My learning design: Math Quiz competition!

1. Overview

This program is designed to develop the relationship between Australian and Japanese societies. The program focuses on Year 10 students in Australia and Grade 1 high school students in Japan, working in groups for collaboration learning of three particular subjects; Mathematics, Japanese and English. It will be implemented in one term.

Their goal is to create math questions and interpret simultaneous equations and quadratic equations using either the Japanese or English language in order to distinguish and judge problems for solving the maths questions. To participate in the Math Quiz competition, students are required to create Maths quizzes as well as solving math quizzes of other groups.

Learning Managers will judge each group at the Quiz competition. There are some gifts that will be sent by students from each country of Australia and Japan as a prize. The best group of the Quiz maker and the point getter will receive the prize!




2. Design – on a Power Point slide

The lesson design is performed on a Power Point slide.
Please refer to the URL below;

http://www.slideshare.net/shihonakamura/my-learning-design


3. Development

Please refer to the URL below to find the evidences.

- WIKI (everyone’s page: OZJapsociety):
http://ozjapsociety.wikispaces.com/
- WIKI (group’s page)
Group1:
http://group1-ichi.wikispaces.com/
Group2:
http://group2-ni.wikispaces.com/

- ClassMarker << href="http://www.classmarker.com/quiz/intro.php?test_id=67253&class_id=37582">http://www.classmarker.com/quiz/intro.php?test_id=67253&class_id=37582

Other ICTs will be used in the program:
- Podcast and Wikipedia: self study for students
- These ICTs are asked to introduce other students to help their study on WIKI’s
everyone’s page.
- Blogs and e-mails: share their idea and thoughts
- Skype: orally communicate to each student


4. Summary

Overall, this learning programme will provide a great opportunity for Australian and Japanese young people to exchange their thoughts. The learning is related their real life as authentic scenario. This innovative style of learning such as the use of ICTs and collaboration among students, teachers, countries and subject areas is unique and effective. The collaborative style of learning using ICT provokes learner to be a highly motivated learner (Kearsley & Shniderman, 1999).

What is admirable in the use of ICTs is that variety of students who have different backgrounds in two different countries, also involving teachers of each subject in each country, might also involve students’ parents. Many factors are united in one place and then they are able to manage three kinds of subjects; Maths, Japanese and English. ICT is expected to make variety of challenges in learning possible and effective that was impossible and inefficient in the past. The reason is that Oliver’s (1999) Learning Design states that attractive resources trigger learners; the task is problem-based and supportive people or resources assist their learning.

My e-learning journey was intensive. I have learned many useful things, although I could have learnt many more things which I did not try. Through my experience of this journey, I found that communication with peers is the most valuable and significant in learning as our lecturer, Scot, told us and that is the main purpose in this course. I have appreciated having this opportunity to share my thoughts with peers and a lecturer in both face to face and online situations during this term.

I believe that peers’ roles of working as teachers, mates and maybe parents (telling a correct things and sympathetic) one or another. They can always get together on line, and resources can be found on the Internet. They are able to solve problem based tasks (matter). It is a complex task, but they can do it with such valuable peers.

When I become a teacher, I would use ICTs in my learning design because I expect my students to work with peers. As Prensky (2001) suggested, 21st century learners as digital natives will engage learning, only if educators engage them. The educator’s ultimate aim is to make learner motivated and realize that learning is enjoyable.



References

ClassMarker. (2009). My tests. Retrieved August 20, 2009, from http://www.classmarker.com/my_tests.php

Kearsley, G. & Shniderman, B. (1999). Engagement theory: a frame work for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved August 1, 2009, from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Oliver, R. (1999). Learning design. Retrieved August 22, 2009, from http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/project/learn_design.htm

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. Retrieved July 22, 2009, from:http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Teachertube, Youtube. (2009). Math from Ma and Pa. Retrieved October 4, 2009 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFenPMoNkXA

Videomathtutor, Youtube. (2009). Algebra: Solving Linear Equations - Part 1: The Basics. Retrieved October 4, 2009 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdiNDwKOBvw

WIKIspaces. (2009). Retrieved October 4, 2009 form http://www.wikispaces.com/user/my/shihonakamura

Flickr

Hello bloggers,

Unfortunately, I have just started Day Visit and will have only 2 visit left, so that I will share my design of Flickr.

