Creating a Blog

A blog (an appocopation of web and log) really is a sort of electronic diary that you can create and access once you have an internet connection. Blogging allows for the expression of one's ideas in a most relaxed and flexible manner. Therefore, you choose what you want to blog about and the format in which it will be done. Blogging also leaves room for reflection. You yourself can go over and read your blog. If there is something that you are reminded about or if there is something that can be changed or improved the ability to edit has great advantage. So blog away. I love it!

It brings us to this question therefore: How can I create my own blog? What you can do is go over to my video bar on the right hand corner of my blog page and click on one of the links to a Youtube video; it explains how to create a blog using Blogger. NB: Wait until the video bar displays the picture as above.

Educational Technologies

Can you at this very moment explain the term technology? Can you actually give ten examples of technologies used in education (for teaching and learning purposes)? The figure above illustrates four definitions for educational technology. The most common conceptualisation that is obtained is that of technology as whatever tangible media/means that is used to communicate a concept and as computers and other related electronic resources and devices that are used.

Educational technologies, nonetheless, are embedded in all aspects of teaching and learning. From the learning theories that guide the way educators stage the physical learning environment and contexts, to the varieties of learning resources and materials that facilitate the more efficient and effective presentation of information, technology is flaunting its appropriateness in the classroom.

A good example is the use of gaming as an instructional technique; the matching strategy activities follow through playing the game to achieve set objectives of a lesson. Think about how interested, fascinated and motivated pupils become, when they view having to learn a concept as fun as playing 'hide and seek' in the playground.Teaching strategies, methods and techniques can be designed in such a way that technology is included as an integral part of lesson delivery, almost seamlessly and effortlessly.

Objectives, as well, can be created with a dash of technology as a condition (as in the A,B,C,D of objectives) relative to the outcome. Using a calculator, pupils should be able to add correctly at least six of eight (or with 75 percent accuracy) five-digit numbers with other five-digit numbers which involves regrouping. Can you identify the technology being used in the objective just stated and the advantages that it will transmit?

Presented were only two examples of technology being interwoven into the teaching and learning situation. Let us get a bit more practical. Click on this LINK to view a PowerPoint presentation in which you can identify a plethora of educational technologies. While you are there, you can view other PowerPoint Presentations which I have helped to create and deliver while studying Teacher Education at TAMCC 2oo8-2010.

Cognitive Overload!

It is kind of difficult to chew up all the bits that I am being fed in my ICT class!

Technology in a Lesson Introduction

It is absolutely imperative that educators incorporate technology in teaching and learning situations. For the most part, interactive learning environments can be created as a result of including technology in education. What should be involved in the creation of these technologies is complex, daunting and seemingly taxing when one lacks the basic procedural knowledge of their design.

Despite all these facts, I had to design an introduction to a lesson of my choice using a two-slide PowerPoint presentation. This design was defined and restricted in terms of learning styles but allowed for the choice of any two learning styles. As a result, the introduction of the lesson on the topic ‘homes’ presented to a grade one class through the use of a two slide PowerPoint presentation catered for both the auditory and visual learning styles.

Learners who acquire information best by seeing can read the words of a riddle as well as look at an animated video clip. Moving words, vibrant colours, animated characters and beautiful background pictures (which include pictures of different homes) fascinate the visual sense and help pupils to form a precise mental image of the information being observed. Further, oral, audible conversations and sound effects contained in the video assist the auditory learners to remember information presented on homes. This is a simple case of technology in use in the classrooom; it promotes differentiation. When educators use a combination of learning styles to deliver information (with the assistance of technology), there can be an increase in the amount of learning that takes place by every student.

Creating the lesson's introduction on PowerPoint was time consuming and involved a very pensive process; after all, how could the attention of five and six year olds be captivated through a Powerpoint presentation? I was forced to refer to various schools of thought of how children learn best and the best practices that would complemment their notions. In fact, I believe it is an excellent choice to utilize the documented opinions of the Educational Psychologists for the plain reason that many education practitioners bear testimony to the actuality that they work! Time, critical thinking and planning are only essential to the efficient execution of any component of a lesson. When all this is merged with technology, it keeps you thinking!

It also required the knowledge and application of basic PowerPoint skills, such as, inserting a video on a slide and animating characters of the slides. How much of that have I acquired?...

Go here: PowerPoint Presentation - Lesson Introduction to view my Lesson Introduction assisted by PowerPoint.

First bit of success

Hey, I've created a blog! umhum