to learn the skills of the future, through colaboritive learning and knowing how to use technology today. I also enjoyed learning about Prenski's ideas in 'engage me or enrage me' about digital natives and immigrants, as recorded here on my blog. Lastly, I investigated some of Luis Mateus Rocha's (1998) ideas on self-organising learning processes that arise from seemingly random initial conditions here in my blog.

deBono's Hat Wiki

What surprised me after reading my colleague's contributions, was that I could now see each issue we covered in the black-hat section had a plausible solution.  My own offering put forward the proposition that a school's IT department might be tasked with ensuring internet access be made possible only through the school's own properly filtered and monitored secure WiFi network.  Bullying could be curtailed by ensuring all communication between students be collated and stored in a way that complies with the appropriate privacy mandates, and students informed of a strict zero-tolerance policy to bullying.

Being able to learn and understand the various perspectives of my classmates in the hats that followed stimulated me to conduct additional research into some benefits of integrating ICT.

DeBono's scaffolded wiki activity struck me as based mostly on constructivism, as we were working cooperatively and gaining new knowledge through interactions with fellow peers. Vygotsky (1962) proposed that learning is heavily influenced by social interaction.  It can clearly be seen that the wiki facilitated higher order thinking, as we worked through the hats, we were able to conduct a mental SWOT analysis and evaluate which side of the mobile phone debate held the strongest position.  I was quite surprised at the outcome of my evaluation stage, as I had entered the exercise skeptical about the use of mobiles in class, but after due consideration, changed my view to that of cautious optimism.  My own Wiki can be found here.  https://taicullumict.wikispaces.com/.

Lastly, I noted the 6 hats wiki activity was an example of a well structured learning environment, where learners were given the opportunity to see other peoples perspective, giving us the chance to discuss, debate and challenge each other, thereby providing an oportunity for peer tutoring.  These are all examples of higher-order thinking, which as we know, is always the goal when teaching.  According to Hattie (2009), the following are core principles of co-operative learning, as opposed to 'group work'.

I've linked here and here to show that I understand the legal and ethical implications of posting images in a public, online space.

Here is the link to a concept mapping tool I used called Bubbl.us.  I engaged in an extensive investigation for the topic, including all technical details and reflections.  Having never used a tool such as Bubbl.us, I was unsure about what its function actually was and how I might be able to introduce it into a classroom situation.  I wonder no more!  I believe that this would be a powerful tool and effective pedagogy due to the fact that learners have a significantly higher rate of retention when they are involved in the 'doing' of an activity, compared to simply reading, listening or viewing alone.  

I demonstrate embedding a video by pasting it into the HTML editor instead of simply using the 'insert a video' button. I questioned its usefulness until I realised I could only use the button for youtube videos, otherwise I'd need to download it using one of my groovy Chrome extensions to download and then upload it myself.  This way is indeed much better.   Here I talk about the power of images.

Wikis, websites and blogs are investigated too, Here is a link to my Weebly website, I spent a few minutes trying to do something interesting on this site but became frustrated by the limited nature of what is allowed with a free account and decided to give Google's offering another try.  This would prove to be my second unsuccessful attempt at making something useful from Google's free web hosting service, as I tried briefly about 18 months ago.  I gave up pretty quickly on both occasions because I found the service to be very un-user friendly, and obviously not designed to do what I wanted it to do.

After experimenting with both blogs and then Wiki's, I have decided that these two tools will be the focus of my attention for now.  This blog will record my educational journey in the form of multi-media postings and reflection, whereas my wiki, can be accessed by using this link.  The Wiki space has grown rapidly lately, why not check out what's new?  The pic below is a sample of what can be done with a $150 camera and MICE.  Here.  Further reflections are found in the links provided.

 I undertook extensive research looking for an online tool that would complement the teaching of mathematics and chose the Khan Academy.  I explain it on my wiki here and here, well, I'm not sure I should post all of the places I have talked about it because it will be confusing.  It's much better if you just explore the wiki yourself.  Please look through the references to my work there on deBono's hats and some other technical details.  I really went to a lot of trouble to demonstrate my mastery of some more tecnical aspects of wiki design and other web construction.  There are lots of details I don't have room to explain in this synopsis, so please consider the link above an appendix.

Here is a very detailed look at my thoughts, including reflections on the group 4 technical tools.  Space is restricted, so consider this a referral to an appendix.