The learning area is Japanese. To remember plenty of verbs, I will give a task that are;

1. Select some verbs (some- they have learnt, some- seek new verbs they do not know from
text book or dictionary etc.)
2. Bring own photos (saved in a file) or download some pictures from website that are images
of the verbs what they chose
3. Explore the Flickr and upload the pictures
4. Make a sentence using verbs for each images (write them in a comment box)
5. Share own work with their peers





In an advanced class, I would like students to make moving pictures in order to image and remember "something on a move", "~ te imasu (be + verb + ing); for example, "Watashi wa banana wo tabete imasu"I am eating banana. I expect them to image "someting on a move", drinking, walking, watching etc.. when they see or hear the sentence "~ te imasu".

The point of the use of Flickr in this lesson is to have vivid memories with pictures to last long the memories in students brain and able to remember huge amount of visual information in short time using the sencery (Cooper,1998). To store the information, I need to do this activity several times and let students read in sentence and write reinforce.


Regards,

Shiho


References

Graham, C. (1996). Reserch into cognitive load theory and instructual design at UNSW. Retrieved August 17, 2009, from http://dwb4.unl.edu/Diss/Cooper/UNSW.htm







Regards,

Shiho

Digital Storytelling

Hello bloggers,

Digital Storytelling (DS) is authentic way of learning. Each story takes only a few minitues long, but it contains powerful message. There are some kinds of DS, narrative way of demonstrating and historical stories. Those stories can cover variety of topics that are; Maths, Language Arts, Medicine, History etc (Bernard, 2008).

I watched several DS on Marco's web site, some were dramatic and unforgettable. I felt that was very realistic, explicit and also persuasive. The visual information and the auditory information made me to consider what message the story contains, . I learned directly what I saw and hear then felt from the story.

They are technologically suvvy 21st learners. DS is suits for both learner and teacher for their learning (Central Queensland University, 2009).

To make DS, it is challenging task students have to have higher-level thinking, task analysis and problem solving skills (Moore, D & Powell, N, 2005). I think this activity is appropreate to university students or Year11, 12 students.


Regards,

Shiho


References


Bernard, R. (2008). The educational uses of digital story telling. Retrieved on September 11, 2009, from http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/index.html


Central Queensland University. (2009). Student-centred technologies. Retrieved on September 18, 2009, from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=696

Moore, D & Powell, N. (2005). Digital story telling? Retrieved on September 11, 2009, from http://www.district87.org/technology/dv/

Blogs

Hello bloggers,

Due to insufficient time and I have not been placed any school yet, I will write a synopsis of my design.

If there are enough computer at school where I am placed, I would like to use blog as a barometre of their learning between student and teacher and student and student.

I believe that the contents of their blogs; what they post do not have to be only about the subjects what they study. They can also discuss how they efficiently learn that is to maintain students' emotional side. For example, Also, the `zone of proximal development` helps cognitive development (Kearsley, 2009). For example, if students counsel each other and teacher supervise the discussion then resolve it, they will engage their peers and teachers more. I believe that could lead to have better classroom climate.

Regards,

Shiho

References

Kearsley, G. (2009). Social divelopment theory (Vigotsky, L.). Retrieved August 17, 2009, from http://tip.psychology.org/vygotsky.html

Voice Thread

Hello bloggers,




I will use this technology for presentation of some project. For example, SOSE study or science that they investigated.

Regards,

Shiho

References

Voicethread. (2009). Create. Retrieved August 22, 2009, from http://voicethread.com/#home

Reflecting synopsis

I believe that active learning is that is to say the engagement learning. The world is rapidly changing, which affects education world as well that is caused by the technological life style. Educators need to know what 21century students interest and need in their life to understand them in order to provide them instructions that is fair to diversity of students (Central Queensland University, 2009). There are some beneficial ideas to manage students misbehaviour in a classroom.To change their attitude, and to engage them, all students realize the learning is enjoyable and valuable to their life. When educators are required to consider their personality, surrounding, life style, and learning style to occur effective learning and achieve their goal.

The CQUniversity promotes the action to `Be what you want to be` as a commercial phrase on a advertisement (Central Queensland University, 2009). I think it is in another word, 'Be active learner!'.

