Sharing a very interesting article about ICT in education

Web links:

willrichardson.com

www.theatlantic.com

Update photos and details for our presentation

Our presentaion is about providing grade 3 students with some knowledge regarding to the coming festival-- Christmas. And most importantly, teach the students how to create their own stylish online Christmas card using an online application named scratch.

During the activity, I(Chen LUO) was responsible for the begining introduction about what are we doing and what are we trying to achieve at the end of the class. And Judy was the teacher talking some stories about Christmas. Mag was the IT professor who taught students how to use scratch to create Christmas cards. Finally, Amaly and I were also the "recorder" who took photos and videos.

Following are some photos/videos we took and Christmas card we created.

Explaination about how our group members collabrate and contribute to our group blog PART 2

As Judy mentioned, we often sprate the group activities into 4 parts and each of us is responsible for one part. When we finish our part in the activities, we send email to the rest of our group members. Above are evidences about how we communicate via emails.

Besides, when we encountered some problems that cannot be solved via internet, we use wechat to arrange a time for us to meet up in person.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask our group members via email.
(Mag:gmzzxg@gmail.com,  Carven: cavan9012@hotmail.com, Judy: elivestudy@gmail.com, Amaly:amalyhk@gmail.com)

Cheers,

Explanation of how our group members collaborate and contribute to our group blogs

Dear reviewers,

We are honored to be chosen as your reviewee. When you are reading our blogs, we have to introduce how we collaborate with each other to you.

Our group blog is a place to show our group work. We usually use google docs, wechat, gmail, moodle group discussion part, and face-to-face meetings to plan, execute, adjust, produce, and comment our group products. 

You can see our part of our individual contributions and all of our group works in 3+1 group blog. Please feel free to contact Judy (Zhu Dan), Amaly Shi, Mag Xu, and Carven Luo for more information in case you need it. Any suggestions and questions are welcome! Thank you so much for choosing us. We are looking forward to further discussions with you.

-- Judy

Group Activities_Scratch

Here is the link of our scratch.

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/12967448/

Hi, guys~

Could you upload the photos here?

Thx a lot.

What do you think are the defining characteristics of mobile learning?

From my point of view, mobile learning has the following characteristics:

1. Portable. 

-- Learners can access stored information anytime anywhere.
    Learning resources move with learners. In other words, data and information via mobile devices is portable and moveable.

2. Wireless networking.

-- Most of problems related to internet conncetion will be avioded. This characteristic makes the process of learning vital and flexible.

3. Spontaneous

-- Mobile learning is more spontaneous than other learning resouces. For example, if you are sitting outside the Opera House, you could become curious about when the performance hall was built and look up the answer online via mobile browser.

4. Private

-- It means that only one person at a time usually has access to mobile device and  that you may access the data you want indenpendently from other learners.

5. Informal

-- Learners do not need to learn according to a course schedule. If you want to know something about a side topic, you can just simply explore that at your leisure. It also doesn't matter what you look like or when you learn -- you can use you mobile device to learn in a bussiness suit or you pajamas and still get the same information without criticism.

6. Interactive

--Mobile learning must be interactive as it relies on data from serves. Learners usually share information and exchange opinions on the cyber platform which gurantees the interactivity as the defining characteristic of mobile learning.


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Recources:

http://www.ehow.com/list_7234096_characteristics-mobile-learning_.html

Uses of Mobile Technology in Study

In this Blogger, I would like to clarify my understanding on study through mobile technology. 

In education context, when mention about mobile study I got misunderstanding at first because I thought mobile study is to use a mobile device to assist study. According to Wikipedia, 'a mobile device (also known as a handheld computer or simply handheld) is a small, handheld computing device, typically having a display screen with touch input and/or a miniature keyboard and weighing less than 2 pounds (0.91 kg). Therefore although I never thought that a calculator is a mobile device, the conclusion would be using a calculator to study is mobile study too. It seems that a moving device may achieve mobile study. Whenever, whatever I want to calculate, it could be done. 

 However, when look further in Wikipedia, by definition as 'mobile technology is the technology used for cellular communication', I know that why it is written: 'Nokia, Samsung, Apple, HTC, LG, Research in Motion (RIM) Aaronia and Motorola Mobility are just a few examples of the many manufacturers that produce these types of devices'. Thus, it is not a device itself may achieve mobile study. The device is too limited without technology particularly mobile technology for study. 