An Analysis of the Image

Hi there, and welcome to yet another blog entry,

This is my fifth and final entry dealing with one of the optional choices, and I have chosen to go with images.  I have chosen the photo above as the subject of my first analysis.  I will begin by clearing up any legal matters stemming from issues with copyright providing this link which shows a Google image search that found the picture to belong to Wikimedia Commons, please follow the links for sources.

Secondly, I would like to outline the general reasons I have chosen the particular image above as the focus of this Blog post.  I will then provide a number of arguments as to why I chose images over  video and audio, and detail why they are a better teaching tool for my two specialisations, Business and Mathematics.   The argument will flow from the general to the specific, making sure to highlight along the way the resources I have discovered, what points in particular I have incorporated into my argument, and why.

The blog will finish with a reflection drawn from the individual elements mentioned earlier in the blog.    These reflections will concerntrate at the point at which Pedagogy intersects technology (TPAC)

Ok, now for the good stuff.

This image is, well simply awesome in the literal sense of the word.  There is so much stuff going on in the picture, I think I'd run out of space in the blog before I ran out of awesomeness to write about.  Where does one start?  Well, I'd like to start by pointing out that generally speaking, children tend to like things that are awesome, which brings me to my first reason for selecting this image.  I would like to use it as a 'hook' to grab students' attention.  I do apologise for picking a photo that probably appeals to one gender more than the other, but I always like to start with a bang.  Audio will be incorporated into this discussion further on, as there sound is actually one of the central topics.

with my mathematical hat on, using scale, I will be able to have students measure the size shock wave caused by the sonic boom of the projectiles to calculate the difference in time between when each shot was fired.  Another activity is to have students think of the possible causes of the disturbance in the water that lies beyond the shock wave, which will lead to discussion about how sound travels through different mediums at different velocities.  There are many mathematical concepts that can expanded upon using observation of images.

Using Voki

Group 4 technologies, an Extension

Please Follow and Read This Link Before Continuing

An Experiment in things that matter

The video below can be found here.  It's a minuscule part of a range of literally thousands of videos, here's a link to the entire selection.  The mind boggles at the time and effort that goes into their production.  

Now That's how you use ICT's to develop higher order thinking.  Even in this inherently one-sided example, notice how Salman scaffolds the listener while he solves a dreaded quadratic equation.  This is fairly advanced Maths in a secondary school context, but notice how he is able to explain his methods in such a way that the process seems straightforward?  Using video like this has the huge advantage that, among other things, a struggling student is able to pause and rewind the difficult parts and watch repeatedly until they are confident enough to attempt some problems on their own.  The screenshots below shows an aspect I call the problem tree for some strange reason, seeing it's more usual to call something treelike when it looks like the bit that's on top of the dirt.  Anyway, the right image is just a more zoomed-in picture of the left.  Here's a link.

The next screenshot simply shows what happens when you click on a learning area.  The student is presented with a problem of their own to solve - oooohhh scary right?  Well, perhaps it could appear a little intimidating at first, so let's just give it a try, from a student's perspective.

(remember this is a student now.)


Ok, first question, here we go...  

I know how to do this, let's get this started (I'm still a teacher between parenthesis, and I have to admit to cheating a little by choosing a faster set of problems to solve than I showed you in the video, If I had more time I promise I would do the quadratics!).  Hmmm... I recon the answer's gotta be the top one, let's see...

Yesss, got the first one correct, Phew!  Gees, the next one looks tricky though, I wish I could remember what teacher said.  I'll stick with the top one, that worked last time! Here we go...

Oh bother and gosh darn it! (this particular student is actually a time traveller from the 1950's, which explains his, um, interesting vocabulary)  It wasn't the top one after all.  Oh well, I still have these two options to choose from.  I can decide to ask for a hint, but I know that costs me extra questions I have to get right before I can move on, and that can take ages!  Or, I could just watch the video again.  I know that I can watch the video as many times as I like, and I don't have ta do extra problems that way... Hmmm... which one'll I choose?  Asking for a hint is easier, but it might take me much longer to finish this set of problems and move on to the next one!  And I can see my best friend Sam has almost finished, Jane too!  Boy she bothers me with her silly freckles!  Well, I guess that settles it, I can't let myself get beaten by a girl!  Looks like it's the video again for me.  I guess it's just as well that teacher has made all these videos, I wonder what on earth people used to do before, when there was only one teacher and us kids forgetting to pay attention sometimes, and missing out on an important middle-bits while he was explaining how to solve these annoying math problems.