Finally, I have achieved this stage! Honestly, I did not think that I manage the work of this course because I am a digital immigrant, not a digital native (Prensky, 2005).

For me, and probably many students in this course felt challenging to deal with most of technology tasks. Also there are a number of reading at each topics. I was frightened and panic while the assessment 1's due date was coming up, but as Scot suggested us on a courseware, I refereed back to learning theories when I tried each of activities. So that, now I know better about the technology things and have obtained knowledge how they related to learning.

If I did not take this course, I would not try valuable technologies such as Mahara, Wiki's, Blogs, WebQuests and other creative and fun software. Maybe because I had a prejudice that it is not for me, but once I tried, I was fascinated and became an active learner. Thus, for 21st century learner, maintaining those creative and collaborative tool is their nature.

I have been experiencing online learning as a Learning Manager to critically analyse tasks and share our idea with peers. So, I have found this courseware is well designed. Because it is exactly based on the Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) (Oliver, 1999). The task is related the real world, researching resources, and the knowledge that we obtained support our learning for us. The concept of ICTs is based on the learning eangagement theory. The principal petagogy is first, Donate to the real wold and problem, then Creat solution to the problem, and Donate a useful contribution. The learning engagement theory links Problem based learning (Kearsly, & Shniderman, 1999). We wish the 21st learner to engage in their learning.

Most of us are in Bachelor of Learning Management. The learning theories; Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Constructivism and Connectivism. The theory Connectivism tells us learning is not only internal, which is developed externally and activity (Siemens, 2005). The background information is everything related to education. It was hard work, but I enjoyed reading those articles.

Also, there are organized communication tools and communities on a courseware. Each topic has a forum, so we can share our idea, encouraging our journey, help other students who are on a problem. We sit on a computer individually, but we are not alone. Whenever and wherever, we can learn on the Internet, and it is expected.

I think I am an originally reflective and visual learner. I like to use Voki avatars, Youtube, Fickr, and Power Point slide. I will definitely use them in my teaching. As a reflective learner, I am sure that I will be a life long learner. Queensland Schools Authority (2002) defined the life long learner as follows;

• a complex thinker



• a creative person



• an active investigator



• an effective communicator

Those are four of the seven definitions. Looking at those, I would say that the life long learner is so close to 21st century children's characteristic. Therefore, I prospect that 21st century children will be a life long learner.

Overall, we all have different learning style and learning experiences, also background and surrounding. Therefore, as society requires and utilize our techonology and engage our learning. I would to like to try more new computer technologies and maintain them for myself and my students.

Thank you for reading

Kind Regards,

Shiho

References

Kearsley, G. & Shniderman, B. (1999). Engagement theory: a frame work for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved August 1, 2009, from http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Oliver, R. (1999). Learning design. Retrieved August 22, 2009, from http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/project/learn_design.htm

Central Queensland University. (2009). Active learning. Retrieved July 13, 2009, from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=580

Central Queensland University. (2009). Elearning design. Retrieved July 13, 2009, from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=641

Siemens, G. (2005). A learning theory for the digital age. Retrieved August , 2009, from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Using music on the web

There are variety of piece of musics on the site, incompetech. It was a nice moment while I was listening to some short musics. Also we can order to creat original music on the site (Incompetech,2009). It would be very special. I will use this technology, putting some piece of musics on power point slides that I or my students made for their celemonies, event, or project at school.

Regards,

Shiho

References

Incompetech. (2009). Frequentlu asked questions. Retrieved August 20, 2009, from http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/faq.html

Slide share

Hello bloggers,

I had a presentation slide which already have narration with my voice recorded on each of the slide, so this time, I did not try the synchronization system. I premise the quality of sound is excellent because the system is MP3 file format. By contrast, recorded sound directly using a microphone on a power point slide, the sound is very poor.

Another perspective is that a fine combination of Podcast and Slide become as Slidecast!It is amaging technology!

Queen Himiko

View more presentations from shihonakamura.

Regards,

Shiho

References

Slideshare. (2009). Slidecasting 101. Retrieved August 19, 2009, from http://www.slideshare.net/jboutelle/slidecasting-101

Wikipedia

What it is called 'the free encyclopedia', Wikipedia has a great deal of users (Wikipedia, 2009). I have used how many times for my research.