 Now I think about mobile phones first as soon as talking about mobile technology. We all have interesting of using smart phones to share works and experience.It is a popular technology in some areas. However, there are still many districts are not available with the technology. Then technology is a key point rather than a device.'A May 2012 comScore study reported that during the previous quarter, more mobile subscribers used apps than browsed the web on their devices: 51.1% vs. 49.8% respectively.'(Wikipedia) Then, development of applications in the mobile technology is a tendency as the technology is basis on a device and beyond that. Particularly apps for offline use could be welcomed. 

There are loads of applications. Therefore, it is import to choose right ones for study. That is to use right mobile technology on right devices with right teaching methods for expected learning outcomes.

A potential research topic

More and more students bring mobile devices into the classroom for learning. I am a very typical example. Due to my pregnancy and long journey to Hongkong, I am very reluctant to bring my laptop to the classroom, so my mobile phone are used in a very extreme way in learning. I preview lesson plans on Prezi, watch relevant videos on YouTube, view web pages through safari, manage key reading materials (word, PDF, PPT, etc.) with iBook, post my reflections on Group blog and individual blog as e-portfolios on Weebly and Blogger, discuss about presentations and homework with team members through webchat and QQ by sending instant text and audio messages, store and share our documents on Google drive, edit the same document at the same time with all the other team members on Google docs, check my emails from different faculties, teachers, classmates and so on through gmail, check and manage my own learning process through moodle, look for difficult terms or English words through electronic dictionary, and share what is happening in the classroom and school with friends through Weibo and Facebook, etc. only this small mobile phone can support teacher-directed instructions, small group learning and individual learning very well. Besides, iPhone is Palm-held, not expensive, and support keyboard input with acceptable screen size. From my own experience, wireless and mobile technologies bring forth a unique opportunity for educational researchers to find out how to construct a seamlessly integrated learning environment. Currently, schools can only accept iPad or laptop as mobile learning tools and are against iPhone. In the long term, I do believe smart phones will become the trend. That's why I'd like to explore more about how to utilize smart phones, especially iPhone, better in mobile learning, including the teaching strategies, learning materials, computer components, etc. needed to support it. PS: This short proposal is written and posted on iPhone. I am comfortably lying in the couch. It feels so good! I hope more people can benefit from my experiment and research.

-- Judy (Zhu Dan)

Sweet Love Pictures

Group DEMO Class -- Something I've posted on Moodle in Oct.

Hi dears,

I want to design a student-centered English class. Following are some ideas:

Student level: Primary (Grade 3)

Teaching way: Project-oriented

Learning objective:

1. Knowledges: Learning about Christmas Day, Christmas Card and Christmas Song.

2. Skills: Learning about how to make a Christmas Card with the Christmas Song we've taught by themselves

3. Abilities: Group work; Collaboration; etc.

Following is the design of courseware:

I've made following changes to the PPT based on Amaly's suggestions:

Slide 1: I would like the words bigger and central with animation effects.

Slide 3: Make the calendar bigger to show the date clearly or just enlarge 25th.

Slide 4 & 5: Cut words. Still too many words for me if I am 8 years old. 

In case of any suggestions, please do let me know.

Many thanks.

--  Judy

Google glasses - something posted already on moodle in Sep.

I made a short video about the evolutionary history of eyeglasses. The original PPT is sent to your email address. I think the chosen pictures can represent the typical styles and functions in different ages. You can use this as a complete video or just choose some pictures from the PPT. 

 Following is the weblink of this video.

http://player.youku.com/player.php/sid/XNjE1MTczNDcy/v.swf?qq-pf-to=pcqq.c2c

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjE1MTczNDcy.html?qq-pf-to=pcqq.c2c

You can also check the PPT I've sent to you guys. Hopefully it is useful.

-- Judy

just joking~ pixlr

 before

Group reflection: what is educational research to you?

 In my opinion, educational research refers to using a variety of methods and basing on objective data, individuals define, analyze, explore, and solve specific educational problems. 