Who needs to know about stinking MATHEMATICS anyway when we've all got calculators now!  They're about a million times faster than those stupid slide rules that I had to use when I was young!  Whoops, I forgot I still am young, haha!  But I really do feel like I'm from the past, all my friends have these knew fangled things called Iplods or something stupid. They all recon that that some genius scientist or engineer or sumthin really boring figured out how to jam a whole compooter into that little thing!  Now I don't really know what this big boxy thing in front of me is or how it works, but I heard Sam call it a compooter, and it sure is one hella lot bigger than one of those little Iplods!  And if they are really little compooters, they must be a million million  [do numbers even go that high‽]  times smarter than that old slide rule that I couldn't hardly work half the time anyways!

Gee wizz, I'd better get practising so I can keep up with all the other kids, they make me feel so old 'cause of how quick 'n easy they use them stinkin Iplods, I wish I could just SMASH 'em all to little bits and pieces sometimes you know!  Argh bleeding heck, Jane just started watching the video for the next set of problems.  You know, she keeps looking at me funny, and when I look back at her she looks away real quick, like she thinks I don't know she's always starin at me.  It's enough to drive a cobber stir-crazy it is!  Hmmm... that silly Sam looks like he's stuffed up more than a few questions in this set, he's gonna be here forever at this rate and we'll be a man short for footy practice at lunch! I guess I could give him a hand for a little bit if he doesn't get his work finished by the bell.  Heck, it's no different to yesterday, and once last week too, seems like I do more learning when I'm helping him than over here on my own!

"Sorry Sir? I didn't catch what ya said, 'cause I was thinking about how to do this problem." Hehe, sucker, I wasn't really.  "Just about Sir, I can almost remember how to do it, I'm just a little bit stuck 'cause I can't remember this one little bit.  I do remember whereabouts it is on this video though, and I'll have it in front of me before you could even get here! Why don't you help Sam?  He's gunna be stuck here 'till christmas at the rate he's going!  Me and Jane here can just watch how to to it on the video."

I guess I should get back to my studies or else old Sammy might beat me after all, and I don't even want to know what the rest of the the team would say about that! I do wish I knew something though; what on Earth did Sir and all the other teachers do before Sam, Jane, and everyone else had these compooters to teach us mathematics? 

And I do wish that flippin Jane would stop lookin at me!

The End

I almost forgot to put an ending to the story, it turns out Charlie (his name for 5 whole minutes now) only got that one question wrong, with 22 correct answers after that. Looks like someone headed for a HD ;-)

Hi there, it's normal me, back again.  I have been trying to think of a way to get all the ideas that seem to prefer being on inside of my head, on the outside.  My approach was research-based, and I discovered some scholarly reference material that showed  a type of brainstorming involving free-form creative writing to be superior to other brainstorming methods in both individual and group settings (Furnham, Yazdanpanahi, 1995).  I am always looking for, and experimenting with different methods of expanding the literacy and numeracy potential of myself, with the aim of applying them in classroom situations.  

I make it my goal to improve the literacy and numeracy levels of each and every one of my students because That is the stated objective of the Australian Cross-Curriculum Policies on Literacy and Numeracy.  

I have some very interesting reflections on the outcome of this free-form creative writing, as I can honestly say that I have never been able to spontaneously write anything even remotely like that before.  I knew very vell the message I wanted to transmit, but couldn't think of a way to get it down 'on paper' without drawing up a step-by step pictogram of how the Khan Academy worked, which would obviously be tedious for myself and the reader.  I look forward to experimenting with this technique while I continue my learning journey through further research.

I noticed a small shortcoming in the design of blogs as I typed my free-form fictional brainstorm.  The problem lay in the way blogs evolve in real time, and automatically erase whatever existed before a change.  I'm interested in exploring the chronological records of a Wiki using this method because a Wiki is different to a blog in this regard.  In a Wiki, permanent records are kept of all changes made to the Wiki.  A Wiki is structured differently for the obvious reason that, owing to its nature, maintaining a Wiki who's changes were permanent and could not be undone would be completely untenable.