My first teaching area is Japanese, the second area is Mathmatics.
Useful resources that I found are:

Japanese language;

• Japanese counter word
• Honorific speech in Japanese

Mathmatics;

• Trigonometric functions
• Logarithm

These four topics above are all complecated. I found that they are useful for Maths, but not very useful for learning Japanese language. So, I may use these resources for quick review and reading for students as a home work because every resouce in Wikipedia has related topics that connect to hyper link at the end of the page. A number of linkings on a both side of the page as well. It is not exaggerated to say we can research whatever we need on Wikipedia.

I believe that Wikipedia helps students understanding paticular topic of basic to deep knowledge. Many of them are provided with graphic resources, clear definitions and important points. It also good for group work to collaborate the information based on their investigation . However, the contents and the use of word are difficult, so it suits for higher grades at secondary students and university students.

Regards,

Shiho

References

Wikipedia. (2009). Retrieved August 18, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Podcasting

Hello bloggers,

I used to listen to BBC radio news which is downloaded from podcast for my English study. I put news into ipod, so I could listen to any time and any where. I enjoyed listening to the news on a way to work (in a train) and during walking exercise and repeated them again and again. It was really challenaging because some of the correspondents had strong accent. The BBC news trained my ear, so my listening skill were much improved.

Today I have download two podcasts and two video podcasts. The video podcasts are both for learning Mathmatics. Obviously, understanding the methods much easier and quicker with visual resource. Other two were Podkids Australia and the teachers' podcast.

I believe that Podcast is good for improving listening skill for language learning, video podcast for interpreting Mathematics methods. According to Oliver and Herrington (1999,2001), learning engagement occures when the interacted learners attempt tasks with supportive learning activities and resources.

I will use podcast (Listening to Japanese pops) to maintain my students' fluency of speaking Japanese.


Regards,


Shiho



References

Apple Inc. (2009). itunes. Retrieved August 22, 2009, from http://www.apple.com/itunes/

Oliver, R. & Herrington, J. (1999, &2001). Learning design. Retrieved August 22, 2009, from http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/project/learn_design.htm

Picnic

Hello bloggers,

I have experienced the photo design software, Picnic. I played around with my picture. It went like this (at the very last).these are slide show.









I will use this technology editting my students photos for slide show or presentation on their special days(entrance, or graduation ceremony).

Regards,

Shiho

References

Picnic. (2009). Welcome. Retrieved August 22, 2009, from, http://www.picnik.com/app#/home/welcome

Google earth

Hello bloggers,

I flew to my home in Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Denmark and Fiji! That was amazing and fun! I felt like I traveled all over the world (with sitting in a room). The graphics were clear and precise. When I type my home address in Australia, only took me there in 4 seconds.

It is a good learning tool for geography, science, cultural study and IT (including CG design) areas. If I use Google earth in my teaching, I would use it to explain Japanese geography or describe adjectives in Japanese while my students are experiencing in the Google earth world. The characteristic of the Google Earth is that speedy movement, recognize the shape of the land at the each level of the height with the county, city and town name and high technology of graphics.

It is suits for the active learner and visual learner. The term "Let's try it first, and see how it's works.", which exactly refers Google earth (Felder, R. & Solomon, B., n.d.). For the visual learner, it is evaluated that using the tool with text material able to obtain long term memory (Cooper, D., 1998).

By the way, to download and activate the soft ware, Google earth, I had to bring my laptop to university because it was failed to save on the university's computer. I think that the reason involves security system as Scot noted that the requirement the assistance of a technician on a instruction of the Google earth activity (Central Queensland University, 2009). I need to aware of it when I use the technology at school in my teaching.

I expect that student will show their intense toward the learning because it is enjoyable for most of the students who are visual learner.

Regards,

Shiho


References

Central Queensland University. (2009). An introduction to teacher's delivery technology: Google earth. Retrieved August 18, 2009, from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=671

Cooper, D. (1998). Research into cognitive load and instructional design at UNSW. Retrieved August 17, 2009, from http://dwb4.unl.edu/Diss/Cooper/UNSW.htm

Google. (2009). Google earth. Retrieved August 18, 2009, from http://earth.google.com/

Felder, R. & Solomon, B. (n.d.) Learning styles and strategies. Retrieved July 28, 2009, from http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm

File Strage

Hello bloggers,

I have been experiencing so many kinds of useful technologies in this course.

