Assessment 1 - Reviewing Affordance Analysis Tool and Online Spaces

For my first embedded task for Assessment 1 I have reviewed my affordance analysis tool and have made changes. These include adding inclusiveness as part of a supportive learning environment and changing some of the links between the pedagogical influences and the affordances. As curation is very much used in my learning/teaching context this has also been added.

For the second embedded task in Assessment 1 I have chosen to explore the functionality of blogs. Although I have already used my analysis tool to analyze the affordances of blogs this  will extend this task to explore the features in more depth as well as provide evidence of the functionality. This suits me very well as I didn't fully cover the blog's features in my analysis. Changes I have made to my analysis tool will allow more features to be added and align them more firmly to their pedagogical influences.

The summarized findings of my updated blog affordance analysis.

Part of this activity involves posting evidence of our exploration of the technology and demonstrate that we have required technical knowledge to use in classes. My affordance analysis tool (see above) I have inserted as an image. It was first  created in Word, modified in Publisher then saved as a JPEG image.

Using the add gadgets features I have been able to add an RSS feed to an area of interest in my field, the Nancy Pearl podcasts.  This feature could be used by students to receive information and updates via blog posts for learning activities or provide links to resources.

For collaboration and support there is a comment section for others to add comments.  I have added comments to other learners blogs see comment on Teresa's Post and have received feedback from Wendy on another learning blog (EDEL20001).

Blogs can be inclusive and translation tools can be embedded, see sidebar. Information can be shared via links through the posts or adding links to the sidebar. As an example I am sharing a link via a rescooped item from my Scoop.it page see Scoop.it item on Bloom's digital taxonomy.

Flexibility is enhanced by being able to schedule posts to be published at set day and times something that would be useful for teachers.

Information can be presented in video format via Youtube.  This video explains the blogs affordances

Ten Ways to Use Your Edublog - Student blogs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqQ03JWETd8

Trevilians Elementary 21st Century Learning project.

Uploaded by ymj1321 2010

Overall I find blogs a useful tool for e-learning. One drawback is that posts are displayed chronologically which means older posts may be harder to find.

References

http://1whitecardboardbox.blogspot.com.au/

http://edelreflections.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/analysing-affordances-tool.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqQ03JWETd8
http://www.scoop.it/t/technology-for-learning-and-teaching/p/4000696869/a-new-poster-on-bloom-s-digital-taxonomy

Assessment 1 - Digital Media and Presentation Tools

For task 3 I have chosen to explore the affordances of videos to support, enhance and transform learning.

Videos add variety to learning. It also gives teachers access to worldwide resources with many subject experts sharing their knowledge via Youtube videos.

byrachelboyd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whm3pxqkvB8

Schwartz & Hartman suggest videos enhance learning by allowing people the opportunity to see things they have not seen before; by attracting the learners' attention and engaging their interest; and by doing - people can learn or imitate behaviours or skills shown on the videos. Videos can also be created and produced by students, allowing for creativity, collaboration and development of new skills. As with blog reflections this help students clarify their understanding of subject content, allows for contextuality and creates the possiblility of extending their learning beyond the curriculum.

Practising the Reference Interview by sm26797 on GoAnimate

Animation Software - Powered by GoAnimate.

Affordances of Videos

Pedagogical Influence	Affordance	Level of Importance	Technology Features
Supportive, and safe learning environment	Legal, ethical and safety friendly Inclusive Enables feedback	High	Permissions can be set for security and privacy levels Comments can be added to the video or animation
Encourage collaboration & scaffolding	Collaborative Curative	High	Can share on different social media platforms Some create video sites such as Xtranormal allow for editing by others, can adapt then add on to create their own Videos on similar topics appear on the site eg (Youtube) with video and can be searched by tags
Learner Centred   Flexible Contextual Students determine depth of learning Encourage learning beyond curriculum Develop critical thinking skills Mixture of independent and interdependent learning	Synchronous & Asynchronous capabilities Can adapt to suit individual needs Interactivity Creativity Inquiry Reflection	High High Medium Medium High High	Videos can be watched at any time Can create videos or download videos on chosen subjects Engage attention Can participate in interactive video games Students can be as creative as they like if creating their own and will need to develop clear understanding of subject Links to other similar videos means students can extend their learning
Accessible	User friendly Cost Time efficient – use & support	High	Can be costly and time consuming to create own, but sharing other videos is relatively easy and usually free. Can have trouble playing if on low bandwidth

Throughout this course I have found that the videos presented have engaged my attention and helped me to understand the subject matter more clearly.  I have also in my research found other videos that have helped my understanding on the subject matter.  To try out new technology I experimented with both GoAnimate and Xtranormal. These are fun, free and a relatively easy way to create your own animated videos. As the creator you choose the content, setting, actors and what they say making it a highly creative exercise. One problem I have found with videos is that there can be technical problems in watching or downloading for those with low bandwidth.

References

Schwartz, Daniel L. & Hartman, Kevin. It is not television anymore: Designing digital video for learning and assessment. School of Education, Standford University. To Appear in Video Research in the Learning Sciences; R.Goldman, S.Derry, R.Pea, & B.Barron (Eds). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Presentation Tools - PowerPoint

For task 4 I have chosen to explore PowerPoint as a technological learning tool. I have included my affordance analysis on the slide presentation.  The presentations can be shared online by uploading to sites such as Slideshare or Authorstream. I have chosen to upload to Authorstream.

MS PowerPoint as a presentat...

More PowerPoint presentations from StephM

The creativity that PowerPoint allows seems endless. They can be as simple or as creative as the user would like and have the power to attract the learner's attention, can be interactive (quizzes) and are a great collaboration tool as students can get involved as a group to create a project presentation.

Overall I have found exploring technologies for learning fun and  interesting. It has also created a desire to explore all those that were nominated, not just those that were listed here. There is also a wealth of techological tools out there still to explore that have the potential to enhance e-learning.

Technology and Its Potential Usefulness

For this engagement activity we were to draw up a table, choosing technologies relevant to our context to show their usefulness as a learning tool and capability of transforming learning.