THis leads me into a completely different discussions on the pros and cons of blogs v Wikis v Websites, which I think I might carry on over at my Wiki.  I've just thought of some interesting new tricks I might try out if enough time remains.  Honestly, this assignment is neverending, I actually wish I had a word limit at the moment!

Here is a straight-forward description of the story above.

If I've misjudged my chosen genre please accept my apologies.  I have been trying out new techniques, which is always risky.  The story is one of parallel metaphor, where a few different stories are referred to indirectly.  

One is a story of a time travelling young boy who is learning about ICT, but through they eyes of an adult, not necessarily born in the 50, but before his classmates.

Another depicts the layout of the Khan Academy, the tool I selected from the fourth group.  

Thirdly, I tried to imagine, examine, analyse, pull-apart and re-construct.  Basically I just did the best job I could at getting into the head of a typical student who has been put into a mathematics class that has ICT integrated to the best of my current ability.  To imagine what a student in the position of our protagonist, let's call him Charlie, might be thinking if I'd done my job well.  

I hope I have  been able explain clearly enough now, that in the story, I was playing the part of the teacher.  (please excuse me for the fact I didn't encourage Charlie to do more than a couple math problems for the duration of the story, it was a necessary foible of my character's)  In this fictional classroom I had created I was able to closely examine the interrelationships of different Pedagogies,  and learning theories.  I focused first on the online tool I was to examine for this project, The Khan Academy.  I made sure I linked, embedded and referenced well, using a number of different Technical tools Such as linking a picture from my Picasa album to my wiki, then linking to the link that's now Wiki from my blog.   I wanted to see what would happen if I linked my Blog to a ghost-link on my Wiki.  And now I know.

"Individual brainstorming" is the use of brainstorming in solitary. It typically includes such techniques as free writing, free speaking, word association, and drawing amind map, which is a visual note taking technique in which people diagram their thoughts. Individual brainstorming is a useful method in creative writing and has been shown to be superior to traditional group brainstorming.^[12]

Research has shown individual brainstorming to be more effective in idea-generation than group brainstorming.^[2]

Furnham, A., & Yazdanpanahi, T. (1995). Personality differences and group versus individual brainstorming. Personality and Individual Differences, 19, 73-80.


"Productivity Loss in Idea-Generating Groups: Tracking Down the Blocking Effect". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 61 (3): 392–403. 1991.

A Reflection on Wiki's and Websites

Hello again,

Just a quick post to reflect on Wiki's and websites.  Here is a link to my Weebly website, I spent a few minutes trying to do something interesting on this site but became frustrated by the limited nature of what is allowed with a free account and decided to give Google's offering another try.  This would prove to be my second unsuccessful attempt at making something useful from Google's free web hosting service, as I tried briefly about 18 months ago.  I gave up pretty quickly on both occasions because I found the service to be very un-user friendly, and obviously not designed to do what I wanted it to do.

After experimenting with both blogs and then Wiki's, I have decided that these two tools will be the focus of my attention for now.  This blog will record my educational journey in the form of multi-media postings and reflection, whereas my wiki, can be accessed by using this link.  The Wiki space has grown rapidly lately, why not check out what's new?  The pic below is a sample of what can be done with a $150 camera and MICE.  Here

I added this page today, which has some work I completed earlier using Photosynth.  It might be worth your while to have a look if you've not seen what Photosynth can do.  It almost makes me wish my specialisations were more arty so I could use some of these tools more extensively with my students..

How Algorithms are Changing the World

Hi guys,

Just a quick post to try out embedding a video by pasting it into the HTML editor instead of simply using the 'insert a video' button. I questioned its usefulness until I realised I could only use the button for youtube videos, otherwise I'd need to download it using one of my groovy Chrome extensions to download and then upload it myself.  This way is indeed much better.

The video below is a TED talk (yay, now I can embed TED) by Kevin Slavin on how Algorithms are altering the way people, computers, business and pretty much everything else interact together.  I figure that Algorithms are just the complex application of logic on abstract elements in order to obtain or prove otherwise inaccessible information, which is pretty close to a definition of mathematics; my speciality.  So I've given myself a little leeway and popped this up for all to see, if you're at all nerdily inclined like myself, you'll get a real kick out of it.

