Voice thread

VoiceThread is a web-based communications network for students and educators. It is a place for creating and collaborating on digital stories and documentaries, practicing and documenting language skills, exploring geography and culture, solving math problems, and it allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world.

• It has an accountable environment where all users on the network are known users, responsible for their content and behavior.
• All content is created by registered members of the community.
• There are no Free accounts, students may only participate after being added by their teacher or school, and student email addresses are not required.
• Students participate in VoiceThread only after being added by an educator or administrator with a VoiceThread class or school subscription.

Vocethread is a creative, fun and educational tool that can be used to support all outcome learning areas, which allows the students to develop their language skills (from writing and), speaking skills (audio messages) and art skills (creating the voivethread). It is safe for teachers and students to use as a means of communication and expressing ones opinion. Voice thread is a great tool to assist in the students cognitive development and allows them to enjoy themselves in an educational setting, which motivates them to learn new concepts.

For more information on what and how to use Voicethread visit: http://voicethread.com/#home.b409.i848804

Hot Potatoes

Hot Potatoes is a software where teachers and students can communicate with each other, and allows the teachers to create worksheets for the students online. Hot potatoes is a simple and easy to use software that allows the teacher to educate students in all the learning areas in a fun and creative way. It acts as an educative tool to support learning rather then a means actually teaching a specific topic or learning area, which means that it can be integrated into the classroom effectively. Hot potatoes has six applications which enables the teacher to create interactive worksheets and allows the students to comment back to the teacher. the six applications are:

1. Multiple choice questions
2. Short answers
3. Jumbled sentence
4. crossword
5. Matching/ ordering
6. gap filling exercise

These areas help children in the development of several English skills such as writing, spelling and sentence structure. It is also effective in the classroom because it allows the students to immediately check if there answers are correct, so it allows them to 'have a go'. Hot potatoes is not only beneficial for the students in that it is a creative way to learn and communicate with the teacher, but it is also beneficial for the teacher because it is easy to upload the worksheets and they can organise the students grades and worksheets in one area. It also helps in several other learning areas such as maths, society and environment and technology and enterprise due to the activities that can be posted by the teacher to the student. An example of how Hot potatoes can be integrated into several learning areas and the classroom can be located on this website http://marshalladulteducation.org/student_lessons1.htm where it provides several worksheets on different topics for the students to fill out. Hot potatoes is a great tool that assists and supports teachers in educating the children about several different concepts in a fun, creative and interactive way.

Game Maker

Game Maker is a program that allows students to create their own games such as 'catch the ball' or catch the clown. This innovation topic allows the students to be:

• Creative- where they learn to create their own games
• Challenging- students have to think in more complex terms because the program is difficult to navigate however once mastered easy to understand
• Enhances the students learning in technology and software

It acts as a means of developing cognition because they have to challenge themselves in creating their own game and understanding the process of how to do it. The only problem with Game maker is that it can be time consuming and hard to navigate. However once the students become familiar with the program it does become easier to understand. This can be integrated into the learning area of technology and enterprise where the students learn about the process of enterprise and creating a game that can potentially become a popular game in society, which can lead to the students looking into advertisement, costing and 'running' a successful business.

Glogster

~Twit twit--Twitter~

Before being introduced to Twitter in the classroom, i used to believe that twitter was just another form of communication between individuals (like my space, facebook and msn) however it can also be used as an effective tool for sharing documents, pictures and other documents. Twitter can be used as a form of communication between teachers and students, and also teachers and parents. Whilst using twitter in the tutorial i found that whilst it can be an effective tool that is simpy to follow it is time consuming because it takes some time locating your 'friends' or students. Also it is hard for the teacher to supervise because students are able to communicate with eachother without the teacher being able to control what is being said. Therefore even though Twitter is great and simple to use as a form of communication i believe there are other programs that can be used in the classroom like google docs that allows students to communicate with each other but also where the teacher can supervise the conversation and ensure the classroom has a friendly work environment...

*^Scratch^*

Scratch is a program where you are able to create your own interactive stories, games, music and animations- that can be shared on the web for others to see... When we first started with scratch it was hard to grasp but after a few minutes of 'fiddling' and investigating i found that it become easier to create, which leads me to believe that the more you practice the more simple and easier it becomes to create and share your scratch stories. Whilst it is a fun, creative and interactive tool it is hard to implement into the classroom across several learning areas.

Benefits of scratch

• Customize pictures, images and cartoons
• Import and export files- share files with others
• Change the colour and sound
• Create sound effects
• Record sound

Disadvantaged of scratch

• Difficult at first
• Time consuming
• Hard to integrate into other learning areas

In some features scratch is similar to Bitstrips where it can be used as a creative tool for the arts and in one of the scratch stories it was used for Society and Environment where the students had to locate where the State was in a certain country-(http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/astein/34448)... Although it is a difficult program to navigate it can come in handy for some learning areas like the arts but it may be time consuming and at times frustrating.. however i think the students may actually find it interesting and easy to follow because they are more experienced with technology and enjoy 'playing around' with new programs.

--Jing--

Jing is an innovation software that allows individuals to record conversations and communicate with other people. The concept of Jing is for people to be able to record and capture anything on their computer screen, which can be beneficial for businesswomen/ men but it is hard to implement into the classroom because there are limited things one can do with jing. Some of the benefits of Jing are:

• Jing can be Incorporated into a design project
• Recordings
• snapshot of pictures/ documents

Jing is a difficult software to critique because whilst it is hard to use in the classroom it can be handy for other careers. which leads me to believe that although it is an effective tool, one is better off using other innovative softwares that could be put to better use, and can be implemented into other learning areas...