-- Judy

A potential research topic

I just come up with an idea with mobile learning. In digital age, everyone can learn what they like any time any where. Even in some classes, teachers prefer mobile learning. However, there are too much information and it's not an easy job for students to select and even judge value of the information, like whether it's helpful to their learning. As I know, in inquiry learning, teachers would give the students some scaffolds to guide the students. I wonder whether there can be somewhat scaffolds that can be provided by teachers to guide the students in mobile learning.

A potential research topic that would be useful in providing a solution to an educational issue

Use IT to Assist Assigning Homework is the potential research topic that links as below. School internet could be a useful solution without extra charge on students/parents with advantages in assigning homework particularly for younger students. As it is just a topic, no research process and conclusions are given in Prezi presentation. Anyone who is interested in the topic, please feel free to contact further.

Review on line-What is education research to you? - Amaly

Review on line-What is education research to you? - Amaly

Education research is a specific investigation and evaluation process focusing on various educational issues in expecting for achievements on knowledge, pedagogy, curriculum, education management and communication by analyzing in both qualitative and quantitative methods at the same time.  The issues including but not limited to all those relate to different aspects of education such as permission, infrastructure, hardware and software, human resources, management, practicing and assessment together with the interconnected and influence factors. 

張貼意見於： MITE6024 3+1group

Why social networking tools cause many tragedies for teenagers? ( Potential research topic)

Why social networking tools cause many tragedies for teenagers?

--- Develop a restricted but helpful social networking tool for education.

 

Yesterday, I watched a video from “Daily Video” with a title of “What students think are the most important issues in education” (PBS 2013).  In this video, people talked some important issues for education in the case of conducting school reform. The video enlightens me to think about what are the factors that may influence students’ learning behaviour. With my interest in ITE, I mainly looked into the respect of social networking tools for education. Recently, with the development of social networking tools, such as Facebook, Twitter and Sina Weibo, people can get instant information from the ones that they cared about. Under this circumstance, some teachers encourage their students to go online and create a social networking account.

 

However, there are many teen victims suffered by the unrestricted social networking tools in these years.  A case in point is that a girl named Amanda Todd, committed suicide because a man she met in an online chat room circulated photos which flashing her breasts. Even she tried to move to different cities and change schools, the teenagers continued to target her through Facebook (Natalie 2012). Therefore, a restricted social networking tool for education is strongly expected. To be able to create such a tool, several things need to be investigated. Firstly, what are students’ needs in social networking? Secondly, how to prevent them from going to other social networking tools? Thirdly, what are the boundaries need to be made in educational social networking tools?

 

I believe, if such social networking tools have been invented, students will have a more healthy and interactive learning environment.

 

Works cited (HARVARD):

 

PBS 2013, What students think are the most important issues in education, Video, Daily Video, US. <http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/daily_videos/what-students-think-are-the-most-important-issues-in-education/>

 

Natalie E, 2012, Girl, 15, 'found hanged' just weeks after posting heartbreaking YouTube video detailing battle with cyber bullies, 12 October, Viewed 19 October 2013, <http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/amanda-todd-teenager-commits-suicide-1376976>

About sharing scratch

Hi guys in MITE6024

Please send the link of your scratch to our gmail :

mite60242013@gmail.com

Hope you can enjoy scratch.

If you have some comment about our 'scratch class', please add comment under this forum. It may help us to improve.Thanks a lot.

Refelction on Clound computing-- EVERNOTE

In the era, the computer becomes an essential tool for education due to its flexibility and connectivity. Evernote -- an application just released in released in these years – with its incredible using experience get the company more than 30 million users around the world (Evernote’s IPO plan, 2012)   To be more specific, EverNote allows users to create notes in several ways. Users can just type them in; a new, empty note frame is always ready at the bottom of the tape. Or, they can select and drag text or graphics into an empty note from a document, email or Web page. Or, they can use the standard Windows copy-and-paste system to get content from elsewhere. Finally, they can install a special EverNote icon into their Web browser that will automatically create a note from selected text on a Web page, or even the whole Web page. In most cases, when you create notes from copied content, EverNote adds a reference line to the note saying where it came from. If you double-click on this reference line while holding down the Control key, EverNote will send you back to the source: a Web page, a document or an email on your computer. There are three main ways to navigate the virtual tape and to find notes quickly. On the right side of the tape, EverNote presents a "Time Band," a single-column calendar with dates and hours, so you can get a note whose creation date you recall by clicking on that date.

