Week 11 - Quality Principles for digital resources

I found this article “Quality principles for digital learning resources” from Becta timely now that we are in the final lap of creating a digital learning object ourselves. The article outlines the key quality principles relating to the design and use of digital learning resources to support effective learning and teaching.

The principles serve as guide that we could use when designing digital resources or choosing one. The principles are divided into two groups which are interrelated:
1) Core pedagogic principles, which underpin effective learning and teaching, drawing from learning theory and commonly accepted best practices.
2) Core design principles, covering issues such as resource design, accessibility and interoperability.

Core pedagogic principles :
Inclusion and access, learner engagement, effective learning, assessment to support learning, robust summative assessment, innovative approaches, ease of use and match to curriculum.

Core design principles :
Digital learning resource design, robustness and support, human computer interaction, quality asset, accessibility, interoperability, testing and verification and effective communication.

The principles that we use will depend on the educational purpose of the resources that we are developing. The article explains each of the above principles and provides suggestions on how we could go about achieving them. For further reading, click on the link below.

http://learningandskills.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=32112&page=1886&catID=1868

Week 10 - Online quizzes

Providing feedback on learning is a valuable tool in a learning process. With large classroom size that I face back home in my school, I find using online quizzes just the right tool to monitor a student’s understanding of a topic. In ordinary paper and pencil quizzes, students need to wait for a paper quiz to be marked and returned. With online quizzes, students are able to obtain immediate feedback on their understanding.
What is good is the time saving features associated with online quizzes:
-saves teachers a lot of time by reducing the hours required for printing, administering and marking.
-allow teachers to edit / update quiz questions easily.
-log on students’ answers helps a teacher analyze student performance easily.
-Availability of quiz for students at any time.
With the above time saving features, teachers are freed to invest their time in setting appropriate question types with increasing cognitive requirements (content and knowledge, application, analysis, synthesis).

References:
Peat, Mary (2000): Online assessment: The use of web based self assessment materials to support self directed learning.
Carbone, Angela (1996): Developing and Integrating A Web-based Quiz into the Curriculum

Week 9 - Assignment 2 - Learning Object

Audience: Year 6 students

Objective: From this learning object, students will be able to learn how plants make food. They will learn that water, light energy and carbon dioxide are needed for photosynthesis and sugar and oxygen are the products of photosynthesis.
The graphic on the first slide provides a pictorial representation of the process of photosynthesis. It shows:
-the condition necessary for photosynthesis – sunlight, water, chlorophyll and carbon dioxide
-the products of photosynthesis – sugar and oxygen.
Each word on the graphic is linked to a slide which explains its part in the process of photosynthesis.

To assess their own learning, a quiz in the form of a crossword puzzle is created.

For the final project, a podcast will be created, to provide students with an overview on the process of photosynthesis.

Click here to access the slides.

Week 8 - Audio editing tool

When I was reading about podcasting tips from the podomatic website, I found the recording tool from Audacity very useful. You can record and edit your voice with extreme ease. Once recorded, you can export your files in MP3 format. However, to export it in a MP3 format you would need to download an encoder.
Try it out.Free tool.
Site to download the audacity file : http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Site to download encoder to convert to MP3 files: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3

Week 7 - Cognitive Flexibility Theory

Cognitive Flexibility Theory

Well structured information can be taught in a traditional linear fashion. When a subject is ill-structured and complex, Cognitive Flexibility Theory is most effective.

According to cognitive flexibility theory, when information is straight forward and simple, there is no problem presenting it in a linear fashion such as in a video which runs from beginning to end. However, when complexity of information increases, using linear instruction such as tutorials and lectures to present information results in failure to accomplish important educational objectives. This is because using linear models results in oversimplification of the way the material is presented. As such the students will not be able to transfer knowledge across to new and varied situations (Spiro, et al., 1992). It is important to help students transfer what they have learned to different situations. This ability is often referred to as "cognitive flexibility." The way students are taught would determine how they create, store and structure knowledge and how flexible they will be when they must use that knowledge. To encourage cognitive flexibility requires a flexible teaching environment. Information must be presented in a variety of ways, as well as for a variety of different purposes. By doing so, students will be able to readily transfer what they have learned to different situations. The computer and the format of hypertext are well-suited to flexible instruction. It allows for multiple presentations of information. Content is covered a number of times with different purposes. The use of hypertext enables students to explore the content from different perspectives.

The link below illustrates how cognitive flexibility theory is used in teacher education.
http://www.kdassem.dk/didaktik/l4-16.htm

Week 6 - The power of pocasting

Podcasts are just digital audio files (MP3s) made available over a website; users can listen to them on their PCs, or download them to an MP3 player such as an iPod. Some models of iPods have video screens which would allow students to see the lecture as well hear it.
Its great attractions are its flexibility and its inclusivity: it can meet the needs of a diverse range of students, including those with dyslexia, or visual or hearing impairments. It has proved particularly useful for those students who for good reasons can't attend every lecture. It has begun the trend that eventually gives people access to learning wherever they are in the world, and whatever their personal circumstances.
Podcasting have the potential to make education a more learner-centric experience. It changes the way students learn. Allows them to ruminate, and listen again to lectures and tutorials thereby encouraging critical and analytical thinking.
So far I have heard of the use of podcasts in higher learning institutions. How has this technology taken on with younger students? Has any one made use of podcasting in schools?

Reference: Kim, Thomas (2006).The power of the podcast. Retrieved from http://www.futurelab.org.uk/viewpoint/art70.htm on 19 April 2007.

Week 5 - Social Software - Google Docs and Spreadsheets

I found Google's docs and spreadsheets features simply great. This is an example of a social software that enables us to create documents online not just alone but together with whom we choose to work the document with. I found it very user friendly. The features of Google docs and Spreadsheets include the following :

With Google Docs & Spreadsheets, you can:

* Use the online editor to format documents, spell-check and more.
* Upload Word documents, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML or text.
* Download documents to your desktop as Word, PDF and more.
* View your documents' revision history and roll back to any version.

Plus, since it's online, you can:

* Invite others to share your documents by e-mail address.
* Edit documents online with whomever you choose.
* Publish documents online to the world, or to just who you choose.
* Post your documents to your blog.


I find this tool excellent for teaching and learning especially for peer editing in composition writing. By clicking on the revision's tab, I was able to find out who edited the document.

Has anyone made use of this site for classroom teaching? Please do share your experiences.

You can visit this site at : http:docs.google.com