Setting up Google Accounts

Today was very interesting, I have established my own Google account, Yahoo account and I am now using Blogger.



It is all getting abit exciting now.

Internet access

I have just been reading about Web access and so on.

I myself work in a school environment and find it frustrating at times when I go to look up a site and it has been blocked by our school filter software. Our filter seems to block us from visiting so many useful sites which makes it very limiting majority of the time. I would like to see staff members being able to control the access of these sites. I feel we have the right to check a site, if it is okay, unblock the site from the filter and the same goes if we see a site that the filter has missed, we should be able to block this site. As stated by Scot Aldred the school system block a large proportion of websites regardless of their content. (Aldred, 2009). You can also read Scot's Blog as follows:-

http://e-learning-engagement.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

Our children need to be protected from predators and images and things on the Internet. I myself is a mother of 2 and I am pedantic about the Internet at home. I feel if our schools can educate our children better and run Safety Awareness programs about Cyber Bullying, Stranger Danger, putting personal information up about themselves. I think its a huge step in the right direction, to prevent your children from Cyber danger.

Regards Amanda

I also watched this video about Cyber Danger and found it great, unsure if it would work in Australia, but such a great program. Video is below:-



Reference

Protectkidstoday. (2010, Feb 4). New Software Protects Kids From Bullying, Sexting, Texting & Driving, Suicide, & Other Dangers [Video file]. Retrieved May 8, 2010 from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzc6HsY63dA

Digital Natives v's Digital Immigrants

Wow, I didn't think I would enjoy reading this article but it has taught me such alot.

Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. (Prensky, 2001). This statement is very true, our system is very outdated and not getting through to our students. We need to change the design of teaching and make it engaging. We need to compete with their Ipods, Video Games, Computers and things.
What really amazed me was our children spend over 10,000 hrs playing video games and over 20,000 hrs watching TV and less then 5000 hrs reading. These numbers are phenominal. When I was growing up I would have spent 30,000 hrs outdoors playing, creating, imagining and 5,000 watching TV. I was never a reader but I think if it was made into something fun I would have loved it because I love it as an adult. I now realise why our children are being influenced by TV and VIDEO games."

I am a digital immigrant but accept I need to grow with the times. I feel my life would be much easier if I can engage my students, motivate and praise them. I would like my younger students to think of me as a little cool, up with all this new technology so they could talk to me about what they have downloaded, played, listened to and so on. I would hope they think I am funny and that they love my class because I am making learning fun for them, but at the same time learning, and they are contributing to what they want to learn.

Majority of my teachers were digital immigrants who did not like change and wouldn't change. As they often said "It's been working for me for the last 20 years and it didn't hurt me growing up, so sit down, shut up and listen" Children were mean't to be seen and not heard. You did not talk unless spoken to. My teacher told me that I would never accumulate to anything, "You'll be a dole blugger all your life so get used to waiting in queues". Well thanks very much because I am a better person for it, I know the sort of teacher I do not want to become.

I hope everyone else had much better educational experiences then I did.

I have found a couple of YouTube videos I thought you maybe interested in, they are regarding 21st Century Pedagogies. Take a look

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l72UFXqa8ZU&feature=related

I really enjoyed the following video, I found it very true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tahTKdEUAPk&feature=related

Indigenous Perspectives

I also believe we need to bridge the gap, I feel this won't happen until our government are more willing to step up to the plate, they need assistance in so many areas such as schooling, health, job opportunities, the list goes on. Lets face it, it has been spoken about since I was a young child, and over twenty years later nothing has happened.
Once I am a teacher, I will be incorporating alot of culture into the classroom, not just the indigenous culture but Chinese, Korean etc, we have so many students that have moved to Australia from many countries and still have families overseas.
I have found a couple of websites I thought may be helpful in our classrooms one day. Teach our children about the Dreamtime and their culture.

http://australianmuseum.net.au/Stories-of-the-Dreaming
http://www.aussieeducator.org.au/reference/general/indigenous/indigenousaustralia.html

Hope this helps guys.
Cheers
Amanda"

Memletic Learning Graph

MEMLETIC LEARNING STYLE GRAPH

http://www.learning-styles-online.com/inventory/results.asp

Learning with Technology Quiz

I have just completed the engaged Learning Quiz, it is quite amazing. Really enjoyed this Quiz, here are my results:-

Learning With Technology Profile Tool Results

Name: Amanda H
Date: March 23,

Indicators of Engaged Learning	Vision of Learning
	Tasks
	Assessment
	Instructional Model
	Learning Context
	Grouping
	Teacher Roles
	Student Roles
Indicators of High-Performance Technology	Access
	Operability
	Organization
	Engagability
	Ease of Use
	Functionality

Mazlow's Hierachy of Needs

I feel it is very important for student's to feel equal,

respected, welcome, comfortable. I feel it important for me as a Teacher to have a good relationship with the students and know their interests.

When student's enrol in my service, my process is to show them around the school and we come back and sit on the carpet area and get introduced to our new found friends, and play a name game, where each one says "My name is _____" and so on in a circle.

I allocate an older child or someone they may already know to be their buddy for the first week till they feel confident enough to mingle on their own. I then put them into a small group where we will do an activity to settle them in. Parents and students are given a questionaire to fill in for me to give me a little bit of background information. The child's questionaire is called "ALL ABOUT ME" and it contains things such as What's my favourite food? What's my favourite sport? What am I scared of? How many people are in my family? This information then goes into their portfolios and I can design a program based on their interests. It gives me something to scaffold off.

Regards

Amanda

Figure 1. Maslow's hierarchy of human needs. (From Maslow, A. (1970}. Motivation and personaIity (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row; reprinted by permission of Harper Collins Publishers.)