As for me, I often use evernote as a reminder, and sometimes I record some important lecture notes and homeworks during the classes. Because it is convenient that I just need to bring a IPAD instead of carrying a huge laptop. Also, the layout of the application is attractive and modern style. Lastly, as I mentioned above about the reference line, it always remind me why I create this note and what was I thinking when I creating it. People split memories into fragments, it is therefore usual that people cannot remember things. But with help of this appllication, they are able to memorized things in a more clear way.

---

Works cited (HARVARD):

 

Evernote’s IPO plan 2012, Viewed 20 October 2013, http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2012-05-19/08307134187.shtml

Reflection on Cloud Computing

Wechat:
For our group, we are beginners in the process of Cloud computing collaborative work. We are separated most of the time but we have to keep in contact to share ideas including one member does always have difficulties accessing Google. Therefore, though we tried emails and moodle, Wechat became our final choice of communication method almost for all the projects we collaborate.
We set up a group in Wechat as soon as we became a group and added each other as friends. It is convenient wherever and whenever on chatting for the assignments. Text, picture, audio and video are all the forms that we tried. We benefited from this cloud application a lot and will continue to use it for sure.
However, there are some disadvantages by use Wechat in communicating compare to some other collaborative applications such as google.doc or moodle. The most weak point for us to use Wechat is the record of our thoughts could not be kept as in a blog. Nevertheless, we just accept that we learn through the process. The second point is the availability limit of the document sharing with editing. The procedure of editing is not as convenient as on computers. Thirdly, pictures are not as clear as on computers. All in a word, Wechat is not suitable for works including documents and pictures so that it is not a good tool in education usage like for curriculum and pedagogy purpose.
Anyway, Wechat made us really as a group and shorten our distance when discussion.
In addition, we have group members used to practise Endnote and Dropbox. They are willing to share their experience for us all to learn. Hopefully we will discuss applications useful as many as possible and try to use some of them together in order to better develop our group's collaborating skills in near future.

Activities

Identify and share examples of how you use cloud computing in your group

We usually use Gmail and wechat to talk to each other when we couldn't meet each other face to face. We can add attachment to share docs, pics, video etc. And the wechat has web version. It's really convenient. Meanwhile, after we finish some work, we will put them on Blogger. About the source we found and the work we did.

Access the affordances and impact of one Cloud Computing solution

I think we can discuss different Cloud Computing solution. We may be familiar with different apps or cloud computing website.

For me, I really like 'dropbox' and 'evernote'.(Mag)
dropbox - upload and download pictures, audios, videos using my ipod and computer. No need to carry a usb to store the file. Once you access to wifi or internet, you can manage your files. And next time, if no internet to access, we can see the latest time managed files. It's fantastic, isn't it? As in web2.0 environment, I find that people like to share whatever happen in their life. To some extent, me too. I like to share music with my friends, especially music on billboard. Aha, Miley Cyrus's songs really marvelous! I use dropbox to share. And they all enjoy the song.
But if we want to add some extremely big file, you have to try to expand the storage space of your dropbox by inviting others.

evernote - I regard it as my diary, my reminder, my shopping list maker, my location marker etc. Every time I come across sth interesting, I can add text, pics, audios, etc.
We can set to do list, if we finish, we can tick and the item could be cut. It can record my location if I agree. But the location share system is a little bit dangerous. Others even some bad men can trace you. That's so bad.

Tomorrow Presentation

Since it's the first class given by our group. We couldn't tell others about the theme.
Aha~
Just waiting for our class.
Hope u can enjoy it.

Well, we still have some problems about sharing the project.
It seems that we can only share online only on that website.

Community Walk map

Community Walk: Four Study Hall in New Territories

Hey, check out this great map called “Four Study Hall in New Territories” on CommunityWalk!

Check out the map on CommunityWalk:

http://www.communitywalk.com/hong_kong/four_study_hall_in_new_territories/map/1653703

<a href="http://www.communitywalk.com/hong_kong/four_study_hall_in_new_territories/map/1653703">Four Study Hall in New Territories</a>

Google Earth: MITE6024 3+1group: study hall

MITE6024 3+1group: study hall
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study hall

Study Hall