Google Docs

Google Docs is a free, Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and form application, where people can share their documents with others and communicate with group members about their assignments without the hassle of arranging a time and day to meet... This innovation topic is a great tool to have in the classroom and at home because it:

• Promotes group collaboration- where students don't have to hassle with meeting dates, instead they can communicate with their group via google docs, where they just have to invite the person and share the document with them
• Teachers can keep track of grades by placing it into google docs and updating it when needed, instead of having piles and piles of paper
• Develops writing skills as well as computing skills
• Simple way to be updated on children's progress when doing homework
• Individuals can share + edit + communicate about the homework
• Useful file management
• Interactive + hands on
• Caters for a range of learners because it can be visual, oral and hands on
• Google docs can be implemented into several learning areas
• Creative- students can add pictures and change font size and colour
• Encourages parents to participate because it is simple to use and can be used as a means of communication between the parent, teacher and student

Google docs is my most favourite innovation topic because it is effective and benefical of any career meaning that it can be used in any learning area which was clearly demonstrated by Simon and Miriam during the presentation. The only problems that i think would occur if google docs were to be implemented into the classroom would be that some parents may not want to participate in the activity which may result in a student feeling 'unloved' (but then again it is also the parents responsibilty to ensure that they are caring for their childrens needs), and that some students may not have internet at home meaning that they can not be involved. However if this does occur the teacher can always allocate time on the computers for the students who do not have the internet. Overall google docs is a safe, creative and simple tool that should be introduced into a classroom because of its many, many benefits

--Bitstrips--

In week 5 the class were presented with the innovation topic of Bitstrips. The topic focuses on creating cartoons using Bitstrips where people are able to communicate their thoughts and opinion's on certain topics by creating it into a comic strip or storyline. This programme is not only creative but it is also educational because it allows students to enjoy learning via bitstrips, where the students can be given the opportunity to express their opinions on certain topics aswell as read and investigate what other individuals thoughts are on that topic. From the presentation given by Brad and Sharee i was able to gather a great deal of useful information about bitstrips and how effective it can be in the classroom. They not only went through the process of creating Bitstrips step by step but they also explained its benefits and uses in the classroom with great detail. The information that i was able to gather about the use of Bitstrips in the classroom can be catergorised into advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of the use of Bitstrips in the classroom:

1. Allows the students to be actively involved in the learning process- which the theories Piaget claims to help cognitive development
2. The learning becomes student-centered rather then teacher focused
3. Bitstrips is engaging because the students create their own comic rather then observing other people's comics= hands on
4. Implements technology in the classroom- where children are given the opportunity to develop their computing skills
5. Students are able to express their opinions creatively
6. Bitstrips can be intergrated into other learning areas such as English, Maths and Society and Environment- One example can be where the teacher creates their own comic and purposely spells word incorrectly, where the students then have to identify the spelling mistakes and re-create the comic strip
7. User friendly and simple to navigate around
8. Bitstrips can be safe for students to use because schools can place a security lock on things they dont want the students to be looking at
9. Informative- where it contains information about important issues (i.e. politics, enironment, and school issues)

Disadvantage of the use of Bitstrips

1. Bitstrips can be time consuming because it has alot of bits and pieces that can be modified to make the comic more interesting
2. Teachers may find it hard to gain the students attention when using bitstrips
3. Relaince on technology can decrease the students development of English skills such as spelling and grammar because unfortunately if they spell a word incorrectly the computer corrects it, which results in the students lacking the ability to widen their vocab.

Whilst there are more advantages in using Bitstrips it is still important to focus on the cons because children need to understand how to speak, write and communicate their thoughts properly before they begin to rely on the computer to 'fix' their spelling mistakes. However i think Bitstrips is a handy tool to implement into the classroom because it caters for a range of learners and allows the students who do not like drawing to have a go and become confident at art and technology.

There is one thing that concerns me about Bitstrips and that is when it comes time to assessing the students on their artistic techniques such as the arts learning area outcome 'students use skills, techniques, processes, conventions and technologies of the arts' (Curriculum Council, 1998, p. 54) whilst they can be assessed on the technology part for Bitstrips what happens when you need the students to create a self portrait or dance production (keeping in mind it needs to be done manually) and the students simply ask to use bitstrips to do this but the teacher say's no because they need to assess the students on their ability! Would it not cause problems, because the students would question as to what the difference is if they use bitstrips or not??

Wiki

Whilst i enjoy learning about new technology and have become shocked as to how fast and creative we have become in creating new and improved technology, it does not always mean that the new communication sites, search engines or even information sites have become user friendly or even easy to navigate. If the supposed 'technology learner generation' have difficulty at first in understanding how to use the new piece of technology tool that what happens to the older generation who are still getting used to the previous, and simple to use communication sites? would this just further create a 'communication gap' between parents and their children? whilst there are some disadvantages to the introduction of new sites, i have found that Wiki is one communication site that is user friendly, simple to use and easy to understand. Wiki is a form of communication between individuals about any topic where the people involved are able to express there opinions on enivironmental issues, world politics to even the smallest things such as tv shows. It allows people to freely express themselves within a reasonable manner and all the tools and skills needed to become a regular wiki user, are located right infront of the screen and are easy to locate. which in turn saves time, space and the stress of trying to nagivate through the web page, instead wiki takes you straight to the home page where you are able to work your way from there.