A file that I would like to share with you is a power point slide, which I created as my assignment in the last term. The course was called Japan and it's culture. I chose "Enjo Kousai" as a topic, that "Enjo Kousai" is translated Amateur prostitution in Japanese teenage girls. It is one of the big issue in Japan at the moment. I analyzed that those teenage girls are really prostitution or not, also described about juvenile's characteristic in the slide. It may be interested to look at, so please feel free to visit the link.

My power point slide's URL is below:
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=936975854efd516b90a82c7bb0fad7ade04e75f6e8ebb871

I felt that was so quick to upload my file, so for the use of the Fire strage, I might use it when I am on a rush. However, there are some other sites which are linked to collaborative sites. In my opinion, I will use Google or the Flickr to upload them because I can do more creative work.

Regards,

Shiho

Reference

Media Fire. (2009). Upload file to Media fire. Retrieved August 19, 2009 from http://www.mediafire.com/

WebQuest

Hello bloggers,

What a great learning tool the WebQuest is! Some WebQuest that I browsed were well-designed and well-organized. The main resources are already there, beside the each categories of the topic. When the learners need to reserch for the task, just click on the URL and it gets there in few seconds.

March (1993) studied that a real WebQuest consists of a scaffoled learning structure. That is developed with academic style of learning as follows;

-Introduction,
-The Question (task),
-Background information and body,
-Group work,
-Assessment,
-Summary,
-Conclusion (Hawkquest Education Enterprise, 2004).

It is designed with authentic task and open-ended questions, which is supported excellent web sources. While learners are attempting the task, they will develop their critical thinking with variety of points of view. At the end of the task, they will be able to familiarize and comprehend it. It is related to metacognitive processes (March, 2003).

According to Siemen's (2004) theory, Connectivism, maintaining the current knowledge is crucial for the 21st learners. One of his theory that is continual learning make complex problem less complex (Siemen, 2004). The system of WebQuest is exactly the continual learning, which is so engaged.

The topic of WebQuests are often complex and messy issue, so as it is designed, the learners are requied to contribute the tasks with peers. It might be interested to have peers who are diversity of people as study members meeting on line. The group work would be more engaged for the learners.

In comparision to the traditional approach such as pen and paper method everyone has to be in a class room, the online learning is available to learn whatever, whenever and wherever. So the learner alternatively learning. The style is communicative, learners become spontaneous in their learning.

To design and publish WebQuests, I am sure that it would need large amount of time for them because it is required to be sophisticated to satisfy higher level of learning (Central Queensland University, 2009). Therefore, I believe that WeQuest suits for the learner at higher education or can be used for Year 11 and 12 at secondary students' learning.

Regards,

Shiho


Reference

Central Queensland University. (2009). An introduction of teacher's derivery technology. Retrieved August 18, 2009, from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=671

Hawkquest Educational Enterprise. (2004). Antarctic ice to water Australia. Retrieved August 19, 2009, from http://pbl.cqu.edu.au/web_quest/home.htm

March, T. (2004). The learning power of Webquests. Retrieved August 15, 2009, from http://tommarch.com/writings/wq_power.php

Siemens, G. (2005). A learning theory for the digital age. Retrieved August 17, 2009, from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Quizzes: ClassMarker

Hello bloggers,

I have experienced the quiz maker site, ClassMarker. There are so many kinds of settings, so we can creat quizzes whatever we like.

When I took a course Learning Management 1 in the last term, my first assignment was some on line multiple quizzes. It might have been used the ClassMarker.

The advantage of the quiz maker are that the learners are able to try them many times. If it is set no limit to try, they can attempt the quizzes as much as they want to develop their learning. Learners also refer to the feedback if it is provided, they would achieve correctting the mistake and comprehending the problem themselves. Which leads them to become independent learners.

I may use ClassMarker at the beggining of the lesson to obtain students' interest for topics and get some information.