A Bubbl.us Beginning

G'day fellow bloggers,

I'd like to use this post to share another application that I've been learning about over the past few weeks that goes by the name Bubbl.us.  It's a free and easy to use scaffolding tool for brainstorming and concept mapping designed to give the user an online space in which one can conceive, record, organise and integrate ideas about whatever takes one's fancy.  The following is a reflection on my journey as I take on the task of creating a visual representation of my interpretation of the literacy and numeracy demands of a secondary school student.  I will attempt to show some of the steps involved in building a concept map for the teaching of literacy and numeracy, according to the General Capabilities in the Australian Curriculum (2012). The images are used to detail the evolution of my design, beginning with my exploration of a number of graphical representation tools, and culminating in completion of the task using Bubbl.us. 

To Complete this task I embarked on a rigorous examination of the relevant resource material, first gaining new knowledge about the basic elements that make up the curriculum, then progressing to higher-order learning as I begin to understand the different elements and how they relate to one-another.  Several of my strategies will be made evident by viewing the following screenshots in sequence. 

The above image was my trial of Text2MindMap, which seemed quite intuitive initially, but was ultimately pipped at the post by Bubbl.us.  Among other things, the main reasons I preferred Bubbl.us were, easy of use, flexibility of bubble colour and placement, and the ability to easily manipulate connections between them.  Overall, I simply had an easier time imagining my students working with Bubbl.us to brainstorm and scaffold, compared to Mind2TextMap.  The image below shows what my concept map looked like part way through its creation.

It is possible to see in the above image how Bubbl.us enables one to get one's thoughts out of one's mind and out into the real world with haste and ease.  I was not cognisant of this during its creation, but the scaffolding tool was beginning to alter the way in which I have previously progressed through the task of outlining and explaining similar concepts.  Reflecting back now, I can see that the ability to pour my brain out onto the monitor, so to speak, stopped me from worrying about the specifics of the project, while I built up a framework from which to hang progressively more detailed information.  I found that I was able to jot down ideas as I thought of them and leave the question as to how I would meaningfully connect them together later.  

Now I can see that this means the scaffolding tool allowed me to start at the bottom of Bloom's taxonomy, absorbing and retaining basic facts first, then progress upwards as I began to understand their meaning and picture how they might interrelate.  By reflecting on my thoughts and actions as I undertook this task, I am able to somewhat get 'inside the head' of the student and understand their thought process.  I can then use pedagogical theories to meditate on how I, as a teacher, might best be able to design and apply similar projects for use in class.  

The image above shows how I continued to progress through the activity, gradually adding structure and thinking extensively on how to best portray interaction between the elements.  This method of construction enables one to focus on one piece of the puzzle at a time and worry about how it all fits together later.  Brilliant.

One feature of Bubbl.us that isn't so fantastic, is that the image is exported as a zip file instead of a jpg once the image reaches a certain size.  Unzipping reveals the image to be cut in half, requiring it be put back together by image manipulation software.

Only a small leap of imagination is required to conceive of some scenarios in which Bubbl.us would be beneficial to students in a classroom situation.  I've listed some examples below.

• Have students start by listing all the rules for the area of geometrical shapes using Bubbl.us as  scaffolding
• Students could work in small groups, taking turns at inputting the formula to ensure each student understands how the tool is used
• After an initial brainstorming, the class might participate in an activity using a smart whiteboard to build a 'whole class' version, checking to see if their group has listed all the rules and ensure they are correct
• Still working in groups, students are instructed to compare at the formulæ, analyse and link them together by similarities
• Next, students are required to expand their map to include 3 dimensional objects.  I, as their teacher continue to ensure that they're participating in true cooperative learning by taking turns, equal participation, etc.
• The necessary details are added to the whiteboard in a manner that promotes classroom participation, perhaps by offering a reward to students who are able to contribute accurate information
• Group work is finalised through the digital sharing of the list of rules made together among individual members of the group
• The student-created lists are then printed out and handed to their creator, who now has a self-made, permanent reference guide to the introduction of Euclidean geometry, resplendent with their own name at the top!
• Time allowing, students could then be shown a list of real and abstract objects on the whiteboard and asked to select the correct rules from the list in order to calculate area, volume, angles or to whatever the unit pertains.

Having never used a tool such as Bubbl.us, I was unsure about what its function actually was and how I might be able to introduce it into a classroom situation.  I wonder no more!  I believe that this would be a powerful tool and effective pedagogy due to the fact that learners have a significantly higher rate of retention when they are involved in the 'doing' of an activity, compared to simply reading, listening or viewing alone.

