Welcome to my week 5 blog.

Well, where to start? There was so much content to cover this week. The suggestion of a mind map really did help sort it out a bit in my head. I know there were a few technologies I didn’t include in the map, but I’d like to see ANYONE include EVERYTHING! 

I discussed a couple in particular with a teacher friend of mine to get their views. These were the use of PowerPoint as a “virtual museum” and the mouse mischief software (I made a quick & boring powerpoint presentation here, it's about types of numbers and if you know about types of numbers, skip to the end, there are a couple comics)

Personally, I thought the use of links in powerpoint to take you to different slides was nifty. I can see various applications for this. There is of course the virtual museum situation. This can be an interesting way of displaying content for students to explore on their own time.

After showing this to a history teacher, they discussed showing a map of say Edo (Shogunate Japan) with various links to say workshops, farms, palaces and so on with information on each. For math/science, one option is say in chemistry/geology with a landscape scene with select-able components linking to what they are made of/how they formed. Biology having different selections leading to information on different body parts or systems. And using this as a map for the class lesson, the teacher can ask the students which to click on, keeping them more involved/engaged.

The other I discussed was the use of the mouse mischief software. I showed the demonstration video linked in the coursework. They immediately noticed the hardware requirements (many mice) and said for that reason they wouldn’t use it. However the ability to ask questions and collect data on each student and the entire class simultaneously and immediately (so as to review concepts not fully understood) was very attractive. A class set of mice to set this up is certainly worth pushing for, even with the probability one or two students will break them, consistently.

But even without using PowerPoint in such a fancy way, simply having chapter links in a normal “boring presentation” to skip to where the class got up to last time, is a function worth exploring. Having an entire topic on the one slideshow is unwieldy. If you have links to each section of the content, you (or the student reviewing after hours) can skip straight to where the relevant section.

Now going one step further (specifically for maths), starting with a “boring presentation”, that discussed say Algebra. Algebra (to me) is the language of maths. Any other facet of maths can be included. So if an example in the PowerPoint  uses indicies, the example may have a link to another page in the PowerPoint that has information on indicies, the indicies section might link to a page on multiplication, and multiplication to addition. And there could be another link on the original slide to a page on transposition.

I find that when a student is struggling with algebra, there is one or two key aspect/s they are failing to understand. I was pondering last week on ways to work out each student’s knowledge gap and how to overcome it. This type of PowerPoint presentation could help those students for recognise and overcome it themselves.

Of course this doesn’t really work for higher order modelling and problem solving type skills, but could be really handy for basic knowledge and procedural knowledge.

As for the group 4 technologies discussed in the course content, some I know about, some I use regularly, others I’ve started using through this course others I am unfamiliar with.

Use regularly	Used in this course for the first time	Unfamiliar with
Google Maps	Interactive learning objects	Adobe flash
Docx (well sometimes, not regularly)	Concept Mapping	Timelines
Google Earth	Bubblus
	Prezi

After watching the Prezi how-to video (linked in the coursework), I get the idea it’s a great way to lay down information. It reminds me a lot of CAD software in that is has the zoom function and you can make things as big or as small as you like. I presume the code for it is heavily based of CAD software of yesteryear.

It’s kind of like a continuous version of PowerPoint. You can move on to the next idea without that cut and dry feel of a PowerPoint. Also, it’s really easy to fit in more and more explanation of a particular concept, drilling down without feeling like there’s only so much you can fit on the frame.

The ability to reorder your lesson visually (instead of concepts a/b/c you investigate a/c/b) is appealing to me. But also, once the lesson/topic is taught, the ability to add in new info where it was lacking last time (instead of a/b/c, a1/a2/b/c).

All that said, the downside includes the time to set it up and get familiar with it. I figure this will be less of an issue once I start using it, but as yet it doesn't feel natural to me.

The teacher I spoke to said they don’t use Prezis in English/history, but know folks in maths that do. I’m keen to see for myself in the placement what folks do in the real world.

The interactive learning objects are the sorts of things I’ve been talking about in earlier blogs to have on the interactive whiteboard during lessons (something for students to stare at when they reach that point and I’m otherwise engaged). The Gizmo site http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm offers lots of neat things for explaining math/science concepts, as does mathsisfun.com, howstuffworks.com and others.

These interactive learning objects present information in the way I understand it already, but would find it difficult to explain. Such resources are specifically designed to explain their associated concept, saving me time re-inventing the wheel trying to find ways to explain them.

Well that’s a few techs discussed today.
The interesting thing is going to be aligning the tech with the learning outcomes. Choosing exactly how to design a topic/lesson using the best selection of these for both myself (my ability/style) matching the student’s needs (current knowledge and learning style). 
What’s best for me might be useless for the students, and what’s best for the students might be too hard for ME (maybe however hard I try to make prezis natural to me it just might not happen). The right combination for the best possible outcome is what I need to be able to find.