I made little quizzes which is about Japanese culture.
It is a simple one, so you can check your basic knowledge of Japanese culture.
Please enjoy it.

my quiz's URL is: http://www.classmarker.com/teacher/edit_test.php?test_id=58850

I did not try the efficient settings when I made some quizzes, so next time I will try them to support learners' improvements in their learning.
Regards,

Shiho

References

ClassMarker. (2009). My tests. Retrieved August 20, 2009, from http://www.classmarker.com/my_tests.php

Flickr

Hello bloggers,

Just now, I have created an account with Flickr, and upload some pictures. The procedural was quite simple like other communication sites, but I did not have a yahoo account,so had to make a new one. I found this is useful because not only pictures, even videos can upload on it and share them on a blog. I have not tried uploading a video, but it seems to be a picture which presents movement (Flickr, 2009). It would be useful to attract learners to read an article beside the pictures or videos.

Regards,

Shiho

Reference

Flickr. (2009). Flickr Blog. Retrieved on August 18, 2009, from, http://www.flickr.com/

Voki Avatars

Hello bloggers,

I created my Voki using animation and beautiful picture as my image. It was fun to do it! The advantage of Voki is that makes connections to other creative website such as blogger, and share our creations.

It really suits for 21st learners. Children would be fascinated the avatars because when it is clicked start to talk and has little movement. I am pretty sure that they will easily be use to use employ the system of Voki, and make creative own avatars to collaborate with their friends or peers.

I will use Voki Avatars for on line assessment with my students. Putting them beside tasks to give some clues, and for praise students, I put them at the end of the task. If the little animation talks and helps them to complete the task, they would love and appreciate it. I believe that could develop their motivation, even it is a boring task. That would link to the Behaviourism theory of learning. Skinner (1950) claimed that frequent practice positively affects the behaviour toward learning.









Regards,

Shiho

Reference

Skinner, B.F.(1950). Operant conditioning. Retrieved on August 17, 2009, from http://tip.psychology.org/skinner.html


Voki. (2009). Create your own avatars!. Retrieved August 13, 2009 from http://www.voki.com/

Power Point

Before I started Academic study, I have not used the Power Point software. I think the Power Point is a great invention. Now it is widely used at school or workplace.

It is not only present slides that is designed with colour and pictures, but also makes sounds, movements, record sound, play music. The point of using Power Point is that makes message clear to understand, also enjoyable.

The effect is link to Cognitivism, which is one of the learning theory. The capacity of working memory for auditory information will expand when it is used with visual information (Sweller,1988). In other word, sound with visual information stay longer in our brain rather than just showing letters on a white board.

I will use Power Point in my class because most of us are visual learners (Felder & Soloman, n.d).


Regards,

Shiho

Reference

Felder, R.M, and Soloman, B.A. (n.d.). Learning style and strategies. Retrieved on July 27, 2009, from, http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm

Sweller, J. (2009). Cognitive load theory. Retrieved on August 17, 2009, from, http://tip.psychology.org/sweller.html

Mahara

Hello bloggers,

When I first heard the name "Mahara", I imaged Indian dance. I don't know why it is called Mahara, but I know how it works. The multiple functions are; e-portfolio, resume, blog, meeting people, making friends and communicate them (Mahara, 2009).

I have not utilized Mahara yet. After I finish assessment 1, I will try to use every functions. I found that it is easier to manage my teaching logs what I have experienced. Now we need to carry around the paper documents such as resume and portfolio. Hopefully, we may just need to take a thin laptop to school to show our portfolio during practice teaching or job hunting in near the future.

I believe the learning oppotunity is that communicate with people. I will introduce this technology to my students for engaging and encouraging their learning .

Regards,

Shiho

References

Mahara. (2009). Welcome to the CQU portfolio site. Retrieved August 19, 2009, from http://cqu-mahara.netspot.com.au/

WIKIs

Hello bloggers,

I often visit Wikipedia to have a look other people's work for my learning. But I could not image that it has come my turn to establish own Wiki page.

The concepts of WIKIs are simple, handy and effective, especially collaborating with group of people. I like the expression, " What You See Is What You Get". Wikis' system and the outcome is just fit it. That could link to the engagement learning's concept of Relate-Create then Donate (Kearsly & Shneiderman, 1998). We just need to visit the same site of Wiki to meet our members at the same page to share our ideas; Relate, adding and sharing ideas, modifying them; Create. Then finally, we complete the task, or decide what we do without actually meet with all of the members. I believe it will be more utilized because it will save our time, and also we can take time to think about some suggestion to others.