Some Personal Background, Reflection on Ethical Considerations and Image Manipulation

Hi again,

It’s been a little over a week since my last post, as I’ve been off my feet studying for the Quizzes and assignment work for other courses.  Today I thought I’d pop up some photos taken during the time I lived in Osaka, Japan where I taught English at a place called Greyhound English school.  

There are a few different reasons I’d like to share these with you, the main one being I like to look back and remember how much I enjoyed teaching while I was there.  My initial reason for teaching was simply that the income would give me the opportunity to explore Japan, while immersing myself in their culture as much as possible.  After getting over the initial anxiety of being thrust in front of a classroom filled with 30 kids, I found the job unexpectedly fulfilling and enjoyed the experience much more than I thought I would.  I didn’t anticipate the open curiosity and eagerness many students showed towards learning English, and I found the challenge to stimulate said qualities in as many students as I possibly could to be simultaneously one of the most challenging and rewarding things I’d ever done.


While I'm not brash enough to entertain the presumption that my experience teaching in Japan be mirrored here in Australia, the days I’ve undertaken so far as a student teacher have served to relieve much of the trepidation I was experiencing.  Australian students are certainly a different kettle of fish when juxtaposed with their Nihonjin brethren, but the acute keenness to excel is still unmistakable in many students, and something I hope to foster to the utmost of my ability.

Another reason behind my decision to display these pics is to demonstrate that I recognise the ethical implications of posting pictures of children to a publicly viewable online space.  I contacted the school of my former employment in an endeavour to obtain parental consent re the photos in question, but was unfortunately unable to do so. In order to comply with the applicable ethical guidelines, I have blurred their faces using the free GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP).  I have had some prior experience using this software and have found it to be a choice Photoshop alternative for the frugal (Pait.net is also excellent).

The Power of Self-Organising Learning Processes

Hi all,


I have been brushing up on some earlier readings in preparation for the Quizzes which are due to be completed tomorrow, and I stumbled across some interesting information by Luis Mateus Rocha talking about the  phenomenon of  self-organising learning processes emerging from random initial conditions (1998).


This set some mental bells ringing, as it sounded like one of my favorite TED talks ever.  I've popped the video in down below if you'd like to watch it yourself, I highly recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in the latest educational theories.  In his TED presentation, Sugata Mitra outlines an experiment he and his colleagues have undertaken in a poor region of India, where good teachers are loath to venture.  The exercise involved putting an internet-connected computer in a "hole in the wall" of a public space and giving children access to the mountain of resources that are available online... with astounding results.

The experiments have shown that, even without supervision or a teaching professional, learners are able to teach themselves and each other, drawing their motivation from competition with their peers and curiosity alone.  A similar approach could be successfully implemented in my Math class by assigning tasks such as; "who was Fibonacci, for which mathematical concept is he famous, and what are some examples of its use by man and occurrence in the natural world?"  Students could be given the opportunity to develop higher-order thinking and demonstrate their declarative and procedural knowledge through activities such as:

• Racing their peers to tabulate up to a certain level in the series.
• Formulating ideas as a group as to why the golden ratio might appear with such frequency in nature, followed by research to discover the veracity of their hypothesis.
• Additional group work could involve students working together to apply their newly acquired knowledge by having them analyse potential uses for the series and design, implement and evaluate practical, real-world situations in which it may be applied. 
• The Fibonacci activities can provide a convenient segue into fractals, where further activities can be undertaken.

It is evident upon reflection, that an exercise structured in this way walks students through almost every thinking-skill set in Bloom's taxonomy, starting from the basic level of discovering and remembering what the Fibonacci series is, how it works, where it can be found in nature and its usefulness, and progressing on through understanding, applying, analysing, designing and evaluating its potential implementation.  A similar  approach could be adapted to subject areas as diverse as Pascal's triangle, Pythagoras' theorem, the Mandelbrot set.  The list extends ad-infinitum, a useful tool indeed.

A day in the Khan academy

Howdy fellow bloggers,

It's my opinion that this website is the single most useful and versatile tool for teaching mathematical and scientific concepts out there in the jungle that is Web 2.0. I was so keen to show everyone that I've skipped ahead a few weeks and popped a link in here.  The video below is a sample of what I'm talking about.  I get gee'd up every single time time I watch it and can't wait to try out some awesome pedagogy techniques in real life!

