Getting Started / Inspiration 8 IE
To be honest, technology scares and we are not always friends but it was something that Greg said during the lecture that made that thought pointless. As teachers we do not need to know everything about computers and technology, if you learn with your students and learn from your students, the amount of knowledge you will acquire will continuously grow. After our first teaching rounds I was astonished by the extent of knowledge some students had about computers, I learnt simple short cutting techniques when using the internet from them that I have in fact continues to use since finishing my practicum with them.
In our first workshop for EDU4PLT, Learning Technologies we set up our blogs for our major assignment in which we reflect of learning and technologies from the unit. I chose to use a blog for my reflection rather than a wiki for this unit as we are already utilising a wiki for our major assignment for EDU4PIN. I wish to gain practice and experience in using both concepts of technology to expand my knowledge of ICT techniques and strategies. As a teacher I feel it is important to provide students with opportunity to explore different technologies because, technology is altering (rewiring) our brains and the tools we use through technology define and shape our thinking.
We then explored to software program Inspiration 8 IE which I found very user friendly, useful and interesting. While we experimented with creating mind maps and diagrams I continued to think of ways in which I would use the program in a primary classroom. This first activity that
came to mind was creating a family tree, an activity I remember doing when I was in primary school. The difference being that I created mine on paper whereas this software enables you to create a more sophisticated family tree including pictures and diagrams the students find important and want to include. My simple mind map “Me, Myself & I” demonstrates how simple creating a mind map is, I choose elements of my life that are important to me and was able to add pictures to represent them to give anyone a good vision of what I enjoy and what is important to me, something that would appeal to students. A good example would be to use the program as an introductory exercise to get to know your students at the beginning of the year. It is for this reason a program like this has great potential to be valuable when I begin teaching.
In our first workshop for EDU4PLT, Learning Technologies we set up our blogs for our major assignment in which we reflect of learning and technologies from the unit. I chose to use a blog for my reflection rather than a wiki for this unit as we are already utilising a wiki for our major assignment for EDU4PIN. I wish to gain practice and experience in using both concepts of technology to expand my knowledge of ICT techniques and strategies. As a teacher I feel it is important to provide students with opportunity to explore different technologies because, technology is altering (rewiring) our brains and the tools we use through technology define and shape our thinking. We then explored to software program Inspiration 8 IE which I found very user friendly, useful and interesting. While we experimented with creating mind maps and diagrams I continued to think of ways in which I would use the program in a primary classroom. This first activity that
came to mind was creating a family tree, an activity I remember doing when I was in primary school. The difference being that I created mine on paper whereas this software enables you to create a more sophisticated family tree including pictures and diagrams the students find important and want to include. My simple mind map “Me, Myself & I” demonstrates how simple creating a mind map is, I choose elements of my life that are important to me and was able to add pictures to represent them to give anyone a good vision of what I enjoy and what is important to me, something that would appeal to students. A good example would be to use the program as an introductory exercise to get to know your students at the beginning of the year. It is for this reason a program like this has great potential to be valuable when I begin teaching.