I will use Wikis as a learning tools for group activity among my students. I will choose one leader for each group to maintain the activity. While students are working on the activity; sharing, adding and modifying their thoughts and ideas, I sometimes visit a leader of each group's page and see how it goes. Then if they need, I will make a suggestion on the web page.
Before I use it with my students, I do need to explore more in Wikis world because I have not found all the functions of it.

Regards,

Shiho

Reference

Central Queensland University. (2009). Wikis. Retrieved on August 17, 2009, from, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=671

Kearsly, G & Shneiderman, B. (1998). Engagement theory: a framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved on August 1, 2009, from, http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Setting up an RSS aggregator

Hello bloggers,

About three weeks ago at the lecture, I set up an RSS aggregator. It was not complex to do it.

I have established a blog using blogger, it was an adventure for me. Then I chose Google Reader to set up RSS aggregator. I could not follow the activity, so I asked my peers and also Scot helped me to complete it. I added some of my peers blog URL to subscribe, it made the work simple. I can check all of my peers blogs in one window without visiting each peer's blog. RSS is truly "Really Simple Syndication" as it is called.

I will use blog or facebook as a barometer of learning and life with each of my students, and Google Reader to maintain all of students night and day.

Regards,

Shiho


Reference

Central Queensland University. (2009). Setting up an RSS aggregator. Retrieved on August 17, 2009, from, http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=671

Exploring Youtube

Hello my colleags,

I have tried the Youtube activity, which is on the Derivery Technologies (Central Queensland University, 2009). I don't often visit Youtube site, so I didn't know that enormous amount of learning sites are there(Youtube, 2009).

My first teaching area is Japanese, so that I serched "learning Japanese" on the Youtube web page. While I was brousing some postedYoutube, I found an useful website from one of them.

At first, the instructor mentioned the significance of learner's intention of learning Japanese, and suggested that the best way to improve Japanese is having a private tutor (Tofugu, 2009). I think because studying foreign language without living its country is so hard to improve, especially for speaking. It is very important to keep using the language what they are learning right now.

Then he introduced some useful website for study online. I picked one of them, the site is called "smart.fm"(Cerego, 2009). I played around in the website, and found it's fun! It contains quizes, sound (pronounciation) and writing. It is mainly useful for vocaburally, also good for listening. To get use to the site, it takes a bit of time, but I hope during the learner is enjoying the study, they will unconsciously improve their skill.

Here is the Youtube video and the URL which is about learning Japanese.
It is interesting to listen to his advice.







Thank you for reading.

References

Central Queensland University. (2009). Youtube. Reatreaved 23 July 2009, from: http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=671

Cerego. (2009). Iknow!. Retreaved 23 July 2009, from: http://smart.fm/apps/iknow

Tofugu, Youtube. (2009). Iknow: the best Japanese vocabulary site on the web. Retreaved 23 July 2009, from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8EcU3GPjnI&feature=channel

Welcome to my room!

Hi everyone.
I posted a message a few hours ago, but it's gone.. so I'm writing new one.
This is my very first blog, so everything is new to me.

I write about myself to getting know me.
I'm doing Bachelor of Learning Management (Japanese).
This is my second term of first year.
I'm still struggling especially for time management
because I'm taking 5 courses in this term to graduate earlier (3year structure),
and doing a part time job, where I work is Sushi shop in the Stockland shopping centre.
Studying at uni is really challenging, but enjoyable!
I enjoy my job as well =)
I'm a bit shy actually, but love talking to people.

I want to teach Japanese at school in Australia!
Holding the dream, I came to Rockhampton 1 and a half year ago.
After I arrived here I really struggled with English.
I failed and failed at English exam,
but at the fourth examination I finally got the band score that CQU requires.
Then I started my course this March.

I'm from regional place of Japan like Rockhampton, located south part.
It takes 1 and a half hour form Tokyo by airplane.
My parents live there, but my older brother lives by himself.
I really appreciate my family to support my study abroad and understand my dream.
I'm having precious time here, which I will never be able to experience again I believe.
So I try to enjoy every oppotunity.

Enjoy and share our e-learning journey!

Thank you, Arigatoo.