Here is a link to my wikispace page on the Khan Academy where you will find some more detailed info on some of the ICT methods I employ to create this blog page.

The image below depicts the pyramidal structure of the amazingly effective scaffolding method employed by the Khan Academy.  The student is guided efficiently through their learning, whizzing through the parts they've mastered, affording extra time to work on elements with which they are struggling.

I just wanted to update my blog with what I've been doing all day.  There's some impressive peer-reviewed literature to back up the Academy's impressive pedagogical claims which I intend to include at a later stage on my blog.  The images above was how much I managed to get finished today.

TPAC for Dummies

The Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge framework is an updated version of the traditional Pedagogical Content Knowledge that throws technological knowledge into the mix.

The diagram above is a good example of what TPAC refers to.  We can see that there are 3 separate knowledge areas; technological, pedagogical and content, with their overlapping sections forming TPAC at the center.

In short, TPAC simply states that in order to have the best student learning outcomes, teachers must have the following 3 attributes:

• We must have technical (ICT) skills.
• We must have content knowledge.
• We must know how to communicate that knowledge to our students effectively (pedagogy).

To briefly expand upon this, competent teachers will be masters of the technologies covered by this course, have rock solid content knowledge from our previous studies as an undergraduate, and a thorough, up-to-date understanding of the latest, evidence-based pedagogical practices gleaned from other courses in our GDLT program (Mishra, Koehler, 2006).

Reflection on deBono's 6 Thinking Hats

I actually enjoyed participating in the 6 hat wiki quite a lot.  When I first thought about the implications of allowing students the use of their mobile phones in class, my initial mental image was big flashing red neon sign that read:

DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!

Next, my imagination was flooded with the thought of a class of 25 teenagers, their heads buried in who-knows-what on their phones, as a well intentioned teacher madly rushes about in the vain attempt to maintain a semblance of order while engaging in the futile task of keeping students on-task.  The more I pondered the practicality of students' in-class use of mobile phones, the more I became convinced such an undertaking would be nigh-on impossible.  How does one prevent unauthorised texting? Emailing? Surfing? Blogging? Gaming and goodness knows what else, on a student's private, unfiltered web device?  

The potential problems seemed insurmountable, which was convenient as black was the first of deBono's hats I was to wear.  My fellow colleagues had done a great job of articulating many of my initial concerns, along with a number I'd not considered.  I managed to add a few more to the list after doing some research on Google Scholar and discovering there was solid peer-reviewed evidence that points to a consistent correlation (importantly not causation)  between high levels of mobile phone usage among young people and some mental health issues. 

The processes hat followed, which stimulated my thinking in the direction of how my aforementioned concerns might best be overcome.  What surprised me after reading my colleague's contributions, was that I could now see each issue we covered in the black-hat section had a plausible solution.  My own offering put forward the proposition that a school's IT department might be tasked with ensuring internet access be made possible only through the school's own properly filtered and monitored secure WiFi network.  Bullying could be curtailed by ensuring all communication between students be collated and stored in a way that complies with the appropriate privacy mandates, and students informed of a strict zero-tolerance policy to bullying.

Being able to learn and understand the various perspectives of my classmates in the hats that followed stimulated me to conduct additional research into some benefits of integrating ICT.

DeBono's scaffolded wiki activity struck me as based mostly on constructivism, as we were working cooperatively and gaining new knowledge through interactions with fellow peers. Vygotsky (1962) proposed that learning is heavily influenced by social interaction.  It can clearly be seen that the wiki facilitated higher order thinking, as we worked through the hats, we were able to conduct a mental SWOT analysis and evaluate which side of the mobile phone debate held the strongest position.  I was quite surprised at the outcome of my evaluation stage, as I had entered the exercise skeptical about the use of mobiles in class, but after due consideration, changed my view to that of cautious optimism.  The bullet points below point out some of the strategies used in the scaffolding to support complex thinking.

1. Support contributions by ALL students in the group
2. Make thinking "visible" so that teachers can see inside the reasoning of EVERY student in the group
3. Create a permanent, text-based record of discussions and conversations for future analysis and reading

(CQU 20491 week 1 resource materials)

A cooperative learning environment was created by deBono's scaffolded wiki when we were able to bounce ideas off each other while working with our working memory before finally internalising our new knowledge in long-term memory.  This shows that there was an element of cognitiveism in the exercise too.  I was also able to show learning through connective methods of learning theory by tasking myself to undertake independent research in peer-reviewed professional journals through the use of Google Scholar.  This is an example of connecivism because, according to Siemens (2005), knowledge exists outside the realm of the individual in networked environments exactly like that available online, accessible through Google and many other means.  Connective learning is achieved as I practice and refine my search skills and continue to develop successful techniques to locate and evaluate the relevance and credibility of different sources.

Lastly, I noted the 6 hats wiki activity was an example of a well structured learning environment, where learners were given the opportunity to see other peoples perspective, giving us the chance to discuss, debate and challenge each other, thereby providing an oportunity for peer tutoring.  These are all examples of higher-order thinking, which as we know, is always the goal when teaching.  According to Hattie (2009), the following are core principles of co-operative learning, as opposed to 'group work.'

• Positive Interdependence:  This means that members of the group need to work together to finish the task, as it's not possible to do individually; the group sinks or swims together.

• Individual Accountability:  Everyone must contribute, and the project should be publicly displayed with each contribution's author acknowledged; there's no place to hide.

• Monitor the Group:  Which students are working? which are playing?  What kind of co-operative learning is taking place, such as listening, compromising and negotiating?  Which are lacking?

• Equal Participation:  The co-operative learning activity mustn't be dominated by one or a few people, while others remain silent.  Teachers must ensure even levels of participation through strategies such as timing conversations where one student discusses a topic for a certain period before swapping to a different student.

The 6 hats wiki ticked all the co-operative learning boxes listed above, and can therefore be considered to be a quality learning exercise that truly stimulated higher order thinking.  As such, it is something that I look forward to using in a classroom of my own.

Lastly, I just thought I'd pop this video in.  It's a quick little video clip that has some innovative pedagogical strategies involving cooperative learning.  I particularly enjoyed the part about borrowing other teachers' methods and adapting them to suit one's own style.  'Standing on the shoulders of giants' at its best!

Engagement Activity 3: Reflection on Prensky's ideas

Prensky's Engage Me or Enrage Me initially struck me as overly pandering to underachieving students and laying the blame at the feet of established pedagogy.  Honestly, when I read it in week one I thought it to be a bit of a cop-out, after all, didn't we all tread the traditional education path?  Weren't we bored in class,  distracted by technology, and at times resentful of the time school stole from us so unapologetically?  Perhaps you were lucky enough to be what Prensky calls "truly self-motivated."  I, fortuitously or otherwise, most certainly was not.

Computers have always been a part of my life I reasoned, I wasted as many hours playing video games through my schooling as many kids today.  I had a mobile phone by the time I left high school, so what's so different about kids today?  After all, kids have resented authority for as long as there has been kids and authority, "spare the rod spoil the child" anyone?

So I've put off answering this question because I disagreed with the answer, until that was, I had the opportunity to think a bit more deeply and discovered some experiences common among youth of today that lay in stark contrast to the X's of my gen.  The elephant in the room turns out to be the technology that facilitates this very medium.  'Blog' was not a word when I was in secondary school, well, at least I don't remember it, and that's because the internet was still being toilet trained during my graduation... Wow, that's when it hit me.  Sure, I had many of the digital gadgets around today (albeit in 16bit), what my generation lacked however, was a way that they could all be linked together, in one place, accessible from anywhere, anytime, and by anybody.  What a huge thing for me to miss.  Suddenly I realised why I stopped playing modern warfare online, it was full of 12 year olds... it was full of 12 year olds!


Ok, so now I'm starting to get it.  Kids today live in an online, social, massively multi-player, multimedia world that never sleeps, never goes home, never goes on holiday.  It's just there. Always.  But here's the kicker; nothing a child does in these environments demands attention, there's no big, boring adult looking over the young-un's shoulder, "do this, don't do that."  Everything our students engage with online is voluntary.  This, in my opinion, is where ITC can shine in the classroom.  It's our job, our duty, to engage kids in ways that stimulate their interest in the same manner as the activities in which they so tenaciously participate online.  The video below is an example of something I, as a future math teacher, hope to emulate with my learners.